Itchy&Scratchy

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.

we just received OBC refund while on the cruise, even though our ports were not cancelled. Each person got $12 back.

they looked about the same. Some had a matt on top, some didn't. We picked the ones with matts and covered them with cruise beach towels, and all was good. I was surprised some people chose to sit directly on the wooden loungers... just outside. The taxis inside the port were for people who fell for the "I'll take you to a better beach club" trick. @BamaVol Blue Kay - good for swimming and lounging, but, perhaps, not for food or specialty drinks anymore. right middle this is my kid swimming. It was shallow. the man in the middle sleeping on the lounger is my dad. We had 5 of them in a row in a shady area. our loungers are right behind these: left: the longest pier in our cruising history: you can see the trolly all the way back. It runs from that spot to the ships.

As promised, here is the report on Blue Kay from last week: They no longer charge $12 pp as a cover fee, they just want you to buy food and/or drinks. It would have cost us $60 for 5 people in the past, but would have included 10 drinks. This time food and drinks were $46 and I added $5 grats. They give you an arm band for bathroom use. The bathroom is still questionable, but usable. Chicken tacos and chicken burrito were below average to average, but edible. Mango daiquiri was awful (it had powder consistency, as if the flavored powder didn't dissolve). Pineapple juice was bad (unsweetened and powdery). I'd stick with canned/bottled drinks (beer and sodas) if I were you - they were standard. We got there before 10 am, so we had pretty much any available chaise to choose from. Some more people showed up later, but it didn't get awfully busy. Several large parties have arrived throughout the entire time we were there, but I am not sure what happened to all those people. It didn't look like they stayed long. Maybe, they had a separate area for themselves. There was natural shade and shade from wooden roofs. The place didn't change much, except for adding many more chaises, tightly packed together in rows. The water was clear but had some of that prickly seaweed in it. Easily ignored. Water entrance was rough - lots of broken shells and rocks, so I'd recommend water shoes if you have sensitive feet. I do. There were some rocks in the water, but once you are a couple of yards into the water, the floor is sandy. We spent most of our time in the water and that's exactly what we like. There were a lot of boat tours "parking" very close to us, which was at times stinky and unnerving, since they passed very close to us. All in all, not too troublesome. There were many vendors walking by and offering stuff, but I am sure it's like that everywhere. BEWARE of some of the "taxi" drivers at the port. One of them asked if we needed a taxi, we said - yes, to Blue Kay. He started telling us that BK now charges $90/pp (!!!) and was all inclusive and belonged to the cruise line. What? None of that made sense. He said he'd take us to a different beach club for only $20 pp, which had bathrooms and shade. We insisted on BK, so he lost interest immediately and sent us towards real taxis. Most of them are large vans and hold 6+ people. It's $4 pp to Mahahual beaches. On the way back the staff called a taxi for us (5 people) and some other folks. The pier walk was super long and very very hot and tiring. There was no trolly service in the morning. Once you enter the port, you can use the shortcut through the gelato store. Take a photo with flamingos, and after the flamingos you will see the gelato store. The taxis are outside of the port entrance. We were all sweaty and miserable by the time we got to the taxi stand... There was a trolly in the afternoon, running the length of the pier back to the ship for a tip. There were 3 ships in port: Enchanted Princess, Harmony of the Seas and NCL Breakaway, so all three - quite sizable. Let me know if you have any questions. We have the same itinerary next year and wouldn't mind going to Blue Kay again, but we'll stick to ready made drinks. Pre-pandemic the drinks were great, but not anymore. New management...

Definitely bring DL with you when going off the ship in PR

I booked E409 for us, which is on the opposite side from E410. I think 409 and 410 are better than 407 balcony wise, but choosing between 407 and 410 also involves choosing which side is better for your particular cruise (starboard or port).

we tried that once, many years ago, and unfortunately, I hurt my knee badly in the process. So, no, somebody else can get the bags to the terminal. There are 5 of us, with 4 suitcases and 5 backpacks, we are not lugging them around to the buffet and then to the terminal ourselves, no, thank you. Especially, if we don't need to leave the ship that early. Considering your 3 hour wait at the airport, you didn't have an early flight out, so no need to get off the ship among the first wave, especially in Port Everglades.