Tapi

....You might find the cruise so much more enjoyable w/o the booze...

I agree with this statement. The way that I used to cruise during my younger, crazier years is VERY different than the way that I cruise now that I'm older and a husband & father. It amazes me how much I missed out when I compare my previous cruises (when I thought I was having so much fun partying it up) and my cruises now. While I still enjoy a beer or two during my cruises, my enjoyment is not dictated by how much alcohol I've consumed.

To the OP, yes, you can have an awesome time. In addition to the Friends of Bill W meetings others have mentioned, there are companies dedicated to sober cruising. They organize partial charters on cruises aboard popular cruise lines so you're guaranteed to cruise with a couple hundred other cruises that have embraced a sober lifestyle. Check them out! :)

We LOVED the Hilton Hotel & Marina. Nice and modern hotel with wonderful views out the intracoastal and Port Everglades. You can see your ship come in a few feet away right from the comfort of your room balcony! :D

You can also walk to some shops, including a Walgreen's for last minute supplies.

We found a rather large, (and by large I mean HUGE) bikini in a drawer. The woman who owned that bathing suit had absolutely NO inhibitions!

What about the life size towel animal that they have now? I think that's worse. At least Funship Freddy has a facial expression. The towel animal looks like an oversized pile of dirty towels just walking around the ship...!

Yes, he's a bit creepy looking with that big Joker smile. But somehow, little kids (and kids at heart) seem to like him. Our toddler son loved him (and yes, we ended up buying one of those stupid Funship Freddy dolls once our son spotted them at the gift shop :rolleyes:)

Any balcony cabin above deck 6 has no privacy is what i was told.

Hey Stefen:

We had a balcony on deck 6. We didn't have any "privacy" issues. Yes, you can see people walking below along the lanai, and if they look up, they can see you, but they can't look "into" your cabin. We did pick a cabin that didn't have any hot tubs in front (check out the deck plans carefully). Also, if you pick a balcony cabin all the way forward, the lanai narrows so you can actually look down into the ocean.

If you're planning on spending some naked time out in your balcony, don't get one on deck 6. Otherwise, it will be OK.

I forgot to mention that I've seen rougher water in the bathtub than in Costa Maya that morning. 3 ships were waiting to dock and all left. We've been on dozens of cruises (Platinum for CCL) and have never missed a port, even in bad weather, except that calm morning.

It can be an absolutely beautiful, wind less, clear morning with seas that look like glass, but if you have strong enough underwater currents that make it unsafe to dock, then you are not going.

This happened to us docking in New York City. Absolutely beautiful morning with calm water in the Hudson river that looked like glass, BUT the ship couldn't dock due to "high seas". We tried over and over and every time, the Captain would abort the procedure. Finally, after 6 hours, we finally docked (basically slamming against the pier and scraping the side of the ship). Believe me when I say that the experience made me realize how much people underestimate the power of Mother Nature. It was eye opening to see such a huge vessel almost uncontrollably slam against the pier in what seemed like perfect weather conditions.

A lot of people missed flights home and we were not entitled to any compensation since it was an act of Nature. Carnival did allow free ship to shore calls from the cabins so that people could make alternate travel arrangements.

Another time, going into Grand Cayman, we almost missed our call. Once again, we had a beautiful, clear morning with seas that didn't look rough at all, yet we couldn't anchor in front of Georgetown. We waited for a few hours while they coordinated and finally, they decided to anchor on the south side of the island at a place called Spot's Bay. From there, we were bussed to and from Georgetown.

And we were lucky that time. Grand Cayman is a port that's often missed if the weather conditions are not quite right. Another port of call that is often missed even on clear days is Roatan (it's a tight squeeze and even the slightest current can make docking there unsafe).

The livelihood of many of these destinations depends greatly on these cruise ships. Costa Maya is one of those ports of call whose source of income is solely the cruiser industry. Turning ships away because they didnt have someone to dock the ship would be absurd. It would mean voluntarily turning away thousands of passengers and thousands (if not millions) of dollars that they won't be able to recover, EVER. If they said that they couldn't dock because of high seas, currents, high winds, etc, most likely that's the explanation (sorry to the "conspiracy theory" people).

With that said, there have been times when there might be port disruptions due to riots, protests, etc, but you will definitely know if that's the case.

That "real" reason sounds like a bad Cruise Critic rumor to me. I doubt that they would jeopardize losing thousands in lost revenue because they didn't have enough personnel.

About refunding taxes, you may see a couple of bucks back to your Sail & Sign account. Not a significant amount and one that you may not have even noticed (the one time we missed a port, we received a whopping $5.85).

Cheapest cruise:

 

Carnival Imagination sailing on Monday, returning on Friday.

 

Mon - Miami, FL

Tue - Key West, FL

Wed - Cozumel, MX

Thu - At Sea

Fri - Miami, FL

 

Select an inside cabin which will hold 5 guests on this ship. Select a mid-september or early december sailing date for rock bottom prices.

 

Bon Voyage! :D

I priced it out and it came up to $147 per person! :D

Cheapest cruise:

Carnival Imagination sailing on Monday, returning on Friday.

Mon - Miami, FL

Tue - Key West, FL

Wed - Cozumel, MX

Thu - At Sea

Fri - Miami, FL

Select an inside cabin which will hold 5 guests on this ship. Select a mid-september or early december sailing date for rock bottom prices.

Bon Voyage! :D

...we sailed NCL to Alaska...

There was a snobbish type of person there talking to my husband and asked what line we were on..He mentioned NCL..the guy replied..oh you went cheap huh (or something to that fashion) and then proceeded to say that him and his family sailed on Princess..My husband looked at him and said..Well that's nice..the main thing is we both got here..cheap or not :)

Good line!

I'll keep that in mind in case we run into someone attempting to make fun of the $519pp we are paying for our oceanview cabin on the Norwegian Jewel to Alaska!

My suspicions are now confirmed that the interline rates aren't that great any more.

I've actually scored pretty substantial savings on our last two Carnival cruises thanks to the interline rate.

For our 2010 cruise on the Fascination, interline rates actually continued going down after final payment, so since we couldn't get a refund, we just upgraded from a 6A to a 6D.

On our 2011 cruise on the Dream, we booked a balcony cabin for about $150pp LESS than any other rate available using the interline rate. For this cruise though, rates did nothing but go up so we stuck to the same category we booked.

San Juan offers the most breathtaking departure of any Caribbean port, hands down! :)

Have you priced pictures at home? Have you bought pictures for a recent HS grad? The prices are in line with what you pay on shore, so you should not be shocked.

I agree. Those prices seem to be pretty much in line with what a professional photographer would charge for similar work on land. In fact, compared with what we were charged for our wedding pictures and for a photo shoot of our first son, this sounds like a bargain.

The photographer didn't lie. The photo shoot was free. I don't see anything outrageous or anything to be "warned about" here...

I don't know how much a cruise captain makes, but I bet it will be more than an airline pilot.

Salary $56,993 - $120,000

Bonus $2,000 - $10,279

Profit Sharing $1,725 - $5,000

Total Pay (?) $52,246 - $124,916

According to http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Ship_Captain/Salary

Well, if that's the case, Airline Captains do make more money than Cruise Ship Captains. Just taking a snapshot from Delta, the lowest paid captain in their fleet (1st year DC-9) is making $144,000/year, and the top paid captain in their fleet (12th year 747) is making $217,000/year. Even an Airline Captain at a low cost carrier like Jet Blue will top off at $159,000/year.

Surprisingly, the highest paid Airline Captains don't carry passengers, they carry BOXES. FedEx Captains top off at $247,000/year!

NOVEMBER

• It's not scorching hot like during the summer
  
• Hurricane season is basically over
  
• Rock bottom pricing
  
• Fellow Passengers (off season tends to attract a more low key and toned down group of fellow passengers).
  
• It's our Anniversary month! :)
  

We bought some Motorola Walkie Talkies with 8 mile range. They didn't work very well.

In order for us to hear each other, we couldn't be more than a few hundred feet from each other on the same deck, OR we could be on different decks but directly above or below each other on the same exact section of the ship (in fact, that's when the walkie talkies seemed to work best).

In my opinion, they're not worth the money.

I hope they fixed the Holiday's listing issues. It was like this our whole cruise.

I think that since the Holiday is an older ship, it didn't have the stabilizers that modern ships have, and that noticeable list is just how this ship rides the currents and winds (kinda like how an airplane flies at an angle "crabbing into the wind").

We sailed on the Holiday for a quick 4 night Cozumel getaway, and on the way south, the ship listed to the right all the way, and on the way north, the ship listed to the left!

The Holiday is now part of Ibero Cruceros. It looks AMAZING. It's like a brand new ship!

You can get more information at their website http://www.iberocruceros.com

Keep in mind that this ship now caters to a Spanish clientele, so all activities, announcements, etc are all in spanish!

Usually, the price also includes roundtrip airfare from Madrid, or other cities in Spain

Posted on the wrong thread

"If you've ever refilled wine bottles with booze, you might be a...."

I took well over a thousand photos, therefore this review will have a lot of photos.

.

Why can't ALL reviews be like this one!!??

Do the TV's in the cabins have the ports so you can plug in the PS 3 game console. My sons want to bring their PS3 which also play movies and games on them, etc. Thanks!:D

From those of you who have actually brought a PS3 or Xbox, is it worth hauling it with you?

I might be wrong, but with so much to do on the ship (especially for teens with Club 02 activities), wouldn't bringing your own entertainment be the equivalent of bringing your own food?

To the OP, What ship will be sailing on? Some ships with the older TV's might not be have the proper connections. If you do bring the PS3, let us know if your kids used it and how much.

We just returned from our 16th cruise, and our first on Elation. We booked cabin E255 in the aft section of the ship. Just one comment: If you don't like sleeping, book a cabin back there! Of all the cruises we have been on, this was the noisiest cabin ever. All the noise from the azipods pounds into the room while under way. It was like sleeping in a bass drum! We tried to switch rooms, but the ship was booked full. We made the best of it, but what an experience! Book midship or forward cabins on Elation!

I wonder if this problem is specific to the Elation. I sailed on the Imaginatio on cabin E242 (rear facing aft cabin) and we didn't experience it the same way. Yes, there's a rumble (in our opinion very muted) when the ship is moving but not anything that would keep us awake. It's comparable to the noise from an air conditioning unit, which I'm accustomed to.

On the bright side, we were thankful for being in this cabin. The seas were very choppy, with the ship pitching pretty wildly a few days. Thankfully, if we were tucked away in our cabin all the way in the back of the ship, we wouldn't feel the motion. The moment that we would start walking forward, we would start feeling the motion more and more. We had some friends who were in a porthole cabin all the way forward on the Upper Deck and their story was completely different. They couldn't sleep because the pitching motion (up, down) was so strong sometimes (and the sudden shudders with the down motion) that it would keep them awake, and also nauseous the whole time...