keishashadow

On RCCL docked in St Kitts on 5/9. We’ve loved exploring St Kitts. Wanted to relax on Pinney Beach in Nevis this time around. Problem is the cruise excursions only offer a relatively short time on that beach as they are combined with with touring the island. We just want beach time. No idea if we can opt out of the drive portion of tour. I called RCCL, was told not likely. Would be nice if there was that option to just rejoin them at the beach. the private tour operators I’ve googled all have that date blocked out on their schedules. Going to assume, they are contracted to operate the ship’s tours. just two of us, assume chartering a boat much more than I want to spend for the day. My many Qs: *are there multiple ferries (companies) operating from the marina next to where the ship docks in St. Kitts? *do they all make the same route/marinas on both islands…as in can you mix or match companies or do you buy a round-trip tix? *where is the dock in Nevis in relation to Pinney Beach? is it walkable? If not, is there transport (taxi) available? *can we reserve a ferry seat for both ways, in advance of arriving in port? It’s more than a bit worrisome if it’s first come, first served getting back to the ship. *also, with a 6 pm departure, would want to be back onboard at least by 5 pm…would a 2 or 3 pm return time on the ferry be advisable? Plan to work in a cushion of time JIK something goes wrong with the original ferry/time.

The allure will head to PC later this year & start with 3 & 4 day sailings. Haven’t been able to find out what shows etc. will be offered on the 4 day. Hope mama Mia & ice show have a feeling this is dumb Q but, will I be able to also make res for shows on shorter cruise? Hoping not a free for all/stand by only sort of thing.

Are we talking size (bigger) or type (cold water vs warm)?

ValuTrips originally sent me an email saying an error with my CC not being valid. I submitted another request on their website yesterday with the same CC. Also, called and emailed them indicating there should be no issue with the card. I assume a typo of some sort there, all eventually went well. Received confirmation email today, yea! in response to my question to them re early checking: Check in time is 3 PM. Early check in cannot be guaranteed. However, you may check in early after 10am if a room is available. Please check directly with the hotel on the day of your arrival for availability. An additional charge of $30.00 may apply.

Thanks! I’ve been able to collect on previous polices when needing medical treatment on the ship via reimbursement. They also paid for extra ‘day’ on rental car when we were delayed. Surprised me both times how easy the process was. Wouldn’t sail without it

First of all, thank you for responding to my question. i already did call the brokerage company I referenced, yesterday. It could be the weekend staff is not trained in this sort of specific issue, however, I was indeed told I would need to ferret out the likely policies myself & then call the insurance companies directly. Explanation was it wasn’t a searchable item on their end. Do plan on calling back during the traditional business week. However, over the years, I’ve received some invaluable guidance from many members here who seem quite happy to pay it forward, via sharing their expertise. Was hoping somebody else here had waded thru some of this before me…even if they could remember where the info is posted as to earliest departure flight to book. Yes, I could call RCCL to inquire. Probably, will default to that when I have a few hours to spare as earlier this week it was a four hour wait before I could speak to somebody re a price drop.

Hi, haven’t cruised since the pandemic. Prior, always went thru insure my trip & whatever policy fit our needs/price best. Assume things may have very well changed as to general coverage options. Need a policy to cover both a land & sea trip, ergo skipping cruise line offering. trying to figure out if the flight home (not booked thru the cruise line) might be covered by policy if we do miss it due to a late port arrival. Details: Will be disembarking ‘smallish ship’, IOS RCCL in July. supposed to dock at 7 am, Port Canaveral. We have been late there once on DCL but, it was engine issue. Otherwise, easy port to navigate for us in the past. Looking at booking an 11:54 am flight out of SFB. My thot, if cleared promptly, should be able to be in vehicle by 8:30 - 9:00 am. Afraid those last words just may haunt me Will have rental parked in the garage, can self disembark, route approx 1 hour to airport. Drop car at terminal (SFB is very Small airport) & do have TSA precheck I do realize if ship is late, road/car issues, we are out of luck. As a fall back was going to book a cancellable flight at another airport later in the day. If it weren’t quadruple the price, would just plan on using that one in the first place. In general: Thinking there is probably a minimum allotted time to which you must adhere for insurance coverage to apply in this sort of situation. Not seeing the info stated in the various policy summations on that website. Before I call the broker & plow thru each policy, thot I’d ask here if anyone knows how this tends to work Seem to remember seeing it printed on one of the cruiseline’s website in the past as to how early they recommended to book said flight home for each sailing. Can’t remember which line it was or the suggested time. Would think stated 5 hours post dock time is plenty for port Canaveral If it were out of FLL, wouldn’t be concerned having a noon flight. Normally, we do take our time there & book late evening flight, enjoying an activity after disembarking. Unfortunately, there’s only one flight with that particular airport/carrier that day.

The above poster is very brave and, IMO, spot on as to our experiences with some guests on a couple of CCL sailings in the past. Not to say I don’t look at both CCL and RCCL when deciding what cruise to actually book before making the final decision. Have come to conclusion that the cheaper, shorter sailings often do attract a customer who may be focused on a non stop party. Others, solely focused on using the ship as transport to the various ports. Not tossing shade, I’m planning two shorter cruises this year as an add on to MCO trips. One size truly doesn’t fit all. When discussing cruising with acquaintances, it always strikes me funny when people explain that they are trying out RCCL vs their normal CCL because there is no limit on the alcohol pkg. we all have our priorities lol OP - no idea how things are currently, as have not sailed for ages…finally, dipping all ten toes back into the waters this year! Cannot wait 🙂 My suggestion is to go into your first sailing on RCCL with an open mind and enjoy the journey.

We’ll get ‘em next year!

I hear you. However, have had a good success rate overall In my travels when it comes to an early checkin I’m very flexible as to room locations & tend to book properties as to having reward status with the brand. Which I do not have with Hyatt. A top brand’s manager shared with me that their room schedulers take care to assign their frequent guests a room ahead of those who book thru a third party at a heavy discount (example hotwire). They are the first to get bumped to a sister property in a case of overbooking. Whether this holds true with all brands, I cannot say. However, the only times I’ve been bumped to other properties is when booking thru a room discounter for a night before a cruise. It’s happened enough that I do think thrice about not booking direct. Never heard of this discounter before reading here. They do check out as legit. This rate being more than half off for my date, is admittedly very difficult to pass up 🤑

Never heard of valutrips, price certainly seems right for FLL. Asked in another thread. Any experience on being able to check into this property using this service in late AM. we have an early flight booked, don’t want to be tied up waiting to gain access to room. asking as the Riverside made us wait until official checkin time, after 4 pm, one trip when we booked thru hotwire.

We have an early am flight into FLL this spring. Any idea if the Hyatt (using ValuTrips) permits early checkin? Last visit to area I hotwired the Riverside and unable to get access to room until 4 pm, sharp.

Thanks, We’d have the rental parked in the onsite terminal garage. Usually in same ballpark when comparing the costs for a three day cruise for us. Ha, answer is none…for days. Trade off when flying allegiant. Ergo, the backup reservation I’d want in hand at MCO I could cancel.

When sailing out of port canaveral, generally park car rental at terminal. then, we drive to Orlando parks & tend to catch last flight home that night. This trip prefer to just fly home as will be there a week prior to cruise. MCO flights in afternoon that day are quite high, likely due to holiday travelers. Best price is a late night option & it’s still 2/3rd more overall than a SFB option😑. Not to mention the extra rental car day charge Rccl states docking at 7 am. if we self disembark estimating, at best, we could be in rental car by 8:30 am. Giving us 3.5 hours We do have TSA precheck. SFB is a breeze to navigate compared to MCO including rental drop off Realize not a lot of wiggle room. As insurance of sorts, could book a fully cancellable fare out of MCO 🤔 No idea how customs has been processing at RCCL terminal lately. Also, not sure of traffic flow from port area on a Monday up to Sanford area I’m thinking approx an hour? anyone here successfully pull this off?

Bought for one of my kids on a Black Friday sale in ‘21. Still working nicely with an iPhone See above re tile. My son did say the apple appears to hone in better on ‘lost’ items in the house such as keys & wallet (where the slim tile just slips in easily). when I’m not traveling, the AirTags come out of the luggage and do double duty as keychains. Figure might as well get all the use out of the batteries.

Perfect! Thank you so much. For some reason my apple devices kept directing me to an error page on the RCCL website, fired up the desktop and it worked perfectly! kept same cabin & saved $600 overall. Noticed ‘lower’ cabins in same category a couple of hundred less…may drop down this week once the dust settles as with such a port & activity intensive cruise, the cabin will basically just be a place to crash for us.

So true. The mr & I are looking forward to just chilling during our stop there in May (wherein the thrill park is less than half the price if we were so inclined lol). Unfortunately, we had our trip in 2020 cancelled that we had promised her. Focus of working in such a short cruise is for her to finally have a go at it.

Thanks but, no roll call listed for the date.

Haven’t considered cruising since our 3/20 one was cancelled. Ready to sail again 🙂. Since it’s been awhile, admittedly fuzzy as to current procedures. Could be I’m missing something here, apologies if this Q has been answered but, can’t find any comparable recent threads. I’ve booked two cruises on RCCL for next year. This includes one as an add on to our annual disney world trip with Grand daughter. She is very keen to visit Coco Cay’s Thrill Park for the first time. It’s bad enough that this short, 3 day cruise for 3 pp end of June is more than the 9 day one we booked for 2 pp in May😑. I’m seeing $196 pp for the water park. Talk about doing a double take.🙈. She’s not old enough to do the park alone, the mr and I have little interest in it. After stewing on this for half a day, decided to check the same cruise date on the other end of our land portion of the trip, it’s $500 less. I’d have already jumped ship but, would like to know the going rate for the Thrill Park first. Called RCCL and told that’s ‘a no can do’ ??? I’d have to actually book the new cruise to see how much the day pass would cost…seriously, Is this true? Hard to believe the can’t/won’t give out the info pre booking. I did search the roll call thread here, hoping somebody on it could check the price of the water park, nope…nothing posted for that cruise. Really don’t want to go thru booking another cruise for the other date just to find out the price of the water park. Nor do I want to switch the original cruise/rebook; then possibly finding out that the new date’s water park fee is even higher than approx $200 PP Does the Thrill Park fee ever go higher than $200 pp?