davy jones

This place looks interesting. Is it worth taking an excursion to the Bacalar (Blue, Seven Colors) lagoon? Is the "lazy river" tubing good?

Hot is good (actually it is assumed)

I'm not a coffee "snob" and drink straight up black coffee. I find it to be perfectly fine, particularly if the coffee urn is freshly brewed.

Most 70s nights on cruises were(are) little more than disco parties. Your thoughts about it will depend on whether or not you liked disco.

For some reason, I thought that MSC had Pepsi products. I know of two people who would be happy about Coke products on Meravigla.

We are booked with a Fantastica reservation. Now a solo friend of DW may come along in a single cabin. Is it possible to link her Bella reservation to our Fantastica for dining? A more general question. Can you link two reservations on the MSC website?

Thanks for the replies. It sounds like something to consider.

The best route for us is to go through the Holland Tunnel to I78. Getting there will avoid the marathon. If we use self disembark and get off the ship early, we have a decent chance of to the tunnel before the traffic picks up and home in 2 to 2.5 hours. Even heavy traffic in Manhattan will be faster than going to Port Authority and then waiting until for a 2 hour bus ride. Like you, final decision will be closer to sailing.

We are on that sailing. Due to the Sunday bus schedules, debarkation uncertainty and the marathon, there's a lot of potential stress on return. We will likely drive and pay the parking fee. I think that you can get an inside cabin for the car for about the same as the parking fee.

We are considering taking 2 year old to the Dr. Seuss breakfast. I am interested in hearing about experiences with this event in terms of food quality, entertainment value, child interaction and anything else. Is it worth the time and $ investment?

The gangways are operated by the port. That said, it's not good for anyone and many will blame the cruise line for the problem.

South beach is away from the masses.

Labadee is a significant distance from the capital. It likely has excellent security around and outside of the complex. In addition, the cruise line monitors for possible security threats and would cancel the port call if there were potential problems.

I may sound like an old fogey, but there is (was) a greater sense of excitement from receiving documents and real luggage tags in the mail compared to a PDF file on my device.

No personal experience, but videos, postings, and blogs imply that they are fine for normal sized adults.

What is the best way to do this?

If they bin was empty, they would then complain about the lifeboat maintenance.

We booked this sailing for a family getaway. I am now a bit concerned because the reviews have been less than flattering overall. It's good to hear that your experience was good.

There are a number of good diners in that area. Which diner was it?

Are the bottles of vanilla sold in Cozumel worth it? How is the quality? Where is the best place to get it?

Cruising has changed drastically since our first cruise in 1982. We have lost count of our cruises. The number is in the 40s We have sailed 12 different cruise lines. Five of them no longer exist. I won a SOS on every Carnival Cruise that we have been on.

Carnival passengers don't judge you by your frequent cruiser status.

My $0.02..... Carnival does casual food options pretty well. Burgers, pizza, chicken sandwich, deli, BBQ, burritos, wok, etc.). MDR and hot buffet dishes can be hit or miss.

Are there any onboard programs for a 23 month old toddler? My interpretation is that under 2 only paid babysitting.

Thank you for the blog. We are booked on the October cruise, but were considering cancelling due to the poor ship reviews. Your experience has convinced us to keep the reservation and give MSC a try. We are OK with most of the "European" aspects of MSC and some of the other quirks. One potential show stopper is dining assignments. We typically choose whatever form of my time dining that the cruise line offers. Here we booked the Fantastica experience which allows us to choose an assigned dining time and chose early. (We typically go to dinner between 6 and 7 PM). I see some reports that people pay for Fantastica, request early, and still get assigned 9PM dining times. We are pretty much low maintenance cruisers, but this would be a deal breaker. If you charge extra for a preferred sitting, you should honor the request. Does anyone have any experiences and/or thoughts on this?