flashncrash

Thanks to everyone that has replied. We were in Bangkok 2 years ago on a land tour and did most of our sightseeing then. We also stayed in a hotel on the Chao Praya River. This time we're gonna use reward points and stay at the Grand Hyatt Erawan which is close walking distance to Central World Plaza.

Thank you soccerref for your wonderful and detailed postings/pics. We were considering adding a land tour of Myanmar in January when we would be in southeast Asia but have decided to save it for another year and more likely will go with a river cruise on the Irrawaddy.

Hi all,

Planning on doing the Overnight Bangkok On Your Own and see some postings that the shuttle drops you off at Asia Hotel and other posting say they drop you off at Central World Plaza. Don't know if there has been a change in drop-off location as the Asia Hotel postings appear more recent versus the Central World Plaza postings. Can anyone help me out? Figuring where to book overnight so don't have to schlep carry-on as far.

Darrin

first cruise was on the Carnival Festivale out of san juan in november 1990. remembered we had an inside cabin with a large bathroom and kept sleeping in (without any window). loved the itinerary of st. thomas, st. maarten/martin, barbados, and antigua. loved that you could get fruit nectar at dinner. loved the midnight buffets and other late dining possibilities. believed there was a topless section unless it was another early cruise of ours. everything was fantastic and got us going on more cruises.

I've gone ahead and booked a river tubing excursion with markstours on his web site and soon after received a short confirmation vie e mail that they had received my order and I will be contacted within the next 24 hours. ...I have a question in all the reviews I've read I haven't seen any specific info as to where exactly and what time he meets us at the pier. In the past that's been the only problem I've had with booking an independant. Sometimes there is some miscommunication about the pickup time in regard to the difference between ship time and island time. What has everyone's experience with Mark been in this respect?

kimala,

I understand your concern and that feeling is probably shared by thousands of others because we don't know what these owners/operators necessarily look like (or their employees). mark morris should also send an email shortly before your cruise again confirming the meeting time (usually 30 minutes after the ship is cleared though he will wait for stragglers like us as I forgot the meeting time). this was our first time in ocho rios and they are very organized. as you may have encountered in other ports where you get off and now have to look for your independent tour while being inundated with tour hawkers. in ocho rios you go by the ship's time and when you walk the pier to land you will be asked by port personnel if you are part of a tour. tell them who it is with and they will direct you; in our case it was to another port person a bit further on who then directed us to mark himself. there are probably others on your cruise who will also make the smart decision to book with mark as well so there is often the fact that mark will be going back and forth between meeting his guests and guiding them to his minibus. have a great time.

Hi!

 

After reading all of these sparkling reviews about Mark I am really considering booking his tour. I like that it seems as if you still get to visit Dunn's Falls (since I have never been) but avoid a lot of the rushes.

 

It looks as if the tour is $40, is this correct? Also, I am curious as to how long the tour is. We dock in Ochos Rios, so if the falls take about an hour, what do you do for the rest of the time? I see that sometimes there is another hour tubing or visit to his father's home. Is that the general theme, or do you visit other sites? Do you stop at a beach?

 

Thanks!

abee1989,

we just returned from our cruise last Saturday. on his website, markstours.com, you will see his options. the one you mention ($40) does the falls and visits the fern gulley. the $65 option is the falls and river tubing. on our tour there was a family of 4 that were doing horseback riding that I don't see as an option on his website and he transported them to a drop-off site where another vehicle was waiting to pick up this family for their excursion. the $40 option says it is 4.5 hours in duration. our tour (the $65 one) lasted until we got dropped off at the ship with 18 minutes to spare. some people will want to do some shopping so after the falls and other part of the tour he dropped them off and took the rest of us to do some sightseeing before going back to pick up the shoppers. I still had time to hop of the minibus and buy a souvenir t-shirt. so it appears that mark is quite flexible but I would anticipate that the tour will take longer than the 4.5 hours; remember there will probably be others on the tour and not everybody traverses the falls at the same rate. he will get you back to the ship in time. also read the dunn's river falls forum. have a great time because the falls was outstanding and it was our first visit as well.

also just did DRF and river tubing on the white river with mark's tours. an excellent human being, a great representative for Jamaica. he is polite and friendly and knowledgeable including on many U.S. matters. he delivers you to the sites and makes sure you are on your way and is waiting for you at the appointed location. yes, his backyard mangos were sweet and delicious as well as welcome. near the end of the tour he offered clients the option of getting some shopping in. mark morris is highly recommended.

just got off the freedom. fttf had its good aspects, could have been better and could have been great if needed in some situations. arrived at the terminal and directed to a specific line and given a "priority boarding" placard with fttf logo. check-in was the usual amount of time as any cruise check-in other than you get up to the counter a bit quicker. there are priority boarding levels ahead of fttf but as an example on our cruise, the boarding started at 11:30am and they called fttf "priority boarding" at 11:33am. we opted to head to the lido buffet first. we were at our cabin by 12:38pm and 3 out of 4 bags were outside the door. the 4th did not arrive until about 3:15pm (the baggage people see your tags with the fttf info, labeled here as F2F). the tender to grand cayman works this way. you go down to the priority section of the customer service desk when you want to take the tender. we waited for about one minute before being escorted down to the tender; however at that time, 8:30am, there was no line anyway. they say that the tenders are most busy between 9am to 9:30am so if you go before then it won't be as busy. so in this situation, at 8:30am, fttf was no advantage. when I did go to fttf customer service where you have the dedicated line I won't say that you are helped immediately but you don't have to wait long. the last 2 days of the cruise the non-fttf line for customer service was quite long and if you needed customer assistance the fttf advantage would have been substantial. since I had not cruised on carnival since 1992 I wondered how the priority disembarkation system worked since carnival does not ask you to fill out a form spelling out your travel plans upon departure so there is no way they know if you have an early or late flight. they apparently automatically lump you into the first 2 zones for departure. this worked for us as we had a 10:29am flight out of fll.

was fttf worth it? to me it was a 50/50 thing as we didn't need to access the customer service desk when it was a busy time and it was essentially useless for the time we took the tender. for disembarkation I think it would have been easy enough to get zone 1 or zone 2 departure by getting the tags from the customer service desk or even from your cabin steward. it was nice to have your cabin available so quickly and to hit the pool or check out the ship before the majority of the passengers even came aboard. I do feel that having a priority access to a tender returning to the ship would add more value to fttf. so my only experience with fttf is neutral.

would I use fttf again? it really depends on the what, when, where and who situation.

as a podiatrist i see a lot of people with swelling (edema). there are many contributing factors and this posting certainly cannot include all of them. i have never experienced swelling on any of my cruises despite having mild varicose veins in my legs. i do use compression stockings when i wear long pants but when cruising in a warm climate and wearing shorts i do not wear the compression stockings. i rarely consume alcohol. i use the gym regularly on the cruise. i do not use salt at home but on cruises i eat a lot, i mean, a lot. it is not unusual for me to have at least 2 appetizers, at least 2 entrees at dinner and 3 desserts. so what contributes to swelling? the aging process, medical conditions such as high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, varicose veins, gravity, heat, some medications cause the body to retain fluid, diet. each person is different. the only time i have had swelling not caused by an injury is when i traveled to china during a summer and despite doing a lot of walking the food that we ate did have a lot of sodium. i decreased how much i ate and the problem went away. significant swelling in amount and/or duration can be very problematic and does require medical attention. but you do need to enjoy the cruise.