jean87510

We tried to use Blue safaris in October. They cancelled the night before. Thank God I had wifi on the ship where I could read my emails and found out and was able to rent a car the next day. I should have written about the whole situation on Trip Ad because I was upset and really not a big fan of this company. They told me that the squalls to get to Anquilla were too much. I found out that 1. They were not - the ferry ran that day with no issue. 2. They had ran their 3 island trip without any difficulty that day. I had asked them if my husband and I could go on that and got no response. I was reimbursed which was why I didn't write a bad review on Trip Ad. I just felt as if they didn't feel like going that day or maybe didn't have enough people. I don't trust them again to take me out. I am going to try Billy Bones in April 2018. We actually are going to stay in Anguilla for a few days after that cruise so I will get there finally.:D If Billy turns out to be strike #3 with boat tours in st martin, I will continue to rent cars and go on my own. I should add that there were only 3 ships in that day so perhaps they couldn't get enough people for the tour.

It's called self explore st john. 10 am to 4pm. We did it in april and Oct. Worth it

I'm no t renting a car. When you say far, how far is it?

45 to 50 minutes

The only ones that complain are the ones that need to be by the pool. I guess I don't understand why people need to be by the pool. There is nothing there that isn't on the deck above or other areas that have plenty of loungers. It's not like they can't hear the band :) There are always loungers available it's the people that need to be by the pool that have issues. Others don't have any problems. Where ever you sit it is just a short walk to the pool..... I can see an issue with the Solarium on cold weather cruises, just not enough chairs available.

 

We are from S Florida so thankfully we don't care to be by the pool because we can do that at home every day. But I do understand why some want to lay out, just don't understand the draw of being next to the pool. Noisy and crowded is all I see :)

 

This is why we get a balcony, that's where we spend most of our sea days. I don't want to have to mess with the whole pool area, just not worth it. And I know, that doesn't work for groups or families so we'll leave the chairs for you folks.

 

So I understand why a lot of people want to lay out, even in groups, just don't understand the draw of being packed in next to the pool.

enjoy

Absolutely agree. Plenty of chairs. I've never had a problem finding a chair other than pool area. Only people I can see it would affect are those who actually watch their children in the pool. And if they have to watch them at the pool, they should be in the pool with them.

Thanks Jean. :)

 

Well I figured it out. I'm so flighty about this cruise; I forgot it leaves out of PR and that's on the same basic timezone as Antigua. So there are no worries now. :)

 

In have literally had to write down that we are going from orlando to the airport, not to Canaveral, for the cruise. That was the day I was pricing rental cars with a dropoff at the port. Glad I figured it out lol. I just keep forgetting!

 

 

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you will have a great time. They are really friendly and down to earth. My husband and I were talking to them for a while during lunch about the island and everywhere to see while we were there and they couldn't have been nicer and helpful. You can sense that they love what they do and they love showing off their island. Probably one of my favorite tours in the caribbean besides Aristocat charters in Tortola.

The only place of any note (from the beach) is the top end of Half Moon Bay. Not brilliant but a good variety of fish. There are refreshments available. Chairs were available in the past, but a more recent poster stated not.

 

Best to take extra towels for the sand. Never had a problem with a taxi, but the journey is about 45 minutes. Some posters have suggested a hire car/van, for a group.

If going, rent a car. It is really far from the port. Download google maps to your phone and use that as your GPS. We actually invested in hammocks off of Amazon and they were great. There is a small shack to buy snacks/food (even ice cream) as well as drinks. It is absolutely gorgeous and the best snorkeling spot in Antigua, hands down. There is no where to rent snorkeling equipment so bring your own. We were all over antigua and this was the best beach and snorkeling area BUT it is really remote and far from the port. I really would not do this unless you have a rental car and a good GPS source.

Half moon is gorgeous but very far from port. Galley bay I believe is near Nelson so is closer. Are you renting a car?

We have the EcoTour booked. Before putting in my CC number I read a TON of reviews over on trip advisor. Even the 1 star reviews mentioned nothing about being ripped off or having identity stolen or charged when they shouldn't have been charged. So I did it.

 

 

But my question is about the time change. Dallen mentioned the timing in 2010. We dock at 8am, but if the ship's time doesn't change, that means we're docking at 8 eastern time, but in Antigua it'll already be 9. Since we are supposed to meet at 8:50 on the dock that's a problem. But the tour operators know what they are doing, right? :o

We did this in October but we were staying in Antigua. However, I would email about the time change just to verify. Also, ask the ship guest services the night before what the local time will be when you disembark. And I really strongly suggest having an internet package while you are on the cruise. This way if there are any problems, you can contact Eli.

Regarding the tour, we did the 360 tour which was great. These guys have been in the business for a while. If they miss the ship, it is bad business for them. Every email I sent was answered promptly. When you get on, they ask for the cash up front which is fine, a lot of people do this and it saves you the headache of keeping track of loose money during an excursion. I thought they were really friendly and nice. It's really obvious that they are used to running these tours and are successful at them.

So I believe we will be in St Maarten from 8 am to either 5 or 6 pm. Definitely have to go see the planes at Maho. Wondering how far is Maho to Mullet or vice versa? And is it a safe walking distance?

 

Also once you walk off the ship are there shops and eateries? Other words, worth spending a couple hours there or should we just take our time getting off the ship? Because it seems being at Maho is better in the afternoon versus morning to see the larger planes.

 

Thanks for any info.

 

Gal

We just did this in October. About a 10-15 minute walk. 20 to 30 if you are not very mobile. We rented a car for the day and ended up at Mullet. We stayed there and swam/ate. Then around 2ish we walked over to Maho. If you have your cell phone with you, prior to your trip or on the ship if you have internet access/wifi, download the google maps app with the directions of mullet to maho and you will have a walking guide to get in between the two places but honestly, just follow the plane sounds. And of course you will see them when walking over. There is no way we were driving over there and trying to find parking. Good luck.

Sorry. First, you didn't seem to understand the analogy I was making. That's ok. However, there is a very big difference between taking a uninvited video of someone (which is similar to stalking) and taking a selfie in which you invited the other person and they consented or taking a picture of someone at a public event/meet & greet. And...to post it on YouTube? That takes the cake.

This is NOT the same as taking a picture of an ice sculpture. This is a person. Even though she is on staff, she still has the same rights as anyone. Have you no boundaries?

I absolutely agree. It is not something I personally would waste my camera video on. It's like someone taking a video of someone falling or a drunk person without their knowledge or permission. If everyone felt it was acceptable to follow her and take videos, it could get a little hairy out there. It may start out as innocent but truthfully, what if people start videoing her going in to the bathroom, jogging at the gym...etc... She should get a break from the cameras at one point.

My top tip ... tripadvisor app. Download the Rome city data beforehand.

 

Then " save" the sights. When you pull up their details you will see the distance shown in ft/m.

 

Touch the distance digits. You will get a compass showing the distance and direction as a pointer.

 

Check it every so often as you walk to check you are walking in the correct direction.

 

I find it invaluable when just walking to make sure we stay on track.

We do the same thing and find it invaluable. Plus you have your phone out anyway taking pictures so what's wrong with seeing where you are at especially when in Rome for the first time? We will be definitely doing this in May on our TA. Walking around Rome will be much easier. I have been researching places I really want to see and get to in our one day there so having an app point me in the right direction is very helpful.

:( ... Cheapest I'm seeing from ATL to Barcelona for May is $800. Is that not horrible?

are you going on the choice air/rccl website? That seems a little high

we were approached in October by some woman in a parking lot in Grand case with those scratch offs and she said she worked for the Westin. I said so if I call them right now, they can verify that one of their employees is chasing cruise ship people in parking lots to get a scratch off? She then started walking away angry. She started with the old "here scratch this off and you will win...etc...". I was hot and sandy and in no mood to listen to some idiot in a parking lot.

bus or cab is fine. My husband and I were just in Antigua for 5 days and explored all over with a rental car and that was one of the beaches we really liked. We stayed at Antigua Village and for the life of me I don't understand why people recommend Dickenson beach (which is where my rental was at). Sandals takes up the entire beach practically. We stopped at Turners to swim for a bit on our way back from an excursion and really liked it. Of course it is not half moon beach which was gorgeous but still nice. Everyone is so nice in Antigua and really helpful. You and your daughter should be fine. There are so many beautiful beaches to choose from. Another idea is to go to Dennis' on Ffryes beach. I had lunch there one day and it was really good. The beach was very nice. Another is beach Limerz which had good food. I think it is in Fort james? Near Dickenson Bay. Sorry for any spelling errors.

I just got mine on sunday with TAPortugal for 225$ from Newark to Barcelona a person

Just returned- we used Billy Bob's Boat Charters and we were super impressed. Can't say enough about them. Professional yet fun- we saw so many beaches and snorkel spots- my brain is still reeling!

Thanks for the info. I just contacted them to book in april 2018. I will make it eventually to Anguilla:D. If anyone has done this, is it possible with a port time of 8a to 5p that you can feasibly do this tour? I would like anyone's opinion who actually did this with this type of timeframe. Thx

My wife and I secured an excursion with Thomas several months in advance of our cruise in Oct. 2016 and again confirmed our excursion with him just days prior to our sailing. Imagine our surprise and disappointment when we arrived onshore and were told by him that he was unable to accommodate us because he had secured a larger group and that he had no room at all for us. In all our many sailings and our arrangements with independent tour operators we have never experienced such an occurrence before. Fortunately we were able to secure another tour although it wasn't what we had expected. I honestly cant recommend a tour operator that would drop us in a heartbeat for more $$. I absolutely do not recommend Thomas Vincent as a reliable tour operator for Martinique.

He did the same thing to us in April 2016. I did post what had happened to us. I was really upset at him because this is not an easy port and I didn't like his way of dumping customers. We were on Kata Mambo in the am and arranged for Thomas to do our tour in the afternoon but he found a better way to make money with an all day tour and dropped my husband and I. I understand the need to make money but the internet is your friend or enemy and I appreciate anyone who tells what happened on their tour and why they liked/disliked it so I can make my decision. Martinique is not a country I would go out of my way to visit again, but if I do, I will not use Kata Mambo or Mr. Vincent. Hopefully by then, some more reliable tour operators will have businesses.

not to rain on this but we had this scheduled in October 20 and literally the night before it was cancelled because of the swells in the harbor. Luckily I had internet and got the email and they did say that they would meet us at Bobby's marina if we didn't respond. I asked them if we could switch to the 3 island deal (which I really didn't want to do because I had done it last year with Soualiga; however, I wanted to do a boat tour that day). I did not get a response. I thought well maybe it's bad all over and no boats went out. We ended up renting a car from Coastal and driving all over the island which was fun. I was reimbursed by Christine. I had paid the full amount so I was surprised that they wouldn't have offered me an alternate tour. I did find out that another group was taken out to do the 3 island tour with apparently not a full boat so I think they could have squeezed us in. I suspect that they could not get enough people to do the Anguilla trip so they just cancelled it. I wish if they were planning on this, they would have given me more time to get another excursion. Luckily I am pretty resourceful and have been to St Maartin before so I explored and went to places that were on my bucket list. We are going back to St. Martin in 2018 and I will try again to do Anguilla but unfortunately not with Blue Safaris because I do not trust them to get us there. There is a ferry that would have worked with our plans because we were there in October from 9a to 7p and I would have done that instead had they given me more than 12 hours to plan. We are going to try the ferry on our next trip. Good Luck with whatever you decide to do and make sure to have a plan B

As an addition to the above, while we were at lunch near the ferry harbor, we asked about the ferry to Anguilla and was it running that day. Some of the locals told us it ran every day and boats were crossing the channel without any problems that day. I cannot tell you how disappointed I was and how I kicked myself for not planning a ferry trip in case Blue Safari fell through.

we used coastal a couple of weeks ago. Our original excursion to Anguilla was cancelled the night before (which is why I ALWAYS have internet on a cruise ship). Unfortunately Hertz was out of cars. So we rented with Coastal. They gave us a dilapidated piece of junk with dents everywhere. We took a video of the inside and outside of car while at the rental place. It rode well and hey, that's all that is needed. The problem was, when we returned it to Coastal, the person started blaming us for the dents and wouldn't at first let us go. Since we had the video which we showed him, he had no choice. We did report it to Coastal customer service because we were really upset. If you want to use Coastal, fine, but make sure to video the car inside and out. They wanted to charge us $500 for damages (in cash) :rolleyes:

Thanks for the suggestions! After some research we've decided to spend the day at Darkwood beach. I wouldn't be comfortable with him going solo. I'll double check on board though.

 

 

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I just did this last week in antigua and truthfully, there is no where for you to follow to take pictures. He is old enough to go by himself (they take 5 year olds although a guide will go with them) A really nice beach is Ffryes beach which is where Dennis restaurant is. There is a trampoline park near there. It's in the same general location area (not next to) as valley church, jolly beach... We ate lunch there one day and I was really impressed with how beautiful the beach is.

OCT 17-19

Sunday night, Monday night, Tuesday night and Wednesday night are all at sea, so everything is pretty much the same.

 

Two mornings we had room service bring hot tea, juice and some fruit. It was cool sitting out on the balcony. After, we would go down to Blu for a regular breakfast. On Monday, I thought Blu opened at 7:30am. When we went there we found out it didn’t open until 8:00am. So, we went to the buffet instead. They do have a good breakfast there. The rest of the mornings we went to Blu. Cathy has Celiac disease, so she needs gluten free stuff. At Blu, she could have pancakes, French toast and regular toast when she ordered eggs. A number of mornings then brought her gluten free pastry.

 

You do eat a lot. It’s a good thing most of the meals are pretty much “children’s” portions. I had pancakes twice. One the blueberry and the other the vanilla ones. Both times I got two pancakes, about five inches in diameter.

 

For the six meals at Blu, I had the filet mignon, then the New York strip steak twice. Once I have the short ribs. The meat was like stew meat. Just very dry. I don’t remember the other two meals. Probably some chicken thing. I had two soups that were very good. The other four soups were the baked onion. Cathy had the onion soup, without the bread. She had the shrimp cocktail every night. I tried the frog legs once. Nothing much there.

 

We did go to the casino at 2:00pm on Monday. The Cruise Critic gang was there for a slot machine pull. A big THANKS to all folks that put it together. I think there were 50 some odd people in the group. We put in $15 each and an attendant put all the money into two Wheel of Fortune slot machines. We each took five pulls. Cathy and I both got nothing. Lucky a couple of people hit some. At the end, the money was totaled up and split between all of us. We got $9.00 each back. It was more fun putting faces to names I have seen online.

 

Every day, after breakfast, we went to the theater and saw presentations on different topics. Most were informative and entertaining. When they were over, we would walk around for a while and by then it was time for lunch. We ate lunch at the buffet every day except one. One day we ate in the MDR.

 

We relaxed in the cabin a lot. Not real exciting, I know.

 

I’m sure many people will disagree, but I felt the Pool Grill was disappointing. I was so looking forward to it. The hamburger was a normal quarter pounder. I loved the grilled onions though. The problem was with the bun. It was so stale, it broke apart in my hand. The hot dog was a large sausage thing, on some kind of huge bun. The French fries was uneatable. I thought they would be gluten free, but they weren’t. Lucky we took the food to the buffet to eat. So, I could through it all away and have other things.

 

The Spa Café, (the healthy alternative lunch buffet), didn’t have a single customer every time we passed it.

 

The new Sushi on Five restaurant only had a couple of customers every time we passed it. There were servers standing outside trying to get people to come it.

 

Cathy’s need for gluten free food was really easy. Every place we ate bent over backwards to accommodate.

 

A small problem with the drink plan. We had the soda plan. We prefer caffeine free diet Coke. A number of places didn’t have any. On Monday, they said it was down in the “store” and would be brought up on Tuesday. By Thursday, they still didn’t have any. On Tuesday, I did go down to the Customer Service desk and mention it. They said “what can we do to make you happy?” I said, besides restocking the bars, just send a six pack to my room. A six pack was delivered to our room on Thursday. There was a phone message on Thursday, from some manager. Unfortunately, I couldn’t understand anything he said.

 

Getting soda was easy. There are a lot of bars on board. You just hand the bartender or waitress the sea passes and they give you cans of soda. They always ask if you would like glasses with ice. The only place to be careful is at the buffet. You need to sit down and order drinks first. The waitresses are few and far apart. If you don’t, you get to finish your meal before your drinks come.

I agree with you about the soda. Coke zero was gone by st martin. I had to go with diet coke which disappeared by st thomas. Also by st martin in buffet and bar in the back of ship cans were always warm. I probably should have complained but just accepted it. We will bring drinks on next time.

I agree with above poster. Half moon beach. Very far from port. Rent a car. There is a place to get drinks and food. No chairs. We actually have hammocks that we use for places like these that have been helpful. Its about 45 minutes from port. It may be cheaper to rent car but a taxi will know where to go. Your kids will love this beach

My husband and I have just completed a 4 day stay in antigua and had no problems driving. Wheel on right. Drive on left. Get a gps or download the island of antigua to your phone and drop a pin of where you want to go. The maps at rental car places are useless. We went all over anrigua and still didn't get to everything. They are a little crazy drving here and there are potholes. But it's such a beautiful island that if you like to ecplore, and not plop on one beach all day, then by all means rent the car.

We just got off summit reposition cruise Saturday. Probably the only complaint i had was the select dining. 1st night was a 45 minute wait even though we went at their recommended time - went to buffet. They did ask us to share and we said no. The 2nd yim we went was formal night and despite me going in person day 2 and day 3, they were completely booked from 6 to 8p for a 2 seater. We tried at 555 and were squeezed in next to a waiter island where they kept extra spoons. After that, we went to bugfet. We were on summit in april and never had any problems getting in. We tried one more time the last night and asked if we could not be put at that table and were told it was a 30 minute wait or share. Since neither were an option we went back to buffet. To make it clear, we liked the food on buffet also. And we were able to get to the shows easier.

Instead of taking ship excursion, can you go on your own? My husband and i are doing this on Tuesday. We actually just disembarked from a cruise ship and are flying to antigua for a few days. One of our adventures includes the zip lining. They have different times to do it. From what i read, it is really crowded on cruise days and even more so with a ship excursion. Contact the owners with any questions.