bakingem

We booked an Alaskan cruise in June.  I can't find the schedule for when we will be at each port.  I'm sure I'm overlooking it somewhere.  In the calendar part of my account, it shows where we will be but not the times.  
 

I'd like to start looking at options of what to do beyond what the cruise ship offers.

It's a pity you didn't state what you did in Cozumel, and what you didn't like about it, because of the three ports you mention Cozumel certainly has the most options and can provide both expensive and inexpensive activities for the day.

 

Glad to hear you enjoyed your day in Costa Maya although since the OP is trying to budget their excursions it would be fair to warn them that the waterpark is a very expensive option. Not sure which beach you went either since the malecon is only about 5-10 mins away, or did you do a waterpark/beach combination through the ship and go to Uvero beach? I wouldn't say Costa Maya is renouned for "fantastic beaches" so it would be interesting to know where you went.

We did do a waterpark/beach combo through RCI. I believe it was $89, which was indeed the most we paid for any excursion, but it was also everyone in our groups favorite day. No idea what it costs through any other cruise lines or individually. For that price we got all access to the waterpark (zip lines and slides) and alcohol was included at the beach we went to after the park. It was someone's birthday in the group, so we definitely took advantage of the all-inclusive alcohol, so maybe that colors my memories of the day. :D We all thought the waterpark was something different and could have stayed there all day, but the beach we went to was also great, food was good, and they put plenty of alcohol in the mixed drinks. I'm not saying the beach was the same as Vieques or even Roatan, but the water was clear, we spent a lot of time lounging around, diving off a platform out in the water, etc. Maybe we just had low expectations, but it was an awesome excursion all in all.

Roatan was also amazing, but there are already lots of rave reviews about some of the snorkeling and beaches there, so I didn't say as much about it. It was great snorkeling though, especially when you can go right up to the drop off. A little spooky, but really cool. I would never be able to tell anyone to skip that if they have any interest.

As for Cozumel, to be fair, it was our third port day in a row and we were all probably a little tired by then in general. We did a dune buggy excursion, and it just wasn't much fun. We all drove in a line forever down the highway around the island. We stopped for about 30 minutes to snorkel, but at least where we were and after having snorkeled at Roatan the day before, it was mostly just sea grass and a couple fish here and there. Back in the buggies to drive a little more and then they stopped at a place where we had to stay for almost two hours even though there wasn't anything to do other than order the food/drinks at one place. Then we drove back to town. It just was anticlimatic as we had all been looking forward to it. Back in town, we were right by the port and wandered through the shops there a little bit. Everything was "fine," it just didn't seem as great as the other two days. Again to be fair, I had high expectations for Cozumel, so maybe I set myself up for disappointment. I'm sure there are plenty of things to do in Cozumel that are amazing, but our experience just wasn't that impressive.

Wherever OP decides to skip, a day on the ship, a day hanging out at a nearby beach, or a day with a full blown excursion . . . They're all better than a day at work!

We loved the excursions we went on at Costa Maya and Roatan, but none of us loved our day in Cozumel, so based on our experience that day, I would just hang out on the ship in Cozumel or just go to one of the beach clubs near the port.

Depending on who you're traveling with or what you like to do, the water park/zip-line thing at Costa Maya followed by an afternoon at the beach was a huge hit with everyone in our group. The beach we went to was about 45 minutes away, I think, but it was fantastic. Wish I knew the name of it. In Roatan, we went across the island to WBB for snorkeling (right off the beach) and hanging out.

I was on the Liberty this summer. No one in our group had any issues with overly aggressive sales pitches, so it's interesting that you had such a bad experience. We walked right by the tables selling the fancy glasses, lanyards, etc., with a, "No, thanks!" and no other problem. Same with people selling drink packages, etc. Honestly, I remember there being tables with crew members where you could buy packages or whatever, but I don't really even remember being spoken to other than a hello unless we actually stopped and expressed interest.

I agree the Windjammer could be set up better. Not really sure how, but it can get very crowded at popular times of day.

We had an awesome time on the Liberty, had great excursions at 2 out of 3 places, and would go back in a hot minute if we could right now. I'm sorry you had such a bad experience, & I hope you find something more to your liking next time.

We cruised on RCCL (Liberty of the Seas) this summer. We didn't take our kids this time, but I tried to pay attention to some of the kids stuff to make a decision about when to bring our littles. I'm not sure about the kids club hours, but the ship had a huge splashpad/kid zone that looked pretty amazing and my kids would have happily played there for hours day after day. I cannot imagine taking them on a cruise without a fun kid area like that as an option. This link to their website has one pic of the splash zone thing if you scroll to kids/families section so you can get an idea. Not sure they have it on all ships, but it looked like a great feature. http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/ships/class/ship/home.do?shipClassCode=FR&shipCode=LB&br=R

And for the record to all the "why even bring your kids??" people, I think the issue is not that you want to "get rid of your kids" the whole time, it's that when your kids take a nap from say 1-3, they are basically sleeping the entire time the kids' club is open in the afternoon and if they are still at nap-taking age, they probably go to bed by 8/8:30, so it's not like they're at the kid's club from 7-10, either. More to the OP's point is that when the kids' club IS closed it would be nice if there were kid friendly cruise activities that were planned as an option or a kid-friendly pool/splash pad for you to entertain your kids and let them have a special, fun vacation, too. Clearly, the OP was being tongue-in-cheek in her post, not actually saying that she doesn't want to see her kids the entire time. Give mama a break, y'all!!!

Can't wait too read your review!! We go on her in Nov for a B2B

That sounds divine! We wanted to stowaway and do an unofficial B2B! ;)

After checking out our rooms, we went up to the Windjammer, which was every bit as chaotic as the reviews I read made it seem. Wowza. We survived. That is all.

We unpacked and went to muster, which was just shy of pointless since it said everything that had been repeating overhead, but I understand it is a requirement. I am however super grateful for that requirement because while walking to our muster station we saw a mama and baby dolphin right beside the ship. This was the best picture I could get, which could be a shark in the "clear" Galveston water for all you can tell, but I'll take it. They surfaced several times and I wanted to stay to get a better picture and keep watching, but apparently when lining up for muster drill, dolphins are not priority for everyone. Sigh. (I kid, I kid. Mostly.)

After that we went our separate ways for a while to explore the ship. The other girl that had never cruised and I were determined to go up and down every deck and find where everything was. We were pretty proud of ourselves for getting it all done in a little less than two hours. Over the course of the next week, we would laugh often at how silly we were to think we had actually seen it all. I think we missed entire floors. Rookies.

Dinner

We were on the Fourth floor MDR, and we found the food to be overwhelmingly delicious. And, y'all, we ate an obnoxiously embarrassing amount of food. I'm almost too embarrassed to admit what all we ate each night. But we're all friends, here, right?!? The first night started out at a reasonable one appetizer, one main course, and one dinner for each person. This would be the smallest meal consumed by our party for the rest of the evenings. Our poor waiters. This night, I had the shrimp cocktail, which was delicious. Several people had the Strawberry, Kiwi, Pineapple Medley which also got rave reviews. For the main course, I had the Horseradish-crusted salmon. It was good, but not the best. It had very little horseradish flavor. Someone mentioned that our assistant waiter had been asked by another table about additional horseradish, but I was almost done at that point, so it wasn't worth it to have him go to the trouble. I think it would have been delicious with a little more flavor, though, so if you get this, consider that request. Other hits at the table were the steak and the mojo-marinated pork chops. I can't remember what I had for dessert that night, but I can guarantee I ordered it and I'm sure it was delicious.

Post-dinner

We skipped the show for a chance to explore the ship, get a couple of drinks, and head to the piano bar, where we made ourselves known a couple different nights. The boys in our crew are show offs when they've had a few drinks and soon a couple of them had taken turns singing and were generally making merry. :p

At some point, we finally headed to bed. Not going to lie, the best thing about an interior room is the glorious pitch black it becomes at all times of the day when the light goes off. And it helped that there were no kids that could wake me up in the middle of the night! Day 1 was in the books, and so far we were winning at vacation.

Pre-cruise: DH and I loaded up our passel of small children (three 3-years old and under!) and drove ten hours to Galveston to meet DH's family for a few days of beach fun before we started the kidless part of our vacation and before the Littles went to "Grandparent Camp," where if we're being real, I'm sure they consumed more ice cream, candy, cake, and who knows what other cavity-causing delights than are on the entire Liberty of the Seas. Whatever... Mom's off duty and not the one that has to get them to sleep. :)

My in-laws rented a condo right across from the Gulf, but we had to drive about a quarter of a mile down Seawall Blvd. to get to the sand. It wasn't bad at all, and we all enjoyed the crystal blue water . . . or grey sand and murky water depending on what filter you have on your camera. :D

Honestly, when you're from West Texas, it's all pretty great. A day at any beach is better than a day at no beach, and the Littles had never seen the ocean before, so we had a glorious time.

Cruise

Day 1

The morning of the cruise, I looked out the balcony, and we could see three water spouts not too far from the shore. One was actually pretty large and you could see it whipping the water up. Right after that we got a tornado warning alert on our phones. I was not feeling super confident about the literal motion of the ocean. It soon turned into a torrential downpour. My FIL grew up sailing, and assured me that it would probably be just fine because there was very little wind. He turned out to be right, but it was a dreary way to start the day.

My FIL took us to the port and totally ignored/didn't see/plead ignorance about the "employees only" sign, which stressed me out but meant we got dropped off right by the shuttles with no waiting in line. We arrived about 10:30. The line was just inside the doors, but we needed to wait for the other six people in our party. We found were to drop off our luggage while we waited. Within just a few minutes, the line was out the door and starting to wrap around. By the time our friends arrived and got their luggage checked in, the line was moving a little faster, but still outside. We waited quasi-patiently. I'm not going to lie: it took a really, really long time to get through the line. We finally made it through, signed our lives away, got our SeaPass cards and headed up stairs, only to discover that RCI was helping us to build a little more anticipation, i.e. more waiting. One couple has sailed out of Florida numerous times and said they hadn't ever had to wait this long, but the other couple had left out of Galveston before and said this was typical of their experience. Who knows?! I can say that it did seem a little long (took about two hours from when we got in line, I believe), but on the other hand they're trying to get thousands of people on board in a few hours and I certainly wouldn't want to be in charge of that. :eek:

At long last, they called the magic number and we were suddenly transported to a magical land of restaurants, bars, shopping, and $10 cocktails. The ship truly is astounding to the eyes of a newbie. Not only is the sheer size incredible to consider, but the promenade floor is lovely, ornate, and excessive in the best way. Who wants to get on a plane Jane ship? "Not I," says this girl. We found our rooms in the bowels of the ship (Deck 8, interiors, actually) and quickly met our room steward (porter? What's the proper name?) Anyway, her name was Donna, and y'all, she was freaking phenomenal. If I could have her at my house all the time, I could die a happy woman in my neatly made up bed, with hilarious towel creations, and all my needs being anticipated. The toilet towel animal that made an appearance later in the week made me die laughing. I'll share it when we get there. Donna was truly great at her job, and as a soap box, that I'll throw in now and get it over with:

Please be nice to the cruise employees! They are so nice, and a few times I heard people really talk down to them. Ask them about their family. Ask them how they started working on cruise ships. And just use some dang manners and remember they all have cultural differences but they are trying very hard the vast majority of the time. They sacrifice a lot to have these jobs and to make our vacations amazing. Everyone we talked with was happy to share their story, tell us of their home, and what life is like on a cruise ship. Most that we talked to had children at home, were gone for 6-7 1/2 months at a time, and said this was a better option to provide for their families than the options available to them at home. So in summary, I know they're doing their jobs, but being kind and showing you care goes a long way for people who don't see their loved ones often and make a lot of sacrifices to work hard and provide. End of rant. <Steps off soap box to continue with review.>

I learned so much from reading reviews before our first cruise, so I wanted to take a stab at sharing a few things from our adventure. Bare with me while I recap our adventures on the Lib!

Who we are: DH and I traveled with 3 other couples. All of us are in our 30s with kids (who we happily left at home...sorry, kids! Love you. Mean it.). Two of the couples had cruised before and two of us were cruise virgins. I'm typically a photo nut, but in all candor, I was too busy avoiding "adulting" to take many pictures of anything besides our friends and us making poor, but delightful, life choices, so sadly I can only share a few photos of the cruise. My bad. I'll do better next time.

Here we go. If you have any questions, I'll do my best to remember. I saved all the compasses, I believe, so I will either take photos of them or scan them in later.

Thanks for the encouragement. Great idea about splitting the time for pets. I see you have twins. So do I! It's a wonderful journey; mine are six now. We went on a Baltic cruise when they were eight months. Wonderful trip.

Ours are almost three and we have a one year old (because we're crazy). We haven't been brave enough to take them on a cruise yet, but maybe we will soon. On a side note, if you end up doing the world cruise with the kids, you should write a review or blog of the trip. I think that would be great reading!

Please do this. I have no experience going on a world cruise with or without kids, but I am a mama (mine are young enough the experience would be a waste). I'm sure there will be days you think you were crazy for doing this, but what an incredible gift it will be for your kids to see so much of the world at formative ages! And the memories you make--good and bad--will be things your family laughs and talks about for years to come. This sounds like a dream home school trip to me and the mama and teacher in me is totally planning all the amazing lesson plans you could do to correspond with this trip and the places you will see.

If you can swing the trip, you should jump on it and just take a kid-free world cruise again in 10 or 15 years. ;) Maybe you could split up who keeps the pet(s) so no one has them for the entire time if that's the biggest issue.

Alaska is something incredible from a scenery aspect and it is well worth scanning the horizon to see its beauty.

I've been to interior Alaska and I know the scenery is so much of why we would go, but I was afraid that with the unpredictable weather in June we might be stuck inside so much that it wouldn't be worth it. I'll look for the other threads on my computer. I have crummy luck trying to find specific thread topics on my phone. Thanks for your thoughts!

We're planning on taking our first cruise in the next year or so. I was just looking at some different cruises on RCI and noticed a 7-day Alaskan cruise for $450 pp. We've always wanted to do an Alaskan cruise someday, but we thought we should wait until we could afford to do it "right" and have a balcony. At that price, though, it makes me wander if it would be worth it. Sure you don't have a balcony, but you're still in Alaska for a cost of cruise plus flight that is about what we would pay for a 7-day cruise out of Galveston (our closest port of embarkation though it is still several hours driving time). The price would give us more room to book whatever excursions we really wanted to do.

If you had an inside room, did you feel like you missed out on a lot of the Alaskan cruise experience? Where did you hang out so that you could view scenery, look for wild life, etc. while cruising? Any tips or tricks to make the best of an inside room?

I'm curious about this, too. Especially since there are two cave tubing & zip lining excursions that seem almost exactly the same, minus a $10-ish price difference.

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From reading on CC, I've learned that many people don't really adhere to "formal attire suggested" for formal nights anymore. I'm not really interested in the merits of whether that's good or bad, but after seeing all the posts on the fashion board where so many ladies are wearing gowns on their cruises, it made me curious. I'd love to hear:

From most formal to most casual, how would you rank the cruise lines you've been on based on how many people actually where truly formal attire? For this question, I'll define "formal" as gowns or very fancy cocktail dresses and tuxes or at least suit and tie.

We're going on our first cruise in August from Galveston on RCI, and I'm guessing it will be one of the most casual lines from my perusal of the forum, but I have no idea really. I think it would be fun someday to go on a cruise where everyone dressed formal often, though DH might not love that idea quite as much as me. :D

This is Tadashi gown I wore tonight.

 

 

I'm new around CC and just discovered the fashion boards a few days ago. I've been lurking since then, but I have to come out of hiding to say that the red Tadashi is making me swoon! You look beautiful! I'm officially joining the Marie Fan Club. :)

Thanks for all the feedback; it was very helpful. We decided to go with one of the longer cruises and since Navigator was less expensive and we heard great feedback about it, we took the plunge and booked it. We're super excited to join the cruising world!

Following!

(1) Y'all are awesome. The feedback was so helpful.

(2) I think we're going to go for the Navigator. The prices have gone up a bit, but I think it's still worth it.

(3) The problem with booking this early is that it is going to feel like time is crawling until August!

Looks like Navigator gets the overwhelming majority of support here on the RCCL board. Just curious if your twin post on the Carnival Boards is giving all of the support to Magic/Triumph or if you are getting some Navigator votes there too.

Almost universally, the Navigator wins this one!

Thanks for the feedback! Navigator seems to be the way to go this time. We're really excited. Now we just need to actually book the cruise . . . and then wait 7 months. Blech. :)

I'm cross-posting this in RCI & the first-time cruisers board.

My husband and I are planning on taking out first cruise in August when we have a gap before starting a new jobs. We have twins that will be 17 months old and we are leaving them with grandparents for our first big baby-free vacation. We want to cruise from Galveston as we live in Texas. We would like to keep costs as low as possible because twins literally eat and poo a lot of our cash away. Our main goals are just to have a relaxing, stress-free time. We're up for drinking, meeting people, and having a good time, but not exactly in our beer-pong days anymore (32 & 29 when we would sail). We're up for whatever, so we'll probably want to try a lot of whatever is on board, both food and entertainment. As for excursions, we're more the snorkeling, adventure, stroll through a new place type, than a visit Mayan ruins crowd (scarred from a terrible tour from our honeymoon). That said, here are our options. I'd love feedback on what sounds like a good match from those who have cruised before, if Carnival or RCI has a lot of hidden fees to add to the advertised cost, what ports would be better, etc. Thank you from a very tired set of parents who desperately need a vacation!

Carnival Triumph - 5 nights, leaves Aug. 11. Ports: Progreso & Cozumel. Price on Travelocity for comparison purposes: $529

Carnival Magic - 7 nights, leaves Aug. 10. Ports: Montego Bay, Jamaica; Georgetown, Grand Cayment; Cozumel. $829.

RCI Navigator of the Seas - 7 nights, leaves Aug. 10. Ports: Coxen Hole, Roatan; Belize City, Belize; Cosumel, Mexico. $673

Any opinions on what might be best?

I'm cross-posting this in CCL forum & the first-time cruisers board.

My husband and I are planning on taking out first cruise in August when we have a gap before starting a new jobs. We have twins that will be 17 months old and we are leaving them with grandparents for our first big baby-free vacation. We want to cruise from Galveston as we live in Texas. We would like to keep costs as low as possible because twins literally eat and poo a lot of our cash away. Our main goals are just to have a relaxing, stress-free time. We're up for drinking, meeting people, and having a good time, but not exactly in our beer-pong days anymore (32 & 29 when we would sail). We're up for whatever, so we'll probably want to try a lot of whatever is on board, both food and entertainment. As for excursions, we're more the snorkeling, adventure, stroll through a new place type, than a visit Mayan ruins crowd (scarred from a terrible tour from our honeymoon). That said, here are our options. I'd love feedback on what sounds like a good match from those who have cruised before, if Carnival or RCI has a lot of hidden fees to add to the advertised cost, what ports would be better, etc. Thank you from a very tired set of parents who desperately need a vacation!

Carnival Triumph - 5 nights, leaves Aug. 11. Ports: Progreso & Cozumel. Price on Travelocity for comparison purposes: $529

Carnival Magic - 7 nights, leaves Aug. 10. Ports: Montego Bay, Jamaica; Georgetown, Grand Cayment; Cozumel. $829.

RCI Navigator of the Seas - 7 nights, leaves Aug. 10. Ports: Coxen Hole, Roatan; Belize City, Belize; Cosumel, Mexico. $673

Any opinions on what might be best?

If this is in the wrong forum, let me know, and I'll post in the correct one.

My husband and I are planning on taking out first cruise in August when we have a gap before starting a new jobs. We have twins that will be 17 months old and we are leaving them with grandparents for our first big baby-free vacation. We want to cruise from Galveston as we live in Texas. We would like to keep costs as low as possible because twins literally eat and poo a lot of our cash away. :p Our main goals are just to have a relaxing, stress-free time. We're up for drinking, meeting people, and having a good time, but not exactly in our beer-pong days anymore (32 & 29 when we would sail). We're up for whatever, so we'll probably want to try a lot of whatever is on board, both food and entertainment. As for excursions, we're more the snorkeling, adventure, stroll through a new place type, than a visit Mayan ruins crowd (scarred from a terrible tour from our honeymoon). That said, here are our options. I'd love feedback on what sounds like a good match from those who have cruised before, if Carnival or RCI has a lot of hidden fees to add to the advertised cost, what ports would be better, etc. Thank you from a very tired set of parents who desperately need a vacation!

Carnival Triumph - 5 nights, leaves Aug. 11. Ports: Progreso & Cozumel. Price on Travelocity for comparison purposes: $529

Carnival Magic - 7 nights, leaves Aug. 10. Ports: Montego Bay, Jamaica; Georgetown, Grand Cayment; Cozumel. $829.

RCI Navigator of the Seas - 7 nights, leaves Aug. 10. Ports: Coxen Hole, Roatan; Belize City, Belize; Cosumel, Mexico. $673

Any opinions on what might be best?