albeachrealtor

On 1/7/2020 at 10:36 AM, OverBoard&TreadingWater said:

They took the mini golf out during dry dock.  It's now just another deck for lounging.

No Mini Golf!!! What a disappointment! We are traveling in August with our 8 year old and he was looking forward to that!

Can anyone answer about the Easy Drink Package? I drink bottle/can beer; what are my options? My husband drinks wine and we were told it was house wine only on this package...any idea what brand?

Who wouldn't go on a "bad port" cruise for free? I am on this cruise in August and I could have cancelled for free when they made the port change because it was SO FAR in advance and YES I am pissed that we aren't getting to go to DR. Puerto Rico was cancelled last time we went and we got stuck at Nassau. We HATE nassau. Now we are on a cruise that goes to 3 ports that we are so sick of and one port that probably won't happen. Still, I am NOT expecting the cruise line to refund my cruise fare AND let me still sail. 

Come on people!

We were/are super bummed. We booked this cruise because DR and PR were on the list. We are so sick of nassau, tortola, and st thomas.  Looks like we will be spending a LOT of time on the boat this cruise. 

There are a lot of expensive "fancy" beers that come in 16oz cans. Boddingtons is one of them. 

Also, are the walls and/or ceilings metal like they are in other ships? We bring magnets to hang towels, bathing suits, beach bags etc.

We are taking our 7 year old on Celebrity Equinox in August. It will be his 7th cruise, but first on X. We did DCL in 2015 and it was money wasted IMHO. He was 4.5 years old and DCL was clean, kind, bright and kid oriented, but he was scared of the characters and only spent 1 hour in the kids club. The pools on DCL were ALWAYS packed because it seemed like some kid pooped in one pool or another each day and that meant ALL the passengers had to be in one small pool. I swear I walked from one side of the pool to the other and never got wet because I just stepped on people's heads.

We have had our son on NCL 4 times already. Personally, I like NCL the best, but I have been cruising on NCL since the mid 90s.

I am glad to hear that people are raving about the kids club on X. Hopefully we can convince him to go and spend a few hours each day.

I have seen somewhere that X has an "adults only" show. I guess it is kind of cirque style. It is the ONE show that he wants to see while on the ship. He has been attending broadway style musicals since he was 1.5 years old and sits quietly, in awe, of the performance. He understands that performers may not always wear the same type (or amount) of clothing that we normally wear also. Unless the performers are fully nude or having sex on the stage, I would like for him to be able to attend. Has anyone had any experience with the "adult only" show?

Did you ever find what you were looking for? We want to do the same thing.

Good to know.

But with geocaching you frequently have to dig something up and disrupt nature.

We are driving in to mobile for our cruise on the carnival fantasy 8/12-17 so it isn't a problem for us to take rocks with us.

We had a bear in kindergarten that we started with the 1st day of school. If any of our parents were going on a trip, they took the bear and the journal and wrote about the journey. Then the bear was passed along to someone else. The bear had to be mailed back to the school by the end of the year and we got a geography lesson at the end of the year.

Our local group is new but if you wanted to check it out by searching facebook for orange beach and gulf shores rocks

A phenomenon has seemingly swept the country this summer and you may have heard of it. It is called hidden rocks or painted rocks and groups are popping up all over facebook, pinterest, etc. It is kind of like Pokemon, but you don't need electronics to participate. All you do is paint small rocks (the size of a lime or so) with colorful designs, hopeful messages, funny characters and where the rock was painted (phoenix, orange beach, indianapolis etc) or the hashtag to your hometown rock group. Then you hide them. When someone finds them, they can look up the hashtag or facebook group and see more about where the rock came from!

I was wondering if any other cruisers are doing this in their home towns and if they plan on hiding rocks around their upcoming cruises?

I am taking 10 rocks on our cruise next week.

There is really no reason to bring boxed wine (unless that is your preferred kind) but stick to the quantities that they allow. Keep in mind that with Disney, you can bring beer/wine back on the ship at each port. So, bring your good bottles day one, and then buy more in port and bring it back to the boat. :)

I noticed that Disney has a severe lack of preschool/toddler/baby friendly excursions which was disappointing.

That is what I am saying!!! Our son is 4 and this will be his 4th cruise. Generally we book outside of the options that cruise ships offer, no matter what cruise line, and this will be no exception.

Ironically (or not) the 2 excursions that we have decided to do are both offered by Disney, but our son is not old enough. I did the research and found the vendor that disney will be using and they even ENCOURAGE kids to come. I messaged them that we would bring a Coastguard Approved Life Jacket (not just a puddle jumper) and they said that wasn't even needed. That being said, we will still bring them.

I COMPLETELY understand Disney's reasoning for not allowing infants on an open air catamaran. I get it. It just surprises me that they don't offer something like "jakes pirate treasure beach break and treasure hunt" or "swim with arial and the other mermaids."

Additionally, even things like the cable car (skyride to paradise point) which offers an infant price won't let me book my son. :mad:

My purpose for starting this thread was not to find out WHY disney doesn't have more for kids under 6, but rather to find out from those of you who had gone to these islands with kiddos under six what you ended up doing while you were there.

From my OWN experience, we went to St. Thomas and Tortola last year:

We had our 3 year old with us and in Tortola we got on an open air safari bus to west end where we got on the New Horizon Ferry and we ferried over to Jost Van Dyke. Then went got in another cab/van and went to the Soggy Dollar Bar. We enjoyed lunch and painkillers while our son played in the sand and gentle surf.

In St. Thomas we left the port and got in a van and headed up to Coral World. It was nice. We got to see the sea lion show, the shark show, walk through the bird area etc. It was enough of a "show" for our 3 year old, but I would imagine that your older kids (unless they are hard core into animals or something) would be a bit bored. It isn't cheep either. I would totally recommend you do this on your own rather than through the cruise ship. We got there about an hour before the ships excursions arrived and it got crowded.

When booking outside of the cruise line options I have never had an issue with age restrictions. We bring a life jacket for our son (not just a puddle jumper) and no one has ever given us any beef.

We are going on the Fantasy at the end of February and there are LITERALLY 3 excursions in Tortola that will allow a 4 year old.

We live at the beach and have a boat so we see dolphins all the time. Is that REALLY all Disney offers for kiddos?

Same goes for St. Thomas. The options are beach, sightseeing, and Coral World/Butterflies (which we did with Attison when he was 3 on NCL and it was a very enjoyable day).

I would have assumed that there would be more activities for children, or the ability for the parent to decide if they are capable of doing something.

My son would totally love to do a catamaran sail and snorkel...he wouldn't snorkel but we could bring his life jacket and goggles and he could at least swim/look.

So, my question is WHAT ELSE, can a 4 year old do in Tortola and St. Thomas? What about booking outside of the cruise line options (which we have always done before with or without the kiddo)?

Wine coolers are generally in glass bottles and would probably not be allowed.

We are looking at booking a balcony room and adding the UDP. Can we eat at cagneys for breakfast/lunch?

argelcozumel@hotmail.com is Argel King's email

He is also on facebook Argel Antonio King Cardeña

He offers "bar hop" tours, trips to specific destinations, off the beaten path tours or a friendly ride to a beach and tour of the city

Just got off the Sunshine from a 7 day Cozumel,Belize Roatan, and Costa Maya.

I had all my transportation and activities planned except for Costa Maya.

 

We had pre booked with Adiel King. I found him through one of these posts. We agreed on a price and I made a reservation. He emailed me about a week prior to make sure we were still going. I confirmed and he told me he would see us there. He have me instructions to walk to the Taxi drivers wearing white shirts and blue pants and ask for him, and he will pick us up. So we arrive in Costa Maya went to the Taxi drivers and asked for him. One of the employees who said it was Adiel's brother told me that he was not there because I did not confirm. I then showed him the confirmation email and he said "oh" and that Adiel requested to go to another port. So no Adiel. I figured the "brother" was just trying to take the business so I went to a different driver. He also told me that Adiel requested a different port. So Adiel's brother directed me to the supervisor who told me he would charge me 15.00 more per person for a the same trip but 2 hours less. After some discussion, I was able to find someone who gave me a fair price. The trip was an hour less based on all the time it took me to find a new driver.

I have booked with Adiel and his brother Argel on several occasions and they have always been fair, prompt and courteous. We are going on a cruise the 1st week of November and I have already spoken with Argel, negotiated a price, and he knows to look for us on the Elation and request whichever port we are going to. I know it was years ago, but I don't want them to get a bad name. I am sorry you had a bad experience.

I have used both Argel and Adiel when arriving in Cozumel. Argel's email is argelcozumel@hotmail and Adiel is Adielrenan@hotmail.com

They are brothers. If you have a really large group, email them and they will make sure they are at the same port for the day. Argel and I even became facebook friends after an adventurous trip to cozumel and Nachi Cocom.

The next time I visited (8 months later) I made sure to get in touch with Argel prior to arrival and he met us at the port that our boat came in on. Most recently, we had a smaller group (6) and were going to do our own thing but ran into Adiel. We got to chatting and realized that he was Argel's brother.

In short order, we hopped in the van with Adiel and he took us on a quick tour before bringing us to Club Cozumel. What a great facility. Clean, friendly, good beer prices and snorkel equipment included. (not much to see, but still included).

It was 25/pp and included the equipment, beach break, and tequila tour. We did buy lunch at the restaurant and it was fantastic too!

We are sailing on NCL Jewel on 2/23/14 and belize is one of our stops. I am trying to figure out if we want to try to do a catamaran and snorkel trip (which I am having a hard time locating outside of the cruise excursions...I don't like cruise excursions, too expensive, too many people, too short...) or we we want to take a taxi to the Belikin Brewery for a tour.

Clackey and Driftwood, it seems that you are against taking a taxi anywhere in Belize, so would we be better off booking the brewery through the cruise if we go that route?

Anyone do the brewery tour at Belikin?