LadyDivot

On 4/3/2024 at 9:12 AM, wildcats40 said:

Here's a map you can try.

 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/content/dam/royal/resources/pdf/perfect-day-at-cococay-wayfinding-maps.pdf

excellent map! thank you!

On 6/5/2023 at 5:53 PM, annemarie2953 said:

Any chance this spreadsheet is still available??? 
white2953@hotmail.com 

 

many thanks 🙏 

I've probably got one from back in the day. Did anyone send you a version? I'm happy to share.

Pam

How much is a chair/umbrella at Coco Beach? If we rent chairs/umbrella does it include lunch or is that a la carte? Place looks beautiful!

Overall: We'd do Secret Harbor again! I strongly recommend making a reservation through AA Divers before you go and be persistent. Island time! It took two emails, a Facebook message and two phone calls but once connected, it was easy to make the reservation. Only one row of chairs/umbrellas, so everything is front beach view. $40 for the day for two chairs and an umbrella. There are about 6-7 umbrellas and all were full when we arrived. They will set up loungers for late comers, but no umbrellas. Water is a horseshoe shaped cove with low waves. Beach is rocky with little stones right where the water breaks, so wear water shoes or pay attention where there is sand, particularly on the way out. Where the loungers are set up is in front of the dive shop and down the beach a bit from Sunset Harbor Cafe. There was no music that day, and I don't get the feeling there ever is. Fine with us - the sound of the water is what we need. Others came and brought their own music. 

Food: Service is provided from the nearby Sunsett Harbor Cafe. There were two waitresses, but they also serve the hotel, so it was easier and faster to go get your drinks from the bar. I had read on other threads and Trip Advisor that their tuna nachos were the way to go. 100% agree. Holy cow - they were amazing! DH had a salad with tuna and while good, I don't think it was as good as mine. Huge chuncks of perfectly medium rare tuna, slaw, crunchy chips, thai sauce and a wasabi mayo drizzle that was just enough heat. Lovely breeze on the patio and just a great lunch.

Transportation: This is where it got interesting. It matters which port on STT you arrive. We ended up at Crown Bay Harbor which is NOT the one downtown (Havensight). Getting to Secret Harbor took about 35 minutes due to traffic - hilly and we got behind a slow truck. You can get a taxi from Crown Bay to Secret Harbor for $12 person. Taxi prices are fixed by the island and some drivers will complain because SH is on the far side of STT. It's the getting back part that gave us some trouble. We were told that taxis come by "all the time" and all we have to do is jump on. Yea - not really. There were A LOT of us waiting for taxis at SH to go back to Havensight and Crown Bay. Two taxi drivers said Crown Bay was too far to go and turned down our fare! Doh! Since the fare is set, they have to drive further for the same money and don't want to do it. We even offered more as tip - nope. There was a couple who had the restaurant call a taxi and we overheard "crown bay." We asked if we could join and thankfully they agreed - they were on our ship! Anyhoo, we were sweating a bit until we got in the taxi. Plenty of time, but you know that feeling, right?

Snorkeling: You can snorkel from the beach on the right side. There are big boulders and a wall. Pics attached. On the pic with the sand, our chairs et all are behind me. We saw fish around the rocks. I saw a fair number of snorkelers out by the far rocks/wall. We chickened out (no fins) and after snorkeling, headed back to the loungers. AA Divers rents snorkel gear and has a dive boat that came back while were there. 

Recommendations: Definitely go again! (1) Absolutely make a reservation for lounger/umbrella as soon as you know you want to go. Fills up. (2) Snorkel from the beach and don't chicken out. (3) Go to Sunset Harbor Cafe and order the tuna nachos. Do yourself a favor! (4) Its a drive from downtown Charlotte Amalie. Arrange return transportation by calling from cafe or in advance ESPECIALLY if your ship is at Crown Bay. Do it for Havensight, too. Going not an issue - it's the return.

We are booked for 2 chairs and an umbrella for next Wednesday for $40 for the day. We made the reservation through AA Divers. Thanks to all for the info. I'll return with a review.

Pam

59 minutes ago, blue_water said:

I always suggest calling when you really want a reply. 😄

Gotta love island time. On it...

I've written AA Divers twice with no response. Tomorrow a phone call - goin' old school.

Boozin' - what did you decide to do? We leave in two week and St Kitts is still on our itinerary.

6 hours ago, susiesan said:

Pam, so you are saying St. Kitts is now available to tour without a Celebrity excursion? That info is not on the web site yet.

Susiesan - you found the info on the St. Kitts tourism site, so this is probably not valuable any more, but please see post #13 in this thread to see the doc that I referred to previously. 

Pam

6 hours ago, susiesan said:

Ken, I read on the St. Kitts tourism website that as of Nov. 2 vaccinated pax can go ashore and tour with a government approved tour company. There are 30 or so tour choices showing, some are the ones Celebrity is offering at a markup.

https://www.stkittstourism.kn/activities/excursions

Perfect! Thank you, Susiesan and Ken! If we have to use Celebrity excursions, we'll do it, but if we've got options, I prefer to work with local excursion providers when and where I can. This give us options. Yay!

Pam

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Yes, it was called Rail and Sail and my DW said it was about $200 pp. No meal was included, but there was an open bar with a wide variety of drinks on both the rail and sail portions of the excursion.

I was intrigued by the note Celebrity provided saying that St. Kitts government approved excursions are okay to use while on the island. That certainly adds a layer of complexity of what to do! While you were on a Celebrity excursion, did you go through the area where you can find the approved excursions? Easy to find which are legit? I'm a planner so I'm not sure my type A self will be able to wait, but as I said above, I'm very intrigued! Many thanks for your excellent info.

Pam

3 hours ago, BoozinCroozin said:

We may not finally decide until we are there. The winds could make one set of beaches better than the other. I can let you know when we do get back. It is pretty much set at Sapphire Beach or Secret Harbor.

 

As for your St Kitts stop, expect that to get moved to Amber Cove soon. That's what happened with our cruise. Grand Turk and St Kitts got moved to Amber Cove and St Thomas.

Yep, for the moment the only change so far is that we're leaving FLL 30 minutes later than scheduled, but St. Kitts is iffy at best. Unfortunate too, since we've got a beach bar right out of a Jimmy Buffett song that we go to. Since St Kitts is ship excursion only, our bar is not an option this time. Noted about the winds - okay, will keep both Sapphire and SH on the list. This is a good list!

Be safe, All!

All - thanks for the great info and thanks to the OP for getting this discussion started. We're scheduled to be in St. Thomas and St. Kitts in early Dec. Not sure where we wanted to go, but SH seems like a good quiet place to stick our toes in the water and a$$ in the sand. (Zack Brown fans out there?). Love a beach snorkel and ahi tuna nachos sound too decadent to miss.

Boozin - would love to know what you finally decide.

Thanks...Pam

On 2/4/2020 at 5:07 PM, MichMom06 said:

We were just there last week and did not see a single cat. I had heard the same about there being a ton of them but we didn't see any.  I'm not sure if that trail is open all the way around.  When we asked we were told it would be easier to take a taxi to the fort and then walk back, as most of the way would be downhill.  😉 So that's what we did. 

How much was the taxi to El Morro? There used to be a trolley - is that still running?  TIA!

58 minutes ago, kdawg954 said:

 

Funny enough I skipped Orient this time because I got up late.  Ended up taking the $7 roundtrip water taxi across Great Bay and rented 2 chairs, umbrella and 2 rum punch for $20 from a guy that was working with Lay Back Beach Bar and Grill.  

 

Very nice day.  The water was perfect and the food was pretty darn good.  Rainbow was nicer as was the open water beach, but factoring cost and convenience, us being close to the port, I wouldn't hesitate doing the same day again.

 

Got up late? Too much fun the evening before? LOL been there...  We're treating SXM as our chill day. Oddly enough, trying to figure out what to do on our day with no scheduled excursion is actually harder than the day with the excursion! 😳 What to do and where to go on the day we aren't "going or doing" anything?!? Thanks for the tip - now I've got a third place to check out. Although we do enjoy a good water taxi...  Haven't heard a bad thing about Rainbow.

Appreciate the response!

On 2/2/2019 at 10:28 PM, kdawg954 said:

Rainbow has one of the nicest setups you are gonna find and it was very quiet and relaxing.  Food and Drink both very good and reasonably priced.  2 beer, 2 mixed drinks and the main appetizer for 2 ran 40 euros and it included use of the chairs and umbrellas.  This was in May 2018.  i just gave them $50 euro with tip added in.

 

Gonna probably do Orient in May to see what the hype is about but it has big shoes to fill.

So? Orient or Grand Case? Bikini or Rainbow?

On 1/27/2020 at 9:37 PM, Husky1987 said:

 

If I recall, we gave the driver $30 for the trip there and $40 for the trip back. He didn’t quote us that much (think it was $25) but I tipped extra because I wanted to make sure he would come back at a pre-arranged time to take us back to the ship and when he showed at the exact time I tipped him even more on the way back. 

 

$20 for two loungers and an umbrella. We love Rainbow, it’s our go-to in SXM.

Great info - did you reserve your loungers in advance? Just walk off the ship and grab the nearest cabbie?

Thanks...

How much is a taxi to Grand Case? Trying to decide if we do that or rent a car. TIA!

Thanks so much for a great review. We're sailing Edge for the first time in two weeks. I appreciate the info on the MDR or MDRs, really. We'd like to try them all but also really enjoy getting to know our waiters and asst waiters. Dilemma! LOL I found your review because I was looking for info on Grand Case. I'll look up the Rainbow Cafe. Did you rent a car because it was cheaper/comparable to a taxi? I saw some pics from Fort Louis and they looked amazing. I was thinking about trying to go there, take some pics and then go to Grand Case. 

Pam

On 2/13/2019 at 12:29 PM, JF - retired RRT said:

On Princess it's called "Meet & Greet".

Any stationary store has stick on badges (Office Depot, Staples, etc)

I use a template that I got from Tbarton to make the blank ones a little nicer.

If you email me, I'll send it to you: g n j ferren at hot mail dot com

Came across your offer to send the name badge template. So you don't think it's spam, can I send you an email requesting the file? TIA!

Pam 

Hey! I've also got a spreadsheet and some info docs to share - see attached. Info doc is the text I cut and paste into a CC post to let folks know Might be the same as you have, but willing to share. I've done the same thing, as Tom - have everyone put their own money into the machine so that they know what happened. I also use a spreadsheet on a clipboard to keep track of names and amounts. Admittedly, it's been a long time since I've hosted a slot pull so things may have changed! Good luck and have fun!

Pam

The Slot Pull Info.docx Slot Pull Rules.docx Equinox Slot Pull Sign Up Sheets.xls

Judyrem - Thanks! Sounds easy enough.

Pam

Late to the discussion but where do you go in for the snorkeling? We're headed out in a couple of weeks. TIA!

Pam

4 minutes ago, Kteacher said:

Just do a quick google search for “light saber skirt” and you’ll find it. I also have an At-At skirt, but that’s a story for another day 😉

Very nice. I could see making that work for formal night with the right accessories. Question:  at at skirt - blue or green? LOL

Looking forward to your thoughts. We're on the Edge next February. But what I really want to see is a pic of your light saber skirt. I'm intrigued!