avw3

Thanks everyone for the comments. We did the excursion last week and it was good. We did NOT have to wear long pants for any portion of the excursion, and everyone was dressed in either shorts or bathing suits. You ride the hilly trails first then end up riding in the water at the end. Water shoes are recommended because then you won't have to take them off or change them before you take the horse into the water. It was 90 degrees that day and long pants would have been VERY uncomfortable. Please not that there is a 200 lb. per person weight limit to ride the horses. THEY WEIGH EVERYONE PRIOR TO BOARDING THE BUS. They bring a bathroom scale with them. If you weigh over 200 lbs., you will not be allowed to ride the excursion and your money will NOT be refunded. The excursion was a little disappointing because while the trail ride was good, the ride in the water is short. They basically have about 100 yards of beach area near the stables, and you ride the horse back and forth in the water three times so that they can take photos of you. The photos will be available for purchase when you return to the stables. I thought we would actually tour the St. Maarten coast in the water with the horses, but that is not the case. They give you a free small rum drink (dixie cup size) when you are done, and they have bottled beer and rum punches available for purchase after the ride. Not sure we would do it again for $99 per person.

Hello! We will be doing the Royal Caribbean horseback riding excursion in St. Maarten next week and noticed that the requirements were to wear long pants. Is that required or necessary? It will be hot, and it seems like shorts would be fine in the sun and water. Will they turn us away if we wear shorts (not bathing suits?) Any insight would be appreciated.

It is most likely a web site glitch, but if the ship is chartered for a large group, they sometimes won't sell the Deluxe Beverage Package. We were told this by some of the RC bartenders a couple of years ago when the next cruise after our return to port was going to be a heavy-metal rock cruise. The bartenders said that everyone abord that charter cruise is always super nice and very polite and respectful, but they would drink the ship out of alcohol (profits) if they were to offer the DBP. They said that Royal does this for certain "theme" cruises on a regular basis.

BennyBrun - thank you for the detailed information on the Diamond Lounge! We will keep our refreshment packages based on your comments. Also, with Symphony's Diamond lounge being on deck 4 and our cabins on deck 9, it would be a lot of travel going back and forth. We'll pop in for afternoon snacks for sure and probably a breakfast bite or two during the week.

This will be our first cruise as a Diamond and we are trying to figure out if we really need the Refreshment packages that we purchased. Would you please be able to answer a few questions for us? What were the hours of the Diamond Lounge when you were there? Did they have cappuccino and lattes available during those hours? Do they have bottles of water available during those hours? Do they also have things like fresh orange juice, soda, ice tea, and other beverages that we can grab and go? Also, do they have a computer available for use to check in for our return flights home? Thank you in advance. 🙂 Andy

Thank you for the very detailed account of your cruise! It really is helping us plan our cruise on Symphony later this month. Well done and safe travels back home.