First time cruisers!

[Linda the Book Lover]

I have a question about the slides. I wear glasses and I'm blind as a bat without them. Can you go down the slides wearing glasses?

 

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How about prescription swim googles like the prescription dive masks?

[FM]

I have a question about the slides. I wear glasses and I'm blind as a bat without them. Can you go down the slides wearing glasses?

 

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Best to get Rx goggles ... easy to get anywhere there is a dive/swim shop. Made the mistake one time of wearing my glasses while wading into the surf on a "clothing optional" beach in the Caribbean - turned around to wave to DW - she was frantically waving back - WHAM - got bowled over by a big wave ... somewhere in the Caribbean there is a dolphin wearing my glasses. Wore my Rx sunglasses until we hit Saint John - took a boat over to St. Thomas and got replacement glasses in an hr ... one of the most memorable "shore excursions" ever ;)

[FM]

Haha we most definitely have seprate cabins!! Sharing is not for us. We are 2 or 3 doors away from each other which is perfect. Dont mind using the loo in front of hubby so no issues for us there.

 

How do I actually book private tours? Is there certain websites? I have everything wrote down incl the exc we want to do and wpuld like to look at the private ones so I can compare.

 

We have had no problem in booking private excursions/tours through the island companies websites - as a first-timer for your first excursion you may want to book one of the introductory island tours through the cruise ship so you can get a feel of what a tour may feel like - it'll calm any nervous first time feelings you may have. Attend the shore excursion briefings on the ship or talk to the shore excursion staff onboard - they'll provide you with any assistance you may need.

 

Have fun!

[atomax]

Definitely going to try your ideas on our next cruise (which I'm in the middle of researching now). I usually go straight to TripAdvisor (TA) and check out the attractions ranking.

 

@OP: When/If you contact a private operator, make sure you let them know what ship you will be on. At several ports in the Med/Caribbean, the time in port differs from ship time. Oftentimes, the tour operators are familiar with the ship vs. port time and can bring you back to the dock in time for all aboard.

 

This is the way I research my private excursions. First I look at NCL's listings to see what they offer so I have a general idea of what's popular. Then I go to the Port of Call section here on Cruise Critic and read posts about the places that interest me. (I wish people would entitle their threads with a more meaningful title sometimes! I hate it when they say "Looking for ideas" and you have to open it to read what they're talking about!)

 

Anyways, a lot of times there are mentions of particularly good tours and tour operators in the threads. I make a note of these, then go to their websites to read about their tours. I compare itineraries and rates, and at this time I often find one or two that seem likely.

 

Then I go to Trip Advisor and look what they list in Things To Do for the area. Once I get to Trip Advisor I usually have a pretty strong idea of what I'd like to do, and if I haven't already found a few tour operators, I can find them here. Then it's a matter of narrowing it down to the tour operator that offers what I want for the price I want.

 

One thing to be careful of is to check their cancellation policy before you book. And make sure you're booking a tour for the right port area and that they'll pick you up at the pier. And triple check that the tour hours give you enough time to make it back to the ship on time!

 

I'm smack dab in the middle of researching tours for our Caribbean cruise on the Epic next March, so I've been doing all the above steps for the past few days. Another thing I recommend is save all emails from the tour operators. I set up an email folder for each port and that way it's easy to find them when I need to review them.

 

Have fun with the planning!

 

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