teesmc

Whoa!  Do tell?

we have a family balcony on 11.

What's the bathroom sitch?

Great idea...  I also like personal feedback on things you can't read on a website description!  The other boards have constant reviews of cruises with pictures and tips!

We are actually in Tortola 8-6.  I want more than 3.5 hours on Jost if at all possible:)  

Our group of 4 adults and 4 boys is excited for our first NCL cruise this March!  

The NCL board seems much less active than the RC and Carnival boards...  Let's change that!

Please give me any advice you have for sailing the Epic-  fav drinks, restaurants, secret tips, navigating the ship, best places to relax in the sun, how the the boarding process works and what time to arrive in Port...anything and everything greatly appreciated!  I will return the favor for other cruisers when I return!

Thanks and happy 2019!

Our NCL cruise stops in Tortola for a 9-4 visit.  Anyone know of boat service/taxi to take us to Jost for the day and bring home?  I know about the ferry but don't love the schedule.

TIA

Put a deposit on the Epic for spring break 2019.

What exactly does Freestyle dining mean? Can you make a reservation for MDR dinner? Do you have to wait a long time for a table if you have a larger party (8-12) and no reservation? Can you make a standing dining time in MDR for the week? When do reservations usually open up?

TIA!!

Any info on the Epic I should know??

if you could, describe little french key, how you got there, ect. thanks!

Little French Key provides transportation in their packages. You have to walk a little ways outside of the Roatan shops to a bunch or taxi and vans. They have bright shirts on that day Little French Key.

It’s a magical place that I highly recommend. It’s about 15 minutes drive and then you take a little boat over to the island. There is a mini zoo with a lion, tigers, jaguars, monkeys. You can pay to swim with the jaguar. They have snorkeling and paddle

Boards. The water is super clear. They have a few bars around and the food is yummy. Service was impeccable! It’s hard to capture in words how amazing the place really is!

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Thanks for the review! Wondering if the boys used the kids club and if they enjoyed it.

We didn't use Kids Club since we were traveling with their friends. They ran around the ship together:)

One last thing- WiFi was TERRIBLE. We bought the middle package and were barely able to access internet. Even a ship employee told me one day it was totally not working. Save your money.

Sorry for the lag in finishing my review...

Excursions:

We did not do any Carnival excursions this time. In Cozumel we hired Cozumel Sailing for a private catamaran sail. It was AMAZING day. We sailed to the northern end of Cozumel where we stopped at a totally private beach. The lunch they cooked was yummy and we got to do this fun sail/swing off the back of the boat. Great day!

We did not get off in Belize. I have been to the port before and there is not much there besides the typical shopping. All of the excursions required a 45-60 minute boat ride or long bus ride, so we decided to enjoy a less crowded ship!

In Roatan we went to Little French Key- which was our second visit and did not disappoint. It was a fabulous day there. The service was excellent once on the island. Highly recommend.

Magic:

Overall I think it was a great ship and week. I prefer the size of this ship over the huge Oasis type ship, except I wish Magic had more than 2 small pools. I will say there seemed to be a lot of unattended tweens and teens lurking around, especially at night. The arcade turned into Lord of the Flies at night and there was even a fist fight. I would recommend more security at night in/around the arcade and for the teens in general. Carnival might want to implement a curfew or something that kids under a certain age must be with their parents after 9:00 etc or with the Teen/Kids club?

Our cabin was good, we had 3 closets with plenty of space and hangers for all of our clothes. Our cabin steward was sufficient.

Really enjoyed the movies on pool deck at night. Comedy club was good and were able to get a seat or stand up spot even arriving right before the show. We didn't go to any of the theater shows- not of interest to my boys.

Debarkation was easy, we carried off our own luggage early and didn't have to wait in too long of a line. They are smart to make this as painless as possible since this is your last impression of the ship.

Happy to answer questions!

We just got off the 3/31 Magic Western Caribbean sail. I wanted to post a review because I know Ireally enjoyed reading reviews during my planning process.

We are a family of 4 with 11 and 9 year old boys and were traveling with a group of 13 total. We stayed at the Holiday Inn in Titusvillenight before. Hotel was good. No complains except kind of pricey for aHI. We arrived at the port around10:45. When you drive off the exit, youwill see a long line of people getting off at the first entrance- go in theleft lane past that long line since that is for another ship. We were able to get right into the parkingdeck and walked our luggage to bag handler’s right outside before we crossedthe road into terminal.

We had 11:30check-in but they were letting anyone and everyone in at 11. We got Zone 15. I spied some Zone 1 and 2 peoples boardingpasses who had 1:00 check-in times, so I really don’t think your check-in timematters or at least it did not this week. We waited about 20 minutes until they called our zone. We were on the ship by noon!

We posted up at Red Frog Rum bar for some drinks and a Guy’sburger…the first of many. I bought a Red Frog Tervis tumbler that they would make my drinks in the rest of the cruise. We went downto rooms before muster and lucked out by seeing our luggage on a cart ofhundreds so I hailed a porter to bring it to the room. Lucky me!

Muster was in Northern lights. Dr. E made it funny and bearable with his different voices. Kids thought it was great.

Dinners: We had 8:15seating in MDR and ate there 5 out of 7 nights. Best dishes were lobster, beeftenderloin, and the melting chocolate cake. Worst was Caesar salad and the seafood pasta dish. Wait staff was great, they learned our likesand had our drink selections quickly. Kids enjoyed the shows/singing after dinner. We ate at Italian one night and it wasOK. My appetizer of arancini was yummybut the salad and main entrée were just ok. It was nice to eat in a quieter restaurant.

Breakfast/lunch: Wedid Sea Day brunch both days which did not disappoint. I had eggs benedict and steak and eggs. Breakfast burrito at Blue Iguana wasyummy. Excursion mornings we grabbedsomething off the little buffet on Deck 5 or room service. I will say I walked past the Lido breakfast afew mornings and the lines were VERY LONG. Our travel mates complained about breakfast lines at lido too. Lunch was typically a Guy’s burger orpizza. I only ate at Lido twice thewhole cruise for salad bar...plus ice cream cones:)

All in all I thought the food was good. IMO the quality was comparable to RC Oasisfrom last year. RC may have had moreseafood or upscale offerings each night is probably the main difference Inoticed. This is not 5 star dining, soexpectations should be set. I think ofthe food in the MDR as large hotel banquet quality.

Cheers- the package madesense for us. We like to have a mimosain the morning and a few boat drinks by the pool, then wine with dinner andmaybe a few after-dinner drinks. We alsodrank lots of bottled water, Powerade, Vitamin Water and Café Americanos fromthe coffee bar.

Will post excursion reviews and overall thoughts later… LMK if you have questions…

We are using cozumelsailing dot com next week! I will write a review when we return!

They played the Championship game on the big screen on Breeze 2 years ago. Go Nova! And then the Masters later in the week!

Thanks!

When we were on Breeze 2 years ago during Masters they were playing it on the big screen above the pool. My husband was in his glory, watching the Masters from a hot tub, on the ocean with a cold beer!

Teesmc, did it say how much longer in Cozumel we were to stay? I haven't received anything from Carnival that I know of, and we are cruising the 31st of this month.

We are on same sail. It is only extended an hour more than original itinerary.

If you want a beach you need to go to one of the islands. Belize City doesn't have beaches or much to do at port. The tender ride is a nice little ride and there are typical shops right off the boat. We took a tour of the city with a local cab driver just to see the area, it is a poor area and not much to see except for curiosity sake.

This was the email I got:

Tracy, your ship is staying longer in Cozumel

Yahoo

/

Inbox

Carnival Cruise Line <funships@carnivalcruiselineemail.com>

To:

TEESMC

Mar 1 at 6:05 PM

Now you’ve got more time for more new adventures. Not seeing images?

View in Web browser.

Cozumel is now 9-6 ships time, 8-5 Central time

Thanks!

I got an email from Carnival that we would be spending an extra hour in Cozumel for the Magic 3/31 sailing.

I sailed on Breeze 2 years ago on Easter Sunday. There was a priest on board who held Easter mass in the theater that morning. He was awesome, he was part of some ministers at sea type program. Don't know if they will have something similar this year.

Later in the day they had a bunny handing out treats in the atrium. I believe it was in the Fun Times.

We have sailed on several cruises on Royal Caribbean over many years but feel like the quality is deteriorating. I would like to hear how Carnival compares. I was just looking online a little bit at cruises on Vista or Horizon. Thanks.

We have toggled between both and always spring break. Carnival Breeze 2 years ago and RC Oasis last year. Honestly think the food was better on Carnival than Oasis. The desserts were WAY better on Carnival. I wasn't impressed with MDR on Oasis. Rooms are comparable. Service comparable. Shows better on RC.

I feel like Carnival gets a bad rap because people think of it as a "party" ship and Royal Caribbean as "higher end" but our experiences were comparable...price-wise similar too.

Carnival sales guy linked reservations for us on the phone, even though I booked on my own thru the website months ago.