Cabana at HMC -- Worth It?

[AliasLily]

Is it worth the splurge to get the cabana for the day at HMC? We're a party of 5 (ages 8 - 82). Will definitely be bumming on the beach with a snorkel excursion for some. I'm thinking that for my 82 year old mom, some shade might be in order. Any experience w/ this? THANKS.

[cccole]

I think you will enjoy having the cabana but I would not pay for the extra person. We had plenty of food and drink left over, and had friends visiting us throughout the day. There are extra lounge chairs all around that you can pull up if you need extra seating. We chose a cabana that was at the far end of the beach away from the crowds and enjoyed it. Cherie

[Typhoon1]

It is an experience you will not regret. I would never visit HMC without one.

 

Your 82 year old mother will be glad you got the cabana as it provides shade and air conditioning.

[bruce-r]

It is an experience you will not regret. I would never visit HMC without one.

 

Your 82 year old mother will be glad you got the cabana as it provides shade and air conditioning.

 

Totally agree with typhoonwi.

 

Otherwise, the question "Is it worth it" is purely a subjective value judgment and there will be some people who would say that it isn't worth the money, but I'm not one of them. IMO, having a Cabana is totally worth MY money.

[june2006]

the price on these cabanas would be?????? :)

[Typhoon1]

the price on these cabanas would be?????? :)

 

$249.00 on HAL

 

$225.00 on Carnival

[drdaddy]

The cabanas are fabulous. We have done them twice, one of those times was with the butler service. That was a bit of a splurge but the food was great! The unlimited drinks weren't so bad, either.

 

Yes, there are plenty of chairs around. No one will say anything if you have other people stop by. BUT, by flaunting the rules and having 5 people in a cabana ment for 4, will inevitably raise the price for everyone. Even for those who do play by the rules. With a real youngster, perhaps there would be some leeway in the pricing, anyway. And yes, there is more than enough food and most people figure if there is drinks left over, it is yours anyways. To each his own, I guess.

 

But, HMC cabanas rule!

[Koshlong]

We just got back and LOVED the cushy wicker furniture. I believe this is a new addition????????:)

[michmike]

We had our first cabana on HMC last week and enjoyed it and felt it was worth the expense (we travel w/ another couple, so split the expense. Definitely would be a plus for your mother as the back of the cabana is shaded and air conditioned. We had the pink cabana #8 and felt that was about ideal as we were close to restrooms (but not so close there was any odor), were done the beach a way from the main part of the crowd and weren't all that far from the pavilion where they serve lunch.

 

Unless you absolutely want to be on the first tender to the island in the morning, you could get away w/o paying for your mother. But if you want priority tendering then she would need her own pass for that. As for cheating HAL, well that is a personal issue. One could argue that the cabanas are set up for 4 and I'm sure that often times they are only occupied by 2 or 3, so if you have one w/ 5 it all evens out. JMHO, flamers.

 

You will be transported to your cabana in a truck w/ open air bench seating in the back. Just check in at the info booth on the left, once you enter the fort area. You can also arrange to have the driver return to pick you up at a designated time to go back to the ship.

 

You will get a call the day before from the shore excursion folks asking what kind of pop you want in your fridge in the cabana. Hope you have better luck w/ that than we did, cuz we did not get what we asked for. Just a heads up, in our fridge there was a bottle of champagne. Nothing I've read in HAL's literature mentions a bottle of champagne coming w/ the cabana and yet there is no indication anywhere in the cabana that you will be charged for the bottle if you drink it. I'd bet that there IS a charge and I think it is tacky on HAL's part not to alert folks to that fact.

 

As for the "snacks" provided, we were underwhelmed. A small basket of tortilla chips and a small bowl of guacamole and a small bowl of salsa. And a plate with 4 small slices of melon and a couple strawberries and a few grapes. At $250 I think they could provide an assortment of chips, pretzels, etc in vending size packages, maybe a large pkg of M and M's etc. So at any rate, if you want munchies, be forewarned to bring your own.

 

The other thing that left us unimpressed is that you are provided ice in an uninsulated bucket w/o a lid and no one comes by during the day to replenish it. How difficult would it be to give each cabana a small cooler filled w/ ice?

 

So... is it worth it? We thought so. But we also thought it was another area where for little additional cost HAL could certainly enhance the thing and they failed to do so. It was that kind of inattention to detail in many of our interactions on the ship last week that left us somewhat underwhelmed overall. HAL talks about wanting things to be a 9 on the comment card. We felt this was a 7 at best.

[Koshlong]

I didn't see any champagne in our cabana:( Maybe someone sent you a present?

I've always kind of assumed that the extra charge per person for the cabana was for extra food and equipment. I really don't think anyone counts how many people actually occupy it. Visitors can be in and out all day. What counts as a visitor?

[twinkletoes4445]

I didn't see any champagne in our cabana:( Maybe someone sent you a present?

 

I thought the bottle of champagne was only part of the butler package, but I could be wrong. It was nice meeting you! :)