snoozcroozr

On 12/16/2023 at 5:51 AM, mking8288 said:

Port of Calls - changes announced prior to embarkation due to weather forecast en route -

 

 

Subsequently, it was announced mid-cruise that due to forecasted weather at Bermuda, the revised plan to call on Dockyard was cancelled.  An additional 90 minutes was extended for ship passengers to stay at St. Maarten (3 PM instead of 1:30 PM ...)

 

It was confirmed earlier this Thursday, that an OBC was issued $12 USD per passenger as a pro-rated adjustment for the missed/cancelled port of call (apparently, without "needing" to request and ask for the credit by going to Guest Services and/or the Onboard Credits Desk in the atrium.)  

 

 

The port fee and taxes adds up to more than $12 USD/pp.  An old document from Bermuda authorities indicates the fee is $25 USD/pp.  Other cruisers mentioned their cruise that docked only on Bermuda having taxes and fees in the hundreds of dollars.  Is the $12 refund just so that people think they are getting a refund and be done with it?

Came back from Getaway a few days back and there was no surcharge on the porterhouse.  Even though we ordered the porterhouse / ribeye the first couple of times there, the third time, we both ordered the ribeyes.  It seems almost as large as the porterhouse and nothing on the porterhouse rivals the generous sized rib-cap.

We did see steak supplement in the MDR for Cagney steaks/sides at a much lower price than what's offered in Cagney.  Maybe we will order that next time instead of get a few less specialty dining nights.  We might not get the crab cakes or lobster bisque, but maybe the standard fare apps and desserts will suffice for those days.

I think those a-la-carte prices in places like Cagney are just to show how expensive it would be to dine there, so people would get the dining package.  If people want to just try the steak and don't want to pay for either, they can just get them at the MDR.

3 hours ago, bob brown said:

I tried it on the 10th, and was stuck behind a slow driver that blocked me from passing.  Finally, a very aggressive  driver passed me and pushed past the slow driver, causing a five car pile up.  This resulted in our losing one of our 8 laps, while they untangled everyone.

 

I am glad that I tried it, just for the unique experience, but would not do it again for the price.

I think I enjoyed the bumpercar experience just as much on the Anthem of the Seas, and it was free...😎

Ha, I drove on the 10th, hope that wasn't me.  From the videos of my race, anyone I passed, they are still somewhat behind me a lap later, so I know nobody crashed.  I know when I have a slow car ahead with another one trying to pass, both ahead of me, I would stay behind the car holding us up while the other car goes to the other lane in trying to pass, and on turn 2, the slow car with its wide turn, will force the other driver back while I will go on the inside in trying to pass the slow driver in the front before turn 6.  It works sometimes, while other times, I get squeezed into the side rail when they don't respect my space.

4 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

If location on the ship is important, then book a class where you can pick your room. There are countless thread on how people hate the room they were assigned. But it saved them $50 pp. 

They completely ran out of balcony so I booked a oceanview.  Since they are all pretty much on the 5th floor on the Bliss and don't have the tiny portholes of the Gem class ships, these rooms are all pretty much the same to me, so being able to select my own room and have 2 free at sea (which I don't want given I buy my own dining and wine package) for a much higher cost makes no sense to me.

Booking of kart racing also fills up fast, although on most of the races, it is never have the max of 10 drivers.  Sometimes, there are only 4.  They also officially don't take standbys or allow you to change schedules, or even book the same day, but that all depends on who is in charge of the entrance area.  I've tried to reschedule and was told that I can enter right away except I had flip flops on, and when I went for a quick change of shoes, encountered another staff and was told they can't change schedule, take walk-ins even though I saw 5 people ready to proceed to the next race, and was shown their booking for all the races up to my scheduled race time consisted of 12-16 bookings.  I am not sure why it would be so overbooked given that their policy is to  incur a 50% penalty if less than 24 hours were given for cancellations.

We were on the Bliss for 12 days and it seems that the daily/weekly pass is arbitrary.  On our 12 day cruise on the Bliss, they didn't have daily or weekly rate, which they said they never decided what to charge.

I don't think that is a nomex fireproof hood, but just a head sock so you don't end up with a helmet with accumulated sweat from previous drivers.

As for slow drivers, I kind of look forward to it, it gives you the incentive to pass them, but that depends on the race marshall, which might give you a verbal warning if did something illegal and touched the other car.  I've had times on the track where most people won't pass a slow driver and all I am doing is time attack on an empty track, and that is not that exciting.  They also don't observe racing rule of respecting space when parts of the cars are overlapped, thus the car in front usually crushes the one in the rear into the barrier and the rear car is penalized.  As for the really slow, some marshall will constantly tell them to move over to the right, while others let them crawl along, which causes a huge traffic jam (which would be your chance to pass one by one until you pass that slowpoke).  The worse type of driver is the relatively slow ones that takes the whole width of the track, where you can't pass on the on either outside or inside of the turn because they will push you into the barrier (I think I eventually passed by doing an early apex and finished the turn on the inside and passed on the inside.  I did the kart racing 3x and got called out for doing those all those kind of tactics.  I've also seen others get a verbal warning (and eventually kicked out) for trying an inside pass at the tightest corner at full speed.

I am at least glad that the better room went with the first time cruisers that came with us.  But I completely overlooked on how much of a sea leg that we have acquired that the rough sailing that we went out with made them both sick and then drowsy when they dosed up in medication as a precaution, while even though we felt the movement, it did not affect us at all.

I was wondering how sail away rooms assigned?  Is age, latitude level or other factors taken into account?

I am asking because we are 4 people where everyone came to full agreement on a cruise relatively close to the sailing date.  We initially thought we would book oceanview and bid for something higher, since all balconies were sold out.  But a few days of Q&A and we noticed more catagories disappearing and price going up $50/day.  So we took the plunge on booking 2 sail away oceanview rooms, and that same evening, the whole ship was sold out so there wasn't even a chance to bid for an upgrade.

I thought if all the rooms are sold out, they could assign our sail away rooms pretty quick, but it still took a while, and when we got the room, it was the basic O8 room, which we expected (maybe not the connecting to adjacent room part), but the other 2 people got assigned an O1 room (family oceanview) a couple of days later on.  I would have thought its a first come basis (we booked our room before theirs), first assigned would be of better rooms, and we also are gold members while they are brand new cruisers.  So all these factors, we thought we should have ended up with the better room.  Their only factor is one of the cruiser in the other party is an oldie.  Unless it is truly random and they got the longer end of the stick.

From where I sail, there are usually many sea days, so that is when they have the ryde spin classes.  When I was on the breakaway a while ago, it was Flywheel spin class and they charged quite a bit, thus every time I went and there were no other people signing up and the class was cancelled and they kept the spin room locked.  I just made do by riding the stationary bike, monitoring my watts output. 

Another sailing off the Escape, they had the Ryde class for a cheaper price (or maybe its due to the unlimited classes price) so there were 2 other regular riders, enough for them to hold the class, and either because of the lax enforcement by the instructor or the fact that I signed up for unlimited classes, I was allowed to come into the class half an hour early and stay an extra half an hour, allowing me to do a 2 hour ride.  I did see other people going in to the spin room and use the floor space to follow some exercises on their smartphones when there is no classes in session.

I was on the Escape last week and noticed a few things different on the drop slide than when I rode the ones on the Breakaway a few years ago.  Now they weigh you before they let you down...even if you are way above the minimum weight limit.  Plus the water flow seems to be so great now that you can barely keep your eyes open during the ride.  It might have been like that a few years ago, but my DW would have remembered it.

On the next to last day, after coming out of the gym around 4:30pm, I rinsed off in the open shower and decided to keep my gym shirt on because of the cold and wind when riding the slide.  I felt this weird sensation in the midst of the ride and realized I was sliding backward.  I looked something resembling a hatch and banged on it and was let out right away, asked if I was ok and had to give my name and room number so they can log it.  At the time, I though it was strange they did that since it was more of an embarrassment.  I asked why I would get stuck and was told it was probably my shirt.  There was no scare of anyone hitting me, since the hatch person is the one giving the all clear, and being cold and late, nobody was using the slides anymore.

I did have issues with the slides on the Breakaway though, the regular slide's g-force was so high that if I kept upright, blood would flow away from my head and I would sometimes come out dizzy and light-headed.  I still miss that ride compared to the tube ride.

I have reserved on the day with standard seating. I just showed up slightly early and got seats right at the very front of the stage. I think premium seating sits a little bit higher in the back, which I did not see anyone take.

I was also in the same situation with PR diverting to Cap Cana. Looked at a few dive excursions and they said anything decent would be by Catalina Island. Due to distance to dive ops, lack of pickup and late arrival, all for some lame diving, we decided to forgo diving there and focus on diving in the ABC islands.

Perfect. I will look elsewhere. Any recommendations for Bonaire?

 

 

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My requirement for Bonaire could be different from yours. Mine was to do 1 guided boat dive to somewhere not easily accesible by shore, and the rest doing shore dives on the house reef, and once I am familiarized with the reef, do a night dive. So we decided the most likely dive op to use is either Divi Flamigo or Toucan Diving, which both are at the end of the cruise pier area.

The original plan was 3 dives, then on the boat and as excitement built up, thought we can do 4 or 5 dives (do both left and right side of the house reef, and the night dive based on which one looked better). But once there, realized the reef to the right is off limits when cruise ships are there. So plan was back to maybe 4 dives, but time lost walking the long way there, walking back and forth to the ship for lunch and then to drop things off, washing lots of gears, there wasn't enough time to do 4 dives without getting back to dinner in reasonable time.

But because of the proximity of the dive op to the ship, we just played everything by how we felt. If you require 2 tank boat dives, they might accommodate you without having to go through the lengthy orientation.

Anyway, the other ones we inquired with are:

Capt Don - for hotel guests only

Buddy Dive - cruise ship op

Divi Ocean - fully booked

Wanna Dive - checkout dive on house reef required.

Dive Friends - no tanks avail after 5pm. Really close, but house reef seems to be right off the cruise pier's sea wall.

When was this? Their website is up and the owner "Carlos" tooking my booking. I understand that some of the "Dive Masters" that used to be on the boat are no longer there, but they are ostensibly open.

 

 

Are you going on the Jade 11/27?

 

Did you try to contact Mermaid Divers? http://scubadivers-aruba.com/contact-us

 

 

You've got me a little nervous, I sail tomorrow, and want all this locked in place...

You should have nothing to worry about. I inquired with Mermaid on my trip around Halloween. That's when DEMA was.

I inquired abt the ABC islands last month on this thread

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=54499461#post54499461

I did inquire with Mermaid and was interested in diving with them, but they were in DEMA that week and closed shop.

I just assumed there is no diving in Ocho Rio, but during our walkoff off the pier, I noticed a diveboat docked right off the side waiting for passengers. I realized they do have scuba and thought maybe I should do a walk-in signup with them, but that boat was for passengers that wanted to go to Dunns River Fall by boat.

That’s a bummer. I never do ship excursions, typically overpriced and overcrowded. Have you done scuba with the cruise line before?

 

 

 

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The first few of cruises I did, I didn't know any better and dove only dove with the cruise line. Most were relatively short dives, and many, they get lazy and do the reef right in front of the shop as the second dive.

In Bonaire, there are many choices and most are catered to divers, so missing out on Buddy is not the end of the world.

Eh, it’s sort of like Carnival. Carnival has a dedicated dining room for traditional dining and a dedicated dining room for Anytime Dining. Norwegian is all Anytime in all MDRs. However you can make reservations for dining starting 80 days from embarkation if you wish. It’s not necessary, but at peak times you might wait 5-15 minutes for a table.

NCL does not have dress up days, nor do you have to show up like a fat cat in the MDRs. Although in Carnival, you don't really have to dress up either since a tuxedo wife beater will do, but then you don't have pockets to take the silverwares in.

For such a beautiful city the Manhattan terminal is the pits. :(

Its just like a typical NYC subway station.

The chinese restaurant is also free. It is either a formal restaurant or a quick bite eatery.

Just coming back from cruise that included the ABC islands, I can tell you a little about it.

In Bonaire, I dove with Divi Flamingo, which is walking distance from the cruise pier. The daily dive orientation took a while, so it was impossible for me to take the morning boat dive, but I did put my name on for the afternoon boat dive, which went to Klien Bonaire, and did a noon and night shore dive on our own. The great thing with that was the shore dives are included when you purchase any boat dive trip. Shore dive on Bonaire is super easy. You can barely get lost, and if you do, just surface and you can see where you came from.

Maybe you can walk a little farther to the next resort Plaza. I stayed there before and I don't remember any orientation that took up my time. They have similar 2 tank morning and 1 tank afternoon dives as Divi Flamingo.

Dive Friends is even closer, but I don't even know if there is anything to see on their house reef, given that their shore entrance is literally right off the concrete sea wall. They also don't leave tanks out after 5PM, so no chance of night dives.

As for Curacao, I didn't dive with Dive Bus specifically because I dove carpile and that area many times when I stayed multiple times in the resort that was formerly Breezes, and they offered free guided shore dives and unlimited independent dives. I didn't think that area was out of this world, like the way Dive Bus makes it sound like.

I did book with http://www.thediveshop-curacao.com, which is truck based shore diving. They just took the 2 of us, one dive of their choice (I guess because it is on the beach, where we hang out by the restaurant area for a refreshment during our SI), and the other was what I requested.

All the dives were in the 60-65min range, the Curacao dives were until when I decided to go up.

Our Aruba dive was cancelled due to what the shop said was rain up the north. The cruise dive trip was still going, but I decided against going due to it being a one tank dive and likelyhood of it being a cattleboat. From the way you make Antilla sound like, maybe it was a good thing my dive was cancelled.

The best fish I have seen in Jamaica have all been inside the fish traps.

Following...will be in the ABC’s in feb 2018. My local dive shop highly recommends Buddy Dive In Bonaire

Buddy Dive is affiliated with our cruise line, so they won't take independent divers coming from the cruise ship.

Came back from the trip.

Bonaire, walked to the end of the pier and did 2 shore and 1 boat dive with Divi Flamingo. Wanted to dive more, but the morning briefing took so long that we didn't start our first dive until 11am. Briefing covered the whole island, how to do shore dives, and how to use their signup board for the boat dive. Also, the reef to the right is off limits when cruise ships are docked. The afternoon dive was a little hectic, with the whole boat going with 1 DM. But everybody were doing their own stuff once we were down.

Curacao, booked with thediveshop-curacao.com, whom took the 2 of us via truck to shore dives, including my requested Snake Bay, Bottom time was generous, with it being 61 and 65 min.

Aruba, was going to book with Dive Aruba, but waited too long and they got filled up, so booked with Happy Divers Aruba for the Antilla wreck. When I showed up at the gates outside the cruise pier, someone that was to pick me up from the shop instead told me due to the rain that's taking place in the north, the dive has been cancelled. I don't remember having dives cancelled due to weather or sea condition. The cruise ship's dive excursion to Antilla was still ongoing and has yet to leave, but being a 1 tank dive, I decided to not go. I could have picked up a cab and headed to some shop like Red Sail and got on their 9:15 boat, but I didn't have every shop's number and only had a short window to make all the decision. So just decided to take a tour and stopped by a beach to do some snorkeling, which I found to be devoid of any fish, and was not really able to go pass the swimming boundary and search the patches of sea grass due to those decapitating jet skis wizzing by.

Buddy's a bit far away since I wanted to do multiple dives on the house reef (including night dive), and I would probably go back and forth to the ship. They are also the cruise ship's dive ops, so no guided dive by them.

We did a day drift dive on Salt Pier via boat because the night before when we were scheduled to do it, we skipped it either due to current or condition. To not disappoint us, our DM snuck that dive in the next morning during our boat dive.

I saw dive ops like VIP diving in Bonaire. Strange they are offering what looks like white glove service on an island where most people do a DIY diving w/o guides. Haven't found anyone that have one tank guided dive (mainly to go to some site where I can't get to (no car)). can't find out about Toucan Diving until much closer to the day of arrival. Worse case, we will just do house reef off Divi Flamingo (left, right and night).

I am always a little conflicted on natural vs artificial wreck. I feel sometimes they take divers to wrecks because their reefs are in terrible shape (seems to be the go to dive spot on every cruise stop). But then, most of those are artificial wrecks. Many of the natural historical wrecks are broken up piles of metal. We've dove enough wrecks in Bermuda to realize that. That's why my wife is weary of such wrecks, but then not diving on a wreck in Aruba might mean diving in a dull reef.

We booked onboard because they said they were offering 2 specials for OV instead of the usual 1. They said we can book anything as a placeholder and don't worry about the full retail price we are being charged since we can later on rebook on something we really want. Lost track of when '90' days to cruise was until I got an email for final payment. I called the TA, whom had a hard rebooking on a future cruise because pretty much pretty much all OV were drastically less than what we were initially charge, and they wanted us to book an room of equiv cost. I said no way, and they relented. Eventually I booked something way into the future on a cruise that I would not feel bad if I did have to go.

Turns out, the promo that were offered, all OV had 2 specials, so that special promo was nothing special(although at that time, we could have picked our gratuities being paid, which we cannot do now).