Itchy&Scratchy

it's nice, but we couldn't enjoy it fully because it's was too small for 2 ships and too crowded. Princess Cay hosts one ship at a time and is much bigger. Yes, we have to tender to it, but the place is much bigger and now has umbrellas for rent. My teen is begging me not to go to the same beach next year. He doesn't like crowds.

We haven't been to Costa Maya since before the pandemic, so we didn't know what to expect, since everything has changed so much in other ports. We chose to go back to Blue Kay beach as before. They no longer charge $12 pp as a cover fee, they just want you to buy food and/or drinks. It would have cost us $60 for 5 people in the past, but would have included 10 drinks. This time food and drinks were $46 and I added $5-6 grats. They give you an arm band for bathroom use. The bathroom is still questionable, but usable. Chicken tacos and chicken burrito were below average to average, but edible. Mango daiquiri was awful (it had powder consistency, as if the flavored powder didn't dissolve). Pineapple juice was bad (unsweetened and powdery). I'd stick with canned/bottled drinks (beer and sodas) if I were you - they were standard. We got there before 10 am, so we had pretty much any available chaise to choose from. Some had a matt on top, some didn't. We picked the ones with matts and covered them with cruise beach towels, and all was good. I was surprised some people chose to sit directly on the wooden loungers... Some more people showed up later, but it didn't get awfully busy. Several large parties have arrived throughout the entire time we were there, but I am not sure what happened to all those people. It didn't look like they stayed long. Maybe, they had a separate area for themselves. There was natural shade and shade from wooden roofs. The place didn't change much, except for adding many more chaises, tightly packed together in rows. The water was clear but had some of that prickly seaweed in it. Easily ignored. Water entrance was rough - lots of broken shells and rocks, so I'd recommend water shoes if you have sensitive feet. I do. There were some rocks in the water, but once you are a couple of yards into the water, the floor is sandy. We spent most of our time in the water and that's exactly what we like. There were a lot of boat tours "parking" very close to us, which was at times stinky and unnerving, since they passed very close to us. All in all, not too troublesome. There were many vendors walking by and offering stuff, but I am sure it's like that everywhere. BEWARE of some of the "taxi" drivers at the port. One of them asked if we needed a taxi, we said - yes, to Blue Kay. He started telling us that BK now charges $90/pp (!!!) and was all inclusive and belonged to the cruise line. What? None of that made sense. He said he'd take us to a different beach club for only $20 pp, which had bathrooms and shade. We insisted on BK, so he lost interest immediately and sent us towards real taxis which are just outside the port gate. Most of them are large vans and hold 6+ people. It's $4 pp to Mahahual beaches. On the way back the staff called a taxi for us (5 people) and some other folks. The pier walk was super long and very very hot and tiring. There was no trolly service in the morning. Once you enter the port, you can use the shortcut through the gelato store. Take a photo with flamingos, and after the flamingos you will see the gelato store. The taxis are outside of the port entrance. We were all sweaty and miserable by the time we got to the taxi stand... There was a trolly in the afternoon, running the length of the pier back to the ship for a tip. There were 3 ships in this port: Enchanted Princess, Harmony of the Seas and NCL Breakaway, so all three - quite sizable. Let me know if you have any questions. We have the same itinerary next year and wouldn't mind going to Blue Kay again, but we'll stick to ready made drinks. Pre-pandemic the drinks were great, but not anymore. New management... Blue Kay - good for swimming and lounging, but, perhaps, not for food or specialty drinks anymore. right middle this is my kid swimming. It was shallow. the man in the middle sleeping on the lounger is my dad. We had 5 of them in a row in a shady area. our loungers are right behind these: left: the longest pier in our cruising history: you can see the trolly all the way back. It runs from that spot to the ships.

Before I post all the food pics, I am going to quickly mention ports of call. This was our first time in Mahogany Beach in Honduras. We've somehow always ended up in the other port (Coxen Hole?) and went to Infinity Beach Club (not free). This time we docked at Mahogany Bay for a "free beach" day. Hmmmm. Let me tell you - if you want a lounger in the shade or a lounger in general - get up early, get off the ship early and "reserve" them with towels or bags. There were two ships in port that day - Enchanted and a Carnival ship. It was bad. Good grief, I don't remember the last time we were in such crowded situation before. A small beach completely swarmed with people - on the beach and in water. And many of them were smoking everywhere... By the time we got to the beach around 9, it was full. FULL. It was awfully hot and humid that day, so by the time the 10 minute walk to the beach was done and we then searched for a couple of loungers for another 10-15 minutes, I thought I was going to faint or have a heat stroke. I had to drop everything and go into the water, and it cooled me down very nicely. These yellow umbrellas and green shells were for a fee - $30, and they were almost fully sold out by 9 am. It was this busy by 9:30 am The walkway through the gardens and the nature trail were lovely. Lots of photo opportunities. We got an airlift "excursion" for my mobility challenged dad and he loved it. The rides are unlimited. You can purchase it with your OBC in advance, or you can pay for it at the kiosk. For those doing it for the first time like us - if you buy it in advance, go to the kiosk, stand in line with everyone who is now paying for theirs, exchange your excursion ticket for an arm band, and then go stand in line for the lift. We didn't know what to do so we went to lift line first, then back to the kiosk, back to lift line, and then back to the kiosk because somebody finally explained it to us. Many people dropped their phones and other belongings into the water as they were riding it, so please - keep everything secure. A guy dropped his phone into the bay right in front of us.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/3013243-3-people-in-room-only-2-have-plus-package/ all of it has been thoroughly discussed over the last couple of days in this thread. You can pay as you go or you can add a Plus package for your DD as well. You can share your wifi plan with your DD. Honestly, if you don't drink alcohol, I don't see the value in having Plus package. We don't drink, so we don't get Plus, and just buy a Soda package for our teen and maybe one wifi plan to share among all of us on some cruises.

My parents' original cabin was inside and next to us, but they won a balcony bid and moved up one deck, but still in the same area, to A622. Thank goodness, they were so close to us. It made it a lot more convenient to meet up. Their cabin was fine, the cabin attendant very nice, but she forgot to provide a bottle of lotion until the last day of the cruise. My mom didn't realize she could ask for it, because she didn't think it was provided. Here are the balcony views from all the angles: The neighbors kept their balcony light on all the time, which bothered my dad who sometimes slept on the balcony.

A quick review of our cabins. Three of us were in an inside cabin, B716. All the way aft, quiet, A/C in the cabin worked fine, but the hallway outside and elevator bank area were always super hot. I always wipe hard surfaces in the cabin with lysol wipes, and this time was a good idea. To our surprise, our cabin was ready when we boarded. We left our backpacks in it and also discovered that our safe wasn't closing (we couldn't close the safe door so we could lock it). We told the cabin attendant and he got the supervisor to come out and fix it right away. We always use the upper bunk above my bed because DH is taller. More prone to hitting his head... We bid on a balcony, but the cruise was fully booked, so no luck. We didn't spend much time in the room anyway, but I do love having a balcony to read on and dry our beach attire. Needless to say, none of our stuff dried well until I started using my parents' balcony to hang them up. One annoyance about this room was the hallway light that came on randomly throughout the night. The sensor was taped shut and nobody was even up and walking around. We were all sleeping, when the light would just turn on and blind us. One of those times all the lights in the cabin came on in the middle of the night, not just the hallway light. A couple of days into the cruise our DS's medallion stopped opening the door, so we had it replaced at Guest Services. The cabin attendant sometimes forgot to give us 3 towels, so we got 2 of everything: hand towels, bath towels and washcloths. He was friendly and we saw him every day. I requested a bar of soap the first day and he supplied it. If you like soap bar, you should bring your own. It's been awhile, so I couldn't remember whether Princess supplied soap or not. The liquid soap in a pump bottle was very nice and smelled of lavender. We mostly used our own body wash and shampoo. We once again became intimately acquainted with the shower curtain.

A word of caution: DS tried getting something off the kid's menu on our last Enchanted cruise a couple of years ago and it didn't go well. The pepperoni pizza in MDR was awful, according to him. He really likes the pizza from Slice on Lido deck, though. Chicken nuggies were also a no go. We do try to get him to try different foods on a cruise, and most of the time he is happy to try different pastas (he loved all of the Enchanted pasta dishes), and familiar favorites like potstickers, caesar salad, fruit salad, etc. what we did in the past is run by the Slice on the way to MDR and get a couple of slices of pizza for him when there was nothing on the menu that he would agree to try. That way he still eats with the family, but it's something he likes. Now he always finds something he will agree to. Of course, he gets to look at the menu in advance just in case.

Disembarkation, EZ-check and misc info Other than the two flyers below, we did not receive any info about the teen club schedule. Our 13 yo is not interested anyway, so... My DH actually won $25 in door prizes. Some lucky guy won a cruise on Enchanted in a balcony cabin (the main prize). EZ Check Disembarkation info

I might as well post the rest of the dailies, since I posted the embarkation day daily already. Here they come! Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7

we like to try many different entrees and appetizers, but the 13 yo in the party mostly leans towards pastas, pizzas and caesar salads. If my mom doesn't see anything she wants, she orders salmon. We eat chicken at home. 🙂 I am going to post food pics and opinions in a little bit.

they may have had their own package. Were you there to witness every single time that an adult shared his package with the kid? I saw a kiddo telling the Gelato place assistant that he had a Plus package for himself and would like to get 3 of the Premium desserts. The asst informed him that he could only have 2, unless he wanted to get charged for the 3rd. Kid got 2 to share with a friend who didn't have a package. And nobody cared that he was sharing.

I definitely call getting an $80 pppd package for kids just so that they could do fitness classes daily "having money to burn." Sorry, but, IMHO, it's just an expensive want, not need. You can spend your money however you want, of course, but there is no need to argue if somebody else thinks that it's unnecessary to spend this kind of money on a kid during a cruise in addition to paying for that kid's cruise fare.

that's different from getting a kid without a package an occasional soda.

our ports were in different order, but shortly before the sailing Belize and Roatan were switched around. I too would assume that the food will be served in the same order.

It looks like Capri and Amalfi were open for lunch: It

since non-alcoholic drinks are unlimited, nobody cares if you get a soda (for the kid) with your Premier/Plus package at the same time with your alcohol. All the people were grabbing a couple of sodas and/or 3-4 bottes of water at the same time as their alcohol and nobody blinked an eye or raised an eyebrow. Obviously, nobody is going to drink all 4 bottles of Perrier, Coke AND their Dunes while still standing at the bar. You walk away with the goodies and consume them whenever and where ever you wish. I ordered 3 coffees or mineral waters at the same time and nobody followed me to make sure that I only got it for myself and DH, and none for the kid (kid doesn't drink coffee anyway - it was for my parents who also had a Premier package, but it was more convenient to order 3 coffees with one medallion than one coffee per each medallion). Other people were ordering in the same manner.

Day 7, at sea (we had a dinner at Sabatini's)

Day 6, Costa Maya

Day 5 Roatan

Day 4, Belize if you can't read above, please see below:

Day 3, Cozumel

Day 2 sea day breakfast Lunch Dinner

I am going to get the menus out of the way to make it more convenient for people with the same itinerary to plan their specialty dining reservations. Day 1 (we had dinner at Rudy's Catch since we managed to get a reservation for the same day)

will post tomorrow morning. Yes, the menus in the app are only available for that day only, which made booking specialty dinners pretty difficult. ETA: could have been easier if we had only 2 people, but it was tougher for 5. We weren't all that thrilled with the specialty dining anyway, so definitely happy we didn't actually have to pay for the experience.

10 minutes later we dropped our luggage off with the porters and went towards the terminal. Here is when our first inconvenience happened.... As I mentioned in another thread, I chose not to get the medallions shipped to the house. y USPS has lately been aggravatingly slow (it took a package 4 weeks to get from CA to GA), so I didn't want to risk it. We stood in a very long line to get through the x-ray scanners first. Not sure why. We are Platinum and supposedly have priority at embarkation. Other people were let in without standing in line. Then we got the port agent who was very slow at processing docs. She was perplexed by our "new" passports and kept repeating that they were new and that I used the old ones to check in. They are not new. Two are 10 months old and one is 6 months old, and we already sailed with all three of them prior to this Enchanted cruise. There is no way I used the old passports to check in because they expired last year, so I am not sure what her problem was. We were hot and bothered after standing in a long line, and tired after a sleepless night, so I didn't have the patience for her. Everything I think shows up on my face... After a while she was finally done, retook my mom's photo, and gave us our medallions. People with medallions in hand just breezed in. We did NOT have the same slow experience in Nov 2022. It took 1 minute to get our medallions at the port, but we didn't have any choice at that time. Due to some glitch nobody could choose shipping to home for that particular cruise.