soccer2010

All I bought was Silver Patron.  (2) 1-liter bottles for $50 plus they thru in (2) small/sample bottles.

9 hours ago, Moviela said:

Sorry, left off my suggestion. Note the name of the shop is spelled differently than the English version.

 

Cannegie Liquor Store 

I will need to go to this one next time and check it out.

On MSC, the entertainment was different but 1st class and wonderful.  The ship was somewhat more European but not that different.  I did miss the Comedy but overall loved the ship and cruise.  The food was very good and they went to 3 MDR times so the service by necessity was timely.

In St. Maarten, take the water taxi to the bay (Front Street I think).  Best place I have found for liquor is right in front.  Stop at Juggies while there for 2 beers and a Cuban for $2.99 and a free conversation with the most interesting Juggie at the World's Smallest bar.

For a bigger ship with great shows, consider MSC Seaside … right now they have 'Drinks on Us' for many of their sailings which is a low end drink package but its included.  As another poster said, Southern Caribbean is the best, especially ABC islands.

2 minutes ago, mredandchis said:

i saw them there , there is also another one that is electric and narrow with one seat front and back.  They would be cool just to run about in.  That pic is down by the slave quarters i believe. 

This is the one, narrow and by two-seater, it is a driver and a small back seat.  A great way to see the island and if you don't like a witty sense of humor, don't tour with Hans.  We had a great time all 3 times.

Having been to ABCs three times, I wouldn't miss Bonaire.  You can get a great tour with Twizy-Tours in 2-seat electric cars with Hans.  I wouldn't miss Aruba or Curacao either.  All are wonderful in their own way and people are very friendly.

Our cruise (Splendor) gets back at 9 am in Long Beach.  Am I safe with an early self-disembarkment and a 1:45 pm flight out of LAX on a Saturday?

How much should taxi be for 4 people from ship to Tropicana and back?  How safe will a late night taxi be … on Christmas day?

Thanks

John

I have an 11:15 flight out of Tampa. Do I need to be 1st in line on self disembarkment to make it?

For an interior room, what are the per person/ per day gratuities.

For a soda package, what is the cost? Can just 1 person in a cabin get it?

I could not find this info on the Celebrity website.

So $80 to insure $1600 ($800 flight, $800 cruise) is worth it to me. I'm going with that.

I would be booking air on my own (Allegiant Airlines) because it is a great price and gets into San Juan 2 days before cruise. Where is the best place to get that insurance?

So I stumbled across what appeared to be a great price on a 5-day cruise and I saw a banner on the website that refurbishment ends 2 days before the cruise. How risky is booking this cruise? I would be getting a great deal also on non-refundable airfare.

AF-1

I'm from Cincinnati also and I tried to book EzAir for next March (to FLL) and from the time I booked my cruise until trying to book flights right away, the air price went from $350/pp to $650/pp. The online system wasn't working and I had to have Princess do it over the phone manually. Did you do it online and was the pricing good?

The main reason I decided to cruise MSC was the fact that it is different than Carnival.

I so agree.

No I just think it’s good to help the economy on these poorer islands by buying locally!

 

 

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You are such a martyr.

One man's unlevel playing field is another man's healthy economic competition.

I wonder if Into Cruising pays sticker price on a new car ... I do imagine there is some pain for TAs with the online competition. I have found an online TA, that gives superb service and puts any extra OBC into my account within a few days of booking. At first I had some sympathy for Into Cruising but after replying "

Mine didn't show up, guest relations not helpful...TA is sending me a check post cruise.

Was it avoya?

I was just looking at the MSC World Cruise 2020, when I wondered if I could cope that long on a cruise, with rude passengers. So I looked to see if that was still a problem, since I cruised on MSC.

 

I loved the MSC product, except for the rudeness of some passengers. I always hoped MSC would base one of their smaller ships in Australia, as I would be the first to book. I am sure they would be popular with Australia's large Italian immigrant population, which brought us excellent coffee and delicious food, after WW2.

 

I have cruised on both Celebrity and Royal Caribbean. In my opinion, MSC offers a better product and is better value.

We were on the May 26 Seaside cruise. Very few rude people, certainly less than most cruises I've been on.

We just got off the MSC Seaside June 2. I did a small review/comparison to Royal and Carnival:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2642049

The shows on MSC are the best that we have seen at sea. The pizza for us was just Okay. We did not use the main pool deck and opted for the South Beach Bar and Pool ... excellent service. Food very good and value excellent.

The cruise was definitely more laid back and relaxing but that may be because we did not use the main pool deck. I think the crowd both Americans (probably 70+%) and Europeans are similar to Royal passengers.

Bartenders in the evening in the Haven lounge were very good. The bartenders and bar waiters/waitresses in the daytime and evening in the South Beach Bar are great. We stayed on Deck 7 so don't know about the other bars. The South Beach pool is Adults and 16+ plus only; about 1 announcement a day with the bar on one side (South Beach Bar) and Gelato on the other side. Right above is the buffet. Great location for us.

Thank you for your review. Your experience on Seaside sounds quite similar to our experience on Divina. We have cruised Royal and Celebrity a lot, but tried Divina last year based on the great pricing. We went on Liberty this year because we wanted to combine a cruise with a trip to visit family in Texas.

 

We quite enjoyed Divina, although DD did love the splash zone and water slides on Liberty. We are now booked on Seaside for next spring, with our family from Texas looking at joining us for their first cruise. I think Seaside will be a good combination of the things we loved from Divina with a bit more in the way of fun for DD, and is a good choice for introducing our family to the fun of cruising!

Well from what we saw, the splash zone, water slides and water tubes looked excellent on Seaside ... enjoy.

Thanks for posting. What are the dinner times?

In our dining room, we were 5:30 and I believe 7:30 and 9:30 were the others.

The other dining room started at 5:15, so I'm guessing 7:15 and 9:15.

you are there on 2 Saturdays during the daytime ... technically 8 days although the day you get off, you have time to shower, eat breakfast and wait in a lounge until you get off ... yeah it's a 7 day cruise.