Marie2

Hello, I am looking for some perspective on ability to get transportation from cruise port to Christiansted. We have a Buck Island tour scheduled with Caribbean Sea Adventures. Currently we are docking at 8 and need to be in Christensted at 930. Should be plenty of time but I am also not sure how long taxis wait to fill up? There are 7 of us so that is helpful as opposed to 2 people. We arrive back in Christiansted at 330 and our ship leaves at 6 (one of the biggest reasons we did not go with Big Beards is the later arrival time). Is there a way to have a taxi ready for us when we arrive? Mainly just curious how others have managed an excursion leaving from Christiansted and how did it work out for you timing wise? We always do independent excursions and never have an issue getting back to the boat on time. But the extra taxi is making me slightly nervous. I am going to touch base with the company as they deal with this all the time I am sure. But I wanted some perspectives of other cruise travelers.

I am not so sure about the wreck, my husband might have not remembered exactly. We have been to many ports and have always found we enjoyed the places off the beaten path without all of the amenities, these days have always turned out to be the most memorable. Our taxi driver was absolutely right in his recommendations as this day as been at the top of our most memorable list. I think that where we were was Banana Bay beach before the Hyatt was built. The picture below was from the day we were there and the positioning of Nevis along with the dock ruins seem to match what I have found online. We might find something else to do for the day as Cockleshell beach seems like it will get crowded. It looks like the Hyatt is charging 150pp for a day pass and as we have three other great excursions booked on other islands we were not looking to spend that much on St. Kitts. A low key beach day is more what we are looking for as this is our last stop and I am sure we will be exhausted. Is it difficult to get to Nevis and back? I have not heard of Whitehouse Bay....although it sounds like this is not something you would recommend, which perhaps might be why i have not heard of it nor can I find much info on it.

Thank you so much for your response. It’s good to hear from those that have used this company.

We were in St. Kitts about 12 years ago and had found an amazing beach. We had caught a taxi at port, he gave us a tour of the island and dropped us off at a wonderful beach. We will be in St. Kitts next year and I can’t find this beach. It is highly possible that it has changed. I am pretty sure that at the time we were going to go to Cockleshell and our taxi driver told us that that gets crowded and recommended where we went which wasn’t too much farther down from Cockleshell. It was Caribbean side. No restaurants. Not crowded. We could see Nevis in front of us and behind us there was nothing built up. No chairs or amenities but we are fine with that. The water was calm. My husband snorkeled and said it was great snorkeling and that there was a wreck off of the beach (I don’t remember that but he insists). Anyone know the name of this beach or is it Cockleshell? From all of the pictures of the beaches around this area I can’t tell, it’s highly possible that the area just changed that much. We would love to recreate that beach day with our kids. I do remember that there was a local there with a donkey offering rides (we did not and will not do that but maybe this will help in identifying the beach).

We were originally not interested in the rum distillery but may keep that in mind if it’s at the base of Mount Pelee. St. Pierre is the town that was destroyed by Mount Pelee. I believe it was the capital at the time. Our trip is pretty far out but I will definitely post a review when we are back!

We will have our school aged children with us so altogether we have a decent sized group and found a private full day tour. Two must sees are St. Pierre and we are going to see the Martinique zoo which is mainly for the kids, but I have read it is set among sugar plantation ruins and is also next to the Balata gardens so adults can get the scenery and the kids can get the animals. We originally were going to also stop at a waterfall, river, and black sand beach but I might reach out and see if we can stop for lunch somewhere instead. We have beach excursions for our other island stops and I think I want to keep this to land. Has anyone been to any of the above places? The south looks amazing too, particularly Le Salines beach but the hour drive there deterred us at least for this trip.

Haha don’t mind me. I can’t figure out how to properly edit on these boards so I was trying to add the above quote to the above post. I think I figured it out for next time!

I am surprised by the number of people who say to stay on the ship. Martinique is one of the reasons we chose to do this sailing so I want to make sure we get to see the island. It looks gorgeous. Thank you for your response!

Hello, I am looking for ideas for St. Croix. We were interested in Buck Island (mainly for the beach) but snorkel trail as a bonus. We contacted Big Beards as their tours look wonderful but we were told we would have to do a half day in the afternoon or a full day (won’t be off ship in time for am half day) My hesitation with this is that we need to get a taxi to Christensted and of course one back. Ship leaves at 6 and tour is done in Christiansted at 4 and it takes 45 minutes to get back to Fredericksted. That is cutting it too close to my liking. The ships tour is nearly 200.00 pp and it’s only 4 hours long (1.5 hours snorkel and doesn’t look like any beach time) so doesn’t seem worth it. Are there any beaches that are like the buck island beach (beautiful blue water, white sand?) I am not interested in the beaches in Fredericksted as at least from pictures they don’t look very nice. Anyone have success with Big Beards or have another excursion recommendation? We prefer beaches away from the crowds and don’t necessarily need water sports, chairs etc.

Hello, I am looking for anyone who has used Beyond the Beach and would they recommend them? They are highly rated on trip advisor and have been very responsive to my emails. Outside the port, Martinique looks like a lovely place to visit and I want to find a good tour company that will not disappoint. We have looked at many reviews from cruisers who say to skip this port but I have also looked at many non cruise reviews and it seems like a great island to vacation to. I realize it is a French speaking island and I don’t expect everyone to know English who we encounter. This is what makes me excited to explore the culture and island. I need a good tour guide to help us navigate. I also noticed that one of the tours Beyond the Beach offers is the exact same cooking class that royal is offering as an excursion (for a much higher price) the pictures, description, and name of the host were the same. So if this is a company Royal uses, I feel better about that. Has anyone used Beyond the Beach recently? I saw a few posters that have said they booked them, how was your experience?

I just look for rooms for four people. Under the categories it tells you how many people the room holds. The ultra spacious oceanview came up for me for four people but since it can hold five I was able to add my daughter. I choose my own room and on the grid where it shows you available rooms it will also have a 5 symbol if it holds five people.

Newer ships have a lot of activities but are also bigger and more expensive. Newer ships also seem to have more options for families of five. We have only been on Anthem and Adventure and while I want to try a newer ship, we got a much better deal on a twelve day from a local port but on a ship that does not have water slides. We paid 3500 (not counting gratuities) for my family of five in an ultra spacious ocean view. If you stay away from holidays and summer vacation, the prices are better and you can utilize kids sail free. My parents are also going and we are only paying 400.00 more than they are for two of them in an oceanview. The ultra spacious have a separate little area with bunk beds. My kids are under the age of ten so we have no problem with one bathroom (teenagers would be a different story). Even though there are no water slides there are still family centered activities like scavenger hunts and dancing plus adventure ocean. Also we cruise for the ports and we have five ports so the kids will be very entertained. If you do a mock booking for four people, you can look for the rooms that hold five. I just happened to come across ours one evening and I put a curtesy hold on it (so I could discuss with spouse) and when I called I added the fifth person.

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions!! I have called a total of three times and emailed. The last lady just seemed really stressed and kept saying “due to the current situation” it will take 24-48 hours for email. I guess between the Hurricanes and their website being down they are probably getting inundated with calls. I give up and am just filling out the tags when we get there. Hopefully the process tomorrow will go smoothly and not be affected by the system being down. 🤪

Hi! I can’t get my luggage tags and we leave tomorrow. Last night I checked in my edocs (including in the email sent back in August). No tags. It said tags pending when I checked my check in last night. I sent a message last night with my res number. No response this morning. I called twice. First time the email sent did not have them attached. The second time she told me she passed it on to someone and they would get them to me “in a few hours.” That was at 11am. What is the process when you get there if you don’t have tags? We are leaving Bayonne, we are driving. The last time we left out of Bayonne, I think we dropped off luggage before parking but what if I don’t have tags yet? Has this happened to anyone? I am calling again 🙄

Really?? It asked for it so I did it (proofs of citizenship). That would have been good to know since I did send them two emails and got no answers right away…would have saved some anxiety haha. It worked out so no big deal for us 😊

My husband and I were on the Anthem in 2016 when they took us through Hurricane Hermine. If I remember correctly I think they were trying to go east to get around the storm and it decided to go east so to get to Bermuda we basically had to go through it. At one point our cabin tv said 90 knot wind speed. They closed all outside decks but we were not confined to the cabin. It was rough seas and very rocky but the ship got through it fine. Saturday is our first cruise since then…to Bermuda. 🤪 If it was just my husband and I, I would go and trust the cruise lines to navigate the storm. We are bringing our young kids this time and if their first cruise is what we experienced before they would be terrified and we probably wouldn’t get them on another cruise for a while. We are watching the storm closely. Hoping all the islands get through it fine. Good luck to everyone cruising this week and the ships can handle some pretty crazy weather.

Great news! I also printed it out (twice) just in case. 🤪

We are pretty flexible with the days. We just wanted our second restaurant to be at Giovanni’s table. Since the only other contender would be Izumi’s, we could be ok with that if we had to be. Does anyone know if the specialty restaurants are open to make reservations before we have access to our staterooms? I was just planning to stop in after we board but I wasn’t sure if anyone would be there until after we set sail.

Does anyone know how the chops plus 1 package works? We had single reservations for day 1 and day 5 but I canceled those and booked this package as it saves 45.00. I selected a res time on day 1. Do we just go to the restaurant of our choice when we get there to make the second res? Is there a chance the dinner will be sold out? Is day 1 chops? (It didn’t specify). Just curious how this package worked out for others.

I am also cruising next Saturday. I had an issue where I forgot to sign my passport when I uploaded it and I was worried they wouldn’t authorize it. I called Wednesday morning using the toll free number listed in the email. There was no wait to speak to someone and she told me if we were not authorized by Saturday (9/17) to call back and they will authorize over the phone. We got all of our authorizations Wednesday afternoon. If anyone is worried about not receiving it yet give them a call they were so helpful!

An update in case anyone else comes across this and has this question. I was exploring the actual website’s pre cruise activities and did come across a section that said that children under 5 are free and you will be refunded on your account once onboard. It doesn’t really spell that out on the actual reservation, I had to really search for it.

Hello! We booked advance specialty dining reservations in the app for our sailing next weekend. There are 5 of us, 3 of which are children ages 9,7, and 4. When I was reviewing everything today I realized that we were charged for our 4 year old for both reservations (app stated 6-12 is 10.99 so I assumed our 4 year old was free). I included her in the reservation because we are a party of 5. Should I have not counted her? Will they refund us her dining charge? Has anyone else had this happen and what was the resolution?

Thanks for the toll free number! I was worried about getting hit with an international cell phone fee especially if I was put on hold. And yes, we do have the application numbers.

We cruise in 18 days on AOS to Bermuda. I applied for the TA at the 30 day mark. We had to renew our passports and my children got new passports for the trip. I was on my second TA application when I realized I hadn’t signed the passports. I corrected the issue with two of my children but my application along with my daughters does not have a picture of a signed passport uploaded (just the unsigned one). There is no way to access the application to amend it. I thought of just uploading the passport in the spot for the covid test result but I hesitate to do that without direction from Bermuda. I immediately emailed the address that is given (I have since emailed them twice) and have heard nothing back. I feel like they should be pretty good with contacting you if something needs to reuploaded (I am sure many times the upload fails or the picture is fuzzy). Maybe it won’t even be an issue as obviously Royal will be checking passports when we board. Has anyone had any experience where they have had to reupload or was anyone’s application ever denied? It just makes me nervous not taking care of this ahead of time as it seems they wait until a few days before leaving to approve the TAs.