M&JfromSDL

Dump your cache and browser history. There was another thread over the weekend where users were describing the same error. I cleared out my browser and it worked again for me.

I picked up a tux for our last Royal Caribbean cruise and was in solid company amongst the other guys on the cruise. I didn't bring it with me for our NCL cruise last year. I sort of regretted it at first but I would have stuck out like a sore thumb. Definitely plan on packing it for our upcoming Allure sailing.

Be on the lookout for sales towards the end of the cruise. Last year, they had end-of-run Bombay Sapphire gift boxes on sale for $19.95. All it consisted of was a standard bottle in a gift box with a horrible looking scarf. A comparable bottle here in Virginia is north of $30. I bought the 3 boxes on display thinking that was all they had. The last night of the cruise they had more out and I bought every single one they had left.

Good thing I flew home on Southwest! ;-)

My wife is trying to convince me to do the 7-day Bahamas itinerary in March. I'm skeptical of the weather and the ports. I look at a 3 hour Amtrak ride from DC to NJ as the same as a 3 hour flight to Florida. Glad to see I'm not the only skeptic.

There's also two deluxe OV aft balcony rooms for the same price as superior. Seem smaller but would bring in the back of the ship for the viewbe worth it? Rooms 8712 and 8412

 

 

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I stayed in 8712 on Freedom a few years back. I would honestly take a balcony on the side of the ship. The balcony on 8712 is huge but the superstructure of the ship will block your view quite a bit. Here are a few photos... you be the judge. :)

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We have booked an D6 Superior Oceanview Balcony room on Deck 11. Both myself and my husband are 30 years old and have no kids. We live in the Washington DC area. My husband likes to relax and enjoy our balcony on cruises whereas I like having activities to do. This will be our third cruise. Our first cruise was on the Celebrity Reflection (Eastern Carribean sailing) in 2014 and we loved the food but I felt there weren't as many activities as I would have liked. In 2015, we decided to go on the Norwegian Getaway (Western Carribean sailing). We thought there were a lot of activities but the food wasn't great for us. We hope HOTS will be the balance we're looking for!

 

We are also a 30 something couple from the DC Area. I can't think of a better week to get out of dodge and head somewhere warm?

We did an eastern caribbean cruise on Freedom 4 years ago and did your itinerary on the Independence of the Seas 2 years ago. Last year we did a western Caribbean on Getaway and must say. Comparing all 3 experiences, unless things have changed drastically in the 2 years since we've sailed with Royal, you are in for an excellent vacation.

We rented a cabana in Labadee to celebrate a birthday. It was a splurge but a nice way to get away from the crowds especially since there were 2 ships in port that day. I wouldn't mind trying the zipline adventure there but remember it being somewhat spendy.

We look forward to your review as we are eyeing this itinerary on Freedom this coming March. Enjoy!

My grandparents were born in Cuba. They recently passed so my father was very interested in returning to Cuba to visit their home towns, see family, etc. He went this past summer and stayed in Central Havana for a week.

My dad was appalled at the level of poverty. The novelty of the old cars and architecture wore off pretty quickly. Many of the residential buildings in Havana are crumbling to the point floors are collapsing. His photos were very sad. Much worse than I have experienced on other caribbean islands.

As he said to me, if you have an itch to go, then go. You can see what the government did to destroy the island before there is a gleaming W hotel along the Malecon.

We loved Vintages on our Indy cruise a few years back. The bartender (Jayesh) was an awesome guy.

My wife and I cruised the Getaway last winter and had similar takeaways. We wished we could take Royal staff/service and food on the NCL cruise. We are planning a cruise for this March and are a little torn as to which line to choose.

Between dancing, gambling and kicking my wife's behind at bowling I burned off some calories. Just kidding, no I didn't. But I definitely needed some food.

When I saw a chili dog on the menu at O'Sheehans, I was sold. And so was my wife! I loved access to late night pizza on Royal. But O'Sheehans is pretty darn cool.

Time stamp on this photo: 2:37am. Oh well, tomorrow is a day at sea.

During our 2nd dinner we witnessed the downside to the UBP and over pouring. Lots of WAY TOO drunk people. Including one guy who decided to pick a girl up, spin her around and have her spill a beer all over a group of people and the carpet in O'Sheehans. Amateur hour.

Earlier in the review I complained about not being able to see restaurant reservations on the TV or on the iPhone app. The only way to find out what you have reserved is to call. At the beginning of the day I was pretty sure I had either Cagney's or Teppanyaki reservations.

Upon returning to our cabin I made a quick call and learned I had none for tonight, but luckily 3 dinner reservations for tomorrow.

At 8:15pm, our chances of getting a reservation anywhere were nil. So we got ready for dinner and decided to take our chances.

We walked past Taste and Savor but nothing on the menu jumped out at us. We tried Teppanyaki but no dice their either. We walked past Shanghai and kicked it around for bit. The hostess told us there was a 45 minute wait (now 8:30pm). So we decided to grab it and grab a drink.

We barely made it to the Sugarcane Mojito bar and the pager went off.

One of the things we missed on this cruise when compared to others was dining with friendly people. We were seated at a 10-top table right at the entrance to Shanghai's next to a very nice family from Ohio. They had eaten their previously and guided us through the menu.

The portion sizes here are a little smaller so you can sample the menu. We started out with an order of the steamed dumplings; Singapore noodles; fried rice and a lo mein dish. The lo mein was a little boring but we ordered up seconds of the dumplings and one other dish.

We got lost in conversation with our dinner mates and I forgot to take photos of dinner. Here at home we live amongst some amazing Asian restaurants so we poo poo'd the idea of eating at Shanghai's initially. But the food was very good and the service was excellent.

The casino was so close and we could not resist its call after dinner. I threw a couple bucks in Recuerdos Dorados and won a few more back.

Thanks to our nap we had a ton of energy. My wife checked the NCL app and mentioned Latin Express was playing Spice H2O. I was feeling a little loose and in the mood to dance so we headed over to check out the scene.

Let's see if I can link to the video I took:

[/url]Untitled by Matt D, on Flickr

I have very few photos here because from the time we walked in to the time we left we danced our butts off.

Whether or not you know how to dance to latin music, I HIGHLY suggest you check out Latin Express when they play Spice H2O. There was a great crowd, lots of people dancing and enjoying themselves. It was an all around great time.

After Spice H2O we headed back to the casino and lost some more money.

We unfortunately reencountered the casino bar (Bar 21?) bartenders. I ordered a gin and tonic for myself. It was again overpoured. At some point we paused our gaming and went back for 2 Pina Coladas. I noticed the bar area smells bad. Either the drains are not clean, or the fruit is bad or something. It just has an unclean smell to it. Our pina coladas was so bad they were undrinkable. So heavily poured they tasted like paint thinner.

We played some more Deal or No Deal (SO ADDICTIVE!) then relocated to O'Sheehans for air hockey, ski ball and bowling fun. We caught the end of Groove International's show as well.

I suggest NCL come up with an Ultimate O'Sheehans Package since I think I spent more money here than I did in the casino, Vibe, and restaurants combined.

On our Jan 3rd Getaway cruise they were loading new menus into the Sugarcane bar. There is a signature Bacardi Mojito that is either not included in the UBP or only the first $11 is covered. Can't remember which since they did not have the signature cup and I wasn't interested in paying for it.

Hi,

 

Thanks for your review. We were on the getaway in December and also obtained Vibe passes, which were great for first half of cruise but second half unfortunately suffered bad weather so could not use the facilities.

 

I was just wondering about the OBC they give you for reserving the cabana, as they told us the $100 was to be used within the vibe only. How can you spend it in there if you have the UBP or was the OBC just used against your general onboard account, thereby guest services are misleading you on this?

The $100 was simply applied to our onboard account. There was never a mention about a restriction on how it was used. I think that might be Cruise Critic urban legend.

By now the snorkeling cruises were beginning to return.

Courtney brought over a round of mojitos while we enjoyed having the VBC to ourselves.

Carnival Glory sailing away.

We enjoyed our sailaway from the cabana and took a quick nap before heading down to our cabin to get ready for dinner.

Some of the Getaway hull art.

We headed up to Vibe to enjoy the setting sun and sailaway. Courtney said it was dead up there all day. No surprise.

Another cool airport view.

Overview of Punta Langosta

We enjoyed the free tequila. Just kidding honey! Maybe next year...

The cab driver warned us it could be a little difficult to find a cab back to the ship from Mezcalito's. He offered to come back for us if we pre-paid but we weren't sure how long we would want to stay so we declined. One of the employees told us to give him 30 minutes warning and he would get us a cab back.

Around 2:30 we noticed the crowd had thinned out and we had the place pretty much to ourselves. My wife was getting anxious about getting back since sailaway was an entire 5 hours away. Soon enough a group showed up in a taxi and we jumped in and headed back.

Once back at Punta Langosta we grabbed a beer at this place called "The Beer"

so we could use their wifi. I checked in on work and the Mrs. checked on things back home. A quick Facebook update and we headed back to the ship.

I did breeze through the duty free shops but found the prices on the liquor I drink to be better on the Getaway.

Yours truly with the Getaway in the background.

We ordered up a little lunch and explored the beach a bit. Found a couple of really large crabs.

The staff at Mezcalito's is super cool. With their rudimentary english and a little but of my spanish we were more than fine. Service was good without being invasive.

We started out with chips and guac. Of course. Chips were freshly made. Guac was delicious.

Then onto grilled garlic shrimp. I will admit the photo isn't completely appetizing but believe me they were delicious.

After lunch we ordered another round of beers, relaxed and took goofy (clothed) pictures next to the Naked Beach sign.

Finding a cab at Punta Langosta is pretty easy. USD$25 and 30 minutes later we arrived in paradise.

The taxi driver warned us the water is rocky and rough. He was correct.

View of Mezcalito's from the water

Mezcalito's does have a "Naked Beach." The crowd was pretty sparse the day we arrived and we only saw one couple take part in the nude area. Just a heads up if that type of thing offends you.

Looking north towards the "Naked Beach"

Beer in hand. Feet in the water.

January 7th

The Getaway docks at Punta Langosta around 11am. That was perfect since it allowed us to sleep in a bit and not get out into the hot sun too early.

I woke up feeling a little weird from dinner and wanted to enjoy the day in Cozumel so we took a quick stroll up to the Garden Cafe for a banana and a light breakfast.

Punta Langosta is best thought of as an outdoor shopping mall with pier. There's a duty free shop, pharmacies, tons of t-shirt shops and the signature Diamonds International. There's also a Hooters and a Senor Frogs there as well.

I was still flying without sunglasses so luckily there was a schlock shop where I picked up a pair of disposables for USD$10.

My wife wanted to research antibiotics at the pharmacies but our search turned up unsuccessful. The one medication was significantly more expensive in Mexico and we needed a prescription for another.

I will suggest this. My wife is a nurse practitioner and more than once overheard someone saying they had a certain ailment and grabbed a medication that treated something completely different. Be sure you know the medical name of the medication you are looking for as opposed to the American brand name.

Moving on. Time to grab a cab.

We've been to Cozumel before and done the all-inclusive thing. This time we wanted something a little off the beaten path especially since there were a ton of ships in port. I decided we would head out to the other side of the island to a place called Mezcalito's.

We wanted a solid beach shack with good food and cheap beer. We weren't terribly concerned about a beach for swimming and this fit the bill perfectly.

What a great review! Thank you for posting this - I'm heading out on the Getaway this weekend and I'm loving the pictures and dailies. Quick question: was the Veuve Clicquot by the glass in Le Bistro included with the UBP? I've heard it wasn't since it's a special promotion, but have been hoping it was. Also, kudos to your wife for keeping her cool with the waitress in Le Bistro. I don't know that I could have! :eek:

The Veuve was not included in the UBP. It is a $9 upcharge. The staff are pretty good about warning you about items not included in the package at various restaurants.

We worked the casino for a bit sticking mostly to slots and the occasional game of video poker.

The cigarette smoke got to me again so we took a nice long walk around the waterfront. It was a nice night out. We could see a ton of stars and a handful of cruise ships cruising around us.

My wife pointed out the little food section by the casino to keep gamblers going. We grabbed a little mini sandwich on pretzel bread to keep us going.

We played another round of OMG! Kittens

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Mainly because the tuxedo cat in the image reminds us of one the one we have at home.

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At some point we wandered up to the Teen Arcade for a couple games of ski ball and the motor cycle game which my wife surprisingly loved to play. She began to grow fond of a red bull beenie baby which she lovingly referred to as L Vache Quirit, or The Laughing Cow.

After another round of my favorite spanish slot machine and OMG Kittens we landed in O'Sheehans for an order of the wings that everyone seemed to be ordering.

We sat down at the bar that overlooks like atrium. There was a sappy movie playing and another round of playing "Find the Server" so we could order food. Just short of falling asleep at the bar a nice gentleman approached and took our food order. I have to say, for cruise ship food...the wings were pretty good. At 2:30am after a bad dinner and a couple drinks they were downright perfect.

We headed over to the atrium trying to escape the disasterous dinner we just experienced. Our UDP was included in our cruise but so I sort of justified bit by saying I really hadn't paid for it. If I had shelled out the cover charge plus the upcharge for my dinner, I probably would have come unglued. It was a terrible experience.

Luckily Latin Express was playing in the atrium. These guys are awesome and know how to get the crowd growing. There were a ton of hispanic and latin people on the ship so whenever Latin Express was playing, you knew you could find a large crowd and lively surroundings.

Latin Express plays a wide variety of caribbean and hispanic music. But unfortunately I could not get the seafood taste out of my mouth. I even went back to the cabin and brushed my teeth when I dropped the cheese plate in the refrigerator. I found Stuffed Porter cuddled up with the towel animal.

I could tell tmy wife was still stewing over the waitress' comment so I suggest we change into something casual and wander the ship. My wife suggested an espresso which seemed like a good idea. Again, she was right.

My wife ordered the escargot. A favorite treat she looks forward to ordering on cruises. There were no complaints here.

I ordered the scallop appetizer.

Both appetizers were very good. But something just didn't seem right. The setting and placement of the restaurant was a little weird. For starters your romantic french dinner is interrupted by Armen inviting you to whatever is going on or something they want to sell you. The PA announcements on this ship are incredibly annoying.

Le Bistro is located on the bottom level of 678 Ocean Place. Across the way is the Headliners Club which was featuring a dueling piano show during our dinner. One floor up is the casino which lends a ton of background noise and an unfriendly stale, cigarette smell to the air. 2 levels up is the Sugarcane mojito bar with it's own musical performance.

Eventually dinner made its way to the table.

My wife selected the duck entree. It featured a breast and thigh. The thigh was very flavorful and cooked nicely. The breast however was extremely dry and tough. The temperature wasn't completely warm lending to the idea that it had been sitting for a while.

I ordered the Fruits de Mer. Normally a $10 upcharge if not on a UDP.

I started with the green beans and tomatoes which I think masked some of the seafood flavor. The shrimp seemed a little skimpy for a premium charge meal. Nothing like the fresh albeit over-grilled shrimp my wife received a few nights prior in Ocean Blue. These reminded me of the frozen shrimp you might be tempted to...but should never buy at Safeway and toss in a shrimp salad or at the very least find in a stir fry within a cruise ship buffet.

The scallops were okay but were different than the ones in my appetizer. I think because they coated the entire entree in a sauce they felt they could get away with lower quality seafood. I could not taste the actually scallop through the sauce but they definitely smelled a fishy.

By the time I gave up and moved onto the two tiniest pieces of lobster I've ever paid for, the damage was done. Between the junior varsity service, the cigarette smell and the obnoxious back ground noises I was pretty much checked out.

When I needed a steak knife to cut through the lobster I could not overcome the disappointment. It was tough and stringy. Which indicates it was not stored at the proper temperature and subsequently overcooked. It was just not good. My wife looked over at me and said, "You're disappointed." I was. And so was she.

I somewhat obnoxiously asked the waiter to clear our plates because by this point all I could smell and taste was bad seafood and cigarettes. He asked if we wanted dessert and my wife immediately asked for a cheese plate to go.

At this point the only good things to come out of dinner was the champagne, knowing we didn't waste her 30th birthday dinner at this restaurant and the cheese plate.

Le Bistro

Again we were incredibly excited for this restaurant. We walked by several times earlier in the week and were looking forward to the experience. Our expectations were pretty high.

The tables are set beautifully.

Until the lovely waitress asked my wife when she was expected to deliver.

We're used to terse service in Parisian restaurants but asking any woman wearing an A-line dress on a 7-day caribbean cruise with an open bar and buffet restaurant is just asking for trouble. My wife answered, "I'm not." And threw the waitress a death stare. She's a tough cookie but just to prove it to her, we'll have 2 glasses of one of our favorite champagnes.

Took me a bit to calm the wife down. The champagne helped. The waiter presented bread slices with a salmon spread. The spread was quite nice but was accompanied by bread slices with far too much garlic seasoning. It over powered the spread. We found the salmon was better suited for the standard french bread they presented in a second bread basket.

My wife began with the Mushroom Soup and I the French Onion Soup.

Both soups were pretty good. My wife raved about the mushroom soup and the french onion I felt was also pretty good. Nothing mind blowing but nothing to complain about either.

Our appetizer were presented quickly after finishing our soup.

After our quick nap we headed down to the spa for a bit. We relaxed in the therapy pool and steam room before returning to the cabin to get ready for dinner.

I think the most frustrating part of the Freestyle concept aside from the need for reservations for everything was the inability to manage them. The iPhone App allows you to reserve until your hearts content but not cancel. Or see what reservations you already made.

Back down to the room around 7pm and I tried loading the My Vacation Planner on the TV. This never worked. You could select it but it would never load.

We had a little time before our reservation so we grabbed 2 open seats at Mixx bar which sits inbetween Taste and Savor in the same way Prime Meridian 360 sits between Modernos and Cagneys.

The people watching here is pretty awesome. Interesting dinner attire, crazy cross of people, etc.

At some point we noticed a group of folks across the bar doing Fireball shots. I ordered a Hendricks and tonic and sat back and watched. I watched this already intoxicated passenger served shot after shot of Fireball. I made a comment to the bartender about how much the guy had drank and he pulled out the bottle and showed me it WAS a fresh bottle. Now just 1/2 full.

Instead of calling security and having this guy escorted back to his stateroom, he was admitted into the one of the dining rooms for dinner. He could barely walk. In fact he nearly knocked me and a couple of pieces of art down as he walked back to the dining room from the bathroom.

I was a pretty heated. I thought it was irresponsible of the bartenders to serve someone like that. The bartender took it upon himself to pour me a 2nd gin and tonic with so much gin in it, it was undrinkable. My wife complained her greyhound was similar. I ended up leaving the glass on the bar and walking over to Le Bistro for in hopes they could seat us a few minutes early.

Luckily they could. My wife loves french food and anything that reminds her of our trip to Paris this past summer. Tonight was her night and a dry run for her birthday dinner which we would celebrate later in the week. So she requested a table "outside" the restaurant on the atrium.