CruiseTeacher7

I wasn't that impressed with it last summer.   I was on the Liberty for Spring Break and it barely worked for us....couldn't hardly connect to anything.

12 minutes ago, Two Wheels Only said:

 

You would probably be looking at Breakaway for Western Caribbean itinerary.

 

Here is a review of Breakaway (Haven) with a different itinerary but also shows some MDR and Specialty menus/items....

 

 

 

Thank you @Two Wheels Only---where are you in Central Florida?  

Thank you for posting this live review.  

Carnival has really upped their cake game.  You rarely see those no taste sheet cake pieces anymore.  The new cakes are better but overall look better than they taste.  Hey at least its not diet Mango cake.

You mentioning everyone hanging out with Topher down at Jack's Shack.  Jack's Shack isn't the cool kids place anymore, its gotten really crowded/popular lately.  Good for Jack though.  

33 minutes ago, fsa1155 said:

We tried Norwegian Haven for the first time.  We loved loved loved the Haven.   We decided that the buffet was better on Carnival than it was on Norwegian.  We thought Carnival had a better selection of food on the buffet.  The only other thing I didn't care for on Norwegian Getaway was the location of all the activities such as the Newlywed game and those types of things.  They had all these activities in the Atrium and there simply were not enough seats.  There was no getting a seat unless you camped out for 2 hours.  We prefer Carnival where all those activities were in the theater.  Other than that, we had a wonderful time on both.   Its been years since I was on Royal Caribbean so I can't comment on that line.  

How is the food in the MDR on NCL vs Carnival?  Do they have anything similar to the adults only Serenity area?

1 hour ago, teesmc said:

High-level- we thought NCL food was worst of RCC and Carnival.  Everyone has the drink package so takes forever to get drinks.  Layout of Epic ship odd/crowded.  We loved the Breeze.  I would sail NCL again for the right price/date/ports.  But my experience had them in thrid place of the 3.

I'm surprised to hear that about the food, I thought NCL would beat out Carnival.  Yeah that would be a problem with the drink package.  

I'm a big fan of the Breeze.  We did Vista last summer and I prefer the Breeze to the Vista.  

How is the entertainment on NCL?

2 hours ago, Two Wheels Only said:

To narrow it down, which NCL ship are you considering and what stateroom type (interior....Haven suite)?

 

 

Not sure what specific NCL ship---probably something out of Miami or Cape Canaveral for a 7 day cruise next summer.  

Hello everyone,

We are thinking about giving Norwegian a try for our next cruise.  How does Norwegian compare to Carnival and Royal?  We are platinum Carnvial cruisers--have been on Breeze/Vista and have been on RCL Freedom of the Seas.   

1 hour ago, Celtic Cop said:

Cool. Did yall have fun? 

We had a good time.  I think we are going to take a break from Carnival for a bit though.  We've done 3 Carnival cruises in 9 months including 2 on the Liberty in a 10 week period.  We will probably try Norwegian for our next cruise.  

We were on the cruise right after you.  

I just went to Princess Cay a few weeks ago and I have been to HMC a few times.

HMC--The beach and sand is way better there.   Its that really nice sugar sand and you get it out in the water too.  There aren't any rocks or anything.  HMC is its own private island vs PC is a private beach at the end of Euleuthera Island.  

PC--there seems to be a bit more to do there in terms of water activities.  They actually have somewhat decent beach snorkeling and more water activities like kayaking.   The sand in the water seems a bit more rocky and from what I recall there beach is somewhat divided up into these sort of U-shaped partitions with rocks in between.

Hands down HMC is a way better beach.  You really do get that secluded beach feeling.  

My impression of PC is that HMC and the Grand Turk cruise terminal had a baby.  PC has more private cabanas though.  

Here are a few tips for both places:

1.  The grilled lunch is pretty gross.  Grilled hot dogs and burgers, chicken, potato salad, cookies, lemonade, and flies everywhere.  Save your appetite for a Guy's burger when you get back on the ship.  

2.  Try to get off the ship early so that you can leave and go back on the tender earlier.  I've waited in line at HMC for over an hour to get back on a tender.

3.  For HMC--treat yourself and walk way down the beach.  Less people, less crowds.

This is really unfortunate.  My thoughts and prayers are lifted up for anyone killed or injured.

A friend of mine sailed on the Oasis two weeks ago.  They had a great cruise but apparently there was a Norovirus outbreak and one of the engines went down.  This is why it went to dry dock.  

We were on a ship going out of Miami and instead of going back to port they sent out a Miami Dade rescue boat to Get a passenger. I mean we were just not very far off shore

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Our last stop was in Aruba. Our excursion this day was the Jolly Pirates Tour (https://www.jolly-pirates.com/cruise/sail-snorkel-swim-and-swing). This was the second time that we have done the tour.

I would highly recommend this tour with the exception of anyone who has small kids who aren't good swimmers. I would say its good for kids 8-9 and older. For our next visit to Aruba I will probably try something different since we've done this tour twice.

You will need to take a taxi from the port to the beach where the tour is located. Its a $14 ride total (not per person). We meet another couple and shared a taxi with them to the beach. It turns out that they were also from the Tampa area and we hung out with them on the tour and the rest of the cruise. Its always great to make new friends.

Here is a picture of the beach where we boarded the ship. The marina is actually at the beach.

Here is a picture on board the ship. You can see the rope swing at the front. The back half of the boat has shade and if you want some sun you can go to the front.

Here is a picture from one of our snorkel spots

The trip has three snorkel stops. You are in the water for about 25 minutes at each stop. The first stop is a WW2 ship wreck in about 60 feet of water. Its about a 10 minute boat ride out to it. The water was choppy and there was a decent current. They only recommend that strong swimmers try to snorkel here. The wreck is teeming with coral and fish. Despite the choppy water and current I enjoyed the snorkel here.

Our last two snorkel stops were in about 10 feet of water. The second one had a sandy bottom interspersed with rocks that had coral, sponges, and fish. Our last stop was close to the cliffs along the shore which also had coral and fish.

We remained anchored at our last spot and after snorkeling they opened up the rope swing from the bow of the ship. The rope swing is a lot of fun, I did it about 3-4 times.

Lunch was served at the last spot. It is a BBQ lunch with chicken, ribs, potato salad, and cole slaw. They actually prepare the food off the ship and then bring it to the ship by boat. The tour also comes with open bar with rum punch and pina coladas served in small cups.

The tour is about four hours. When you are done you can stay at the beach (its a great beach). You will have to call for a taxi which you can do from the Jolly Pirates building or from the tiki bar there.

Here is a picture of the beach

Our last beach stop was Playa Forti which is known for the cliffs that you can dive off of.

Here is a panorama of the beach

Here is a close up of the cliffs:

I didn't do the cliff jump as it looked a little too risky. Its about a 40 foot drop off the cliff and you have to jump outward to avoid hitting the rocks below. The water is about 10-14 feet deep. I spoke to a few people who did jump off. They said it is a difficult track just to get up to the cliffs--very narrow path with cactus on both sides. I watched several people jump off the cliffs. I would highly recommend that you have a local who is familiar with the cliffs show you which direction to jump off. No one got hurt but a few people who jumped said they felt like the broke their butt. My wife had to help one lady out of the water who got too much water up her nose and was having trouble swimming. The Irie tours guides are not going to lead you up the cliffs or anything. I also want to point out if you were to get injured, well help is a long way away since we are on the rural side of the island.

Overall this was a great beach to visit. We were there right before sunset and we spent the whole time swimming and snorkeling. I saw several turtles and a large school of fish. You can explore the underwater part of the cliff where there is coral, sponges, and lots of fish.

Since this was our last stop we were able to watch the sunset. It was hazy all throughout the cruise so the sunset was just okay.

It was about a 40 minute drive back to the Port. We arrived back at night to see our ship all lit up. It was a very pretty site:

Overall this was one of the best excursions I have been on. I want to point out that they don't serve food and on the tour since it was a later tour many of the facilities were closed since we got to these places after 5 pm. Other than our first beach the bathrooms at all of the places were closed and there were no places to buy food either (after the first beach). Keep in mind this was a later afternoon-early evening tour. If your ship arrives in Curacao earlier in the day then I am sure this would be different.

Our third stop on the tour in Curacao was a small fisherman's wharf (really a pier that went out into the water). The fisherman will clean their fish and throw the leftovers in the water. This attracts other fish and sea turtles. This beach is known for the sea turtles. You can go on the wharf to view the turtles or swim and snorkel in the water. We saw about 4-5 turtles. The beach itself isn't that great but the water is good for snorkeling. I swam out to where the boats were anchored and found a really great reef in about 30 feet of water.

Here is a picture from the beach:

Curacao Part 3

Our next stop was....

This park is known for its wave battered cliffs and sea caves. The Irie tours guide will lead everyone around the park and down into one of the sea caves. Here are some views of the park

Here is a panorama. The landscape is very barren and harsh.

A view from the shore:

A view inside the sea cave:

A view from one of the cliffs. Its really cool to see the waves crashing along the shore.

Our first beach stop was Playa Porto Mari

The beach looked great....

....but I can't tell you too much about it because I spent the whole hour in the water snorkeling! The beach has chairs, umbrellas, a bar and grill, and a scuba shop.

The water at the beach is crystal clear. The beach is lined on both sides with small cliffs. This was the first area that I explored and there were some little alcoves in the cliffs that you could go into and explore.

The snorkeling in the shallow area is okay. It has a sandy bottom interspersed with rocks with coral and sea life. There is also a platform that you can swim out to and jump off of.

If you swim further out the depth drops down to about 40 feet along a small slope. This is where the really good coral is at. This is a first class reef to scuba dive on. Its excellent for snorkeling albeit you will be viewing everything from about 20-40 feet. I'm very good at free diving so I could go down and hold my breath to see stuff. I would have to say that this is one of the better reefs that I have dived on in my life.

Curacao Part 2

For our shore excursion we did the All West Beach Tour from Irie Tours (http://irietours.com/all-west-beach-hopping-tour-)

We did the east side tour on our previous visit to Curacao.

The tour bus is a brand new open air school bus painted in vibrant colors. The tour bus has a large cooler of water, soda, and beer.

It takes about 30-40 minutes for the bus to drive from the port to our first beach. On the way the tour guide pointed out historical and culturally important places including churches and sites/memorials from a slave revolt. The west side of the island is very rural. As the tour guide pointed out there aren't any modern stores and restaurants like McDonalds.

Here are a few pictures from our drive

Smallest chapel on the island and place where a miracle occurred:

Here is a church. The tour guide pointed out how many people on the island live in these triangles made of a church, school, and grave.

We stopped here at this salt flat to see flamingoes

The terrain on the west side was hilly. I want to point out that while Curacao has some nice beaches the island itself is very dry.

I have to agree with what was said about the two show lounges...too small, poor lines of sight, bad seat designs in the comedy club. I did see them constantly skimming the pool scum...thought it was vomit at first. I’m hesitant to do Vista again, mainly since I don’t need the bells and whistles

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Curacao Part 1

We didn't get into Curacao until about 1 pm so that gave us a half day at sea in the morning. I decided to walk around the ship instead of sitting around the pool in the early morning like I normally do.

It was quite windy as we sailed across the Caribbean. The relative winds were 46 kt and I found a little spot on deck 5 by the bow where the winds were strong.

Here I am on the Vista's webcam. Maybe someone who watches the webcams regularly saw me LOL!

Here are a few photos when we pulled into port:

Yes that is a baseball diamond!

I noticed that when we got off the ship there was a marine repair truck pulling up to the Vista. I forgot to mention that there was some flooding on a few of the decks due to a burst pipe. Nothing like that had on the Dream a few weeks ago where something like 50 cabins flooded. I heard one cabin had to relocate.

La Romana:

We had originally planned to go to the Dreams resort but we decided not too. We figured that we would be spending almost $200 for a few hours at the beach and food. We already paid for the food on board the ship anyways. I told my wife that the the $200 we didn't spend in La Romana made our balcony upgrade only come out to $300.

I originally wanted to get off the ship and go into the city. The cruise terminal is a bit of a walk from any downtown businesses so I decided not to go (partly for my safety).

The ship was quiet so we just hung around the pool, finally got a Guy's burger, worked out, used the spa, etc. It was sort of a reset day.

Here are some pictures of the port from the ship:

Thank you for the fast reply!!! Was the skyride hard to pedal?

 

 

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The sky ride was easy to pedal. There is a decent wait for it. Its a little scary too but worth doing.

One thing I forgot to add about Grand Turk is that we were in port with the Conquest at the same time (7-2). Having two ships really makes it crowded.

Grand Turk

I think we have visited Grand Turk the most of all of our cruises (more than Cozumel LOL).

If you haven't been to GT let me give you the lay of the land. The cruise terminal was built so that you wouldn't have to leave it. It has a beach with chairs and umbrellas, many shops, and a Margaritaville with a pool. We've been there twice but pretty much there is no need to go to it. Its very very crowded, the service is very slow, and its rocky in the water (i.e. when you are not in the water there you are standing on bedrock not so much sand). Due to Hurricane Irma the trees at the beach are the gone so now it is a sea of umbrellas. You are really on top of each other. The water looked kind of gross when we came back too.

We trekked up the beach to Jack's Shack and low and behold Jack's Shack has grown quite a bit since our visit last year. They have added a lot chairs and umbrellas. It honestly looked too crowded for us (here is what it looks like):

We opted instead to rent two chairs and an umbrella from a local lady for $15. We sat on the beach in front of those run down pink cottages next to Jack's Shack.

We spent a few hours here. We didn't get any food or drinks from Jack's Shack (their jerk chicken is really good), instead we just got some waters and two rum punches from a hut back down the beach (its a yellow colored hut). The waters were $1 each and the two small run punches were $7 together.

Overall there are a lot more chairs along the beach than in previous years. Gone also are the inflatables for kids (they haven't been there for a few years). The beach is better down towards Jack's Shack and the pier that marks the end of the beach. The water is clear and refreshing. There isn't much to see snorkeling wise at this end of the beach (I've heard there is decent snorkeling on the other side of the cruise ship pier but its kind of rocky to get into). I did swim down to the pier by Jack's Shack and there were some fish and things to see there. I had to leave because a small freighter ship was coming in.

Grand Turk is a beautiful place and here are some pictures from the ship

You can see the pier that marks the end of the beach. Jack's Shack is right by it.

Here are my thoughts on Grand Turk: It's always been one of my favorite stops but I've done it enough times already. I probably need to do some excursions like an ATV tour, go snorkeling, or go to a quiet secluded beach.

If you do go to the beach try to make your way away from the main beach at the cruise terminal. Its pretty much a rugby scrum at that beach and in the margaritaville pool (they do have the flow rider surfing there though).

Jack's Shack: I don't think its the quiet little out of the place like it used to be. It's not the cool kids spot anymore for sure. They have really grown as a business and that's the point so my hat's off to them. We always went there because it was a word of mouth little bar. I will say that their jerk chicken is really good. If you haven't been there then you owe it to yourself to go. If you are a regular and haven't been in a while its grown for sure.

Sea Days

We had three full sea days and two of what I would call half sea days. We had 1 sea day on the front end and two on the back end. We left Grand Turk at 2 and we didn't get to Curacao until 1 so we had a 1/2 sea day for each.

DW and I are pretty easy to please. Just give us a lounge chair in the shade, a book to read, a cold drink and some music then we are set. I've perfected our sea day routine. I usually am up and out on deck by 6:30 am. I get coffee and grab two of the padded wicker chairs on deck 11 overlooking the pool. DW usually joins me around 8 or so and we get breakfast. We typically stay at our spot to early or mid afternoon. I really enjoy sitting there in the shade, reading a book and listening to the Soca music that they play.

Other sea day activities for us include working out in the gym, using the spa facilities, and sitting on our balcony in the late afternoon.

Since we were on a spa deck we had access to the thelasso therapy pool (a hot tub you recline in), the steam rooms, saunas, and those warm relaxation recliners.

The pool contests included a lip sync battle, the hairy chest competition, and miss carnival vista. Those were always fun to watch. In particular there was one lady who well lets just say she was for sure the life of the party every day on deck ;)

Overall the pool area was very crowded along with the serenity and any other space on decks 10-12. I can confirm that the staff was policing the chair hogs (maybe not on the first day though). They also had "life guards" monitoring the slides and pool area blowing their whistles to stop kids from doing stupid things.

If you haven't been on the Vista (and this goes for the Dream-Magic-Breeze as well) the deck 5 has a lot of lounge chairs and shade. Its a great spot to escape the masses on decks 10-12.

I wanted to add something about the food to from my previous post. On deck 5 they have a breakfast buffet by the coffee bar. It never seemed to be too crowded, I don't think most people knew about it.