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01Sweetpea

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    Cashing in VISA Rewards

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    I recently used points for my upcoming cruise. I logged into my BOA account, went to my credit card account, went to view my cruise points, went to redeem, put in all my cruise information and the discount was applied to my cruise. Since I was past the final payment date, I was credited back the discount to the credit card I used to pay for the cruise.

    Would you book a flight that has very few other seats booked?

    in Gulf Coast Departures

    Posted

    I'm looking at booking flights from LGA to IAH in April on Delta for our Liberty OTS cruise. There is one non-stop flight of the day, but they have several 1 stop flights. The non-stop flight has only 6 seats booked on it. :eek:

     

    United has non-stop flights with similar times & prices and more seats booked.

     

    Delta is my preferred airline, but I'm nervous if more people don't book they may cancel the flight.

     

    What would you book? :confused:

    Best Flight home from Houston airports?

    in Gulf Coast Departures

    Posted

    We are sailing on the 4/22 Liberty OTS, arriving back in Galveston on 4/29. I'm looking at flights home and have 3 options:

     

    11:10 - HOU

    12:00 - IAH

    2:40 - IAH

     

    While I'd like to take the 11:10, I'm concerned it may be too close, but is a 12:00 flight safe?

     

    Would it be safer if I have transportation arranged versus calling an Uber?

     

    Thanks!

    Review - a month in Alaska with a B2B on Celebrity Millennium

    in Alaska

    Posted

    An AMAZING trip report.

     

    DH & I were on a Southern Caribbean cruise last month and everyone said GO TO ALASKA!!! After reading your review, I see why!!

     

    Your photos are incredible. I think it's time to start planing!

     

    Are you happy that you did the land portion first and then the cruise? Or would you rather have done it the other way around?

     

    We'll probably only have 2 weeks for Alaska, so a week on land and a week cruise. Trying to decide southbound with land tour first or northbound with land tour after.

    Adventure OTS 5/3/15 review

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    Antigua…This was the port we were most looking forward to. I will usually look at the excursions that ship offers, then if I see something that interests us, I look into how we can do it independently and save some $$$. We RARELY book excursions thru the ship, however when I saw RCI’s kayak & snorkel excursion, I decided to just book thru the ship. IT WAS THE BEST EXCURSION OF OUR TRIP!

     

    We were on the 8:30am excursion (not sure IF there was an afternoon one). Boarded a bus, the driver told us all about the island as we rode over to Antigua Paddles (about 30 minutes), boarded speed boats and away we went!! I was a bit nervous as I’ve only kayaked once, my DH is an avid kayaker which is part of the reason we chose this excursion, but it was no problem at all. The kayaks are tandem, and are very easy to navigate. We paddled around the mangroves, looking at the beautiful water, the small islands, got to hold a starfish & a sea cucumber and had a wonderful time. There is a guide in the front leading everyone, and one of the speed boats in the back in case anyone needs help. The tour is at a very relaxed pace.

     

    Once we were done kayaking, there was water available and then onto the boats to our next destination…a tiny island for a quick hike for some amazing views. Now here is the ONLY “issue” I had with the excursion. This is a short 5-8 minute hike HOWEVER the hill is rocky, and there are a lot of small loose rocks and flip flops are NOT the best footwear to have on. Going up the hill was ok, but coming down I was sure I was going to fall. I held onto DH most of the way down for support. Bring or wear some type of shoe that has TRACTION on the soles. It will make for a much easier descent. As for the island, beautiful views, BRING YOUR CAMERA!!!

     

    Back onto the boats and now off to snorkel. Lots of different fish, huge boulders & lots of different plants, it was beautiful. One last time on the boats for a fast & fabulous ride back. We were greeted with cool towels, warm banana bread, & rum (or virgin) punch. Bathrooms & FREE wi-fi are available. Back on the bus and back to the pier. In all, I think we were gone close to 5 hours. DH & I had an amazing time.

     

    Formal night again…went to the show, saw love & marriage, and watched Quest. This is the FIRST TIME that the studio for Quest was NOT filled!!! Still the same show, glad to see that no one came “prepared” for the game!

     

    St. Maarten…took our time getting up and off the ship. Decided to head over to Orient beach. Walked around a bit and finally picked Sun Beach Clubber to hang out for the day. $20 for 2 chairs, an umbrella, 2 drinks, & wifi. We relaxed most of the day, food was good & reasonably priced, the ONLY issue is the locals trying to sell you something every 5 minutes. After 30 minutes of saying “no thank you”, I stopped responding when they were standing right in front of me. I should not have to spend my entire day being pestered.

     

    Back to the ship to pack up and get ready to head home the next day.

     

    Just a quick mention on dinner…No one at our table thought the menu was good for the last night. We all discussed leaving and going to the windjammer together for dinner. Our head waited was disappointed we were considering this, so we stayed. DH & I paid the surcharge and ordered the “Chops” filet. DH & I were a bit surprised at how long it took to get our dinners, our table mates were finishing DESSERT before our steaks arrived, BUT then a chef came over and apologized that our steaks were prepared wrong the first time and they had to prepare a second meal for us. The steaks were delicious and our waiter brought out a plate of chocolate covered strawberries that DH & I shared with the table.

     

    We had an 11:30 flight from SJU and DH & I “discussed” the best way to get off the ship. In the end we decided to do self-walk-off, and DH insisted we walk off with everyone else. I told him we could wait until at least 8, but he wouldn’t hear of it. So we were up early, ate breakfast, grabbed our bags and were down in the conference room at 7am as everyone was walking off. Quick walk off the ship, quick moving line thru immigration, (FYI I would say MOST of the luggage was already lined up when we went thru immigration), taxis were waiting and a quick taxi ride to the airport. No one in front of us at agriculture and we were checked in for our flight BY 8:00AM!!!

     

    I know there are a lot of things that COULD happen, ship getting in late, long lines getting thru immigration or agriculture, but this was painless. I think DH wished he hadn’t rushed us off the ship so early!!!

     

    Final thoughts…we had a GREAT vacation!!! We were very glad we came down a day early and had the extra time in Old San Juan. The food was disappointing, I’m surprised RCI has let this decline so much. The increased drink prices were crazy, we drank less on this cruise. We’d like to go back to the Southern Caribbean and take the Aruba & Curacao route, BUT lots of people we spoke to said “GO TO ALASKA”, so that is possibly the next cruise!

    suggestions for ships tours antigua

    in Antigua

    Posted

    We're just off the Adventure and booked the Kayak & snorkel tour thru RCI. They are also called Antigua Paddles.

     

    THE BEST excursion of our cruise!!!

     

    Quick description...narrated bus trip to the other side of the island, beautiful gardens when you arrive. Hop on a speed boat and away you go!!! Tandem kayaking thru mangroves, got to hold a star fish & sea cucumber, then speedboat to a tiny island for a 5 minute hike for some amazing views, then back on the speedboat to the snorkeling site, back on the speedboat one last time.

     

    Arrived back to cool towels, warm banana bread, rum (or not) punch, bathrooms & free wifi!

     

    Back on the bus for a ride back to port. Approx 4-5 hours.

     

    Amazing!

    Adventure OTS 5/3/15 review

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    I have found that I like a nice balance of sea days to port days on a cruise. Since we usually travel with our kids, port days tend to be very busy with excursions & activities.

     

    Sea Day…we did nothing but relax. It was nice to sit by the Solarium pool, read a book, have a drink or two. We saw the ice show in the afternoon and really enjoyed it. I think it was formal night (not 100% sure).

     

    Barbados…I was REALLY looking forward to this port. I had read about swimming with the turtles, so that was my goal for this trip! After reading a lot on CC, we decided to do the excursion on our own…it was so easy. Grabbed a taxi and headed to Harbour Lights, I think we were there by 9am. Paid the $15 for 2 chairs & an umbrella and told the man helping us we wanted to go see the turtles with Neville and confirmed that it was going to be $20/person. We waited less than 30 minutes and we were told the boat was coming. There was another man on the beach NOT wearing a Harbour Lights t-shirt who was directing people to join us to wait for the boat.

     

    I asked the driver of the boat his name and he said Sean…so not sure if Sean works for Neville, or if we got someone different. There were 10 of us on the boat and we headed out to snorkel, then he turned the boat around and went back to the beach to pick up 6 more people. We spent about 30 minutes snorkeling over the shipwreck. Saw lots of fish and the shipwreck was very cool. We started to head to where the turtles are, but went BACK to the beach to pick up MORE people. By this time the boat was overloaded and Sean had to stop the boat and rearrange people SO THE BOAT WOULDN’T TIP OVER!!! YIKES!!!

     

    The turtles were amazing, we had to see between 15-20 of them swimming around…it was incredible. The excursion was WELL WORTH the $20/person and the possibility of capsizing a boat! Just a side note, other people were charged $30/person for THE SAME EXCURSION, so know your prices when you go. We spent the next several hours sitting on the beach, swimming in the warm water and just enjoying being in Barbados. Banana coladas were amazing, better than the ones on the ship, and the food was good. We stopped in town on the way back to the ship, found a Harley Davidson store but it was closed. DH was disappointed as he likes to get HD shirts at different ports. We walked around for a few, took a taxi back to the pier, found a HD store there (DH was happy), and back on the ship. This was our second favorite day of the cruise.

     

    We did the mystery dinner show in Giovanni’s tonight. It was campy & corny but it was a lot of fun. We sat with 3 other couples. Cost $55/person and well worth it. The food was really good. Choice of soup or salad, antipasto plate, choice of shrimp or filet, then tiramisu for dessert. DH & I each ordered the shrimp, and I happened to ask DH if he wished he had ordered the filet instead (because it looked so good). I didn’t see the waiter behind me because next thing I know the head waiter is coming over and offering to bring DH a filet, so DH had the filet as well. He said he was so glad he got it, MUCH better than the shrimp. There was unlimited wine & champagne. Definitely worth the extra money!

     

    We missed the C&A welcome back party, but went to the show that night.

     

    St Lucia…DH & I honeymooned here many years ago, so we had already done the drive thru volcano, the botanical gardens, the waterfall, catamaran tour of the coast, snorkeled at the base of the Pitons, took a helicopter tour of the island, etc. so we decided to make this our second “sea day.” I will say, for those who have NOT been to the island before get out there and see it. One word of “caution”, while it is a small island the roads are VERY narrow, winding, up and down. A drive from Castries to Soufriere can take well over 1.5 hours, and can leave you motion sick (at least it did for my DH). If you can take a tour that partly includes a catamaran or boat part trip, I’d take that.

     

    We had breakfast on our balcony then got off the ship, walked around town for a bit, and then headed back. We spent the rest of the day relaxing by the pool. By the time dinner came around we decided NOT to get changed and went to the Windjammer in shorts. I think in all our cruises this is the FRIST time we’ve ever ate dinner in the Windjammer. I found the selection very good. Another show tonight.

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