dst

We have used Thenford on previous trips and will be using him again in May - never had a bad experience, some of the friendliest folks!  

Island - LOL don't want you to get kicked out!  MI is beautiful and very convenient to the port, Uber or nice neighbors do the trick (lol)

Enjoy the Mariner, we were just looking at this ship for a quick getaway 

Happy New Year!

23 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

Could you be talking about the LA (Loyalty Ambassador), which takes care of C&A members?  But I doubt they would take care of suites.  

 

When you find out...let us know.  Have never been on the little Empress, only know layout and what others have posted about their experiences.  

Will do - thanks

PS I see we could be neighbors if you are near PC, what a great cool day we are having 🙂 

39 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

Concierge on Empress???  That ship does not have an SL, CL, or even a DL.   And from what I understand...does not even do an "event" like MJ (which also does not have a dedicated lounge).  

Correct but there is someone to assist Diamond cruisers, we sailed in July and I cannot remember who it was.  

Maybe they are not a concierge but they assisted the Diamond folks and anyone in the Suites (Owners) - 

Biker - They had the event for sail away in July when we were on the ship

Does anyone know who the current concierge is on the Empress; for some reason it is not showing on the spreadsheet (which I love - thank you). when we were on the Harmony in November we had Gavin send an email to the concierge and I just wanted to follow up to it before our cruise next month

Thanks

All - sorry I have not been on, I posted the question and then got busy with our daughters wedding on the Harmony and for some reason not getting notifications on the thread.

Still not sure where we will be tendering from - I have been to VG several times and we will go back to the Baths just hoping that we can figure out where to grab a taxi 🙂

Thanks all for your advice!

Gums - when are you sailing?

On 11/23/2019 at 6:24 PM, blue_water said:

Not sure if you will be at the Marina near Spanishtown or in North Sound near the Bitter End Yacht Club. The BYEC is currently closed and undergoing renovations from Irma.

If at the marina you can walk to town and take a short taxi to the Top of the Baths.

What are your hours and date?

Thanks for responding 

we will be there early February on the Empress. I know we will have to tender but getting info on where is difficult. 
even called Royal and they told me all about Tortola (lol) 

Does anyone have any advice or feedback - we are sailing on the Empress in February and our port is Virgin Gorda (not Tortola). We have been to Tortola several times but have never tendered from Virgin Gorda.  Has anyone done that recently? What is the port area like, is it close to The Baths (we have been there) any shopping ..….

Any tips?

Thanks

1 minute ago, mickeygirl78 said:

I did try to change them but they told me I couldn’t. Since they were all restaurants I wanted anyway (just in a different order), I didn’t argue.

That’s shocking, we have always changed our reservation. 
glad you enjoyed the experiences 

13 minutes ago, patters08086 said:

I was wondering what the difference is. I don't want a bus tour I rather walk around at my once pace. Does anyone know if you can walk from the port or need to take a taxi if we go on our own.

Thanks

You could not walk to it from the port, its about a 40 minute drive.  Not sure how long your stop is but you could rent a car, they are really close to the port (Hertz is the closest) and then drive up on your own; see what you would like and head back. Hertz will also shuttle you to the port or an Uber would be inexpensive.

As others have said NASA and Kennedy are one in the same....

Thanks so much for sharing your experience, we are sailing on HOS in a few weeks. We have sailed Allure twice and always do the UDP - 150 is my favorite so I am glad to hear that the quality and service is just as good.  We are planning to do Wonderland more for the experience than the food but after seeing that cotton candy dessert - wow!

Just for future, you could have changed the first three night reservations, they make them but you are not locked into anything

Happy Sailing

28 minutes ago, Defender1158 said:

RCI emailed me the complete edocs package with updated luggage tags the day after my RoyalUp was accepted.  The new luggage tags also showed up in my Planner "View Boarding Pass" screen at the same time. 

/Greg

Thank you, maybe I’ll get something today. 

6 hours ago, ano said:

Maybe I'm showing my age, but I remember getting upgraded rooms completely for free. Those were the days.

I remember those days and they still exist every once in awhile. We got a free cruise in July on the Empress. 

8 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Yes, only the 2 bedroom ATS is STAR. 

Decks 8-10

Thank you, that’s what I thought 

We are sailing on the Harmony 11.10 and had a grand suite, received notice today that our RoyalUp bid was accepted 🙂  We are now in a 1br AquaTheatre Suite - can someone share the differences between the two - other than obvious location.

Are there different suite perks between the two types of cabins? We have sailed in GS several times so I am familiar with the perks for a GS, just wondering about the ATS....

Our cabin was updated immediately however our luggage tags still show the old suite on deck 8 - is there a way to fix this?

This is our daughters wedding as well (getting married on the ship) so this is really special cruise 😉 

15 hours ago, Ashley8053 said:

You're very welcome, I'm glad it is helping people! Congratulations and good luck to your daughter!

 

We did gift bags as well, but we just left them on the table by the entrance to the Music Hall - where we also had our photo booth, card box, etc. I think we had around 15, so we just told the cruisers to grab their bag on the way out. Anyone who "forgot" theirs we just brought to dinner that night. By the time the cruise was upon us, we had serious doubts about the competency of the wedding crew so we didn't go with the delivery option. I am PRETTY sure you cannot bring 15 bottles of champagne, unless it's distributed among your guests because as you get on the ship, they will check how much alcohol you have and whether or not it's in the allowable amount. I walked on with maybe 6 bottles, and luckily we were able to tell the security people that 2 bottles belonged to 3 different people, and it was fine. You will certainly not be able to bring the bottles on-board already in bags because they need to scan the alcohol.

 

The dessert bar was amazing. It was a HUGE variety. I'm having trouble remembering exactly what was there, but I know it was all individual sized items like cheesecake, cookies, cakes, cream puffs, etc. Everything was very tasty and it was a beautiful spread - I highly recommend it. I would probably compare it to the big area of desserts always set up on the buffet, but it was much prettier. 

 

Hope this helps, let me know if you have other questions! 

Thanks - I am going to try the champagne, we had a call with the wedding planner and she said as long as we all checked in at the same time, we are using a bus for transportation, she didn't see an issue with it. I am going to keep them in the case they come in, that will be easy for scanning. If they say no, I'll blame it on the coordinator 🙂

Tell me a bit more about the photo booth - love the idea. Who organized it? Was it through Royal?

Thanks for the tip on the dessert bar, I think we may go with this

Hi - thank you for posting all this great info, our daughter is getting married on Harmony in November. I know its a different ship but same class and still got a feel for te day.

We are doing gift bags for everyone sailing - we have 16 cabins, so a nice group.  Royal said they will deliver them fro 2.00 per cabin. Did you do this?  We are thinking about putting a bottle of champagne in the bags, wondering if that is allowed? I know that everyone over the age of 21 is allowed on bottle of wine so we are going to count the champagne as that. I have two volunteers who will put the bags together as soon as we board the ship (figure that is easier to gt on)

Love the dessert bar - can you tell me what type of desserts?

Thanks

On 7/2/2019 at 8:20 AM, blue_water said:

Sorry for the repeated post, but wanted to add some pertinent info to better compare the two options. I know the cruise line excursion is a more comfortable option, but there is really nothing to be concerned with the DIY option, and that just makes for a nicer day, IMHO...

 

Another idea for you - or anyone visiting STJ - especially for the first time, is getting a Hook bracelet from St John Bracelets right in Cruz Bay. The quality of material and workmanship is so much better than we’ve seen anywhere on STT. The only comparable quality we’ve seen is from St Croix. You can just pick one out from their showroom, or work with them in advance of your visit to have one made specially for you. We were on STJ for a day while staying on Sapphire Beach and stopped there first, and they didn’t have quite what my wife was looking for so he made one while we had lunch. On a cruise stop they could be busy that day so that service may not be an option. But their selection is great, and a Hook bracelet is a great memento from your first visit! You can see much of their selection on their site -

https://stjohnbracelet.com/

 

Enjoy your first visit to STJ! 

Thanks again for the helpful tips 🙂

12 minutes ago, blue_water said:

The 4 hour “STY4” RCCL St John on Your Own excursion gives you just ~2 hours on STJ. 45 min ferry from near your ship to Cruz Bay and back, you choose what to do while there. Cost is $39.

 

From my response in the other thread...

Once in Cruz Bay you are free to taxi to a beach like Trunk Bay (busier on a big ship day) or Cinnamon which is also quite beautiful and less crowded, but if you want more amenities then Trunk it is. You pay the taxi each way (~$7pp each way). The safari taxis waiting for you in Cruz Bay also offer island tours and then drop you at a beach for ~&25pp. Would recommend that for a first visit as the views along the North Shore are spectacular along with some history of the island. 

 

Would strongly suggest going on your own via the Red Hook ferry as the taxis and ferries are very reliable - they transport thousands of day visitors and residents every day. The cost is ~$44pp roundtrip. You will enjoy more time on the beach if Cruz Bay or the tour doesn’t interest you. But Cruz Bay is a nice alternative to Charlotte Amalie, especially on a first visit to STJ. You just have so much more flexibility on your own...the Crown ferry times are very limited, the Red Hook and Cruz Bay ferries leave every hour on the hour...

 

Try it and report back!

 

The RCCL excursion...

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/shoreExcursions/product/detail/view.do?sourcePage=shorexByPort&ProductCode=STY4&DestinationCode=

Thanks so much for your feedback (on both threads) - I am excited to visit STJ 🙂

On 6/26/2019 at 5:12 PM, the fish said:

We have done the St. John on your own tour twice before on RCCL, not Princess.  It runs about $40pp which is comparable to a round trip of taxi to Red Hook and ferry roundtrip to Cruz Bay.  RCCL lists the excursion as 4 hours but the time between  leaving the port and returning was more like 5-6 hours. I went back and checked timestamps on video I took on both trips and the time on St. John was between 3.5 and 4.5 hours which left us easily 2-3 hours at Trunk Bay.

 

But that was on trips where the ship was only in port for 8 hours.  We plan on doing the same excursion next week because we are there for only 8 hours.  If we had 12 hours like you do, I would probably do as suggested here and go through red hook first thing.  Then you will get to choose your departure from Trunk Bay and St. John depending on when you're ready to leave rather than the stated time of the excursion.  Have fun!

We will be in St Thomas on RCCL in two weeks - I have always wanted to go to St John and spend some time at Trunk Bay but I am a little nervous about doing a ferry on our own. Can you explain how the RCCL excursion works - is it a set time for pick-up? Do they give you enough time to go to Trunk Bay and enjoy the beach? I don't want to shop if that's all the time they allow, we really want the beach and beverages 🙂

Thanks

On 5/4/2019 at 7:51 AM, Ms411 said:

The easiest way to get to Trunk is through the ship's excursion if they offer one. If you do it on your own by taking a taxi from the dock to the ferry terminal, ferry over to St John, and taxi to Crown Bay it's going to cost you approximately $27 per person each way. Allow approximately 1 hour travel time on St Thomas and 15 minutes on St John.

 

Trunk is beautiful, but so are other beaches on St Thomas. Maybe not quite as beautiful but probably prettier than a lot of other beaches.

 

Emerald Beach and Honeymoon Beach on Water Island are much closer than Trunk and are pretty beaches with food, drink, chairs, etc.

 

can I ask if you have done this - we have been to St Thomas many times and I have always wanted to go over to St John but really try to play it safe, doing the ferry on our own makes me nervous.  We did notice that RCCL offers St John on your own - do you know how it works.

Thanks

Loving the review - can you tell me what the changes are in the ultimate dining package and the new?  We booked the ultimate before the change.

Why did you go to Jamies to book your dining, is this the only place or can we use concierge?

On 6/17/2019 at 12:39 PM, blue_water said:

Yes Sapphire has a dive center renting lounges, snorkel gear and other water toys and there is a bar and grill by the dive center serving food and drinks. Taxi is $10 - $11/pp each way..

Thanks so much - we will be enjoying our day in St Thomas :)

On 6/13/2019 at 1:09 PM, blue_water said:

Below is a reply I received this week from Courtnie at AA Divers which is the dive shop renting lounges and umbrellas at the Secret Harbour Resort at Secret Harbor beach. They have a changing room but no showers that I know of...

 

“We do take reservations on beach chairs and umbrellas. Please keep in mind there is a $5 set up fee for every 2 chairs that will need to be in cash upon arrival. We have a changing room here in our store and restrooms next door at the restaurant. If you would like to reserve them please go to www.aadivers.com/reservations and sign up.

We do not charge to hold the chairs, we do take a credit card to reserve it but do not charge until the day of, so you will need to bring the physical card at that time. We do have a 24 hour cancellation policy.”

 

So a great way for both early and late arrivals to guarantee lounges/umbrellas.

We've looked at condos at SH while staying on Sapphire Beach, and we prefer Sapphire for the beach, water, and island views. But Secret Harbor is a very nice, calm beach (great for toddlers) with all the amenities you want, including a great restaurant and snorkeling. A nice alternative to Magens with much better food options...

We have not been to Sapphire Beach in a few years, can you tell me if they are still allowing day visitors, there was a bar there to have some beverages and lunch is that still an option.

Do you know how much the taxi would be? 

Thanks

We just booked a last minute trip on the Empress in July - we are thinking of just grabbing a taxi and heading to a beach to relax, swim have some beverages/lunch.  Anyone have any suggestions on a nice beach/bar area

Thanks