shadowcat67

Unless they move my itinerary more, I live with the restrictions to get out of my house and on vacation. I know this is all a first world issue.

But if I have to mask up to leave my house, I might as well be doing it on a cruise on a tropical island.

Cruising on 9/18 on Horizon and received 2 emails on 8/4 describing the changes.

Did Southern Caribbean 4 years ago, they are pretty safe from normal hurricane paths. Doing it again in 2 months.
As to rough seas, we didnt have any but my wife did end up getting seasick on day 6 (Cruise Day) in the SPA after getting her nails done.
Weather was great for all but 1 of the days and that was just overcast.

so far Smart Vaccine Card is for California, Louisiana, Walmart, and one other store.
I did contact Aruba Vaccine Website yesterday and they sent the following:

Aruba Tourism Authority

Wife has allergy to corn. Dinning took great care of her for every meal on board. Only ate in wj for breakfast once, rest of meals were mdr since they could cater to allergy, also breakfast in mdr were almost same selection as wj just less crowded, they had buffet and menu ordering.

However she brought bread, jelly, and peanut butter for pbj off ship.

Also brought snack for evenings and time on shore.

Like others have posted took food from dining back to room. Even had waiter asking and getting food for us from mdr to take back to room.

Just email ahead of time to let them know. Forgot the address buts it's on the faq on the rccl website. Just search for allergy.

We did prepare business cards with the different names for the items that she was allergic too, they liked it and wanted one for each meal to staple to order, so you might want to print something up before hand. Makes it easier.

Did an all day island tour and snorkel at westpunkt beach where you can swin with the green turtles, it was our first trip there so nice to see the island, wife went shopping at the bridge after that. it was through Curacao Actief. It was a great tour and we had a great guide. Got to see the flamingos as well.

Really depends on what you like, we like more active activities.

Check out this thread, several people have listed cost for cruise for most if not all items.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2561611&highlight=actual

It was free for the RCCL transfer on 10/21, but they posted a notice saying that. Not sure if its still free.

Did a balcony on Adventure out of San Juan on 10/21 for 7 nights.

We don't drink a lot and don't do soda or specialty coffee, so no drink packages, no specialty dining.

It was $549 pp for 2 people so here is the run down.

$1098 for cruise tickets

$118 for travel insurance

$189 for prepaid gratuities

$800 for Airfare

$123 for taxes and fees

$820 Excursions on 5 islands ($130, $110, $210, $140, $40, $90 + $100 for tips on the excursions)

$100 for tips to porters, head waiter, steward.

$500 for stuff on board ($300 for spa, $100 in alcohol, $100 in misc stuff)

~$250 for souvenirs and stuff on the island

Total $4000.

+ Money for stuff for the trip, clothes, suitcases, passport renew, etc.

Yeah, it adds up fast.

BTW, this was our first cruise. $200 of the Spa we wouldn't do again as that was my wife's nails, as she didn't get to them before we went.

Got back from my 10/21 cruise and I have lost 3.5 of the 4 lbs I gained.

I lost 30 lbs since last year and 14lbs in the last 14 weeks.

I felt great for the cruise.

Looking forward to keeping it up.

Calorie limiting to 1850 and work out 4 strength days (2 arms and 2 legs/abs) and 5 cardio days (non leg days).

lots of vitamins, fish oil, and green tree extract.

The workouts really helped with the snorkeling that I did, lasted a lot longer under the water.

No aches or pains with all of the walking and activities.

I did Woodwinds on 10/21 cruise in Bonaire. They were great. They even had prescription masks.

They do 2 drift snorkels for your trip, drinks, snacks, and lunch on the way back.

The reef there is great to snorkel. Saw lots of fish, turtle, octopi, squid.

On Aruba, you should do the Seabob if you can, you can snorkel around the wreck of the Antilla which was cool, it was an hour and 15 minutes, and thing goes fast 14 mph under the water max, though they usually have it set to 60%. Since I did Scuba before they set mine to 30ft depth. There are 2 different companies that do it. I did Seabobaruba.com.

I was on the 10/21 cruise and American wasn't charging for checked bags either. I thought I remember seeing something were they were letting up to 3 bags free.

Puerto Rico was 85 when I was there on 10/28, we did the 4 hour city tour before going to the airport, it was interesting to see, but when they lets us off in the city center for 45 minutes, there really wasn't much open, just a couple of restaurants and a couple of stores, all running on generators.

I just called Nationwide and it turns out you would have had to purchase cruise insurance before the hurricane was "named." I booked insurance on the same day hurricane Irma was named, but before hurricane Maria was named. I'm in one of those 'wait and see' situations. The representative told me she wasn't able to approve or deny a claim over the phone.

Reading the Nationwide policy the named exclusion is under the Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption and not under Itinerary Change. I have the coverage but purchased it recently so working to get it covered once I take my trip on 10/21

I am a first time cruiser as well. We choose the Adventure of the Sea from Royal Carribean, doing the southern Carribean this fall. It is going in for refit at the beginning of next year, so would have updated rooms and amenities next fall.