ShipsandDipper

3 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

Costa Maya - look at Native Choice tours

+1

That was the price for the Thermal Suite on Harmony last January.

At the side of the walking/jogging track on level 5.  I think it was aft starboard. 

Best price we saw for 7-day on Harmony was $23.99/day, during Black Friday sales.

4 minutes ago, Shannon Curry said:

Sorry. I meant to say I saw them on another thread. Thanks for posting those. You saved me a lot of worry.

OK, that makes sense. Glad the info was helpful!

9 hours ago, Shannon Curry said:

YES THERE ARE CASITAS NOW!

I just saw a post on another site that in late January 2024 they were installing 10 casitas.  I booked them for day 2 sailing and day 5 port day for two reasons. To avoid the nightmare I’ve heard of finding chairs for my wife and 9 year old triplets. I do realize the port day will not be as many people but it was less money but I still paid the ridiculous sum of $750 for those two days. I just want things to run smoothly.

The other site claimed they were constructing 10 casitas. 

Yes, those are my pictures from another thread here on CC. If you saw them on another site, can I ask where?   (I’m not upset, just curious.). Thanks. 

For our January Harmony sailing I think the best price for the Refreshment Package was $23.99/day, which was offered during the Black Friday sale. Otherwise the best price was $27.99/day, which came and went several times. 

1 hour ago, jean87510 said:

Prices have jumped since the restart.  

Yes, I’ll bet they have!

6 hours ago, cant_w8_2_cruise said:

Thanks everyone! This is all helpful.  Why can I not find an actual itinerary with port times within Royal's site for our sailing?  6-7 hour tours scare me, but if we're in port for 8-9 hours, they make more sense.  But I can't for the life of me find port times?? 

 

You can check port websites to see the arrival/departure times of every ship (though note that ship’s time was an hour off Mexico time). 

3 minutes ago, jean87510 said:

Nice!  Was it through the cruise?

No, we booked a private tour separately. 

4 minutes ago, jean87510 said:

 

We have also looked into an excursion with a flight to Chichen itza.

We did that once. It was great, though I was a little worried about taking a small plane. 
 

Look at The Native Choice excursion company in Costa Maya.  We’ve used them twice and been happy. 
 

The further ruins are more interesting but there is construction on the roads right now that make the travel times unpredictable. Native Choice won’t offer those excursions until those issues are resolved, so you would have to take a ship’s tour. 

The way I heard/remember the rule was no more than one rolling bag per person on the escalator.  So we were fine with a rolling bag and a backpack. If you had two rolling bags, they directed you to the elevator. 

I was wondering about your excursion. We went to Kohunlich and Dzibanche with The Native Choice several years ago and the ruins were wonderful. But because of the construction and the uncertain travel time, they won’t even offer that tour right now. We were ok going to Chaccobean since we hadn’t been there before. 

5 hours ago, bundtkate said:

CASITAS

 

They are now available to book, but apparently they cost $450/day which my aunt wasn't down with so we won't have one. I think I paid $750 for a retreat cabana on my upcoming HAL cruise for the whole week so I totally get it. Anyway, if you think it's worth it they're there now and bookable for sure.

 

ROOM KERFUFFLE

 

Okay so I'm not going to dwell on this too much, but when I got back to my room today there was someone else's cruise card in my electricity slot. I'm in this room solo so obviously a bit alarming. Brought it to guest services and asked them to rotate the locks on my door. They speculated it was my room steward, but the card is for this cruise so it seems odd he'd have one for a current guest. I can't say I'm totally satisfied with this outcome given the unsettling nature of the whole thing, but I got my new card and locked the deadbolt and will just have to hope for the best. I'd have been happier with a more solid explanation, but it seems this is the best I'm doing tonight. Guest services said they talk to the steward about it tomorrow. I'm going to do the same just in case.

$450 PER DAY?  Absolutely outrageous. 
 

There was a card in our slot a couple of weeks ago on Harmony, even before we were on the room. I just figured the steward put it there. 

45 minutes ago, 2chiefs said:

We book Central Park balconies all the time due to the low price. Noise is not a problem and ditto to what FionaMG says about watching your curtains. We have friends from Canada that only book boardwalk balconies that they can view the aqua show from. (Not sure what they do now with the Abyss slides added). I've heard it can be loud but I don't have any first hand experience.

 

In the CP balconies, you can hear the pool music somewhat during the day but otherwise it's quiet and fun to people watch while enjoying a glass of wine on the balcony. We are booked in a CP balcony once again for our cruise on Oasis in January 2025.

Our previous experience in Central Park balconies were that they weren’t too noisy. After our cruise a couple of weeks ago on Harmony, we won’t be booking a CP balcony again, sadly. They’ve amped up both the pool music and the concerts in the park so that the rooms actually were rather noisy.  Then there was the group that was yelling and laughing at 3 am the last night, which went on and on. 
 

The Boardwalk hoisted a family-friendly carnival one afternoon. Looking around, I was glad we didn’t have a Boardwalk balcony. 

5 minutes ago, Kellie in Texas said:

I think we were on the same cruise as @ShipsandDipper but this is the first time I've heard of a show called Heist. We were fortunate to have reservations for the very first show of The Fine Line and it was very entertaining (although LOUD). 

Yes, same cruise. I vaguely remember from early in the week seeing something in the app for Saturday that I was going to go see, which I thought might have been the Heist show the other poster mentioned. It was something in the Aqua Theater that wasn’t The Fine Line.  But then there were the problems with Tuesday’s Fine Line (which unfortunately we were reserved for) and it was rescheduled, and then it was too cold anyway.  

I think Heist was scheduled for the end of our 1/14 cruise but then was quietly dropped when The Fine Line was rescheduled due to a leak and then ultimately was cancelled due to weather. 

Park Cafe is on Deck 8 in Central Park. 

I don’t know if the Starbucks itself is covered, but the coffee in Cafe Promenade also seemed to be Starbucks coffee and it was covered. 

We just had Harmony 11209 and bed was near the balcony. 

Solarium might be closest. Otherwise Park Cafe (on mornings it’s open) or Promenade Cafe. 

On 1/26/2024 at 7:30 AM, Kellie in Texas said:

 

@Cruzingal#9 I booked the Fine Line and 1887 on Dec. 5 for our Jan. 14 cruise. If your cruise is in March, it will be awhile. After we were on the ship, I reserved Grease and Columbus on the app.

Those were the two we made too. We have been on Harmony before and were skipping Grease and Columbus so I didn’t even try for them. 

14 hours ago, firstimer2009 said:

So happy for this question. I bought the 3 day package for Voyager and they only had the 2nd night reservation.  It didn’t let me pick a restaurant.  Do I assume it is at Chops?

12 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Most likely auto picked Chops.   When you board go to one of the specialty restaurants and make your reservations.  You can book all 3 nights for 3 different restaurants at the one place.

Just had this happen on Harmony. I made the second night reservation (just picked a time; it never asked me to pick a restaurant). On boarding, we went to Jamie’s and set up our reservations for all three nights. (And though we had one the second night, it was a different time than the one I picked pre-cruise.)

8 hours ago, Cruzingal#9 said:

Do you remember how far in advance you were able to book those?  We're about 50 days out and still nothing.  We can start checking in next Thursday; maybe then???

We made the reservations on December 4 for the January 14 cruise. 
 

(edited since I found the confirmation)

3 minutes ago, Cruzingal#9 said:

Were you able to book the shows before you got on board on the App?  Or, did you have to wait until you got on the ship?

We're on the Harmony in March and I keep waiting for the show times to open up, but nothing yet.  Then, I heard someone on a YouTube video saying to be sure and book your show times as soon as you board the ship.

We were able to book the major shows (Grease, The Fine Line, 1887, and possibly Columbus) ahead.