Kristalght

Sounds awesome. Was wondering how far from the port is the Dolphin Discovery and about how much was the cab? Thanks!

I think it was $20 round trip. It's about 15 min from the pier and there are tons of cabs who can take you. I would highly recommend contacting Beulah at Welcome Tours. We did an afternoon tour with her and it was awesome. St Kitts was by far my favorite island that I've been to now.

We went in January and it was absolutely amazing. Best thing I've ever done.

You can find pricing and discounts at Dolphin Discovery. (I tried to link it but it blocks the link)

I would highly recommend booking in advance. They always have discounts available on their website. It was offered through the ship and they had 30 people in that swim time but I booked it separately and we had 4 people. Make sure you don't put that you're on a cruise since they will tell you to book with the ship.

Godfreys was the only trip we were disappointed in. He 'forgot' us and then didn't have his license so he dumped us with another tour

Magen's Bay was ok. No, snorkeling though. Basic facilities and chairs for rent but no shade

You have to go through agricultural customs in SJU. Unlikely that Celebrity would assume that liability. That'd be awesome but I wouldn't hold my breath

Stay wherever you want. San Juan is relatively easy to navigate. We stayed in Old San Juan our first trip and will stay at the Best Western this trip. You'll have to cab to the pier either way.

If you stay in OSJ you can walk all around the Old Town and spend little to no money and enjoy the city. I would recommend that if you've never been before

Thanks to all for their suggestions. It looks like the Sheraton is already all booked up so we will be looking at other lodger in SJ.

 

 

 

I was surprised to learned we could board the ship in early afternoon for a sailing that is schedule for 8PM. if that is the case, that's not a problem as we can leave our luggage at the pier and come back later. Thanks a lot

 

 

 

dandee2

Uh, I wouldn't plan on dropping luggage off then leaving again. On both the Summit and the Solstice people tried and it was a huge issue. I don't remember the Summit now, but on the Solstice in May it was staged so you were kinda stuck and had to board if you dropped off luggage. I know one couple wanted to leave and they were given back their bags to take with them.

Your recommended boarding time is around 3pm but you can board earlier.

If you stay in Old San Juan, leave your bags at your hotel and walk around then head to the ship. You'll lose 1-2 hours trying to get to the ship to drop off luggage plus spend $50 in cabs, IF they let you leave your bags.

I see flights for $500 from Montreal to SJU. That's a pretty great price. And a little bit better timing is $650. Not sure what you consider very expensive but those aren't bad.

Most flights from any city has terrible times in/out of San Juan. That airport doesn't close so it has a majority of its flights arriving and departing between midnight and 8am. If the cost is really, really bad, loot at one round trip to/from NYC and the a second round trip to/from NYC and SJU

Is it hard to get Euros in the U.S? I see people struggling to get them, walk down any street in London and there's 5-10 places you can get any currency you want.

Nope, not hard at all, just requires a lil more leg work in smaller cities. That said currency exchange options are not as prevalent as they are elsewhere in the world.

When we were there last year our AT&T worked normally (both cell and data) on ST Thomas and San Juan. Our friend on T-Mobile had coverage but it really didn't work well

Were you able to get euros on the ship? I am not in a big city nor will I be at a major airport.

All banks can order currency for you. AAA also sells it.

Contact the island's visitor bureau and see if they have him. If anyone would, they should

I think you also have to keep in mind that these are small islands and these guys are going to have to help each other out. They make money by making tourists happy. The original tour guide might have been in traffic or double booked or a dozen other excuses and rather than standup a customer (and definitely get a bad review), he probably called around to see who could take them. I know it makes many of us uncomfortable but it seemed to be a rather normal thing.

You are incorrect about that. It is tax and duty free. There is no sales tax in St. Thomas and no duty charged on imports.

Ok. I've always found things more expensive in St Thomas than other islands in the same stores and the same items (ie Effy or Diamonds International).

I know on our last cruise the shopping guide specifically called out to do your shopping in other ports since St Thomas was a US territory. *shrug*

Not cruise related but have friends going back to St Thomas after our cruise and were looking for recommendations for someone to hire for an airport transfer. Their hotel doesn't offer it and they'd rather not grab a cab at the airport.

You can Google the cruise ship schedule for each port. It should (but not always) list the port too.

Nothing. It's a US territory so it's not tax and duty free. I shop on all the other islands personally.

You can do the same dolphin swim for about $60 less direct with the company. Just Google dolphin swim st kitts. There are 3 swim types and numerous times

One thing I will caution with royal swim is to be very mind full of their cancellation policy and specifically in the case of inclimate weather, not making port or other things out of your control; even including issues in their end: You do not get a refund. You get a certificate for another encounter at any of their facilities good for a year.

 

 

 

It sounds like a good experience but since we are cruising in early August, the awful refund policy turned us off.

That's not entirely correct. You can get a certificate for full value good for up to 1 year or a refund minus a 10% cancelation if your ship does not make it to port. This is on their website under the FAQs and I asked in the live chat.

I wouldn't count on Godfrey to accomplish anything you need. Out of the 7 excursions we booked, this was on the only one we were disappointed in during our whole trip.

He wasn't on time. We ended up waiting nearly 45 min for him. He forgot us at one point. Then he ended up dropping us off with another tour guide because he didn't have the appropriate licenses to run a tour. He was also late for picking us up at the beach portion.

It was only $35 but it was a huge waste. We would have done better just taking a cab to the beach.

Oh!!, Brett Nixon was our naturist. I will check his schedule to see what ships he's on. His talks were amazing!

All ships from Seattle are considered "Inside Passage" routes. From Seattle to Ketchickan is on the outside of Vancouver Island.

For a short while outside of Seattle it was rough for a very short while (2-3 hours) but not nearly as rough as the Caribbean. I felt the motion every day in the Caribbean, didn't notice it at all in Alaska. If you are ok in the Caribbean, Alaska is MUCH smoother.

Uh, you should be on an Inside passage cruise if you are coming out of Seattle. That said, I'm prone to seasickness and it didn't bother me at all on this trip. All of our rooms have been forward, upper decks too. (I get super motion sick on everything.) Have you been on a cruise before? I was very worried about it and only had one night in the Caribbean that was a problem and a Dramamne fixed that.

And no, it's not a scam. They give the sales people a list of rooms and they have to upsell them. They are also the only ones with access to those rooms. I chatted for a long while with the lady who called about an upsell room for the cruise last week.

We did a round-trip Seattle Alaska cruise last year. We really enjoyed it, but realized we just scratched the surface of Alaska. Next time (I'm betting there will be a next time) we'd book a one-way and either begin or end the cruise with a land tour to Denali.

 

One of the folks I work with did a two-week land tour. He's not into cruising at all. And he loved the tour he booked.

Yep, we just got home from a RT from Seattle. While it was gorgeous, I felt like we spent more time at sea and didn't spend a lot of time actually seeing Alaska. I was a little disappointed in it