AandBmom

It's been a while since we've been to Cozumel. Can someone clarify is this price one way per person or per vehicle?

Destination 1-4 Passengers 5 Passengers 6-8 Passengers

PalMar Beach 10.00 usd 15.00 usd 20.00usd

Monkey Bar 10.00 usd 15.00 usd 20.00usd

Hotel Fiesta Americana 10.00 usd 15.00 usd 20.00usd

Playa Uvas 11.00 usd 16.00 usd 22.00usd

Chankanaab 11.00 usd 16.00 usd 22.00usd

Playa Corona 12.00 usd 17.00 usd 24.00usd

Hotel Sabor 15.00 usd 21.00 usd 30.00usd

Ocean Beach Bar 15.00 usd 21.00 usd 30.00usd

Carlos n Charlies Beach 15.00 usd 21.00 usd 30.00usd

San Francisco Beach 15.00 usd 21.00 usd 30.00usd

Paradise Beach 15.00 usd 21.00 usd 30.00usd

Playa Mia 17.00 usd 25.00 usd 34.00usd

Mr. Sancho's 17.00 usd 25.00 usd 34.00usd

Has anyone purchased viagara or ****** there?

I have looked up the prices and it says up to 4 ppl, 4-8ppl, etc. Is that a per person price or do you pay for the group that much?

Can anyone recommend a tour that includes both or a tour company that will do that?

On our last NCL cruise it was suggested to buy on board credit ahead in Canadian dollars as the NCL exchange rate was much better than the rate we'd get with our credit cards paying on the last day of the cruise.

Is that still the case? Anyone know NCL's current exchange rate?

We've done several Carnival cruises and only 1 NCL - the Epic. We much preferred Carnival, but not enough to never do NCL and we're booked on the Getaway in January now.

Here's what I wrote when I first got off the Epic:

This was our first NCL cruise but our 8th cruise over all. Previously we have sailed 1x on Princess, 5x on Carnival and 1x on RCL. We have loved all of our past cruises. We were so excited to try a new cruise line and were optimistic about the Epic, but unfortunately the Epic just didn’t give us the cruise experience we’ve had on other lines. We won’t be back on the Epic and maybe not even on NCL. We have enjoyed the 3 other cruise lines and will stick to those in the future. Don’t get me wrong, we did enjoy ourselves and we believe a vacation with family is what you make it, but for the purpose of helping others plan I will point out the great, the good and the not so good.

THE SHORT REVIEW:

Great: O’Sheehans, ice cream, cabins quiet with comfortable beds, food always open, cirque show

Good: buffet, getting on/off the ship, kids program, blue man group

Not so good: staff seemed disinterested, ship appeared in poor shape (stained towels, rust spots, etc), ship layout weird, ship unappealing, cabin layout terrible, extra charges for a lot of stuff, activities closed a lot of the time,

THE DETAILED VERSION:

The Ship:

The Epic looks nice enough on the outside but the inside isn’t very impressive. Never once did I walk into a space and think “wow this is beautiful”. I’ve had that feeling on many other ships with beautiful atriums, beautiful promenades, etc, but not on the Epic. It’s rather dark and gloomy. Further this ship seemed run down. There were lots of rust spots, the pool towels were almost all stained.

The layout of it is poorly planned. With stairs/elevators only at the two far ends of the ship, you have to walk through tight cabin hallways, or through the pool deck where you can only walk single file or you’ll trip over pool chairs, or single file through the very narrow casino that goes on for ever. In most spaces I couldn’t even walk through hand in hand with one of my children. One of the main dining rooms opens up to the casino above which means increased noise and smoke in the dining room.

Further, the sports deck with the kids climbing and jumping activities is on top of the adults only quiet deck and the children have to walk past the adults only sign and through the bar area to get to the sports deck. I’m sure the people really wanting an adult’s only quiet space didn’t appreciate kids traipsing through regularly.

The running track is located on one of the decks on one side. I don’t think many people even found it and I really missed being able to walk around the ship on an upper deck like on other ships.

The kids’ splash area and waterslides are also poorly located as parents can’t really sit and watch their children. The waterslides all end at different places so you can’t keep track of more than 1 child at once and if your little one is in the splash pad you have to fight for the few chairs in the area to sit and watch them while you get dripped on from the above waterslides. On other ships I’ve really enjoyed being able to sit and watch all of my different aged children enjoy the water activities at the same time.

Certain things are so tucked away you have to go searching for them – ie the shops. I think they missed a huge opportunity to sell to guests by putting the shops in a place where people didn’t happen upon them very often.

Cabin:

What a weird layout. We had an inside and a family balcony. The family balcony was nice except that you had to walk around the bed to get anywhere. This meant only one person could stand at a time in the room. The inside cabin was way worse. We’ve done insides before but this one was tiny. Also, the bathroom experiment that they did clearly didn’t work very well. The sink is on the desk/table and it’s the size of a mixing bowl. It’s impossible to wash your hands/face, etc without splashing water on all your stuff. The electrical outlet is on this desk which means anything you’re charging is close enough to get wet. Also, you get out of the shower into the room. Awkward for those sharing rooms with anyone other than their spouse. If someone walks in your room when you get out of the shower you’re standing right at the door. Also it’s impossible to use the toilet or sink at night without waking up everyone in the cabin b/c there’s no bathroom door and the little toilet door and shower doors are very noisy. It’s like sleeping in a bathroom. Also the tv was placed in such a position that when the bunks were pulled down the tv was covered. We usually like to watch some tv after kids are in bed but this was impossible. Further, the tv was seriously lacking in variety. Not that we go on a cruise to sit and watch tv but it’s nice to be able to put a show on for the children while we’re getting ready for dinner. There was 1 channel for kids which played repeating episodes all week long. On a positive note, the cabin was very quiet and the beds were great!

Food:

I loved that there was always somewhere to eat. I found on other lines there would be times of the day where nothing was open but on this ship there was always somewhere to eat which was nice with kids off their normal routine.

O-Sheehan’s pub is great. The food is good. The service is pretty good. Nice ambiance and it’s wonderful that there is no charge. We loved the wings, mozzarella sticks, cheesecake, burgers, pot pie, and banana bread/fruit plate.

The buffet is actually quite good. Lots of choice, clean, well stocked, never very busy, etc. Sometimes I thought the placement of things was odd and you had to go searching for stuff ie, pancakes in one area and syrup quite far away, etc. Great staff in the buffet!

The Dining rooms – The dining room menus were mediocre. Many nights not much seemed appealing. Food often came out the wrong temperature. The taste and quality of the food was just okay, not great. We experienced very slow service in the dining rooms every time we were there (dinner every night and breakfast 2x). The Manhatten room was better but not by much. The hostess that seated people seemed grumpy al l the time and sometimes gave attitude. The staff were hardly around, they didn’t say more than two words to the guests it was so different from our past dining room experiences (even when we’ve done the freestyle method). I’m used to the servers asking how our day was, where are we from, making menu suggestions, etc. On this ship this never happened. I heard the specialty restaurants were great but we never tried them. Also we had to specifically ask for children’s menus (our children are obviously of the age they’d want them) and despite the fact that the menus were activity sheets for kids, they didn’t have any colors to use. If they want happy, quiet kids in the dining room a few crayons would go a long way. We started bringing our own to dinner.

Activities:

While the ship had several neat activities for kids (spider climb, jumpy thing, rock wall, etc) they were closed a lot of the time. They would open for a few hours here and there. We had 3 seas days and lots of time to kill it would’ve been nice to have these open more.

The waterslides were fun. The pools were tiny, with so much weird open space around them.

The planned activities were pretty few and far between, especially on the first 2 sea days. I missed previous ships with planned scavenger hunts, general trivial rather than all American History trivia.

The kid’s club was pretty good although they were oddly strict about things like children having their own card to sign in. Once my son left his card in his cabin and they had to get a manager to let him in, even though I was signing him in, he was registered, I had my card and I could see that they punched his room number in and pulled him up on their computer.

Evening movies on spice deck were nice but they didn’t have any towels available for warmth, they often packed up the lounge chairs so it was hard to get comfy and the children themed movies started way too late for the children to stay and watch.

The bowling alley was a nice touch and it didn’t require any staff to run it, so why charge $7 for it?

Shows:

Cirque Dreams show was excellent and this was the best meal of the cruise!

Blue Man Group was interesting. A little slow at some parts, but over all very enjoyable.

I heard the hypnotist was quite entertaining.

I heard negative things about Second City.

I heard Howl at the Moon was a great time.

We didn’t make it to the other shows due to life with kids.

Service:

While we did encounter some wonderful staff, this crew had such a different vibe than we’re used to. They were quiet and kept to themselves. I can’t remember a single staff asking how our day was, where we were from, what we had planned that day, etc. They just didn’t interact. They were all about business and even that wasn’t very efficient. Usually when I come back from a cruise I feel like my children were treated special by the crew as were we. Also, I feel like tipping my cabin steward, dining staff, etc. This time the only staff that stood out were Ravi on the spice deck and the Nickelodeon coordinator from Toronto (name?). Also the staff spraying everyone with hand sanitizer before entering all eating spaces was great! "Washy Washy, Happy Happy". I felt better knowing pretty much everyone entered the restaurants with clean hands.

Embarking and Debarking were very smooth!

I noticed from your signature that you are pretty open to switching brands. How do you make your choices? I've been on several now that were planned for a specific purpose so I didn't have a choice which line. I'm now looking at choosing my next cruise and I'm trying to decide which line to go with--so I'm looking at the signatures of other cruisers who aren't loyal to one brand to see how they choose. :)

We have done 1 Princess, 1 RCL, 1 NCL (booked on our 2nd now) and about 7 Carnival. We make our choice based on who's coming so that we have adequate age appropriate activities, also based on itinerary, ship reviews and price. We are not loyal to any one brand. In fact after a few in a row on Carnival which we love, we always crave a change.

He's trying to be cost effective (don't shoot the messanger).

Can he book his young children with grandma in an inside for cheaper and then they sleep in the haven, entering and exiting using mom and dad's card?

A few questions.

Can my bro get the haven and have his kids registered in a regular room with grandparents, but have them come visit, sleep in the haven, etc.

Do you need a special bracelet, sail card, etc? Do they care?

Also can haven residents have non haven residents visit and use the courtyard, etc?

Or just come to the room?

It's the getaway if that matters

Both have comparable prices for our week.

Our kids are 6, 7, 11, 12. Love lots of activities on a ship.

Itinerary looks good on both.

Thoughts????

Looking to book a cruise for our 4 kids (ages 6, 7, 11, 12). We have cruised a lot in the past so we are quite familiar with family cruising.

I'm trying to find a ship that has as much to do as possible.

We have previously enjoyed the Carnival Breeze and the RCL Freedom of the Seas. We didn't love the NCL Epic mostly b/c of it's layout.

We're not married to any particular line but believe that Carnival RCL and NCL probably offer us the most for kids to do.

I'd love to hear what ships your kids loved and why.

We're looking at cruising the first week of January. Anyone have experience cruising around then. It's Canadian school break. Is it the US break too? Does that ship handle lots of kids well? Thoughts? We have 4 little ones ourselves.

We're looking to do the Getaway the first week of January. Anyone have experience cruising around then. It's Canadian school break. Is it the US break too? Does that ship handle lots of kids well? Thoughts? We have 4 little ones ourselves.

We typically cruise Carnival, sometimes Royal Caribbean. Have done NCL once, the Epic and didn't love it ( not the best service, the layout wasn't to our liking, etc). I know the Getaway has a different cabin layout, but is there anything else you can tell me to help with our decision? We have 4 young kids and love big ships with lots of activities. Feedback is much appreciated. Thanks.

I'm curious how you found the range of weather. I can look at weather stats but that doesn't give me a good sense of mornings and evenings on the boat. Did you find it cool at night? Did you often need a sweater? Was the AC pumped to the point of finding dining rooms or theaters cool?

Any advice before we pack re: temperature extremes? We sail this Saturday.

Thanks

We've done the Carnival Breeze and RCL Freedom.

We liked them equally. They were similar in some ways, different in others.

We love the food variety on the Breeze. The Indian and Mexican restaurants are amazing in our opinion.

We did the "free" lunch at the Italian restaurant and didn't care for it.

Both buffets are comparable.

Our kids really enjoyed the 5D theatre on the Breeze.

They also got a kick out of the "did you ever try" fun options on the dining room menus.

We're a group of 11 with lots of kids. We'd like a tour outside of the cruise line to take us out on a boat and to a beach maybe. Any suggestions?

Anyone? I need the same advice but for slightly older.

We usually fly in the morning of the cruise so we don't really have much choice when to arrive at the ship, we just go straight there.

This time we're staying in Fort Lauderdale the night before then heading to POM in the morning by shuttle. What time is a good time to arrive? We have lots of kids with us and I don't want to sit around the cruise port for long. In the past we've almost always shown up, moved through quick lines and been on in no time.

Any advice for when to arrive to reduce sitting around is most helpful. I'd rather sit around our hotel and amuse kids there.

It's been a while since my last Carnival cruise but here are the foods that stand out as being yummy.

-Warm chocolate melting cake, especially when cooked to a medium firm consistency

- most dining room desserts, including baked Alaska

- Tandoor

- Guys burgers and fries

- Blue Iguana at lunch

- fruit plate in dining room

- shrimp cocktail

- omelette station

Disliked:

- pumpkin pie (and I love all pumpkin pie normally)

- most buffet desserts

I've been looking at ideas for kids in San Juan.

I love the idea of touring the forts but I also love the idea of touring the rainforest.

It looks like we could trolley it to the forts.

Do we need a company to take us to the rainforest?

What's the most interesting?

Ideas of tour companies with good prices?

Can both be done from 1-8pm?

Any other suggestions? Kids range from 5-14.

Thanks.

Can you fill an empty bottle on the ship from the buffet area? That's free and easier than looking for a store.

We bring sports water bottles on every cruise. We fill them with ice and water or ice and lemonade to take into port. Cheap and convenient.

We have used sas shuttle several times. They are reliable, prompt and decently priced

Thanks for the info. I took a break from CC for a bit and missed the uproar too.

I stopped bringing bottled water a long time ago b/c it's such a waste of money and it kills the environment. I started bringing a refillable sports bottle and I now fill it each day before leaving the ship.

Just a head's up that your post might get moved to the Florida departures forum...

I have researched pretty much every option from renting a car, to using the cruise shuttle to taxi to private shuttle and have found SAS shuttles to be the best. $15 per person per way unless you have a larger group then it's $13 per person. We have used them 3 or 4 times and have always found them to be prompt, reliable and friendly.

You call them when you're getting your luggage and they meet you right outside the airport doors. They drop you right at your ship.

Then you call them when you get off your ship and they meet your right outside and drop you at the airport door.

google them for their website.