KimberlyC

I was in Fort Lauderdale when the tornado hit last Sunday, I boarded the ship on Monday, spent Thursday and Friday in Havana and just returned from Majesty of the Seas yesterday. I can attest to the fact that Old Havana itself was not badly affected by the tornado at all. The outskirts is another story from what I heard but we were only in port from 8am Thursday until 1pm Friday which is not nearly enough time to venture far for those of us who hadn’t seen Old Havana before.

As for which line, this was my first time on RCCL.  I’ve previously sailed on Norwegian along with 4 other cruise lines.  4 people in our group sailed Norwegian less than a year ago.  We would all say Norwegian hands down (those 4 made a lot of comparisons not in RCCL’s favor), but in fairness, it is impossible to compare this cruise to other cruises. The port at Havana currently can’t handle the larger ships. The Majesty of the Seas is the oldest ship in the RCCL fleet and it’s evident. It may be the same with Norwegian but I didn’t personally select our cruise so I didn’t research it. We had a group of 11 and for the few who hadn’t cruised before the ship was nice. For everyone who had anything else to compare it to, the ship was dated and lacking many amenities.  Now we knew the ship would be smaller and dated before we cruised. We knew that besides Johnny Rockets, there are no specialty restaurants. But there were several things we didn’t know. For example, the RCCL app to message each other on the ship doesn’t work on Majesty and the Digital photo package available on every other RCCL ship is not available on the Majesty. Also, the staterooms are among the smallest at sea and there are very few balcony cabins. The ones they do have are mostly suites and come with a big premium price tag. Deck 9 has larger cabins but an obstructed view - I went for that just to have the extra size because these cabins are SMALL comparatively speaking.

I’ve never had more problems on a ship than our group had on the Majesty - mostly IT related. Example, our group decided to book an excursion on the fly the day before we reached Key West (conch train) and when 4 of us booked just prior to second dinner seating our tickets couldn’t be printed due to printer issues so they were to be delivered to our stateroom later that evening. Didn’t happen so I was dealing with guest services at 1am prior to an 8:30am excursion. The booking never went through and apparently the problem couldn’t be fixed due to IT issues. I was told to return at 7:30am so I did but the issue still couldn’t be fixed at which point I raised holy hell. To their credit they did everything to make it up to me afterwards, but this was just one of 4 major problems our group experienced. That’s 4 major problems more than I’ve ever had before and far too many for a 5 night sailing. 

Our group had an amazing time overall due to the PRIVATE tour we booked in Havana and just being on vacation together, but while I can recommend Cuba I can’t recommend sailing on RCCL’s Majesty of the Seas. Perhaps I might enjoy one of RCCL’s newer ships, but the Majesty of the Seas simply isn’t up to par despite having a great crew onboard. 

Oh as for the show, there are a few and some I was told are less expensive than the Tropicana (the most well known) and also a great experience, but we booked the Tropicana online in advance for those who wanted to go. We were able to pay in advance via credit card on the Tropicana website, so they must run that through Miami. Dinner and the show was $115 per person.  Dinner started at 8 PM and the show started at 9:30 PM. For $5 you can take all the photos you like including photos afterwards with the dancers.  Guests were invited to go up on stage and start dancing, and our group did. The ship was charging significantly more although that included bus transportation. We did pay for our own vintage cars to take us there and pick us up which cost about $20 CUC per person plus $5CUC tip.  I was exhausted when we got out around midnight and headed back to the ship, but my friends had their drivers take them to the street with the bars close to the ship terminal on the way back. They felt rough in the morning, but the drivers Mikey arranged for them got them back safe and sound. 

Our bill at the BuenaVentura restaurant we went to was $388 CUC for 11 people including the 10% gratuity that was added although we gave additional tip. They provided us with one bill and we all just kind of pitched in so I can’t say exactly how much mine cost, but I can say that we ordered appetizers and plenty of drinks were flowing.  Fernando had stated about $20 per person, but if you plan on drinking a beverage or 2 and having an appetizer I think $40 per person is more realistic. 

 They did have small bottles of rum, and the place that we went to will let you sample for free.  I did tip the guy pouring the rum samples a few CUC’s. 

I tipped our guides $50 each and our drivers $20 each. Now that’s total about a 46% tip, but I just looked at the timestamps from some of my photos and we actually went and hour and a half over our quoted tour in addition to the fact that our crazy group was so large and the guides provided extras. In addition to the personalized gift, my significant other mentioned to our guide Mikey that his daughter only wanted currency for a souvenir and without hesitation Mikey literally opened his wallet and handed him 2 different Cuban pesos (not CUC that we tourists must use) as a gift. They were very generous people despite the fact that they earn so little. For example, a dentist earns about $70 per month there. 

I recommend you ask for plenty of $1 CUC coins because even though I did research and brought toilet paper, the government does not pay to keep restrooms clean even in government buildings. Ladies pay rent to the government, and will insist you pay to use the restrooms they clean.  I did not use the restroom at the restaurant, but my friends did and it had toilet paper with no attendant.  Even the restroom at the Tropicana has an attendant. They expect a small tip.

Our guides really made the experience fabulous for us. They are great people we all plan to keep in touch with via Facebook. 

We had a group of 11 adults (who refused to do any adulting) traveling on the Majesty of the Seas to celebrate my bestie’s 40th Birthday. Since she cares more about experiences than material things, my gift to her was a group tour in Havana on January 31, 2019.  I did a lot of research, especially here on cruise critic reading reviews/suggestions (thanks to all for those), so now I’m sharing our experience. It was amazing!

I booked a tour with Fernando at  FERTOURS. From the onset he responded to all of my inquiries. He provided a detailed summary of what our tour for 11 would include, but stated we could certainly customize it. He quoted a very fair price in my opinion. He also confirmed our arrangements shortly before our departure inclusive of a photo of our lead guide, his name and number as well as a map to our meeting location just a short walk from the terminal (where the cars could park).  This was great because I suffer from some serious planning OCD!

I requested 4 vintage cars including a convertible for the birthday girl and 3 sedans. Fernando did not disappoint!  Our Birthday Princess had a pink Chevy convertible to ride in for the day and I’ve never seen her so happy!  

Simply stated, our guides were the best! We had 4 cars each with a driver  (including one English speaker) plus 3 guides, Mikey, Yosvan and Wendy! Now keeping track of 11 adults (many of whom are car enthusiasts from Detroit and as I mentioned these people refused to do any adulting) is like herding CATS! Our group actually had a VIP escort off the ship (that’s a long story for another time that can be filed under ship review), but in the spare hour + we had before our tour began I thought for sure at least 2-3 would run off to chase stray dogs or whatnot and would go missing for hours only to be found sunny side up in some bar later on. Oh I have photos of a Chihuahua wearing a hat and sitting on the head of one of guys in our group, so I’m not exaggerating. But our fabulous guides constantly counted all the little ducklings for me and nobody got lost despite the fact that we all kept hopping into different cars at every stop in order to experience them all. Winning!!!

We saw everything we planned to see and then some! There was a stop at the rum and coffee factory where we enjoyed flaming coffee and sampled many kinds of rum - such a treat! Our guide Mikey was even kind enough to carry my heavy bags of rum for me. Yeah I brought back a bit, but just FYI while customs didn’t care, the UPS in Fort Lauderdale won’t ship alcohol. So the rum had to get bubble wrapped and put in the suitcase while the dirty laundry is being shipped back to Detroit. Priorities!

Did I mention how fabulous our guides were? During a stop to see Cuban artist Jose Fuster’s artwork (highly recommended) our guide Yosvan even gifted our birthday princess with a personalized souvenir. Just WOW... so thoughtful and unexpected! Another highlight of the day was the restaurant we had lunch at! Not only was the food delicious, but our guide Mikey arranged for the entire waitstaff to sing happy birthday with a slice of cake!

Our guides continued to go above and beyond for our group and the tour ended up being about an hour longer than quoted. Our guides even arranged transportation (last minute) for those of us who had decided we were going to change and head out to the Tropicana for dinner and the show. While we had not requested it, my significant other had mentioned his desire to ride in a ‘57 Chevy, and to our surprise Mikey had one waiting for us as we set out for the evening! He even made sure we knew how to get to the souvenir market the next morning. 

I’ve booked my fair share of private tours over the years (since I’m not a fan of being herded like cattle on overpriced ship tours) and this tour ranks right at the top! I’m so grateful for the recommendations and I now I highly recommend FERTOURS. Our birthday princess and all of our non-adulting ducklings had an amazing day we will never forget!  

 If you stay close to the pier, you’re not going to get a true sense of Havana. Nevertheless, if that’s what you want to do there are shops and restaurants in walking distance.  Also a few of their squares are in walking distance and from one you can take great pictures of the fort across the bay. For inexpensive souvenirs, there is a market that’s only about a 5 minute walk from the cruise terminal. We turned left out of the terminal and it was a short walk down on the water side. 

If you do decide to venture out, there are vintage car taxis all over and you can negotiate a price in advance. 

We were just there Thursday and Friday and had an amazing experience. 

Our group of 11 just got off Majesty of the Seas yesterday and were in Havana on Thursday and Friday. I booked 4 cars through FERTOURS and my only request was one convertible.  We received a pink Chevy convertible that made our birthday girl extatic.  I personally wanted a sedan with air condition even though it wasn’t terribly hot in Cuba this week so we also received 3 sedans.  I can say that pink convertibles are very popular and there are several private “taxis.” Also, you will see far more Chevys than any other brand of car. For some reason, Chevy parts are easier to come by which was fine with us since we are from Detroit and had 3 GM engineers in our group. 

I cant say enough wonderful things about FERTOURS. My significant other (a GM emoloyee) really wanted to ride in a ‘57 Chevy which I didn’t request, however some of us planned to go out at night and our wonderful guide Mikey helped us arrange (last minute) to be picked up at the ship terminal later in the evening. He arrived with 3 cars including a green ‘57 Chevy, so I had yet another happy camper. 

From what I saw here’s how it seems to work with the private tours...the owner of the tour company may own his own vehicle and may serve as a guide/driver personally but by and large to accommodate larger groups or multiple customers on one day, they contract with their friends. The drivers own the cars you ride in and may or may not speak English. The guides hired by the company spoke perfect English. These were highly educated people. Among our FERTOURS guides was a  mechanical engineer, a Cuban born man educated in the US before returning to Cuba as an adult, and a female with an accounting degree from the university. I was particularly impressed that Fernando from FERTOURS provided us with a female guide since it was particularly helpful when we ladies needed to use the restroom. 

In short, you can request a specific car and a good private tour company will do their best to accommodate you. There is no guarantee, but all of our requests were met and I must say it was one of the best (if not the best) private tour I’ve ever booked in any country. The service we received may have even surpassed the service I received in Civitaviccia/Rome some years ago which until now set the bar for me. 

I don’t recall seatbelts but I honestly didn’t care so I didn’t bother to look.

Definitely avoid the ship’s tours. I felt so sorry for the folks hopping on giant busses being herded like cattle through the city. 

Heres a pic of the cars waiting for us on time as requested. 

On 7/24/2018 at 9:41 PM, Djptcp said:

Just went to Cuba in May on the Paradise and no credit cards in Cuba. We don't have a cell phone, so can't comment on that, but others' responses have said no. You convert your American currency to Cuban money before you leave the terminal - 10% deducted then and then 2% when you turn it back into US dollars. I thought it was 5%, but DH said it was 2%.

I just got off Majesty of the Seas yesterday. Spent Thursday and Friday in Havana. It’s actually a 3% exchange fee to convert USD to CUC (to convert back as well) PLUS a 10% penalty to convert USD. So $1 will get you .87 CUC.

Change only what you think you will need because you will be charged 3% to convert back what you don’t use. US credit cards are not accepted. USD is accepted but it will cost you more because the Cubans must factor in the penalty to convert.

Phones generally won’t work but we bought an inexpensive WiFi card that worked fine.  We purchased the card at the Tropicana. The staff brought it to our table upon request, so no line. 

The Cuban Government does indeed require local health insurance so Royal Caribbean includes coverage as part of the cruise fare (just while in Cuba). Some airlines do as well. The coverage is through a company called Havantur.

I recently read a review that included attached copies of the Daily Compass in which Royal Caribbean explained the coverage and printed in Spanish the explanation passengers should give to the emergency medical facility if there is a medical emergency.

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Sounds like you were there awhile back, pre Wilma....recent posts have confirmed that they do now require $10 per person/child food/drink purchase, which is not bad or unreasonable. I am sure that most people would spend that, however, the old "chairs are free etc" seems to not be the rule, so people should be prepared.

 

 

Paradise Beach seems to be very popular with families and probably a good choice for young kids too. The sand is supposedly nice there, and the kids can play in sand, maybe bring along sand toys/buckets etc. Then you can take baby in the ocean!

 

as for the pool question.....if the toddler is not toilet trained I don't think you are welcome in the pools, I know that Eduardo and Playa Uvas have confirmed that they do NOT permit swim diapers. I would hope that other places with pools (*Nachi Cocum, etc) would have the same reasonable and safe policy in place...otherwise, I sure would not want to swim there!

 

These small pools at resorts, and pools on ships are NOT equipped to filter/chlorinate babies with swim diapers....so the ocean is best.

Thanks for the heads up. I'm aware that CDC regulations don't permit swim diapers on cruise ships so we have been working hard to potty train our son before we cruise. Some hotels permit swim diapers, some don't. I understand that and find it perfectly acceptable. The pool was really for me (not a fan of the ocean). That's why I don't mind so much that PB doesn't have one. They have fruity cocktails so I'll survive. ;) We'll be at PB for lunch so spending $30 plus $18 or $27 for the water toys (which I may not use but DH and DS will) isn't bad at all IMHO. Even with $24-$30 cab fare its cheaper than the cruise ship excursions which I only use as a last resort - I like the freedom to come and go as I please and every ship excursion I've ever done I feel like we're a herd of cattle!

Thanks everyone. We'll be doing PB!

If you want a pool you might want to try Mr Sancho's, probably will not be as crowded.

I haven't heard as much about this beach. How is it?

If you want a pool you might want to try Mr Sancho's, probably will not be as crowded.

I haven't heard as much about this beach. How is it?

We went to Paradise Beach two years ago with kids 5,5,4 and just turned 3. They all had a great time; they mostly just played in the sand and water, didn't really need the beach toys or the bracelet to use them at their age. You'd have to be with your toddler to use the trampoline, etc., and I'd suggest you bring a life jacket if you take him out that far.

 

We got there about 10 and had no trouble getting four chairs together, which we all shared. There is no charge for using the chairs, though they like you to buy food/drinks. There were always waiters around, though they didn't bother you if you didn't want anything. The slope to the water was gradual and fine for small kids; this was pre-Wilma, so although I have heard that the beach is getting back to normal there, I can't tell you how much it has changed since we were there.

 

There is plenty to do for adults, and you could easily take turns doing activities if you wanted. We had a very nice, relaxing day and it was perfect for the kids.

Did your kids want to use the water toys? I'm just afraid if DS sees them, he'll want to use them but I won't want him too if he's too small.

Ok, I know there are lots of threads re: PB, and i've tried to gather as much info as possible, but I have some Q's specific to PB with a toddler just shy of 3. I know it doesn't have a pool which I'd prefer but I'm thinking Playa Mia may not be for us. There are 4 ships in that day including 2 Carnival which I understand offer excursions to Playa Mia, 1 RC and our ship - DCL Magic. Of course we are last to arrive. So we can't be first to the beach but I'd like to be able to get a couple of chairs and an umbrella.

What's the likelihood of getting chairs and umbrella at PB if we don't arrive until 11:30 or so? Charge for umbrella? I don't mind paying but I'm an Irish girl and gotta have some shade - its kind of a deal breaker.

What ages are the water toys good for? DS is adventurous but I don't want him to get hurt even if we are right there trampolining with him.

What is the spacewalker bungee? Sounds like something I might like?

Are waiters pretty prevalent on the beach because I can't watch my kid if I'm constantly having to get up for a fruity beverage ;)

Is there a gradual or steep dropoff into the ocean? Rocky or pretty safe for little feet?

Beach towels, is it true they don't have them, can't rent them?

Parasailing and if yes, beach or boat launch? Banana Boat? Massages? After all if DS is entertained and behaving well, maybe DH and I can take turns sneaking off for fun and relaxation for ourselves.

I'm open to all suggestions and recommendations? Thanks!