From this, to this...
- lkprince
- Jan 13, 2019
- 3 min read
Well we're back and we had a great vacation, and as you can see from the picture on the right, we went from 80 and sunny in Cozumel to 32 and snow but how can we complain when we just spent 8 days in paradise?!
A quick overview with more to come, but here are the highlights:
Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort was amazing! The hotel was beautiful, pools were great, waterslide was fun, beach was right there outside the pool gate, and drink service around the pool was prompt. Two complaints from our time there - the beds were horrible and I mean horrible, and the adjacent restaurant had good food but the service left a lot to be desired (breakfast took 2 hours the first day).
Supershuttle for the win - I downloaded the app on my phone prior to the trip and it was great! We utilized supershuttle for pick-up at FLL as well as transportation to and from the port. We were notified when our ride was on the way and also given the drivers name, picture, and van number prior to arrival. Each time we were greeted with friendly drivers and clean vans!
Carnival Horizon - meh, it was a nice new boat but the staff left a lot of things to be desired. Overall a positive experience, the kids loved the water park and the pizza restaurant as well as the candy store and ice cream shop!
Islands - first up was Ocho Rios Jamaica and we were hoping to head to the Beaches Ocho Rios for the day but they were booked. We ended up at Jewel Runaway Bay Beach Resort for the day and it had something for everyone! There were several pools, a water park, beach complete with hammocks and volleyball, and a great buffet. Second stop was Grand Cayman and that was by far our favorite! The guys went on a diving excursion and had a great day while the rest of us grabbed a van to the beach and spent the day snorkeling and collecting shells. Our third stop was Cozumel and we didn't love it...it all starts when you get off the boat and you're forced into a very long and narrow indoor shopping mall - there is literally NO WAY AROUND IT, you have to walk through it so imagine a thousand people trying to walk through this space and then one person stops to actually buy something and ALL traffic comes to a halt - total nightmare. For this reason alone we have agreed we will never ever ever take a trip that involves stopping in Cozumel again. If it is the trip of a lifetime otherwise, we will just not get off the boat that day. It was that bad!!!
Southwest - great service as usual, even after our garment bag was damaged on the trip back home (long story). Our trip to FLL was uneventful and the airline staff were friendly. As soon as we got off the boat on the 12th I saw that we were under a travel advisory so having learned our lesson several years ago in Jamaica, I called Southwest right away. Fortunately they were able to change our flight at no charge from 6:40pm to 1:45pm so we went straight to the airport. Kudos to Hotelsbyday.com they were able to cancel our hotel reservation since our flight left earlier due to weather and we weren't charged a thing!
More pictures to come from each stop but it is safe to say that everyone in our group had a great vacation and we're looking forward to 2020! In the meantime, it's snowing here again (facepalm).
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