Livtocruise

7 hours ago, Kathleen said:

I second the Chacchoben Mayan Ruins in Costa Maya. A very nice set of ruins without having to travel too awfully far.I believe it took us about 45 minutes to an hour to get there on a paved highway!

 

By any chance have you explored other ruins? We booked Chacchoben and also Tulum’s ruins in Cozumel. I hear the journey from Cozumel to Tulum is quite long. Not sure if we should do 2 days of ruins in a row

I enjoyed my Independence of the Seas cruise in November. Was there something specific you didn’t like in the buffet? In my experience, buffet food tends to be more plain to appeal to more people. Exceptions are the Asian cuisine, which I always enjoy. I thought the MDR food was very good and served warm and didn’t order room service. As for MDR service, we enjoy the dining experience and like to give ourselves about 1 hour and 45 minutes to eat so we can chat and slowly enjoy one meal and courses. But we did have a show one night where we needed to be out of there in a hour and they were able to accommodate us. I think there is a staff shortage just due to people who test positive, but overall I really enjoyed my cruise. At the end of the day, we are traveling during a pandemic and I felt like RCI did a good job with the circumstances 

4 hours ago, ChanaC said:

I also booked through Costco and got a $50 onboard credit and a dining credit. In our case, they just said it says says "one specialty dining experience for two." The fine print says it needs to be booked onboard and excludes Izumi. We also plan to use it for Wonderland, so we're just going to make a beeline to the restaurant when we board and book it then. As for the credit, it actually popped up on my Royal Caribbean account a few weeks after booking and we were just able to use for an excursion. If I was you I would check your account and see if it also pops up, because you can probably use it to book one of those other restaurants you want to look. For me, the credit actually looked like an online/pre-board credit (I forgot how it was worded) but it did say that if you don't use it before the cruise then it would turn into onboard credit.  

Thanks! I’ll definitely be checking my account often! It’s just weird how for my booking, Costco called it “shipboard” and not onboard. Did they call it onboard for you? Either way, we don’t prepay gratuities so we 100% have something to apply it to!

14 hours ago, CookieChick said:

We just sailed on Anthem and also recieved $50 of credit per room from Costco.  It was just added to our room account as a credit and applied to reduce the overall daily gratuity charges.  Any extras we bought in advance in cruise planner at whatever discount was offered there.

Thanks! We’ll probably apply that to gratuities!

13 hours ago, Atlantix2000 said:

Sounds like Costco is making things sound more complicated by not using Royal's terminology.  Shipboard credit is just going to be onboard credit.  The only difference is it won't be available until you are actually...on board...and then there are no rules on how it is spent.  Dining credit really should be no different than onboard credit but again won't be useable until on board.  You can only spend OBC before the cruise if it comes from Royal.

You might be able to play some games where you book and pay for a reservation in advance on the Cruise Planner.  Then, during the cruise you could try to cancel that reservation and rebook it using your OBC.  Not sure if they would let you keep the pre-cruise price with that option though.

Thanks! Would we be able to apply that shipboard/onboard credit towards the gratuities if we don’t prepay? I think we’ll book Wonderland in advance and then use the dining credit at Sabor or Jamie’s!

I plan on doing wonderland for the experience. There have been reviews from vegetarians that are positive. Unless it’s Chops…I think you can find something in all of the specialty restaurants. Johnny rockets has a boca burger too which is super neat

21 hours ago, skittermagoo said:

I'm not sure about Allure, but on Adventure in January they had a Caribbean night, an Indian night, and an Italian night (I think). We went for the Indian night because we got back from our excursion too late for dinner, and it was FABULOUS.  

Do they advertise in the cruise compass compass about the different nights? 

I know about onboard credit and you can spend that in the cruise planner ahead of time, but I booked a cruise through Costco Travel and I have $50 worth of Shipboard credit and $50 worth of dining credit. Doesn’t look like I can use it ahead of time, which is a bummer because we want to do Wonderland and it looks like you get a discount from booking in the cruise planner ahead of time. Does anyone know if you can use the shipboard credit towards dining as well or if there is a way to get this added to your cruise planner?

I’m going to Labadee for the first time this summer. We reserved a kayaking excursion and the covered beach lounger for 2. Considering canceling the lounger since there are free chairs like cococay, but for $50 we initially booked it for fun. I want to do more research on the different beaches there and if the lounger is where I want to be. 

On 1/16/2022 at 1:22 PM, travellingtannis said:

In Costa Maya, we LOVED our tour with a company called The Native Choice https://www.thenativechoice.com/tours/mayan-experience-tour.  Our tour guides were Alondra and Saul (not sure if they are still there, but highly recommend them). You will have to walk just outside the port to find them, but it is a very short walk, easy to find, and we only had to wait for one other family before our tour began (passenger van style). Included is a to visit the Chacchoben ruins, which is a smaller ruin area, but very few crowds and excellent information from Alondra on our visit.

Our Cozumel private excursion was cancelled due to high winds, but we were booked with https://www.cozumelpearlfarm.mx/. Excellent communication from them while planning, and no problem in getting our refund when cancelled last minute. If you do happen to go, let me know how it is! We ended up doing a private jeep tour with a wonderful gentleman named Francisco, Xunaan tequila and chocolate tasting, tour of the island, some beach time.

I realize these are not through RCI, but we felt safe, with no concerns of timing getting back to the ship.

Thanks for mentioning about cancelations. With the current environment, it’s always important that 3rd party excursion companies will give you a refund. I will definitely look into these options 

On 1/4/2022 at 4:23 PM, Jakejosa said:

We did the Chacchoben Mayan Ruins & Bacalar Lagoon Beach - and loved it. The ruins were a lot of fun- we saw monkeys in the trees while we were there! The kids will enjoy them as you can climb on some of the ruins! The drive to the ruins allowed us to see a good bit of Costa Maya. It is such a beautiful island  place! There IS beach time at the lagoon. It is so peaceful with calm water, no seaweed when we were there. We also live near the beach, but we liked this tour so much that we are booking the Lagoon only version on our next trip to Costa Maya.

Thank you! This was actually one excursion I was looking at! 

I have a cruise next September with stops in Cozumel and Costa Maya. We would prefer to book our excursions though RCI and am looking for peoples personal experiences and recommendations. I live in Florida near the beach so I’m not looking for beach only excursions. If it stops in the beach for a bit that’s totally fine and sounds fun, but would like more variety. 

We would like to see the ruins, possibly go to Tulum, maybe Chichen Itza? i know some of these are a bus ride away, but this may be one of the only times we go to Mexico so I do want to see as much as possibly. Not really interested in the dolphin swims, open bar, and ATV ride type excursions either. 

The comedian on my cruise called it the “dipping sauce band”

I was just on Independence of the Seas. A smaller ship, but less family oriented activities. I don’t think I’ve seen less kids on a cruise ship. I’m assuming because they can’t get vaccinated/extra tests required. But when I walked past adventure ocean there were always kids in there. 
 

i saw older kids and teenagers by the slides, sky pad, and flow rider, and sports courts. We did have ice skating too and the pools and hot tubs were busy. There are a lot of vaccinated only areas (which was basically kid free zones) on board

You can book internet for 2 devices under one person. The surf will probably be all they need. I booked it for 1 device under 1 person and you can switch back and forth. I’m sharing it and you login and can just switch devices you’re connected to. The internet isn’t always the best. I had trouble with snapchat and Instagram, 2 apps your boys will probably be wanting to use

5 hours ago, SDFTMYERS said:

They just removed it from our Harmony of the Seas this morning by email.  So it now took off Jamacia and Nassau (thats ok too.  We now go to St Thomas and St Kitts instead .  It sails January 9th 2022

ABOUT YOUR UPCOMING TRAVELS

Dear Guest, To maintain your safety and wellbeing, our visit to Labadee has been replaced with Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas due to the current political and security situation in Haiti. Regrettably, this also impacts our visit to Falmouth, Jamaica and Nassau, Bahamas because of its distance from St. Thomas. Instead, we’ll visit Basseterre, St. Kitts & Nevis and have a sea day, and we’ll arrive in Perfect Day at CocoCay a little later than planned. We know how much time and effort go into planning your cruise with us, and we’re sorry for any inconvenience caused by this. Nonetheless, we’re excited to take you to new ports and know you’ll have an excellent time! Below, please find our revised Harmony of the Seas January 9th, 2022 itinerary. Day Port of Call Arrive Depart Sun Orlando (Port Canaveral), Florida   4:30 PM Mon Cruising     Tue Cruising     Wed Basseterre, St. Kitts & Nevis 8:00 AM 6:00 PM Thu Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas 7:00 AM 3:30 PM Fri Cruising     Sat Perfect Day at CocoCay 10:00 AM 5:00 PM Sun Orlando (Port Canaveral), Florida 6:00 AM   Harmony of the Seas is a destination in itself! Our thrill seekers can take the plunge on our dual waterslides – The Perfect Storm, surf the waves on the Flowrider, test your bravery on our zip line at sea, then set your lasers to fun as you take part in a laser tag adventure. If relaxing is more your thing, enjoy a drink on the Rising Tide Bar, take a stroll down Central Park, or grab a quick bite at Dog House.

I’m pretty sure I’m doing your similar itinerary in May on the Harmony! Your new itinerary sounds amazing! I know it’s far in advance, but I really don’t see Labadee happening this summer but we shall see!

I rebooked my internet package and saved $35. I also booked kayaking at cococay for half price and the Nassau blue lagoon and stingray excursion for 15% off. 

Does anyone know if you be able to cancel or postpone with the “cruise with confidence” policy? And then schedule a vaccine appointment and rebook to when he is post 14 days fully vaccinated?