QuattroRomeo

Well....let me say this...one of the reasons we wanted to go shopping this time in Aruba was because the last time we were there, like this time, we arrived at 1 pm. We went on Bully's taxi tour and by the time we got back, the stores were all closed. This time we skipped a tour since we had already been all over the island....see my links for the pictures and review from last time.

 

The stores were 98% open on this Sunday. I beleive they start closing early on Sunday's but we went into a lot of stores. I just didn't take many pictures of the insides of the stores. Most of the shopping is done on the main street, which is an easy walk. Thanks for asking. Hope you are enjoying the review and pictures!

Thank you! Like you, we have been on tours there before, but always arrived much earlier and on weekdays, so it wasn't hard to find shops open afterward. I guess we'll have to shop pretty much right away when we get there in December! So glad to hear you enjoyed your Sun cruise, and your photos are terrific! Not hard to understand why they are happy islands!

Thank you for an interesting review! Do you remember if the shops in Aruba were mostly open or closed, since it was a Sunday?

Talk about anticipation! We're already on page 2 and the review hasn't even started yet!

Looking forward to it.

I e-mailed her yesterday and got a quick reply. I am looking forward to touring with her next April!

Thanks for the update! Will let you know how we make out in December.

Worst thing I ever tasted and nearly spit out, were the scrambled 'eggs' on Carnival Breeze last Oct. Clearly some kind of packaged mix, they tasted like paste.

Close second was their 'banana cream' pie- which contained neither bananas nor cream..

Lots of other offerings there were disappointing, but those 2 were truly awful.

Thank you for the fun review! I can imagine the lecture about contented pigs would be a little off-putting just before eating!!.. Different cultures and languages make for interesting trips though!

Are you sure they are chip and PIN, not chip and SIGNATURE? I also have chips in my Visa and AMEX cards, but they are only C&S...

Absolutely- have to enter my PIN every time. This is through the Canadian banking system though. The issuers actually sent out the new cards before the renewal date to take advantage of the enhanced security. So eventually it will be standard everywhere I would think. The amex one has photo id and is issued through Costco, but no chip for some reason.

Interesting.. all of our cards now are chip- including debit, visa, mastercard, as standard issue. Only newly issued card I have without it is amex.

Really enjoying your review. Between the various flight stressors and your long walk in Barcelona upon arrival, it's amazing you did so much in Montserrat! Looking forward to the rest of the story!

I'm bumping this since I would like to know what Marelvy charges for her tours.

I was quoted $85 pp for 4 down to $53 pp for 8 people, for a custom tour this December. Quoted this past January. She was initially very good writing back, but hasn't been lately. Last thing she said was she had been ill but is better now. I know she did a tour for a cc group on the Sun this past Feb 6 and they enjoyed it. Would like to know if you have good responses when you email her!

I wasn't aware of this company so thanks for mentioning it - some interesting tours for sure.

Prior to this note, we booked a tour for this December in Cartagena through Marlevy Pena-Hall. See her site at toursincartagena.com

She has good reviews on trip advisor but of course I cannot tell you yet through personal experience!

It's been a very long time since I was last in St. Martin/St Maarten, close to 30 years. DH and I stayed both times at hotels in Marigot and we really loved those vacations.. so we are leaving in a few weeks for an Eastern Caribbean cruise and that is one of the stops. We were planning to take a cab and spend some time wandering around, see if the hotels we stayed at are still around and how much it has changed. We did this on a cruise stop to Aruba and Curacao about 4 years ago and neither hotel we had stayed at had really change. The Aruba location had expanded across the road with a casino and condos but the original footprint of the hotel was as we remembered it, although now it was an all-inclusive.

 

Had originally looked at just renting in Grand Case instead of going on a cruise but as it has been so long ago wasn't really sure and didn't want to commit..

Wow- it will be interesting to see it after all that time.. make sure you tell us what you think when you return! Love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks Karysa, you have given us a wonderful itinerary for the day!

P.s. Have you tried the Tropicana restaurant? Seems to have a ton of good reviews.

Great information here. We will be in St. Martin on a market day and although we have been to Philipsburg many times, haven't spent more than an hour or two at Marigot. Thought we might make a day of it at the market there for a change. We are there 8-5, and there will be 7 ships in port that day, in December.

So, we should allow at least an hour each way for a taxi ride? Is it any faster in the morning?

Many thanks to everyone for your valuable suggestions and encouragement to go back to NCL! It does seem to us that the other lines, at least the ones we have been on, are getting less service-oriented while NCL gets better. Hard to ignore!

It does matter to us about the cabin location, so we will book now even though it seems like forever before we cruise! In the meantime, I'll spend the months ahead on roll call chats and looking into the airfares.. we have sailed out of FLL and Tampa before, but not Miami. I will have to read through more cruise reviews now to see whether to fly into FLL or Miami, and check the hotels, etc.

We have been to all of the ports before, so having a nice ship, good entertainment and great fellow passengers will be important to us. If the helpfulness and positivity of all of your replies are any indication, we are sure to have a great time!

Thanks again.

Thanks to both of you for your thoughts.

We have most often booked about 3-4 months out on other lines and did well with rates that way, but since this is a smaller ship (which we do like) the available choices will go more quickly, and the points thing is attractive too, so thought we might have to act faster on this one. As you said, we can always watch for rate drops later. Some cruise lines seem to have more predictable patterns than others!

We haven't been on NCL since 2005. Since so many things have changed in the last few years on all of the lines, and, there are so many positive experiences expressed from recent NCL CCers, we are considering booking a NCL Sun cruise (Caribbean) in Dec 2013. Our preference would be for a balcony, probably BA category. January is generally a good month for cruise fares and I can see various NCL offers through online TAs for either added OBCs, coupon books, or hotel rooms. I understand that booking 9+ months out also means double loyalty points. A few questions:

- in your experience is booking early for NCL likely to be a good rate? I know there can be last minute sales if they aren't selling out but you can never count on that

- are double loyalty points awarded whether you book through NCL directly or with a TA?

- are there still no shareholder credit programs?

- what sort of coupons are in those coupon books? I did a search here and it seems that they are not particularly spectacular

- have I missed any other variables?

Would really appreciate your opinions!

Thank you for your help with jewellery stores, I will do a search for the 'real' jewellers online! I just realized that our Dubrovnik port day is Oct 21; a Sunday- will a lot of shops be

closed? :confused:

Hi Dubrovnik Travel Lady, what a wonderful treasure you are!:)

We will arrive via cruise ship Oct 21. I would like to know if you can recommend, in terms of quality and price, the best places to shop for jewellery and neckties. I am particularly interested in seeing konavoske puce. Is Od Puca St the best area?

Also wondering about the restaurant at Vila Koruna, which I think is in Mila Ston. Is this a bit too far to consider in one day's visit? Is there a seafood place in or around Dubrovnik that would have comparable seafood?

Thank you for any opinions you have on these subjects!

Pam

We have been watching episodes of Scam City on the travel channel. Very interesting! Last one was Barcelona. Shows how they do it. Pickpockets are working in groups- while one picks at your purse/pocket/bag, another walks behind him and sometimes others to your sides.Blocks others from seeing it happen. Do not carry purses or bags including duffle bags, to your side! They recommend ladies wear cross body purses and in front of you with one hand on it alwaysl Watch out for them going up stairs, escalators. Also gives examples of distractions and "accidentally" bumping into you!

Most of the fulltime thieves are well known to police, but regardless of the number of arrests the punishment is still only 3 days in jail plus fine. They make enough in a day to not even worry about it. Perhaps we all need to write letters to spanish govt to change the laws!