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GypsyOBRN

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    Radiance Dec 1st Sailing

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted · Edited by GypsyOBRN

    Hi all! We are going on the Radiance for the first time & our first cruise since Covid.  Trying to plan shore excursions & we usually do off ship planning but with Covid, possible restrictions, blah blah. We are looking into just ship excursions. Do they add more as time goes on? There isn’t anything that appeals to us in at least one port. 

    Staying over night in New Orleans

    in Gulf Coast Departures

    Posted

    5 hours ago, jgmpuma said:

    Depending on downtown hotel prices, you might consider a hotel in the Kenner/Metairie area, just a few miles to the north. They will usually let you leave your car parked there until you return. About a $25 cab or UBER ride from there to the port.

    We did find a few hotels in this area. One I called & they said we would be able to leave our car there. This is what we did in Boston & it worked out wonderful. Thank you for the idea. Didn’t know the area well enough. How was it being dropped off by taxi/Uber at the port? Any hassles? 

    Staying over night in New Orleans

    in Gulf Coast Departures

    Posted

    On 5/29/2022 at 9:25 PM, Lee Cruiser said:

    We stayed at Drury Inn on Poydras Street back in January and we loved it.  It is about a mile or so from the cruise port.  Breakfast was great.  One of the best things was the attached parking garage.  You can park in the garage on your floor and enter the building there for easy access to your room. It was $28 for the parking and felt very safe.  Many hotels in N.O. don't have their own parking or you have to use valet parking at much higher rates.  We've stayed at other hotels there before cruises and this was by far our favorite.  We've already booked it again for our cruise out of N.O. in a few months.

    Thank you! I will check them out. Did you leave your car there or drive & park at the port? 

    MAYA KEY PRIVATE ISLAND RETREAT With RCCL or infinity on our own?

    in Roatan

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Guest 2000 said:

    I may be a bit more particular than most but the idea of using a public snorkle anywhere much less a third would counry does not apeal to me in the lest.  Yes, bring you own, it will be clean and fit better. 

     

    I prefer the lagoon feel of the snorkling area of West Bay Beach over the open water feel of Maya Key. Maya Key may well be far more quiet than West Bay and there will be NO local  hawkers. Maya Key is heaps closer to Coxen Hole (the port) than is West Bay. 

     

    If you are a first time visitor, I reccommed West Bay, just because I think everyone should see it, ya know post card perfect and all that. If you have been to the island before OR if quiet is paramount over everthing else, Maya Key. 

     

    Infinty shares a propery line with Tabyana, it maybe worth while to run the math on Infinty plus cab fare with the Tabyana fees. 

     

    By the by ~ there are at least two places on West Bay Beach that offer day passes with transport at a very fair rate. If you are not stopping anywhere else ya might see what Paradise Bech Club and Bananarama feel like to you. 

    Thank you for your info. We have never been. Mostly we go off ship for excursions but with Covid we actually looked at them this time. Never have gone wrong with following info from these boards & that is why I posted. 

    Playa PortoMari?

    in Curacao

    Posted

    We are going to Antiqua on our next back to back in November. We went to Playa Porto Mari the last time we were there (2 years ago) we had a wonderful experience & would love to repeat our visit. I had read on the boards that the taxi had gone up to 40.00 each way which is just outrageous & I was wondering if anyone has been there recently, that could let me know what their experience was like?

     

    Thank you!

    Curacao, Playa Porto Mari Beach Review 1/18/11

    in Curacao

    Posted

    This was our first experience in Curacao and after reading many postings on the message boards, my husband and I decided to have a beach snorkel day at Playa Porto Mari Beach. We were in port from 8a-530p this day and met another couple who also were going to Porto Mari from the cc message boards so we all met on the dock at 8:15 to catch a ride to the beach.

     

    The taxi's were plentiful walking out of the protected dock area. One of the people we were with overheard, while waiting for us, several taxi's trying to charge $20.00 each way per person to Porto Mari, there were 5 of us that went and we paid $10.00/pp each way. Our taxi driver was awesome, he stopped several times for us to take some pictures, including at the Flamingo area and an overlook that incuded the ship. He gave us some history of Curacao and pointed out interests along the way to the beach. We got to the beach at 8:45 and had wait until 9am for gaits to open up. You cannot get into Playa Porto Mari Beach without having the gaits open so just to keep in mind not to get there too soon or you will need to wait.

     

    The area outside of the gait looked like a rundown old farm with no people around that we could see. After the employees let us in, the area inside the gates was lush and beautiful. There is a distance from the gait to the beach and due to some rains it was very muddy so I was happy that our taxi driver did not just drop us off at the gait and have us walk, he waited with us then drove us all the way into the beach parking lot. He said he would be back at whatever time we wanted him to come back for us, and we didn't need to pay him until he dropped us back off at the ship. This was relieving to us since Porto Mari is a 30 minute distance from the ship & as the day went on, we didn't see many taxis just hanging around to take people back. We asked him to come back at 2pm, he was back prior to our meeting time, we added another couple to our taxi because they didn't have a taxi back to their ship. Our taxi driver asked our permission if we could take them with us, they didn't make the same deal we did about the return trip.

     

    Playa Porto Mari is a beautiful beach with trees, white sand, plenty of comfortable chairs and umbrellas. Clean beach and crystal clear water. It did not get crowded even mid-day. We saw several friendly iguanas and small crabs walking around. Since we were the first ones there, we picked out a good spot and placed our things down.

     

    There is bathrooms, showers, a dive shop, restaurant and bar. Try the ocean water drinkat the bar, it was awesome! We also bought fins at the dive shop since we didn't bring our own (couldn't find them before we left home), we had our own masks & snorkels but no fins. There prices were reasonable. You can also rent all equipment as well including scuba tanks but this was our first port and we knew we would be snorkeling more this trip, so we decided to purchase. We found the employees to be helpful and even fixed my husbands snorkel after he found it to be leaking on our first experience out, this was at no charge. They have a map that shows you a trail to find the fish and coral.

     

    The bathrooms were clean and they had a place to wash off your gear with non-salt water. We did not eat at the restaurant but the other couple we were with dais the food was good. I brought granola from the ship as a snack which held us over until we returned to the ship.

     

    We found that there was more fish along the rocks to the left and the rocks down the middle of the beach. A wide variety of beautiful fish including puffer fish, angels, and a starfish.

     

    It was a nice relaxing day on the beach, no one bothered us. An employee came out about an hour after we arrived and we paid $8.00 for an umbrella and two comfortable chairs. There is allot of broken coral on the sand so I would suggest water shoes if you like to beach walk much or if your children are going to play in the sand. We didn't have them and were fine but we were snorkeling more then anything that day because it was just an awesome snorkeling spot. We would be hard pressed to visit anywhere else when we ever go back to Curacao, it was perfect!

     

    I have pictures of Playa Porto Mari and Curacao in my webshot pictures, there is a like in the my signature.

    Thinking about St. John and how to go

    in St. Thomas/St. John

    Posted

    Milton ~ All of the taxis we've taken from the ship to Red Hook have been safari type but I haven't made a point to really look. I'll be there in two weeks so I'll double check. All of the taxis on St. John are safari type. I'll confirm that as well. I'm a seat belt wearer but I don't think the safari taxis have them or a way to attach a car seat. But I'll double check that for you, too. When are you planning on going?

     

    travelpeon ~ your post made me smile. The key thing is just make sure you know what time is ships' time and whether it's the same as local time. You'll be fine. Sending you some island vibes!!!! :)

     

    All the taxi's when we got off the ship in St Thomas were van type. They make sure it is full before they allow it to leave. Same when on our return from Red Hook back to the ship. On St John's they were all open aired safari type, no way of hooking up a car seat to them.

     

    As for the ship/port times, we stayed on San Juan time the whole cruise (AOS). They make it a point to tell you in the compass every day to not change your time for any port.

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