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Did you see big planes during that 2hr at Maho Beach? I booked a rental car but I wonder if a tour is more relaxing.

Does either tour guranteed to see at least one large plane at Maho beach?

Yes, I booked Hertz. It is right at the gate according to their description. I also got a quote from another car rental place near by. It is $20 cheaper but they are outside of the port area. It is still nearby and they will provide round trip transportation. I used them before and it was fine. This time I think I will pay that $20 to Hertz for the convenience in case we run out of time. I think that $20 is like a port area access fee or so. https://hertz.sxmrentacar.com/faq/ Q. Do you have a location at the cruise ship pier in Philipsburg? A. Yes, we have a location at the Philipsburg cruise ship terminal. When you get off your ship walk down the pier towards the main exit. When you see the large yellow building walk on the sidewalk to the right of it, past the buses to reach the car rental booth. Staff and cars are on-site. I booked from the US website not this one but this local site has good info.

I won the bid for $40pp and $80 total for the stateroom. We did get the mini suite onboard. Princess charged me $124 (over charged by $44) so I requested $44 refund. However, Princess refunded me $80 so my final cost to upgrade became $44. I think Princess’s bidding mechanism is a mess.

I got a refund of $80 today. Princess totally confused me because I only asked for $44 back. Someone mentioned in an earlier post that Princess actually overcharged me by $80. I honestly have no clue how Princess calculates the bidding price but I am happy about the result. My TA communicated with Princess before my departure. I didn't hear back from my TA so I approached the guest service desk on board and they forwarded my request to their main office. I still don't think I will do the bidding again knowing that what I bid is not what I will pay at the end. Thank you again for all of your valuable opinions.

It's $40pp, $80 for the stateroom. I will be happy to just get $44 back. I just checked my credit card again and both $84 and $40 charges are posted. If TA can't solve the issue today, I will go to the ship customer service desk to see if they can help. We are embarking today. I am still glad we did the bidding to learn about the hidden charge. $44 is a small price to pay if we can't get the money back at the end. We will definitely not do any bidding with Princess again in the future.

We didn't prepaid crew appreciation and we are doing Princess Standard for this two night cruise. Our original booking confirmation was from the TA : fare $138 + taxes $200 = $338 (interior) The updated booking confirmation was sent by Princess: fare $ 298 + taxes $164 = $462 (mini suite) I think TA and Princess handle the fare & taxes differently so I am only comparing the total. The increase in total is $124. That matches what Princess charged on my card $84 + $40. However, I only offered $80 to upgrade. The bid acceptance email was from info@princessupgrade.princess.com and I don't think it is a 3rd party. The five Princess agents I talked to could see everything but they don't know why I am paying $44 more. Our TA is working with Princess to sort this out. This is our first bid and we didn't expect the hidden charge. $44 is not a lot but what if we were bidding for a 10 days or 20 days cruise? The hidden charge could be hundreds. We will get to the bottom of this and report back.

I don't have any protection or insurance and I live in OR no sales tax. I think Princess simply over charged me by $44. I believe both $84 and $44 charges will go through because I just saw that Princess sent me an updated booking confirmation. Now the new fare includes the $44 overcharge. I am shocked that Princess accepted my $80 offer with and email confirming but turned around and charged me more. Princess customer service agents are all terrible. I talked to 5 of them and they gave me different answers. The last one told me I need to get my travel agent involved if I want my money back. I just asked my travel agency to help. I don't think I will ever respond to Princess's bidding invitations again.

I tried the bidding game for the first time and got an email notification saying Princess accepted my $80 bid ($40pp) for upgrade. However, I found two pending charges on my card the next morning - $40 and $84. The total is $124. I called princess customer service and the agent I talked to was not helpful. She insisted that the additional $44 is extra charge to upgrade the stateroom but I only agree to $80. Where did Princess find those customer service agents? They don't understand anything and they can't fix any problems. The lady I talked to repeatedly asked me to describe the bidding process at least 10 times. Should I dispute through credit card directly?

We have been to St Maarten 10 yrs ago and toured the island with a rental car. We did it counter-clockwise last time and hit the traffic jam on the way back to the cruise terminal. It took 1.5 hrs to get back from Maho Beach and we were worried about missing the ship. Luckily, we didn’t but we cut it really close. We are going back again with friends in Nov. Thinking about doing it clockwise this time. 1) Harold Jack Hill view point (Does anyone know exactly where that is?) 2) Maho Beach plane spotting 3) Marigot 4) Orient Beach for lunch and relax on the beach for 2 hours 5) Oyster Bay (Can anyone recommend a good view point?) 6) Iguana Park ( Where is their exact location? Their FB said it is on Oyster Pond Road but I can’t find it on google map) 7) Border sign for photo 😎 Cruise ship terminal I know the big planes usually arrive in the afternoon so driving counter-clockwise is probably better. Our ship leaves at 6pm so I am guessing we need to leave at 2:30 from Maho Beach if we decide to do it counter-clockwise? Any comment is very appreciated.

We are taking Reflection to Caribbean in November. Our port time in Tortola is 7am-2:30pm on 11/29. We are interested in a 3 hour excursion called Destination Highlight: Norman Island Snorkeling. However, the start time is 1:15pm. That means it ends at 4:15pm. Will the ship wait for the group to return from the excursion before leaving the port? Did I misunderstand something? Anyone attended this excursion before? How do you like it? Thanks

Thank you all so much for the explination. I am glad we don't have to rebook.

Thank you for the suggestion. I will look into it. I am also considering this paddle tour. Have you done it? Are you familiar with that area? https://www.groundseabvi.com/paddle The odd port time makes it tough to do it all!

Which tour operators you recomend? Thanks.

We will be traveling with our friends on Refection in Nov. Our cruise bookings are connected but we bought our excursions seperately. We used our OBC to book excursions and our friends also used their OBC to book the same excursions. How do we make sure that we will be in the same group (on the bus or on the boat) on the excursion days? I called Celebrity and requested to link our excursions together, but the customer service agent said we need to cancel and rebook the excursions with 4 people together. Is that true? I want to ask a different agent but the wait on the line was over 70mins. Wifi - we purcahsed the premium wifi package but I don't see the basic wifi. Is basic wifi not available on Reflection? Beverage package - we usually drink water but occasionally we want iced tea, soda or coffee. Could we paid for indivisual beverage when we want it? Thank you!!

Thanks everyone for sharing your stories and suggestions. I think we will book outbound flights for 11/23 Thanksgiving day so we don't have to worry about the potentical risk of missing the cruise. Also we will book the flights ourselves. I thought Celebrity excursion is not refundable but I am wrong. I will wait for the next promotion (Juy 4th?) to book our excursion.

We will be embarking Celebrity from Fort Lauderdale on 11/25 and I have been debating whether or not to book a 11/24 flight through Celebrity. My understanding is that our tickets would be refundable before the cruise final payment date. The only direct flight from Portland, OR arrives at nearly midnight on 11/24. If the flight is canceled, we will not be able to make the embarkation time on 11/25. Will Celebrity fly us to the next port if we miss the embarkation? Traveling during the holiday week is making me nurvous. Internet & excursion - when is the best time to purchase to get the best price? We are new to Celebrity. Thanks

I am considering Celebrity excursion to the Bath too. Did you do the snorkel one or the bus one? Celebrity's port time in Tortola is short and odd. It seems the ship excursion is the easier option. I would love to hear about your Speedy experience after your Disney cruise trip. 🙂

I reached out to a couple rental car companies last month and they both told me that they don't do day rental anymore. Which rental companies do you use in St Thomas?

Does Sapphire beach have shower facilities and snorkel grear rental?

Did you rent a car to visit those beaches? It seem car rental is tough now. Many don't do 1 day rental...Any recomendation?

I only know two rental companies located near the cruise port. One is Rodael Car Rental and the other one is Coastal Car Rental. Rodael ingored my email and car booking request made from their website. Coastal has some no-so-good reviews and that worries me. It looks like there is no 3rd option or am I missing sometihng? I prefer not to rent from the airport becasue it takes too much time driving back and forth. I rented in St. Maarten a few years ago and I recalled that I picked up the car near the cruise terminal. I think it was Hertz but now Hertz no longer has a location near the port. I am taking 3 friends to tour the island so a car is ideal and cheaper. Is renting a car and diving around the island no longer a populor choice? Thanks.

I am looking at the Bernard's Adventure Tour 2 too. I saw that the Maho beach stop is only 45min,. Is that going to be enough time to see at least one plane? Also, that's the customary tip % or amount for the tour guide? Thanks.

Refer-A-Friend feature no longer works. I have been trying for days. My bf tried to sign up from the link I sent but Princess website keeps telling him that he is not eligiable for the offer. He has never booked or cruised with Princess before. I even called Princess to confirm that his name is not in their system. Not sure why he is not eligiable. My best guess is that Princess has canceled this program but hasn't updated their website. Has anyone successfully refer someone lately?

I talked to a Princess rep and she said I need to have an active booking before i can refer someone. If I reserve a cruise now, my bf's name will be on that reservation and he won't be able to get the referral credit becasue the system will assign a captian circle number to him. Isn't it odd that I can't refer someone who plan to cruise with me? I was trying to get him a captain circle number through my referral link and then use that number to book his first cruise.