nyctravelerwithkids

Do we need to make a reservation to go to the Krazy Lobster or walk-in is OK? I remember going to Tropicante and we contacted them 2-3 weeks in advance to request the specific chairs and space on the beach. How does it work in Krazy Lobster?

This will be our first time in Costa Maya. Every post I checked mentioned that the people went to the beach clubs with the prior reservation.

Is it possible to just take a taxi, go to the area where the beach clubs are located and walk in? If yes, then what is the best beach club you recommend? Clean, nice sea water, good sun beds, good drinks and food, not too expensive. Thank you.

Does anyone know if I can buy a round trip transportation and a day pass to Infinity or some other resort/beach club on the day when we dock in Roatan? I really don't want to pre-book anything. It can rain that day, or someone can get sick. I prefer to go one day at a time. In other ports I usually just hire a taxi. No problem anywhere else. But everyone comments that taxi can be risky there. If the same day booking is possible how to proceed? Where to go to get a transportation? Where to buy a day pass? Someone mentioned kiosk# 7. Is it the place where the shuttles depart for West Bay? Thank you.

With 2 year olds you will get more relaxed and enjoyable vacation if you go to all-inclusive resort. Dominican or Mexico.

It will be easier for you and kids as well. Plus it would be much better value. Plus they do provide babysitting service for minimal price, so you could have a couple of evenings for themselves. 

We sailed on Anthem and Allure. They are different. Allure has more features. Anthem is more basic.

Our main issue with Anthem was bad service in the main dining area. Not only it was slow, but many servers didn't even speak clear English and didn't understand what we want to order. Many times we had to wait for our order for 15-20 min only to send it back because it wasn't what we ordered. We cruise almost every year and tried the different ships, but never before experienced this language barrier. I honestly think that Royal should make sure that the serving staff can speak and understand English. I wrote the review on cruisecritic.com about this issue, but it was never published.

I cannot say that Anthem is all bad, but it definitely needs some improvement, mostly in food and service areas. I wrote a review giving it 3 stars, but it's not published yet. Strange. Usually the reviews are published within 2-3 days. I wrote mine almost 2 weeks ago and it is still not there. To me this ship lacked WOW factor. Comparing to other ships, even older Freedom of the Seas, Anthem feels like 3 star hotel - like Days Inn vs Hilton. The activities for kids of all ages are also subpar, comparing to other ships. My daughter loves cruising, she found friends on the first day and was spending time with them around the ship. But even she told me that the activities were few and boring. Last year we were on Allure and it was totally different experience. Even Freedom was more fun.

It was available every morning at Central Park café. Where they serve bagels.

We will be on a cruise with RCCL and are planning on going to West Bay beach for a day. The posts about this beach are plenty, but very confusing.

Questions:

1. how much would a taxi be for 5 people?

2. where to ask the taxi driver to drop us off?

3. is it possible at all to avoid paying entrance fees to the beach clubs/resorts such as Bananarama which are blocking public access and demand payments? Is there a public, free entrance to the beach? (All beaches in Roatan are supposed to be free to the public).

4. Is it possible to enter the beach without paying any fees, but still be able to rent a beach chair and an umbrella? What about buying a snack or a drink?

5. Did anyone try to enter to the beach next to Grand Roatan resort? I heard that they let you pass and even can rent you chairs.

All we want it to come to the beach, rent a chair and an umbrella and stay for a couple of hours. I don't mind paying for those, but not for entrance to the supposedly free beach.

Thank you in advance for all the answers.

The formal dress code is not enforced on Anthem, but I think they should NOT allow men in shorts and flip-flops into the restaurants (we were unfortunate to observe one sitting at the table next to us). No matter if you want to dress up or not, you should respect other people around you.

Check out Travelex Insurance. I always buy my travel insurance through them. They are very good. Always process your claim fast and pay on time. Their rates are much lower than any direct cruise line's insurance.

I loved Cemetery Beach. It is REAL Caribbean beach. The clearest and calmest water I have ever seen! Not crowded at all. But keep in mind that there is no facilities there. Also the sand there is not powdery. There are small shells and pebbles on the bottom of the sea when you enter the water, so water shoes would be a great addition, but we didn't have them and were still fine.

Thank you so much for this post!!! This is what I was waiting for! Just bought Ultimate package for April 24th cruise on Allure.

Saved $105! Thanks you!

Personally I would never take a baby on ANY vacation until she is at least 2 years old. It's easier for the babies, who don't care about vacations, AND it's easier for the parents.

We visited St. Maarten twice with the cruise ship. Both times it was raining when we exited the ship. It was pouring! Real tropical downpour! Both times we went on the scheduled tours. Both times the rain stopped the minutes we departed the port. The second time we had scheduled private tour with Bernard's. When we reached the meeting point we were soaking wet. :) But the tour was not cancelled. When we were 5 min from the port, the rain stopped. The driver explained to us that on St. Maarten the weather is different in different parts of the island. It can rain on the French side and be sunny on Dutch side. And even if it rains it doesn't last long.

We started cruising in our 30th. Our first cruise ship was Celebrity Infinity and we felt in love with Celebrity. Since then we cruised on Celebrity Summit once and on Celebrity Silhouette twice. Also we cruised on Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas. To compare 2 cruise lines I would mention the following:

1. Celebrity is more upscale, BUT not stuffy at all. You can dress up or down as much as you wish. Yes, you should dress nicely for the formal dinners in the main dining room or specialty restaurants, but this is it.

2. Service is better on Celebrity. Everywhere.

3. Layout is different on all ships, but I liked it on all our ships, bot X and RC.

4. Food is much better on X, especially if you compare buffet food and main dining room food. On RC I had a feeling that they serve food of lower standards in the main dining room to force cruisers go to the specialty restaurants (and pay for it).

5. X has more lay back feeling, more relaxing. Even on the smaller X ships I felt more space and quiet than on RC.

6. And the last point that made me to always prefer X line - on RC FOS during our cruise I just had a feeling that they try to squeeze as much additional cash from us as possible. Everywhere - specialty dining, extra tips, pictures. This feeling was in the air.

So my family and I think that X is more classy and gives you more for your money. Just want to mention that we have 2 kids who started cruising with us since they were 5. And they also like Celebrity better. They say that kids club on Celebrity is much better than on RC.

To conclude my long review I want to mention that this April we are going on RC Allure of the Seas. The reason is of course the ship. I am curious to experience the biggest ship on earth, even though we are also not in rock climbing and ziplining. :)

Thank you so much for your replies!

Hi,

We are going on Eastern Caribbean cruise on Allure during school spring vacation in April 2016. This will be the first cruise when our daughter who is 12won't be able to participate in the kid's club organized program because of her age. She now belongs to 12-14 year old group and is considered to be a teen by Royal Caribbean. Did anyone cruised with the kids of this age? Did they participate in the youth activities? Is the activities schedule pre-set? Are many kids join? Are there supervising crew members?

Thank you very much for all responses.

What type and brand of drinks are included in Premium package? The RCCL site only mentions wines, beers and coctails. What about cognac and tequilas? Are all brands included (like Hennesy or Don Julio)?

We visited Grand cayman on our Western caribbean cruise (April 5-12). After long research I decided to go to Cemetery beach. When we disembarked our tender boat we were grabbed (with other people) by the local taxi driver (it seems that the local taxis are just small buses) and he took us to his bus. We knew that we could take a bus, but we wanted to get to the beach ASAP and decided to bus on the way back. So we went with the taxi driver. We waited in the taxi until he filled it as full as he could. He used all seats plus more, so it was difficult to breath. Before we boarded his car I asked him if he would take us to the Cemetery beach (it was stated on his sign that he goes there, $6 pp). His ready responce was that we are risking going there with a child (11yo), because there are no facilities and no food there and that everyone has to go to Sea Grape beach. It put me on instant alert! I was ready to fight for my choice, but my husband was convinced by the driver and his heated speach, so we got off the taxi with all other people at Sea Grape beach. Imagine my disapointment when instead of perstine Caribbean beach with picture perfect sand and palm treas we saw awfully crowded and loud beach with very very narrow sand line - mayby 10 feet from the road to the water. Beach chairs took ALL the sand, so the chairs closer to the water actually stood in the water. There was no space to pass between chairs. There was smell of cooking food in the air. There was huge construction site behind the beach. AWFUL! We did try to walk further along the beach trying to find at least some spot to put out towels and sit down. But failed. So I put my foot down and tald my husband that that was not the beach I come to Grand Cayman for and we returned to the spot where we got off and luckilly found another taxi driver who just dropped his passengers and was empty and he gave us a ride to Cemetery beach and charged us public bus's fare - $2pp.

When I saw Cemetery beach I felt that this is the REAL Caribbean beach! It was picture perfect! We didn't need all the facility. We could easily get 3 hours without the toilet. We didn't need the food and drinks - we had it all on the ship all week long. We didn't need the beach chairs ($10 per chair) - we could easyly sit on the sand. My main criteria for the beach was the water and it was PERFECT! So clean, so warm, so transparent! There was a small reef 20-30 feet from the shore and it was very easy to swim there and snorkel if you wanted. We put our beach towels on the sand right by the water under the some kind of evergreen tree and were happy and comfortable. One thing I know - I will never forget the water on this beach! And it was barelly 20 people there - all families with kids.

When we were ready to get back, we just crossed the street to the bus stop and 2 min later the bus stopped and picked us up. We paid $3 pp to get back to the ship.

It was the best beach on our cruise!

Hello,

Does anyone have information about current seaweed condition in Playa Palancar and Paradise Beach? Is it as bad as in Playa Del Carmen?

Thank you.

What beach area of 7 Miles Beach has the most beautiful water - clear, clean, calm? Facilities don't matter. I narrowed down my choice to Cemetery Beach and Public Beach. Which one has 'WOW' factor? Or maybe you can recommend even better choice?

Thank you for all advices.

Not all schools have spring break in March. New York's public schools are off from April 6 to 10. That's when we are going with out teenage daughter. Last year we also went on New York's Spring break and Silhouette was full of children of all ages.

Sheraton Old San Juan. It's right by the port and pier. Right in the old town in middle of attractions,sightseeings and local restaurants.

If you sail to Bermuda from NY, then you can expect smooth sailing to Bermuda, but is't aways more rough on the way back. The crew members explained to us that it is caused by the path the ship take on the way back. It's 2 sea days on the way there and ionly 1 sea day on the way back. I'm very sensitive to the motion, but I was fine on this cruise.

We wend in the begining of August. The weather and water were just great! I heard from lots of people that it's still cool there in May and June. Especially the ocean water.

My friends have just returned from Royalton White Sands. They said that the beach there was not nice at all - dirty, windy, the water was not clear. It had brown-yellow color. They don't recomment this resort becasue of bad beach.