(Slightly less so) Cheapo dad's trip report on Independence of the Seas

Day 6 – December 26, 2017

 

Antigua

 

 

 

It is debatable on how much of a difference each tour can provide versus their competition next door.

Funny you should say this while talking about Antigua. The absolute worst excursion I have ever done, and it was a Royal excursion, was here in Antigua. I wouldn't call the now defunct "Taste of Antigua" tour as a pure rip off of the worst kind. Royal killed it a month after our visit. Anyway, I can't wait to get back and see more of the island. If I don't reply any more, thanks for the review, I hope to get on Indy someday, love the class of ship.

Funny you should say this while talking about Antigua. The absolute worst excursion I have ever done, and it was a Royal excursion, was here in Antigua. I wouldn't call the now defunct "Taste of Antigua" tour as a pure rip off of the worst kind. Royal killed it a month after our visit. Anyway, I can't wait to get back and see more of the island. If I don't reply any more, thanks for the review, I hope to get on Indy someday, love the class of ship.

Interesting. What type of tour did you go on and what was wrong with it?

The reason I say this was I was talking to another passenger from Royal at one of the stops and they were on a different company's tour but same price and it seems we all were hitting the similar highlight spots, so I was wondering what would the differences be on these basic island tours?

Hello Harry!

Last time we spoke in your Allure report that I read with great enthusiasm, 'cause we were going to sail her on September 2016. Wow, that long ago.

Haven't cruised since (with big ships - I don't count Helsinki-Stockholm as cruising), but looking forward to next July and Symphony!

I read this report and was glad to see some St Martin pictures as we didn't go there because of Matthew. Our eastern cruise was western, but we enjoyed it very much nevertheless.

I wanted to drop by and say that you and I cruised last night :D You were in my dream. We were in theatre and took pictures of everything - you took a picture of me taking a picture :D Funny dream.

Have a good week. Looking forward to more Antigua pictures.

Interesting. What type of tour did you go on and what was wrong with it?

 

The reason I say this was I was talking to another passenger from Royal at one of the stops and they were on a different company's tour but same price and it seems we all were hitting the similar highlight spots, so I was wondering what would the differences be on these basic island tours?

Well, clearly you don't mind a few diversions in your thread, this link goes to an old Jewel report, go to post 28, it starts there. If this was still an active tour sponsored by Royal I would be warning everyone away. I assume they never brought it back.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2040248&page=2

This is why I want to go back to Antigua. I was recovering from back surgery and wasn't too adventurous on this cruise.

Well, clearly you don't mind a few diversions in your thread, this link goes to an old Jewel report, go to post 28, it starts there. If this was still an active tour sponsored by Royal I would be warning everyone away. I assume they never brought it back.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2040248&page=2

 

 

This is why I want to go back to Antigua. I was recovering from back surgery and wasn't too adventurous on this cruise.

BillOh....I feel bad for you having to endure such a horrible tour! With so many drop dead gorgeous beaches In Antigua, that tour had to be like criminal punishment. I love Antigua! Been 2 times and each time it was very easy to take a taxi to any beach and have a wonderful relaxing day. When you get back, just decide ahead of time where you want to go and grab a taxi. The taxi drivers will set a time of your choosing and come back to pick you up.

Harry...looking forward to your photos of beautiful Antigua!

Thanks again to all for the great advice on visiting the Utah/Arizona area - I love that people on these boards can be so helpful! And great Vegas pictures Harry. Your pictures reminded me of being at Mme Tussauds in London, England when our kids were younger and me commenting: Oh look the Beatles (when I saw their wax figures) - and my very young daughter asking: who are the Beatles? Go ahead, make me feel old kid...

Funny you should say this while talking about Antigua. The absolute worst excursion I have ever done, and it was a Royal excursion, was here in Antigua. I wouldn't call the now defunct "Taste of Antigua" tour as a pure rip off of the worst kind. Royal killed it a month after our visit. Anyway, I can't wait to get back and see more of the island. If I don't reply any more, thanks for the review, I hope to get on Indy someday, love the class of ship.

Wow, that is one weird excursion. Wonder if anyone from Royal even vetted these guys out before signing a deal with them?

Few years ago, we booked a ship based tour on the Allure sailing to see the sights of Cozumel. Afterward, I actually went on the RCI web site and rated the tour with a 4 star out of 5 and posted my comments for the tour.

Nowadays, you can not post a comment on the RCI turs nor can you see what others say about the tour. I think that is a real disservice as you are blindly relying on Royal/local tour company to see the ports. Given how much money and effort you put out to get to the port, you should have some level of confidence on the tour itself.

I rely heavily on trip advisor’s ratings to book my tours. I cross reference it with the ports board here to see if others had good comments as well.

Here is what TA ranks for tours in Antigua:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g147243-Activities-c42-St_John_s_Saint_John_Parish_Antigua_Antigua_and_Barbuda.html

The company we picked (Scenic Tours) is ranked #6 (as of 2/1/18), although the company name is a bit generic. You can take a look at our pictures and see if they are right for you.

Hello Harry!

Last time we spoke in your Allure report that I read with great enthusiasm, 'cause we were going to sail her on September 2016. Wow, that long ago.

 

Haven't cruised since (with big ships - I don't count Helsinki-Stockholm as cruising), but looking forward to next July and Symphony!

 

I read this report and was glad to see some St Martin pictures as we didn't go there because of Matthew. Our eastern cruise was western, but we enjoyed it very much nevertheless.

 

I wanted to drop by and say that you and I cruised last night :D You were in my dream. We were in theatre and took pictures of everything - you took a picture of me taking a picture :D Funny dream.

 

Have a good week. Looking forward to more Antigua pictures.

Wow, thank you very much for the high compliment. There are a surprising large number of folks that have known me since my first trip report from 2015 and still around for another reading. As time goes on, my comedy has gone down but the cell phone camera quality has gone up.

Not sure if it’s a good thing to see me in your dreams/nightmare. Like seeing Darth Vadar stalking you…

Very nice to be on the brand new Symphony next year. I won’t even be close enough to sniff the paint of another cruise until at least 2019.

Have a great cruise.

Thanks again to all for the great advice on visiting the Utah/Arizona area - I love that people on these boards can be so helpful! And great Vegas pictures Harry. Your pictures reminded me of being at Mme Tussauds in London, England when our kids were younger and me commenting: Oh look the Beatles (when I saw their wax figures) - and my very young daughter asking: who are the Beatles? Go ahead, make me feel old kid... ��

Forget the Beatles. My kids don't even know most of the songs from the 80's dance party.

There are tons of pop culture related stuff that the younger folks have never experienced. Like rotary dial phones. How many younger kids even seen one in person? Everyone is cell phone based. Even land lines are considered old school.

Cafe promenade not busy at all around breakfast time

Tuesday to rest of the world

Made it to the pier at 8:48 AM. We checked out the beach towels here as we will be stopping by the typical 1.5 hour beach time as offered by many of these island tours.

The Indy next to the Seaside

Be sure to stop by the Antigua tourism association tent right after you walk off the pier. They were giving away a water bottle and a small bag to each cruise passenger coming off.

Pick up your free bag by the center on the right

Walking toward the meeting spot for the tour

Many tour companies have their meeting place here as it's close to the parking lot on the left

Two other ships in port

After checking in, we were asked to just hang around the area while they wait for other people to show up. The area smells pretty much like a dockside (stinky fishy smell) and just standing there, I was bitten by couple of mosquitoes. It’s the brain freeze on my part not to think about bringing the mosquito repellent. On last year’s Freedom, we brought ours as we knew we needed it for Costa Maya in visiting the Mayan ruins in the jungle.

Dummy me didn’t connect the dots to bring it for this cruise as well. At least I have anti itch cream back at the ship. So the tour couldn’t start fast enough from my perspective as we stood there by the water front.

 

 

 

Not sure if it’s a good thing to see me in your dreams/nightmare. Like seeing Darth Vadar stalking you…

 

 

 

 

Have a great cruise.

It was a good dream! Hey - we were cruising :)

Though it didn't help my cruise fever at all.

Thanks, we will :)

Our tour guide’s name is Curtis. There are some people from our tour that came from UK. Not sure which ship they were on.

Antigua is a fairly large place as he drove us pretty far over to the east side of the island. Antigua being British, they drive on the opposite side of the road from the US

We made a little pit stop. Technically it’s for photo op but the view wasn’t as WOW as it was at St. Maarten. Think the stop is more for the local shops as it seems many tours are stopping there as well.

Thx Harry! Your efforts are appreciated. My family - with 2 sons 13 & 15 just did the Freedom Dec 3-9 2017. A similar Freedom cruise to what you wrote about in your last report. It was a big help in my planning ( GALLERYone hotel was a hit and our day on the water taxi was exceptional!! )

I am enjoying this report as we have this similar itinerary booked for next Dec 1 on Symphony - in your coveted Promenade View room. So I am reading about your port stops with planning in mind!

Alas we will have to cancel as we have the opportunity to join a group of friends doing a Med cruise with Princess in September. Two cruises so close together is one too many for this frugal mama! My boys are bummed since they are the ones who lose ( it’s adults only doing the Med) but just today I booked a Mexican Riviera cruise on the Norwegian Bliss in fall 2019. Now that ship has a BUTT! Lol.

Looking forward to the rest of your report. Thx!!

Time to visit the uncle in prison to see how he is doing (aka shopping).

This would be a cool view without the power lines

Trying to take pictures around the power lines is not possible

Thx Harry! Your efforts are appreciated. My family - with 2 sons 13 & 15 just did the Freedom Dec 3-9 2017. A similar Freedom cruise to what you wrote about in your last report. It was a big help in my planning ( GALLERYone hotel was a hit and our day on the water taxi was exceptional!! )

 

I am enjoying this report as we have this similar itinerary booked for next Dec 1 on Symphony - in your coveted Promenade View room. So I am reading about your port stops with planning in mind!

 

Alas we will have to cancel as we have the opportunity to join a group of friends doing a Med cruise with Princess in September. Two cruises so close together is one too many for this frugal mama! My boys are bummed since they are the ones who lose ( it’s adults only doing the Med) but just today I booked a Mexican Riviera cruise on the Norwegian Bliss in fall 2019. Now that ship has a BUTT! Lol.

 

Looking forward to the rest of your report. Thx!!

Oh, very nice to know my previous trip report was helpful. That's the whole point of these travel forums is to share ideas and experiences.

The Gallery one and water taxi is a great combo if anyone is staying at Fort Lauderdale.

Sorry to hear you had to cancel out on one of your cruises but looks like you have a makeup cruise booked so you are good.

I don't typically follow NCL so I didn't know they moved the Bliss out to west coast to do the Mexico run. That makes the west coast people happy as they don't have to fly across the country.

Have fun on both of your cruises.

They built this platform on the top for people to take pictures

Guess who took a picture of these geometrical shaped roof tops?

Some of the tour groups have the more outdoor seating vans. I prefer AC myself

Then he took us to a government sponsored tourism place way up on top of the hills. That was a bit odd as they wanted to introduce us to the history of the island. Ok, that’s fine. But they used the diorama/video & audio display presentation. The whole thing is about 10 minutes as many tours were grouped into a room with chairs and the each lights up with pre recorded message on the history of each section.

The whole setup reminded me of the Disney’s attraction, Tiki room, where you sit in the dark and things are lid up around you and people talk. I was just waiting any second some parrot will come out and sing to us.

Here is the parking lot with lots of buses stopping here. Wonder if it's a mandatory stop as required by the gov't?

I would like to comment on using Trip Advisor, which is a great source of information and one that I use all the time and post to frequently. Here in Myrtle Beach the fix is in on some eating establishments (IMO) that cater to tourists, i.e. family, friends, investors, and employees post great reviews, so if you see a lot of reviews by folks with low numbers of posts be suspicious.

Did you have Graham Seymour as the Cruise Director for that cruise?

No, Joff Eaton

 

Oh, it is very nice to have two street parties. We only had one for the 9 day cruise.

 

Did you folks have a parade when the ship was in UK? We didn’t have any.

 

I know Indy doesn’t have Dreamworks, so there would be no character parade but I thought I read other trip reports for Indy that mentioned they had a simple old school style parade without the characters? I was hoping they would have one similar to the Freedom but they never did.

 

There was an “Olympus Rocks” parade on the Promenade one evening

No, Joff Eaton

Good, another excellent CD doing the British Invasion thing:). I thought Graham was the only one doing that.

I would like to comment on using Trip Advisor, which is a great source of information and one that I use all the time and post to frequently. Here in Myrtle Beach the fix is in on some eating establishments (IMO) that cater to tourists, i.e. family, friends, investors, and employees post great reviews, so if you see a lot of reviews by folks with low numbers of posts be suspicious.

Yeah, everyone should be aware of “ballot stuffing” reviews.

I typically look at the volume of negative reviews versus the good ones. If there are more than 10% of negative ratings area in the 1 or 2 category (rated 1 to 5 with 5 being the best), that means somebody is not happy about something. They would need to stuff the ballot by at least 9 fake reviews for every 1 bad ones to keep the ratio looking good.

We should note that TA owns CC…

 

There was an “Olympus Rocks” parade on the Promenade one evening

 

Thanks for the update. I felt we got short changed with no parade for our sailing. Maybe they felt with the special Christmas singing for two nights that is the same as a parade.

So this is the setup inside the room. The gal at the left explaining to us no video is allowed.

Then lights off and the show starts. It basically went on a clock wise direction around the room with different section lighting up

When the show is over, we were escorted outside