cinnam0n

On 4/18/2024 at 4:40 PM, Chrissi3010 said:

I am also very excited to visit the Azores (where our weather in Europe comes from).

We visited the Azores in the fall of 2019 right before COVID on a TA from Barcelona to Tampa with RCL.  It is the most beautiful place!

On 3/9/2024 at 4:24 PM, Turtles06 said:

 

Of course, you won't get "the best of Iceland" in a single day, but that tour will include some major highlights and it will be an interesting and good way to spend that day; it's what I would do if I were in port for just that day.  (The South Coast tour from Reykjavik is awesome and stunningly beautiful, but I don't think you really have time for that.) 

 

Check these folks out for private tours:

https://geoiceland.is/

 

https://sagatravel.is/

 

(read reviews here on CC as well as Trip Advisor.  Pay attention to post-pandemic reviews, as these terrific companies I believe reorganized during/after the pandemic.) 

No, we're only in Reykjavik until 5 pm, so that limits the options.  We booked with Iceland Everywhere. 

Those tours look awesome - I hadn't looked at that company. However, I'm not seeing any time frames that will fit. We're in port from 7-5.I would for sure rather have a small group.

Doing an Iceland/Scotland cruise in August - this will be our first time in this part of the world.  Normally, we're not ones to do "touristy" things when on shore during a cruise, and rarely take the cruiseline excursions.  I typically do lots of research and we've done some really interesting things over the years. We will be in Reykjavik for one day only (7am-5pm), and a Golden Circle tour seems to be "the" tour to experience the best of Iceland.  Obviously there are tons of companies doing the tour, and they all seem very similar.  So, for you who have visited Iceland, is this what you would recommend?

7 hours ago, Djford75 said:

What time did you return the car? We are doing the same in august, always have priority boarding so we get to terminal early....

Had to go back and look in my email at my receipt. 😊We flew into West Palm, where we picked the car up the night before, stayed overnight in the Ft. Lauderdale area, and drove to Miami, where we dropped the car off around 8:30 AM.  We didn't even have to go into the location - the lot attendants took our paperwork and called the shuttle for us. By the time we got on the shuttle, drove to the port, and checked our bags with the porters, we didn't have too long a wait at all.

Thanks, everyone!

Got off Grandeur a few weeks ago - our first cruise since COVID and obviously the first one with the new menus.  We ate in the MDR every night and I was pleasantly surprised at both the selection and the quality.  No complaints here.

18 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

On RCI not really, but you'll feel at home on Celebrity M class.

We did an 11 night from San Juan on the Millenium.....I loved that ship.

    I know I can do extensive research on my own concerning this, but I also know the members of this forum have a lot of first hand knowledge that can get me my answers faster!   

    We've sailed with RCL a total of six times, sailing from Baltimore, Tampa, Miami, San Juan, and from Barcelona on a transatlantic.  We have only sailed on Vision and Radiance class ships. We especially love the Radiance class - one of our favorite things is eating breakfast at the outside area of the Windjammer on the rear of the ship. We also love the teak Promenade deck 5 (on both Vision and Radiance classes) where you can walk the entire way around the ship while still being under "cover". 

   Looking at Europe again for next summer (maybe only if we become independently wealthy somehow because prices are RIDICULOUS).  I know that after the Radiance class comes the Voyager class, and with this class began the Royal Promenade.  My question is, are there still places on the other classes of ships that are comparable to the things we love about the Radiance class, or (except for the actual pool deck) is everything more enclosed??

   Thanks in advance!

On 4/21/2023 at 3:33 AM, mcatmcat said:

check-in time is important, but they rarely look for your check-in time.

Just join the 1030 am group and say Hi to those waiting in the 11 am huge line.  

On our cruise earlier this month, we had the earliest check in time of 10:30.  There were 3 separate lines that formed with signage  for 10:30,  11:00 and 11:30 check in times. When the terminal doors opened and they began ushering people inside shortly before 10:30, they let all 3 lines in at the same time.  So, I don't know if they really care about your check in time...🙂

2 hours ago, MechE31 said:

Be warned, chat is not the most reliable. Messages often don't go through unless you manually refresh.

For sure - tried to used it on our recent cruise.  We never got notified of a new message until (if we were lucky) we opened the app.  Sometimes it was delivered the next day. 🙁

On 4/17/2023 at 3:01 PM, stunned said:

Do you have contact info for Royston?

I wholehearted agree with the others!  His tour is unique and he is a great guy who loves his island.  Thanks to whoever recommended him on this thread 😀 His contact is roystontours@hotmail.com

29 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

I would be too OCD to enjoy anything else until my luggage was found.

Believe me, I was checking my phone for my travel insurance policy.....

5 hours ago, Biker19 said:

Pro tip - if it doesn't show up by sail away, you can find it yourself somewhere nearby (like your cabin attendant did).

I have been on numerous cruises where the luggage has not been delivered by sail away, so it wasn't a concern at that point.  And the luggage wasn't anywhere nearby - it took several hours to find and I don't really think it was selfish for us to not want to spend our first evening on board searching for a lost suitcase.

1 hour ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Were you in a suite? I have cruised on Grandeur twice in the last 3 weeks (9 day cruise and 5 day cruise). For both cruises my cabin was only serviced once a day. However, my friends who were in a JS had their cabin serviced twice a day. 

Nope, in inside on deck 2 , probably on your 9 day! (4/7 - 4/16). We went fully expecting only once a day service (from reading it on here) Our cabin attendant was awesome.  On sailing day at 9PM, my daughter's luggage hadn't shown up yet.  He personally walked all the decks and found it sitting by itself at the end of a hall and brought it to our cabin after 10 PM.  He was well tipped!

1 hour ago, BND said:

We just got off EN two days ago and we were in a JS so we had the twice a day.  But, we had friends in an ocean view and they said they had twice per day.

We only had an inside - (ship was full so no Royal Ups awarded 😒) Serviced twice a day like clockwork.  Our cabin attendant was awesome.

After reading all the mostly horrible reviews, we decided to take a chance on returning our car to the 2nd Street location and shuttling to the port.  We flew into PBI the day before, picked up the car there, and drove to the Ft. Lauderdale area to spend the night. Everything went flawlessly.  The location/lot itself is very small, and I believe the key is getting the car returned before the influx of returning passengers coming to pick cars up.  We dropped our car, and the shuttle pulled up in less than 5 minutes.  We were early to the port, but we gave the porters our luggage,  parked ourselves on a bench across from the terminal and waited until the line began forming for our check in time.  

Don't know if it's because of the smaller ship size, but on our Grandeur cruise earlier this month, we had twice a day service, just like always previously.  No change at all.

8 hours ago, Ideb said:

I've read that Royal up bids get canceled and you have to place bids again once cabin is assigned but mine was assigned today (30 days out) and my bids still show submitted. Will they get canceled in the next few days?

Definitely not - we have had a guarantee cabin assigned and luggage tags issued, then won the Royal Up afterward and tags reissued.  it can be very last minute!

Does anyone know of a place to rent motorcycles (not scooters) in San Juan?

For those recently visiting St. Croix - In the pictures I've seen, the pier looks to be quite long.  Is there by any chance a shuttle that runs from one end to the other?  I've seen posts saying yes, and others saying no.

10 hours ago, ARandomTraveler said:

I was surprised to login to my cruise planner this evening and see the deluxe beverage package listed for $54.99/day. I've never seen it that low. Still not worth it to me, but kind of refreshing to see a price that doesn't have a "7" in front of it.

 

Granted, it's for a 12 day cruise, plus it's in Asia where people drink less, but for people who usually buy it at $72.99 on a 7 day cruise, it's not that much more expensive which is nice.

Ours has stayed pretty steady at $62.99 - Still too high for me, especially since ours is a very port intensive itinerary.  I'd rather grab a local drink for a couple of bucks while off the ship than get a cocktail by the pool for over $15.00.....

1 hour ago, matj2000 said:

Someday 

 

Everyone will learn

 

There really is no "sale".

 

Just re-arranged numbers.

Oh, I'm aware.  We don't drink enough for the package to be worth it for us.  I was curious about the third person, though - just in case they make a crazy mistake and offer it for $35/day like they mistakenly did one day before our last cruise...lol

So, when I see the discounted drink package prices offered, is says that it is based on 2 people. (basically, buy 1, get 1 half off is how I understand it.) But what happens if there is a 3rd adult in the cabin? The rule is that all adults in a stateroom must buy the package if one does, so does the 3rd person have to pay full price? 

On 11/12/2019 at 9:07 AM, Host Clarea said:

I don't think there is an operational Rita's on Brilliance anymore.

Correct - we just got off the Transatlantic on Sunday.  The Rita's space is there, but it is just used as extra seating for the Windjammer.