KatPem

In May we will be on cruising to Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, St. Maarten which will be our first time. Any suggestions on must see/do on any of the these islands? Thanks for any suggestions.

 

:)

We leave Saturday for our third time on this itinerary. You will love it! On Barbados, a catamaran tour with Calabaza or silver Moon can't be beat!! Definately worth the money as it is limited to no more than 12 people which means very personalized service! Workers are top notch on both companies! You get few, drinks are included and you get to swim with sea turtles as well as snorkel. Nothing for me beats lounging on the net of a catamaran! Espeically when your drink is empty, they are bringing you another! lol On St Lucia, the Land, Sea and Beach tour with Spencer Ambroise is amazing and gives you a little bit of everything....Mud Baths, waterfalls, sightseeing, snorkeling,, beach time. On St Maarten, it is easy enough to take a cab to Maho Beach to watch the planes land and take off. Orient beach is amazing as is Pinel Island if it is open (not sure if it has reopened since the hurricanes.) On St Kitts, we love Carambola Beach club, but have a tour with Javin that we are looking forward to that includes hiking, snorkeling, sightseeing and beach time. This is a great itinerary, one of the best!!

I just looked into this beach for gathering some sea glass and it does come with some warnings. It’s not in the safest of areas and there are some homeless living in the shrubs. You should not go there alone, always have someone paying attention to the surroundings, and do not take any valuables.

 

These warnings were pre-hurricane. I would be even more cautious post-hurricane as there are some very desperate people right now on the island.

 

I’ve decided not to go there as it is just my 11 y/o and I, but if you do go, please be careful!

 

 

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We have gone two times, once post hurricane. I haven't ever seen homeless people in any shrubs. You do have to walk through part of the town with locals hanging around but we have never had any issues going with my husband and I. We were sure not to take valuables and to stay aware. If it were just me and a younger child, I would probably skip it but we didn't have any issues either time. It is along the water and not a real far walk, maybe 5-10 mintues. Some of the locals aren't what you are used to as some of the fancier islands, they have always left us alone.

Yeah, we hear you, Its fine to pull kids out of school if they simply will miss school, but no way can you pull a kid out of school if it impacts sports. Makes sense.

 

Hank

Haha, No, my 17 year old made that decision. I wasn't going to take him making Varsity Baseball away from him. We actually weren't going to take the 3 younger since he didn't want to miss his practices. He then said he didn't want to go on a cruise anyway so he was ok with missing out this trip. He will be 18 in a few months, He values his family but knows what the consequences would be and we left it up to him. There are a TON of judgmental people on this thread. There is no one size fits all answer. Every child is different, every school is different and every family is different. I will say that there have been a couple of times that my children have been pulled out of school for a family vacation. 2-3 times total. For those of you that say you have no children, you are assuming an awful lot. Every case is different. In my case, our school administration and teachers are fine with it. My son who has chosen to stay home this time because he really doesn't want to cruise and he also wants to play baseball, he has gone 1-2 other times. He is still currently 1st in his junior class with a 12.7 GPA. He juggles a part time job, tutoring, being on the academic super bowl and spell bowl teams as well as playing baseball and tennis.

My daughter who is in college, will turn 21 in November and graduate from college with a psychology degree this December and will then be attending med school in the hopes of becoming a Pediatric Psychiatrist. She graduated High school 2nd in her class while playing four years of Varsity Soccer, four years of Varsity Track, two years of JV cheer, two years of Varsity cheer and 2 years of JV basketball. She was also a member of the state winning academic super bowl fine arts championship team and a member of the state finalist spell bowl team. Having just turned 20 in November, she is already published in her field, has been nominated for awards at her college for her research and mentoring. She has taken 18 credit hours every semester, remained on the dean's list in the honors college while working part time, mentoring, volunteering and being on a research team.

My 16 year old who is going is currently 4th in her class. She has been a Varsity Starter on her basketball team both years of High school, A Varsity Starter on her soccer team (as well as the team's leading scorer as a Sophomore) both years and was a Varsity Starter on the Track Team last year, earning the MVP award for the most points earned by any female on the team...as a Freshman. She also was a member of the Sectional Championship 4 x 100m Relay Team and Qualified for The regional competition by doing so and also did so in Long jump and was one place away from qualifying in high jump. She is on the academic super bowl team as well as the spellbowl team. Besides the 6 days she will miss for this trip, she has missed one day in the last two years of school. I won't go into my youngest as he is only in 8th grade.

Point being, I have some amazing kids, lol Seriously though, you (meaning anyone on this thread) can talk crap about priorities, how pulling them from school will be teach them that school isn't important, etc. The 10 days my family will be gone on a vacation this year WILL NOT trump the other 355 days that I have to teach them what it is to be responsible young adults and what their priorities should be. I have taught them that sometimes it's ok to spend some time with family. they just need to take care of the other priorities as well and be sure it is communicated with the teachers and administration as well. We will not be taking their computers with us, it is family time. They can do their work before or after but will not be doing it while on our family vacation. This was communicated with the administration and teachers and everyone is ok with it.

So, for anyone looking to see what other parents do, we all have to do what we feel is right. What I won't do is teach my kids that it is ok to come on a public forum and bash people for having an opinion different than ours. The priorities you set on an everyday basis is what is going to form your children. For those of you that don't even have children, shame on you. That is like me trying to tell a pilot how to fly a plane...

Oh, and in case anyone thinks it, my kids do not get fed by silver spoons. I am a stay at home mom, my husband works in a factory. We drive cars that are 10+ years old and live in a 3 bedroom house that is almost 70 years old. They have been shown that hard work is a priority.

We are pulling our 14 and 16 year olds out in a couple of weeks. Our oldest will graduate college in December and hopes to go to med school so we are pulling them out since it may be the last time she can go with us for a long while. Our 17 year old is staying with grandma and grandpa as it is the first week of mandatory practice for school baseball and if he were to miss, he prob wouldn't make the team...he doesn't like cruising much anyway so it all worked out. Our school is wonderful about it. Although my kids are very good students and I am very involved at their small school. I figure the memories and things they will see and learn will be far more valuable.

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Sorry to hijack this thread for a moment (although not much since I also did the Land, Sea, and Beach Adventure tour with Spencer) but I also had this problem with Photobucket with my reviews. Since the Fascination has renewed its sailings to the Caribbean (including St. Lucia) I was thinking of copy/pasting my review so that I am able to re-post the pictures for everyone's benefit and enjoyment. Shouldn't be that difficult since I have them on already on another web-hosting site (Smumug) and I have them already organized.

 

 

 

On-topic: Having been to all the islands that Carnival's Southern Caribbean route stops at (St. Thomas, ST. Martin, St Lucia, ST Kitts and Barbados) my opinion is that the best snorkeling on that group of islands was at St. Lucia's Jalouise (Sugar) Beach. Lots of sea creatures and flora to see, calm crystalline waters, and safety (snorkeling area is roped off and off limits to ANY kind of watercraft). Even having snorkeled in a lot of places in Puerto Rico, I have struggled to find a place to rival Jalouise Beach.

I'm going to high jack your high jack lol. Any suggestions for places in PR to snorkel are welcome. I love PR and am hoping to go for my birthday this year and would love to find a couple of decent snorkeling spots there

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What do you do with your glass? I make window mosiacs. I found so much last cruise in the Bahamas. I would love to see others collections

Sadly, right now it sits in glass jars in my dining room. I have wrapped a few pieces to wear and have made a picture as a gift. I have TONS of ideas, but with having three teens at home that are year round athletes and another in college and very involved with them and their school I don't have much time to play. Soon enough....so now I just use it as therapy. My best friend and I head up to Lake Michigan a couple of times a year to hunt for it as well.

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We have sailed on several cruises on Royal Caribbean over many years but feel like the quality is deteriorating. I would like to hear how Carnival compares. I was just looking online a little bit at cruises on Vista or Horizon. Thanks.

We are the opposite, went on our first RC in October. There are pluses and minuses to both. We still prefer carnival and feel we get better prices most of the time, but enjoyed our RC cruise. Differences that stuck out to me. RCs decor was less gaudy. Dinner portions were larger but not as tasty. Buffet options were better on RC, we prefer the taste of Carnivals though. Like that carnival has ice cream open 24/7. Lines on RC for it were ridiculous. I really like that RC has more offerings late night in their deli area, carnival lacks in this. We enjoyed the entertainment more on carnival, especially the comedy club which is one of our favorite things to do. My husband likes carnivals casinos better. I liked how broken up the RC ship was, felt like we didn't run into the Same people often. I wasn't thrilled that RC would not let us bring sand back on board for souvenirs, we collect it from the various places we go so it sucked to not have any from our 20th anniversary cruise. I felt excursions on RC were more reasonably priced, although we usually book on our own. Felt like it was easier to get on and off the carnival boats, flow for it was not as good for RC. Liked the extras RC, like the flow rider and climbing wall. All in all, we enjoy both but prefer carnival.

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I will be stopping in Puerto Rico and I would like to find some sea glass. Does anyone know if a particular beach is the best? Thank you for any information.

YES!!! Check the tide charts, it is best to go about 2 hours before low tide. There are a set of stairs across the street from the Capital building. Go down the stairs. You can head left or right once down to find glass. We have always found lots of it. Usually we have gone left, you can go right as well though. We have gone all the way to the ruins on the right. We found more pottery in that direction (but still plenty of glass as well) but we only went that way the last time we went. I love cruising out of PR so I am able to go to this beach and get some glass for my collection!

We really like staying in the Condado and/or Old San Juan areas. We are cheap and would rather spend our money on the rest of the vacations, so we avoid the resorts. In OSJ, Hotel Casablanca is our favorite and Le Consulate in Condado. There are many great hotels in both places!

We have enjoyed all of the hotels there we have stayed at, we just need the basics though...not too picky. For proximity to beaches, etc. you can look on a map. We have been happy with Hotel Casablanca, Comfort Inn Condado and Le Consulate. All of those are what I would say is walking distance to a beach. We stayed at Hotel Plaza de Armas as well as Sheraton OSJ, those are walkable to the beach across from the capital but a bit further. There are plenty of good hotels in the Condado area that are near the beach, that beach tends to be a bit rough. We really like El Escambron Beach. We normally rent a car as it is cheap enough to do that and then we can be flexible.

We are looking at a cruise, round trip out of PR. Are they pretty much back on their feet again? I’m guessing since it round tri there they restock the ship supplies all in PR?? This cruise itinerary has been on my bucket list for a long time... Any insight would be greatly appreciated!!

On another note, we love to snorkel and the best snorkeling we have found has been on St Lucia (Jalousie Beach...between the Pitons) and Curacao on the routes out of PR.

We cruised out of San Juan in October and will be back next month. I think we have been there 5 or 6 times, including a non-cruising trip with my best friend. In October many places were still without power but a good portion were running with a generator (including both hotels we stayed at). We are looking forward to going back next month, it is one of my favorite places, even without power. The itineraries out of San Juan just cannot be beat! I almost hate to cruise out of anywhere else! I would definately recommend a cruise from there! The biggest thing is to keep a watch on airfare, it flucuates a LOT. Get an idea of what is the 'normal' rate and just watch. If you are fleixble on your days, if you can fly in prior to Saturday, and fly out MOnday or later it will save you some money and you will get a few more days there!! A win, win!

I didn't know there were 2 forts in OSJ. Are they close to each other. And can the trolley take us to both.

The trolley can take you to both. San Cristobal is first, then El Morro. It is an easy, pretty flat walk along the sidewalk (about a mile) if you choose to walk between them though. It is a very beautiful walk! The cemetary before you get to El Morro is worth a lot as well. Very beautiful!

It took almost a week to get a response by emailing him. Might try another time and wait a little bit.

Just looking at using the Leward catamaran company for our next cruise and was wondering if you ended up using them? And if so were you satisfied with them

We went on a catamaran trip to Nevi (with snorkeling) thru Royal Caribbean, I believe Blue Safari was used. We had a very nice time. The snorkeling was fun, but not the greatest. We knew that St Kitts doesn't have amazing snorkeling like some other places. We enjoyed the day though!

I always book myself through the Carnival website. I wait til I find what I feel is a fair price and book early saver. I check it a couple of times a week for any lower prices and then submit the online form for the lower price. The more rooms in your category, the better chance you have of finding a reduced rate before sailing.

We have always had good luck within walking distance from the port along Bay rd, even at high tide last tide we found some along the sidewalk! Go out of the port area and head left (facing land). You will go over a small bridge, past the bus depot? And there is a 'beach' along the road. One of my favorite places to glass when we can port there!

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So, I started this morning by calling the administrator of our 401k plan here at work. They do not allow for individual stock purchases through our plan and I cannot "add" a company to purchase stock from under the plan. That kinda sucks.

 

Having discovered that, how does one actually go about buying Carnival stock? I've never bought stock individually that was not through my 401k before.

 

And how does one get the "letter" to submit to carnival for the stock holder discount. Curious to see if we can make this work ... we certainly spend enough $$$ w/ carnival to make this worth while.

 

TIA!

My husband was able to purchase ccl stock through his 401k!

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My husband and I are in our 60’s and not strong swimmers but would love a snorkeling excursion. Thoughts ? Would we be safe since not strong swimmers and no experience?

 

 

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Honestly it depends on where you go. There are many places you would be fine. The best being Jalousie beach on st Lucia, it is right off the shore! Why not get a snorkeling vest? I am in my 40s and have MS and while I haven't ever had an issue, I get around pretty good with just bad balance, but I bought one just for peace of mind!

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Jalousie beach on st Lucia is our favorite. Aruba was decent, as was Curaçao but nothing compares to st lucia

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Yeah, I have some physical issues and wouldn't be able to go up. We had done something similar on the cinnamon bay trail on St. John several years ago, had a taxi drop us at the trailhead and hiked down. Thank you for the information! My family was really hoping to be able to do this.

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Hi,

We will be in St Thomas in March. We were hoping to hike down the hiking trail that takes you to Magen's Bay. Can anyone verify that it is or is not open? I would assume it isn't a high priority but before we make alternate plans, I figured it was worth seeing if anyone knew for sure. Thanks,

Kathy

I am traveling to St. Lucia in April and was wondering if anyone could recommend the best beach and snorkeling spot. We are looking for someplace to sit on the beach, do some decent snorkeling and enjoy the island.

 

If you could please let me know that would be very helpful.

 

Thanks!

I have only done Spencer Ambroise's Land, sea and beach adventure. He offers just the beach part if you prefer. It takes you to Sugar (Jalousie) beach between the Pitons. Stunningly beautiful and some of the very best snorkeling we have seen, right off the beach. If I remember correctly, there is a marine preserve there. It was amazing, taking the kids in March on the same tour. The Land portions take you to the mud baths as well as a waterfall you can get under. Cannot wait!

Does anyone ever get nervous about letting their kids roam the ship by themselves? Or once they leave the camp to come and meet you? My daughter is 12 and turning 13 in March. Mature in some ways but still immature too, lol. I just can't get comfortable with her being by herself on that big ship. How do others feel about this?

I have four so we have made them buddy up, last trip, only our three youngest went. We have a system. I make them leave me post it notes letting me know what time it is, where they will be and how long will they be there. If plans change, they have to do a new note. We do the same so they can find us as well. They are not allowed in the room areas of the ship and must remain in public areas at all times. They get no chances, screw up and you are in your cabin.

Thanks for this.

 

I am still rather torn on going to the Boatyard. Feel like Barbados is such a beautiful island and the turtles are such a "Barbados" thing that it makes sense to maybe see it on a grand scale (catamaran/Glory Tours, etc) rather than just a beach day at the Boatyard.

 

Boatyard is a great value for sure and I had settled on it, but starting to think this maybe a day to splurge a bit and possibly do less in say St. Thomas or St. Maarten (I am trying to keep within a overall trip budget and Boatyard day keeps me under while a catamaran puts me over) as those are places that are a little more regular as far as cruise stops go.

 

Ugh decisions.

Having done both, if you can swing a catamaran trip, and enjoy that type of thing, that is what I would do. I think the turtles aren't as many at their normal sports due to the hurricanes. I have done a tour on Calabaza as well as Silver Moon and with a max of 12 people, you are truly catered too, they are amazing and you won't get that kind of service on most trips.