PATRLR

did you go to beaches near the ship or venture to others?

Snorkel Bay is walking distance. Other than being close to the ship, we found nothing nice about this place. I would never recommend it to anyone. I wrote a review over in the Bermuda forum if you want to see more detail.

The $7 van rides to Horseshoe Bay are convenient and my recommendation for going to a beach. We had one van driver (Louis Carter) give us a real nice tour of the local sights on the ride home.

I apologize if this is posted somewhere, I did a few searches and couldn't find it.

I need to get a copy of my OB charges (essentially, the summary of charges we get at the end of the cruise). The final bill I got at the end of the cruise has been lost. Anyone have any experience getting a copy?

I logged into my account on the web site but that doesn't help. Can't even find a "contact us" info. My plan is to call them Tuesday (figuring it will be easier after the holiday) but thought I'd ask here if anyone has had to do this.

Thanks.

We were deck 9, with no toilet troubles in our room or in a public one. There were signs up in all the public ones to just flush toilet paper and not other things.

We were on 11 last week, no toilet problems. We also used many various public rest rooms and I only recall seeing one toilet with an out of order sign and no signs of overflowing anywhere.

I don't agree with this. Whether it is Freestyle or My Time Dining, We ask for the same table each night, unless there is a reason not too. What we have found is that people that like this option, dine at the same time, or close to it, and at the same table. So we have had some excellent conversations with people that weren't necessarily at our table. :)

I guess I didn't realize you could ask for the same table each night. So if the traditional "assigned table/assigned time" format is what you like, then you can do that on NCL too. Fantastic. But, "same table/ same time isn't really "freestyle", is it? My comment was directed towards the freestyle format of different times, different tables, different venues that I considered to be the more typical way NCL cruisers "freestyle". I apologize for not being more clear.

Since I have attracted quality cruisers for this discussion, let's go a step further and talk about cuisine. Royal does well in that area in the MDR and the buffet is average. How does NCL, or even Carnival compare for that matter?

I just got off our first NCL Cruise (Dawn Boston-Bermuda). We have status on RCCL, but haven't been on them in about 4 years. We were on Carnival last year.

You asked about the MDR, so, I assume you typically eat in it. One thing freestyle does is eliminates the relationships you might build with other travelers (if you share a table with strangers) and with the wait staff. May mean nothing to you, but, as we got deeper into our cruise, we noticed it.

As for food quality, at the risk of getting flamed on the NCL board, I thought the MDR and buffet on the Dawn were the worst I've had at sea. Especially the buffet. In my opinion, the buffet barely meets the same quality as you would get at a Golden Corral, Grand Buffet, or Ponderosa on land. It really is that bad. In the MDR, we had only one meal that was decent (the Chateaubriand). The sauce on the Steak Diane reminded me of BBQ sauce! The Turkey dinner was moist, but bland. The strip steak was tough and tasteless, the stroganoff, well, I'm not sure how they could call it stroganoff, but whatever it was, it was awful. The quality of the MDR meals is about on par with low end national chain restaurants and to be honest I think if I received some of MDR meals in a chain restaurant I'd consider sending it back.

I know that all cruise lines food quality has gone down hill (Carnival and RCCL included), and I accept that. I had meals on Carnival and RCCL on my most recent cruises that disappointed me. But neither of those lines were as consistently bad as the Dawn. The good news is, NCL has a lot of premium options - you might find yourself using them.

That all being said, believe it or not, I will definitely go on NCL again, particularly out of Boston or NY because of the convenience for us. I don't cruise for 5 star dining (or even 4 or 3 star), so lousy meals are taken in stride.

While reading up on the Dawn for our recent cruise I saw a few comments about the refrigerators and the fact that they didn't work too well. A number of folks called them "coolers" and not refrigerators.

I know in our cabin, the problem with the refrigerator was the cabinet it was located in. Refrigerators need good air circulation across their condenser coils (usually located on the back) and the cabinet doesn't allow that circulation even though it has a few vents. All I did was leave that cabinet door wide open (particularly when out of the room) and the refrigerator started working just fine. (we had to tell our steward to leave the cabinet door open).

If you load up a bunch of warm stuff, then please be patient, it might take a day to cool them down. But they should get cold and stay cold.

You may also want to double check the dial inside the unit (if it has one) and make sure it's set to the coldest setting.

If you want to see evidence of my theory, just open the door to that cabinet after it's been closed for a while and notice if you feel the built up heat inside the cabinet. There's no way the refrigerator can dissipate heat from inside the refrigerator with that much heat outside of it.

Yes. As unbelievable it might sound for some (others know that the cabin class has nowadays nothing to do with priorities in emergencies unlike a hundred years ago), best accommodations onboard have the worst muster station - people from Garden Villas are amongst those mustering while standing outside on the promenade deck. Been there, done that (on Dawn last year).

Wait - if you are mustering on the Promenade deck, doesn't that mean you folks from the first class cabins, errr, I mean, "best accommodations on board" get onto the life boats first, ahead of those of us in steerage class, errr, I mean, the rest of the ship? :):D:)

Clearing the deck chairs by stacking or tossing them overboard upon an order to evacuate reminds me a bit of blocking the fire exits in a theatre and clearing them only after a fire is underway. Seconds matter.

If seconds matter, then I don't think we shouldn't be mustering in the Stardust. Reminds me of gathering in a certain section of the burning theater before exiting. But I'm not a life safety expert. Are you?

The Dawn had maybe 20 loungers on each side, at most. I didn't count them. If someone told me it was more like 12, I'd believe them. They were always full when we were down there. There are far fewer on the Dawn's Promenade than any other Promenade I've been on. It's very noticeable jut how barren that Promenade is. Obviously the life safety folks need to do their evaluation and make sure things are safe, but, I find it very hard to believe that the reason there are so few seats on the Promenade is a life safety issue. I very much doubt it has to do with life safety.

Just got off the Dawn - lots of shorts in the aft (Venetian) dining room. There is no enforcement of the dress code that I could see.

Anyway, I'm uncertain how the design of ship constructed in 2002 could be Del Rio's fault...

I believe a question was asked, not blame or fault assigned. But perhaps my inference is off base.

Regardless, plenty of other ships with similar Promenade decks, also used for lifeboat access have a lot more seating. Stack em up when assembling or throw em over board when evacuating. Does anyone even muster on the Promenade? We mustered in the Stardust, didn't see/notice the Promenade at that time.

The question is very appropriate to the Dawn because Decks 12 and above have very little shaded area.

I agree, I was surprised at how few seats they had and what they had was only loungers.

On the other hand, I am happy they Dawn has a true wrap around Promenade - with most new ships not having one, I appreciate the Dawn's.

Ship -Dawn

Deck - 11

Stateroom # - 11052

Stateroom Category – MB (Mini-Suite)

Starboard or Port Side - Starboard

Quiet Stateroom – Yes, no noise issues

Was stateroom a connecting stateroom? - Yes, but we didn't utilize.

Balcony View - No obstructions, there is overhang from Deck 12 that makes this a shaded balcony, which was fine with us.

Balcony Size? I guess it's a normal size balcony, but compared to other balconies I've been on this one was big. three chairs and a table, I could stretch my legs out and barely be touching the rail (and I'm 6' 3").

Was wind a problem? -No

If an aft cabin, was soot a problem? -N/A

Any specific problems with this cabin? - None.

Any other comments? -We loved this cabin. The bathroom is bigger than some European hotel's I've been in. Like others, it has three sections, the tub on the left, and then the same depth as the tub is the sink area and then the toilet area, with a sliding door.

the room has plenty of storage in the closet and a few drawers. Bring hangers. And a flashlight might help when looking in the closet.

The PCC / PVP (depending on line) acts as a travel agent that can't give extra perks, and to up sell you as much as possible.

Exactly.

Probably better to say you sometimes get a better deal with a TA? We have two cruises booked. Tried 4 TA's, two of the huge online, one local cruise "specialists" and a big box. All were given a chance to give me a deal on both cruises, none could do any better than my PCC. Two were more than my PCC!! One charged for all changes, two charged $25 for any changes and one allowed no changes after booking. Not a better deal in any way.

Not my experience at all. I find it frustrating that the lines themselves won't give me the best deal (It's not just an NCL thing). Most recent booking, I got my best deal from the TA and called the PCC back and said "can you do this?". Answer: "No way". Good bye.

This thread should make it clear that PCC's are nothing more than glorified call handlers. Not sure why anyone would expect them to add value.

Wow - we did a few trips on Dolphin line.

First one my wife organized on a whim. I remember getting to the pier in Miami and the little Seabreeze was parked around the corner from the Sovereign (or a Sovereign class ship). What a size difference! I think my wife was really worried if we'd like it because we'd been on bigger ships before that, including Sovereign which was the largest ship at the time. I also remember the cab driver saying "That ship has the best food - I hear it all the time". And he was right. Hands down those Dolphin ships we were on had the best food then or now.

And we loved that ship. Sure it was old, it was small, but the service was great, the people were great, we just had a blast!

Within a year we were back on it with a bunch of our friends. Another great time.

Our third Dolphin Line trip I honestly don't remember if it was Seabreeze or Oceanbreeze.

Our last Dolphin line cruise was on the Oceanbreeze in 1995 doing what they called "the butterfly". We did 2 weeks, B2B, Southern Caribbean first week followed by Panama Canal the 2nd week. Great feeling getting to the end of that first week, watching people pack up to leave knowing you didn't have to go home. Highlight of that cruise was once we were in the canal, the Captain (who was younger than typical captains and had a thing for my wife, I think) waved us up onto the bridge. There were half a dozen other couples up there, they were serving drinks and appetizers and just having a great time as we went through the locks. You get one heck of a view from up there, that's for sure! And then as we neared the end of the last lock, the captain disappeared and one of his underlings politely ushered us all off the bridge. By the time the crew had to retake control of the ship, we were gone.

We also got invited to the Captains table on that cruise, but, I think all of the B2B folks did.

Got to see the San Blas Islands. To this day one of the more fascinating ports of call I've ever been too. On our switch over day when back in Aruba, we were encouraged to leave the ship for the day so we rented a jeep and we got out to see the Natural Bridge. Glad we did because by the time we got back to Aruba, it had collapsed.

If Seabreeze or Oceanbreeze were still around, I'd go on them in a heartbeat. It's unfortunate that all the small ships these days are ultra expensive to cruise on. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the mega-ships, but the Dolphin Ships were an entirely different experience.

I'm struggling to understand the access to the steam/saunas on the Dawn. If I workout in the fitness center and want to use the steam afterwards, do I have to pay for that? I'm seeing yes and no in other posts.

I hadn't researched sneaking booze on board. I just assumed it wasn't worth the effort and I'd be caught. I know that booze bought in port on both Disney and RCCL were confiscated upon my return to the ship. And I was fine with that (got it back at the end of course).

On the Valor earlier this month I bought a bottle of rum in St Thomas that I'd sampled and enjoyed. I fully expect it to be take from me when I return to the ship. It was in my beach bag, went through the scanner, and no one said a word.

I ended up drinking most of that bottle while on the cruise and probably saved myself $60 or so on my bar bill.

Like the OP, we have historically been RCCL people. We really like the product we receive from them.

My wife was on Carnival in the mid 80s and thought it was nothing more than a floating frat party on a filthy ship with lousy service and poor food (she was actually on the cruise that the American TV series "Growing Pains" filmed an episode on). So through the years, we have not even considered Carnival.

30 years later, we are looking for a last minute cruise. We booked the Valor out of San Juan mostly because we could get a balcony for the cost of an inside cabin on the RCCL ship doing a similar itinerary.

We were very pleasantly surprised. Everything about our experience on the Valor was similar to RCCL. The only exceptions have already been noted:

• The cabins on the Valor seem to be larger than our experience with RCCL. Even if they are not physically larger, they seem to make good use of the space. We didn't use all of the storage space we had available to us.
  
• The entertainment is better on RCCL. Sorry to say this, but, the main shows on the Valor were really pretty bad. That being said, the comedians were some of the best I've seen at sea.
  

Moving forward, when we shop for cruises, Carnival will absolutely be a consideration and considering they seem to be less expensive, I wonder if I'll ever be on RCCL again?

Bottom line - book the Valor and don't worry about it.

Others have give you the break even points - remember to consider those numbers are for every day on the cruise, including port days.

Personally, I could hit those numbers on sea days, but, I doubt I could hit them on all the port days.

I would ask the excursions desk what to do, she said, "Why bother? They don't know anything..."

How sad is that? True, but very sad.

Hi

 

You mentioned that you had to walk a long way to go to WalMart. You were probably

parked (docked) where the Princess lines usually park. There is a gate that lets you

out of the area where the crosswalk is.

That is where we were parked, and there was a guard there, in the little house. I wouldn't have relaized the guard was there if it wasn't for seeing some crew go that way. It sure looked a like a locked gate and the only way around was what Denise described.

I have to say - that Wal-Mart came in handy.

On the ticket it said to be sure to wear your swimsuit under your clothes, so I didn't know if they would have changing rooms.

Oh - I meant to say, I did read our tickets and no where did it mention swimsuits.

This whole thing is quite strange.

Now, I am the one confused. :confused:

First of all, we are talking about the Mariner 4/19 cruise, right? (hope so, that's what the title says) And we are talking about Puerto Vallarta, right? (That's the section of your report I was commenting on). Now that we got the obvious out of the way... ;)

I have the Explorations 8 page flyer in front of me (the one that lists all the excursions for the three ports) and there are two different horseback riding excursions for PV: Sierra Madre Horseback Ride (PV90, $64, offered at 8:15 and 11:15) and the Sunset Horseback ride and BBQ (PV57, $79, departs 1:45PM).

The Sunset ride was to a place 50 minutes north of PV called "Rancho Capomo". Your report said you drove about 30 minutes to the "Hacienda".

My gut tells me you were on the 11:15 PV90 Sierra Madre Horseback Ride.

I totally understand the confusion. I was talking in circles with someone about the horseback excursion until I realized there was two different excursions. I'd be willing to bet you intended to do the Sunset ride, but ended up signing up for the Sierra Madre ride.

Regardless, neither excursion in the Explorations document I have mentioned swimming. I wonder what document you were looking at?

This whole discussion is further evidence that there is a real problem with the Excursion/Explorations information on-board the Mariner.

Thursday, April 23 – Puerta Vallarta

<snip>

There we had a drink and had a choice of either swimming in the cool river or the hot sulfur pools from a local volcano – I chose the latter, and it was lovely, really helped loosen up my muscles from the riding and from the kayaking two days earlier. Then we dressed again and got back on the horses for the return trip. …

Denise - The above implies you had a change of clothes and a swimsuit. Did you know in advance that swimming (on a horse, we were told at the morning session) or sulfer pools was going to be offered? We went on the 8:30 edition of this trip, and no one in our entire group (there must have been at least 30 of us) knew this was an option. To the point where we actually talked about it with the guide and he said someone needs to let RCCL know. I was not happy - I would have loved to swim with the horse and I feel cheated that it wasn't an option simply becuase RCCL was ignorant of the excursion's features. But somehow you apparently knew - how is that?

The one significant gripe I had with this trip was the shore excursion and port guide information. The people responsible for selling the excursions were far from helpful, and didn't seem to know the excursions at all. For example we struggled with whether to do the morning horseback trips or the afternoon sunset ride - they suggested the sunset ride. When I asked why, the best they could come up with is "the sunset ride includes a meal" - like we won't get fed anyway?:confused: They couldn't (wouldn't??) provide any more comparison than that. I'm suprised they didn't just come out and say "Take the suset ride becuase it costs more and helps our department meet its metrics". Oh - and none of them had actually been on either of the rides.:rolleyes:

So, I am curious as to how you knew to bring a swim suit?