rachelandgromit

4 hours ago, Outta My Work Clothes said:

Rachel, we received this from A+ late last week. A+ Tours sent you a message:

Thank you for booking with us.  Please find the A+ Tours sign at the main entrance/exit area for a 9am pickup. There is another couple who will be join us from another cruise ship.  Also, please be reminded that entrance fees are not included.

We had a reply, looks like we will try be together as he said there are two other couples. Viator messed up our booking which caused the hiccups in communication.

4 minutes ago, Outta My Work Clothes said:

We are already booked on Viator... also w/ A plus, we have a phone # to contact.

The tickets say to contact the company in advance and we have tried on email and their website and no joy. Have you had any luck making contact?

5 minutes ago, Outta My Work Clothes said:

We are coming in on the Dawn on the 19 th also and planning on heading over to Pigeon Island via Viator.

We have booked on Viator but have tried now for 4 days to contact the company on the Viator tickets called A plus and had no response..... we have tried their website, email and Facebook with no success. If you fancy sharing a taxi let me know!

After contacting a local operator about some tours, I'd certainly check with Tui where the ship docks. My itinerary said Kingstown St Vincent but apparently since the start of the season it has Bequia. This has an impact if you're sorting tours out as you will need to get the ferry over to Kingstown at $45 return plus make sure you have allowed time to get there and back. We only found this our as we were interested in hiking La Soufrière and a local operator told us and even sent us pics of Marella in port.

I've contacted Tui to check this out.

I'll be there on 19th March and am looking to visit Pigeon.

We are looking at the Captain Alan's day trip to Anguilla from St Martin. Its a maximum of 10 people and we are two interested. If anyone wants to join us - two active mid thirties travellers then drop Captain Alan a message and hopefully we can get to visit Anguilla.

Serenity Tours unfortunately quoted huge amounts cladding it as a private tour.

We are writing it off in favour of Liamiuga  in St Kitts and the tour company you mentioned is the one I'm going to book with (it's my birthday as well so it's a nice thing to do when you love hiking).

We are also planning to hike La Soufrière in Guadalupe, again reasonably priced and looks pretty amazing too.

Just can't justify the expense in St Lucia because it's one of the pitons when the hiking in St Kitts and Guadalupe looks equally as amazing.

We've gone for the 656 cabin, other half didn't want to have l shaped bed configuration 'not very romantic' 😁

On the plus we are that close to the laundry we can do all our washing which is good as we have lots of potentially muddy hikes planned.

We've been in touch with Spencer Ambrose and he doesn't offer this trip any more.

Infact, we are struggling to work out any DIY option of doing this trip. We know we'd have to pay $50pp for a guide but to get the transportation there and back seems to be expensive and I'm leaning towards Mount Liamuga in St Kitts instead which has far cheaper costs.

Unfortunately I'm very had no interest on the roll call I opened but would anyone be interested in joining us two on a trip to Anguilla on Captain Alan's boat. We need 10 people so I'm hoping that someone will join.

Thanks, I wonder whether to take pot luck with an L shaped cabin.

We are on an outside Deck 1/2 and to guarantee 1 bed as oppose to the L shaped were thinking of paying the fee to choose our cabin. Even though we have requested one bed whether we get this is another matter.

The cabins available though with a fixed bed are only Deck 2 656, 658, 707 and 709. All are close to the lift and 656 and 658 are also opposite the laundry.

None of these seem particularly favourable unless anyone can give their advice so I'm wondering whether we just take our chances instead rather than pay a fee to pick.

Thanks I'll start to look into things to do, ideally we'd like to avoid the cruise excursions and find places less busy, if at all possible!

On 1/4/2019 at 1:56 PM, dronnygirl said:

When you book you need to be happy with the  price you paid and then stop looking. If your cruise was high demand then the price would go up.  We booked 1 month before our cruise in October and got a bargain and a good cabin, however we were lucky as could have been allocated a cabin anywhere.

We've booked just over a month before and were under £1200 for an inside two week Caribbean from Birmingham on Celebration. There seems to still be availability so this may drop again but it seems like the 1-2 months before is a good time to book then.

Hi, thanks! Here is a list of our stops.

@newbiewaves thank you so much, that's amazingly helpful.

We are flying from Birmingham on a late deal I guess you'd say. Deck 1/2 outside but haven't selected cabin so no idea what we will get!

Ours is a B2B but not AI. We haven't booked any excursions yet so any advice would be helpful. We are happy to DIY it or book independent excursions too.

Thanks again

13 minutes ago, dronnygirl said:

Cruise prices vary as do all holiday prices depending on demand. If the cruises in question are March, then final payments will have been made and the price may be reduced to sell off cabins.  Swings and roundabouts, it can be a good idea to wait for a late deal but on the other hand you may not get your choice.

Thanks, I'd read somewhere about sub £1k Caribbean cruises (not transatlantic) but with the favourable Marella itineraries with only two sea days out of a two week cruise I wondered if these were just low prices generally or the going rate. I never thought about the final payments - perhaps that is why they seem quite cheap.

Just curious - I notice there are a few around Feb March this year between £1179 and £1300 for a back to back cruise (cheapest insides) with flights from London and Birmingham (and Manchester a little more). Although not AI is this the going rate for the cruise generally?

13 minutes ago, Tizzy-Jo said:

There are kettles with tea and coffee in the cabins. If you prefer a particular tea or coffee, take some with you. I always take sachets of cappuccino.

Thanks for confirming. I'll take some herbal teas though I guess you can take some from breakfast/buffet back to the room too?

Thanks that's wonderful.

Great to have free laundry onboard, saves luggage space. 

Do you know if you can bring a travel kettle? Hopefully someone will be able to confirm if anything has changed re kettle situation?

Will grab duty free on way out perhaps and take on board but for the odd glass of wine maybe worth paying for then.

Charging extra for a yoga class! Maybe I'll just do my own.

Thanks very much for your help.

Lots of questions for our group, Barbados back to back cruise:

1. Is there a kettle in the room? If so do you get tea and coffee in the cabin or are we best to bring our own herbal teas?

2. Booked one cabin decks 3/4 inside and one cabin decks 1/2 outside. Generally is one likely to be better than the other in terms of vibration, sickness, location etc? I need to decide whether I want the view or comfort? If you have a guaranteed I guess it's luck if you end up with a double beds or the L shaped ones......? 

3. I read there was a washing machine. Is there powder too and dryers? Are these free?

4. WiFi - how much is it and anyone here experienced how good it is around the Caribbean?

5. Is there a good gym? Facilities etc in gym? Is there classes such as yoga onboard?

6. If we were to take water bottles, particularly for when going off the ship is there anywhere to fill up these (and is it time limited,  e.g. only at certain times such as dining times). Is there a fridge in the room? 

7. What would you say is general drink prices? Also, are there some instances where drinks are free, such as Captains?

8. We are not big drinkers but is it possible to take a nice bottle of wine etc on board if we bought it on the flight out, duty free for example and put it in our case or is this not allowed?

9. Toiletries like shower gel - is this branded or just basic stuff. I think I read it was Clarins but then someone else said not. Just so I know whether to pack my own.

10. Does anyone have a list of the spa/treatment prices?

11. Is there a library? Just want to avoid taking lots of books.

Thanks

Thanks, yes, I've been checking on HA each day to keep an eye on availability.

Hi

We know we definitely want this cruise, on this day, no preference on cabin. As much as we'd like a balcony, the price is almost TRIPLE per person for what the cheapest inside is.

So, just how late should we leave it to book. It goes on 7th May, can I expect to see any significant price drop since then. I've been watching prices daily for the past 2-3 weeks since booking our flights to Canada and nothing much has happened price wise.