cruzgryphon

I think one of the first things you need to do is get a feel what ports you're interested in in the Baltics. Common ports are Stockholm, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Riga, Talinn. Then I would check the Northern Europe Board on the Ports section. There are also some good guide books on Northern Europe/ Northern Europe cruising - Anne Vipond and Rick Steeves come to mind. Also there are a lot of reviews of Baltic Cruises here in the Royal Caribbean forum. Suggest taking a look at those as they will have a lot of the information you're looking for.

I'll add a dissenting voice for St.Kitts. There's not much to do there (except by the sounds of it beach time) but you can get beach time at any of the Caribbean ports. I did one excursion in St.Kitts and the subsequent visits I have just stayed on the ship. There isn't very much in Bassetere to see or do.

Also Labadee is a private property owned by Royal Caribbean - so keep that in mind.

That being said of the ports listed, my bottom two would be St.Kitts and Nassau.

As others have said if you provide some indications of things you like to do, then you'll get more specific feedback.

Agreed - for $20 definitely go for it. Usually the difference is at least a couple of hundred dollars and you get a better location on the ship.

Also sometimes it's an exchange rate thing.

I did the encounter and I think the biggest difference between the two is the ratio of participants to dolphin(s). With the encounter you get lumped up with about 10 other people and will go through activities like having your picture taken with the dolphin, you'll stand on a ledge in a row and the dolphin will come to each person and you'll do things like pet the dolphin and feed the dolphin (and have your picture taken with the dolphin). My understanding from people who I talked to about the swim and beach break is that there you'll only have a couple of people plus a trainer with the dolphin and you'll be more interactive - i.e. hang onto the dolphin and it will pull you along type of thing. Also you may spend more time at the centre where they also have things like sea lions, beach with hammocks etc.. If I remember correctly, you'll have to purchase and observer ticket where you can watch but not participate in order to be there with your grandkids.

Thanks for posting - this is great information. I was wondering when you stopped in Victoria did you have to go through Canadian Customs and fill out the Canadian customs declaration card?

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I double checked with my TA and found out that on the sailing I'm looking at D2 is $500 Canadian cheaper. So D2 it is for me :)

Also the cruise has to be a minimum of 7 days long in order for there to be a Meet and Mingle.

You'll also find your luggage tags at the end of your cruise contract. So if you can print out your cruise contract, the luggage tags will be there. I think there are other places to get your luggage tags, but I'm not sure.

Wanted to get people's opinions. I'm looking at a cruise on the Freedom of the Seas. There are D1 and D2 cabins on deck 9 in the mid ship area. Is it worth it to pay the extra to get the D1 cabin?

My understanding is that all the gratuity money goes into a pool and then depending on the survey results for that cruise for different areas, they get paid from the pool. I'm someone who calls it like I see it when it comes to the survey. If someone did a particularly good (or bad) job - I point out there name with comments in the comments at the end of the survey. Just my 2 cents.

Timing wise - it's only during cocktail hours when the Diamond Lounge is open. Depending on the ship it could be between 5pm and 8 or 8:30pm. You can use the 3 free drinks in any bar on the ship. There have been reports that you can use them in the MDR on some ships - but again based on the reports it seems to be a ship by ship thing. Don't forget that in the Diamond lounge you can get as many drinks as you want. Also in the bars you're limited to the drinks that you can get in the Diamond Lounge so for example you wouldn't be able to get a Pina Colada.

Enjoy.

Hi Jim & Judy, 2 questions, pls.

 

1) We travel only with a carry on. Which line shall we choose for checking in at the pier?

 

2) What's the earliest the check in process starts? 10.30??? We'll spend 4 days pre-cruise in SJ, and we'll be eager to board ASAP :D

 

Thanks, Dani

1) If you only travel with a carry on that fits through an airport scanner, then just go straight to the line to get into the terminal.

2) In all likliehood the earliest you can start checking in will be about 11am - keep in mind that you probably won't be able to board the ship until around 11:45am (just depends on how they are doing on the cruise to cruise turn around.

The only thing they care about when it comes to baggage is prohibited items (like wine and weapons). Outside of that you have nothing to worry about.

When I travelled to Egypt a few years ago they told us to be very careful with the food and not to eat salads, only drink bottled water where they opened the bottle in front of you things like that. Did you encounter any such concerns/ warnings on your trip?

Enchantment

You may want to attach the file. The image is too small when you click on it.

It's for all Diamond and above. During the hours that the Diamond Lounge is open (about 5pm to 8 or 8:30pm) you can use your Sea Pass card to get up to 3 free drinks from any bar on the ship. There have been varying reports as to whether you can use it in the MDR or not. I think the official word is no, but I think on some ships the servers might let you.

I think the wheelchair approach would be the way to go. You should be able to check in when you get there, but you likely won't be able to board the ship until 11:45am - 12:00pm. I would touch base with Royal Caribbean as well so they can have somebody there to assist you.

I think for both ports you need to decide what's important to you - history (museums, to a certain extent churches), architecture (again to a certain extent churches but also some cities) or scenery or of course one or more of them.

I think for scenery for Naples I would recommend an excursion to Capri or the Amalfi coast. Not sure about history or architecture when it comes to Naples.

La Spezia gives you a few options - you can go to Pisa to see the leaning tower (it's a bit of a ride to get there though). Or you can go to Florence. Or as others have mentioned Cinque Terre.

I did the excursion to Florence and really liked it (but it was a bit of a ride to get there). You can see a variety of things in Florence like the Duomo, Michael Angelo's David, great architecture, you can see some interesting churches like the church where Galilleo is buried. If you're read the book Inferno you'll see a number of the landmarks referenced in that book.

Whatever you go with, you'll have a great time. Enjoy!!

Ships don't really do anything for solo cruisers anymore. Some ships will post in the cruise compass that solo cruisers can meet at such and such bar, but there's no one from the ship there so you don't really know who the other solo cruisers are unless you ask (and in my experience not a lot of solo travellers actually show up).

That being said lots of activities are conducive to meeting people - trivia is a great one, just show up and see who needs/ wouldn't mind an extra team member (you get up to 6 people per team). I also find excursions to be a good way to meet people (either through the ship or private).

I bought this for my daughter to use and would like feedback from anyone, who has used this card already. Can you use this in the MDR for an after dinner specialty coffee?

You're pretty much restricted to using it at Caffee Lattetudes (or equivalent). You can't use it in the MDR (unless you go out to Caffee Lattetudes yourself and bring it back). There are some inconsistencies in terms of what is considered a drink. It sounds like on some ships it's the number of espresso shots (i.e. a single drink with two espresso shots will count as two drinks on the card) whereas on other ships it's one drink regardless of number of espresso shots etc. is counted as one drink. Also it's non alcoholic coffee drinks.

Also keep an eye on the prices online. Lately Royal Caribbean has been offering some 30% discounts on excursions booked online (don't know if they would apply to private island excursions as Royal Caribbean has a monopoly on those). Just something to consider.

I found out from the loyalty ambassador on my Jewel cruise last month that the 1 device surf only can only be purchased once you're on the ship. Interesting move by Royal Caribbean to do that - but what can you do it is what it is.

There was a thread running about this happening on a number of different ships (sorry I can't find the thread). It looks like what is happening is that with Royal's move to filling the bar fridge on demand and providing two 1 litre bottles of water at the beginning of the cruise, that they are pretty much always charging people for the two bottles even if they weren't drunk on the cruise. Definitely call and get it reversed.