cruiseguy56

That's interesting. We've never NOT had comedians on any of our HAL cruises. We've even had two different comedians on an 11 day HAL cruise.

Actually HAL has Club Orange - It's a dedicated suite restaurant, and Rotterdam DOES have it. As a long time HAL cruiser, DW and I LOVE the food HAL serves. We are about to embark on our first Carnival cruise and have been told by co-workers who sail both lines we may be disappointed in the food on Carnival. I just say back to them that we've never had a bad cruise. It is true from what I've seen/heard of Carnival that you won't find as many activities on a HAL ship.

We were there in August of 22 when we were told ONLY Yacht club folks could go over the bridge to the beaches there. All beaches were open the two days we were at the island. Perhaps we we're just misinformed by a new or poorly trained bridge guard. Thanks for the update, it's good information to know if we cruise msc again.

The Lagoon (south beach) is calm. But, be advised there are some unusual (to me anyway) marine animals in the water. We noticed what looked like ragged brown plastic bags floating about a foot and a half under water. Thought we'd be kind and remove the garbage. Upon getting hold of it, discovered it was a type of jellyfish we've never seen at home or anywhere else in the Caribbean. Luckily, although we were stung, it had a very mild sting. Not sure how bad it would be to small children though.

Can you get to Bimini beach or Ocean house without being in a Yacht Club room? When we went we weren't allowed to go across the bridge as we weren't yacht club. Don't know if the original poster is, but if not....

Part of the issue with NCL and not dining with others is that NCL boats often have multiple restaurants on board (that aren’t premium like the pinnacle), but the line word you to make reservations for them. This causes a lot of people to end up eating with just their spouse or significant other/traveling partner. It isn’t always that people don’t WANT to dine with others on NCL, it’s often an unintended side effect of NCL’s multi-dining locations and reservation policy.

We sailed HAL in January and had just at 1100 on a bout designed for 2500+. The morning buffet breakfast rush was usually us and maybe two other couples on one side of the boat. Had the thermal suite to ourselves 99.7% of the time on board. No waiting to embark or debark. Sat by the pool each evening and no one was there. Had the run of the machines in the casino as we never saw more than 10 others there while we were there. Best cruise ever! Not expecting that on the next two for this year. Hoping late August MSC Divina will not be full of kids as they should be going back to school.

I had called MSC a few days ago with a question about our end of August cruise and after getting my answer, was told "don't wait until the last minute to do the on-line check-in. Be sure to check-in anytime after 20 days before the cruise." I said are you kidding me, waiting THAT long before the cruise IS last minute to us. We always cruise other lines have done the web check-in a good 6-7 months before cruise date. MSC is some kind of different, I'm learning.