First Time on Seadream, Opinions please

[Fang]

My wife and I are considering the SD II, out of St. Thomas, the week of January 7, 2007. We have to pick this week due to babysitting for our girls at home.

 

We have been on Celebrity many times. We are looking into Seadream because Celebrity does not have a seven day cruise leaving San Juan that week. I know that Seadream should be a step up from Celebrity and with the open bar policy, I do not think the cruise will be that much more expensive than our last Celebrity cruise.

 

I do have some questions.

 

1. What time should we look into getting a flight out of St. Thomas at the end of the cruise. My wife would like to get home as soon as we get off the ship, to see our girls. But I do not want to get a flight that is to early and be worried about missing it for our cruise.

 

2. I would guess that the cabins on deck 2 have portholes. Is it worth the extra money to go to deck 3?

 

3. We are in our late 30s. Is this to young for Seadream?

 

Any help would sure be nice.

[Zimmy]

We were on the January 2nd San Juan to St Thomas cruise this year. When you reach St Thomas, people from immigration must come aboard and clear the ship. On our cruise, this was scheduled for 6:30 AM. The officials did not arrive until 7. However, once they did arrive, everything went smoothly and passengers were free to leave the ship. I think I would feel comfortable with a plane leaving at 9:30 or 10.

The cabins on SeaDream are identical. We were booked as a guarantee and were assigned a cabin on the third deck. However, I do not think I would spend the extra money to be assured of deck three. You will spend very little time in your room, and I don't think a porthole versus a picture window really makes a big difference on this ship. I have no facts to back this up, but my instinct tells me that many people book cabins on deck two or as guarantees, more people than there are deck two cabins; so, it is common to be upgraded to a higher deck.

We are in our fifties and I think we were among the older people on our cruise. You will be fine.

[voyageur]

When we returned from our trip on SeaDreamI in November we had to disembark by 9:00 a.m., so I'm sure you could make a flight at 11:00. (maybe even 10:30)

 

All the cabins are exactly the same ecept for the window size... don't pay the extra money there's no need... we were on deck 2 and loved it, we booked a guarantee because it was the cheapest way to go. The ship is so small you are not far away from anything

 

We're 42 and probably were the average age for our trip... anywhere from 25-80, mostly around our age.

 

Love the small ship cruise and the "all-inclusive"... in the end it doesn't cost more than other cruises on the large ships. But remember you don't have the nightly "entertainment"... which we found a plus.

[Jim Avery]

Hi Fang:

You mentioned San Juan and then said you were sailing from St. Thomas. We have done St. Thomas several times and it always seems that on a Sunday the airport closes and all outgoing flights are grouped late in the afternoon. This meant we got home at well after midnight and had to be at work Monday. We try to avoid St. Thomas cruises for this reason.

The cabins make no difference. They are all very nice and perfectly maintained and serviced. The only thing that makes a difference to us is passenger makeup. Children or large family groups can make it somewhat less of what is portrayed. The service and food however has been consistently great on our SD cruises.

As far as age, you will fit in fine. Even the older passengers we met were young at heart and a delight to get to know. By far the best part of the cruise is interacting with your fellow passengers. Dont be shy, introduce yourself from the first minutes on board. You will finish the week with new friends. There are numerous good reviews of cruises on pages 1 -5 on this board. Will cover most subjects. Wish we were going.

All the best.

Jim.

[carlylecat]

Concur with all book deck 2 or g; however I must say my sister can not stand the wtaer sound that is on that deck, you are closer to the wtaer line and will hear "sea noise", basically waves...does not bother us but she is clautrophobic by nature...she could care less about the price differential though (nice to have a wealthy sis!)

 

you will fit in fine with other passengers range of 30 to 60 is what we experince

 

you will be on the young side but you will be on most cruises - chances are the median age will not be 2x you like on other lux ships

 

dont book a flight before 10 am

 

take some time to read other posts and reviews on this board, some are exceptionally well written and most very informative

[vandrefalk]

Hi, Fang! We're booked on the same cruise out of St. Thomas next year. Other posters are correct in telling you that deck location isn't particularly important. Our first cruise was on Deck 3 -- we just returned from a RT out of Barbados and were on Deck 2. Couldn't tell the difference. On our most recent cruise, ages were from 30s to 80s -- so you shouldn't feel out of place.

 

We're doing RT from St. Thomas to save on air fare -- but I agree with Jim Avery that immigration and the airport in STT are a bit of a pain. You should be able to leave the ship by 1000, but there is a LONG wait at the airport. . . may want to think about flying the next morning. I know we'll go in a day early, but haven't decided if we'll spend a night or two at the closing end.

 

Hey, Zimmy -- did you meet the Kiwis Dave and Amanda on your cruise? They were on ours, too!

 

Vandrefalk

[Zimmy]

Yes, Vandrefalk, we did meet them. There were quite a few guests who were also on the previous cruise, including families with children. That was a surprise to us, as we thought the cruise ended late enough that children would need to be back in school at that point. But apparently that is only true for American children. It was somewhat of a disappointment - we never really enjoyed the water toys because we did not feel like being surrounded by kids. And these kids were totally ignored by their parents, who didn't even eat dinner with them but put them at a table by themselves. And wasn't that nice, to come into the dining room and be seated next to a table of kids. The parents were over on the other side of the room. Sorry for venting, but it was annoying. Live and learn.

[zqvol]

My wife and I are considering the SD II, out of St. Thomas, the week of January 7, 2007. We have to pick this week due to babysitting for our girls at home.

 

We have been on Celebrity many times. We are looking into Seadream because Celebrity does not have a seven day cruise leaving San Juan that week. I know that Seadream should be a step up from Celebrity and with the open bar policy, I do not think the cruise will be that much more expensive than our last Celebrity cruise.

 

I do have some questions.

 

1. What time should we look into getting a flight out of St. Thomas at the end of the cruise. My wife would like to get home as soon as we get off the ship, to see our girls. But I do not want to get a flight that is to early and be worried about missing it for our cruise.

 

2. I would guess that the cabins on deck 2 have portholes. Is it worth the extra money to go to deck 3?

 

3. We are in our late 30s. Is this to young for Seadream?

 

Any help would sure be nice.

We have been on both deck 2 and deck 3. To be honest I liked the portholes better than the window, (I have no idea why) but except for sleeping and dressing you really don't spend time in your cabin. I would go with the GTY.

 

As far as leaving STT I suspect that you are going to be at the mercy of the airlines. As I remember there aren't to many early fights except to SanJuan and Miami.

 

Don't worry about your age. The SD crowd is an active one and unless you are (as my children would say) sticks in the mud you will fit fine. In fact some of the older couples might run you ragged.

[zqvol]

Yes, Vandrefalk, we did meet them. There were quite a few guests who were also on the previous cruise, including families with children. That was a surprise to us, as we thought the cruise ended late enough that children would need to be back in school at that point. But apparently that is only true for American children. It was somewhat of a disappointment - we never really enjoyed the water toys because we did not feel like being surrounded by kids. And these kids were totally ignored by their parents, who didn't even eat dinner with them but put them at a table by themselves. And wasn't that nice, to come into the dining room and be seated next to a table of kids. The parents were over on the other side of the room. Sorry for venting, but it was annoying. Live and learn.

This sounds all to familiar as I'm sure Jim avery will agree.

[carlylecat]

Z - why would you even let them seat you next to a table of kids

 

couldn't you tell the hotel manager that was not acceptable and have them find you room elsewhere or on deck?

 

To you being intimidated off the swim platform....maybe the kids on your ship resembled mini-pirates but even on our last trip where it seemed half the boat was under 25 us elder folk enjoyed swims and jetski rides without any challenges or uncomfort or even a wait.

[Zimmy]

Carlylecat, it was the other way around. We were already seated and in the middle of dinner when they seated a table of kids next to us. And the dining room was full. I suppose I could have made a fuss, but I didn't want to. I'm not on vacation to make a fuss about things. And the sad truth, as we have all read on these boards, is that kids are allowed to be there - no one was breaking any rules. No one promised me a kid free cruise.

Regarding the water toys, of course we could have used them. And it wasn't that there would be a wait, or that we were intimidated. It just was not appealing. We do not want to be surrounded by, or be in, a group of kids. And the kids were there all the time, which I suppose was good because otherwise they would have been by the pool, or on the sun beds. It was more attractive to us to lie around the pool or on the sun beds than to be with the kids, so we just decided to forego the water toys. But it was our choice; no one forced us.

We generally travel the week after New Years every year, and this is the first time we have encountered families. We had lulled ourselves into thinking that that week was kind of a safe time to travel, since most families seem to travel the one or two weeks before and then the kids go back to school after New Years. In the future, we will travel on SeaDream at a different time. If we want to cruise the week after New Years, we will go on Seabourn or Silverseas.

[autoxer1970]

I do have some questions.

 

1. What time should we look into getting a flight out of St. Thomas at the end of the cruise. My wife would like to get home as soon as we get off the ship, to see our girls. But I do not want to get a flight that is to early and be worried about missing it for our cruise.

 

This time of year, on any given year, United flies out of St. Thomas on Sunday afternoons to Chicago, San Juan, and Washington DC. In the "off season", they fly only on Saturdays. Check the timetables, though. They may be different (or non-existent) by next year, depending on the price of oil ;-).

 

I happen to like United because my status gets me those precious 5" of legroom in economy plus, so I'm just thankful they'll be flying when we do ours at the end of the month (Jan 29, SDII).

 

2. I would guess that the cabins on deck 2 have portholes. Is it worth the extra money to go to deck 3?

 

 

No.

 

3. We are in our late 30s. Is this to young for Seadream?

 

 

We're 35 and on our honeymoon, we were totally comfortable. And the seniors that we happened to talk to were full of fun stories. We were totally entertained. We loved the company we were in all week.

[carlylecat]

Z - good points, got it, makes sense, I think I woud trade water toys for no kids by the sun beds as well...

 

you got me thinkning about a new strategy next year for our new years cruise, make sure we take dinner later so we can see where the kids will be, a bit easier than old cunard/sea goddess days where we use to try to figure out where the smokers were going to be...

[Fang]

Thank you all for your posts. I am going to call the TA this morning and get a cabin.

 

Vandrefalk, I look forward to meeting you.

 

See some of you in January!!!

 

John