Nashna

We did book thru Choice Air. I just got off of the phone with them. I called to ask questions. The woman was very helpful. She said to go to the airport. If your flight is delayed and you think you will miss the embarkment, then go to the counter to try to get booked on a different earlier flight. She said to call the Emergency Travel Team of Choice Air and gave me their#. They will assist and monitor flights. But if all flights are cancelled and you cannot get to Miami, then Choice air will help arrange booking on the first available flight once the airport is up and running again. So they would probably book us on a flight to San Juan on the 25th if we could not get to Miami on the 23rd. We would miss two days of cruising but at least not miss the entire cruise.

Do not go to the airport on Saturday! That advice might work for an individual flight cancellation. However, this is a major snowstorm that is starting on Friday night. If the storm is as projected then the airport will close and you will be stranded. Watch your local news or check Philadelphia Airports web site for airport status. Checking American's website, it looks like getting out on Friday, isn't possible anymore as everything is sold out.

The airline weather waivers are already in place for flights departing from January 22 to January 24th. You may change your flights to travel between January 20th and January 27. I can assure you that after 30 years in the travel industry, airlines will not want their planes stuck in a storm. They will be flying them out of the way hours and days before the storm. Past experience says that you can expect them to begin cancelling flights as early as Thursday evening. Unfortunately, this storm is a large one and all projections are that the major transportation centers in the East are going to be hit. I would contact Choice air or your airline web site immediately. I am so sorry that you have all this stress prior to your cruise...but, you really need to be proactive.

I know several folks are planning to fly into Florida for their cruises this weekend on Friday & Saturday. United just announced that they are waiving change fees for flights from January 22 to January 24. I'm sure the other airlines will follow United's waiver shortly. Please keep in mind that there is an outstanding chance that flights will be cancelled before the first snow flake falls, so get out of town as soon as you can. Call immediately as their phones will be swamped. You might also try to change your own flights on the airline website.

You won't want to be in the dining room during the sail away. It is absolutely lovely at night to sail past the city and fort. I actually prefer San Juan in the evening over the daytime.

Most insurance will cover your costs in the event that you can not make the cruise due to weather or airline issues. Typically, the airlines will waive change fees days in advance if a big storm is brewing. Since fees can be $200.00 per person for domestic flights, you might want to wait until they waive the fees before you change your ticket. Until the airline issues waivers, any change you make will incur a fee. I would watch both the weather and the airline web sites for updates. Once they allow the flights to change without a fee, the airlines will be swamped with requests.

If you booked your airline travel with Travel Agent, then they should be able to reissue your ticket and can advise you on your options. Call them immediately so they can begin to monitor your situation. TA will also be receiving alerts from the airlines and are usually one of the first to be notified about waivers.

I'm not sure. I do know that they have showers and facilities at the beach for changing. You might want to contact them directly about lockers. We have waterproof pouches for our money and charge cards so we don't need to worry about them getting water logged. I have also asked the folks in adjacent beach chairs to watch out for our beach bags and reciprocated when they wished to leave their spot.

Even if everything goes well this is going to be a tight connection. You need to be at the airport 2 hours prior to departure for a domestic flight. Allowing for an hour to get from Miami to Ft. Lauderdale once you disembark, you should be off the ship before 8:00am. I believe a taxi is your best option to get to Ft. Lauderdale quickly.

Interesting thread! What started off with an amusing post about a Turkey, ended up with some great information for us all. While it is a shame that some folks rig the system for their own benefit; it is wonderful that those in need have the ability to bring their service animals onboard. I've learned a lot from this post. I had no idea that their were "relief boxes" or a special department that handles service dog issues.

I think you should be fine arriving at the time that Celebrity advised you to which is indicated in your documents. That is what I intend to do.

I heard back from Carambola within 24 hours and have also been in communication via several e-mails back and forth. I was told that once the chairs are reserved, they will hold your chair for 30 minutes after your proposed arrival time. It looks like the Breeze and Silhouette are in port that day which could overwhelm the beach. Carambola looks like a great spot to spend the day. We like to have the option to have a lovely lunch on the beach and to spend the day with our toes in the sand. In the past, we have had port stops in Nevis and that was also a lovely beach day.

I'm on that sailing as well...we leave on a Sun. Would you know if that's the assigned terminal for both departure and arrival? :eek: Or is that info not known until closer to sail date? I looked on my docs and online, but couldn't find specific terminal info.

It looks like we should be fine for our embarkation. I'll check closer to our sailing to make sure we are not at the dreaded Terminal 29. I typically arrive around 1130am for our sailings, if we were to be assigned that terminal, I would just plan my arrival for a later hour. When we first started sailing (many years ago) it was customary to wait in line for an hour upon arrival at the terminal. For the last 15 years, (with the exception of that Regent experience and a Queen Mary sailing in NYC when a credible threat was received and we waited for three hours until security cleared us to board) we have always boarded quickly. The chances are excellent that we will board quickly on the Silhouette as the big Spring break sailing is actually the prior week.

Hopefully you won't have any trouble this time. I'm thinking your Regent cruise was from another terminal? Actually I can't see that it's the port's fault...but from what has been explained in this particular case, it's that the number of ships RCCL had in port that day necessitated one ship getting the undesirable terminal that they rent. I can see that terminal for cargo ships as an earlier poster informed us....will not sail on whatever ship goes out of there routinely. Any port can have problems like you mention with Regent sailing. I posted about a time noro caused a CDC inspection of every debarking passenger on the cruise before us on another line. In that terminal in Miami we waited in comfortable chairs for way less time. We had debarkation delayed at San Diego on a third line and had to literally run for the gate at the airport. Fortunately it was only a short cab ride from the port. (Yes, we could have had a later flight but the 11 a.m. one was the only direct flight to our area and had about half the time enroute.) Difficult customs causes problems there...not the fault of the cruise line or the port. If we'd known about this ahead of time, we might have stayed an additional night in San Diego.

Enjoy your upcoming cruise!

Only one Regent ship was sailing out of Ft. Lauderdale. I do not recall the terminal number...just that we needed to wait for the entire ship to disembark before we could enter the terminal check in area. The issue was customs and immigration doing a major inspection of the ship after a 60 day sail around South America.

Having retired after 30 years in the travel industry, I can tell you that the travel experience during Christmas, New Years & Spring Break is typically as bad as it gets. When you consider the cost is at its highest and flights, hotels, and cruises are filled to capacity, this is a recipe for disaster. I always advised my clients to avoid the holidays at all cost. For those who can't avoid taking their vacations during holiday time, please plan for the crowds you will encounter.

All the input is very helpful. We live in Virginia wine country and are members of three vineyards. We spent a week last year on a wine river cruise in the South of France. So we already have the basic wine lecture down. However, you can always learn something new with every adventure. I'll post when we return in April and let you know what we did on the cruise.

Thank you all for your advice. I would be really uncomfortable taking our friends along without prior approval. So we will probably just take our pick of the pay-to-go wine tastings.

Thanks for a chuckle. While, I have sat next to passengers that acted like turkeys, I would not sit next to an actual one.

I was afraid that might be the case. This is their first Celebrity cruise so I'm sure they would not be included unless they might pay their own way. They are into wine so this might be something that they wish to do on their own.

Thank you for the quick reply.

We have just reached "Select" in the Captain's Club. One of the benefits is the complimentary wine seminar event. What is this? We are traveling with another couple who will be on Celebrity for the first time, can we bring them to this event? What about the special senior captains cocktail party?

The port is responsible for the terminal issues. We sailed on Regent two years ago from Ft. Lauderdale and had the exact same experience. The previous Regent Cruise had sailed from South America and customs did not allow passengers to start the disembarkation process until 10:00am. We waited for over two hours in line prior to boarding. Regent was at the mercy of government officials as well as the local terminal operation. The cruise lines don't want their passengers to be subjected to this treatment as the experience was poor for both the disembarking and embarking passengers.

We are sailing on March 27th on the Silhouette. I appreciate the heads up on Terminal 29 given on this thread. I will prepare for the debacle at Terminal 29 and hope that the problem is solved prior to my sailing.

Gary, Thanks for your input. When I was last in port in St. Maarten, there were only a few ships docked, so the traffic wasn't too bad. We do not want to be those last passengers running up the dock to the ship. We have decided to hit Mullet Bay early in the day and get a taxi back at 1:30pm. I would much rather be shopping or sitting by the pool than to be stuck in gridlocked traffic.

We did the America's Cup Challenge and it was exciting. You will not nap! I highly recommend this excursion. Check out their website for a better description.

"Your opportunity to race multi-million dollar America's Cup Race

Boats in the warm blue waters and brisk trade winds of the Caribbean."

Our Celebrity Silhouette cruise will be arriving into St. Maarten on March 31st, along with four other large ships. We had planned to spend the day at Mullet Bay and return to the ship in the afternoon. What time would we need to leave Mullet Bay to avoid the heavy traffic and still do some light shopping? Our ship and Carnival Breeze are both scheduled to depart at 5:00pm.

I agree, that the America's Cup Challenge might be too much for your son. The AC excursion is one of my all time favorites. However, it was so rough that we were the last group to sail that day as the harbor master shut it down. I spent a week sailing in the BVIs and the seas we experienced were very calm. St. Maarten was a totally different experience. Growing up near Newport, Rhode Island, I actually witnessed the America's Cup races firsthand. I can tell you that the sailing we did on the AC excursion felt like the real deal. While no one became ill, we were all soaked and banged around a bit. I loved it!

Why are you dealing with cruise line booking agents? I am a retired Virtuoso travel consultant. Too many times, I was provided information from a cruise line booking agent that I knew was false. When I asked that the information be provided to me in writing, my request was always met with a "let me double check". You can guess the response. Unless you see the offer in writing, don't expect it to be honored. Next time you go to make a cruise booking, call your local cruise consultant. Even your onboard bookings can be transferred to a cruise consultant. Now that I am no longer in the travel business, I still place my cruise bookings in the hands of professional cruise consultants. Knowing that I have someone looking out for my interests, who has more clout that I do with the cruise lines, gives me a great sense of relief and saves me money. My travel consultant called me four months after I booked my March cruise to let me know my fare went down by $400.00. I know Celebrity would not alert me to a fare reduction.

We and friends take lunch and a beach stay at La Samana. Definitely away from the cruise herds. Just contact the Hotel Concierge direct for your lunch and stay requirements, and they will take care of everything, including your transportation.

concierge.las@belmond.com

Link to Hotel web for photographs and information:

http://www.belmond.com/la-samanna-st-martin/photo_tour

Thanks for the information on LaSamanna. It looks amazing. What is the cost for the day?

Thank you so much for your encouraging responses. We recently stayed in an all-inclusive resort which was totally incompetent when it came to offering gluten free options. They kept assuring my husband that an item was gluten free when it clearly was not. He was ill for days. Looking forward to our March sailing on Silhouette.