LisaLisa87

We were on Harmony last week and ate at CK three times. We were told on the first night that we would have the same server all three nights, and we did. We left a cash tip each time anyway. We tipped both concierges at the end of the week. One of them did more for us than the other, and we split the total accordingly.

We returned recently from a Western Caribbean sailing on Harmony of the Seas, during which one of our stops was Roatan. We had never been to Roatan and wanted to see as much as possible during our relatively short port day (7:30am all ashore to 2:30pm all aboard). I like to use local tour companies when possible, and quickly narrowed our options down to three. After studying the companies' websites and reviews, we decided to go with Victor Bodden Tours. We were traveling with our 20 year old daughter and all three of us are pretty adventurous, and we decided we'd get the most bang for our buck with a private tour. The base price for a private tour varies depending on the number of people in your party, but for the three of us it was $30/person. There is sort of a menu of activities to choose from, each of which includes a description and estimated time commitment. We ended up choosing their monkey and sloth sanctuary, ATVs, and snorkeling at West Bay Beach. They waive the $10 entry fee to the monkey and sloth sanctuary if you book either the ATVs or the ziplining. The charge for the "Mayan Jungle ATV Adventure" was $65. Our original plan was to go to a public part of West Bay Beach and rent snorkel gear, but that isn't how things played out (more on that later). So the starting cost for our day was $95/person, although we knew we'd end up spending more for snorkel gear, a tip for our guide, and possibly lunch. One of the nice things about booking a private tour was that we could start anytime we wanted. We ended up disembarking at 8am because we were anxious to get going. It was very easy to find the Victor Bodden kiosk, which was right outside the port and within the "Town Center" at Coxen Hole. Unbeknownst to me at the time, we were greeted and matched with our guide by Victor himself! As we walked to one of their large, air conditioned vans, our guide told us that he was happy to be assigned to a small, private tour. I've debated about this decision, but I'm not going to mention his name in this review. He wasn't a bad guide, but he did seem to be phoning it in at times. Some examples: He did not introduce himself or ask for our names. I had to initiate that conversation. He also didn't provide much in terms of information/history/etc. unless we asked questions. This is despite the fact that we included the "Photo Opportunities/General Sightseeing" option when we structured our tour. There were no stops for photos between stops at all, and at the time I guess I was too intent on making sure we fit everything in to ask. I'll refer to him as our "driver" from now on. 😄 Our first stop was Victor's Monkey & Sloth Sanctuary. This is where we paid for our tour in cash (there was no deposit required ahead of time). We were impressed with this facility. Our driver introduced us to another gentleman who would be our guide at the sanctuary. He was great -- knowledgeable, informative, and patient. We were not rushed through at all and got lots of great photos. Another gentleman handled the sloth portion of the tour. I'm not sure if this is typical, but only the three of us were inside the enclosure for this part. Once we finished our tour, we joined back up with our driver who took us to the ATV area (on the same property as the sanctuary). I'm not sure whether this is always the case, but it continued to be just the three of us for this part of tour, along with a guide who rode in front and an assistant who rode in the back. It was fantastic having just the three of us in the group because we were able to move pretty fast and didn't have to wait for any stragglers! The description had said we'd been riding for an hour, and that turned out to be accurate. We had a blast and got some fun pics. Our third and final stop was the least defined of the three. I had done some research and knew that we wanted to snorkel from West Bay Beach. I found this link helpful for DIY advice: https://www.uponarriving.com/2016/06/16/snorkeling-west-bay-roatan-honduras/ Our driver spent the drive over trying to upsell us on various "better" options, and by the end we were confused about what we actually needed to pay for. He did convince us that we might as well pay for day passes to a beach club so we'd have lounge chairs and an umbrella and access to bathrooms and showers. We ended up paying $15/person for day passes to Paradise Beach. From there, things got a little muddled. Our driver told us he'd get us a great deal on a boat tour that would allow us to see more sea life and include snorkel gear. I wasn't convinced we needed to go out in a boat since the reef is accessible from the beach, but my husband liked the idea. I will say that our driver talked the guy who was selling the boat tours down from $55/person to $15/person -- less than just renting snorkel gear would have cost. So in the end it did work out pretty well. Logistics aside, I have to say that this was some of the best snorkeling we've ever done. The reef off of West Bay Beach is amazing! So vibrant and alive. We didn't see any turtles, rays, sharks, etc., but we did see an unbelievable number and variety of fish and coral. It was simply stunning. My one regret -- and it was my biggest regret from the whole cruise -- is that we had forgotten our underwater camera at home so we weren't able to take pictures. I thought for sure the guide on the boat with us would have one, but he did not. That was such a big miss in my opinion. We would have paid good money to have some photos of our experience!! When we finished snorkeling, we showered off and changed and then hung out on our lounge chairs for 20-25 minutes before heading back to port. We didn't have time for a meal, but there was a little grocery store just a little ways down the beach and were were able to get two beers, two bottles of water, and two small cans of Pringles for $6 USD! Just enough to tide us over until we got back to the ship. We had a fantastic day and were back onboard in plenty of time. I would rate the things we did during the tour as a 5 out of 5, and our driver/guide as a 3 out of 5. I would book with Victor Bodden Tours again, but next time I would request a guide who is known for doing a great job with the "Photo Opportunities/General Sightseeing" portion of the tour. I'm not going to reach out to the company regarding our driver because he didn't do a bad job, he just didn't do as good a job as we would have liked. The deal he got us at West Bay Beach more or less offset his deficiencies as a guide, in our opinions. I have one last note, and it's about tipping. I had planned to tip our driver/guide, but there were several other people I hadn't anticipated. In the end, we tipped our driver, the guide at the monkey & sloth sanctuary, the sloth handler, the ATV guide and assistant, and the boat driver/snorkeling guide (who was in the water with us). Luckily we had brought plenty of extra cash, but be warned! https://www.boddentours.com/

Wow. I'll wait for the early reports (I'm booked on the fourth sailing), but that is a bigger number than I was expecting. Hard to believe the passes would sell out with that kind of capacity.

Thanks for sharing this. Gotta say... the pizza doesn't look like anything special. At the very least, there should be a couple of special menu items at the Snack Shack since they're charging for admission!

This suggests to me that they're going to sell a lot of day passes. I'd be interested in knowing what the capacity will be and whether there will be enough lounge chairs to go around. I've booked this for now, but I really don't want to have to race off the ship to make sure we get lounge chairs and an umbrella.

Ours wasn't emailed to us either, so I sent an email to the address listed in the Past Cruises area on Royal's website. I got an auto response saying I'd get a real response in several days. So I called 800-256-6649, spoke to a live person, and had the statement within 5 minutes.

Since we're talking about balconies, we absolutely loved the balcony of our side-facing CLS. If you go by floor square footage alone they may not seem very impressive, but the height makes them feel much, much bigger. We spent more time on our balcony on this cruise than we have on any other cruise -- including the time we had an ATS!

For $800, and taking into account that you're celebrating a milestone anniversary, I'd do it. DH and I just celebrated our 25th on Harmony and stayed in a CLS for the first time. We absolutely loved it. The extra bathroom was great and we loved being so close to CK and the lounge. We ended up using the lounge much more than we did when we sailed in a suite that wasn't on deck 17. If you weren't celebrating anything special, I'd keep the GS.

With an early all aboard time, I'd stick with one of the Royal excursions -- especially if you've never gone on our own before. We've vacationed on St. Thomas and have taken both the passenger and car ferry to St. John multiple times. As others have said, it's not particularly difficult, but timing is very important. I would not recommend that someone try it for the first time while on a cruise, unless they have a really long day in port.

Interesting... and we actually sailed at the end of April (I just corrected my post). I assumed this had been around awhile since I hadn't cruise RCI since 2018. I agree that it's a good idea, but I guess time will tell whether the requests are actually carried out!

We had the option to submit stateroom requests for our sailing on Oasis at the end of April. The only request I made was to have the bed separated since I was sailing with my sister, and it wasn't done. Not a big deal as our stateroom attendant handled it while we were at dinner. I would actually have been impressed if the request had been carried out before our arrival!

I didn't get an email from Royal at the 45 day mark, but I was still able to check in via their web site. I wasn't able to print luggage tags for another several weeks. When you log into your account on the web site, does it say "Check-in unavailable"? If so, that's unusual at 30 days out.

You should be able to see details for your specific sailing in the app now. I'm sailing on 9/2 and can see excursions, activities, entertainment, menus, etc. in the app. If you're sailing in October, you may have to wait a little longer but can view earlier sailings until then.

I'm on the September 2 sailing, and I was able to book everything but the adult comedy shows starting on August 2. I'll keep checking, but I've read reports that people on recent sailings have had to wait until they've boarded to book the comedy shows.

My sister and I both went on all the Perfect Storm waterslides on Oasis earlier this year. We had a blast, but I will say that I tweaked my back a little the third time I went down the green and blue one (which I think is called the Supercell). That one was the most fun, but I never quite made it around the bowl without having to push with my hands. That last time I went over the lip a little funny. No regrets, though!

I have a related question. Sorry to hijack, OP, but I didn't want to start a new thread for something along the same lines. How does tipping for the servers in CK work? We'll be eating dinner only at CK and specialty restaurants, although we'll probably be all over the ship for breakfast and lunch. Should we be tipping the servers at CK after each meal?

DH and I are celebrating our 25th next month with a Western Caribbean sailing on Harmony. We considered a Med cruise but ultimately decided we wanted something more relaxing for this particular vacation. While an Alaskan cruise might not be quite as complex to plan or as taxing physically as a Med cruise, we ruled that itinerary out early as well. Since a Caribbean cruise is less expensive than either of those options, we were able to justify booking a sky class suite. The suite perks will definitely make this feel like more of a Special Occasion. We're currently in the early stages of planning an Alaskan cruise for next year (with NCL since Glacier Bay is a must for us).

Regarding tipping the bartenders in the suite lounge, do most people tip them by the drink, by the day, or once at the end of the cruise? I'm leaning toward daily when we visit during happy hour, although last time we were in a suite I think we tipped once at the beginning of the cruise and again at the end.

It wasn’t important to me to get THE earliest time for our upcoming cruise, so I waited until the next morning (around 7:30am) and got the second earliest time.

Same! And each time I get excited, thinking Hall and Oates is going to be on my cruise (or at least someone's cruise!). 😂

I'm not the OP, but I definitely prefer balcony rooms where the sofa is next to the balcony and always choose that layout when possible. I know plenty of others prefer the opposite layout!

Oof... a constant reminder that your cruise is almost over.

Thank you both!

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but are you completely protected from rain while inside the cabana? If it's raining hard, can it get between the slats of the roof? We're toying with the idea of getting one for our upcoming sailing, and I'd feel better about spending the money if I knew we could use it even if it's raining. Thank you!

It's very easy to do on your own. We've been to St. Thomas a handful of times (including two land trips), and Magens Bay is still our favorite. If you don't need lounge chairs, walk down the beach a ways and you'll have a lot more space -- both on the beach and in the water. We had your same port times last time we were there, and we ended up doing some shopping in Charlotte Amalie first and then getting in an open air taxi and heading to Magens. We didn't have any trouble getting a ride back to the port when we were ready to leave.