Allure photo review from Galveston, Dec 18-23 -- 4 kids, an Artic cold front and relocating Central Park

[Biker19]

@dwHokie you may want to limit the pics and spread them across several posts- folks on a ship or with limited bandwidth may appreciate it. 

[lcpagejr]

What a fond memory we had of Maya Chan from 2019...Took my family there and we had a blast. Wonderful owners and atmosphere!  Your right...the ride to/from was interesting to say the least. Thanks for sharing the photos and rekindling our memories!

[js10]

Loving your review Dan!  Great pictures and narrative.

[Ozark_Kid]

We appreciate the Maya Chan review.   We will be visiting next month and it looks great.  We heard it's a challenge to get to the pick-up area.  We are thankful @brillohead has offered to meet up with us and guide us to the pick-up. 

 

 

[brillohead]

36 minutes ago, Ozark_Kid said:

We appreciate the Maya Chan review.   We will be visiting next month and it looks great.  We heard it's a challenge to get to the pick-up area.  We are thankful @brillohead has offered to meet up with us and guide us to the pick-up. 

 

Once you know where you're going, it's not too bad.  But they clearly took advice from the Cozumel port architects... you have to go past **every**single**shop** and around a bunch of curves both left and right in order to get to the outside world!!!

 

 

6 hours ago, dwHokie said:

Awwww, Shiva the kitty is such a sweetheart!  Very social, particularly for a cat that sees strangers every single day.  She crawled up and took a nap with me on a daybed one visit!

[Merion_Mom]

7 hours ago, dwHokie said:

 

 

There was a very small pool with not the cleanest water, but plenty of other activities to keep the kids entertained.

 

 

 

We love Maya Chan.  This was our favorite palapa.  😄 

[dwHokie]

3 hours ago, lcpagejr said:

What a fond memory we had of Maya Chan from 2019...Took my family there and we had a blast. Wonderful owners and atmosphere!  Your right...the ride to/from was interesting to say the least. Thanks for sharing the photos and rekindling our memories!

 

You are certainly welcome...we had a great time there...very relaxing for sure.  It is a well-oiled machine...you can tell they know what they are doing and cater specifically to cruises.

 

2 hours ago, Ozark_Kid said:

We appreciate the Maya Chan review.   We will be visiting next month and it looks great.  We heard it's a challenge to get to the pick-up area.  We are thankful @brillohead has offered to meet up with us and guide us to the pick-up. 

 

 

 

The good news is...on the way back they can drop you at the front of the port, so at least you save that walk on the way back to the ship.

[dwHokie]

2 hours ago, js10 said:

Loving your review Dan!  Great pictures and narrative.

 

Thanks and see you soon Pop!  It will be 70 degrees here Thursday!

[dwHokie]

1 hour ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

We love Maya Chan.  This was our favorite palapa.  😄 

 

That was a great area!  You had the pool right there as well as one of the restrooms and one of the bars.  Yet still very private and super shaded.

[dwHokie]

On our summer cruise on Harmony, our older boys really enjoyed snorkeling in St. Thomas (lucky enough to see lots of turtles), so we decided for Cozumel we would split up with the older boys taking a snorkeling trip with me and then Allison taking the younger ones for a beach day.  Unfortunately, we made this decision relatively late (about a month out) and there were 8 (yes, eight) ships due to be in Cozumel the day we were there.  As a result, our go-to spot in Cozumel (Paradise Beach) was already fully booked.  After some research, I decided on Playa Mia for the kids, given the beach + pool + water slides + splash area + offshore floats.  I booked it with transportation, not wanting Allison to have to worry about that.  Experience at Playa Mia was mixed...more on that later.

 

For the snorkel trip, I decided on a smaller operation, Cozumel H2O as they had glowing reviews and I wanted strictly a snorkel trip, not one of the booze + snorkel + beach trips.  Communication with Loes in advance planning what we wanted to do was great.  All of their southern trips to the main reefs and El Cielo were booked, so she offered a Northern group trip or a private charter.  Both were very reasonable and after discussion we decided on the Northern group trip as Loes assured us either destination would be good.  This ended up being a great decision...more on that later.

 

The ship arrived early and we were cleared by 6:45am.  Drew, Ethan and I hit the Windjammer at 6:30am for breakfast as we wanted to be off the ship at 7am.  Our tour started at 8am ship time and we were supposed to be there at 7:45am.  Note that Cozumel is one hour later than Texas / ship time right now, so I booked this as a 9am tour start time.  No issues with Windjammer at 6:30am!

 

 

We walked straight off the ship at 7am with no wait at all and although the International Pier where we docked was similar to Costa Maya, at least there were signage to the Taxi / exit which weren't too hard to follow.  You just had to walk through all the shops...but again, at least it was marked and relatively easy to follow, especially compared to Costa Maya.  I was a little worried about a tour with a 20 minute drive with an arrival time 45 minutes after our docking time, but Loes assured me it would be fine and it was.  We were able to quickly secure a taxi with no wait and were at our destination of Puerto de Abrigo by 7:30am ship time.  After a short walk over a bridge and around the marina, we were able to easily find the Kraken and Loes was there to meet us.

 

 

We signed our waivers and we headed out shortly before 8am ship time.  There were only 2 others on the tour with us, so was an amazing personal experience with Loes.  On the way out, she sat cross-legged on the floor of the boat in the middle of us and showed us all the different species we would likely see today as well as taught us hand signals for many of them so she could dive down, point them out and let us know what she was showing us.  Loes is from Holland, so her accent surprised us when we arrived, but she's been living in Cozumel, I believe she said for 18 years now.  She knows her stuff, was very patient, told great stories and was very informative.  Just a great experience.  She had a captain helping her out as well.

 

 

 

I was kicking myself for not getting / bringing an underwater camera for this, so my apologies that I don't have pictures of the snorkeling itself and what we saw.  The best part of the trip...there was never anyone else in the spots we snorkeled other than our group, except one time that 2 scuba divers came by underneath us.  With 8 cruise ships in port, this was amazing.  Now it was early, but Loes clearly knew what she was doing in terms of the locations she selected.

 

We hit 5 different spots over the course of our trip.  We started at Paradise shallow, then Paradise deep and immediately saw tons of fish and a spotted eagle ray.  The other stops were equally good and unique.  One was a very shallow snorkel off the coast of a resort with man-made coral growing structures absolutely filled with fish inside.  Another was over the pier pilings from the original cruise port that was destroyed in the hurricane a number of years back, then dragged out to this spot to form a coral structure.  And then we snorkeled over 2 different ship wrecks.  We saw 2 more eagle rays and tons of parrot fish, trigger fish, angel fish, puffer fish, eels and many other species.  Throughout the trip Loes also had refillable water bottles and fresh fruit / snacks / breads for us to munch on.  There was very little down time between spots and the original marina.  I would say we were snorkeling for nearly 3 of the 4 hours...so be aware, it's a lot of swimming.  Not a problem if you know how to snorkel as you don't spend much energy if doing it right, but wanted to call it out.  The boys were pooped by the end, but they both said it was their favorite thing of the whole cruise.  We return next year on Harmony the same time of year and we will be booking another snorkel trip with Cozumel H2O.  We did a bit of shopping in port and were back on the ship by 12:30pm and able to take a nap...so did appreciate the early start time to maximize our day.

 

 

 

Allison had a more leisurely start to the day with the little ones, heading off the ship around 8:30am.  She had no problem with the included transportation to Playa Mia.  To summarize her trip in a nutshell...kids had a blast, so check the box there.  However, she said it was mobbed.  She had the all-inclusive package and the buffet was included (which she said was bad / sketchy) and then you could order from another limited menu, but it was more than an hour wait for that food.  Finally, there was another menu with many more selections, but it was for an additional cost.  So a bit of a bait and switch here with the "all-inclusive" package.  She also said drink service / bar areas were very slow and you had to work to flag someone down for a drink.  I'm sure part of this was the crowds and having 8 ships in port, but can't say we recommend the all-inclusive package here, nor the resort for adults.

 

Now, for the kid side of things...James and Lexi had a blast as there was plenty for them at Playa Mia between the beach, offshore floats (lots of time spent here), the pool area, water slides, pirate ship/splash area, etc.  The beach and water was beautiful.

 

 

 

 

The further out floats were quite a swim with the kids, but there was a closer in one which James had a blast on.

 

 

Lexi had a ton of fun playing in the sand.

 

 

 

Playa Mia was not bad for the kids, but when we return next year, we'll be going back to Paradise Beach instead.

 

Allison and the kids headed back at 2pm, an hour and a half ahead of all-aboard time (330pm) with a 4pm ship time departure.  When the older boys and I had come back to the International Pier a little after 12, there was hardly anyone there and it still took us 10-15 minutes to get through the security line there...just not very efficient at all.  I warned Allison about this and sure enough, it took her a good 45 minutes to get through.  They made it back by 3:15pm, but there were some stressed out folks behind them, apparently.

 

 

This one below is literally one of my favorite pictures from the trip.

 

 

 

 

Mom and the kids making it back:

 

 

[Kellie in Texas]

@dwHokiewhen we are in Cozumel next week, there will be five ships, so not quite as packed as yours was. We are in port from 8:00 to 18:00. Re: the Playa Mia excursion, did you use the ship's excursion or book independently? We purchased the ship's excursion including transportation, so I'm hoping the return wait that your wife had won't be an issue for us. 

[dwHokie]

We were on our way shortly after 4, so I'm assuming everyone made it back through security as we certainly didn't wait very long after 4 to leave.

 

 

 

 

 

This evening we had reservations at Chops at 8pm for the older boys and the adults and the plan was to get the little ones dinner in advance and then kids club from 7-10 so we could dine at Chops.  Given everyone was pretty hungry after a day of swimming / beach and limited food for Allison, we had a wine and El Loco Fresh (chips & cheese quesadillas) balcony appetizer party to watch sunset.

 

I promise this is not Ethan's wine, he just grabbed Mom's seat when she got up.  Trellis bar in the middle of central park was our go-to spot to grab drinks and bring back to our room as it was very close to our room.

 

 

 

 

Lexi and James wanted pizza and soft-serve which we were able to easily do before dropping them off in the kids club at 7pm.  As we walked in, they welcomed James by name.  I said, "Uh-oh, that's either a good thing or a bad thing you know him by name!" and they assured me it was a good thing.  But either way, great for the folks there to know your kids by name, especially with how many they see.

 

As I mentioned earlier, I have a bass trombone and a trumpet player and as it so happened, there were trombone and then trumpet soloists accompanied by a piano in central park at 6:30pm (trombone) and 7:15 (trumpet).  Drew, Ethan and I watched as we waited for our Chops reservation and Drew had a good conversation with the trombone player (Maxwell) who was very kind in talking to a 15 year old for a good 10 minutes after his set.

 

 

 

 

 

We walked into Chops right at 8pm, excited for our specialty dining together.  Unfortunately, I have to say Chops was a big disappointment.  We're not overly picky as you can hopefully tell from the review so far.  But if I pay $50pp at a steakhouse, I expect good appetizers, mains and sides, especially when it's RCL's signature specialty restaurant.

 

Service was good...so that was not the concern.  It was the quality of the food across the appetizers, mains and sides (the desserts were amazing).  The tuna tartare was not fresh -- had much better tuna in Izumi both this cruise an the previous one on Harmony.  You just can't serve this dish if the tuna is not fresh.  The "jumbo lump" crabcake was a joke.  I was born and raised in Maryland, so I know a good crabcake, and this was all filler (no jumbo lump) and was not fresh crabmeat.  My wife loves lobster bisque...and it was also bad (we both tried it).  No sherry, was not creamy, no lump lobster and hers even had shell in it.  To his credit, the waiter could tell we were not happy with the apps and brought out others.  The shrimp cocktail was good, as was the mushroom soup (was actually quite good) and Drew enjoyed his beef carpaccio.  But the damage was done.

 

Tuna tartare and the crabcake below.

 

 

 

For our main, all 4 of us ordered the 9oz filet and we asked for all of the sides except for the spinach and the french fries to share.  3 of the steaks came out medium and 1 came out truly medium rare.  I don't ever send food back, but did in this case, although my wife was too nice to send hers back (Ethan and Drew's were cooked appropriately).  Mine came out a second time half medium and half medium rare, so they clearly had a problem with consistently cooking the filet.  Now this is Chops...so if you can't cook a filet medium rare in two tries, something is wrong.

 

Sides were just okay.  We did like all the fixings that came out with the baked potato and the gruyere tater tots were really good.  Nothing special about the mac and cheese or asparagus and they never brought out the mashed potatoes (though we did not mention it).

 

The desserts were excellent.  The warm chocolate cake was one of the best desserts of the week and Allison and Ethan loved the key lime pie.  Drew got the red velvet cake which was also very good.  Ethan made the mistake of telling the waiter he loved the key lime pie (and it was gone) so of course another one came out.  Drew finished half of his and asked for a to-go box and another whole slice came out to go.  So again, the service was what you would expect, but after some of the reviews I had read, I had concerns about Chops already, and with this experience, we won't plan on returning.  We've just had other spectacular meals at Jamie's, Izumi and now Sabor on this trip, it just isn't worth the extra price we paid.  Hopefully others have better experiences.

 

The desserts:

 

 

 

 

We finished the meal right on time to get Lexi and James from the club at 10pm and they were hungry and feeling left out on the dessert side.  So in a bit of a late-night tradition for this cruise, we hit Sorrento's and then Cafe Promenade for them.

 

 

 

We returned to our rooms to find these guys, which the little kids enjoyed and we headed to bed after a long day in the sun.

 

 

[dwHokie]

21 minutes ago, Kellie in Texas said:

@dwHokiewhen we are in Cozumel next week, there will be five ships, so not quite as packed as yours was. We are in port from 8:00 to 18:00. Re: the Playa Mia excursion, did you use the ship's excursion or book independently? We purchased the ship's excursion including transportation, so I'm hoping the return wait that your wife had won't be an issue for us. 

 

Hi Kellie -- I booked it myself directly with their website.  Everyone has to go back through the port security on the way to the ship, so you'll have to do the same.  And this security was specific to the international pier, where it was just us and Celebrity docked, not the full 8 ships.

 

With that said, you'll have plenty of time from 8am-6pm and the good thing about an excursion booked through the ship is they will not leave without you and I'm sure they'll factor this in the return timing, having much more experience than we did.  I think having 5 vs. 8 ships could help considerably with the crowds at Playa Mia as well.  Have fun!

[AHarbison]

On 12/24/2022 at 7:46 AM, Lionesss said:

Looking forward to your pictures and dialogue, sailing in June.

 

Take care

What ship and dates are you sailing in June as we are too!

[pbxtech]

Enjoyed your review

 

[AHarbison]

On 12/25/2022 at 2:39 PM, dwHokie said:

Merry Christmas!!!  🎄 🎅

 

After sail away, we headed to dinner.  The first night we had reserved Sabor for the whole family at 6:15pm as we wanted to go to the ice show at 8pm and our 7:15pm my time reservations wouldn't have worked.  I did feel a little less flexibility in this 5 day cruise vs. all the other 7-day itineraries I had done in the past, in terms of being a little more limited in choices for the main shows.  Especially with kids, there were only a few that worked for us...but really no big deal if you were willing to be flexible with your dinner plans.  And we like trying a specialty restaurant or two each cruise anyway.

 

To be completely transparent, given all the great Tex-Mex we have here at home, I didn't have super high expectations for Sabor, but did want to give it a shot.  We were pleasantly surprised!

 

 

 

You can see from the pictures we had the place mostly to ourselves.  Again, a recurring theme for this cruise, I really felt like there were less folks out and about on this cruise vs. on Harmony, even though we were cruising with 6,000.  It was a little cool as you can see we're wearing light jackets, but we were very comfortable.

 

Our server asked us to call him "Juan Juan" and was incredible as has been our experience in just about all the specialty dining restaurants.  The guacamole and fresh salsa with chips was amazing.  I like a little more spice, so Juan brought out some finely chopped habanero to mix in mine.  Tread lightly...but very good!  Juan then brought us two of every appetizer to try and share between the table.  The chicken tortilla soup and the queso were very good.  I thought the two different types of ceviche were pretty good with the lime juice based one my preference.  The chicken stuffed jalapenos (not spicy) wrapped in bacon were amazing!  The only miss for us in the apps was the calamari.  Just did not seem overly fresh to my wife and I.

 

We stuck to tacos and quesadillas for the main and everyone was happy, including the kids.  I had the El Juarez quesadillas which I thought were very good.  Juan then also brought out four plates of the jalapeno-garlic tiger shrimp (unordered) which were the best thing I had there.  We ate every one of these shrimp (4 per plate) and I ended up adding them to my quesadilla...super fresh and really good.

 

 

 

Of course Juan brought all the desserts for us to try.  To be honest, we were not wowed by any of the desserts.  I thought they were okay, but nothing special and the kids didn't like any of them.  But not to worry...we were done by 7:30, so Allison went to save seats for the ice show and we went to get Lexi ice cream #14 of the day from Windjammer.  😂

 

 

I had a slice of the key lime pie there which was really good.  We then hustled back to Studio B just in time for the ice show.  Was very impressed...just a great show and very entertaining.  I thought it was better than 1887 from Harmony, especially for kids.  Lexi loves to hula hoop and couldn't stop talking about the ice skater who had like 20 hula hoops going at the same time.

 

 

The show was done by 8:45pm and the little ones begged to go to the kids club from 9-10.  Okay, twist my arm.  Brought them back to the room at 10pm and they both asked to go to the balloon drop at midnight in the promenade.  I told them "sure, if you're still awake" thinking no way after the day we had.   Everyone else crashed and I headed to the casino before coming back to the room at 11:45pm as per my promise to the kids.  To my surprise, James was up and ready to go.  We got down there with 10 minutes to spare, but the music was so loud, James said, "I think I change my mind.  I'm ready to go to bed."  So we snapped a quick picture to prove to all his siblings he outlasted them all on day 1 and we headed to bed.

 

 

does every ship do the balloon drop? or what was the occasion?

[dwHokie]

18 hours ago, AHarbison said:

does every ship do the balloon drop? or what was the occasion?

 

I think it differs by ship, but it is definitely tied to a sail away party / first night of the cruise celebration.  They were setting it back up the day we left the ship for the next cruise.

[dwHokie]

Day 5 -- last day / day at sea

 

Most of us slept in the last day after a full day of beach and snorkeling the day before.  But Drew was up and took pictures of sunrise!

 

 

Allison, Ethan and I skipped breakfast as we had the sushi / sake pairing at Izumi at 10:30am.  Drew hit Windjammer himself earlier and I got the little ones breakfast there as well before dropping them off at the kids club.

 

I booked Izumi for lunch with a 12pm reservation well in advance as we had loved the a la carte lunch on Harmony.  When I got onboard the ship, I noticed my reservation had been changed to 10:30am and was now labeled sushi / sake pairing, which we did not prefer as we had Ethan with us who loves sushi.  I spoke to the head waiter at Izumi a few days before and he said they were not offering the a la carte lunch that day.  I assured him I had signed up for it previously and showed him my confirmation email.  He said they could try and get us in at 1:30pm...I told him I booked 12pm for a reason well in advance.  In any case, we ended up trying the sushi / sake lunch as they told us it was fine to bring the 13 year old, he just obviously wouldn't do the sake.

 

It ended up being a good experience, but I still prefer the a la carte lunch at Izumi better.  You just get more of the sushi you really want (ex: creamy truffled tempura lobster role) vs a single piece.  Here was the menu:

 

 

They took time to explain each course as well as the sake that paired with it.

 

 

The yellow tail carpaccio was amazing and again, super fresh as compared to the tuna tartare we had in chops the night before.

 

The second and third pairings were also very good with my personal favorite from our last cruise, the creamy lobster tempura.  It was not as melt in your mouth good as the one I had on Harmony, but it was still really good.  The 4th course was a large bowl of fried rice and filet to help fill you up and was also excellent.

 

 

 

We finished with the same dessert we had on our previous cruise, the mochi ice cream, which was certainly very different, though not amazing.  All in all, glad we got to go to Izumi again, but would prefer the a la carte lunch next time (already booked for our next cruise).

 

 

The rest of the day was spent pool and jacuzzi hopping and doing some of the older boys favorite activities like rock climbing, the zip line and mini golf.

 

 

 

 

 

I spent some time in the casino and continued a strong streak for the week in black jack.  I gave some back in 3-card poker, but did hit a 3 of a kind.  But finished well up overall given blackjack.  Didn't play anything else other than these 2 games.  The $15 tables pay 3:2 on blackjack vs. the $10 ones pay 6:5, so play the $15 tables for much better odds.

 

 

Now for one of the more interesting parts of the cruise.  We were sailing towards a severe cold front where temperatures in the teens and wind chill in the single digits was expected back in Galveston when we docked.  I was a little worried about the weather the final sea day, but it held in the 70s all day long, although it was overcast.

 

The captain made an announcement about half way through the day that we would see some activity around central park as they worked to relocate fragile plants from the weather.  He apologized that we would see them being moved and sometimes staged in the halls and apologized.  To me it was really interesting to see this operation.  One of the more amazing moves was the plant wall that goes from floor to ceiling on either side of central park.  First picture shows it earlier in the cruise and you can see how lush and thick it is.

 

 

They slowly moved all of these until the entire wall was gone!  I really hope these weren't damaged in the move as they were beautiful...will be very interesting to hear back from the following cruises on Allure how the plants made it back (and when) and how they survived.

 

 

 

They were also moving many other sensitive plants and they were planted in these modular beds which looked pretty easy to move.  They covered other plants with plastic.

 

 

 

 

Most of the plants you could see them wheeling back into the crew areas...but some got some more visible staging.

 

 

Very interested to hear back from others that cruised after us to hear how this turned out for central park.

[dwHokie]

We had a final balcony happy hour to watch sunset and I got a few pictures up on deck as well on the way to get James and Lexi from their last kids club trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also hit the carousel one last time before getting ready for dinner.

 

 

 

 

We arrived at the MDR right at our 7:15 reservation time and requested Adrin and Michael's section and were immediately seated again.  Looked like Adrin and Michael already had their hands full with a couple of other tables as they were literally running around when we got there...I hope we didn't mess them up by requesting them.  They apologized that it might take a little longer tonight and we told them to relax and assured them we were in no hurry.  The meal did take a bit longer that last night (about an hour and 40 minutes), but still faster than some of our experiences with early seating on the last cruise (albeit that was with 12 people across 2 tables).

 

 

No lobster on the MDR menu since it was only a 5-day cruise, which was a bummer, but Allison and Ethan ordered the broiled whole lobster for an additional charge anyway that last night and they both said it was really good.  My prime rib was just okay that night.  But overall, we had a great experience in the MDR with my time dining at 7:15pm.  We wished it was a little earlier for the kids sake, but that was really the only complaint.  Service from Adrin and Michael was great and they knew us and our preferences by the 2nd/3rd night.

 

The weather definitely started to pick up around dinner time and you could really feel the ship moving.  Here's a picture of the front we were sailing into around 6pm or so from our balcony:

 

 

At one point that evening around 9pm, I turned on the cruise mapper on the stateroom TV and there was a 62 knot effective wind across the bow with us doing 18 knots and the temperature was 60 degrees.  So it was blowing 40+ that last night and you could definitely feel it.  You could actually hear the ship smacking into waves from our stateroom, granted it was very far forward.

 

All the upper decks and even the solarium were closed that night due to the weather.  I did grab a  video before they shut it down up on the pool deck and then one later on in central park to try and give you a flavor of the wind, but these don't do it justice.  It was literally hard to stand up straight on deck 15 at this point.  You could also literally hear it howling from our balcony with the door fully closed.

 

 

The kids were not phased at all and Lexi bargained to go back for one last hour at the kids club from 9-10pm that last night.  And then she got her last pizza in as well.  😂

 

 

 

They were setting back up the balloons in the royal promenade for the next cruise as we headed to bed that last night.  One last check on the weather around midnight and there were still 60 knot apparent winds across the bow and the temperature had dropped to 39 degrees.

 

Edited December 28, 2022 by dwHokie

[la_croisiere_s'amuse]

1 hour ago, dwHokie said:

Very interested to hear back from others that cruised after us to hear how this turned out for central park.

I have a friend on the ship right now. I'll report back next week if nobody else beats me to it. 🙂 

[Vacationdreamer<><]

How was the sand at Playa Mia?  In 2016 it was coarse and uncomfortable to play in.  No sandcastles or burying one another, etc.

[Vacationdreamer<><]

Love your TR.  We are parents to six and found cruising "late" in life for the oldest ones.  We would have done many more.  Taking 5 of the 6 on a Voyager OTS in May with the same itinerary.  I appreciate this on many levels!

[Ozark_Kid]

Thanks for taking the time to post the review and pics. 

[Fontaid]

Thoroughly enjoyed your review. Thanks for posting it along with the pics. I know this took a significant amount of time. I hope your home survived the frigid weather as well.

[dwHokie]

2 hours ago, la_croisiere_s&#x27;amuse said:

I have a friend on the ship right now. I'll report back next week if nobody else beats me to it. 🙂 

 

Thank you much!

 

1 hour ago, Vacationdreamer&lt;&gt;&lt; said:

How was the sand at Playa Mia?  In 2016 it was coarse and uncomfortable to play in.  No sandcastles or burying one another, etc.

 

Sand and water were great there, very soft sand.  Lexi thoroughly enjoyed playing in it!