As I found a lot of value in others TR...it's only fair I repay the favor. 2/20 was the first cruise for our family of 4. DH, DW, DS, DD. In fact, it's the first plane ride for both the kids. We had high expectations for the cruise...unfortunately, we returned home a little disappointed. 7 day cruise and we only got a legitimate chance to get in the ocean 1 day. Even on board it was fairly cold and windy...to the point the kids only swam once. I tried the hot tub, but it was too hot...maybe 110 degrees. When in working order and warm enough to swim, all pools and hot tubs were jammed full. Too full to be comfortable.
Great service and all the staff were wonderful. Food was great, if not overwhelming. At one point, I think we all were ready for a simple PB and J.
We were in a Cat 9, and even that was smaller than we expected. Really the minimum for a family our size. Any smaller and we'd been stepping on each to get dress and use the bathroom.
The ports of call were probably the source of our greatest disappointment. The Mayan Ruins were a whole lot smaller in number and size than we had anticipated. There are no pyramids, few visible structures, and the mosquitoes were unbearable. A stop on the far side of the island at the ocean was nice, but very brief. The rest of the tour was tourist trap to purchase silver jewelry and various palm and coconut items that customs doesn't allow into the country. Key West was the cleanest of all ports save Castaway Cay. You could tell there was history there, and maybe even a nice town somewhere....but near the ship and downtown is over run with tourist trap shops and business. Little of Hemingway's Key West survives. Grand Cayman and our snorkel adventure got canceled due to high waves that would have prevented us from tending. Instead we went to Nassau. Other than the area around Atlantis, I struggle to find anything pleasant to report about Nassau. Atlantis and it's areas are spectacular. At their prices, it should be. Going to Atlantis would be the only reason I could ever see to return. High winds killed our replacement snorkel adventure...for the second day.
Redemption at Castaway Cay....great beaches...fantastic facilities...and they are making it better with new water features and customer areas. Plan a relaxing day at Castaway Cay...you won't be disappointed. We'd been happy to skipped Nassau and spend 2 days at Castaway Cay.
I'll continue to update with pictures and notes... I took over 1000 images, parred it down to 130 for the web... the gallery can be seen here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/tloyd01/Cruise?authkey=Gv1sRgCPajwuC88Y-TTg&feat=directlink
Great service and all the staff were wonderful. Food was great, if not overwhelming. At one point, I think we all were ready for a simple PB and J.
We were in a Cat 9, and even that was smaller than we expected. Really the minimum for a family our size. Any smaller and we'd been stepping on each to get dress and use the bathroom.
The ports of call were probably the source of our greatest disappointment. The Mayan Ruins were a whole lot smaller in number and size than we had anticipated. There are no pyramids, few visible structures, and the mosquitoes were unbearable. A stop on the far side of the island at the ocean was nice, but very brief. The rest of the tour was tourist trap to purchase silver jewelry and various palm and coconut items that customs doesn't allow into the country. Key West was the cleanest of all ports save Castaway Cay. You could tell there was history there, and maybe even a nice town somewhere....but near the ship and downtown is over run with tourist trap shops and business. Little of Hemingway's Key West survives. Grand Cayman and our snorkel adventure got canceled due to high waves that would have prevented us from tending. Instead we went to Nassau. Other than the area around Atlantis, I struggle to find anything pleasant to report about Nassau. Atlantis and it's areas are spectacular. At their prices, it should be. Going to Atlantis would be the only reason I could ever see to return. High winds killed our replacement snorkel adventure...for the second day.
Redemption at Castaway Cay....great beaches...fantastic facilities...and they are making it better with new water features and customer areas. Plan a relaxing day at Castaway Cay...you won't be disappointed. We'd been happy to skipped Nassau and spend 2 days at Castaway Cay.
I'll continue to update with pictures and notes... I took over 1000 images, parred it down to 130 for the web... the gallery can be seen here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/tloyd01/Cruise?authkey=Gv1sRgCPajwuC88Y-TTg&feat=directlink
