Badger-Badger

Btw ... Fort Mill (where Carowinds is located) is an affluent suburb with the best schools in the state. Crime us low and it is a lovely place to live. I don't mean to make it sound nasty. Lol. A quick Google search of "Fort Mill prostitutioom arrest " will show why I wouldn't recommend that exit as a first choice .... but thousands of people do stay without incident.

And do buy gas in Rock Hill as suggested .... it is even cheaper than Fort Mill!A few weeks ago it was the cheapest gas in the country!

I live near that exit as well in SC. It is notorious for hookers at several of those national chains. It's not dangerous per se, but in the last few months prostitutes have been arrested at at least 3 of those hotels (Sleep Inn, Clarion and Comfort Inn) plus a drug bust at the Clarion. I go to the Cracker Barrel and send my young teens alone to Carowinds so I'm not arguing it's dangerous. But about I would never recommend someone stay someplace where guests have had hookers knocking on doors at night, even if it only happens a few times a year. I've never heard of any violent crime though.

I'd just rather go down 2 exits.

I also recommend Rock Hill, or the Hampton Inn on Hwy 160 in Fort Mill. Just do NOT stay anywhere off the exit to Carowinds amusement park/exit 90 in SC. If you go all the way to Charleston there are countless options. We often stay in Mt. Pleasant near Patriots Point if we just need an inexpensive place to sleep. It's worth the splurge to stay in the historic district if you want to tour this absolutely lovely city though.

The Sky was such an unexpected surprise for us! We loved it so much we chose NCL for our Baltic cruise this coming summer (we booked a while ago and got fantastic promotions to boot). Although I just booked the Enchantment today for New Years I would have happily booked the Sky again had the schedule worked. I not only love Freestyle dining I really liked the whole vibe on NCL. Just laid back .... and I thought the food in the MDR and Cagney's was excellent.

I also found the staff and officers unbelievably friendly. The captain was very visible and welcoming. I can't recall having an opinion on a captain until the Sky.

Best: Liberty of the Sea

Jewel of the Seas

Carnival Miracle

Norwegian Sky

Carnival Imagination

Worst: Carnival Glory. It was after sailing the Glory that I knew Carnival was not the line for me.

We enjoyed all our trips though :)

We've just asked a WJ server and they bring it out to us in a little metal pitcher.

We didn't have to tender in St. Maarten. However I believe most of the private islands in the bahamas are all tender ports.

In April on the Jewel if you had no reservation they were unable to get people in before 8:30 any night. They did not "fit in" any walk ups at all, and always seated us at the same table even though we didn't request it. It was as restrictive as traditional dining. We were not the only people on our sailing taken off guard by this. We made the reservations after night 2 so that weren't stuck eating very late or in the WJ.

So I think this varies a lot by individual sailing. Although Royal is my favorite line I do prefer NCL's dining. No reservations accepted for the MDR. I wish Royal did that for MTD.

We stayed one night this March 2015. We booked direct through their website. It was during the Spring Break season.

We've sailed from San Juan, Barcelona, Miami and Port Everglades. Except Port Everglades they were all basically walk right up to desk and right on to ship. And we don't check luggage so disembarking is always easy for us. There wasn't even a customs line in San Juan. The best though was Barcelona.

It's completely individual. However I disagree with people who tout the great night's sleep you'll get on an inside. It was the worst sleep I've ever gotten. The lack of natural light completely disrupted my sleep rhythms. Somehow my brain knew that I was sleeping in a cave and therfore woke me up constantly all night to check if it was morning yet. It was terrible. And your body doesn't respond to the TV light the same way it does natural light so that didn't help other than to give me something to check every time I woke up!

My husband is perfectly fine with cave-sleeping. In fact I had a hard time getting him up when it was time. Which meant h see was crabby in the mornings!

In hotels I always leave the curtains cracked open for some natural lught. Since that is not possible on a ship I simply won't book an inside room. I either pay more, choose another ship or would take a great land vacation instead. My dh? Inside would be his last choice, but he would do it. So it really depends on the individual if it would be a good choice for you or not.

Happy sailing!

I used and email for a cc one time with a company in France. I sent the number in one email, the exp. In another and the security code in a third from a different email account with a different host. This is what they rexommended. I'd be curious how other people have been advised.

AZ Karaoke Girl - I hesitated to say anything but didn't want her looking for an excursion which wasn't available. Now St. Lucia? I would pick that one in a heartbeat if it were an option!

We used Bernard in April and it did exactly what you are wanting. We also spent some time at Orient Beach, which my teens loved.

If you can't find a ship excursion I would feel confident recommending Bernard to anyone.

Enjoy!

Just a heads up - the Pitons and volcanoes are St. Lucia. Which is fabulous too!

On the Sky it was first come first serve for the early birds and then starting at 10 they issued tender tickets in the main theatre. We just walked on a tender at 9:15ish and went straight to the island .... tender wasn't even full.

It may be different on one of the big ships, of courae. Have fun :) GSC was a pleasant surprise for us.

I love St. Kitts. It's a lot less "touristy" feeling than many of the other islands, IMO. It's pretty laid back.

Excuse the auto correct error. It was the Gaudi suite.

We stayed at Hotel Ingleterra and would recommend it. We stayed in the Gaudio suite which was lovely and spacious. There is a rooftop pool and the option for an included breakfast buffet which was very nice. Excellent location and service.

I prepay my auto-grats and never think about tipping the entire cruise with the exception of room service. I feel good with that.

The ATMS on Norwegian don't dispense Euros? I'm only asking because on Royal last summer out of Barcelona the ATM gave euros and dollars. Does NCL not do that too?

While she is pretty bare bones compared to the newer ships we really loved her. It's very laid back and just right for 3 days.

Only weird thing was the Lido deck music. It was like listening to an instrumental LITE FM station .... and the steel drum band played things like steel - drum Phil Collins and steel - drum Chicago. It wasn't bad, just weirdly notable!

We ate getting ready to most likely cancel our Star booking and switching it to Royal for our Baltic cruise next summer. We were considering it anyway and the changes to the food policy have just kind of nudged us into doing it.

I would still consider NCL for a laid back Caribbean cruise, but do to a serious medical condition I often suffer muscle fautigue/weakness and being able to have my dh bring me food to our balcony after long excursions is important to me (as well as not racking up room service charges for a decent breakfast). I prefer to save my energy and "good" moments for port or evenings on the ship rather than stumbling about the buffet feeling cruddy.

On a less intense cruise I will still consider NCL.

This happened to me last summer in Barcelona as well (the airline was then USAir). I think it's random.

My husband was really freaked out too ( and my teenage daughters). Once I realized what was going on I just sort of shrugged. I've seen it happen to others at American airports too. The weird thing was they boarded me (and the couple others also pulled) before anyone else. They didn't let us back in the gate area .... just right onboard.

I was not a fan of BCN in general. Nothing is well marked unless you already know where you are going. I saw a few very upset and confused people when they realized they were in the completely wrong terminal.

My Time Dining is in Tides on Deck 5 on the Jewel.

On our sailing in April you had to have a reservation for every night and everyone must have booked far in advance because when we boarded only terrible times were available - they were not accepting any "walk-ups." And they seated us at the same table every night even though we would have preferred to move (they said the other tables were all reserved). Hope you have better luck!

BUT - we loved the Jewel. The fact that MTD turned out to be a disappointment didn't impact our over-all enjoyment of the cruise :)