Isle of Pines, Mystery Island & Wala

[aussielozzie18]

Planning to book a cruise at Christmas based on these three port stops. What are the chances of these ports being cancelled due to weather in December?

 

Has anyone been to Wala? Is the snorkelling any good?

[rkmw]

Planning to book a cruise at Christmas based on these three port stops. What are the chances of these ports being cancelled due to weather in December?

 

Has anyone been to Wala? Is the snorkelling any good?

 

december should be ok but any tender port is like a lucky dip

[The_Big_M]

I'd say the chances of them being cancelled at that time are low... but it's still a possibility. Gets riskier a little bit later in the season.

[2011CruisingFamilyof4]

Being tenders it is always up in the air. Someone once mentioned they called it Mystery Island as it is a mystery if you can get to it.

 

Wala is fantastic for snorkelling, right off the beach, beautiful clear water and a lovely little island. The locals have little tours of the village and will take you out in their boats if you like.

[shudie]

Mystery Island is a mystery to us lol, our trip on the Dawn the weather was too bad to go ashore... We weren't that fussed though as we'd had good days for all the others.

[Dizziedi]

Mystery Island is nice - weather should be good but no guarantee. We are there on the Radiance on the Christmas/NYE cruise - come join us:)

 

Cheers

Di

[wynstay]

Planning to book a cruise at Christmas based on these three port stops. What are the chances of these ports being cancelled due to weather in December?

 

 

 

Has anyone been to Wala? Is the snorkelling any good?

 

 

We cruised on Radiance from 10-20 Dec last year. Had perfect weather - tendering wasn't a problem anywhere.However, cyclones come through this region quite regularly, so there's no guarantee. Haven't heard of Wala - going to Google it now :)

 

 

Angela, Sydney Australia.

[Aussie FF]

Hi Angela.

 

We were on your last cruise. We've been to the islands many times. Never had any bad weather, or missed any ports.

 

Hi Di.

Yes, we will be joining you for Radiance Christmas/NYE cruise.

 

We're going to Mare next week for the first time, and haven't been to Wala before.:) Mystery Island we will probably miss this time, as they've just had a cyclone. Damage to the pier.

 

Past cruises

Rhapsody x 11

Radiance x 4

P&O x 5

Carnival Spirit (Don't bother)

Volendam (Only if you're over 80 years old):eek:

 

Booked

Rhapsody x 4

Radiance

Sea Princess x 2

Voyager

[wynstay]

Hi Aussie FF,

 

It was a great cruise, wasn't it ? Our first, but not our last :) I notice you've got a few cruises booked - can I ask whether you use a TA or book online ? Our experience with a reputable TA wasn't the best....wondered if we should look for another TA or book direct with cruise line ? Appreciate any advice :confused:

[Cruise_me_Crazy]

Hi Aussie FF,

 

It was a great cruise, wasn't it ? Our first, but not our last :) I notice you've got a few cruises booked - can I ask whether you use a TA or book online ? Our experience with a reputable TA wasn't the best....wondered if we should look for another TA or book direct with cruise line ? Appreciate any advice :confused:

 

 

Wynstay, was your poor experience based around service, product or price? :(

I often think you won't know the worth of your TA until something goes wrong & you need them to step in. A bit like travel insurance. It makes me smile that people rate them highly having used them for years but never made a claim! :eek: how would you actually know if they are any good??

[wynstay]

Hi,

 

It was mainly service and advice. Tho advertising as cruise 'specialists' our TA eventually admitted she had mainly only sailed with P & O, so her info on any RCL ship was limited. I was also given an incorrect booking no. which meant I couldn't log in after paying the deposit. I thought ( being a newbie ) that we couldn't log in until we'd made full payment, till someone on here kindly told me that was incorrect. We also had to push three times to get a definite cabin allocation - being our first cruise and I have some health issues, I wanted a definite cabin no before we sailed. Had we not already paid a non-refundable deposit, we would've gone elsewhere. I book most of my travel online these days as I find the prices far more competitive than any TA has ever been able to offer me. Was just wondering if it was the same for cruising....:)

[The_Big_M]

Yeah, part of that sounds like bad service. Unfortunately, I haven't had good experiences with local TAs for cruises so far (general TAs yes, but cruises no). The specific cabin no is probably not the agent's fault though - some reservations, and at some times, only guarantees are available, and the line controls that, not the TA.

 

As for bookings, some deals and even cruises are only available practically through TAs so some of my local bookings are done direct and some through a TA, depending on the situation.

[Aussie FF]

Hi Angela.

 

We started with TAs many years ago.

More recently a big 'cruise co mpany' tried to charge us a booking fee, so we complained and had it cancelled, and stopped using them.

 

These days if we ask for a quote from a TA, we find they do exactly what I can do, log onto the website, and just quote the same figure that we can get.

 

Usually we book the next one while on board, for the OBC. I have booked direct on line with no problems.

 

The biggest problem I have had, is if we need to ring the reservations department about anything, I know more than they do.:eek:

[wynstay]

Hi Angela.

 

 

 

We started with TAs many years ago.

 

More recently a big 'cruise co mpany' tried to charge us a booking fee, so we complained and had it cancelled, and stopped using them.

 

 

 

These days if we ask for a quote from a TA, we find they do exactly what I can do, log onto the website, and just quote the same figure that we can get.

 

 

 

Usually we book the next one while on board, for the OBC. I have booked direct on line with no problems.

 

 

 

The biggest problem I have had, is if we need to ring the reservations department about anything, I know more than they do.:eek:

 

 

Thanks for this - sorry, been offline for a while :( Think I might be booking online.....do you get to choose your cabin that way too ? From other posts, I get the impression you can ?

 

 

Angela, Sydney Australia.