GETAWAY Review July 29-Aug 5

Hello everyone! I have been a lurker on Cruise Critic for years and decided on my recent Getaway cruise I would try to do a review since I heavily relied on other reviews for both information and entertainment at work when things are slow

Quick introduction- my name is Lindsay and I was traveling with my long term boyfriend, J. We are both from Southern California and travel is a big passion of ours- J has a lead on me with solo travel but we have both been to most of the continents and do at least one big trip a year ranging from anything to a 2 week Europe jaunt, African safari, and of course a cruise here and there! We also really love Vegas so this cruise was booked through CAS.

I'll start this review with a few caveats- this is obviously my opinion/experience so it may differ from yours and that is OK! Also, it is a lot harder than I thought to be in the moment enjoying your vacation and also remember to take a picture of everything you experience. Therefore, I did not capture as many photos of the ship/food as I had initially intended. Also I am having difficulty loading pictures so I hope to sort that out soon and update these posts with them. For now you get text! Also I wrote this out in a Word document to make sure I didn't lose anything so there may be some formatting errors from the copy and pastes.

Our ship's itinerary was:

Sun July 29- Miami

Mon July 30- day atsea

Tues July 31- Roatan

Wed Aug 1- HarvestCay

Thu Aug 2-Costa Maya

Fri Aug 3- Cozumel

Sat Aug 4- day at sea

Sun Aug 5- disembark Miami

~~~

Pre Trip

I love to extensivelyresearch vacations. We booked this cruise back in January I think, so I hadsome time to obsess between then and July! I read whatever I could find oncruise critic and tried to get our excursions booked. We prefer privateexcursions whenever possible- they are less expensive and they tend to be muchsmaller than the cruise versions. The idea of being packed on a large bus with40 people shuttled around is NOT my idea of a fun vacation. We chose the diningand beverage package as our two perks. I made my dining and show reservations100 days out.

I don't like dealingwith crowds and waiting in line, my main priority was avoiding that to be ableto enjoy our vacation. I had researched Vibe and spa passes as well- weultimately decided on a Caribbean cruise with not a lot of time at sea the spapasses wouldn't be used. We were on the fence about Vibe. I wanted to see ifwe'd get into the Haven. It was appealing to me though because I HATE thenotion of having to get up early and reserve a chair. I want a chair and I wantshade and I don't want to have to fight for it.

We had originally booked a midship balcony on deck 13 (I think). I then learned about the upgrade system and started obsessing over that. We put bids in at the 80 day mark at a low/medium level for various Haven rooms. Then, about a month or so before the cruise I learned about the deck 8 mini suites with large balconies and researched those. I gave CAS a call to see how much it would cost to upgrade to one and it was $250/person so we jumped on that. These balconies are HUGE and have 2 lounge chairs, 2 chairs, and a decent sized table to eat off. I was all of a sudden pretty satisfied with our room so we lowered our bids to poor range for some Haven rooms- now being a lot more OK with not getting it.

We had never spenttime in Miami before so we decided to arrive 2 days early in order toexplore.

Miami

We flew a red eye on United because that is our airline of choice. Unfortunately Florida isn't a hub so it is difficult to find direct flights. We ended up flying from LAX to Orlando and then Orlando to Fort Lauderdale on Silver Airways. That was an... interesting experience.It was a tiny little jumper plane with maybe 15 seats on it. The service was non existent. I don't really recommend it, to be honest, but it looks like they are some of the few options if you want to fly to Key West, etc from Florida.We both slept terribly on the red eye to Orlando (it was only a 5 hour flight to begin with) so we were really tired when we arrived to FLL.

We grabbed an Uber to our hotel in Miami- Marriott Biscayne Bay. We chose it because Marriott/SPG is our hotel chain of choice and it was close to the terminal/looked relatively close for going out at night.

We were lucky to check in at 10 am and have a room ready. I was worried since it was available it wouldn't be as nice of a room as they could offer us if wewaited, but was pleasantly surprised to be 2nd floor to the top of the building and had a beautiful view

The hotel itself was OK. It is in desperate need of an upgrade. However, the staff were very helpful and friendly. Our room was clean and spacious but definitely needed to be upgraded and the bathroom was cave like. The pool and the rooftop it was on has so much potential but they aren’t doing much with it. I don’t have pictures but you can see many of them on trip review websites. Over all I would recommend it though due to the convenience of its location.

We left our stuff in the room and went down to breakfast since westill had one hour before it ended. It was included with our stay and was oneof the best “included” breakfasts I have experienced! Impressive buffet andthey had a station with several people making omelets (with impressive toppingsincluding avocado) and vanilla blueberry waffles that were pretty tasty!

After breakfast J went back to the room to try to sleep and workand I first walked across the street to Publix for some last minute things Ididn’t want to travel with like sunscreen. I then went to the pool. Even thoughit wasn’t the nicest pool I have experienced, I enjoyed laying out andreading/dozing. The bartender was friendly and made me a good blackberry mojitowith fresh berries. I was worried it would be a syrup when I selected thatflavor. I went back to the room when it started to rain and also took a nap---and apparently slept until 5pm! (Spoiler alert- many naps were had on thistrip!)

We decided to go to Little Havana for a casual dinner tonight. Wehad taken a land trip to Cuba the year before so were missing the food andculture a bit! We decided on Old’s Havana for our restaurant thanks to Yelp.

http://www.oldshavana.com/

I highly recommend this place! Great food with reasonable prices,great mojitos and daiquiris, live music- it had a very legit Cuba atmosphere,and with the humidity we felt like we were back! We started with the picadillo in tostone shells and I had to have the ropa vieja and J got a steak with chimichurri sauce. We split a rice pudding for dessert. Everything was great.

We walked around Little Havana for a bit- but were both still pretty tired so we headed back to the hotel (quick Uber) and had a night cap at their bar and called it a night.

The next morning after a good night’s rest, we went back down to breakfast. After, I went to the gym and then we both went to the pool to relax.It was a lot busier and I could tell a bunch of groups were people getting ready to go on a cruise. We finally found 2 loungers and camped out for a while until another storm hit so we went back to the room and… surprise… napped! It was then that I got the rejection emails from NCL about my upgrades. I was sad for a bit (but not that shocked as it was a low bid) but then we decided we would try to get Vibe passes to make up for it.

We had reservations tonight for Ola (http://www.olamiami.com/) in South Beach so we took an Uber over there earlier to grab a drink and see the area. We went to Sweet Liberty (https://mysweetliberty.com/).They had an impressive craft cocktail menu and I also got some oysters because they were 95 cents each for happy hour. After, we walked the block to Ola and were promptly seated.

The food was amazing- I had to have their ceviche! Their cheesebread was also very good. For my entrée I had the sugar cane tuna which was also really delicious. It was a nice dinner to really kick off the cruise. We continued our journey in South Beach to another bar but I have no idea what it was called- it was inside a nice hotel and had music out in the courtyard which is what lead us there, but we wound up inside which also reminded me a lot of Havana with old TVs, etc. It was fun but by then we had reached our limit for drinks! Time to call it a night so we can be up for the cruise tomorrow!

Day 1-Embarkment

We woke up early to finish packing and grab another breakfast before heading to the terminal. I learned J did not sleep at all the night before so he was exhausted. We decided to get Vibe passes so tried to arrive around 8:30. We took our Uber—which was a disaster. He kept missing the exit to the terminal from the highway and we started yelling at him because he wouldn’t listen to us. The Uber ride map was like squiggly circles around and around due to him not listening. We of course had Uber adjust the total. So a competent Uber will get you to the terminal from the Marriott for about $7.50. Not bad!

The terminal wasn’t even open yet, people from last week’s sailing were still walking off so we formed a somewhat line outside the entrance. We were in terminal C. When they finally opened the terminal we wound up being 5th in line and were allowed to sit while we waited for security and check in to open. Finally after another hour, we were allowed to go through- security and check in took maybe 5 minutes total. We were boarding group 1 obviously. Very easy. We walked up to the waiting area and proceeded to wait. And wait. And wait. I started getting anxious as the room filled. I had read about the boarding not being where it seems obvious and was pretty sure I figured it out. At 11:30 they announced there was a server error that was delaying boarding and check in and to stay tuned. They kept announcing this until about 12:30 when they started boarding—except they seemed to have moved the gangway to the opposite terminal for boarding.They did a really poor job communicating this and it was really chaotic. I just happened to overhear a woman ask an officer and we then booked it to get on when they called boarding group 1.

We were finally on board(7th floor)! But no time to rejoice, gotta hurry to guest services!Note: we use carry on bags only, so we had all our stuff with us. After a quick sprint and speed walk down the stairs to guest services we were asked what we needed and when I said “Vibe” they handed us two numbers 18 & 19 and were asking if people wanted cabanas. I felt a little silly rushing like that when we had pretty low numbers, but oh well. We almost went for a cabana but when she said the OBC could only be used in Vibe (unsure if that is true) we backed down because how would we spend it? We had the drink package. We showed them our cards and signed a form and were given an envelope that had a handful of cards to access Vibe and two wristbands (spoiler alert, we never wore them).

After that chaos was over it was time to finally enjoy ourselves! J was still dead tired. We went to the dining room since I knew it would be open. It seemed like a much more relaxing way to kick off our vacation vs the buffet, especially with all our stuff in tow. I will note, I get that they want most people to go to the buffet so the dining room isn’t overwhelmed, but it bothered us how they went about it. The lady outside Savor told me the buffet was open. I said no thank you, and she continued to tell me my options were to eat the Buffet and O’Sheehans, even though the dining room behind her was clearly open. We just walked past and put our names in and she left us alone, but it bothered me she was going extra steps to turn people away. People who weren’t as research obsessed as me may have felt they were mistaken and left.

We were quickly sat for lunch by a window and in 5 minutes had our beverage orders in. The cruise had started! I had the nachos, the grouper sandwich and the peanut butter cheesecake. J had the tomato soup, fried chicken, and deconstructed key lime pie. I wasn’t sure how good the food was going to be- I have cruised a handful of times and the dining room can be iffy. However, I felt lunch was pretty good. Not anything fancy (I mean my nachos were made with cheese sauce), but it was a very acceptable meal. The desserts (like many say) were a little disappointing.The only thing I enjoyed about mine were the actual pieces of peanut buttercup- the cheesecake itself was too gelatinous.

Right when we finished up lunch they announced rooms were ready so we headed up to our room. We were so thrilled with the location of our room (8124)! It was just down the hall from most of the big things going on. So convenient. I had read complaints about long walks from fwd cabins, but did not feel it was far at all. I can’t recommend these rooms more. It was very quiet too.

Our cabin was a little smaller than I was expecting but I got used to it pretty quickly. The balcony was indeed huge. J was dead to the world at this point so he tried to take a nap while I unpacked my bags. I had brought some magnetic hooks and a power adapter for cruise ships I had purchased on Amazon- both were helpful and used often! There was a decent amount of storage but I hated the hangers (the kind where you have to hook them into the locked ring on the pole). I ended up hogging a lot of it, honestly. I also hated that the vanity didn’t have a lot of useful storage for makeup, etc. It ended up getting really cluttered all week with everything we were dropping off/my getting ready stuff.

The bathroom was a nice size and the larger shower and double sinks were very welcome. I never noticed any sewage smells you sometimes get from cruise ships. I sometimes had issues with the toilet flushing- it sometimes took a few pushes of the button to make it happen.

Overall we were very comfortable in our room and it was a good size for 2 adults. The bed was also very comfortable, but J’s feet hung off (he is 6’4).

One other little complaint was the slider to the balcony probably needs to be resealed. There were times a high whine would come through, with it closed and locked, from the wind outside. I got used to it, but it really bothered me at first. I am a light sleeper and need silence/darkness to fall asleep easily.

We were called to Muster Drill which is a necessary evil. Our station was O’Sheehans and it was a cluster****.People swarmed everywhere and although we were B2, I did not see anyone with our group holding a sign. Finally we found it in a corner and some staff were moving chairs to that area so we helped them and took a seat with our group.THEN a girl showed up and grabbed the sign and proceeded to walk away from all of us without even acknowledging us and went clear across the room where there was no seating, so we all followed her, very annoyed. The actual presentation wasn’t bad and only took about 10 minutes but I give the organization a C-.

We grabbed drinks from abar and headed to our room to watch the sail away. J ended up passing out and Isat on the balcony for a bit and started getting sleepy myself and ended up settlinginto the couch and once again napping!

We woke up for our 7:30 reservations at Cagneys and got ready. We were promptly seated by a window and had our orders in quickly. I started out with my usual steakhouse order- a cold vodka martini. No blue cheese olives available though, sadly. J is a big scotch/whiskey drinker (you should see our dining room bar) so was obviously disappointed with the included ones in the drink package so very often ordered Macallans,etc for around $3-5 more. I was usually fine (go to was Grey Goose soda), but they did have some nicer wines on offer for a few dollars more, so tonight I had a nice pinot noir with my meal for about $4. I’ll take it.

I had the crab cake,lobster bisque, veal chop and brownie with macadamia nut ice cream. J had the pork belly app, the wedge, the prime rib and the crème brulee. Everything for the most part was delicious and good quality, but I had ordered my veal chop med rare and the waitress noticed it was more like med well (I had too but decided not to make a deal out of it because it was still pretty tender), so she took it back and promised it would be only a few min wait. J stopped eating his food waiting for mine, and we sat there for a bit until it came. It was a little annoying because it took much longer than it should and kind of unbalanced our evening. Oh well.

After dinner we went to the casino for a bit to get a feel for how it worked. Wasn’t thrilled to see every table had auto shuffling machines, but most casinos are going that way these days. Played a little blackjack and called it a night.

Following along, thanks for doing this. It seems irritating that the MDR is open for lunch after embarkation, but they keep trying to shoo people away!

Day 2- Sea Day

I woke up around 8 am and decided to go to the gym. I had read reports about the gym being small but was still really surprised how small itis for the ship size. It is split into two rooms- one for weights and one for cardio. I felt grateful I found an empty elliptical because it was packed. A few moments after I started working out, I saw a few people milling around in hopes of finding an empty machine. After my session I wanted to do some weights but the weight room was also packed and nothing I wanted to use was free so I gave up. I get that the gym may be viewed as low priority on a vacation ship but at the same time- there were a lot of people using it, so it would have been nice if they had made it bigger.

After I went back to the room to shower and for J and I to grab breakfast in the dining room. We headed over around 9 am to be turned away because the dining room apparently closes at 9 am on a sea day. What?! Why so early?! I guess our fault for not checking the dailies for dining times, but seriously why so early on a sea day?

We went to O’Sheehans instead, which was OK. I had the corned beef hash with a side of hash browns (NCL’s are really yummy) instead of breakfast potatoes. J had an omelet. After, we split up so J could get some work done and I could check out this Vibe deck I had suffered so much for yesterday morning(kidding).

I went up to Vibe and the card they gave me worked. I walked in and saw a small amount of people already up there laying out. I asked the bartender if an umbrella could be put up for me since I didn’t see anyone else using one. They told me absolutely and someone came by to help me get set up in a chair and umbrella over by the cabanas. Within 5 minutes I had a pitcher of water infused with oranges and a drink order in. Ah, this is the life! I read and dosed for about an hour and kept thinking “so worth it!!!!” Then, out of nowhere crazy gusts of wind started picking up. The staff rushed around to close umbrellas (I was holding onto mine). I witnessed some poor folk who had left their stuff on a chair to leave Vibe for a bit have their pitcher of water fly off the table and spill all over their things. I tried to brave it out for a bit but the wind didn’t stop, the chair cushions next to me were literally flying up and hitting me, and I saw some storm clouds coming in. It seemed like it was time to leave for now!

I made my way down to the boardwalk (way less windy) where I grabbed a drink and found an empty couch on the port side. I sat there for about 30 minutes enjoying the view and reading, then the storm started. I assumed I would be fine since the area I was sitting was covered and thought it would be cool to watch the storm. However, the rain was blowing into the ship so I was about to be drenched and made my way inside. I sat inside the Sugarcane bar for a bit reading but it was noisy and not what I wanted.

I went back to our room to see if J was ready for lunch. I suggested we go to Margaritaville. We went up the elevators to deck 16- however we were forward and Margaritaville is aft. It was pouring and we just decided to book it across the deck in the rain to get there. That was a slight error. Margaritaville was pretty empty so we were seated right away. Our server was very kind (sorry I didn’t note anyone’s name- I am terrible with names with quick introductions and we had a different server every food experience). We ordered the nachos, conch fritters, and I had the fish tacos and J had a burger. Our server asked if we wanted the small or large nachos. He told us the large (which I think is mostly what I see here) feeds like 8 people so we went with the small which was the perfect amount for the two of us. Just remember that is an option! I had been really excited to try the watermelon margarita,but was kind of disappointed in it. Unsure if it was just a badly made drink or what, but the only watermelon thing about it was the color. It just tasted strongly of margarita mix.

All of the food was good, and somehow we found room for dessert –keylime pie and cheesecake.

After all this food I was in a food coma and we went back to the room while it rained for J to work and for me to take a nap. It wound up being a pretty epic one. I woke up around 5 still completely full. I re-got ready and we decided to go to the 7 pm comedy show we had made a reservation for by accident. It was decently funny. I wish the lounge had more comfortable chairs(wooden). They also use this room for Howl at the Moon.

After the show I still wasn’t all that hungry but J was so we went to Taste. I just ordered a chicken Caesar salad and some minestrone soup. J got the cream of mushroom soup, and couldn’t decide on the chicken or the lasagna from the every day menu so our waitress brought both. I had some bites and we both deemed the lasagna the clear winner. No dessert for us. Service was kind of slow this evening.

We headed to the casino to kill some time before our 10 pm Burn the Floor reservation. I can’t remember which days were winning vs losing days but they were very dramatic either way, lol.

We got pretty good seats for Burn the Floor (showed up around 9:30). I experienced what I saw happen quite a bit throughout the week at the theater bar- I would patiently wait my turn at the bar and the bartenders would help others who had just walked up, completely ignoring me for a while. It was a little frustrating, but in the end I always got my drinks!

The show was pretty good. It was nice to see live singing/instruments.I thought it was just the right amount of time- any longer it would have gotten a bit tedious. The dancers were all very talented and I give them props for dancing so well when the stage is literally swaying back and forth.

After the show we went back to the casino for a bit and then headed to bed.

Hmm so now I see I am unable to go back and edit posts- so now I am not sure how to incorporate pictures! Maybe I'll make an album and post the link at the end? Sorry!

At the end is good by me.....just don't stay a lurker Lindsay!

The same upgrade happened for me on the Getwaway. That balcony made my vacation top notch! Loved that balcony. Did a room service breakfast on it, naps on the loungers, reading, coffee, etc.

Day 2- Sea Day

 

 

 

I went back to our room to see if J was ready for lunch. I suggested we go to Margaritaville. We went up the elevators to deck 16- however we were forward and Margaritaville is aft. It was pouring and we just decided to book it across the deck in the rain to get there. That was a slight error. Margaritaville was pretty empty so we were seated right away. Our server was very kind (sorry I didn’t note anyone’s name- I am terrible with names with quick introductions and we had a different server every food experience). We ordered the nachos, conch fritters, and I had the fish tacos and J had a burger. Our server asked if we wanted the small or large nachos. He told us the large (which I think is mostly what I see here) feeds like 8 people so we went with the small which was the perfect amount for the two of us. Just remember that is an option! I had been really excited to try the watermelon margarita,but was kind of disappointed in it. Unsure if it was just a badly made drink or what, but the only watermelon thing about it was the color. It just tasted strongly of margarita mix.

All of the food was good, and somehow we found room for dessert –keylime pie and cheesecake.

 

Question: Were you each charged the $14.95 cover charge for Margaritaville? We are on Getaway this fall. After having eaten at Margaritaville last year on Escape for a la carte prices, we feel that the $14.95 cover charge is not a good value considering that the three of us often get one appetizer and one entree and share since the portions are so large.

I was surprised to see you were able to get a small order of nachos at Margaritaville. I was looking forward to trying them but the server said they serve 8 people and it was only the two of us, and we were also ordering sandwiches so we didn't want to waste all those nachos. I specifically asked if they had a smaller size and was told "no." Grrrrr

I was surprised to see you were able to get a small order of nachos at Margaritaville. I was looking forward to trying them but the server said they serve 8 people and it was only the two of us, and we were also ordering sandwiches so we didn't want to waste all those nachos. I specifically asked if they had a smaller size and was told "no." Grrrrr

Wow! That’s so weird. We actually didn’t even ask for them- the server specifically steered us towards the smaller size. Guess it depends how helpful they want to be?

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Question: Were you each charged the $14.95 cover charge for Margaritaville? We are on Getaway this fall. After having eaten at Margaritaville last year on Escape for a la carte prices, we feel that the $14.95 cover charge is not a good value considering that the three of us often get one appetizer and one entree and share since the portions are so large.

Yes we were charged the $15 cover. For $30 (plus 20% gratuity) it was fine. We spend a lot more than that eating out often. We did both make sure to get one of each category though. It would be better if they went back to a la carte- I probably would have stopped by more often for a snack or light meal if so.

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Day 3-Roatan

We didn't get into Roatan until 10am, so we were able to sleep in a little today. We headed to the dining room at 8:50 to be turned away because the dining room closes at 9 (correction from Sea Day- it was 9:30 not 9 that it closed and we showed up yesterday around 9:30 which makes more sense anyway since I did a workout after 8! I still think that is early lol). Once again we were annoyed for not having checked. We went to the buffet for the first and almost last time. It was just so hectic. So many people, hard time finding seats, lukewarm food when we finally sat down to eat.

We went back down to deck 5 to figure out how to get off the ship and found a line that snaked all the way across deck 5 and started going down the stairs to aft deck 4 (fwd deck 4 is where you embark/disembark). Fortunately, the line moved quickly enough, although I witnessed plenty of line cutters which I thought was pretty rude. They got the stink eye from me! Line cutters are a big pet peeve of mine.

I had read about Roatan being kind of run down and not a nice port, but honestly was a little confused. I guess because of being fortunate to have traveled so much and to so many developing countries, this was not what I would classify as a "dangerous, dirty, scary" (whatever adjective you've heard describing it negatively) area at all! It was just a typical developing country's island.

I had booked us with Upachaya Eco Lodge for their snorkeling excursion (http://upachaya.com/snorkel-excursions/). My first choice was a snorkeling catamaran with Radical Adventures but they were booked already and suggested Upachaya. I looked at it briefly and thought "good enough" and went with it. It wound up being a really nice day! Nola, the driver, was waiting for us when we exited the port. We walked a block to where her car was parked. Nola's father used to own the property where the owner of Upachaya, Barb who is a US expat, has cultivated her eco lodge. Nola was really friendly and gave us lots of information about the island. She also emphasized how safe it is since it is not part of mainland Honduras. I didn't realize it used to belong to Belize, so they speak English in Roatan.

Barb met us at the road leading to her lodge, as they were doing a lot of road work so a car couldn't pass through. It wasn't a bad walk and I enjoyed watching her cute rescue dogs play. We learned we were the only 2 booked so we had a private tour! She gave us a brief tour of her grounds- she grows a lot of fruits and plants that she uses for meals at the lodge. It was beautiful and very quiet and peaceful.

They fit us for snorkeling gear and we went out with a guide and driver on a pontoon boat to the massive reef. I only witnessed one other boat out there the entire time, and we avoided going close to them. We were obviously away from the masses doing snorkeling excursions which I thought was awesome. There's nothing worse than trying to snorkel and also navigate around tons of bodies. The guide took us to two different spots- we saw a ton of coral and sea life. The second spot was where the ocean drops off which was pretty cool to see basically a giant wall (goes from ~12 feet to about ~120 feet). It was a great experience, HOWEVER we weren't thinking clearly and forgot to keep reapplying sunscreen so we ended up with horrible sunburns on our backs (mine included my bathing suit top's clasp embedded as well as the snorkeling vest strap so I have a lovely weird cross tan on my back right now :rolleyes:).

After snorkeling we went back to the lodge where they had a simple vegetarian lunch made for us-including fruit from the grounds. They had beer and other cocktails for sale. After we finished eating, Nola's husband drove us back. He actually used to work for RCCL so that was kind of interesting talking with him. He is now a tour driver for the island, so maybe some people have had him (sorry I don't remember his name). We were dropped off at the entrance to the port, and we bought some coconuts to drink from and browsed the shops a bit and bought some coffee. We were pretty burnt out from the sun.

Back on the ship we decided to go up to Vibe, because we were docked so it wouldn't be windy, right (no wind on ground level!). WRONG. It was just as windy as it had been the day before, which we tried to get used to, but I just couldn't relax. I kept worrying my drink was going to fly all over me. After about 30 minutes we headed to O'Sheehans for a snack (pub dog and wings-which were the smallest wings I have ever seen, like quail wings lol!). We caught the end of Paddington Bear while we ate which I randomly got really invested in lol.

Back to the room to nap/J to work (I don't think I explained why he was working before, but if I did, apologies for repeating myself. He had a huge emergency blow up at work right before we left which almost caused us to postpone this trip, so the compromise was a working vacation). We had dinner reservations for La Cucina at 7:30. I woke up around 5 and sat on the balcony before we sailed away, while J settled in for his nap. It was relaxing listening to the port band play and watch the last people get on the ship. I thought it was sweet that all the workers came out and yelled "thank you!" to us as we sailed away. Nola emphasized to us how much Roatan appreciates the business from cruise patrons for their livelihood.

After sail away I started getting ready for dinner and since J was still napping I told him I was going to go hang out at the Sunset Bar until dinner. It was nice to just sit there with a few glasses of prosecco chatting with fellow cruisers. J came by close to 7:30 and we walked the 2 feet to La Cucina and were seated quickly. I had the calamari, caesar salad, branzino with a side of pasta, and the lemon ricotta dessert. J had the caprese, pasta with tomato sauce, filet with gorgonzola, and the pana cotta. The food was great, but I wasn't as hungry as I thought I was, so only ate about half of my entree.

After, we must have just gone to the casino for the rest of the night, I can't remember but if there wasn't a set entertainment plan, that was where we usually wound up!

This is a great detailed review. We are on the same itinerary next summer but on the Breakaway, so I am looking forward to the rest of your ports. Thanks for doing this!

I m loving your report and really hope you end it with pictures.... :)

Enjoying your review. Did you win in the casino?

Thanks so much for your detailed review. I am on this itinerary in Dec. so your review is really helpful.

Enjoying your review. Did you win in the casino?

In the end not so much! But we had fun doing it lol. I only played table games- the slots don’t do anything for me and the video poker payout was atrocious

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Day 4: Harvest Cay (Placencia)

Pretty much from the get go, as soon as I learned about Harvest Cay and discovered we could take a ferry to mainland Belize, I decided that was what we were going to do. I didn't feel I could "count" Belize as a country I visited if I just stayed on Harvest Cay, and it just didn't really appeal to me.

Not enjoying the buffet and skeptical about the dining room hours, we decided to try room service this morning to enjoy on our awesome balcony. We selected some pastries, french toast and an omelet to share. The french toast and the omelet included a service charge. We left the order on our door the night before for delivery between 8:30-9am. We weren't in a huge hurry to get off the ship this morning. Which was a good thing, because it was late! Every time we called they gave us a different time period it would come. Finally, it did arrive closer to 9:30. The food was hot, to their credit. I was amused the coffee carafe had exactly enough for two wimpy pours. Order 2 pots of coffee if you need it.

After finishing up breakfast with our view of the mangroves, we headed off the ship. I didn't think the walk from the ship to the entrance of Harvest Cay was that bad, but as mentioned by many before, they did offer shuttles if you needed assistance. It was easy to find where to buy ferry tickets- just follow the signs to the marina. We got lucky and got some of the last tickets for the ferry that was leaving at 10am. They gave us a 1pm return time which seemed fine, we didn't want to go crazy today. The tickets were $25 each I believe- we gave them our sign and sail cards for payment which they marked down next to our names on a sheet.

They were loading what I had envisioned as the ferry (large/double decker) but when we tried to board they told us that was for an excursion and pointed to a ship 3x smaller that was apparently the ferry. It is just one level and enclosed. It was pretty stuffy sitting in it waiting for it to be boarded by everyone- but they did have open windows which helped once we were moving. It was about a 15-20 min ride from Harvest Cay to Placencia.

We docked and immediately bought a coconut with coconut rum poured in from a little vendor shack on the pier. We walked a bit further noting that the beach right there wasn't that ideal- lots of trash in it- but many were still swimming. A man asked if we wanted golf carts. It was $30 for 4 hours. We didn't need one that long, so negotiated $20 for 2 hours which was perfect. Off we went to drive around Placencia which wound up being much larger than I imagined- we ended up turning around at some point so we could enjoy a light lunch before catching our ferry. I thought the area was really beautiful and quaint and felt very safe. You could tell a lot of expats are here. Lots of property for sale too!

We wound up at the Tipsy Tuna which had colorful anorak chairs on the beach. We decided to stay in the shade at the bar which faced the ocean. I had some ceviche and J had some chips and dip. I also ordered a side of guacamole-I was honestly a little disappointed in both my ceviche (watery) and the guacamole wasn't fresh, it clearly came from a tub. It was still a nice vibe to have a local beer and eat some seafood watching the ocean.

We headed back to the pier to wait for the ferry- on the drive back we had dolphins following along with us, so that was really cool. I really enjoyed Placencia and would really recommend stopping by there if you end up in Harvest Cay. The locals were very friendly. This was probably one of my favorite days because we did it at our own pace. Feel free to reach out to me if you have specific questions about Placencia because I know there is still a lot of uncertainty about it on the boards, I wasn't even sure what to expect when we got over there.

Back in Harvest Cay I wandered around the shops for a bit. This place honestly reminded me of a Disney water park.

Back on the ship I went to Vibe and it wasn't windy!!! I lay out for a while with a nice view of the ocean and read. I was a little hungry so decided to try the buffet again for a snack. It was like 3pm and still packed- however I think maybe this was because of everyone who was coming back from Harvest Cay that refused to spend money out there. I just grabbed a mish mash of some salads and took off. Instead of going back to Vibe at this point I decided to, you guessed it, nap!

I woke up and we got ready for the night. We decided to go to the comedy show that was held in the theater. It was OK. Not terrible but not hilarious either. I guess I wasn't really feeling the comedians who were on board.

After the show, we headed to Savor for dinner. I had the escargot cassoulet (very rich), and the chicken parmesan which was awesome. I don't remember what J got- no pictures from tonight.

After we went to Howl at the Moon and got seats at the bar, which served us well. We had a great time. We did learn giving a $10 tip with a request gets you first in the queue, if you really want your song played. They had a giant pile of requests so if you didn't tip anything, it could take a while for them to get to your song. This was a really fun night.

We ended up (surprise) at the casino to cap off the night.

Loving your review! We are on a similar cruise on the Breakaway coming up, and have the cabin next door to yours (8122), and my husband is 6'4" and his feet will hang off the bed too! Ha.

Glad to read that you didn't think the walk to the cabin was too long. It doesn't look bad to me from the deck plans other than hauling back to the buffet in the Aft - but being close to everything on the Waterfront should be nice!

Will be interested to get your thoughts on the Vibe vs the large balcony. I was thinking that given the loungers on the balcony we will spend a lot more time there and not need the Vibe, although the bar would be nice, obviously.

Day 5- Costa Maya

We had booked an excursion today with Native Choice for a tour of Chocchoben ruins and the Bacalar Lagoon (7 colored lagoon), so we had to be off the ship pretty early since you have to walk to Native Choice's office which is outside the terminal. We once again ordered room service and it was late again! However, we found out it was our fault because J never checked off what time we wanted our food delivered- face palm. I appreciated them rushing the food to us- our omelets were hot again. This time we quickly scarfed the food down on our couch and ran off the ship.

I should also mention that besides Roatan, we never encountered lines to walk off. I am thinking the crazy line was because it was the first port and we got into port later so people were eager to get off.

This port has been mentioned before- it is very nice but kind of infuriating how they try to trap you in- it isn't obvious how to get out. The walk, once outside the port, to Native Choice wasn't bad- maybe half a mile? Once again, I was confused because I read a lot of reports about it being really sketchy outside the port. Not in my opinion-no sketchiness at all unless you count the other tour vendors trying to trick you into going on an excursion with them instead (having been to Mexico many times I am well versed in the art of "no thank you" and ignoring/walking on. DON'T stop to talk to them).

Costa Maya isn't an actual city- it's just the name of the port. Once you leave the port it is pretty rural. We arrived at Native Choice a little late but they checked us in right away and offered us cold water bottles. We saw people with our colored wristband loading into a large van and when we tried to get in they only had room for one. So they had us get in a smaller van which ended up being awesome- we were only with one other family so it was so nice to have a small group.

Our guide entertained us on the drive to the ruins (maybe 45 minutes) with information on the area/Mayans. I also learned that Cancun is Mayan for snake nest :confused:. We arrived at Chocchoben and had some time to use the bathrooms (there aren't any at the sight) and then we were joined with another small Native Choice group with David as our guide. He was very knowledgeable and approachable with questions. The entire tour was only about an hour. Our drivers walked along with us in the tour of the ruins to hand out cold bottles of water whenever we wanted. Bring bug spray- it is the jungle.Towards the end we climbed up some steep stairs to find some more impressive ruins and a spider monkey did us a favor and hung in the tree posing for pictures. He was crying periodically and David told us it is because his parents had just kicked him out and he had to stop being a moocher :p

After the ruins, we drove about 20 min to Bacalar Lagoon. It was a slightly bumpy dirt road, but when we pulled in it was a cute, nice little resort. They served us lunch in the upstairs restaurant- chicken fajitas and fresh tortillas with this really good chipotle salsa. Drinks were included. After, we had about an hour and a half to relax at the lagoon- which was gorgeous. There were multiple shades of blue, and it was very clear water. It is fresh water. J had a massage which he said was OK (I was sad my burn on my back prevented me from doing anything spa-like). Our guide kept coming around offering additional beverages. I do recommend water shoes if you go here- there were a lot of rocks on the bottom. Plenty of people were swimming barefoot but I was glad to have my Tevas. The resort had changing rooms so you didn't have to wear your swimsuit all day.

Our guide rounded us up and we took off back to the port. We stopped in Pineapple town for some fresh pineapple which was $1 for a bag. They also gave us a baggie of chili powder to add to it, but we decided that would be too messy in the car. We were dropped off by the entrance to the port so the walk wasn't bad to get back to the ship. If Harvest Cay reminded me of a theme park, the Costa Maya port reminded me of Disneyland's Mexico section of Epcot. It was nice but just so..... touristy lol.

I highly recommend Native Choice- they have excellent reviews on Trip Advisor and have a handful of different excursions to choose from. They were very organized and the tours were high quality and much smaller groups. I saw a bunch of cruise groups at the ruins with us and they were very large groups- Native Choice was definitely cheaper than the cruise! They even included insurance in the price in case for some weird reason we did miss the ship-meaning they would get us to the next port at their cost. Nothing to worry about though- well maintained vans and I am sure they had some on standby in case of a problem.

Back on the ship it was about 3pm. This was definitely a full day excursion.

We decided to go to dinner at the Tropicana room around 6pm. It was really nice to have the dance floor and the live music. I didn't think it was too loud. I had the fried calamari and the pasta with shrimp in lobster sauce (it was just as good as La Cuccina) and J had the pork tenderloin as his main. After, we decided to take a nap before our reservation for Million Dollar Quartet at 10:15pm.

I had been looking forward to this show since I learned about it. We have been annual season ticket holders for the Pantages in Hollywood for the last several years, so we see A LOT of musicals. I was still curious how it would hold up to those. It was AMAZING. I would absolutely pay $200 a person to see it again with that cast. It was better than some other touring musicals we saw at the Pantages. The cast is phenomenal.

We sat on the left side in front of the Haven section. I REALLY recommend sitting on this side and close if you can. The nuances of the actor's mannerisms are easier to see and really make the show. Also, sitting on this side gives you a great view of Jerry Lee Lewis's crazy piano playing which is what stole the show. It was just a GREAT show.

After, high off the energy of the show, we ended up at, surprise, the casino until bed time!

Enjoying your Review...Thanks for doing this!!!

Very nice review. Thank you.

Enjoying your Review...Thanks for doing this!!!

Makes me feel excited for my cruise. ;p

Joanne

thanks for the review!:D