3DobermansDZS

My mom left a souvenir shopping bag with a bunch of ornaments/t-shirts on the bed on our family Monarch cruise in the hustle of trying to get my grandparents ready to disembark. When we went to get of the ship security put her card through to disembark and told her to go to GS before they'd let her off the ship.

The room steward had found it and ran it there so it wouldn't get left behind. I guess it all depends on the steward. We were all thankful he was kind enough to take the time to do that even though we all know how crazy turn-around day is.

I hope your bag shows up and you'll get your items returned!

DH and I are looking to make this cruise our big trip for next year. I hope someone returning from this years will offer some experiences!

My next door neighbor was stationed via the Air Force in Iceland before moving back to the states. Her stories have made me want to go and throwing in Dorset for Stonehenge/Salisbury and day in Paris- sounds like the perfect trip.

So far airfare is pretty steep though.

Sure hope there are some good sales on black Friday for the Navigator. I would love to getaway Feb or March if the price is right. The way I feel today I'll probably go if the price ain't right! LOL! :D

I feel ya! I'm at the point that I don't care how much it costs just get me on a ship

Hi 3Dobermans,

 

Had a great time on the Jewel in October (we got robbed in the Quest). Still haven't found any OSU ribbon.

 

I'll be on the Navigator in April 2014 and I found a good deal for transfers. La Quinta at the Houston Hobby has a stay and cruise package. For $180 you get the room and they will take you to and from the Galveston port (up to 4 people). When you figure the room itself is $100, $80 is the cheapest round trip transfer in the area.

 

If you are looking to blow your bonus again next year, we'll be on the Jan. 3rd 2015 sailing on Independence.

Rewind! You need to move your Navigator cruise and come with us!! We would completely dominate Quest this time. Thanks for the tip- I'll look into that. Sounds like the best option so far.

Our big 2014 cruise is going to be the Brilliance TA in August (hopefully!). So I'm saving up my precious vacation time!

Me and my group of 28 are boarding her Sunday as well. It's everything I can do to keep my rump in my chair at my desk at work right now. The case of vacationitis has kicked in hardcore. We'll be the group on day 1 in the blue Boxer Rescuers Unleashed shirts. :D:D:D

Please report back if you do not mind!!

Like I said I don't know how true it is. The rep told me no but I have read where other people have done it and I have read where they were told no. I honestly don't know and you can't always believe the rc reps because they all give different answers

 

 

Jamie

I'll try calling tomorrow and seeing what answer I get. We're only a 9 hour drive from FLL but I can't stand being in the car so we fly. The longest car ride I can stand is to Canaveral/Tampa which is 5-6.

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I'd like to know more about meeting the ship transfer at the airport. I've asked about this in the past and have never been able to get the details. In fact, several years ago, I was told this wasn't an option unless air was booked through the cruise line. Our children will fly into Houston from Dulles. Right now they are looking at Houstonyellowcab.com which runs $107 out of Hobby and $179 from Bush Int.

Do you know how much the ship transfers into Galveston run?

I have no idea and hope someone can weigh in on this.

This is the BIG difference between FLL and Galveston, getting to the ship and probably $200 round trip. If you stay in Houston, get the hotel to take you back to the airport to meet the ship's transfer to the ship. It will be colder in/out of Galveston and you run the chance of fog. Loved the NOS when we were on here in the Med. We did this itinerary in March 2011 and loved it so much we are doing it again on NOS next year. :)

I've noticed planning this it seems to be a bit more complicated logistics-wise.Trying to do this last minute might not be the best decision! We've only cruised out of the Florida ports and San Juan which are an easy flight of short drive for us. That is a good idea to stay in Houston and just meet the ship transfer at the airport. Thank you!!

We did the NYE cruise out of Galveston last year and had a great time. One note, it gets a large local crowd so some of the entertainment is switched up. IN other words if you hate country music you might feel overexposed. Not a biggies for us but a few people were surprised. Only complaint was they did not do a NYE deck party which we had a few years ago out of FLL. Weather gets a little cooler on return trip to G.

Thank you! What were the logistics of your travel plans (if you don't mind)? We're thinking about flying into HOU instead of IAH the day before and staying overnight in Galveston. I'm guessing its either a shuttle or rental car from Houston to Galveston?

VERY happy to hear that! We'll be boarding her next sunday!!! We were on the Mariner last december. :D

Please report back!!

Oops. Thanks!

I don't keep up with where ships are/when. Hopefully someone will do a review when they get back!

The DH and I are thinking about doing the responsible thing and blowing my year-end bonus on a NYE cruise :D. Strangely enough its cheaper for us to fly from Atlanta to Houston than to FLL.

The Navigator would be a new class of ship for us and a different itinerary. Anyone recently take this cruise and have some experiences to share??

Thank you!

Excited for this! I am looking at a TA next year but the more northern route. I've never done one before so thanks in advance for the review!

Oops- I'm sorry I forgot to mention that.

They were the 2nd and 4th nights.

Overall we had an excellent trip. The service was outstanding as usual. I did notice a slight difference in the atmosphere of the ship sailing out of San Juan compared to when we sailed out of Tampa on her last year.

They did make important announcements and some of the intros for shows and the Quest in both English and Spanish. It wasn't a huge deal but did seem to drag out those messages for a very long time.

We are undecided for what's up next. Possibly a last minute on the Brilliance out of Tampa in December and then I'm ready to head to Europe next summer for one big trip of the year instead of a couple smaller cruises. I've been wanting to do the Norway/Iceland trip for a while now and hope we can do it soon!

Thanks for tuning in. I do have all the cruise compasses if anyone needs anything specific.

We spent our last sea day getting packed and playing cards with the in-laws. It was so nice to have an easy day!

One thing that I really liked is that for Walk for Wishes the Captain and other heads came up to the pool deck and signed the t-shirts. They all signed their names and drew pictures. The Chief Engineer could be an animator for Disney his drawings were so great.

I've only been on the Monarch, Jewel and Oasis but this is the first time I've ever seen this being done. It was neat to get a "custom" shirt instead of yet another plain Walk for Wishes shirt. It's a great cause and there seemed to be a really great turn out.

Soon it was time to put our luggage out and get ready for disembarkation.

We spent one more night in San Juan at the Embassy Suites again and headed out Sunday morning for our flight back to ATL.

Day 6 we were in Curacao. We didn't really have any plans other than to walk around town. By this point I was too sunburned to be able to stand another beach even though I wanted to!

We walked through the tourist trap around the ship and headed out towards the pontoon bridge. It was neat to see it being pulled across so people could use the bridge. The architecture was really pretty- somehow it remindS me of Rainbow Row in Charleston.

Quest was tonight at 1130. We teamed up with 2 fellow CC'ers from our Roll Call and got 3rd place!

I took a ton of pictures in Aruba- it was so beautiful!

Day 4 was a sea day. We were pretty much bums all day but did attend the M&M then participated in a Cabin Crawl. It was really neat to see all the cabins.

Day 5: Aruba

We spent our day in Aruba at the Renaissance. Aruba was absolutely beautiful. It appeared to be much cleaner than some of the Caribbean islands tend to be- I'd say just behind Bermuda.

It was about a 15 minute walk from the ship to the Renaissance Hotel and Casino but it turned out we had to go to the Ocean Suites hotel to check in so a golf-cart type taxi took us over.

After checking in we took the water taxi over to their island and spent the day on the adults-only beach. The beach was pretty rocky but still beautiful we rented floating mats and spent the day floating on the water.

I loved the flamingos that would roam the beach and walk right up to you and the iguanas, too!

Day 2 we were docked in St. Kitts. We had planned to do the Discover Scuba Diving through Dive St. Kitts. Scuba diving is something we've really wanted to do but just ran out of time to get certified before the trip so I thought this would be a great way to check it out.

I had the medical forms filled out by our primary care physician and emailed them back and the reservation was made. Once we got to the Dive Shop, the instructor wouldn't let my husband go out because he has/had asthma even though he's been basically symptom free for 5 years and a Dr. had signed off on it.

We were disappointed but I get it- we'll get certified next time and go then.

So instead we took a taxi to Carambola Beach Club and spent the day on the beach. It was really windy and there was quite a bit of sea-grass or something similar in the water but it was a really nice place. It was $15 for two loungers and an umbrella. The restaurant was closed but they had a bar available for drinks.

We headed back to the ship when it started looking like a storm was rolling in. The sunset that night was beautiful with storm clouds mixed in.

Today we had reserved the Champagne Catamaran Sail to St. John through the ship.

We met on the pier at 8:15 and were taken by an open-air taxi to the marina to catch the boat.

When we got to the marina and on the catamaran the Captain apologized for not being able to take us to St. John and told us he would still do his best to give us a good trip. Ummm...what??

We (again) learned the gov't shutdown included St. John. The Captain of the Champagne Cat told us he tried sailing by St. John the day before and was told by the Coast Guard that he couldn't even do that. (Didn't really makes sense to me- how can they not let you sail BY it??)

We were pretty disappointed mainly with Royal in that they didn't tell us in advance. I get they can't predict the gov't stuff (especially since they don't even know what's going on!) but the Captain told us that Royal knew in advance and had told the captain they already had let us know our trip would be changed-but this was the first that all 24 of us on the excursion had heard of it. I was looking forward to going to the beach which we didn't get to do. I wish Royal would have let us know and then let us switch to a different excursion.

We did have a good trip through. The Champagne Cat Crew was great and really did try to give us the best trip they could under the circumstances. They took us to Christmas Cove for some snorkeling. I jumped in the water for a bit but the current was pretty strong and I'm still recovering from shoulder surgery so I hopped back on the boat to rest my shoulder since we were planning on going diving in St. Kitts tomorrow.

The crew also took us to a place they kept calling "Happy Island" I'm not sure if that was the actual name or not. It didn't really have a beach and was more of a mangrove cove, but the weather was wonderful.

For those visiting St. Thomas soon- the Captain of the boat did get a phone call while we were heading back to the marina and was told they would be opening up St. John the following day so hopefully if you have plans to go there you should be ok.

After the catamaran trip we walked through the Havensight shopping area to get our Christmas ornament and the necessary souvenirs and headed back to the ship.

They are absolutely spoiled. We much prefer furry children to the human kind!

We originally had a E2 balcony and a residency rate pushed the JS to a price range we were comfortable splurging for. I'm glad we did even with the port-intensive cruise. The extra space is worth it!

We had breakfast at the hotel and around 10:30 we headed to the Pan Am Pier. I believe it was about $25 for the 4 of us and our luggage. We dropped our luggage off and waited about 15 minutes outside the terminal before they opened it up.

We were checked in and on the ship by 11:20!

Our room:

We had JS 1598. This is advertised as an "obstructed" JS. It is the last room on the starboard side. The obstruction was more of a gift than a curse. Our balcony was huge with an extra alcove and lounger. We could see the window washing equipment but it didn't ruin the view.

I loved the size of the JS with all the storage, walk-in closet and extra space in the bathroom. It's going to be hard to go back to a regular balcony room now!

Ignore the "curve" from the panoramic picture, but this shows the "obstruction":

We had MTD and I had made reservations for 6pm for today. Muster drill was at 8pm following dinner. We went to the Welcome Aboard show at 10:30 then headed to bed. The 10-14 hour work days we'd been pulling the few weeks before the cruise had caught up with us and we were exhausted. Plus, we had an early morning the next day in St. Thomas!

We were up at 5am (Anyone notice how much easier it is to get up at the crack of dawn for vacation than it is for work?!) to throw the final things in our suitcases and put the luggage in the car.

We said goodbye to our "children" and left them in the willing and caring hands of my mom. We are fortunate to have her to watch them for us instead of sending them to the kennel which stresses them out. Clearly they are spoiled- here they are in "their" room with Ikea toddler beds for their dog beds:

We left our house at 540 and headed to my inlaws to pick them up (we booked the trip together) we were on the road to ATL at 6am. We live exactly 100 miles from ATL and had a 10am flight, but as unpredictable as traffic can be we have to give ourselves plenty of time.

We pulled into Airport Park and Ride at 730 and were checked in, through security and enjoying breakfast in the Sky Club by 830.

And we're off!!!

We landed in SJU around 130p and took a taxi to the Embassy Suites. I believe the taxi was $12 plus $1 for each piece of luggage.

The hotel was nice and clean. They have a free happy hour from 5:30-7:30 where they have snacks and an open bar. There was also an Outback Steakhouse in the hotel which is where we had dinner. Side note: I'm an incredibly picky eater with no rhyme or reason to what I like its all pretty much based on texture so I prefer chains that I'm used to and know I'll find something I'll like.

This is also where we found out how much the gov't shutdown would impact our trip. We had plans to walk around Old San Juan and visit the forts but they were closed as was the rain forest. We still took a Taxi to OSJ (it was $25ish I believe) and walked around for a bit.

Jon and I started a tradition on our honeymoon to get a Christmas ornament everywhere we go together- we completed the mission in OSJ and headed back to the Embassy Suites.

It's cruise time tomorrow!!

The DH and I spent the last week onboard the beautiful Jewel of the Seas on the Aruba Southern Route out of San Juan.

There seemed to be a lack of information for this itinerary while I was planning things so I figured I'd write a short(ish) review of our trip in hopes that it'll help someone who is planning a similar trip.

I'm a habitual lurker and post little, but I'll see what I can do! I didn't take as many photos as I had planned but I'll add some in for some excitement :)

Here goes nothing!

Introduction:

That us. I'm Shelley, 26 and that's my DH Jon who is 27. We're from Warner Robins Ga- it's smack in the middle of the state (nowhere). Jon's a mechanical engineer and I'm a research chemist. We love to travel and cruise. This was my 12th cruise and Jon's 7th- his first cruise was our honeymoon 3 years ago and he's hooked too :D