mkmom514

Went to Maya Chan last October and wouldn't go back. The water was so dirty it took two washings to get the smell and stains out of our clothes. 

On 6/6/2022 at 2:33 PM, FSUDAVE said:

I was just there....Never has and never will have a pool according to the owners.  (David is a former Californiaian BTW) Perhaps your thinking somewhere else.  

 

We were there last October and swam in the pool.

On 9/15/2022 at 12:18 PM, bguppies said:

Hadn't seen any videos or reports showing the sargassum at Almaplena. Saw 2 videos and neither had ANY sargassum in sight.(but like I said all I could find was 2 really old videos)

 

I saw probably 100 videos of the various clubs on the Malecon and Maya Chan and not one video had clean beaches and water.

All videos were since the restart and I could not decipher any seasonality, as I saw videos from all months in there, including last December when we are going this year and every video from November and December had sargassum.

 

I assumed that sargassum is seasonal like horseshoe crabs and jellyfish at other beaches.

I just couldn't find any resource to say when the worst months are in Mahahual are.

 

I have only been once in April 2014 and it was present but not as bad as I have seen in the videos.

I truly hope the farmers in the area are able to use the sargassum for compost or fertilizer of some kind.

 

I truly appreciate all the help. 

 

We went to Maya Chan October 2021. It was our first and last time there. The staff are wonderful but the water was nasty. It was brown like a muddy river and the smell was awful. Lots of sea grass. Took two washings to get the stain and smell out of our swimsuits.

Test cruise is scheduled for September 18.

I just did this the other day. Called RC, waited a couple of minutes on hold, got a rep and got the price drop easily. Because mine was after final payment I got it in OBC ($448 - yippee!).

We enjoyed the pool on one of our cruises. Just find yourself a chair and enjoy the pool.

I haven't been to Vancouver since 2007. We will be there 3 days before our August Alaska cruise. I've seen snippets here and there about skeevy areas. We're staying downtown at the Best Western Plus Chateau Granville and will be going everywhere on foot or bus (taxi possibly). Anyone know boundaries of areas to avoid?

Ever since they changed the website I can't find the stuff I'm looking for. Where do you find your onboard preferences? Where do you link a reservation? Etc., etc., etc.

Our Sept. 30 cruise was not cancelled until Sept. 26. Our hotel was prepaid and we just heard from them today. American cancelled our flight twice. We did have trip insurance this time, so no harm to us. It would have been nice if they had just gone ahead and cancelled earlier because then we would've just gone on the Harmony. By the time they cancelled, it was sold out.

So it appears that RC is going to look at port changes using a four week method. Not sure how far out Carnival is looking. Not sure why these two lines are waiting so long to change st Maarten as it will be months before they return if not longer. SJ and St Thomas are tougher as they could end up returning there by years end, thinking optimistically. I understand the logistics are not easy. You would think that the future cruises, oct thru Jan feb are going to be hard to sell when they continue to say it's going to st Maarten, etc. wishing them the best of luck during this difficult time of planning switching cruises.

St. Thomas is scheduled to start receiving ships Oct. 15. St. Maarten is scheduled to start receiving ships Nov. 11.

We booked one yesterday (9/26) that sails Sunday (10/1).

I sometimes have to use Chrome.

No worries for cruisers on Adventture. You don't need to be there until Wed and it's a late sail away. If you need a hotel, check anty of the Hyatt. They were during Irma.

Adventure is departing at 5:00 pm Wednesday.

delete

We were on this itinerary a few weeks ago. Formal nights were on the sea days.

Do you happen to have the cruise compasses from that sailing?

Call RC and have them look at/fix it for you.

Great news!

A flash drive of family vacation photos was found in Houston International airport in a the last week or so. The person that found it (not me) posted a photo on Facebook of the couple on the staircase on Disney Dream. If you lost your photos, please reply. I'll put you in touch with the person.

A friend from San Juan recommended El Patio de Sam.

We did Dunn's River Falls (ship excursion) the last time we were there. We had a blast, even though it was crowded, and we're in our 60's. We've also gone to the Blue Hole, but you have to do that with a local tour. It was a great time and we got back to the ship way before we needed to board. I think that one was with Peat Taylor tours. He is very reputable and a lot of cruisers use him. Dunn's River was the only ship excursion we've ever done. All the rest have been with local/independent companies. The only time I wouldn't book a non-ship excursion would be if it was an all day trip.

An old gift card will work, or any card with a magnetic strip. When multiple people need access to the safe we just find a good hiding place in the cabin for the card.

I tried 2 different gift cards on the Valor and neither would work. Had to use my credit card.

On the Valor last week it was at 9:30.

We just returned from the Valor and stayed on deck 7. We felt very little motion anywhere on the ship, other than the night where it was extremely windy. Even then, the motion wasn't bad. I am very prone to motion sickness. I take Meclizine (Bonine or any brand), rather than Dramamine. I start taking it the night before the cruise. It is a 24-hr pill so you only need to take it once. It will make me drowsy if I take it during the day, but if I take it at bedtime the drowsy effects are gone by the time I wake up. Take it every night and the night after you get back. I get really motion sick, but have never had a problem taking Meclizene (non-drowsy).

We just returned from the Valor. Main pool and aft pool were taken over by kids. Kids didn't seem interested in the pool by the water slide. The Serenity deck had no pool, but did have 2 hot tubs. Unfortunately, if the wind is high they close that area. Aft hot tubs became overrun by small children. There were several children in one aft hot tub, so we got in the other with 6 other adults. When a small child started to get in with us, I told him to go to the one with the kids (politely). The parents weren't around. This was our 1st Carnival cruise (thoroughly enjoyed it), but would appreciate an adult pool.

(Replies to OP in red) We are looking at booking our first Carnival cruise on Liberty in October. I have been reading the forums (50 pages or so now) and I still have a few questions.

1. Can we bring a box fan onboard? It looks like the Carnival website says it is okay but I read some comments elsewhere saying that fans are sometimes confiscated?

2. Is there a mini fridge in all rooms? My husband is a diabetic and needs his insulin refrigerated. Yes, but you might need to ask about a medical fridge. However, our fridge on Valor was colder than ours on all our Royal cruises.

3. Can we punch a hole in our S&S cards to wear on a bungee cord around our wrists? If so, is there anywhere onboard to do that or should I bring my own hole punch? We just returned from the Valor (sister ship) and our cards already had holes punched in them. If not, go to guest services or the casino.

4. Anything I should know before going? We have always sailed on Royal so this will be a short cruise to try out Carnival. If we like it I plan to book an 8 day cruise for next year. We've always cruised on also and we went on this 5-day with Carnival for the same reason. We like it fine. I would sail on Carnival again on a different class of ship. We like some things about the ship (Serenity adult area), and didn't like other things (lido deck buffet/restaurant set-up). Also, you can take 12-pack of sodas, juice,etc. per person, but no alcohol and nothing (not even water) in bottles.

Thank you!