shesells seashells

This may be too late for you, but I just used Island Experience and was looking for a place to post how well-satisfied we were. The tour consisted of the Ostrich Farm, Hato Caves, Aloe Vera Plantation, and ChiChi Factory. The tour provider, Sharella, was so kind, so intelligent, so informative, and delivered a terrific day in Curacao.

We were there in early May and took the ship-offered shore excursion on Kauai to the Kilohana Manor House and Kalamaku Show. You can google these and get an appreciation of what is offered. The train tour around the plantation was delightful, the Manor House had gifts for sale plus vendors were set up on the lawn with arts/crafts of interest. We ate outside at the restaurant then attended the luau. It was an amazing display of music and dance telling their story. I was so pleased with the entire evening. It was well worth the cost since we had never done anything like that before.

We have twice gone by taxi to the Divi Little Bay resort because we had done all the touristy things on previous trips. We did a courtesy e-mail ahead of time, and there was no problem being cruisers there for one day. It is a lovely resort, good snorkeling from shore, restrooms, bar, restaurant available. We paid $12 for a cab each way, $15 for 2 chairs with 1 umbrella, $3 bottled water. There was no problem getting a taxi from the stand incorporated in the port and no problem getting one back to the ship. We may go to Divi Little Bay and stay a week based on what we saw and experienced. Great day.

I have always "felt better" having Travelers checks for the unexpected. I don't like the fees associated with the travel cards. I get my checks from AAA in VA. I usually cash one at guest services on board on each cruise. I still take some cash initially and have my other credit cards, but I just like the T. Checks!

Hey Taylortime, I'd like to offer a few things that we do when we cruise which help hold costs down: We have always booked a mid-ship inside cabin - supposedly less "sway". We were upgraded on a Princess to a much higher deck, big ocean view. Didn't like the sway, loved having a view but were so seldom in the room didn't see the need to pay for it on a future cruise. Got upgraded on a Carnival, same deal. We didn't ask for the upgrades, didn't know about them until we checked in. In the cruise trip purchase, the meals are included, so we see no need to pay to 'eat out' at a specialty restaurant. We are already 'eating out'. Neither of us drink much in the way of sodas and alcoholic beverages, so we snag a tea, water or juice from the buffet to carry onto the deck when spending time there. We do spend $$ on Shore Excursions, though, and no regrets ever in getting off the ship at each port to do some sort of tour. We also tip our cabin steward plus a few others with whom we come in contact in addition to the daily service fees, but wish the gratuities were just included in the original purchase ticket. NCL Pearl had the BEST brownies in the whole world when we sailed on them a few years ago. This past May "Pride of America" had the fastest internet experience, and it was our 15th cruise, second on NCL. We have a (third) Dec. NCL booked, but we do resent having the gratuities raised twice on us in one year and are still waiting on their final list of shore excursion offerings. They are just giving a dis-organized impression right now. We aren't at all considering cancelling, just doing a little grousing about the situation. We still want to go where they plan to take us and the dates & price suited us, so overall it's still what we want to do. We've been on 4 Holland, 3 R.Caribbean, 2 Celebrity, 2 Princess, 2 Carnival, and 2 NCL. All have things to love and some not so much! We selected where we wanted to go first, the dates we had available, then looked at all the offers for our specifics before selecting the one we wanted. In the big picture, all trips were great. Hope yours will be too!

We were there in early May. All of our shore trips were on Polynesian Adventure Tours buses. Each driver was excellent with commentary and good humor. We could not have been more pleased. Your luggage is safe on the bus, and it was no problem at all for the driver to get us all loaded and unloaded. Our tour followed the description provided by NCL. Sometimes the launch to the Memorial is cancelled due to high winds at Pearl Harbor/Arizona, but it was running the day we were there, and it is a most impressive setting, all of it, including Punch Bowl. If you have a long wait time at the airport before returning home as we did, if you can wait in your airline's lounge, that is an excellent place to wait it out. Hope you enjoy the trip as much as we did. Everything was as near perfect as it could be.

I guess it's just terminology, but by pre-paying, I meant having it paid before you cruise, so that's the same thing you'll be doing, paying in full with your cruise booking by the "due" date. If I have to pay it, it really doesn't matter whether it is before or at the end of the cruise. I just have this "thing" about wanting the original agreement not being changed, and that goes for the itinerary also. I know they reserve the right and have their reasons, but I don't like missing two of the ports-of-call which enticed me to book an upcoming cruise. The replacements stops are ones we have visited many times already, not that we've seen it all or done it all. I'm nearly 70 years old and "set" in my ways by now! Changes get less acceptable the older I get.

Yes, they offered the booking rate IF it is pre-paid. It's not about the money so much, but the aggravation of having it happen twice in one year. I naively wish that once a trip is booked, the price could not be changed for any part of it! I also wish they would just include the "daily service charge" in the total. I always tip the room steward and others in addition to the daily service charges at the end of my cruises. I've never asked if they get to keep their personal tips and hadn't heard of that "pooling of tips" until I read it on Cruise Critic.

I got the Norwegian notice of the increase also. What's (not) funny is that it happened to us earlier this year on a different Norwegian booking. So, we've had the charges raised on us twice in one year after we'd booked. And that was in addition to changing two port-of-calls on this upcoming itinerary. Aggravating.