NOS review 11/11-11/18 1st time cruiser

[pugmommy]

Wow. What an experience for this former cruise virgin!

 

A little about me...

 

Im a mid 30's wife and mom that went on this cruise with my dear friend also a wife and mom in her 30's. We live in Colorado and usually spend our vacations on the slopes. We met up with my sweet mother and about 15 of her friends/co-workers from Boise. They were a hoot! I kind of played the travel agent part based on the things I learned from you wonderful mentors on this board. Thank you to everyone here for your wonderful advise. We did break rules and we did some crazy things, but boy did we have a blast. /Users/shasta/Desktop/DSC02546.JPG

 

Friday before--arrived in Miami:

Arrived in Miami from Denver about 11:00 am. Took a cab to the hotel for about $15. We stayed at the Miami Intercontinental the night before and LOVED it. Booked our hotel on Priceline and for under $100 bucks I thought we got a killer deal. Our room was on the 23rd floor, overlooking the port. Spent the day walking around bayside and just exploring the area. We went to Bongos since Rachel Ray recommended it but neither of us was overly impressed. Sorry Gloria Estefan----we tried.

 

Day One-leaving Miami:

Took a cab to the port from the hotel about 11:30. Checked in and stood in line for about an hour before the boat was cleared and we were on board. Went straight to our room through the library (which we later learned was a crew members only door--oops) and found our room. We were in a very comfortable inside cabin, room #7671. Our stateroom attendant was Natalia and she was an absolute doll the whole time. She was sweet and fun and really did an amazing job on our room every day. Gave her $10 right off the bat and told her that she could help herself to any alcohol she might accidentally come across in our room--Hee Hee Hee. Some of you may scold me for this, but we did successfully bring on a bottle of wine, vanilla vodka, and malibu rum. After leaving our carry-ons, we changed into swim suits, grabbed our books, left for the deck and met the man who would be our favorite bartender the whole time--Clive in the pool bar. After muster drill we changed for dinner and headed to the dining room. I have heard many complaints about the food served on the ship but I thought that the food was always good to great. Sure, the food in the windjammer is buffet style--but it was always very hot and fresh. The food in the dining room however was great always. Our waiter was Charlyn from the Phillipines and she was a super star. I was one of those people who ordered two appetizers almost every night and two (ore more!) desserts as well. I thought that the entrees were always wonderful and I loved that I was able to order some things that I wouldnt normally order and try them knowing that if they were not what I had in mind, Charlyn would bring me something else. This never happend by the way, our whole table of eight loved everything every night. After dinner, we explored the ship and had some drinks at the different bars, danced at the disco, then went to sleep in the most comfortable beds! I assume that we had the "new bedding" because it was wonderful. Big thick comforters and big fluffy pillows. We did get towel animals every night too by the way.

 

Day Two-Ship at sea day:

We spent majority of the day laying out on the deck and just enjoying the great sun. Although we did see the belly flop contest and the mr sexy leggs contest what we saw more of, and what brought us the most laughs, was the Mr. old man in a teeny tiny speedo parade going on.....constantly. Hee Hee Hee. We did Chops for dinner this night and I was surprised that we were one of maybe three couples in there. It was the 1st of two formal nights and I was told that the dinner we missed in the dinning room was great. We did like Chops though and thought that our $20 was well worth it. Just like at dinner, we had several apps and desserts and both had the petit sirloin as our main entree. Yumm Yumm Yumm. So, just when we thought our day couldnt get better, we went back to our rooms to get some cash for the casino and..... **MEN PLEASE READ THIS IF YOU WANT GUARANTEED SEX FROM YOUR WIFE**..... there on our table was a dozen chocolate covered strawberries and some champagne from our husbands (at home with our kids-not yet 18 mos old-mind you) with a note telling us how much they missed and loved us and they hoped we had a great time. Wow. How lucky are we. And, how lucky are they when the trip is over!

 

Day Two-Labadee:

 

We had signed up for Yoga on the beach during our spa tour the 1st day on the shop. We met with the other 15 or so participants (off all ages, shapes and abilities) and were on the beach by 9:30 doing yoga and listening to the ocean. Please, if you are in any way even a little bit intersted in something like this, give it a try. It was sooo relaxing and what an amazing way to start the day. There are these tiny little lizzards on the trees watching you too which is kind of cute. Spent the rest of the day snorkeling, laying on the beach and then shopping in the market. It was a bigger market area than I expected but very fun and the Hatians were friendly and kind when you said no thank you. I did buy an "authentic voodoo doll" here-(complete with instructions) which may come in handy some day! That night, after yet another fabulous dinner in the dinning room, we gave our donations to the casino and went to bed./Users/shasta/Desktop/DSC02551.JPG

 

Day three-Ochos Rios:

 

We had booked our tour with Peat Taylor after reading such wonderful reviews of him in the past on these boards. I can not tell you enough how great Peat was and how highly I recomend him. (He was $35pp plus additional $20 for the rafting and we all tipped him $15) He really will do whatever you ask of him and will tailor (no pun intended) your day to your interests. We did this with my sweet mother and three of her friends, plus three other couples also in Port that day. We all did Dunns River Falls (Awesome), then some of us visited a school of three to five year olds in nearby Colgate and took them supplies and toys. Those of us that visited the school, also toured the Wazzi Pottery factory. After the tour Peat dropped off everybody but my mom and her dear friend, and my dear friend and I, and we had Peat take us to a "local hangout" for lunch (jerk chicken, Beans and Rice and of course Red Stripe beer). After lunch, Peat took us to the White River where the four of us and our guide took the funnest river ride ever. Complete with a local man smoking pot on the banks, a homeless man taking a bath, and a scarry but fun jump off a twenty foot cliff into the water! Yes, my mother (50+ by the way), and her darling friend were rock stars and jumped too! Just as planned, Peat was there at the end waiting for us. We had just about an hour before the last tender so we quickly bought our Appleton Rum and some postcards before heading for the ship! What a day. That night after a very tasty caribbean dinner, we went to the Quest show and just like I had read, it is a MUST attend event for every one of all ages. We had people in our group from every part of the world and of all ages and everyone was playing along. What a hoot!

/Users/shasta/Desktop/DSC02576.JPG

 

Day Four-Georgetown Grand Cayman:

 

We booked our tour this day with Captain Bryans ($29 pp). We booked the Catamaran tour, which included a visit to Stingray City and two snorkel stops. There were about 24 ppl on the tour. The "Catamaran" wasn't exactly the "mesh in the middle, watch the water under you, seen on the price is right " style that I was expecting, but it was still nice and the crew were very friendly. The stingrays were neat but I was a little uncomfortable in all honesty. I kissed them and pet them and most importantly watched out for them when they were coming near me. Everybody else on our tour loved handling them and the crew was really good at telling you all about them and even picking up several of them and telling your their names based on markings on their bodies. The one I kissed was "bite" because she had a bite mark from a shark on her side. We also got to meet LuLu, Princess, Charlie and Speck. Then it was off to the 1st of our snorkel stops. This was the highlight of my whole trip and the most amazing experince. We stayed at this terrific reef area for about 45 mins and I can not begin to tell you about the abundance of sea life we saw. The giant parrot fish, and the mean baraccuda (who made sure we were aware of her big teeth) were amazing. In addition to the 100's of other fish we saw, there was a tiny glimpse of an eel, and a huge school of baby blue fish. Just really really cool. The second scuba site wasn't quite as interesting but there were still many fish and lots of conch shells. We sailed back to the shore and were off to get our rum cakes and mail our postcards before catching the last tender ashore. This was the second formal night and was also the lobster night. Yumm! We went to bed early because the next day was our big scuba diving day which we were all looking forward to.

 

Day Five-Cozumel:

 

Wait a minute. We woke up this morning to lots of rain, rough seas and wind. That is not suppposed to happen when you are on vacation....especially when you are in the caribbean! Oh well. We had originally booked our diving trip with Scuba Tony. (scubatony.com). He was sooo much fun chatting with on line leading up to our trip that he was seriously as heartbroken as we were when they closed the harbor and we were not able to go diving. Being the gentleman and professional he is, he did meet up with us immediately after we were in port, give us our deposit back, and give us some ideas about where to spend the rest of our day. He was sooo cool and we are planning a trip back to Cozumel early next year just to dive with scuba Tony. HIGHLY RECOMMEND HIM TO EVERYONE. We ended up spending the rest of our day downtown, walking aroung and enjoying $1 coronas. It was rainy and windy most of the day but we still had a great time and our day was still fun and eventful. We got back on the ship just in time for another great dinner then went to the theater and watched a great show (John Joseph and Jonny B). We hit the casino and the disco and several of the bars before calling it a night. That night the boat was a rocking and we could definitely tell we were in the ocean on a boat. It was fun though and just like every other night, we both slept great.

/Users/shasta/Desktop/DSC02546.JPG

Friday-Day at Sea--Last Day:

Unfortunately, the weather was still not great so we didn't get to spend the last day by the pool like we wanted to. We did however get to climb the rock wall, play bingo, go to towel folding school, golf a couple of rounds,shop in the prominade, have lunch at Johnny Rockets, and enjoy our last dinner with our wonderful table mates. It wasn't as eventful as the past couple of days, but it was still a fun filled day. We chose to do the early self embarction on Saturday because we were flying back to Denver at 11:00 am from Ft. Lauderdale. We ended the night filling out our paperwork, packing our clothes and writing in our journals.

 

Saturday-Time to go home:

 

We were in line at 6:30 AM and off the ship by 7:00. Since we were the third group in line, customs was a breeze. We went outside and found a cab driver that was willling to take us to Ft Lauderdale for $55. This was a great deal since I had heard of people paying $90-$100 for the same cab ride or $30 for the shuttle bus. Even based on his meeter, had we not negotiated a price with him, it would have cost $68.00. We were in the terminal and waiting for our plane at 8:00.

 

 

Some final thoughts:

We loved the food, and the people on the ship. We thought the ship was clean and well kept. Both of our sea pass accounts were about $550 and this included taking out cash in the casino for our island excursions. Our favorite part of the ship was deck 4 by the helicopter pad. Although there were children on board, we rarely saw any and they must have all loved the Ocean Adventures because they all seemed to be happy at dinner times with their familys when we did see them. We did check in at the spa when we 1st got on the ship and almost got free treatments as models during the spa tours. Both of us used the internet to e-mail home and each time (at night on the open sea) we had no problems logging on and sending a short e-mail home from our hotmail accounts. (I think it cost me three dollars each time). Although the people on the islands selling their goods are a bit puchy, we always thought a kind no thank you was enough. WE LOVED PEAT TAYLOR. WE LOVED SNORKELING IN CAYMAN. WE LOVED SCUBA TONY UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES. We would definitely cruise again with Royal Caribbean.

 

 

Thanks for reading my book of informatin here and please post any questions you may have. I will try to respond quickly to them all when possible but after spending way to many nights on the computer planning my trip and listening to all your great information, my husband really wants his wife back!

 

Happy cruising to you all!

-PugMommy

/Users/shasta/Desktop/DSC02546.JPG/Users/shasta/Desktop/DSC02584.JPG

/Users/shasta/Desktop/DSC02551.JPG/Use/Users/shasta/Desktop/DSC02576.JPGrs/shasta/Desktop/DSC02589.JPG

[johnlcruise]

Excellent review.

So? When is your next cruise? :)

[pugmommy]

When is my next cruise?.........not soon enough my friend! I would love to try the Eastern Caribbean next time and see what else is out there. I will stick with Royal Caribbean no matter what. :o

[amu]

I just got off that cruise too-I will post my review soon! I still feel like I am on the ship, I find myself rocking a little bit.

We had a great time too---I miss it!

[over the edge]

pugmommy, I loved your review. Very funny!! And yes, great husbands. Husbands like that are the reason you can go away and have a fab time with your friends!! :rolleyes:

 

It looks like you added pictures to your review, but I could not open them. Could you post your pictures again? :p

 

We will be on the Navigator in March. Can't wait. :)

[pugmommy]

AMU- I can't wait to hear your review. We loved our week on the Navigator!

 

OVER THE EDGE- Yes, I tried to post pictures but maybe my blonde side came through because it didnt work. I'll try to post them again with help from one of my IT friends. You will LOVE the Navigator. She is beautiful and full of amazing art!

 

JOHNLCRUISE-Howdy neighbor! I didnt notice that you were just up I-70 from us the 1st time I read your reply.

[over the edge]

OVER THE EDGE- Yes, I tried to post pictures but maybe my blonde side came through because it didnt work. I'll try to post them again with help from one of my IT friends. You will LOVE the Navigator. She is beautiful and full of amazing art!

 

lol lol You're killing me here. lol lol I'm reading what you're saying to my DH. It was a great laugh for the night. Tks!! :)

[PVDCruiser]

Excellent review. I loved the Mariner as well and hope to sail her again someday.

[Deborito]

Thanks for the positive review we have read a lot of negative stuff on cruise critic lately.:( Glad to hear lots of positive experiences. We'll be on the Navigator in cabin 7688 in February. Can't hardly wait:D Debbie

[johnlcruise]

JOHNLCRUISE-Howdy neighbor! I didnt notice that you were just up I-70 from us the 1st time I read your reply.

 

Yup. Just over the hill. If you want to call it a hill. :)

[marimojo]

Great review! Sounds like you had so much fun, it was a pleasure to read. Thanks for posting. I can't wait for our cruise!

[djwcruisejunkie]

Sounds like you had a FAB time! We are on Navigator in Jan for our 10th anniversary. Been to Grand Cayman 2x and wanted to try Stingray City, but bit nervous

 

What was it made you uncomfortable? Would you still recommend it?

 

Great review, made me 'homesick' for the Navigator -can't wait for Jan, happy to skip santa visit if can make it arrive quicker!

[pugmommy]

Over the Edge- Glad you laughed! I think your DH owes YOU the champagne and strawberries now! :)

 

DJWCruiseJunkie- Please go to Stingray City if you get a chance. It really is a neat place. Our tour guide actually put the stinger on his tongue at one point to show me how tame and friendly the stingrays were. Im just over 5 feet tall and the water came up to my shoulders in the area we were in and that may have something to do with my freaked-out-ness. When I went to the shallow, mid thigh high water and they came along, I was much more comfortable. The snorkeling was amazing--If you get a chance... do that too! Enjoy your trip! And, Happy 10th!

 

AMU-Where is that review you promised earlier?? ;)

[ckrobyn]

Great review! :)

[Shar27]

Great review pugmommy.

 

My brother and his family (4 young boys) were on that ship with you. Their youngest actually got sick Friday night from the rocking ship.

 

It sounds like you had a great time. I will be on the Voyager doing the Western in Feb/07. I think I might give Peat Taylor a try. Did his price include entrance to Dunns River Falls?

[amu]

I just posted my review on the member reviews but I will put it in a thread too.

[pugmommy]

Shar27-Peat Taylor was great. I would use him again in a heartbeat. Be sure though that you get Peat. He has a brother (Orville) who tries to steal his business and will actially tell you he is Peat once you are there. Because of this, Peat asks that you ask to see his ID. Peat's son is O'Neil and he helps Peat out and sings with him on the bus on the way to the falls. Great time I promise. As for the rafting, it was an additional $20.00 and you pay that to the raft company when Peat drops you off there. It takes about an hour but its beautiful and refreshing and well worth it.

 

Have a great time on Voyager.

 

Also, Im sorry to hear about your brothers son. I assume that besides getting sick (the seas were rough that night!) that they had a great time. All the kids I saw were happy and busy the whole time.

[EggDropErin]

Thanks for the great review! :)