jillfeng85

Some people said that you'd better turn on airplane mode as soon as you board the cruise to avoid hefty roaming charges (is this true for Azamara), while others say that you can buy e-sim card ahead of time and try to use the signal from land. For my upcoming trip with Azamara, If I have my original T mobile sim card in (from US) and have a European e-sim (dual sim card), I can turn off my T mobile data plan and try to use the European e-sim data? 

Thank you very much, 

Next visited a port that needs tendering before. Do you need to pay to get tendered? Do you need to book ahead? Or you just show up in the morning? On the way back, if the ship is leaving, say 8pm, when do you have to get to the return tender site? 

Thank you, 

We are new to Azamara and are trying to figure out how to use OBCs we received. We will spend some on Internet and some on dining. But have questions about the shorex, spa and restaurants:

1) I found shorex very expensive through Azamara. On our Iconic Med route (Koper, Zadar, Dubrovnik, Kotor, Corfu, Santorini, Rhodes, Ephesus, Istanbul). Is there any to recommend?

2) access spa or sauna? Do you need to pay? 

3) We are on Quest for 11 nights. Any suggestions on restaurants? I read some bad reviews on the steak? Is prime C that bad? What is chef's table? Is that worth it? 

Thank you very much.

So we have 10h in port (8am to 6pm), and are only interested in going to Ljubljana. However, I could not find a tour company that offers Ljubljana alone (other than private group, which is ~$400). Tour companies offer a combo of Ljubljana and Lake Bled. But we are not interested in Lake Bled and do not want to spend hours in the bus. Is there any way we could do it ourselves from Koper to Ljubljana? Or any other suggestions? Our cruise line does offer Ljubljana alone but it is almost at the price of a private tour for two. Thank you. 

17 hours ago, Xcelsior said:

If you're in port most days or close to shore most of the time, and you have an e-sim compatible unlocked phone, I would suggest getting a regional e-sim plan for Europe.  They're cheap and then you also have a data plan on shore as well.  It works brilliantly on european itiineraries.  Caribbean or transatlantic not so much. 😉

I think it should be close to shore most of the time? It is Venice - Koper - Zadar - Dubrovnik - Kotor - Corfu - Santorini - ... Port heavy schedule.  

1 hour ago, ECCruise said:

How long ago was that?

 

We've used T-mobile in about 15 countries so far this year and the download speeds probably averaged around 2-3 MPS, fast enough for most streaming.  Even after we went through the 5 Gigs each that are included monthly and it ramped down to around 256mb it was slow, admittedly, but quite usable for email, web browsing (non-video), etc.

2022, I went to Peru. Maybe a Peru problem? 

9 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

The Wi-Fi on board is fine nowadays. We always have unlimited Wifi because buying minutes means you have to be very careful about logging on and off each time or the minutes just disappear.

I think that if you’re not drinkers, on an 11 day cruise it’s probably better to just buy the Wifi package which would be better value, but the only way to be sure is to add up all the individual costs that are of value to you.  A wifi package for an 11 day cruise is about $219.45 for one device at a time.

Thank you very much. After the math, I think it is better that we should get the package. But to use OBC for package, we have to wait until we are on board and then use the excursion credit to book excursions. The main downside is that it may be too late to book excursions then especially excursions for the first couple days of the trip?

13 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Or if you live in the US, just switch to T-Mobile and get worldwide (and airplane) coverage for free.

Actually, I have T mobile. But last time I went on cruise or abroad, the free roaming really sucked ... too slow ... But I can consider getting a regional e-sim using my old iphone which was unlocked. 

We are new to Azamara. Going on 11 day from Venice to Istanbul in August. Need Wifi access. Is the wifi quality/speed okay on this route? Should we book Unlimited Internet or More Enjoyment with addition excursion/spa credit? We are not drinkers. 

Going in a few days. Booked a cough tours already, but by the weather report, seems pretty rainy there!

What is the weather like on rainy days? Rains all day? Is it OK to even walk around or join tours?

We will be going in Dec. 3 cruises in town same day, but ours will be 1h earlier than others. Hopefully that gives us some advantage in avoiding the crowd. We are planning to go to both Maho and Trunk. Trunk for the view, and Maho for turtles. Is this possible? How can I get from Trunk to Maho?

We would like to do things in our own pace, and are considering hire a taxi at the port for a half a day tour of the island. I found a recent fee chart saying that it is $80 for a group of 4. Anyone has experiences with it? Is $80 the price? How long do they allow you to stay at each spot? Is it easy to find one at the port?

We are looking for budget or DIY tour of the island for 2 reasons: 1. budget; 2. some of us do not speak English.

I know that the island has barely any public transportation. We are interested in Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park and hanging out at a beach. Any advice on how to do it?

This is our last stop of cruise, and my guess is that by the time we get here, we don't want to hit the beach anymore. So the plan is to check out Marigot and Philipsburg on a Sat. We will walk around and find some good eats. Can someone recommend a couple places to check out? We are looking for places serving local food, preferably under 20 per person. It can be a restaurant, a bakery or a market. There will be 2 cruises in town, so things may get busy.

By the way, I heard about the market at Marigot. Is it worth to check out?

We are interested in going to Harrison's cave, but the tours I can find through cruise are either too expensive or too big a package. Is there any cheaper way to do it? For instance, any local tours you can find off the cruise? or any public or taxi commute to the cave and take the cave tour there?

I think that we like to try Marigot and probably a bit of Barbados.

In term of snorkeling and boat ride, which island do you think is better?

I tried the specific ports of all, but they don't compare island to island.

Also any good restaurants?

We are going on a cruise to Southern Caribbean, and I have 3 islands that I am not sure what to do with them: St. Kitts, St. Marten, and Barbados. I would like to have some advices.

Here are my questions:

1. Which island/town would you recommend to take a walk in town for a couple hours? I heard about marigot. Any better choices than that? On the day we are at St. Marten, there will be another cruise and a total of 7000 passengers. I heard that the traffic at St. Marten can be bad. That's my concern for marigot.

2. Any restaurant for local foods would you recommend on these islands? Price under $30 pp

3. Which island would you recommend for a moderate hiking trip?

4. Which boat trip/snorkel trip would you recommend the most, of all 3 islands?

Thank you.

WOW! So many wonderful ideas!

Do you know how far in advance do I have to book the popular tours? A year? 6 months? 2 months?

I am thinking about Bacardi too, because my dad loves alcohol! Definitely keep Mullet beach in mind. We dislike crowded places.

We sailed out of San Juan last January, and friends of ours did the Bacardi tour. They said what mad the tour really good was taking the mixology class. So, I would recommend doing that.

 

I have heard that the Boatyard is nice. When we were there, we went to the Agapey Chocolate Factory and took a tour. It is really small, and the whole tour is one big room, the tour is given by the owner, but it was fascinating, and some of the best chocolate we have ever had. You can check it out at Agapey.com

 

The best excursion we ever did in St. Maarten, was the America's Cup Yacht Race. You get to be part of the crew, and race an actual course. It was so much fun. We also like Mullet Bay Beach on the Dutch side of St. Maarten. We've done Orient Beach, but it is crowded, and yes you can walk down the beach to a nudist beach area. :eek:

 

We have never gone over to St. John. We have always snorkeled in St. Thomas. The town is nice. We have taken a taxi to town a few times to shop.

 

I hope some of this helps. Have a great cruise.

Super helpful. I forgot to mention that my parents barely speak English, and they prefer to have 2 days not on any tours, but by ourselves. I found it a bit harder to find information about DIY, because people talks more about tours.

In Barbados, we REALLY loved swimming with the sea turtles. I know it’s not really on your list of things, but we all agree this was our favorite part of the cruise. Our group of 5 or 6 booked with Jason from Shasa Catamaran and we had an awesome time. So awesome, in fact, that we are booked with him again this October =) I know people say you can go to a beach and swim out to see the turtles on your own, but I loved riding on the catamaran, drinking the rum punch, and eating the food that Jason provided (it was homemade, local fare).

 

In St. Kitts, I really enjoyed seeing Brimstone Fortress. I thought it was pretty cool to see, plus it had some great views on the island. When we were there, we were with a group of 5 of us and we just approached a taxi driver, told him what we wanted to do, and he took us to Brimstone, gave us tons of info about the island on the way, and then took us to a beach to snorkel. I apologize, but the name of the beach and how much it cost escapes me :/ It was almost 2 years ago, but I don’t think it was more than $15 or 20 per person. We also wandered around town, found a neat old church to tour (it was open and free) and felt really safe the whole time. I think St. Kitts is honestly my favorite island thus far because it isn’t as touristy as many of the other ports are.

 

San Juan – The forts are really fabulous, plus they’re cheap ($5 per person to do both I think). Definitely would do those.

 

I don’t have much advice for the other islands. St. Lucia was a bust last time we were there as the guys went deep sea fishing while the girls went shopping and to the beach. It was lovely, but not my favorite. This October we are going with Herod to see the Pitons via boat. I don’t have it in me to do a nearly 2 hour car ride through the island on windy roads.

 

St. Martin – not much help either. We shopped the boutiques on the French side, which was unique, and then another beach (whose name I can’t recall). I really loved the guavaberry rum though and would highly recommend a drink with it =) This year we are going to the famed Maho Beach to see the planes. I have also read that Mullet Bay Beach is only a 10-15 minute walk from Maho and is much more swimmable, so we will probably spend some time there.

 

St. Thomas – no help. We missed this port last time due to propulsion issues. I think we are going to make it a beach day this time around.

 

I love this itinerary, hence we are doing it again, only the 6 day version, so we miss St. Kitts, but see Dominica. Hopefully this was helpful and not just me rambling =) Enjoy the cruise! If you want super in depth, entertaining, and recent info, I found trippingpara’s cruise review awesomely helpful. Here’s a link: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2221552

Good advice! Have looked at port of call and tripadvisor. So I have an idea what I can do at each port, but does not know which port is better for what compared with other ports.

Will definitely check out roll call!

Dan

Hi Jillfeng

 

I am glad to see that you decided on the Carnival cruise.

 

You say that you have done some research, I was wondering if you have looked at the Port of Call/Caribbean threads on cruise critic. There would be a thread for each of your port of calls, these would be very helpful for current information on each port.

 

Also I have found very helpful for places I have never been to before, is to just google "must do things when in xxxx"

 

Don't know if you are aware but you can also look at your roll call. These would be people that are going to be on your specific cruise. They would typically be talking about exactly what you are interested in. What to do in each of your ports. They might give you some more ideas or advice. You don't have to participate in the discussion if you don't want, you can just read what they are saying.

 

Personally for me St. Thomas is a beautiful island to do a bus tour ending with a beach break (they will usually allow for some shopping time). You can find the name of tour operators and prices at the St. Thomas thread.

 

You have lots of time to organize and plan for activities that the whole family will enjoy.

 

Have a great cruise

We have 5 ports + PR. Start on Dec 12th. Have done some homework already, but still needs advice about the shore excursions.

1. PR: Bacardi + Fajardo bio bay tour at day 1 (very little moon that day),

Old town at Day 2

2. St. Thomas: We are going to St. John by ourselves. I am interested in trying local taxi, bus and ferry.

Question:

How do you find the bus stop to Red Hook? is it possible to do the bus?

I think that St. John is mostly a big park? How can you get a tour also for the park other than the beach? I heard you can find the tour once on St.John?

Is the town of St. Thomas worth a little walking around? We might give up on it.

3. Barbados: not sure what to do yet, any advice?

Heard about the boatyard, botanic gardens, Harrison's cave. Just want to pick one.

4. St. Lucia: Cosol tour

5. St. Kitts: not sure

6. St Martin: not sure

Basically, we have full day plans for PR, St Thomas, and St. Lucia. As for Barbados, St. Kitts, St. Marteen, we want to pick 1-2 towns to visit/try local food, 1-2 laid back day at the beach, and 1 boat trip. But I have no idea which one to do which.

Sure. Will appreciate it!

The only fun times I have are from February of this year, I can post if you like.

Love the responses I got here! Just booked it! Liberty in Dec!

I'd appreciate some tips about this ship!

that's what I've been telling them. But my mom thinks she is old!

;)Giggling...."they are 57 this year"...lucky buggers to still be so very young. Noise on a cruise ship is pretty darn relative...sit next to a speaker and it might be noisy, be in the middle of a bar during a sporting event and it might be loud. For the most part halls and staterooms are as quiet as any good hotel, teenagers and college students aren't acting like they are at a football game, the dining room is carpeted so noise is never an issue (do your folks go out to eat at a restaurant).

 

Lines, too, are relative...they depend on how you deal with time...if you want to be first than lines may seem a bit long but if you aren't concerned about eating when everyone else does who are schedule slaves you won't have a problem.