snoozcroozr

Looks like not much response, but I think I have narrowed it down to

St Lucia, Tortola, St Kitts and Barbados.

Lots of talk of Tortola and the Rhone, so will check that out.

People mentioned Barbados as being good for diving, but lots of the pix I saw, its of wreck, or sea turtles or reefs that's predominantly sea whip coral. I guess I will try this place. Only negative is most of the boarding is by beach, and in some shops, you have to haul your own gear, including tank up that way.

Also will do St Kitts, even though I had reservation from prior dives, but then that was compared to diving in Saba, and this is cruise ship diving, which I dive mainly to get my fix

cheapest way is to go to the liquor tasting sessions and stay the whole time.:p 10 flights of 1/4 oz liquor still ends up as two and a half drinks.

Otherwise, get some 1000 ml bottles of dessert wine that has alcohol content of 25% and pay a corkage fee of $15.

Not sure if Spindoor is trademark or independent. Escape is not the BA or GA.

Flywheel was very popular when those ships came out. I like Flywheel very much. "Spindoor" was fun, and is less competative. You ride your ride, not against each other. The group of 3 or 5 in my classes were a good group. For myself, it is not about the cost. If I want to do it, and there is fee, I will pay the fee. Not much different from vacationing on land, or eating in a for pay restuarant, or paying for a show, or choosing to partake in massage or manicure. I have my own cycle shoes too, but choose to leave them behind as I know Escape offers them. poo.

I am not saying BA or GA is Escape, but the fact that Escape decided to not continue license the classes and bikes from Flywheel, instead hook up their own contraption with off the shelf bikes, and then lowering the price, would indicate there was a price issue. I don't know if the Flywheel classes on the ship uses their weight batons for upper body workout, but I think those kind of things are detrimental to a proper cardio workout and hope the Spindoor doesn't utilize such fads.

For me, its about doing my routine workout. If they allowed guests to use spin bikes without classes, I would do it, just as I would use them in gyms even if there is no class. I just set my pace with my HRM and pedal away.

Only having 3 or 5 in a class on a ship of 4000 kind of implies either people don't want to pay for it or they just don't want to bother exercising. But then you look at the free classes, they are pretty filled. $30/class might be OK for boutique classes in the big cities, where the people going there are already paying $4k/month in rent and go have $75 steaks, but for the rest of middle america who take these cruises, $30 to ride a bicycle that is in all the gyms could become a little steep.

For my 12 day cruise, 6 or 7 classes would add up to around $200. I would easily put that kind of money into something unique like dive excursions, but not for a something I consider daily routine.

I was actually looking to buy a Pelaton spin bike that is linked to a spin studio in NYC and one join classes live, but then opted to just go to the gym.

There price for water is absolutely ridiculous I could see charging maybe around $20 for it because it is a premium price but 47 is crazy

 

either way you are able to bring in your own water just slap a luggage label on it at the port and they will deliver to your room

you would think the tap water would be more expensive since they actually have to desalinate ocean water for that, while pretty much all the bottled water are just municipal tap water and even with a $1/bottle, there probably is a 400% markup already.

"Guests may bring bottles of wine and champagne on board. When bottles are brought on board and served or consumed in any restaurant, public room area or in their stateroom, a corkage fee will be charged according to bottle sizes noted below.

 

750 ml Bottle: $15.00

1,500 ml Magnum: $30.00"

 

You will need to pay the corkage fee to bring the bottle on board regardless where you consume it. If you pack it in your luggage that is brought on board by porters, it will be sent to the "naughty room" where you will need to claim it and pay the corkage.

what if I bring those cheap wines that has a flat bottom and is actually 1000 ml? Do they consider those a 750 ml bottle?

Re cycling classes, yes, ESCAPE does offer cycle classes - not "SPIN." Nor is it soul cycle. The actual name of the program escapes my memory. They classes on our trip TA were scheduled at 9am almost each morning. The fee is $20. They do provide shoes. The bikes are synced to a main computer (similar to soul cycle). Here, the rider wears a heart monitor, which is used to gage the users effort. This is also gaged against the class, however, it is not a race (like soul cycle is). The TRX and kick boxing are alternately scheduled in the adjacent studio. Those classes are also $20. The 2 trainers - 1 male, 1 female, are extremely approachable, friendly and enjoy teaching the sessions. Have fun.

According to the picture above, their class is called Spindoor. Maybe they went independent because the Flywheel classes in the BW/GW are like $30/class, which is like triple of what their regular spin classes are and would put off people that just wants to do some exercise, not pay the extras just so they can be in a video game. For me, I would even balk at the $30/class since I have my own shoes and wear a HRM and push myself based on that.

those don't look like flywheel bikes, but std schwinn carbon blue bikes with the power meter. But I see some messy wiring on the outside, so maybe they got the bike computer sending info to a central point and displaying it on the screen. Hopefully it will allow them to lower the cost from the $30 they charge on the Flywheel classes.

Or to make it even easier, take a cab to one of the resorts that has a house reef, rent a couple of tanks from then and dive right off their dock. One tank to the left and one to the right. Some resorts like Divi Flamingo are right next to the cruise pier, others a short cab ride. I remember the Plaza resort's house reef, the right is a sloping reef and the left is a reef that splits into a upper and lower reef.

You just have to make sure they let you use their dock. I am sure they would if you are getting air from them.

tmobile has unlimited data any country you go for no charge, albeit it is mostly 2G. You can make outgoing calls with google talk. I had my tablet turned on on the plane, and as I was flying over different countries in Europe, I was getting popup notification saying I got free data in such and such country.

Hi,

I was wondering if I can use the spin bikes on the BA outside of the time they are having classes. I've rode them on the Gem class ships when there are no other classes going on.

I know they got this Flywheel class where the bikes are sync'd up together to display class leaders, etc. But they are still standalone bikes with their own resistance setting, etc. I will probably take a few classes, but on other days, I might want to do my own routine instead of their less than purist type of cycling. Since they got dedicated spin rooms, I would presume the room is free when they are not having classes.

Hi,

I will be doing a crooze where we will be stopping on San Juan, Tortola, Barbados, St Kitts, St Thomas and St Lucia.

I am skipping diving on San Juan, and having dove on every dive site in the Anse Chastanet area, will likely dive there, even if it is to the less desirable spots closer to the crooze terminal (the only issue is trying to find someone to fit out 10am ship arrival time). We know that the locals ate up all the large fishes, so all they got are little ones.

I might want to only do maybe 2 more dives trips on this trip, so am wondering out of Tortola, Barbados, St Kitts, St Thomas, which of these ports has the best dives for cruise ship divers using independent dive ops.

I've dove St Thomas via crooze ship before and it was an easy pleasant dive on a navy barge. I don't know if all their dives are like that.

I've also dove St Kitts on a liveaboard. The main part of the trip was diving Saba, so from what I remember, we were just waiting to leave St Kitt so we can do some real diving in Saba. Plus, since it was on the liveaboard, I don't even know if the spots we dove were anywhere near where crooze divers go to.

I guess I probably need to know how Tortola and Barbados's dives are in relation to St Thomas, St Kitts and St Lucia. And which dive ops if you got suggestions.

To expand on the shore dives in Bonaire, it is almost nothing but shore dives, so you can rent a truck and DIY from some public beaches or boat piers and maybe squeeze 3 dives into the trip, or do a couple of 90 min dives at a shallower profile. It is super easy since the whole reef is sloping. All you have to do is find the buoy on the way back, and with the reef being sloped, you are likely to do a swimming safety stop coming back, thus if you can't find the buoy, just pop your head to the surface to see where you are.

Banco Chinchorro is an almost pristine untouched area between Cancun and Belize. Some shops offers multi-day charters.

I dove with Admirality Dive Center. They pick up/drop off right at the cruise pier. They took us to the navy barge, which is a sunken barge that pretty much only have its frame left. I feel like that is their go to dive, especially if it is purely for cruise ship divers and if I dive there again, I might end up going there. They boast about some movie filmed ther, but it wasn't anything too special, but maybe an easy relaxing dive.

In general, if an island only take you to wrecks, then that might mean their reef dives are not that great. I don't mind wrecks, but on a set of dives during a crooze trip, if every other dive is a wreck, that might become too many for the trip.

For St Maarten, we dove with Ocean Explorers. They had the shark dive feeding dive. It is not quite a frenzy as other shark feeding dives since they don't want the sharks to be purely depend on them for food. But it is still awsome.

As for most of the other places, I only dove there via liveaboard or as part of a dive trip, so I don't know about which dive ops are best.

For must dives, Cozumel must be on that list. I don't know if any shops will take you, but Palancar/Columbia/Punta Sur are a must. But the best they likely will do is take you to Santa Rosa wall, which is still great.

Bonaire is almost nothing but shore dives, so you can rent a truck and DIY from some public beaches or boat piers. If you are going by boat, diving on Klein Bonaire is a good option, and so is Salt Piers.

As for don't bothers, having dove extensively on the B and C's of ABC island, the A island (Aruba) was always mentioned as the don't bother of the 3. But if you are a die hard, you might still want to dive there. Heck, I dove in Key West on one of cruise where I dove on every port .

Most of the issues I have with these crooze dives are the 2nd dive. They get lazy and frequently take you to the house reef or something close since they want to bring you closer back during the surface interval, and with Cozumel, from what I remember, all the shallow ones were pretty lame after the hurricane a while ago. Maybe it has changed by now, I haven't gone there in 5 yrs.

thanks drvalo, I was hoping we can do that (reply with quote doesn't seem to be working).

I also have placed a SDP reservation as kind of a bookmarker so that I can upgrade that for Oceans Blue once I get on board (since they only take CC if I prebook that). I think that probably require cancellation and re-booking due fees involved.

I made our reservations yesterday for our Gem sailing on 1/12. With that being said we were only able to get res for 4 of the 10 nights. We also have the UDP. The lady on they phone said the hold 75% of the space so people can make res when they get on the ship, so that is what we will do, happy sailing

If that's the case, I should change all my pre-booked reservation times once I get onboard, since the ones I can pre-book were all at non-optimal hours.

I presume most of the people got the booze package so they will be passed out in the MDR or buffet instead of the specialty restaurants.

As for being able to get tables as walk ups. When I booked the specialty restaurants online, I was able to only get tables after 8pm. I was wondering if I can walk up earlier, and if I can get a table, cancel my reservation for the later time right there on the spot without penalty. From their reservation fine print, if I am a no show or cancel less than 24hr ahead of time, I will be charged for the reservation.

If the Cunard is anything like their White Star counterpart, then I am sure they have third class where you wear nothing but casual (all you might need is a newsie cap), along with bringing your own luggage (usually in a sack), sleeping on cots and hammocks (Cunard had dorm style sleeping arrangements), eating at the saloons (I think the Cunard ships, you sit on benches, or you had to bring your own food), having use of only the bottom decks (and being locked down there for the duration of the trip), shared baths and no space on the lifeboats for them.

Hi,

My NCL ship will dock at 10AM, which on a search of a few dive ops in St Lucia, they indicated they do pick-ups at around 9AM, which is too early. Some mentioned they can have late pickup if I have 6 or more, if every one of their hotel divers on the boat that day are willing to delay their departure for a couple of hours (they won't know until really close to the dive date, where I could be on the cruise already).

Have anyone dove with a shop with late pickup, or offer afternoon dives? My ship departs at 7PM, so I am usually not worried about afternoon dives coming back at 5PM (or close to 6PM, if they drop me off at the pier). The few I inquired don't offer them. Strangely, the dive shop I used when I stayed in Anse Chastanet offered both morning and afternoon dives everyday. But they are far south and don't come to pick up cruise ship divers.

Hi,

My NCL ship will dock at 10AM, which on a search of a few dive ops, they indicated they do pick-ups at around 9AM, which is too early. Some mentioned they can have late pickup if I have 6 or more, if everyone on the boat is willing to delay their departure for a couple of hours (they won't know until really close to the dive date, where I could be on the cruise already).

Have anyone dove with a shop with late pickup, or offer afternoon dives? My ship departs at 7PM, so I am usually not worried about afternoon dives coming back at 5PM (or close to 6PM, if they drop me off at the pier). The few I inquired don't offer them. Strangely, the dive shop I used when I stayed in Anse Chastanet offered both morning and afternoon dives everyday. But they are far south and don't come to pick up cruise ship divers.

LOL, I didn't even know they had such a thing. I remember cruising a while ago on NCL and I just couldn't get comfortable on the mattress. I tried the fold down bunk bed and found it more comfortable and slept there the whole trip.

thanks for all the info. I usually do plan my days on vacation, and believe me, on scuba trip, we got to be exactly on time for every one of the 4 or 5 dives every day, but that's a set schedule know from the night before.

Even on the cruises, we have to be on time for the excursions. But otherwise, we kind of follow the general plan laid out for the day based on the daily, some things we might not make it on time due to things like lunch taking too long or freshening up taking longer than expected, etc. Even for the shows, we might show up late if something like dinner delays it or the wait to get into the MDR took longer than expected. But that is on the old style ship procedure where we only had to worry about whether we should catch the early show and have late dinner or vice versa.

I'll figure out how the mega ship's system works and book accordingly.

*Facepalm* You had no problem with going on a Princess cruise that squeezes 3-4 in rooms with less deck public space to spread out but you have a problem with a big NCL ship that has more space? Just stick to the Gem, it's similar to a Princess ship.

 

And the port happens to be in industrial part of Manhattan too - the park and water just masks the dirty Santiation building, car deals hips and highway right next to it so well....[emoji57]

 

Why don't you look at pictures or videos of the Breakaway especially when its "crowded" like beyondships2.com or YouTube 1st before rambling off how terrible the "overcrowding" is. Because the only time that ship is crowded when school is in session, is embark day. Otherwise, it's spaced out and not crowded even during dinner time or disembark.

 

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The princess cruise was a long while ago, and it was an upgrade over RCCI since it was the first time we can dine on our own instead of with a whole bunch of strangers. It harder to get seats in the Garden Cafe for breakfast or lunch than what I remember on the Princess or RCCI non-megaships. Probably due to the Jewel class's narrower beam.

We don't cruise that frequently, we usually do one when the SO wants to take a break from the more strenuous trips such as liveaboard dive trips or cycling tours on the Andes. We've just been doing alot more of that lately so am late in the game on the way things are on the away ships.

The manhattan pier is a couple of blocks from midtown, while to get to red hook, its a long windy way (for me) on BQE and lots of driving on local roads in the middle of nothing. Maybe I'm familiar with the city so everything seem interconnected. Haven't gone to bayonne's port, but crossing those tunnels are always a gamble, sometimes could add hours to a simple pickup/dropoff.

I didn't say how terrible or overcroweded it is, I am just asking how bad does it get with these promotions that promotes overpacking and overindulgence of passengers. I've been to a cruise during the summer once and the place was like summer camp. We won't be going during that time again. We almost did go when a trip with the in-laws and some in-laws with kids could only go before labor day, thus forcing everyone to go at that time. We were glad the plan didn't go through.

As for the smaller ships, they are also crowded in certain situation. If one doesn't get to the theater early for the show, one will be sitting in the mezzanine.

At the end of each evening's service they post the menu for the next day's dinner outside the MDR. Or at the beginning of the cruise you can ask one of the head waiters to show you the menus for the whole cruise.

 

If this still sounds like too much advance planning for you, you can take your chances and play it by ear day by day. But if you try to reserve a specialty restaurant for the same day, the most popular dining times will probably be fully booked. If you don't mind eating a bit earlier or later than most people, and if you don't mind possibly ending up at your second or third choice restaurant, this can work out fine. But the days when all the specialty restaurants were mostly empty and you could basically walk in anytime are over.

I guess we don't linger around late to the MDR to look at the menu, usually when we are passing by it.

We usually eat later, but usually coordinate it with the shows. Not sure how the show works yet on these mega ships. I know about having to book them etc. But not how frequent they are repeated, and how many there are (I thought it is freestyle, what's with the planning ahead?) Will probably look into it in due time. Still got over a month til the sailing. So will probably have to coordinate the specialty dining reservations with the shows we want to attend with the time we get back from land excursions.

The only thing I don't wing are the morning gym and scuba excursions, everything else we try to squeeze it here or there.

No offense, if that's how you feel before even stepping on the ship - maybe you should reconsider sailing on that line. And this is true even if the cruise company is Royal or Carnival. A megaship cruise of 3000+ passengers, just doesn't seem to be a good fit for you since you're being overly ridiculous about the occupancy numbers and stuff....[emoji52]

I am assuming worse case scenario, given that they already gave into the fact that they have to squeeze themselves into the small rooms (compared to land based resorts), that squeezing 3 or 4 people would be more of the same.

We sail NCL mainly because of its freestyle dining and dress code, along with the fact that it sails right off manhattan... don't have to head to industrial neighborhoods like bayone or red hook, which we had to when sailing Princess.

OP, as far as the capacity of the specialty restaurants, a few have reported an issue gettin the times they want. Suggestion, if you know which restaurant and time, book on line 100 day prior to sailing if in a suite, 90 if in a non-suite.

 

In my cruises, I've haven't see a lot of drunks on the ships, maybe one here and one there.

Book 100 days in advance? I don't even plan my vacations that far in advance, even if it is a complicated multi-destination trip half way around the world. And I just wing all my frequent regional ski trips by feel based on the weather in the coming days or week. My mgr gives me a hard time on that.

I usually book specialty restaurants based on the daily menu of the MDR, and that I think comes out after lunch if I am not mistaken. Does NCL publish their daily MDR menus ahead of time?

As for drinks, even in AI resorts, I might only have 4 or 5 drinks a day, given most of our day, we are off doing activities. On the ship,with the excursions, I usually drink even less. I see the heavy drinkers in the AI resorts, but they usually just linger around the bar the whole day and run around and create scenes everywhere, but then I don't go during spring breaks.