brookie848

I find this interesting. As a diabetic, I don't think they could exclude all the sugar free beverages without getting worried about discrimination (I know my husband would LOVE to fight with NCL about this). I think I remember reading on a Carnival live posting that Coke Zero either wasn't available everywhere or wasn't part of the drink package. Personally I think Coke Zero tastes like crap, so I'm fine with regular Diet Coke, but if they won't allow me to have what is "medically" necessary, then I will not be happy. Besides wine, my go-to drinks are whatever and diet soda.

That is weird. We were on the first cruise of the season on the Dawn out of San Juan in November of 2017. Things were moving smoothly, which surprised us a bit. Not only was this the first cruise of the season for the ship, but 2017 was the year of the hurricanes and San Juan as a whole was in pretty bad shape.

Your flight isn't canceled. By you are flying out of the NE -- in January. You are going to have to be de-iced. That's going to add time to your flight. Okay, by some miracle you land at 3:30. I'm assuming you have to be on board no later than 5 if the ship leaves at 7 (we're on this same cruise in February, but I haven't checked what time we have to be there yet). It's going to take you 30 minutes to get off the plane, walk through the airport, and get a taxi. If you have to pick up luggage, add another who knows how long. It's about a 15-minute ride from the airport to the port, but that's if all goes well. The earliest you are going to make it to the port is 4:15. Just no. Suck it up and pay for the hotel. If the hotel costs in San Juan are too much, at least consider flying as far as Florida the day before and staying somewhere cheap there -- and then take the first flight out the morning of the cruise. Still not the best situation, but it's better than trying to make it from the northeast.

So sorry your time in Antigua is cut short. It is my favorite port (we go to BeachLimerz). The cruise I want to book in 2024 has a stop there. Even with the changes, enjoy your cruise!

Thank you! Are you doing the ABCs, St. Lucia and St. Kitts? The other thing I'd love to know is the distance needed to walk from the ship to the port areas for the ABCs. I broke my foot (not recommended) back in August, had surgery in September and will have a second surgery in January to remove hardware. I won't be at 100% yet, but I plan on having a great cruise anyway. I just know that sometimes the walk from ship to the actual port area can be quite long (hello Barbados, Nassau and Cozumel). I'm not sure how much fun that is going to be for me.

Does anyone know the situation on the Epic? We haven't been on there for years and I was thinking of getting my brother a gift card to use when we cruise in February. It seems to have a stand-alone Starbucks, so I'm hoping this will work out for him. He doesn't drink enough to warrant the Starbucks package, which is offered for our sailing.

I would love for SIX to come to the Epic.

Do the Silver Cove ones. The only time we were at GSC we did a regular cabana and we were not impressed with the whole experience. The walk to the cabana was long and difficult for my husband, who is color blind and has zero depth perception when walking in sand. The ground was uneven and since they shuttle you to the Cove, that is a much, much better option. We did not have any stairs to our regular cabana and we were close to the bathrooms, which was nice. But the beach in that area was a walk down a hill and the beach was very rocky and it was not easy to get in and out of the water there. The next time we are on an itinerary that stops at GSC, we will likely not get off the ship. The tendering process was a nightmare (people were waiting 45+ minutes in the hot sun before the tenders left to go back to the ship) and the whole experience was just not worth it to us. We'd much rather enjoy a nearly empty ship.

Better perks can be found in the Owners Suites, Deluxe Owners Suites, and Garden Villa. If balconies are not important to you, check out the forward-facing Deluxe Owner Suites. We sailed in one a few years ago and it was less expensive than a 2-bedroom suite. With the higher-end suites, the additional perks include three (I think more for the Garden Villa) bottles of alcohol/wine and mixers for your drinks in your cabin -- so free cans of soda. I believe you also get reserved seating with the higher suites, but we actually preferred the regular seating in the theater. The DOS without balconies have two different layouts -- two are 2-bedroom and two are not. We needed a 2-bedroom suite. The views were great and we'd consider that cabin again.

Boarding will start regular time -- noon-ish (or before). The last two times we sailed out of San Juan (pre-Covid), our departure wasn't until 9:00 and we still went to the port in the morning. When we sailed from this port (last time was 2019), there was one security line. Once you were through, the Haven line was way at the end of the check-in area. I'll be curious to see if there have been any changes.

Have you ever filed a claim using travel insurance? We have twice. It is not a simple process and it took a long time to do. We needed death certificates for one and a very elaborate medical form filled out for the other (among tons of other paperwork). Insurance works, but canceling because you don't like the change will not be enough reason. Since you live in NY, there is no such thing as "cancel any reason" insurance. Be very careful before you decide to go this route.

People are generally very friendly. Join a trivia team at the beginning of the week and right there are some people you might be able to hang with for the rest of the week. We've chatted with people at bars, the the buffet, sitting across from us at dinner -- you'll be able to tell if they are not interested in chatting. Someone else will be -- that's one of the fun things about going on a cruise.

This happens. There were two ships there when we visited a few years ago.

The problem with booking a suite is that they don't necessarily care about lowering the prices for those. They fill them through the upgrade program. So your prices may not fall at all. Or they may not fall enough to justify not getting the original cabin you wanted. Only you can decide what is worth it to you.

We called a couple of weeks ago to make our final payment and change the third person in our cabin. Our cruise consultant told us our cruise fare had gone down by about $3,000. He just adjusted the price for us. So you should be able to call and get this taken care of to your liking.

I've found that none of the port sites are accurate. I wouldn't freak out.

Ken -- Can you let me know how this goes for you? We will be stopping on the island in early March. I'll have my second foot surgery sometime in December (breaking your foot in five places is NOT recommended). I'm not sure how much walking I'll be able to do then and I'm trying to find ways to mitigate this.

If you are deciding between the two, do Haven Spa, like FLcruisergrl said.

On our March cruise, we will be in Aruba from 8-5. We plan on this being our beach day. I'm having a difficult time keeping track of all of the beaches and what is offered where. We are not opposed to paying for an all-inclusive if that ends up being best for us. Here is what we need: Chair and umbrella rental. Places to buy food/drink. Decent restrooms! Shade -- especially if umbrella rentals are not available. We prefer to take a taxi and need a taxi there to pick us up when we are ready to leave. We don't care about snorkeling and would prefer a sandy beach. Our favorite Caribbean beaches/places to go include Jost Van Dyke, BeachLimerz in Antigua (I'd live here if I could), Nachi Cocum in Cozumel, Rascals in Barbados (Boatyard was okay, too). Thanks!

Are there public restrooms at this beach? We're heading to Aruba in March and I'm trying to figure out which beach would be best for us.

Haha...yeah. It happens most often with new servers. They are also the ones who are big on the incorrect information of "one appetizer, one dessert" for the dining plan. I just keep the terms and conditions with the rest of my paperwork. We'd never go to the trouble of arguing with a server -- we'd just take care of it later at Guest Services.

I always print out a copy of the dining package terms and conditions and bring it with me. I have a feeling that we might get some crap on our next cruise. We have three specialties planned. My husband and I have our two Platinum dinners and our two dining package meals. My brother is cruising with us (his first time!) and he only has the two dining package meals. So on some nights we will be mixing and matching dining package and Platinum. I know this sometimes throws servers into a tizzy, while other times they are cool about it.

The only reason I've contacted the special access desk is to get permission to bring on diet ginger ale. We got a liquid exemption for that (I get sea sick). We stay in suites, so I request cookies to be delivered every day and request chocolate milk or OJ to be kept in the fridge. As far as taking food off the ship, I always have glucose tabs with me. I will also pack some pre-packaged things (granola bars, etc.) to take with me off the ship. I've never had any issues, but I do know some ports are more strict than others. Does your son have a CGM? If so, do you follow them on your phone? If so, I'm not sure if that will work. The CGM will work, but I'm not sure about the following part. The ship can amend the menus, but I would never consider using that option (I've been doing this for 38 years). If that is something you are interested in, the special needs department can help with that as well. We've dealt with special needs when my husband did dialysis on the ship and they were great to work with.

I don't think we've ever had Virginia, but we have not had good experiences with David. We had one were he was "meh" and another where we looked at each other at the end of the cruise and asked what we did to him in order to make him so mean/unpleasant to us. And as an FYI, we generally ask very little of the concierge. I take care of our reservations before we get on the ship and we only ask for some friendliness or maybe to change a reservation if it is needed. We got neither from him and our tip reflected that.

After cancelling three times, it seems as if we are going to attempt to do our Southern Caribbean cruise in February. Our first two cruises were on the Epic, but things have obviously changed since then. Looking at things online, I don't see any mention of shows being held in the Spiegel Tent (which formerly held a dinner show with an additional charge). Is anything being done with this area of the ship? And for anyone sailing out of San Juan this winter, I'd start looking at hotels now. We are definitely suffering from sticker shock -- hotels we've booked in the past have doubled in price. I'm sure there are bargains to be had, but we wanted the hotel to fit certain criteria which limited our options.