Review - Independence - 6 days - Belize, Costa Maya, Cozumel

[Sky616]

Did you book Passion Island on your own or through the ship? It sounds great! Can't wait to see more pictures.

 

Thanks for the review - I'm considering this cruise for next Spring.

 

 

I was wondering this also. You said it was for cruise passengers. Could you do this on your own? Nice review.

[crusinmama06]

Did you book Passion Island on your own or through the ship?

 

I was wondering this also. You said it was for cruise passengers. Could you do this on your own? Nice review.

 

I booked it through the ship. From what I understand, it is only for cruise passengers. On RCCL, the passengers take a catamaran over to the island. On Carnival, they take a high speed power boat called the "Twister". We saw the Carnival people doing high speed donuts over to the island...lol.

 

OK I now have the rest of the pictures...

 

The playground at Passion Island...

 

 

Kiddie ATV obstacle course (included in the price, they accept tips)

 

 

My 4 year old tearing up the beach

 

 

The buffet - they had the BEST homemade guacamole

 

 

Hammocks

 

 

More Beach pics...

 

[crusinmama06]

Cozumel Passion Island Continued....

 

 

 

Trampoline set up for the kids - no charge

 

 

[glo1115]

Hi Michelle, Thanks for the review. I wanted to ask you about in Belize, ATV. I guess you left your girls on the ship? We are on IOS in 3/15/09 and we have a big group of us (20) which 5 are kids. How long were you doing the ATV excursions?

[Cruises n Vegas]

Michele!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Hey there. It was great to meet you on this cruise. I am only sorry that we weren't able to spend more time with you. You and your hubby are awesome & the girls are adorable. If anything ever happens to me, I wanna come back as one of your kids!

 

I have to agree that the ATV's were the best. I loved it. My only complaint was that it wasn't long enough & I plan to send Yhony a note stating that. Otherwise, I didn't know that I loved mud that much :D

 

You gave an awesome review. I couldn't have said it better myself. You should be a TA. In fact, I will be sending you an email. We need to figure something out.

 

The ship was great & I the service was amazing. The food was just ok - as usual. Loved Portofinos. And I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised ablout the debarkation. It was a breeze. Maybe RCI has finally figured it out - until the Oasis. That ought to be a challenge.

 

Thanks for the ATV video. I love it & I posted it on my Facebook for all to see.

 

Talk care & I hope that we can cruise together again soon.

[crusinmama06]

Hi Michelle, Thanks for the review. I wanted to ask you about in Belize, ATV. I guess you left your girls on the ship? We are on IOS in 3/15/09 and we have a big group of us (20) which 5 are kids. How long were you doing the ATV excursions?

 

Yes, for the first time out of 7 cruises with the kids, we left them onboard to do the ATV tour. :eek: I wrote out my conversation with Adventure Ocean over on the Family Board...but I'll repost it here...

 

Me: "Do people leave their kids on the ship and go on excursions?"

Answer: "Yes, all the time"

Me: "Do the DECT phones work off of the ship"

Answer: "No"

Me: "Will you take our cell number and call that instead?"

Answer: "No, we usually don't do that"

Me: "What if there IS an emergency?"

Answer: "You give us the right to treat in an emergency case. If there is an emergency, security will be alerted and your sea pass will be flagged. When you come back onto the ship, security will be alerted and you will be updated of the situation"

Me: "Hmmmm, so you think it will be ok to leave for a few hours?"

Answer: "Well we haven't lost anyone yet!" :p

Me: :eek:

 

The kids, were in AO that day for about 5 hours. When I got back onboard, I went running up to AO, nervous the kids were upset, tired, cranky, crying.....

 

And what I found when I got there...my 4 year old sitting with her friends, a cookie in one hand, juice in the other (it was snack attack time). She looked at me. Said "Hi"

 

I said "Do you want to go now?"

 

She said "No, we just made a spongebob"

 

I said "Ok, but you've been here all day. Are you ok?"

 

She said "Yeah. You can go now mom" :rolleyes:

 

My 8 year old was the same. She pushed me out of AO and told me to come back in an hour. :eek:

 

So the kids did fine without me. I was more worried than they were.

 

 

 

Michele!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Hey there. It was great to meet you on this cruise. I am only sorry that we weren't able to spend more time with you. You and your hubby are awesome & the girls are adorable. If anything ever happens to me, I wanna come back as one of your kids!

 

Glad you were able to open the video. If you want it on Disc, email me and I'll send it off. :D

 

And your debarkation was better than mine. Ours had some confusion. But such a large ship, I expected it.

[jonsmom]

How much was the excursion to Passion Island?

 

Were the kids limited as to how much time they could spend on the ATV;s?

 

Thanks.

[crusinmama06]

How much was the excursion to Passion Island?

 

Were the kids limited as to how much time they could spend on the ATV;s?

 

Thanks.

 

No they didn't limit the kids. I did stop my kids after their third trip around the course.

 

As far as prices, I just looked it up on the RCCL web site...

 

Passion Island Escape - CZ20

Prices starting from:

*74.00 USD (Adult)

*39.00 USD (Child)

*0.00 USD (Infant)

[jonsmom]

Thanks - thought i was going to do the Dolphin Swim at Chankanaab but this is interesting as well.

[dramaqueen4lyfe]

Michele, Great review. We enjoyed chatting with you. Loved the ship too. Our debark was okay. We appeared in the CL at 8am I had just started to enjoy a cup of coffee when Gershwin breezes in and said "Okay now we go" and off we went. We got off at 8.30am and had our car and were on the road by 9.30am. Just got back home on Tuesday since we spent time with friends in Fla.

[Cruising89143]

Great review Michelle. Nice photos too. Glad that you and the family had a great time. Love those Freedom class ships too.:)

[cruzingduo]

Michele, Great review. We enjoyed chatting with you. Loved the ship too. Our debark was okay. We appeared in the CL at 8am I had just started to enjoy a cup of coffee when Gershwin breezes in and said "Okay now we go" and off we went. We got off at 8.30am and had our car and were on the road by 9.30am. Just got back home on Tuesday since we spent time with friends in Fla.

 

Hi Sheila, I guess we just missed you, we are sailing Mar 1 & Mar 7 on the IOS. Do you know who the concierge is and who the Diamond Concierge is?

 

 

Joanne

[cruzingduo]

Michelle great review. Your daughters are beautiful girls. I enjoyed all your pictures, thanks for all the information. Glad you had a wonderful time.

[jonsmom]

Are there any other water sports on Passion Island? I know you mentioned the trampoline. If so, is there an additional fee? Thanks.

[Doglady]

Hi Sheila, I guess we just missed you, we are sailing Mar 1 & Mar 7 on the IOS. Do you know who the concierge is and who the Diamond Concierge is?

 

 

Joanne

Our Diamond Concierge was Columella Arandia and see was very nice. She always had a smile on her face.

[Geema]

The name of the person in the Concierge Lounge is Gershwin. He was fantastic!!! It was very busy every night before 6 pm and he kept up and did an excellent job. As did his helpers!

[crusinmama06]

Are there any other water sports on Passion Island? I know you mentioned the trampoline. If so, is there an additional fee? Thanks.

 

No fee for any of their water activities as far as I could tell. They had sea kayaks for use too. I didn't see anything like Jet Skis though.

[jonsmom]

Thanks - I didn't want to get out there and have to worry about other costs.

 

Joanne

[Jaxsonbrownie]

Awesome review Michele! I also love all the pictures, you have a beautiful family. Thank you for sharing this with us. Jax:)

[BecciBoo]

Michele: what a great review...so many pics. And the compass, you rock girl:D

Passion Island has really improved since we were there. We loved it then too and made our own Corona commercial, but it was in January and a storm had just come through so it was choppy and too cold to swim. I'll never forget the Guacamole...the best I ever had and that's saying a lot for a Texan! The grilled fish and chicken...excellent and the rum punch ain't bad either!! It's a great excursion folks! We had a great tipsy time coming back in the little boat too!:cool:

The Westin looks great too! And you make me so homesick for Liberty!!! Ya weasel!;)

[crusinmama06]

Michele: what a great review...so many pics. And the compass, you rock girl:D

 

Passion Island has really improved since we were there. We loved it then too and made our own Corona commercial, but it was in January and a storm had just come through so it was choppy and too cold to swim. I'll never forget the Guacamole...the best I ever had and that's saying a lot for a Texan! The grilled fish and chicken...excellent and the rum punch ain't bad either!! It's a great excursion folks! We had a great tipsy time coming back in the little boat too!:cool:

 

The Westin looks great too! And you make me so homesick for Liberty!!! Ya weasel!;)

 

I think you were the one that encouraged me to try it. I remember you talking about the Corona commercial. :D So thank you! I got to have my own little corona moment. ;)

 

I had the "Passion Island Punch" - mmmm mmmmm good. :D

 

The water was too cold for us in Feb too...so that's why it was so important for us to have other things to do. I would love to go back in the warmer months

[BecciBoo]

I was just showing Todd what they've added, he couldn't believe it. He said, "we should do that again in the warmer months sometime" ha ha! At least it was sunny the day you were there, we just finished Coz and it was dismal the whole day, but we managed to stay in the water at Nachi Cocom...another of my Coz favorites...shhhhhhhh!

 

Hey, can I see your other pics on your website? They were great!

[crusinmama06]

I better finish this...

 

So arriving back to the ship from Passion Island was windy...but I was able to get this shot of Indy next to Grandeur...

 

 

That night, (2nd formal night) the waiters had planned to surprise my oldest with a Happy Birthday pie. She is turning 9 this Sunday, but they helped us celebrate it on the cruise. The Assistant waiter Kemar and Head Waiter Jason gathered a group for her....

 

 

I think she ate Ravioli 5 of the 6 days.

 

 

Devils in the Red dress.

 

[cruiseray1]

 

Great review. Thanks. We were on Indy 2 months ago and had so much fun and loved her. I just rebooked AOS for Feb 2010 because of your review and pictures of aft junior suite. We are going to try the aft junior suite.

I hope you will write a review about Indy for the main page members review!

Thanks again for your great review.

[crusinmama06]

Great review. Thanks. We were on Indy 2 months ago and had so much fun and loved her. I just rebooked AOS for Feb 2010 because of your review and pictures of aft junior suite. We are going to try the aft junior suite.

I hope you will write a review about Indy for the main page members review!

Thanks again for your great review.

 

Awww thanks. Yes I will write a review for CC. I usually post it here then once I have my thoughts together, send it to CC. :D

 

Enjoy AOS! Have you talked to CKRobyn, she is the Queen of all things AOS.