RADGIRL80

2 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Did you try?

We didn’t try because we assumed we had to use one of the two restaurants on the coupon. 

2 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Well that would be new.  Did each coupon state that?

Yes each coupon stated “with bottle of wine” 

My husband and I are platinum, and we just got off the Escape. It’s two separate coupons for two dinners (moderno or la Cucina for one coupon) and (Cagneys or Le Bistro for the second one). Both of ours included wine, and we took two bottles of our choice from a list home. Teppanyaki isn’t possible for the platinum coupon. 

2 hours ago, slavetoabunny said:

We loved the Green Grotto Caves.  They are well worth going to.

Thank you so much! Beautiful! 

Hi,

We are going on the Escape, and we are possibly interested in the Green Grotto Caves tour thru NCL. Has anyone done it? Is it worth it? We’ve already done Dunns and Blue Hole, as well as tubing. We are looking for something different.  I know this belongs in the ports feed, but nobody answered there and we leave on Sat. Thank you!!

Hi,

We are considering doing the Grotto Caves excursion through NCL. We have already gone to the Blue Hole, Dunns and have done river tubing. Anyone done this excursion? Is it worth it? Thanks! 

Thanks so much everyone! I appreciate the info! 

Hi,

my husband and I are platinum. On the tier benefits it says that platinum receives dinner with wine and then it says again dinner right below. 
 

Does this mean we each get one additional specialty dining night or 2? I don’t understand why it has it twice but the second time without the wine. How do we get them applied? 
 

Also, booking isn’t available online for any speciality dining. We cruise in 2 wks. Do they still have openings when we get on board? 
 

thank you!!

We stayed on the deck below the pool deck once, and we made sure to never do it again. We heard scraping of lounge chairs in the very early morning hours. I’d change, if possible. 

4 hours ago, lifes-a-beach said:

Our arrival time was delayed like an hour for some reason that I can’t remember.  Catherine was aware of the delay and we took a cab to their little hut as soon as we could.  It was, I think, a noon arrival.  It was just me, my 30 year old son and my 28 year old daughter.  We are all experienced and my daughter is certified in scuba as well.  I say that to say we have our own equipment and our expectations are based on experience.  There was a 3 person crew and we were the only customers.  Two of the crew, a man and a woman, were in the water the entire time.  The man was in front directing our attention to various sea life and leading us around where we needed to be swimming.  The woman was safety and shadowed us with a life ring. The third man was the boat captain and remained in the boat.  The water was quite rough that day and had we not been experienced and confident I’m not sure the trip would have been fun.  Catherine did ask us if we were ok going out.  If it turns out to be rough like that, and if you and your group are not somewhat experienced or wouldn’t handle the up and down of the small boat, you should consider cancelling.  The good news is that rough water isn’t the norm.  We did enjoy the trip and saw some interesting coral and sea life.  Given the options, this was a good trip and I will go with them again.  Catherine couldn’t have been more pleasant and the crew attentive.  I’m a safety-first guy and they handled that aspect very well.

 

We did not stay on the beach this trip as my wife had stayed on the ship and we are booked to return there several more times this year.  We have been to various beach stops there many times, most recently Krazy Lobster which was ok.  The Sargassum was very bad and all the beach clubs were struggling to keep their spots nice.  We plan to try Maya Chan when we return in November.  Gypsea is right next to YaYa and my wife and daughter had a good day there in May.  My wife spoke highly of their service and the comfort of the lounge chairs, something lacking at some of the clubs.  If they’re booked up just keep walking down the malecon back toward the lighthouse and you’ll see plenty more options.

This was incredibly helpful!! Thank you so much!! We will try Yaya afterwards or just walk down as you suggested. Again thank you for the detailed response! Sounds like a very personalized snorkeling experience, just what we are hoping for! Hopefully we have calm waters. Thanks again! Glad you all liked it!

22 hours ago, c-leg5 said:

Malecon21 used to be one of our favorite beach locations but were disappointed in service at the beginning of this year. It has been a difficult year all round so perhaps it was an off day. I know they were able to arrange snorkel tours previously. 
 

Also i have seen groups leaving from Hotel Luna de Plata.

3 hours ago, lifes-a-beach said:

For some reason I didn't have good luck with the gypseadivers website either.  Try Catherine Giroux at coralnegro8@hotmail.com .  She was very responsive to me and was there when we arrived. 

Thanks so much! I emailed to this email and Catherine got back to me. We are booked with them. Did you like the snorkel trip? Were there a lot of people on your tour? Did you stay at the beach after? If yes which one? We plan to do that when snorkeling is done. Thanks!!

Hi, 

We are a group of 8 (4 adults and 4 kids-12, 12, 12, and 15) coming to costa Maya in a couple of weeks. I’ve been trying to find a good snorkel boat tour in costa Maya and can’t find anything. I tried contacting gypseadivers based on prior recommendations, and haven’t heard back. We are also fine going to a good beach club and going on a snorkel boat from there. I know Jamie’s has one, but we aren’t interested in all inclusive. I would appreciate any recommendations! Thanks! 

Hi,

My husband and I are taking our two kids, 12 and 8, on the Norwegian Bliss this Aug. My 12 year old would like to try to eat from the menus of the specialty restaurants, while my 8 year old would only eat chicken nugg from the regular kids menu. My husband and I will have the UDP as a perk. How much would I have to pay for each kid?

Thanks!

We had a balcony at the way back of the ship on deck ten. We were underneath cabanas. We heard chairs being moved around every morning from about 4/5am. It's LOUD because they drag and drop them. Lounge chairs would be similar. If you are able to move, I would. My kids slept through it, but my husband and I are light sleepers. That aft balcony made it bearable though. :cool:

Is there a way to price this without calling an agent to do it manually? When I go through a cruise site or through the royal Caribbean site, it still charges the kids full price. The dates that I chose aren't one of those excluded ones. Thanks.

We are on Nov 25 sailing on Escape. I am hoping we get lucky and are able to get the passes. I am thinking about purchasing the SPA passes just in case we are not able to get the Vibe. Which week in November did you cruise?

Hi, we sailed on the getaway from 11/5. Our sailing may not have been as full, not sure. Even though they had 3 passes left, the couple in front of us actually got 2/3. One pass would have been useless for us. So we weren't able to purchase. But we found a really great place one deck above vibe in the way front of ship, which was quiet and shaded. I'm not even sure we will get vibe in the future. When seeing it in person, chairs were completely packed. Umbrellas can't always be used due to wind.

If you try to get the passes, good luck!!!

You don't necessarily always need to be in group 1. My husband and I boarded at 1:30pm last November. At that point they still had 3 passes left at guest services.

Hi all, we ended up getting tickets to everything we wanted even though it all presold quickily. The day before our sailing, multiple times and days were released for all the events, so we got lucky before we left.

Even if you can't get tickets before sailing, all the characters, including the princesses are readily available with multiple days of appearances with minimal waits. I couldn't believe the number and different characters we got pictures with!! So much easier than at Disney world! The frozen sisters are only available during their meet and greet though.

Thanks everyone! I appreciate the input. I've been checking online everyday, a few times a day, for new openings. That's how I was able to grab the frozen tickets and the Disney character breakfast this week. I'm just disappointed that I can't get all the tickets in advance, especially for the princess gathering. I know they have individual meets, which is a nice option if we can't get the princess gathering tickets. I just wanted to save us time by not having to get in multiple lines on different days for individual princesses. :p

Has anyone recently not been able to get the Disney princess online but then was able to get them on embarkation day? Thanks again!!!

Hi,

We are a family of 4 new to Disney cruise but not new to cruising. We are booked on the Disney fantasy cruise 5/26/17. Even though I'm constantly researching for cruises, I missed the part that tickets can be reserved for Disney princess and Frozen meet and greets. I didn't realize this until 45 days out, when everything was already sold out.

I was able to get 2 tickets for Frozen yesterday, when a time suddenly became available after being sold out for months. I still need 2 more. :( also, the Disney princess meet and greet remains sold out. Does anyone know if times are still likely to become available as we get closer to sailing? If they don't, are there tickets possibly available on board? Our PAT isn't until 12:30p so I'm worried, again, we will be too late.

It will be very disappointing to not be able to get tickets for my kids.

Thanks for any input!

We recently used Ricardo for an excursion to the Blue Hole, river tubing, and scotchies. LOVED it! We had a wonderful friendly driver, who made us all feel safe. We were met by guides at the Blue Hole and river tubing. Our driver waited in the lot. The Blue Hole is incredible!!!! Scotchies was very good. We absolutely loved our tour and wouldn't hesitate to book with liberty tours. Very reputable company. We never worried about getting back on time, which wasn't an issue. Have fun!!!

On the getaway in Nov, it was no longer in the buffet for people to grab. But my husband asked workers for it and was given a large amount every day! So, it's available, but you have to ask for it.

I had a horrible disembarkation like this from the getaway in may. Getting through American security took almost another hour!

 

 

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Getting through customs was bad too (about 30-45min), but getting off the ship was an absolute nightmare!!!! We were in total shock. Multiple times they would stop the entire debarkation process for long periods of time. We were on getaway in 2/15, and this was not our experience. This put a damper on an otherwise wonderful cruise. Sorry you experienced the same!

We just got off getaway, but I'm sure it's similar to escape. We were in line to get 2 passes at 1:30pm. The couple right before us got the last two! We were very disappointed, particularly because we literally missed the passes within seconds. BUT we found a really nice not crowded space on the top deck (17 on getaway) in the front. We loved it! There was even shade along the wall. We will try to get passes next time. Good luck! You never know, so definitely try to get them at 2!

Hi! My husband and I are long time cruisers and just became gold on our most recent cruise, getaway 11/6 sailing. Yay! We have NEVER had any issues with embarkation/debarkation, so I'm hoping our issues were outliers? Embarkation was all one line (not separated by latitudes). The line was enormous, at least an hr long. We arrived at 12:30 for reference. Usually we waited not more than 5 min, no matter what time we arrived. There was even a 30 min wait outside coming into the terminal! Never happened before.

Debarkation was an absolute mess!!!! Again, in the past we exited right away with no issues no matter what time we decided to come off. We decided to get off at 9am because our flight was at noon from MIA. It took us close to An hour and a half to just get off the ship. The line started at the front (where you are supposed to get off) and looped to the back around to the front. There was no organization because people were jumping into line in the back. It was horrible. We were worried we would miss the flight, which luckily we made.

Are these new occurrences? We never experienced these issues in the past! We absolutely LOVE NCL, and loved everything else about our cruise. But embarkation/and especially debarkation made us think! I am posting this not to complain but just to make sure people aware and plan accordingly, especially debarkation.