Finally, my 1/19 Mediterranea review

[redhotpepper]

For background, we were a group of 12. It was me, my hubby and 2 daughters, 5 and 8, my brother, his wife and 2 daughters, 3 and 8, my mom, my best friend and my mother in law and father and law. My brother’s family flew in the day before us. We drove to Portland and flew out of there and it was my family of 4 and my mom.

 

We flew into Ft. Lauderdale the night before. We were supposed to be in at about 10pm but were delayed about an hour. It took awhile to get our luggage so we missed the 11pm cutoff for shuttle service of the hotel, which was the Sleep Inn Ft. Lauderdale International Airport. We got a taxi and the taxi driver complained because we didn’t give him a big enough tip.

 

My friend was also staying with us in the hotel and she had come in from Phoenix. She got there earlier and had gone to the hotel. She asked for a shuttle the next day to the port and was told that 1:30 was the first one available. I was a little disappointed because I was hoping to get to the ship earlier than that. The hotel itself was nice. The room had 2 queen beds and a fold out sofa. Apparently, we were a bit loud because the people in the room next to us knocked on the wall. Oops!

 

The next morning we got up and went to the breakfast buffet. It was busy and obvious that the majority of the clientele were cruise passengers. The lady who was taking care of the buffet did a great job. My 5 year old asked my mom why there were so many old people there. Now, keep in mind, all her grandparents are very young looking and acting so I don’t mean to offend anyone.

 

I went to double check and make sure there wasn’t an earlier shuttle but was reassured there wasn’t. We let the kids swim for awhile since the weather was nice.

 

Checkout time was noon so we all packed up and went downstairs. The shuttles were running about an hour late so we decided to go ahead and get taxis. There is a max of 5 per taxi so we had to get 2.

 

We got to the port around 1. We had a suite so we went to that desk and my mom and friend had a balcony so they went to the regular line. We had to wait a few minutes for someone to escort us and we got to go the front of the security line. We got through security, the check in and then wound our way up to the gangway. On the way, we had to show our passports several times, get our pictures taken and the people from the Squok Club gave the girls a few fun things.

 

My brother and his family were waiting for us as soon as we boarded the ship and my mom and friend were only a couple people behind us. We went to find our suite, which was just a few doors down from mom and Patty. This was a bit different from what I’d experienced in the past in a suite. Before, we’d been taken directly to our room by a steward.

 

We had Panorama Suite 6181, which was very nice. I thought the vanity/bathroom area was very nicely laid out. There was an area outside the actual bathroom with a vanity area and closets. The bathroom had double sinks and a jetted bathtub/shower. There was lots of space for accouterments.

 

I should probably mention, the last cruise I went on was 2 years ago on the Norwegian Dream. We upgraded to a suite and it was me, my hubby and my best friend. We took the great advice of this board and brought an over-the-door shoe holder, which came in VERY handy. So, we brought one this time and, with the way the bathroom/vanity area was laid out, we found we didn’t really need it.

 

Our suite had a pull down bunk from the ceiling and the couch opposite the bed was made into a bed. The girls loved the “bunk bed” feel.

 

We found that there was plenty of closet and drawer space for the 4 of us. Our girls said their beds were comfy and we thought ours were too as well as the pillows.

 

We had requested the early seating for dinner but discovered we were assigned to the late seating when we got to our room. With small children, we were a bit worried about the late seating. I went to the designated place to see about changing seating times but was told there was a long waiting list to change to the early seating so we resigned ourselves to late seating. The table we were assigned was split up from the rest of our group so we did end up getting seated with most of the rest of our group. The later seating ended up being ok because we didn’t have to readjust our body clocks when we got back to Pacific time.

 

Our waiters were Jay and Woody and they were GREAT. Both were from the Philippines and Jay told us he had a daughter that was 7 and he was going to be going home within a couple of weeks for the first time in 8 months. We asked and he showed us pictures of her and she was an absolute doll! They really, really catered to our girls but were also absolutely attentive to us also. Leonardo, who was in charge of the dining room, made sure he came around every night and blew kisses to the girls.

 

We thought the dinners were really, really good. We were particularly fond of the soups and the pastas. I LOVED the prime rib on the first night and crab legs. We let our girls go to the first formal night and, while they can be a bit wild at times, they definitely brought their good manners that night. My 8 year old got a bit upset that they forgot her alphabet soup and gave Jay the stinky eye, which is unusual for her. They started dancing and the waiters got her up dancing and all was forgiven! We did order cappacinos in our room each morning. I’m not a coffee drinker but they were good.

 

The buffets were ok. We did find that there were people that barged in front of us but I can’t say what nationality they were. We ended up eating at the buffet for most breakfasts and lunches that we were onboard. I am going to take this time to mention that my husband and in-laws are from Minnesota and Scandinavian so they love fishy stuff that most people find really gross. There was one breakfast that my hubby got some herring thing that was wrapped around onions and pickles that almost made me throw up but he thought was ok. We were visiting with the family at the table so I had to keep moving the sign on the table so I didn’t have to look at it. He really liked the squid salad but did not like the octopus salad.

 

My friend made me promise that I would mention that there were people that insisted grabbing stuff off the buffet with their bare hands. We both ended up with colds and both of my girls and I ended up with something roto-virus-like despite lots of hand washing and antibacterial dousing.

 

The four kids we had with us thoroughly enjoyed the Squok club. The counselors there were wonderful. I anticipated that my girls would spend more time there but Minnesota grandma and grandpa wanted to spend time with them too. Every time we went to check the kids in, check them out or just to peek in on them, they were having a fantastic time.

 

San Juan. We only got from 5pm to midnight to spend there. We were a bit disappointed because most things closed at 6pm as it was a Sunday. We did a walking tour on our own and hit a couple of the forts, which we found very interesting. Living on the west coast, it’s always fascinating to me to see things that are so old. Our 5 year old was beginning to have a hunger meltdown so we ended up going to Starbucks to get her some food before her head started spinning around. We really would have liked to spend more time here and have seen more of the historical sights. My cousin lived In Puerto Rico for many years so my mom was very interested in seeing it.

 

St. Thomas. I took a shopping excursion which really just consisted of taking us up to Paradise Point and then taking us back to town and turning us loose. I found that the majority of the stores were jewelry stores. I did want to find a diamond for a mothers ring I’m going to have made and found just what I was looking for at one of the many Diamonds International stores. My mom took my girls on the submarine excursion and they loved it. My friend is a diver so she did the diving excursion. There were 7 ships in port so it was CROWDED. I would have enjoyed it a bit more if it wasn’t so crowded. I ate some lunch at a little restaurant and it was good. I met up with my hubby, MIL, FIL, mom and our kids and they were hungry so we went to a neat little place so they could all have lunch. We went back to the ship and had a little rest before dinner.

 

La Romana. This was my least favorite stop. I’ve been to the Dominican before and we traveled quite a bit so we did see the whole gamut of living conditions. Unless you took an excursion here, there really wasn’t much to do. You could take a shuttle into town or to the artist colony. My friend and I went into town. We walked around and went into several department type stores. They were definitely not for tourists. We went to Jumbo, which is very jumbo! Patty was hungry so she got something to eat at the Burger King inside the Jumbo. It took us awhile to understand that we could pay with US dollars but they could only give us change in Dominican pesos. We wandered around the Jumbo and picked up some vanilla, coffee and a few other souvenirs. They would not take dollars so I had to use my debit card. We decided to catch the shuttle and had to stand in line for quite awhile and were accosted by some very, very aggressive vendors trying to sell necklaces and cigars. Now, I don’t have a problem with someone making a living but, it gets a little old if I’ve told you no 5 times and you’re still asking! Before we left on the trip, we found some pesos that we’d gotten 9 years ago on our last trip to the Dominican. When I tried to pay for the shuttle with them, they told me that they were “antique”! My mom and MIL also went into town and made my brother go with them because he speaks some Spanish.

 

Grand Turks. Talk about a beautiful beach. I went on a snorkeling excursion which was fun and we saw a barracuda. My hubby and FIL went on a fishing excursion which they thought was just OK. Patty went diving and said it was fabulous. The grandparents took the kids to the beach. The kids had brought their snorkel equipment so they snorkeled in the swimming area and saw lots of little fish. With the huge ocean drop offs, the ships can get right near the land. The cruise ship area has nice little shops as well as a Margaritaville with very expensive drinks. Grand Turks is very small but very pretty. The water is stunning. This is one place I would consider going back to for a weeklong stay. It’s where you would go to totally relax. We were told there are only 150 hotel rooms on the island.

 

The last night was the toga night and we participated all out! I had made togas for everyone in our group in blue, pink and green. We were very colorful! They guys got Carhartt togas. This was the only night we went to a show. It was the passenger talent show and there were some fantastic singers and one great piano player. It was very fun and the cruise employees that were putting on the show seemed to be having a great time too.

 

Most of us had the X-1 package. We’ll just say that we all got our money’s worth! Like others have mentioned, the bar staff isn’t all that excited to serve you since they don’t make a tip off these drinks. There was a bit of confusion about when and where we could get drinks. Some of the bar staff were confused too. In the dining room, we never had a problem with drinks. Jay and Woody got so they just automatically had red and white wine for us and our glasses were always full. I like beer too so I always had a full glass if that’s what I was drinking. We had no complaints whatsoever about our wait staff.

 

Our room steward and butler were very good and very inconspicuous. Our 5 year old got sick in the middle of the night one night so we asked for new bedding for her the next day and it was taken care of. Our butler was surprised that we didn’t call for help in the middle of the night. I wouldn’t want to make someone clean up barf in the middle of the night. I can barely do it myself so I certainly wasn’t going to subject anyone else to that! We did miss having a concierge. We had a great one on our last cruise. We got a bit more pampering with the suite last time too.

 

Patty and I got a massage and it was very enjoyable. We got a “couples” massage so it was in the same room with separate therapists. OK, so we’re not a couple but, heck, why not! The spa/gym was very nice. The hot tub wasn’t very hot though.

 

The pool areas were very nice. The kids really enjoyed them and spent a pruneworthy amount of time in them!

 

This cruise was the Cruising with the Oldies cruise. We did not participate but Patty’s dive partner on her excursions was the keyboardist for Davy Jones so he invited her to some of the concerts and she said they were very good.

 

Oh yes, they had a big screen TV set up in one of the conference rooms so we could watch the playoff “American football” game. Speaking of the TV, we found the reception in the rooms was spotty at best. Just when you started watching a show, the satellite would lose its signal. They did show quite a few very interesting rock and roll documentary shows, which I’m assuming was due to the oldies part of the cruise.

 

This has turned into a book so I’ll be done! If anyone has questions, please ask.

 

Annie, Doug, Berit, Bergan, Peggy, Patty, Joe, Raquel, Emigh, Karsyn, Kathy and Dave

[njs]

Thanks for the great review

Just wondering, what more does a concierge do more than a butler?

 

Surprised you didnt get your dining request since you were in a suite -maybe it was b/c you were in a bigger group and not all were in suites.

 

I had to laugh about the awful looking fish and pickle or whatever. My eldest son loves that kind of stuff as well. He ordered the lox and herring or whatever it was that was on the bkfst menu, and since the 3 kids were in the suite next to us they thot it was neat to have breakfast served in bed. My other son and daughter made him take his bkfst out to the balcony and told him to never order it again to eat in the room. DH and I were glad he wasnt in our room :D

[diathoney]

Thanks for the great review! Sorry your kids got sick. That happened to us a few years ago when the Norovirus was getting all the news coverage. My DD puked from the top bunk - yuck. I'm with you about requesting assistance too. I washed the sheets myself in the middle of the night. I just didn't want to have to talk to anyone - I'm kinda cranky at 2am.

 

We're sailing the end of March. We'll have a group of 12 too. We requested early seating - I hope we don't get bumped to the late seating. My DH and kids get downright nasty if they don't get fed by 6.

 

People serving with their hands is kinda gross. I don't know if it's worse to all use the same serving utensil. I prefer is when they have staff at the buffet to serve you. I don't mind people butting in if they've already waited in line and forgot butter, but otherwise no way is it OK. I'm waiting for the few things I like (I'm pretty picky) - why can't they?

 

I'm sure we'll have a great time. We're going with all friends, no relatives - we have fun where ever we are. It'll be interesting to see the differences. I've sailed with Disney, Carnival, NCL and HAL, but never a line that is mainly European.

[bluehorizonlover123]

Just wondering how much do they charge for the X1 package and did you buy it before you sailed. Also do they have a soda package available for purchase and if so how much is that one. Thanks.

[tweety33]

Thank you for the complete review. Glad you had a great time. We are looking forward to it next month.

 

In La Romana, did you feel safe when you were in the town? Was it a shuttle full of people going to town & how much or was it a taxi? I really want to go to Jumbo.

 

Did you hear of anyone taking the 3 hour ship tour, that toured La Romana?

 

We stayed at that Sleep in last year and enjoyed it all. Thats awful the cab driver getting upset because his tip wasn't big as he wanted.

[redhotpepper]

Let's see. The concierge on the NCL cruise we took made our specialty dinner reservations, got Patty onto a diving excursion that was full, had we not had freestyle meals she would have arranged to change our dining time. Patty and I were celebrating our 40th birthdays so she arranged to have cakes and champagne for us the night we went to the specialty restaraunt. We left a message for her to come join us and she did. She was just very personable. She also came by every afternoon to see if we needed anything.

 

The X-1 package ended up being right about $95 per person. It includes sodas as well as beer, wine and bottled water. I don't know if it would be worth it if you just drank soda. They do have a boys and girls drink card that has coupons for 20 drinks. I had ordered one online for my kids to share but we never did get the booklet but we didn't get charged for it either. I think you have to order the X-1 package at least 2 weeks in advance and it has to be prepaid. You can't do it online and you have to do it through your travel agent, if you used one.

 

The shuttle into La Romana was one of those small buses that seat about 40 or so people. It was $5 for the round trip. There were quite a few of them so I think they'd all taken their lunch break was why the wait was long. Hmmm, on the feeling safe. There are probably a lot of people that wouldn't feel all that safe but Patty and I were fine. We've both traveled quite a bit so we cop the "don't bother me" attitude. I forgot to say before that it was a bit smelly around some of the small shops. There is a town square that had a market set up in it. We didn't really look too hard there because we were bent on going to the Jumbo. I did not hear of anyone that went on the city tour.

 

Annie

[Amicruzer]

redhotpepper,

We are sailing on the 3/29/08 voyage and will be staying in PS 6181 with our 2 teenagers. Can you tell us anything else about the suite? We have cruised 25 plus times and this is only our second time in a larger suite so we are really excited. Thanks for any info.

[redhotpepper]

Check out the pictures in this post http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=528210

 

They did a great job of taking pictures of the suite. The only difference would be the addition of the bed that pulls down from the ceiling above the sofa bed.

 

Annie