hmg1215

With the non-winter we had, and the incredibly early Spring (records being broken across Alaska almost every day - it hit 55 in Talkeetna yesterday), early May could be quite amazing.

That sounds so great! Unfortunately work interfered and my planned week vacation got trimmed to 3 days :mad: We will be going to NYC instead.

Maybe next year... sigh...

I really appreciate it. I will concentrate on Vancouver sailing and will not worry about weather. After all, I live in New England where weather can change in a heartbeat. We had heavy snow this morning and it's sunny and balmy 41 right now. Unfortunately, none of the Vancouver sailings include Sitka but maybe another time.

thanks again! Happy sailing, everyone!

Due to my work schedule there are only certain times of the year that I can take a week vacation. I have time off week of May 9th. I always wanted to see Alaska so I am considering booking a week cruise around May 7.

How would be the weather at this time? I explored different threads and it seems that any time after mid May is better for travelling to Alaska.

Should I just disregard the weather consideration and go anyway? I read that some excursions and locations may not be available until mid-May.

We (my DH and I) are considering HA Westerdam sailing from Seattle May 7 (because includes Sitka) or HA Nieuw Amsterdam sailing from Vancouver same day. I read some posts indicating that sailing from Vancouver is better because of scenery?

Crown Princess sailing from Vancounver is also under consideration.

We want to book a balcony cabin, but I am concerned that at this late time good locations may be gone.

Any advice is appreciated. Thank you!

It was discussed recently on this thread, which has some helpful comments:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2284225&highlight=chase+sapphire+preferred

Good info, thank you. It looks like some cruisers do use it instead of other coverage. Maybe next time.

Thank you all for good advice! I will definitely keep the insurance. If anything, it will give me a peace of mind.

I know, anything can happen. We are not so young and definitely not bulletproof. We are blessed with decent health, but you never know...

We are flying the day of the cruise. I know that is a risk, given that we are flying from New England and anything can happen. I just hope this winter will not be like the last one :eek:

Unfortunately, I have to work until pretty much the last minute, so flying the day ahead was not an option really. The fare is non-refundable so if I wanted to change flights, it will be additional cost. Plus hotel, which is not cheap in FLL.

I'll say a prayer and hope for the best! :)

Thank you for your responses dakrewser and jtl513!

Yes, I did purchase air through HAL so that should be covered.

The 'any reason' for cancellation is a valid benefit. Chase lists few reasons that can apply to the cancellation. I never know if my work situation will not interfere with our trip.

I think I will keep HAL insurance. Thank you!

Hello all cruisers,

I am reaching for advice. We just booked our first cruise with HAL and purchased platinum protection for $129 pp.

We also have Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card (which was used to pay for the trip) and one of the benefits is "trip cancellation and trip protection" coverage (up to 10K).

I am thinking about cancelling HAL coverage and sticking with Chase benefits but I worry that I may be missing something vital. I know that HAL offers coverage of medical costs up to 10K and 50K coverage if medical evacuation is needed but we are both pretty healthy and I assume there will be no need for that. I am more worried about possibility of snow storm in New England in February and inability to fly to FLL.

Do you think Chase benefits would be enough to cover our trip? I'd appreciate any insight.

Just off the Glory and we had a balcony under the buffet. Never heard any noise that was bothersome at all.

thank you for reassurance. I will enjoy the cruise no matter what. I will take some earplugs just in case.. I can take a lot but I don't like my sleep to be interrupted :D

Two more days! Can't wait for some sunshine. It's dreary in Mass right now

We are sailing this Sunday on Splendor from Miami. The upgrade deal seemed sweet; for $400 total we upgraded from two interior cabins to two balcony cabin on deck 8 (8354 and 8358). The guy on the phone said that cabins are side by side. I was so happy that I jumped on the deal.

Now I am looking at the deck plans and see that those cabins are right under the lido deck. Now I worry about the noise and scraping of chairs. An the cabins are not side by side, despite what the guys said.

I am still pretty happy about having balcony cabins. But I am not sure if the deal is as sweet as it sounded at first.

Does anyone have any idea if the noise will be really bothersome?

I checked on Sprint website for San Juan and St. Thomas and the site said "No services" (or something like that) but asked me "do you want to enable roaming?" I did not.

I would assume that there should be coverage. I used my phone from SJ before and don't remember extra fees, but you never know with Sprint :confused:

I will be looking for free wifi

Bus stop is easy to recognize. There is a bay on the road that busses pull into. There are usually signs and sometimes benches to sit on. You should not have problem finding a bus stop.

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We had a very good meal at El Jibarito on Calla Sol. They serve great sangria too. I had Navidad Special, which was a sampler plate.

I also had a good meal at the restaurant right beside Hotel Casablanca on Calle Fortalezza. It was called Puerto Rico Kitchen, if the memory serves me right. They had fantastic ribs with guava sauce. My husband was very happy with his dish of chicken and rice and beans. He said that Puerto Rican rice and beans are the best.

My favorite souvenirs from different trips:

_ map of Caribbean islands from San Juan, now framed and hanging in our kitchen

_ beautiful aplique square of fabric from Panama, also framed

_ painted feather from Costa Rica

_ watercolor picture of two Indian girls we bought from a street artist in Panama City

_ an interesting shell I found on Princess Cays beach. I did not know it had a locator until something crawled out of it in my suitcase

_ a necklace and earrings set made of pink shell from St. Thomas

And of course countless photos from.each location.

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Thank you!

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We will be on Carnival Splendor week of Dec 14th. There will be 5 ships that day in ST. We are scheduled to arrive at ST at 11 AM. How can I find out if we will dock in Heavensight or if it will be Crown Bay? How is that determined?

Thanks!

I believe Lindbergh beach is the one we took a bus to couple of years ago. I don' remember all the details, but when we walked out of Heavensight we turned left and we came across the bus stop. I believe it is located in front of the yacht club. Since they are driving on the left side the bus stop toward town and Lindbergh beach is located on left side of the street.

The buses that pull into the stop all look alike; converted truck with benches. We asked before boarding if this is safari bus. Taxi buses stop there as well and they look similar to safari buses. They are a bit more, probably $4. Not sure. Still a good deal.

We boarded the bus and asked the driver to tell us which stop to the beach near airport. You will see a sign to the airport, it is a road that forks off to the left. If you walk this road, maybe half a mile, the beach will be on your left. We cut through some resort (Best Western, I think) to get to the beach, but if you walk a bit past the resort the public access is right there. Nobody asked us at the resort what we are doing there, so you may be just fine walking through. We even used couple of chairs there.

If you take the same bus to the very last stop (at University) you can walk about 5 min to Brewers Bay beach. We visited that one on our second trip to ST. It is usually a quiet beach frequented by locals. There is a restroom and couple of snack trucks but no chair rentals. We sat under some trees on towels, but we had pretty much entire beach to ourselves.

Hi thanks, hmg1215 and pghsteelerfan your suggestions are very good. I will definitey put them in my to do list. Casablanca is unfortunatly not available. What hotel suggestion do you have around isla Verde? Where thinking of doing the old downtown san Juan and the two fort. How long do you think it will take? We are arriving at 230 the day before can we do this on the day we arrive or the next day also day of embarkation? Suggestions pls. Thanks!

I would say each fort will take an hour. The walk from one to another is about 15 min. Old town is not that big and you should see most of it in one afternoon. The ship leaves late so you will have also afternoon before sailing. Plenty of time to walk around.

As to hotel, I remember Hotel Milano, very close to Casablanca. If you google 'old San Juan hotels' there will be plenty of them on the map. If you want to stay in old town.

I love Old San Juan and I am looking forward to seeing it again in December. We are sailing from Miami and one of the stops is SJ. It is incredible watching El Morro getting closer and closer. Don't miss evening sail away. El Morro is beautifully illuminated and looks enchanting.

We stayed at Casablanca hotel, right in OSJ. They stored our luggage before and after cruise. We stayed there twice. Just ask for the room away from the street. On weekends you would need earplugs to sleep. There is usually a street party going on.

In St. Kitts we took a tour with Royston. Highly recommended. We visited many beautiful places and that included stop at the beach. We had Ashton, Royston cousin,as a guide and I can't praise him enough. He was the nicest and very knowledgeable guide.

In St. Lucia we took a tour with Cosol tours. That included a stop for a lunch and a stop at the beach. Our guide was Yellow Bird.

Both tours were fantastic! Both included free.drinks; beer, rum punch, soda, water. Both had lunch included with local specialties. I loved both.

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As I remember we left cruiseport and turn left. We came to a road crossing and there was a bus stop there. Remember that they drive on the left side. There are busses that serve as taxis and look pretty much the same; open air bus with benches. I think they are marked as taxis. We just asked if this is the safari bus to make sure we got a correct one. The guy in the info booth in cruiseport may give you better directions, although he wants you to take one of the busses stationed there. I am not sure how much those are.

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Last time (I think it was last year) when we were at St. Thomas we walked to a bus stop and caught open air bus for $1pp. It took us to the downtown market. Then we took another one to the last stop (University as far as I remember). From there it was 5 min walk to Brewers Bay. Beautiful beach, quite deserted. We met only one local couple there. We had an entire beach to ourselves. After few hours there we walked back to the bus stop and caught return bus to the ship. It took maybe 30 minutes one way. We drove past airport, I remember that.

We will be back in December and we will probably try the same thing. It worked out great.

You could explore Old San Juan. You will probably dock right in the OSJ. Everything is within a walking distance. There are two beautiful forts worth seeing; San Christobal and El Morro. Of the two El Morro is more interesting. The cathedral is wort seeing. You can walk along the city walls, visit Pigeon Park and walk to the city gate. Everywhere you walk in Old San Juan is very pretty. And the area is fairly small and easy to explore. You can also take a free trolley that goes around Old SJ. There is a stop not far from the terminal.

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We stayed twice at the Casablanca hotel maybe 5 minutes walk from the cruiseport. They also stored our luggage when we arrived early. Great decor, free continental breakfast in the morning. Just avoid rooms facing the street. Every weekend there is a street party going until wee hours. One of the best rooms we had was Ghandi room. Spacious and quiet.

There is a very good restaurant next door. If memory serves me right is called Puerto Rican Kitchen or something like that. Very good and inexpensive food. There is small supermarket few streets down where you can buy wine, beer, soda and snacks. I really liked Casablanca.

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So I am reading this thread and my anxiety level is through the roof.

My hubby and I booked Princess cruise to Panama Canal. To make long story short, we are flying in the same day and arriving to FLL about 1.5 hours before sailing. We arranged trip through Princess EZAir and have also transfer to ship with Princess. But the timing sucks.

If our flight is delayed, then we would miss sailing. The next stop would be in Aruba. We both have valid passports, so this is not an issue.

But may we be prevented from joining the ship in Aruba????

We are flying from Boston in the middle of March. It should be ok, but you never know in NE. We booked our trip through Princess Easy Air. Our flight arrives 2:20 pm and ship sails 4 pm. We arranged Princess transfer and I am hoping that everything works out. The air fare is restricted so no chance of rebooking for earlier flight. We are usually travelling with carry on baggage only and I am tempted to cancel Princess transfer and get a cab to terminal without waiting for other passengers. I am already nervous about this.

That's how it worked for us on the last cruise. We had a bottle held. It was delivered on the afternoon of the last day. Early enough in the day that we did not need to carry it off the next morning if you get my meaning ... ;)

I got once a bottle of raisin wine in Grenada. It was confiscated and held until last day. I got it back late and I forgot to put it in my checked in bag. It was confiscated second time at the airport in San Juan. I never even tasted it :mad:

I still wonder if it was any good.