missthesea

Our inside yacht club cabin for the 12/18 Seashore sailing is still the same. Guess the inside cabins don’t affect the balance lol. Was hoping we magically got upgraded to a balcony. 

Oh my.  We are looking at our first Azamara cruise in July - this may be the tipping point to get my husband to agree!

We haven’t been to the tea, but I’ll take a look at the cart if we can.

We had a wonderful day today. We had arranged the day with Chris Tours in Ochos Rios. Highly recommend him - he was great with our kids and our parents, was easy to communicate with, a really nice guy. We went to Blue Hole with the kids, then Chris brought us back to the ship to pick up our parents. The YC staff helped secure wheelchair service for them down the long pier. We went to Scotchies for jerk chicken and did a little sightseeing. That was a great way to include our parents without tiring them out with an all day excursion.

Dinner was very nice. The maitre d’ brings us Italian meats to start with, as my husband’s family is Italian. The food is usually good to excellent.

Occasionally, one entree or meat will be just average, but the service is so good that it’s easily overlooked for us.

The show was The Wizard, very high energy. The “strong men” were amazing, and there were a few magic tricks.

We stopped at Venchi for gelato and Prosecco with chocolate and “Love at first sight” (Grey Goose, Amaretto, orange bitters and chocolate - yum) and watched some couples dance nearby.

Dad took our girls to dance a few songs at the silent disco. They liked it a lot. They still have not been to the kids’ club. They tried the water slides today and liked them. They did complain that one was slow and easy to get stuck in.

Heading to bed - Grand Cayman at 7:30 am tender!

This is the “bird man”, he carves beautiful birdhouses out of coconuts - $12 by the roadside.

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I’ll try to answer a few of your questions. David is new, but he may have been here last week.

I had the sports (deep tissue) massage. It was very nice. No pressure to buy products, but an additional massage was recommended and she gave me a card for 20% off another one during a port day. Any specials for the spa so far have not been as good as the 50% savings for booking pre-cruise. I’ll watch for details on any specials.

I’ll check on tv channels tomorrow. I know there is Cartoon Network!

Loungers were added to both shaded areas, smoking and non-smoking.

There are signs indicating that all of the outdoor area in front of the Topsail Lounge are now smoking.

Yes, toiletries are the MED brand. Nice scent, very unisex and clean smelling.

Tonight was elegant night. There were lots of dark suits and even a few long dresses. It seemed a little more formal than our June cruise, but we like seeing everyone dressed up. We even had one man looking very nice in a military uniform in the YC dining room. There were a few more casual folks, too. The dinner featured risotto and prime rib, both very good.

We loved the show - The Dream. Kids really enjoyed it. It’s true there isn’t a lot of plot in any of the shows, but the talent of the performers is really amazing and the small size of the theatre makes it feel intimate. There is a dancer who does some pole dancing - which seems odd for a family show (maybe not as odd to European audiences?), but it was not at all X rated, and we felt ok with the kids there. New for the Seaside, they have two center rows near the back reserved for YC. The butler takes you down to it, if you like. Of course it opens up to all just before the show begins. I’m not sure we’d use this perk every cruise, but it was very helpful traveling with our older parents to have a good seat with minimal walking. As to the “elevator perk”, we can’t bring ourselves to use that one.

Jamaica tomorrow!

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Just had a wonderful massage. Spa tips: book ahead from home. Prices are twice as much on board. Towels for the thermal spa are at the front desk - ask for 2. You’ll need one to keep in the locker room to dry off at the end. The lockers open and close with the bracelets. If you don’t have one, not sure if they lock.. There are 3 rainfall shower stalls and a handicapped bathroom in the Thermal Spa dressing room - but I don’t think the Thermal Spa itself seems accessible. Try the Warm Breeze shower and the heated loungers. The spa also has deck space outside with whirlpool.

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Movement has not been much at all so far. I’ve heard there was a lot of movement last week.

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Our kids haven’t used the kids’ club yet or seen a show. They will soon. YC restaurant is great with kids. When we went in June, there were 50-some kids in YC - this was too much even for us, lol, and it seemed the restaurant worked hard to try and seat families on one side and others on another. They do dote on the kids, though. There is a high chair if needed and they will bring kid friendly food. Our kids are old enough to go back to cabin or sit nearby in the lounge and play a board game if we want to linger at dinner. You can also reserve a “dinner with the kids club” and the kids can eat at the buffet with other kids.

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Here are a few more of the cabin showing the bed and couch set up during the day.

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YC pool deck is lively but not crazy. MSC listened - there is now some shade! They moved some loungers into what was table space. Some families are playing cards, kids are laughing but well behaved, hearing lots of languages and seeing lots of smiles.

No, I don’t have signed waivers and if you are on this trip with us - you may end up in a picture!

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My husband just laughed and said the noise in our room with 3 kids far exceeds any noise we hear from above!

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They put the bed up during the day, and no noise from the pool deck noticed so far..

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Yes, I’ll take some more stateroom pictures - when it’s cleaned up. It is tight with 5, but doable. The girls begged to sleep “up top”. :) Maybe it was just irritate their brother, who also wanted to sleep there. It’s a nice mattress actually, but it is a twin.

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Leaving Miami today.

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Thanks for following along! Yes, we are finally relaxed. We arrived at the pier about 11:30, and no one else was at the YC tent. We were quickly taken up to the waiting area, which was nice and quiet. Goodies and drinks were served.

We were on board quickly, but there was one snag. Well, maybe some people would think it was good, actually. Our group was getting ready to go up the gangway, when our family was directed to a different route than the rest of the YC group. Suddenly we were in the atrium - no embarkation photo opportunity. That would have been nice, as we have our whole family with us - and it’s our parents first cruise! We found our way up to the YC on our own. Later, I asked one of the photographers, and he said this was a problem lately, with some YC guests not able to have photos on arriving. Not a huge deal, but if it is important to you be sure to tell the butler escorting you on board. We had lunch in the YC dining room.

We chose 7 pm as our usual dinner time, and have a table that seats all 7 of us. The new maitre d’, David, is from Honduras and speaks six languages. My father in law enjoyed chatting with him in Italian. Roshan is our waiter, and he seemed to remember us from June. He is assisted by Samuel, who announced he is “Arthur’s brother from the Phillipines” (an amazing and funny waiter who left for a vacation two weeks ago). Roshan is very friendly and attentive, and Samuel is a jokester.

I didn’t get many cabin photos yet, but we are 18022 and it’s very nice. With 3 kids, storage is tight. We needed to ask for 20 extra hangers. We are mean parents, forcing the kids to wear sundresses and collared shirts to dinner, lol. Of course, the rest of the time, they are free to live in swimsuits and eat unlimited gelato. Our two girls have squeezed into the pull down bunk, but I don’t think that will last. It’s meant for one.

More tomorrow!

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We liked the Seaside so much in June, that we are back with our 3 kids (10,10, and 12), as well as my husband’s parents (70s). Note, I tried to do a live review back in June, but lost focus.. I’ll do better this time!

I’m not going to take pics of the menus and dailies (see BugsyCruiser’s excellent review from last week). I’ll try to answer questions when I can.

We had a stressful travel day. While my in-laws flew down early yesterday, we had to plan around at least some school and work. There were, er, complications with kids forgetting stuff and parents not noticing the time. Then add in a classic Chicago traffic jam. The end result was that we missed the cut off to check in our bags by 4 minutes. The airline couldn’t do much, just put 5 of on standby for a flight in the morning. Skip to an hour of a distraught and tense couple calling for flights - hmmm, how much would we (could we) spend to get to Florida - tickets were now $660 a person! My husband saved the day and found something. At 2 am, we rolled into the Hampton Brickell with 3 wound-up crabby kids and worried parents waiting up for us. We shifted to vacation mode, and we walked over to a taco truck down the block (Look dad, people are still awake and there’s a man dancing without his shirt on in the street!). Back in the room, we ate tacos in bed and finally felt like we were on vacation!!

We will head to the ship at 11am. Need coffee - lots of coffee - first. Yacht Club will feel very nice!

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Back in June, there were only one or two under $13. There were some fun champagne cocktails under $13, though.

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Wonderful live report and pictures- thank you! Don’t miss the crepes with Nutella, the Champagne Bar cocktails and the Peter Punk show. Enjoy!

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Thanks for a wonderful review! Sorry to hear your cruise ended on a scary note. It’s already hard to leave the YC, and a crazy person screaming must have been a little unnerving. We sailed in 16035 in June, and are bringing our parents and our kids back to YC this Saturday. We will miss Arthur! He and Roshan were so fun. We also had Vishnu, who was very helpful. Do you recall seeing anyone from YC or the ship helping elderly folks get a ride from the ship to the end of the pier at the islands? I remember golf carts on some of the piers taking older folks - probably for a fee or tip. My in laws aren’t usually needing wheelchairs, but those are long walks.

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Check out the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism’s People to People program. They match your family up with a local guide.

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My husband wore a suit on formal nights, and a shirt with a collar and khakis the other nights. There were several men in suits on our sailing, but only for formal nights.

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Sounds like you had some bad experiences onboard. We liked our June cruise so much that we are going again in 2 weeks. While we were in YC, we spent lots of time at the main buffets and pools and had good experiences.

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Really unhelpful. Yes it is what? She already confirmed that my suggestion worked and the pricing was correct. And cruise pricing is always based on double occupancy. :rolleyes:

Riclop’s postings seem short and matter-of-face. I’m sure he or she was not meaning to be rude.

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I don’t know of any true secret spots, but we enjoyed eating at spot about halfway between the port/aft part of the buffet on 8, and the Miami Beach (?) pool. There was a protected area with nice views of the ocean and the pool, and it was never crowded.

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Hmm. We are on with our our family in 3 weeks. We will come back and post if these were in our room!

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We were onboard in June, and did wait a few times 5-10 minutes for a drink. It was definitely due to understaffing, not slow service.

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