LIVE (perhaps) Harmony July 21-28!!!!

[dude_hdt]

Stumbled upon 2 ducks in Central Park lunching before getting off ship

[John&LaLa]

17 minutes ago, Drock20J said:

I have to agree with the above post. Now that the larger ships are docked at Crown, we would have to get a taxi over to the gondola. Otherwise, this would be on my list!

 

This is more likely the reason we were at Crown

 

[jagsfan]

42 minutes ago, Drock20J said:

I have to agree with the above post. Now that the larger ships are docked at Crown, we would have to get a taxi over to the gondola. Otherwise, this would be on my list!

I miss Havensight. Doesn’t matter if we are on Princess or Royal, we get stuck out at Crown Bay. 

[Snit13]

1 hour ago, dude_hdt said:

Stumbled upon 2 ducks in Central Park lunching before getting off ship

Where do cruisers buy these?  Where do the tags come from?

[Clarea]

3 minutes ago, Snit13 said:

Where do cruisers buy these?  Where do the tags come from?

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2668029-hiding-ducks/?tab=comments#comment-57602599

 

[zoepipes]

20 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2668029-hiding-ducks/?tab=comments#comment-57602599

 

I read that string and didn't realize it made some people angry.  I heard about it and and planned on hiding 3 on our upcoming September Harmony trip - one of them will include a Starbucks card.   I know there are some people who get carried away buying 100+ ducks - that's going a little overboard.  FYI: you can make the tags yourself.

Edited July 25, 2019 by zoepipes

[dude_hdt]

Catching up with day 4 in St Thomas...

 

We took taxi to downtown for shopping.  $4 each person one way.  Arriving in downtown, we were greeted with tour sellers.  One guy caught us with his sales pitch which was to avoid Megan's Bay as local prefer the beaches on east and south of island.  Also the taxi from downtown to Megan's would be $8 each and $5 each to get in to that beach.  I didnt research to verify his numbers. He (Jose's Tour) offered a scenic drive around the island then to a free beach, Secret Cove or something like that and ride back to ship where we'd then be asked to pay $25 each.   My kids jumped at the idea of scenic drive which turned out to be to a high point overlooking the city and both cruise piers then to another vista overlooking Megan's Bay.  Got a quick 2 minutes history lesson at each.  We got 1.5 hours at the free beach.  The locals dont like the water north side as it is Atlantic, cooler, and less clear.  The south beaches we're carribean warm water which is supposed to be more clear.  At least thats the sales pitch Jose gave us.  We shopped in downtown for 1.5 hours before heading to the rendezvous point for the trip.  The driver was Angel who is Jose's cousin and proclaimed to be the best looking driver on St Thomas.  The drive along windy roads up and down the mountain was like a roler coaster ride.  Well worth it in my opinion.

[dude_hdt]

Cruise Compass for day 5

[jagsfan]

Can’t wait to hear how your excursion went. 

Sometimes straying from the usual can be a mistake and sometimes it can be a glorious never to be forgotten success.  

[dude_hdt]

Day 6 Compass

[MrsKC08]

On 7/24/2019 at 11:32 AM, dude_hdt said:

Stumbled upon 2 ducks in Central Park lunching before getting off ship

Simply love this! If I found something like this it would be a special treat. I think I might have to round up some for our November cruise!

[sellwingri]

Glad to hear that Ventriloquist  Ronn Lucas was great!  He’s our headliner entertainment tonight on Allure and we had no idea what he did.  Cruise Compass didn’t say.  We’re on Harmony in September. 

[dude_hdt]

Sorry for the few days gap.  We got off Sunday and drove to visit relatives in Naples area for the next couple of days so plenty busy driving & chatting to fill our days.

 

Disembarkation:  We chose the self assist route.  Slightly unorganized when we arrived on Deck 5 and saw a line that started somewhere in the main dining room.  We found our way to the back of the line then later realized there was a line on the other side of the dining room.  My wife decided to stay near the dining room entrance rather than drag her bag thru the crowd to the end of the line.  At one point, she called me on the phone and said the other line is self-assist so I'm in the wrong line.  That new line somehow got to start exiting before us.  All the people in my line were self-assist too so there were misinformation floating around.  Either way, once the lines started moving it was really quick.  Custom and passport check seemed to be based on facial recognition camera so we never really stopped or talked to any agent...just walked off the ship and directly out of the terminal building.

 

So kudos to the Port and RC on making the embarkation and disembarkation extremely smooth for handling 6400 passengers.

 

Now crossing my fingers that RC and our home port of Galveston will finalize the deal and bring an Oasis class here.  The new terminal that they talked about will likely have this latest technology and make embarkation/disembarkation a breeze.