BooBooMonkey
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Hi there. Parking and disembarkation day questions. We've never been to this port.
We are three adults, arriving by car on a Saturday. Cruise ends Friday. Planning to park at the cruise port garage. Do you pay the $22/day up front?
Also, we'd like to hit a few sights on Friday after the cruise. Probably Statue of Liberty, 9/11 Memorial, Times Square. What is the best way to accomplish this?
I was thinking Statue of Liberty first, from the state park--how do we get to the State Park? Can we leave our car at the port and pay for an extra day?
After that, what is the best way to get to Manhattan (and back, if we leave the car in the lot)? Should we purchase a tour, try mass transit, or drive our car? Time is not a factor, other than we'd like to be done by like 3:00 PM and on our way home.
Thoughts on this plan? Suggestions? Thank you for any information you can share. We are not complete city/mass transit newbies--just haven't done it in NYC.
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Thanks for the comparison. I cruise on both lines and am looking forward to my Oasis cruise later this year. In my opinion, both lines have pros and cons. I will probably continue to go back and forth between the lines. Both lines offer things I really like.
Thanks to those who acknowledged my balanced review. That was my goal. After our next cruise on RCI Liberty, we plan to try a Carnival Vista or something to compare again.
I’m totally surprised at the back and forth about prices and mall at sea!
We didn’t purchase a drink package, but the drink prices are definitely higher on Royal. We were “comped” this cruise. We always have found the Carnival fares to be less than Royal for the ships and ports we’ve researched. I’m sure there are exceptions. However, price has always been a factor in our decision not to choose Royal before now.
Now to research how to get to Galveston, which airport, hotel, etc! This will be our 8th different port of embarkation!
Happy cruising to all. [emoji16]
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Hope it’s ok to do this. Sharing my post from the Carnival page. Comparing the two lines from our Royal newbie perspective.
https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2610974
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Thanks for the review and comparison..... You cruised free so it will be hard for you to answer these questions.
1) Cost comparisons Carnival vs RCCL?? When I research similar length cruises....I find RCCL is much higher than my Carnival (newer ship) options. We always cruise over peak times (vacation periods, holidays, etc) so this may be part of the reason why?
2) Beverage Plan.... Again important to us since we like to drink on a cruise. I believe RCCL is higher ....
The rest comes down choice.... If you want a resort type atmosphere...Oasis class is for you. If you want a more cruise type experience....other lines provide that option and/or the smaller RCCL ships do as well.
Definitely more expensive than Carnival! If value is important to you, then Carnival is the best!
Royal’s beverage plans and regular drink prices are higher than Carnival’s.
Totally agree with you on the type of experience too. Definitely missed the Carnival “vibe”. This next one will be on a slightly smaller ship in a better cabin. Will be interesting to see how that compares, for example, to Carnival Breeze.
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Hubby and I recently sailed on Royal Caribbean for the first time in February. We’ve been cruising for almost 20 years, mostly on Carnival. I’ve cruised over 20 times. We decided to try RCI due to receiving a casino offer from players club tours. We sailed on the Oasis of the Seas in early February. We did this cruise for the ship, not the itinerary—so no excursions to report.
Here are some quick comparisons.
Ship: Can’t really compare the Oasis with anything due to its sheer size. The largest ship we’ve been on prior to that was Carnival Breeze. Royal did a good job with the layout of the mega ship. You would never know there are 6,000 passengers because if the nature of the different neighborhoods.
The ship was clean and everything was in working order.
Cabin: We had an interior on deck 3. Since it was a casino agency comp, it wouldn’t have been our first choice, it actually ended up being a great location for us (close to MDR and casino). The cabin was tastefully decorated, and had a sofa. The desk had 3 outlets on the counter, plus one underneath, and an empty mini fridge.
There was sufficient storage for the two of us. Maybe slightly less storage than an inside on Carnival. The bathroom shower has a door instead of a curtain. There were no bathrobes in this class of cabin. Steward service was comparable to Carnival, but they seemed less “outgoing” and also less stressed. Nevertheless, our steward was a little hit and miss on our morning service time. Didn’t really affect our cruise—just an observation.
Cabin TV had fewer network channels and no free movies. Their movies were like $12 each ppv. The cable was completely out for about 3 days between about Cuba and Cozumel and back. Slightly annoying since DH likes to keep up with the news and we both tend to fall asleep at night watching TV. You can use the TV to manage your account, make reservations, order room service, etc.
Outside decks: Loved the variety of outdoor pools and venues! I think there were at least 5 pools, 8 or 10 hot tubs, a kids splash area, and their version of a Serenity deck, known as the Solarium. This adults only area is very large, and has panoramic views out the front of the ship.
This brings me to something we found odd. There is a glass wall all around deck 15 where the pools are. You need to go up to deck 16 to get an unobstructed view. But up there, you can’t really see the pier when docked. There is a secret deck on 14 forward, which was a good place to watch sail away. Deck 5 has a jogging track all the way around the ship, but is almost completely blocked by life boats.
Other topside activities included a really nice mini golf course, wave runner, a zip line, and two rock climbing walls. We didn’t use any of these, so having these extras didn’t really affect our cruise experience at all. We did enjoy watching others use the wave runner a couple times. We intended to try the zip line and play mini golf, but just never got around to it.
Down lower and in the middle of the ship are the boardwalk and Central Park. The boardwalk is in the rear and leads to the Aqua Theater, where they do nightly diving shows. The show is pretty impressive. There is a carousel, hot dog stand, arcade, ice cream store, and Johnny Rockets also on the boardwalk. Didn’t eat at any of them, but did try Sabor—a Mexican style pay restaurant back there (more on the food later). They also show movies on the big screens in the aqua theater.
Central Park is super cool! All the live plants, as well as bird and cricket sounds at different times of the day, really gave the feeling of being in a city park. There are a couple specialty restaurants there as well as a free place called Park Cafe, which was excellent.
Indoor areas: We spent a lot of time in Casino Royale. It was a large casino for a cruise ship. They had one side smoking and the other non, separated by the bar and the high limits area. Good variety of slots, but fewer of the newer games than our last couple Carnival ships we’ve been on. Didn’t notice any difference in apparent payouts between Royal and Carnival. They had lots of table games. Blackjack was hand dealt, but you had to bet $25 min to get a 3/5 game. The casino host was great. Casino, in general was similar. Maybe a little more laid back. Seemed to have fewer promotions going on than Carnival. I think Carnival does a better job with ventilation, but Royal’s non smoking section was more separate than the way Carnival does it.
The inside Promenade and the entertainment zone are the active areas at night. When you first board the ship, you come in on the promenade level. This looks like a land-based shopping mall with stores, bars, restaurants, etc. Think Carnival atrium on steroids. There are also lots of colors and sounds, and I found I didn’t really miss the Farcus look at all, because parts of Oasis looked like a lot of the Carnival ships to me.
At the front is the Opal Theater where they do the production shows. One floor down are the comedy club, jazz club, and skating rink.
This brings me to the shows. Royal differs from Carnival, in that you have to reserve show times. You can book these ahead of time on their website, or once you board at the “box office”, or I think you can book through the room TV. They are free, but hard to get a seat without a reservation. You must arrive no later than 10 min before your show, otherwise they give unused seats to those without reservations. We had pre-booked all our shows,which would have been 6 of them. We skipped one (too tired), were late for one (ended up standing in the back for a while), but did enjoy 3 others. Comedy was great. Very small venue and only one show per night, which we found odd. The water show was amazing. They do the full Broadway production of Cats in the main theater. We left during intermission on that one. It was good, but we were not familiar with the story and it just gets a bit long after a while. Come Fly With Me was a really cool show.
In general, the shows themselves are a step above Carnival’s shows. The jury is out for us on the whole reservation system though.
Food: Similar to Carnival. I’m not sure why people claim to like the food way better on either of these cruise lines. I mean, it was different, but pretty equal. Steaks probably better on RCI, but better seafood on Carnival. Did miss the chocolate melting cake and Guy’s burgers. Royal has creme brûlée every night in the MDR, which was great. Service seemed slightly better on Royal, but it seemed like they had fewer guests per wait team. Maybe because any given night, some people opt to eat in a specialty restaurant or at the buffet.
Royal definitely wins in the buffet department. We were prepared for a crowded mess, but actually found quite the opposite. The buffet is huge. They have various food stations from which to choose. We never found it too crowded. You could always find a clean table. They pre-pour glasses of iced tea, lemonade, juice, etc., so you’re not constantly waiting for people to get their drinks before you can get yours. There are no bacon police. They enforce the use of hand sanitizers upon entry to the buffet.
In addition to the main buffet. There are several other places to grab food during the day. There is a smaller buffet type place near the sports zone called the Wipeout Cafe. There is also Cafe Promenade and Sorento’s pizza on the inside Promenade deck. Like Carnival, late night options are pretty limited to Pizza and sandwiches. However, Royal seemed to have less wait for these things.
Room Service-Carnival has a slight edge on that food-wise. Royal charges $7.50 or something like that, for room service for as much food as you want to order. Continental breakfast is delivered without the fee. You can order using the TV. I heard Carnival is also instituting a delivery fee.
Specialty dining: Depending in how you feel about upcharge restaurants and needing more variety than the MDR, buffet and snack places, you may or may not enjoy the wide variety of specialty dining available on Oasis of the Seas. We ate at a few. Sabor is a great Mexican style place. We had pre-purchased it at a discount, for around $20 per person. I don’t think it would be worth the full price upcharge.
Giovanni’s table is the Italian upcharge restaurant for about $35 each—totally worth it! That was probably my favorite meal. Tiramisu dessert was probably the best I’ve ever had.
We purchased lunch at their steakhouse- Chops Grille. The price was much less at lunchtime, but it was a smaller menu. Very good as well.
Solarium Bistro is a buffet during the day, with excellent food. It becomes an upcharge restaurant at night.
Park Cafe was great for lunch. Salads made to order and yummy kemmelweck roast beef sandwiches were great.
After being loyal to (mostly) Carnival for 17 years, we now have another option. Carnival Players Club has become less and less generous with rewarding its players with comped future cruises. We spend a lot of moolah in the casino. On this cruise, We earned free drinks after 1000 points, which will now roll over to our next cruise. DH earned a free cruise, and I got $400 off next cruise. Guess what? They allowed us to combine offers, so we just booked our next 7-day Royal cruise and used my $400 to upgrade his free inside to a balcony! They give you a list of available sailings with your certificate, and you have a month to book it. Seemed to have more options for the choices of cruises, departure ports, and dates than we’ve been given by CPC the last year or so. They are also completely transparent about how many points you need to get rewards.
I’m going to miss my Platinum perks on Carnival. Also, Royal had an older more laid-back crowd. There was a slight air of classism on Royal that we didn’t notice on Carnival. High-tier loyalty members, and guests in certain cabin classes have access to exclusive areas/venues on Oasis. No big deal, but it was pretty obvious. Maybe someday...unless things change.
If Carnival Players Club steps up its game, or Royal’s casino stops providing great service and rewards, we would definitely go back to Carnival. Also, if we were actually paying the fare, Carnival would win that battle every time. And, while our RCI cruise was fun, I did miss the “Funship” experience. YMMV.
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Since DH has brought up the casino, let me do my casino post for this ship right now.
Most Carnival ships have a fairly decent casino, considering the amount of space allotted. The Fantasy class has a relatively smaller casino area than do Conquest and Breeze class. They do have a variety of slot machines. However, there are only a few of the ones frequent slot players like to use, leading to frustration on a daily basis, looking for your go-to machines.
The casino host(ess) was Daisy. I mentioned her earlier, but she was AMAZING! Very personable, and seems to really love her job and interacting with the guests!
The FB group we joined prior to the cruise held a slot pull. We all put $ in and each person got like 3 or 5 pulls on that slot. We ended up losing a couple dollars each (as in no one hit a big one while we played), but it was great fun on the one sea day (Tuesday). We donated the excess (what couldn't be divided equally) to St. Jude.
I did excellent on the first couple of nights, but the rest of them drained my bank terribly. We did end up with cookies, chocolate covered strawberries, a free bottle of wine, and free steakhouse selections to use in the MDR one night (this ship does not have a steakhouse
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Fishing trip, cont'd...
Once aboard the boat, which already had about 12 other passengers from hotels (we were the last pick up and first drop off), the mate gave a safety briefing and approached me for the remaining $100. We headed pretty far out and it became VERY choppy. Words alone cannot describe how VERY choppy this trip was. I wish I could post a video here. These were 8 foot swells (like from the bottom of a dip to the top of a lift)-so like 4 foot waves I guess.
Trying to walk around was almost impossible. Going to the head was a necessary evil because you had to go inside and down some stairs, then back up with all this motion going on. The weather was sunny and beautiful, so I am not sure why it was so choppy. No one was ill because of it (to my knowledge), which was a miracle from God.
Maybe a couple of these photos will give you a tiny idea what I mean, but I doubt it!
That was hubby in the fishing chair.
Hubby napping later inside the boat—all those waves were tiring.
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Thursday-St. Lucia-Deep Sea Fishing with Hackshaw’s Boat Charters
We had an early wake-up for our scheduled fishing tour at 8:15. We were told to go to the boat dock “right below your ship”. After finally finding it, it was only a short 5 minute walk, as promised. However, not having been there before, it took us a while to figure out where exactly they meant. This tour was $200, and you paid $100 on Paypal up front and the other half in cash once on board. Here is a shot of the ship from that area, in case anyone decides to do this tour:
Quick observation about St. Lucia- It looks beautiful with pastel-colored homes on hillsides, and is supposed to have great snorkeling. We observed the taxi drivers in port to be "Nassau-like" in their aggressive approach--although we told them we were already booked on a boat tour. If we go back, we will book a snorkeling tour or pre-book an island tour).
Now, after 20 cruises, we are running out of new things to do on shore tours. So, I booked this since hubby loves to fish at home. It was a bit over my usual price point, but I figured it would be a bucket-list type of experience and went for it.
While waiting for our boat to come (some time after 8:15—maybe more like 8:45), I met this gentleman. I’m not sure what it is about me that causes people to tell me stories and/or their life story, but this poor guy did just that—in one of those thick island dialect/accents that makes one difficult for a north-American English speaker to understand. First he asked me what boat we were going on. I told him Hackshaw’s and he said well, “He’s good, but not the best, but not the worst”. Thanks for the info, lol.
Then he was telling me about some boat captain who died in a boat explosion and the son taking over the business (may be this tour operator??? Not sure), and a few other things I can’t remember four weeks later.
Then, he showed me his bandaged leg (with what looked like a piece of a black trash bag and duct tape on it) and told me he was attacked by a pit bull and proceeded to show me his prescription for I think it was Tramadol and aspirin, and asked if I had $10 for him to buy his Rx. He needs the Tramadol so he can sleep, says he.
I politely declined (mostly since I had only brought the cash we needed for the balance of our tour plus tip, but I would be giving away cash all the time if I gave to every stranger who shares a story with me—really!). Anyway, this kind of thing happens to me ALL the time. Maybe I look like a nurse, lol. I did not see a Rx for an antibiotic, so I hope he already had that (or wasn't really attacked by a pit bull, lol).
Hubby snapped this photo of us having this conversation. while this picture makes the area look "shady" it is just shaded. Felt safe there.
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By this time, we are at least 2.5 hours into our Barbados adventure, and feeling hungry. Edwin knew just the place for lunch:
I am truly sorry I didn’t take a picture of the food and atmosphere here. I had flying fish, which I had never tried before and it was delicious! The local Banks beer was good too—if you are like me and like yellow ales (or lagers or whatever--you know-plain old US tasting beer lol). There were a couple other tour van drivers there with a few more tourists enjoying lunch. These are the kind of stops I love when you take a private or smaller tour. Small family restaurant with interesting food you do not see every day.
Side note on this lunch stop. The couple we ate with were older but young-acting Brits. They complained that their tour driver kept rushing them. We actually saw this in action when he came to tell his group it was time to go. The rest of them were at another table. He actually said something like "Time to go. Hopefully these two won't continue to hold up the tour." I mean, really???
So glad Edwin was so patient with us!
After lunch, we were supposed to drive to Bathsheba to take some more pictures of the seashore, but we were both ready to head back to the ship,since we weren’t firing on all cylinders that day. We had a leisurely ride back across the island to the port area, where we tipped Edwin and said our good-byes and headed back to the ship. The entire tour was at least 3.5 hours.
Edwin Lovell and Scenic Barbados Tours- TWO THUMBS UP!
Next up: Deep Sea Fishing at St. Lucia
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BooBoo I hope you finish as I would like to hear about the other ports. I am on this cruise in Sept.
Thanks Matt
Sorry Matt! Working hard to get through at least St. Kitts today! Wish it was easier to post pictures, otherwise I would have been done by now [emoji849]
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I hope you are very patient! I think the itinerary is the very reason they put the older ships on it (it was Valor prior to this). Most (I know, not ALL) will say they will deal with the older/smaller ship because the itinerary is so fantastic. I'm no expert but I do not see Carnival switching this any time soon. From what I can tell, the sailings are pretty close to full every week.
I agree for the most part. If the ship itself is not your "destination" then any ship will do for us.
Previous two were on Glory and Breeze.
Glory for 7 days was a bit long, only because been there done that. Breeze I think was 5 days. There were parts of the ship I never saw.
Next time we do a newer, bigger ship, I won't care where it's going. Could make the ship more of a destination if Bahamas or Cozumel are involved, lol...
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A couple pics of us while there:
Selfie:
Hubby taking pics at the viewing area:
Me doing a half-hearted imitation of this sculpture (much to DH dismay, lol):
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After quite an interesting and scenic drive, we arrived at our next stop-Animal Flower Cave. We had intended to actually go down into the cave, but decided not to when we saw there was an additional fee (like $20 each, which could have actually been $10USD each as that was the exchange rate, but we didn’t inquire). The cool thing about this stop, is it was great even without going down into the cave! There is a restaurant, a market, and plenty of scenery and photo-ops. Check out these beautiful views:
It reminded me of Hawaii.
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Some pictures they have displayed from when President and Nancy Reagan visited. The bench has a placard commemorating their visit. (Another bench, I think I remember, was for a visit from Queen Elizabeth or someone):
This is the baptismal, inscribed with the date 1684!
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To be fair, I think this next shot was in Barbados, but it may have actually been St. Kitts. I just think it is interesting that wherever you see a “no dumping” sign, there is always stuff dumped—even in the U.S.
Our first extended stop was at St. Thomas Anglican Church—the oldest church on Barbados.
This tree is reportedly over 300 years old:
Inside the church:
The church organ:
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I’M BAAAACK! Wednesday-Barbados
First of all. I am so, so sorry I left this hanging for two weeks. I have been extremely busy with family and work! But now I at least have all my pictures loaded into Photobucket and have written the next few posts, so here we go! Also, I apologize for the poor photo quality. I had been e-mailing myself them “medium” size before uploading to Photobucket. Since then, I have been sending them in real size, so hopefully that will take care of the problem. If not, then it’s Photobucket, and I refuse to upgrade, lol.
For Barbados, I had booked directly online with Edwin Lovell of Scenic Barbados Tours. We had requested several stops, and Edwin said he would accommodate us for $80 total on an approximately 4 hour tour. Our meeting time was 9:00.
After the bloodletting and hubby’s flare up of the day before, we debated taking a loss on our pre-paid tour, as we really were not feeling 100% that morning (more like 60%, really). However, we decided to tough it out, and were glad we did!
Here is the ship docked at Barbados:
This is one of the tours that you must walk outside the main terminal area to catch. As promised, Edwin was waiting for us just outside the main gate, near the traffic circle. It is about a 10 minute walk once you exit the ship and walk through the shopping mall you are forced to endure at every port these days. He said he had another person who might be joining us, but the guy never came back, so we left after about 15 minutes. The tour was in a large van, but it was just the two of us, so we could go where we liked, stay as long as we liked, and change it up if we wanted to.
We took a drive out of town toward the north of the island. Here are some shots at the first scenic stop:
This is a typical view in the smaller villages between the port and the north side where we were headed:
Here is a fruit market along the way:
More Barbados to come...
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This is interesting. I read the emergency portion of your review to my husband. Oddly, we were on this cruise with you and neither of us remember hearing that announcement! Although, we did find it hard to understand most of the announcements anyway. Glad you were able to help out!
I'm thinking because we were in the cabin we heard it. Had we been on Lido, we probably wouldn't have.
Trying to get the Barbados report up tonight! Stay tuned...
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Tuesday sea day:
This was pretty much the strangest day I’ve ever had on a cruise. 20 cruises.
I have been trying to decide whether to post this part or not. I decided that it would be good information for those who may be cruising with medical issues and who do not buy trip insurance (we are among those). Life can throw anyone a foul ball…regardless of whether you are on land or at sea. Just read this part with that in mind. I am not posting this for kudos. Thanks anyway. Just hope if it were me or DH, someone would help us out. So that, and the fact that it was so unusual, I have to share.
We didn’t do too much the morning of the ONLY sea day of this cruise. We slept and got up later than usual. I’m pretty sure that was the day they did the slot tournament in the casino. I went ahead and used my buy-one-get-one platinum entry for that. Totally didn’t come close to winning. We went to the sea day brunch in the MDR and I had a mimosa for my free drink. Later, I ordered a “funship” and we pretty much sat around on Lido doing nothing.
Mid-afternoon, we decided to head back to our room to take a nap. We were going to have a busy 3 days ahead, so we may as well rest up today!
As we entered our room to take a nap, there was an announcement that came over even the in-room speaker. Like, you know how they only pipe the announcements into the room before muster drill and when they are trying to get you out of there on the last day? It was like that. “We request that anyone with blood type B+ who has a valid blood donor card please report to the medical center on deck 3 for a medical emergency.” I looked at DH and said, “That’s me”. He said, “You go do your thing. I’m taking a nap”.
I grabbed my ID and donor card out of my wallet in the safe and headed out into the hallway to find the medical center. Never having been there, personally, I stood there in indecision as to which way to even go. Luckily, I ran into our awesome steward, Bagus, who directed me to go all the way forward and down to deck 3.
Upon arrival, there were a couple others standing outside the door to the medical center, and there was a sign on the door reading, “Closed due to a medical emergency” or some such. I went inside and was met by a man whom I believe was a medical doctor. Also there were some O-negs who thought since they are universal donors, they might be needed. I heard the staff tell them they were specifically looking for B-pos and they would make another announcement if they couldn’t get the units they needed.
After sitting in the waiting area for a bit, I was escorted to a room in the back where several of us (which someone in the group named the "B-positive club") were waiting to find out what was going on, and if they needed us to donate blood. Some point shortly thereafter, it appeared that only myself and one other B+ volunteer had a valid donor card with them. We were the two they decided to collect blood from--they said they needed exactly two units. At that point, I’m kind of starting to think this isn’t really happening—maybe I’m actually still in my cabin taking that nap I was about to take. I mean, seriously...
Next steps involved filling out consent forms, having vitals taken, and having a blood sample taken to check for communicable diseases, infection, anemia, etc. I got to talk to two of the nurses who couldn’t tell me anything other than it was a female passenger who probably needed a transfusion prior to reaching the next port. It was quite an ordeal for them to figure out how they were doing all this. I said, “You guys don’t do this every day, do you?” The response was “Ummmm,NO!” Apparently they can't really type-and-cross-match, so that is why they needed donors to have the exact blood type with a valid donor card. They did say they do not bring any blood products aboard.
It was probably about an hour before the actual procedure started.
Afterward, they ordered room service cookies and juice for us, lol. Just like at the Red Cross—cookies and juice! Being an RN myself, I asked them about their jobs. They said it varies from primary care, to urgent care work mostly, with a few ER type cases in between. Super nice people. They wear non-descript white officer-ish uniforms—I saw them hitting up the pizza stand late night a few days later, lol. Now I know.
One of them took this pic of me, so I could prove to myself later that it wasn’t just a bizarro dream and I wasn’t in the twilight zone,but that this actually happened!
I hope and pray the person who may have needed the blood made it OK. We were on the leg of the trip where the ship is travelling super far from St. Thomas to Barbados. Probably out of range for the US Coast Guard,or maybe they were a Barbados resident who just needed to make it home. Who knows.
The next day, I found this on my account (lol $0 charge at the medical center):
And, later in the room, this nice note and fruit/cheese basket from the captain:
Nice touch.
I will not go into the rest of the day too much, other than to say this was also the day DH’s chronic health issue flared up and he didn’t make it through dinner. I also stuck to virgin frozen drinks since I was now a bit volume-depleted and didn’t want to make myself sick. I ordered steak at dinner so I could get some iron in me, lol. This was the night the first two couples from prior dinners didn’t show up and the first night couple #3 showed up. They sat all the way on the other side of the huge table, and DH didn’t make it through dinner, so it was quite awkward. Kind of a slow, bad evening :(. Oh well, all uphill from there, I guess!
Next up: Barbados!
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Up next: Tuesday-Day at Sea. Only one sea day on this itinerary. We had a strange sea day.
Questions:
Why am I at the medical center?
Who are all these people waiting with me in the Medical Center?
Why might (or might not) one want to bring this on a cruise?
20 cruises...and there is still always a "first"!
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Magen’s Bay Beach
Since we were the only ship in town, and it was now mid-afternoon, the beach was not crowded at all. They had chairs to rent, but we just laid out our towels and sat on the sand. They had nice bathroom/changing facilities and we parked ourselves about half way between those and the restaurant/bar area. There were also some picnic tables up a little higher under the trees,as well as a covered pavilion area with tables. The restaurant had normal resort prices for things like hamburgers and pizza (which is what we got and they were decent). The bar prices were the same as the ship, so that was a bit of a disappointment. I only had one frozen drink, and DH had a Coke from the grill. I think we spent about $30 for two slices of cheese pizza, a burger, fries, one pop, and one frozen drink. Here are some pictures:
Overall, it was a nice beach stop, and two hours was just about right. This would be a good beachfor families, as the water was calm and shallow, and the facilities were nice. There is no snorkeling there to speak of though, so if that is what you want, go someplace else.
On the way back, we had lost a handful of passengers who had either not got off there, or found other transportation back. However, we had picked up a solo male north American who was staying at a hotel on the island, and had a bottle of rum he was happy to share, lol. A few people took him up on that offer.
Now,remember, our tour started at 11:30 and it was now after 3:30. With all-aboard being 4:30, we were starting to cut it a bit closer than I normally would on a non-ship tour. To top it off, the driver decided to take the hotel guy back first. This wouldn’t have been too big a deal, except there was a road closure due to an accident, requiring a detour, and the guy’s hotel was on the other side of the island from the port. I just kept telling myself everything would be OK because this is a reputable tour operator who does not want to make people miss their ship, only to have bad reviews on the travel review sites. My DH, on the other hand,was about to lose his mind. He was kind of freaking out. This is the opposite of how things usually go between us, lol. Hint to tour company--take the people whose hotel is leaving at 5:00 back before taking back the person whose hotel is on solid ground. Just saying!
We finally got back to the port shopping area around 4:15,allowing us a quick 15 min to pick up a very specific duty free purchase and board the ship by 4:30. Phew!
This cruise was free of “pier runners” as we call them(people almost late for or missing the ship). Here is the Senior Frogs at the pier on St. Thomas. As the risk of offending (please don’t be),DH said this is “the most ghetto Senior Frogs in the Universe”, LOL! I’m not sure it was even open for business.
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St. Thomas, continued...
Let me just stop for a moment and tell you about the actual ride itself. This is so you can picture how it is, in case you might or might not want to book this tour. We enjoyed it. They drive on the left, so there’s that, plus the narrow windy roads. The driver talks to the back of the bus via an intercom, which is very loud. Plus, they have a pretty thick island accent. Add to that, the fact that Mr. Love had a love for loud reggae music, to which he sang, and encouraged the whole group to join in singing and doing hand motions, etc. He was loving life, and most passengers were having fun. I do think some were not into it, and I can see why. I hope to add one short video clip, but it may not work. I think my DH posted a video on you tube, so I may be able to direct you there if you are really interested.
The next stop was Mountain Top. Here was another amazing overlook (where you can see Magen’s Bay beach), as well as a very large, reasonably priced gift shop, “world famous banana daiquiris”, and clean restrooms, if you need them. We were given about 40 minutes at this stop. We did not try the daiquiris,but did use all the other amenities here. It is a worthwhile stop.
I'm pretty sure this is a view of Magen's Bay beach from the viewing area there:
The bus:
There was a lot of driving involved in the trip, so by the time we got done there, it was time to head to the beach. Everyone else was going to Magen’s. We had asked for Sapphire when booking online, but at this point, I didn’t really feel like asking to be taken there separately. Plus we were getting hungry. We had snorkeled at nearby St.John 6 months ago, so would just settle for a sitting on the beach eating lunch day.
Magen’s Bay beach...next!
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Thanks to those reading, following and waiting!
Here is the next installment.
Day 2: St. Thomas USVI; Sightseeing and Beach with Sunny Liston Tours
Prior to this cruise, I pre-booked tours on every island except St. Martin. I usually try and book tours directly from the local tour operators after researching them here and on the other travel review site. Last time we were at St. Thomas, we had done a catamaran snorkel trip over to St. John (which was amazing), so this time I thought we’d actually go see St. Thomas!
I had wanted to combine an island tour with beach snorkeling at Sapphire Beach. At $84 total for two of us, Sunny Liston’s Tour #4 fit the bill. Our tour that day didn’t leave until 11:30, so we got to sleep in and have a leisurely breakfast aboard the ship (only shore tour that wasn’t leaving at 8:30 this trip). It was a little confusing when we got off the ship as to where we were supposed to go. Finally I broke down and turned on my cell to call them. Turns out they were right there about 25 yards away from the exit gate where we were--in plain sight, lol!
The buses are open-air safari types that can probably hold about 25 people. We met our driver “Taxi Love” and boarded there with about 8-10 other passengers. From there, he drove us to an area of town where he picked up a few more people and then we were off to several scenic areas, shopping, and an opportunity to purchase souvenirs and banana daiquiris,prior to getting to the beach. The tour was about evenly divided with 2 hours touring and 2 hours at the beach.
The first stop was a good viewing point of the island, where Taxi Love told us some of the history of the pirates and pointed out particularlandmarks and resorts that could be seen from there. I won't ruin the story for you, but here's some pictures:
This guy was cool. Love this pic:
Think I hit my picture limit, so next post will continue St. Thomas!
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Sooooo...I didn't get as far as planned yesterday. Mostly because photobucket is a PITA. Hopefully next installment after work tonight!
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Sounds like a perfect plan. Thanks a bunch!