alreadypacked

Thanks to all for the great info about Grand Park Royal in Cozumel.

We will be in Cozumel September 23rd off the NCL Getaway and want to do a day-pass at an AI somewhat close to the piers.

A few questions:

Do we have to book with Grand Park Royal in advance and pay in-full up-front for day passes? Or do they charge a small deposit up-front and we pay the balance when we get there? Or can we simply walk-in with no reservation?

Does this hotel have a sandy beach with water you can wade into? It looked as though the hotel complex was across the road from the beach. Is the beach area I see in front of the hotel (in photos and on googlemaps) for use of hotel guests?

Have been to Cozumel many times but not on NCL. Can anyone tell me what pier NCL usually docks at?

Thanks!

I think you can gain some good information about a cruise line from most post good or bad.

 

For example I read "classical music ensemble" and I think this is probably not a line I want to cruise with. Your perspective might not be the same as mine.

 

I wish there were more post that would just tell me what it's like onboard without any opinion. One persons cutback is another persons improvement.

Some people like classical music and some like loud rock and roll and there is a cruise line for both of us.

Good post.

Had to say, though, that music preference is often eclectic.

Love me some Rachmaninoff, Bon Jovi, Mozart, Queen, Mussorgsky, Aerosmith, Billy Joel, Rimsky-Korsakov, Bob Marley, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Creed, Donna Summer, Aaron Copland, Andrea Bocelli and many more!

Would love a line where I could experience them all!

Love the food on Celebrity and Princess (ages ago Carnival's food was just as good), shows on Royal and Celebrity, cabins on Carnival, and the nightlife on Carnival--especially the sing-a-long piano bar (when the performer is good!).

Have experienced cutbacks on all lines that I have sailed, but Carnival's seem the most egregious. Perhaps because I've sailed them the most over the years.

Great review! Love the nighttime pictures of Old San Juan! Been there many times but don't have such lovely photos!

Will be in San Juan again in a little over a week. Can't wait!

Love Puerto Rico!!

OP, sorry this has happened to you. I sympathize because much the same has happened to me numerous times with Carnival. Their system would confuse me not only with my sister, but sometimes with another Carnival customer (who I don't even know), but we all live in FL and have similar names and I'd end up deleted. Each time this happened the only way it got truly fixed (well, until the next time it happened anyway) was by contacting Mischelle Beattie at Carnival. Her email (hopefully it's still the same) is mbeattie@carnival.com.

Mischelle was always able to fix my past guest record, but really the thing that finally stopped it from happening was simply that I got married and changed my last name.

Like another poster, I also had all previous sail and sign cards except one, so that did help but I still think Mischelle could help you. She's helped many others here with various problems.

Best of luck to you!

Thanks for the nice review OhJinkies!

I've lived near the ocean all my life. The wave you saw seems to indicate a stretch of extremely shallow water due to the presence of a reef or sandbar to me.

Waves will break onto these shallow areas (much like they do at the shoreline) while the surrounding deeper water remains flat.

For safes that require a mag strip, we use our AAA card and hide it in the stateroom. Never had a problem.

 

I do admit that I like the keypad safes better.

I like the keypad safes better too--more convenient. But...

For the magnetic strip ones, we have used magnetic strip cards that we had "two of" such as:

Old hotel room keys

Old casino player club cards (casinos usually give you two when you enroll)

Duplicate AAA cards

Always test it first though! Once we had two cards that seemed the same, but when we locked the safe with card one, card two wouldn't open it.

Been using this trick for several years thanks to Cruise Critic members' suggestions!

If cheers = $1200 on an 11 day cruise, has anyone here given thought to the free drinks offer on two other cruise lines?

 

I stopped drinking decades ago, but if I were still imbibing, I'd go with NCL's free drink offer - that will certainly make the total cruise fare a heck lower than CCL's with Cheers. I'm not so sure that Celebrity's 1-2-3 offer would be less than CCL, but it would be very competitive for a much better product.

We have.

DH and I got the "free" drink offer with Celebrity's 1-2-3 last year. We paid exactly 2220.78 for an oversized but obstructed-view hump balcony cabin. This price included the drinks package (no daily limit) for both of us and bottled water is included. And Celebrity's main dining room food and buffet are far superior to Carnival in my opinion. I didn't like everything, but I liked a heck of a lot more than I do on Carnival.

Nightlife after the shows (which were spectacular) was lacking, however, so we just retired to our balcony and enjoyed the stars and fresh air.

Our balcony cabin:

Carnival (and other cruise lines) say...

Mobility Scooters: Passenger scooters must be stored and batteries recharged in your stateroom. Due to safety considerations, wheelchairs and scooters cannot be stored in the corridors. Your personal scooter should be able to fit in a standard stateroom with a 21" entry doorway. If your scooter is larger than 21", you must purchase a modified stateroom or rent a smaller scooter.

...But I have seen scooters (including the rented ones) and wheelchairs (including ones stamped with the cruise line's name) parked all cruise long in cabin hallways on many ships.

OP--

Not sure where you are seeing that.

In the past there were some ships with rooms whose twin beds did not convert to a king but I believe they were handicap/accessible rooms. Currently Carnival website shows the following:

http://www.carnival.com/common/CCLUS/ships/ship/htmlDeckplans.aspx?&shipCode=BR&panorama=True&bypass=t#stateroom/7415

Stateroom 7415

• Overview
  
• Details
  
• Amenities
  

Two twin beds (convert to king), one upper pullman and single sofa bed. Sofa and coffee table. Desk and seat. Full bathroom with shower. 3 closets. Private balcony with patio chairs and table. All images are representative of staterooms. Actual configurations may vary.

Wow. I can honestly say I've never gave this subject a thought!:)

Me either.

Live and learn.

Not sure we spend enough on cruises to make a huge difference in our yearly cruising budget, though, but I guess a savings is a savings. Will have to investigate further.

Carambola is $8 pp each way for 2 people. If you get 4, you can go for $4 pp each way. We opted to wait for some others that were going there as well. Once you come off the pier, on the right there are covered benches, you can tell the guys there where you want to go and whether you want to wait for others. Cost was the same on the way back. We set it up for our driver that drove us there to come back and pick us up.

Great info! THanks!

Sounds like the taxis want $16 each way for 2 to 4 passengers. We're okay with that!

Many thanks again!

I'd file it in my "well that sucked" file and move on. I bet you had a great cruise anyway, remember the good stuff.

No it shouldn't have happened but it did and any thing you want comped for is just going to be a headache to get it done. Move on, plan your next trip.

I always have trip insurance, but...

Some seem to be blowing off the OP as if this is no big deal. In the grand scheme of life, I suppose it may not be. For OP's cruise and probably many others' in the same situation, it's definitely a sizeable monkey wrench.

I have never had my suitcase and clothing arrive to my cabin soaked...

And hopefully, never will.

But I sure can sympathize with those who have!

My husband wanted to go to Orient Beach in August. We had spent a week here on our honeymoon for our one year anniversary way back in 1998 and loved Orient. I started reading reviews and there was lots of construction going on so we opted to try something new. Finally, we decided on Pinel Island. We took a cab ($25) to the pinel island ferry. We were told that they ran every 10 minutes but it was every 30 minutes. We took the 10am ferry over. Looking at the island from the ferry

We chose a set of loungers, it was $20 for two for the day. We ended up hiking across to the other side of the island. Yeah, I found some more seaglass. We got a handful or two of it. I combed for glass while my husband snorkeled. I snorkeled for a bit myself but after seeing St Lucia, it just didn't compare. Here are some pictures he took snorkeling. I went straight out from the left end of the beach, it was ok. He ended up going to the left around the rock formation and he said it was better there. By that time I was done.

Wonderful review... And excellent info!! Thanks!

As such, I have more questions...

• How long was the taxi ride from the Cruise Ship Port to the Pinel Island Ferry?
  
• The ferry runs every 30 minutes (instead of every 10, as originally thought). Did you feel confident that you'd get back to the ship in plenty of time?
  

Now, for our August trip, we knew we wouldn't luck out again. We had been to St Kitts before. I re-researched it again this time and nothing sounded as good as another beach day at Carambola Beach Club. I love the nice, padded loungers. A nice restroom right there is great, the drinks are cheap ($15 for an ice bucket with 6 drinks (beer or soda). There is snorkeling right off shore for my husband and I can relax and enjoy. I know there were some that have said they didn't care for it but I enjoy it.

 

 

We took our finds back on the boat and headed out to Carambola. If you want to go there, you need to specify Carambola, otherwise if you just say South Friars beach, more than likely they will drop you off at Shipwreck, which is nice, just very different. We walked down there as there as often monkey's behind the bar. We didn't see any but we did see some Mongeese.

Great reviews! Thanks!!

Question: How much was the taxi to Carambola?

We will be a party of 3. I know it was just you and your DH, but trying to get an idea of costs.

Thanks!:)

I just looked up our old booking confirmations. In 2008, we paid a fuel surcharge of $80 (for 3 people) to sail on the Miracle.

agree with it being tacky. not only that, thats one of the fun parts about visiting different countries. experiencing their foods and flavors!

Before passing judgement...

I always loved sampling the food in the various countries along our itinerary.

Now, like so many Americans today, I am living with a life-threatening food allergy.

I dare not risk eating food in a less developed country (it's tricky enough here in the states) as it's simply not worth the risk getting sick.

Sure, I carry my liquid Benadryl and my Epi-pens, but anytime you use your Epi-pen means a trip to the emergency room because often additional treatment is required. Epi-pens alone don't take care of all symptoms all the time. Prefer to avoid foreign hospitals if possible.

Sure some avoid eating in port due to honest budget constraints or (dare I say it) out of plain cheapness, but not everyone.

I really miss eating in port--especially when I'm nibbling on my prepackaged snacks while my companions are chowing down a delicious Mexican feast in Cozumel!:(

I would have a couple Guys burgers on a cruise but thats probably it. Of course they taste good.The things are loaded with so much fat and grease its scary

:eek:

Oh I know! I was really looking forward to my first Guy's burger last November after seeing everyone's pictures here. I wasn't expecting low fat of course, but the burger (on the Freedom) was soooo greasy that I could barely eat half. Since then, the thought of eating any burger anywhere has been a turnoff.

We agree. Carnival KILLED a tradition I had with my son where we'd venture over to the Lido Deck for a midnight slice of pizza. The new pizza is inedible to both of us. The cheese looks like melted plastic and tastes as I imagine melted plastic would taste. Oh well...

Agree.

The best pizza I had on Carnival was on the Paradise in 2003 believe it or not. On all other CCL ships, the pizza was still very good until about 2009.

I think the pizza is no longer as good as it used to be due to the use of poor quality ingredients. The cheese didn't seem like "real cheese" to me either. Maybe it is processed cheese. Not good for cheese lover like me.

I miss the anchovies too, as others have stated.

Op, a few comments: EVERYTHING will be different with a child, because a child changes everything.

 

Op, a person is a person no matter how small. a baby still takes up a person on the ship, on the life boat. So, no reduced fee for age.

 

yes, it's all about your expectations and what you want out of a vacation/cruise. For US cruises are the easiest/best vacations. If you want time with just your spouse, or without your kid, well, I have no experiance with that! We cruised before dd, but since this was a family vacation, we KNEW before it wouldn't be the same.

 

We've NEVER had the expectation of leaving dd in nursery or camp, that's not why we cruise. We do use nursery/camp during family/open house hours, but not yet for drop off. I'm a sahm, leaving dd with strangers at a young age isn't an option. Next year, she'll be in preschool, so well, idk. I may just want to spend time with her! Dh works, he wants to spend time with her. My child needs down time, so I expected to spend time just chillin in the room, and that was PERFECT for ME. I don't cruise for shows or to meet people. Before dd, I'd be off somewhere quiet or on the balcony with a book and mp3 player. Not much changed. :D

 

Last week, we were in the cabin by 8pm, sleeping before 9pm, there was NO just me/dh time, there hasn't been in four years, but that's the type of parents we are. I never feel 'stuck' in the room, I enjoy being in the cabin, we always get a balcony though. Normally, after she's sleeping we'll watch tv/hang out on the balcony together, last week I crashed, and most nights he crashed as well.

 

 

 

Tips: yes go to mdr. bring color wonder markers, stickers, whatever. Check the menu before hand on the tv, one of you go down to order first, the other joins with lo in 10-15 minutes, eat app, go for a walk till main meal. DH takes dd after meal, I stay and enjoy dessert and coffee.

 

MDR is way easier, imo, than lido. Carnival doesn't have MDR open for lunch, this was a major issue for me last week. It may be a deal breaker for carnival again with kids/for me. I do not want to stand in line, serve myself, find a table, get my drinks on vacation, I want someone WAITING ON ME. If no MDR, then room service, but dd didn't like room service food.

 

 

 

Carnival MDR is no longer open for lunch on sea days?

I don't have any children, but now have food allergies and found it easier (safer) on our cruise in April (Crown Princess, though) to eat as many meals as possible (including lunch) in the MDR.

I had planned to do so as well on my upcoming Conquest cruise.

On our cruise last summer, my wife was pregnant and they let me buy Cheers without her paying. We asked at guest services, they called the ship's bar manager, and he came down and personally rang us up. He even threw in the unlimited soda package for her at no extra cost. It sounds like we were lucky, but it does sometimes happen.

That really surprises me, but I'm glad for you!

Went to guest services last Carnival cruise to request an exception to buy Cheers without my cabin-mates having to and they flat out refused, even after escalating it to management.

Dilemma for me is that DH and I have been cruising other lines where we have grown accustomed to a beverage package, but then I go on my yearly Carnival cruise with my two best friends who are more budget-conscious and won't spring for Cheers.

Cheers isn't even that good (bottled water not included), compared to the other lines' unlimited packages, but it will save me money. As others have noted: Only need 6 or so drinks a day to break even (Bloody Mary in the a.m., couple of afternoon drinks, couple glasses of wine at dinner, and 2 or 3 evening drinks and I'm ahead financially).

At the end of every CCL cruise my sail and sign is 2 and 3 times that of the other girls'.

All three of us are well past the Platinum mark... You'd think Carnival might be able to see by our Sail and Sign histories that I am not trying to "cheat" them by sharing Cheers with my cabin mates. I simply am willing to spend more than they are on beverages.

Usually I'm not that worried about things but a warm cabin is a deal breaker. We had one a couple of cruises ago ( it seems to be no rhyme nor reason sometimes) and I called and went to desk right away. No one came so about an hour later I was back at the desk and stayed their until someone came with me to see how hot it was... not happy people but guess what? It got fixed! Some "valve" was turned the wrong way, some other passenger was freezing, blah, blah... whatever the room now was cold! Stayed that way the rest of the cruise and yes people got a nice tip.

We had this exact same issue in 2010 on the Valor.

On the previous cruise, the occupants in our room had apparently been cold and had the "valve" or whatever turned off. A a staff-member turned it back on in response to our complaints!

Just got off the Conquest on Monday. Got the all you can use internet package for the 8 days for $99. Worked faster than any internet we have used on any other ship.

You booked this aboard ship or in advance?

We'll be on Conquest in a few weeks!

 

One thing I would consider doing is going to Pinel Island for the day. All you have to do is take a taxi to Cul-de-Sac and then either take a very short, calm ferry ride or kayak to Pinel. We kayaked (there is a great rental place at the water's edge in Cul-de-Sac: http://www.caribbeanpaddling.com/) and it took us about 20 minutes to kayak across. We absolutely loved Pinel. The water was amazingly clear, with none of the seaweed that we encountered in parts of Orient Beach. We ate lunch at Karibuni and loved it.

Great information! Thanks!:)

A few additional questions:

How long is the taxi ride from the Philipsburg cruise port to Cul-de-Sac?

Cost of taxi ride? We have a party of 3.

Are there clean restrooms with regular flush toilets on Pinel or are they outhouse/porta-potty style?

Thanks!

Edit:

Oops--Just read further into the thread. I see that you were staying on the island and weren't on a cruise. Still any tips you have would be greatly appreciated!

How do you feel about an 18 year old senior in your 17 year old's class at school hanging out? It's the same thing.

 

While I don't have a dog in this fight (both of mine are much older), I cannot see the difference between an 18 year old HS senior hanging out with a 17 year old HS senior at school vs in Club O2. How does someone turning 18 automatically make them "bad" or a "concern"? The only thing different between the two is when their birthday is relative to the school's cut off date. As for not knowing the other kids in the club, do you know every single kid in your child's school that they interact with? Doubtful.

 

And a 17 year old can also be charged as an adult for something like statutory rape (which is what it seems like some here are worried about). The age of consent ranges from 16-18 in all the states, the federal law is more about how many years difference between the two participants, not the age of any one person.

Good point.

A "bad" 18 year old was likely "bad" way before they even turned 18, in my opinion.

As for whether you really know a kid in your neighborhood or kid's school: DH worked Special Victims for a number of years... Offenders come in multiple ages and varieties and can be closer to home than you think.

Reasonable laws reflecting "age difference between participants" seem appropriate to me.

I can answer this quite simply... school at HOME is completely different from a SHIP that has people from who knows where. AND as others have pointed out, it's Carnival's rule, stick by it.

Plus an 18yo at HS better watch his/herself when interacting with someone under 18 at school. At our local HS all 18yo get an intense daylong class on their birthday about the difference, and reality that comes with it.

Wow I don't remember any such restrictions/concerns regarding who interacts with whom when I was in high school (graduated '89). A kid in high school...was a kid in high school.

I don't have a dog in this fight either (thankfully), but extrapolating from comments so far, I suspect that the main concern surrounds 18 year old males (in high school or not) participating with 15 - 17 year old females.