UkuleleCruiser

1 hour ago, RestingBirds said:

True that.  Welcome back!

Good to be welcome!

So, it sounds like lower expectations may yield better results. Or bring a sting ray bat to fend people off with.

It's an hour away, right? I figured that was why they sold Jamaican Blue Mountain and rum right at the beach.

I did it! I booked three excursions. I am not sure if I saved money, but the prices of all of the ones we booked seemed less expensive. We booked the all inclusive dolphin experience, sting ray city, and the bamboo beach club. We did not take advantage of the drink package discount: That was still significantly more then our own generous drink budget. 

I haven't been on in awhile, and thank you for noticing! With my cruise coming up in February, I felt I needed to get involved with my message board peeps again, and make sure I had the low-down on the up-and-up!

We were seduced by the inclusion of alcohol and lunch for this one. This is for our cruise coming up in February. Did everyone love it? Did you hate it? Does the free wifi really work? What were your favorite things about it? Least favorite? Save me a red stripe!

My wife did this years ago, and we tried to do it once a few few years ago, but bad weather cancelled it. So, here we go again, this coming February. What experiences did everyone have? My mom is interested in this, but of course she also wants to shop. I said i thought there would be plenty of time to shop in the little village after the excursion. Is that true? or will we be pushed for time getting back?

I have that excursion booked, too. I would love to hear what everyone thought. We are looking forward to it, and thought it was a good deal because it included lunch and some beach activities as well.

Well, Hot Dang! I am interested. My wife and I are cruising on Liberty in February, and just booked our shore excursions this last weekend. I've always wanted to do the ship tour. We are cruising with my parents this time, and my dad is really a nerd. he would love it. I will have to check with them about the walking, but I bet they'd dig it. I have done the galley tour combined with a special brunch, and plan on booking that again. I have never seen the brunch/galley tour offered on the website. We had to book it on the ship. But that wasn't hard: I just asked in the steakhouse when we walked on the ship. 

Interesting. We bought only two pics, but bought a digital stick that it was loaded on. No download website or code. We did get a discount that way. No offer of just a download option.

We tried room service on The Navigator. It was nice having coffee and danish in the morning, but we were travelling with some other folks in a different cabin, and by the time we finally received coffee, they were ready to head down for "real" breakfast. It was nice having it, but it just seemed to take a long time. Even ordering the night before. We didn't do it on our last cruise because we had a promenade view room, and it just took a few seconds to "pop" down for coffee and snacks....

Think it varies by ship, just off Vision of the Seas (older Vision class) and they seemed to be very strict. Got called to the naughty room to sign over my powerstrip that I have taken on all 14 cruises before without a problem.

 

Sidenote - Got to listen to the jackass from one of the Suites abusing the poor security guard for 20 minutes because he wouldn't let him take his iron, he wanted the ships captain personally to come down to security and explain to him who was going to iron his tux for him before he would step aside and let the rest of us do our thing. (Eventually we all kind of pushed around him so we could sign over our stuff and get going).

 

Don't recall seeing any bags pulled for hair straighteners but there was a large pile for powerstrips, several for irons, etc.

 

My advice would be to bring it, if they do take it from you they give it back at the end of the cruise and if they don't then you have it. Just don't be a jackass if they do take it from you :)

But more importantly, who ironed the guy's tux?

Matt had a guest post about chef Emily's food tour on cozumel which we are doing great in April. I'll let you how we liked it if you are not cruising before then.

 

http://www.cozumelchef.com

 

http://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2016/10/04/excursion-focus-cozumel-food-tour

I'm looking into this. It sounds perfect for us.

Falmouth Jamaica.....stay on board the ship. Unless you want to do some heavy duty shopping! Just do not go outside of the fenced in area, you have been warned. :blink:

We actually enjoyed the protected shopping area. I went in to an expensive watch store, and asked them, "So, is this company headquartered here in Jamaica? Is that why your store is here?" Of course the answer is no. "So, is there a large manufacturing plant here? Is that why the store is here?" -- You get the idea. About 15 minutes of fun. So, I'm banned from that watch store. But there are others....

We had an upgrade from an Inside Cabin to a Promenade View -- The Oceanview is the same larger cabin (even larger in your case) but with a prettier view. Congrats!

No...I hear ya, but I have sailed out of Galveston several times from both terminals 1 and 2 and have never had any issue with embarking, if anything it is usually debarking that is slow. 

I agree -- This was unusual. I hope you are right and it was a singular fluke, and not something that would become commonplace with a larger ship. We are back on Liberty next year.

Galveston is not the only port with that has to deal with fog during certain times of the year. Other Gulf ports like Tampa and New Orleans have to deal with it as well. If you want to avoid fog I would recommend any other time of year other than early winter. All I am saying is that the new additions to terminal 2 were built to handle the latest and greatest mega ships. 

I'm afraid you missed my point. The issue was not that the port was closed due to fog: yes, that happens a lot at that time of year. The issue is that the port cannot handle the current ships with fog delays, let alone a larger ship. The only issue we should have experienced was a boarding delay, and a longer time in line. I'm pretty sure those are the only issues that Tampa and New Orleans experience with fog. We had a delay once in New Orleans that wasn't due to fog, but everything was very orderly. No one passed out. It sounds like the new additions were a complete failure, or they are not yet finished with key elements like training personnel or crowd control. The fog didn't cause those problems: The Galveston Port Authority did. If they have more to do before parking a larger ship there, so be it. But it would be a disaster if it happened now.

The terminal was designed to handle it, but I agree about the parking...

I disagree. The port can't handle the Liberty, let alone a larger ship. The Galveston terminal was a complete failure with Liberty of the Seas on the New Years cruise. The port had been fogged in, and as a result of the delay, everyone arrived at once. It was a complete madhouse. The port staff were poorly trained, and there was absolutely no crowd control. People passed out in the line, and they had difficult getting medical care in to them. I would hate to see what would happen with a larger ship. On the other hand, debarcation was painless.

We didn't do it, but discussed the strategy of two booze cruise trips versus 1 seven day cruise... That discussion will come up again! :-)

Seeking your opinions! My wife and Iare not very "beachy" and also not into active excursions like zip lines or river tubing. We like culinary activities, or possible tours. What are some of the things you have done in these ports that was a good value to you?

Not knocking triumph, just a sarcastic reference to that one incident. With some of the complaints I was reading, you'd think it really was something that dramatic.

No worries. I got your drift.

When we cruised over New Years on Liberty, we were fogged in the first day and boarding was delayed. They issued a $20 credit per person for a meal on shore.

YMMV, but my wife and I have done that without any complication or problem. Very simple. Handled right over the phone.

Aft Balcony. I haven't worked my way up to a suite yet, so this may eventually change. But aft balcony all day long.

I think I have decided that my favorite ship is the one that I am on.