bookbabe

Our Iconic Med Treasures in March shows Rome times as 5am to 8pm. We’ve been told an excursion will be offered once on board. Please post back after you get on board, let us know what the offered Rome excursion turned out to be for your date.

DH says Cheeseburger reef by Burger King is better than the one by Cemetery Beach, so that’s maybe an option if you end up DIYing.

If you go to the Kittiwake website, they list all the operators that have tours there. I’d look for a company that does Kittiwake snorkels mainly because it’s on a different side of the island than Stingray City, so operators usually don’t combine the two spots. The other option is DIYing a different shore snorkel spot, there’s a good reef by Burger King and another by the Cracked Conch. You could bus/taxi there easily if you have your own gear. Although Cracked Conch may rent gear, you could check with them.

FYI, the Airalo plans that give you voice calls as well as data can have phone numbers from different countries than you may be traveling to, so you may need to give people a head’s up so they don’t think you’re a spammer. For example, our Global plan has an Austrian phone number, so we had to warn family that if they got a call from Austria it might be us, even if we were in Norway at the time.

Sunday is usually better, but all bets are off when more than one or two cruise ships are in port. On a Sunday, you’ll likely need to shop near the port. Not sure what’s open, stores are usually closed on Sundays. However, I don’t spend any time downtown on a Sunday, so maybe the stores near the port open up on a cruise ship day.

As an FYI, traffic along that main road (West Bay Rd) gets HORRENDOUS after about 4pm. A 10 min drive in normal traffic can take up to 40 min. We got stuck in it Friday (Camana Bay to downtown took 45 min). Whatever you do, make sure you are back in the area of the port well before rush hour starts.

A 5pm ship departure usually means the last tender would be at 4:30, so I’d personally want to be back at the port no later than 4pm, so I’d leave in a taxi by say 3:30 at the latest. Taking the bus will take longer than a taxi, there’s no way of knowing how many stops they’ll make on the way, so my comfort level would have me leaving by 3 pm. But your mileage may vary, as they say, but I’d rather leave a bit early and have a bit of time to look in the stores at the pier than be delayed and miss the ship. Adjust these times based on when your ship says the last tender is…you want to be back well before the departure time of the last tender.

DH and I are early 50’s, and have done two VO cruises in the last year, with a long Mediterranean cruise coming up in the spring. We’ve likely been in the youngest dozen passengers on both cruises, and most of those younger than us were either honeymooners or part of a multi-generational family group. However, we enjoy time on our own, we’re not looking for a party or bar hopping experience. We’ve had polite conversations and interactions with other passengers, no issues with the age difference. FYI, shorts and tees at the buffet in the evenings is totally acceptable, and even the rest of the restaurants are more collared shirt and nice pants rather than suit and tie. It’s not a fancy cruise, DH calls it “casual luxury.” And if you are used to bigger mass market ships, you’ll LOVE how easy getting off and on the ship is at the various ports…NO LINES!

Do you work for Regent? Hoping for actual answers from an official source. Even my Regent cruise rep only had the same vague rumors, so i would really like someone in a senior official position to step up and give us some concrete info, preferably sooner rather than later.

@mikemoore Hopefully I've tagged the right Mike Moore. As you can see from the many, many threads here on CC and on FB, the condition of the Mariner is of concern to many, especially those of us with a world cruise booked (ours is 2026 thankfully). Is there any concrete info about when Mariner will be getting a full drydock? In addition to the toilet issues, our suite last week had the loudest constantly-running vents in the bathrooms, with no way to turn them off, and hot water took forever to arrive in the master bath. There's obviously some serious HVAC issues on Mariner. And the internet is still abysmal, even with Starlink. Doable for a week, but not how I want to spend six months. My rep at Regent could only tell me that there will be a yearly "refresh" starting in 2024, and that a drydock would likely happen in 2025 but he had no idea when. For the price of a world cruise, especially in a larger suite, you hope for better than toilet troubles and crappy internet. All the fabulous food and great service can't overcome the other issues, IMO. Those of us with cruises booked on Mariner really need concrete info and answers from a reputable official source.

What time was it scheduled for? Or what time did it actually happen? From surveying the crowd, people had transfer times booked for 11am, 11:15am and 11:30am. The first bus finally arrived at 11:45am, the second at around 12:15pm (the one we managed to get on) and no idea if/when the third arrived. The poor gal doing the organizing really didn't seem to know what to do, and most people just boarded whatever bus they could get on, or gave up and took a taxi/uber.

We had the Intercontinental Miami pre-cruise Nov 24. Next time we will take the credit. Hotel was meh and the transfers were chaotic.

DH says 2.5-3.5 download last week on Mariner, slower with a VPN on. Speed didn't differ between the streaming and regular logins, just what website features (ie video) you could access.

We were on Mariner last week. DH upgraded, and had one streaming login. I had three regular logins. We had to each use our own birthdays to access our logins. I had the regular logins since I was guest one. Maybe check with the nice gal at the internet desk and see whose credentials match up with which logins.

Travel times very much depend on traffic volume. Assume 10-15 min in normal traffic? There will be taxis around, more commonly beach shuttles in the form of shared ride mini-vans. You can see all the relevant areas in google maps to get distances and timings.

Perfect, @crusin7 thanks Now to find a small can of bug spray…

no, the big wooden box

Quick question, hoping for a speedy answer since we board Mariner tomorrow. 🙂 What is in the amenities box I see in the various cabin videos online? Assuming it’s still there, of course. Specifically, is there bug spray in it? We have a few jungle-ish excursions, and just trying to figure out if I need to try to wedge some into the luggage or not… Thanks!

Hopefully this link to some FB pics works…the water conditions there vary greatly with the weather and wind direction. Last week, waves were splashing up around waist high onto the ironshore there. Not a day you’d want to be snorkelling in the area. https://www.facebook.com/groups/ILoveCaymanKind/permalink/7656458611050803/

DH feels the same way. He has been unwilling to even consider any world cruise, even on a favourite cruise line, if it doesn’t begin and end at the same port. He also feels it’s not a true World Cruise without that circumnavigation.

If you google “Stingray City Cayman” you will find hundreds of videos showing the spot and what it’s like, plus dozens of excursion operators. Easiest is to just book with your cruise line, they’ll definitely have an option, but you’ll get a more personal experience with most of the private operators. A quick look through this forum with turn up lots of reviews as well.

Paradise Restaurant has closed, I’m not sure if the stairs into the water are still there but I’d assume so. However, the little rental spot they used to have is gone so you’d have to have your own gear. The Eden Rock dive shop a little bit further along is probably a better option. https://edenrockdivingcenter.com/dive-eden-rock/snorkeling/ Be advised. Snorkelling around that area is NOT beginner snorkelling. Deep water and potentially strong currents.

I’ll just chime in to add that while you *can* use a mask and snorkel at Stingray City Sandbar where the excursions will stop, you won’t need it. You can easily see the stingrays and interact with them without putting your head or face in the water at all. The government’s marine rules for the area forbid the use of fins or water shoes of any kind. You could wear water shoes on the boat, but you’d have to take them off before getting in the water.

Yup, I watched them. Thus the confusion. What I saw on the videos doesn’t match my interpretation of the deck plans. I’m hoping for someone who has cruised in the Haven on Jade to comment about what spaces are where, and what the difference between the “haven sun deck” and the “courtyard sun deck” is.

Are you sure? The garden villa sun deck is listed separately. I’ve done a couple screenshots, with the areas I’m referring to circled in red.