OceansOfTravels

Hello,

We are interested in doing a tour with Woodwind on our next cruise. We have someone in our party that has expressed concern over the catamaran, because on our last cruise, we did an excursion with a boat (really a dingy) and she struggled getting in and out of the boat. So, she wants to know if there are stairs on the catamaran to get on and off. Are there? If there are, pending no blatant objections to the company, we are going to book our tour. 

Also, in the event that the boat does not have steps, would the tour be enjoyable for someone who does not intend to snorkel? I have read that there's an open bar, does this mean unlimited drinks, or one drink per person? If there are not steps, she still may be interested if she can just sit on the ship and enjoy it.

Thank you in advance to anyone that can help, I am getting very excited to plan this cruise! 😄

On 10/28/2019 at 9:28 PM, Fishbone said:

 

Greetings OceansOfTravels! I love Arashi Beach, but most people seem to prefer Eagle and/or Palm Beaches. I am not like most people & would probably choose Arashi Beach over & over again. That said, I live in Florida & we go to the beach often, so I'm quite particular. Whereas many people would pick Daytona Beach, Clearwater Beach, Miami Beach, etc, my first choice is always Gulf Islands National Seashore up in the Panhandle between Pensacola Beach & Navarre. Why? For the same reason I would pick Arashi. 

 

Essentially, all I really want in a beach day is me & the beach. And waves. A bathroom & a snack shack is a bonus. A chair & an umbrella is nice, but not essential. 

 

Eagle Beach was not for me. It had a very small roped off area for swimming, lots of beach chairs & umbrellas to rent. And people. Oh the people. There were so many people. And loud jet skies ... with screaming people. It did have a nice restaurant on the beach with great food & there were also bathrooms. And there was shopping, lots of shopping. But I hate shopping (I know, I'm really weird).

 

Arashi Beach was totally my vibe ... a little out of the way, with way less people. Great waves. Beach chairs & umbrellas to rent. A snack shack which served beverages & snacks (pretty sure it has a bathroom too). I don't drink, but I know my old German mom had a beer or two, or maybe even three! Arashi also had beautiful scenery (California lighthouse in the distance & miles of cacti). Gorgeous. Not sure about wifi, although they may have had it at the snack shack. Note that there are large boulders embedded in the surf/water on one side of the beach, but there were none on the far side. 

 

We bring inflatable tubes with us on our cruises. I sat in my inflatable tube on Eagle Beach & said to myself "Self, this is terrible. Why did you pick this beach. This was a bad decision". I sat in my inflatable tube riding the waves on Arashi Beach & said to myself "Hallelujah!"

 

That said, every cruise is different, every person is different, every beach is different. Eagle Beach was not terrible, just not for me. Safe travels & enjoy your cruise!

This is EXACTLY what I wanted to hear! I am going to write this down in our cruise plan right now, and that is how we'll spend the day in Aruba in January. Thank you so much for your help! 😄

12 hours ago, brillohead said:

I definitely will.... and I'll try to keep Explorer in one piece for you, too -- I'm doing the 9-day ABC on her the day after Thanksgiving, and I see you're doing it in January.  

Yes I am! It's actually my first Royal cruise in ages, and I have never been to any of the ports, so I am very excited.

Hopefully you do a little Q&A or something after Explorer because I'll likely have many questions. Really don't know what to expect so I'm both excited and nervous!

2 hours ago, brillohead said:

Thanks.... a bad day on a cruise is still better than being at home, so I'm not worried! 

Thanks for the tip on shade -- I definitely don't need to be near the pool... just close enough to walk over and take a dip once in a while. 

And totally okay with a more diverse population -- I already knew to expect that before I ever booked, and my TA even mentioned it when I booked with him, b/c he's also heard of people complaining that not everything is totally American.    

Sounds like it's going to be a lot of what I'm already used to on a cruise.... fun and sun and food!

I love that quote, it's so true!

Looks like you're in for a great cruise, hopefully you come back and let us all know how it was

Glad to see you're making the jump! I was super loyal to Carnival but I tried the Divina and I have been hooked ever since (even though I am cheating on MSC with Royal in January :D)

One thing I will definitely say is a little different is the clientele. Maybe you're used to this with Royal if you've cruised them out of a homeport that is not in North America, but a large chunk of the ship, and on some sailings, even from the USA, even the majority, will not be American. So expect different cultural customs and vibes on the ship. For example, you're hear some music you haven't heard before in the clubs and from the onboard singers, you'll see some food on the buffet you don't eat often, and you're frequently hear languages like Spanish, Italian, German, French, and Chinese, both from passengers and from the announcements. If this doesn't bother you, or you have cruised outside of American waters before, then you should be fine. But many negative MSC reviews that I read seem to have this focus on a failed attempt to "Americanize" the ship, but why would they do that? They don't advertise themselves to be American, so don't expect that. However, I really love the diverse passenger base, and that's actually something that attracts me, so to each his own!

As for the shade, MSC loungers often have the movable top so you can certainly shade your head and hair, while leaving your body exposed. This makes reading and preventing facial sunburn very easy. However, since the newer MSC ships are very long and have many open decks, you can likely find a completely covered sunbed - maybe just a little bit away from the pool itself. The loungers near the pool are typically full, and have no sort of shade/coverage, so if you're sensitive, you may want to migrate away from the pool. Don't worry, though, because MSC has showers up and down the decks, and hot tubs sometimes as well. 

I think (and hope) you will be pleasantly surprised with MSC, I really hope you enjoy it! 

I'd easily choose Divina.

As others have stated, Victory will be a party ship. If that's not the vibe you're going for, you might as well just skip over it. Also, the Divina is such a classy vessel, as is much larger/newer, so you're going to get a much more luxe experience. I prefer the food on MSC over that of Carnival, but I do agree that Carnival tends to present more options away from the MDR and Lido. However, MSC is an international line so the food in the MDR and Buffet tends to be more varied. The cabins on Divina have been the largest cabins I've ever had while at sea. so while it is only a 3 day trip, I most certainly think it's worth it. You'll get to experience the new Ocean Cay, which could be a nice experience. Plus, Freeport needs to visitors and tourist $$ after the storm. Most definitely going with Divina here, hopefully you do as well!

Enjoy your holiday! I love the Divina!

Now that you mention bringing a floating lounger .... that may be the plan for my next MSC cruise 😉 

Hello! I'm excited that you started this thread, I will be on Explorer in January and I have a few questions

1) Can you ice skate in the rink, or is it only for shows? Like do they ever host open skating? If so, is there a cost associated with it, and what would I need to bring? (ie socks, shoes, etc)

2) Did you try any of the uncharge restaurants? Did you like them?

3) Any "secret decks" or "explorer hacks" that you found? I'm talking any special places to chill out, secret items at a coffee shop, or anything special

4) What were some of the typical activities offered on sea days? Were you happy with the amount to do onboard? I have four days at sea on this itinerary so I am wondering what will be in store for me.

Thank you so much in advance for your help, I'm really excited to cruise the Explorer and make my return to Royal for the first time in many years!

Hello,

We will be in Aruba for the day in January. Since Aruba is both very touristy and very expensive, we have decided to use our day in Aruba to go to a beach bar/club, and maybe do some shopping in the town, and save our big excursion money for Curacao and Bonaire. What are everyone's favorite beach bars in Aruba? We are primarily leaning towards a bar on either Arashi, Eagle or Palm Beach, because we have read that we can take the bus to them from the ship, but if anyone has another bar that isn't on one of those three beaches that is worth the trip, let me know. We aren't looking for a hotel day pass because they are expensive, but we would prefer beach bars that have wifi, chairs/umbrellas to rent, and maybe food/drink nearby. Just a nice place to spend the day, as the photos of there beaches in Aruba look beautiful. 

Thank you in advance to anyone that helps, any suggestion is appreciated! 😄

THANK YOU!!! This is amazing information, I am a big public transportation enthusiast so I enjoyed reading this, and definitely plan to employ a bust in one or both of these ports when I go in January depending on what we decide to do.

While I have your attention, you mentioned Arashi Beach. I looked up pictures and it looks absolutely gorgeous! We have never been to Aruba, but given how it's A) very touristy and B) very expensive, we were just thinking of making this our beach day and finding us a nice beach club. Does Arashi have any beach clubs? We don't need advanced beach clubs, but we do enjoy when they have wifi and chairs/umbrellas to rent. It's also nice if they have drinks and food to buy as well. Does Arashi have these, and you do have a favorite? If not, do you know of any good ones? Thank you in advance for your help!

This would make sense though and I always wondered why they weren't more vigilant about it. Martinique is an Overseas Collectivity of France, which basically just means it's like Puerto Rico to the USA, except with more rights and legal representation. Their official language is French, they use the Euro, and people born in Martinique can play for France in the Olympics and World Cup. The flight from Fort-de-France to Paris is domestic, and technically would not require a passport to complete. Therefore, you would be able to enter Metropolitan French territory without a passport, which is not only a problem for France, but for the entire EU and Schengen zone.

I know it's dramatic, but it makes sense. This also is another reason why Martinique has fallen out of favor with the American lines and is not featured on many of the prominent sailings, especially with CCL, RCI and NCL. It's kind of a small price you have to pay if you want to visit Martinique, but I cannot blame them. This also shows you why European lines base their ships in Martinique, Guadeloupe, Barbados and La Romana in the winter and do not call on St.Thomas and San Juan, because the US government requires everyone to have a passport with permission to enter the USA (if they're not from one of the areas where we have a 90 day grace period with no visa like Europe), and all must go through US Immigration, which occurs onboard. I think it's a fair trade off, and the French officials are not wrong for becoming stricter with this. I know the USA officials set up entire immigration procedures in the theaters and atriums of ships just trying to port in St.Thomas for the day that did not start in the USA, so I can't knock them for it.

Empress is an amazing ship and I enjoyed my cruise on her very much (much more so for the price I paid, but still a great ship nonetheless 😁)

The rooms are definitely small, I have an OV cabin on Deck 3. We had only two people, so no needs for bunk beds, but I do remember the shower being small. Nevertheless, not only was it a last minute vacation, but I am a huge Olympic enthusiast and artifact collector, and Rio 2016 started while I was onboard. so I have good memories of watching the Opening Ceremony while on the ship. While small, the crew definitely works to plan many fun activities, so you may not even be in the cabin for very long. All in all, not only would I sail on Empress again, but I would like to, considering she'll be cruising from NJ (so I can drive), and to the smaller ports in Bermuda like Hamilton and St.George because she can fit!

If you want a nice place in Cozumel, Paradise Beach Club is an amazing beach club with all the facilities you could need - a pool, a spacious beach area, bathrooms, changing facilities, food/drink, and wifi - all for a $3 admission price. They just ask you to spend $10 while on the complex in food/drink, so you could easily do this with drinking. Taxi rate should be about $20 total.

But, if even that is still a lot, you could still have a nice beach day in Roatan by taking a taxi to West Bay Beach ($25 roundtrip) and laying out towels. That is what my friend and I did on the Armonia earlier this summer when we went, because this was a nice cheap way to spend the day. And, since we were there from about 1PM-5PM, 4 hours was the perfect amount of time to just be laying on a towel and not have the towel get soaked/start to feel uncomfortable.

Beware of Costa Maya though, aside from shopping at the cookie cutter stores or chilling at the pool area they made, there isn't a very "cheap" option (aside from maybe a beach day or a trip to the local city of Mahaual). I really don't like this port for that reason.

Others have stated above about Key West's walkability and free bus for tourists that will take you to the tourist areas. Key West can be a great port for staying on a budget!

They didn't for the FIFA Women's World Cup, and not because they didn't want to, but where were were sailing, there was no broadcast available. We were sailing through the Gulf of Mexico and no country in the area had qualified, so there wasn't a pressing need to get it on the TV channels (I was also cruising through Group stage, I heard they aired the final). So, if you're sailing through the Med, you may or may not have satellite service, as England and France adore Rugby and will be big teams to watch in the tournament. 

Best of luck to whoever your team is, I'll be cheering for the USA and their (inevitably short) campaign 😄

I would say to keep your room if you don't like motion, you have an ideal location plus one of the retrofitted rooms with the newer balconies from the Evolutions upgrade. Moving to Deck 11 will decrease your balcony size and increase the amount of motion your experience. Have a good cruise!

I'm not sure if Carnival has thought about it already, but refillable water bottle stations that don't involve any contact (like the kind you see in public buildings all over the place now) would be GREAT for ships. 

It should also be noted that you shouldn't really be filling up your water bottle at the drink stations on the Lido buffet. This can lead to cross contamination and the spreading of diseases, which can de detrimental on an enclosed ship. What crew members will tell you to do is either to drink water from the tap in your stateroom (I've done it on every ship I've ever been on and I've yet to have a problem), or fill up some smaller cups, and then pour them all into your water bottle.

But reusable water bottles are most definitely allowed onboard, it's always the first thing I pack!

Just now, shegolfs2 said:

Thanks for the reply. A few years ago we went on the MSC Divina and the food, even in the MDR, was just average at best. So I was hoping they figured things out. Sounds like they did for the Armonia! Glad to hear

Yep! Not only did I enjoy the food on the Armonia, but I enjoyed the food on all of my MSC cruises. Don't forget that food is a very subjective topic, so what I find to be "good" food, you may consider poor. To me, any food that I do not have to cook or clean up, and any food that magically replenishes itself, is good food 😄 So if you want a more advanced or critical view, I would take what I said with a grain of salt. But, I still stand by what I said in that the food on the Armonia was very good to me!

On 8/14/2019 at 2:32 PM, ocbaylady said:

Good Afternoon,

 

We will be on the Meraviglia in Feb. 2020 and are going to Honduras. Can someone let me know what port we dock at and about how far West End Beach is from there. Would also be interested is best method of getting there.

 

Any info would be appreciated!

Thank you,

Debbie

Hello fellow Marylander!

You are going to be docking in Coxed Hole, which is the regular cruise port on the island (Carnival Corp owns Mahogany Bay, which is a private destination).

As for West Bay, the taxi will take about 20 minutes one way from the dock in Coxen Hole to the beach. We booked a cab right outside the terminal for $25 roundtrip, and we arranged a pick up time with the driver before getting out, and met him exactly where he dropped us off. We just laid our towels out on the beach and did not rent beach chairs. Stopped at a local bar for a mojito though!

I love cruising during January (you can see my next cruise is in January). There aren't a lot of younger kids onboard, the prices are cheaper, and the islands and attractions are in full swing because it's in season. It's always just so nice to get away from the cold. It will be warm in Cozumel, definitely warm enough to go and enjoy a nice day at the beach or on a boat. I say book the cruise and get some time away!

7 minutes ago, ColdCruise said:

 

@OceansOfTravels

How long was the immigration processing on board in Key West? We are planning a morning snorkel trip and trying to calculate when we’ll be ashore.

 

We did something similar on an NCL at Bar Harbor and the processing was horrendously slow 😣

 

Thanks!

I don't think it took more than 5 minutes to be honest, it was the most lax immigration I've ever experienced. I walked into the theatre, presented my room key and my passport, and was out of there in no less than 5 minutes. However, we were all given zones/groups to head down to the theatre for immigration, so I would plan on talking to Guest Services to make sure that you are in the first group. If you have an excursion, I think they bring you all together, but I could be wrong about that.

It should be noted that I am an American, and the American/Canadian/Green Card immigration (in the theatre) was exponentially faster than the immigration for all other Passport holders (in the aft restaurant). I made friends with a guy from Italy on this cruise, and he told me it took 40-60 minutes to get him and his friends all processed through immigration. So, if you aren't an American, I would either book a later tour, or try to ensure you are one of the absolute first to go through immigration.

On 8/14/2019 at 1:54 PM, shegolfs2 said:

How was the food on the Armonia?

I found it to be very good, I ate everything that I ordered (except for the grouper, but I'm not a fish eater ...  just thought I would go out on a limb that night, but still didn't like it).

Any specific food you're inquiring about? The MDR? The Lido buffet? The late night snack?

I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise, the Seaview is my favorite ship to date! Happy cruising!

I wouldn't be too concerned. If you are going because you want to visit those ports, you genuinely like Carnival, and the design of the Legend itself is good for you, it seems to me that you have a positive outlook going in, which means you're likely to focus on things that would confirm why you booked the cruise in the first place. Granted, given your qualms, you will also be looking for things to confirm your apprehension in regards to the passengers onboard. But, I must say, as long as you want to have a good time, you likely will.

I also want to concur with an above poster that Carnival is a part of a larger group with lots of connections to outside of their specific line. I wouldn't be surprised if they call in some help from Holland America and Princess to help plan activities. And, if they don't, since you like Carnival, it shouldn't be a problem 🙂

Happy cruising, Norway is a beautiful country!