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alansfreed

By alansfreed,
in Royal Caribbean International

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alansfreed

alansfreed

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Welcome to my Official Christmas Cruise Review… wooooo!

 

About Us

This was cruise #7 for my wife and me, and cruise #2 for our 10-year-old daughter. We’re from a suburb of Pittsburgh. We love cruising, and we’re not the type of people who are bothered by every little thing. Our feelings are that if you can’t have a good time on a cruise, you probably can’t have a good time, period. Unless a staff member lunges at us with a steak knife or something, we’re pretty easy to get along with and we don’t complain about much.

 

You know how there is always some idiot who tries to participate in every single game and contest on the ship? I am that idiot. If you were on this cruise, you probably saw me somewhere as I won the “Millionaire” game, 2nd place in Quest (I was the male runner, meaning I was among those wearing a bra, etc.), 1st place in the 80s Name That Tune, 3rd place in Finish The Lyric, and 2nd place in the Belly Flop. I now own many RCL keychains!

 

Embarkation

We drove to Fort Lauderdale from Pittsburgh. We got to the port around noon, and already the closest parking garage was full, so I dropped my family and luggage off, and went to find another garage. It took a while, but I parked at the North Port Garage, and took a shuttle bus back to the terminal. Once there, we got onto the ship quite quickly. It was a breeze!

 

Thanks to advice we’ve read here, we immediately headed for Sorrento’s for a bite to eat for lunch. It wasn’t crowded at all, and we enjoyed our pizza.

 

The Ship

Awesome, awesome and awesome! I could have been happy spending all week on the Flowrider, personally. My daughter and I loved it. I don’t know if this is the most age-appropriate thing for a 40-year-old guy to be doing, but I thought it was awesome. By the end of the week, I was doing some tricks on the boogie board, some of them on purpose!

 

The promenade was very cool. We’ve been on Voyager, so we knew pretty much what to expect there. With the ship being as enormous as it was, I know that there was a ton of stuff we never even saw. Our room was just like others we’ve had on other RCL ships… the only real difference being the flat screen TV.

 

The service was superb all around. Our stateroom attendant, Shailaja Godwin of India, was wonderful. It is always amazing how these folks can memorize our names immediately like they do. She was just great. Our waiters were equally wonderful folks.

 

Every time we cruise, it seems that something weird happens. This time, on our first sea day, we had a helicopter rescue for a passenger who fell ill. It was very interesting to see how this was handled. The front part of the ship was closed off, but the captain kept us informed about the arrival of the chopper. We also changed course to head closer to Key West for the sake of the helicopter’s fuel supply. We made up time at sea, and got to our first port as scheduled.

 

The Food

We’ve been on several RCL cruises, and the food is always pretty consistent. We always enjoy it thoroughly, although we rarely have a meal that is so incredibly good that we would want to have it served to us if we were on death row and were offered one last meal before dying, or whatever. We ate at the main dining room every night, and shared the table with a delightful couple from Ireland. We also enjoyed Johnny Rockets, Sorrento’s and Ben & Jerry’s.

 

Our experience at the Windjammer was much better on this trip than on other cruises. One of our complaints in the past has been that it is often hard to find a seat there, and that can be annoying. This time, staff members were directing us to empty tables, and they would stop by to help refill drinks, etc. It was a much more pleasant experience than in the past!

 

Look for a link to the menus at the end of my review. Oh, and despite rumors to the contrary, there WAS lobster on a 6-night cruise! I had two plates, thank you very much :)

 

Cruising on Christmas

We wondered what it would be like to cruise on Christmas, and I’ve seen a lot of people asking questions about the holiday at sea on these boards. So here are some answers…

 

The ship was decorated for the holiday, but not over-done. The most obvious decoration was a large Christmas tree outside Sorrento’s on the promenade. There was a Santa display with train sets at the entrance to the Windjammer, and some greens hung in the main dining hall. There were a couple other Santas at the dining hall entrances. Again, there was enough stuff to be reminded that it was Christmas, but not so much that it was the “Clark Griswold Ship” by any means.

 

On Christmas Eve there were two church services at midnight. There was a Catholic Mass in the main theater, and a non-denominational service at a conference room. We enjoyed the Mass, even though we’re not Catholic.

 

Prior to the services, there was a carol sing in the promenade, which was pretty cool, and very well done. They even had “snow” falling from a couple areas, much to the delight of the kids. The snow was actually bubbles, but it really did look like snow!

 

On Christmas morning, Santa arrived by boat and handed out gifts for the kids. We missed that, unfortunately, because we were heading to an early excursion.

 

Ports

Our first stop was in Grand Cayman. My wife and daughter enjoyed the Butterfly and Turtle Farm tours. I rented a scooter ($40) and took my own little tour of the island. I enjoyed visiting “Hell” in the northern part of the island. Who would have thought I’d be visiting Hell so close to Christmas?

 

Our second port was Costa Maya, which was ravaged by Hurricane Dean in August of 2007. It took more than a year for the port to reopen to ships as the entire area was rebuilt. The dock area has been beautifully rebuilt. It’s very colorful, with nice looking, clean shops. There is also a nice, free swimming pool with a swim-up bar. I took a taxi into Muhahual, which has many more visible signs of damage from the hurricane. The vegetation along the road is completely destroyed and mangled, and will take many, many years before it will ever look lush and green again. It reminded me a lot of what I’ve seen in the wake of Katrina.

 

I walked along the beach in town, where there are numerous bars and vendors. I feel bad for the folks who are trying to rebuild there, but at the same time I have very little tolerance for being hounded by salespeople. They were literally lined up in the middle of the walkway to try to get people to buy their wares. Eventually I ended up walking along the beach to avoid them. It’s a shame they don’t realize how they’re hurting their business with their own aggressiveness.

 

Our final port was Cozumel, which we visited on Christmas Day. We were excited to see the Norwegian Pearl in port; we took that ship on an Alaskan cruise last summer. Ironically, this ship was in the news later that same day as a woman apparently fell/jumped/whatever from the ship as it passed Cancun!

 

We took a snorkeling and kayaking tour, which was a big highlight of the trip for us. The variety of sea life was amazing and beautiful! Later we headed to Carlos and Charlie’s and we wandered around town a bit.

 

Disembarking

I’ve read horror stories from people who thought the self-disembarking thing was terrible, but we decided to give it a try anyway. Royal Caribbean has begun attaching times to the colored luggage tags, so we knew that we were not going to be able to leave until 9:20 (if I remember correctly). Since we had a long drive ahead of us, we opted to get off as soon as we could, taking our luggage with us.

 

We knew this wasn’t going to be particularly easy since we would have to carry all of our stuff off the ship, but if it were easy, everyone would do it, and it would kind of defeat the purpose! We were told to go to Studio B, and we could either wait in line for the elevators, or take the steps from Deck 3 to Deck 1. We bumbled our way down the steps and headed off from there. It really wasn’t that bad. I don’t know what people expect, exactly, if they go this route. If you’re going to whine about carrying stuff down stairs, etc., then don’t do the self-disembarking!

 

We quickly got on a shuttle bus, and left the parking garage by 9:00. I’m sure we would have been an hour or so later had we gone with the time we were assigned.

 

Conclusion

Loved it! I don’t know if we’ll do another Christmas cruise anytime soon – it was too easy to forget that it was Christmas while we were aboard. Nonetheless, it was an awesome trip and an amazing ship. The only thing I can think of that we sort of missed was a steel drum band. I thought it added so much more of a Caribbean flavor to hear the steel drums as we left port on earlier cruises. A minor nitpick, I guess!

 

Compass / Menu / Pictures

I have scanned the Cruise Compass for each day:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

 

I have transcribed the menu entrees for each night:

Menu Entrees

 

And I have uploaded a bunch of photos. Most of these images are Geotagged, so you can see a map of the location where they were shot:

Bunch O' Pictures

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SherriZ366

SherriZ366

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Alan -- thanks for the great review. We sail on her IOS on Jan. 10 along with leftyrn. AM also a big Steeler fan -- last time we took the 8 day itinerary was in 2006 on Jewel. I remember watching the Steeler playoffs on Jewel -- SRO and then a few weeks later, watching them win the Superbowl. Go Steelers!!!

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loman

loman

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Alan, you sound like a guy i would`nt mind sitting next to, on a plane . Nice review. I too , am a Steeler fan . Lets hope the defense can generate some points, so we can get this Superbowl over with.

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matt690

matt690

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Great review and pics!

 

Did they really not have ANY pool reggae band? That is one that we LOVE about cruising - laying by the pool on sea days with a drink, listening to the reggae band.

 

Also, is Costa Maya still a small, private-like island, made for a quiet beach day with market shopping?

 

Thanks.

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kel99

kel99

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Thanks for the review, compass and pics. I am going on the Indy on March 1st and very excited. Also I LOVE the STEELERS. Do you recommend going in Muhahual in Costa Maya or staying by the peir where the pool and swim up bar is? We only want to do a little bit of shopping and enjoy the Sun and Surf. Any in put would be appreciated.

 

FireChief Bubba I will be seeing you there on March 1st. Check out our rollcall under the rollcall Forums.

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alansfreed

alansfreed

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Go Steelers, indeed!

 

I shoot the Steelers games for a newspaper, so I must say I have a pretty good vantage point for watching the games ;)

 

 

I too , am a Steeler fan . Lets hope the defense can generate some points, so we can get this Superbowl over with.
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alansfreed

alansfreed

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There was a reggae band, but no steel drums. The band was rarely at the pool, though. I only saw them there a couple times throughout the week.

 

Costa Maya isn't an island; it's on the mainland about 150 miles south of Cozumel. The spot where the ship docks is really specifically made just for cruise ship passengers. It's very nicely done, although the vendors kinda jump out to get you into their stores (much like most other ports).

 

My wife bought a couple things at the shops, and talked the price down a bit. I bought a nice t-shirt which was originally marked at $15. I talked them all the way down to... $15. I'm not very good at bargaining :)

 

There's not much beach to speak of right there at the dock... but there's a nice, long beach in Muhahaul just a short taxi ride away.

 

 

Great review and pics!

 

Did they really not have ANY pool reggae band? That is one that we LOVE about cruising - laying by the pool on sea days with a drink, listening to the reggae band.

 

Also, is Costa Maya still a small, private-like island, made for a quiet beach day with market shopping?

 

Thanks.

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SherriZ366

SherriZ366

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Go Steelers, indeed!

 

I shoot the Steelers games for a newspaper, so I must say I have a pretty good vantage point for watching the games ;)

That must be great!!! Where in Pgh. are you from? I was raised in Moon Twp. and Coraopolis but left in the mid-60's.
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alansfreed

alansfreed

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Personally I enjoy seeing "real" towns more than sanitized port areas, so that's why I took the short ride into Muhahual. The town gives you a glimpse of how people really live down there. I don't know what it was like prior to the hurricane, but these folks do not live in luxury, to say the least. But that's what I wanted to see -- I wanted to see something more indicative of what life is really like there.

 

The beach area in Muhahual was actually pretty nice, with nice sand and good areas to swim. There were some nicer areas to sit and eat, and plenty of opportunities for massages, too.

 

As I mentioned, I found the vendors in town to be very aggressive, and that's a big turn off for me. I would have gladly done some shopping if I didn't have these folks hanging onto me...

 

The swim-up bar area was very nice, and looked relaxing. My wife and daughter enjoyed their time there.

 

 

Do you recommend going in Muhahual in Costa Maya or staying by the peir where the pool and swim up bar is? We only want to do a little bit of shopping and enjoy the Sun and Surf. Any in put would be appreciated.
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alansfreed

alansfreed

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We're right across the river in Harmony Township (Ambridge)! I'm originally from Punxsutawney, and I shoot the Steelers games for their paper.

 

That must be great!!! Where in Pgh. are you from? I was raised in Moon Twp. and Coraopolis but left in the mid-60's.
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PearlRabbit

PearlRabbit

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Oh BOY!!!! I am SO excited by your review and posts. I leave on the Indy this Sunday and i absolutely can't wait. We are spending 3 days before the cruise with my hubby's uncle in Daytona Beach, then driving to Port Everglade. My husband is having a hard time dealing with my unbridled excitement, and this review will only fuel my fire. I am glad that you had a good time and appriciate your upbeat positive review. Thanks!

 

PS My parent's wedding anniversary is February 2. We always had a big celebration that day and made a really big deal of Groundhog's Day. I have a warm fuzzy feeling for all things Punxsutawney. :D

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tip

tip

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You sound like the type of cruiser that I would like to have seated with me at dinner. I am on a cruise to enjoy myself and not let every little glitch turn into a major issue to write and whine about on these boards.

 

We will be on the Independence on February 21st for the 8 day to the Eastern side. We are looking forward to the ship and enjoyed your photos.

 

We have been to Costa Maya twice and really enjoy it. You are right on target about getting away from the dock area and going into Muahual. The beach area is great. We have traveled both times to the very end which is across the road from an elementary school, although I am not sure if it was damaged by storms. There was a hotel right across the road with restrooms and a changing area. The vendors are agressive, but we just keep on walking if we are not interested.

 

Thanks again!

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alansfreed

alansfreed

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I am on a cruise to enjoy myself and not let every little glitch turn into a major issue to write and whine about on these boards.

 

Speaking of which, that reminds me of a story from our first night...

 

We were getting settled in at dinner, and another group was walking in to be seated. The woman (I think there was a woman, husband and two kids) FLIPPED OUT at the staff because she didn't like the placement of the table. It was fairly near a waiter station, and I guess she didn't want too much foot traffic around her.

 

She started yelling at the staff, saying over and over that "this isn't acceptable!" And she finally whined her way to a new table. This is why I could never be on the staff at the dining room. She'd still be in the hospital with fork punctures to the forehead.

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loman

loman

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Alan

 

re: pic # 105 , I was seated at that table ( on the right ) when i was on the Liberty in April . Second seat from the end . Had a great view of the entertainment at the top of the stairs . I was telling my table mates that we must be spoiling quite a few pictures as people try to get some pics.

Had great tablemates by the way . Got a christmas card from one couple.

( Do you think a fork in the head would leave a mark ?)

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