BOOGALOO509

First of all many thanks to those who have responded.

Being from the UK hiring a car is not an issue for us as everyone drives on the "proper" side of the road for us 😁.

Having hired a car the last time we were on the island we were looking to see if there were any alternates open to us but it seems clear using public transport is not viable and while the use of the ferry may be a nice way to travel across to Rum Point getting from the port to the ferry terminal and then getting back again seems a lot of faff for us so I think we will go with the hire car option again.

LSKC

We were there about 10 years ago and we just hired a car for the day, not part of any tour etc.  I cannot recall the name of the hire company but my wife assures me it was an International company such as AVIS, EuroCar etc and their office was in George Town not at the Airport.   We actually walked to the office from the port so it was definitely within 10 mins or so of the port exit gates.

We did have the car hire in place before we left the UK.

Given the advice above we will be doing the same when we visit next February.

The island is relatively easy to drive around, providing you do not leave everything to the last minute for getting back to the ship in case you hit rush hour.  We just went where we fancied and ended up at Rum Point.  Just along the road from the restaurant there we found an area that was totally empty and was, in our view the epitomy of what we expected a Caribbean island to look like.  There was gently sloping calm walm waters, palm trees growing out of the sand and absolutely no one else there.  We are hoping it will be unchanged when we get back there.

Subject to time and traffic we also plan on stopping to see Bodden Town.   Last time we visited Hell when we headed back to George Town which was interesting for a short visit but is not somewhere we will go back to next February.

Good luck with your research and enjoy your visit.

We will be visiting Port Canaveral as our first port of call in February next year.  Port times are shown as arriving 13.00 departing 21.00.

We do not want to visit any beaches as we will have Caribbean beaches to visit later in the cruise and we do not want to visit any Disney resorts as they do not appeal to us and I understand they are to far away from port for us to get any real benefit if we were to go there.

We would love to go to Kennedy Space Centre but again, given our arrival time of 13.00 we do not think that is practical as they close at 18.00 so at best we would only get 4 hours there.

Can anyone suggest anything that may be worth doing during our visit?  We have never been to Port Canaveral and are unlikely to come back again unless it is for a cruise that departs or ends there so any ideas would be appreciated.  We like sightseeing so would happily consider an excursion to any local places of interest.

Many thanks in advance for any ideas.

John

Many thanks to both of you for your information.

I will check out the timetables, fares and amount of effort needed to use either of these options compared with using a hire car and will go from there.

Cheers

John

My wife and I will be in Grand Cayman in February on our latest cruise.  We have visited the island before which is when we discovered Rum Point.  During our next visit we want to go back to spend time there before heading back to George Town and Seven Mile Beach for the rest of the day.

During our last visit we hired a car to tour around and would be happy to do that again, especially as we are from the UK so it means driving on "the proper" side of the road 😉, however from reading other threads it seems we may have a couple of other options open to us now, public transport and a ferry crossing.

Can anyone first of all advise whether or not there is a public bus service from near to the port to Rum Point or would we have to change from one bus to another in Bodden Town?  If we have to change buses would the cost of our ticket take us all the way to Rum Point or would we need to buy one to Bodden Town and then a second one from there to Rum Point?

Secondly, is it actually possible to get a ferry from the port area or from Seven Mile Beach to Rum Point and if so from where and what is the cost of a return ticket?  Subject to ferry timetables and costs this may actually be our preferred option as it would enable us to see more of the Island from the sea.

We will be visiting on a Saturday so hopefully everything will be operating that day.

Many thanks in advance for any help/information provided.

Cheers

John

Many thanks for the response.  Having read up a bit more since I posted my question I had come to the decision to get taxi's both ways if we decide to visit the beach resorts.

One port down, several more to research. LOL.

crewsweeper

Can I ask why you say get the tram down to Mahahual but get a taxi back?  Does the tram not do return trips?   How much do you think a taxi will cost if we do take one back to port.

I will be there in February and am starting now to look at trips while in port but was a bit confused by the tram/taxi comment.

Thanks.

John

Many thanks for the information.  Will check out the websites and decide what suites us best.

Cheers

My wife and I will be visiting for a day next month as part of our cruise, we have never visited the island before.  I am aware there is an Island Tram tour available near to the cruise port, has anyone used this tour company?  We have a few questions we hope previous cruisers can answer for us.

Where does the tour start from?

Is it a hop on hop off type tour or are you on it from the start all the way to the end?

How long does it last?

How many stops are there, and where are the stops? 

How much does it cost?  and finally;-

Is the fare an all day ticket or do you pay for each portion of the tour if you get off and then back on?

Many thanks in advance for any help.

Cheers

John

JerseyGirlJen/lx200gps

Many thanks to you both for your information.  Seems like we should be able to find somewhere to eat and got our pre-cruise provisions quite easily on the Saturday morning.

Cheers

John

FOPMan

Thanks for the help.  That seems close enough for us to manage.

Regards.

John

Many thanks for the replies, pleased to hear it is straightforward to do.

Regards.

John

I note from Carnival's website anyone over 21 is permitted to take on board one bottle of wine each during their embarkation process, providing it is not drunk in the MDR.  I was always under the impression no one was allowed to take wine on board unless they paid a corkage fee.

Has anyone done this and if so have they encountered any issues whilst boarding?

My wife and I like to have a glass of wine each evening before we head out of the cabin and by being able to take a bottle each with us it saves one of us (usually me), having to go up to a bar and bring the drinks back down to the cabin.

Many thanks in advance.

JOHN

We are staying at Pier 66 the evening before our cruise.  As we arrive late in the evening we will not have time to scope the area out before cruise morning.

While we could have breakfast in the hotel we need to get out to pick up one or two things before we head to port and will probably look for breakfast while doing that.  Can anyone please advise if there are any shops/malls within walking distance of the hotel where we could eat breakfast and pick up some wine/soft drinks/snacks etc before we head to the port.

Many thanks in advance.

Our cruise arrives at 08.00 and IRIETOURS had advised our tour will start at 10.00.  They have asked we arrive 10 - 15 mins before that if possible so I am assuming they schedule their tours to begin 2 hours after docking.

I hope this helps. 

Many thanks to you both for the information.

We are looking at possibly going to the hotel we are staying at prior to the cruise and either leaving bags there for a few hours or taking out a day pass for their complex.

Cheers

We arrive back in Fort Lauderdale around 08.00 on our next cruise but our flight from Miami is not until 22.25.

We would like to find somewhere, hopefully close to the port, to store our luggage so we can spend a few hours exploring the city before heading back to Miami late afternoon.

Can anyone recommend anywhere that will allow us to store our luggage securely?  Happy to consider places away from the port if necessary but do not want to spend too much time travelling in one direction to store luggage and then have to head a different way for the main attractions.

Any help/advice would be appreciated.

Cheers

John

We will be visiting Curacao in March next year and identified IRIETOURS as a company who had a tour that appealed to us.  However, having seen the last couple of posts on this thread I was a bit concerned about whether or not they were reliable.

I sent an email enquiry to them about 5 hours ago, I have already had a response from them confirming availability of the tour we want and have now just made an on-line booking.

I am not sure what the issue is with the previous 2 posts but I could not be more impressed with the level of service I have received from them.

Good luck everyone.

JOHN

We will be calling into Aruba during our cruise next year and always prefer to use local tour operators rather than book through the cruise line.  Our on line research has lead us to 3 possible operators and I would appreciate any insight anyone can give into these companies.

They are;-

ROCKABEACHTOURS

EL TOURS

THE BIG BUS ISLAND TOUR (this refers to the $20 pp 3 hour trip from outside of the port area).

Has anyone dealt with any of these companies?   

How good/or bad are they communicating on line regarding our needs and possible booking? 

Does anyone have any adverse comments regarding the vehicles and reliability on each company? 

If anyone is a frequent visitor to Aruba or in deed lives there are any of these companies the preferred option?

Any other information about the companies, their personnel and their tours would be appreciated.

TIA.

JOHN.

With regards to the $20pp around Aruba island bus tour for 3 hours.

Can you confirm that is the Big Bus Island Tour bus I have read about or is that one of the party buses that should be avoided?

Many thanks in advance.

John

I live near to the port and I would not suggest walking to Tynemouth, it is a good 3 to 4 mile walk and would take the best part of an hour or so to do.

The local transport system, The Metro, has 2 relatively close station's Meadow Well and Percy Main however both are in residential areas and could be a bit tricky to find if you do not know the area. If shuttles are available I would suggest using them.

Royal Quays shopping outlet is certainly within walking distance and has a range of shops but is no where near as big as the Metro Centre shopping outlet in Gateshead which is about 1 hour away or the centre of Newcastle which is about 45 mins away from the port.

Alnwick, Walkworth, Bamburgh and all up that side of the North East coast is spectacular and well worth a visit, especially to see the castles, including Alnwick Castle which is heavily featured in the Harry Potter films and many other period films.

I hope everyone on that cruise has a great time and enjoys our spectacular part of England, you are all very welcome.

Cheers

John

Thank you very much for this excellent review.

We are doing this cruise in just over 2 weeks and are looking forward to it even more now.

Many thanks

John

Hi

Don't mean to hijack this thread but we sail soon and we are thinking of buying some future cruise vouchers as well.

Can I clarify what the OP purchased.

He says he spent $500 for 2 vouchers and got 2 free, does that mean he got £1000 in vouchers for future cruise useage? Also I believe when you buy them on board you get some form of OBC is this correct? If it is can anyone advise how much OBC the OP would have received for his $500.

Sorry once again for the hijack.

Thanks

John

Jenni

We are using NCL and the POA for the cruise, have used NCL before and had no complaints but obviously not been on the POA before.

We are independent travellers and have put our itinerary together by ourselves, booking flights hotels and cruise in 3 separate stages.

Our flights are with BA and Hawaiian airlines. In Vegas we are staying at the ARIA on the strip, in Honolulu one of the Outrigger hotels and as I said before will be using several different local tour operators on the Islands.

If your package is with one of the reputable Tour operators here in the UK then good luck, I hope you manage to get it all sorted. We actually saw a deal including another NCL cruise we quite liked the look of for 2018. It was advertised in one of the national newspapers using a "cruise" specialist company. The price shown was very appealing although it was obviously for one of the basic inside cabins not an oceanview of balcony cabin, they may be available but at a much higher price.

When we rang them for details and to get a price they were only able to offer us a Balcony Guarantee type cabin not a specific one. We rang NCL direct and were told the cruise was actually sold out and they could not offer us anything at all other than a Haven suite. That got us worrying so we did a bit of research on the cruise company and didn't like some of the feedback and reviews we saw on Tripadvisor, so please beware if the deal you have seen is not through one of the major tour companies.

Good luck with your investigations and planning, happy to help if you have any specific questions.

Cheers

John

Jenny

Hi, my wife and I are UK based as well and are doing this trip next month. When do you think you may be doing it?

We are stopping in Vegas for 4 nights on our way across, we have been there before so know a little of what to expect, then we are flying to Honolulu for 3 nights before the cruise and finally we will head to San Francisco after the cruise for 4 nights before we head home.

We have all our hotels and trips booked, with most trips being handled by local agents rather than NCL.

I am happy to give you some feedback once we get back if that fits your time frames.

Cheers

John

Many thanks for the new replies.

I can see us spending a lot of time in Honolulu prior to our cruise trying to find good quality, reasonably priced wines. Not the worst task you can have when you are on holiday:cool::cool::D:D

Regards.

John