Fantastic trip on the Getaway June 12-19 (upsell to Haven)

[Kfamilycruise]

Day 4 Belize City

 

We decided after much research to not go ashore in Belize. I think if we were to do it, we would have gone cave tubing, but just felt that our youngest was too young for it. So, we stayed on the ship, enjoyed an empty Haven courtyard, a leisurely breakfast in the Haven restaurant and rode the slides as many times as we wanted with no lines. The kids swam, rode the ropes and had fro yo to their hearts content.

 

This is the kids area now that Spongebob is gone:

 

My drink of choice this trip:

 

We had a lot of peace and quiet and an overall great day.

 

We finished up a great day at Cagney’s. As always, it was amazing. Great food, great service – really enjoyable.

 

The towel animal joined all of the “stuffies” on my son’s bed:

[Kfamilycruise]

Day 5 Costa Maya

 

I was so worried about the weather once we got to Mexico, but it proved to be a beautiful day.

 

Our balcony was so amazing so each morning (I woke up ridiculously early each day, which I can only hope was because of the time changes)

 

 

 

Pictures of port:

 

 

 

Day5Getaway2016.pdf

[Kfamilycruise]

I forgot to attach the daily for Day 4, so doing that here.

Day4Getaway2016.pdf

[Kfamilycruise]

One more photo of the port:

 

 

 

We had decided to go to Blue Key. We walked through the shops area until we saw the palapa to the right where they were selling open air tram tickets. It was $3 pp. The tram quickly filled up and took us for a little tour. We got off at the first tram stop – which seemed quite a bit further away from Blue Key than I thought it would be – we had seen the signs for Blue Key before the stop. Right away someone was trying to get us to go with them at the stop, but we told them firmly we were going to Blue Key and they even directed us there. We opted for crossing the street and walking back to Blue Key along the beach. No boardwalk, but a nice sidewalk. Lots of different shops along the way. It was probably a quarter of a mile to a ½ mile back to Blue Key. We finally made it and were very happy with the location. We thought we would have to pay $5 and get a wrist band, but we never had to do that. We just got to enjoy the beach for free. Yay!

 

 

 

 

 

[Kfamilycruise]

It was really gorgeous at Blue Kay as I had seen in previous reviews and everyone had a great time. We did rent one kayak for $10 and I ordered chips and guacamole and a strawberry daiquiri. It was very cheap – I think $12 total.

 

My chips and guacamole:

 

 

More photos:

 

 

 

A couple of vendors did come buy and try to sell some things, but they were not intrusive. I did buy some plaintain chips and they were delicious. One bag for $1.

 

It was a fantastic day and when we were ready to go back to the ship, there was a taxi waiting in the parking lot. We confirmed it was $2 pp to get back and hopped in. We were back in less than 10 minutes.

 

Back at port, I had to take a photo of this store:

 

 

This was from pier:

 

 

Our beautiful ship:

 

 

We ate dinner at the Haven this night and I took a photo of my warm peach crumble dessert. It was so amazing:

 

[Kfamilycruise]

We were exhausted after an amazing day.

 

Our towel animal tonight:

 

[Kfamilycruise]

Day 6 Cozumel

 

The cruise went by so fast. After researching and being on cruise critic for almost a year, I truly cannot believe how fast it went! I knew Cozumel was our last port and couldn’t believe it was almost over! Day 6 daily attached.

 

Once again, I was up early and took photos from our amazing balcony.

 

 

 

 

Day6Getaway2016.pdf

[Kfamilycruise]

The pier at Cozumel looks longer in photos than it was in person and we had no trouble walking to the end and finding where our excursion for the day would be leaving from just off the pier.

 

 

 

In Cozumel, we decided to do the NCL excursion “Everyone loves Rays.” We had practiced snorkeling at home in a pool so the kids would feel comfortable and we bought a Watershot underwater housing for the Iphone so we could take pictures when we were snorkeling with the Rays.

 

It was definitely cloudy here so I was a bit worried about the weather, but it turned out fine in the end.

[Kfamilycruise]

We first got to feed the Rays and touch and kiss them. Then we took our water shoes off (definitely bring your own for this excursion) and they even washed ours out for us and then we got our snorkel equipment and got to go in with the Rays. One of the employees periodically went down to the bottom and brought up Rays for us to see while we snorkeled. It started to rain while we snorkeled, but it was actually quite refreshing.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 25, 2016 by Kfamilycruise
Trying to get photos to work

[Kfamilycruise]

I keep have photo sharing issues. Will need to deal with it and then retry.

Edited June 25, 2016 by Kfamilycruise

[Kfamilycruise]

Sorry for the delay. Still was having photo sharing issues, but I really want to finish the review so I'm going to share as dropbox files!

 

As a reminder, we were on Day 6 in Cozumel. Even though it was cloudy, it was still an awesome view from our balcony.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pz793q2jpe3mnma/IMG_2427.JPG?dl=0

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fn36116xgoyscko/IMG_2435.JPG?dl=0

 

The pier at Cozumel looks longer in photos than it was in person and we had no trouble walking to the end and finding where our excursion for the day would be leaving from just off the pier.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3sc501bxyna2q8k/IMG_2436.JPG?dl=0

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yaxzwmwe828i8xc/IMG_2445.JPG?dl=0

 

In Cozumel, we decided to do the NCL excursion “Everyone loves Rays.” We had practiced snorkeling at home in a pool so the kids would feel comfortable and we bought a Watershot underwater housing for the Iphone so we could take pictures when we were snorkeling with the Rays.

 

It was definitely cloudy here so I was a bit worried about the weather, but it turned out fine in the end.

Edited June 28, 2016 by Kfamilycruise

[Kfamilycruise]

We first got to feed the Rays and touch and kiss them. Then we took our water shoes off (definitely bring your own for this excursion) and they even washed ours out for us and then we got our snorkel equipment and got to go in with the Rays. One of the employees periodically went down to the bottom and brought up Rays for us to see while we snorkeled. It started to rain while we snorkeled, but it was actually quite refreshing.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ja5y1ssst36p82n/IMG_2588.JPG?dl=0

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/w0w6j0d0t7bbzw1/IMG_2585.JPG?dl=0

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/o74ijkxgusruq7c/IMG_2602.JPG?dl=0

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/02bn3l02w75gp77/IMG_2615.JPG?dl=0

 

After we were done snorkeling, we looked at photos they took while we were feeding the Rays and the kids got to do a hermit crab race. They also had iguanas in cages that the kids liked.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0fn9bh3031wutk6/IMG_2451.JPG?dl=0

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xrbr3cfvzs8fiai/IMG_2462.JPG?dl=0

 

After we got our photos on CD and a framed photo printed onsite, we made our way back to the ship. You could go back anytime you wanted. From our balcony, we saw other ships and said goodbye to Cozumel.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pz793q2jpe3mnma/IMG_2427.JPG?dl=0

 

Funny enough, our towel animal tonight was a Ray!

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5itjv7vmqv2x9ph/IMG_2474.JPG?dl=0

[Kfamilycruise]

Day 7 At Sea

 

We once again decided to enjoy the Haven for breakfast and laze around the courtyard. It was busy, but still full of serenity for us. We were very happy to have gotten Haven for this trip. It really made it just the relaxation we needed.

 

Overall, Virginia was lovely, the restaurant staff included Kesher at the front were awesome and all of the people that worked in the Haven, really made our trip.

 

Our butler brought us some additional luggage tags as I had mentioned to Virginia that we needed a few more and that really put a damper on the rest of my day! Our older children enjoyed entourage and splash academy for much of the day, but the younger one spent it with us in the courtyard. He’s part fish and just wanted to swim.

 

That night we had dinner in Teppanyaki. It is a bit loud in there as the different chefs are putting on their shows, but we definitely enjoyed it. One comment here, the photographer in here was far more aggressive than in the other specialty restaurants. He went around taking photos and then would print them out and bring it framed to the table to try and get people to buy it. That just left a bad taste in my mouth. I saw him coming when it came our table’s turn and I just told him no thank you to a picture and that was that. The food was great as always here and we overall had a great time.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dpgmc12rfmacoje/IMG_2479.JPG?dl=0

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nr3rugf3sru6ols/IMG_2483.JPG?dl=0

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2jdjvewdbhrutfh/IMG_2487.JPG?dl=0

 

All the kids went into splash academy or entourage after dinner so we tried Howl at the Moon again, but again, it just wasn’t my thing this time, which left me disappointed. We enjoyed Jim Morris who played piano around the ship and listened to him a few times at Sugar Cane Bar. I think I neglected to mention the awesome mojitos from there. I had Raspberry Guava and the Pineapple Coconut and they were both fantastic. I didn’t get into my spreadsheet of drinks that I had brought with me from CC. Guess I wasn’t as adventurous as I thought I would be!

 

We had our bags packed and out by 11 and went to bed very sad that it was our last night!!

[Kfamilycruise]

Disembarkation

 

As a Haven guest, this was the easiest we ever had it. We had breakfast in the buffet and then went back to the room to get our stuff and then went to the Haven. They escorted us down a back elevator (same as they did in each port) and we ended up right at the area where you put your card in to leave. Lots of friendly staff were waiting as you get off to sing and wave and say goodbye. Very festive.

 

This one guy walked around with the candle on his head all around the buffet and he was waiting to say goodbye to everyone: https://www.dropbox.com/s/oyi3qtiqx11lrhf/IMG_2490.JPG?dl=0

 

 

We went down to baggage and our baggage was in a priority area. We scooped up someone to help us, he put all of our bags on a trolley and went with us through customs. He even brought our luggage all the way to outside the parking garage.

 

Other than the one snafu I mentioned, overall service was really, really good this cruise. We did buy a cruise next certificate and think we are going to go on the Epic out of Rome next summer for our 20th, but not 100% positive right now. What I am 100% certain of, is this was an awesome cruise and we truly enjoyed the Getaway again! It will be hard to book a cruise not as Haven after experiencing this one, but you never know …. :)

[Kfamilycruise]

One last post. Attached is the Day 7 daily! Hope everyone enjoyed!

Day7Getaway2016.pdf

[cruisetimeforme]

Thanks for the great review, really appreciate the dailies and port pics.. My family spent the day on Blue Kay back in Dec and we had a great time there. Did you happen to remember seeing what the girls there were charging for massages? My daughter had one while I kept an eye on the 3yr old. Going back in Sept and trying to decide to go there once again or try further down the beach for more comfortable chairs this time. While walking did you happen to see lots of sea grass piled up along the beach? They were having a huge problem back then and Blue Kay was the one with the least noticeable smell Thanks

[Cruise-mom]

Enjoyed reading your report, thanks for sharing. That same day in Cozumel we had to run for shelter from the rain at Chankanaab, it seems like you managed to avoid it where you did your excursion.

 

What was the story with the guy with the candle on his head? At the Farewell show he got so many cheers, my kids said he's usually at the buffet but I had never seen him. We saw him as we left the ship also, I think he was clucking..:eek:

[Kfamilycruise]

Thanks for the great review, really appreciate the dailies and port pics.. My family spent the day on Blue Kay back in Dec and we had a great time there. Did you happen to remember seeing what the girls there were charging for massages? My daughter had one while I kept an eye on the 3yr old. Going back in Sept and trying to decide to go there once again or try further down the beach for more comfortable chairs this time. While walking did you happen to see lots of sea grass piled up along the beach? They were having a huge problem back then and Blue Kay was the one with the least noticeable smell Thanks

 

The lady said $20 for a massage. We didn't see any sea grass and there was no smell. Guess problem solved!:) The kids said this was their favorite day!

[Kfamilycruise]

Enjoyed reading your report, thanks for sharing. That same day in Cozumel we had to run for shelter from the rain at Chankanaab, it seems like you managed to avoid it where you did your excursion.

 

What was the story with the guy with the candle on his head? At the Farewell show he got so many cheers, my kids said he's usually at the buffet but I had never seen him. We saw him as we left the ship also, I think he was clucking..:eek:

 

Thanks! The rain came down, but we were snorkeling so it all worked out because we were already wet and when we came out it stopped! Yay! I loved snorkeling with the Rays. It was so much fun!

 

The guy used to walk around the buffet with the candle on his head. My kids told me too. I never saw him, but the older ones spent way more time at the buffet than I did. Clucking??? Hysterical!:p