locashaina

Looking forward to your review! I'm leaving Saturday for mine (Could not wait to say that!), hoping you'll finish before then!

I'm doing the Monkey and Sloth hangout next month. I'm so excited I'll get to hear your experience beforehand!

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Now to pick a room! I love having a balcony for a few romantic reasons- you can step out of bed and feel the ocean breeze, you can sit and soak up the rays of a glowing orange sunset- and for a few practical reasons- swimsuits never seem to dry in the bathroom, sometimes there’s odors in a cabin where it would really be nice to crack a window. Come on, you know that’s true.

 

To go a little extra OCD, I also looked at the ship's travel path and picked the side of the ship that would be showing the coast as we sailed from port to port (which happened to be left or port), so that, and limited 4-person room availability at the almost 90 day mark, set us with room 9284 if you’re curious.

 

 

We booked through AAA because we have a membership and they offer good travel insurance. It was the exact same price as booking ourselves online. Our office didn’t have discounts on NCL, but they did take care of all the reminders and they printed our luggage tags and documents for us. It also made me feel better that if we had any issues, our local agent would be there to help and they sent me travel books on Florida so that we could plan a post-cruise fun stop on the way back home.

 

 

Now comes the part that I love and the part that may bore other people to tears- planning! If you’re already starting to zone out, just skip this section- I promise I’ll get to the Es-cap-ay part soon! For those who share my deep appreciation for tripadvisor, spreadsheets, and checklists, jump on in!

 

Kids- to passport or not to passport. That is the question.

 

Our kids have been on 2 Caribbean cruises prior to this one with just birth certificates including one out of San Juan, so I didn’t plan on getting them passports until my travel agent pointed out in a lot of foreign countries, if you get sick while you’re there, you cannot fly back home until arrangements for a passport are made, which could potentially delay you getting appropriate medical care. Eek, that’s a scary thought. Considering a few years back when my son was very close to requiring emergency hernia surgery, I figured that I’d rather be safe than sorry. It’s pricey but we went to the post office right after the reservation was booked and filed the paperwork to get the kid’s passports. The passports arrive in 3 weeks.

 

Excursions- use ship or not use ship. That is the other question.

 

I’m having too much fun with my new info-graphic app (Adobe Spark) so here’s another one!

 

So, our promotional shore excursion credit gave us a whopping $50 per port to use on shore excursions so you’d think we’d book all our trips through the ship, right? Let’s do some research! My main starting point for research was the Ports of Call forums and google. I found a list of place we might want to go for each port and then researched the reviews for the places/excursion companies on trip advisor as well as the potential timelines (did they give us plenty of time to get back to the ship on time), stress levels (would I be jumping on buses in a country that I didn’t speak the language, etc.), and cost. I’ll talk about it more as I review each port but I looked at the pros and cons and costs of independent vs ship excursions at every port, except Harvest Caye where it’s go ship or go home.

 

So that I can ease you slowing into my neurotical cruise planning world, I’ll just start with the daily chart that I make for each vacation that includes the ports we’ll visit, times in port and what excursion we plan to take (organize level beginning). If you want to totally geek out, also add in the times of all the dinners that you pre-booked (organized level medium) because even though it has freestyle dining, it’s good to plan ahead, and finally the possible activity times based on all the past freestyle dailies that you’ve dug through cruise critic to find like Gollum looking for “my precious” (organized level expert)- double geek points for that one!

 

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Let me know if you want a copy of this Word document template and I’ll send it your way!

I'm a planner as well! I appreciate looking at your schedule because you booked two excursions I will be doing in August! Daniel Johnson's and Native Choice... thanks for the review!

A main crew hallway that runs the length of the ship, its named after interstate 95 which runs from New England to Florida.

Awesome. Thank you. I haven't seen that referenced in any of the reviews I read. By looking at it, it seemed like a crew hallway. Thank you for the review!

 

the I-95

 

 

Can I ask what the I-95 is?

Can anyone speak specifically to the Social Media internet package? I'm also interested in getting this package if it is usable.

Thank you!!!

Thank you all! I just want to know so I can dump ahead of time and not hold up any lines. :D

Hi there,

I will be going on my first NCL cruise in August. Normally while at theme parks I usually fill my Camelbak with ice and water to last me the day. I know there are stations I could fill it onboard but my question is bringing it back on. In my research I have read that you cannot bring water back on the ship. Will I have to dump my water out of my Camelbak before getting back on the ship?

Thanks for help in advance!

I went solo. Can't remember cost. Went in a van with others. Sloth was amazing. They let you hold it. They wouldn't let me as I'm in my 60's and I think the guy thought if the sloth grabbed me with its claws my skin would tear. Also monkeys and birds there.

We are 70 and they let my wife hold the sloth while I took photos.

I took my 9 and 7 year olds last October. We did the monkeys and snorkel. The folks took good care of my family!! I had not safety concerns at all.

Thank you all! I was able to convince my friend to go!

A friend and I were just there last week as part of a private tour we arranged. We're both in our late 20s and felt very comfortable, though we admittedly are both seasoned travelers. The monkeys were funny (they'll steal bobby pins from your hair!), and we got to hold the sweetest sloth. It's not a big sanctuary - it'll probably only take you 45 minutes to see everything AND play with the animals - so you'll want to schedule it with other excursions in Roatan.

Thank you! We are both in our 20s so that is good to hear! I am so excited about this when I first heard of it.

It's been 2 years since I've been there but I was there with my husband and middle school daughter. I never felt like I was in any danger.

Thank you! Was your transportation through them directly?

I'll be there with my sister in a couple of weeks!! I'll let you know when I get back if no one else has replied.

Please let me know anyways! The extra reassurance for my friend would be great! Ha, Thank you so much!

Hi there,

I am going to Roatan Bay in August on NCL Escape. I found the Monkey and Sloth hangout and became very excited. Only concern is it is only me and a friend traveling alone. There are concerns regarding safety since we are traveling alone. Just wondering if any women here booked this experience solo or in a pair?

Thanks in advance!

loved the Epic this easter so I've just booked the Escape for aug 19 th 2017 as a surprise for husbands birthday , now for the long wait .

I'm on the same one!

I have a cruise booked for August 2017, I'm 4'11" and 146 (my highest weight for my size is really bad). I am training myself to eat healthy for now, once this rain slows down I plan to incorporate some exercise until I'm on a healthy routine. This forum surely should help!