Itchy&Scratchy

Day 4, Belize if you can't read above, please see below:

Day 3, Cozumel

Day 2 sea day breakfast Lunch Dinner

I am going to get the menus out of the way to make it more convenient for people with the same itinerary to plan their specialty dining reservations. Day 1 (we had dinner at Rudy's Catch since we managed to get a reservation for the same day)

will post tomorrow morning. Yes, the menus in the app are only available for that day only, which made booking specialty dinners pretty difficult. ETA: could have been easier if we had only 2 people, but it was tougher for 5. We weren't all that thrilled with the specialty dining anyway, so definitely happy we didn't actually have to pay for the experience.

10 minutes later we dropped our luggage off with the porters and went towards the terminal. Here is when our first inconvenience happened.... As I mentioned in another thread, I chose not to get the medallions shipped to the house. y USPS has lately been aggravatingly slow (it took a package 4 weeks to get from CA to GA), so I didn't want to risk it. We stood in a very long line to get through the x-ray scanners first. Not sure why. We are Platinum and supposedly have priority at embarkation. Other people were let in without standing in line. Then we got the port agent who was very slow at processing docs. She was perplexed by our "new" passports and kept repeating that they were new and that I used the old ones to check in. They are not new. Two are 10 months old and one is 6 months old, and we already sailed with all three of them prior to this Enchanted cruise. There is no way I used the old passports to check in because they expired last year, so I am not sure what her problem was. We were hot and bothered after standing in a long line, and tired after a sleepless night, so I didn't have the patience for her. Everything I think shows up on my face... After a while she was finally done, retook my mom's photo, and gave us our medallions. People with medallions in hand just breezed in. We did NOT have the same slow experience in Nov 2022. It took 1 minute to get our medallions at the port, but we didn't have any choice at that time. Due to some glitch nobody could choose shipping to home for that particular cruise.

This Hyatt doesn't have a free shuttle so we took an Uber XL/Lyft for $20 (5 of us, 4 suitcases) to the hotel. This time the flight I could afford for all 5 of us left at 11 am instead of later afternoon/early evening that I am used to. Since the kid is out of school, it didn't really matter, but we found that we very much enjoyed getting to FLL earlier. We grabbed a quick lunch at Publix (wraps, chicken fingers and a sandwich) and then spent a couple of hours at the pool. It was lovely to relax after traveling. We then took showers and walked over to Outback for a dinner. I know some people like to sample local cuisine instead of going to a chain restaurant, however, for us consistency and a walking distance are a must. We are not adventurous eaters at all. We ordered a couple of appetizers and entrees to share so we wouldn't end up with leftovers like last time, and I got a delicious drink with a croc on top! I am very partial to Midori liquor, so Croc-Tail did not disappoint. Since I am a light drinker and I drank it before eating, I was thoroughly buzzed within minutes. After dinner we retired for the night, and once again found the two of us are just way too big for a queen sized bed... Plus, the temperature kept getting out of hand, so neither of us slept well. The kid couldn't care less - he slept just fine, thank you very much. The free breakfast at the hotel was very nice. Regular fare like scrambled eggs, sausages, donut holes, coffee, fruit, etc. The lobby is rather small and cannot accommodate everyone, and the small sign that points to the conference room for additional breakfast space goes rather unnoticed. Some people were leaving the hotel for their cruises (including Enchanted) unusually early, when we just walked down to breakfast around 9. We had a leisurely breakfast, packed up the suitcases and left around 10:30 in Lyft/Uber which arrived within 2 minutes of us ordering it.

International cafe, and MDR on sea days.

no need to be anxious! We had a great time!

It's once again time to review our lovely cruise on Enchanted last week. We had a wonderful time, with some minor inconveniences, which were greatly diminished by having a Premier package. It's the first and last time we'll ever get a Plus or a Premier package, so we enjoyed it to the fullest. Or at least tried to, since we are not drinkers at all. 🙂 It was a glitch in the matrix which allowed us to have a Premier package at a very discounted price, so we jumped on it. Yes, we loved having it. No, I cannot imagine ever paying a full price for either a Plus or a Premier package. We brought our 13 yo kiddo with us on this cruise, and also my parents who also ended up with a Premier package. My dad couldn't take full advantage of it since he cannot have alcohol or sugar, but he drank a lot of Perrier, San Pelegrino, Diet Coke and Heineken 0.0. We traveled the day before and stayed at the cruisecritic's perennial favorite Hyatt on 10th, booked through Valuetrips. Everything went pretty smoothly with the booking, although it took a good 2-3 weeks to get a confirmation. I must say that if there are only 2 of you, having a king size bed and you don't need privacy, this hotel is fine. If you have a teen with you or anyone who needs extra privacy, and you have a two queen bed room, you may not be thrilled with the way the room is arranged. I know I wasn't. The bedroom was a good size, and the living room was gargantuan, but the toilet and the shower part of the bathroom was tiny. The sink area was separate and out in the open. I found it very inconvenient if one in the family is an early riser and needs to use the sink to brush teeth, put makeup on, do your hair, whatever. Or just needs to change in the tiny bathroom. A somewhat minor inconvenience, which may or may not be a deal breaker. For this price, it was most certainly NOT a deal breaker. This is what our room looked like: as you can see, the A/C unit was flush with the bed, and the air was blowing right on the person lying on it (our kid). We just couldn't get the temperature right - it fluctuated from blowing heat (literally) to blasting frozen air, with nothing in between. That was the negative part of our stay. Also not a deal breaker at this price point, but if the hotel was about the same price as others, I'd reconsider. And this is what my parents' room looked like - right across the hall: they had a somewhat prettier bathroom and a better A/C placement.

yay, we'll be on her with you. I am about to publish my own review of our last week's Enchanted cruise.

yes, plenty. You could do a search with the words "obstructed balcony" and find many more. When ship is out in the sea, the top of the life boats comes up to about floor level of the cabin. If the life boat has a "cabin" on top, it will shop up like the first photo. When in port, the life boats sometimes are raised up for cleaning and maintenance.

yes, we loved it no medium, but we felt no movement usually associated with smaller ships not at all, at least not in terms of size or bells, but it sure did in terms of entertainment and food we do as well, so imagine how surprised I was to actually love this smaller ship without the bells and whistles of an Oasis class or even Royal Class on Princess. What I wish they had was a soda package at a reasonable price for our kid, but as it turned out, we could bring sodas onboard instead, so it worked out great in the end.

I hope they sell the cruises to you at a ginormous discount to make up for all these restrictions. Have you logged in to your Princess account to see if you are eligible to bid? If eligible, I'd bid.

to each his own. We've done our calcs as well, and it's not even worth it to get Plus for the 2 adults, let alone our 13 yo. But other people get premier packages for their teens, because they have money to burn. So, to each his own.

I honestly don't remember, but it was a rather ample time to make them.

Last week we boarded Enchanted, and I somewhat regretted not getting the medallions shipped to the house. Granted, lately USPS has been aggravatingly slow (it took a package 4 weeks to get from CA to GA), so I didn't want to risk it. We stood in a very long line to get through the x-ray scanners first. Not sure why. We are Platinum and supposedly have priority at embarkation. Other people were let in without standing in line. Then we got the port agent who was very slow at processing docs. She was perplexed by our "new" passports and kept repeating that they were new and that I used the old ones to check in. They are not new. Two are 10 months old and one is 6 months old, and we already sailed with all three of them prior to this Enchanted cruise. There is no way I used the old passports to check in because they were expired last year, so I am not sure what her problem was. People with medallions in hand just breezed in. P.S. We did NOT have the same slow experience in Nov 2022. It took 1 minute to get our medallions at the port, but we didn't have any choice at that time. Due to some glitch nobody could choose shipping to home.

as long as prongs are the same width - yes, you can.

guess what? We cruised on Enchanted Princess last week and my husband got covid again! What are the chances? Ugh. At least he is only half as miserable as last time.

I always bring my own anyway.

I am a glutton with a very sweet tooth, and I wasn't tempted by them at all. They all had vanilla gelato in them, so no interest...

same on Enchanted last week (1st week of June). We didn't even try the gelato based premium desserts and simply asked for 2-3 scoops of gelato instead to count towards the Premier package. The Nutella gelato with or without whole roasted hazelnuts as a topping was fantastic. Apparently, chocolate gelato was just as great. We also tried the Black Forest Cake once. It was good, but not like "OMG!" our sailing last week was different. We went every day and got 1-3 scoops each and didn't get charged even once.

Princess has been my 13 year old's son favorite cruise line since he started cruising at 3, and he doesn't even do kid's or teen's club. Now that Princess is running the 3rd and 4th person in the same cabin free promotion, it's a no brainer to take a kid with us. We do it regardless of the promotion, of course, because we can't imagine vacationing without him. 🙂

you should consider going to a PAYG Mahahual beach club with a much better beach and much cheaper offerings. 🙂 We were on the same cruise with you and went to Blue Kay which we visited several times before. Here is my report and pics: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2988353-what-is-the-best-pay-as-you-go-resort-in-costa-maya-mahahual-beach/#comment-67495283 https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2988353-what-is-the-best-pay-as-you-go-resort-in-costa-maya-mahahual-beach/#comment-67497083 It cost us $40 taxi roundtrip for 5 people and $46 + $6 tip in food and drinks, and we had a much better time, no trip hazards and hardly any seaweed. We'll go there next time we are on Enchanted and the same itinerary (next May). The below average beach break excursion through the ship is also discussed in the same thread.

I just wanted to say that it was extremely beneficial to be able to look up where my parents were with the help of the medallions and the app on our Enchanted cruise this week. My DH and DS also easily found me using the app. Not being able to find each other on a large ship was very aggravating on the Oasis class ships, for example.