pinkroses

Our scheduled docking time into San Juan to end a cruise on Adventure of the Seas is 6:00 AM. Can we make a 9:45 AM flight? Thanks!

We are sailing on Adventure of the Seas. Any body have experience making a 9:45 AM flight out of San Juan? Thanks?

My favorite sparkling, Martini and Rossi Asti Spumonte has been removed!:(

1. Ginger drops for slight stomach upset

2. We have small waterproof bags with a belt to wear in the water that can hold money, ID, small camera etc while swimming. Really works.

3. Collapsible beach bag or backpack. Can double as a carryin on the way home. It's about 4" x 5". I found these along with backpacks of the same at Eddie Bauer

Let's use my husband's shirts as an example. He wears a 3xlt shirt, and a size 50 jacket. So his shirts are wide and extra long. The large packing cube weights about 6 oz, but I can fold and get 8-10 of his shirts in one. It sits in the suitcase like a nice flat "platform", keeps his shirts in place with less wrinkles, and I actually have more space to pack other things.

 

I am very conscious of weight, so I will frequently use our handheld luggage scale and weigh our clothes on the hangers, then subtract the weight for the number of hangers, so I know how we are doing with the luggage weight.

I am going to try the dress shirts like you do! My husband wears the same size! Thanks. I usually fold them like the drycleaners would and wrap them in plastic bags from the drycleaners. The shirts stay perfect!

Motion activated night light for bathroom. Depending on which ship, there is not a night light nor outlet in the bathroom. We use Mighty Light as suggested here and purchased on Amazon.

Ginny......you are smart to organize your own tours! You will be fine. That's the best way to go!!

I like the way you coordinated your blose with your safari!!!!!:)

I find that the time of day and which day you call really makes a difference with wait time. That said, just a couple of days ago I had to cancel a cruise, moved the deposit to another booked cruise, added prepaid gratuities and made a payment all without a hitch. I spoke with Joann. Shortly after my phone call, I received an email from RC to evaluate my call with Joann. I thought that was a good touch.

Jane,

Enjoying your review! We are headed to San Juan in November to cruise on the Adventure of the Seas. One question for you, why do you prefer the Hampton Inn over Embassy Suites? Thanks!

We stayed at Springhill Suites, not right by the ocean in FLL. But within walking distance of restaurants, Costco( if you buy your wine there) and a strip mall. We were picked up at the airport by their shuttleas well as taken to the pier by their shuttle. Free breakfast. Sign up for the shuttle in the lobby. The hotel seemed to be full of cruise passengers. We arrived at the Allure on time. Would we stay there again? The perks were nice. We used Marriott points so it was free. The hotel was clean and a typical Springhill Suites. But we found we liked being closer to the beach.

We did the Explorer 14 day repo in November 2014. It was wonderful! Seven beautiful Caribbean ports. Great service. Yes, upgrading was necessary but the ship was on its way to that. We ate in Portofino three times. I had the seafood skewer. I am allergic to shrimp, so, by letting our waiter know a day in advance, the chef prepared one especially for me without shrimp. It was a wonderful way to cruise southern Caribbean from New Jersey ending in Fort Lauderdale with only one way airfare. I keep looking for more repos we may like.

So you would recommend taking the cable car. We can just purchase a ticket on that day we dock and take the cable car? tku

Yes, you can buy the ticket there for the cable cars. I think we might have been able to purchase them on ship but not exactly sure. You can rent av car for not much at Tony's rental which is within walking distance from the top of the cable car. These people treated us like family, asked where we were planning on going to be sure we had a wonderful day. And we did!

Thank you Pinkroses..with regard to Rome in Limo would u suggest going in a mini bus for 8 or larger? Im trying to figure out the lira into US dollars but I am having a problem with the decimal points I tried using the on-line calulator and it said about $77.00 US dlrs per person. Is that about it?? TKU

It depends on the size of your group. You can email them and Janey will get back to you answering all questions and give you prices. There were just four of us, my DH and two young adult children. My husband is a tall man. The options were a Mercedes sedan or Mercedes van. Janey suggested the van for comfort We chose the van for just us and we were glad we did. These guides are not just tour guides, but love their country. They live in the cities. On the Amalfi coast we chose the sedan as the kids were on a ship excursion climbing Mt Vesuvius and touring Pompeii. I did a review on here about Rome in Limo. I remember it was pricey maybe $500-$600 per day BUT I figured it was a trip of a lifetime because our kids are growing up. Our son was studying in Madrid for the semester so we met him at the end of his studies. If you haven't already, be sure to find the review by Middle Aged Drama a Queen on her Mediterrean cruise. I got lots of tips from her. Good luck!

Anybody stay here? We can get a decent price, but some of the reviews are not too nice. I am beginning to doubt this place

We contact RCL a couple weeks ahead of our cruise and upon request...have been given the names of both our cabin steward and waiter/assistant waiter. We then put $20 for each in an envelope and send it in ahead of our cruise.

 

Call it what you want...but our 'tip ahead' always ensures that we get nothing but the best service....much better than we would have gotten otherwise because they see that we're going to take care of them even before we step on the boat.

 

We're talking with some RCL folks in corporate about the possibility of getting some of their home addresses and/or relatives names; we feel if we could send either a small gift, or just a $10 gift card to Chili's to their family members a couple weeks before we cruise ...we would be treated even better.

Are there Chili's in small villages in India?

With the "Wine and Dine" packages gone has anyone tried pre-ordering wine through the website's "Gift and Gear" tab. We are thinking about ordering our bottles now as the website prices look better than those on board. The site says bottles can be ordered to the room and dining room. Any thoughts and experiences would be appreciated.

We have used it so we have wine in our room for sail away. Only missed once. No one had any recorded of it. I did but it was home. Silly me!! I learned RC did reimburse me though. I usually order champagne. It is sitting in an ice bucket with two champagne flutes. So nice!!!

You are welcome. Our Adventure of the Seas cruise was quite a change for us since I was in a wheelchair or on crutches the whole time but it was still amazing! :):):)

We booked with Mystic Man & we were on the Mystic that is a 52ft sailing catamaran licensed for 55 passengers. I would think it would be pretty crowded with 55 passengers but it was definitely incredible even if we had added quite a few people. :) It was a perfect day!

Juli

I did read all about your time! You did very well! When I booked with RC, the person I spoke with automatically included the Cruise Protection insurance through RC. We always have travel insurance through Insure My Trip and after reading about you, I am canceling the RC insurance and going back to my usual!

We used Rome in Limo in Florence and Rome. They made the tours terrific! What a wonderful time. We also used them on the Amalfi coast. I can recommend them highly!

Santorini is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. When you dock, you choose your way to get to the top of the island, either by cable car or donkey. We rented a car and saw the whole island. Even got to sit on a black sand beach for a bit. Search for Virtual Rain. He has written Santorini DIY. He has beautiful pictures and wonderful tips which really helped in planning our day

We have not toured with Mystic Man since 2013 so I don't know if my opinion is still relevant but our experience was wonderful! I know the prices have gone up in the last two years.

 

Here is a link with pictures to the review I did of our Mystic Man tour if you are interested.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1775109&page=4

Juli,

Thank you. I have read on tripadvisor but I really wanted to hear from someone on here. So then I read your whole review! Thank you! A group of ten of us will be on the Adventure in November. I have been to St. Lucia and loved it too, however our tour was in a speedboat which went much too fast for my liking. I contacted Magicman as it is the only catamaran I can find that does a similar route. We're you on the cat that takes 55 people?

Thanks again, Susan

Currently 128 reviews of Mystic Man Tours over on Tripadvisor

Thanks! I will look there

Spencers boat is a v hull speedboat not a cat. Im looking into Mystic Man tours right now and looks like they operate on catamaran

No one seems to be able to comment on Mystic Man Tours!:confused:

Booked with MysticMan Tours

6 of us

need 4 more for 10 minimum

anyone looking for an option

check out MysticMan website

anyone have experience with Mystic Man?

St Lucia April 12th

How did you like Mystic Man? We are looking into this company for November

We had a similar (disappointing) experience with the Jalousie Beach Break tour with Spencer. First of all the beach area is very small. The few chairs available were in poor condition. If you're not among the first group to arrive, you're out of luck unless you want to pay the extra for the more comfortable loungers down the beach a ways. There are even fewer palapas to use. The scenery is great between the Pitons and we were told by several that the snorkeling is very good there. The problem was just too many people crammed into a very small beach area with the staff taking several of the loungers for themselves instead of leaving them for the guests! Our departure was also extremely disorganized/late. As the previous poster said you would think they would have this all figured out...part of our problem was our boat had an engine problem which required us to travel at a slower speed once we finally got going and we had to make a pit stop along the way for Spencer's friend/mechanic to come aboard and try to fix it. This made for a much later return to the ship than we were comfortable with...based on our experience in total, we won't use him again either.

We agree and we were with Herod's

Indy Capt. we sailed with you on the explorer in November. I "misplaced" your contact info. If you read this let me know. I will keep trying.

Sue and Bill

I had planned on a nice knee length cocktail dress for formal night but a friend just loaned me a long gown - she said it's too beautiful not to be worn more often! And while it is beautiful, I'm afraid it will be too formal. It's a sleeveless navy blue gown, with sparkles around the bodice and a full skirt - not a ball gown, but it could definitely twirl! My husband will be wearing a suit rather than a tux, and after reading all the posts about people not dressing up as much for formal night, I'm having doubts on the this dress...I don't want to be overdressed, I would definitely feel out of place! So how formal is too formal??

if you feel wonderful in the gown, wear it! I have a black ankle length hown with a sparkly top and I love it! I have worn it only on cruises. We did notice that on longer cruises, people seem to dress up more. Also many of the people on the longer cruises, not in summer, are those that might enjoy dressing up a bit more. Last cruise we did on a repo Explorer through the southern Caribbean many many were dressed formally, not so much tuxes. I enjoyed seeing all the different styles. So wear what you like and feel pretty!!

Sweet! I've been a little nervous because although all of her reviews are good, I've seen people post that they have only seen two turtles, etc. It's mother nature, I know....I just am hoping I get to see them. Thank you!

We went in November. I don't know if the time of year makes any difference at all there.

We saw turtles!!! I don't like to go close to them so I saw them and got back on the boat. But you could actually see them from the boat. My husband fed them. They were huge!! Unbelievable!

Remember to wear shoes like flip flops. You leave them ashore when you get on the boat.

The day we were in Barbados it was raining pretty good. After we got on the boat, Gina said we would try it a little while and if we all weren't happy, we would go back in and she would refund. We all stayed. After all, it wasn't raining underwater! It cleared up and we had a nice day. Rain in the end again though. I remember sitting undercover but the rain still on me dripping into my wine glass and thinking regardless of the rain ( because I was already all wet), what a perfect day! Great food, great scenery, great company, great snorkeling, and wine in my hand on the Caribbean Sea ! Who could ask for more???