geauxgirlgeaux

If you had it to do over again would you pay that high a price when you can save so much more on a shuttle service?

Yes - It was easy and we didn't have to make advance reservations. We booked our cruise a little less than a month out and Uber and cruise ship shuttle made less stress when planning for an almost last minute vacation.

The dolphin swim is a lot of fun! They will love it!

We didn't buy any pictures - ours were terrible so the choice was easy!

We did the Mystery Dinner a few years ago and had a blast! The story was a little cheesy but we had a great time! Just be careful as the glasses get filled before they are empty - maybe that was part of the fun??

We have had to use trip insurance three times to cancel trips. I buy medical and cancellation insurance through insure my trip if it is an entire vacation, or through the airlines if just a flight. We also buy medjet coverage for medical evacuation annually. Our US health insurance will reimburse emergency care and we do take an extra credit card for this purpose. It is good to be prepared!

I always take a small coffee thermo for a larger cup of coffee as well as a tervis for a larger glass of tea - not problem!

Hello! Cruised out of Galveston on March 18 on RCCL. We arrived in Houston Hobby on the 17th and took an Uber to Galveston. We had 4 adults with 4 suitcases and a backpack each. Cost was 109 one way. Easy ride. I booked transfers from the ship for the way back to Hobby at 37pp. We were off the Liberty and on the bus by 9:30 and at the gate for our flight by 10:30 for our 12:30 flight.

Yes use Tours Plaza! We had a great day with Darwin! Nice, large, comfortable van, great suggestions on things to do and places to go. I booked the tour on line the day before we left Galveston on our cruise for the tour to take place 3 days later. Eduardo was very quick to send confirmation, and even sent it by text as I requested since I did not have email available to me on the ship. Darwin was easy to find after we exited the port area. Our day with Darwin was great! We enjoyed the shopping, going to the chocolate factory, lunch at Coconuts, as well as time at Playa San Martin. We saw almost no traffic, and no crowds - Darwin knew which way to go to avoid the traffic congestion. The "other" side of the island is so pretty and we enjoyed being there! When Darwin found out that our son had taken several years of college level Spanish, he actively engaged him in conversation in Spanish which our son was so excited about. We had a great day with Darwin - the time went by way too fast!

I definitely recommend Tours Plaza. We went on a day trip with Darwin on March 20. We only had 4 in our party but he had a very nice new van that would seat a very large party comfortably. We had a great day with him! He had great suggestions and worked in what we were interested in doing. He was attentive, a safe driver, and knew how to avoid the traffic so we could enjoy more of our time doing what we wanted to do. We went to Los Cinco Soles so I could pick up some Talavera Pottery. The one away from the down town area has a larger selection. We went to the Chocolate Factory, then to Coconuts on the other side for a wonderful lunch, then to San Martin beach for some beach time. The surf was super rough so we didn't swim, but so beautiful! Saw a lot and enjoyed our day away from the crowds! Would definitely use Tours Plaza again. Darwin was great! He also spent a lot of time speaking Spanish to our college age son. Great day!

We too have been to Cozumel several times and on our last trip to Cozumel ( March 20) we hired Tours Plaza - Darwin was our driver - and had a fun day! We went by Los Cincos Soles so I could pick up some Talavera pottery, then onto the Chocolate Factory for a tasting tour, then over to the other side of the island for lunch at Coconuts, then some beach time at San Martin. We had a great day! No crowds, no traffic, great food, relaxing, and a wonderful tour guide and driver!

I would strongly encourage buying the pre-existing medical coverage and be sure that this also applies to family members that are not traveling. My mom had a stroke last November and when we planned for our spring break trip we wanted to be sure that if she had an issue causing us to cancel our trip that we would have coverage for the cancellation. Turned out she is doing great but one of our adult kids suddenly came down with pneumonia, literally just a few days before our departure, and had to be hospitalized. This adult child also has asthma so even though the pneumonia wasn't related to the controlled asthma, if we didn't have the pre-existing waiver there may have been some questions. The lookback period can be 180 days on some policies so in my experience it is definitely worth it to purchase a policy with a pre-existing waiver. You may think - Oh we will not be canceling our trip, we are going anyway.... but you don't know what could come up with other family members that may not even be traveling with you.

A family cruise with several cabins booked is quite an investment and it was nice to get those reimbursement checks.

In addition, each state may have some differing restrictions on reimbursement. It would be wise to look at those as well!

Our family had Nationwide Essential. My adult child who lives in a neighboring state, and her traveling companion who lives in a different state, had their own policies. All were third party policies and bought on line. The traveling companion had AIG.

In addition, last fall I had purchased airline ticket insurance from Allianz (offered at the end of the ticket purchase page) and both claims were paid out in the full amount no problem. Paperwork was minimal.

I am still debating on the one with Orient and the one without. We will have 2 teens with us - topless is fine, full on nudity not so much. I just want to make sure we will have time to enjoy Maho. I tried booking on his site but didn't pay the deposit part, just asked questions on the form page. Haven't heart anything. Do I need to pay the deposit to get a response?

I felt the same way when I went with my 3 teenagers - 2 of which were 15 and 17 at the time. At Orient the nude beach is marked with signs.... you have to intentionally go past the sign to be on the nude beach part which we did not do. There were a few older women sunning without tops - much older women - but nothing else to be concerned about on our visit to Orient. Orient beach is a nice beach with a lot of facilities and is definitely worth a visit. Maho is really fun too and I was skeptical.

We bought from IMT and went with Nationwide Essential for our family. We had to file a claim for the whole family/whole trip as a family member who would have been traveling with us became ill and was admitted to a hospital a few days prior to travel. We used the trip cancellation feature. Our plan was comprehensive and had other coverage which we did not use. They paid as promised with no hassle. Took about 3 weeks to receive our reimbursement after all the paperwork was submitted.

Our cruise was to be from Galveston to the Caribbean.

Our coverage did not have cancel for any reason.

Read your policy carefully prior to purchase.

Our policy allowed cancellation up to the point of departure and we did have the pre-existing medical condition waiver.

As promised - I wanted to post that Nationwide paid our cruise claim.

Our family had to cancel a cruise back in March at the last minute for an unexpected illness requiring our DD to be hospitalized. Once I mailed the required paperwork we received reimbursement as promised. Paid for everything in full. The only snafu was due to state regulations. We bought our airline tickets with partial Southwest credit. Those of us who live in Missouri were reimbursed in full for the airline tickets - both the amount bought with airline credit as well as the remainder that had been charged on our credit card. The one Arkansas resident due to state regulations did not receive reimbursement for the Southwest airline credit - but did receive reimbursement for the airfare portion purchased with the credit card.

The plan was Nationwide Essential. Coverage was comprehensive, but not cancel for any reason. We had the pre-existing waiver which may or may not have made a difference.

We were pleased as we were fully reimbursed for our travel expenses except the portion of the airline ticket that was purchased with airline credit.

Reimbursement was received in about 3 weeks from sending the paperwork.

It was a little work gathering all the information but was definitely worth it to not have lost the money we had invested in our trip.

I purchased from an online broker insuremytripdotcom.

Hope this info helps someone else.

I just bought travel insurance through Nationwide and went through the policy closely. It says, at least on my policy "You cancel Your Trip two (2) days or more before Your Scheduled Departure Date."

 

It was one of the few insurance companies that lets you buy Cancel Anytime insurance after the 14 days of your initial deposit. They also have a feature that pays you $1,250 per person if the cruise cancels a port of call before the cruise.

I double checked my policy and it does state :

"A Physician must advise cancellation of the Trip on or before the Scheduled Departure Date". I know all are different.

We bought Nationwide from Insuremytrip prior to our last scheduled cruise which had to be cancelled the day before departure due to a sudden illness. I am in the process of filling out and submitting paperwork so I will let ya'll know how they handle the process. We did have pre-existing waiver although this illness shouldn't count as such. I will say the paperwork is pretty straightforward and less intensive than AIG which a traveling companion has.

stayed on the ship once - it was lovely to have spce and peace in the pools.

 

That being said Belize was amazing - probably the best trip we have ever done cruise or land. We took the river speed boat up to the mayan ruins - On the boat - sea part follwed dolphins- river part saw - monkeys, crocs, iguanas, bats, unusual birds (guide was fab stopped the boat and took us real close to all of the animals). As well as seeing/ hearing how the locals lived. We stopped 1/2 way for drinks/ food (but we didn't eat) then on the Mayan ruins - a small site not awe inspiring if you have done many others (we have toured most of the Yucatan) but good to see. Then bus back to port. It was a great day

Did this as well. It was fun - bring a hat and water. Our whole family enjoyed it.

We went on the all access tour on the FOS last March. It lasted about 3 hours and there was lots of walking and standing, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it very informative. I highly recommend it. Each area was so interesting especially the laundry, the galleys, and the bridge.

I love my Vera Bradley lanyard - use it on every cruise!

We sailed out of Galveston last September. We used Carnival's transfers to get from the port to the airport. We stayed at Drury Inn Hobby airport and they will pick up at the airport, and we used Ladybird Limo for transfers to the port. Great service!

Hello! Am thinking of taking Lady Bird from Hobby to Galveston port round trip and haven't found any recent reviews. Your thoughts?

No question! I have been on both the Navigator and the Freedom... enjoyed both very much. I would pick the 9 night Navigator on the Southern route without question. Have fun whichever you choose!

We did the mystery dinner on the Jewel and had a blast. The acting was cheesy but it was so much fun! Even our teenage kids loved it! Be careful though - for us the wine was really free flowing! Do it!

Our experience with the taxi service was not great. We went to dispatch. Got a taxi drive "Zephy" who seemed super nice, helpful and was to be with us for the day. The day started out great but he actually left us at the beach! Calling taxi dispatch was of no assistance. A taxi driver with the non-orange shirt happened to have room in his taxi van and got us back to the cruise port. Not a great experience so I say be aware.

It is provider dependent. Last cruise, I used our international plan to text. While away from US, I was charged .50 for each outgoing text, and all incoming texts were free as they were charged at the domestic rate. My DD was also on a separate cruise, when she texted me using our international plan, for her the rate was .50 outgoing but I received it at no charge whether I was in St. Thomas or St. Martin - didn't matter.

I had my cell data off and received and sent them only as a text or sms message. We texted some everyday and had a 10 minute phone call and my additional charges for ATT were less than they would have been on the ship Cellular at Sea. We used wifi in port but really didn't need it. For ATT, USVI and Puerto Rico are considered domestic.

My son is now 18 and we have travelled and cruised many times with his peanut/tree nut/cottonseed oil allergy. I will say that Royal Caribbean did a great job with his allergies. We always meet with the head waiter and even a few chefs who were very attentive. When he was younger we stayed in the MDR, but the last few cruises he ventured out to the buffet on his own but avoided the asian areas and spoke with the line chefs to be sure what was safe. I will say that we seldom see nuts on the food lines anymore. The worst experience we had was on Southwest when after boarding early with him and wiping everything down - seat tray, armrest, etc. I stuck my had in the seat back and pulled out a handful of loose peanuts. The flight attendant graciously let us change seats. Now we never put anything in the seat back where the magazines are! We always take store bought snacks with us especially when on excursions, and lots of hand wipes. And epi pens and benadryl.

I forgot to ask, are there restroom on the ferry?

there is a restroom but the ride isn't very long so you won't probably need it. Sit up top on the ferry - nice breeze and the scenery is so pretty. Additionally, I have done this trip several times and it is worth it. Although it is easy enough to get to St. John on your own this price is really reasonable and there is no hassle or stress getting there or back. Be sure to save a little time to walk around Cruz Bay. There is a little convenience store across the street from the ferry dock that has cheap beer and soft drinks, and there is a great smoothie shop one street back that has fresh fruit smoothies with or without rum, and they are great! Have fun!