carnival03

Thanks for your review. What time did you arrive to port on embarkation day? Trying to judge when we should show up to avoid traffic.

I second the St. Maarten question. Will shops/bars stay open in Phillipsburg while a ship is in port?

Does any one know the operating hours of the gym? How early or late is it open?

I originally started this thread to learn more about RCL. However, our first cruise with RC is fast approaching (95 days!) and I wanted to see if anyone has any last minute tips/tricks. I figured bumping it may also help others.

What's everyone's experience with online check-in? We have to do this in a few days for our trip on Anthem. It's my understanding that we have to upload headshots and passports? We only have Macs and I heard this could cause problems, anyone have experience with this?

As far as wine goes, If I bring wine onboard can I take it straight to the dining room to have them hang on to it and chill it? How does this work? Are they still charing the fee?

For those with access to only Macs, what has successfully worked for you? We have to do check-in in a few days and only have access to Macs. We're sailing on Anthem, so it's my understanding we have to upload pictures and passports, don't know if I want to go doing that on a public PC.

2 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

 

I saw a sign for a Columbus Cove shuttle boat but never saw it. We ended up walking there by way of Nellies, those avoiding the artisans and taking the tram back. The artisan village seems to have grown. The tram was running every five minutes.

 

 

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Good to know, thanks for the report back. Hope you're having an enjoyable cruise! 

13 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

For those of us who cruise Royal the only thing for sure is things change ship to ship and sailing to sailing.  Fleet wide? usually. On Anthem, probably.  For a 8 night cruise?  More likely around day 6.  Ask any bartender about the card after a few days of sailing. Be sure to keep checking the cruise planner as drink packages go on sale every few months. 

Good to know. Sounds like a good deal if/when offered. We don't drink enough per day for the package to make sense, so we're keeping our fingers crossed for this.

13 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

 

In the past they had a shuttle boat in the morning from the ship dock to Columbus Cove when I was there on Royal Caribbean. Last two times I was there on a Celebrity ship and no shuttle boat. I will be there next week on Royal again. I will look for it and see if they are still running it.


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 That would be great. Thanks! 

3 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

I believe Indy has the 10 drink card available after the third or forth day.  Runs about $70.00 and can be shared.

Is this offered fleet wide? What about Anthem? Is it always the third or forth day, even for nine day cruises?

I also thought I read about a tender that will take you by water from dock to Columbus Cove, can anyone confirm?

9 hours ago, RMH said:

It is also closer to the center of the peninsula and shopping, hair braiding, splash pool, bocce ball, etc.  There are also kayak rentals and paddle board rentals at Nellies, so people interested in that will stay there.  The two beaches are literally about 50 yards apart, so if you don't find the perfect spot at one, you can go to the other one.

Perfect! I saw a picture of someone paddle boarding at Labadee and was wondering if rentals were available. Thanks! 

1 hour ago, Charles4515 said:

 

Columbus Cove has places for sun too.

All the beaches have sun. I advise avoiding Adrenaline Beach because it is rocky. When you are walking that is the first beach you would walk near and the beach attendants will be eager to steer you to a chair there. You should keep going to Nellies or Columbus Cove.


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Perfect. I've heard great things about Columbus, but what makes Nellies a popular spot? You pass Nellies first, correct?

It sounds like Columbus Cove is the place to go for shade, but is there also places you can get sun there as well?

6 hours ago, Biker19 said:

Officially, everyone over 6 in the cabin must buy, but in my planner it allowed only one to buy.

Interesting. I'll be waiting to hear how this program works out for RC.

Do all individuals have to purchase the program? Carnival's Faster to the Fun only requires one individual in each stateroom to purchase access.

I ended up prepaying them the other day. No worries now 🙂 

34 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

Depends on how Royal runs the increase.

 

They could say that all cruises booked before a certain date pay the old rate.

 

Or, they could say that prepaid gratuities have to be added to a booking before a certain date to get the old rate.

 

In other words, add prepaid gratuities to be sure. 

35 minutes ago, voyager70 said:

 

You should be grandfathered in at the current rate.  Be prepared for some interesting feedback 😜

 

Thank you both. That's probably what I'll end up doing, just was curious.

If we booked a cruise six months ago for May 2019 and between now and then gratuities go up, are we grandfathered into the current rate? We haven't prepaid our gratuities yet and I'm wondering if we should before the new year. 

Thanks for the tips. We're on Anthem in May and cannot wait!

I did this cruise in April. The Fascination is great for this port intensive itinerary. I experienced no lines on embarkation day and minimal lines on debarkation day. Getting on and off the ship on port days was great with no lines at all. The ship is smaller but it has most of the features of the larger ships and it is easy to navigate. The food and crew are great and it was very clean so there was no issues with it being an older ship.

 

The new features on Fascination were great such as the Blue Iguana Pub and Cantina , the Red Frog Pub, Alchemy Bar, Bonsai Sushi Express and Guys Burger were all added recently. With all of these new features, you did even notice it was a smaller/older ship. I would sail on this ship/itinerary again.

This is good to know. We've decided against this for our next cruise, but I still would love to do this itinerary. Something to keep in mind...

What other places compare to Holland House? We're going in May and the only option I have right now is Holland House. I would like a few options to choose between...

Our waiter and assistant waiter seemed perpetually overwhelmed- seems like they had more tables that they could reasonably handle. Water glasses went unrefilled for 20 minute stretches, requested drinks never arrived, never offered more bread... Our waiter seemed not to be able to handle what felt like simple requests (I asked for a plate of just asparagus and spinach because they were offered as sides with proteins I don’t eat. She brought spinach and potatoes. I asked for strawberries and she brought mixed fruit, no strawberries...) Everyone was very nice and seemed to genuinely want to please us but the execution wasn’t fully there.

Were you MTD or traditional?

That is up to you - you can finish in as little as 45 min or take two hours.

Our server asked us every night if we had a show to catch or if we were in a hurry. And if we were, they moved things along much quicker than the on the nights where we had nothing after.

Good to know. Thanks! :cool:

Can a party of three expect to spend two hours at dinner? I've made reservations for 6:15 via the Cruise Planner for our cruise next May, but now I'm worrying our dinner reservations may interfere with show times. Any advice on this?

For our Anthem sailing next May, the Cruise Planner is showing no charge for the Solarium Bistro.