cloudydrms

There are so many restaurants in Old San Juan that it's hard to name just one. Jibarito is very popular.http://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-guide/old-san-juan/restaurants

 

Punta de Vista, too. I think they moved to a rooftop location.

 

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g147320-d1852634-Reviews-Punto_de_Vista_Restaurant_Bar-San_Juan_Puerto_Rico.html

I'm thinking my husband and I will try Punto de Vista. I like a meal with a view. Do you think I should make reservations? I'm kind of up in the air about the time but would nail it down if I felt I needed to.

Cindy

Hubby and I were just talking about this the other day. He broke his hip in mid-January. We'll be cruising on Grandeur of the seas in one month. He's still using a cane and that walk is pretty long. Anyone ever have any trouble with them not letting you take the shorter route onto the ship? I'm curious because my Mom was in a wheelchair going on the Carnival Pride out of Baltimore and no one ever offered to let us get on the ship on a lower deck. One time a crew member even rolled her up. I would have thought they would have used the lower deck access if that's available.

Cindy

We are sailing on Grandeur March 13, so hope to see the Wine & Dine package will be available.

We will report when we get home. :)

I'll be interested to hear what you report back about your Grandeur cruise. We're cruising on GOTS in April and always used to buy the wine and dine package.

Cindy

Just off Oasis today. Wine and dine package is now offered. They had a five or seven bottle package. I think they were approx $165/$215 respectively. A decent but limited list but it's a good start. As well, they have wine of the day available by the glass or bottle for 20% off. Again, a limited list. But this is progress! It was advertised in the daily compass and noted " we are listening to our customers and bringing it back".

Yay! Sure hope they've brought it back to the whole fleet!!

Cindy

Hi Cindy

I'm on your sailing. I will sleep in either sweat pants or soft shorts with a tee shirt

I'm sure early in the morning you will probably only see your neighbors.

Since the area doesn't open to the public till after 5 pm. I'm excited to try something new.

It will be nice to go in a hot tub without 25 kids splashing around

I think that's the key - to have your comfy sweat capris and t-shirt on standby at all times! I think I can handle that for a cruise in exchange for a quieter area to lounge in. I'm really looking forward to it!

Cindy

I just don't know how I feel about these rooms. At first I was really excited about them, but the more I read about them the less excited I was. I love the idea of the private pool, but honestly, I like my private balcony and sometimes I go there to relax and get away from it all. And sometimes in the morning I go out there in a robe to take photos before I get out of my pj's. If my balcony is going to open directly to a public deck I don't know how much I will enjoy that.

Anyways we booked a guarantee so it really doesn't matter as I highly doubt we would get a havana balcony. Anxiously awaiting our assignment, although I'm sure it's a long time away!

Kelley,

I hear ya. My husband and I also walk out on the balcony in our PJs early in the morning while we're passing by the islands and coming into port. It'll be a BIG change for us to have to actually dress to do the same thing in a Havana Cabana room, but since we've never had a room with an exclusive pool area this time I've decided to go for that. Will I miss my totally private balcony? Yep. I'm sure I will, but it'll have other benefits which I'm looking forward to enjoying. It's really all in what you want or what you're willing to give up for another amenity.

Cindy

We have not had to wait either for a table for 2.

Remember that on Carnival, if you like your wait staff,

you can request to be in their area every night so they can get to know you ! It is a great way to have continual good service!!

Thanks for the quick response to my question about YTD. I sure wish my Carnival cruise was coming as quick as your responses, but I have to wait until November 2016. Boo! I'm happy to hear there's not usually a wait for 2 tops and also to hear that you can request the same servers if you like them. You were able to do that on NCL and RCCL as well, but it just didn't ever seem to work well on NCL. The wait times were much worse there.

Cindy

We've done any time dining on NCL and RCCL, but this is the first time we haven't had a set dining time on Carnival. On RCCL you make a reservation. I see that isn't the case with Carnival. On NCL there were no reservations, and we had to wait several times. We're going to be a party of 2. For those that have done Your Time Dining on Carnival is there generally a wait for a table or not?

Cindy

My husband and I are so very easy to please and really have never had a cruise not be enjoyable even when it rains so I'm thinking we are gonna love not having to race up top early to snag a decent chair for some nice sunshine. That's really all that makes me happy anyways! ;) That and a cute cabana boy delivering me something cool to drink while I lay in said chair. It's the little things!:)

 

Thanks for the nice welcome as well!

 

Take care!

Robin

Robin,

If you're having a cute cabana boy on your lanai, I'm hopping the fence! So early and somebody's already invading your privacy ;)

Cindy

Well, I took the plunge today and booked my first ever Carnival cruise and the whole reason I made the switch was the intrigue of these cabins. I did ask questions and they did say access was limited until the 5 p.m. but the access to our balcony/patio whichever you choose to call it was just for people booked in the balcony/suite Havana rooms anytime day or night.

 

We love our balcony rooms but that area primarily for us looks simply amazing and not having to fight for a nice lounge may keep me coming back time and time again to Carnival.

 

Also, I have to say my booking today was the best I've ever had with any of the cruises I've ever booked and I'm sorry I took opinions of many others to not even try Carnival. It was an awesome experience and I can't wait to hear from others on their experience in these rooms.

 

Have a great day!

Robin

Congrats, Robin! Hope you enjoy your first Carnival cruise. I also booked a cruise today in one of these cabins - the Havana Cabana. I'm still a little wary of whether or not these lanais will really be locked down to all but Havana guests. Since I booked a November 2016 cruise I figure I'll have a good six months to figure out what's going on and switch to a balcony cabin if need be (assuming they're not all booked). We're pretty easy to please, so I just decided to go for it. This will be my 11th Carnival cruise although it's our first since 2012. I'm actually excited to get back on Carnival. It's been a while. I'd like to see what changes have taken place.

So excited!

Cindy

I have a relative that attended the NY event and asked many questions regarding the Havana Cabanas, as she is booked in one of the suites.

She was told that access to the outside of the deck near the patios is regulated by key entry to only Havana guests.

The pool is for Havana guests only until 5PM, and then opens to all. However, they will have to enter the pool area through the Havana Bar, and will have no access to the patio areas of the Havana Cabanas.

So, yes, you may have people passing by your patio area, but it will only be other Havana guests.

Thanks so much for this info, Mimi! You're helping me to make my decision. I'm still on the fence as to whether or not I want to be 5 or 6 feet from the oceanview or not and how I feel about having to dress prior to opening my slider curtains, etc. Decisions...decisions...

Cindy

I'm also curious about the days and times of the aerial shows. Also, are most of the Palladium shows at 7 or 8:45?

Thanks!

Cindy

I'm so frustrated with this change! My husband and I have always bought the Wine & Dine Package on each cruise (including Carnival cruises). We always drink it at dinner and then I carry it around for the rest of the night. I basically drink wine. I really have NO interest in a Beverage Package especially when all I can get is one choice of an $8 glass of wine or I can spend $49 a day to drink a bottle of wine a day. I think not! I guess I'll be forced to buy bottles of wine at extravagantly increased prices. It's just ridiculous! I think two things about this change. One, I think it will lower their revenue from true wine drinkers. Two, those wine drinkers may consider other cruise lines in the future. If they're concerned about DD and not wanting to keep bottles of wine for cruises, then they just need to have the cruisers take the bottles back to their rooms.

On some level it's frustrating to me that they've made it cheaper for the real overdrinkers to drink and more expensive for those of use that drink more moderately. Just speaking my mind...sorry if it offends anyone.

Cindy

We're going to be in Bermuda October 20th. I'm curious when Daniel's Head is "closed" for the season. I was hoping to go over there on our trip to rent some kayaks but don't want to go if it's off season and people don't recommend it.

Cindy

I personally would not book a room next to the bathroom but if your a family in one room then it could very well be handy.

Thanks to everyone for all of the advice. I'm going to continue looking for another cabin to open up that's maybe not quite so much more, but otherwise I guess I'll give it a go. This will also be the first time that we're down so low on a ship. I don't think I've ever been lower than deck 6 and usually stay 7 - 9. I'm sure there will be some noise from the bathrooms, but I'm assuming that it won't be all night long and will mostly be around theater times. Anyway, hope I'm not too wrong about this. BTW, what I could not do would be have a whole family in one cabin!! While a bathroom next to the room would come in quite handy in that situation, NAH!!! Just shoot me! Way too crowded for me! LOL.

Cindy

We're booked on RCCL Explorer of the Seas in an oceanview cabin on Deck 3 right outside of the theater. The bad part is it's a room right next to the public bathroom outside of the theater. Has anyone stayed in a room next to the bathroom. Am I just going to hear toilets flushing all day and night? I would just go ahead and switch my room, but the next available ones are $200 more which is quite a bit when this booking this trip was a spur of the moment decision and just affordable. On the other hand, if it's going to be really bad, I may just cancel OR more likely suck it up and pay $200 more.

Thanks in advance.

Cindy

 

I will look into that, Cindy, but my understanding is that the R Bar is "the" place, so it's probably a "yes"! ;)

 

If not the R Bar, then the Schooner Bar. :)

 

Thanks, Merion_Mom!

 

Cindy

 

No pub, but the R Bar in the Centrum is as good as hanging out in the pub.

 

:)

 

I know you said you've curbed your alcohol intake as of late, but do you know if the R Bar serves numerous beers like the Pub on the Explorer. I sure will miss it if they don't!

 

Thanks!

 

Cindy

Thanks for the info. I'm mainly asking because I was thinking I'd reserve some chairs at Carambola and wanted to know if I'll be able to make it there by about 12:00.

Cindy

This is our first trip to St. Kitts so we definitely want to see a little bit of the island. Our ship gets in at 8:00 a.m. Do you think we can get off the ship early, get a short tour of the island including Romney Manor to see the Batik factory and maybe a quick stop at the Fort (we're not big Fort people so we could skip this) and then head back down to be at Carambola Beach Club by 12:00 or 12:30? What do you think?

Thanks.

Cindy

I'm curious how expensive the batik items were. I'm sure there was a variety of prices, but say how much was a shirt or a dress?

Cindy

We like to do a beach we posted this on our cruise roll call but did not get that much of a response would like to go but is there an other way of getting there besides the ships excursion.

Thanks Bob

To be honest I'm not sure if there's a way to get there on your own or not. We're big on your owners, but it's soooo easy to do it from the ship, that I don't even think it would be worth it to try to do this on your own in Samana. You go directly from the ship to the island via boat. You'd have to tender in just to get to wherever you need to go to take a boat over to the island. Just not worth it to me even though it's WAY overpriced.

Cindy

I will be scanning them from my 1/31 sailing in the next week or so.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

That would be great! I'd love to have a copy.

Cindy

Is it really worth going to we are on the 3/11/14 cruise on the Explorer have no idea what to do we arrive at 11:00 am and leave at 6:00 pm. We are thinking this is a wasted stop and might just stay on the ship what do you think?

 

Thanks Bob

Hey Bob! We're on that same cruise! Have you joined the Roll Call for that cruise yet. If not and you're interested, here's the link: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1627569. There's a ton of us on there that's why I'm not sure if you're already on there.

Anyway, I guess it all depends on how much you like private islands. It's a nice beach to spend the day. Pretty water, pretty view, hopefully nice weather, chairs, sand, and I think they even had hammocks. There's mediocre food...hamburgers if I remember correctly and, of course, alcohol. It really is a nice beach day, and we've actually gone ahead and booked it and will go unless the weather is bad, but $55 is alot of money for 4 hours on a beach. For what it is it ought not to be more than $20 or $25 pp, but they're all out for the money.

Hope to see you on the Roll Call thread and also at the Meet and Mingle!

Cindy

Yes, you can stay as long as you want, or until the last tender. I do not know why Norwegian lets you go there for so much less money though and RCL does not.

Seriously! Last year on NCL we went to Cayo Levantado for $14 pp. This year on RCCL we're looking at $55 pp. That's just crazy! It's making me rethink what I want to do there...if anything.

Cindy