CJDepew

Tuesday was Grand Cayman. This is one of our favorite ports to visit, even though it's a tender port. We did early tendering, which was between 7-8 am. Basically we just walked town and boarded...no lines. We rented a beach cabana at The Royal Palms Beach Club. Service was great and it was more comfortable than just chairs and an umbrella. Food was not included but I did have a burger and fries (seafood...yuck!), which were very generous in portion and tasty.

The water was comfortably warm and clear, and beautiful shades of blue, the sand soft, and the temps were in the mid 80s. What a fantastic day!

Crazy desserts on Tuesday. Guessing it was for Fat Tuesday.

There are plenty of outdoor activities on this ship. If you're bored, something's wrong. I didn't get any shots of the couple playing paddle ball, but here are some of my other favorites.

Here's some random shots of the art in the stairwells. It seems to be a very eclectic collection. The last one was in the hall outside our room. It was titled Love Handles. 😆

The ship...great staff who genuinely seem happy to be interacting with passengers. Not sure I could keep up the good attitude working on the ship for the duration of a contract. Sheree, our room steward, Bienhur from the Windjammer and VIP from the upper deck bar really stand out in my mind.

The pool deck was fairly crowded on our first sea day, from the splash pad all the way through the solarium. I had anticipated spending most of that day in the solarium, but to be honest, it's a little too quiet and boring. Chair hogs didn't seem to be much of an issue, which surprised me. Our last sea day was extremely windy, a high of 70, and mostly cloudy so the pool deck crowd was much more sparse. The hot tubs were in high demand that day.

Attached are some random indoor ship shots. I love to take photos, to the point of making my hubby a little nutty.

Oh, wow, the difference is amazing! The pool is right in front of the deck, slightly to the right. It's long and skinny, and was very clean.

If I remember correctly your photos showed  small drop-off to the beach. That is gone as well. 

Thought I'd do a quick review since there's not a ton of info about this hidden gem. We've been to Maya Chan as well, and I have to say their drink service is much better, but I do like Almaplena's beach much more. 

We had to walk through the port and go a few blocks to grab a taxi, which is included in the cost. Our driver was great and got us there in approximately twenty minutes. The van was comfortable and the air conditioning worked really well. We were welcomed upon arrival and given a tour of the facility, which was very clean. Lunch was provided, and consisted of guac and chips, nachos with cheese and fresh salsa, and then both shrimp and beef tacos. We'd also inquired about massages and Monica made arrangements for beach massages for both my husband and myself.

They have a small pool there as well, and we took advantage of both the beach and the pool. The sargassum was not bad at all.

I wouldn't hesitate recommending Almaplena for a quiet beach getaway.

We stayed in Junior Suite 1624. I'd highly recommend this stateroom. It's on the hump, one floor below Windjammer and the pool deck. We experienced no noise from above, and access to the stairs and elevators was only feet away.

We took an Uber to the port Sunday morning. I'd suggest leaving your hotels around 9:15am if you're doing the same thing, as it beats the traffic trying to get into the port. We had our bags to the porters by 9:30 and joined the suite line, which was very short at that point. The doors opened to us approximately 10:00 am and the check-in process took less than fifteen minutes. We were seated in chairs in labeled groups (suites, Diamond, etc.) for approximately forty-five minutes. I didn't look at the exact time, but we were on the ship no later than 11:00 am. We got great seats at the upper deck pool bar tables and stayed there until our rooms were ready at 1:00. 

There was plenty of scenery to photograph while we were up there.

Just got back home today from a six-day western cruise on the Adventure. There were six of us cruising together, who are veteran cruisers, but this was our first AOS cruise. I won't be mentioning any shows or meals in the MDR as we didn't do any of that. Our days were packed full with our scheduled port stops and we just didn't feel like getting dressed up or being anywhere at any specific time in the evening.

We flew in the day before and stayed at the Sleep Inn in Dania Beach, which was approximately ten minutes by cab. The hotel was clean and typical for a Sleep Inn, with the exception of poor water pressure in the shower. The pool was well-maintained, and we purchased some adult beverages at the stores nearby and sat out by the pool until dinner.

We took an Uber to The Quarterdeck restaurant, on the Dania Beach pier, which was a great location. Unfortunately it was way too windy to eat outside on the actual deck, but we had a great view of the ocean from our table inside. The menu there is American, heavy on seafood, and they offer sushi as well. Hubby and I shared lobster fritters, spinach dip and chicken tenders and returned to the hotel stuffed.

50 minutes ago, c-leg5 said:

Have you checked the current webcams? They appear to be clear right now but no way of telling what they will be like at the end of the month. 
 

We are there 27th and March 3rd so hoping it stays clear too.

I looked at the few I could find on Google, but couldn't see much. Distance was too great.

I see reports from earlier in January that there wasn't much sargassum on the beaches. Has anyone visited more recently? Docking there on the 26th and am curious. 

Thank you for the review. Counting the days until we board. I can understand being thrifty. I splurged on a Jr. Suite, but all of our cruise money comes from my side business. I work for a large corporation in the IT department, but have a side hustle editing books so work a lot of hours each week. It's a win/win because I actually love that work and it pays for a once a year cruise around the Caribbean while the rest of the northeast is cold and yucky.

15 hours ago, voyager70 said:

Also looking forward as we board less than 2 weeks!

 

Are you on the Feb. 22 sailing? 

On 2/8/2020 at 9:48 AM, cooncat_mom said:

My husband is not happy if he doesn’t have hard copy so I have to print out everything for him - docs, train tickets, trip insurance, hotel reservations...everything.  I keep my stuff on my phone/iPad. But the spilled coffee would have brought our the bear in me...!  😆

My husband is the exact same way. So I print out everything and keep it in a folder, in order of date that we'll need to access it.

On 1/30/2020 at 5:27 PM, karena1 said:

We always sit at the beach right below the snorkel hut.  We grab 2 loungers/umbrella in the first row and chill for the day.  Wacky Seagull is steps away and there is bar service on the beach.  We like to people watch and we love watching the water, so it is perfect for us.  What they have done to the island is amazing, but we don't need all that stuff.  We just want the beach/water and do nothing but relax.  We go to Chill Grill for the buffet lunch and it is very good.

That sounds exactly like what my husband and I would be looking for. Thank you. We have a two-stop Coco Cay cruise booked for 2021.

On 1/22/2020 at 11:19 AM, Drock20J said:

Almaplena was perfect!

 

It was so far away from everything, you feel like you are the only people in the area. I could not love that place more!

Good to hear. We booked massages there too. Much less expensive than on the ship. Can't wait to get there.

17 hours ago, c-leg5 said:

 

photos are not showing for me?

 

Assuming and hoping seaweed was still clear? We will be back in Costa Maya next month.

Not showing for me either. Twenty days until Costa Maya for us. Hoping it's relatively clear, but no matter what, we'll still have a great time.

1 hour ago, Elvislove said:

We want to go to the Caribbean to be warm in the Winter and we've always wanted to try a cruise. I'd like to see a couple of islands we haven't been to before. 7-9 days for our vacation. 

Do you have a preference in the home port? That will narrow your choices down as well.

For us the size of the ship is even more important than the itinerary. Neither my husband nor I like the size of the Oasis class ships. We prefer a smaller ship that may have fewer amenities, but doesn't require advance reservations for shows and activities. We're on vacation and staying flexible is important to us.

There's a ton of invaluable information on Cruise Critic, regardless of which cruise line you decide to go with. My suggestion is to write out a list of what things are important to you. You may be limited by the number of days you have available to cruise, which could determine what sort of itinerary you're looking at. Will you want to drive or fly to the port? How much do you want to budget? These types of questions may narrow down your choices for a good starting point. 

2 hours ago, KmomChicago said:

 

Awesome! I will look for your review sometime later this spring!!!!!! Can't wait. 🙂 

 

I am not a live reviewer type by any means either. Unless I am planning to do a post-cruise review, I barely remember to get out my phone to take photos, much less to be live broadcasting anything! In fact more than anything, I appreciate that fact about doing a review. I appreciate having the hundreds of photos that I wouldn't have bothered to take otherwise.  And then the photos themselves prompt me on the review to remember a lot of details that likely would have been discarded quickly in my own cluttered brain.  I learned that from Harry Fat / Cheapo Dad, a wonderful and hilarious reviewer here on the boards who does incredible reviews with zillions of pics.  He says "data is cheap, and the moment is fleeting. Even if you ever go back in the future, it won't be the same so snap the photos NOW!"

I love to take photos, but end up with a jumble of them because half are on my phone and the other half from my camera. I try to get them sorted in chronological order but somehow always screw it up between the two devices. 

Most likely I'll do the review in a few separate chunks starting the day after we get home. My memory is freshest then, before I have to head back to work, and get tortured by the real world again.

On 1/14/2020 at 4:33 PM, Cruisegirl70 said:

I have read a lot about both places and torn between the two. However one of the determining factor will be if they serve beer in bottles? DH does not like draft bee. Does either place serve bottled beer? Also do you know if pools are heated? 

The pool at Mr. Sanchos isn't heated, but it's quite comfortable. Our last trip there was February of 2018. There are sunken seats around the pool bar, and tables anchored to the bottom around the perimeter. We just kept going back and forth between the ocean and the pool.

8 hours ago, De Colores said:

We just put in a request for Maya Chan. It has 5 star reviews on Trip Advisor. $59 for drinks, food, kayaks, snorkeling, umbrellas.. I reviewed the post dated Sept 2013 above and she review many, albiet from 2013 so I just looked at each site. 

Was at Maya Chan in 2018. Great service, drinks and food. The customer service cannot be better. The only reason we're not returning there next month was because the whole place was rented by a single group so no reservations were available. The water is murky there, but I sat in the floating chairs anchored about fifteen yards off the beach and enjoyed my adult beverages served right out there in the water.

11 hours ago, KmomChicago said:

 

Hi again CJ. You must be ramping up for your cruise now. Bon voyage and I hope you'll come back and share your impressions of the fabulous JS 1624 and the cruise overall!  

Yes, ma'am! Five weeks from today we fly into Ft. Lauderdale from Pittsburgh and board the next day. I doubt I'll do a live review because I'm just not that good with my phone and am not taking a laptop, but I plan on doing one once I return. 

On 10/1/2019 at 11:37 AM, MightyMike said:

A while ago we almost booked the Norwegian Epic. This video changed our minds:

 

 

Was on the Epic in 2017 in a balcony cabin. Did not mind the split bathroom at all, but the bed was crazy short, and we're not tall people. We had a large group and some of the men who were approaching six feet tall slept on the couches because their legs were hanging off the beds.

The ship has no atrium and feels very enclosed inside. The pool deck was a zoo. Just overcrowded all the time. A couple in our group were smokers and the entire smoking area for 4k people was approximately 12x20. About the only positive I can think of was there was rarely a wait for the MDR, and the food was better than the buffet.