WAAAYTOOO

Cruise planner for the Blog Group cruise but nothing that hasn't already been on sale at least 3 times. No additional discount for drinks packages or dining + drinks package. Same excursions seem to be on sale. Nothing new here.

Did anyone try the filet at the CK ? I have heard mixed reviews. Somehow I never manage to get to the CK on the first night.

I'd go with deck 7 with the kids promenade room

I read somewhere (I know....) that the E3 is slightly shorter (distance from the front door to the balcony) than the D2 but honestly, I've been in both and could never notice any difference. I would say that the promenade room would be a nice upgrade for the kids over a regular inside room. Don't know the kids' ages but they would be able to see the character parades from their room, which would be nice. Motion ? No issue

Other than casino rates, the best discount we've ever gotten on a cruise was 62% off [retail] an Owner's Suite on [5 night] Empress when those cruises first went on sale. This was a Crown & Anchor discount - the only one of its kind that I have ever seen. Of course, the story ended badly as they cancelled this cruise not once, but twice and we never went on Empress at all. But it's the best fare I've ever received on a non-casino rate cruise.

...and be sure and get it in writing (new confirmation) if they say that you rate it. After you are onboard it will be too late.

It's ok, Matt. If you're skurred, just say you're skurred. I'm a little skurred.

Where was your Genie ? You should not have needed to declare "Star Class". The Genie should have accompanied you to your suite and taken care of that for you. Very surprised to hear that you had to go through the "no-go zone" on your own.

Park Royal offers a day pass. We did this once. Very nice. Go out the gates of the compound, turn left and walk about 7 minutes along the sea wall. You don't even have to go to the lobby of the resort. You can get the day pass by going left off the seawall sidewalk and someone at the little hut outside can sell you a day pass. Can't remember how much it cost but seems it was very reasonable. Maybe $40 PP ? I can't remember if that included food and drink but I don't think it did.

Thank you !

We're on that one so I hope you're right and we get out ahead of it !

Very smart to put everyone through customs in MIA. Doubtful that they could get the manpower in GAL for that. I'm glad to see that people are starting to adjust. I know it's a very bad situation but as the Capt. said, those who are homeless at the moment are in way worse shape. Of course, some of those onboard may be homeless too but just not know it yet. I hope I'm wrong about that.

I am not a HUGE fan of Sabor on the O class ships. They have a modified menu which does not include queso fundido which is my absolute favorite thing at Sabor. I will say, when we were last on Harmony, I asked one of the waiters about queso fundido and he said that he would try and make it for me. Uh...no thanks. If they don't have the recipe already then I don't want them experimenting on me ! ...but I did think it was sweet of him to offer. I'm in a Star Class (2 BR ATS) on Harmony in 19 days. I can't wait !!! There's just nothing like it !

Anywhere on the beach at Mahahual. There are massage vendors set up all along the beach. Tip : Do NOT allow anyone to "find" or "arrange" a massage for you. They will double the price and keep half for themselves. Find a table and negotiate your own price. Of course they will start out higher than $20 but just insist that you've always paid $20 and they will agree, in the end. We usually go to the Krazy Lobster. The food and service are good and there are good masseuses there. They have tables, chairs, loungers and hammocks. They also have $1 Coronas !

The levels of Crown & Anchor are Gold, Platinum, Emerald, Diamond, Diamond Plus and Pinnacle Club. There is no Silver level. Did you mean "platinum' ? Has the minimum qualifying level for Platinum changed ? It is 30. Was it something else before ? Honestly, I cannot remember. It doesn't look to me like any of the other levels have changed.

Glad to help ! That's what these Boards are all about ! Well....I'm not going to claim that there's a security fence around it and a watchman on duty. It is just an open parking lot immediately adjacent to the hotel so probably no more secure than anywhere else but we've never had any issues. I wouldn't leave any valuables sitting out in the open anywhere but I feel confident that your car will be fine. The parking lot is really HUGE and we always park near the building as opposed to out in the lower 40 away from the foot traffic. I figure the closer we are to the building the less likely someone would mess with the car....but honestly, if I felt like there was a real danger there I wouldn't stay there to begin with. The real highlight of the stay at this Best Western is (IMO) the shuttle to the ship. KD Elite is their name. I'm fairly sure the owners must be Russian as all of the drivers (that I have come into contact with, anyway) appear to have Russian accents. But they are SO professional. The buses are really nice, they contact you a couple of times prior to your visit to confirm your transportation and they are parked RIGHT outside the exit of the terminal when you get off the ship to go back to the hotel. Very easy to spot and convenient. I do have one funny story but it has nothing at ALL to do with the hotel. Well, not directly, anyway. The last time we stayed there I used the same credit card I always use to reserve the room. So when we got ready to check in, I gave them the credit card to make the payment. The person checking us in sheepishly said that my credit card had been declined. I was so embarrassed and knowing that there was a -0- balance on this card I knew that it could not have been a "over limit" issue. She tried again. Same response. Finally Dan used his RCI Visa card and it went through - first time (of course, later, he teased me about planning this in advance so that HE would have to pay for the hotel !!). When we got up to our room, I called Navy Federal Credit Union (where my credit card was issued) and after a fairly lengthy discussion, found out that the card had been declined because we were in Baltimore and that Baltimore has such a high level of bank card fraud, they just automatically decline the charge unless they are notified ahead of time that the client will be using their card in Baltimore. WHAT ????? I certainly am always careful to let the CC company know when I am going to be using my card outside of the US but I never thought that being in BALTIMORE would be like being in a third world country ! Well....maybe... So....lesson learned. When I go there on Sept 1 I will make SURE that the NFCU knows I am going and not to decline my card ! I appreciate banks being extra vigilant on my behalf but I think that was a little excessive.

I would not worry too much about Nachi or Mr. Sanchos. They are very about who they allow in and I would certainly not worry about the tainted drinks in either of these places. An incident like we have seen in the papers recently would kill their business outright so I don't think they would take any chances.

We did the rain forest in SJ once but we were on an extended stay on the front side of a cruise and had plenty of time. I don't recall that it was a driving tour. Seems like we did a bunch of walking. It was really lovely though. I'm glad we took the time to do it. Whether there is time to do it on a port stop or not is not something I can answer.

Wow...that's waaaytooo much drama for me. I would say that's a definite "NO". Glad you enjoyed it but there's no way I could deal with all of that.

You're all set then ! ???

The most important piece of information for you is to realize that there are 2 different kinds of "dolphin" excursions. A dolphin "encounter" is more of a wading and petting kind of experience. A dolphin "swim" or "push-pull" is where you actually swim with the dolphins and "ride" them (for lack of a better term). The encounter is usually significantly less money than the swim for obvious reasons. With your daughter being 5 I suspect they would want to limit her experience to the encounter but I am unaware of what the age restrictions are, or if there are any at all. We did the swim experience a few years ago and it remains one of my top 3 excursions of all time. We did ours in Curaçao (I think !) so I cannot rate the one in Coz but I imagine they are all fairly similar. I highly recommend it if you can afford it and I almost guarantee that your daughter will remember it forever. Hopefully someone else will have a review of the Coz excursion.

I think another issue was the people were booking full suites for a higher OBC and then downgrading the suites to a lower category thus "gaming" the system that way. As Tiny suggested, we don't normally cancel but quite often must move a cruise around so the NRD is definitely a problem for us.

We had a VB when they first came out on NAV. We loved it ! We never had any issues with noise or light but we did discover that you must turn the monitor completely off in order to get rid of the low frequency hum and monitor sheen. Just shutting the curtain was not enough. We thought it was absolutely worth the upgrade. In fact, we took that cruise JUST to check out the VB.

Agree. Nothing before noon even if you walk off. We are sailing out of PE in Sept and flying into/out of MIA. Our return flight is at 2:07 but we plan on staying on Harmony until 10 AM.