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First cruise under our belt-what we did right, what we did wrong!

slhopper

By slhopper,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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slhopper

slhopper

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I spent many hours on this forum and hope to help out some folks like people helped me :) My husband and I just got back from our first cruise, the NCL Dawn 12/27-1/3 out of NOLA. We had a great time, have booked our next cruise for 1/29/17 and thought I'd make a list of things we did right, and things we did wrong!

 

RIGHT-

I did my homework- I can't overstate how much this meant to our overall enjoyment of our trip. My husband is a *wing it* guy. Neither of us feel we would have enjoyed the trip nearly as much if I had not put the planning into it that I did.

 

We did a stay and park package- Days Inn in Gretna, yeah, it is old and rundown, but it was clean, the staff were friendly and it was PRICED RIGHT! I paid 129 for a room the night before our cruise, parking for the whole week and a shuttle to AND from the cruise port. GREAT value for the money in our book. We plan to stay there next January as well.

 

MODEST EXPECTATIONS- We expected to hit bumps in the road. We knew ahead of time we would not let them bother us. We were together and we were doing cool stuff. We didn’t care if we could not find anything to eat besides a pastry at 4 am, or if the fries were cold. We saw/heard lots of complainers, but we just shook our heads and went on enjoying our day!

 

DANIEL JOHNSON MONKEY AND SLOTH SANCTUARY -Roatan- HUGE HIT for us both. We both love animals, and I especially love sloths, so this was bucket list worthy for me! I contacted Daniel via that F page not to be named, and booked a private tour through him. We spent a couple of hours with him and his animals and then a friend of his gave us a wonderful tour of Roatan. We will book with him next year as well.

 

TROPICANTE- Costa Maya- LOVED everything about this place, my husband's favorite stop. Low key, laid back, we drank and ate all day, I got a 1 hour massage and our bill was under 100 bucks. Owner Steve Uhl was a really nice guy to visit with. We will go back next time.

 

FLIP BELT- I was worried about getting robbed or pickpocketed and losing all our important docs/cash/cards. I was not impressed with the travel belts I saw, and a purse of any kind seemed to defeat the purpose of having our stuff hidden away. I found a FLIP BELT that is intended for runners but worked PERFECTLY for us. Comfy, didn't show under my clothes, room for our cruise cards and ID, some emergency cash and my cell phone. Great purchase and our adult daughters will be getting these for Christmas next year :)

 

PILL BOX- I got the one week type, used a sharpie to write on each compartment what it was... bonine, tylenol, immodium, etc. This went in our day pack and was very useful and easy to carry.

 

DRAW STRING BACKPACKS- super light, I often took one and put the second empty one inside it in case we bought stuff to bring back.

 

WRONG-

OVER PACKING- I know, I know… I read post after post telling me not to over pack… and I over packed! Not only did I bring too many clothes, but I did not bring the RIGHT clothes. Next time I will take 1 outfit a day and they will be functional, not cute! I was thinking I would want to shower and change mid-day since it was hot, and I brought all these little filmy tops trying to look cute, which I never wore. Next cruise I will bring t-shirts and tank tops instead.

 

NO JACKET- Our last day at sea I had to buy a hoodie, it was stormy and wet and cold.

 

LETTING MY HUSBAND PACK HIS OWN BAG- Oh man, can you say plaid shirts with plaid shorts??? Seriously. Even Bob said he needs to get nicer clothes.

 

TOOK THE KITCHEN SINK- lol! I brought along everything I could imagine we might need, that would ruin our vacation if we didn't have it. I should not have. I didn't need 2 gallon sized bags of medicines-just in case! The pill box would have sufficed, and the pharmacies in each port would have allowed us to get anything we needed more of. 1 or 2 bottles of sunscreen would have been sufficient, 5 was probably over doing it a bit ;)

 

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS- We are not seasoned travelers. We are low-maintenance, easy to please people. We LOVED everything about this cruise! We had an inside cabin and were happy with it. We liked taking a nap midday. We loved getting to get dressed up and go out to a nice dinner and a show. We enjoyed meeting people on the ship, but know we would not have felt comfortable with traditional cruise style dining, which is why we chose NCL. We were able to keep this a very affordable trip because we did not feel the need to: buy alcohol on board, play bingo, go to the casino, shop or buy scratch tickets. Those are fine for other people, we did not in any way mind them being sold, just had no interest in them personally. We can’t understand why ANYONE would want to withhold or decrease their tips. If we had service encounters at home similar we would have tipped far more than the daily rate. We did tip our (awesome) cabin steward extra the last day. We are now cruise converts and foresee ourselves taking a yearly cruise for the foreseeable future.

 

Hope someone finds this post helpful!

Edited by slhopper
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peg013

peg013

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Thanks for the well written, upbeat review. We loved Tropicante also when we were in Costa Maya. Will definitely go back there again! Steve really makes you feel right at home. :)

Edited by peg013
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mom23krzkidz

mom23krzkidz

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We cruised our first cruise the same week on Getaway and I agree with your right and wrong lessons completely. Especially overpacking and meds[emoji3] I really don't know what I was thinking, lol!!

 

We are getting ready to book the Getaway again for June:)

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Freespir8

Freespir8

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Thanks so much for the review. You must be fun to vacation with...love the helpful hints! I totally over pack every single cruise even though I say I won't each year. Tanks and shorts are def the way to go. I stopped bringing fancy heels too! So much harder walking around a ship in three inch heels than in flats. No one is looking at my feet anyway!

 

Glad you had such a great time!

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mexico8

mexico8

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Thanks so much for the review. You must be fun to vacation with...love the helpful hints! I totally over pack every single cruise even though I say I won't each year. Tanks and shorts are def the way to go. I stopped bringing fancy heels too! So much harder walking around a ship in three inch heels than in flats. No one is looking at my feet anyway!

 

Glad you had such a great time!

 

Well said - totally agree. (If I looked like you, nobody would look at my feet either)

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pspercy

pspercy

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Agree about over packing. My wife brought far too much on our first cruise to the extent we decided to ship a lot of it home. Sounds simple ? Well, I spent a chunk of one port stop (Skagway) finding the post office & getting a big box, then in the next port (Ketchikan) I discovered you can't just walk off the ship with a big box of anything - you have to clear customs! Obvious really but I was floored then furious for a while. After all, if it had fit in a backpack no one would've said a word.

 

Celebrity helped me because we had an excursion booked with them at the same time as customs was available onboard so customs guy ran me to their office as a favour. Still missed most of that morning. Never again!

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Linda the Book Lover

Linda the Book Lover

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What a wonderful review! I love how you broke down your review with right and wrong and especially your kitchen sink since I am a kitchen sink kind of gal. I tend to over pack as well and always bring an extra small suitcase for souvenirs and debarkation day roll off the ship. Don't want to get in trouble with containers of hair product with TSA:) Thanks for the write up about Daniel Johnson's Sloth Sanctuary as I used my DH's F... since I don't use F...to contact him for April. I am so looking forward to this vist. Did you get to hold a sloth? Please say yes.

 

Hi Annie! I still have your paper map sheet from Cabo...LOL

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Misskitty72

Misskitty72

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LETTING MY HUSBAND PACK HIS OWN BAG- Oh man, can you say plaid shirts with plaid shorts??? Seriously. Even Bob said he needs to get nicer clothes

 

 

I had a good laugh at this one! When we went on our cruise, my husband packed at least 10 t-shirts, but not one collared shirt!!

 

I asked him what he planned to wear at dinner. He said "oh yeah, I forgot about that". Needless to say, we had to do a little shopping in port or I would have been dining at Cagneys alone. :p:D

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Freespir8

Freespir8

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What a wonderful review! I love how you broke down your review with right and wrong and especially your kitchen sink since I am a kitchen sink kind of gal. I tend to over pack as well and always bring an extra small suitcase for souvenirs and debarkation day roll off the ship. Don't want to get in trouble with containers of hair product with TSA:) Thanks for the write up about Daniel Johnson's Sloth Sanctuary as I used my DH's F... since I don't use F...to contact him for April. I am so looking forward to this vist. Did you get to hold a sloth? Please say yes.

 

Hi Annie! I still have your paper map sheet from Cabo...LOL

 

Hi Linda! LOL...ah yes...the infamous map sheet! Can't believe you kept that...I must have given mine away:p

 

My sister and I will be in your aft penthouse suite in April on the Jewel. We are so excited! Sure hope we get to run into you again on another trip.

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slhopper

slhopper

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Thank you all for the kind words, glad someone could get some use from it.

 

YES, I got to hold my sloth, it was heavenly!

 

I can't figure out how to post a picture, it won't let me link to the website :(

 

 

 

Funny about the over packing... we actually took 1 suitcase each and 1 small carry on that I kept our passports/money/tickets in. And that was still too much. We saw people with THREE SUITCASES EACH!!!!! We did the easy walk off and it was a breeze, couldn't have done that with multiple suitcases.

 

Have a great day everyone, and thanks for helping me become a cruiser!!!!

Edited by slhopper
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