Cruising Cindy Lou

14 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

Most people don’t eat at the Oceanview for dinner. If they do it may be once a sailing. So only a few will be impacted by the cutback. Certainly Celebrity has factored that in. I don’t eat there because the Celebrity buffet food had become pretty bad. It is only good at breakfast. Breakfast is pretty hard to ruin. 
 

 

I was on a 10 night sailing last month.  I ate 7 out of 10 nights in OV. 

On 11/16/2022 at 4:27 PM, rizkeeper said:

are the turtles swimming in the open, or do you have to get an excursion once you get to the beach? 

No excursion needed.  We went there in 2017.  Hoping to go see them again this year.  This is not a fancy beach, had a lot of rocks.  It had a fisherman's dock there.  We swam with turtles and there was a huge swarm of fish that was pretty amazing to see.  

2 hours ago, mahdnc said:

New email and offer received today.  30 sailings to choose from.  All are 9-11 nights on either Constellation, Edge, Equinox, or Silhouette.  All sailings are in Jan-Mar 2023.

 

 

Interesting.  Wonder if any of the Edge really available during this time.  We were on the phone for an hour last week trying to get one of the cruises on the Edge.  They couldn't find anything open for the BCC offers.  We ended up booking a 7 day on Reflection, but was a struggle for her to find one on it available for us. 

On 11/13/2022 at 11:41 AM, Dar & Bob said:

Has anyone gone to Marigot by taxi from the cruise port?  Any info appreciated

 

I have taken the local bus to Margot a few times.  Was easy to do.  

I had heard all about this bakery.  I tried to go to it in 2019.  But was told at that time not open.  We did find another bakery along our hunt for it.  It was tasty, so worked out.  

A blonde jumping in. I never really owned stock. In 2020 when COVID hit and stock market plunged I asked my husband to buy me both RCL and NCHL stock. Should have done it myself, when it went up to double my money he sold it. Just a few more weeks and I could have about tripled it. RCL had gone back up to $98 when cruising started back up. I noticed few months ago when the whole market went down it dropped big time again. I jumped back on board. Wish I had bought more. I had joined the casino (stock market), after doing so well my first go around. The cruise stocks are my only green in my portfolio. 

On 11/29/2022 at 10:55 AM, Firemans Lady said:

Other than booking with the ship - we are sailing Dec 24 on RCL - any suggestions about just picking up a cab and sightseeing, safely 

When we went to Barbados in Dec of 2019 we had planned to rent a car.  But ended up hiring a taxi for the day.  We used Stephen Applewhite.  Pretty sure Apple taxi service.  He can be found on FB.  He was great.  We saw so much of the island, and it is gorgeous.  He gave fair price compared to renting a car and he made sure we had a great time. 

In 2019 we hired Stephen Applewhite with Big Apple Taxi Service.  He had a big van.  He drove us all around the island.  I had researched and made a list of things I wanted to see, and he added a few stops.  He took us out all day.  He was very informative and we had a great time.  (This included rum stop, haha). The island is stunning.  Thankful we were able to see so much of it.  Applewhite

36 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

"A big undertaking" is an understatement.

They're a few miles apart and Shirly Heights is at the top of a hill while Nelson's Dockyard is at sea level so you have a substantial uphill climb in addition to the length of the walk.

Thank you for info.  Last time we rode bus and walked to Deep Bay beach.  Was trying to find something new to do this time.  

Can you walk from the Dockyard to Shirley Heights?  Or would that be a big undertaking?

7 hours ago, Nic6318 said:

 

Hi

 

If you have the time in case of a possible long wait on the phone (I just put the phone on speaker and go about things I need to do around the house), give them a call. That way everything if finalized right away. You will know the ship, sailing, cabin number, exact cost, everything done.

 

good luck 

happy sailing

They called my husband this afternoon!!! 10 day cruise on Edge. So excited!!!! 

We were on Virgin in August.  5 days on Scarlet Lady.  We were excited to try something new.  It was our 6th different line.  It was probably a one and done for us.  Everyone should give it a try.  But just found out we like the more traditional cruising.

The food was amazing in the restaurants.  Loved the hammock on the balcony.  But I missed the traditional shows in the theater.  The show "Never Sleep Alone", was terrible.  They wanted you to get up and talk to strangers about sex.  No thanks, I am a prude I guess.  Condoms on the tables. Little much for me.

During the day very quiet.  No cruise director. No announcements.  Not a set nightly show. No buffet, you go to the not buffet and order your food and it is delivered to you.  So if you order fries they are brought to you by one staff member, a taco will come 5 minutes later...and so on.

People either love it or hate it.  

We didn't get an email.  We got a card in the mail that I almost threw away without reading.  We did the request online, but they haven't called us yet.  Sounds like we might need to call in.  We haven't cruised with Celebrity since late 2019.  We had 3 more booked thru 2020 and 2021 but they were cancelled.  We have never gambled on Celebrity that I can remember.  Maybe $20 on RCL.   We cruised Virgin in August and MSC last week.  Virgin is struggling to fill their ships.  MSC was maybe 2/3 full, but they had cancellations from hurricane.  I love cruising.  I own stock in RCL and NCL.  I sure hope they all can survive this awful situation they are all having to deal with.  

5 hours ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

If I have a choice, I prefer looking at the women in very short skirts and not your hairy legs.

But as a woman, I might like looking at those muscularly legs....haha. 

Was going thru my mail yesterday.  About to throw away a card.  Words Free Veranda caught my eye.  As reading, my hands started shaking, it was for a free cruise.  Filled out the online form.  Will give them 2 days to call.  If no word will call them back.  Hoping we can snag a December cruise.  We will drive to port so no issues.  Seems too good to be true!  Are the ships having issues sailing full now?  We had 3 Celebrity cruises booked thru pandemic.  2 were cancelled and we cancelled the last one.  It has been almost 3 years since we sailed Celebrity.  Maybe a reward for us letting them keep our money for 2 years, haha. I will take it. 

2 hours ago, Safe77 said:

Is there such a thing as an at-home RT-PCR test? We're sailing on the Divina on November 4th from Miami to either the Bahamas/Caribbean or the Southern Caribbean (depending on which MSC call-taker I speak with). Southern Caribbean apparently requires the RT-PCR test while Bahamas/Caribbean does not. We're traveling the day prior to sailing, so that doesn't leave us much time if we have to go to a physician's office to get the test. I need help, please, as I have never had to get this kind of test before and MSC is giving conflicting information. Thanks!!

Maybe you could go to Walgreens and talk to someone there.  They could probably help you finding out if there is an home test for this.  But with a home test you still at this point have to use a online company to watch you take the test.  Then they will send you an email with the official results you can use at the port.  Or atleast that is my understanding on how it works. 

Black Rock recently invested heavily with Virgin Voyages. 

My session completely froze up. Now can't get back in. 

On 7/2/2019 at 4:25 PM, kyriecat said:

I was on the Cosol tour June 27th and we had about 1 hr 10 min at the beach. Personally, I wouldn't call the snorkeling amazing. There were plenty of fish around the rocks, but there wasn't a wide variety of them. I only saw about 10 different types, but there were a couple of eels near the shore that were interesting to observe. I thought Barbados was better since we saw a wider variety of fish and there were turtles.

 

I have taken the Cosol tour three times and always enjoy it. Anytime we visit St. Lucia with people who haven't been before, we take them on the Cosol tour to have a fantastic time and see the beauty and diversity of St. Lucia. 

 

However, if my primary goal was to go snorkeling, I would choose a different tour.

With Cosol does the day feel rushed?  I am excited about this port and like how his tour seems to hit a lot of the highlights.  But hope to not just drive by.  Would like a few minutes to be able to get out and grab a few pics.

Thanks!

15 minutes ago, Cruiser Bruiser said:

According to the MSC website, the "interior studio" cabins have 130 square feet of "surface area" I'm going to guess that that refers to floor area from wall to wall, including floor on which furniture and cabinets are sitting. If so, this means the cabins are still bigger than NCL's 100 square foot studios. They "feel" a lot bigger in this virtual tour from the MSC website. Also note that in the virtual tour there is no sofa arm intruding into the foot space.

 

I have my eye on an interior studio for a January 2019 Caribbean sailing. They look like a really good value to me. I will likely ask my cabin steward to just keep the bed setting for the whole cruise, but I will have to wait and see exactly how the setup works.

I would imagine my son will request the same thing.  He likes to go take a nap in the afternoons. 

29 minutes ago, Até said:

I've not stayed in one, but they do appear quite small and the bed is/can be a couch by day.  I would advise to stay away from the ones that are part of the Superfamily cabins as those have two additional connecting doors to the balcony cabins.  It would involve waiting until closer to sail date, but MSC does reduce or remove the solo supplement on some regular cabins which to me would be a better choice.  MSC doesn't make it easy finding out on which sailings the supplement is reduced so you must call in and ask.

Thank you for the good advise.

I am seeking some info on the Solo Cabins on the Meraviglia.  We are in process of booking a cruise.  My son is deciding on cabin choice.  He has only sailed NCL solo cabins.  The solo cabins on MSC look totally different.  Looks like the couch is turned into a bed each night.  How comfortable are these?  And are they pretty small?  He is little over 6"3.  Not sure if we should check the difference on him booking a regular inside cabin so he would have the king bed.

Thanks so much.  Eager to try MSC.

They advertise ferry every hour, but I am thinking some times they run every half hour as well. They just don't advertise it. I had the lady at the counter advise me of it running every half hour. I was concerned doing this trip on my own. But was so worth it. We took taxi on St John to Trunk Bay. Oh my a just beautiful beach with a snorkeling trail.

Truck Bay is one of the prettiest beaches I have ever been to. The Snorkeling was good. But we did this on our own, not an excursion thru the line. I noticed for some reason a lot of the excursions to St John are very short.

I have never been to Water Island. I think my next cruise will be docking at Crown Bay. It looks like the ferry is pretty regular. Is there a lot to see on Water Island? Do you need to get a Cab to get to the beaches?