MIcruiser99

Thank you! Yes I did mean Antigua, St. Johns.

 

There are so many excursions to choose from on the actual RCCL site I was hoping to get some top suggestions using this method in order to narrow the search. Also some of the better excursions are not even listed on their website and have been suggested by other cruisers, hoping for some of that special insight too. :)

The previous poster is correct, if you go to the port of calls on Cruise Critic, you can see each island and read reviews of different experiences.

We did Eli's Ecotours (Adventure Antigua) in Antigua, and enjoyed that excursion. St. Lucia, can't recommend our tour as it was not that great - local boat tour that was overcrowded and not enjoyable. St. Kitts we did the zipline and that was great.

We love Barbados for the beautiful beaches.

While on LOS they were able to, and I'm pretty sure all ships have that available.

 

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Not on Radiance class ships, not sure about others. We have been on all four of the Radiance class, and the dividers are bolted into place.

We will be on Jewel in January (I know, a long way away!) and Martinique was the only island that we are not sure what to do.

I did read that you can walk to where the ferry leaves and get a taxi there. We were interested in seeing St. Pierre (town was destroyed by the volanco) but other than that, we are at a loss on what to do. We will be looking forward to seeing what you do while you are there!

I know how devastating it is to have your laptop fail you on a trip. Our last cruise, our laptop died three days into the cruise, and we had to rely on our tablet to get us by. It is crazy how much we rely on our internet access!

Have a great cruise!

I thought that you are only allowed to use one $500 off certificate per cruise.

There is an aerial performance the first day which we missed, and they never had another one on our cruise. Not sure if it was worth watching as we missed it!:(

I have the compasses from our cruise which was the 5 day - Grand Cayman/Coz route.

Let me know if you want them, and I can scan them and email them to you.

More Martinique

 

We took a ferry to town

We will be on the Jewel next year, and are trying to figure out what to do in Martinique. Did you need Euros? for shopping or ferry?

I have noticed the same problems in the dining room that you had. We usually sit at a table for 2, and are always waiting as the waiter spends more time on the larger tables. Our last cruise in January was one of the worst, so we decided to try My Time and see if that is any better.

I have never got any pins so I called Crown and Anchor and they told me that you get the pins when you are on a cruise. Since this was our last cruise as Platinum, I asked for our pins, and they handed them to me. Next cruise, we will be Emerald, and I had planned on asking for our new pins! Hope that we don't get the same attitude that you did!

Woohoo! I just booked Serenade 9256 for June 2015 Scandanavia & Russia... There are 3 of us in a row (9256, 9258, 9260) in those aft cabins. Does anyone know if the balcony partitions can be removed/opened to allow movement between the cabins? Thanks!:p

No, the Radiance class ships do not have the ability to remove the balcony partitions.

This is the only picture that I could find from our cruise. I took more of the ship and islands and not the cabin.

I had to ask the LA for our platinum pin. Our next cruise, we are emerald so I will see if we get one or if we have to ask for it.

We will be going to St. Croix on our next cruise so I have been reading posts on the Port of Call boards and there are many options for St. Croix. With the search option now working, it is pretty easy to look for beach suggestions.

So, do I just keep checking RCIs website to see if the new itineraries are there? Or is it better to call?

I think you will hear from here first! I called RCI today and asked about any new itineraries and they had no answers.:(

Thank you for that information. I really wanted to go to St. Pierre but was apprehensive about trying this. There has not been many reviews about Martinique so it is great to hear that there are options available. :)

One more question, I see differing answers on the use of dollars vs. Euros. You can get Euros on the ship, is it better not to take the chance and have Euros?

Excited to Cruise - the accompanied taxis do go to a lot of places all over Martinique. It basically leaves when there are 5 or so people. So I guess if your group is going to be of 11 or 12 the driver will just take you to the destination since your group will fill up the van. This is like a bus service but a little more upscale I guess. There are also buses on the island but the tourist information services all suggested that we either take the taxi which runs about Euro 40 per person or the accompanied taxis which in our case (city of St Pierre) was Euro 4.60 per person each way. The ferry/accompanied taxi area is like a small bus terminus. There are several signs of different villages and towns and you wait for your taxi next to the sign. Most of the time the taxi is already there ready to pick up. Hope that this information helped, if you have more questions feel free to ask me.

 

Most of the people spoke only French but the tourist info centres and guides all speak English.

Did you return with the same taxi that took you to St. Pierre? I would like to go but am concerned about getting a taxi for returning to the port. Were there many taxis available in St. Pierre?

I really think it depends on the sailing. We did this cruise last year, and DH mentioned that we were the young ones on the cruise (at 50 years old!) as there were so many seniors onboard.

This year, totally different cruise with more families. I really think it is hit or miss with the passengers.

I understand that the entertainment won't change but just wanted to comment that not all sailings were "old people"!

I was on the Brilliance mid December I enjoyed the library. It was small near the coffee bar. I hope it is still there.:eek:

It was still there in January but they had chairs in front of the bookcase. So, if people are sitting in the coffee bar area, they are blocking the books. Not a very good set up.

While the facts of the letter are wrong, the tone is nice.

I am glad someone else mentioned this. We always book an aft on the Radiance class with only two of us so I am somewhat confused about this.

I did an internet search for rental cars and came upon a site that was posting scams that car rental agencies in St. Martin were pulling on people and there was post after post of similar stories - usually some small damage was found and a large amount was charged to the credit card.

So, while this story seems suspect, I have read this in a different arena so it may happen.

Yes, I am glad, too, but now I don't see the search button. :o

I have not had the search button for several days so I am hoping that they fix this soon!

I found this on the RCL website:

Royal Caribbean International 27th January, 2014 at 7:29 pm Hi Dain – Currently the Coca-Cola Freestyle machines are available on:

Majesty of the Seas

Explorer of the Seas

Freedom of the Seas

Oasis of the Seas

Allure of the Seas

Enchantment of the Seas

Grandeur of the Seas

Jewel of the Seas

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/connect/blog/coca-cola-and-royal-caribbean-introduce-freestyle-machines-onboard/

Typically on a 4 night cruise there will be fewer people dressing formal. We saw a wide range on our Brilliance cruise from casual to formal. I did not see any tuxedos but many men wore suits, and then there were those who wore polo shirts. I would not worry too much about it!

Do they have the aerialists in the centrum on the Jewel?

Yes, I was having that problem with many times lately. I did call and they advised me to go in a different way through the "Before You Board" tab and try to login thru the online check-in. That worked sometimes, and other times it did not.

They seem to have problems with their site.

I'll be on Brilliance one week from today...hoping for a ship full of healthy hand washing passengers.

 

Did you enjoy the cruise and was it warm? lol I mean on the sea days...it's been in the teens and single digits here in MA the past couple of days.

When we got to Tampa, it was cold - 50's, and when we returned, it was colder! 40's!

The sea days and port days were much better when we got farther south. We were on the Grand Cayman/Coz route, and both days were beautiful. I think it was high 70's in Coz, and 80's in GC.

I would think thats because you would be serving yourself at the buffet and there trying to keep the common things that we all touch germ free.

I had just used a hand sanitizer before going to the WJ, or I would not have mentioned it.

I am paranoid about getting sick so I am constantly washing my hands which really is going to help against noro.

Does RCCL have a crew member present to make sure pax use a hand sanitizer before entering the MDR or buffet?

We were on the Brilliance last week, and I was asked to use the hand sanitizers when entering the Windjammer Cafe. I told the crew member that I had already used hand sanitizer when I boarded, and he insisted that I use it before I could enter the WJ.

When we went into the dining room, they never even checked if we used the hand sanitizers.