WAAAYTOOO

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.

I love Sonic. Wish we had one in our town.

Yes, I am organizing the CC. I am RFerrington on CC. Same crawl

I'm curious to know the status of the Coco Cay upgrades, myself. There was all the hubbub about adding the "overnight" options and then - crickets. I haven't heard another word about any of the proposed upgrades. Would be nice to know the status. Sounds like a job for Super Matt.

The Cruise Planner sale seems to be over for the time being. I don't see anything on sale now except for the items that are on perpetual sale - Deluxe Beverage Plan, etc.

I guess I will take the dissenting side of this argument and speak up for the virtues of the inside balcony. When we first started cruising on the Oasis class we enjoyed the Boardwalk balconies very much. On Oasis and Allure the Boardwalk balconies, in particular, were an excellent value, IMO b/c you can still see the ocean if you are far enough aft. It certainly is NOT what I would call an "ocean view" but you CAN see the ocean (not so much on Harmony with that awful slide thing smack dab in the middle of the Boardwalk). BUT the true charm of the Boardwalk balconies is being able to watch all of the hustle and bustle down below on the Boardwalk. I loved watching the kids on the carousel and people eating and drinking AND of course, there are always the activities associated with the Aqua Theater. I guess I'm just not that worried about people trying to peek into my room from across the ship. I never felt like people could "see in" or were invading my privacy in any way. Is there ambient noise on the Boardwalk ? Yes, at times. Did it bother me at night ? Never. I will admit that I have never stayed in a Central Park balcony room but I have never really heard too many complaints. You will have similar views other than the ocean. You canNOT see the ocean at all in a CPB. ...but you have the serenity of Central Park below. I have heard people complain that it sometimes gets hot in the Central Park areas b/c there isn't as much air movement and I have heard that the noise on the pool decks can be an annoyance but I can't imagine that it's any worse than the loud speakers from the Aqua Theater ! So...I would consider an inside balcony if the price was right and especially for "extra" younger family members if you're looking for a less expensive option for the kids (say, across the hall from the gr'ups in an OV balcony).

Truthfully, I have never heard of them ever booking anyone to Izumi with this plan. #1, Izumi is an expensive option (for them) so I'm sure they would prefer you to eat somewhere else and #2, Izumi is really more of an "exotic" option for too many people. I think they stay away from booking that restaurant with the BOGO program. I think you'd be safe...and as others have mentioned, you can always change your booking once you get onboard. I have never heard of anyone being "stuck" with a restaurant at which they did not want to dine. If you WANTED Izumi I am sure they would let you switch your booking from whichever restaurant they chose for you but I doubt very seriously they would pick Izumi for you without your requesting it.

No. I agree with @mbk999. I don't believe that you would have enough time to really get your money's worth out of the water park with that limited time in port. I have never even priced a ticket to Aquaventure but knowing how expensive everything else is in Nassau and ESPECIALLY at Atlantis, I can only imagine what those tickets must cost. I'm sure it's a huge disappointment but I think you would be disappointed PLUS resentful if you spent that kind of money on something for which you will, unquestionably, be disappointed.

Alas, I believe that they have discontinued all of the aerial acts in the Centrums. I was only able to catch 1 before they ended. I have read (who knows what the truth really is....) that they have had trouble finding qualified "riggers" to operate the aerial rigging on the smaller ships. Apparently with the limited space to operate it is a very difficult job. I don't know of any of the ships that are still having these shows. Too bad. It was very enjoyable - the 1 that I got to see - I think it was on Grandeur.