MNice99

Hi like the title says,  I'm looking for thoughts on this excursion from those who have done it. 

Was it crowded? Did it leave right from the ship? How "Strenuous" really is it.  Do you have to swim super far to where you snorkel or is pretty much right by the boat?

I'm also looking at going on our own with an outside company but sort of nervous about having to wait forever to catch a tender and then being late to the meet up point.  So it seams going with RCCL on this one might make more sense.  

thanks in advance for any insights you share. 

Is one better?    Or if you went with one or another how was your experience?  

Hi we are starting to plan for out up coming cruise one stop will be Belize and we want to do a snorkeling tour.   Reading about Belize it's about a 20-30 minute ride to shore.  That means it's at least an hour for the tender boat to drive to port unload passengers and get back to ship for the next group.   

My question is:  Will they have enough tenders lined up to clear the ship, or will there be a point that all tenders are still heading to shore and we will have to wait until they unload drive back to the ship and get back for the next group? 

Those of you who have done it.  How long of a wait time did you have?  Do we need to get up super early and get in line early to get one of the first tenders or will it go fairly fast?  About how many people fit on a tender? 

Then follow up question on the return how often to they run? is an every XX minutes thing or will they just sit in port until the boat is full, then head back to the ship?    

Hi, 

We are starting to plan for our cruise next winter, we will be on the Explorer OTS next February. 

We really want to snorkel I'm wondering if they move the people off the ship at a reasonable pace.  will have to worry about missing our tour operator. due to long waits to catch a tender? 

or on the flip side if we are lucky enough to catch an early tender will we have to wait an exurbanite amount of time for other people?   Do Tour operators take people from multiple ships?   

Here's my two cents (I haven't been on many cruises so take it for what's it worth)

I'm required to wear khakis and polo shirts every day to work. I work in the beverage industry and frequently get spilled on. My clothes are stained and very "well worn". But perfectly acceptable under the "rules" posted above.

On the other hand I have very nice looking golf shorts and polos that I can wear at the fanciest golf courses in my area and fit right in.

Personally I think RCCL is fine with the nice dress shorts and top, but realize its human nature for people to push the envelope. So if they say no shorts and people come in with dress shorts it's a good compromise.

If they said Dress shorts were allowed then people would come in cargo shorts/swim suites.

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These boards are flooded with great reviews of food and shows ( for the record Chops was the best meal in my entire life ) However I thought I would go in a slightly different direction and review the Bars , lounges , drinks and the merits of the drink package. Please feel free to ask any questions along the way and I will do my best to answer. !

Great Review Thank you for doing this. and I do have a question. I'm sailing feb 12th. and put together a pub crawl with some members of our roll call group.

Here are the bars I picked to do the crawl, planning on the first sea day at 1:00 in the afternoon. Please take a look at my pub choices and let me know what you think. (especially if there are any logistic problems with any of them.)

begin at the schooner bar

proceed to Bar 2 Boleros bar

proceed to bar 3 Globe and Atlas Pub (deck 5)

proceed to bar 4 Rising Tide (deck 5)

Exit RT on deck 8, proceed to bar 5 Trellis bar

What do you think? any problem? any bars you think would be better choices?

thanks ( and thanks again for the reviews)

Following we are cursing in feb and thinking the same thing.

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MNice, you might be better off taking a tour that includes Coki Beach stop for a few hours. The tour price would include pick up at your dock, shopping in town, narrated island tour, beach stop, and transportation back to your ship.

 

Very few of the standard tours include Paradise Point, but if your group consists of at least 4, you should be able to reserve a private tour that could include Paradise Point (the taxi would drive you up instead of you taking the tram). Your current plan would involve taxi to Coki ($12 per person each way), taxi to Havensight from Coki ($10 per person), taxi to town ($4 per person) taxi back to ship ($4 per person).

 

A private tour for 4 would be approximately $45 per person.

 

If you take a non private group tour, you probably won't go up Paradise Point, but you'll have other great photo ops on the tour.

So the cost on the taxis you quoted are 12+10+4+4=30.00pp

Although a private tour even at $45.00pp would be nice to not have to find a cab.

Either way it would be x4 so looking at 120.00 to 180.00 total for a family of 4.

So another question what are the odds of renting a car for the day? does anyone know if there is a car rental place near the crown bay port?

Agree, best shopping is in town. Havensight is also nice but it's main draw is its convenience for cruisers docked there.

 

 

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Thanks we try to check out main street

HI,

We are cruising on the allure in February, It seams from reading some the posts that the better shopping as well as the tram to paradise point is at heavensite, can you walk between the two ports? or is there a shuttle by chance that goes between?

Here is our plan for st. Thomas we are docked from 10:00 until 7:00. We would like to go to coral world/koki beach for a few hours. Then work our way back, to take the tram ride to paradise point and finally do a little shopping before heading back to ship.

I assume we can get a cab to coral world and then cab back to heavensite, I'm just wondering do I need to pay for yet another cab to get the crown bay port? also how much time do I need to allow to get there?

thanks

Jay

I only have one cruise to relate to, and I think we were the nightmare table mates!

We were part of a group of about 40 people most people had a table of all member of the same group. we were on a 12 top table 10 of us from our group (and other members of our group were seated at tables close to ours) and 1 couple was seated at our table with us.

I don't think anyone labeled us as "obnoxious", but we were anything but quiet! we were friendly to the other couple at our table, but it must have been horrible for them to listen to our bantering with each other every meal.

They came every night so it was either not too bad, (or they didn't know they could move)

anyway I promise to try to be better during our next cruise. (this time no group just us and two almost adult boys)

I finally posted the info in our roll call, so if a pub crawl sounds fun and you are cruising on allure on feb 12th, join our roll call.

Of even if it doesn't sound fun, if you are cruising on Feb 12th join our roll call anyway it will be fun to meet new people at the meet and mingle.

anyway here is what I came up with for a hopefully fun pub crawl:

begin at the schooner bar (deck 6) introductions and 1st card given

proceed to Bar 2 Boleros bar (deck 5) 2nd card given and play 6-5-4

proceed to bar 3 Globe and Atlas Pub (deck 5) 3rd playing card given and play 1 hand of a resived texas hold em. (no betting between flop/T/R)

proceed to bar 4 Rising Tide (deck 5) 4th card given but no other game here (may be hard to get everyone together here)

Exit RT on deck 8, proceed to bar 5 Trellis bar (deck 8) 5th (and final) card given and play game of Left - Right - Center. The winner of the poker hand will collect their dwinnings we will be finished.

I've never cruised allure so if anyone sees any issues with the pubs I've chosen please let me know.

thanks

Just want to throw out a +1, If something would cause my DW and to miss dinner the kids would definitely go with out us they love the MDR experience.

And echo cruisinBarb please do share a trip report my Boys will be 17/21 when we go in February.

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I've organized a Pub Crawl on the roll call for our upcoming Anthem Cruise in two weeks. So far about ten people have signed up.

 

I like the added card game feature, we've done that on the cabin crawl and it's always a big hit.

 

Here's what our Pub Crawl looks like right now, but, we may well tack on another bar or two once we get rolling.

 

Anthem of the Seas - Pub Crawl

 

 

Date: Wednesday August 24

 

Time: 1 pm

 

Place: North Star Bar - Deck 15 Mid-Ship

 

2.) 270 Lounge Bar - Deck 6 Aft

 

3.) Vintages - Deck 5 Aft

 

4.) Bionic Bar - Deck 5 Mid-Ship

 

5.) Schooner Bar - Deck 5 Forward

 

6.) Michael's Pub - Deck 5 - Mid Ship

 

7.) Bolero's - Deck 4 Starboard

 

Jonathan

Thanks Jonathan,

Did you just organize this through your roll call thread, or did you start a new one. is anyone from RCCL involved? are you doing anything to stand out? (like Grace and her funny hats?)

Please report back after and let me know how it went.

thanks

Jayson

We did a Pub Crawl when we sailed on the Allure and it was great fun. It was organized by a member of our roll call. We all wore funny hats and I seem to recall hit every bar that was open. Have also done Pub Crawl with Poker Draw on Celebrity Constellation and that was even more fun. The pub crawl on Allure was organized by kk99 (I believe) Kelcie from Texas.

Grace

Thanks Grace,

On your Pub crawl did you do any organized activities at each bar, or just socialize and have fun?

How many pubs did you go to? (do you remember which ones?)

I would like to try to do a pub crawl on our allure cruise this up-coming February.

I know it's not offered as an actual activity. I've read that NCL offers one so I'm wondering if any of you have cruised on both NCL and Royal and done the pub crawl on NCL.

From what I've read they offer a pub crawl for whatever price, that includes a drink at 5 different bars with a pub game played at each one for prizes. You also get a playing card at each spot and the best Poker hand at the end wins a prize also.

Now I know I can't just ask royal to offer this, so if I could get one off the ground everyone would be responsible for their own drinks. Before I post in our roll call page. I would like to get the opinions of the masses:

what I would propose would be to meet at one bar at a pre arranged day/time We would have everyone kick in a mutually agreed on amount of cash (in lue of prizes) then at each bar we would a.) have a drink.(non alcoholic is perfectly acceptable) and b.) play a pub game cards, dice, etc... as well as get 1 playing card to collect at each spot try to get the best poker hand.

so anyway...Here are my questions:

would I even be allowed to try to set something like this up (on the CC website)?

Do you think there would be any interest in doing this from a typical CC roll call group?

Do you think Royal would object to group of people walking from bar to bar, playing cards, or shaking dice at each one? (technically gambling)

Do you think I would have a snow balls chance in the Caribbean to get RCCL to kick in a few prizes to use for the games?

finally if you've answered yes to the above questions, for all you allure veterans what 5 Bars would you pick to visit. (didn't I read somewhere that allure has self leveling pool tables somewhere? that would make a great spot if it's in one of the bars.)

thanks

MNice99

Following, love the review so far. We are going in February our youngest Son will be just 17, Can you give any fun tips for that too old for kids club but too young for the pubs age group?

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Where does the Segway tour take you?

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Hi, Those who stop here with rcls short stop. what have you done for excursions?

I've seen the self drive boat tours, have a 9-12:00 tour. but looking at there web site I'm not sure if they will refund if for some reason the ship aborts the stop.

has anyone done this, or any thing else that was fun for the few hours we are there?

it's seems really hard to plan anything for such a short time.

Thanks

MNice

We were deciding on the exact same thing (except we are going in February)

we chose allure for the following reasons in no particular order:

• Airfare to FFL or Miami will be far less than to hobby (from MN)
  
• read the post about the fog possibilities delaying the cruise, (or worse coming in late and missing return flight)
  
• Both TX and FL can be cold in February, but it seems to me we will sail out of the cold weather sooner from FFL and could have 2 days each way from/to Galveston.
  
• Allure has way more to offer in ways of amenities, plus for us we have sailed on freedom, so this will be new for us.
  

you of course need to weigh your own pros and cons, and I'm sure whatever you decide you will have a great time.

Great review thanks for posting it

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Following

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Hi I don't mean to hijack this thread but op question was answered and I think mine ties in.

If you have a drink package a souvenir Coke cup is provided correct?

Will they mix cocktails in those? (I'm going to guess the answer is: no but I can pour it in.).

So next question:(if I'm right on the first one) can I pour it in a immediately order a 2nd to fill the cup?

Lastly: will they wash them for you? If you were to put a juice or milk based drink (think pins coloda or labadoozee). The cup could get pretty gross after a day or two.

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Can someone explain more about this please. (My oldest is a complete nerd and I think would love this)

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I am the total opposite and in the minority it seems. I really hate coke products and it seems like everyone serves Coke! I am OK with Diet Coke in a mixed drink, would prefer caffeine free diet coke but the ships never have that on the gun so have to take what I can get, but I always take some Diet Caffeine Free Pepsi with me if I want just a soda as I have a very hard time drinking Diet Coke. Thankfully, I do like Sprite Zero so at least I do have a choice of soda if I want one and don't have any diet pepsi with me. But not all the bars have Sprite Zero either so most of the time, if I do not want a drink, I end up with just water.

Your not alone, (for me it's Mountain Dew!)