SF

Also wondering do you hear noise/loud music from the Explorer's Lounge on the deck below cabin E505?

The window from looking at photos of E505 vs. E507 seem different. Are they the same size....the one in E507 looked bigger.

We can now choose E505 instead of E509 (on Ruby) do you think that would give more of a view? Anyone stayed in E505 or have a photo? I know they are both obstructed but from the photo of E509 it looks like it would have more obstruction since that part is higher on the life boat.

We are trying to decide whether to take E509 on Ruby....does anyone know how obstructed the view is for this room? Any photos?

We used Victor Bodden just recently in April and Ali was our driver who was great. We are returning to Roatan this month again in May and are using Victor again but this time our driver is Pilo. I'm sure he's just as great as Ali but has anyone had him as a driver recently as I haven't seen his name mentioned on the boards anywhere?

We are also interested in including the garafuna experience our our upcoming tour so I'm hoping someone will post who's already been there.

Enjoy your time in Roatan. Ali comes highly recommended on these boards but even more than that by his fellow tour guide Tex. Roatan is gorgeous. I wish I was on my way there now!

Yes, it does look gorgeous as we recently saw an episode on House Hunters where people were buying a second home there and the scenery and landscape they showed was beautiful. Not sure what we want to do yet as we don't want to visit the monkeys or any beaches. We have beaches all year long at home so it isn't on the top of our list. Probably going to sightsee, shop and trying to decide if we want either the Butterfly Gardens or Botanical Gardens. May stop by West Bay Beach Area and we're also thinking about the Glass Bottom Boat.

Got back a reply from Victor and yes Hanno is in the US, but only for 3 months. I did not ask where in the US Hanno was working. So Hanno will still be our guide this summer in Roatan. :cool:

Thanks for posting back and letting us know the response from Victor.

We are looking forward to our tour with Ali. Victor from what I've read on the boards takes a lot of interest in making sure his customers are happy with their tour and visit.

Thanks for the information. Once again the people of Cruise Critic know first when something changes; that is why I keep on watching these threads.

 

Just wrote to Victor to see which guide he now has assigned to us. He should be surprised that I already know that Hanno has left for the US.

Post back and let us know what he says.

When did you learn that Hanno was no longer your guide?

 

The reason I ask is that we booked on March 4 for our August cruise and at that time Victor said we would have Hanno for our guide. If he is in the US then we will need to contact Victor.

 

Thanks

I just wrote Victor to confirm our tour with Hanno and Victor wrote back saying he did have us booked but unfortunately Hanno was working in the US now and wouldn't be our guide. This happened just this past week on Tuesday, March 16th.

Wow! I know he was thinking about coming to the US, but surprised to see he actually did. Any clue where in the US? We thought he was a great guide.

When we originally booked with Victor we requested either Hanno, Tex or Ali and Victor emailed back Hanno would be our guide. When I recently confirmed as our tour is only a few weeks away that's when Victor told me but I have no idea where in the US.

When did he mention to you he was thinking of coming to the US? How long ago?

All three have great reviews and I'm glad Ali was available to take over.

We also got confirmation on our guide for April. Victor confirmed Ali with us and we can't wait to visit Roatan.

We had Hanno as our guide on February 23. He was excellent. As requested, he took us on a tour of the island in his air conditioned van. We planned to snorkel at Half Moon Bay. He saved us chairs while we went on a short glass-bottom boat trip. On hind sight we should have snorkeled then also. He left while we spent some time at the beach. He was available to do anything we would have wanted to do that day. He returned at the assigned time and took us back to our ship.

We also wanted Hanno but was told he is now working in the US.

We are going with Cardy since Tex and Ali only have smaller cars and we have 8 people. We want to do the glass bottom boat, but are worried because one person said there were no life jackets. Four of our passegners are children and two can't swim very well at all. For those who have done the glass bottom boat, are there life jackets? Does the boat seem seaworthy and safe? Are you glad you paid extra for this on your tour?

I'd also be interested in finding out the answers to the above questions as we were thinking about the glass bottom boat as well.

Do you know how much extra it costs per person to add this to your tour?

No we do not have Tex as our guide. I think we have Hanno who I heard is also good. Like I mentioned I copied your itinerary as it is just what we wanted to do. Hope we have good weather and as nice a time as you seemed to have.

chloedmom:

Thank you for sharing your tour experiences. I've copied down what you did as it sounds lovely and will share it with our guide. Can't wait, now all we have to do is hope the weather will cooperate.:)

What are your thoughts in regards to the Botanical Gardens? We were thinking about making that one of our stops also.

Has anyone been to the Butterfly Gardens?

Any suggestions what to do for our tour if we don't want to see the monkeys, go to the beach or zip line?

Just emailed VB and can't believe how fast he responded.:) Definitely going to book with him and request a guide for our upcoming day in Roatan. Now we just have to figure out what to do as we don't want to snorkel or visit the beaches. We have that all year long so we would rather go sightseeing and enjoy a nice lunch after the Butterfly Gardens. Has anyone ever gone to see the Garafuna Dancers on one of his tours?

Your right here's a couple of videos of us making the trek.

 

 

Thanks once again. Appreciate you taking the time to post the videos. Definitely helped us make up our minds. Looks like a long walk from the ship but we decided to give it a try.

Any thoughts on cabin E223?

Anyone have info or pictures of what the view from cabin E223 or E621 looks like for Emerald Princess?

Noticed you had your Crown sailing listed as Feb. 26th, 2010. I thought it left on the 27th as that is one of the sailings we are looking into.

Great thread and very helpful. We presently have cabin E617 on Crown and are trying to change since it looks like the cabin is right in the middle of one of the larger lifeboats. Has anyone been in this cabin? Is it totally obstructed?

Was wondering if anyone who stayed in that location felt more rumbling due to being in the aft? I don't mind the forward pitch but the constant rumbling bothers me. On one cruise (Grand Class Ship) we visited friends who had a cabin near the aft on Dolphin deck and the rumbling was so annoying. Everything in the cabin from the lampshades to items on the desk rattled. I'd never want to deal with that. We've cruised many times but usually stay mid ship but unfortunately there are no cabins available in that location for our sailing as this is a last minute get-away.

Any info or pictures of cabin E617 on Crown, Emerald, or Ruby Princess would be very helpful.

Thanks, that will give us plenty of time as we were planning on about an hour and a half before we head back. Glad to hear the walkway from Memorial to Breakers is not rough. Now I just have to hope the weather cooperates!