twicindi

1 hour ago, twicindi said:

 

On to pictures.  

ST.LUCIA, SAINT LUCIA

1 hour ago, twicindi said:

ST.LUCIA, SAINT LUCIA - The Pitons

ST. JOHN'S, ANTIGUA, - overlooking Nelson's Dockyard

ST. JOHN'S, ANTIGUA - close-up of Nelson's Dockyard

ST. JOHN'S, ANTIGUA - This was a luxury resort.  I don't recall the name.

St. Thomas - From Paradise Point

St. Thomas - From Paradise Point

TORTOLA, BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS

TORTOLA, BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS (same spot, wider view)

TORTOLA, BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS - From the zip line tour

Castillo San Cristóbal, San Juan - This was our greater at the fort entrance.

From Castillo San Cristóbal looking toward Castillo San Felipe del Morro - San Juan

18 minutes ago, josephmz said:

For my future reference to they allow Uber and Lyft to pick up an drop off at the airport.

 

 

There's a whole taxi union thing.  Uber and Lyft can't pickup at the airport.  They can, however, drop-off there.  

I wanted to share a few remarks and, of course, pictures.  I'd be happy to answer any questions.

We were in an aft balcony suite, 10226.  Our room steward was Julie.

ITINERARY

Sun 24-Mar 9:00 pm SHIP DEPARTS SAN JUAN

Mon 25-Mar AT SEA

Tue 26-Mar 8:00 am Tue 26-Mar 5:00 pm Dock ST.LUCIA, SAINT LUCIA

Wed 27-Mar 8:00 am Wed 27-Mar 4:00 pm Dock BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS

Thu 28-Mar 9:00 am Thu 28-Mar 5:00 pm Dock ST. JOHN'S, ANTIGUA, ANTIGUA

Fri 29-Mar 8:00 am Fri 29-Mar 5:00 pm Dock ST.THOMAS

Sat 30-Mar 8:00 am Sat 30-Mar 5:00 pm Dock TORTOLA, BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS

Sun 31-Mar 5:30 am SHIP ARRIVES AT SAN JUAN

There was some stress with our flights.  We were booked on Southwest, and this all happened around the same time as the Max 8 drama.  Luckily we weren't impacted, but I was really glad we decided to fly out on Saturday.  As others have mentioned, taxi fares from the San Juan airport are ridiculous.  Uber, however, within San Juan was very reasonable.

I was happy to see paper straws, usually upon request, on the ship.

I was disappointed that they are phasing out towel animals.  I asked our room steward, and we did have towel animals on 2 evenings.

The San Juan city tour that we took on the returning Sunday was awful.  There was little to no commentary from the driver.  What he did say was difficult to understand.  He tried to leave people at different stops twice.  If I was doing this again, I think I'd look for an alternative.

I asked people in most islands their impact from the hurricanes last year.  The more southern islands we visited had little to no impact.  St Thomas and Tortola were the most impacted, and Tortola has the most remaining damage.

On to pictures.  

7 minutes ago, Corpsteins92 said:

Thanks for the suggestions! I always worry about the dolphin swims because I hear such bad things about how the animals are treated badly at a lot of the dolphin swim places.

I looked into this one first and was impressed.  This is an all inclusive resort that specializes in scuba trips.  They have a nice sandy cove where they work with the dolphins.  There were even babies.

There is also a dolphin swim in the port at Costa Maya.  That was basically a swimming pool.

One other thing about Costa Maya.  In the manufactured cruise port there is a walk thru aviary.  Might have been $7 each, but very cool.  It's a series of huts and bridges above everything else.

I second Passion Island in COZUMEL.  Plenty of shade.  Nice clean beach.  Includes lunch.  There's a shopping area, but items are overpriced.  You can get the same items later for less.

In ROATAN, we did the dolphin swim.  It was a lot of fun, and the dolphins are treated very well - they are allowed to come and go as they please.

In Harvest Caye, we did MAYAN RUINS & SPICE FARM.  It was a long trip for not much.  Next time we would stay on the private island.

In Costa Maya, we did CHACCHOBEN, BEACH & LUNCH but only because we were closed out at Maya Chan.  They only have spots for 80 people, so it sells out fast.  The ruins were impressive at CHACCHOBEN.  There is a lot of time on the bus though.

Have a wonderful honeymoon.

Thanks @hallux.  Chacchoben was so much better than Nim Li Punit, it's best that we did that one first.  In either case, it was 3 hrs round trip on a bus.

We did Chacchoben in Costa Maya and Nim Li Punit in Belize.  Chacchoben was the better of the two.  There were several large ruins, and we were there early enough that I managed to get pictures without people in them.

1 hour ago, cmecruise1962 said:

I have a slightly different question...if we take a $35 excursion, will it be $20 for both of us?  I thought it was for one person per cabin, but if it's per cabin. that's awesome!

It's $50 per cabin per port.  You are correct in your estimate.

The B1 aft balconies are in the middle on decks 8, 9, and 10.  We were on deck 10.  Somehow I didn't take any pictures of the balcony depth.

The aft balconies have wonderful, deep balconies.  Plenty of room for a couple lounge chairs and 3 + people.  They are also partially shaded.  Category B1.

We're doing this cruise in March, so I'm really looking forward to your review.

Your camera gear was pretty impressive, but, man, that's a lot to haul on a cruise.

On 12/11/2018 at 12:25 PM, RushFan said:

St Thomas Is the first stop. We did the Castaway Shipwreck snorkel.  Got some pics on my GoPro. Will get them up in a few.  

We're on the same excursion in March.  How was it?

I believe there was a price for 3 pictures, maybe $25. Then a price for all, maybe $75. I believe it varied by the number of people in your party.

I came away from this excursion feeling that the dolphins were treated very well. They were living at the resort by choice with opportunities to visit the ocean. There were even babies.

If you look up Anthony's Key you may be able to find the prices for the photo packages.

We swam with dolphins in Roatan The excursion was dolphin swim & snorkel. It was at a private resort, and the dolphins were very well cared for. The swim was in a natural cove, not a swimming pool like the swim @ Costa Maya.

You couldn't take pictures during the encounter. They would sell pictures packages for that. But we were allowed to take pictures during the portion when the dolphins were doing tricks.

It is now March 2018 and there IS a shuttle to the mainland.

Good to know. Did they build up the port on the mainland side? Last year there was a dock and an area for buses to pick up the tours. There wasn't even what I would call a town nearby. Just housing for the local who work on the private island.

We are planning to take the ferry over to Placentia for a few hours while we are there.

 

 

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I'm pretty sure you can only leave the island on a ship sponsored shore excursion. There is no public ferry that goes to the mainland. (At least in March 2017 there wasn't)

Thanks so much for your review. Did your son do any teen activities? or did he stay with you while on board?

He was happy to hang with us. I do remember there was a teen white hot party one might.

With it being spring break, a lot of the pool activities were geared to college age kids.

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View from our balcony, sunrise:

And City Park in New Orleans.

Costa Maya port and aviary:

Chacchoben, beach & lunch:

Harvest Caye:

Passion Island excursion:

NCL Dawn atrium

Pictures: 10228 aft balcony penthouse suite

One very cool thing I forgot to mention is the aviary in the port at Costa Maya. There are a series of bridges and elevated huts. They had 8-10 different species of birds, and they give you seed to feed them. The price was $10 for adults and $7 for children. We were covered in birds.