Dandy7

Thanks a lot everyone for these reviews. We've done many cruises, and we finally are taking one that includes Costa Maya, it'll be our first time there. The Tropicante totally looks and sounds like our kind of place! Can't wait!

How does one reserve a spot at ropicante and get there from port?

Gambee - thanks for taking out the time to write this review of your trip. It was great to relive the week and to know there's a place I can go if I start to forget how beautiful Bermuda and the ship are. It was also a pleasure to meet and talk to you on the last day when the weather was so crazy. We started with a windy, cloudy day to sunshine and a rainbow and then back to windy, driving rain. not to mention the waves. To tell you the truth, they never bothered me or my wife. I think it was a testament to how well the ship is built. I hope you don't mind that I've attached a couple of our pictures below. Our camera is nowhere in the league of yours. However, if you ever go back to Bermuda be sure to go to Tobacco Bay. It's loaded with fish. Also, Elbow Beach is very secluded. We actually ran into some of the dancers from Burn The Floor there. That rainbow was fantastic.

I think they call those spring clamp - you can get them at Home Depot

 

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/catalog/servlet/Search?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&keyword=spring+clamp&Ns=None&Ntpr=1&Ntpc=1&selectedCatgry=Search+All

I believe they are called Boca Clips. My wife got them as a gift from her sister-in-law when in Fla.

All the pictures I post are taken in the day I post them, I work my pictures by days. So basically I don't even know what I have until I go to write about that day. I have to agree, vibe looked very uncrowded, and that is why I say that it might totally be worth it for some.

 

I don't think you can book it, they don't even have a host stand. I just sat there when I ate there. And like I said, I don't think I would pre-book restaurants about NCL ships again. I much rather play the freestyle game :)

Gambee, your pic of Vibe was taken very early in the morning. I was actually the first person it there that day. I believe you must have been standing directly above us (either on the stairs or corner of Sundeck). It did fill up more as the day went on. However, it was never as full as the other decks that day!- Don.

 

Dandy7 said the place is great and worth the money. Please don't ask me why no one is there and the place is sold out! I am not sure, I actually went to the bar in the other side to ask. And the bartender told me it was open, I could of swore it was closed. Why no people? Anyway the place was nice and for $20 I would buy it for one sea day, it seemed like a nice place to relax and have a drink. I specially like the roof in the Jacuzzis.

 

We kept on walking, I wanted to see the promenade area in front of the ship.

 

I took this pictures on the way there.

 

 

Yup! It was nice and quiet. I believe this pic was taken on Monday late afternoon when the sun finally came out. It might be the reason nobody's there. I was there the next day when the weather was good and there were more people at Vibe. Still not full. However, walking around various decks that day all lounges appeared to be taken. The sun decks were packed with people. I don't think we fully experienced what this ship would be like if we had multiple good days @ sea. BTW, glad I actually made it on your review. Your pic of the person on the jogging track caught the wife (back towards the camera) and I sitting (w/towel on legs)on a lounge chair waiting for the sun to come out on Monday morning(?). I'm nearly famous!!:D

Day 2

 

 

Ok, lets see Day 2. First let me start by talking about a few things that I forgot to mention in day one. One of the things we noticed when we entered the room was that our balcony light was broken. On day one we also talked to several people about this problem so it could get fixed, unfortunately by the end of day 1 the problem had not been addressed. It was very frustrating as I really enjoy to sit on the balcony and work on my pictures while I have a drink at night. But in any case I still did it, I just left the curtain open so a little light would reach the balcony.

 

That morning we woke up at around 6:45, I slept pretty good. But I do recall having some pretty nasty nightmares and all ship emergency related. Ughhhh, what can I tell you, dreams can be very disturbing at times. Mom also mentioned to me that the toilet was broken, as I remember Slice also telling me something similar about hers. But then I noticed that you have to press the bottom really hard in order for it to work. My mom was having trouble with that, they really shouldn't have made this like that. I imagine it will be almost impossible for young children to flush.

 

So anyway, the ship was traveling at about 11 knots, I started playing with the TV and noticed that they did not have the bridge channel. I am sure many inside and studio rooms really miss that. The TV programing is also very weak, they have a bunch of news channels, a bunch of NCL selling channels, a few ship related one and one favorite show channel and a favorite movie channel. I think by the end of the cruise I had seen most of the favorite shows available. And the movies were not that good, ill say that one of the movies was Mary Poppins, really? how old is this movie? Celebrity and RCCL both have much better TV programing. The tv shows were more current, but again not enough of them. Someone doing a TA or B2B, would be in trouble. But then again I think I just watch too much TV for my own good :D.

 

So anyway my mom made a call to see if they would come this time and get the light fixed. They said that they would be there very soon. By the way that phone call lasted about 10 seconds, I think they actually hung up on her, little rude she told me. If you're wondering they never showed up. We had to go to customer service again, more on that later.

 

So anyway, then the aerobics class started at around 8am and you could hear the music from H2O. Nothing horrible, but you could definitely hear it, I think I was sitting in the balcony enjoying the breeze and working on my pictures.

 

Funny you mentioned the toilets, definately an issue with flushing. Not for me, but my wife would call me everytime she used the facilities. I never had to teach a grownup how to flush. Also, the TV is horrible. Why are we watching foreign TV in the USA? All their feeds are from Europe. I can understand the limited channels but at least get American feeds. If I had to watch one more European soccer match on ESPN I would have swam home. One word NCL - DIRECTV.

What! You got gold coins? I didn't get any :( Maybe because you had an awesome aft and I had a lonely balconette?

 

I'm at work so I can catch up on your review now! I have 1,000 pictures to sort through and post up later.

No coins for my either. Wonder what they were for?

I just sold a picture of "The Gambee" in his natural environment, a hot tub, to the National Enquirer for a tidy sum of money.

Damn, Shaun! You beat me to it. I was actually thinking of getting in the tub w/him and & Mom and having my wife take the picture.:D

Thanks, Mike. The info you've provided will help us all when it's our turn to cruise on this beautiful ship. Looking forward to your posts regarding dailies and menus. What did you eat at Cagneys that last night?