buddylover

Last cruise on the Miracle we had an outstanding waiter, my skinny son can really pack it away. He pre-warned the waiter that he could eat his "body weight" in lobster.....so the waiter brought him 5 at a time....he ate 10 total. However, they are truly very small and only about 3-4 bites each....yum we love lobster.

Just got the Verdanza Hotel for 11/24/11 thru 11/27/11 for $80 night plus tax. Got the Intercontinental for 12/4 thru 12/5 for $80 night plus tax. I thought we got some great deals. I hope the Verdanza is good. So excited! 47 more day til we leave.:D

Wow! Those are great deals, especially for the Intercontinental, which I have not seen a bid below $105 for those same nights. We will be staying at the Marriott Stellaris 12/1 thru 12/4 and won a bid of $115/nite + taxes which was about as low as has been mentioned.

Thanks for all the great info....sent in the pre-registration today, we will be in Barbados in early Dec and hoping they will be set up by then......as chocolate in our house is one of the 5 main food groups too! Will post any response we get too!

The cove balconies are only on the newer large ships. We had one on the Dream last year and loved it. The coves are all on the Main deck, which is very low on the ship. You are close to the water - and can hear the splashing of the water much clearer as it glides through the water. It's a very different experience from the balcony.

 

The room itself is pretty much like any other balcony. The balcony is a little less "open" as it does not have the clear opening at the bottom - but we absolutely loved it. Felt a little more private. On the Dream, it's the only deck that you can stand on your balcony and look straight down to water. The way the other decks are laid out, if you look down, you are usually looking down at deck 5 (the lanai.)

 

For now, it's the best price of the balconies, but they are gaining in popularity - so one of these days Carnival will probably catch on and make them more expensive. We've booked our next cruise on the Dream again, and booked the Cove again.

Thank you for your beautiful concise description. Just like OP, we have been curious too. That is just what we thought about the regular balconies (Upper, Empress etc.)...you look down onto the lanai deck.....and it appears that people walking on the lanai deck can look UP and see you on your balcony too?? So, the lanai sticks out thus the balconies are set back from the edge of the ship, correct? Only the cove balconies are right out to the sheet metal of the ships side? What is the view coming into port like from a cove being set so low?

Yep, that sounds right. Just showing the list of resorts shows several different areas. But when you actually go in to start bidding for a property, the only 2 areas that show resorts are San Juan and Rio Grande. So maybe if you pay for one of their listings at their price, you have different hotels available. But on the Bid for your Own Price, they only show two areas with the resorts. Thanks.

 

Congrats on the win!!:)

Not true, Good Luck!!!!

Is La Concha still a 4* and Marriott Stellaris a resort on Priceline?

Is La Concha coming up at all on PL? I see the Marriott often as a winning bid.

 

We won the Marriott this past March for $115 as a resort. Has this changed?

 

We need a few days March, 2012 and it's probably too early to bid......want to wait to see what winning bids are turning up first.

 

Marty

Yes, La Concha is a 4*, and Marriott Stellaris is a resort on Priceline. I haven't seen a winning bid for LaConcha either. I tried for it as it is the only 4 star in Old San Juan, and they never accepted any bids. So we changed back to resort and tried again.

We too just won the Marriott Stellaris for $115 for our pre-cruise stay on Dec. 1-4. Can't wait. Good luck!!

I should have clarified that I was speaking about Priceline, which is what I thought the other poster was asking about. I don't know about Hotwire. On Priceline, there are only two areas that have Resort properties and Ponce-Guanica only has 1, 2, 2.5 and 3* hotels on Priceline, no resorts.

Hotwire? I too am referring to Priceline......go take a peek....there are 11 "resorts" that come up and 1 of them is in Ponce, as my comment stated....so YES, there are 3 areas for resorts on Priceline! Don't want anyone to get an area they don't want and get stuck with it!

Yep, those are the only two. you can check it on your own by clicking on each individual area and it will show what rating properties they have. Rio Grande and San Juan are the only two with resort. Thanks!

Hope it works out OK for you, because there IS a RESORT in a 3rd area "Ponce-Guanica" called the Hilton Ponce Golf & Casino. It is one of the 11 resorts which comes up when searching for "resorts"...... and this area is quite far from cruise ports and Old SJ......don't know why you keep resisting my reference from above....your advice may mislead someone to get a "resort" not in the area they want if they click on Ponce as a location. Just sayin'..........

We are doing another San Juan cruise in Dcember. I can not remember which areas in PriceLine do not have resorts. Can somebody please refresh this tired memory? I appreciate your help!

OC PAT

Go onto Priceline to do a regular search, put in your dates and click on box that says "Star Rating" and choose only "resorts".......11 properties will come up....just look at them.....most are San Juan/Airport, there are a few in Fajardo-Rio Grand-Humacao and one in Ponce-Guanica.

When I didn't get my bid accepted, I just went back in and clicked any other area other than the 3 above...and it then accepted our bid. Hope this helps.

We are doing another San Juan cruise in Dcember. I can not remember which areas in PriceLine do not have resorts. Can somebody please refresh this tired memory? I appreciate your help!

OC PAT

Go onto Priceline to do a regular search, put in your dates and click on box that says "Star Rating" and choose only "resorts".......11 properties will come up....just look at them.....most are San Juan/Airport, there are a few in Fajardo-Rio Grand-Humacao and one in Ponce-Guanica.

When I didn't get my bid accepted, I just went back in and clicked any other area other than the 3 above...and it then accepted our bid. Hope this helps.

Wow!.....Finally won.......bid resort and 4 star for San Juan/Airport area for days.....started at $90 upped it to $95....added other areas that I knew had no resorts or 4 star hotels in them. Got an email from Priceline today with a list of my "losing" bids. It said to look at prices in advance on Pricelines site (which I had been doing) and if 50%-60% off pricing was not being accepted to try 40% off. So I went back into the site and upped my bid to $105 (resorts going for $189-$228 nite) and got the message back that if I upped my bid by $25 to $130/nite my chances were favorable. So, I upped to $115 and added other areas where no resorts were located and...YES....my bid was accepted:

December 1-4, 2011 (3 nites)

Marriott San Juan Resort and Stellaris Casino

$115 nite

Taxes and Fees: $49.98

Total cost: $394.98

Room is going for $228 nite

We are very happy!!

We love to cruise at the end of January/beginning of February for all the reasons listed previously: great winter break, weather in the caribbean is perfect, fewer kids, no threat of hurricanes, etc.

Ditto....exactly!!

Been trying to get a resort for Feb 5 for about 3 or 4 weeks with no luck. This morning I noticed that the prices listed had gone down so I tried again and got the Caribe Hilton on my first bid! We stayed here last year for the same price. Of course I immediately wondered if I could have gotten it for $80, but not a bad price and we were happy with this resort last year. Yay! One less thing left to do!!

Would you share what parameters you put in to get such a great price? Thanks

Thanks for posting! Now I know which ship to skip to avoid Malcolm Burn. I'll NEVER cruise with him, and his group of nasty folks again!

 

"SKY"

Why is Malcolm Burn so bad? And who is his "group of Nasty folks"? Please explain, we are going on the Miracle with this group in Feb and you have made us curious???