BigDaddyCVO

On my iPhone, putting it in airplane mode also disables wifi connectivity. One option is to turn off roaming in your phone's cellular settings (voice & data). That way if you are in range of your home network, you'll have connectivity.

 

I'm an Ooma customer, and have the app on my iPhone. I'm not planning on making a lot of calls, but it will be nice if I have the option when underway.

 

Paula

Both my phones (an Android for personal use and an iPhone for work) can utilize wifi when in airplane mode; I just need to turn wifi on separately. The Vonage app allows users to choose how the app connects and doesn't connect; I chose the wifi only option. I just hope the Vonage app works as described. The reviews are mixed, but lean more toward favorable.

I downloaded the Vonage Extensions app as it works with my home calling plan. We're counting on free wifi being available in some of the ports whether it is at a restaurant, shop, pier, etc... Planning on putting the phone in Airplane mode w/ wifi on to avoid inadvertent 3G/4G cellular connections and the related fees.

Has anyone used any of the viop apps such as Vonage (already a Vonage customer for home phone) or Magic Jack to make calls to the U.S. from the Caribbean using public wifi? If so, what was your experience? Recommendation(s)?

Has anyone used any of the viop apps such as Vonage (already a Vonage customer for home phone) or Magic Jack to make calls to the U.S. from the Caribbean using public wifi? If so, what was your experience? Recommendation(s)?

For our upcoming 27-Jun-2015 AdOS sailing...

On May 22, I e-mailed RCLDining with our request. On May 26, I received a reply noting our request had been sent to the ship. On May 27, I received another reply stating our request had been granted and included a screenshot of a spreadsheet noting our names, table number, seating time, cabin number and some other misc. info.

You asked many questions and some of them more than once. Here are my two cents which are just that...my two cents. You will get varying opinions, which is good, about what to do and what not to do. Just take everything for what it's worth and draw your own conclusions. The only right way to enjoy a cruise is what's right for you. And, every question you asked has countless threads on CC addressing them that you could research.

Can someone explain the "lay of the land" to me- that is, let's start with the pregame -- Things I need to figure out: excursions (I will likely be planning our own- I love that ) and the drink packages ~my teens will want soda and virgin frozens, I am still thinking about my DH and me. He typically is a beer drinker but likes the occasional painkiller type of drink. Is it probably best to buy the beer package and then just put the occasional rum drink onto our account? There are many drink package threads on CC which will provide you the info you are looking for. I like beer and mixed cocktails but I'm not a morning drinker (Bloody Mary etc). Makes me too tired. If I add a couple cocktails on each day, I still don't think that makes the bigger packages cost effective. Do they have a credit card on file and it just goes to that? Yes. Our passports are all current. Copies made just in case. Anything else I should be thinking about at this point? Possibly booking excursions before you go, I'm also a bit of a planner who prefers to have all excursions arranged prior to the sailing so I can just sit back and enjoy the cruise rather then standing in line booking excursions. There are countless CC threads dealing with excursions, just look up threads for your specific ports and you'll find everything you need. I'm a bit of a compulsive micromanaging planner (I hope in a good way ;) )

 

What happens when we get to the Pan Am dock? We are staying at the Hilton Caribe the night before which looks like a nice hotel but I am thinking we may want to get to the dock early. As this is our first time, I feel like we want to get acclimated early. You hand your luggage over right? Typically whenever we travel we just do backpacks or at most carry ons. Very very light packers But we typically don't need so many changes of clothes and my kids have NEVER been asked to wear khakis on a vacation. They don't know about that yet LOL That'll be a fun conversation. So if we did board early, I need to organize bathing suits and change of clothes for everyone in a carry on I assume. Easy enough. Sunscreen. Any other secret tips? Once at the pier you will give your bigger bags to porters, they will eventually make it to the hallway outside your cabin. You will then go through airport style screening and then to check-in and then all aboard once finished at check-in. Varying opinions about what to carry on the ship with you, but we normally take swimwear and swim accessories as well as dinner attire and just enough toiletries necessary to make us presentable for dinner. Sometimes your bags don't make it to your cabin before dinner. Keep in mind you will not have access to your cabin until 1p or 2p, so whatever you carry-on you will have to carry around until cabins are open. Once on board we normally register DS for Adventure Ocean and maybe a light lunch depending on what time we it is.

 

When does customs happen? At the end of the cruise. as you process on to the boat, what happens? You will sit bigger bags outside your cabin the last night of the cruise. The next morning you will disembark per instructions which will be provided during the cruise. Once you disembark you will go to a big hall and find your bags that were set out the night before and then go through customs/immigration. Once you clear customs you are done. How does Royal Caribbean organize accounts? You can pretty much set everyone on your reservation anyway you want. There are two main options: 1. link a SeaPass to a credit card and 2. pre-load SeaPass accounts. I assume if my teens have a different drink package, they have to keep some kind of identification? Sticker on the SeaPass and they will be given a special cup with RFID for use in the Free Style machines. Do I need to worry about them losing something? Or, put another way--- if they have something to carry around, how many times can they lose it before there is a penalty? Guest Services will make new SeaPass cards as needed; not sure if there is a cost involved, never lost one. I'm not sure how RCI replaces lost Free Style machine cups. :D

 

Do I have an account with the ship that I could add money to prior so to make it a little less painful financially down the road? Yes. See above. How do Royal Caribbean gift cards work? OBC, I assume. I have some rewards with my Chase card and that is one of the options. Anyone ever use them before? You need to contact Chase for redemption instructions, but basically Chase will add OBC to your account.

 

So at each new port, you arrive and is there a crazy mass exodus? Yes. Is it super crowded or do they stagger it? Yes. Controlled chaos.

 

I am hoping that I will not make the casino a habit. We have some great casinos nearby in CT and thankfully they are just far enough away so as not to be habit forming. I'm typically just a slots/roulette girl, and I'm hearing the cruise ships are "tight". But SHOULD I decide to go :rolleyes: how does it work? Cash? Yes. Is it a "ticket" when you win? I assume it's not old school quarters coming out? You assume correct. (though I found that very rewarding in the moment). What is a slots tournament? Never did it, but there may also be a poker tourney.

 

How does the wifi work? Never used it. I would love to tell my kids (and myself actually) to try to "disconnect" for the entirety of the trip but I don't see that as likely. Do you buy wifi beforehand? Not sure if pre-purchasing wifi is possible, but I'm certain it can be purchased on board. I know it's a sketchy connection so hopefully a once a day check-in to be sure things are okay at home will suffice.

 

What takes place at the meet and mingle? Would my teens go? or would they kill me. :D Everyone usually mingles and continues discussions started on the CC Roll Call; sometime you will get a dull group who just sits and looks at one another. An RCI rep will be there with some door prizes and there will be light refreshments. I don't think teens would be interested.

 

I could sit here all day and write questions all day but for now, that's a start.

The last time we cruised FOS from PC we flew in two days early, rented a car, and stayed in Orlando. We stayed at the Drury Inn & Suites on Sand Lake Rd. for <$100 and spent our free day at Universal. But, that's not what you asked about...

Bottom line is we liked the flexibility of having a rental car, even if we flew in just one day early. The 45'ish minute drive to PC is easy. I dropped family and bags off at the pier and returned the car. By the time I got back to the pier (shuttle provided by rental company) my family had already checked the bags with porters and cleared security. I basically joined them to get our SeaPass cards and boarded. But, as another poster noted, if you fly in late the day before it may be more economical and less hassle to just use a taxi or shuttle.

You think that's bad we were on the Liberty, my wife woke up with a headache and had to pay $12.00 for 24 tablets of Tylenol:eek::eek::eek:

Liked.

I wonder if the list is updated throughout the cruise or if the list is provided prior to the sailing and not updated. We prefer not to pre-pay so we can use OBC to cover the gratuities. Oftentimes we take care of this on day 1 or 2 to get it out of the way. With that being said...like another poster, we really don't care if staff knows we pre-paid.

We did the return by catamaran.

The catamaran was extremely crowded.

Problem was almost everyone was over 55 and many much older.

There were not enough seats without climbing around and sitting on the floor and people were not really able to move around easily to stay out of the sun.

Lots of people didn't realize they would need to remove their shoes before getting on the cat and there was no good place to sit down to do it so it took forever to get on and off.

We stood in the shade at the bar the entire time which suited us BUT was awfully hard on many others.

As much as we normally like catamarans, this was NOT a good one. :(

 

LuLu

In addition to the above, if you want to have some time to walk around town after the train tour you might want to consider taking the bus back. If you are more interested in having the tour take up your day then maybe the catamaran option would suit you better. We always like having time in the afternoon to do things on our own.

Good information. I had originally reserved the rail and sail, but switched it to the other. Though we also enjoy catamarans, we're not interested in that scenario. And, since it is our 1st time to St. Kitts, we'd like some time to explore on our own a bit.

Taking for granted we're sailing RCI and noting consideration is given to each of these factors (which are listed in order of importance):

Itinerary

Price

Departure Port

Ship

OSJ fort tours are also popular time killers (planning on one in June '15). You can book them through RCI or at the port after debarkation; they are generally relatively inexpensive. The tour operator stores your luggage on the bus during the tour and drops you off at the airport.

Some also wait until the morning of day 2 to purchase drink packages at the prorated price. The reasoning is day 1 is shorter due to embarkation and paying for each drink on day 1 will be less than the daily average of the package if purchased pre-cruise. Personally, I purchase it on day 1 and DW purchases it day 2; we use OBC. As with most things...personal preference.

Another option, if you are are willing to consider something outside of OSJ, might be the Best Western Plus Condado Palm Inn & Suites. While not on the beach it is only one block away and is in the heart of everything Condado has to offer; it's also a little closer to the Pan American Pier than some of the OSJ hotels. The price makes the BW+ a good value and it has favorable reviews on TripAdv....

We're staying there in late-June '15 for our AOS sailing.

They used to offer it both ways. You could book the train and catamaran or just the train and then the buses that bring you from the train to the catamaran would just bring you back to the port after dropping people off at the catamaran dock. So now they are forcing everyone onto the catamaran?

Both options are available for the AOS June 27 '15 sailing (in St. Kitts on June 29). The rail and sail tour is 1 hour longer and $50 more than the tour using buses for the return trip to the ship.

The excuse RCI gave me was because they had another ship at port at the same time which was a straight out lie.

 

You are exectly correct this is what just happened while it's not even shown up as being availabne and RCI had no clue why it is now listed and I've booked it along with others.

 

Would be nice if their staff actually knew anything instead of just lying to make excuses for it not being listed.

I'm glad it worked out.

In Jan '15, we booked a late June '15 AOS cruise with a stop in St. Kitts. We wanted to book the railway excursion at the time we booked the cruise, but it was not listed in shore excursions section of the planner. I contacted the tour operator directly who informed me the tour can only be reserved through RCI. Discouraged and believing it was either sold out or not going to be available, we booked another tour in St. Kitts. Fast forward to the first week of April and two different railway tours showed up in the planner. We canceled the tour we initially reserved and reserved the railway tour.

Keep checking the planner, it may show up. But, being this close to your sail date, I wouldn't be too optimistic. I don't have a lot of faith in RCI's ability to communicate between internal groups or some of their reservation technology; who knows how accurate any of the info you are getting is.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, we're sailing AOS in June and was just moved from a deck 9 D1 near the end of the long aft hallway to a deck 9 D1 hump that was previously not available (or more accurately, not shown as available). Like the OP the move wasn't announced, but in this case, I don't mind.

Can someone tell me where we will be picked up upon cruise ship arrival? My confirmation states at the front by the main road, but I have never docked in Aruba. Do they pick you up in a "marked" vehicle? Thanks for the help!

My confirmation e-mail stated they would meet us near the cruise port entrance close to the passing road. Hopefully, they will have a sign or other means to be clearly identified.

We're doing this in June. We've done the H-D tour in Coz and are hoping this will be just as enjoyable. The trikes look fun to drive...as long as your friends don't see you ;)

Thank you for the info. I looked on my reservation and was surprised to see that I do have early seating. I made my reservation only 2 weeks ago.

It normally takes only a day or two for your preference to appear on you reservation.

If you haven't already, create an account on RCI's website. Once set up and logged-in, click the "My Cruises" link; you should be able to see and/or search for your reservation for that specific cruise. Once you click on the link for that particular reservation you can scroll down to the bottom of the "Overview" tab/page; your "Dinner Seating" assignment should be listed under the "Preferences & Requests" heading.

I think we're just going to do the SJ city tour through RCI. It appears the cost through RCI is cheaper than an independent operator. This is mainly a time killer for a mid-afternoon flight.

BOA cancelled and reissued our RCI cards last summer for the same reason. Fortunately, BOA's fraud protection caught on to the fraudulent charge(s) before it became a headache for us.

Netherlands Antilles. Note...for some reason, some months are not listed.