For a video review of my experience with Pro-Dive, click here.
You can’t go to Australia without seeing the Great Barrier Reef, right? On our trip to Australia, my family and I spent a week in Cairns (pronounced "Cans"). The girls spent a few days shopping and sightseeing and I hit the books (and the water). I enrolled in a 5-day learn-to-dive PADI course offered by Pro-Dive. Over the 5 days, I had classroom instruction, pool instruction, and an incredible live-aboard experience as we explored the Great Barrier Reef.
As you would expect, Cairns is full of dive companies. I am sure most of them are good, but I was exceptionally pleased with my experience at pro dive. The staff was top notch, the price was cheaper than you could get in the US, and the experience was amazing.
Above: My floating hotel and dock for 3 days. Not too shabby.
Above: Filling the tanks.
Above: Pedro – my dive partner for the week.
DISEMBARKATION: Our flight was not leaving Miami until 2:45pm so we enjoyed Freestyle Disembarkation. We chose the Express Walk Off Program. With this option you are free to disembark at anytime after the ship is cleared up until they call for all guests to disembark. You must carry off all your luggage to participate in this program.
So on our final morning we got up at 7:45am, showered and then headed to breakfast. After breakfast we headed back to the cabin and packed. We were out of our cabin by 9:30am so that our cabin steward would have access to the room to prepare it for the next guests. We were given a list of things we could do while we waited to disembark. We planned to head to the Bliss Lounge, but we couldn’t even exit the elevator on deck 7 because of throngs of people waiting to get off the ship. We headed away from the crowds and sat in some window seats and read until they made they final call to disembark. We walked right off the ship at 10:30am without having to fight the crowds. There was a bit of a line at immigration, but I think we spent less than 10 minutes waiting.
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Dining: We tried to get reservations at La Cucina again, but they were booked. We were going to just go to Summer Palace, but thought we would walk up to La Cucina and give it a shot. The screens around the ship that tell you how full restaurants are showed availability. We walked up and were seated. We ordered a pizza both nights we ate there and they were awesome. I had the manicotti it was good. Dessert was good, cheesecake and a macadamia nut ice cream dish.
Activities: I had hoped to spend the day at the spa, but I had had a little too much sun. The thought of heated tile loungers and pain brought pain to mind rather than relaxation. Instead, we found a quiet, shady spot on a deck with comfy loungers. We spent most of the day reading and napping. Perfect.
Entertainment: Thursday evening we went to see the show Sharkbait: Comedy action juggling. We have really never seen a juggling show we liked until now. These guys were awesome. Very high energy and entertaining. Later in the evening we headed to the Spinnaker Lounge for the Star Seeker Guest Talent Show. There were some very talented guests on the cruise. It was followed by The Second City: Adult Improv show and the Quest Game.
Dining: Tuesday morning we ordered room service for breakfast so that we could get an earlier start to our day in Cozumel. Lunch was enjoyed at Nachi Cocom, but we were back on the ship in time for dinner at Mambo’s. We shared the Il Poppo. We were disappointed in this. This presentation was nice, but the meat was tough. Scot asked if he could also get shrimp with our dinner and was told no. The waiter was grumpy. Dessert was disappointing. Scot had the churros and I had the cream puff.
Wednesday morning we headed to the buffet for breakfast and weren’t disappointed. Lunch was at Rum Point Beach. We went to Indigo for dinner. Dinner was ok and service was good. We had the beef and a Creole dish.
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DINING: We ate at the Garden Cafe buffet for breakfast. They had a great selection. The French toast was wonderful. A few tips: It seemed to get more crowded each day. If the lines are too long you can walk all the way to the back and head to the Great Outdoors. They don’t have as big of a selection, but you can find most things out there without the wait. They even have an omelet station there. Also, seating can be difficult to find. Head to La Cucina it is open for seating. It is quiet and cool inside there and empty most of the time.
We dined at The Summer Palace for lunch. The food and service were great.
For dinner we had made reservations for La Cucina, the Italian restaurant. We had a table for two by the window. I had the Land and Sea. It was wonderful. I can’t remember what Scot had. We had Tiramisu for dessert. It was good.
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BACKGROUND INFO: Scot and I took our first cruise in the fall of 2005 on the Disney Wonder. It was a four day cruise to the Bahamas. I immediately fell in love with cruising. Scot enjoys it and is certainly a willing participate, but doesn’t think of cruising constantly like I do;) Our second cruise was on the Fascination in November 2006. Another four day cruise. This time we visited Key West and Cozumel.
We knew we wanted to cruise again this fall and started checking out our options. We wanted to sail out of Miami and Scot was only willing to be gone one Sunday. I was hoping to try our first week long cruise, but couldn’t find anything that would put us gone only one Sunday and fit our budget. We decided on a 5 day Western Caribbean cruise on the Norwegian Pearl October 14 – 19, 2007. I was very excited about the concept of Freestyle cruising. We were taking this cruise to spend time as a couple and were looking forward to tables for two at dinner every night. We booked through an online travel agency.
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For a video review of our Rays, Reef & Rum Point Tour experience, click here.
My husband and I are just back from our cruise on the Norwegian Pearl and did this tour on 10-17-07. We loved it!!! Never would have known about it without Cruise Critic.
The tour is offered through Native Way Watersports in Grand Cayman. I made our reservations online. We were on the Pearl and got into port at 10:00am and of course had to tender. Native Way was willing to work with our ships port time and start a tour later. We met up by 11:15 and headed to the bus. We were the only ship in port that day and had 12 people on our tour. Never felt crowded. The bus ride was about 15 minutes, I would guess. I had never been to Grand Cayman before and enjoyed seeing some of the island.
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For a video review of our day at Nachi Cocom, click here.
Here is a review of our day at Nachi Cocom on 10-16-07. We made reservations through Island Marketing about a week ahead of time and paid $12 each as a deposit. Our ship the Norwegian Pearl was in port from 7am to 4pm. We were one of three ships in Cozumel that day. Our ship switched to local time which gave us an extra hour of sleep.
We got off the ship and grabbed a taxi and were at Nachi Cocom around 9:15am. The cab driver did ask us if we had a reservation and made the comment when we arrived that we were early. Taxi ride was $15. My reservation from Island Marketing stated the hours are 9am-5pm. When we walked in they seemed surprised to see us that early, but someone asked if we had reservations and we were taken to chairs, given wrist bands and they collected the remainder of money due them.
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So what do you get a 14 year old girl for her birthday? Hmm. Well, what do girls that age like clothes, jewelry, a cell phone, an ipod? Not that simple for my daughter, Mariah. She wanted to go see Wicked, the Broadway musical, but what do you expect. She’s my daughter. While, I loved the idea of going to see Wicked it would involve a weekend trip to Chicago. The cost is a great deal more than we usually spend on our children for their birthdays.
Our family came to the rescue and Mariah received cash for her birthday from grandparents, aunts, uncles and us. So the planning began.
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