mamagina

Adult pool with swim up bar. Kids pool with waterfalls and a hot tub. No slide.

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Also the snorkeling was very good. Good enough equipment, with a vest required. Two groups of coral and grasses not to far from the edge of the water. Tons of fish. Much better than yesterday at Great Stirrup Cay.

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Sitting poolside at the Melia as part of our NCL Gem cruise. Lovely place. Pools, hot tub, nice beach. Day pass $45 includes loungers on the beach or pool, 1 hour free snorkel equipment and one beverage at Starbucks- any size, anything they make. You can pay to use water bikes and kayaks. We took the # 10 Jitney here from in front of McDonalds -$1.25 each. The one thing to beware of is that there is very little shade. We got here a little after 8am and the hotel guests claimed what few umbrellas and palapas there are on the beach (rightly so). But there are very few. We spoke to employees and guests and they are first come, first served and you have to come out between 6-8am to claim one. I was very surprised at how few there were for such a big place. There was plenty of shade around the restaurant and the pool though so we claimed a good spot but we are not on the beach.

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We are on the Pride 2/26/17. We were on the exact same Tampa to Baltimore cruise in 2015 and LOVED IT! Probably one of our favorite cruises and ships. Looking forward to this one so I just started reading reviews to get reacquainted with the ship! Lol. So glad I came across your review! Thank you! Will you be on the 2/26 cruise. That one has an enormous roll call. Lots of repeat folks from 2 years ago!

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Following. This is interesting to me also.

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I received mine today UPS. I received an email first. I had to call a number to confirm. They came UPS to my work address which is not my billing address for my credit card. I had to sign. I ordered them on 11/25.

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I got an email about 3 days after I ordered. I had to call a number to confirm. Watch for the email. It says the order will be cancelled in 72 hours if you don't call. The woman said it is coming UPS, signature required. I just got an email Friday saying they were shipped. Waiting for them now. My final payment for my cruise is 12/13. Hope they come.

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Just ordered $1700 worth this morning--saved $170! I asked my TA first and we can use these to pay for the cruise. Nice. Hope they come in time. Final Payment 12/13!!!

We go to France on a regular basis and have often commented that it is rare to see the gendarmerie on the roads like in the UK. Then, last time we were there we got stopped on a minor road.

 

 

 

We were asked for all the papers of our car etc. It wasn't a problem as we had everything in order, hadn't been drinking alcohol, or speeding.

 

 

 

In fact, in this day and age we were reassured that they were carrying out random checks.

 

 

 

We don't take ship Excursions, but always ensure we have plenty of time to get back to the ship.

 

 

 

BTW using paragraphs makes for easier reading.

You are right. I was trying to get this all down quickly before my phone died last night. I just spewed it all out! [emoji3]

We always leave plenty of time. We left Casiss shortly after 3:00pm for a 5:30 all aboard and we made it. Had we not left enough time we wouldn't have. The purpose of my post is to warn others to leave extra time because of evidently something new happening.

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We are traveling with a group of 18. Before we left, we prearranged with a private tour guide for a full sized coach bus tour of Marseille and Cassis from our port stop in Toulon. The trip was perfect with a professional guide and driver that came highly recommended. After an incredibly perfect day of sightseeing, we left Cassis on schedule with plenty of time to get back to port an hour before all aboard time. After the toll on the Motorway between Cassis and the port, our bus was Randomly pulled over for a Safety and Security check by the Police and Transportation authorities. Our bus driver had to show all paperwork, they took him into a mobile office where they took downloads of his logs, the police came on the bus and checked all safety equipment and made sure we were wearing seat belts, etc, etc. The whole process took over 40 minutes while we were biting our nails. This was not a ship excursion. While we were sitting there our guide did call ahead to the ship and provide them with our cabin numbers and asked them to hold the ship because she did not know how long the process was going to take. Of course, we hit more traffic in the port because we came back closer to rush hour than we planned. We literally were the last people on the ship at exactly 5:30pm which was all aboard. They pulled the gangway in right after we boarded. While we were pulled over, we saw the police stopping cars, vans and minibuses of all sizes. Our guide told us that she is seeing this more often and it did happen to her once before when she was working on a ship excursion where the bus failed the inspection and it was not allowed to proceed. They had to wait for another bus to be sent to pick them up. It turned out fine for us. I do think the ship would have waited as long as they could because it was 18 of us but I don't know what would have happened if it was just two or four of us in a car. So just a head's up to leave plenty of time to return when traveling on non ship excursions in this area.

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Enjoy!

If Point Pleasant isn't enough to fill your whole day, or if it rains, there is plenty of great strolling and shopping at Pier Village in Long branch (excellent beach too- great boardwalk but no rides) http://piervillagenj.com/index.html

Also, Jersey Shore Outlets in Tinton Falls right off the Garden State Parkway near Long Branch and not too far from Point Pleasant http://m.premiumoutlets.com/default.aspx?id=1267

You definitely can't do Six Flags too. Too far from the beach in traffic, way too crowded in the summer, as someone stated above-hour plus waits for all the rides, expensive -really a full day or more to see it.

The exits on the Garden State Parkway are in line with the mileage from the bottom of NJ --the Cape May or the Wildwood Area being mile marker 1. This can help you determine how far places are. Newark airport is around exit 140 so it is 140 miles from the Wildwood Exit but then you have to drive East to the shore. Long Branch Beach is Exit 105 so it is only about 41 miles from Newark including the 6 mile drive east on Route 36. Jersey Shore Outlets are right on Exit 102. Point Pleasant is Exit 98 but then you have about an 8-10 mile drive towards to water on local roads. Seaside Heights is Exit 82 and then 10 miles on Route 37 (all lights and lots of traffic) Not worth it in my opinion when there are so many nicer beaches. I grew up going to Seaside--all my childhood and teenage years. Sad to see it the way it is now.

Our daughter is 26, born in NJ and she's never been to Seaside, only Point Pleasant. [emoji3]

Maybe there will be a pop up hurricane in the north and they will have to switch our itinerary to Bermuda! :)

Great! Very helpful! Thank you!

And a shorter one on how to get your tickets to the public bus in the train station:

Bus tickets to cruise port, Civitavecchia train stationhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euVlUu6fFF8

Yes. Last year Romecab picked us up right at the end of the tented walkway when we disembarked the ship. That's why I was wondering if cabs are ever waiting there to take you to the train. We are taking a train to the Cinque Terre when we disembark this time.

The train station in Civitavecchia, located at the end of Viale della Repubblica, is one mile from the new port exit on Via Turco. A free port shuttle bus will take you to a parking lot just off Via Turco, from there you can either walk to the station or take a local bus.

 

Remember to allow extra time to walk from the auxiliary tracks at Termini to the main track head, about three blocks.

 

I would personally want an hour to get from the ship to the station at Civitavecchia (unless you get a cab but that's not easy to do for such a short ride) as you have no control over how long it takes to fill the shuttle bus, or how long you wait at for the public bus.

Is there a way to pre-book a cab to the train station in Civitavecchia? Are there cabs waiting when you disembark?

So far, this cruise is going very nicely. But probably because we made a lot of reservations beforehand. There are absolutely no Ifly reservations available for this cruise. We heard you couldn't make any yesterday when we got on. While sitting up on deck this morning some people said that a lady was yelling and was terribly upset because there is no standby system for it. All they are offering are $70 lessons. Also our friends made chops reservations for tonight and yesterday the chops staff told us we could join them but today they called and said that there is no availability all week and they are sorry they can't accommodate us! Weird because they are walking around asking if people want to go to chops.

This was a GREAT review! I really enjoyed reading it! Getting on the Anthem today as you get off. Cant wait to see what happens to our dining reservation experience. I made reservations for each night online ahead of time. They appear on our calendar but our cruise planner say that we have classic dining and 38 reservations for our 5 night cruise! Can't wait to see where we wind up sitting! :)

Following along because I'll be sailing along with you!!

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Thank you so much for those kind words, I'm flattered!

 

We did do all of those things that you mentioned on Day 1. Jitney to Horseshoe, cab from there to Hamilton, then ferry back to Dockyard. Day 2 we had every intention of doing Gibbs Hill Lighthouse and Crystal Caves, but after our time at Horseshoe we just decided to take the jitney right back there for the day! We cabbed back to Dockyard then went to the ClockTower Mall to do some shopping before being back onboard for departure. All-aboard was 4:30pm for a 5:00pm departure.

 

One thing to note is that the ship put the clocks forward 1 hour on the first sea day and went 1 hour back on the last sea day back to Bayonne.

 

 

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Thanks! I'm not surprised that you went back. It is so beautiful we usually do two days out of the three but with only two days and some friends who have never been to Bermuda we would like to show them something else. Maybe we will just send them to Hamilton for a little while. We usually take the ferry to St. George on the middle day and walk to tobacco bay doing a little sightseeing along the way. I don't think there will be time for that on this trip. Two beach days for us sound perfect though!

Wow. Thank you for one of the most perfect reviews I've ever read! We leave 6/11. I got all caught up in your pictures! All beautiful. This is the first time we will only be in Bermuda for only one night. We usually go on the Summit or the Gem which both stay for 2 nights/3 days. What was your sequence while the ship was in port? I saw that you went to Horseshoe by jitney and Hamilton, returning by ferry. Was that the same day? Did you do that the first day or the second? Loved that you went to the night party at snorkel park! We have done that but never seen crew. So nice of Royal to give them off. Fun! What did you do on the second day in Bermuda? How early did you have to be back on the ship before it left Bermuda?

Great review and pictures! Thank you for sharing your vacation.

Following! We are on 6/11/16