bguppies

There are paved walking areas and I know the very first cabana has a sidewalk to it. (The rest would be a hike through sand to access) Getting on the tenders with my DW's walker is a PIA. I'm not sure how they would do a scooter, but hopefully someone with firsthand experience will chime in for you. If the person just wants to walk around and not access the beach area, it might be an OK day. But the best part of Half Moon Cay is the gorgeous sand and water there. Not alot of other thing to do there.

That is exactly our concern. Why I'm doing my best to ascertain what the conditions will be like the first week of December. If we were just getting off the ship and walking to the end of the pier and conditions were bad it would be one thing. (this is with one of us with a walker) But getting off the ship walking the long pier, then walking through the entire pier area and out to a cab or ride to Maya Chan or Almaplena, then ride into town or out to a resort then finding out that the conditions are bad would kill the whole day. Thanks for chiming in.

I assume Puerto Maya since this was posted on the Carnival board. (before I 'd wager it got moved to the Cozumel board)

Next time pack the cooler with clothes and check it.n Empty it as soon as it arrives at your cabin and have your steward fill it throughout the cruise. I've gotten the same cooler on every cruise for the past 15 years this way.

What are you looking for in a "Private Cabana" experience? Waiters waiting only on your cabana. An enclosed Cabana versus loungers under your own Palapa or umbrella. Cozumel has every type of beach club, experience available. Quiet, relaxing AI like Nachi Cocum. (due to capping the amount of people per day) More of a party atmosphere with AI or PAYG like Mr. Sanchos. Kind of right between the two at Paradise beach. AI with lots for kids to do at Playa Mia. And dozens of other places running the gamut. Knowing exactly what you want in your Private Cabana experience would help folks in here guide you in finding your best day. I've done private cabanas on Half Moon Cay many times, which was nothing like I saw on cabana days on Coco Cay.

If the location of a vacation is going to stress you out, then clearly it won't be much of a vacation.

As a kid, I would have loved what I've seen in videos of Margaritaviile, right by the port. Its not AI though. Lazy river. big pool.

What is involved in the exclusive cabana experience to you? I've rented a cabana on Half Moon Cay many times. But you get a cabana, some chairs, drinks and snacks. No service staff etc. If you are just looking for an AI with a couple of loungers with limited crowds, I've been looking into Almaplena and Maya Chan. We always get that in Cozumel by going to Nachi Cocum.

Do you visit Baltimore? As a transplanted Baltimoron, I'm curious.

I wish more people thought like your wife or ShakyBeef so we wouldn't have 4 ships in port in Costa Maya and 8 ships in port in Cozumel when we go in December. I would prefer 1-2 in Costa Maya and 4-5 in Cozumel.

What shows? I don't see any listed. Does anybody have a link to some article that people seem to be talking about?

You need to specify if it can be a beach with AI or PAYG only. I always find Mahahual at the Costa Maya port, better for just wandering down the main drag and getting a cheap massage at any beach club there. So if you are htting Costa Maya also, keep that in mind. For AI in Cozumel, I highly recommend Nachi Cocum. (be back there for the 5th or 6th time in 2 months.) Best if you want a quiet, relaxing day. If you want more of a party atmosphere, Mr. Sanchos or Paradise Beach are better choices.

OK last week on the Sunshine we had two movies a day. One at 7PM and the other at 10-10:30PM Jurassic World Dominion, Sonic 2, Elvis and Fantastic Beast -Dumbledore were early movies. Morbius (twice), the Batman and the Unbearable talent.... were the late movies. The only one we wanted to see was Jurassic World, but dinner ran late the first night and it was half over by the time we got up there. Everything else was mostly stuff that has been streaming for months already. (Morbius on Netflix, Elvis, Fantastic Beasts, the Batman all have been on HBO for many months.)

Junkanoo is the closest free beach, but I don't know about walking it with two 4 year olds. No fake cruise port free beach like at Grand Turk or other cruiseline created stops. Maybe you get lucky and get switched to Half Moon Cay or Bimini which both have free beaches at the end of the pier or a tender ride over.

We did it as a Carnival excursion booked before the cruise. (they left our tickets in the mailbox outside our cabin while we were at dinner the first night) When you get off the ship they have two lines at the back of the ship to board the tram. One to the left for no excursions, just a free ride and one to the right for the people with excusrions. They fill the tram with excursion people first, then fill the odd leftover, couple of seats with the non-excusion people. (so make sure to get in the correct line) If I remember correctly, the casino was the stop after Resort World, so when you board the tram at the end of your day at Resort World, it will be one or two stops after reboarding..(they tell you what each stop is as you arrive.)

I've ordered a toasted PB&J dozens of times after getting back to the ship after a hot day in port, call in the order, shower and voila, food arrives without having to trudge down to the buffett or Guy's for food. But the one thing used to be, about half the time, the chips or cookies would be stale. (usually the chips) I couldn't careless when it was free, i'd just eat the sandwich and leave the stale chips or cookie. If they are going to make you pay for super simple stuff like a PB&J and chips, they'd better prepare to serve much better quality food if you're going to force people to pay for it.

I wandered down to the beach before the DJ got started so I can't speak to how it sounded down there. I was stunned that it bothered me so much, as I grew up going to loud concerts and clubs from 16-30 years old and now suffer from tinnitus because of it, but the dance music was strangely annoying. (but I think its more about how annoying music since 2000 has been more than decibels.) As long as people enjoy or at least don't mind modern club music, they should have a fine day. It just took my enjoyment of the day from a strong 100/100 to a 75 or 80 out of 100. I would highly recommend anyone not sure, to give it a try for themselves, the pool facilities there are that nice. And the price after the golf cart rental price hike recently, kind of priced us out of trying other smaller beaches around the island. (which was our original other option when it was $69 to rent a cart all day.) The small amount of extra $$$ for full use of the pool and other areas semed well worth it to us.

Please let us know how the seaweed is in November. DW and I are going the first week of December and are curious about the seaweed that time of year. Plus dying to know all the up to date details for Krazy Lobster in gerneral.

If you'd feel fine walking around any other medium-large city in the US. you'll enjoy it. Everyone speaks English, which is frequently the biggest obstacle in many foreign coiuntries. Just use common sense , do a little research, and stay on your chosen path. 6 hours is a pretty short day in port ( as it usually takes 20-30 minutes to get off if everything goes smooth and they usually want you back on board 30 minutes early) Nassau is a pretty small town. Most suburbs shopping area dwarfs Nassau. I've done walking tours multiple times and had a blast. Done the pirate museum once. If you have a kid who is a pirate nut they will probably like it. I found it to be just MEH... Ardastra Gardens and Zoo was a fantastic day which could easily be done in a 6 hour port stop. They have a trained marching Flamingo show, a cage where you could walk in and hand feed some Lorry (small) Parrots. It is different from a big, US zoo, as many animals are in pens mere feet from the fence. Not 20 feet away behind a huge moat or something. (like they had a small pen of Meerkats behind a farm like fence rail.) Full Size Parrots flying free and just sitting around snack bars etc. The Flamingoes just wander the park on their own between the shows. Not a ton of animals but what you get to see is up close and personal. If you have michevious or uncontrollable kids, might not be the place for them as they might get into trouble. If your kids are well behaved and would appreciate up close contact with animals, then they might really enjoy it.

We were a couple in our 50's and for mobility issues it was fantastic. Ramps in most places (only 4-5 steps at most places.) wooden boardwalks running through the sand around the pools and close to the pools on the beach for ease of walking and being able to roll walkers and scooters if you needed. They even had a mat that rolled right down to the water if the sand was too soft for some to walk on. Plus 4 railings in each pool with large slightly sloped stairs to enter the pool. Plenty of Loungers and umbrellas and other shaded areas. (sofas, clamshells, etc.) The only thing that ruined an otherwise wonderfully relaxing day, was the DJ showing up and started playing 2000's thumping dance music after 10AM. (we even knew in advance he would be at the end of the right hand pool when we entered and we went as far away as we could. To no avail) The only song we knew the entire day was Montell Jordan's "This Is How We Do It" from the 1990's. Just "THUMP< THUMP< THUMP" all day. (one song finally started slow and I joked where was the Thump and 5 seconds later, there it was) If you enjoy current, autotuned, thumping dance songs, you will probably LOVE IT. If not, it might lessen your enjoyment on the day, but the place is so nice it won't kill it. If you have any specific questions I will try and answer them for you to see if this excursion would be a good fit.

DW won a trivia less than 7 days ago on the Sunshine and the guy had her write down her cabin number on the scoresheet and took it. So we assumed he just forgot to bring a Ship on a Stick when he came up for trivia. We stayed for 3 more trivias and no one else got one either with other hosts.(Or medallions) None of the trivias were much fun or conducted well so for the first time in any of our cruises we quit going. As of Sunday we hadn't received anything yet, so DW went down to Guest Services and they called down to somebody on the Fun Team and said something would be sent to our cabin. Woke up on Debarkation Day to find somebody had let themselves into our cabin while we slept and left 3 chocolate covered strawberries (which we should have gotten anyway as Platinum, but don't like anyway)and a note saying thanks for playing trivia. Thankfully she had already won a Ship on a Stick for her collection on a Sunshine cruise in March. (She had one for every cruise she has been on up until this cruise, but at least she still has one for every ship she has been on now) Seemed more like the Fun Team have been told to only give them out for larger (theater sized trivias, etc.) and to not give out decent prizes at the smaller trivias. I'm sure saving a $1 ship on a stick versus giving $0.50 medallions versus giving leftover chocolate covered starwberries getting ready to be trashed is the latest cost savings.

From the CPAP Solutions thread a few down the page, I'd say yes.

It was a private, walled off beach before the hotel closed, so I'd imagine its the same now, just without the hotel guests mingling the the handful of cruisers they used to book. As long as the pool is kept clean and there is a functioning bathroom to use, should be a pretty quiet day. (that is why we used to like it) Was a gorgeous pool area and a nice small beach, the couple of times we used it when the hotel was open. Hopefully somebody who recently has used can verify the conditions for you before your cruise.

Also if anybody has mobility issues, the resort with the pool access was nice. Ramps and boardwalks through the sand to everything. Also hard mats through the sand right down to the water for walker access. 4 railed, stepped access to each pool. Plenty of loungers, umbrellas and shade. Again, just remember it is owned by Branson and Virign, so the asthetic is more geared to 20-30ish crowd, but very accessible to geezers.

Yeah the floor to ceiling windows were great but the constant Lido door slamming and people running up the hall all day and night was a little bothersome. (just like any cabin under the lido, or buffett or theater, etc.) Figured if I could find something similar in other parts of the ship would be nice. Just didn't want to paint those cabins as perfect.