Adam185

We were just on the Escape last week. We did not get Vibe passes but I never experienced the problems getting a drink that I have heard from many people. We were always able to get loungers in Spice H20.

The funny thing was, I looked into Vibe several times during both sea days and it was empty so I don't know why everyone bought up the passes and then didn't use them.

Yes, they have a tram that does rotations on the pier.

 

And don't waste any time in the theatric tourist-trap port. Immediately pass through to the back and get a taxi or trolley to Mahahual.

 

So glad to see the swing chairs back in Mahahual. We were there 12 years ago and my wife loved the swings but then a hurricane came through and destroyed the bar. So happy to see it's back.

Rick,

Was Escape the Big Top an option on your sailing?

Haha. Love it! Get a UF YETI!

 

 

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Searching Amazon now. I do have a Gator Tervis

Look for the signs! [emoji6]

 

 

 

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Just put those in an envelope and leave them at guest services for me. I'll send them back after our June 9th cruise

Sweet, I need more Gators in the group!

 

 

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Chomp Chomp

Great thread. Really enjoying it but I'm looking for your FB group to follow it but cannot find it. Can someone give me a hint?

We leave in 13 days.

Day 6. Yesterday took the shuttle to the Costa Maya downtown/beach strip. $3per person out and $2 per for a cab back. Lots if "helpful" locals trying to direct you to the beach bar they work for. Helped to know which one to go to in advance. Water was amazing. Reef protected, very warm and clear. Fish just a few feet out. A few vendors but a simple no thank you worked. One of the nicer port shopping areas i have been to. Nice, but small, pool with swim up bar. A few lounge chairs around it.

 

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Thanks for posting all of the dailies. We leave on this itinerary in 3 weeks.

Did you visit Mahahual in Costa Maya? We haven't been there in about 5 or 6 years and they were just rebuilding after a hurricane. I hope it's not too overdeveloped.

 

By the way they are expanding the hotel, it is going to be huge! Actually from the looks of it, it seems like they might take part of junkanoo beach. But I could be wrong.

 

Service in the hotel was lackluster, but not horrible. The only bad experience we had was during check-in, that lady seriously need an attitude adjustment if she wants to work in hospitality.

 

We were at Hilton British Colonial over Thanksgiving.

The check in lady was loaded with attitude. And for $60, would not give us the WiFi password. ***. Bar service was decent but slow.

We hung out in the cabin a bit and watched a movie. Once showered we went to Manhatten for dinner. It was definitely our best dinner so far. We didn't have a reservation but we're seated right away at the best table we've had. Ask for table 79. It's the best! All the way aft along the window with a beautiful aft wake view. It's private, not a lot of tables in the area, you can hear the band but it's not too loud and we had great service. And did I mention the view? I had a yummy salad and the NY Strip which was all delicious. I had the Coconut Souffle for dessert- I figured it was time to venture away from the Chocolate Lava Cake. It was very good. We left very satisfied customers.

Really enjoying your review. Is Table 79 for two or four? We are traveling with another couple. Thanks

I'm sorry that you didn't realize that Harvest Caye was a "private island", unfortunately it has been marketed as such for at least the past two years, it just took a tiny amount of research to find that out.

I enjoy visiting private islands and I am happy that we don't have to tender to this one. That said, all of the other cruise ships private islands I have been to include food (as though you are on the ship). Additionally, when we were on CocoCay two weeks ago, you were able to use your ultimate beverage package on the island and charge things to your cruise account. I hope that NCL employs the same features in the very near future to Harvest Caye.

 

Yummy fried sea creatures.

 

 

Tomato Soup. If only they could figure out how to bread and fry it.

 

 

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Chris Santos restaurant in Nyc, Stanton Social, makes French Onion Soup Dumpligs. You could do the same with tomato soup.

We just booked the balcony next door (12742) so I assume our bed will be next to the balcony. Is it difficult to get to the balcony in that configuration?

We were in Nassau in November and had a great experience with the People to People program. Check it out.

We've been to Nassau about 15 times over the last 10 years. We decided to do the People to People Exchange last week and had the best time.

I applied on their web site and got a reply about a week later. We had several emails back and forth with our host Jacquie. I let her know ther would be 4 of us (Myself, DW, and DDs ages 11 & 9). I also told her we would like to visit a school and bring some supplies for the students. Jacquie arranged everything.

Our host Jacquie met us at the Department of Tourism (which was a little tough to find, but it's not their fault that the people at the port didn't know which building it was). After some quick introductions, we were off. We started out at a primary school (grades K-6). The pricincipal was there to meet us and gave us some history of the school. We got to visit a 4th grade and a 6th grade. The kids were fantastic and had lots of questions for our kids. My 9 year old just ate it up. After visiting the classes and touring the school, we delivered the supplies to the principal who brought in the prefect (top students) to receive the supplies and take some pictures.

After the school, we stopped by an old fort before heading off to the Bahamas Historical Society. Surprisingly, both girls really enjoyed the museum and the curator enjoyed sharing the history of Bahamas with them. She was really surprised when my youngest indicated that Columbus was not a nice person, despite what history likes to think.

Jacquie continued our tour of the island, sharing much of the history and the future. We stopped for lunch at Fish Fry and enjoyed food at Twin Brothers. Jacquie ordered some amazing fresh conch, as well as fried conch. I had some really tasty grouper and homemade fruit punch. My non-seafood eating DW and kids had burgers, chicken fingers and mac n cheese.

After lunch, our tour around the island continued. We got to see parts of the island that were simply stunning. She dropped us off back at the ship where we took some pictures and said our good-byes. We had brought a cookbook from Georgia to share with her and she had bought a book at the historical society for the kids.

We had an amazing time with Jacquie and I'm certain we will keep in touch for years to come.

We were there on Thanksgiving. Had a great time. I'd highly recommend it. We had 15 of us and all really enjoyed it.

We had 150 CP the first half of the week. We had Oliver as our waiter and it was an amazing meal!

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Thanks for sharing our cruise. It's been lots of fun. Can't wait to one on board in a few hours (which is probably why I'm awake at 4:30).

We've got reservation for Izumi next Sunday night :). Sushi and Hot Rocks!

Talk good care of the ship. We'll be standing at the gates waiting for you to get off so we can board! :)

As we walked out onto the Boardwalk, we recognized the familiar carved horses in various stages, Zoltar was calling for us, and the carousel was in the distance. But we were a little hungry, and we could smell...

 

The Boardwalk Dog House!

 

(We had stopped by Park Cafe looking for a famous roast beef sandwich while in Central Park, but the lines were pretty long already, so we waited.)

 

TIP: The touch boards at the elevator banks will list the dining venues and how busy they are at any given time. They don't list the Boardwalk Dog House. So chances are you can always get a hot dog pretty quickly.

 

We checked out the menu - who even KNEW there were 7 varieties of hot dogs in the world? I got a Coney Island Dog and Chris got a Big Apple (chicken with apples in a parmesan/cheddar baguette). Mine was a hot dog. And that's all I needed at the moment. Chris liked his dog, but said the bread was extra hard and hurt the roof of his mouth.

 

We enjoyed it, and we stopped back by later in the week for another (different) dog each. I had the German (pork and marjoram in a caraway seed baguette). I thought it was good. I didn't get the saurkraut with it, and I'm sure that would have changed the flavor, depending on your liking.

 

Bellies full, it was off to Rita's. We checked in at the podium, and they took our reservation (selected night and room number), handwritten on a napkin. We kept checking our Personal Calendar on our TV after that (a few times a day) and never saw the reservation. We checked at the Guest Services desk one day and they said "those TVs don't always work right. You'll have to check at Rita's." So we went back to Rita's and asked someone. She said she was sure our reservation was fine, but she didn't have access to it so she would ask her manager to verify and he would call us later that night or in the morning. We never got a call, and the TV never showed it. When trying to make a new reservation on the TV, it showed sold out for our selected night. We'll see how that goes when we show up on Day 4.

 

Ok, so all dinner reservations made, we explored the ship a little and when it got close to 1pm, we headed to check out our room (and drop off our backpacks, change to swimsuits, etc.). This was our first cruise as Platinum members, and this greeted us:

It was a nice surprise. There was some kind of astronaut food (dried fruit) or something (never opened), some shortbread cookies (which were yummy and hit the spot later in the week for a quick carb fix), and a nice "welcome back" note.

 

There were a few other paperwork items, like our Cruise Compass, Meet & Mingle invitations, and maybe more. And there was a note with a refillable soda mug saying our pre-ordered drinks had been fully delivered. One problem. I had ordered and paid for 8 bottles of water. So when our room steward, Hopeton from Jamaica, introduced himself and asked if everything was ok, he said he would get right on it. He had to contact Bar Services. We left our room before the water situation was fixed, but left a note on the note they had left us, and by the time we returned to our room that evening, we had our water.

 

Time to check out our room. We had Superior Ocean View Stateroom #8624. Starboard side. Between the humps.

 

The room was great. On Oasis Class ships, the rooms alternate between bed by the balcony and bed by the closet. Our bed was by the balcony.

 

 

We loved everything about our room. Nice size. Clean. Easy to move around. Lots of storage. The view was great and the humps forward and aft did not obstruct the view. We loved being on Deck 8 - so convenient to Central Park and our favorite bar, the Trellis Bar.

 

Negatives: It was a long, boring walk from either the forward or aft stairs/elevators. After experiencing this, we would choose a room closer to the stairs. If you need to walk the length of the ship in that case, at least you can choose to walk it on a deck with some activity (promenade, Central Park, even the pool deck), rather than a long hallway full of doors.

 

The only other negative was that our "soap holder" (for lack of a better descriptor) was broken and wouldn't hold our toiletries. By about Day 3, they got that fixed and we were fine. Nothing really to complain about.

 

Now, for the moment we'd been waiting for...(I bet you can guess)

Great review. We are sailing in less than 6 weeks. We have cabin 8620, just 2 cabins away. Can't wait!

For me, having kids wear nicer clothes during formal night is less about the experience of those around them but more as an opportunity to teach our children about what we expect from them. As a parent, we teach our kids by words and actions. I truly believe that it is worth the effort because it will help them later in life. When my kids were young, we didn't take them to nice restaurants because we knew they were not old enough, but now that they are of age, we enjoy taking them and teaching them manners and courtesy to others.

We are the only teachers our kids will have throughout their lives and I think we do them a dis-service if we don't take every opportunity to teach.

Off to work but there was my two cents.

Cruise Cat, while I am not a doctor, I have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express. You may want to see a sports doctor. Many times they have a better insight as to stretches, etc that you can do, than your primary care might. I know that when I am injured, my PCP tells me to stop running, at which point I instruct him, "Just give me a referral and I'll come back to you when I have a cold, thanks"

Got my 6 mile tempo run in yesterday. Today is another easy 3

Mike, let me know if you decide to run Disney. I run it every year (for the past 8 yrs or so). This year I ran the Disney Double. It was a half marathon on Saturday (13.1 miles), followed by a full marathon on Sunday (26.2 miles). Between the two, I also ran a 5K (3.1 miles). Yes, I know, pretty insane.

Keep it up crew. I ran just a short 3 miler yesterday, with a 6 mile tempo run planned for this evening. I don't know about everyone else, but I find that I sleep better on days I workout/run and thus wake up feeling more refreshed.

On a side note, I had planned on running the Cellcom Green Bay marathon in May (about 3 weeks before the cruise), but have decided against it in favor of local short races.