Podie

How was your time at Maya Chan? One of our favorite excursions. Great people.

One of the reasons I picked this cruise was to get back to Maya Chan. As usual, it was spectacular!

The track is supposedly 1/8 of a mile but seemed shorter. I couldn't get up any speed as people just walking through the area frequently walked right in front of me. They seemed annoyed when I said "Excuse me" even though the track is very well marked.

They held a free hip hop/zumba class at the pool each morning but from what I understand, that was the only free class. The fitness center was packed in the morning but almost empty after that.

Moderno & Cagneys are free at breakfast (buffet) and are usually pretty empty and you can take your food outside.

I specifically asked on last week's cruise if either was available for breakfast and was told no.

I disembarked Getaway yesterday and had the thermal suite/spa package. After they had added gratuities to it (of course!) it worked out to about $30 per day. I used it for at least two hours per day and it was the best peace I had on a ship with 4300 passengers. My roommate went once and didn't like it. So I guess it depends on what you're looking for. I was super curious to try the salt room but it did nothing for me. I spent hours on the ceramic loungers and reading on the padded loungers. I just loved it.

Thank you for your comments. I love rock and roll, however I'm a little too young to be a fan of Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, or Carl Perkins. They did a 10 minute segment during the welcome show and it just wasn't my thing.

I forgot to mention that I brought white clothes for the white hot party but it was never listed in the dailies.

This was my second NCL cruise. I usually go on Royal Caribbean or Celebrity. That said, I feel NCL charges for a lot more extras than RC Celebrity. For example, my perks were the beverage package and specialty dining package. I had to pay 18% gratuities for these - all free perks on Celebrity are truly FREE perks. You don't pay $125 for gratuities. Also, the beverage packages on RC and Celebrity include ALL drinks including water, specialty coffees, sodas, and alcoholic beverages. On NCL, no water or specialty coffees were included except Irish Coffee with Irish whiskey. I asked if I could get a specialty coffee with a shot of Bailey's or Kahlua and they said I could get regular coffee with a shot, but no specialty coffees. OK, so my main peeve is out of the way...

Getaway is a beautiful ship and I do like the freestyle method of cruising. I don't like to dress up and I like not having to. I enjoyed muster in a comfortable chair in the atrium rather than standing in the sun on deck. When I got to the ship, I discovered none of the specialty restaurant reservations I'd made online were in effect so I had to make them again. Everyone had raved about the lobster at Le Bistro so we went there the first night. Guess what? Lobster was removed from the menu three weeks ago! I had mussels and shrimp and they were good, but I had expected excellent lobster.

My cabin attendant was absolutely the worst I've had in 20 cruises. Unlike every other cruise I've been on, she did not come and introduce herself. he TV remote control didn't work properly, the back had clearly been pried open by a frustrated previous cruiser, and when I called the front desk to ask for a new remote, they said the cabin attendant would come to check it. She never showed. It took two more calls before she showed up and said we simply had to hold the remote no more than a foot away from the TV to change channels. So forget changing the channels from the sofa or bed. I called downstairs a fourth time and was told they'd send a new remote. They never did. We also had trouble with one of our outlets. Once again, we were told she would check it out. First she said we must be doing something wrong, finally she said she would have an electrician come up. Never happened. We met many people on deck 10 who complained about her but nothing was done.

None of the crew appeared happy to me. On RC and Celebrity they're always smiling and saying hello, but this was not the case at all on Getaway.

We ate our second specialty meal at Cagney's, which was good because we had a spectacular server named Cadores who brought us three appetizers because we couldn't decide. Again no lobster. Surk and turf was shrimp and steak.

Because there were 4300 passengers aboard, it was pretty crowded everywhere but the specialty restaurants. We went to the welcome show in the theater - packed with people - and were so unimpressed that we cancelled our reservations for Million Dollar Quartet. And anything held in the atrium was impossible to see for all the crowds. I can't understand why they don't hold the popular games and shows in the theater - which is also WAY too small for the number of passengers.

The atrium was always loud, and trying to be heard at Guest Services or any of the desks there was next to impossible. Very poor planning there.

My friend and I bought the Thermal Suite package before the cruise and it worked out to $30 per day. I thought it was great and my friend didn't care for it. I used it every day and it was never crowded, unlike the pool deck which was jammed.

Now that Margaritaville has replace Flamingo Grill, and is only open for lunch, the Garden Cafe was always jammed. I met a Canadian solo cruiser when we shared a table at breakfast, and she said she's never been so disappointed in a ship because of the crowds everywhere. The only choices for breakfast and lunch were Garden Buffet, Taste and Savor, and O'Sheehan's, so everything was crowded. Taste and Savor were okay but the service was very slow.

On sea day, I checked out the famous lobster rolls for $11.51 including gratuity. Being accustomed to New England lobster rolls, I was shocked how small it was. The lobster was tasty but there was very little, just a few ounces. I had asked for no spicy mustard sauce but it was served with a very salty butter sauce poured over it.

I was shocked to see that room service was $7.95. That's also free on RC and Celebrity. However, the bag of laundry for $19.95 early in the cruise was a great deal and the laundry was done perfectly, delivered in a basket.

The library is very nice but the cabinets are kept locked and you can only check out a book one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon. Very frustrating.

Our last specialty meal was at Moderno, which was just okay. The salad bar was very nice, as were the four sides, but the meat was very salty and the filet mignon was full of gristle.

I was curious why they had Portuguese beef stew on the buffet with Asian food, Plus I wondered why there was almost no variation in which foods were available each day. The food was just okay although I did enjoy dessert crepes, regular ice cream, and self serve.

In the end, my friend and I still basically enjoyed the cruise because we had a nice balcony cabin, the water was like glass throughout the cruise, we had excellent private excursions (Coral Breeze in Belize, Maya Chan in Costa Maya and Nachi Cocum in Cozumel), had a nice choice of liquor each day, and we didn't have to fight the jammed pool deck. Also, being non-smokers, we appreciated the limited smoking areas. Would we go on another NCL cruise? Probably not. I'm back on Celebrity next month.

A few days ago I turned down an upsell from BB to H3 for $1000 and the agent was very surprised I said no. So I guess people are bidding even more than that.

But it's my understand that with an upset, you don't receive some of the perks? In other words. When I was offered an upsell a few days ago for $500 each, they told me I would keep my current perks (UBP and UDP) but would not get the free wifi and free gratuities. I declined the upsell. Does anyone know if this is true, that you don't get the additional perks with an upsell?

Thanks so much as I board on Sunday! We have the thermal spa pass so I'm looking forward to your review of that!

Eclipse is spectacular

I board on Sunday. Can you tell me if there was shampoo and lotion in the bathroom? Thanks!

It may take a while to completely review our vacation, but it will get finished. I'm currently on the Getaway and having a wonderful time. I booked this trip over a year ago to celebrate my partners 40th, which was in August. We work hard and have a ton of bills and needed time to save. We decided on a balcony room on the 14th deck. After a few calls days before our trip, we decided to upgrade to a "guaranteed mini suite". They assigned us cabin 8116 with a large balcony (one of a few with such a spacious deck). This assigned room really had us excited. We also got the UBP added on. This all came to a total of $220, which was worth every penny. I don't drink, but it seriously took away a ton of worries and stress on what was getting charged to the room and what we can and can't drink.

 

Our plane left first thing Saturday from Philadelphia with a stay at the Hotel of South Beach. What a start!!! We were right on ocean drive and went right to the beach to see that pristine water. It was heavenly and hot as hell outside. I highly recommend the hotel for an overnight. Daniel gave us an oceanfront room, which was great for people watching in the evening. The town is great if you like to bar hop. It was slightly difficult as a recovering alcoholic, but no worries. As soon as night falls, the town definitely woke up. We had a superb Mexican dinner and relaxed the rest of the evening. One last thing on our pre-trip: we decided to take the public bus for $2.50 over a taxi. We had no idea what we were getting into, but it was a great decision. The bus was simple and went directly to our hotel.

We were offered a mini suite from a balcony a few weeks ago, for $80 per person. Turned it down. Is the mini suite much bigger than the mid ship balcony cabins?

We saw several reviews complaining about being very crowded and lousy service....:eek:

They have a 50 person limit and it's by far the best beach club experience I've ever had.

There's a lot of poverty in Belize City so be careful - don't flash money, or haggle for a price and then not buy when they meet your price, be friendly and polite. A simple No thank you" goes a long way. I go to Belize twice a year to scuba dive and most are wonderful, friendly people. Use street smarts in Belize City and don't travel alone. You'll be fine.

I frequently dive in Belize, and have never heard of good diving close to Belize City. You have to go off Ambergris or Caye Caulker. I typically go south a couple of hours to Hopkins (not doable from a cruise) but I've heard great things about Caye Caulker.

This is odd as mine have always NOT been cold and with so much meat that it was spilling out.

 

The only "filler" was some green pepper or celery( tiny bits and not much).

Hmmmm

Maybe they have changed the recipe (for the better) in the past year? I've eaten lots of lobster rolls in New England and these were not good compared to them. But it was 14 months ago.

Lobster rolls sound great...do you know were they the cold type with mayo..or hot with butter? Thanks:):):)

They were cold and had lots of filler

good tips- I would add that Flamingo Grill is also a good option for embarkation lunch.

 

 

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It's being changed to Margaritaville- another specialty restaurant - this month.

The road is not unsafe. It's just a dirt road with a lot of ruts. The last time I was there, the water had some seaweed but was a perfect temperature in my opinion. As a Floridian, that means about 78 degrees. Maya Chan is a great place and I would not go anywhere else at Costa Maya.

Thanks for your great review. We'll be on Getaway Oct. 2, and I'm starting to get concerned about this flipping Cozumel and Costa Maya. How soon did you know and did they say why they were doing it? We have private excursions at each place and there is not another ship at Costa Maya when we're there so does that give us a good chance of NOT having the port visits flipped?

Also, since the meats at Moderno were salty (and because I know nothing could top Texas de Brazil in Orlando), do you think Cagney's is a better plan? We booked a night at each but we both dislike salty food so maybe we should stick to Cagney's?

Thanks!

I went with SE Fly & Dive last year. They were a good company with a decent boat, but I wasn't overly impressed with their dive sites just off the garbage dump. For one thing, the smell was horrendous. And although the coral was fairly healthy, the fish life was sparse. I had heard great things about Aruba diving so I'm assuming it's better off another part of the island.

I've been trying to book with Coral Breeze on Oct. 5 for a few weeks. Their online calendar doesn't go past September and my emails have been ignored. I know they get good reviews, but this is a red flag for me too.

Just my two cents...I've been certified since 1982 and have dived all three places several times. Belize is my favorite by far.

Hanauma Bay is now closed one day a week so check that before you go. Also, if it's low tide, it's impossible to snorkel over the coral so wait one or two hours after low tide. You are now required to watch a video before entering, and the lines are very long after 9 am.

I've been scuba diving with contact lenses since the 80's, down to 130 feet several times. I use a mask with a purge so I never have to clear the mask; the water runs out the purge below my nose. In all these years, I've only lost a contact one time (I was coughing into my regulator at the time) and it stayed right in the mask so I was able to re-insert it on board after rinsing it well.