sissyfromcab

On 5/7/2019 at 11:49 PM, skidawg79 said:

She can correct me but  there is a tour called Mad Max Dune Buggies.   I actually booked them on my cruise in 2 1/2 weeks!   I'll be happy to report back what i think!

We did Mad Max and had a great time! I'd recommend it!

How was the weather? We have booked the Spirit for Christmas 2019 and want an idea of what we will need to pack.

We love it! We’re teachers, so Christmas and summer are our only real options. We prefer Caribbean temperatures in December, so we’re currently booked on our 6th Christmas cruise in 6 years. We’ve been on a different cruise line for each and Carnival was probably our least favorite, because they did the least extra stuff for the holiday.

If you search around, you can find some good deals. We’re currently booked on MEC Divina for about $100 pp per day in a balcony with a basic drink package. Another year, we paid a little bit more for RCL. The best deal we saw was last minute prices on NCL of $600 pp for an 11 night Christmas and New Years sailing in an inside.

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We have booked 8226 on the Divina. It looks like the wall on the forward is metal. Is this true? Can you tell me anything else about it?

We were in 9215, so I think this is an improvement. :)

Please help with some advice.

 

 

 

Just booked Island Princess for Dec 20.

 

 

 

2. For the day that we are in the canal (Christmas Day), it says Scenic Cruising 6a - 330p then Colon Panama from 5 - 8 p.m.

 

 

 

Do I understand it correctly that you can stay on the ship as you go through the canal and then just get off in Colon for the shops? I wonder if they will be open on Christmas Day? Or you get off at a lake to go on an excursion then get back on the ship in Colon?

 

We are booked on the same cruise. We’ve cruised for Christmas the last five years and the port shops being open on Christmas is hit or miss. I think we’re the only ship in port and for such a short time, I wouldn’t count on them being open, but we could be surprised!

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I had always thought the Indy & Freedom uses terminal 29 but someone from our roll call found in the Port Everglades web site few days before sailing that we were using the bigger terminal 18 reserved for the Oasis class ships. Woo hoo. I like terminal 18 more compared to 29 as it’s bigger and has nicer seating area. But I knew when we came back, it would be at terminal 29 as we came back on a Saturday and terminal 18 reverts back to the Oasis class ship.

 

I never did find out what happened to passengers that parked their cars at terminal 18 to embark the ship, how do they get back their when they stepped off the ship the following week at 29? I assume there would be a bus shuttle to move people over?

 

It is always exciting to see “your ship” in person the first time. After unloading the van, we gave the luggage to the porters (make sure to tip them).

 

We were on this cruise with you and parked at the port. The parking garage we used was in between the two terminals, so there was a (free) shuttle bus provided by the port. It was a less than 5 minute drive, but I wouldn't have wanted to walk it!

We're booked for our fifth straight Christmas cruise this year. We both work in education, so are limited to sailing over the summer or Christmas and prefer the weather in the Caribbean in December.

We enjoy sailing on the actual holiday, because we get away from the stress of going back home to visit all of our families.

There are lots of kids, but it's never been an issue for us. We saw more kids out causing problems on the few summer cruises than we've seen on our Christmas cruises.

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We did the Antigua Rainforest Canopy Tour independently, but were told that the tours from the ship came there later in the day. We booked through Viator, which included transportation for only about $10 more per person than just booking the zip line directly. When we contacted them directly they said a taxi would be about $40 each way.

We did both the full zip line tour and obstacle course. It was fun, but the obstacles were definitely a workout!

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We were in M416 over Christmas and noise from the bar was not a problem. We did hear people (probably kids) running on the lido deck and moving deck chairs from time to time, but it wasn't enough to bother us.

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We had M416, which is under the sea view bar. I could take pictures without the overhang, but it was challenging. I had to either zoom in quite a bit or angle my camera down. I don't have any pictures readily available to share, but there are some on the cruise deck plans site.

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Definitely not. We have been in port in St. Thomas twice and Bonaire once on Christmas Day. The first time in St Thomas, there were six ships, including 4 large ships, and it was a normal port day. The other time we were the only ship and it was pretty quiet. All three I made sure to have something booked in advance though, since I wasn't sure what would be available when we got there.

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A few years back we went with Antigua Paddles and had a great time (http://www.antiguapaddles.com/). A relaxing kayak trip through the mangroves and then some beach/snorkeling time. Excellent hosts and guide.

We will be in Antigua for the first time on our next cruise and this looks like a good option for us. Do you remember how much it was?

Booked an Aqua GTY, for 12/18/15, received our cabin assignment, made a change within category yesterday without any issues.

We did the same thing for the same cruise. Our cabin was assigned the day we changed and we were able to change to another cabin.

Did you happen to see if Santa handed out gifts to children? Just curious as I have read that he does, but I wonder what kind of gifts.

I'm not sure. My husband saw that he was in the dining rom greeting kids, but didn't go in to investigate, since we don't have kids.

Glad you enjoyed it! Sorry I never got to finish - working full time plus grad school full time doesn't leave a lot of free time. If you have any questions, let me know!

We took this tour last year on Christmas Day and it was lots of fun. I recommend booking it with transportation though, since none of the taxi drivers seemed to know where to go and we almost missed the tour!

When we got to Christmas cover, we anchored the boats and tied them all together. Those who wanted to snorkel climbed in the water and those that didn't stayed on the boats and relaxed. The shore is pretty rocky, so I don't think they can take the boats on shore and it probably wouldn't be very comfortable for you either!

The "beach"

Some of the other boats

The snorkeling - it was better than it looks in the pictures. We saw an octopus, many sea urchin, and quite a few fish.

On our way back

We were in St. Thomas last year on Christmas Day and did the mini-boat and snorkel tour and it was lots of fun. I don't know if they have an age limit to drive the boats, because we don't have kids.

Here is their site: http://www.viwatersports.com/

They have several other options as well. You can book them through the ship and it will include transportation.

I'm sailing on the Conquest in November and love your pics. We have a differnet itinerary (West Carribean). Thank you for the review!!

 

If you don't mind- which hotel did you stay at Miami that had the park and cruise package?

We stayed at a Hampton Inn near the Miami Airport. We booked as a park and cruise through stay123.

We had to get our nightly picture.

The reason I only got sherbet and not a warm chocolate melting cake was that I wanted to get one of the giant sliced of chocolate cake from the coffee shop. I have drooled over them on every cruise and never gotten one, so I was determined that tonight would be the night I would finally do it! It was SOOOO rich! I ate some right away and kept eating bites for the next day and a half, but still was only able to eat about half of the piece!

Tonight's towel monkey and Fun Times.

As we were getting ready for bed, Travis decided that two of our previous towel animals were having a staring contest across the room.

After the Hasbro show, we headed to dinner.

For appetizers, I had the soup and Travis had the shrimp. The soup was tasty, but filling, so I didn't eat a lot of it. The shrimp actually had the good batter on them this night, so they were pretty tasty.

For entrees, I tried the seafood Newberg and Travis had another steak. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect with mine, but ended up not being a huge fan of the sauce. I wanted to swap and get the turkey farfalle, but it ended up taking forever, so I didn't end up eating much of that either.

For dessert, Travis had another melting cake, but I decided to just get orange sherbet tonight.

The rest of the Hasbro show.

This kid told the audience that he'd just had his first beer on Grand Turk that day. :)

I enjoyed both of the shows, but only having one per night made the timing awkward. It didn't start quite late enough to be after early dinner and we had to rush as soon as they finished to make it to late dinner. On other ships, I've seen that they do it in the afternoon and that seems like a better option, so people don't have to rush their dinner to see it. I also wish it didn't replace the main show. (Not that the playlist productions were worth seeing, but that's another point altogether.)

As we left Grand Turk we got to see the last bit of sunset, so I took some pictures.

I thought this one was kind of neat with the door framing the view.

Before dinner, we went to see the second Hasbro show.

Between the two games, they showed some old Hasbro commercials.

We debated about what to do for lunch. Since the ship was right there, we decided to just get back on the ship, since lunch would be free there! Before getting back on the ship, I had to get a picture of the weather forecast sign.

Once we got back on the ship, we changed out of our wet swimsuits and got some lunch. After we ate, we got back off the ship and went shopping in the port area. We each found a t-shirt and a Grand Turk magnet. We also found a nice magnet with all of the islands of the Caribbean labeled. After that we got back on the ship before the big rush.

We got to see a nice sunset over the island.

About the time of all aboard, we were watching the last stragglers getting on the ship and the preparations for the ship to leave and I noticed a large sea turtle right by the dock! He swam around for a few minutes and then dove back to the depths.

Right before we sailed away, we got to see the island all lit up. There was a bar down the beach from the port and we joked that all the guides were down there spending their tips from the day!

Back in the port area, we spent a little time on the beach and playing in the water.

The pirate ship bar in the port area.

The sand was so white and the water so clear - it was the perfect Caribbean beach that you picture. I can see why people love Grand Turk.

More toes in sand and water.

I was trying to be artistic and get a picture of footprints in the sand, but the waves kept washing them away before I could get a good picture.

We watched three girls ride these horses into the water. It looked like they were having a lot of fun!

A few more with all the fish.

And finally one of me with a fish!

After a while snorkeling at the second spot, we got back into the boat and headed back to the port area. We spotted this shipwreck on the beach. It reminded us both of the shipwreck in Roatan.

We also got to see the Conquest from behind.

Our tour was only about an hour and a half, but we both agreed that it was the best snorkeling we'd done on the whole trip. The water was crystal clear, even though the guides thought it was stirred up and cloudy, and they made sure we got to see lots of fish. It was amazing and kind of scary to be able to look down 200 feet into the water and see the sea floor just drop off into darkness. It was also awesome to have such a small group, so we didn't have to worry about 50 other people swimming around.