texangal39

Rather than post a new review, I will add my experience to this thread since I didn’t capture shots of the menu. We were there on November 23, 2023 for the day. We were one of the first people to get off the ship as I wanted get the most out of our time at the resort. Booking was simple and the staff replies quickly to inquiries and messages. We booked the Beach & Jungle plan and I’m glad we did because it afforded us our own private area. You are encouraged to communicate via WhatsApp which is a quick download on your cellphone and easy to use. A week before arriving we received an email with instructions on how to get to the pickup area and find our driver. A few days before arrival we received a message from the driver with his picture and more instructions. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time to get from your ship to the pickup spot because it takes a good 15-20 minutes. Also, make sure you communicate the time correctly you wan to be picked up to go to the resort and head back to the ship by clarifying your pickup time in their time zone rather than ship time. The ride to the property takes about 25-30 minutes and you will lose cell service, but the resort offers free WiFi that works well. But if ever there is a day to unplug, this is it! We arrived and hopped out and Carlos was waiting at the entrance with a smile. He gave us a tour, introduced us to the team, and guided us to our reserved spot. We enjoyed a cute covered area with 2 sun loungers, 2 bean bags, and 2 tables for food and beverages. The beach was clean and the resort was charming and comfortable. We were soon settled in and we placed an order for 2 mango smoothies, which turned out to be fresh and not overly sweet; perfect! We quickly received our shrimp tostadas which were so amazing we had multiple orders of it! We also thoroughly enjoyed the guacamole and sashimi. Everyone was very kind, smiled and the staff checked on us enough that we felt taken care of but were not overly bothered as we relaxed and enjoyed the beach and the peaceful surroundings. If you are looking for a quiet getaway with excellent food, beverages, and service choose this place. It is not a party atmosphere, which is great if you are looking to completely disconnect in a quiet place. There is an outdoor shower area to wash off the sand, a massage area on the beach where a nice young lady will work the tension out of your body, clean facilities, a bar area, and plenty of seating areas if you want to get out of the sun or socialize with others. The resort offers kayaks and during our stay there was no sargassum on the beach. There was a very small clump in the water farther out in the ocean, which was not a bother at all. This place brought back memories when our family went to the beach when I was young; playing in the water and sand, great food, and the best naps in the world on the beach after a good swim and some sand castle building. I highly recommend this place as there isn’t much to do in the Costa Maya area aside from some Mayan ruins and the beach. We paid cash and tipped the staff and were picked up on time. You are asked what time you want to leave and they arrange a driver to pick you up at that time. We were back on the ship 1 hour before final boarding. Overall I can’t say enough about this place. I am not a fan of Costa Maya for a few reasons, but Hayhu makes it all worth it!

My family has done Thanksgiving sailings for a really long time and we’ve dined in Chops, MDR, 150 Central Park, and Jamie’s. The only place we’ve had a traditional meal was in the MDR. Also, the best one was on HOS in 2018 because they served cornbread dressing and carved turkey with gravy. Last Thanksgiving we did Symphony and every meal in the MDR was superb, but Thanksgiving was not good because we are not fans of stuffing with chestnuts. I suppose it depends on who the Head Chef is for what is prepared, so it’s luck of the draw based upon your personal tastes. But, if I ever can find the chef from 2018 again, I’m on that ship for Thanksgiving even if I have to change my reservation! Now I’m wondering if there is a Head Chef thread….🤔

Thanks so much! That worked! The system automatically selected 2 guests and I couldn’t figure out where it was doing it since I was simply looking at the available dates and cabin types and had not signed in to book yet. Normally when I sign in to book it asks me the number of passengers first. Oh, well, just happy to be able to book 🥰

Thanks so much! I wasn’t very clear I guess. I was asking about the “Not Available” vs “Sold Out Status”.

Was looking to book a Solo Balcony and it says “Not Available” while the regular solo says “Sold Out”. Does anyone know the difference between these two statuses? I’ll probably call later today, but thought I’d ask here first in case someone already got the answer. EDIT: For clarity, my question is about the “Not Available” vs “Sold Out Status”.

We did it Nov 2022 on the Symphony and it was quite fun! It was in the kids club. We booked an early morning session before the kids club opened which allowed us to avoid children in the area.

@dna1990 Thanks a million for following up and sharing your experience. We did notice Hayhu was more expensive, but we also saw that the quality of the ingredients was better and so decided we were willing to pay a little more for the quieter environment with higher quality food and drinks. I’ve made my reservation and paid my deposit now and am looking forward to it.

Thank you for sharing your experience. Our trip is pretty far into the fall, so we are crossing our fingers for less sargassum. I found a website that reports the amount of sargassum along the Mexico coastline and will be checking to determine if I should cancel before our cruise leaves.

Oh my! That looks pretty bad. Sorry to hear you endured this. Thank you so much for sharing your experience.

@Monica887 Thanks so much for your review and pics. We have a reservation for our cruise this fall and are looking forward to it even more so after reading your review. We are crossing our fingers that the sargassum is nearly gone or greatly reduced when we get there.

This has been my experience with the dining plan. We typically have to get on a waitlist for Izumi because of this since it sells out by the time of sailing.

Does anyone know if this pattern will hold true on the Icon? I have an Infinite Balcony and am trying to figure it out.

Crossing my fingers for ya! I hear the Grand suites are fabulous!

Unless I misunderstood .. . Sounds like you booked a GTY JS. I checked the website and apparently the Jr. Suites get double points too, so you should get double points with your JS GTY booking.

Final payment has passed for my sailing and nearly all of the Crown Lofts, a large number of the 1-bdrm Grand Suites, and the Aqua suites are available. IDK if people canceled at the last minute or the sailing just severely undersold but it’s a bit wild to me that so many suites are open.

Booked Icon of the Seas back in Dec 2022 for a fall 2024 Sailing in the Infinite Ocean View Balcony for $4,713.00 for myself and DD. Some of my friends decided to join us and tried to book the same cabin type. Unbelievably that same cabin type for a party of 2 is now a mind blowing $10,150.00 as of today!! WITW is going on with these prices! At these prices, I don’t think my friends will be joining us unless they take a significant downgrade in cabin type. We are all usually in a OVB, so this is a bummer.

Thanks so much for the info!

I’m thinking about bidding on a Crown Loft Suite. Looks like most of them are available on my sailing. Does anyone know how long it takes before you hear back on if you won?

Feeling like a foooolll 🎶 🤪 (Love that old song) On the serious side…. I am having a real hard time deciding between Maya Chan and Hayhu. I love the small, quiet, intimate feel of Huyha with the amazing food offerings and the fact that the beach appears to have very little to no seaweed. But, I also like the fact that Maya Chan has a pool and also a lot of private palapas, whereas with Hayhu there are only two VIP areas. But, I’m also not a fan of buffet style dining, so Maya Chan loses in this area. So, has anyone done both? If so, do you have any unknown or little known info you can share about each that might help me decide? Any help you can give is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I got my first message about 45 days out. But then I didn’t book until 60 days out, so I may not be a good point if reference. Good luck!

The health insurance companies are no longer paying for free tests anymore. Some still are, but it has to be if you are experiencing symptoms and are sick. So, testing has become a money making opportunity.

Yes, they recently made the change. Probably because CVS is now charging also. Customer service isn’t what it used to be. We were able to get our Antigen tests for $59 at the place we went to. I Googled the nearest COVID testing facility and a list of them came up and Any Lab Test was the most reasonably priced. Hope everyone has luck getting their tests in time.

Last week I ended up booking with a place called Any Lab Test because Walgreens canceled my test appointments. After my nearest Walgreens called to let me know they didn’t have any tests left and wouldn’t have them by the date of my appointment, I booked a different Walgreens only to receive a cancellation from them, but they didn’t say why. CVS was full, but luckily Any Lab Test was able to get me in. It was the day before my required test date and the cost was low and the people were nice. Talk about last minute stress!

Thank you for the info! Sounds like MSC may post charges within or right at a week from disembarkation which works for me to be able to use my credit card that doesn’t charge a foreign transaction fee.

Thank you all for the helpful info! Can anyone advise how long it takes for MSC to process your credit card at the end of the cruise? I was planning to use a particular card that doesn’t have a foreign transaction fee, but don’t want the charge to post right at statement close because I try to keep my utilization low on my credit reports and I also pay in full before month end to avoid interest. So, if MSC is slow to put charges through I may have to eat the fees and use a different credit card.