Clothing- We had brought nice clothes for the two formal nights, pants and some dresses for the other nights. I had no problem dressing for dinner. However, many reviews I’d read said to not bring many t-shirts since you’d just buy them everywhere anyway. Well, buying them on the ship cost between $10-$20 per t-shirt – pretty pricey. We bought a few cheap t-shirts in Cozumel ($6.50 each), but I found that even with a few purchased t-shirts, I did not bring enough casual clothes – it was really hot outside and shore excursions were hot, so I ended up changing casual clothes 2-3 times/day. Also, the Sports deck (a ½ basketball court) has tons of soot droppings from the ship smokestack– if you sit down or lean anywhere around the court, you’ll get black soot on your clothes. And, if you play basketball, you’ll be covered in soot since the ball picks it up. Finally, there’s no self-laundry on the ship so unless you want to pay lots of money to clean your clothes, you’re stuck with them.

Passengers- Since this was a Basketball-themed cruise, there were many children on the ship. Probably had to do with summer vacation also. I don’t have exact numbers but we were told the cruise was sold out.  There did seem to be thousands of 9-12-year-old boys. Not as many girls. Also, I saw lots of un-attended 9-12 year old kids. We even went to one of the show (the grand finale) and saw two 10-year-old boys on the opposite side of the room bouncing beach balls against the wall. How in the world can parents let their children disrupt activities this way? I was pretty amazed.

Children/Teen Programs: I had my two teenagers, one brother brought his 6-year-old and the other brother brought his 20-month-old. There were no activities for children under 3 and babysitting was $8/hour with a minimum of 4 hours. We helped babysit the toddler but my sister-in-law said that if she cruised again, she’d wait until her daughter was 3. The programs for the 6-12-year-olds were very good – they took the children (on at-sea days) from about 9-11:30, 2:30-4:30 and from 7:30-10. The kids had a great time. I did hear one guy complain that he was on the same deck as the Children’s room (Deck 3) and that the kids ran screaming up and down the halls, day and night. Something to think about when choosing a cabin.

As for the teen activities, there weren’t many – they would meet about 3 times/day and do some activity that typically lasted no more than an hour. My 15-year-old decided the activities were “lame”, so she and I became pretty constant companions – we did a wine tasting (fun) and an art auction (boring) and some shows. The 13-year-old enjoyed the get-togethers more, but they still were not that frequent. All in all, I was not impressed with the teen program.

Service- We enjoyed our waiter (Lloyd), busboy (Patrick), room steward (Oswald). Almost all the servers seemed to be Jamaican – Lloyd said it’s 0because English is the native language in Jamaica so Jamaicans are able to adapt pretty quickly to mostly American passengers. They were all friendly and I wish I’d talked to Lloyd about shore excursions and hair braiding and just in general asked his advice before we went on shore. I’d heard the service crew members typically makes $50/month and this fact was confirmed on the ship. They literally live off the tips you give them. Also, we were told (and saw) that waiters and room stewards typically work 12-16 hour days, with their only breaks coming on shore days – even then they might only get an extra couple of hours off. So, if you enjoy your servers, tip them – they work so hard. I ended up tipping everyone the recommended amount per person – this ended up being pretty expensive with 3 of us - $180 for the waiter, busboy, maitre ‘d and room steward and then I gave the wine steward an additional $15. So a total of $195 for 3 people.

Food- There were two dinning rooms: the Seven Seas and Four Seasons with main or late seating. We were assigned main seating in the Seven Seas at a wonderful table next to a window. Of the two dining room, I liked the Seven Seas the best – great views and it seemed very open – it was noisier though at times. The food was good but the appetizer portions were very small – order cheese sticks and you get two of them, very nicely showcased with  a red-yellow sauce. I solved the problem of tiny appetizers by ordering at least two different ones with each meal. That way, I got variety without eating tons of food. The main courses were adequate – some meat dishes were dry. The desserts were fine too – I’m not much of a desert person, but I really loved the Baked Alaska. Also, the waiters do a show on two nights – one with a “Flaming Babbaloo” (a cream cake) and the other on the 2nd formal night with the “Baked Alaska”.  It’s quite a production, so bring your camera.

We ate in the dining room for most of our meals, except breakfast which we ate in the Big Apple café. We also got a few late-night snacks at the Big Apple (pizza, hot dogs, onion rings – all the nutritional stuff). The Big Apple café can be crowded at main eating times but if you go to the always go to the left line (port side), it’s always less crowded.

On Thursday night, we ate at Le Bistro, which is quiet and very nice. The food is quite good there and it has more of an “intimate restaurant” atmosphere than the dining rooms. It costs $5 per person to eat there.

Activities/Shows- We went to the “Grease” show which was fun. The actors have good voices and are an enthusiastic bunch. My 15-year-old went to “Sea Legs” and enjoyed it – she found the male dancers very entertaining to watch. The comedian/magician was funny and did some great tricks. The final show was a combination of all the dancers, the comedian and their new singer (a lady who looks and sings much like Bette Midler). Also, several crew members came and sang (or attempted to) in the closing number.

We played Bingo the first day at sea and spent $28 each to play 4 games with 3 bingo cards per game. The prizes ranged from about $150 to $300 and there were about 100 people there. It was slow and boring and we didn’t win anything. I’d much rather spend my money on Blackjack in the casino – it’s more fun with better odds.

I love to gamble, so I spent a lot of time in the casino. They had about 5 blackjack tables (most $5 minimum, sometimes a couple were $10 minimum), one Let It Ride table, one Caribbean Stud table, one Roulette table and one Craps table. There were about 130 slot machines. I didn’t do much on the slot machines, but I did OK on the tables.

My daughter and I went to the Tuesday Live Art Auction and stayed for about an hour (of the hour and a half). They probably brought out 25 pictures while we were there, most with quite expensive minimum bids – anywhere from $90 to $450. If no one bid on a piece, they simply took it away and brought up another piece. While we were there, people bid on about a quarter of the pieces brought out. Most pieces were not originals  – they were signed lithographs (nice poster) or serigraphs (nicer poster). We were also told that if you saw something you liked and did NOT bid on it, you wouldn’t see it again in another live auction. What they didn’t tell us is that everything that wasn’t bid on would show up later in Silent Auctions and basically, fire sales. I went to the Silent Auction on Wed. and got a nice original abstract piece for $180. On Thursday, I bought an even nicer abstract of a vase of flowers done in palette knife with fabric added for depth. It cost $160. My sister-in-law bought a nice lithograph for her kitchen for $140 which I know had an opening bid of $350 at the auction. So, don’t buy at the live auctions – wait for the silent auctions and sales. However, you might want to attend a live auction to get quite an education on the artists and their works.

Shore Leave and Excursions- We read other reviews and planned on doing a ship shore excursion on Cancun, but doing our own thing in Cozumel and Roatan. We had mixed luck with both types of excursions.

Cancun- We took the $49/person shore excursion to Xcaret. It took 30 minutes to “tender” to shore. Then we got on a bus to the “water park” which took about 1 hour and 15 minutes. We got to Xcaret around 3 and were told to be back at the buses at 6:30. The park was OK – the underground river is nice and cool but it’s about a 30-minute trip to get all the way down the river and the current doesn’t just carry you there – you have to work a little. We ate first so we didn’t go down the river until about 4:15 – by that time, I was literally soaked in my shorts and t-shirt – the temperature was about 93 and humidity was probably close to 100%.  So, the river was wonderful. I refused to get back in to my sweaty clothes, so I wore a towel and a bathing suit the rest of the day – all the way back to the ship. We got back to the ship at 8:30. We were so wiped out by the time we got there that we didn’t even shop at the market by the shore. Altogether, we spent about 4 hours getting to shore and back and about 3 ½ hours at the park – the park wasn’t that fun and was not worth $49 plus 4 hours travelling time.

Cozumel- At Cozumel, the ship docked at the downtown terminal and passengers walked down a long pier to the shore. We got out around 9am and took a taxi ($8) to Chankanaab, where it cost us $7 per person. We walked straight through to the beach and snorkeling area. We rented snorkeling equipment for $5 each, laid our stuff in the plastic lounge chairs and went out to the water. There were lots of fish, a sunken ship and a platform out in the water. You could swim out to the platform, sun a little, swim back in, rest in the lounge chair, swim some more, etc. We also saw Carnival’s Sensation ship at the International pier and later their Ecstasy ship at the same pier.

We decided to head back to the ship for lunch around noon. We ate there and then took a taxi ($4) to a shop called “Los Cinco Soles” which we heard was the best shop around – it was OK but it is at the end of all the shops, so you get to walk back past every shop in downtown. We found some great prices at the Forum shop ($6.50 for selected t-shirts, shorts, bathing suit covers) and got a free shopping bag with our over $25 purchase. But, the walk back was hot and shop owners pestered us to come in at every shop on the way.

I also have another shopping tip on getting hair braided – don’t do it at Cancun or Cozumel – do it at Roatan – it’s much cheaper there and they do a better job. We had my youngest’s done at Cozumel for the un-godly price of $2/braid (she had 15 braids done). I didn’t bargain – I should have and I should have waited for Roatan where we had the oldest’s hair for $10 for 15 braids.

Roatan-  We had read a ship review where the guy said he went to a place called Anthony’s Key, saw the dolphins, swam on shore and had the best time of his life – all for the cost of a taxi ride ($10/person for drop-off and pick-up). So, that’s what our group of 10 decided to do. We were recommended to use a van driver named Margo. We found Margo, who told us that Anthony’s Key was private and that we would not be able to swim there or see the dolphins. She suggested a place called Fantasy Island ($15/person). We decided we wanted to see Anthony’s Key, so Margo said she’d take us there first and then we’d go on to Fantasy Island for $20/person. We accepted and went to the Key first. When we got there, they had a small museum, a dophin show area and some boats that went to the PRIVATE Anthony’s Key island. So, our taxi driver was right. We did decide to pay an extra $5/person to see the museum and a short dolphin show. This turned out to be a mistake since we wasted 2 hours there with an OK museum and an OK dolphin show. We left around 12:30.

Our driver had told us about a good restaurant so we asked her to take us there. We got there around 1:00. Our driver then told us she really hadn’t planned on spending all day with us at a rate of $20/person – usually she charged $300 for an all-day use of the van and we were only paying $160 (8 at $20 with no charge for the two children). So, it boiled down to her wanting $30/person with us stuck way on the other end of the island. We agreed to pay the extra money but were not happy about it – we felt ripped-off by the surprise increase. The restaurant was good – copious amounts of wonderful seafood for about $20/plate but it took forever to get the food to us and  we were there until 2:00. Next, on to Fantasy Island: a resort consisting of a peaceful lagoon and a wonderful snorkeling area. However, we had about 45 minutes there. We then went back to the ship (got there around 3:30) where I left my oldest to get her hair braided and I went to the room to shower and change. I was too pooped to shop which I later regretted since there I didn’t know the market was right outside the exit from the pier. My dad got some nice wood pieces for good prices. If we had it all to do over, we’d have gone straight to Fantasy Island and would have gotten picked up around 2:30. It would have been $15/person with great snorkeling, places to eat and beach chairs by a pretty lagoon.

By the way, the highly touted Tabyana shore excursion was cancelled because of rain – however, it wasn’t cancelled until after the passengers stepped off their 30-minutes buses to pouring rain. On the trip back to the ship, some buses got washed out on the hilly road and some passengers ended up walking most of the way back to the ship. Yes, their money was refunded, but they were a very grumpy bunch. Also, most of the waiters had their shore leave cancelled because of the rain. They weren’t too happy either. 

Disembarkation- We were the second group off and left the ship around 9:45 - mostly because we chose to wait in the lobby, starting at about 9:00, until the line thinned down before we got into it. We were on a bus by 10:00 bound for the airport and got there around 11:00. We then checked our bags at the door and proceeded to sit in the airport waiting for our 1:24 flight back to Dallas.

Overall - Cruising is a nice form of vacationing. I came back relaxed and I didn’t gain weight (not so much because I worked out but because I took the stairs everywhere and swam/snorkeled at each port). I enjoyed the food, the gambling and Cozumel. I thought time in ports was too short and I didn’t like doing 3 ports in 3 days – we were wiped out by the 3rd day. I don’t think that cruising is the ONLY way to vacation, but I did find it a nice alternative to the traditional vacation. We’ve already booked a cruise on Carnival at Christmas, so we’re willing to try it again!