TexasBelle

1 minute ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

I’m in the minority. I much prefer a ship to feel like a ship and not a shopping mall. If looking at Royal Caribbean I will not consider a sailing on Voyager, Freedom or Oasis classes for this reason. Did the Mariner once when she was new and was ready to get off by day 3 of a 7 day sailing. Very inward focused and little connection to the sea.  By contrast I have spent over 60 days on Radiance class ships and 20 days on Vision class.  So if I were to book it would be Vision without a bit of hesitation. 
 

Yep, I prefer the smaller ships too.  You get to know more of the crew and passengers.  Small ships can go where larger ships can't also.

I was on a 15 day cruise on Vision OTS in 2017.  I think it had just been refurbished.  It's a fine ship and the captain was amazing.  I chose it because it is a small ship and it was a long cruise for my first solo cruise.  I normally pick my cruises for the ports and the dates.  

I usually get the color changing gel. It changes very nicely when I was on an Alaskan cruise. But even for beach cruises it's nice to touch my margarita or pina colada and watch my nails change.

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I have snorkeled in Cozumel twice and I'm not a great swimmer. We went to the Chankanaab park and loved it.

 

The first time was with my teenage daughter who wanted to swim with the dolphins. After we did that, we walked along the beach and found out we could also snorkel on the beach. They have a smallish area and have sunk statues for you to find. It was fun. There were many colorful fish. It's done entirely on your own and you are right on the shore so you can get out whenever you want. The park also has an alligator pond, in case your kids want to just see some animals. There is also a tequila tasting area and more to the park, but I don't recall what else is there.

 

I've also snorkeled where they take you out on a boat and you snorkel in a group. I REALLY liked this type of snorkeling. Lifejackets are used, so I felt relatively safe. But the amount of wildlife is so much more than on the shore. The guide kept an eye on me (I was traveling solo) and the rest of the group, so I could wander a bit, but still be close to the group.

I wanted to do the ABC islands too, and I found a Royal Caribbean cruise to do it. Vision of the Seas is re-positioning from NJ to TX and will go to the ABC islands. It was an easy choice for me. It will be a long cruise and I'm so excited!

I wish they would get water dispensers that can refill our water bottles like they have at the national parks and other attractions.

thanks for the tips, especially bringing something to hold your seat while you visit the buffet or restroom. I have many times found my table cleared at a local restaurant when I merely went to get a drink refill. So I now bring my jacket or a book to signify that I will return.

Ever since I was charged for a red bull that I didn't drink I always ask to remove everything from the mini bar but they won't do it. One of my friend removed everything and placed the item in a bag and he was charged for all the items missing. He had to visit service guess for a couple of time and got a refund the last day of a cruise.

 

 

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We got charged for them also one time; Guest Services said that Room Service must have missed seeing the items we had put away when they made their rounds doing billing. Next time I'm going to put a PostIt on the front of the fridge to alert them. It's a hassle to traipse to Guest Services at the end of the trip and have them give you the third degree about those beverages. I even took a photo of them back in the fridge to prove all were returned to the mini bar.

 

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I assume you know that those units are really only coolers not fridges - they don't get that cold.

Yeah I know. But they are cold enough for me.

 

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You are correct about the Vision.

 

The Adventure, however, has a mini-fridge (such as it is ;)) in every cabin.

Oh great! This is good news. Thanks. I do enjoy my beverages cold. I guess on the Vision I'll have to bother the staff for ice.

 

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Do all the cabins have mini bars in them? If so can you have it locked or emptied? I assume the items in it would cost extra and don't want the kids emptying it out with a big bill.

 

It depends on what ship you are on and what cabin.

 

I am looking at two cruises - one on Vision of the Seas and the other on Adventure of the Seas. It seems both of these ships do NOT have a mini bar/fridge in the Interior or the Outside Window cabins. The newer class ships I've been on did have a mini fridge, but not these ships.

We just came off the Radiance cruise on Sept 9th. It was the last Alaska cruise for the season and they are headed to Hawaii and New Zealand for that season.

 

Our dining room waiter, Ralte, said that they were moving MyTime Dining downstairs and moving regular dining upstairs. Which means the staff had to move ALL the tables and chairs too! Seems the larger tables are more suited for regular dining.

 

She said MyTime Dining is much more popular and they are trying to help with the long lines by moving it downstairs to a larger dining area.

 

Hope it helps everyone. I would not like to wait in line for my dinner, with or without a reservation.

I'm concerned about scheduling a tour upon our arrival in Seward. The train representative said it arrives at 11:05am. The tour operator said they would pick us up at the station but will they wait for a late train?

 

Why do I have these questions on the weekends after business hours?

I cruise. I geocache. Why hadn't I thought to combine the two?!?!?!

 

I'm going to make my cache list now and gather some swag for the caches.

Love your report/web pages!

 

I'm planning on going at the end of August on the Radiance.

 

You didn't post your experiences eating onboard in MDR. How was it?

I have missed this miracle of salad delights on my previous cruises?!? I guess it's because we've never eaten lunch in MDR. I'll have to change that on my next cruise this weekend and do something different - try lunch in MDR and have the best salad ever.

 

Thanks for the tip.

We went to Belize in a previous cruise and enjoyed it. Funny, we also on Mariner of the Seas. We took a tour of Cahal Pech, one of the many Mayan ruins in the country. I felt safe and we didn't encounter any of the mentioned sea lice.

 

Yes there is poverty, but it wasn't any worse than the other countries we've visited on a cruise.

 

I think if you choose an excursion from the ship you'll be fine.

I feel the same way. We drove to Ft Lauderdale just to go to Haiti along with the usual Jamaica and Cozumel. I was remaking that it would be nice to see longer and more varied crises out of Galveston. I wish one of the cruise lines would try it and see how popular it would be.

 

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I've been having the same problem for a couple of days too. I called and they said it was cleared and to do what clarea said. But it's not working for me. I'll call them again tomorrow. We leave for Ft Lauderdale Thursday for our cruise on the 4th and need to print our stuff.

I just saw Stitchin' Heaven's travel page with all the great quilt cruises. I'm seriously thinking of going on one of these cruises if I can get my sister, who also quilts, to go along with me. Especially since several of them leave from Galveston, which is close to me.

Oasis 11702? I couldn't find the document to figure this out.

Thinking about a Conquest cruise and booking a guaranteed cabin on an Internet travel site. Have cruised out of Galveston before but was able to put the cabin number on the luggage tags when we gave the bags to a porter upon arrival because we knew the cabin number. What happens in this case? When do you know your cabin number? I'm sure Carnival has done this a million times but was just curious.

Also, other than room service, can you get a cup of coffee somewhere on the Conquest around 5 AM? Thanks

We booked guaranteed rooms as well. I didn't check every day, but on the Thursday before our cruise, they had staterooms in our My Documents. I didn't bother to reprint the luggage tags, I just wrote the room number in with a black marker.

 

Don't know about the coffee, I drank lemonade and water.

We will be stopping at Mo Bay, Jamaica & its our first time there...

 

My fiance is really interested in the ruins, but we read that its a pretty long commute to get to them. We are doing snorkeling/sting ray city in Grand Cayman and now we don't know if we should stick with the ruins in Jam...We are also interested in the zip lining, but afraid of some of the jungle bugs (we saw a crazy Discovery channel show about some type of bug that can crawl into your skin and actually eats on your muscles... I know, I freak about everything..) and the building standards.

 

Has anyone done any of these OR did another excursion that was fun? I would love any ideas! :o

We did the zip line in Jamaica and loved it. We brought a bug spray and didn't notice anyone having problems with insects. Our driver, Rupert, was quite friendly and even stopped on the way back to let us pick our own oranges from the groves and then peeled them for us. The guys from the zip line company were all great, funny and a lot of fun. They did state their company is an eco-certified tour (or something like that, I've forgotten), and maintains their ropes and ledges stringently. I'm sure they have a web site too.