SG65CB

My photo montage of bake and shark at Maracas Beach in Trinidad. If I missed any please feel free to add: Richard's (the original): Annette's: Tips on the Beach: Uncle Sam & Sons: Olives: Havana Bake & Shark: Vilma's: Patsy's: Mom's: Drink selection (this was at Annette's): My bake and shark. This is from Richard's. "Bake" is the name of the bread. You can have shark, fish, chicken, or a few other choices. They give you the bread and meat, then you go to a salad bar and add vegetables and sauces. I took mine back to my lounge chair to enjoy among the beauty and soft sand of Maracas Beach:

Tobago: You can book beach-break excursions to Pigeon Point Beach, and you can book snorkeling excursions to Buccoo Reef, but we managed to do both without booking an excursion in advance. Buccoo Reef is near Pigeon Point. There are glass-bottom boat operators at Pigeon Point Beach who will take you to Buccoo Reef. (If you book an official snorkeling excursion from the ship they take you to a pier to catch the snorkel boat, east of Pigeon Point.) When we got off the ship we went through the cruise terminal and found the board that lists taxi prices. The board says “Pigeon Point $25 one way” and I thought this was going to be an expensive day for our party of five. But after talking to a taxi dispatcher it turns out that is the price per taxi, not per person. $50 round trip total for five people is more than reasonable. The taxi driver takes you to the beach, waits for you, then brings you back to the ship. You pay when you get back to the ship. It was about a 20 minute drive to Pigeon Point. There is an entrance gate where we stopped and paid $15 in entry fees (total for five people) and were given wrist bands to wear. Then the driver took us to a parking lot. It was 10:00 a.m. and we asked to return to the ship at 2:00 p.m. and the driver said OK. As we exited the taxi we were approached by a guy selling a glass-bottom boat snorkeling excursion. The taxi driver indicated to us this is legit and we should do it, so we bought tickets. (Our taxi driver the day before in Trinidad also told us about the boats from Pigeon Point and said we should do it so we were open to this.) The price was $40 per person and it turned out to be well worth the cost. There is a pier at the beach and the boat would leave at 11:00. We were instructed to meet at 10:45. It is a two-hour excursion so make plans with your taxi driver accordingly. We took some time to walk down the beach to the far end. If you are worried about finding tickets for the snorkel trip don’t worry, we were approached by half a dozen people selling tickets. Normally I don’t like being approached by beach vendors but they were friendly and actually had a good product. We went back to the pier at 10:45 to board our boat. Several boats went out. Some were larger than others but all offered the same excursion. The boats are made from wood and look a little rickety, but they get the job done and the water is not that deep anyway, and we are all swimmers with snorkel gear. First was a boat ride to the reef, then we were drifting over the reef to observe through the glass bottom while the captain/guide identified fish and coral for us. Next they secured the boats and we were free to get out and snorkel the reef for about half an hour. After that they took us to the “Nylon Pool” which is a shallow area about a quarter mile from shore. The bottom is soft sand-like ground up coral. We were able to get out and wade around the boat for awhile before leaving and heading back to Pigeon Point. The Buccoo-only excursions stopped at “No Man’s Land” which is a place on shore selling food, drink, and souvenirs. We didn’t stop there but there are plenty of places for that at Pigeon Point Beach. Back at Pigeon Point Beach we bought some drinks ($3 Carib) and snacks and hung out at the picnic tables. You can rent lounge chairs for $5 and umbrellas for $5. At 2:00 we found our taxi driver and headed back to the ship. We were back before 2:30. All-aboard time was 4:30 so there was plenty of time to spare. Some photos: Entry fee sign (roughly 7:1 foreign exchange, 20TT is about $3): A larger boat: A smaller boat: Inside the boat: Coral: Fish: More coral and fish:

When I'm trying to figure out which ships will be in port with us I always check at least two of these sites. They don't always match but between them I can get a complete list.

Each person gets 4/5/6 drinks TOTAL for the day. Can be a mix of alcoholic and non-alcoholic. It is not 4 with alcohol and 4 without alcohol.

I don't know enough about ships on other cruise lines to know what ships are comparable. It would be interesting to know if anyone has done an apples-to-apples comparison of prices for similar ships, same stateroom category and size, same home port and similar itinerary to see if Royal is higher compared to others or if the others have gone up too.

The guides work with ship passengers all the time, if you tell the guide the ship name and arrival time they will recommend a meeting time and location. They will also know if the ship is running late and wait for you if needed.

Suite passengers receive a letter from the concierge and in the letter the concierge requests you to wear smart casual clothes.

There is a dress code. The dress code is smart casual. Some people don't honor the dress code and it is not enforced, but that is the dress code.

You were amazingly lucky when you noticed the price for two promenade rooms, an interior for four of you would have been impossible. My friend's teen daughter had a suitcase with 40% clothes and 60% hair and makeup "products". I can't imagine a teen preferring school over a cruise.

Nice review. I agree sometimes they throw in gratuitous swearing during the "adult" comedy show just so that their regular jokes will qualify as "adult". What did you think of the accommodations - what type of cabins did you have and how were they arranged - 4 and 2, or 3 and 3? What age are the girls, did they go to the kids club or stick with you on sea days or just free range themselves on the ship? Our friend brought his daughter on our last cruise (her first cruise) and he was loving that she was loving the cruise.

If they ask about your third person just say she is traveling separately. Give no other information. As Cruiseguy1016 noted you do not need to all board at the same time.

When a minor leaves the ship they ask who they are with to make sure a responsible adult is accompanying them, but I have not seen them ask who is bringing a minor onto a ship.

They hold back cabins to satisfy the GTY bookings. People report having a GTY booking for a sold out category and they do get a cabin assigned. Also some JS bookings could Royal Up to higher suite, leaving JS open for GTY booking. Very very occasionally people report getting a room higher than JS with a GTY suite booking, but probably won't happen.

we had races on the dual water slides on Adventure. Speed was pretty good.

My butter story proves the value of traditional dining vs. My Time dining: I don't eat dairy products so I usually have the rolls plain. On one cruise I asked our waiter for margarine instead of butter. It took half an hour, but eventually he found margarine and brought it to the table. Every night after that margarine was waiting on our table when we arrived for dinner.

Our cruise on Jewel of the Seas stopped in Trinidad on February 20, 2024. The cruise line was offering a beach break excursion to Maracas Beach for $79 per person. This was for transportation only and did not include chairs, umbrellas, food, drink, or restroom access. As you will see, this is way overpriced, and you have to go on their schedule instead of your own. I know people say you should take the cruise excursions so the ship won’t leave you behind, but we had 5 people and $400 for a ride to the beach was a huge premium to pay for this guarantee. Given the price of the official cruise excursion, we decided to wing it and go to the beach on our own. Trinidad has regulated taxi services. The port operation seemed to be well-organized. When we got off the ship and went into the cruise terminal a taxi dispatcher approached us and asked where we wanted to go. I told her Maracas Beach and asked the price. It turns out the price is $25 per person round trip. This includes one hour drive to the beach, two hours at the beach, and one hour driving back. She said we could have an additional hour at the beach for $20 (this is a flat fee, not per person). The way it works is the driver takes us to the beach, waits for us, then brings us back to the ship. We did not have to pay the driver until we were back at the ship. When we arrived back in port we paid the agreed price and also gave a tip. We were put into a taxi with two other passengers (7 total). The license plate started with an “H” which designates an official taxi. We wanted the extra hour at the beach and the other passengers agreed, as did the driver. This is something you’ll need to negotiate with your fellow travelers. The drive to Maracas was uneventful, the driver was quite personable and pointed out the spots of interest and answered our questions. His name was Dunston but goes by “Dubu”. We stopped along the way at the Maracas Lookout, a scenic overlook where we took pictures, then continued to the beach. The driver dropped us off at Uncle Sam and Sons restaurant and instructed us to meet him there at the agreed return time. This appears to be the place where the taxi drivers hang out during the day. There were free restrooms onsite which we could use. There were also showers in the restroom, although our driver asked us to please wear dry clothes when returning to the taxi. As we walked across the street to the beach we were greeted by a “chair guy”. He offered to set us up with lounge chairs and umbrellas. The price is $20 for two chairs and one umbrella. As a bonus he gave us a fifth chair for free. He took us over near Richard’s Bake and Shark and gave us chairs. The chairs are hard plastic and we noted most people had pads on their chairs. We asked for pads and he brought some over. We were in the second row of chairs, eventually they added a row of chairs behind us. We had arrived before the bulk of the excursion buses. Since we were at Maracas Beach we of course had to try the bake and shark sandwich. If you don’t want shark they also have bake and kingfish, bake and shrimp, bake and chicken, bake and vegetables, etc. etc. “Bake” refers to the bread part of the sandwich. They give you the bread and your selected meat, then you go over to a buffet table and add vegetables and sauces. I had bake and shark plus fries, the price was $11. The prices are posted in local currency. They accept dollars and Richards gave us our change in dollars. The exchange rate is roughly 7 to 1 but instead of posting prices in dollars the cashier was using a calculator to determine the price. My sandwich was delicious, be careful because some of the sauces are more spicy than others and they were not labeled. There were a few people in line at Richards, but later I saw over 20 people in line and a long line at the place next door too. Plan accordingly. (There are many bake and shark restaurants at Maracas Beach, Richard’s is apparently the original.) Drinks are reasonably priced for a tourist area. Bottles of Carib beer were $3, bottles of pop and fruit drinks were $2. Side note, the pop is made with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup like in the States. (Pop = soda for all you non-Midwesterners.) Richard's had a table set up where you could order drinks instead of standing in the long food line to get a drink. Half of the drive is in the city and half is in the scenic countryside. You are basically climbing up a mountain, then going down the other side. The roads are narrow and there are lots of cutbacks as it traverses the mountainside. That's why it takes an hour to drive roughly 13 miles. On the ride back to the ship the traffic in the city was horrendous and it took over an hour to get back to port. Be sure to leave yourself plenty of time to get back to the ship. We left the beach at 2:00 and were at the ship at 3:15. The ship was scheduled to leave at 6:00 p.m. so obviously I gave ourselves enough time in case of any transportation issues. A lot has been made about the U.S. State Department level 3 travel advisory for Trinidad. When we were in Barbados the day before, our tour guide told us there is an ongoing battle between gangs and the police in Trinidad and be careful. I suppose if you are a foolish tourist and go places in town you shouldn’t go then you could find trouble, but we saw nothing to cause any alarm. It was very much like any other Caribbean port. No roaming criminals, and no rifle-toting guards patrolling the port or the beach. Just a bunch of friendly people making a living. They were much more laid back than in Jamaica which also has a level 3 advisory. I saw no reason to be uneasy and given the chance I would gladly stop in Trinidad again.

We were in Tobago last week (February 21, 2024). One part of the shoreline southwest of the port is covered in oil and cleanup operations are in progress. The oil spill is not affecting the port and is not affecting the major beach and water areas such as Pigeon Point or Buccoo. Excursions are not affected by the oil spill.

I forgot you can link them yourself. That should be good. Link them once and then you don't have to recite the list of cabin numbers every time you make a reservation.

If you booked with a travel agent have them "link" your reservations (link the booking numbers). If you booked directly with RC then call them and have them "link" the reservations. If the reservations are linked then it is easy to make dinner reservations for the group because you will not have to give them the cabin number for all of the cabins every time, the system will keep them all together since they are linked. Just provide your cabin number.

Same thing happened to me, shortly before my cruise there were only a few shows listed, often only once per night. But once we boarded there was a show listed for every night, two times per night.

The lounge names have been changing, the Suite Lounge is sometimes known as the Concierge Club, and the Diamond Lounge has been changed to the Crown Lounge. During evening happy hour both lounges will have hors d'oeuvres, the selection is the same in both lounges. One key difference for you is that the drinks in the Suite Lounge are free, but drinks in the Diamond Lounge will use one of your four daily drink vouchers. Therefore it is better for you to use the Suite Lounge during happy hour. Also, depending on the number of Pinnacle and Diamond Plus members on board, you might or might not have access to the Diamond Lounge (Crown Lounge) during happy hour. If there are too many Pinnacles and Diamond Plus then Diamond members don't have access during happy hour.

I was on Jewel of the Seas last week. Dining room first seating was at 5:30, second seating at 8:00, and My Time Dining 6:45-9:00. It was a seven night cruise. There was a show in the theater every night except one night (the night of the seventies party). The shows were at 7:15 and 9:15 every night (sometimes 7:15 and 9:30). Some of the shows were production shows using the Jewel singers and dancers, and some shows had feature entertainers. The ship also has a movie theater with stadium-style seating and they show a movie several times per day, a different movie each day. The ship was in fine shape and for the most part looked great. This was a Caribbean cruise, I suppose it's possible a European cruise could have different meal times and show schedules.

There is a web site where Cruise Compass documents are posted. The website cannot be linked here due to message board rules but if you search on Google for "Mariner of the Seas Cruise Compass" you can find the site, it should be the first one listed. It looks like there are Mariner Cruise Compasses for 4 and 5 night cruises, and an 8-night in October, but these should give you a good idea of what to expect. You could also look at other Voyager class Cruise Compasses.

Not everyone has received the memo about the name change to Crown Lounge. Almost every night we encountered someone in the hallway outside the Crown Lounge who was searching for the Diamond Lounge. Depending on the number of Pinnacle and Diamond Plus members on board, Diamond members might or might not have access to the Crown Lounge during happy hour. If you are thinking of floating between the Concierge Club and the Crown Lounge keep in mind that drinks in the Concierge Club are free if you are in a suite, but drinks in the Crown Lounge will use one of your Diamond drink vouchers, even if you are in a suite.

Our last ship had a table set up outside the Windjammer to sign up people for the drink package and they had a stockpile of Freestyle cups to give out.