Sea Review, 06/25 - 07/02 (Long)

[CandWDiva]

Preface:

 

Originally our group started-out at 19 people. The day before we left, one of the group had a very unexpected death in the family. Their family of three had to bow-out. That morning, as we’re about to leave, another family of two had to cancel, because of a missing birth certificate. This took us down to 14. We were all saddened and a little dis-heartened, but we were a determined bunch.

 

 

 

Embarkation:

 

We came from the DFW area, so it’s about a 4 ½ hour drive to La Porte. It’s everything people say it is – very "industrial". If you don’t live in Texas, it’s kind of sad that this area is your first and only impression. We got there as they about to open the doors, so we got a porter and got in line fairly quickly. FYI, there were nine of us in the original bunch that first boarded. We brought soft drinks and an opened case of bottled water. They were so nice. They taped and tied luggage tags on everything that didn’t have one. Be sure to tip these guys. They work hard.

 

 

 

I tried to talk to Reception desk on-board about the two cancellations (to make sure it was in their system, etc.), and this is where I dealt with the most unpleasant person on the ship. No one walked away smiling after talking to her. I think she’s the one that most of the comments have been about (calling people liars and such). After a few moments and then asking to speak to a supervisor, I got a really nice lady named Janet. She couldn’t really help, but not for lack of trying. She even called me later to get more information to make sure it all got in a written report.

 

 

 

After the mandatory life boat drill, most of the bags had been delivered in big mounds of luggage out in the foyer on our floor. They didn’t mind you taking your bags, which concerned me that someone might accidentally end-up with one of ours. No reason to worry, though. Between what we carried ourselves and they delivered later, everything made it in-tact. Wrinkled, but in-tact.

 

 

 

Cabins:

 

We were all on Promenade Deck (6) in Category DD staterooms. If anyone wants to see pictures, let me know. Yes, the bathrooms are tiny, but they were very functional. You adapt. There were a few signs of wear and tear (stains on some of the ceilings, etc.), but nothing that was an eye-sore. We slept very comfortably. Two of our cabins had three females in them (using their beds and a roll-away), and they all managed just fine. The location of this deck is great. We utilized the stairs as much as possible - - even coming back after the excursions from Deck 1.

 

 

 

Meals:

 

We had the majority of our meals together. The only time they would let us make reservations was at 5:30 or 9:30, however. So we ended-up just showing-up and waiting to be seated. It was usually around 7:00 or 7:30, and we never waited more than 10 minutes.

 

 

 

Almost all of the food we tried was excellent. My personal favorite is hard to decide, but I’m leaning towards the mushroom bisque. It was all I could do not to turn the cup upside down and lick it! After our first night, they always knew to bring extra cheese plates and crackers for the table. They’ll let you get small portions of the entrees for appetizers, if you ask.

 

 

 

The service in the dining rooms was always good, but we got spoiled our first night by Junior, one of the Senior Waiters from Jamaica. After a couple of waiters that didn’t have the same personality, we started looking for Junior. It’s trickier than it sounds, because they move them around to different restaurants at different times. Be sure and fill-out your comment cards.

 

 

 

The Wine Steward was great, and did her best to remember what we all wanted to drink. Not her fault that we kept trying new things. The head chef even put in an appearance and stopped by to talk. At the Chocaholic Buffet, they use 382 pounds of chocolate. It’s unbelievable!

 

 

 

Entertainment:

 

This is where our group was divided. A few of us really enjoyed the shows they put on the Cabaret. Coming from a musical background, I know all the hard work and effort that went into these song and dance numbers. There are so many of them to learn! The costumes are good, too. There was one female singer (long blonde hair) that was a little too “Betty Boop voiced” for me, but hey – over-all, we enjoyed it.

 

 

 

The band, Kenosis, in Stardust does an excellent job. The ONLY complaint we had with them was one night they did one Shania Twain song after another. We love Shania as much as the next person, but still… The band will take requests, and they’ll even let you sing or play an instrument with them.

 

 

 

The gong show Karaoke was funny. My group talked me into getting-up there, and even though I was dreading it, I did. I knew I’d get gonged, though – if nothing else because of statistics. They couldn’t possibly let everybody through, and two or three others in front of me had made it. They mean it when they say “Not for the easily offended.” They about scared the bejesus out of me when they hit that gong! To the winner - - Pepper, if you’re reading this – Girl, you rule! What an awesome voice – and very funny!!

 

 

 

I was disappointed that more people didn’t enter the Star Seekers Talent Show. The ones that did were very talented – and more than a little brave! I’m not great, but I am a ham! If I’d known there were only going to be three other contestants, I would’ve sucked it up for a chance to win. : )

 

 

 

Sam Griesbaum, the comedian on-board was hilarious!! We all loved him. Each show was a little unique, and his input on the Liars game show thing was very funny.

 

 

 

Stephen Kane, on the other hand, could’ve been left back in Houston. The man is talented – no doubt. But when an operatic, theatrical voice opens with “All My Rowdy Friends…”, you know you’re in trouble. He should’ve stuck to show tunes and playing the piano.

 

 

 

Excursions:

 

Here’s what we did, along with a small blurb about each one. If you have specific questions, just ask.

 

 

 

Cozumel – We were going to do the Playa Mia Deluxe Beach Break, but we got rained-out. Fortunately, they gave us credit. We shopped in the rain for an hour or two, then came back to the ship when we started getting cold. This was a good day for the board games they had on the ship. The rain cleared-out right as we were about to leave port, I think.

 

 

 

Roatan – GumbalimbaPark:

 

I did this with my 16 year old daughter and 15 year old step-daughter. Two other adult friends came along, as well. The Coxen’s Cave part of the excursion is kind of corny, but there are good photo ops here. Some of the group had been concerned that we’d be all psyched about seeing the monkeys, and there would be one poor little monkey being passed around the group. Not so. There are several monkeys, and you can hold and play with them all! We have some very cute photos from here, if anyone wants to see. They also have several parrots and other birds. One small green parrot about dive-bombed me to land on my arm as I was waiting to go across the rope bridge. Another scare the bejesus moment out of me. I kept trying to get him to fly off, but he stayed on my arm almost all the way across the bridge. It was funny LATER, but at the time… not so much. : )

 

 

 

Be sure to wear insect repellent BEFORE and getting out of the water here. The beach is pretty, but the water has a lot of grass in it. Not made for snorkeling, but we went for the monkeys, so we didn’t care. Our 15 year old got a lot of sand flea bites. They never really itched, but she looked like she had chicken pox for a day or so.

 

 

 

 

 

Roatan – TabyanaBeach:

 

My husband, oldest step-daughter and some other friends did this snorkeling excursion. They all loved it. The water pictures were amazing. I’ll be happy to share with anyone wanting to see. The beach was beautiful. From talking to other passengers – this was the crowd favorite. I wish they’d incorporate a way to do both Gumbalimba Park AND Tabyana Beach.

 

 

 

Belize – Rendezvous Key Catamaran Snorkeling:

 

Again, this was just me and the 15 & 16 year old. This doesn’t start until later in the afternoon, so you have time to go look around Belize before leaving. The shopping area by the pier isn’t huge, but it’s adequate. Head behind the little mall to get the better bargains. We ate lunch at a place called the Wet Lizard. They had the best tacos I’ve ever had in my life! Try the chicken and the beef. The service is a little slow here, but you’re on their island time, so try and just go with it. Don’t wait until the last minute (like we did), and then panic you won’t make the excursion in time. It leaves from right in front of it.

 

 

Rendezvous Key was beautiful, but there’s not much to it. The water is very clear, and you can see a lot – but there aren’t as many colorful fish and coral as there were at Tabyana Beach or Shark Ray Alley. Our captain and crew were really nice, and we felt very safe with them in the water. Watch out for that rum punch, though. They use a LOT of rum, and it caught up with me right about the same time we were getting back to the ship. : )

 

 

 

Belize – Shark Ray Alley & San Pedro Sightseeing:

 

We’d been told that the sharks pretty much clear-out after their sardine dinner, but there were a couple that hung-around for a little longer. Our oldest was definitely keeping her eye on them. Unfortunately, someone took my husband’s waterproof camera on accident (mistaking it for his), so now we have no pictures from here just yet. We have to wait for friends’ pictures to get developed. We tried to check with Excursion Desk and personnel handling their ship, but they had no way of knowing which person was in which ship. That was determined by the Excursion company directly. So… if anyone reading this came back with a waterproof camera and it has pictures on it of a teenage girl, show your wife this e-mail (to save your reputation!), and then contact me about sending us the prints. We’ll be happy to reimburse developing.

 

 

 

Cancun: Isla Mujeres (?sp)

 

We did this on our own, which was good and bad. I’m not sure if we had booked through NCL that we couldn’t have tendered right from the ship. As it was, we had to tender to Cancun, and then catch a ferry to Isla Mujeres. Once there, we’d read on this board we could rent a golf cart for $20 for the day. Not so. But don’t be tricked into thinking you HAVE to rent it for $40 for the half-day either. We found that a little further in-land, they are more than willing to rent it by the hour. So $30 later, we had a golf cart for 2 hours. We drove all around the island, stopping whenever we wanted to take pictures. This place is gorgeous. We stopped at Garrafon Park and took pictures of the ship out in the water. Then a little further around, we found a really cool place with a light house. Can someone please tell me what this area is called? There’s a sculpture garden, restaurants and little shops. It’s beautiful, and we got some great pictures here. It was really neat just to drive around and see all the houses. We stayed with the coast on our right the whole time, so you can’t really get lost. We managed to find our way back to the golf cart rental place, Del Sol, and then waited for the ferry. This was yet another “bejesus moment”.

 

 

 

They said 2:00, because we had to catch the last tender at 3:00. They left late, and then they wouldn’t let us get off at the pier they took us back to. The guy told us “No! No! No!!” Keep in mind that it is 2:38 at this point. We’re already a little nervous, because we have to make our way from there to the tender. I asked him where we were going, and all he would say was “Big Boat”. I asked him if they were taking us to the ship (pointing to it) and I kept trying to explain we were heading away from it. Finally, another passenger told me they were heading to the mainland ferry station. Great!!! The ferry guy tried to blame it on me not telling him where we needed to go. The first guy told us our bracelets would tell him which pier we needed. We tried to get off, and they literally sped-off with us standing up at the ladder. Be wary if you do this yourself! By the time we caught a cab at the other ferry, it was 2:50. Bless our cab driver’s little speeding heart. We explained our situation, and he got us there in seven minutes. Talk about grateful!! Then we had to stand in the tender line for what seemed like forever. Turns out we weren’t the last tender in, because there were a couple after us. But we didn’t know that at the time. We were mentally worn-out by the time we got back.

 

 

 

The rest of our group shopped that day. They were all hot and cranky when we got back. That was the only night we didn’t all eat together. We caught up with each other later, though, and it was all good.

 

 

 

Disembarkation:

 

Getting off the ship is much more frustrating than getting on. Once they call your color ticket, it goes pretty quick. But once you get inside the building again, that’s where it gets a little crazy. The luggage is EVERYWHERE. We got more mosquito bites here than we did on the rest of our trip. My husband spent a while trying to find a porter here. Once we did and got in line, we had other people cutting in front of us. This was frustrating, but we tried to take it all in stride. After all, we just had a great cruise. It was about 10:00 by the time we left the building and got on the road.

 

 

 

We stopped at Blackeyed Pea on the way home, and we couldn’t help but joke around wondering where the wine steward was. Didn’t they know they were supposed to bring us a cheese platter? What were they thinking bringing all our food out at once? LOL!

 

E-mail me at CandWDiva@aol.com if you want specific pictures or more info.

 

Later! TLuv

[kirbmeister]

Thanks for the review. Three more days.

[sowhynot]

You mentioned that people in your group had three to a cabin and used a roll-away. We're booked on the Sea on the Prominade deck on July 22 with 3 - and I was hoping (in fact thinking) that the 3rd person had an upper berth. That isn't the case on the Sea?

[CandWDiva]

You mentioned that people in your group had three to a cabin and used a roll-away. We're booked on the Sea on the Prominade deck on July 22 with 3 - and I was hoping (in fact thinking) that the 3rd person had an upper berth. That isn't the case on the Sea?

 

 

Once they used-up all the triple cabins (we had one in our group), they allowed us to book two regular rooms and add rollaway beds. We could've just done another cabin, but it would've caused them to re-adjust the rates on the one the other three had already paid. If you booked a triple, I'm sure you have one with the upper/lower berths. The one I saw looked just like ours, just with the additional berth. Let me know if you want to see pictures.

[BillandLaura]

I would love to see pictures! Can you email them to me at stampinqueen17@aol.com? Thanks! We leave Saturday! Woo Hoo! :D