LisaLisa87

We did this tour as well and loved it. We were on the island for a week with another family, and we all had an amazing time. Capt. Bob handles most of the pre-tour communication himself and is great to deal with. We tried to set up a shorter tour for a cruise with a relatively short port day, and Capt. Bob was happy to work with us, but sadly no one else from our sailing signed up. Highly recommend this tour.

When I was on Oasis earlier this year, there were two groups, each with several hundred people. We hardly even knew they were there. One of the groups was CrimeCon (a true crime group), and I think they spent a fair amount of time in seminars in indoor venues. So there was no impact on us at all. If there was a really large (and rowdy) group, that could be a different story.

Just my opinion, of course, but I think they’re leaving out the 11am - 11pm info intentionally as a money saving strategy. Unless you’ve sailed in a suite before or read this forum (or FB group, etc.), you wouldn’t know that beer, wine, soda, and bottled water are available all day. We were on Harmony last month and visited the suite lounge 2 to 3 times per day (outside of happy hour) for beverages, and we seldom saw more than one other person at the bar. Many times it was just us.

Yes, it was. If Web is still there, I highly recommend him!

I ordered the peanut butter chocolate tart, but I didn't care for it. I thought the sorbet and the tart were an odd combo. DH ordered the fried cheesecake, which is what our server recommended. I didn't expect to like it, but I was surprised! It's not nearly as heavy as it sounds.

Those open air taxis typically wait until they're full (or close) before leaving. In our experience, they wait for people going to the same place (like Magens Bay or Charlotte Amalie). I'm pretty sure you can ask for a private taxi, and you may even be able to ask for a tour. Charlotte Amalie is the downtown area and one of the main shopping areas. Some of the shops never reopened after the pandemic, but we still found plenty of places to check out during our last couple of visits. My favorite shop there is called Fish Face. They have a nice selection of clothing and gifts. Keep in mind that most stores close at 5pm. There is also shopping at Havensight, which is the main cruise ship dock.

Hi @CruiseMomTX. For our second land trip, we had scheduled a snorkeling tour through St. Thomas Scuba & Snorkel Adventures. Sea conditions were rough that day, so they offered us an island tour via Jeep instead. We weren't sure what to expect, but we had a fantastic day. Our guide/driver was a local named Web. He was a really interesting guy, and he made the tour both informative and fun. We chose to include snorkeling in two different spots, but you don't have to do that. We saw a lot of the island, stopped for lunch at a really fun taco spot, and pulled over a handful of times to take photos. We were staying on the island, but if we hadn't been we could have included shopping time as well. Highly recommend! https://www.stthomasadventures.com/stthomasjeeptours

We sailed on Harmony for our 20th and 25th anniversaries, and we chose 150 Central Park for our anniversary dinner both times. We enjoy the food and the ambiance there, as well as their signature martini which they prepare tableside. I'm not a big fan of Chops these days, and I agree with the PP who said that Jamie's doesn't feel very special (although I like their food).

I'm sorry to hear that the rainy weather is continuing. That pesky tropical storm Philippe is probably the culprit. So did you end up bringing your lightweight umbrella from home? If so, good call! Glad your tour is going ahead. Enjoy St. Thomas. Maybe the sun will peak out later!

I'm enjoying your report so far! I'm not sure how you feel about independent tours, but I thought I would offer a suggestion. We spent a week on St. Thomas in 2021, and we had booked a snorkel tour (via boat) that ended up being canceled due to rough sea conditions. They offered us a land tour at a discount instead. We did the "Island Jeep Excursion" with Web as our guide, and it was fantastic. Web is a really interesting guy and he showed us all around St. Thomas, stopping often to let us take photos (and taking photos of us as well). Highly recommend. https://www.stthomasadventures.com/stthomasjeeptours One other thing... if you get to Wonderland again, I consider their "The World" dessert a must try. It's one of my favorite cruise ship desserts. I hope the weather clears up for you! ETA: I just saw post #178, so it looks like you're all set. ALSO, did you notice when you were at Park Café that they have espresso drinks there as well? That was my go-to spot on Harmony. It seemed like not many people knew you could get them there (until late in the cruise, at least).

We sailed on 9/2 and I had to call and request mine. It was emailed while we were on the phone.

We were on the 9/2 sailing, and open skate showed up in the app after we boarded. I’m glad I checked while we were eating lunch, because it was only being offered in the afternoon on day 1. DH and DD went at the first time available, and there were so few people there that they were able to stay on the ice for at least 30 minutes. I didn’t check to see if they added more times later.

Definitely deck 11. The balconies and interior space get smaller as you go up. We had 11730 on Allure and it was amazing! Friends of ours were above us on deck 12 and we had them over for wine on the balcony one evening. The husband was kind of salty about how much bigger our balcony was. 🤣

Try reaching out to Bananarama directly. There is an email address at the bottom of this page detailing their beach package: https://bananarama.com/activities/ Infinity Bay offers day passes as well. https://www.infinitybay.com/explore/activities-events/Day-Passes

The lime and coconut is the signature drink at the bars on the Oasis pool deck. My sister and I enjoyed several of them, but interestingly, we weren’t able to get them on embarkation day. We got the little Malibu pails at the bar at the back of the ship. Sadly, I forgot to bring mine home. I was hoping to get one when we were on Harmony a few weeks ago, but they didn’t have the buckets or the drink.

@Starry Eyes, that is a really good point. We just moved to FL two years ago, and I do think that we'll be cruising much more frequently than we did when we lived in MD. I don't think either of us will cruise solo much, but I can see myself cruising with my sister every so often. This solo cruise is really just a way to get us to D so we won't have to pay for the beverage package going forward. 😃 We're actually leaning toward me taking a 3-night in a JS since that's the most efficient way to get the points we need. I have my eye on a December sailing on Liberty. It isn't the cheapest option, but it requires the least time off work and will have the least impact on the person who stays behind. I appreciate all the input!

Yes! I'll go check out his videos to see whether he addresses the booking process.

Thanks @brillohead. I had a lightbulb moment when I read the above part of your response. It seems like common sense now, but I wasn't seeing any references to GTY fares since I was changing the number of guests from 2 to 1 before I got to that point. I agree that it would be nice to have the expertise and connections of a TA in this situation. Since we hadn't planned (and budgeted) for this extra cruise, we're planning to book it through Chase Sapphire and use some of the rewards dollars we've been saving for the past couple of years. So unfortunately it wasn't an option to work with a TA this time.

Thanks, Ken. I was prepared for a 200% solo supplement, but I'm seeing 250% and more. It occurred to me a little while ago that having me sail solo on a 3-night in a JS might work. I'm going to explore that option now.

Thanks, Molly. I wasn't logged in when I was searching, so I may not have been seeing FL resident rates. I'll keep that in mind going forward.

I want this for DH. He has a very stressful job and I think he would love every minute of a solo cruise. The challenge would be to keep his bar tab under control!

I didn't realize that was a thing! I'll do some searching.

Thank you for the replies so far. I should have mentioned a couple of other things: 1. We live in FL so would not need to fly. 2. I found a couple of 5-night Mariner sailings from PC that would fit the bill for me. If at all possible, I would like for DH to be the one to go (it's only fair). 3. The best deal I've found so far is a 3/4 night B2B on Freedom in late October. The total cost is a little more than we'd like, though.

Hello! I'm venturing into new territory and could use some assistance from those of you with experience booking as a solo cruiser. DH and I have decided that one of us should take a solo cruise sometime in the next few months so that we'll be Diamond in time for our February sailing on Icon. I want to acknowledge out of the gate that I'm aware some people think this is a dumb thing to do. FWIW, we'll only do it if the cost of the "extra" cruise is the same or less than the cost of 4 cocktails/day/person. Additionally, we plan to pay for the cruise with rewards $ from our Chase Sapphire card. I'm 9 points shy of Diamond and DH is 13 points shy. On the surface, it's obvious that I should be the one to take the extra cruise, but there's a wrinkle. I sailed on Oasis for 4 nights with my sister earlier this year, so it's really his turn. He also has a lot more vacation time than I do. I've spent hours at this point searching for inexpensive 7-night cruises, and I expanded the search today to 3/4 night B2Bs. I've also specifically checked "Going, Going, Gone" sailings. The process has been time and labor intensive, but that isn't really the issue. I'm finding that instead of the solo rate being twice the per person double occupancy rate, it is often much higher than that. For example, say the per person fare is $519/person double occupancy. Instead of the solo fare being $1,038, it might be $1,600+. Why is that? And more importantly, are there certain types of sailings (i.e., # of nights, ships, departure ports, etc.) that tend to have smaller solo markups? I apologize if these are stupid questions but, as I said, this is all new for me. Thanks in advance for any insight! 🙂

We really liked Breezy Bay because of the central location. As others have said, take the tram there. The day we were there, the water at Breezy Bay was much calmer than the water at Chill Island. We’ve only been there the one time, so I’m not sure how unusual that is.