Maverick61

Yes, only 1 cruise port in Costa Maya

While I guess golf carts are an option, the town is not that far away.  You can board an open air shuttle in the port area for $3 a person.  or you can walk outside the port area, down a block or two and get a taxi for $5 total

Getting a taxi on the way back is super easy

I know Chill grill and Skippers Grill are open 11:30 - 3pm

Does anyone know what time the Snack Shack opens?  is it sooner than 11:30am

Booked Oceanview Balcony Guaranty in late April for an October sailing

Assigned a cabin a week or so ago

HOS - 8700

Sorry, but most companies do not honor major price mistakes like this.  This may not be popular to say here but Royal should not either.

I mean, come on people -  everyone knew it was an error on RC's part. Everyone tried to take advantage of that error.  Sometimes an error may slip through but often it is caught and corrected

No one should be bashing Royal for a mistake that everyone knew was too good to be true.

9 hours ago, surfnsun said:

Thanks!  Darn, time for more shopping! 

You should know that while formal attire is encouraged, you will see all sorts of non formal attire worn on those nights

On 6/21/2019 at 1:52 AM, Maverick61 said:

 

Happens more often than you think

 

We missed NCL's private Island near Belize last year due to winds

Previously missed Costa Maya on a Carnival cruise due to winds

Missed either Antigua or Dominica (can't recall which) due to winds on a Princess cruise

I forgot the one that truly sucked.  Missing a partial transit of the Panama Canal - but not due to weather.  Rather on a Carnival cruise lost power the evening before and were adrift until they got the problem fixed.  Problem was it took them too long and by the time we arrived near the locks, we had lost our place in line for the locks.  Now that one sucked because the partial transit was the selling point of that cruise.

We did end up several years later doing a coast to coast, NY to LA full transit of the Canal

If you want something to do during your Tampa stay, try and get one downtown so you have options on different activities nearby

If you don't care about that, any of the decently rated chains around the airport will suffice

10 hours ago, ryano said:

Interesting!  While Im sure it has happened many times before, this may be the first time Ive read of a non tendered port cancellation for this reason.  This means Coco Cay can still be cancelled for the same reason even though a dock has been built.

Happens more often than you think

We missed NCL's private Island near Belize last year due to winds

Previously missed Costa Maya on a Carnival cruise due to winds

Missed either Antigua or Dominica (can't recall which) due to winds on a Princess cruise

It depends on what you enjoy doing

Been to the Caribbean many many times - roughly same age range.  For a 7 day cruise,  I do not like the Eastern - the ports are not as nice.  I greatly prefer the Western.

St Thomas - I guess if you like shopping, this is for you.  I am not on vacation to shop.  Beaches are OK - best option is the ferry to St Johns.  

St Maarten - ehhhhh

Grand Cayman is great 

I enjoy Cozumel a lot - you have different options of things to do there - beach, sightseeing, food, drink, shopping

Costa Maya - If you want a laid back beach place - get out of the port area and visit the little town 10 minutes away

If you do have a chance to do a longer than 7 day cruise, the Southern Caribbean is really good

17 hours ago, not-enough-cruising said:

I truly believe "most" Americans would have to fill out the OFAC decelerations fraudulently to go, but that's just me. Tourist isn't one of the qualifying reasons.

Agreed - people and in particular the cruise lines were abusing the people-to-people travel exception.

Tourism is not and has never been a qualifying reason

As noted, the cruise terminal in Tampa is much easier to navigate.  Smaller and distinct areas.  I have used both Uber and Taxis there.  The taxi's have a fixed price to the airport ($25 I believe) and there is a long line of them waiting.  The taxi will cost you a bit more than Uber which I believe was around $19 - but upon disembarking they are a readily available option already there - so the $6 or so difference may be worth the convenience

You can find a lot with free hotel shuttles.  A few with free cruise shuttles.  Not many with both.  Some further away in Rocky Point may do that - but you are further out and paying a higher price

I have stayed downtown Tampa with a free cruise shuttle (and teh shuttle would take you and pick you up for dinner downtown too) - and the taxis from the airport is a fixed price - under $25 at the time

I have stayed a bit outside of downtown at a place with a free airport shuttle - and then either took a paid shuttle or uber to the port (again cost was very reasonable)

Tampa is easy to get around

On 5/17/2019 at 12:44 AM, Perkyboy34 said:

 

 

 

On 5/17/2019 at 12:44 AM, Perkyboy34 said:

This is split into 2 sections, and in no means is it a rant, it is just an honest opinion

 

First Section

 

 

Second Section

 

Reading about RCCL cancelling all Independence of the Seas cruises from the UK for 2020, so they can deploy back to the USA for demand of Coco Cay", revenue over heartbreak

 

Can you imagine the heartbreak RCCL have caused cancelling over 60,000 peoples cruise, they are not robots, they are human people with actual feelings who were planning dreams and special memories shattered,

 

 

Being someone who cruises all cruise lines, loyal to none of them, I don't see the issue with your first complaint.  RCCL is no different than other cruise lines in this regard

As to your second section, sorry but RCCL is in the business of making money.  And if the demand is greater for cruises in one area and lesser in others, it is a normal business decision to redeploy a ship to the areas of high demand.  Why would a company have a multi million asset being used in areas of low demand / lower revenue when they can easily redploy that asset in areas of higher demand / higher revenue.  Economics 101.

thanks

Do you pay when you reserve a Cortrans shuttle or when you use it

Only asking because we go in October.  Currently have a hotel booked but may change hotels if we find a better deal between now and October.  I want to book on the earlier hotel pickup run - and just wondered how changeable the reservation is if I made it now

Thanks

People who like or want to cruise during spring break are out of their minds or didn't do their homework. Yeah, nothing says relaxing vacation like a bunch of drunk rowdy kids overflowing the bar and pools ........ I have two little ones and am not that old and that's the last "atmosphere" I want to be in.

Hyperbole much ?

I have cruised at least 10 times at Spring Break (I work for a school) - and never had an issue. Most were 7 day cruises, a few 10 or 11 day. None had overflowing bars and pools. One had some rowdiness but nothing out of hand

Sailing this weekend on a 7 day cruise - looking forward to it

Now a 3 or 4 day booze cruise will be a different story - but my experience with multiple spring break cruises has been fine

All these naysayers who weren't on the ship but feel qualified to comment on what these passengers went through are incredibly ridiculous. Meanwhile they'd be soiling themselves if they lived it. I believe these people and if other ships stayed out of harms way the BA could have too.

I concur. Now I do think the calls for a refund are ridiculous, but I have been on a ship in a big storm and it is not fun. And I did not go in the dead of winter either - it was late March returning to Baltimore (not NCL).

Waves and winds so bad it ripped part of the ships railings off and sent them flying

So unless you have cruised in really bad weather, save your criticisms about people being concerned or thinking it was scary. I have been on 20 some cruises and the one I referenced above gave me a little concern.

Criticize someone about wanting unrealistic refunds - sure. But not for how they felt living the experience

Thanks all

If I make a dining reservation for 4 people in a specialty restaurant and only 3 people show up, will there be an issue? I assume there is no charge for a no-show.

i ask because in making advance reservations, there were extremely limited or no times for 3 people but tons of options for 4 people. So I booked a table for 4 (I assume that is what a party of 3 gets anyway) for each specialty restaurant we planned to eat at

We will have 3 dining packages and most are ala carte pricing but one (Moderno) is not. Not sure if that makes a difference and Moderno may charge for a missing 4th person?

Thanks

Either method will work. I book with the method that saves me the most money or gets me the most extra perks. 99% of the time that has been using an online travel agent

No need to talk to anyone there either. You can book at many major online TAs 100% online as easily as you can at NCL directly with no other human interaction if that is your preference

Don't change a thing - Moderno is great !!!

I don't want to get political, but do you think I'm being reasonable in my requests?

No, you are not being reasonable. I understand your concern, but the cruise contracts allow for itinerary changes. Obviously, 2 hurricanes have disrupted schedules. What makes your reason for an exception different than anyone elses? I realize it is important to you, but everyone who wants to change thinks their reason entitles them to special consideration.

That is why they sell insurance

As suggested, stay on the ship and enjoy the day there when in Jamaica. Many people skip getting off in certain ports for a variety of reasons

Totally ok is saying "I don't get trip insurance because there is such a small chance of a loss that I am willing to take the loss if it does happen."

 

Totally idiotic is saying "I don't get trip insurance because there's such a small risk of disaster but if there is a disaster and I can't go, I am going to be very unhappy with the cruise line if they don't give me a credit or refund my money. There must be some way to get my money back because it's very unfair otherwise and people should have sympathy for me."

Agreed - and beyond totally idiotic is saying "I don't get trip insurance because there's such a small risk of disaster but if there is a disaster and I can't go, I am going to be very unhappy with the cruise line if they don't give me a credit or refund my money. So I am going to complain on a message board and see if anyone has any idea of loopholes I can exploit."

It is simple - if people want to protect themselves, buy insurance. if not, assume and live with the risk. And I say that as someone who has been on multiple cruises and has always chosen to assume the risk and not buy coverage

Insurance policies definitely do not exist to protect consumers. Insurance policies exist to enrich insurance companies. It is the same as the single-payer vs. market insurer debate that is going on in Congress right now regarding health insurance.

 

Health insurance is currently so expensive because we need to price in profits for the insurance companies AND extremely high compensation for all of the insurance company executives. If we took those two factors out, we could insure people quite cheaply, as Medicare and even Medicaid do.

 

The same goes for vacation insurance. If the coverage was offered as a public service, the rates would be lower (and a higher percentage of claims would get paid). To be clear, I am not talking about any company providing trip-cancellation insurance at a loss. Just talking about breaking even instead of profiting.

 

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You really do not understand the insurance market nor do you understand business

Medicare does not insure people cheaply. It costs taxpayers over $10,000 annually per Medicare beneficiary. That is about $4,000 more than the $6,000 my company pays for much, much better individual coverage

Medicaid also does not insure people cheaply. What it does do is pay providers a pittance hence many providers do not participate

So I guess in your utopia, all insurance company executives and personnel should work for free and no company should ever make a profit. Hmmm, good luck finding a work force. Good luck recovering from a bad year when you have no profits from a good year to fall back on.

You have a lot to learn