cruiselvr04

Well ya talked us into it!  
 

We aren’t that excited about Icon class and normally wouldn’t fly for a 4 night but Utopia for a Presidents cruise sounds pretty good. So we booked it and will see some of you there.

15 hours ago, Arzeena said:

You would be surprised OB. IMHO, Curacao has the best beaches...... Playa Puerto Marie being one of those. 40 minutes from the port, but if you want clear blue waters, good snorkeling, and to just peace out, I highly recommend it. Go early in the morning for real peace. Estate gates open at 9 am.

There are lots of other beaches too, but I mention this because this is one of my favorite. I haven't found one that beats it, IMO.

If one likes beachy vibes, boom boom music, people watching, and such, venture to the Mambo beach side area.
There is also Blue Bay for a little bit peace and little bit vacation vibe.
Lots of AI's or pay as you go resort passes also. Marriott, Avila, Santa Barbara, Hilton (which is something else now)... all good. I liked the Avila a lot. I also like Santa Barbara, since it was something different.
I also like to walk around in town and explore.

 

I second Playa Porto Marie as being one of the best beaches in the Caribbean.  A cab cost about $50 each way so it’d be best if there were 4 to share the cost.  I’ve only been disappointed once there when it was an island holiday.  Everyone on the island seemed to be there and it was very crowded but this is not normal. There is a snorkel trail to follow and a platform to to swim to.  I think what makes this beach for me is not the beach but how beautiful the water is there.  The colors are breathtaking.  There’s also bathrooms, bar/beach restaurant. 

I get it.  Things change but this one was sure disappointing.  We too had planned to spend time in London after.  The other TA’s offered have dates that don’t work for us.  I don’t want to end in Barcelona on Brilliance.  There’s no other ship going out of there for at least a week (Celebrity’s Apex) and I don’t want to spend that much time there waiting.  

So we’re looking at other options but as others have posted rates are now much higher then if we’d booked months ago.  $50-$100 OBC doesn’t cut it.  
 

This has happened to us several times. Maybe Royal needs to be more careful before putting out schedules…it always makes us pretty unhappy.  Thankfully I was just starting to work on hotels and tours for England and hadn’t put any money out yet.  

Sorry this has been such a mess for you. I’m hoping you can find some resolution as quickly as possible.  

1 hour ago, TravelGirlinDallas said:

Remember that big storm in our area at the end of May? All of the downed trees & branches are still piled up by the streets waiting to be picked up by the city. They say they have now completed 50% of the pickup, but it really doesn't seem like it. 

 

In the meantime, normal bulk trash pickup has been suspended indefinitely while they focus on storm debris. That means the usual junk people would leave by the curb is not getting picked up for an even longer time. The city has stressed that they will not pick up the branches if there is any bulk trash mixed in. 

 

So someone in our neighborhood, not wanting their own house to be junked up by their trash, dumped a loveseat and a wooden pallet in our storm debris pile this morning. It's too big to fit in our cars to take to the dump. Brian moved them away from the branches so at least the city won't skip it, but now our yard looks like a trash pile due to rude neighbors. There's nowhere else for us to put it. 

Too bad you don’t know who did it so you could take it back.  Ridiculous.  The tree debris on our street hasn’t been picked up yet either. 

2 hours ago, Ozark_Kid said:

Are you going to Silver Dollar City?  The Marvel Cave at SDC is nice!  We have been to SDC several times.  We would walk pass the cave entrance without really noticing it.   The last time there we went on the Cave tour. Nice! You will be amazed. 

We’ve been many times.  The first on our honeymoon.  We have season tickets as we like to go to around Christmas time for all the lights as well as summer.  I haven’t done the cave for a few years but should probably go this time as pretty soon I’ll be too old to do all those stairs.  Honestly we love SDC.  We enjoy the music, the atmosphere, the food. We’re also planning on doing Sight and Sound theater and the titanic museum.  The later is probably a tourist trap but I’ve always wanted to go to one. 

Of course they made money on your loss.  It’s a business.  
 

I’m sorry for your situation.  It never feels great to lose money.  We recently lost $1600 with Royal when we cancelled a family cruise.  I didn’t insure the deposit and probably wouldn’t again.  I don’t blame Royal. It is what it is. 
 

We have done Royal Ups and it has occurred to me that I didn’t insure that portion as it was accepted close to sail time. Most of the time it’s much less than $500 total so I don’t fret about it.  
 

Use this as a learning while traveling.  Your next line may have something similar.  I’m glad you found one you like better but do be careful as they’re ALL in business to make money and they all have cancellation policies. 

I don’t like roller coasters anymore but DH will still do them.  Our 45th is Sunday and we’re going back to Branson to celebrate.  It has completely changed since our honeymoon there.  We usually take some grands with us but this time we’ll be on our own.  It’s supposed to be in the high 90’s so I’m pretty sure we’ll find a wet ride to cool down on. There’s also a cave that might sound good for an afternoon. 

3 hours ago, frito58 said:

Take your passport of with when you do the turnaround…..JUST in case . We did B2B2B first one simple and easy got off scanned our faces back on the ship , never took anything with us . Next one figured didn’t need anything so we booked off headed down scanned our faces mine went bling no good see agent . He was like I need your passport. I was like ahh it’s in my room …. Luckily I had pictures on my phone. He was like don’t do that again. Let me back on . 

This reminds me of a different turn around in Australia where we did get off. Royal had said bring your passports so I had them to get back on.  But they didn’t mention to bring our visas.  Yep, our Australia and NZ visas were in our cabin.  They were able to look it up through our passports but it took a while.  So I guess if a visa is needed I’d bring that as well as passports on turn around day.  In 2 months, that’s only time we were asked for them. 

2 hours ago, ck11140 said:

We had an odd experience the only time we ever went to the ship's medical facility. My husband had surgical treatment for early cancer about 1 year prior to our Caribbean cruise. He was followed up closely and routinely with no issues. Midway through the cruise one of his eyes ( and the area around it) swelled up significantly and was tearing constantly. I'm a nurse so we don't normally rush to the doctor but it kept getting worse so we decided to go. I wanted to make sure it wasn't pink eye and be contagious. The physician evaluated my husband, drew labs, started an IV and observed him for a few hours. Then he quietly sat us down in a room and said this... " I'm sorry to tell you but your husband has had his cancer metastasized to his eye. He needs to get off at the next stop (I think it was Barbados) and go immediately to the hospital and get a CT scan." After my heart sunk when he said the word cancer I took a deep breath and calmed down. We didn't get off and go to the hospital but 2 days later the swelling was gone.We saw our doctor upon arriving home who felt he had an allergic reaction. That was almost 10 years ago. I can laugh about it now but at the time it was scary. 

Really?! Crazy story. I’m guessing this caused a lot of anxiety for the rest of the trip. Sorry he put you through that. 

On 6/12/2024 at 12:27 PM, CanobieFan said:

Might be a dumb question but since this topic is already a thing, I might as well ask it. We're doing a b2b, in the same room, but since it's actually two different one-way sailings, we wanna get off and explore on the disembarkment-embankment day, is this gonna be an issue?

I have never been to a port that I couldn’t get off on.  Some places have a strict policy that once you get back on you can’t get off again.  Sydney Australia was like that.  But we could get off as long as we did it at the time they said.  Once anyone embarked in Sydney they were not allowed to get off again at any time. Hope this makes sense. 

I know Jewel does because she had shore power in Norway.  

If it’s something that you really want to do, call and ask.  If the answer is no then get your name on a wait list when you get on board.  They often have a cancellation.  However you should probably have a back up plan if this doesn’t work. 
 

$119 pp for a meal? With gratuity $240.  We’ll pass.

Use clear tags from Amazon to slide ship luggage tags into after your flight but before you get to the ship.  We also have put air tags inside the lining of our suitcases to try to keep track of them. 
 

I have put itinerary’s on tags before but honestly I doubt anyone would even look at them so I don’t do that anymore.  
 

I have luggage tags on the outside of each suitcase with names and address plus inside each bag is also a full size piece of paper with a waterproof sleeve with name and address.  If our bags are permanently lost it won’t be due to poor labeling but someone not returning them. DD lost her luggage on her honeymoon, on the way.  Never saw them again.  Someone in Mexico got some very nice, new clothes.  

You’re going to get lots of opinions on your WJ question.  I wait UNLESS there is a big break in the line, then I will jump in.  I never reach around or directly in front of someone else. I don’t do this while waiting in line for an omelet or pasta station though. That is a defined line. But often at the salad bar someone is getting lettuce and all I want is at the other end. If no one is in between I’m not waiting nor do I consider this cutting in line.
 

 I’m much less concerned about someone cutting in line then I am someone eating or licking their fingers in line.  We see this every cruise!  It grosses us out to the point we have trouble eating in there.

We are doing a 5 night in Galveston with one night off and then another ship for 10 nights.  While it’s a pain to pack up it’s also fun to have a different ship and different entertainment. For us it’s great to do more than one cruise at a time.  We don’t live by a port so travel is involved. 

Any time you have chest pain, labored breathing or active bleeding you need to be seen right away in medical.  Possible broken bones, bad falls or symptoms of a stroke also need immediate attention.  Severe abdominal pain is another. These are emergency room issues. For the most part I think the doctors and nurses on the ship are pretty good and quite possibly much safer than some Caribbean islands. However you have to know they are going to want to send you land based asap.  They don’t want you dying on the ship if they can help it.  
 

I’m more worried about being put off somewhere where the care is much worse.  
 

( I also take a BP monitor, thermometer and pulse ox. I do have the knowledge to interpret them).

On 4/26/2024 at 11:33 AM, PR-Texas said:

We are going on a cruisetour to Australia/NewZealand in November.  Trying to decide the best route and airline to take from DFW. Currently booking through Princess EZAir.    Quantas direct from DFW would be great but don't want to spend the extra $$$$.  Suggestions/opinions???

I’m late to the thread and by now you may have tickets.  
 

We just flew DFW to Sydney through LAX on Delta.  It wasn’t bad. Both ways we upgraded to economy plus and got the bulkhead seats. We were able both ways to put our feet on our smaller carry ons except for take off and landing. This leg room was the best if you don’t want to spend more. 
 

Delta did change our flights coming back and didn’t give us enough time for an easy connection.  We were gone 2 months so didn’t pick up on this fast enough or we might have been able to fix it.  It was a mad dash after a 14 hour flight, going through customs, running outside lax terminals to our flight to DFW.  We barely made the plane, not even a chance to use the restroom.  Otherwise it was great and I’d book them again.

The only thing better would be nonstop flights from DFW but they were significantly more.  

Definitely spend time in Sydney if you can. We spent an additional 3 nights before our cruise and 4 after.  There is so much to do!  Stay near the Quay for easy access to ferries, trams and the ship.  Our 2 months down under was unforgettable! 

Thanks so much for taking us along.  We can’t wait for August to do our Norway/Iceland/Greenland.  We’re also very thankful to have booked it before the ships aren’t allowed in. Now just as long as American Airlines flies we are good to go. 

Go to the Alaska port of call and find my review where I go into a lot of detail.  Search cruise tour and you should find it.

On the bus it was our group of 45 or so and the same the whole time. On the train we were mixed with another bus but always a Royal Cruise tour group.  Royal has its own train cars. 

So sorry this happened to this lady.  As others have stated, the ship doesn’t want to get in the situation of having to do an evacuation. Obviously the ship doctor was being too cautious.

We carry a small pharmacy including some prescription meds for just in case.  They used to sell cough medicine pre covid. Now the only thing I’ve seen on board is Tylenol/ Ibuprofen and maybe Benadryl. 

2 hours ago, island lady said:

 

 

True enough, though the typical Pinnacle cruises how many times a year versus the "once a year or less" family, that granted, most will spend big bucks on the short cruises?   

 

The point many of us were making, is Royal was starting to move away from it's older loyal subjects, who in the past, continued to cruise with them...filling the ships even during down times, and were the ones that started cruising heavily when restart after Covid began. 

 

This extension of a reward to their most Loyal Royal cruisers to transfer to a more quiet sister line...IMHO...was a very good move.  I know I appreciate it...and it worked for me.   Will it make a big difference for RCI?  Time will tell.  But I don't think I am the only Pinnacle who is now moving towards some X cruises....versus totally going away to other competing lines.    

The once a year cruisers spend way more than we do on a cruise.  But they don’t cruise 80-100 nights a years either.  Royal shouldn’t forget about the bread and butter as you stated so well.  We too appreciate the new perks on sister lines and are now more anxious to get to the big P so we can get better perks on Celebrity too.  And who knows?  Silverseas over Viking will be on our radar now.

We went from Azusa to San Pedro last month on a Monday. It’s about the same distance you’re considering.  We left Azusa about 9:30 and got to the pier within an hour. We had an 11 check in time. However LA traffic is unpredictable.  As long as you build in extra time you should be fine. I think we got lucky. 

This sounds like “ how can we put in a high end restaurant on a ship with no ocean views”. Let’s pretend we’re on a train….Having had fine dining on an actual train I don’t think this appeals to us. 
 

One of the things we miss on the bigger ships is being able to see the water while dining in the speciality restaurants. 
 

I’ll look forward to reading your reviews though.