CozGurl

I went straight to the reservation desk after boarding and had no trouble changing all of my dining times. 

We really want to snorkel in Belize and know that there won't be good snorkeling in HC. I also realize there is a ferry to Placencia (?) where you can catch your own excursion. We are too far out for NCL excursions to show up on the website, but I'm curious if anyone did a snorkel trip with NCL? How was it? Price? Any info would be great. 

Oh no, we had a great time! I haven't met a vacation yet that I didn't like ;)

Just my opinion that the entertainment just wasn't quite our speed. We're not late night partyers but 11:00 or 12:00 doesn't seem so late to be doing something besides "disco lounges." Even if just the Bimini bar had stayed open until 8 or 10:00. Just something to do besides the atrium.

The Dawn had the worst buffet food of any of the two Carnival and one Royal Caribbean ship I've sailed before. Now that I think about it probably the worst MDR food too, but not awful, just not the best.

Our favorite part of the Dawn was Gatsby's. Unfortunately they stop the live music fairly early leaving us bored most nights. We're not into the atrium entertainment so we'd pass by but never stopped to stay long.

Can you play pool or throw darts at O'Sheehan's without the package? And is the bowling $6 per person per game?

"Perhaps with a door that opens to the outside?"

Exactly! Bad bad placement of the door to the smoking lounge. We weren't fans of the ship's layout or entertainment after 10:00. I know we were with an older crowd too, but lots of times Gatsby's was full when the musician stopped playing. Bad business to send paying customers away from the bar, but maybe they lose money on the drink package crowd if the bar stays open too late.

Breakfast is served daily on the Breakaway in the buffet, one MDR, O'Sheehan's and Margaritaville? Do I have that right?

I think I'm going to tip in cash and remove the charge from my account. If what I've read here is true then all of the cash we give out will be divided anyway. Who knows what really happens with the $14.99 a day. 

What may I ask has changed on Royal that has pushed you over the edge?

I have a sleeveless swimsuit cover up that is too long to wear out and about so I wear it a lot in the cabin or on the balcony. It covers enough so I'm not worried about a neighbor seeing me but has easy access if I'm putting on lotion and such. I'm trying to decide if I want to get something else similar to lounge in or something different. 

What do you like to wear while lounging in your cabin or on your balcony?

Interesting about Cozumel. How much was the Latisse? From which pharmacy did you purchase?

Is there a pool in the Haven area or just hot tubs? 

I was wondering the same thing asen2asen. I read an old article or review that said day passes were sold, but that was before this price increase.

Thanks for taking the time to write this. I love a review that reads like a good story!

Random Thoughts

Didn’t realize we’d have to pay tax on our booze the first day while still docked in Puerto Rico. Wonder how many other ports are like that?

Seems that how many times a day you get cabin service is a big deal on Carnival and Royal. The first few days we had service morning and night. We finally told her just the morning please. Once we’re gone for the day we don’t need anything else.

The location of the only full length mirror was awkward next to the bed. Really couldn’t see full length.

Also didn’t like not having a table/nightstand on one side of the bed.

I never asked but it would have been nice to have the coffee pot gone and had that area to use, although we felt the room had pretty good storage.

Loved the magnifying mirror in the bathroom.

We love our magnetic hooks for the walls. It is nice to hang wet clothes or the next day’s clothes on them. We will also take a couple of magnetic ship clips for papers the next time.

I’m going to try really hard to remember that most of our time is spent in swimwear and pack accordingly. I bought some caftans on amazon that were so comfy over my swimsuits. Hub lived in trunks and polo.

Love our compression packing cubes.

Portable steamer passed through security in our checked bag – we never used it.

I’d purchased a folding nylon bag on wish . com for like $4. It was super nice to use on the ship as a beach bag and took no room in our luggage.

I think we’ve become cruisers. Don’t get me wrong, we’re doing an all-inclusive adults only in Playa del Carmen this fall, but I think at least one vacation a year will be a cruise. We enjoy talking to people at the bars and at dinner. So many wonderful people cruising around out there and so much to learn from them all!

Last Day - Tortola

Tortola was among the top reason we booked this cruise because of the snorkeling and it did not disappoint. We were with Aristocat tours for the day. They had a wonderful catamaran that was well set up for tours with lots of shade and sun areas. The crew was super nice and did a good job explaining things and taking care. There were 20 or so of us so that always makes a nice size excursion.

The first stop was the Caves and while it was cool enough, didn’t do that much for me. The second stop was a small cove with no other boats and had a lot more fish and was a wonderful spot to relax while waiting for lunch. They also had paddle boards we could have used if we’d have been so inclined. The third stop was the Indians. Our guide said we were quite lucky as a lot of times the water is just too rough to enjoy or even stop here. OMG, this one stop made the entire cruise worth it! This stop was as good as or better than Bonaire. Seriously like swimming in an aquarium.

Back to the ship around 3:30-4:00. Got ready and headed to Bimini bar again to meet with friends for our last night. Dinner at Cagney’s was good again. Man I love that crab cake! The folks at the table next to us were really unhappy with NCL service and experience overall. They were pleasant enough about it but said they’d go back to Carnival or Royal, can’t remember which they said now. I will say that I have to agree with the service to an extent. Seemed like wait staff in all restaurants were always understaffed. Cheers to those folks. Hope they like their next cruise better.

We hadn’t’ been through Tradewinds the entire cruise so thought we stroll through and see their “big sale.” As I suspected a joke. There was a $65 bracelet on the up to 50% off table. When I took it to the register she told me that it was already marked with the discount. Whatever. Bad business to put up signage saying one thing and then say another.

Back to Gatsby’s as usual to hear some music on our last night. It was pretty good and we were enjoying but he packed up at 9:30 and that was it. No more music for the last night. Stopped by the atrium but we just don’t enjoy Jose and Patti. I like their music but don’t like their voices. Back to the room as had become our normal.

For all of the “negative” things I’ve mentioned, it was still a great vacation. We enjoyed our first NCL cruise enough to book again (wish we would have done the on board next cruise certificates!) within a couple of weeks of being home.

Thanks! It sounds like these live music lovers are going to have a hard time deciding where to go each night!

Anyone care to add to their experiences? We really want to snorkel here but don't know whether we should do the NCL tour or ferry and take a chance on our own.

We ate at Moderno's the first night and it wasn't great. We tried it one more night thinking it was just first night bad luck, but we still weren't crazy about it. Cagney's was way better. 

Our next cruise I think we'll do MDR or O'Sheehan's the first night. 

Does O'Sheehan's do a special dinner another night too?

Hello? Anyone know times?

Day 11 – St Maarten

Off the boat around 9:00 again for another 9:30 tour. I found a 3 ½ hour tour for only $45 pp. I couldn’t pass it up and I’m so glad I didn’t! We arrived at the resort where Aqua Mania resides. When we walked in the gal at the counter seemed confused or surprised to see us. We were surprised that no one else was there waiting. She came outside where we were waiting in a few minutes and said the captain would be a few minutes late. It seems that they forgot about us I think lol. Didn’t matter because they took us on the tour anyway!! What nice nice people. I can’t remember her name but the gal in the office was so super friendly and so was the captain.

Our first stop had a sunken helicopter and sub. Someone threw some bread in the water and fish came out of nowhere. I’m not a fan of fish feeding but I wasn’t in charge. He took us for quite a ride pointing out billion dollar yachts and a famous tennis players home, I can’t think of his name right now. Anyway, we can around a rock and entered the most beautiful cove – breathtaking. Long Bay was the beach area and the beach and water were amazing. He dropped anchor and we jumped in with our floats and relaxed for the longest time. We swam up to the beach to touch the sand. Another couple in an inflatable boat pulled up and talked a bit. When we were finished we got back on the boat where we had some more bread, cheese and fruit he had provided.

Just one more taxi rant – when we got off the ship to the taxi stand we were told it would be $12 for the two of us. Then two more couples joined and they charged us all $5 a head instead. Ummm, shouldn’t it have been $15 or maybe $18 for the whole car if it were only $12 for 2 of us?? BTW we all went to the same place. End rant.

Back on the ship we snacked at O’Sheehan’s (terrible service today). Went back to the cabin to do some packing because we didn’t want to have to do it all tomorrow. Man do we over pack. So much so that I threw a couple of things in the trash instead of bringing them back and we vowed then and there to do better next time. I know, ha ha.

Hub went to TS until 4:00 when we met some CC friends at Bimini. Wonder why they quit serving dogs and fries after the first couple of days of the cruise? They close around 6:00 so the party broke up. We weren’t super hungry but stopped by the buffet to try to find something to pick on. Back to the cabin early for resting, enjoying the balcony and getting ready for our last port day.

Day 10 – Antigua

Another port where nothing seemed to interesting. I’d read about the cheap public bus so we hopped on the $3 #17 and headed to Nelson’s Boatyard. It probably took 30 minutes to get there and sometimes there were so many people on the bus we couldn’t help but giggle to ourselves. We love local things like this. There were two women sitting behind us just talking (LOUD) and gossiping. We LOL when they got off the bus. Wish I would have known the people they were talking about!

We were the last two people on the bus and suddenly, last minute we decided we’d rather go to a beach. We asked the driver and he said he could get us close but there would be a bit of a walk. Bless his heart he ended up just dropping us at a parking lot at the beach. Holy cow the hub would have killed me if we would have had to walk that far!!! Beautiful beach and water. We walked down the beach a bit and saw a cute place called Catherine’s Café. We needed refreshments after that bus ride! It was expensive but just the snack we needed and we were back on the beach. We got out our trusty floats and lounged in the water a long while. When we were done we walked out to the road and a taxi soon came along. I was expensive to get back, $40 maybe? It didn’t matter at that point because I think the hub would have paid anything not to walk anywhere or get back on a bus lol.

We stopped by the atrium when we got back to check our bill and get a couple of Bahama Mamas. Seems they make one at a time better than 2 at a time??? After that to our normal afternoon routine with plans to hit the Venetian around 6:00. Sat with some more lovely Canadians for dinner. BTW, food was unmemorable again. We headed to O’Sheehans for more cocktails and to watch the end of a show. An early night again though as we had another adventure tomorrow!

Don't get me wrong, the cruise, crew and ship were lovely, we just felt it lacked entertainment overall. Particularly live music which we enjoy a lot. Yes I know they had live music, just not much selection. Same people night after night. 

Day 9 – St Lucia

I am not a fan of all day tours. I just don’t like to be “trapped” on a boat or in a van/bus for hours with no way to end it when *I’m* ready. But, we booked one in St Lucia with Cosol Tours. If you read their website and see all that you get, it really is a great deal @ $70 pp. It was quite a day of awesome mixed with TAKE ME HOME! Really for me, it was just too much packed into one day. We had breakfast/brunch. Went to a banana plantation which was nothing more than a stop to buy some crap at a roadside stand. Just driving by looking at the banana trees would have been fine. Stopped at a hilltop bar for beautiful views, pricey banana bread and a $1 restroom. Would have been nice to know that in 15 minutes we would be back to the “breakfast” spot for another feeding of warm bread and a perfectly fine FREE restroom. Beach for a few minutes, mud bath and waterfall.

Anyway, cool things were seen and done but my motion sickness and the hilly, curvy ride up and down the mountain was miserable. Glad I was in the front seat as to not puke all over the bus, but I almost peed my pants a few times when I thought we were going to die in a head on collision or kill a person on the side of the road. I was so glad to be off of that tour!

Oddly this was super bowl Sunday. I guess we hadn’t thought much about it since the Chiefs weren’t playing and we hadn’t been around constant advertising for a week. We had an early dinner at Moderno (couldn’t get in at Cagney’s instead) and then went to Bliss to watch on the big screen. Really, it was just that Bliss was the only place with open seats. I was super disappointed that while we were standing for the national anthem only about 10 or 15 of us stood. Were there that few Americans in here? I’m not into football even when the Chiefs are playing so I left at 1^st quarter to head for my lovely balcony.

Are show times 7 & 9? Does anyone know what time the live rock music starts in the Pour House or what time Howling at the Moon starts?

Day 8 – Barbados

Barbados is the home of hub’s favorite rum – Mount Gay. He didn’t care what we did this day as long as he got to tour the rum factory. I found a 3 hour snorkel tour on Viator that would time our day just right to get to be on and in the water and go see the rum factory.

The pier/dock area in Barbados is in a very industrial working shipyard sort of place. You have to take the free shuttle bus from the ship to the outer area where you can meet your tour or catch a cab. The line was quite long at 9:00 or so when we went down.

The catamaran tour was with Action Charters. They have two cats I think, the Stiletto and Supercats. Our first stop was to swim with turtles. There were so many boats and people that the water was stirred up with poor visibility. There were several turtles and some rays.  There was a 2^nd snorkel stop that hub participated in. He said it was OK. There were about 20-25 people so we had lots of room and a good time. I’m not sure it was worth $70 pp, but we really did enjoy being on the water for a few hours. They dropped us off and the driver dropped us at Mt. Gay.

I am certain that this tour is not worth $20 pp but I did it anyway. It was about an hour long and included a short movie about the history and a cute tour guide – Shawn I believe. After the tour and film we made it to the tasting room. There were 6 or so bottles of rum on the bar but we only got to taste 4. We were given a shot of each but I took only a small sip of each and gave it to the hub. By the time we were done he’d basically had 8 shots of rum lol. Then we went to the bar where you get a coupon for a discounted drink. We each ordered something and again I didn’t like mine so the hub drank both. As you can imagine he was lit up by the time we left there!

We stopped in O’Sheehans to get some food in him. Back to the room by 3:30 and realized we had a 5:45 reservation at Moderno. Luckily they changed it to the next night for us. We wouldn’t have been hungry and I’m not sure the hub would have sobered up by then. The food had helped sober him up so off to the TS he went leaving me on my balcony.

Barbados was the first port in which we had to be back on the ship at 5:00 instead of 6:00. Let’s just say that I don’t think everyone realized that because people were still running to the ship at 4:50 and at 5:00 the shuttle dropped the final 4 passengers. Tons of us were at our balconies cheering and clapping for them as they arrived. It was great fun!

We grabbed a lite late bite (say that 3 times real fast) at Aqua and back to bed early. Long day and a long tour ahead of us in the morning.