jasonvan2017
Second Mate
Conroe
Joined 04/2017
12
Cruises7
Reviews57
Helpful Votes4 cruises now, 3 different cruise lines, will make it 5 and 4 this September. I love traveling and cruising allows me to go to lots of places without the stress.
Upcoming cruises
Past cruises
April 2024 - 8 Night Eastern Caribbean (Galveston Roundtrip) Cruise on Carnival Dream
February 2024 - 7 Night Western Caribbean (Galveston Roundtrip) Cruise on Harmony of the Seas
7 days still not long enough
Went went on a 5 day on Allure last year and felt left missing out on everything the ship had to offer, so we booked this 7 days to give us a chance to experience more. 7 days is still barely enough time. I did do the surfing, zip line, Abyss slide, and mini golf. 2 shows. 2 aqua show and 1 ice show,
April 2023 - 7 Night Alaska: Glacier Bay Skagway & Juneau (Seattle Roundtrip) Cruise on Norwegian Bliss
Nothing like Alaska
Alaska is absolutely stunning. Definitely want to wait till late may if wildlife is more of what you are after though.
January 2023 - 5 nights on Allure of the Seas
Best cruise to date
Going to be a bit long for a review, bust have so much to say. Going to break it down by sections to help keep it organized.
1. Entertainment. The entertainment on board is by far the best I've ever experienced. We could not see all of it as it was just a 5 day cruise. Mama Mia was awesome. Great performance and vocals where on par. The ice show had me wanting to give a standing ovation every 5 min, the talent was unbelievable. The aqua show was incredible edge of your seat at times, but also funny and they mess with the audience. Didn't make it to any comedy shows, just wasn't enough time.
2. Food. Food was really good. We did main dinning 2 times, Giovanni once, Solarium once, wipe out Cafe once and Windjammer 2 times. Was not disappointed once.
3. The Ship. There is soooo much to do on this ship its impossible to do it all in 5 days time. What we did do was the flow rider, a lot easier then I expected and got great pictures, carousel was fun to try out, I expected its more entertaining for kids, didn't get to go on rising tide, it was not working 2 of the days. Not enough time to go ice skating, zip line, rock wall. The promenade is unlike any other ship. You felt like you where walking through a shopping mall. The Boardwalk felt like a carnival and central park while being in not such great shape due to the freeze was still very peaceful. The theater is huge, plenty of seating.
4. The Rooms. We stayed in a balcony ocean view. Plenty of room. We did not feel cramped at all.
5. Boarding. The port in Galveston was so smooth. From parking to getting aboard took less then 20 min. Extremely efficient.
6. Internet . The internet speed on board is very fast for a cruise line. Streaming with no buffering. We where able to upload videos and pictures to FB with no problems.
Overall experience. I can't begin to describe how amazing this ship is. It is older now and needs a bit of an upgrade, but if you can look past that minor issue it is a beautiful ship with an outstanding crew.
September 2022 - 10 Night Western Europe & Germany (Southampton To Copenhagen) Cruise on Norwegian Star
Great to be back
After reading reviews of NCL Star i was a bit nervous. No idea what others problems are but the Star was amazing from embarkation to disembarking. If I had any complaints at all, and they would be very very small complaints is the wait staff was unsure on drinks and keeping water full, but this was extremely minor and with it being a very new crew we didn't find it to be of any inconvenience. The staff was very fun to talk to and we had a lot of good laughs with them. The entertainment on board was so so, but as this is mostly an older crowd and I have no previous references to NCL as it's my first time, I have no real complaints here. Would loved to have had at least one comedy show.
The only real complaint we have is their air to sea program is not good at all. We asked to fly in 2 days early, they booked our hotel and then booked the flight for the day of. Took 3 weeks for them to say their was nothing they could do to fix it. We had to refund the 500 and pay 1500 for flights on our own. They at least gave us 2 cabin categories upgrade.
In all, this was a fantastic cruise and don't mind using NCL again.
February 2020 - 8 Night Eastern Caribbean (Galveston Roundtrip) Cruise on Carnival Freedom
August 2019 - 12 Night British Isles With Kirkwall (Southampton Roundtrip) Cruise on Crown Princess
August 2018 - 12 Night Mediterranean Greek Isles (Barcelona Roundtrip) Cruise on Vision of the Seas
I have had a very different experience then most. The room attendant was great, most of the stops where great, but the entertainment and food was terrible. It was the same food every day, nothing changed. The buns for the hot dog and hamburger was always hard and stail. It felt like eating at golden coral. That is not a compliment. As for the entertainment, I only saw the band on the deck play 2 times, both times it was the same songs. The music in the windjammer was on a 6 song loop, not kidding. The singer in the centrum was major off key. And the theater had one comedy show for a 12 day cruise. The ship was clean but that Is probably cause everything was closed so much. The pool would open at 9am and closed at 7pm. The colarieum opened at 10, closed at 7. The pool level seating would be ropped off till around 10am. This ship is making me reconsider RCI again. My next cruise is booked on carnival.
June 2017 - 5 Night Bermuda (Baltimore Roundtrip) Cruise on Grandeur of the Seas
Awesome first Cruise, had such a good time. Very relaxing and the events where great. The food was very good. I enjoyed just sitting on deck just enjoying the sun and fresh air.
Norwegian Star
Sail date: September 16, 2022
After reading reviews of NCL Star i was a bit nervous. No idea what others problems are but the Star was amazing from embarkation to disembarking. If I had any complaints at all, and they would be very very small complaints is the wait staff was unsure on drinks and keeping water full, but this was extremely minor and with it being a very new crew we didn't find it to be of any inconvenience. The staff was very fun to talk to and we had a lot of good laughs with them. The entertainment on board was so so, but as this is mostly an older crowd and I have no previous references to NCL as it's my first time, I have no real complaints here. Would loved to have had at least one comedy show.
The only real complaint we have is their air to sea program is not good at all. We asked to fly in 2 days early, they booked our hotel and then booked the flight for the day of. Took 3 weeks for them to say their was nothing they could do to fix it. We had to refund the 500 and pay 1500 for flights on our own. They at least gave us 2 cabin categories upgrade.
In all, this was a fantastic cruise and don't mind using NCL again.
Harmony of the Seas
Sail date: February 25, 2024
Went went on a 5 day on Allure last year and felt left missing out on everything the ship had to offer, so we booked this 7 days to give us a chance to experience more. 7 days is still barely enough time. I did do the surfing, zip line, Abyss slide, and mini golf. 2 shows. 2 aqua show and 1 ice show,
Norwegian Bliss
Sail date: April 22, 2023
Alaska is absolutely stunning. Definitely want to wait till late may if wildlife is more of what you are after though.
Allure of the Seas
Sail date: January 10, 2023
Going to be a bit long for a review, bust have so much to say. Going to break it down by sections to help keep it organized.
1. Entertainment. The entertainment on board is by far the best I've ever experienced. We could not see all of it as it was just a 5 day cruise. Mama Mia was awesome. Great performance and vocals where on par. The ice show had me wanting to give a standing ovation every 5 min, the talent was unbelievable. The aqua show was incredible edge of your seat at times, but also funny and they mess with the audience. Didn't make it to any comedy shows, just wasn't enough time.
2. Food. Food was really good. We did main dinning 2 times, Giovanni once, Solarium once, wipe out Cafe once and Windjammer 2 times. Was not disappointed once.
3. The Ship. There is soooo much to do on this ship its impossible to do it all in 5 days time. What we did do was the flow rider, a lot easier then I expected and got great pictures, carousel was fun to try out, I expected its more entertaining for kids, didn't get to go on rising tide, it was not working 2 of the days. Not enough time to go ice skating, zip line, rock wall. The promenade is unlike any other ship. You felt like you where walking through a shopping mall. The Boardwalk felt like a carnival and central park while being in not such great shape due to the freeze was still very peaceful. The theater is huge, plenty of seating.
4. The Rooms. We stayed in a balcony ocean view. Plenty of room. We did not feel cramped at all.
5. Boarding. The port in Galveston was so smooth. From parking to getting aboard took less then 20 min. Extremely efficient.
6. Internet . The internet speed on board is very fast for a cruise line. Streaming with no buffering. We where able to upload videos and pictures to FB with no problems.
Overall experience. I can't begin to describe how amazing this ship is. It is older now and needs a bit of an upgrade, but if you can look past that minor issue it is a beautiful ship with an outstanding crew.
Vision of the Seas
Sail date: August 18, 2018
I have had a very different experience then most. The room attendant was great, most of the stops where great, but the entertainment and food was terrible. It was the same food every day, nothing changed. The buns for the hot dog and hamburger was always hard and stail. It felt like eating at golden coral. That is not a compliment. As for the entertainment, I only saw the band on the deck play 2 times, both times it was the same songs. The music in the windjammer was on a 6 song loop, not kidding. The singer in the centrum was major off key. And the theater had one comedy show for a 12 day cruise. The ship was clean but that Is probably cause everything was closed so much. The pool would open at 9am and closed at 7pm. The colarieum opened at 10, closed at 7. The pool level seating would be ropped off till around 10am. This ship is making me reconsider RCI again. My next cruise is booked on carnival.
Grandeur of the Seas
Sail date: June 10, 2017
Awesome first Cruise, had such a good time. Very relaxing and the events where great. The food was very good. I enjoyed just sitting on deck just enjoying the sun and fresh air.
Cruise tips
Harmony of the Seas
The Boardwalk balcony is not as bad as everyone claims. The only time it had noise was during the Aqua shows and that was 5 hours total across all 7 days, not enough to fuss about, it was awesome getting to watch the show from our balcony though.
Coxen Hole, Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras
We got a private excursion through Viator, and we got a private ATV tour. Monkey, sloth place, rum tour. Chocolate factory. We had a blast.
Norwegian Bliss
The elevator buttons are on 2 to 3 banks. If you hit up on one, only 2 or 3 elevators are on that. Hit up on all of them so you can get all 8 to have a chance on your floor.
Went to Xenses Park. Man, what a way to have stuff mess with your brain. It was so cool and an amazing experience.
Maya kingdom adventure water park. There was so much to do and see. Water slides, zip lines, zip coaster, rope course, lazy river, etc.
Norwegian Star
Deck 7 is the go too. Don't go to 6 if your going to the main dinning, you take 7 to aft and then down to 6.
Half Moon Cay, Bahamas (Private Island)
What a place, water was a bit chilly, but that is February. The sun felt great, the food was ok, burgers, hotdogs, chicken. Most the places for suviners only took cash, so keep that in mind.
Was good to see where I grew up. So much to do, hemmingway house, southern most point, ship wreck musium. Lots of good food. Rent a golf cart for about 90$ to get around.
After dealing with RC charging 18 for transportation only to find out their was free transportation right next door. We went to Castle d'if, prison in the novel "Count of Montecristo " it was amazing. Not enough time to see the Notre dame church as well. A side note, their is not a lot of souvenir shops.
Pisa/Florence with GPS electronic devices through RC. Very nice excursion. Took a 1hr drive to pisa and spent 1 hour their. Unless you want to go to the top of the bell tower (leaning tower) then 1 hr is more then enough time. It's a courtyard with 3 buildings. Then back to the bus for another hour drive to Florence. 4 main attraction are all with in 10 to 15 min walk of each other. Plan on spending a good hour or 2 getting into the duomo. The Santa Croce was 8€ and no line. Lots of places to eat and shop. Bus ride back to La Spezi.
Not much to see here. We just walked around the main city. Saw the windmills, a few churches, did some shopping and grabbed lunch at the docks before getting back on the boat.
As soon as you get off the tender boat grab the speed boat to Oia. 15 min and your their. They give you a bus ride back to fira. We then took the city bus to akitiri. 15eu for the boat, 4 more for city bus to and from and 6 more down the cable car and took about 4 hours total.
Yellow bus hop on hop off with city tour tickets was worth every penny. Spent about 80$ US and saw everything we wanted. The bus picked us up at the port 8am dropped us off 430pm. Was perfect.
I would suggest a tour on this stop. Its already over an hour to rome. So you lose 2 hours at the start. Lines were long, we had skip the line for everthing.
Nice place, we saw st pauls catacomb, madia and st johns cathedral. What ever you do, do not, i repeat do not take the red hop on hop off bus. Take the blue one. We ended up taking a cab. We finally saw a red bus at 1pm outside madia mdin entrance and their was no driver. We waiting around 30 min and another bus shows up. Took 90 more min to get back to the docks. Red bus sucked so bad.