vtroper

On 12/17/2021 at 7:11 PM, kpjb said:

I was thinking that since this was all west coast, that it was all in the pacific time zone.  I looked this up recently and saw that this cruise actually covers 3 different time zones. 

 

Did they change ship's time for each one, or did it remain the same?  Just wondering as far as planning for times on/off the ship if everything is listed in local time or ship's time.

 

We’re just off the Dec 12th sailing this morning.  The ship changed time zones between our 1st and 2nd sea days (to Mountain time if you will). Our first Port in Puerto Vallarta was still an hour ahead of us, so there were lots of reminders to stay on ship time as you got off.  Our other two ports, Mazatlan and Cabo were on Mtn time, so there was no issue there.  After we left Cabo on Friday, we switched back to Pacific time.

@tripleboom Really enjoying your review.  We’re on the 12/12 sailing of the Bliss and appreciate the preview.

On 11/20/2021 at 4:22 PM, AndyCapn said:

9th deck balconies near the aft elevators are slightly larger than most balconies, but are the lowest-priced balcony rooms on the ship (BF). The room numbers are 9262-9276 port side and 9862-9876 starboard.

Appreciate the tip @AndyCapn.  Just switched our cabin from 9756 to 9868 on an upcoming sailing your recommendation.

Thanks again 👍

Yes, in order to book the reservations in advance, you pay full price.  However half will be refunded to you on the ship as kids are 50% off.

4 minutes ago, APDMOM said:

 

Hi, vtroper!  

I was just about to search for your original post... glad you came back.  Yes, the lady who makes the spa appointments said the prices are the same on Labadee as they are on the ship.  For Labadee day, they had  50 minutes massage special for $129, which included Swedish or deep tissue back massage, Frangipani scalp massage, Reflex pressure point foot massage & Hydrating facial.

 

 I don’t know if there are typically spa discounts on the cruise planner prior to sailing, but excursions are significantly cheaper on the cruise planner than booking onboard.  You may want to see what the prices on the cruise planner are in order to compare with online prices.  

 

Enjoy planning your cruise!

Thank you so much.  I’ve read in other posts that you can’t make the reservations for Labadee massages until you get on the ship, so your intel is very helpful.  Thanks again for looking into that for me and have a great rest of your trip.  I’ve enjoyed following along...

Great shots of Labadee!  Did you happen to find out anything about the massages on the “island?”

24 minutes ago, APDMOM said:

 

Hi, vtroper!

 

We can find out for you!  That is one port we intend on getting off the ship a bit longer... We love Labadee!

That’d be great, thanks so much.  Enjoy your cruise...

APDMOM,

Really enjoying the review.  We’ll be sailing on Harmony for the first time in 31 days, so it’s been fun to get a sneak peak.

Are you guys visiting Labadee on this trip by chance?  My wife is interested in getting a massage on the beach but I haven’t been able to find anything on massage prices other than the ones on the ship.  If you happen to come across any information about beach front massages, I’d be interested in anything you find out.

TIA,

Vtroper

Lisa,

Thanks for posting the dailies. We’re sailing on the Harmony in December and this allows me to plan every minute of my week 4 months in advance.

Interested to hear your thoughts on Wonderland. We’re doing it as part of the BOGO package. People seem to either really like it or really don’t. It appears you guys are in the latter group.

I was on the Escape Aug 14-20 and actually won the Blackjack Tournament for the week. The entry fee was just $20 and 1st place was $500, so I recommend it. :-)

The tourney works just as the one I tried on Royal Caribbean did. For your $20 entry you get $2000 in fake chips and get to play 7 hands of BlackJack. The person with the most money after 7 hands advances to the final table. The last day, the top 6 scorers from the week start fresh with a new $2000 and the person with the most money after 7 hands wins the $500. I had some good cards and good luck and was able to turn my $2000 into more than $11,000. Too bad I wasn't able to keep that ratio the rest of the week.

For what it's worth, on the Aug 14th sailing we "parked" on the port side in Honduras, tendered in Belieze and were on the starboard side in Cozumel.

Usually they show one Sunday early game, one Sunday late game, the Sunday night game and the Monday game. The early and late (1:00/4:00) games are predetermined and cannot be switched.

We did this last week through Norwegian and it was awesome. It was a 4 hour excursion limited to 24 people and it was sold out two weeks before we sailed. We met at 11:30 and stopped at a "scenic view" location with a couple small shops for about 15 minutes on the way to the dig site. Once we got to the beach, our group of 24 was divided into two groups of 12 as there were two nests that had hatched the previous night. Our group of 12 picked the right nest as we found 15 baby turtles. The other groups nest didn't have any turtles left. After maybe 20-30 minutes of digging we released the 15 turtles into the ocean. Because my group found 15 turtles we loved the expierence, but I would have been very disappointed had I been in the other group and not found any.

After the turtle rescue portion, we went to a replica Mayan village. It had nothing to do with turtles and felt like a 3rd grade field trip, but my two kids enjoyed it. I would have been less enthused had it been just my wife and I.

All in all, because we got to find so many turtles, we loved the excursion, however because it's nature, there are no guarentees. Be advised you get hot and covered in sand and you spend most of your time on the beach laying on your stomach trying to dig sand out of a three foot hole.

Just came off the Escape yesterday, nope.

I'm sailing on the Escape this weekend and originally had connecting balcony cabins. I started calling about a month before our cruise before any upsells were available and continued every couple of days until they opened up. I waited about a week after my first offer for the price to drop to where I was willing to pay, $1000 per person (for the first 2) for a 2 bedroom Haven suite. After I told my parents about the upsell, I was able to call back and upsell them from their balcony cabin to a Haven Spa Cabin for $500 per person.

Looking forward to our first Haven expierence.

I too am on the lookout for these in prep for our cruise this weekend.

I kept them, but our itinerary got messed up by the Hurricane. Yours will likely be different. I will try to scan and post later today.

That'd be great, thanks.

Thanks!

I did not bring it, i'm sorry..wish I did.

 

Splash Academy Off my memory:

Night 1

Night 2 Survivor/Spy Night 7pm-close

Night 3 Pirate Night 7pm-close (my kids loved it)

Night 4 Gaga Ball Competition Night

Night 5 Glow Party 7pm-close (my kids loved it)

Night 6 pajama party 7pm-close

Thanks so much. I believe I saw on the 7 day itinerary that night one was Hollywood night. Just trying to plan which night my boys may want to go.

Thanks again for your help and appreciated your brief review.

We're sailing on he Escape's next 6 day Western cruise on Aug 14th and I was hoping to find someone kind enough to share the dailies from this weeks cruise. I've seen a couple of the recent 7 day postings which were great, but am curious what offerings will be removed on the 6 day loop.

And if anyone happened to have the Splash Academy schedule as well (what the theme was each night) you'd truly be the bees knees. :-)

Thanks,

This is the first week the Escape has sailed that itinerary. Perhaps someone getting off the ship on Saturday will be kind enough to post theirs.

Fantastic, thanks so much

No problem, thanks.

Looking forward to following along with you this week.

So jealous. On the ship with Vibe pass in hand.

Thanks for posting the pic of today's daily. I get that beggars can't be choosers but any chance we could get the daily pic at least the same size as the PBR can? :-)

I will definitely try and snap and post the day of. I almost always lose them throughout the day and I definitely will not take the trouble to scan them when I get back

I second Uber, it was less than half of what we paid for a cab on previous trips.

Good idea, snapping a pic rather than carrying the daily around became my go to move a couple cruises ago. I have my phone anyway so the picture just prevents the need to carry around a folded up piece of card stock that inevitably ends up stabbing me in the thigh at some point.