storkington

4 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

Those videos look blank on my phone- can someone please let me know if you can view them? 
 

Also let me know if you just want me to stop. I feel like this is now a groundhogs day review. 🤣

I was able to view them with no issues,  thank you!

1 minute ago, Ileneilene123 said:

vista A 6184 is looking good to me. Any issues either in your cabin or around the ship with smelling smoke from the Deck 5 casino? 

No, we had no issues at all.

We just stayed in Vista 6184 in February and loved the location. It was really quiet and we never had any issues with noise. 

3 hours ago, DJ Cruisers said:

Did anyone on the cruise this year take the water taxi to the Otefaro motu?  We were going to  but decided on something else.  I am putting it on our list to do in 2025.  How did it work out?  Did you sign up for it in the terminal and do you remember the tour company?.  Thought I saw a sign for it.

2 hours ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

I did! you pick up a ticket in the office right outside the gangway. $25 round trip. Water taxi Comes often. It’s primitive, showers didn’t work and you bring your own toilet paper. Beach was great. Snorkeling from beach was decent at the far end. Lots of locals. I will likely do this again next year. I’d be more than happy to show you where to get the tickets but it’s super easy. You can see the motu from the ship.

 

We are planning to do this in 2025 on the second day of our Raiatea stop!

Thanks @BermudaBound2014 for the info, glad to hear it was easy enough to get the water taxi.

Thanks for sharing your experience. We are on this ship with the same itinerary over the New Year and as it happens we are booked into the inside cabin 7158, so really enjoying hearing how you got in your cabin, as we have not done an inside cabin before (our first experience with that will come in October this year!).

Thank you everyone for taking us along this wonderful cruise; makes me very excited for our trip on this itinerary in 2025. Very much looking forward to meeting some of you then and hopefully have as much fun as you had this year. 

@BermudaBound2014 thank you for sharing the Lido lobster news! We are on this cruise in 2025 and also prefer the Lido to the MDR for the same reasons you listed. My husband is looking forward to the lobster, me, not so much, but hey...

Thank you for this review - exactly what I was looking for, as we are planning to book this exact same tour for our stop in January 2025!

We are planning on taking a taxi to Puerto Plata and hopefully find another couple to share it with to reduce the costs. Perhaps something you could consider.

Thank you for taking us along your cruise! I really enjoyed your updates. We are taking a similar Hawaiian cruise on the Konigsdam in October this year, also in an inside cabin, so it was interesting to read your take on such a cabin, as this is the first time we are travelling inside! My main worry about the inside cabin is the lack of natural light, and I love to look outside, but I guess that means we just have to mingle more on ship, which is not a bad thing.

6 hours ago, gkeep said:

I think your plan is doable the first day, does the sunset cruise start about 5pm? Docking at 8 am and given time to rent the car, that would be plenty of time to go to Waimea Canyon and make stops along the way and back to Eleele, the next day is doable but need to make sure you head back to Lihue in plenty of time, I would say with a couple hours to spare, traffic can be terrible in Kappa area. You would need to get an early start go as far as you want to go and work your way back ( at least that is what I would do). Keep in mind tunnels has very limited parking, being there early with good luck will get a spot. But there are other beaches in the area, or beach stops along the way that are nice too. There is overnight paid parking  right in the port, at the shopping center there, but I have never used it. 

Thank you! Yes, I think the sunset cruise is around 5pm, so it should all work out with times etc. Thank you also for the overnight parking info - very helpful!

Hi all,

We are getting into Nawiliwili on 13 Oct 2024 at 8am and don't leave until 14 Oct 2024 at 5pm. We are considering a hire car for the duration of our stay. The plan is to drive to see the Waimea Canyon and perhaps a little further up that road (and take in anything in between) and then back to Eleele for a sunset cruise to the Na Pali coast, then return to the cruise port. The following day we plan to drive the east side of the island, as far as Tunnels Beach, and again stop at various points on the way. We don't plan on doing any hikes, just want to utilise the different look outs, and take in a beach or two for snorkeling/swimming. Couple of questions:

1. Does the above sound doable, or are we taking on too much for the time we have?

2. Is there anywhere near the cruise port where we can park the hire car overnight?

Any comments/ideas are greatly appreciated, as this is our first time visiting Hawaii.

Thank you!

1 hour ago, SusieKIslandGirl said:

One thing we found that was helpful when in an inside cabin-depending on when you want to get up and when sunrise is, you can set your tv to the bow cam, with the sound off, and it helps you sort of know what time it might be. A gradual wake-up, if you want to wake up with the sun🙂.

That is such a good idea! Will try that when we are travelling in an inside cabin for the first time in October!!!

Following along, as we might book this cruise for October 2024, and thinking about an inside cabin (due to free casino offer). It would be the first inside cabin for us and the itinerary and Konigsdam are new to us. Happy travels!

On 7/11/2023 at 6:36 PM, jdavid said:

One other point is the day of the week. Weekdays are busier than weekends and you will want to check how many ships are in when it comes to availability of cars

Thank you!

We have booked a car with Avis (we get a substantial discount to make it worth the extra 5mins walk there). Thankfully, only 1 other ship in port when we get there! I have planned our route based on your advise, Lunenburg first via the Hwy and then to Peggy's Cove, and if time allows the cemetery/citadel. 

Thanks for your advise, much appreciated!

Hi all,

We will be in Halifax from 7am to 5pm in September and we are considering hiring a car and drive to Lunenburg. We would likely stop at Peggy's Cove for a short stop, and if we had any time left we would drive up to the citadel in town and/or the Titanic cemetery. 

Looking at Google Maps it shows that it would take 2.5 hours if we take the coastal road, so let's say 3 hours with a short stop at Peggy's Cove. And I guess if we are pushed for time we can always take the quick route of just over an hour back.

Has anyone done this? Is it doable, or are we being ambitious? 

Thanks for any insights you might be able to provide!

Hi there,

We have just booked a 14 day Caribbean cruise for Feb 2024. I was wondering if the packages that one can purchase prior to the cruise ever go on offer? I was specifically looking at the unlimited laundry package and the WiFi? I know that the HIA package is usually on offer at some point or another, but as we don't drink alcohol it makes no sense for us to buy that. I know that Neptune and Pinnacle get free laundry, but on this occasion we are in a Vista Suite.

Thanks for any insights you can offer!

I got emails asking to review the 2 excursions we had booked through HAL for our cruise in January. Apparently they are live, but I can't see either of them under the excursions in question. One was negative and the other a positive one. So who knows where they end up!

Ours in January had just a normal nozzle, no diffuser. 

Just now, FlorenceItaly said:

Enjoy your SS.  How many days before your sailing did you call?

29 days out. We go in 21 days.

We phoned the Upsell Desk and took their offer for a Signature Suite on our upcoming cruise. I assume we won't be receiving an email upsell offer say for a Neptune? When I called they were all sold out, so just wondered if that would ever happen?

Just now, fredmdcruisers said:

No, we get offers after using a TA. But not everyone is invited every cruise. During a B3B in January we were only offered to bid on one week. Friends had 2 out of 3.

How did you receive these offers, via your TA or email directly from RCI? Thanks!

30 minutes ago, Jammu2 said:

As far as I can tell they don't have tiers like, say, Sapphire/Pearl/Gold etc. What happens for my husband is he receives a written offer in the cabin on the last night for a next cruise with perks based on his play. This early offer is usually the best offer. Then, periodically during the year we will receive other casino offers of various values.

Same here. I found that the price for my next cruise at the end of this March was a casino rate, as per the agent on the phone when I booked.

45 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

Yes. The travel agent who you are not allowed to name on Cruise Critic does not participate in RU and you can’t bid. 

It had never occurred to me that we might not be able to participate in RU due to having booked via a TA. Have emailed them to find out if that is the case for our cruise this September. Thanks for the info!

This will be our first RCI cruise, so will be interesting to see if we can upgrade. Our cruise is still 189 days out, so assume it is way too early for any upgrades. Although, I did try to get into the RoyalUp website, but alas get the "30 days" message. Fingers crossed for later in the year, although we are quite happy with our current cabin, but you just never know what might be on offer I guess.