SCGamecock80

Thanks for your help.  We booked one!!!!

Can anyone recommend a car rental company that is near the CROWN BAY dock.  Thank you.

Mine disappeared too.  And I can't find where to set them up again.  It use to be easier to find them.

Our last, and only previous cruise with NCL was back in 2005. We cruised on The Star and did the Panama Canal itinerary. The cruise itself, through the canal, was wonderful. However, we found the ship crew to be less than friendly, cabins and balcony very small and the food, though very subjective, was frankly very poor. We basically wrote off NCL after the cruise.

 

VERY VERY HAPPY to read this review. We took our first NCL cruise over Thanksgiving on the Pearl. We were very disappointed in the staff overall. There were good things but the overall attitude took away from the cruise.

 

We had booked the SUN this March before booking the Nov Pearl trip so we were worried about cruising NCL again. But we have heard good things about the SUN and it seems to be a fav of many. My only concern is there are rumors that the staff is going to be pulled to the new big ship. I am hoping that will happen AFTER March.

 

We were drawn to NCL b/c of their itineraries and will cruise the other leg of the SUN if this trip goes well.

That braiding story is hysterical. Reminds me of a purse purchase I made in NYC once. lol

Do you know anything about Majestic MTN in Ocho Rio's. Saw it on the travel station and sent them an email but haven't heard back.

OCHO RIOS, JAMAICA

JAMAICA FOR A DAY AI SUNSET GRANDE RESORT

 

 

We were very worried about this port and I had a previous bad experience there before so we decided that if we were even going to get off the ship, it was going to have to be an AI resort that didn’t allow “pushers” in.

 

 

I tried to do a lot of research on this and came up short of anyone that could really review this place. It seemed like tons of people have booked with Jamaica for a Day, but couldn’t tell me about this particular resort. I read both good and bad things on Trip Advisor, but thought “what the heck” and booked. It seemed like most of the “complaints” came from those with problems with their rooms…and hey, I wasn’t getting a room, just using their facilities.

 

 

When booking, the price was $60 for an adult and $40 for a child. You are required to put down a $20 deposit for each person no matter the age. Then you pay the remaining amount when you arrive at the resort. You can get transportation provided by them for $9 a person. That’s to and from together for only $9. Since I didn’t know how far it was from the port, I decided this was a good idea and booked it too (was paid along with the deposit at the time of booking). Plus I didn’t know what a cab ride would cost for the 5 of us there and back if I did it on my own. It’s about a 10 minute ride there and you can see the ship right there in port from the resort and we loved that. Once we booked online, we were sent a confirmation notification that they received our payment and would be “emailing” our resort pass within 24 hours. After 24 hours, I had not received it and emailed them. They responded very quickly to let me know they were running a little behind but not to worry and they would get it right out to me (and she did). They also tell you to print 2 copies. One for the ride there and one for the ride back (although we didn’t need to show anyone anything on the way back, but they say to do it as a precautionary).

 

 

 

When we made it to the pier, we ask for the Jamaica for a Day operator and were told to wait inside the gated area for someone. We waited for about 20 minutes or so and then I ask again. There was another couple also waiting for the same bus. I think we must have waited about 45 minutes or so before our bus finally came. The papers tell you to be waiting at the port at 9am and that is when they would be leaving for the resort. Obviously they were running late.

 

 

Upon arrival, we checked in and paid the remaining amount of our fees and were issued an armband and also some tokens for resort towels. I had completely forgotten that we didn’t need our towels and had brought the ship towels with us. Also they ask us when we wanted to be picked back up to return to the ship and we told them 4pm was a good time.

 

 

 

 

 

I have to say, the place is GORGEOUS!!! The entrance is grand, the décor is beautiful, it really looks like a nice resort. The grounds were also VERY beautiful. I could not believe how many pools this place had. They had pools within pools. Private little area pools and huge pools. Pools under slides, pools under bridges, fountain type pool, you name it. Everything was landscaped very nice as well.

 

 

 

 

 

The dining area was a HUGE, very TALL, open area. The buffet was very large and PLENTY of seating there. You are right beside the pools and right in front of the ocean. Very nice. We did see people painting up in the rafters and such AFTER we had all ate and everyone was out of the way.

I loved the food. Very tasty and they had tons of it. Everything you could think of and the jerk chicken was fabulous! The only “rule” they had was you HAD to be dressed and have shoes on in that area to eat (understandable) but we found tons of people that were still in their bathing suits and was told to come back dressed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since this was an AI, it included your drinks too. We could drink soda all day or alcohol all day. It came with the resort pass. I have to say my favorite was the “dirty banana” drink. Yummy. They made virgin strawberry drinks for my little one and she loved it.

 

 

 

We couldn’t find an actual lay down beach chair by the time we arrived. I think all the resort people had already taken them. But we could find plenty of regular sit up chairs…which is always fine with us since we really don’t stay in a chair long and would rather be on the beach, in the ocean or in the pool. So we just found a spot by a landscaped area and put our things and had a chair there (plus you could sit on the wall).

The beach is kinda small, but had plenty of chairs. They also had some type of cabana things and I bet it’s pretty at night because they all had lights around them (like the little white Christmas lights). They also came with tables.

 

 

 

 

 

The ocean had a sandy bottom, so not great for snorkeling, but there was areas that had sea grass at the bottom of them. I managed to find several crabs in those areas…so watch where you walk or have water shoes on. We did manage to see a few schools of small minnow type fish and a few other fish.

 

 

The resort provides the HUGE round rings (something like Styrofoam) to use. They are free of charge. You just have to find one to use it. When we first got there, there were plenty and we waited until later, then there wasn’t any. So we missed out on just floating around on one of them.

To the right of the resort, when facing the ocean, there is a water sports place that you can rent jet skis, take a boat tour and so on. They do stay in their spot but will try to lure you in to purchase a ride or whatever. Just keep walking and you’ll be fine. They aren’t allowed to actually come on to the property or the beach in front of the property.

 

 

The water slide…it’s massive huge and looks like a lighthouse. There are 2 different slides that come out of it and it’s quite the haul to get up there. It’s inside the light house and a winding staircase. I booked this AI knowing that my 3 year old was going to love this. When we got to the top a very rude man told me she was not allowed to go down. Everyone had to be at least 48” tall to go on the slides. He would not even let me go down with her. You are only allowed 1 person at a time. He was VERY rude about it and I walked away upset and my daughter was in tears. The rest of the day we had to deal with her pointing at the slides and crying to go on them. This is when parenting gets creative trying to divert her attention to something else to make her forget about it. Ugh! So that was the ONLY bad experience I really had at the resort that day.

 

 

 

 

 

Toward the end of the day, they had a live band playing and they were playing “music games”. It was hilarious. They would play the beginning of a song that everyone would know and sing it and then stop and you had to keep singing it and name the song. It was hilarious and entertaining.

Now on to the “sketchy” part of the day…LOL There was a lady that my husband had ran in to that ask if he wanted to have our 3 year olds hair braided. He told them it was a possibility and she quoted him a price of $35 for her entire head. He told her that he would tell me about it (because he knew I was wanting this done) and get back to her.

 

 

I had ask several other resort visitors how much they paid for their children’s hair to be done and they had told me it was $4 a braid and it seemed to be costing around $60 a person for their entire head to be braided. When my husband told me $35, I decided it was a good idea. When I found this lady later, she said she would do it for $25 and I told her yes in about an hour or so we would find her. She let us know where to find her (off the resort area of course).

 

 

 

When I went to find her, she wasn’t there and it was just a bunch of men hanging out in the area and they told me to come back in 10 minutes and she should be back. I figured I would wait until I seen her pass again. When I found her, she ask us to follow her to the place just around the corner (by the jet ski rental shop) and she would braid her hair there. When we went around there, it was pretty nasty and a dump. There was a broken down boat back there, men hanging out smoking pot, and trash bags everywhere. It made me a little leery but there was 5 of us there so a little at ease…until….a Jet Ski pulled up and she hurried and put my daughter down off the chair and said “whatever you do, don’t tell them I’m braiding her hair” and then she hid. Another lady that was back there ducked down behind my husband and hid. I started to get a little freaked out at this point. The guy on the Jet Ski was a police officer and he got off and walked up toward the rental building. Once he got out of sight, she said “I’ll be back when the coast is clear” and took off running down the beach. Um…ok. At that point my daughter had 2 braids in her hair and we just stood there like, are we going to get in trouble for something we don’t know about???

 

 

 

We waited about a half hour after the police left and could see her in the distance and kept wondering if she was ever going to return to finish her hair. When she did, she told me that the police didn’t like her and they would get her for not having a license to braid hair and they all knew her.

She then said she was going to take us “somewhere safe that we wouldn’t be bothered”. YIKES. She had us walk up to the rental building and we walked along the back side of it between the building and a huge privacy fence. It was long and dark and at that point I was freaking out even more. I kept telling my oldest daughter, “I’m not liking this at all”. When we got to the other side, there was a bunch of locals sitting at a card table playing dominos and just hanging out. She put my daughter up on a bench and continued to braid her hair. We had some long discussions with her and she was very nice and my mind was finally put at ease at that point. The guys went over to check out the “game” at the table and they were all friendly as well. Not pushy on buying “stuff” but did ask. Now from this area I found that the resort actually went a lot further than I realized. We could see the other half of the resort from on top of this little hill that I didn’t know existed and had seen pictures on their website before. There was a beautiful area with a covered area and flowers everywhere that went out over the water (like an island type) and people get married there. They had a beach area over there too and you could snorkel on that side of the wall. Maybe that’s where I should have been in the first place. We watched people snorkeling up and down that area and I could see tons of rocks in the water. Now I wish I would have explored a little more. In the end, my daughter’s hair was done and she actually took $22 for it. Then my 23 year old daughter had hers done after that.

 

 

When it was time to leave, we stopped by the resorts store inside the building to get some tee shirts and souvenirs of our visit to Jamaica.

Our driver was out front waiting for us as promised but this time we were in a HUGE Greyhound type bus. We were the only ones on the bus on the way back. It was a nice bus and we got back in plenty of time to get back on the ship.

 

 

When we went into the little building where you show your cruise ID’s to the authorities, they pulled my daughter and her boyfriend aside and did a “search” on them. No clue why or if they just randomly pick people to do that to. Maybe he looked like a drug lord or something to them…he does have a lot of tattoos. LOL But all was good.

 

 

All in all, I would definitely recommend this place to anyone. It was a lovely day and I’m happy to finally report back about this place for others to know what it is like.

 

 

Here are the rest of my pictures: http://kimbakersphotography.smugmug.com/Other/Ocho-Rios-Jamaica/22279178_k5Tzn2#!i=1780052789&k=fj4CZK2

We are going here in November. Our first NCL cruise on the Pearl.

Will now know to take our snorkel gear with us. We have rented Jet Ski's. They do have lockers for our stuff, right?

Also, what kind of camera do you have... these are great pics.

GREAT STIRRUP CAY:

 

 

I loved the look of GSC and the tendering area they have made is beautiful. The entrance is very nice and tendering was easy as can be.

We found a spot to the right at the beach area after walking in and pretty much stayed there most of the day (other than a little shopping and over to the food area for lunch). I couldn’t wait to get into the water and start snorkeling.

 

 

 

 

 

The water was cold that day, but the weather was sunny and very nice out. So, I wasn’t about to let a little cold water keep me away. After getting in, you got use to it.

 

 

Before we did venture into the water we were kind of walking up and down the beach area and we saw several sting rays swimming around. They were exploring everyone around them. I ran back to our beach chairs to grab my camera and of course, my luck, they were gone and we didn’t see them the rest of the day.

 

 

 

 

 

I have to say I was very amazed at the amount of fish and snorkeling to be done here. I wasn’t expecting much and figured it was mostly a sandy bottom type area. There seem to be a little of everything there from just sandy areas in the water to sea grass, to rocks with plenty of fish. You could swim really far out (going toward the huge rocks that stick up out of the water) and it was still fairly shallow (where you could still touch the bottom in most places). Most of the fish were out that way (or at least more of a variety of them). You will find coral here, anemones, sea urchins, sea worms and tons of fish. Just make sure you are looking under some of the huge rocks out there and in the nooks and crannies and you’ll find things most people don’t see. I didn’t swim all the way to the huge rocks but spoke with another couple on the ship that did and said they ran into a 4 foot barracuda out there.

 

 

 

At one point I went out toward the rocks and then decided to swim diagonal across toward the other side to see if there was anything different in that area. I found several different “things” (not sure what they were remains of) but they were like bars/metal and to my surprise, I seen my first Lion Fish under one of them. It was the first time that I’ve ever encountered one and I was completely thrilled!!!

 

 

 

 

 

We did see people parasailing there as well. It looked like fun.

 

 

We went over for the lunch buffet and the lines were long. We stood in line for probably about 20 minutes before making it to the food…which was VERY good. Then when I made it to the end of the line, I THEN noticed that the food started over. Geesh, I stood in this long line, like others, when they had several different places to get the same food and it repeated. (Putting hand up to forehead and banging it about that time). So hint…don’t just get in the line at the beginning of the tables.

They have a huge covered area that you can sit at or you can opt to sit at the tables out in the sun. There was a lot of room.

 

 

 

 

 

My little one had decided that she wanted to try the hippo slide and had been begging all day long to go. So we went over to investigate. We ask the rep there if it was ok for her to go down or if there was an age or height regulation. He told us anyone could go down. He ask if we wanted to do just 1 slide for $4.99 or if we wanted to buy the all-day pass for $20. The thing is huge. We talked him into letting my husband go down with her (free of charge) just to make sure she would be ok. Then we talked him into holding off on the charge and if she liked it and could do it by herself then we would pay the $20. If not, then we would pay the on time rate. He agreed and let them go. She was able to climb it by herself and they slid down together. At a certain point almost toward the curve at the bottom they went a little sideways and it seemed as though they hit an area that brought them up a little. Not air borne but you could tell it was different. You could also tell by BOTH of their faces that it kinda freaked them out. So, that pretty much made up my mind that it would be her only time of trying it out. I don’t think I would trust her going alone on it.

 

 

 

 

 

The beach does have a lot of rocks/pebbles in the sand, so it’s a good idea to wear sandals or water shoes if you want to go easy on the feet. I’ve always ran around bare-footed since I was a kid, so it didn’t bother me but it did my husband. You could see the staff working hard at raking up the rocks and hauling them away during the day.

 

 

 

We did a little shopping at the stores before getting back on the tender and was able to barter with one of them on a dress for my daughter and a tee for me so I was happy.

 

 

I really didn’t explore around like I thought I would. I seem to get wrapped up in something exciting and then forgot to wonder off and look around. I didn’t even see where the lazy river was going to be and we didn’t go over past the adult beach either. I’ve seen many reviews about people walking to the lighthouse and I saw the arrow pointing which way it was, but when you are on the ship and you look at the tender area, and then look over to the lighthouse…holy crap it looks really far away. I felt like we’d spend a lot of time just walking there and back. So, we decided not to go.

 

 

 

 

 

The only complaint I would have is they have the chairs so packed that you are basically sitting on top of each other. We were the only ship there that day and it wasn’t too crowded that you had to sit within hand-holding distance with someone in the chair next to you, but still…wow. The beach is huge and they need to spread things out some more or make the beach bigger. I like people, but not so much that they can hear me whisper. LOL

 

 

We had a wonderful day and I hope to make it back again someday. We really enjoyed it and thought it was just beautiful there.

 

 

Link to my other pictures: http://kimbakersphotography.smugmug.com/Other/Great-Stirrup-Cay-Bahamas/22274414_n4mcj7#!i=1779715263&k=bRvb8nx

So glad I found your review. This is our first time doing a "resort" area. I am more excited now than I was before. We are doing the Manatee Swim, snorkeling and hopefully catching the Sea lion show. I didn't know about the lagoon and can't wait to see it.

My question... is there any other way to get there besides cab? $30 round trip seems expensive (we were told $15 each way).

I wish the cruise lines would start offering transport to popular places like this but guess they want locals to make money.

Any suggestions?

COZUMEL, MEXICO

 

We decided to do the Dolphin Encounter at Chankanaab (because of our little one) but also knew that we wanted to do some snorkeling and had heard that the snorkeling here was AWESOME.

 

I’ll start this review with the Chankanaab portion first, because that is what we did first. The Dolphin Encounter price included admission to Chankanaab, so we didn’t have to pay the $21.00 admission price (which after going there, I would more than be willing to pay the admission price). There is a discount coupon online for $2.00 off admission if you are going there and not doing a dolphin, manatee or sea lion swim.

 

http://www.cozumelinsider.com/images/specials/ChankanaabCoupon.pdf

 

The port at this place is…well LONG and winding in order to get out. You have to walk around and up and down and back and forth and….well you get the picture, just to get out of here. You are passing every darn shop wanting to sell you something along the way. Make note that on the way back, it’s more like a straight shot and up the escalator and you are there. Of course I conclude this is a selling tactic to get you to buy things there because it forces you to go by all of them.

 

We caught a cab and the driver told us it would be $12 to Chankanaab. Now I know, because I do extensive research prior to going anywhere, that it was supposed to be a $10 ride. However, I did know that RC Allure and a Carnival ship was docked on down (toward the way we would be traveling, and I knew exactly where we would be going because I “walked the streets” in that entire area on google earth to familiarize myself with it before hand LOL) and thought, well maybe it’s because they are docked closer and the $10 taxi fee was cheaper there. WRONG, on the way home, we found out it was a $10 ride back. So, yea, I was scammed $2. No big deal I guess.

 

We arrived and immediately knew this was going to be good. The entrance and huge “hut” you walk under was beautiful. Waterfalls, beautifully decorated and several shops. We immediately went to the left (after passing the falls on the left that say Chankanaab)ßalso, if you need to use the restrooms when you enter, they are located UNDER the falls in the “cave”. ;o)

 

To the left was a really neat path that takes you to different sculptures and replicas of Mayan Ruins. It was in a rain forest type setting and absolutely stunning IMO. We ran across several lizards/salamanders along the way and a big Iguana sunbathing on the roof of the “sacrifice hut”.

 

 

 

 

At the exit of the walk, we came out and found the small beach area, that people have mentioned here on cc before, that has nice calm waters with a gentle slope walking in. It’s the “kiddie” area people say. We decided not to stay there and walk over to the bigger beach area to look around first.

 

 

The beach was GORGEOUS! Of course it’s not a beach that you walk right into the water. There is a wall all the way around it and you must walk down steps OR rocks, depending where you enter at, to get into the water.

 

We headed to the big snorkeling shack to see about renting equipment. It was $10pp for the mask, snorkel tube and fins. They did have snorkel vest, however, you had to pay $5 to rent them and they flat out told us that you could get them for free and the small shack right before them. So, we walked over to the small shack (which only had life vest, the kind you blow up=real snorkeling vest) and they just required your picture ID. Only 1 ID needed for everyone in your group. People have mentioned that they run out of these quickly, however, they seem to have plenty that day and as I mentioned, there were 3 ships there…including ALLURE!

 

 

We were ready for some snorkeling and put our things at one of the MANY shade hut/papaya’s they had along the beach. One of the locals told us that the water is calmer more to the right (while facing the beach) than to the left. So, we headed down that way. There were a lot of places along there to enter (maybe 7 or 8???). Immediately there were fish EVERYWHERE….WOW. What a beautiful site! Some places had metal steps to walk into the water (then dropped off at the last step) and others just had huge rocks placed as steps. They are slippery, so be careful. I would walk down far enough to get my fins on then pretty much dive in to keep from walking on the steps. We start toward the right and worked our way toward the left. I could not believe how clear the water was and just how many different types of fish we seen all by the areas along the shore line entrances. You could just swim up and down there and see tons without even going out.

 

 

There are several statues that are placed deeper out in the water. My husband swam out there later in the day to take pictures. I stayed back with our little one because at that point, she had snorkeling herself out and just wanted to play in the sand. We started to head out that way at one point, then I saw how deep it was getting and the water was getting colder and turned back because of her. Facing the beach, to the left far out is a person statue standing real tall. To the far right and far out were several other small statues. There were a lot of scuba divers out there, which made my husband very jealous and he wanted to scuba after that. Now, I don’t know how things work in Mexico, but we were told that we could scuba right then and there and the person at the rental hut can “certify us on the spot”. Hmmm, anyone know anything about this? Doesn’t sound too safe to me.

 

We did run a tab with one of the waiters going up and down the beach taking orders. I thought that was nice that they allowed you to do that. The banana daiquiris were AMAZING! Alcoholic drinks (mixed) were $6.00 and soda was $2.00.

 

We decided that we wanted to go check out the lagoon there and we decided to turn out snorkeling vest in (for fear of walking away and someone taking them) so we played it safe. We started walking and then discovered the lagoon is RIGHT BEHIND the beach area where we were sitting. Duh! I thought is was a far distance away from the snorkeling area for some reason. I thought I had seen a map of Chankanaab and it looked like it wasn’t close by. Wrong.

 

 

The lagoon was amazingly beautiful! We walked all the way around it taking pictures. There were several iguanas (black in color) laying around here and there. I had seen pictures of some orange iguanas and had hoped to find one….no luck. :( We did notice someone along the side with a pool like skimmer taking the leaves and such off the top of the water around the edges. They must hire someone to care for the lagoon to keep it so beautiful.

 

Then back to the snorkeling we went for a little longer. We had scheduled our dolphin swim for 1pm (but there was a mix up, which I’ll go into in my Dolphin review) so we decided to turn in our equipment and start walking toward the dolphin area. On the way back, I finally ran into several green iguanas (had a little bit of orange on them). I don’t know a lot about iguanas, so maybe they start black, turn green, then orange as they mature and get older??? Or maybe they are just a different species all together?

 

Whenever we decide to revisit Cozumel…this place will be a priority on our list. We loved it that much! Last year we loved Sapphire Beach at St Thomas on the east Caribbean, now we’ve found our little slice of heaven for the western Caribbean as well. We did not want to ever leave!!!!

 

A link to all my pictures...TONS of snorkeling pictures...the good ones. ;o)

 

NEED 2 VACA.. just saw your post. Have you already cruised or decided on which ship?

Hi fellow Southerners. Just found this board on someone else's CC page. I'm looking at cruising Carnival Freedom in December. Haven't sailed on her before. We also have a cruise booked for March on NCL. It will be our first on NCL. But the ports are awesome. We cruise RC and CCL. We use to prefer RC but have had lots of good experiences on CCL too. Since the recession they seem to have more in common. Before that we felt RC was much better. My DH loves, loves, loves to cruise. We have a great time meeting people on CC and have made many great friends. Look forward to meeting some or all of you one day on a ship. I'm a Carolina grad and attended Irmo High School. My DH went to BC for those of you from this area. My parents lived in Hilton which I'm sure Chapin will know. :-)

First and foremost, love your review! Great pictures and I'm living vicarously through your review as we await our trip on the Oasis eastern route.

 

How long was the walk into town in St. Marteen? Did you go to the same place that the ferry would have taken you? The pictures look great. I want to go to Maho when we arrive there but like you, I'm a little leery of making sure we get back on time.

Me again i highly recommend Bernards tours in st martin what a great time and we went to maho beach what a blast loved it want to go back and spend hours there we had no prob w traffic or time got back to ship w no prob also there were tons of taxis there to take cruisers back

Could have had more time in marigot but still excellent tour and hard to do it all but DJ gave us a new appreciation for st m

Did you enjoy your tour with Pepper enough to recommend him and did you pre-book before arriving there? Did you have the option of getting back to the ship earlier or did the tour make you late? That must of been a bit stressful! Your review and photos are fabulous! Thanks for sharing!

Hope its ok to chime in... i highly recommend pepper. I was on this tour w darthgrady. Pepper actually let us customize this excursion he has different tours and i requested combining some of the stops. He added at least 2 stops for us. One being trafalgar. He was also willing to drop people at the pier early if they prefered. He was awesome. He also called us to get our requests straight. Check his website. As dg said would have loved staying at some places longer and would love staying a week. We fell in luv w Dominica.

Lol to the tv comment we were in 7151 also interior and had a flatscreen tv

What a great pic ... how did u get that one hee hee