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EMc&DrS

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About Me

  • Location
    Woodstock, Georgia
  • Interests
    Travel and music
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    MSC Yacht Club
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Caribbean

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EMc&DrS's Achievements

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Cool Cruiser (2/15)

  1. Lots of the hotel guests had left stuff in their huts, but I don't know if there was anything of value. We have a small portable safe that we bring. It holds our cash, IDs, and phone. It has a wire attached like a bike lock would have. The wire fit perfectly around the center pole of the palapa.
  2. They are. I shouldn’t have said they removed people from the palapas. They did take their chairs away leaving them sitting in the sand. There are certain chairs/loungers on the beach exclusively for the hotel guests. Cruise passengers have to rent loungers from one of the sellers, and those chairs are different.
  3. We were just at Eagle Beach on February 21. Our ship, HAL Rotterdam, had arrived in Aruba the night before at 9:30 PM, so our plan was to get off the ship early ahead of the crowds that were arriving on Carnival Horizon and RCL Odyssey of the Seas. We thought we'd take the bus as has been recommended on this thread, but when we stepped off the ship, there were taxis waiting just feet from the ship. (Apparently, only some of the drivers have the credentials to pick up and drop off right at the ships). We opted to save time and the long walk and spent the extra few dollars to jump right into a cab. For $15 we arrived at the beach by 7:30 AM--less than 15 minutes after stepping off the boat. We arrived at the area near Passions where all the palapas are located. To our surprise, all but 2 or 3 of them near the road had already been claimed--although most were empty. Turns out, people staying at the hotel across the street (which was at full capacity) arrive at the beach at 6:30 AM to claim their palapa for the day. They hang a bag from a hook and leave a few items on the table, and then they return to the hotel and don't come back until after 9 AM. Our palapa for the day (Passions is on the other side of the trees to the right): We also quickly found out that the nice chairs seen in the pic are for hotel guests only. We had to visit a hut on the beach where a lady was able to rent chairs to cruise passengers. Ours looked like old chairs that had been discarded by Carnival--exactly the same chairs we've had on their cruise ships, but with some holes and tears in the fabric. This nice lady dragged two chairs what seemed to be 100 yards through the THICK sand to our palapa in the back corner of the beach. I believe we paid $10/chair and I gave her a tip for her effort. I found out later that there was another man who rented chairs for that area, but he wasn't even on duty when we got there. He figured out we had rented from the other lady and was fine with that. A short time later he came by with security and they were removing people from palapas who were not hotel guests or who had not rented chairs. They didn't bother us. In the end our spot was fine. Although our view looking straight ahead was obscured, we could just look to our right to see the ocean. We were a short distance to Passions, and after a long wait there for drinks around 1 PM, we enjoyed the strongest Long Island Iced Teas we've ever had! I recommend arriving early if you can. The beach was almost exclusively ours for the first 60-90 minutes. We had no problem getting a cab back to the pier. We had only walked a few feet when one stopped to pick us up. This driver took us to the same spot just feet from the gangway to our ship.
  4. Enjoying your review so far--we were on the same cruise. Interesting to note--our Uber dropped us off at 9:40 AM, we breezed through security and went right up the escalator to the "priority" waiting area to wait until they started the boarding process. We were in the first group to board and I took a pic just as we were stepping onto the ship. The time was 11:07. So, arriving early and having priority boarding got us onboard a whopping 10 minutes before you boarded.😂
  5. What does it cost to upgrade to Elite from the Signature package included with HIA once you get onboard? Is it still true with the Signature package that you only pay the difference for drink prices that are higher than $11 (plus 18%)? One of the cruise lines we sailed recently charged you the entire cost of the drink if it was over the limit, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't HAL.
  6. Interesting—thanks for the heads up.
  7. Great--thanks for your quick reply!
  8. I think the confusion is because there are some posts & videos on this site that claim the bus first stops at "Eagle Beach" where it's more crowded and then makes a second stop at Amsterdam Manor. Quick question--our ship is staying in Aruba overnight during our 24-hour stay, so we should be able to get off the ship early the next morning before the other cruise ships arrive in port. Do you have any idea how early we could rent chairs on the beach near Passions?
  9. How do you see the current menus in the Navigator app? All I can see are the few things that have been scheduled for the 9 days that we'll be onboard in 3 weeks.
  10. Are prices in US dollars? Is it better to sit on the deck or on the beach?
  11. Yep, that’s the one we’re looking at for Feb. We clearly read the same bad reviews, but the more I read on other sites, it seems that most people really like this one. I guess some people can find the negative in anything. A lot of people complained about the lunch. When you’re on a 9 day cruise with unlimited food and drink, I could care less about what food is served!! Thanks for your reply—hope you all have a great time!
  12. Did you take this tour? I was just looking at it today as a possibility for our HIA. The reviews were either FANTASTIC or TERRIBLE. Makes it so hard to decide....
  13. When they failed to credit us for several cruises (thus, we missed our upgrade to Diamond/black on one of our cruises), and they wouldn’t respond to my emails asking for help, I made a public comment on an MSC Facebook post in which they were touting their new terminal under construction in MIA. I said something like, “As a loyal MSC Voyager’s Club member for many years, I would love to sail out of this terminal, but until MSC finally responds to my emails and updates my VC account to acknowledge that we have earned Diamond status, I won’t be sailing on this cruise line anymore.” I had a private Fbook message from MSC within a few minutes inquiring how they could fix the problem. A few days later, our accounts were updated.
  14. When we finally remembered to bring water shoes to OC on our 4th visit, we were able to enjoy the beach once and for all! The YC beach is nearly impossible without them.
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