joyride21

Oasis / Allure have been to St. Kitts?

If they haven't yet, Oasis is scheduled to on March 23, 2016. (9 night sailing departing 3/17/16 referenced by kruzerci.)

That was not my experience on Jewel, same lobster as always, but it has been several years...

Are those easy to find? Would we need to be familiar with the area to know when to get off or is it easy enough??

We picked up the bus on Back Street (just look for one that says Maho or Mullet in the window -tell them where you are going and they will let you know when to get off - buses are actually small vans) and returned to where it dropped us off when we were ready to leave. Only had to wait about about 5 minutes before a bus marked Pburg pulled up. Super easy!

We did a back to back that visited Scandinavia/Russia and the Norwegian fjords. Absolutely fabulous. You can't go wrong either way. If I had to choose between the two I did, I probably would have chosen Norway. Our ports were Alesund, Flam, Geiranger, and Bergen. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking. Here are a few pictures I took (with a regular point and shoot camera, nothing fancy) :

My travel list is really long, but as far where Royal can (currently) take me:

1) B2B out of Venice - Greece/Turkey/Croatia

2) Around the Horn

3) Alaska (crossing that off soon!)

4) Australia Cruisetour followed by B2B New Zealand and New Caledonia/ Vanuatu

5) Westbound TA via Iceland

6) Full Transit Panama Canal

Re: San Juan - I did have one nightmarish boarding experience, but regardless, if I had time and money I would cruise out of there every year. Love, love, love it there!

Been watching two Splendour cruises in hopes of doing a B2B out of Venice.

Original price of an inside (7 nights) $799

Current day before 'Big Sale' price $1099

So lets see...2x$799 original price = $1598

$1099 + ($1099/2) 'sale' price = $1648.50

Ummm....yeah, right, sign me up. :rolleyes:

My brother is bringing two toddlers, and they'll need to be out of the sun often, but not necessarily away from the pool.

I know tone doesn't translate well on the internet, so let me preface this by saying that I mean this in an informational way with no malice intended - is your brother aware that if the toddlers aren't potty trained they can't actually go in the pool?

The airfare alone would probably break the budget.:)

Isn't that the truth...we are contemplating a B2B out of Venice next year, but the airfare is out of control. I shudder to think what it would be for two one way flights to/from South America.

Interesting to see that the Rhapsody is doing 4 Round the Horn cruises early in 2016.

I would LOVE to do one of them. But I'm sure when the prices come out they will be way out of my range.

Thanks, joyride21! You're right. Dominica has dropped of Jewel itineraries, but is still on one of the Adventure itineraries. [/Quote]

 

I noticed it because my last cruise stopped in Dominica (first time I had been there) and it jumped to the top of my favorite Caribbean ports list. Tied with St. Lucia. LOVED it!

 

That being said, I'm not really wowed by any of the choices. Of the ones you listed, the one I would likely choose is

 

ADVENTURE:

1. San Juan
   
2. St. Thomas
   
3. St. Croix
   
4. Antigua
   
5. St. Lucia
   
6. Grenada
   
7. Sea
   
8. San Juan
   

 

St. Croix and Grenada would be new ports for us, and we haven't been to Antigua or St. Lucia since '08.

 

Would also possibly consider the 11 night on Serenade if the price was right, but I really hate to use that many vacation days at once and have four sea days. (Yup, port snob, signing in.)

No prices yet, but San Juan cruises appear to be uploaded. As someone said, they've switched around the typical Adventure/Jewel itineraries, which I actually find disappointing. I prefer the smaller ship, but now one of those itineraries is the 2 sea day itinerary. I like five ports and only one sea day. I was also VERY disappointed to note that Dominica is missing from the itineraries of BOTH ships. One of my all-time FAVORITE ports of call. I have a couple of NextCruise certificates, but they're good for a LONG time. I may have to take a look and see what Summit is doing out of San Juan.

Check Adventure again, I'm seeing Dominica on cruises departing 11/7, 1/2, 1/30, 2/27, 3/26, 4/23

yes. Both ships still out of San Juan.Looks like Adventure will be year round

Thanks for the quick reply. :)

 

Adventure and Jewel are out of san juan, however, Jewel will now be doing Adventure's current cruises and vice versa.

So they didn't shuffle the ports at all? It's the same itineraries as 2014/15 with just the ships switched?

Cost is $2 per person. I don't know the schedule, but we never had to wait more than 15 minutes for a bus. Catch the bus on Back St., in back of the courthouse. Look for your destination on a sign in the window. The bus looks like a VW Bus.

Loved using the bus on our last visit to St. Maarten! We were headed to the stop on Back Street when we saw a bus with our destination listed in the window stopped a stop sign. We knocked on the window and they let us right in. Took the bus three more times throughout the day, I think our longest wait was about five minutes.

Radiance Class all the way. Absolutely beautiful!

 

Also, I loved the Vision. I guess I'm a small ship type of girl. :)

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I927 using Tapatalk 2

This! With our sailing in May, Radiance class will be the first we have "completed." Truly gorgeous ships.

And we have never received such amazing service as on our B2B on Vision. Senior officers everywhere - I've never experienced them being so present. And they all knew our names. It was fabulous. We were truly wowed by by those cruises.

Love the 11 Night Serenade itinerary. Don't like that is leaves on Monday. With limited time off of work, I'd much prefer a Thursday departure. Can't win em all I guess. I'm hoping that a similar sailing is offered out of San Juan - this year Jewel and Legend did almost identical itineraries to each other, but Legend left from Florida and had the extra four sea days, and Jewel left from San Juan and offered basically the same ports, but eliminated the sea days.

OP, please don't think for a minute that you will hear a whisper of these things WHEN ON THE SHIP, as Mich says, you may hear the Internet bullies say these things, but your onboard experience will be what I usually see when cruising.

 

Lots of grandmas and grandpas cooing over your baby, and telling you all about "theirs" ;)

 

Crew who miss their own little ones going out of their way to entertain and enjoy your baby, like the little guy we saw in Enchantment who just wanted to crawl up the stair way in the My Fair Lady dining room, so up and down he went, with dad trailing to keep him safe, the only folks using the stairs were crew who took time from their dashing to get on their hands and knees and "crawl" with him while laughing and talking to him. We saw at less 4 separate crew use the stairs and do this! No matter what anyone says here, on board, baby will delight and amuse, and you won't notice the very few people who aren't! :D

Seriously, I think you are exaggerating.

My son (16 months old) will be platinum on his own after he takes his 5th cruise with us in May. No exaggeration on familygoboston's part as far as the crew bending over backwards and others cooing over the baby. This has been our experience exactly. However, I will say on our most recent cruise, we did encounter two 'lovely' individuals (on separate occasions) who felt the need to get in our faces and inform us we 'had no right' to bring our small child on a cruise. The first man (on day 1!) actually told us his presence was ruining his cruise. I was absolutely astonished, especially considering when the comments were made my son wasn't doing a darn thing except sitting in his stroller looking cute. But that is only two out of the thousands we have encountered. Most people are very friendly.

I really, really hope this is in place on Radiance this May. We have a mini cruiser who is too young to be allowed in the lounge during cocktail hour, so it would be great for us.

I called about this a few weeks ago and was told you have to travel by 4/30, not just book by then.

Have a great trip!

Laura

Thanks! You too! :)

It's been a few years, but here's what we did (I tried posting direct links, but CC starred them out, sorry!) :

Portland: In the morning: Maine Foodie Tours Culinary Walking Tour. We ended up being the only two to sign up, but they ran the tour for us anyway and it was great. In the afternoon: Portland Discovery Lighthouse Lovers Tour

Bar Harbor: Hiked around Acadia

Saint John: Used Freedom Tours - Did the Fundy Coast to Fundy Shore tour - fascinating!

Halifax: Walked around the city, visited the Citadel, Province House, Public Gardens, Maritime Museum

We went the first week in October and were a little too early for the colors that year, but we had a really nice time anyway. Enjoy!

Yes, I am southbound, had no idea the northbound had different port times. I wonder why....

My assumption is because it doesn't take very long to get from Skagway to Juneau when traveling South, but the extra time is needed when headed North to get to Seward on time...

I'm on the Radiance in July and we are in Skagway until 8:30pm. Is your port time shorter in May?

 

 

Laura

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Are you Southbound? I believe in general Southbound stays until 8:30, but Northbound only until 4:30.

(We actually would have preferred the Southbound route so we could do our land tour first, but time off of work did not permit...)

We are booked on Chilkoot Charters bus only to Emerald lake. Is it worth the Extra $60 to make one way on the Train. Scenery might be a little different, but

If most people on CC suggest renting a car and driving, then how important is the train really? (Unless you are a train buff)

I see in your sig you are on Radiance, two weeks before me. I tried booking the train/bus combo thru Chilkoot, and they emailed me and said that because we leave at 4:30, that tour is not an option for us. Here is a copy of the email they sent me:

"The only excursion we would be able to offer you is our 3.5 hour White Pass Summit Rail & Bus Excursion at either 7:30AM or 8:30AM as your ship's departure time is too early in the afternoon for our longer tours. There are times when we are delayed at the US Customs station for up to an hour sometimes waiting in a long line of buses trying to get back to Skagway. We would not want you to miss your ship."

They didn't even give me the option of the bus only tour, perhaps assuming we had to take the train. We ended up contacting Dyea Dave and will be doing his Emerald Lake tour instead.

ECV, breakfast at noon is fine by me. Heck, I'd eat breakfast at 5pm. I love breakfast. But to me ribs and steak and the other stuff they offered is not breakfast. And the fact it was a buffet and not a brunch sit down menu annoyed me too.