MandyMooToo

You can go to the MDR and ask that you all be moved to MTD as soon as you board. But I would suggest reaching out to RCCL dining beforehand by email. The ship and sail date must be in the subject line and then list names, booking numbers and cabin numbers (if they have them and aren't awaiting a guaranty assignment) of everyone. Ask that all reservations be moved to MTD. The biggest thing to consider here is will you want to eat together in groups of more than 4 or 6? If so, then you need to plan for what nights, times, etc. and ask to be accommodated. My concern would be moving everyone from a connected dinner reservation that is set to MTD and then 8-11 people showing up for a table at a random time. Who knows how long you would have to wait??

And this is the biggest reason that I hate the buffets. I love the options but the idea of people being gross AF and touching things without washing their hands is 🤢 Adult or child, it is disgusting.

We typically make Saint Martin a beach day. We take the water taxi over to the shopping area and reserve beach chairs (wifi and a bucket of beverages is usually included) then do some shopping and maybe have some lunch. Most all the resorts/hotels near the water taxi have chais and umbrellas to rent out for the day. We usually pay $15-20 per person and a server comes around to take drink orders or you can go to the bar associated with the chair rentals. The rentals also usually come with use of facilities such as bathrooms and sometimes showers.

To be fair, we spent $2660 total, on an interior plus, for our August sailing on Icon. Prices have gone nuts since we booked, in my opinion, but not all those cabins were sold at such a high rate.

I agree. I think the reason they are not vigilant at the hot tubs is because people (regardless of age) are less likely to drown in one when they are full of people staring across the water at each other in a circle, lol. The life guards are usually more aware of the pools themselves. We have seen them remove children multiple times in pools, sadly hot tubs get ignored.

Just complained here, I am sure. HA HA HA. I jest. But really, for as many of these complaining posts, there will be people defending the children using the pools for toilets and then those that defend the adults that never leave the hot tubs after drinking all day. "It is my cruise too" or "my children deserve to have fun too." While that is true, most all of these problems can be eliminated by: Adults acting like they have sense and going leaving the bodies of water to use the restroom, parents not placing their children in situations where they have "accidents" (because let's be honest, it is not the fault of the children), and the staff trying their best to stay on top of it all. This is not Icon specific behavior by any means. On our RCCL cruises we have watched life guards and other staff members make children get out of the pools when they are in diapers, not so much the hot tubs though. I am not sure why anyone would allow their children in the hot tubs as I always thought they were unsafe for children but I could be wrong. Last cruise, or the one before, A family pushed into the hot tub we were in, and I do mean pushed-they physically sat down where there was no space and I sat in my husband's lap! They had three small children and one was in a diaper. Dad (I assume) placed the baby on his knee while the others stood and bounced/jumped around and then floated in the center wearing floaty lifejacket things. The other adults just got out and gave them the hot tub because it was uncomfortable for all of us. Once before a young man got in wearing snorkel gear and was "swimming" around snorkeling in the hot tub while his mother sat in a chair watching from afar. Nothing was said to these kids or their families. But in the main pool, the life guards were on top of making diapered children get out. Who knows why one is different?

It was not available for us last cruise on Wonder in December. We always enjoyed it but I do not know that it was any healthier than anything you could have gotten in the WJ, just prepared in front of you and chopped nicely.

No concerns for us above the normal, don't flash cash or wear lots of jewelry, don't lay your bag down anywhere, don't wander down any alleys, etc. But to me, that is common sense in any place, anywhere in the world. We were in Cozumel in November and will be there again in a few months. Can't wait, we always enjoy that port.

We like to watch the live map in the mornings while getting ready and then at night when winding down before bed. It is nice to spend a little crash time together, vegging out after a busy day. The channel options are not great but we can usually find something to play that isn't too annoying and on our Wonder cruise last year we could airplay to the TV and watch whatever we wanted to. That was nice!

Very moving! I admit to crying a few tears.

You never know. Our experiences have been yes, you can take it onboard and no, you can't. So we typically just take one and if they deny us then we pick it up on the way home. It has been 50/50 in the last two years.

The last time we flew into Sanford we rented a car and drove to the hotel, nearer to Port Canaveral. The morning of the cruise we returned the car and they shuttled us to the port.

Sign into your cruise and check the excursions for Miami. I know for cruise port to airport they have shuttles that are typically around $25 pp for port to airport.

I am certain the timing of our visit, shortly after they opened and not long before Covid, has a lot to do with the situation. This will be our first trip back to Costa Maya since and I wanted to try something new, without having to do the AI thing. CM may become a port that we remain on the ship for in the future. Thank you for the feedback!

Thank you, we will likely wind up at KL. About 4 years ago, give or take, we tried Malecon21 and were disappointed. Granted, they had just opened up so maybe they have improved but we didn't enjoy it as much as we hoped to. At the time they had one or two AI packages to choose from, we chose the highest priced package even though we knew we wouldn't spend that much PAYG (just didn't want to have to be concerned with any extra fees aside from tips). When we arrived we were given four chairs that were split far enough away from each other (in different rows too) that we could not hang out with the other couple in our group even though they were not busy yet, and yes, we reserved together. Then they brought drink menus and each drink we picked they said we could not have. They said AI packages could only have frozen drinks (Pina coladas mainly) and a rum punch type of drink, can't remember what it was called, and a couple of other single liquor/mixer type drinks. The food was vey limited too, we could not choose what we wanted off the menu. When we complained they just said "sorry." Drink service was very poor too, even though we were tipping well. Probably got three drinks all day? So maybe they have gotten it together and are much better now, but I really dislike the idea of AI unless it is a resort with lots to do/benefits that will keep us there all day. Guess it cannot hurt to try KL and see how it goes this time, thanks again!

We have not been to CM in about 4 years and did a resort for a day with forced AI fees. It was okay but we do not want to go that route again this cruise. Would it be possible to just get a taxi to a beach and walk/chill/swim then PAYG for drinks and lunch? Any beach anyone would suggest?

If I remember correctly, most of the RCCL ships tend to have Clinique, Lancôme, Clarins, and some have Chanel also. Haircare tends to vary quite a bit, I believe. You can often get an idea of haircare brands by looking at salon service offerings. Sometimes they say "Kerastase treatment" or something along those lines.

The odds are the same as any other time. Plenty of people no show due to emergencies, cancel, etc. When this happens, RU easily fills the empty spaces and it can be a domino effect. Example, suite is canceled, a JS or balcony may get bumped up, which then bumps up a balcony or ocean view and then an interior, etc. Even sold out cruises often wind up having empty cabins or RUs.

Well, every good thing must come to an end at some point I guess. We are having breakfast in the YC restaurant, looking out over the water. It’s dark but beautiful! We have had such an amazing time on this cruise. There is definitely another MSC cruise in our future. I will do a short wrap up here of pros and cons and end my live review. Cons first as there aren’t many: internet isn’t as good as other lines; hot tubs close early; not allowed to order pizza and bring it into the Top Sail lounge (several of us wanted to just hang out last night and snack on a pizza for our last night but the crew said it wasn’t allowed to being pizza into Top Sail—odd since they have snacks out basically all day there but, oh well). Pros: amazing crew (I don’t think any of them sleep more than 4 or 5 hours a night, they are everywhere all the time); food was terrific; ship is beautiful; cabins are beautiful; so clean everywhere; Yacht Club itself is just an exceptional experience; never any crowds or lines on the ship; embarking/disembarking super smooth (even though we had a bit of a wait to get on the ship); great ship layout and easy to get around. I am sure I am leaving things out but we are overall very pleased with our first cruise on MSC. Thank you for reading my live review and I hope you all have an amazing next cruise!

In Nassau today, or last port. Cloudy and rainy all day. Our group took a taxi to John Watling’s and did a tour. We walked back to town where some went back to the ship and some remained in town. We did some shopping and had lunch at the Bearded Clam. Headed back to the ship to take advantage of our spa access and used the sauna, thelasso pool and the salt therapy room. So nice and relaxing. It would nice though, if people would maybe keep their voices down a bit so everyone could have a nice, chill break but it is what it is I guess, (pics of the salt therapy room added). Due to the nasty rain we will head to the Top Sail lounge and hang out for a while before getting ready for our last dinner in YC. I admit that we are having feels of regret about the cruise we have scheduled later in the year on another line now. We shall see how it plays out I guess!

So yesterday we spent most of the day at the YC pool. Lunch at the pool buffet and just lounge’s in the pool with friends and has cocktails until time to get ready for dinner. The lunch buffet this far has been really good. Lots of grilled fish, cold salads, meats and cheeses (with the always available burger and hot dog option). The bar service was slow for a little while and some people started getting pissy and rude. They had only two bar tenders to cover everyone at the YC pool area and it was during lunch too so the bar was packed. I’m not sure why they would have so many servers walking around taking drink orders when they didn’t have enough bar tenders to serve the ones sitting at the bar. But whatever! It wasn’t as though any of us had to be anywhere so waiting for a little bit was fine🤣 We wound up meeting friends in the Top Sail for drinks and snacks before dinner and then ate on the YC restaurant again. None of us were super exited about the menu offering so most of the table went with the filet again. A couple of the men ordered two entrees (no up charge) and said they were both good (scallops and butter chicken were the additional choices they made). Back to the Top Sail for an after dinner drink and then on to the illusionist show. The show was cute but if I’m being honest, it wasn’t amazing or magical or anything. He did a few tricks that were interesting but mostly used people from the audience for light comedy along with his tricks. We left when it was over and made our way back to our cabins to sleep before our last port of the cruise, Nassau. We normally plan to stay onboard for Nassau as we have been there so many times but it has been a while since we’ve been there and we haven’t seen the new port area so we will get off and have a go at it!

I hate that your experience was poor. We have had a great time so far. I know there have been many complaints about the food but we have been pleasantly surprised at the offerings. I’m sure some of it is due to being in YC and because of that I don’t think we would want to try MSC without being in the YC.

I did post pics of my cabin already, they are on the first page of posts. We are pretty chill travelers, good food and drinks, clean facilities and polite crew are all we really care about. Cruising for us is relaxing so we try not to get worked up about anything and we no longer attempt to go on every excursion or see every show, etc. There will always be things we may not like (internet issues) but it would have to be pretty darn serious for us to truly complain.

Breakfast at YC buffet at the pool. Nice little variety, including made to order eggs and omelets. Short day in the port so we are grabbing a quick bite and going back to Ocean Cay for a little while. Not very hungry since we ordered pizza late, lol. It was good but (as many others have said) they didn’t send the right pizza. But it was good and hot and took less than 30 minutes to be delivered to our cabin so that’s a win! Also, I reported last night that the light show was canceled. They made an announcement saying the engineers had been working on it for hours but they couldn’t get it going. This morning when we got up other stated that they got it going at about midnight so I guess we missed it in the end. I’m sure there are plenty of YouTube videos of it though, lol.

Juan has done a good job. He was also a server at Ocean House yesterday so we have spent some time with him. Our cabin is 16039. Great layout and it feels really big compared to interiors on RCCL.