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We need help from the experienced travelers.....we have cruised for many years and yes I know we should all have passports, so please don't make this thread about getting a passport.

My husband and I wanted to give our daughter and her boyfriend a cruise for Christmas to travel with us on the Freedom on January 3rd - He is a citizen of the Philippines but has a permanent resident card and lives/works in the US - the Freedom is a closed loop cruise leaving and returning to Port Canaveral

One call we made the agent said it was not a problem, we called this morning to book the cruise after talking with our daughter last night and the agent said that he would be denied boarding due to visit to Haiti.....

Can anyone confirm or deny the information - the last thing we want to do is book a trip, fly them to Florida and have them denied at boarding. Its to close to the date of the cruise for him to get a passport (because it would be from the Philippines)

Any help or advice would be appreciated........

This sounds fantastic! We leave on the 2nd, so just a couple more weeks! We can't wait!

 

Thanks!

 

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Hope you enjoy it as much as we did

Awesome! Enjoy your cruise! I can't wait to hear about this excursion!

 

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I apologize for the delay in getting back to you - reality hit and it was back to work for us.....

This excursion was one of the BEST we have done in any of our cruises. The bus rid there was not long, the house was adorable, the staff was pleasant - we grabbed a table and relaxed for a bit; the chef came over and asked what we wanted for lunch - chicken or fish (also had a children's menu) or you could have a combo. The food was sooo good!

We used the paddle boards, had a blast. Took a kayak with my niece (13) and she had so much fun; it was her first time. We snorkeled for a bit and even walked across the street and went in the ocean!

The bar area at the house was so cool - right along the canal and included run drinks, beer and soda/water - there was no limit and the bartender was GREAT

We have never been a fan or Freeport, been there lots of times, we will return to this excursion anytime we cruise the Freeport .......

If you have any additional questions, let me know

https://www.discountexcursions.com/grandcayman/land-tours/

 

You may want to contact these folks. I haven't used them - yet. They can customize a trip for you.

Thanks - I am also looking on trip advisor to see if there are any recommendations out there.....

If you don't want to rent a car, you could look into one of the excursions that includes a stop at Rum Point as part of the day's activities, such as Nativeway's Rays, Reef and Rum Point tour.

 

As Drew said, renting a car is the most practical option. We often rent a car to get between our vacation home at Rum Point and the airport, since even a week's car rental is cheaper than two taxi rides...

Thanks - is there still a rental option at the pier......I cant remember the name. Do you think there is a vehicle that can hold 8

One-way taxi fare would be more than the cost of the rental car. And there are no taxis just hanging out at Rum Point looking for a fare going back to town. Risk of getting stranded should be taken into account.

 

There is a reason renting a car is the preferred way to go to Rum Point.

Thanks - I figured that was the case with the Taxi, maybe we will look into a private driver for the day

Rum Point - we will be in Cayman in January (we have been here before) and are thinking of going to Rum Point; the last time we did this we rented a car -we are thinking of just getting a driver to take us there.

I know traffic can be crazy on the Island which is one reason we are thinking of not renting a car

Has anyone ever done this ......idea of cost?

Thanks for the review - we leave in two days, trying the sunshine simply because it's the only ship we haven't done - we don't really do the shows (after so many cruises they all become the same) and I love the early morning pool time so I am thinking we will like this ship.....but I do appreciate your good n bad review

Happy sailing

I do have pictures but haven't downloaded off my camera yet, then have to figure out how to post. It's been a busy work week, will have more review tomorrow. We are pretty easy going cruisers, so you see little things I wasn't overly thrilled with but I honestly don't have anything bad to say about the Sunshine. I would go on the Sunshine again. Loved the 8 night trip, it was our first.

Thanks - I am reading your review and Jimbos.......love the positive reviews

:)

Great start - thanks for doing the review - any photos of the ship?

Great review. We sail the Sunshine on 9-11. Extended aft balcony. 2nd cruise, first balcony.

We will be getting off - and have an extended balcony aft :) deck 7

It actually worked well in the back there. Having in up front near the pool area on other ships and the lines associated with the wait clog up the area in my opinion.

That's great news....yes the lines at times can be horrendous but still worth it - at least we wont clog the rest of the Lido area ;)

thanks

May I add some additional info here about this area. Hopefully I am not jumping in too early here as you may be posting more later.

 

JiJi and Cucina del Capitano are back here also.

 

At lunch, JiJi has a line very similar to Monogolian Wok on other ships where you choose your noodles and veggies choices and the chefs will add your meat or seafood and sauce of choice and then cook it fresh for you.

 

On other side, at Cucina del Capitano, you are given a list of choices of pasta, sauce and ingredients. You mark your choices, hand the sheet in and your dish is made fresh for you. They also have Caesar salad and bread available here.

 

JiJi and Cucina del Capitano are extra fee venues for dinner for $15pp. Worth the extra fees.

 

I agree that it is much easier to find room here to eat. Many times, if we chose food from the buffet, we brought our food to meet and eat with our friends.

Thanks Mary - I was just going to ask Jimbo if there was a Mongolian Wok :)

Looking forward to the photos of the ship - we are doing the five day (as a quick get away) in a few weeks :)

Hello!

 

We're sailing the Carnival Fascination in November to Freeport and Nassau Bahamas. I just booked this excursion called My Bahamian House on a whim, but I don't feel like the description was very...descriptive. Has anyone been on this excursion before? If so, what can you tell me about it? Are the food and drinks included?

 

Thanks for your insight!

 

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We have this booked for our Sunshine trip next month - I will come back and let you know how it was....from what I have read, it looks great

"I tried Cucina del Capitano's pasta bowl lunch option and it was fine, but nothing that made me want to pay extra for their food at dinner."

 

Can you comment a bit more on this? I thought this was a fee restaurant. Is it open sometimes for lunch without a fee (e.g. on sea days)? Thanks for any info you can provide.

It is free for lunch and a charge at dinner - the dinner is much better than the lunch......

Thanks for the review we will sailing on her Sept 6th......

we are sailing on the 6th as well - you should stop over at our roll call :)

Excited to read the rest - we will be on the Sunshine in just 92 days......we have rented a cabana on HMC (have done it each time we go) but not sure what to do in Freeport and Nassau....

Thanks for doing a review

Why say do not trust the vacation planners - I have used the same one for ten years and have not had an issue

Do you know for certain that there was a price drop, did you ask why he did not email you back, why wouldn't you have called if you knew it was only a twelve hour sale

Its so hard to say - its about the same as the temps in South Florida - so if its like the winter we had this year, it will be perfect, otherwise it can be a bit cool......

With that said, I would do a cabana - you can relax and the kids can swim and do fun stuff - the cabana comes with snorkel stuff and floaties

Enjoy

Here is the link to the Concierge on board https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...#gid=371892551

 

The current Concierge is Rahul Barua. Email for Freedom would be FR_Concierge@rccl.com There is an underscore "_" between FR and Concierge.

Thanks so much - we need to set a few things up before our trip :)

We will be sailing on the Freedom of the Sea in a Grand Suite - does anyone know who the concierge is or the email contact for him......

We sailed the Independence of the Seas last month and loved it - which is why we booked the FOS; any differences that we should know about?

Thank you

Deb

Does the Premium Package include the freshly squeezed orange juice? Or is it only RR / Ultimate?

 

Thanks

Only with the Ultimate - it was very nice when we were on the IOS last week - :)

Thank you for pointing out to me my poor cruising habits, for your information I go into ports on a morning, I return at lunch time , I don't do excursions, I remember every day of every cruise.I SAVE my hard earned money as a bricklayer to fly from the UK to have a week in the caribbean.I enjoy myself immensely I don't argue with anyone, I have made loads of friends from all over the world, I have never upset anyone or embarrassed myself.

For you to tell me how to spend my time and money I would like to tell you where to stick your opinions.

Also I will keep clear from you if I ever have the misfortune to be on the same ship as you

Please don't give someone so ignorant the pleasure of an explanation - they are most likely someone who spends too much time judging others to enjoy themselves!

I'll cruise with you and throw back a few any day

im not a heavy drinker but i to think its pretty easy to spend $50 a day on drinks, coffees, etc.

 

but at the end of the day Royal is a business and wouldn't be offering this if there not making money on it. so somewhere along the lines people aren't drinking more than what the package costs otherwise id assume they'd eliminate the packages...

I think it averages out some do well others not so much - remember they make money even on your purchase of one beverage ........

We like knowing that we had the package and didn't worry about a thing. Having coffee in the am, a bottle of water as we walked off the ship and a glass of wine with dinner were a nice addition to the pool beverages ;)