popper

When we departed on December 27, 2022 we departed at the PanAm pier. There is a shopping mall, and many newer hotels near this dock.  The big ships where docking at the Old Town piers.  We were staying at the Old Town Sheraton post cruise when the Harmony of the Seas, Carnival Magic, Odyssey of the Seas and Viking Sea where docked - Old Town was packed, with walking and driving gridlock; Old Town had lost some of its charm, but good for the locals.  

For those who follow SeaDream Yacht Club on Facebook, did you see the Water Slide photo, part of the Modernization?  Who will be the first to post that they have done the slide?  If someone has already posted their experience, please let me know where I can find the post. 

Damn Americans, of which I am one.  To be clear, I am not one this cruise.  

For those people who have bookings later this year, particularly those who are embarking and/or disembarking from a port that is not a USA port, what is your strategy?  There are so many unknowns, And final payments are looming. SD says they are planning to do all scheduled sailings. What do you think, will SeaDream do a TA? will Caribbean ports allow entry/exit? will Caribbean ports allow visitors? Quarantines? will airlines have flights, etc? We may just cancel ... and we miss SD!

Our TA offers us onboard spa credit and a refund check when we make our final payment.  We also book onboard via the Club Director and reference our TA, taking advantage of the onboard discount as well. 

Picture of box, docs and “goodies”.

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Fifth SD cruise coming up and for the first time received a nice box with travel docs, luggage tags and bag straps versus just an email to print out!. Is this a new procedure for SD or is this for hitting a loyalty threshold (ie 5th cruise)? Thx

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The Sheraton Old San Juan is a 3 minute walk to the Sea Dream terminal. Plus you walk right by a CVS Pharmacy so you can grab last minute items. We have run into several crew members in the CVS prior to boarding.

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Looking forward to hear about it!

The egg filled with caviar - yum!

Cadillac margarita poolside

Anything in Goran's al fresco restaurant.... :)

5 more months til we sail on SDII again, our first trip to Croatia - can't wait!

What a great and detailed review, totally agree on your things you Love list and room for improvement list.

Will be on our 4th SD cruise this August and looking forward to see our SDII crew/friends for our first Med voyage.

Getting more excited with each passing week!

Thanks for this!

I believe we did meet. Nice sailing group overall--we kept a lot to ourselves to enjoy family time. And laziness! (as befits our sea slug reputation) We hardly "hit the bars" instead ordering popcorn and watching movies in our room.

 

We are also a family of five. I believe you were teaching us the correct way to pronounce Oregon. :)

Ha ha! That sounds like the other lady in our group :)

Just purchased air tickets, making it even more real.

 

We will be on SDI 2/18 and have it on good authority that there will be some friendly, familiar faces.

 

Staying at the Hilton. We don't arrive BGI until later but still plan to try to head out to Oisten's to start stretching our stomachs.:p

 

Sailed SDII over Thanksgiving--it was wonderful.

We sailed on SD II over Thanksgiving too.... wonder if we met?!?

We are from PNW, 5 of us :)

Curious how old the kids were on the last sailing and how many were there?

Thanks Hum

Looking forward to see Croatia... booked a 9 day on SD2

There are quite a few differing opinions on your subject but you asked for responses so here is my opinion. SeaDream is the best in the Caribbean by far. Hands down... In the Med, I feel the atmosphere is a touch more "formal". Usually there are more Europeans on board, not that this is a bad thing.......Ho-Hum is almost one of them. We tend to do more excursions or long walks off the ship in the med. In the Caribbean many days are "sea days" for us. Onboard activities are much the same but are far more weather dependent. On one October Med cruise it was rainy and cold all days but one and SD becomes very small when the outdoor spaces are not useable. On ours, no beach Splash. We have had it on the pool deck or in the Main Salon, again weather dependent.

Thanks for your response Jim,

We travel in August, so likely prior to cold, wet season... itinerary is through Croatia, I like to be off ship and do something, so sounds pretty good!

Have done several Caribbean sailings with SD and next one is Athens to Venice...

For those who have done both Med and Caribbean, besides location (obviously) what are biggest differences in the cruise vibe/activities?

I assume no Beach Splash on last day, but is there something similar?

Thanks in advance

Really????

Emerald Bay is a fine choice. Reasonable, walking distance from airport, 5 min taxi to SeaDream, beach, beach bar, friendly staff.

We stayed a year ago as they were transitioning from being a Best Western to an independent hotel, which impacted computer system and towel availability! But was not a problem.

We also spent the day there a few weeks back after disembarking SD and hung out at the beach bar and beach waiting for our flight.

A dozen others from SD did the same and we also met a large group of Norwegian ladies who were about to embark and join Mr B's wife for the week. Had met a few of them from the year before, yoga retreat.....

Also met a commentator from MSNBC at the beach bar a few weeks back... smart political advisor...

Thanks! I had a feeling....

You can use a 3.5 mm to 3.5 mm stereo cable from headphone jack of iPhone to back of iPhone base. That is what we did.

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Another fabulous week on SDII.

Fantastic service; great to see some familiar crew faces and able to get to know some new stars too. Agree with other post about the thoughtfulness, quality of service, professionalism and friendliness of Severin, Goran, Frank, Nicolai, Matt, Cameron, Frude and many others.

The ship was fairly full, 109 passengers including a group of VIPs. As they were a bit short staffed and had new workers in training the crew was kept very busy, but maintained their positive attitudes

Our 7 day itinerary was:

San Juan, St John, Saba, St Barths, Tortola (Virgin Gorda bypassed for rough seas unfortunately), Sopers Hole, Norman Island, Jost Van Dyke, St Thomas.

Feel free to ask if you have questions about any of these ports.

The attached picture shows SDII in Tortola after being unable to anchor off Virgin Gorda, so glad they typically miss big ports!!!

BTW the larger ship is the Norweigan "ESCAPE"!!

Popper,

What time were you able to get off in St. Thomas? We're booked on a 9:30 flight after our cruise in a few weeks. It was take a chance or hang around for the entire day.

Looking forward to hearing about your cruise!

Cole

They started clearing early flight guests on board at 8.15. Airport is 10 mins away. When we flew today at 3.45 it was mobbed but it was also Saturday after Thanksgiving - a very busy travel day. Check in online and do bag drop to speed things up at airport

Good luck!.

Cruise was fantastic as always

Great crew, service; familiar and friendly faces.

Sitting in St Thomas waiting to disembark after a fabulous week on SDII

We are boarding in 2 1/2 weeks Nov 19 SDII..... can't wait!

3rd time on SD and back to the beautiful BVI

Thanks for your comments.

We'll be on our third SD cruise in November, and we love SD - but getting concerned with the SD1 situation and know there are other choices for our Aug Croatia trip. Just thinking about options, cabin sizes, price/value etc. The length is the same, ports very similar and price quite different even factoring in tips and adding beverage pkg on WS Breeze....

Again, appreciate your comments.

Yes, looking forward to hear more about this voyage and Croatia..... We are deciding between SD and Windstar Breeze for Croatia next August, hope those that switched over share their experiences on the boards.... Jim, perhaps you can nudge them :)