Itchy&Scratchy

We usually go to Playa Palancar - $20 pp gets you a nice lounger with an umbrella and a beautiful beach. It has never crowded like some other beach bars either. And we don't want a pool when we go to the beach. Before the pandemic they didn't even charge $20 pp. They charged less and it was per chaise+umbrella instead of per person. So, to me personally $125 for the cabana itself, without a food/drink credit and then an additional fee of $19 per person - that's too much. It would be $220 for us without food or drinks. It's just a matter of preferences, I guess.

we've never done or even considered this before, but we usually fly on Spirit anyway, which is not included. But this time we are flying on SW and we'll have OBC left over (most likely), and we'll have our very immobile dad with us, so it would be nice to use. I wonder how often they lose the luggage...

We always eat dinners at MDR, even on the first night. Never had to wait in line and always made MDR reservations in advance on the app for 6-6:20 pm. And what does it have to do with knowing your embarkation time? Is your cruise leaving later in the evening? Ours are usually leaving between 3 and 6 pm, and we usually embark around 11:30, and it doesn't effect our dinner times or locations.

When I am making the specialty dining reservations (premier package), it says - you have credits towards this purchase, and the balance is $0. The new app is truly hit or miss. It's weird. Right now it says - cover charge $39 pp, subtotal $156, total $0. Reserve with the credit card...

we brought a 12 pack of soda per person on our March cruise on Reflection out of Port Everglades. We hand carried it onboard. We loved the fact that X allows you to drop off the luggage in your cabin before it's actually ready to be used. So, 3 12-packs lasted the 3 of us exactly the length of our 8 night cruise.

seems quite a bit expensive. Cabanas start at $125 and then you pay additionally per person, and that doesn't even include food.

we were in E322 and E332 on Regal and Enchanted (sister ships), never any noise.

yeah, Princess Promotions deal is not a scam per se, but it is not a great or even a good deal either. Now, not explaining the cost and just charging thousands of dollars to your parents' CC is definitely a scam.

yes, ice and free water are available at the buffet.

to help you with your calculations

a lot of us cruise without a package...

you can see the balance in any case any time on the app, and you can just stop when you get to 67 CAD. But to each his own. If you want to add two extra steps to the process - you are welcome to do so.

while the meals aren't supposedly shared, people on this board have been reporting that when they made specialty dining reservations for all three people in the cabin (two with the package and one without), their specialty dining credits were applied to the 3rd person. Which leaves them with only one more credit for the two of them for the next dinner.

that just creates 2 additional unnecessary steps. First, adding the money, and then getting the leftover balance back. Just add a credit card to your folio and the drinks will get charged to it. Easy. It's the same bill, but in the first case you are prepaying it and then trying to get the money back. In the latter case, your credit card gets billed automatically at the end of the cruise. You will check your folio for any wrong charges daily in any case.

that's exactly where we keep 2 of our 28" suitcases, at least one of them lying down flat. We don't usually unpack all the way and just keep most of the clothing in the suitcases.

we are not worried about the schedule at all, but I do want to see MDR menus in advance so we could book specialty restaurants on nights when there is little we want. This will be our one and only cruise with specialty dining included (2 pp) so we want to try it.

in that case we stop by a local grocery store and get a 12 pack pp.

I would definitely look into Celebrity and Princess. For Celebrity I'd go Reflection and newer, and for Princess I'd aim for Regal Princess and newer (but I'd give Sun and Star Princess ships a bit more time to iron out the brand new ship wrinkles first). Even our kid's favorite line is Princess.

are you flying in the day before? We loved having the Classic soda package for our kid. He totally drank his weight's worth of sodas and mocktails every day. It was worth it to us as a present to him.

same here, only 30 days away. There are very few things on the Ship's journey. And I can't see menus in advance. Grrr.

We asked the mini-bar to be emptied because we brought our own sodas. Didn't take photos. We checked the charges on the app every day. We took the screenshot of the final folio on the last morning. I checked my credit card bill yesterday (the cruise ended 3 weeks ago), and the charges were correct.

we've decided to leave my Dad on the ship for the day, while we are doing cave tubing. 🙂 I looked up reviews for Cucumber (Kukumba) beach, and it's not all that. Hard to believe that Belize City doesn't have any beaches aside from the islands 45 minutes away.

are the crepes still available at the buffet during dinner? All the way in the back. 🙂

it wasn't always awful, though, even when the band was playing. We have been on other cruises where being on the pool deck was unbearable when music was playing very loudly. This wasn't this bad. Oh, and don't forget - they have family nights at the Sanctuary. It's very quiet - children are usually not allowed during the day, but some evenings (not a popular choice so close to dinner) are designated as family hours. It's a covered pool + hot tub.

also first time. But I checked on Hyatt's page after I received my confirmations from valuetrips, and both of my reservations for May 31 are there (even though my name is grossly misspelled, lol, like Stephanienienienienie). Many people on cruisecritic vouched for this travel agency on the Florida Departures board (although this travel agent sometimes makes mistakes - hence, double checking on Hyatt's site).