CaptnG

My kids and husband loved the dragon coaster, I think we must've gone at least 20 times in a row! You can't beat the price either since you only need to have a ticket for the adults.

Husband and I did the zip line there and both thought the coaster was more fun.

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Not that I'm aware of, ocean tends to be a bit unpredictable. You could always consider a kayak trip in resurrection bay instead of the boat tours out to the fjords... I've had a few up close encounters with orcas and belugas in my kayak (very fortunate to live close by)! We did try one of the fjords tours with our boys last year and both of them got terribly sea sick, it was such a miserable time that I had to work very hard to convince them to get on the catamaran tour in St Kitts last month as they'd vowed to never sail again.

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Sometimes the few $$'s spent on a taxi rather than waiting for the free shuttle is well spent ... JMHO ;)

I'll second that! Waiting with my 2 young boys can be quite challenging, absolutely worth the extra $ to avoid.

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If you're a member of Costco I hope you compared their pricing too on your rental...regardless, glad you feel you got a good deal...always great to hear some very recent experiences.

Yup, booked the enterprise rental via Costco [emoji16] they almost always have the best prices.

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So it sounds like it’s not just the workers on Freedom that is doing the hard sell but more of a fleet wide corporate marketing plan. Wonder if the workers had quotas to fill in having to sign up so many people every week?

 

 

 

It just saddens me to hear the various tactics they are trying to upsell their high profit products. They are really starting to diminish the feel of a cruise.

 

 

 

I don’t cruise as often as most of the folks on CC but I started 20+ years ago. Even though those old ships are crappy by modern day standards, I miss some aspects of the “good old days”. One of which is lack of the hard sell.

One of the staff members I spoke with on Freedom mentioned that they now have sales goals they're expected to meet which affects their pay. I hope RCCL will consider getting rid of this new requirement as it can be very tough on the staff, and upsetting for the passengers. For example my husband enjoys a beer or 2 with his dinner, sometimes the assistant waiter would bring it and then other times it would be the bar server, but whenever the assistant waiter brought it at some point the bar server would come over and ask if he'd like anything and when he said he's just gotten one the bar server seemed visibly agitated and we'd find ourselves apologizing for not waiting for him. I don't want anyone's pay or performance being negatively affected because of who we order from, it had nothing to do with the server, he'd just order one from whoever was available at the time.

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We had a late flight out of Fl when we were there a few weeks ago, I looked at prices for the car rentals near the port and those at the airport and found the rental price from Enterprise at the airport to be lowest so we booked a car with them and just took a cab from the port to the airport. Cab ride was $20 with tip, super easy.

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Amazing secret river in Cozumel! Favorite excursion ever!! Took our boys ages 7 & 10 and they did a great job navigating through the tight spots and swimming through the deep parts. You need to book via the ship, but you can scope out their website here http://www.riosecreto.com/gallery.asp#photos-and-videos

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I thought it was more than worth the money, one of my all time favorite experiences! The activity level where we went was a bit tough at times, but we were in a different part of the cave that is normally only open to researchers. Guide asked if we were up for it because the normal section of the cave was crowded and he wanted to make sure we got the full experience.

The water seemed fine to me with the wet suit they provided, but my kids ages 7 and 10 were freezing by the end. Was totally worth it though, we all loved it!

After the tour they offer a drink of some traditional Mayan liquor and a toast and then send you off to change and enjoy a very authentic and delicious lunch.

The drive to and from the park was pretty quick, I was not a fan of the morning ferry [emoji925] ride over, everyone was feeling a bit queasy when we arrived. The ride back to Cozumel in the afternoon seemed much better, less swells I guess.

If we ever go back to Cozumel I'd probably go again was a fantastic trip!!

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Surprise! They totally took care of getting us from Harmony to freedom. We got off harmony and originally I figured we'd walk but it was pouring rain so I asked one of the attendants just outside customs and they directed us to one of the buses that was taking passengers to the airport. The took our family and one other passenger headed to freedom and dropped us off before heading to the airport. We tipped the driver but their was no fare requested and we hadn't pre arranged anything so I was very pleasantly surprised!

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Hi Harry! I'm very excited for your trip report, we we on the freedom just before your trip, from December 10-18. I was looking for you and your family as we departed to tell you how much I enjoyed the Allure report and wish you a merry Christmas, but sadly did not spot you.

We took b2b cruises on Harmony and Freedom this December, both were equally fantastic for their own reasons. For example the harmony felt less crowded, but it was easier to get around the ship on freedom.

Your pics are stunning, you've got a great eye for photography. Looking forward to seeing the ship again from another perspective!

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I had honestly thought there was going to be more of a current in the river to help guide you downstream but there was not. It also didn't help that the river is fairly narrow and if you get even a little bit sideways, it takes a long time (or at least it did me) to get unstuck. And I kept getting sideways and by about 10-15 min in I was ready to get off the raft but you can't.

 

There is also a "jungle explore drive" (I'm not sure what they call it though) where you hop into a 4 person Jeep outfitted like those old timey drive-on-a-rail cars they have at Six Flags or other amusement parks except there's no rail and they belch smoke like crazy and stink. You drive on a marked trail through the jungle and there's honestly not that much to see...lots of boring trees, no wild life (probably all scared off by the noise), a little bit of water maybe, you go through a cave or two but it's really REALLY boring.

 

The ziplining wasn't even as good as I'd expected it to be at XPlor either unless you're in SUPER good shape. Several of the runs required you to climb a stone ramp that had no steps and was very, VERY steep. It was more exhausting than fun for us.

Yikes! That doesn't sound near as fun as I'd pictured [emoji15] the secret river was definitely the right pick for us!

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I took the Samur while we were there in 2011, it's an authentic Siamese Sailing Junk. My friend was very nervous about the drift snorkel because you have to jump off a dingy and she's not a confident swimmer, but after jumping in she decided it was definitely worth the effort because seeing the reef was a once in a lifetime experience. The current takes a easy pace from the drop point back to the beach on little Klein, not much worry of knocking into the reef, so even those with little experience snorkeling should be able to just relax and enjoy the trip.

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You should checkout Xplor adventure park, its in playa del Carmen which is a 30 min ferry ride from Cozumel. It's all inclusive, and you can do a lot more than just zip lining. we didn't choose this excursion because we were more interested in the secret river, but it was my second choice for sure.

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I love this place, aqua viva http://www.aguavivapr.com/ they have the BEST ceviche [emoji39]

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They have plenty of things without seafood, husband had a pot roast ish thing for his main course. Personally I wish I'd eaten less of the appetizers so I'd have had room for extra dessert [emoji510][emoji39]

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I went on a cruise out of Puerto Rico in 09' we flew out of MIA and never needed a passport... that being said I renewed and my husband and kids got their first passports this September and it took 7 days

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You could encounter a moose anywhere on the costal trail, but I'd say you're probably more likely if you start at Kincaid or earthquake park.

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I just got my husband a pair of swim and snorkel goggles from amazon, they were less than 20$ and arrived within a week. Husband says that he can see quite well in them both and he's actually looking forward to being in the water this time.

 

 

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Forgot to mention these were prescription googles, husband always assumed they'd be expensive too, guess not since they were the same price as non-prescription.

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I just got my husband a pair of swim and snorkel goggles from amazon, they were less than 20$ and arrived within a week. Husband says that he can see quite well in them both and he's actually looking forward to being in the water this time.

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Option A ! The ABC islands [emoji267] are my favorites for beach and water activities!

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Full disclosure I'm a lifelong Alaskan, but have never been on an Alaskan cruise.

I'm not a fan of Fairbanks, too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter. There's no mountains, it's not a particularly beautiful part of Alaska and the town really isn't that much to see, was all built up during the late 70s and it shows.

Not sure how active you are, but if you like kayaking there's some spectacular places in and around Seward and cooper landing that I highly recommend. Also some great hiking options in those locations.

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I was writing my post when yours was posted..as I stated in my previous post I have been referred to this email before. FYI..my sister was telling me this a.m. that she was having problems with the web site yesterday and several of her excursions dropped.

 

I don't recall if you told us when your cruise was, but if it is in a few months, I would just sit tight. I have every confidence it will be settled to your satisfaction.

 

Don't feel bad about missing the first reps name......as you said your call was unrelated to the error.....and by all means a 100. is a 100.,if it was 20 I wouldn't let it slide, it's the principle right;) actually it's not the principle they made the error and they need to make good on it. Plain and simple.....!!!!!!!

 

Unfortunately you have to spin your time and effort to make it good and you won't be compensated but that's life.

You said that you'd emailed customer relations a few times, I was wondering how long on average before they respond? It's been 2 days now and I haven't heard anything yet, so I was considering calling again, but If you think a few days before a response is normal then I'll just hold off to avoid any extra frustration.

Thanks again for all your advice!

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Thanks for everyone's helpful advice and kind words of encouragement. Unfortunately I did not catch the name of the agent that canceled the beverage package and then hung up on me, I know you should always note information like that, but I didn't anticipate having any major issues with rebooking a couple excursions.

I did get the full name of the supervisor I spoke with when I called back, and asked her who I could contact at RCCL to let them know I was not satisfied with the resolution. She suggested I email customerrelations@rccl.com, which I did as soon as we got off the phone. I haven't heard anything back yet, but I would assume that this mailbox receives a large volume of complaints and it's possible they just haven't gotten to mine yet. If I don't hear back from them by this evening I will most likely email one of the contacts suggested here.

I know looking at the total cost of a vacation $100 difference isn't huge, but I can not understand how they think it's ok for them to make an error like that and then not rectify it. Then after all that frustration with the beverage package when she told me she wouldn't rebook my shore excursions at the sale price literally 3 mins after the sale ended I just broke down in tears. It just felt so unjust to have spent 2 hours of my night and instead of saving money I had to spend extra!

I completely agree that you should always treat people in customer service with the utmost respect, I empathize with how hard it can be to deal with customers blaming you for things you ultimately have no responsibility for. I hope that RCCL recognizes that if they are going to hire someone to address customer complaints they need to also give them the authority to resolve the problem. Maybe I just drew the short straw, but I assume the girl that hung up on me did so because she realized she had no way of correcting her mistake and was scared of getting in trouble, and the supervisor seemed to have been trained to avoid giving back money at all costs. When you call customer service they should have the capability to make changes on their end that I am unable to do on my own. I can understand removing the Select Package from their public website, so that if someone were to cancel they are no longer able to rebook it, but it just makes no sense to me that they also took the ability away from their customer service department.

I'm so sorry this happened to you. Based on what you said, I would have been extremely mad as well. I truly hope that this is the last of the bad experience for this cruise, and hope you have a wonderful time.

Thanks, I appreciate the sympathy! I really hope this will be the last bad experience we have with RC too.

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And THIS is why it is so important to use a TA who is a top producer for the line you are sailing. That little snafu would then have been handled by the cruise line's regional sales director during a call from that TA.

I don't know any top travel agents, but I do know that this isn't how I should have been treated. It's their mistake and companies should try their best to resolve their mistakes, that's all I ask.. I didn't ask for upgrades or free beverage packages I just wanted back what I had already purchased from them. You shouldn't feel like you need to book 3rd party to protect yourself, you should book with a company that honors their commitments.

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