mitsugirly

Good to know. We will try it out and I guess if it doesn't work, we will purchase it. Thanks for the info. That sucks. We have used it in the past (been awhile and forgot how it works) and from what I can remember, it worked ok...I think.

It took me awhile but found the place by using the map. (Maramao Beach Club). I can only find info on Trip Advisor. Several recent reviews are negative about the service and food, so not sure. Thanks for the info. Yes, we didn't care for Nohoch but since we won't have much time left for beach and food, we will pretty much have to stay on the Malecon (which I realize they are all along that same beach front) and not pay for AI. Thanks for the heads up about the changes and price of the taxi's. Good to know. Krazy Lobster seems good with your description. Also, what do we look for if any of these places are trying to add in charges? Just keep track of the prices and if it's more when the bill comes say something? I hate when places do that and not let you know. 😞 It doesn't look like a PAYG place when I look at their website. I was wondering the same thing.

Well hello there!!! So if that's the case, why would you need to purchase the texting app? All we want to do is stay in touch with our daughter when needed and we all have iphones. Hmmm 🤔

We have decided to go diving when in Costa Maya this time and after the dive were thinking about hanging out at the beach for a few hours after the dive and get a bite to eat. The dive shop is located at Jamie's, but see that he is an AI and required to purchase that to be there. It wouldn't be worth it to us to purchase and AI for the short amount of time we'd be there. Any other suggestions on where to go for a few hours that isn't going to charge us to be there if we purchase drinks and food?

So are you saying you purchased the app for the ship texting and could also iMessage others (like back home) for free with it? Or are you saying you could iMessage for free and didn't buy the ship app?

Yes, I do remember one of our cruises we were on airplane mode and would get notifications from text, fb messenger and IG (but of course couldn't read the full text if it was long) and was worried something was wrong and we were going to be charged international rates but we didn't.

28 more days to go and we'll be back on our first cruise since COVID hit and we had to cancel our RC cruise back then. Woo Hoo!

We are platinum so we both get to pick a meal (for 2) for free. Otherwise, I would not be going to any of them considering there are too many free options that easily satisfy us. 🙂 I hate to hear of the decline in quality. I feel like everyone is cutting corners these days.

Good to know. The last time we cruised our daughter was under 12 and she just ordered off the kids meal. I guess this time, she'll have to pay or not go. She eats like a bird and would only eat enough compared to a kids meal to begin with. 😒

We used OceanSurfari as well and had a great time (although we did a snorkeling + sunset cruise with them while on a land vacation) but I would recommend them. REVIEW

Who is Stewart Ambrose? Is this the same as Spencer Ambrose? Or did a family member take over? Just wondering. We've done Spencer's tour twice now. Once just to the pitons and the next time to the waterfall, mud baths and pitons. We had a fabulous time both times and the snorkeling is AMAZING! Here's my review's from Spencers: HERE and HERE

I can give you our review of Big Beards located HERE. It's from several years ago but has tons of pictures in the review and the snorkeling we did. You'll find 3 pages (reviews) of where they took us and what we did so follow the links at the bottom of the page to see all of them.

We've stayed a many places in San Juan, but in the downtown area we liked the SHERATON Old San Juan and DECANTER and also HOTEL MILANO. You could probably check on those hotels. They are right in Old San Juan and accessible to plenty of places to eat.

Has anyone ever done any dune buggy excursions in Roatan? My daughter wants to do something "exciting" like we've done in the past and we've always had a good time doing a dune buggy tour. When I google, I do find tours listed for "off road" buggy tours that include places like the beach and sloths and so on. Has anyone ever done these tours? I never see it mentioned on here.

I'm sure you can find a half day rental (try to find a vendor ahead of time and book to reserve if you can). Make sure to explore the whole island...it doesn't take long. Go up to the light house and see the wild (not so wild though) donkeys that will come up to you (they will want treats and come right up to you). You can stop at any of the beaches...especially Governors Beach, which is real pretty and does have a bathroom and place to wash off. HERE is my review of the day we went and had a great time if you are interested.

We went with Grand Turk Diving and had a great day. They stopped for snorkeling and then onto Gibbs. We were able to enjoy the beach, hold the stingrays and walk up the hill for an amazing overview of the ocean. The beach is absolutely gorgeous! You can find my review HERE with tons of pictures of our day with them.

What kind of activities do you like to do? Do you like to do something like a dune buggy tour? We did one and had the absolute amazing day with them. Like super fun! They showed us so many things and we got down and dirty. The food and drinks were great and it was the highlight of our cruise that time. My review is HERE if you are interested in something like that. If you like being on a boat and going to a beach and also going to a sandbar with tons of starfish, we went on a tour to Saona Island and the sandbar and they also served a meal on the island. The weather wasn't the best, but we made the best of our day. Review HERE and HERE

We have done both. We like both of them for different reason. Chankanaab is a park and has different things to do such as hanging out at the "beach", which doesn't go straight into the water, but has steps if you want to do snorkeling. There is a small cove area that you can walk right into the water for swimming. They have a sea lion show (free) or the different "swims" you can do with dolphins or manatees. They have a replica ruins area to walk around and see things. They have a zip line (extra...if it's open now) and you can also do the SeaTrek or Snuba there (extra cost). But it's very beautiful there with a large lagoon (not for swimming) and has many iguana's walking around. We've been there a few times HERE and HERE and our dolphin swim HERE. Playa Mia is also very large with a huge nice beach and plenty of palm trees, water toys (extra cost), large swimming pool, water slides and we had a great day there as well. HERE They also have water trikes and kayaks among other things (of course extra cost).

Has anyone done this tour before? It talks about going into the lagoon and having the opportunity of seeing the manatee's grazing in area. Just wondering what you thought of the tour and did you actually see manatee's?

There are so many things to see and do in Aruba, including many beaches. We have cruised there several times and did several land vacations there as well. If you have some time on your hand, I have a travel website/blog with all of the places we've been to (which are most places on the island) that you could look at and get an idea of anything you can imagine. HERE will drop you off at the main Aruba page. If you have any questions, I'm happy to help.

I would say it would depend on your time frame you have while in port. Baby Beach (as mentioned) is very calm but it is the furthest point from the port. BABY BEACH and BABY BEACH and BABY BEACH Those are some of my reviews with tons of pictures of the area. You pretty much have to rent one of their "windscreens", which is a half moon looking umbrella, to get any shade. Another place would be MANGEL HALTO. Super calm and if you want to snorkel, it's in an area that you could actually stand up in to see everything. Of course to see the beautiful reef beside it would mean swimming out some (not toe reachable) and the water can get rough out that way. But if you are looking for super calm, that's another place to check out. MANGEL HALTO and MANGEL HALTO AREA and MANGEL HALTO There's tons of natural shade there as well. SURFSIDE BEACH is another area where the water is pretty calm. It is a place that a lot of cruisers (can) go to and closer to the port. They have restaurants/beach clubs along there. The sand is pretty but the ocean is "mostly" an area with the sea grass and places for you to "dip" in the water where there's small sections of sand. It's close to the airport, so you'll see planes coming in as well. There's no shade unless you rent umbrella's. SURFSIDE BEACH I hope you find the perfect place you are looking for. 🙂

We've stayed at Eagle Aruba Resort in the past and the updated rooms were really nice (we started out in the older room and was moved to the newer one back then). The grounds are beautiful and they have several pools on the property with waterfalls and a slide. The beach is within walking distance or they provide a shuttle. HERE was our room HERE was our old room with pictures of the grounds They also had a restaurant and casino on the grounds and I believe a Dunkin Donuts.

You could always go to Paseo Herencia plaza. There's plenty of places to eat, shop and they also have the "liquid light show" which is a water show (fountains) that a synced to music and lights, which is real pretty. Paseo Herencia and Paseo Herencia

If you want to use Aruba as a beach day, you can always go to Arashi (for the beach) AND there's amazing snorkeling to the left of there and down to Boca Catalina. You can get out there and walk back down the street to Arashi. Super easy to do. You can go HERE and click on my blog reviews of Arashi and Boca Catalina and see the awesome snorkeling you can see there.

1 month away....😁