wismergirl

I took too long to decide which river cruise I should go on next so there were only 5 S2 left when I booked last November. I'd prefer the upper deck but there was nothing left. Now the boat is all full, unless someone cancels before the Feb 1 due date. It's a pity as we are attending a wedding in England the last weekend in March, so we don't have a lot of other choices.

1 hour ago, Coral said:

Technically - the Mozart is a 1987 ship that Crystal remodeled. I am sure wismergil will agree with me that she looks all brand new inside. I am guessing they gutted the interior when they were working on her and "Crystalized her".

Yes, other than the outside of Crystal Mozart that doesn't look modern and appealing, the interior looks absolutely stunning, especially the top deck. I hope I won't get disappointed when going on Crystal Bach that is half the width. I'll miss "Blue" for sure. That's my favourite lunch venue on the Mozart.

Definitely Crystal. You can have more details on my blog "Travel with Wismergirl".

We were on the Crystal Mozart last July before the drought and loved her so much that we will be going on the Rhine (Crystal Bach) this April. Crystal is not formal at all on the river cruise (only smart casual needed) and everyone gets the same service including having a butler. However, why do you need a butler? By just calling the front desk or your room attendant will get the same service even faster...unless you need packing and unpacking of luggage.

Also, the so-called "suites" are only between 200-300 sq.ft., with the high-end suites just around 350 sq. ft. I don't think I want 3 people (a couple and a butler) to have dinner in such a crowded space. Where is your dining table in your room? Crystal's suites are already much bigger than her competitors, even the smallest room size for a couple is close to 200 sq. ft., whereas most other cruise lines' average room size is 150-170 sq. ft. Check out room size and location carefully before making your booking, e.g., Do you want water with garbage splashing against your stateroom window when you are on the lower deck? Do you want to face the concrete pier when you dock if your suite is on lower deck midship?

Besides, Crystal's whole fleet is brand new, with Mozart's maiden voyage in 2016, plus 2 in 2017 & 2 in 2018. I just don't like the idea that I have to pay in full to Viking 1 year before I sail. With Crystal, I paid $200 deposit when I was on board Crystal Mozart and the final balance is due 60 days before sail date. The best thing is there is no upsell on Crystal, you don't need to spend 1 extra cent after full payment, unless you want extra services like spa, hair or premium wine. We also loved Crystal's self-service laundry on board with detergent & drying sheets provided.

Go to the salon, get your hair & nails done. I would definitely recommend doing a massage focusing on the feet & ankles after many walking tours. Most excursions require you to walk over 10,000 steps per day.

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Just a quick question about the electric outlets, will they take a 3 prong plug or just 2? I want to take a power strip & it has 3 prongs.

They will take a 3-prong. Some passengers said Princess took their power strip on the first day but it got returned on debarkation day. I think it depends on how big your power strip is. I heard about this on other cruise lines too. Here is a blown-up picture to show the outlet so it's out of focus.

If you want a summary of this trip report, here is the Cruise Critic link to a concise version:

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=631130

Great review so far! Thanks for sharing!

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We were on Crystal Mozart in July & I was told by the Customer Service Manager that the average age for that sailing was 58. Since it’s still school holiday, there were some babies, toddlers, children & teenagers on board. I would say at least 10% so it brought down the average age quite a bit. They didn’t tell us the median, just the average age.

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I admire anyone who can write a review on a phone. I wouldn't even attempt it.

 

 

 

Roz

It’s actually much easier to attach a picture on the phone than on a laptop/tablet. I’ve been doing my Caribbean review on my phone & it’s actually easier than writing my blog on the Danube river cruise using my tablet.

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Congratulations on getting a wonderful aft balcony.! We always book the aft cabins because of the lovely views & minimal people traffic plus spacious balcony.

If you Google “balcony image of Caribbean Princess B751” you’ll see many good pictures of your stateroom. The ones from Cruisedeckplan are the best but you need to pay for membership in order to see the pics on their website. Google images have many free pics.

Search on Google for the identical B750 pictures under images, you’ll see exactly how the view is obstructed by the beam in the middle of the balcony. It doesn’t really affect your view if you sit in the front part of the balcony. No need to switch it IMO.

We were on the CP 2 weeks ago & had a great time! Happy cruising!

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Thanks for the live report! Are you using the complimentary unlimited WIFI through Medallion.Net? Just wondering when Princess is actually using Ocean Medallion.

DH & I were on the CP 2 weeks ago, having almost the same W. Caribbean itinerary like yours, but I think you go to Belize instead of Costa Maya.

I did a live travel blog while on board & just posted my trip report on CC.

Enjoy your cruise! We loved it!

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No ***** on her yet. I have enjoyed the Royal before so ***** is no big deal for us.

If you’re platinum or elite, having Medallion.Net will give you unlimited free WIFI for the entire cruise so you can stay connected the whole time. It’s a BIG plus for us on this cruise. I kept in touch with my daughters who were in USA & Europe for the entirety of the cruise. Before ***** was introduced, we only had 150 free minutes for a 7-day cruise.

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Here are the photos that my husband was talking about, using his Canon 6D to take:

Salzburg Fortress

Vienna State Opera

Iceland Faxi Falls

Budapest Parliament

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Great review. I will be enailing it to a friend that will be doing this basic itinerary in December on the Royal. Her first cruise ever. W will be doing Belize rather than Costa Maya.

Glad I could help. You should have Ocean Medallion on the Royal.

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Day 8 - August 18, 2018 (Sat) – disembarkation

We woke up at 8:15 am. Of course we had docked at Fort Lauderdale and from the balcony we could see the busy trucks transporting passengers' luggage from ship to the terminal. This time we (port side) docked facing the terminal, not like embarkation that we faced the water.

This was the panoramic view from our balcony:

We vacated our stateroom just before 8 am & went up one deck to have our breakfast at Steamers Seafood. It was another good thing to have a stateroom on Deck 14 (Riviera) as it was easy to walk up one deck to get food and drinks, even with carry-on's in our hands. Steamers was packed at that time.

During the whole cruise, we never had any problems looking for a table for 2 to eat on deck 15 at any time. After breakfast, we went to the Platinum & Elite disembarkation Lounge on Deck 7 Aft in Club Fusion. It was about half full at 9 am. At the bar they served juice, tea &coffee.

Our luggage tag was Light Blue 5 and we got called at 9:25 am to get off the ship, 10 minutes earlier than the designated time. We remembered that we had to walk to the midship stairs to get off from deck 6. The aft staircase would only take us down to the Palm Dining room but nowhere else. Don't know why the ship was designed that way. It was very inconvenient to go to the Palm Dining Room for traditional dining as there were only 2 elevators to take you there. I feel sorry for the disabled as they always had to wait for several rounds before they could get in the elevators with their scooters.

I think whoever designed the Princess cruise ships (at least for the Grand, Crown and Caribbean classes) need to take more courses, or Princess should gather guest feedback to understand what the general public like. Another major design mistake is the lack of privacy staying in the mini-suites on deck 9. They are uncovered so everyone from deck 10 & above could see all activities there, plus you can't enjoy your big balcony when it's rainy or too sunny. Although I have always stayed in the mini suites, I cursed the balcony every time. It's not easy to get the very few covered mini-suites on the Emerald deck, as they are cheaper. So this time I'm not paying more to put myself on show. I'll just bear with the small cubicle for a short 7-day cruise. You could have a glimpse of those Dolphin & Caribe mini-suites in the first picture I posted today. There’s hardly anyone there to enjoy their balcony during the duration of the whole cruise.

Back to our disembarkation, I downloaded the App "Mobile Passport" so we could get to security using the fast lane. At this point only Fort Lauderdale cruiseport plus 24 US airports could use this App to speed up entry to the US.

After we got our luggage at the terminal, we showed the receipts that we used the above App to create, to the port staff so they let us pass through the priority line that says "Mobile Passport", similar to the Nexus line. It was a breeze as we didn't have to loop around to go to the front.

We took a taxi that cost $12.50 from port to airport, with tips it's $15. However, we had to wait for almost an hour before West Jet counters opened up for checkin. It was good that we got our boarding passes online so we could use the shorter line for bag dropoff.

It was easy going through security as the lines were not long. There was no Priority Pass Lounge at Fort Lauderdale so we had to wait at the gate waiting area for almost 2 hours, as our flight was delayed for an hour.

All in all, both DH and myself really enjoyed this cruise as we planned on doing nothing much, so we didn't really care about what's happening on the ship. We were there to recharge and relax, to eat and drink, and that was not our cruising style at all. If you read my other trip reports (search "wismergirl" under the "Search Board" tag on the top bar and you'll see them all), you would know that all my trip days were always packed & I'm always on the go. I'm slowing down to prepare for my retirement!! Soon it will come!

Day 7 - August 17, 2018 (Fri) - At Sea

I couldn't believe it's the last day at sea. Tomorrow we're going to bid farewell to the beautiful Caribbean Princess.

We woke up just in time to meet our Cruise Critic friends for a 2nd slot pull at the casino.This time we didn't win. There went our $15.

Before lunch I spent some time in the dining room on deck 5 for the grand 50% off sale &bought 2 swimsuit cover ups for $10 each. Then we went to Steamers for Ramen.

There were lots of ingredients like scallop, shrimp, chicken, mussels, bean sprouts, bamboo shoots to pick, then I added noodles & the waiter added the broth for me. Delicious! I'll post the Ramen picture again here.

Before I took an afternoon nap, I did the online check in for our flight tomorrow. Then we went up to the Skywalkers' Elite Lounge to have some snacks.

During tonight's dinner, the waiters did the Baked Alaska Parade.

The show in the Princess Theatre was very good by the Princess Entertainer of the Year 2018,Tom Franek. He was highly entertaining & had great piano skills with various piano stunts. Since there was nothing much to do, we went to watch him again at 9 pm after packing.

We sent extra tips to our dining room waiter Joseph, Lobby Bartender Sawat & our stateroom attendant Ramon, then we spent the rest of the night at the International Cafe, sitting at The Piazza, writing my blog & listening to the piano player singing at Crooners Bar. There's still one more coffee on the coffee card for tomorrow. We don't have to get off the ship till 9:30 am. We have a light blue 5 tag.

This was a fantastic & relaxing cruise. We only did 2 long excursions out of 7 days. Spa treatments were wonderful & I took so many naps! That's a true vacation!

Day 6 (con't) - August 16, 2018 (Thurs) – Cozumel, Mexico

The waterfront had a big sign of the port's name.

The area was beautiful with the lights.

We bought a few souvenirs.

I went to Del Solto check the price of the sunglasses that I bought in Grand Cayman. All 3ports, Roatan, Costa Maya & Cozumel has the price of $69 but I bought them for $50 so I was very happy.

We spent about 45 minutes at the terminal before walking back to the ship. Beautiful Caribbean Princess looked gorgeous with the lights.

We came back to watch the Mexican Folkloric Festival. The singing was just average, the band was not together & the dancing was repetitive. I'd rather watch the ship's production shows.

We went to the photo gallery to buy our embarkation picture ($25) before going to Club Fusion to watch the country singer/songwriter Rockie Lynne. The vocal trio was well-harmonized. It was a good 45-minute show.

Then we went to the International Cafe to get snacks & coffee. There were still 5 coffees that we had to use up before the end of this cruise. We were told that once Medallion is on, we won't be able to use those paper coffee cards any more.

We took our food & drinks to our stateroom and watched the movie "Eddie the Eagle". That was a great relaxing day!

Subscribed. I'm really enjoying your informative review and the photos are great. I hope you'll keep it going!

Great review and photos!

Your photos are excellent ! Thanks for this great review.:)

Thanks for your excellent pictures and posting style....:halo:

...But now it looks nice. Thanks for the pictures.

Thanks for the review and pics. ..:cool:

Thank you for the clarification. And for the great pictures and review.

Thank you all for reading my review! All photo and video credits go to DH.

Beautiful review. Thank you for sharing. I was onboard this voyage and you are helping me relive the wonderful cruise.

 

 

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Sorry we missed you at the Meet and Greet.

Day 6 - August 16, 2018 (Thurs) – Cozumel, Mexico

There was not much to write about today as we decided to relax on the ship. We didn't want to walk around Cozumel or stay on pool deck in the hot & humid weather.

When we woke up, I called the spa to book the $99 Top to Toe special massage for both of us. I added a mini facial for an extra $20. It's great that we could get lovely Makka again. Both DH & myself loved her hands. We gave her a big extra tip on top of the automatically added gratuity. I had mine at 9:15 am & DH's was at 10:30 am. There was no one at the spa waiting room when I was there.

I went to have brunch at the World Fresh Marketplace while waiting for DH. After lunch, I went back to the cabin to take a long nap while DH sorted out our Vienna pictures to post on Facebook. When I woke up, DH said he's hungry so he went to The Salty Dog Grill to get our afternoon snacks. We had those in our cabin.

It's open seating for dinner so we could go to any dining room but we just went to our set table. I had Scallop & shrimps, it was okay. Then we went out to explore the pier area as it was less hot after dinner.

Carnival Paradisejust started to leave when we were on the pier.

There were free pedicabs going back & forth the pier, but they expected a tip.

There was a ferry leaving for mainland Mexico.

Day 5 (con't) - August 15, 2018 (Wed) - Costa Maya, Mexico

I forgot to mention that in Roatan, we DID NOT follow the local time but used the ship time instead for all excursions and all aboard time, so there was 1 couple that didn't get back on time & the ship's departure got delayed because them. In Costa Maya and Cozumel, the ship time and the local time were the same.

When we got back to our ship it was 4:30 pm and we had to walk around the maze of shops before getting to the pier.

https://wismergirltravel.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/vpai9698.mov

We walked and turned and walked and finally got to the port gate to do the pier marathon.

https://wismergirltravel.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/qgyn8049.mov

There was no free shuttle so some people were complaining about the long walk & there were some who had to take frequent stops to rest.

After taking a shower it was time for dinner. It's the 2nd formal night (the 1st one was on day 2) so it took me longer to get ready. The escargot was very good but the lobster tail was not half as good as Steamers'. The rice was not well cooked, it's hard in the centre. Don't understand how you could go wrong with rice!!

My husband said his Short Ribs were excellent.

The chocolate dessert was amazingly yummy!

After dinner, we went to the new Princess Show, A Fantastic Journey. It was very modern with lots of high tech add-ons, though there was no catchy melody. Then we went to the Piazza for the balloon drop.

We had a few drinks at the Lobby Bar before going to bed.

Day 5 - August 15, 2018 (Wed) - Mayan ruins, Costa Maya, Mexico

We ate our lunch during the 30-minute drive to the 2nd ruin, Dzibanche.

Before we started the walking tour, we were dropped off at a restroom area that was 2 km away from the site. This ruin had better-preserved buildings than the 1st one.

We first stopped at the Temple of the Captives.

Then we passed by the Temple of Cormorants where workers were doing restoration jobs. We couldn't climb up this one.

Next we went to the famous Temple of the Owl. Again only my husband climbed to the top but not me.

https://wismergirltravel.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/img_8227.mov

The last stop was at the Temple of Lintels. This was a big one.

Coming down was a lot harder. It's better to walk sideways rather than sliding down on the bottom.

https://wismergirltravel.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/img_8244.mov

On this excursion, I walked for 4.7 km with 7,035 steps. My husband climbed 14 floors of uneven steps. He definitely needed a foot and ankle massage.

Day 5 - August 15, 2018 (Wed) - Mayan ruins, Costa Maya, Mexico

Our excursion was about 2 Mayan ruins in the jungle: Kohunlich and Dzibanche.

It took over 2 hours one way to drive to the 1st Mayan ruin, Kohunlich.

Princess gave us a brown bag with a bottle of water, a banana, a chocolate bar & a bag of peanuts for our snack.

As we were entering the jungle, we sprayed a lot of insect repellent on ourselves. It worked well as we didn't get any mosquito bites at all. My husband paid US$4 to get the license for video-taping. It worked for both ruins for the day. You must have exact change.

This excursion involved almost 5 km of walking & steps climbing. I only climbed to the top of 1 ruin but my husband did all 4 so his legs were all sore & needed a massage on the ship.

The 1st one was the Temple of the Masks. This was relatively easy and there were ropes for us to hold on to. Some workers were doing restoration work there.

Here's a video showing how I got down from the top & how others climbed up the uneven steps:

https://wismergirltravel.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/51696d27-e3b1-4824-a054-1c0b0621252f.mp4

Then we walked past many other temples before reaching the Acropolis. Here's the route we followed:

DH climbed to the top of the acropolis & I just waited for him at the base.

After about 1 hour of walking around, we boarded the bus again. We were given an iced cold bottle of water and a ham & cheese sandwich for lunch.

Day 5 - August 15, 2018 (Wed) - Costa Maya

We had to wake up SOOOO early at 6:30 am because our ship tour met at 8:05 am in the Princess Theatre. We had breakfast at World Fresh Marketplace, then went down to check in & got off the ship right away. The walk from the ship to the tour meeting place was so long. Look!

For those who did not want to walk along the pier, there was a free shuttle like the Disney parking lot tram that you could use, as seen from the picture above. I did not take a picture of the tram, thinking that I would be able to see one when we came back, but there was none in the afternoon. The pier area at Costa Maya was beautiful but it was so hot & humid.

Signage was clear as to where we had to line up for the ship tours.

Under the big hut, there were so many people, lining up for different tours.

Luckily, we didn't have to wait for too long as our tour had the longest duration so we had to leave right at 8:30 am with a 5-minute walk to the bus.

We boarded a big coach with a bathroom on board.

So you shared the food and paid only one cover charge of $12 plus $10 for the lobster and crab? If you can do that, this is the place for us so we don't end up wasting food.

We paid 2 cover charges, plus $10 of lobster tail & king crab to share. Cover charges were for 1 steamed mussels & 1 fried seafood platter. See my pictures for details. Total $34.

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