luvtravel88

My husband and I are traveling with our 2 grown children and son in law. He and I are platinum status and our kids are gold status.

We have priority embarkation privileges, but our kids don't.

Since we're traveling together and one of our kids is staying in our room, can all of us go to priority embarkation? I don't want to cause a problem or delay our embarkation process.

We always get to the pier early and have arrived at some cruise terminals where there were few enough people that priority embarkation didn't matter.

We have sailed from San Juan 4 times. We always get to the pier around 11:00 or 11:15 and are always on the ship by 12:00.

We have sailed from San Juan 3 times, and we have done the same thing. You're on the ship in time for lunch.

Would anyone happen to know if there are lockers available to lock valuables at Valley Church Beach?

Thanks!

Thanks all. Have bitten the bullet and gone for the American flights. Really didnt want to risk waiting and I do think the rates aren't bad. I'm sure others won't be that much cheaper when they come out and if they are well hey ho. Maybe I shouldn't look!! But I know I won't be able to resist!!!

 

Also. Flights dates are over Easter so know that could be dodgy!!!

Booking with American for 3 people for about $1000 is really good! I booked a Jet Blue flight for my daughter and son in law from Raleigh to San Juan last Feb. for a trip the end of August and paid $350 pp.

I think you did good and now you don't have to stress!

Most first time visitors will go either to OSJ, which offers the history and culture of the island, or to the rainforest.

It depends upon what your interests are.

OSJ is a wonderful place to spend the day. It is very easy to walk around, the architecture is beautiful, the forts are very interesting and absorbing the culture around you is wonderful.

There is also a free trolley that will traverse the OSJ area.

There are lots of restaurants and small shops interspersed among the street.

The streets are very narrow with buildings 2-3 stories high on each side. Many of these have flowers and plants trailing down the sides of the buildings and there are many parks and interesting alcoves along the way.

We have been to San Juan 5 times and will be there again in September. We just love the ambiance of the OSJ area.

We also have been to El Yunque a couple of times and are doing a morning hike when we go this fall.

I know you won't be there in the evening, but if you ever embark for a cruise in San Juan and are able to spend a day or two there before or after your cruise, book a trip to Bio-luminescent Bay. There are only 3 of these areas in the world and it's a really cool experience.

And... just to keep in mind... there is a guy in OSJ that walks the streets perpetuating a con on unsuspecting tourists. He will walk up to you and ask if you speak English. Once you say yes, he then tells a story of how he and his dad were mugged the night before, and his dad is now in the hospital. He wants $6 for a taxi to get to the hospital. If you say to him, "I know you from Cruise Critic!" He takes off really fast.

Have fun with whatever you decide to do!

I think bringing wine on was a waste. We brought two bottles and ended up giving them to the cabin guy since we never got around to drinking them. We might on an Alaskan cruise since it's not so hot, but we mostly drink wine with dinner otherwise, and feel kind of cheap carrying in our own glass. If you stay in your room a lot it may be more worth it. I packed them around in my backpack for three hours for no good reason :)

 

Tom

Many people stop at a lounge for a drink before dinner and will carry their drink into the dining room. No one knows if your glass of wine has come from your stateroom or a lounge as the glasses all look alike.

I'm afraid I have answered my own question! I looked at a map of St. Croix beaches after I posted. Cane Bay is in the opposite direction from Sandcastle and the cruise pier is between them.

So we'll take a taxi back to the ship, have lunch and then go to Sandcastle.

My family and I are doing a kayak tour that ends at Cane Bay Beach. We are interested in going from Cane Bay Beach to Sandcastle on the Beach. Would anyone know if these two beaches are near each other or really far apart.

If they're really near each other, could we just walk?

I know a taxi is $6pp from the cruise pier to Sandcastle and we could go back to the ship first, but I wondered if it might be faster and cheaper to go directly to Sandcastle.

We are using ACAMPA Tours In August for a 1/2 day rain forest tour. It leaves at 7:30am and returns about 1:00, leaving the rest of the day for other sightseeing. It also includes lunch which we thought was nice and made the trip a good value.

We haven't used them before, but they are highly ranked on tripadvisor.

Antigua is very beautiful and has a British feel as it's a British colony.

The beaches there are beautiful and numerous.

We have been to Antigua several times and each time have done something different. Don't be afraid to do things that aren't affiliated with the ship. Just plan your activities so you have plenty of time to get back to the ship.

When we do a private island tour, we make sure we planned to be back a couple of hours before the ship leaves, so even if we are delayed, we are back in plenty of time. We use the extra time to walk the area near the pier. Most of the islands have a shopping area.

Dont' forget, the islands rely heavily on the tourist trade. The tour operators know they need to get passengers back to their ships on time or they won't be in business for long. These operators are also very aware of CC and many will even ask you to post something positive about them.

Go to tripadvisor.com and type in the different islands you will be visiting. Go to things to do and then click on sightseeing. You will get a list of local tour company's, their rankings and reviews. Many of them have websites so you can see exactly what their tours entail and what they cost. We use tripadvisor as well as CC to get information to make our touring decisions. Under things to do, you also get an idea of what the island offers, also helping you to make itinerary decisions.

The ship excursions are quite a mixed bag. Some are good but most are average and you are grouped with many other people. There are often several buses that travel together caravan style, so you are at different stops with lots of people. It makes it really crowded in many places. The pro in using the ship is that you aren't supposed to have to worry about getting back to the ship on time and that if there's a problem, the ship will wait for you. That being said, you can find places on these boards, where the ship hasn't waited and has stranded passengers. Evidently, waiting on passengers has to do with the tides, the cost of berthing the ship, and weather conditions.

We have cruised many times and it wasn't until our 4th or 5th cruise that we decided to venture out on our own. We now do private tours or do our own thing. We actually rented a car on our last cruise in Los Angeles. That was a scary thing to do, but it worked out great!

When we are in Antigua this August, we are going to take the local bus which we haven't done there before. We're still deciding where we're going to go. If you decide to do something like this, just read these boards. You will find specific instructions on how to get pretty much anywhere you want to go.

Good luck in your planning!

Loving your review! Thanks for taking the time to do it.

We will be on the Jewel in August with a similar itinerary except we don't go to St. Kitt's but go to St. Croix instead.

We had Spencer's booked in St. Lucia but I had read so many mixed reviews on CC and many negative reviews on Tripadvisor, so we cancelled with him and booked a private excursion with a company called More Than A Cab. They had good reviews on TA.

Hope we made the right decision!

Today marked the first day of several guided tours during this vacation. I knew we wanted to do the rainforest and was having difficulty deciding which company to book. So I asked the El Convento for a recommendation and they stated I could book through them and they would arrange it with E&B Tours. I was happy we did it this way. It costs $62.00 per person for the half day rainforest with no beach at the end, which meant we left at 9am and returned about 230pm instead of about 430pm. The driver picked us up at El Convento at 9am which was very convenient. I'd not found any company that would come to the hotel and I suppose that is because the hotels want you to book through them. Worked for us. We swung by LaConcha to pick up several other folks and headed off to the rainforest with a full van of about 13 people and a great tour guide named Joey. He wore a headset with speaker the whole time so it was easy for all the hear him in the van.

We will be in San Juan in August for 3 days pre cruise as well and were looking for a tour to El Yunque. It was a difficult decision, but we have booked with Acampa. They also will pick you up at your hotel and their trip is from 7:30am-1:00pm so you still have all afternoon and evening to do something else.

Go back to the main RCCL page and at the top right click on search this forum. Type in RCCL menus. You will hit a thread with them on there. The menus are the same for all ships fleetwide.

We've stayed here twice and are staying here again in August. The rooms are on the small side, but they're lovely. The grounds are really pretty as well. There is a workout area and spa.

The grocery store is right across the street and if you're cruising, you can stop in there for a couple of bottles of wine to take onboard.

The hotel recommends a restaurant around the corner called Bebo's. That's the only thing in my opinion that the hotel has got wrong. The restaurant wasn't good.

This hotel is ranked 4th on tripadvisor.

OSJ is a great port to just walk around, I would suggest being at El Morrow at sunset, and there is a sidewalk along the old city wall beneath the fort, or you can find a local place to eat.

Be careful anywhere after dark. Stay away from the area known as La Perla. In the daytime it's obvious that you're in that area because it is very run down. You may not realize it at night.

There are also sunset tours of OSJ which are really nice and it's cooler then. We've done both day and night walking tours and really enjoyed the evening one.

There are also a couple of tasting tours. Take a look either on cruisecritic or on tripadvisor to find out about them.

This is a tip rather than a secret. I always take clorox wipes to wipe down surfaces in our stateroom when we arrive and then usually about midway through the cruise.

Also, I always take a travel mug for Hubby and myself so we can have hot or cold drinks with us throughout the day.

Thanks for your review! We like to travel in the same manner as you. We will be social but Hubby and I tend to spend a lot of time alone together just relaxing. Often we'll stay on our balcony all afternoon and leave in time for dinner.

You have a very nice outlook on your vacation. Again, we feel the same. Don't sweat the small stuff. When you're with thousands of people all doing basically the same things, everything is not always going to go as planned.

It seems that we enjoy our vacations more when we don't stress out about something that isn't really to our liking.

Thank you very much for the info!

Would anyone happen to know if our cabin 6185 has an obstructed view on our balcony?

Thanks!

We did the Chef's Table on Princess last November and the cost was $95 per person including wine and $75 per person if you didn't want wine.

It also included a Princess Cookbook. It was one of the best meals we had ever eaten. We were in the galley or at our table for 3 1/2 hours!

I am disappointed that Celebrity doesn't have something more similar. $300 for dinner on a cruise where you have really already paid for your dinner should be an occasion you'll never forget but I'm glad to get feedback from those that have done this. It has allowed me to take this off my "to do" list.

Thanks for the great review. I'm hoping to take the tour in November.