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Photo review of our day in Curacao (Irie West Side Beach Hopping Tour)


AryMay
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We recently returned from a 23-day Panama Canal cruise on the Holland America Zaandam. Our first port of the cruise was Curacao and we booked the West Side Beach Hopping tour with Irie Tours.

 

Under normal circumstances this would have been a good tour, but we were disappointed because our tour was cut short. Irie combined us with passengers from the Navigator of the Seas which had much longer port times and those passengers were able to spend a couple of hours swimming and having lunch at the last beach while they returned us to the port.

 

It would have been nice if they would have provided a tour for Zaandam passengers that started earlier (since we arrived sooner than the Navigator) or just told us the tour would not work for our port times so we could have made other plans. We got no apology or an adjustment in the cost of the tour even though we did not get to enjoy the 2nd beach. In fact the guide told me that we were an inconvenience to him since he had to make a special trip back to the port.

 

You can read about our full day in Curacao (with lots of photos!) on my blog My Souvenir Memories.

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Thanks for your review and photos. We have been considering Irie tours but have never enjoyed riding in a school bus! How was that part of the trip?

 

Well...riding in a school bus was like...riding in a school bus. ;) Part of our tour was over bumpy, unpaved roads so not the most comfortable. Having no windows in the bus meant it was easier to take photos, but it was also quite warm.

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Thank you for your review of Curacao. We will be there in Nov. How did the Tmobile texting and data work out? Just curious cause we have tmobile also. Hopefully u didnt get a scary bill

 

T-Mobile was GREAT! Not a single extra charge and I used lots of data in every single port...Curacao, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, and Canada. Curacao was the only port where I didn't get a welcome text saying I had free data which made me nervous, but I knew from checking online prior to our cruise it was one of the countries included. I just crossed my fingers and hoped it wasn't costing me (which it wasn't)!

 

Once we got to our ports in Mexico, then I not only texted and used data, but I also made cell calls. (Mexico and Canada have full coverage just like in the U.S.)

 

If you read my blog, I wrote about forgetting to put my phone back into airplane mode when we left San Francisco. The ship didn't sail until 11 pm and so I had been using my phone late in the evening and just forgot to shut it off. I was awakened around 2 am with a text saying "Welcome to Cellular at Sea"! The phone had switched from T-Mobile coverage to the ship's cell tower. I jumped out of bed and switched the phone to airplane mode immediately but worried there might have been apps updating in the background. It was my own fault which I knew, but all was well and there were no charges.

 

Overall I was very impressed with T-Mobile and so happy we had switched from Sprint last fall. Great coverage, cost less ($60 for 2 lines including all taxes on the 55+ plan) AND we got a free iPhone 8 during the Black Friday promotion!

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Thanks for the info. Ive been with Tmobile for ever and I never realized I had this perk with my plan. I confirmed that we in fact have the same servicve and all of our ports should have the ability to text and have data. We normally turn our phones off and lock them in the safe the whole week. Wish I had known that we had this we could have taken more photos and kept up with family at home all along.

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