ocholoco

Of course not. *grin* There are entirely too many variables involved for you to take it as a given that they will be able to make their *estimated* delivery turnaround. It doesn't even have to be their delay, you never know when a mail/package delivery gets damaged/pushed back. Had a package this year arrive one week late because the train it was on had a derailment.

They don't guarantee a delivery date for a reason. Plan on it not making it in time and then be pleasantly surprised if it does.

I'd really like to lump in with the Money Bar recs (Dzul Ha is the name of the beach/reef section). The facilities at the bar-beach club are great: lockers, bathrooms, changing area and more are both nice and inexpensive. The snorkeling there has a really easy entrance and not very far from the shore you can see some large coral heads. Many of the boat based snorkel excursions use this as one of their stops. You can simply swim out there on your own and stay as long as you like, explore a larger area on your own. If you are facing out towards the water, to your right has some good iron shore for interesting small aquatic life.

I've used ********** for years and love it. I set the thresholds once and never worry about it again. Handy emails let me know when my fare drops/rises/etc. and I can set multiple alerts per cruise (each cruise date is $1). This lets me keep easy track of other cabin types that friends&family are in and any others I might be interested in upgrading to.

I'll never understand the piles of shoes thing. I bring three: Chucks (light weight sneakers), dress shoes (heels or flats depending how snazzy I feel for the cruise) and scuba socks (mediumish tread water shoes).

That's it, never felt much need for deep shoe specialization but to each their own. *grin*

Our answer is easy but not very helpful for you. No kids. The amount of freedom in time and funds we have by not being in the parent game is huge.

Just on the ship/Conquest front:

It was our first cruise ship and it continues to be a fond revisit each time we end up there again. The decor is splashy but, especially if it's your first time around, that just becomes the vibe. Fun, bright, Caribbean sailing. Make sure you make your way up to the second level of the rear lido buffet, the Fish and Chips station. Great bouillabaisse! Also has several other tasty options and it is never crowded up there. The smaller size makes it easier to find your travelmates and it is always our meetup spot for lunch and breakfast when we are traveling with friends and/or family.

We don't bring snacks but we now bring highly flavored creamer for making quick iced coffees.

My husband and I have been to many Mayan site over the years, via both cruise excursion and on our own by land. Both ways can be very enjoyable but I recommend that either way you go, do a little reading in advance so you know what to look for, what is unique and special. Guides can be hit or miss and I've heard some factually questionable (or, you know, completely false) information from guides. If you are a casual enthusiast that just wants to get a feel of things? Just go, have fun, check it out. If you are a history buff...buff up.

If you want to see Chichen Itza via cruise excursion I highly recommend doing so from Progresso. Depending on port times it is conceivably feasible from Cozumel but a real rush and awkward travel. If you want to do ruins from Cozumel, I would recommend Tulum. They aren't extensive and it wasn't a very important locale, but they are very, very pretty and there is a small beach if you feel like dipping your toes. Belize is an excellent choice for ruins. Lots of options, all good. Bigger/more complex sites are a long bus ride away but, in my opinion, so, so worth it. If you end up on a cruise that makes port in Costa Maya or Puerto Quetzal there are nice choices there as well.

Hope you find the right vacation for you!

In a technical sense, the answer to this is highly dependent on your knowledge of the civilizations involved and level of archaeological interest. We've been to "a lot" of sites on cruises and land vacations both and love them all for varied reasons. I'm going to guess that you are more generally interested in non-specific "ruins" and suggest the following:

Cozumel: Tulum is lovely though not the most complex, requires ferry and bus ride. It's a much later occupied city and that's palpable. Good choice if you aren't a beach/scuba/snorkel person and want an alternative at this port.

Belize: If you can go to Lamanai, that's a nice, varied site with a great approach. Simple ruins, easy to digest, fun boat ride, pictureqsue. If you can handle a long bus ride (great scenery along the way), Xunantunicah is the way to go and very well excavated. This is the better in an academic sense. If you want easy, Altun Ha will get you a taste but the site is small. I think the only other common cruise accessible site is Cahal Pech which we are headed to in January.

Side note-If you ever get a chance to spend time in the Yucatan, you absolutely must make the trek to Calakmul. MUST. Can get there from Guatemala but difficult, best bet in from the Mexico side.

Roatan: No actual ruins, I think there are some (poor) mock-ups of Copan? Pass.

In general say yes to any of these reasonable cruise port doable sites (some aren't always offered but can be done independently) : Chichen Itza, Chacchoben, Quirigua, Kohunlich, Dzibulchaltun (although much inferior to the following->), Uxmal, Dzibanche (if you haven't done Kohunlich). Some of these are better than others, but they all have something in particular that is especially nice. More people should go to Quirigua.

I'd like to second Eden Rock for Grand Cayman snorkeling. It really is an incredibly short walk from the ship and has a nice variety of depths, flora and fauna. Cheap and easy option for sure.

I'm hugely fond of the dry soap leaves commonly used for backpacking. No liquid involved if you are flying which is nice. Also very compact and lightweight. No bigger than a pack of tic-tacs.

I find 1-2 leaves works for most any sink load and washes out far better than hand soap or shampoo. Laundry detergents don't produce the copious amounts of suds that body soaps do which makes it easier to do in a confined container like a sink basin. The ones I like are From Sea to Summit. The reviews on this sort of product, regardless who sells/manufacturers, are pretty hit or miss. A lot of people think that less sudsing means less clean which isn't the case at all.

Amazon has several of their soap leaves (shampoo, body, laundry, shave, etc., you have to select from within their main listing) here:

http://www.amazon.com/Sea-Summit-Travel-Pocket-Soaps/dp/B002OSHEVO

Or you can pick them up from REI or your fave camping store:

http://www.rei.com/product/785917/sea-to-summit-pocket-laundry-wash

This is a very late reply but I'll go ahead and weigh in.

For qualifying purposes, husband and I are = childless, late 30's, extremely tech-oriented, very nerdy and capable of entertaining ourselves.

That last is what I think the deciding factor of enjoyment is for, if I may lump in with you, 'people like us' when it comes to cruising. I fully understand obsessing and researching to death every angle as I did it too and continue to do so on nearly every vacation we take. However, once the vacation begins, I'm committed to enjoyment and make that happen. We are smart and clever, we can hunt down what we want and figure out how to make most anything work. *grin* Our egos are huge! I have utmost confidence that you would be utterly in heaven spending an entire day squirreled away on your balcony reading awesome things. Dinners can be absolutely the best when you have both been reading excellent books and conversation barely takes a pause so you can get a forkful in. Everything else the ship offers is either great and you incorporate it into your day or not your bag and you avoid/dismiss it.

There are no worries. I think you'll have a fine time regardless of which line you choose. We have only been on one cruise that we came back with negative feelings about and it was concerning the amenities of the line. We still loved that vacation, just struck the company from future planning.

Cheers!

I'm c&ping from an answer I gave to another post, it's relevant, *grin*.

A couple of cheap recs if you like to snorkel:

Cozumel - if you aren't wanting an AI to reduce costs of boozing it up, taking a cab to Dzul Ha (public beach) makes for a pretty good trip. You have great facilities as part of the Money Bar/BC including changing areas, bathrooms, locker rental, gear rental if you don't have your own and a pretty good bar. I haven't had their food (love El Fogo in town), but I suspect from the looks of it it is anywhere from acceptable to good. Lots of people pay for boat based excursions that take them here as one of their stops, you can see them coming by all day, but you get a much better experience in my opinion going from shore. Do check out the up close stuff, but definitely swim out to the boat-stopping areas. There are some *big* coral heads.

I've had cab drivers do fine with "Dzul Ha" but I did have one, that for some reason of his own, seemed 'confused' at that and adding "Money Bar" straightened it right out. When you get to Money Bar, just veer right to find the little building with lockers, etc. The beach area is free, no entry costs. Googling Money Bar will give a good sense of the place. Cab for two was ~$15. Could bring this down by sharing.

Roatan has a lot of options, but a private driver (pretty cheap, can take you around to see a few sights as well) or taxi (cheaper) to Half Moon Bay provides a really nice snorkeling experience. I haven't been there in a few years but the protected bay allows from some really neat flora and fauna.

If you A)want an oh wow, never forget, active excursion for this trip and b)don't get seasick, the Rio Secreto tour from Cozumel is insanely awesome. It's pricey, has some travel time, requires going on the ferry to Playa del Carmen and you need to be fit-ish (not 'I free climb mountains for fun' levels of fit, more like 'able to move around easily' fit), but it's awesome. I'd recommend heavily doing it through the ship because of the ferry. I don't get seasick, but I have never been on that ferry and not seen at least one person lose it and several more green around the gills. Don't want to scare anyone off, but if it's a problem anyone has, I'd like to warn. For every person taking a sickness-bag, there are many more happy, smiling faces watching dolphins. Do a google image search for Rio Secreto. It's a flooded cave. You get to wear a hardhat. There is a long lake portion that you get to float through on your back while looking at stalactites and stalagmites. Cave fish! How could you go wrong? Not sure if NCL offers this, but worth a check.

You can also do some really great snorkeling in Alaska. It's not as crazy as it initially seems, the dive shops have good quality 7mm wetsuits with hoods, gloves and boots. There is about 10 seconds of 'oh god, cold!' as the water flows into the suits but then that microlayer of water is warmed up by your body and it's just fine. I've had longer, colder showers, heh. I highly recommend it to anyone that likes snorkeling. Best starfish I have ever seen!

I second the suggestion of Money Bar. The bar has a lovely, large area where you could relax right on the water and sip cocktails, the beach area is usually uncrowded and the snorkeling is great. I recced it recently in another thread where someone was wanting inexpensive options so I will copy and paste as I am very, very lazy. *grin* My favorite excursions have been the most expensive ones I have taken and the dirt cheapest. The ends of spectrum seem to work for us!

Cozumel - if you aren't wanting an AI to reduce costs of boozing it up, taking a cab to Dzul Ha (public beach) makes for a pretty good trip. You have great facilities as part of the Money Bar/BC including changing areas, bathrooms, locker rental, gear rental if you don't have your own and a pretty good bar. I haven't had their food (love El Fogo in town), but I suspect from the looks of it it is anywhere from acceptable to good. Lots of people pay for boat based excursions that take them here as one of their stops, you can see them coming by all day, but you get a much better experience in my opinion going from shore. Do check out the up close stuff, but definitely swim out to the boat-stopping areas. There are some *big* coral heads.

I've had cab drivers do fine with "Dzul Ha" but I did have one, that for some reason of his own, seemed 'confused' at that and adding "Money Bar" straightened it right out. When you get to Money Bar, just veer right to find the little building with lockers, etc. The beach area is free, no entry costs. Googling Money Bar will give a good sense of the place.

Roatan: If you are on Carnival, Mahogany Bay, also free, has some really great shallow snorkeling. You just need to keep walking all the way down to the very end of the beach and then go out onto the pier. If facing out at the end of the pier, the area to your left has a good bottom for all sorts of small fish and sea creatures. We saw a lot of octopus and sea cucumbers last time. Don't get me wrong, driving out to Half Moon Bay is great, but Mahogany is nice if you want a cheap, simple option. There are bars all along the boardwalk there but it's pretty simple fare. If you do decide to go out into Roatan proper, eat anywhere that is a creepy looking shack on the side of the road. Doubly so if the eating area is a picnic table facing the ocean. *grin*

(If you want detailed suggestions on Mayan ruins, I can talk your ear off, it's something we are passionate about and we thus have strong opinions based on degree of reconstruction, historical import, location, academic involvement, etc.)

Don't have a fave exactly, but since you are on the Valor, I feel compelled to point out Tortola. A quick ferry ride to Virgin Gorda can take you to The Baths which pretty much blew me away. You can do this easily on your own and I prefer it that way personally. Climbing through the rocks to get to the insanely beautiful and tucked away beach at the end...A++. I'm not a huge beach person, but that place is the exception. There is a little cave you can sit in to get out of the sun for a bit and the water is crystal clear. Head back through the rocks a little early to catch your return ride to the ferry and you can stop at the restaurant at the top of the hill for a drink with a stunning view.

Google it, so worth going.

Just to offer a contrasting opinion:

The Szechuan sauce is spicy, but not overly so to me. Heat level tolerance ranges wide amongst folks. I'm from Texas and it's possible my tolerance has climbed over the years from frequent exposure, but I would never tell someone to avoid the black bean sauce because it is so mild and flavorless as to be boring because that's true for me but maybe not for you. Most folks have a good grip on what they can handle, if you like spicy, give the Szechuan a try. It's far from the burniest food I've eaten. *grin*

Coffee is so very subjective and I'm not surprised to see a variety of opinions here. If a coffee is excellent to life changing, I like it black. I put Carnival coffee in the serviceable to okay category barring a couple of one-off batches of 'yikes'. When it's like that, additives are your friend!

This past cruise we had some spare time in St. Thomas and stopped in a little grocery for a bottle of flavored creamer to stash in the fridge. This made for excellent quickie iced coffees in the Caribbean heat. My husband is also a huge fan of taking one of those blue/yellow/etc. cups, adding an inch or so of coffee, then topping with vanilla ice cream. The trick is to use a small amount of coffee to start, then slowly blend. I do the same with their lemonade.

Severe anaphylactic response to a plethora of nuts for ~40 years and still alive! It's tricky to adjust to but not an insurmountable task. While yes, it may actually be life or death, it doesn't have to be life defining. Learning good food safety habits now will let him and those around him continue to eat happily and easily moving forward. The recs here are all great, I would add that my two biggest sources of accidental ingestion over the years have been dessert crusts with ground nuts mixed in and non-nut cookies that were cooked on the same surfaces as nut death cookies. Staying away from baked goods until you become more experienced allergen avoiders isn't the worst idea. But become good! Embrace pie!

I think other folks have pretty well covered the range of thoughts on this topic but I'm throwing my two cents in anyway! Mostly because I'm really new to this particular revelation. We are not 'the ship is the destination' type folks and have always reveled in each and every port. Explored on our own, traveled long distances inland to see even more amazing things or went on all day excursions to dig deep into whatever a given country had to offer.

Then, this fall, we went on a B2B of 14 days with 10 ports of call. Dear Lord. I'd not felt old like that before, heh. We learned it is okay to sometimes take it a little easier. We still got off the ship at every port to at least walk around, but we took a couple of them *extremely* easily. There is nothing wrong with enjoying a good book at a lovely cafe in a far away place. I'm never going to be someone who just doesn't get off the ship at all, but there is a time and place for a little "leisure" in my vacations!

A couple of cheap recs if you like to snorkel:

Cozumel - if you aren't wanting an AI to reduce costs of boozing it up, taking a cab to Dzul Ha (public beach) makes for a pretty good trip. You have great facilities as part of the Money Bar/BC including changing areas, bathrooms, locker rental, gear rental if you don't have your own and a pretty good bar. I haven't had their food (love El Fogo in town), but I suspect from the looks of it it is anywhere from acceptable to good. Lots of people pay for boat based excursions that take them here as one of their stops, you can see them coming by all day, but you get a much better experience in my opinion going from shore. Do check out the up close stuff, but definitely swim out to the boat-stopping areas. There are some *big* coral heads.

I've had cab drivers do fine with "Dzul Ha" but I did have one, that for some reason of his own, seemed 'confused' at that and adding "Money Bar" straightened it right out. When you get to Money Bar, just veer right to find the little building with lockers, etc. The beach area is free, no entry costs. Googling Money Bar will give a good sense of the place.

Roatan: If you are on Carnival, Mahogany Bay, also free, has some really great shallow snorkeling. You just need to keep walking all the way down to the very end of the beach and then go out onto the pier. If facing out at the end of the pier, the area to your left has a good bottom for all sorts of small fish and sea creatures. We saw a lot of octopus and sea cucumbers last time. Don't get me wrong, driving out to Half Moon Bay is great, but Mahogany is nice if you want a cheap, simple option. There are bars all along the boardwalk there but it's pretty simple fare. If you do decide to go out into Roatan proper, eat anywhere that is a creepy looking shack on the side of the road. Doubly so if the eating area is a picnic table facing the ocean. *grin*

If you A)want an oh wow, never forget, active excursion for this trip and b)don't get seasick, the Rio Secreto tour from Cozumel is insanely awesome. It's pricey, has some travel time, requires going on the ferry to Playa del Carmen and you need to be fit-ish (not 'I free climb mountains for fun' levels of fit, more like 'able to move around easily' fit), but it's awesome. I'd recommend heavily doing it through the ship because of the ferry. I don't get seasick, but I have never been on that ferry and not seen at least one person lose it and several more green around the gills. Don't want to scare anyone off, but if it's a problem anyone has, I'd like to warn. For every person taking a sickness-bag, there are many more happy, smiling faces watching dolphins. Do a google image search for Rio Secreto. It's a flooded cave. You get to wear a hardhat. There is a long lake portion that you get to float through on your back while looking at stalactites and stalagmites. Cave fish! How could you go wrong?

For the person inquiring about books and electronics:

I had no trouble with a book in the pool (just hung on the edge and kept the book up) or in the Tepidarium (dry enough). When I went to the other rooms I just stuck the corner of my book into my robe pocket, secured it with the belt and hung it up on the hooks which saved a trip to the locker if I was taking a short jaunt into the wetter sauna areas. I also had no humidity problems with my phone for use as an MP3 player in the Tepidarium. It also went into the pocket and was left in the Tepidarium for wet room trips. I never found the spa to be crowded enough for me to prefer safety of my things over convenience of leaving them unsupervised. The locker rooms are very close if you prefer to lock it all up before heading into the steam. Hope that helps!