CruisingYiayia

Our group disembarked Celebrity Beyond on Sunday, May 5th. One of our group handmade a beautiful thank you card that we would like to send to Captain Kate. Does anyone have an address for her at Celebrity to send the card? Thanks.

We found out yesterday that our April '24 cruise on Reflection to ABC islands has been changed to Beyond.  We are very excited to be sailing on Beyond, our first time on an Edge class ship, and, luckily, our itinerary is the same.  We have sailed S-class ships many times and are very familiar with ship layout and specialty restaurants, and had our specialty restaurants picked out and reservations made.  Now that we are on Beyond, we have no idea which restaurants to choose.  Any recommendations???  TIA

Has anyone done the Escape to Jost Van Dyke excursion through NCL?  It says in the description "In the event conditions are rough, the boat will anchor just short of the beach and guests will swim the short distance to shore (approx. 30'. Participants must be able to swim as there is no dock at White Bay. With the shallow draft of the catamaran, guests can be dropped right at the beach, making it a very short distance to swim ashore."  Just wondering how often this happens that the catamaran can't let people off on the shore.

When we were in Mykonos we took a cab to Super Paradise Beach. We got there early and had our pick of Lounge chairs. We had one right by the beautiful water. There is food (reasonable) drinks and rest rooms there. We spent a few hours there and headed back to town to explore and have lunch. Beautiful day. The wind was really blowing in town but just a perfect beach day at Super Paradise.

 

We did a tour with Nicholas Rhodes in Rhodes. We planned just what we wanted to see and do (with suggestions from Nicholas before we left). We knew it would be hot in July so we wanted beach time. Once we saw a lot of the island we stopped at Argo for an amazing lunch. While there, we had lounge chairs on a beach all to ourselves. It was beautiful and relaxing. Loved Argo for Lunch and the gorgeous beach that it was on.

Thank you! There are 6 of us and this sounds like what we are looking for! How early did you get to the beach and was it easy to get a taxi? I've read that they are not readily available. Did you arrange a time for the driver to come back to pick you up and do you remember the cost for the taxi?

We will be visiting Mykonos and Rhodes in September. We have excursions planned in all our ports, except Mykonos and Rhodes, and thought these would be good ports to have some down time at the beach and then wander around town. We're looking for beach suggestions and any other suggestions you all might have. This is our first time visiting these ports and open to all idea. TIA

We are sailing on Equinox from the Port of Miami and flying home on Southwest from FLL. Is luggage valet available from POM to FLL? TIA

After my run, my wife and I showered, yea, you can do that in a Junior Suite :evilsmile: we headed to the MDR for breakfast. On this ship, one side of deck 3 was the Diamond breakfast and the other side "everyone else" in the middle was a buffet that both could use. The service was a little better on the Diamond side. The menu on that side had a couple of entries the regular side didn't I tried Texas French Toast and it was awful. I needed a steak knife to cut it. I ended up eating from the buffet part and we joined Jon and Penny on the other side a few days with no problems.

We were on the Adventure last week, too. We had breakfast the first morning in the MDR on the Diamond side. The pancakes I ordered were the worst pancakes I've ever had...I couldn't even cut them with a knife. My sister and brother-in-law both ordered the french toast and said they were horrible. My husband, however, enjoyed his ham and cheese omelet. After that experience, we ate breakfast in the Windjammer. We also found service in the MDR for dinner to be very slow. We had a 4 night specialty dinner package, so we only ate in the MDR the 2nd, 3rd and 7th nights.

I've used tripod/lycos for 17 years with no problems, but pictures I uploaded yesterday like this one are working fine.

 

But ones I uploaded today aren't loading. I'll try again perhaps tonight.

I have not been able to see any of the pictures you have posted.

We will be in St. Maarten on Sunday. Does anyone know if the shops are open on Sundays when there are ships in port? TIA

We will be in St. Maarten on Sunday. Does anyone know if the shops are open on Sundays when there are ships in port? TIA

Most recent I've seen is last August:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=50932439#post50932439

Thank you!! This was quite the review and very helpful!!!

Does anyone have the cruise compasses for the Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao and St. Maarten itinerary? I'm trying to figure out when the formal nights will be so we can plan our specialty dining.

We will be on the Oasis in January and are considering the RCCL Bamboo Beach excursion. Is it worth it? How far is it from Falmouth? TIA

I understand that January is high season in Florida, but not so much at the parks. It really is not that bad during January at the parks if you stay away from the MLK weekend. We were there right before that weekend this year and the crowds were small. But on the weekend it was horrible. I have looked at the crowd calendars and they say crowds are light again after that weekend. We didn't need to be on site to get the fast pass, especially if you are going to be there on a weekday.

 

So you could save money and stay off site. We stayed at the Hampton Inn closest to Universal. It worked great for us but we were able to stay for free with points. So the price difference was way too much and we didn't feel we needed the fast pass then. One of our family members only had 1 day and was able to hit the main attractions in both parks in that 1 day, a weekday. And we rode the Harry Potter rides, Spiderman, Simpsons, and Transformers several times. Remember the more expensive hotels onsite are the only ones that give you the fast pass. The less expensive ones onsite don't, but they do get you in an hour early. We didn't feel it was worth the extra cost for us for when we were there. It depends on when you are going to be there.

Thank you for all the information! We will be there the week after MLK weekend, so hopefully there won't be big crowds. We are only planning to stay 2 nights, with 1 day at Universal Studios and we really don't want to spend a lot on a hotel room. We're looking at the Hampton Inn and Hyatt Place.

We are sailing on Oasis in January, and then spending a couple of days at Universal Studios. Any recommendations for hotels close to Universal?

Thank you so much for providing that link! I have booked this now after much prevaricating. We live in Cheshire in the UK!

You're welcome! Be sure to sign up for the shuttle to the port when you check in. There is a very good restaurant downstairs from the hotel called Batch Gastropub...we had lunch there, we liked it so much, we had dinner, too!!

Check out http://www.hamptoninnmiamibrickell.com/landing/landing/lp4.php for a special cruise critic deal at Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton Miami Brickell Downtown,

We stayed at the Ramada Suites on Augusta National Dr. (just north of the airport, 5 minutes away) a few weeks ago. Room was big and clean, as were as common areas, free shuttle from MCO, free breakfast, small pool. Easy walk to several restaurants for dinner and the price was reasonable.

We used Cortrans shuttle to get to the port. $20 per person one way but they will also do a round trip ($40) dropping you back at the airport (or your hotel if you plan to stay) after your cruise. Service was very good.

Will they pick up at the hotel, or do you need to go back to the airport?

We prefer to stay in the Orlando area - 1000's of hotels in every price range. ;) What time do you fly in? Lots of hotels near the airport.

 

We usually use a one-way car rental to get to PC - all of the major agencies (Hertz, etc.) have offices in PC/Cocoa Beach and offer free shuttles to/from the port. If you prefer to leave the driving to someone else CorTrans, Cocoa Beach Shuttle and Executive VIP (private transfers) are the most often suggested providers.

We haven't booked our flights yet. There's a flight arriving around 3:30 P.M., so we will probably book that flight. Do the shuttle services pick up from the hotels in the Orlando area? Any hotel recommendations?

We will be on Oasis in January. This is our first time flying into MCO and sailing out of Port Canaveral and I'm trying to figure out where to stay and how to get to the port.

If we stay near MCO the night before the cruise, how do we get to the port the next morning? Any hotel recommendations for hotels near MCO?

If we go directly to Cocoa Beach area, any recommendations for hotels in that area? TIA :)

12262 - bed near bathroom

12264 - bed near balcony

We were on Anthem last week to Bermuda. We never went to the Diamond Lounge, but we were able to get our 3 drinks at most of the bars between 5:00 P.M. and 8:30 P.M.

Are non-alcoholic frozen drinks included with the Royal Replenish Drink package?

We will be going to Cozumel in November on Nieuw Amsterdam. Does anyone know which dock HA uses?

I'm confused. We are going on Anthem in September, 5 days to Bermuda, and today our cruise planner showed 20% discount for beverage packages, so I purchased the Premium package for my husband. The cost was $196.00, including gratuity. I thought I got a very good price. I didn't check previously, was it cheaper? :confused: