RoadTripFanatic

On cruise ship days West Bay beach isn't a quiet place! BUT it is my favorite place to go! Water Clarity is always dependent on weather conditions. I've been there when it's crystal clear and one cruise the entire beach was covered in nasty seaweed. It was sooo bad we could barely snorkel. Once again it's all weather dependent. In all honesty I've probably spent 20+ days there between cruises and land vacation. It's my favorite beach!

I'd look into a day pass from Bananarama. It's located there on West Bay Beach and is a 5 minute walk to Tabyana "beach" Tabyana is literally just a section of West Bay that is owned by the cruise lines. We've stayed on the island with Bananarama. It's a great place with good food. We just toss our stuff on a chair and walk down to the snorkeling area. :)

Is there any chance that you could post the Patters for this leg of the cruise? Would like to see what activities are available.

I am so sorry! I don't save the Patters. On this cruise I remember everyday at sea at 1p there was some sort of drum lesson! They had steel drum classes and percussion classes that I thought sounded interesting. Regretfully my book and the sunshine usually won! There was free Zumba every morning. If you are a sports fan NFL games were on the big screen outside. I'm pretty useless on activities. I'm a very boring person on the ship. :)

Always good to read an objective review and one that reports a great voyage in spite of some unusual events. Thanks for taking the time.

Thank you! :) I love to cruise! I've learned quickly in traveling you are going to hit speed bumps on every trip. Sometimes literally and your reminding your dear husband that when you see a certain sign in Dutch it's going to be a big speed bump! LOL!!!

Thanks for posting your review. We were on the same cruise and also had a great time. DH said this cruise might be his favorite one yet. I agree that the entertainers were very good. It's unusual that all four featured singers will be ones I enjoy. The soprano guest artist brought in for "Bravo" was very good as well, although I'm not a big fan of the Verdi aria she performed. One our friends said it was the aria from "Priscilla Queen of the Desert."

She was very talented. :) I'm ready to go back! I'm going through vacation withdraw. DH is already planning Spring Break. (We are going back to Roatan, Honduras for a week.)

We rented in advance from Avis. They are located right there on the pier. We literally walked off of the ship and the Avis place was less than a 5 minute walk. It was easy. It's just like renting from the states. In fact the rental car agency closed at 1p and they told us to just return the car, lock the keys in it and that was it. If you didn't take the extra insurance (I think it was $15) you had to put a $600 hold on your credit card for just in case. We had to do that in Bonaire too. I believe (I've deleted the rental information) we paid less than $80 for the day. We had a small car that worked out great for us.

Driving around the island was fairly easy. I honestly prefer to be on my own time schedule than to do an excursion. There are certain cruises where i love a particular excursion and insist on doing them. Usually I prefer to do a private tour or rent a car in the Caribbean. Just an FYI Google Maps did not work for us there but the car agency gave us a great map. No problems. It's a larger island so it took us 45 minutes to get to the northern tip. I would google and time out how far your destinations are from the port to give you a good time estimate. At the end of the day we returned the car, had dinner on the ship and then went out to explore the downtown area.

We just got off of the Caribbean on Sunday. The food quality was overall better than the past 2 Princess Cruises I have been on. The buffet and dinning room showed the most improvement (compared to the Royal) in quality. We did eat at the Crown Grill. DH's steak was a porterhouse and it was extremely marbled for a porterhouse. My Sea Bass was perfect.

The 4 singers they currently have were amazing. It was the best on board entertainment I have heard since my cruise on Holland many many years ago.

:) Cruising is what you make it! I have no issues getting my own drinks. In fact on Carnival you do get your own drinks. I was just amazed that after walking by my table 5 times, I get my own drink and then they ask if they can get it for me while I'm pouring it myself. :rolleyes:

I can't wait to hear more about your trip. I miss being on the ship. I'm currently looking at snow feeling post vacation depression.

Who did you rent the car from on Bonaire?

Hertz. They are located at the Divi Flamingo resort. It was less than a ten minute walk from the port to the resort. (It would have been 5 minutes but we couldn't enter through the closest gate.) Great service from Hertz that day! In fact he opened up during his lunch so we could return the car without having to wait 30 minutes! (His lunch was from 12:30-1:30)

I noticed this more up on the buffet. I was getting my own iced tea when someone finally asked if they could help. I asked one waiter if there was any lemonade and he pointed to the pitcher and told me it was there. I don't mind getting my own drinks but one's attitude when telling me about things is another thing.

I'm currently trying to find some happiness in the cold weather. I do miss chocolate croissants for breakfast. :) First off I will say we sailed out on December 3. We had an extended balcony which was fantastic. We had a major delay mentioned by a previous poster due to a medical emergency. We were last told that the patient was stable. I really do hope they are making a great recovery. I'm so thankful that they were able to get the help that they needed and we weren't too far out to sea. We did arrive in Curacao 4 hours late. We still had plenty of time to get our rental car, snorkel a few sites and see the downtown area. Regretfully most of the shops close up early so if you need to buy stuff make sure you hit the downtown area before 5p. The downtown area is simply beautiful with all of it's Christmas decorations up! It was the highlight of the day. The snorkel sites had great visibility but not a lot of coral.

Aruba is the port I would call civilization. :) Lots of beach resorts, restaurants, shopping, movie theater, etc. If you want to go hang out at a beach this is a great place to do it. We did 2 snorkel excursions. First was the 9am with the Jolly Pirates. I truthfully wasn't that impressed. The snorkel sites were very very average. (The ship was cool but everything else...just average.) The crew seemed more interested in pouring drinks and chatting amongst themselves vs taking care of the customers. One poor lady struggled to get back on the ship and not ONE crew member would assist her. Food portions were small. They wouldn't give out seconds with the left overs. They seemed to push alcohol more than the adventure itself.

Our second trip was out with the Black Pearl. A completely different experience. Crew was very helpful. Answered lots of questions from the guests. They were engaged and always had a hand out to help. The food was fantastic and plentiful. They even found me a small sea turtle while we were snorkeling.

Bonaire was a great experience. We rented a car and drove around the island. We were directed to a lake to the north and found wild flamingos. We visited 3 snorkel sights and they were good. The coral formations are beautiful. The fish were plentiful. We saw a total of 4 sea turtles while we were out and about. (Sea turtles are my favorite just in case you were wondering. )

The entertainment on the ship was fantastic. It was the best I have seen in years!! The shows and the comedian were great. My husband and I are both picky show people and we loved it all! The cruise director Mica was entertaining and not annoying. :) We felt that the overall food quality was significantly better than our cruise on the Royal this summer.

We were on the Royal in July. I felt that the Crown Grill food quality was superior to Sabitinis on that particular journey.

:) So far so good! We are also cruising on this ship on Saturday!! I can not wait. Looking at the pictures makes me want to start packing. (Yes, I know I've actually started but nothing serious) By any chance do you know what movies they are showing for Movies under the Stars??

WOW! That would have been amazing. On our 7 day cruise on the Royal in Europe last summer they offered no packages at all! The only thing you received was a paper type frame. My friend spent over $300 on pictures for her 14 day cruise on the same ship.

I think it honestly depends on the ship. I've had some Carnival ships where the service and food is better and vice versa. It just depends on the day. I can't say that one has better service than the other. My parents on the other hand have cruised RC, Princess, Holland and Celebrity. They swear by Princess. It's their all time favorite.

I do have to say as a middle aged woman looking back on her 20's I think Mykonos would have been a blast. :) The city of Athens alone would have been an amazing adventure too!

I honestly would bet $ that they do test every person who walks on the ship for employment for TB before they are allowed on the ship. That isn't something you want spreading around the ship. It's definitely a PR nightmare.

Hopefully your test comes back negative. Do not be surprised if they ask you to come back 3 months later for an additional check. My daughter was exposed to TB in her high school. She had to be tested and they requested she come back again for a second test. She is fine. It is standard procedure for this to be handled by the health department since it is considered a public health issue.

You might check to see if they have connecting cabins or get side by side balcony rooms. That worked out really well for us when we travel in groups. The thing is you have to make sure that one of the rooms is a quad when you book it. Then you tell housekeeping that the kids are all staying in one room together. When you initially book the room you have to put an adult in each room. We did this when traveling friends with kids. We had three rooms in a row. They booked a triple in the middle of the rooms. The kids all slept in the same room. MSC and Costa are both good. I didn't see much difference between them. Food is more Med. fare and there are multiple languages spoken during the announcements.

Pop up rain showers happen. Plus long term forecast aren't always reliable. Pack a small umbrella or a light rain coat. I would be packing a bikini and shorts too! You will need them. :)

It really depends on where you are going. In Roatan and some islands it is against the law to feed the fish. In St. Thomas on Koki beach they sell dog biscuits to the tourist to feed the fish.

If I had room or wanted to waste weight I would bring a hairdryer onto the cruise ship. I really think their hairdryers are wimpy. I actually take a european plug adaptor with me to have an extra outlet on a cruise. As for the costume- I've packed halloween costumes for my daughter on Carnival since they have halloween activities for the kids.

We took a taxi (and yes there really are only 30 some taxis on the island and they are all at the cruise ship in the am!) to Ornos beach. It was very nice and the prices for the chairs were not bad at all. We took the public bus back to town and spent some time just walking around. We were able to see everything that we wanted to see. We then lucked out and found a taxi to take us back to the ship. If not you can take public transportation. (Bus)

The cheapest times I have found to cruise in the Med is during the winter months. I would avoid June, July and August. That is when the children and college students are on Holiday. It's really crowded.

signed a parent who has no choice but to go in 100 degree weather and with every one else in the world. :)

:) I honestly think it depends on the ship. On Carnival I have had steaks in their speciality dining restaurants that put the Princess steaks to shame and vice versa. It really is the chef. I find all of the buffets to be about the same. Though I will confess Guy Fieri's hamburger place on the 2.0 ships is the best hamburger at sea. There are things I love about each cruise line. I think that's why I just look for the ports of call I want and go for it. The ship isn't the end all be all for me. It's the journey. Oh and where I can get the best deal too. I have to watch the $$. :)

Overall there are few ships I have jumped off of and said show me the chocolate please. (MSC- really needed more chocolate selection at dessert time)

I thought Cape Canaveral port is currently closed to all boats.