Live From The Sun!

[mkk]

In St Thomas...I think you are referring to the immigration inspection before you are allowed to disembark....you must present yourself with ID passport and shipcard before you are cleared to leave the ship. Most lines I've been on do it by deck..assign you a time frame to line up for document inspection.... It's been a fairly smooth process every cruise Ive been on..just get in line during your scheduled time...and walk right through it...the only ones that run into problems are those that think they are too important to wait on line or don't have the proper documents with them...:) By the way..immigration runs this and they don't have a sense of humor...have seen people try to argue their way out of "forgetting" their passport...not having everyone with them..just docs..won;t fly either...If everyone followed directions and behaved like good little boys and girls we'd all get to go out and play sooner! One cruise I was on.. after stops at many So. Carib ports...the drug dogs were on every floor..there were delays and lo and behold two different groups of people were taken off the ship in handcuffs...guess they were bringing back some very special souveniers...they didn't get too far..Oh Well...

[bdjam]

I'm wondering about St Thomas with all this talk about waiting for hours to get off the ship. I know, I know this is not a tender port but on our last cruise I remember some sort of lottery thing, standing in line forever...we were last of course. I don't remember why? Something to do with customs maybe. Can any of you shed light. Really I remember (short port call anyway) waiting for a couple hours before we were allowed to get off.????

St. Thomas actually can be a tender port…it was for me when I was on Sun Princess in March 2004.

[Host Anne]

eny ~ You'll be spoiled forever in that mini-suite. But that's not a bad thing. I think that most people here on Cruise Critic are hooked so you'll fit in perfectly with the rest of us.

 

Regarding tendering, on the Sun, you went to the main dining room to get tender tickets and then you waited here until they called your number. They do not make tender announcements throughout the ship -- only in the dining room. We're not ones to sit around and wait for them to call tender numbers so we chose to wait each day (with one exception) until tender tickets were no longer required....I'm guessing it was probably 90 minutes - 2 hours after they started tendering that tickets were no longer required. We'd much rather enjoy the ship for the first hour or two when everyone else is tendering than sit in a dining room waiting for our number to be called. If you are on a ship's tour, you also get priority tender passage.

 

Immigration is a different story. MKK is exactly right. They take this stuff seriously and everyone is required to go through immigration before getting off the ship in St. Thomas. This was a VERY fast process if you remember to bring your passports or birthcertificate with ID. It's people that don't bring the right things that back the line up. On the Sun, once you went through the line, you are given a yellow "cleared immigration" ticket and you can get off the ship immediately....no waiting for everyone else to clear. You just have to have your yellow cleared immigration ticket with you when you get off (although they weren't doing a good job of collecting these on the day we were in St. Thomas). This didn't slow us down at all getting off the ship.

 

And here's my last comment on High Pockets -- westwind is correct. Kathleen at High Pockets had every right to impose her cancellation fee. It says so right on her website as westwind pointed out. The problem isn't one of charging or paying the fee -- CFL and I determined that we were going to do that. The problem for Kathleen is that she has unhappy customers that will not use or recommend her in the future. Am I going to say bad things about her -- absolutely not. She didn't do anything wrong and made a choice that she'd rather have 50% of her fee for the day than making customers happy. That was her choice. If it was a beautiful, clear day with average seas, I'd say she made a good choice. Considering the seas and the good chance of rain (I forgot to mention that before and Kathleen told me if the forecast for rain was 10% higher she'd allow us to cancel), I think she could have worked with us a little more. She may have gotten her cancellation fee but she lost cruisers who would recommend her to future cruisers. Bottom line, we've learned not to pre-book a sailing excursion before getting to a port and checking on the conditions for that day.

 

Have a great day everyone!

[rucruizin]

I remember now, that is what I was talking about. The problem we had is that our deck was LAST! As usual. They announced that we had arrived in port early and would begin immigration...whatever earlier than normal. The lines did move quickly but we stood on deck, watched the clouds come in and watched very few people leave the ship. It started to rain gently then started to pour. It poured for at least an hour and then we were finally called. We were in the middle of the line and moved through quickly. We went to find the line to get off and it was like a Disneyland line that snaked down the stairs for several decks and didn't ssem to be moving, at least very slowly. When we finally got down to the deck where you could see the outside I realized that everyone was just haning out. Nobody wanted to go out in the rain...after another hour of waiting in that line I was a little peeved. We walked past everyone and finally got off the ship. REALLY, from the time they announced the first deck to the time we got off it was close to 3 hours. It was just very frustrating. To make it worse...everytime we have been to St Thomas we've had some sort of problem such as this. One time all tours were cancelled because of rough seas (1st cruise). Next time we were delayed for a couple hours because some yahoo refused to check in with immigration, I guess they didn't think it was important, again all tours cancelled due to the delay (2nd cruise). Then the last time the frustration I just described (3rd cruise..to ST Thomas).

 

I don't know if there is anyway to stearmline this system a little better or not. Maybe we've just had bad luck.

[cruiserforlife]

Morning all!

 

Boy,these boards sure are acting funny.Almost impossible just to get on (my last reply went to outer space) so let's hope this one goes through.

 

Anne,

 

You know I AGREE with you ( I was there so I know what the conditions were like) and that's all that really matters.Like you said,if Kathleen decides this is how she wants to conduct her business,that's entirely up to her but there were certainly several other ways she could have worked things out differently.Once again,her decision.

 

Dreamer,

 

I would certainly suggest you bringing your portable DVD player with you.The TV only offers 2-3 channels of music and it may not be to your liking.It is always nice to have some smooth jazz or some caribbean steel drum for the afternoon wine on the balcony.

 

Glad to see this thread still floating around.I know I would have certainly read it with much excitement before I sailed the Sun.

[Host Anne]

rucruisin and others -- a little tip on immigration on the ship in St. Thomas -- they do not check to see what deck you are when you arrive for immigration. Go down early or close to the scheduled start time and you'll be able to go right through. If you arrive before they open the doors, you may have to wait but I think they often begin early. Honestly, all they want to do is get everyone through. They do it by deck to have some sort of organization, but they certainly don't turn you away if you show up earlier than what is posted for your deck. :)

[chrysalis]

We got fouled up last year on the Sun in St. Thomas when the folks from Immigration arrived about 40 minutes late....and we were tendering. By the time they got there, the lines were huge and the entire process was backed up considerably.

 

 

Previously, it had been a breeze.

[mkk]

rucruizin...Wow..after reading your post (and others) I guess we've just been incredibly lucky in St Thomas all the way around. been there 5 or 6 times......never had a delay getting off ship..never tendered..never had bad weather...!

Funny story though..last Fall, (on another line) we disembarked a few minutes ahead of friends of ours..who we agreed to meet at the bottom of the gangway...immigration had put little black check marks on our sea pass cards to designate clearing ...DW of the party managed to rub off her black mark....crew member (on a power trip)..made a HUGE deal of her trying to "sneak" off the ship.. only doing his job but really embarassed her!!

Of course one phone call upstairs to the "powers that be" verified that she had indeed cleared...but not before we had seen her start off the ship only to get carted back on board out of our sight and we had no clue what had happened for quite a few perplexing minutes! Other than that no problems in St Thomas....:)

 

CFL...yes..very cranky boards the last two days...sometimes I can access the link sometimes NOT!

[cruzzers]

Thanks to all of you, past and present, for continuning the thread for all of us future cruisers to enjoy. We will be departing to Ft. Lauderdale on Wednesday and will sail on Thursday the 17th, so we can barely contain our excitement to get going on the Sun. We will try to post from the Sun to keep this wonderful thread going for those who sail after us and for those of you who have been so kind to take time out from your cruise to share your experiences aboard with us.

 

Talk to you all again real soon!;)

[cruiserforlife]

cruzzers,

 

Have a GREAT cruise and please continue this thread!

I hope you enjoy your room (D605?) and that the partial obstruction isn't too bad.I'm glad that this thread has brought so much joy to everyone and I for one will continue to read it and wish I was still cruising...

[Host Anne]

Cruzzers ~ looking forward to hearing from you once you are onboard....but don't spend too much time here....you're supposed to be enjoying your cruise. Safe travels to Ft. Lauderdale and a wonderful, fun cruise!

 

Bon Voyage!

[rucruizin]

They threatened us that if we tried to go through before our deck was called that we would have to wait until the whole ship had cleared,

[Host Anne]

ru ~ Who threatened you? I'd be curious to know. I'm one who is very much in favor of abiding by the rules but when there you have more than 2,000 passengers on a ship, it is virtually impossible for them to go strickly by deck. I imagine if there were a long line and you arrived early they may ask you to step aside, but that hasn't happened to us and they have yet to even ask what deck we were on. What ship were you on?

[Dreamer2000]

I remember seeing a recent dinner menu from the Sun but can't seem to find it. Anyone know were it is posted.

 

Thank-you

Dreamer

[ciana]

HI.. re: St. Thomas immigration.. we were on Caribe deck and our time was 8:00-8:15. We did go down during this time and went whizzing through..absolutely no one ahead of us! Those people on tours were already gone. Not to worry! Relax!

 

Cheri:)

 

PS I don't now if I can keep reading this thread..it makes me want to go back on the Sun NOW!!!! ..oh well... I can't help myself.. I can't go through the day without reading this thread at least twice!!! anyone else like me????:D

[srpilo]

I can't go through the day without reading this thread at least twice!!! anyone else like me????:D

 

 

 

 

:D :D :D :D

 

 

 

Srpilo

[Host Joe]

What a great thread! I keep coming back and checking in on it, and now it looks like it will continue on to the next cruise! Keep it up!

 

FYI, I just posted a quick review of the Sun 1/28 cruise (I was on with Cruiserforlife & Host Anne).

[decker]

Just out of curiousity Host Anne where on the ship is the sewer odor? We are in cabin 438 on the Aloha Deck for our Alaska cruise. Thanks for the info as there are five cabins going and we are the only past cruisers I will feel responsible. I hope that you are sailing soon and get maybe the afternoon in Barbados, it is one of our favorite ports.

 

Our cabin on the Jan. 28th cruise was A318. Going towards the rear of the ship on the port side (where your cabin is) the smell gets increasing bad. On the 10 days of the cruise, the smell was present in varying degrees most every day.

[rucruizin]

Anne,

 

They said it on the overhead...no decks or anything were announced until they were ready. We had no idea where we were in the lineup until they called us. We were on Carnival Glory. Mega ship, maybe that's part of the reason it took so long.

[Host Anne]

ru ~ I'm glad to hear it wasn't a Princess ship. The greater majority of the crew is extremely friendly and I can't imagine anyone threatening a passenger. We've been through immigration in St. Thomas on two Princess ships in the past ten months and both went very quickly.

 

Joe ~ great review...I'm still working on mine. We had a power outage last night and my laptop battery ran out. I tend to be a bit "wordy," but I'm working on it. ;)

 

Hope those nearing the end of their Sun cruise are having a great last couple of days on board and for those getting ready to board -- bon voyage!

[mlbcruiser]

We'll be on the Sun P. in March and I'm so happy to hear of those of you really enjoying this ship. After reading about smells and other complaints, it's good to see that's not the "norm". Thanks to you all for posting.

 

First, to the person concerned about his suit wrinkling: There are a couple of products on the market that you can spray on wrinkles that work pretty well. The one I've found to be the best is sold at AAA Auto Club travel stores and comes in a navy blue can about 4" high. It says "Wrinkle Remover" on it. That stuff has saved my life re: wrinkled clothing a couple of times. You spray it on the clothing and smooth the wrinkles out. For really bad wrinkles, you might have to spray them and smooth a couple of times. Doesn't harm the fabric, either and dries very, very quickly - in just a min. or two usually.

 

RE: the caribbean night deck party. 9:30!?! Yikes! :eek: My gosh, many people aren't even finished eating dinner by then! The best we've seen have been on RCCL and NCL. Both USED to have waiters doing the limbo w/drinks on their foreheads; conga lines; waiters doing tricks w/their drink trays, spinning them, throwing them, etc. But more and more we notice that the

"entertainment" portion of this type of party only has the bar waiter or crew "shows" SOMETIMES, whereas it USED to be every cruise. But the 9:30 thing is really making me worried that the cruisers on this ship tend to be the "REALLY early to bed" types and probably most are over 60 (and I'm not that far from that myself) but I sure hope there's a good mix of ages over spring break in March. We'll have some young adults and first timers w/us. I've seen some deck parties start as early as maybe 11:00 p.m., but 9:30?! :confused:

 

RE: Kathleen and the refund: We were in St. Thos. in Nov. of '03. Weather was pretty crummy in most of our ports. We had booked a sailing in St. Thos. w/a private sailboat that had a gourmet lunch, etc. Only held 6 people. Upon arrival in St. Thos. we were sweating bricks. It had rained in the a.m. and was very grey and somewhat cool w/an on again, off again, light drizzle. No way did we want to spend the $200 for us to take the excursion. We phoned the lady operating it and she was VERY understanding. She stated conditions weren't that good (though seas were not rough) so she could understand it. Wondered if we knew 2 others who had booked w/her so she could tell them the excursion was cancelled. Unfortunately, we didn't. But we WILL book w/her some other time since she had our credit card number but graciously did NOT charge us. She seemed like a real class act. Turned out that the day warmed up a bit and we had a little bit of sun. We just went to Cinnamon Bay and had an decent time. At least weren't out $200, thankfully!

 

Immigration in St. Thos: This time we were on a Royal Carib. ship about 2 Marches ago. There was a 20-something girl and her boyfriend in front of us in line. When the immigration official came to them, they explained that she had forgotten her birth certificate. I was appalled when the agent just blew it off and she didn't have to produce one! This was AFTER 9/11 and I'm sure it doesn't happen often, but . . . ! I sure wouldn't take the chance of being allowed to disembark myself.

 

Hope all of you on the Sun P. right now are having great weather and a wonderful time!

[rc51]

With all this talk about documents and immigration..I'm a little confused as to what documents you need.

 

I was under the impression that the cruise line took your passport upon embarkation? Are we supposed to be carrying other identification? And what ID is considered valid. Military ID, Birth Certificate (I think I have 3 different ones, but that's a different story), citizenship card etc etc??

[chrysalis]

Princess does not take your Passport from you at all.....

[enymarsh]

With all this talk about documents and immigration..I'm a little confused as to what documents you need.

 

I was under the impression that the cruise line took your passport upon embarkation? Are we supposed to be carrying other identification? And what ID is considered valid. Military ID, Birth Certificate (I think I have 3 different ones, but that's a different story), citizenship card etc etc??

 

Crysalis is right, they don't take your passport. We usually immediately put it into our safe. We also bring a copy of our passport, driver's license and a credit card. Lately they've posted warnings (in the Patter) that upon entering some countries in the caribbean, you'll be required to show ID even if you're coming from (and back to) a cruise ship. We leave our passports onboard in the safe and just take our driver's license and the copy of the passport with us to the beach, etc. and of course our cruise card too!

[Host Joe]

cozzello-

 

On the 1/28 Sun we were in A635 on the Aloha Deck, forward, (near where you are going to be) and the "sewage" smell was really not that bad at all, it was an occasional whiff (nothing overpowering)... and it did not go inside the cabins at all, you would only notice it when you were traveling down the hallway occasionaly. It is nothing that your traveling companions will kill you for! I hope that makes you feel better :)