cruise questions

We just got off Mariner-we did not need to reserve SkyPad (and could not reserve SkyPad) before or during the cruise. Just walked up when it was open-and rarely had a wait. 

For Laser tag, I signed up as soon as we were on the ship. It was offered twice and you could reserve one time slot in advance and try walk up for the second time slot to see if any openings left. 

Have fun!

45 minutes ago, jbjcu07 said:

 

 

Thanks for the quick response! Seems like you were able to get off your ship in the morning as we're in port from 12-8. Our plan is to get off the ship ASAP.

 

Honestly, we're not that interested in snorkeling as we're just looking for a nice beach with shade to relax for a few hours and spend some time in calm water.

Any other beach suggestions besides Sapphire from yourself or anyone else? We thought about Magen's Bay, but anticipate that to be crowded with our late arrival.

Yes, we docked early and were able to get off the ship as early as 7:30AM. We got off around 9:00 AM. 

I would not say the beach water at Sapphire was calm so may not meet what you are looking for anyway. It was actually quite rough the day we were there. I swim regularly (at home) so consider myself a pretty decent swimmer-I went out to swim some in the water and got knocked around pretty well. The water was fine for standing around but certainly not calm by any means-there were decent size waves, etc. Shade was also limited as it was all taken by the time we got there so we were in the sun. We were not there long so it was fine for us but just a heads up, pending the tide and crowds, shade may be limited. I have also heard that Magen's is crowded but supposed to be one of the prettiest beaches there. 

I will defer to anyone else that has been somewhere else as we have only been to Sapphire. We also looked at Emerald b/c it is so much closer to Crown Bay (but we wanted to go somewhere that would have something to see while snorkeling). But I have not been to Emerald so cannot offer more insight to it! 

6 minutes ago, jbjcu07 said:

Thanks for sharing your experience, cruise questions! My wife and I were planning on going from Crown Bay to Sapphire in three weeks. I assumed the taxi ride to Sapphire would take half an hour or so. How did you eventually get a taxi back to port as this is our biggest worry?

The trip from Crown Bay to Sapphire took almost 50 minutes. We got on a Taxi quickly at the port and three other families got in with stops downtown and then at Paradise Point (which were before Sapphire). So the stops made it a long ride!

We were told by our Taxi driver to Sapphire and then by the bartenders at Sapphire that there were "always" Taxis waiting at the Taxi stand outside, ready to take us back to port. We walked out to the Taxi stand around 12:30 and there were two families waiting for a Taxi, that had already been waiting for 25 minutes. They had already tried to call the number on the stand but could not reach anyone. We waited about 25 more minutes (so the original families waited 50 minutes) and eventually one came and we all quickly piled in to get back to port. We were all going back to Crown Bay and it took about 35 minutes to get back. 

Sapphire was nice but honestly not sure I would go back there for snorkeling. We got to see some cool things but I am not really sure it was worth the ride there and back! If you get car sick at all, just a heads up that the roads are very windy! 

Happy to answer any other questions as I did so much research about where to go, etc for our trip and happy to share about our experience to try to help others!

On 4/15/2022 at 12:51 PM, mitsugirly said:

We were there yesterday but didn’t get to snorkel because it was pretty wavy and stirring everything up but we collected sea glass and watched the sky turn beautiful colors as the sunset. Love sapphire. 

I think we must have been there on the same day! We decided on Sapphire over Emerald and it was a nice day. We were there Thursday morning-we did snorkel and it was decent! We enjoyed it-although the ride from Crown Bay was really long (a few stops along the way) and it was difficult to get a taxi back to the port. 

Did anyone get an answer to this? Is it easy to get a taxi back from Brewer's Bay to Crown Bay port ? I am assuming this is a relatively short drive? 10 minutes? Thank you! 

On 4/5/2022 at 1:54 PM, doxiegal said:

WE take a cab over to Emerald Beach the last couple times we've been in St Thomas. There is no snorkel rental, that I have ever seen. Plus, they won't really see hardly any fish. Snorkeling is not good there. I would head over to Sapphire Beach or Coki Beach for decent snorkeling and gear rental

Thank you!

14 hours ago, lynncarol said:

Just a suggestion. If you take a taxi, consider having him wait for you.  Four of us were at the beach Tuesday afternoon a week ago. Four cruise ships were in port and the beach was a madhouse.  Hardly room to walk between all the people and lounge chairs.  Constant stream of taxi and tour buses coming in, belching fumes. After 45 minutes (and 3 planes) all of us were ready to leave. 

Thank you-this was my concern. We live at the beach so we are not really the type to spend hours on a beach but we really just wanted to see the planes. I was trying to figure out if worth the hassle of getting out to Maho with the crowds and people/traffic-or if we should just walk to the beach close to the port and hang out for an hour. Thank you for this info!

On 3/13/2022 at 8:01 PM, Ashland said:

The water taxi is still $7.00 round trip and the easiest way to go unless you prefer to walk. 

We'll be there in a week and will take a taxi to the Sunset Bar/Grill in Maho and will have the taxi drop us off on the return to do some shopping in Phillipsburg then will water taxi back to the port.

 

We can take the water taxi to Maho Beach? I read that it is $20 per person one way-that must not be accurate since you paid $7 a person round trip? Where do we catch the water taxi-close to port? Just walk up and buy tickets and it can take us to Maho? And obviously back? 

Does anyone have updated information on the shared taxi rates? Is it around $16 per person round trip?

Also what is the approximate time for one way drive from pier to beach and vice versa? Approximately 30 minutes?

Thank you! 

Thank you so much, this is very helpful!

Does anyone out there know if we can rent snorkel gear at Emerald Beach Resort? 

Hi All, 

I have read so many threads on this forum and done a lot of searching. Can someone please clarify for me-

We will be docking at Crown Bay (Harmony)-we would like to take a cab and go to a beach where we can rent snorkel gear and snorkel from shore. Doesn't have to be the nicest/prettiest beach (my kids don't care about that!) but would like the shortest possible cab ride with decent beach/snorkeling (and again, need to be able to rent the gear there).  Preferably restrooms as well. Also doesn't have to be the best snorkeling in the world-just somewhere that we can see a few fish and some nice coral-we are easy to please! 

Am I correct that Emerald Beach/Lindbergh are closest (and about how far is this from the port?) Approximate cab fare per person?  Is this the same beach or different? If we chose to go here, would we just get a cab and say one of the beaches? Or do we need to specify more? I am just not sure if there are multiple drop off points/locations in this area or just one drop off point? 

Am I correct that Sapphire Beach will be 30-40 minutes from Crown Bay but is nice and does offer snorkel gear to rent? I believe I saw cab fare is $11 per person one way? 

Thank you!

Does Sapphire Beach have a place to rent basic snorkel gear for a few hours? 

Thank you all so much! This is so helpful and exactly what I was looking for! I appreciate the feedback! 

Hi all

We have been on quite a few short 4/5 night Mariner and Independence cruises. Our kids love doing all of the ship activities-slides, Flow rider, rock climbing etc. 
 

I know everything is changing with new guidelines etc, we were on Independence over Thanksgiving and were pleased with it-we missed some shows because didn’t realize we needed reservations but it was fine as we were trying to stay away from crowds anyway. 
 

Here are my questions-

In considering a 7 night Harmony (during a busy time in April)-I know the ship is a lot bigger with more guests-do those few thousand extra people create a lot of waiting in lines (for food, slides, rock climbing)-ie are those extra people noticeable or spread out since the ship is bigger?

We don’t usually do specialty dining-to us, cruise food is what it is. Is specialty dining needed on Harmony or can we just eat in MDR or windjammer as normal?

Are reservations required for everything on Harmony? Shows? 
 

Anything else we should consider in Independence vs Harmony??

Thank you! 

Yes, public restrooms in the bag drop off area and again inside the terminal

4 hours ago, Bowmanvilletravel said:

I was on an April 9th sailing that was cancelled. Received our FCCs on the 13th. In order to request a refund it looks like you use the online form or call. When I go to the online form it only allows me to put sail dates from today’s date going forward, you can’t put in past dates. 
 

Am I missing something? 

I had the same issue and ended up calling. I messaged the FB page to let them know and they thanked me and said they would look into it. This was four days ago....

1 minute ago, Biker19 said:

Previous reporting suggests another FCC will be issued for the overage amount.

Okay thanks, so may as well book a higher level room to use it all....

10 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

No, you need to pay that. The FCC can be used to get that back if the FCC is more than the balance.

Sorry-not to beat a dead horse-but I am thinking my FCC will cover the entire cruise cost that we are looking at, including the deposit. Does that make sense? If I have FCC for $4000 (for example) and the future cruise is $3800-what happens to the balance? On board credit or do we lose it? That is also why I want to use the entire FCC to pay deposit as well. Does that make sense? 

4 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

You need to book and pay the deposit - then you can apply the FCC, whenever it shows up.

So would we get reimbursed for the deposit? Or we can't use FCC on the deposit? If we want to use FCC for the entire payment (deposit and balance), we need to wait until we receive it (April 13 or whenever they are going to issue it?) Thanks!

16 hours ago, Alabaster Cruiser said:

From Eden Rock you can walk to Smith Cove.  It is a pretty long walk but very doable.  Pretty good snorkel there too.  No facilities ...just a few picnic tables.  Roosters walk around the area.  It is a locals beach.

Thank you-I did just see this and it looked walk-able. Looks like they have restrooms there as well?

1 hour ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

If you want an occasional soda, just purchase by the can. 

I realize I can purchase by the can but the Freestyle machine has a lot of fun options that my kids love-but literally, will just want 2-3 total over the week.

Hi-Is it possible to get one or two drinks from the freestyle machine throughout the week and not have the soda/beverage package to do so? Ie, can I pay for just one or two freestyle drinks when I want them? Not sure how that works with the cup, etc? Thank you!

Thanks-we certainly don’t need arm fulls of water! Just wanted to make sure we could each grab one from the lounge during happy hour! 

29 minutes ago, spookwife said:

1:  with an adult, yes.  Soda definitely.  Not necessarily frozen drinks( not all ships have permitted them yet)

 

2:  don’t think so.  The teen coupons loaded on to the sea pass card is different

 

3: no bottled water  (except on certain class ships ) except during happy hour.  

Thank you-for number 3-the bottled water-I meant is it available during happy hour in the lounge? Ie if we are all in the lounge for happy hour, could we each take a bottle of water with us? 

Hi all-I have read through the threads on Diamond lounge/voucher drinks and have a few specific questions as I saw different information. Thank you for any information you can provide!

-My two teens are Diamond-they are allowed in the lounge, correct? And can get sodas there during happy hour? Are there frozen virgin drinks in the lounge?

-Do the teens get the three free vouchers for drinks at bars on their cards as well? Ie, can they go to a bar and get a frozen virgin drink during happy hour with one of their vouchers since most ships now provide frozen virgin drinks? Or a soda at a bar with a free voucher?

-Are there water bottles available in the lounge to take with us on a daily basis (ie, can we all take one bottle with us each, each night?)? Or are the water bottles only available as one of the three vouchers to be used at a bar? 

Thank you!