Hello...I have a few questions regarding The Golden Princess and the Eastern Caribbean tour. I would appreciate your comments.<BR><BR>1) Has anyone done one of the champagne catamaran tours? Are they worth the money?<BR><BR>2) It seems fairly simple to get from St. Thomas to St. John, via ferry, but once you get to St. John is it simple to get from Cruz Bay over to Round Bay and back? Should we plan on just taking a taxi there and back? Should there be plenty just cruising the roads? Has anyone eaten at Vic's Snack Shack and swam in the water there? Would this be a good place to go?<BR><BR>3) When reading the Princess "Onboard Experience" site they state you can order bottles of liquor from room service for consumption in your stateroom. Is this sold at duty-free prices? Roughly, how much for a bottle of vodka? Can you buy it in the duty-free shop and take it to your room?<BR><BR>4) What time is the ship set on? Atlantic Standard Time?<BR><BR>I thank you in advance for your assistance.

Princess adjusts their clocks to the local time of the countries. Celebrity on the other hand stays in Florida time at all times.

Thank you for your reply Theresa. I live in the Central Time Zone so while I'm on the Golden Princess their 6 AM is my 4 AM, yuck. I'm normally an earlier riser, but not that early. Ha-ha. Have you heard many complaints about that? Or is it easy for ones body to convert to the local time zone?

Hi Suzie..We are going on Golden Princess Feb.2 and one of the excursions we are looking forward to is the catamaran tours. We have done this at both ST.Maarten and St.Thomas,the two stops for the Golden Princess. The rum punch(champagne?)is served early and often so be careful--Yes worth the money.<BR>I'm in Ottawa Canada (EST) and time change not a major factor when your on a fun holiday. You sleep in on a cruise??

Hi Gerry...Thanks for your reply, as you can see by the time on this reply I do get up early. It is a curse! I've not seen the tours specifically offered by Princess yet, I did find a champagne catamaran tour offered by Carnival when we were looking at booking on the Triumph. It was 6 hrs long, cost $92, and they served you champagne and a buffet lunch. As far as the time zone goes, I didn't want to order my a.m. room service for 6 (boat time) and find out my body was still on 4 (my time). <BR>So what I will do is just play it by ear and not order until I wake up the first morning, Sunday. Then maybe I'll know what time to preorder for the next morning and rest of the week. Yes, I know, I'm on vacation, don't worry about preordering your dang coffee girl!!! But, I have to have my coffee as soon as I get up. Another one of those dang curses!!! Ha-ha And hey, guess what, we are on the Feb. 02 sailing also...we will have to meet somewhere and say hello. Our party consists of myself, my husband and another couple. This is our 3rd cruise and their 1st. We are all very excited. Again, thanks for the info. and hope to hear from you again.

I had no problems adjusting to the time changes.<BR><BR>The reason I mentioned this is that I was on Millennium in February and they maintained Florida time at all times. This confused a lot of people who made their own plans for excursions not through the cruiseline due to the cruise having one time and Cozumel and Grand Caymen having different times.<BR><BR>So the people at the ship would say return to the ship at 5 pm which was different than any local time in these ports. This was very confusing.

Susie,<BR><BR>If you are in CST it is only one hour earlier than EST ( Florida ) Maybe that helps.<BR>

Hi Theresa...yes, I agree, I've been on the Grand Cayman & Jamaica itinerary twice and it was hard enough with the ship being on Eastern, me used to Central and then we get to Cozumel and they are on Central but the ship is still on Eastern. So I was really worried over the Atlantic Time Zone. But, I'm sure I will adjust okay. Maybe the trick will be to throw my watch in the safe upon arrival and don't take it out again until the following Sat. Ha-ha...sounds like a plan to me.<BR><BR>Thanks again.

Suzie: Please email me direct rather than thru the forum. My wife & I have several items we can tell you about re these two ports. Nice to know people in advance going on the same cruise.

Gerry...I've been trying to e-mail you but they all come back as undeliverable. I'm using the e-mail address [email protected]. I'll keep trying.<BR><BR>Suzie

Suzie: Don't know why that address should't work. Try first G in caps. I'm in Canada but that should not matter. <BR>Gerry