All Things Southern Caribbean 2016

[jenny_nichole]

I'm wondering when Martinique excursions might be published. Platinum will be booking their excursions for the first Southern Caribbean in about a month, so I assume it has to be soon. Martinique is the island I'm most interested in an excursion because neither of us speak French well. Just enough to get ourselves in trouble...As I learned when I was on a business trip in Paris. A man came up and started chatting with me. I swear he asked me if I drank coffee. I said "Oui" and then he said "My apartment, it is over there!" Had to duck into a Metro station that was not the one I was headed to to lose him.

Yikes! That had to be a bit scary! We don't speak a bit of French, so Martinique will be interesting for us too.

Have you looked at tripadvisor for Martinique ideas?

If we do anything more than walk to town, I would like to visit Jardin de Balata. It's #1 on tripadvisor for Martinique and you can take a bus there.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attracti...ondissement_of_Fort_de_France_Martinique.html

HTH

Jennifer

 

[SleepyDeb]

It wasn't very scary, just maybe a teeny bit. I don't think he was dangerous, just a miscommunication, and we were in a very public place. I didn't know whether to be flattered that someone tried to pick me up as a (then) 46 yr old Mom or to be insulted that it took 3 days in Paris before someone tried to pick me up!

 

[linetbo]

Just wanted to give this thread a bump...it's been pretty quiet from the Southern cruisers...anyone want to talk details about our upcoming January 2016 Southern Caribbean cruises?

I also wanted to share that I found a great rate for Condado Plaza Hilton on hotels.com for two nights pre-cruise and one night post cruise. ($159/nt+tax &resort fee=$208/nt) I also found out that they have an Avis rental car on-site, so we are leaning towards just renting a car for 1 day to visit the rain forest & do a biobay tour. (Originally we planned to do a 2 day rental from the airport, but we'd need to pay for parking at the hotel, plus cab to take us from airport to cruise pier on 1/10. In the long run, I think that using cabs + 1 day rental from Avis @ Condado Hilton will be cheaper & easier.)

So what are ya'll planning to do pre/post-cruise in San Juan? How about excursions?

Jennifer

I like that hotel, we were there a month ago, nice pool.

 

[buttercup3]

we aren't docking at the same downtown Old San Juan pier where the Fantasy docks...it would require a cab ride to/from the historic area of Old San Juan.

Where is the ship docking?

 

[jenny_nichole]

Where is the ship docking?

Last year's Southern Caribbean cruises docked at the Pan American pier. According to disneycruiselineblog, the taxi ride is less than 10 minutes and if you read his report, they could see the Magic from the rooftop pool at Sheraton Old San Juan on embarkation morning. You can see a photo here:
http://disneycruiselineblog.com/2014/10/trip-log-day-1-disney-magic-san-juan-embarkation/

 

[Donald & Daisy Duck]

Anyway me booked anything yet? We booked snorkeling with the turtles thru action charters in Barbados..going to valley church beach in Antigua after some local shopping, can't figure out what to do in Martinique, maybe a beach day in Grenada, but I would love for the kids (20 somethings) to see the nutmeg processing by hand, Marriott day pass probably in St Kitts since the men are golfing there. Trying to book the bio bay boat tour in San Juan but there are not spaces available...hoping someone cancels

 

[DCL Mania]

Hi everyone. My family will be on the 12/17 cruise. Has anyone heard about the festival San Sebastian. It takes place during that weekend including the day the cruise leaves. I wonder if that is why they moved up our disembarkation time. The festival website says traveling on 12/17 which normally takes minutes can take hours. Has anyone heard anything or had any trouble with flights or rooms?


http://www.puertoricodaytrips.com/san-sebastian-street-festival/

 

[DCL Mania]

Make that the 1/17/16 cruise, not 12/17.

 

[linetbo]

Hi everyone. My family will be on the 12/17 cruise. Has anyone heard about the festival San Sebastian. It takes place during that weekend including the day the cruise leaves. I wonder if that is why they moved up our disembarkation time. The festival website says traveling on 12/17 which normally takes minutes can take hours. Has anyone heard anything or had any trouble with flights or rooms?


http://www.puertoricodaytrips.com/san-sebastian-street-festival/

Yes, I live in PR, when are you arriving to PR and where are you staying?

 

[linetbo]

We will be on the January 10-17sailing.

 

[DCL Mania]

We are arriving on Friday and staying with family in Puerto Nuevo.

 

[linetbo]

We are arriving on Friday and staying with family in Puerto Nuevo.

We have an early embarkation time, before was at 8pm and now it's a 5 I think. But I didn't heard nothing on disembarking. I did told everyone on my cruise group that if they have time to go to the fietas go early. I personally hate all the crowd and drunk people at night.

 

[SophiaMinor]

HI there,
My family of 4 will be first time cruisers on the Disney wonder leaving San Juan on Jan 10th. Is there a family fish extender group we could join? Had a FE made months ago but didn't realize we needed to join a group. Hope it's not too late.

 

[buttercup3]

HI there,
My family of 4 will be first time cruisers on the Disney wonder leaving San Juan on Jan 10th. Is there a family fish extender group we could join? Had a FE made months ago but didn't realize we needed to join a group. Hope it's not too late.

Someone recently posted about starting a group on our specific meet thread...not sure if it's too late to join though. If it is, you can do what we're doing...we got a FE and bought things for our kids that they'll need or want on the cruise...lanyards, pins, character shirts, figurines, books, etc. But I know joining a group can be a lot more fun!!

 

[soniamg]

My husband and I are booked on the January 24th trip. We're taking a red eye in to San Juan, arriving at approx 6:30 am. We looked into hiring a private guide for the day but the cost for just the two of us is too high.
We're thinking of renting a car at the airport for the day. Does anyone know if it would be possible to drop off the rental at the port?
I see posts mentioning the ship not leaving port until 9:30 pm. Is this only for the sailing during the San Sebastian feast days or all San Juan departures?
I've booked DCL excursions for every port but all your suggestions are having me second guess some of those!
Thanks for the input!!

 

[rwcmath]

We are really looking forward to our Jan 31 sailing!

 

[SleepyDeb]

Bumping to see if the ppl returning today have any advice for those of us on this cruise later this month. Hope you all had a wonderful time.

 

[jenny_nichole]

Just started a new post w/an update on our 1/10 cruise.

 

[buttercup3]

Bumping to see if the ppl returning today have any advice for those of us on this cruise later this month. Hope you all had a wonderful time.

-Make time for some of the trivia games! Anthony was hilarious!!
-Don't miss the Golden Mickeys or Dreams shows(2nd night and last night) they were amazing!
-If you don't have a tour booked in Antigua, tell the taxi drivers that you do. It's really the only way to get them
to leave you alone. But be prepared, you will be saying it every few steps!
-Spread your family's clothing and belongings into multiple bags so if you lose one you won't be out a whole person's items. Several people's bags got lost at the PR airport (ours did coming home- they don't seem to have a good system in place), and they had nothing for the entire cruise while their family member's bags arrived just fine...but some entire families had nothing! Airlines won't deliver to those islands.

Anything specific you want to know about? Excursions, ports, dinners?

 

[disneyaholic86]

-Make time for some of the trivia games! Anthony was hilarious!!
-Don't miss the Golden Mickeys or Dreams shows(2nd night and last night) they were amazing!
-If you don't have a tour booked in Antigua, tell the taxi drivers that you do. It's really the only way to get them
to leave you alone. But be prepared, you will be saying it every few steps!
-Spread your family's clothing and belongings into multiple bags so if you lose one you won't be out a whole person's items. Several people's bags got lost at the PR airport (ours did coming home- they don't seem to have a good system in place), and they had nothing for the entire cruise while their family member's bags arrived just fine...but some entire families had nothing! Airlines won't deliver to those islands.

Anything specific you want to know about? Excursions, ports, dinners?

I was wondering about the menus. I assume the 3 rotational nights, the pirate night, let the magic begin and tie we meet again. What was the other night's menu?

Also, do you know if there was availability for brunch at Palo? It's showing no availability for the only sea day.