capsoncc

I am travelling from Canada with my wife and son, and will be going on Anthem of the Seas on March 13th. Canada requires a COVID AntiGen test before catching my flight back to Canada.

I found this on Royal Caribbean, does anybody know if still valid?

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/when-to-take-a-test-if-traveling-to-us-from-another-country

Any comments from People that have done it?

How long does it take?

Is there any option to get a Quick COVID Rapid AntiGen Test at the Airport before catching a 2pm flight?

We bought the Bogo on Anthem. Is it possible to change the restaurants they assign to you?

We are doing the 10 day package in July which includes a 2 night stay at JW Marriott before cruise starts, which includes transfers to the hotel. One problem is that we are arriving there now on Thursday afternoon rather then Friday when we get the transfers does anybody know if JW Marriott has transfers from Airport to hotel? Or what is the best way for us to get to Hotel from Airport on that Thursday afternoon. We have booked the additional night stay (Thursday) on our own.

March 9th, 6-night Freedom of the Seas WesternCaribbean

Warning this is a very long review and I apologize ifthis review is too long, but I have tried to put as much details as I can.

We have done many cruises before on Royal Caribbean,Celebrity and Princess cruises. My son would be celebrating is 8thbirthday on board the cruise. It just so happens we generally always cruiseduring our March Break in Canada since my wife is a teacher, and his birthdayalways falls on a March Break, so lucky kid. He has been on a cruise for allexcept for one of his birthdays. This time my sister would be joining us forher second cruise, her first on Royal Caribbean and my niece (24), nephew (14)and niece’s boyfriend (25) were joining us for their first cruise. We pickedthis cruise because we wanted them to go on a bigger ship like Freedom becauseof some of the amenities, unfortunately it was only 6 nights, which is theshortest (by 1 day) cruise that we have been on and were worried it would betoo short. We have a balcony cabin on deck 7, and the rest of my family had aninside cabin down the hall on deck 7. I was worried since there would be fourof them in one cabin, but it all seemed to go OK.

Pre-Cruise -Arriving

Because we never know what the weather will be for on inMarch leaving Toronto we always like to go down at least a day early. We werelucky since my son’s school started March break on the Friday so we took a lateflight from Toronto to Fort Lauderdale and stayed a few extra days exploringFort Lauderdale. We picked up the rental care late and then went to our hotelfor the night. My sister, niece, nephew would fly in on the Friday, since theywere flying in from Moncton, New Brunswick and required a stop over in Montreal.Everybody and their luggage all arrived on time, and that is when I sayvacation can start since the only remaining piece for the cruise to start isfor the ship to show up. Everybody was excited to be wearing shorts and be inthe nice warm sun. We weren’t going to be boarding the ship until Sunday so we linedsome things up to do Friday night and Saturday.

Pre-Cruise - Activities

My nephew is a big hockey fan so we decided to go to aFlorida Panthers game on the Friday night. It was easy and relatively cheap toget tickets, unlike Toronto. We had a good time but it was hard to believe howthe stadium seemed only half full.

I had previously done an everglades airport ride andliked it and the rest of the group decided they would like to try this andeverybody enjoyed it. We went back to Everglades Safari Park and enjoyed ourtour there.

Later in the day some wanted to go shopping and the restof us hung out at the pool and hot tub at the hotel. I tried to drum up supporton Saturday afternoon to go eat dinner down around the port and watch the shipssail away, but unfortunately not everybody has my excitement of watching shipsas they sail away so I got voted down and didn’t want to do it alone, and weonly had 1 car.

Embarkation

One of the most exciting days to me is embarkation dayand seeing the ship as you pull into the port and are ready to get on. Our embarkationday was on Sunday. We decided we wouldwait and board the ship a little later, since we knew the rooms would not beready until around 1pm. We went and dropped off our luggage at the port andeverybody got their first glimpse of the ship and then the excitement levelstarted to go up. We decided to kill some some time and drove down to FortLauderdale beach, which for some was the first time they had seen it. Theweather was amazing so we just took some pictures and walked along the beach.We then returned the rental car and returned to the port. The lineups were not very long so we were onboardafter about 15 minutes and we were able to go straight to our cabin. First stopwas signing my son up for kid’s club (one of his favourite part of cruising,along with the free make your own ice cream), followed by reserving time fordinners, and making sure our all-inclusive photo package was registered at thephoto studio

Dining

I was very disappointed that even though I booked thecruise a year in advance, we were notable to get early fixed seating. In the past we have enjoyed fixed time diningand having the same table and wait staff every night since they get to knowwhat your likes and dislikes are. As well,you can have conversations with them as time goes on and get to know them. Ifound out that fixed seating was at 5:30, which I find too early, as it makesgetting back to the ship and ready for dinner too rushed sometimes. We gotstuck with my time dining and the earliest time I could get before trying wellin advance on the website was 8:15pm. I must say I enjoyed when early seatingused to be 6 or 6:15pm previously on cruises. Now it seems that everybody is moving this up much earlier, except on Europeancruises. After we boarded the ship I went to the dining room to try and get anearlier time. We ended up with not many choices and ended up getting 5:45pm forthe first night of the cruises. We got a great table with great wait staff namedRuel and June - They were great!!! Some of the best dining room staff we havehad in a while. We then requested to be placedat their table every night and everybody had a great time. One thing that doesn’tbother me as much as some is that they were not enforcing any sort of dresscode in the dining room. Lots of peoplewearing shorts, even on formal nights. Some were in t-shirts on the formalnight.

Sea Day 1

On the first sea day, my son received a lesson on theFlow Rider from his grandparents for his birthday. The only times available when we booked(about 6 weeks before the cruise) was Sea Day #1 @ 7am or Sea Day #2 (the lastday of the cruise) at 7am. We picked SeaDay 1 as we felt that it allowed him the chance to learn it, and then applywhat he learned if he went on the Flow Rider during the recreationaltimes. He is tall for his age, but was just a bit toshort to do the stand up boarding. So hedid the boogie boarding on his knees. The lesson was great at is was 45 minutes in length, and there was only1 other person getting lessons. He hadthe attention of 2 staff members helping him. They rotate between teaching my son, and teaching the other person. This was great as it allowed my son a chanceto have a break and catch his breath before beginning to try again.

After the lesson was over we headed up to the pool to getdeck chairs to use for the day. We wereglad that we did this as by 9am all of the chairs were spoken for. People were very annoyed that they couldn’t geta chair, and one woman even accused another person of moving her stuff (whichwe did not do as my sister was the person who was in the chair in question andhad only left the chair to go and get something from the buffet.)

Grand Cayman

We have been to Grand Cayman many times and we love itjust as much every time. We have done avisit to String ray city a couple times on previous cruises, but since we weretravelling with my family and this was their first-time cruise we did theTurtle and Stingray excursion and everybody had a good time. The only thing I didn’tlike about it was I wished it would have started earlier in the morning. Wereturned and we on one of the last tenders returning to the ship. We go intoGrand Cayman before 8am, but our excursion didn’t start until around 9:30am.

Cozumel

We have been to Cozumel many times in the past. This timewe returned to Paradise beach. My son loves this place since they have allthese inflatable slides there to play on and he makes a full day out of it. Paradise beach is very reasonably priced, asit cost $3 USD per person to enter, and that includes use of the pool, toilets,showers and you get a beach chair, table and umbrella. All they ask is that you spend $10 more infood during your stay. That was easy todo as they have a great menu, and you do get thirsty in the sun. To purchase the pass to use the inflatables(There are about 15 of them) it only costs $20 USD per person. You do not need to purchase one for everymember of our group – Only the people who wish to use it. The cab ride to this beach is about $15 USDand takes about 15-20 minutes.

Costa Maya

This was the first time my sister, niece and Nephew werehere so they decided to the Chacchoben Mayan Ruins and appeared to have a good.I must say this is my second time to this port and I am not a big fan. Last timewe went there and we went to a beach. After visiting other ports I found thebeach area not very nice. This time we decided to stay on the ship and swim inthe pool areas and my son played in the H20 zone. After others were done their excursion we gotof the ship to enjoy a nice cold drink with them since they wanted their bigsouvenir cups J

Sea Days 2

On the final sea day, there were no chairs available, so webusied ourselves with other activities instead of basking in the sun. As alwaysthe last of the cruise people were a little on edge about the lack of chairs. Wedid trivia and then explored some other areas on the ship we really never spenta lot of time with.

Disembarkation

We got back into Fort Lauderdale early on Saturdaymorning and our flights didn’t leave until noon on Sunday. As in in the past wedecided to walk off early (around 7am) with our own luggage and that way getoff before the made rush and enjoy another full day in Florida. The lines werea little long for Immigration, but it wasn’t too bad. I think they could havemore people working there in order speed things along. Not sure how slow thingswould have been when all of the other groups would be getting off.

Overall

Overall everybody has a great time, and we had greatweather during our pre-cruise and cruise so you can’t complain too much and thenewbies want to cruise again in the future. The embarkation process anddisembarkation process is relatively painless, and as usual we enjoyed our timein Grand Cayman and Cozumel. On a very positive note Our dining room staff Juneand Ruel were amazing!!!

Overall Negative#1 – Food

I am not trying to be a snob here and know that food opinionscan be subjective, but I do find overall in the MDR and windjammer that thefood quality and variety continues to be below expectations for me. I had timesin the MDR where I could not find anything that really enticed me to order it. Where as, when I first started cruising I hadthe opposite problem - each night itseemed like there were 3 things I wanted to order. I also find they areproviding what they like to call comfort food choices, which are really lowcost alternatives. One positive is that I was able to order my escargot everynight and everybody seemed to enjoy pizza in the evening every night at Sorrento's. Even with these negatives I didn’t walk always hungry any night, andcertainly didn’t lose any weight J

Negative #2 - FreestyleSoda Machines

We had problems where some Freestyle machines didn'trecognize our cups were there. I asked one of the staff that were selling themand they told me others had some problem, but just use a different machine.This wasn't convenient sometimes is there was only 1 machine in the Arcade andwe would fill them up when picking up our son from the Adventure ocean area. Isthis a common problem people are having, where they don't work in somemachines? In addition to the 1 machinein the Arcade, there were 4 machines in the Windjammer (two on each side) andthe remaining two were located beside Sorrento's on Deck 5. You needed to plan your beverage drinking tohave time to get up and get your refills.

I was surprised there was not any freestyle soda machines, unless I missedthem, in the Pool area. You had to enter the Windjammer area to fill it. Thisisn't convenient when you are wet from swimming in the pool. Yes, we could havegone to the bar, but they didn't appear to offer Coke Zero to drink there, andthis is what we wanted. Did we miss the machines in the pool area does anybodyknow? Or is windjammer the closest? Aswell, due to the all-inclusive drink packages, it seems that there are lessstaff to serve you at the bar, and more people wanting drinks.

We also had times where the machines were out of coke zero. I must say i wasn'tfully satisfied with the service we got from the machines. This was our firstexperience with them, in the past we generally got Soda packages but they wouldhave cans of Coke Zero at bars so it was easy to fill up anywhere.

Negative #3 – Photos

Since we were travelling with a large group we decided topre-purchase the full digital and print packages. This is supposed to give youall the digital and printed photos that are taken onboard and when gettingon/off the ship in different ports. If you do want to purchase this I suggest buyingbefore boarding since it is much cheaper. We have done this in the past andhave had good experience with it, but this time not so much. The photo area washaving problems with printing after the first couple days of the cruise andwere slowing in getting the printed photos out. We had to leave without some ofour prints, although they did promise to send those to us after. It is a bit stressful,since if you don’t get those photos there is no way to take them again. I am willing to give them the benefit of thedoubt so far and let’s see if we get them. We thought when we left at least wehad all the digital photos, but they were very late getting some of the DVDsprinted for people, so there was no time to verify that all prints were therebefore getting off the ship. We verified when we got home some the photos fromclose to the end of the cruise weren’t there and we have emailed them and theyare looking into all this for us. Fingers crossed.

If anybody has any questions I can do my best to answerthem.

We had problems where some Freestyle machines didn't recognize our cups were there. I asked one of the stall that were selling them and they told me others had some problem, but just use a different machine. This wasn't convenient sometimes is there was only 1 machine i think in Arcade and we would fill them up when picking up our son from the Adventure ocean area. Is this a common problem people are having, where they don't work in some machines?

I was surprised there was no freestyle soda machines, unless i missed them, in the Pool area. You had to enter into the Windjammer area to fill it. This isn't really convenient when you are wet from swimming in the pool. Yes we could have went to the bar, but they didn't appear to offer Coke Zero to drink there, and this is what we wanted. Did we miss the machines in the pool area does anybody know? Or is windjammer the closest?

We also had times where the machines were out of coke zero. I have to say i wasn't fully satisfied with the service we got from the machines. This was our first experience with them, in the past we generally got Soda packages but they would have cans of Coke Zero at bars so it was easy to fill up anywhere.

Do most people that do Machu Picchu on their own generally do it after the cruise?

Is it easy to get a hotel to stay in Village of Aguas Calientes? Are hotels there reasonably priced for a half decent hotel?

How long is the tour that most people do? 2 days?

Thank you for your review. We board Vision in 2 weeks. I'm disappointed about the Belize tender delay you describe as we also have a private tour (with 21 in our group). I really would hate to waste an hour just waiting to get a tender. Did you happen to notice how many tender boats they had running back and forth?

 

Also, did you happen to notice what nights they did the Quest and Love and Marriage games?

 

Thanx

Erika

They do not use the small ship life boats for tender. They use local tender boats. I think they had about 3 maybe 4 of them running back and forth. I would guess they were able to hold 200+ people each, but i guess part of the problem is the roundtrip time. I wouldn't worry about missing your private tour since the tour we booked we didn't have to pay until the end of the excursion and they will wait for you since they know the delays because of the tendering process. We had no line to get back on the ship when we returned from our private excursion to get on a tender.

I have no problem with their excursions getting priority off, but my complaint is they could have at least dedicated half the tenders to non RCCL excursion people. They weren't even trying to hide the fact they were marching hundreds of their excursion people past us to load on the same tenders, which they denied and said there were different tenders. Again i realize this is a big revenue generator for them, but i always find their private excursion overly inflated in price and there is always such a large group that you waste so much time corralling everybody up and loading them on/off buses.

Another thing i forgot to mention in my revue was formal nights. The first formal night for us was the sunday night, but i was expecting the second formal night to be on Thursday night, but it happened Wednesday night instead for some reason. I have always remember the second formal night being on the second last night of a cruise.

I travelled with my wife and our 7 year old son (he turned seven on cruise). My wife is a teacher so we generally travel during spring break (March break for us here). You could tell it was a much younger crowd because of this.

Embarkation

We needed to return our rental car so we swung by the port to drop our luggage off, and then returned the rental car. We also walked from the rental car facility in order to kill some more time before trying to board the ship. It was a fairly short walk, only about 20 minutes (going slow). We arrived at the port a little later then we usually do hoping to avoid rush, but we were wrong. You can tell this cruise port is very small and the security lineup was the slowest I have ever saw. We are diamond members and there were no special lines to help things move faster, until after you go through security. The terminal is very tight on space. I am not sure that the terminal could take a ship any bigger then Vision of the Seas. It took us over an hour to get on board.

Stateroom

We were in stateroom 4540. The good news is that we were late boarding so this meant that our room was available as soon as we got on the ship, maybe around 1:15 the announcement came in that cabins were available. Our luggage was also relatively quick in getting to our cabin. This is the first time in a long time we haven’t had a balcony on a cruise, and we missed it some of the time. We didn’t book one this time since the costs was quite a bit more, and with the CDN dollar being low it didn’t help. One complaint I had was that the pillows were the thinnest pillows I have ever seen. Another odd thing we noticed was there wasn’t any shampoo and conditioner provided. Does anybody know if this is standard practice? We have never experienced this before.

WIFI/Internet

For us the internet just wasn't usable. I was expecting slow but I couldn't even load basic web pages half of the time. I tried at different times of day also thinking that might help – But it didn’t.

Ship

All the staff were very friendly during out cruises, and overall the ship seemed to be in good condition for the age. The layout of this ship seemed reverse to most other ships we have been. E.g. Gym was at back, normally at front. Windjammer was at the front, generally I remember it being at back of the ship most other times. It seems that guest services were overwhelmed at times with requests. One big problem I see is this ship hasn’t updated its technology. For example, there is no way to check your account on your TV, or do anything else except watch TV. I would think they would at least have a couple kiosks in the guest services area for people to check their bills, and many of the people who travelled on other cruises lines were bringing this up. I would have though since this ship had been in dry dock they would have upgraded the technology and the internet better. One other thing I didn’t like was you would have to go sign out towels every night by the pool for the next day, since they would never leave towels in your stateroom. This was something we got accustom to on other cruises lines, where they would leave and take the towels from you daily on port days. One less thing you have to worry about when getting off the ship. Correction there was one towel station you could sign out towels when exiting the ship just before where you disembark.

Gym

The gym was very small on this ship and the first few days it was hard to get machines, but this rectified itself since a lot of people seemed to give up on hitting the gym. One surprise was this the spinning class didn’t have a lot of bikes, but it wasn’t sold out. First time I have seen this happen, generally there is a waiting list. The instructor was good and each of the classes focused on different elements of spinning.

Main Dining Room

We had traditional fixed 5:30 pm dining. This was earlier then we have had on other cruises for early seating. We had amazing service in the dining room from Abel and Duje, the best we have had in awhile. I would recommend if anybody can sit in their section to do so. Their service was amazing and they were very outgoing and social. I found the food was just OK in the dining room, there were a couple nights where I struggled to find a main entrée I wanted. I generally had the Escargot every night as an appetizer. I found most nights the desserts selection was good. Like others said there was no prime rib on first night. We had asked for table for 4 for us since generally I don’t want people that do not want to dine with children to be forced to sit with us in the main dining room (we bring our son to dinner every night). Nothing against people who want to go on vacation without kids, that is why we generally try and get a table by ourselves and want to respect that others want to enjoy their vacation also. We arrived in the main dining room and were seated at a table for 6 with a couple and their adult daughter from Pennsylvania. It was amazing and we all got a long great. It added to our cruises experience. One word of caution for any cruise for people if you are really stuck on table size and seating I would head to the dining room and talk the Maitre’d as soon as you are on the ship.

Windjammer

You could tell this was an old ship, and I didn’t like the layout at all of the buffet area. It was very tight and crowded and food selection wasn’t great. I really like the setup of the newer ships where they have pod stations with different types of food.

Specialty Restaurants

We didn’t try any of the specialty restaurants this time.

Entertainment

We generally don’t attend any of the shows since we go spoiled with the entertainment on our cruise on Allure of the seas. We tried to go the aerial show in the atrium, but sea conditions were too bad and they had to cancel it. I could tell as soon as they were testing out the equipment there was so much sway there is no way the show was going to happen.

Adventure Ocean for kids

Our son (7) went many times to Adventure ocean, generally after eating dinner with us in main dining room. One thing we were surprised at was that we found the kids program on past cruises of Celebrity to be better, maybe because this is a small ship. We found the staff much friendlier on Celebrity, and they seem to do more activities with them. One thing we didn’t like was they did a lot of the family activities at 5:15pm, which was too close to dinner for us to attend. Celebrity would generally do these on sea days. Our son said he enjoyed his time there, so that is the important part. I just would think that RCCL is more family oriented, and this being sprint break time, they would have had a much better program then Celebrity.

PORTS

Sea Day - There was lot of confusion on the first sea day about what time it was. The big problem was that daylight savings time occurred on the first night, but the ship didn’t adjust their times. The problem was that everybody’s cell phones or other electronics automatically adjusted, but the ship hadn’t. I was initially thrown off by this, but I hadn’t seen any notice in our documents that night indicating there was a time change. Guest services the next day was flooded with people calling to ask the time. I double checked what the time said on my tv on the RCCL and assumed that was correct.

Belize – This was a tender port. This was the longest line I have ever waited in to get off at tender port, and people were getting frustrated. We were lined up early to get off also, but we booked a private excursion to do cave tubing and RCCL really made anybody not doing their short excursions pay the price of waiting in line. It took over an hour to get onto the tender. The tender ride was very long, also maybe 25 minutes, but was relatively smooth. Cave tubing was fun, and it took as about an hour on bus to get to where the cave tubing was, I would definitely recommend it. We used a company called “Butts Up” that had been recommended to us by a friend.

Roatan, Honduras – I couldn’t find a lot of information on this port for beaches, so we took the safe way out on this one and booked a ship excursion to ‘Tabyana Beach Break’. This included the bus, Lunch, and chairs (no umbrellas). We were lucky enough to find a nice area with some sun and shade. One thing I did notice is that there were a lot of people from the ship that got there much later then us and had much better chairs. My guess is they probably just took a taxi there. I will probably do this next time. One nice thing about this place was venders were not allowed to sell you stuff in the chair area, but could between chairs and the beach. So you were generally approached each time, but they were polite and took no for an answer. We also purchased a bracelet for our son that cost $20 for the day that allowed him to go this inflatable water slide all day long, and he loved it.

Costa Maya - We docked there, but the ship struggled to get to the dock, and it was 4am when we docked. The reason we docked so earlier was because of a Medical Emergency. I was woken up early to the sounds of the engines trying to push us in. I went to the captain’s discussion on the last day of the cruise and he basically said that was about the max capacity the ship could deal with. I bet we probably wouldn't have docked if it wasn't for medical emergency. Honestly we went to the beach there and we didn't think it was anything special, and our son wasn’t as happy with this place since it was just a beach, no slide. There were a lot of seaweed areas, but honestly the BlueKay area had the better beach access. We grabbed the tram at $3 each for adults and we went to BlueKay, but one word of caution is to make sure you are sitting in their area since all other areas you need to pay $50 each for bracelet. We were confused at first and thought it was all BlueKay. We were then approached by the owner trying to sell us bracelets for $5 each, (this included your chair and a welcome drink) but as long as you ordered food there they didn’t seem to charge. We had lunch there and had a good day and then grabbed a taxi back to ship for around $7. We were surprised that the tram only appears to run one-way.

Cozumel – After reading many reviews on here we decided to do this port on our own, specifically since we had been here many times and had did the dolphin swim the year before. At first our son said he didn’t want to go the beach here, but as soon as I showed him all the water toys from a picture I printed for Paradise Beach he couldn’t wait. We grabbed a taxi from the port and I believe it cost us about $15 each way, actually it was $16 back for some reason. We arrived there and were greeted by staff who gave us an opportunity to go scope things before we paid for them to stay. We picked our chairs and umbrella and paid them $3 for each of us. They also expect you to order at least $10 of food and drinks from them, which seemed easy since drinks weren’t cheap, but food prices were reasonable. The drink prices weren’t a big deal for us since we aren’t big drinkers, but I think most frozen drinks were around $8.50 each which seemed expensive for Mexico. There was a large number of water toys here, the biggest selection I have seen. This costs an extra $18 for the fun pass I think they called it. Our son thought this was the best port/beach ever, and he was exhausted by the end of the day playing on all the slides, climbing walls, and water trampolines. It seemed all the families there enjoyed their time there also. One piece of advice from everybody, when you enter the water at this beach enter from the right hand side. The left hand side is very rocky on entry and harder and more dangerous to enter. The right hand side is all sand and a breeze to enter.

Disembarkation

For the first time ever we did walk off for disembarkation. We were advised to go to the majestic theater for 7am. By 7:30am we were being called to “walk off” the ship. This was the fastest we have ever been able to get off a cruise ship, and clear customs. We were at the Tampa air port by 8am. We had booked a connecting flight to go home for 11:55am. We could have made the 10:55am direct flight if we would have known this earlier. We didn’t want to push this as we had heard that that Tampa port sometimes is delayed because of the fog.

Overall

Overall we had a great trip, but we noticed every cruise the cruise lines appear to just keep cutting things in order to cut more costs. E.g. No Shampoo, and horrible pillows. I know the cruise lines make a lot of money off of their shore excursions, but they really shouldn’t punish you as bad when trying to get off on tender port. We lost over 2 hours of total time at this port just waiting and getting tendered. The food in main dining room was good, but not great for us, but service was amazing. Embarkation not so great, Disembarkation was great.

Let me know if anybody has any comments or questions.

We were on the week after you and for us the internet just wasn't usable. I couldn't even load basic web pages half the time. I tried at different times of day also thinking that might help.

I agree we are on Vision of the Seas out of Tampa and i was surprised to see early dining is 5:30. That to me is too early, by the time you get back on the ship from the port it doesn't leave much time to cleanup and get ready for dinner. I would prefer 6 or 6:15 like it has been on other cruises i have gone on.

What are the hours for the Diamond lounge? The reason i am asking is that the early seating on Vision for MDR seems extra early, i think 5:30. I have never seen early seating this early before.

Are you referring to the closets/storage. There is the set above that is shown in the photo. We had more then enough storage.

Thanks for the review.

I agree i am totally surprised there was no prime rib on first night, i have always ordered and looked forward to the prime rib on the first night. Hopefully they change that before i go in March. Sounds like it might be part of the trend i have noticed on cruise lines trying to cut down food costs and quality.

Thanks very much for the info, do you remember what methods of payment they take? US cash?

How did you book Blue Kay in advance?

Was it Beach Break Day that you booked?

I want to make sure i am on the correct WebSite (http__bluekaymahahual.com/)

We had no problems with noise. We love this cabin.

I have stayed in 2108 two times now and thought the location was great. It was great having the bigger balcony because of the angle. The ladder was folded up at all times, and i didn't find the pole blocked any view. I would definitely recommend it and we get this cabin whenever it is available. It is very close to the Spa.

IMG_3276 by Chris Capson, on Flickr

IMG_3278 by Chris Capson, on Flickr

You can see here the extra balcony space there is.

IMG_3279 by Chris Capson, on Flickr

Is everybody sure that 100% of this money is going to the staff? If it is then that is great, but when i see the words "Service Charge" i am skeptical that some, if not all, of these increase are going to NCL's bottom line.

Does anybody have photos of where the 3rd bed is located in the Deluxe Stateroom? Does it drop from ceiling?

Has anybody done just the 7 day cruise portion of Galapagos? We want to do the 7 day cruise and then do Machu Picchu on our own, but celebrity was majorly pushing us to book their 10 day cruise tour as minimum. Looking at this I know it includes hotels and flights, but there seems to be significant difference in price, and I am sure Celebrity is charging a premium for the hotels and flights.

If anybody could share their experience booking the 7 day cruise only it would be greatly appreciated.

We have a Sky Suite and are travelling with our 6 year old. Does anybody know if we can bring somebody else to the specialty restaurant in his place?

Also we are travelling with my father-in-law and mother-in-law, I assume we can still eat in the MDR even though Luminae sounds like it is open?

No, they don't take them from the dining room. But you can let him eat, when he gets antsy the fun factory reopens (non paid time dinner is 5-7) at 7. One of you can excuse yourself and walk him up to the fun factory. Then return and finish your dinner. We did that in the past. Got to have dinner with my children, but they got to go have fun while we got to relax.

What we generally do is we have the waiter bring our sons dinner out during the appetizer/Salad and then one of us takes him back to our Cabin to change and then to Kids Club. Then return to dining room for main course. It is generally a brisk walk :) It would be great if they actually came and get them, but it doesn't take long to drop him off. He is generally in a rush to get there anyways.

I did the Fly Wheel (Spin) classes on the sea days at 8:45am, and my wife did TRX at 9am. We both enjoyed it, but the Fly Wheel classes were $25 + tip, which seemed higher then I have seen on other cruises I have taken.

Also note that the fitness classes could be changing since it sounds like all the Fitness and Spa staff are changing out, because of the change in companies that Celebrity is going to use for it Spa services. We were on the cruise March 8th - March 15th, and they only have a couple cruises left before the change.

Are those decorations that you received as part of the Kids birthday package? or a regular Birthday package?