put me on a ship

We were also on the Dec 9 sailing. San Juan is functional, still has a ways to go before normal. Outside of San Juan is still a mess.

After 30+ cruises, all on bigger ships, we fell in love with WindStar. We are planning on booking 2 weeks on Wind Surf next December, and the 11 day Tahiti cruise for May of 2019. The food, service and atmosphere does not even begin to compare with the larger mainstream cruise lines.

We live in FL, and cruise a lot, and will still sail on the larger ships, but I think WindStar may very well have become our favorite.

Kat

I booked the Escape less than 24 hours before boarding.

We leave for our first WindStar cruise in a little less than 4 weeks. Does WindStar mail boarding passes and/or luggage tags, and when? I have not seen anywhere on My WindStar where to print these.

Thanks!

Kat

Wondering why Carnival is waiting longer to return than RCCL? RCL is stating they will be returning to all ports by 1 Dec sailings, by this article Carnival is being more cautious and waiting longer. Why the big gap in return schedules? I'm scheduled on 25NOV Freedom to all of those ports, and have vested interest in this topic. Thoughts?

Carnival's ship that sails out of San Juan is being used to house relief workers. Carnival cancelled all cruises out of San Juan because of this. Carnival did the right thing.

Great information Dan. We have friends living in PR and not in the city When they were able to contact us, the situation seems dire. The island is a wreck and needs major help. Glad that you helped the economy on the island. If tourists would see the real damage to the island they would understand that more help is needed. As you said, the taxi driver goes home to who knows what is left of his home that has no electricity or running water. They need much more help now.

As do we. Outside of San Juan IS dire.

And thanks for the report, Dan. We sail in December on WindStar, and ended up changing our flight to the morning of. We were having problems securing a hotel, some because of damage, and some because of relief workers. And that's okay, the relief workers need to be there.

A couple times now we thought we had confirmed reservations for early December. We spoke to someone, everything is good, yes, you have a room. Then we didn't. FEMA and other groups are getting priority at the open and somewhat functional hotels. So we have decided to fly in the morning of, instead of dealing with this hotel situation.

I think we are going to change our flights, and fly in the morning of. Too many unknowns. We have a confirmed reservation at Condado Plaza Hilton, but with limited services (the rep didn't know exactly what that meant). I'm assuming it means we may or may not have A/C, food, water. And they reserve the right to give our room to relief workers. Also, our flight on Friday didn't get us in to San Juan until around 9 PM. Currently, there is a curfew, and we may or may not be able to get transportation to the hotel.

The list of hotels is old, and no longer correct. I assure you, Hampton Inn is NOT accepting new or existing reservations until Jan. 1. This is one we had booked in December, and we are now cancelled.

The Hampton Inn site now says no new or existing reservations until Jan. 1 at the earliest. I will be calling tomorrow, we double booked Hampton Inn and Condado Plaza Hilton. I will also call American Airlines, since our flight is scheduled to land around 9 pm. (We sail Dec. 9).

I'm not going to lie, this situation is making me very nervous. Puerto Rico is still in bad shape, and I don't like the idea of going there in the next couple months. We will go, unless Windstar cancels, but I'm thinking we might fly in the day of.

Can anyone recommend a beach not littered with those blow up courses?

We've been to Roatan many times. Tabyana is, by far, the best snorkeling right off the beach. It is a short swim out to the reef wall (the first time you go out, it is best to hire a guide. There are shallow areas.)

They have one blow up water slide, but it really isn't a problem. The worst thing are the vendors, but just politely say no thank you, and they leave. The vendors aren't supposed to be in the area, and there are security guards on the beach.

We also are a little nervous about the situation. We actually have double booked hotels for the night before. We originally booked Hampton Inn, their website says it will be up Oct. 31, but on another board someone said their reservation for November was cancelled. We go in Dec. and haven't heard anything yet, but we also booked Condado Plaza Hilton, which I know is open now.

Many of the hotels that are functional are housing relief workers, so reservations are hard to come by.

My Windstar showed this too. I, for one, am VERY excited! All new ports for us, except St Lucia. Now they just need to update shore excursions.:)

I just checked My Windstar for our Dec. 9 sailing on the Pride. Definitely changes in itinerary, and I love it! All new ports for us, except St. Lucia (which we love!)

Saturday, December 9

Sailing

Departure San Juan, Puerto Rico 10:00 PM

Sunday, December 10

Sailing

At Sea

Monday, December 11

Sailing

Arrival Anse Mitan, Martinique 9:00 AM

Sailing

Departure Anse Mitan, Martinique 10:00 PM

Tuesday, December 12

Sailing

Arrival Pigeon Island, Saint Lucia 8:00 AM

Sailing

Departure Pigeon Island, Saint Lucia 5:00 PM

Wednesday, December 13

Sailing

Arrival Les Saintes Terre-De-Hau, Guadeloupe 8:00 AM

Sailing

Departure Les Saintes Terre-De-Hau, Guadeloupe 10:00 PM

Thursday, December 14

Sailing

Arrival Little Bay, Montserrat 8:00 AM

Sailing

Departure Little Bay, Montserrat 4:00 PM

Friday, December 15

Sailing

Arrival Gustavia, St. Barthelemy 7:00 AM

Sailing

Departure Gustavia, St. Barthelemy 1:30 PM

Saturday, December 16

Sailing

Arrival San Juan, Puerto Rico 7:00 AM

One of the guys that works at my husband's business has family just outside San Juan. He was supposed to fly there tomorrow, to bring supplies. He can't go now (flight cancelled) until next week at the earliest. Also, a lot of the flights going in are for relief workers. One thing I would like to point out...with very limited electricity and internet, most places, if not all, are cash only, and the island is running out of cash. (This information came from his family). Something to keep in mind if any of you are actually going to try to go this weekend.

Personally, I am appalled that Royal has not cancelled the upcoming cruise. If people can actually get there, you might not get out for awhile. I would not be willing to put my family or myself in a situation like that, and I would be contacting a lawyer, and everybody else that I could think of, to get my money back.

Interestingly, in my mind I would jump on that cruise ASAP if I were a resident of Puerto Rico. Air conditioning, hot food, clean bathrooms. I'd take it.

 

and if someone wants to jump on me. I've lived in Florida since 1987. I've been through multiple hurricanes (Andrew, Wilma, Irma, etc), power losses lasting upwards of 2 weeks, albeit not as bad as some in PR. But If I had the opportunity to jump on a cruise ship with those things mentioned above after being without power, a/c, and hot food. i would certainly take it!

We did that last year after Matthew came through to the Bahamas. We weren't sure where we were going, we didn't care. We just wanted to get away from the stress and no a/c because of the hurricane. We ended up being in Nassau for 2 days, but it was all good!

I spoke to WS today- we are booked on the Dec 2 sailing out of SJU- and they said that they will know more about changes on Monday. With the exception of Montserrat, the entire itinerary will probably change. Virgin Gorda, St Bart's and Jost Van Dyke are surely off the schedule and I would assume that Vieques is also out. We are hoping to cancel and are happy to just get credit towards a future cruise but at this point WS is telling us to wait a bit longer.

 

 

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Good to know about Montserrat. It's the main reason we booked the Pride.

So, I am a huge Ruth Chris fan. I'm not a person that just craves any ole steak. I'm not a picky eater in general. In fact, on our cruises, I LOVE the buffet food. That being said, when it comes to steak, I am pretty picky.

 

Anyway, I've never been interested in trying Fahrenheit 455 but as I am preparing for my next cruise on the Sunshine, it has been said to me a couple times that it is comparable to Ruth Chris'. Any validity to this point?

Apples to oranges. Ruth Chris' is MUCH better than any cruise line steakhouse. There really is no comparison.

WindStar's website says the Pride will be sailing roundtrip out of San Juan as planned this season. However, they are evaluating ports on the itinerary, and it says there will be changes.

The only port we really hope stays is Montserrat...that is primarily why we booked the cruise. Of course, that will be the one that gets dropped. And that will be okay, we will still be on a ship, and we will go somewhere else.

I hope some of these ports open sooner than expected, mainly because I know how much they depend on tourism. We are doing what we can to help and support the islanders, but the biggest help will be bringing back tourist dollars.

Was anyone able to get info from Windstar regarding changes to the Star Pride Virgin Islands cruise out of San Juan? We are booked on the Nov 25th sailing and unfortunately it looks obvious that most of the ports will not viable by that time.

I'm wondering also. We sail early Dec. on Pride. There aren't many options at this point, and who knows if San Juan will be open for business by then. I keep checking the website, and my email, several times a day. We just want to make other cruise plans if a new itinerary doesn't work for us.

What are the chances of snagging a room on a ship the week it is set to sail?

I booked the day before sailing. Granted, it was with a different cruise line, but got an incredible price!

We've done both also, and much preferred MSC's Yacht Club. Haven IS incredible, but we liked the public spaces in the Yacht Club more than Haven's.

Great comparison! I've been wondering about the differences. What's the smoking situation on MSC?

Besides the area at One Pool, there is a smoking lounge close to the casino, and an area aft, that is outdoors. The casino is completely non-smoking.

Reporting from Melbourne: We lost power around 1;30 am. It was a lot worse here than predicted yesterday morning. We started getting bands around 10 am, and it just kept going and going. Our power came back about an hour ago :p

We lost a few shingles, and some tore through our screen room. Our lake came dangerously close to flooding some of the homes here, but I don't think any did flood. Our streets turned into rivers. Some people have some fencing down, and our next door neighbor's solar panels for the pool are shredded. Ours are fine (different company). A few small trees and bushes uprooted in the neighborhood. Overall, we were very fortunate. It was scary though, and worse than Matthew last year.

Local news saying Irma staying on the northward course, and pretty much coming up middle of state. It's a lot worse in Melbourne than predicted.

I'm in Melbourne. We're in the upper right quadrant, and we have a nasty band that is going to go on for awhile. It's horrible Power flickering constantly