Any Suggestions AHey bout Cruises?

[yzeater]

Hey guys-
We're leaving next weekend for our first cruise, and I was hoping that I could get some suggestions on how to make it as fun as possible. It's a 7 day Western Carribean cruise on Holland America (key west, cozumel, grand cayman, half moon cay). We've got a medium room (exterior, porch, 220 sq ft), and our dinner table is a large one (maybe that's not the correct term, but it's where you sit with other people, not just your family). So what do we want to do at the stops? Any tips to the room, activites on the boat days, dinner, essentially how can we optimize the fun on this trip? Thanks a lot guys
-Stephen

 

[Zerotact]

I was in cozumel years ago, and I can tell you that things get cheaper the furhter away from the cruise ships you go. The cruise lines usually have made arrangements to offer you additional services once you dock, these are usually a higher price than if you went into the city and arranged your own.

For example, we wanted to go fishing, we got off the ship and hopped in a cab, and asked the cab driver to take us to were we could hire a fishing boat.
I can't remember the price, but it was like half of what it would have cost to arrange it through to cruise ship.

I also know in cozumel that the little area were you dock, is not cozumel, it's just a little village that has popped up from the cruise line business. To get to cozumel you have to hop in a taxi and have them take you to cozumel.... That was quite possibly the scariest cab ride i've ever had........

 

[yzeater]

Originally posted by Zerotact
To get to cozumel you have to hop in a taxi and have them take you to cozumel.... That was quite possibly the scariest cab ride i've ever had........

Care to elaborate?

 

[MXN4FUN]

If you come in with the cruise ships rent a scooter and head out of town aways, prices come down quite abit the farther away you get from the cruise ship dock. 15 dollar blankets suddenly become 3~4 dollars. Taxi's are are controlled by the government in Cozumel and really aren't that bad. The price is always a set fee plus the number of passengers. In Grand Cayman try to get to Sting ray city, it's kind of wild playing with sting rays. They feel like wet marhmallows. Enjoy the beaches there because they are the best around with water the couldn't be any more blue. Oh and do your partying in Cozumel because the price goes way up when you hit Grand Cayman.

 

[Jaybird]

Steve,
One thing....if you get seasick you will absolutely hate every second that you are at sea...and trust me, you will be at sea much more than at dock.
DO NOT forget to go see your doctor and request some seasick patches. You may never need them, but if you do you won;t be able to get them onboard the ship. They are prescription and the ships doctor WILL NOT give them to you. Forget about the pills and gadgets, they don't work.
DO NOT FORGET TO DO THIS FOR YOURSELF AND FAMILY!

Have fun, matey! :)

 

[mx547]

cruise? that's what i do on the last two laps when i'm too tired to hang on.

 

[lawman]

man, i love cruises. next time i am going for the balcony, so i will be interested to hear how you like yours.

i think the best thing to do in the coastal tourist towns is to get out of them asap! when i went to cozumel, we took the side trip to the ruins at tulum. fascinating & well worth the time & $. in key west, i recommend the mel fisher treasure museum; i've been to k.w. twice, for a total of a few days, & that's the best thing i ever did there.

i also rec. going snorkeling somewhere; takes about 2 minutes to get the hang of it, & the whole family will enjoy it. go ahead & buy the little baggie of dog food; it's cool to feed the fish underwater. i also rec. getting a throwaway ujnderwater camera.

have fun & give a full report when you get back!

 

[Milk]

I just got back from a 5 day, Western Carribean cruise with Royal Carribean. We went to Key West, Cozumel, and the Bahamas. We were supposed to go to Belize, but hurricane Claudette caused us to be re-routed.

One thing I didnt like about the cruise is that you are only in a city for a max. of about 8 hours. When we were in Key West, we docked at 8am, and took off again at 230pm. Key West was by far the nicest, and most fun, place we went to. Ride the Conch train tour if you have the chance.

On those ships, they have nightly shows in the main theatre. Try to go to each of these. My wife and I only went twice, but after the fact, we wished we had gone to each one.

Neither my wife or I had a problem with sea sickness, but 2 of the 6 people we were with did. Take some meds or use those patches, but dont drink if you take the pills! They will make ya sick fast.

We took a party boat excursion out of Cozumel that had all the free margaritas and rum punch you could drink. They also provided you snorkeling equipment free of charge. We had two 16 yr olds with us, and they never had a problem getting drinks as the age is much lower in Mexico. The cost was 45 bucks for 5 1/2 hours.

Try to go to the aquarium and the treasure museum when you are in Key West. Those two places were fun and they cost 9 bucks each to go in.

 

[dirtybkr]

Mexican cabbies are by far some of the worst drivers you are likely to see . They won't however overcharge you . If you want a thrill , sit in the front seat.
Last time I was in Cozumel I just about put my foot through the floor pushing the" passenger brake " .

 

[yzeater]

We're leaving tomorrow! Can't wait. Thanks for all the help guys (back to packing...)

 

[WaltCMoto]

Grand Cayman has Seven mile beach, its a beutiful place to swim as the water is warm and pretty clear. Heres my tip on this one, ITS FREE, we paid $20 a head to go to a hotel that gives you a chair, and 1 drink. we still had to pay the taxi $3 a head each way. If you want, just have the taxi guy drop you off at a public access, there every 1/2 mile or so and its all the same beach. Get yourself a snorkel and mask, we saw sea turtles and stingrays there. Bring a big bottled water off the ship. it will seem like a bargain at 3 bucks when you want a drink. FYI beers were $6 at the beach. We went 5 weeks ago. had rain every day and still had fun.
See the nightly shows, they are good
At cozumel we did the state park reef snorkle trip, I would do it again.
On the ship, walk around, seek out everything you can, theres plenty to do.

 

[yzeater]

Hey guys, we got back last night. Very fun time, yet I think we don't need to do that again
Zerotact - The cab ride was suprisingly manageable, I had some interesting discussions about buying off cops with the cabbies (4 years of spanish paid off)
MX4FUN- Sting ray city was amazingly cool. Having them eat out of my hand freaked me out (for those who haven't done it, stingrays act like 500hp vaccuums when they're around food)
Jaybird- We got the patches at your request, but luckily we didn't need them. The ms Zuiderdam (our ship) was about 8 months old, so it handled the waves (we didn't have many) quite well. How weird is this? Since I've been on land, I haven't been able to stand straight. It feels as if the ground is rockin like the ship :). Seriously, I think I may get seasick on land b/c of this
lawman- You should've warned me about the size of the rooms! Our balcony was very cool, we would have gone crazy with out it. The people we had dinner with were moved from a balcony room to the largest suite on the ship b/c their old room was next to the officers lounge (they drink and party like sailors ;)), so our friends didn't sleep the first two nights....not sure how that's related, but they got a nice room. We snapped a few pictures in front of the Mel Fisher museum, but didn't have time to go inside
Milk- The shows were awesome! Four comedians, a singer, and two shows by the in house production company. AMAZING stuff. Oh! In one lounge they had the newly wed game. That was creepy / hilarious. The oldest man in the group (80 or so) kept talking about how much....cough cough....he had with his wife. Weirdest locale to do it, the pool on the ship :).
WaltCMoto- We should've done seven mile beach. Playa sol became our beach for the day, and it was soooo overcommericalized (and I saw a tarantula there in the wild), we hated it.

Quite a cool trip. The best thing overall was Half Moon Cay. It's Holland America's private island. PERFECT. The sand was so fine, almost no shells, we rented a sail boat, had a barbecue. Well I'll try to get some pics up tonight. Thanks so much for the advice!
-Stephen