kmdreamcatcher

Just my thoughts on this matter...Why not look into renting a car???  I was looking for my cruise and to rent a car for me to go over to Disney was less then it cost for one of us to take the excursion from RC!

On 12/7/2018 at 4:01 PM, RadioPeri said:

We've never toured with Royston, but can't say enough good things about Thenford Grey. I don't know if he's doing many tours himself these days (we toured with him quite a few years ago), but I've rarely dealt with a tour operator as professional and knowledgeable. His Grand Tour was interesting, educational, and fun. A GREAT introduction to a beautiful island and its history.

I agree with the above.  Getting ready to book my 4th tour with Grays.  I did the Grand Tour the first year and the 2nd and 3rd we did private tours with the company.  I did have the honor of meeting Mr. Gray in 2017 because of a mix up of where the ship docked.  Very nice man and he checked on me and my mom throughout the day.  You will love the island tour with them.  

For St. Kitts I would HIGHLY recommend Thenford Gray’s tour company.  I found him 3 years ago and have used him 3 times getting ready to book for my trip in 2020.

The first time we used the company we did the island tour with about 10-15 other people.  It was great, but we have found that we are ones that like to be in a tour of 5 or less so the last two years we have booked private tours where it was just the two of us.  We got to see so much more doing the private tour then just the regular tour.  We got to go to different things others did not get to see...this year we went to the Eco park and no one else on the ship went there.  We also got to eat a really good lunch at a hole in the wall place.  Because I wanted to go to a grocery store to get “local” spices we were able to stop there also!  

So I would say go with Thenford Grays tour company.   If you can afford it, I say do the private tour with them!

I have used the company twice.  Loved it both times.  Never had any time problems at all.  I would highly recommend them for your trip!!

Be open to trying all they they offer for the lunch stop.  Really good food.  The hot bread and cheese at the end is so good.  Hint for that if you can get 2 or 3 slices of cheese and stick it in the hot bread to eat!!!   So really good.  

I can not speak for Allure, but I do MTD on Grandeur of the Seas. It is me and my mom when we cruise. We have always been given a table for two without asking, but I know Allure is a bigger ship then Grandeur is so as other have suggested I would go when your board and ask them about it. As others have said the tables are close in the MTD area...we have never really had a problem with this, enjoy it really because the people at the next table will say hello how was your day and so on. I have only had 1 problem with this, last year on the cruise (we do 12 nights/13 days cruise) the first few nights the Host set us near a table of 4 "older" ladies. 3 of the four was always putting the 4th lady down, telling her what she should and should not to do or what she could or could not have off the menu, one of the 3 "bossy" women just thought she knew everything...she asked where we were from so being sociable we told her (I live in a resort town) and she started in trying to tell us things about the town that were untrue and we told her so. She got really rude and told us we must not live in the town because she spends 2 weeks a year in the town for the last 20 some years. After that we told the Host if he could not sit near them anymore. Sadly the Host told us later in the cruise that everyone that got sat next to them asked not to sit by them again.

So hopefully you will get some great next table mates over the rude ones like we were next.

Congrats on the wedding also. Hope it is a great rain free wedding and many happy years together.

just get that call in to your TA today.Your only obstacle is life boat capacity. You will pay the new price ,, but if you got perks with your old price you will only get the current offer.

I would be happy with the current offer because I will only have to pay 50.00 more for per-paid tips.

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I hope it works out for you. Only your travel agent can tell you how it would be referred. It is also possible (not probable, just possible) that you won't be able to add the third person to the room. Whether or not third passengers can be added all has to do with lifeboat capacity and whether or not there are already other rooms in that lifeboat area which have third or fourth passengers. When they reach the limit, they won't add more. Again, only your travel agent, working with Celebrity, can tell you what will happen at this point.

Hopefully it will work. I looked and the room right next to mine was able to hold 3 people and all...so hopefully.

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I have a question. I have 2 cabins booked for January 2019 cruise, one is paid in full and the other is 1/2 paid off. The second person for the 2nd cabin will not be able to go because of health issues that just came up (and after my TA closed for the night), because of this the 3 people that have paid needs to go into the one cabin. I was looking on the website tonight and the cruise is less now then when we booked...because final payment is not due until Sunday (even though the cruise is paid in full for the 3 people going, excluding the prepaid tips), would we be able to get the price adjusted when we put the 3rd person into the one cabin and cancel the 2nd cabin????

Nothing like being down to the last minute to have health issues and have to cancel!!!!

Have you tried 5 below???? You are only a few hours from the beach, if ya take a trip down there for the day try some of the surf shops...Ron Jon, K-Coast, Endless Summer, Quiet Storm. I am sure you maybe able to call or go on to their websites and see if they have them.

Going to Barbados in November for the first time. Any suggestions or tips of what to do?

We got tossed into Barbados last year when St. Thomas and St Maartins was closed due to the hurricanes. As I did not have much time to find things to do I found a wonderful tour company called Glory Tours. As my mother and I are two that like to take our time to explore and such we opted for the privet tour with the company. We went to the Barbados Wildlife Reserve, a house George Washington stayed in while in Barbados, we found a flyer for a pottery place and went there. We asked the tour guide to take us some place to get a "locals" lunch and we ended up on the water eating in a little hole in the wall place that we would have never found on our own.

We were thinking of getting the photo package for $250 that gives us all the digitals. My wife and are going on the cruise with my mother and her husband whom are staying in another cabin.

 

My question is: Would we be able to share that photo package per say? Like we take pictures together of course those would be included with our digitals, but if my mother and her husband took pictures with each other and not my wife and I but we are present, can those be put into our photo package?? For example, when they have different backdrops to take pictures at, my wife and I will have a picture taken there, then invite my mother and her husband into the picture with us, then if its allowed, let my wife and her husband take a photo there as well.

I don't know if the price is different on each ship or not, but when I looked in cruise planner for my upcoming cruise the all prints package was 199.99 right now (its on sale). It is well worth the price. My first cruise my mother and I got the all print and now have many photos of our time on the cruise. If you and your wife are in the photo then it would be able to get done with your package. If it is just the two of them then they would need their own package or buy them one by one.

If you do get the photo package...live it up from the first photo on the gangway...to the last night. Get them done by yourselves and together. Hit every backdrop every night. And also...remember don't just take direction from the photographer...if there is away you want to pose pose that way! Some of the best photos we have of our first cruise is poses that I said to do. One time my mother was on my last nerve and we were standing back to back...the person that was taking the photo said to put our hand on our hip, look at the camera and smile....me I crossed my arms, looked at the camera and was rolling my eyes....Best photo of them all. I have that one hanging on my bedroom wall and that is the one I made copies of and sent to our family. So in the end I am saying have fun with the photos!!!

Oh my gosh[emoji21][emoji44][emoji32][emoji22] I don't think this lady will ever shut up. She is droning on and on about trivial things. Think we will be leaving before the door prizes. Been here over an hour and she is still on stores in St Thomas and that is our first stop.

 

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Love Jane, the shore shopping woman. Can tell you almost anything about shopping in the islands. Yes St Thomas has more shopping then the other islands. And for that I really don't like St Thomas, however there is a shop in St Thomas that sell table cloths and table runners and such....love that place. Have a great trip. I would say ask for Romar in MTD but I think he is still on his holiday.

I am going with the minority on this one. 1 year old and a 4 year old you really should do a land vacation first. The 4 year old will remember things but the 1 year old wont. I feel that you should do so weekend trips in hotels once the 1 year old comes, so that both children can learn what it is like to be away from home. I work at a hotel and you would not believe how many children have major meltdowns at night because they are not at home in their own bed. Maybe do a land vacation somewhere in the US for a few years until your youngest is at least 3. If you have your heart set on a cruise...why don't you leave the kids at home with grammom and granpop and you and hubby go.

when we check our luggage, the crew places them at the door to our cabin. is it ok for those who carry on their own luggage to immediately bring it to their cabin door and leave it there?

If you don't want to carry your luggage around when you board, you have two options....you can check your bag and save yourself from hauling it around or just buy the Faster to the Fun package for Carnival and your cabin will be ready when you board.

Kim, I was on the Pride cruise with you and agree that the buffet is not sensitive to allergies/sensitivities at all. I am very fortunate that neither my husband or I have and food allergies or limitations, but I have several friends with allergies or intolerances. I initially thought it was nice that the Pride had some GF bread offered, until I saw it was setting next to and sharing tongs with regular breads. I do not care for the taste of walnuts, and even as an adult it was not always obvious what had nuts in them (especially muffins) - I hope your sister didn't have any reactions.

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Lucky she didn't. I just could not believe how they had the I don't care attitude about things not being labeled that had nuts in it. Yes it was not always obvious what had nuts...the stuffing had nuts in it on the buffet and she did not see the nuts in it and almost ate it, until my mother told her not to because of the nuts. It was a shock also that most of the deserts had nuts in or on them.

The one day I was sitting at the buffet for breakfast and watched a woman that could not wait for someone get done with the tongs for the bacon. This woman took the egg spoon and put bacon on her plate with that. The person manning the station seen this woman do it and did nothing to remove the eggs, spoon, bacon or tongs from the line...they acted like they did not even see it.

We are going on our first cruise to the Caribbeans. We will be going to Princess Cays (Bahamas), St Thomas, St Kitts, St Lucia, Antigua, and St Maarten. We are in our 60s - enjoy sightseeing, cultural stuff, walking. Couple of questions, appreciate your feedback.

1) any good ideas for excursions that we can do ourselves (trying to avoid higher cost of ship excursions)

2) Caribbeans mean beaches and swimming. Do you bring a backpack with clothes to change into at the beach?

3) are towels, chairs, ... available at the beaches? What are your suggested beaches - trying for quieter beaches.

4) if you go snorkeling, where can we we safely keep our cellphones, wallets, ....

Thank you much. Feedback for us newbies would be great.

St. Thomas--just hit the beach or stay on the ship. I didn't like St Thomas as much as I did as St Croix. To me St. Thomas is just a lot of shopping.

St. Kitts--Thenford Grey Tours. Have done both the "group" tour he offers and a privet tour with him. Can not say enough good things about Gray's....I booked my cruise for this coming Nov. and before the TA had the cruise booked I had my privet tour with Grey's already booked.

St. Luca--Go with Cosol Tours. Did the tour last year and loved it...booking again this coming Nov with them.

Antigua---go with Antigua VIP tours. We did a privet tour with them last year and loved it. The driver took us to most of the same places as other tours went (Nelsons Dock Yard and such) but because we were on a privet tour we did not feel rushed or anything. We even ate lunch at the Dock Yard that was very good.

Princess Cays--you can go outside the gate and they have some cab drivers right there that can take you on a tour of the island. Most Cruise ships will not tell you that because they want you to do your outings with them. We didn't find out about the cabs until it was almost time to head back to the ship.

St Maarten--never been to so I can't help ya there.

As for your cell phone, money and such why don't you get a water proof pouch to use.

I always carry my own beach towel incase I forget it on the beach....then I wont be charged 25.00 for the cruise ship.

I also suggest looking at your cruises roll call, you may find that there are a few that would want to do a privet tour with you in some of the ports.

I guess that's what's tricky for me being a new cruiser, I don't know what a good deal is yet on the British Isles trip I want to take next summer 2019. I just started looking into them a month or two ago. I don't have a lot of seasons/years to compare the prices. I can see what they are going for this summer and next year, but that's about it. It would be great if there was a website or tracker that showed what people ended up paying ( including perks etc) for the same cruise that I was thinking of going on in the past. I'm a bit of a bargain shopper so like when I go food shopping and something is on "sale", I know my prices enough to know if that item is really a good deal or not. I do see some what I think are "good" prices on cruises but most of the time it's during an off season or when I can't go during the year so I can't really take advantage of them anyway. I can only go on cruises in the summer months.

When you mentioned that your cruise will be paid, you don't mean you paid it to the cruise company right? I was thinking you meant saved for it like in the bank, but just wasn't sure if people do that or not.

Believe me I understand to no end. My first cruise in 2016 I was like a deer in headlights when it came to stuff. But I found these boards, found a GREAT TA (even though she thinks I am a pain in the butt sometimes), found the cruise I wanted to take and saved. My first cruise I saved my pennies for 6 months...cashed it in and walked into my TA with the money in cash to pay my 1/2 the cruise off. I enjoyed the first cruise so much that I booked the 2nd cruise before I got off the first one. I also keep all my papers for each cruise I take so that I know what I paid and when I look for other cruises I look back at the papers.

With me I am the opposite...I can only cruise in the winter time, because I work end of March to the middle of October. But I am happy with that because it gets me away from the cold weather of Maryland.

No I really mean pay them off. Each week I work, when I get paid I go to the bank and get rolls of coins. I have jars for each cruise and jars for things like tours for each cruise. When it is almost time to pay the cruise off I cash the change in and pay the cruise off. I have savings charts I use. I save my quarters for the cruise that is the closest, dimes for the next, nickels for the next one and pennies for the next one. When I pay the first cruise off I move the quarters to the next cruise and so forth down the line. This way I am always saving.

If Magic is anything like Pride...ADVOID the buffet or you as the adult need to make sure the food don't have nuts in the food.

I say this because I was on the Pride in February. In all of the 7day cruise I only ever seen 1 thing on the buffet labeled that it contained nuts. My sister has an allergy to nuts as well and when we discovered that stuff was not labeled that it contained nuts I went to guest services and complained about this. I complained about this not because my sister (an adult) could not see nuts in or on the food but due to the fact that kids were running around and they don't think to look first sometimes. Guest services reply to me about this was either eat around the nuts or don't eat the food.

So just be careful at the buffet!!!!!!!

When you're booking that far in advance are any of them on sale? There's one I was going to book for July/Aug of 2019 but cruises are full price no perks. Are there any benefits to booking now besides getting the cabin I want?

It depends on the price for me. Like this Nov. I leave out of Baltimore on Grandeur of the Seas. When I booked it an inside cabin was 659.00 (plus tax, port charges and gratuities) and Royal was giving on board credit. When I book with Royal with my TA they also give me on board credit. I looked today (4/2/18) at the same cruise for my boss and the inside cabin was at 990.00 per person plus taxes and such. So we got a great deal on it.

My Jan 2019 cruise it was the right price for all the people going a good deposit price.

My Sept 2019 and Nov 2020 cruise was the right price and good deposit.

I guess for me it is a little less for the perks (don't get me wrong they are nice) but for me it is the price at a price I am willing to pay and what the deposit is. I know what I am willing to pay for a cruise and such and if it is at that price or below I will book it. I also like the fact that I have more time to pay the cruise off. My sept 2019 and nov. 2020 cruise will be paid off by Jan 2019.

I have booked Nov. 2018 this past Feb. to the Caribbean. I booked Jan. 2019 this past Nov., this cruise there is 7 rooms with 15 people (16th person may be added). And when NCL had their 1.00 deposit sale I booked Sept. 2019 for 4 of us to Alaska and Oct. 2020 to Hawaii for 5 rooms/12 people (more getting added there also).

So as you can see I have them from as close as 7 1/2 months to 2 1/2 years out. I myself rather enjoy booking that far out especially with Jan. 2019 and Oct 2020 cruise and so many going on them, because it gives me time to learn about the ports and find tours to do and such.

I have quite the countdown 22 months. I'm thinking to help pass the time to get my BFF that is also going a small gift every month to help count down. Dollar tree type stuff or small little things. Anyone have ideas?

 

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For my sister for this past Christmas (it was her 45th Christmas) I gave her 45 gifts of things she needed for the cruise...shampoo, hair spray, sun glasses, journal, pen, word search book, beach bag, beach towel, water bottle and such. It was things that she could use on her birthday cruise this past February. I think for everything that I bought her it was maybe 50.00.

Before dinner in the atrium the officers were introduces and the opportunity to take a picture with Captain Ante. We were fortunate to have him as captain both last cruise and this although there was a different captain in between. His children are also on board as was last time...how lucky are we. Love this Captain and his family.

 

 

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Glad you are enjoying yourself! I love Captain Ante! His kids are so adorable too! Loved when his daughter did noon announcements with him.

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Thanks for the review and comparison..... You cruised free so it will be hard for you to answer these questions.

 

1) Cost comparisons Carnival vs RCCL?? When I research similar length cruises....I find RCCL is much higher than my Carnival (newer ship) options. We always cruise over peak times (vacation periods, holidays, etc) so this may be part of the reason why?

 

2) Beverage Plan.... Again important to us since we like to drink on a cruise. I believe RCCL is higher ....

 

The rest comes down choice.... If you want a resort type atmosphere...Oasis class is for you. If you want a more cruise type experience....other lines provide that option and/or the smaller RCCL ships do as well.

I have sailed with RCCL twice on Grandeur and just got back off carnival pride two weeks ago. So this is my opinion answer for your questions.

Yes RCCL is more then Carnival! However the saying is true...you get what you pay for! Between Grandeur and Pride out of Baltimore I will always choose Grandeur! I can’t say I will never go on Carnival again...I just won’t go on Pride! We were just very disappointed in Pride!!!

As far as the drink packages I don’t know really. I think RCCL is higher but they have a few different packages.

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You are a life saver!

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Glad to have you back! I would try the botanical gardens and the other rum factory this time.

Thanks Drake! We loved St. Croix! We are really happy that we are coming back again. Trying to get a good amount of the island as one day in the next few years we want to come and spend a week or two down there for vacation.

I will have to look into the botanical gardens. You don’t happen to know what company that does the tours that are set up right at the end of the cruise pier do you????

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