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I will be interested to hear the responses on this one, it's the same basic thing I was wanting to ask. We're going to be there the end of January / beginning of February. Normally we cruise that same time of year to Cozumel area and have always swam or snorkeled but I wasn't sure if weather would be similar in Bahamas that time of year or not.

Anyone dive in any of these three locations?

I'm a new diver, finishing my open water in a couple weeks. We're going to be cruising to Key West, Nassau & Freeport in January of 2018 and I'd like to dive at one of the locations. Since I'm new, they're probably all going to be interesting dives for me I'm sure. But, I'm trying to decide which is going to be the place I should dive. I also have to factor in which port will have other things for my wife to do while I'm diving, so absolute best dive may not be the final determining factor. I want to make sure she and the other people cruising with us will have fun stuff to do as well. My best option might be if I could find a port that I could dive and they could snorkel and enjoy the beach.

I've been to several other ports on cruises but these are all 3 new ports for us.

Thanks. This is our first visit to Roatan. The more I'm looking at things the more it looks like Mahogany may not be the best option and we are probably better off heading to West Beach to have better water and better snorkeling.

We are going to be in Roatan the first part of February with friends. We're going to book the Mahogany Bay Relax on the Beach package with Carnival so we have an inexpensive and easy way to meet up part way through the day on a beach. My wife and I are going to snorkel and thought about booking the Relax on the Beach Plus Snorkel Package. Does anyone know if there is any difference in the two packages other than them supplying snorkel gear? We already have our own gear so if that's the only difference we'll just do the cheaper one and use our own gear, which we prefer to do anyhow.

Also, is there any difference in the relax & kayak package and this one other than them supplying a kayak?

Thanks

We'll be booking an excursion at either port. Why would you choose Roatan? Is there more to see, better visibility, etc... I'm completely new so excuse any dumb questions lol.

I'm a new diver, as in I'm going to my 1st open water certification class tomorrow. We are going to be cruising with Carnival in January with another couple and while the wives are shopping or laying on a beach us husbands are going to dive. We're trying to decide the best place to dive and are looking at either Cozumel or Roatan. I've snorkeled in Cozumel once last August but that's the extent of my experience.

If you were choosing one, Cozumel or Roatan, which would it be? Or, is it a situation where either is going to be great? If you would choose one over the other, why?

Hey, your are on vacation, in Progreso- wear your swimsuit all day.

Yeah, I just hate walking around in swim trunks myself.

I don't recall seeing any changing rooms. I'm sure you can change in one of the restaurant restrooms but I would at least by a beer or something for using their facilities.

Thanks. We definitely plan on patronizing whatever establishment we find. We have a group of 9 so we'll be buying drinks, lunch, etc... Wherever we stop on the beach.

We are going to be in Progreso on the 25th of this month. We are planning on just walking down to the beach with the kids but I'm curious if there will be changing rooms on the beach. I don't really want to have to walk around in swim trunks all day.

I've tried emailing Money Bar and it won't go through, says their inbox is full. I'm curious if anyone knows what's included in their snorkeling package. My wife and I went in February and their rental shed was closed for remodeling so we couldn't snorkel. We're going back on August 24th with the whole family, 9 people in our group (6 adults, a 13 year old, a 9 year old and a 6 year old), and want to be sure we can snorkel while we're in Cozumel this time. We liked the Money Bar and the water there.

Does the rental of snorkel gear include a life vest or flotation belt of some sort? If not are they available for an extra fee? Also, can we prepay and reserve equipment since we have a larger group or will we be fine to just rent when we get there that day?

Are there any restrictions on bringing them back on the ship or back to the states?

We're going to be cruising out of New Orleans in August. Last time we cruised we parked at Fulton Place which we plan to do again. But, we're going to have 2 vehicles this time, possibly three, and we are hoping we can find a cheap parking garage/lot that isn't near downtown to park the extra cars and pile into the minivan for a short distance to not have to have 3 higher priced parking expenses, or possibly park one away and two at Fulton Place. Any suggestions?

You can take the free shuttle into the city of Progreso. The beach is two blocks from where the bus lets you off. Once you reach the beach walk about two or three blocks east, away from the pier. There are a number of restaurants that have beach service. If you pay for drinks and food you can use their shade, chairs and rest rooms. Our favorite is Flamingos, about 4 blocks east. The city cleans the beach on the morning of cruise ship arrivals. In August there will be lots of locals coming to the beach for the day, because it is so hot in Merida. We take our grandkids (ages 8,9,11 and 13) to the Progreso beach and they have a blast. If you want an AI, you will spend 45 minutes to an hour each way on a bus and the food and drinks will not be as good. I will confess that my evaluation of the quality of AI's is not based on personal experience, but based on listening to other cruisers.

Thanks for the tips John. We've only cruised once, but it was just my wife and I and we just went over the Merida and walked around for the day. The kids won't be big on walking around all day in Merida though, lol.

We are getting ready to book a cruise through Carnival on August 22nd. We will be bringing adults and children. This will only be the second cruise for my wife and I and the first for everyone else.

We would like to find a good place to go to the beach in Progreso without necessarily going through Carnival and paying them extra for the same thing. We're debating between an all-inclusive or just a pay as you go place.

Any suggestions on places to go of either AI or pay as you go?

Well, you always here the old cliche saying "don't drink the water" when traveling to Mexico. I'm curious if this is good advice or not while we are in Merida and Progreso? We are first timers and don't want to spend the remainder of our trip sick, lol.

We are going on our first cruise next week. We are planning to visit the Moneybar while in Cozumel and would like to snorkel. I was wondering if anyone knows if their snorkels they rent are dry snorkels with the valve that keeps water from coming down the tube?

Great, thank you! Sounds like we are on the right track with our plans.

One other question, I've asked and been told on Cozumel not to worry about doing a dollars to pesos exchange. Would this also be true in Merida? Should I just carry dollars or should I exchange and have pesos for the shops here?

I know many of the prices I've seen for Cozumel are in Pesos, ie. the Money Bar menu. Should we exchange our dollars for pesos or just use dollars?

My wife and I are going on the Feb 2nd cruise out of NOLA. This will be our first cruise and we will port in Cozumel then Progresso. She is wanting to do a little shopping and our current plan is to spend a primarily beach day in Cozumel then do some walking around in either Progresso or take the bus over to Merida and do some walking around and shopping there.

I'm just curious if some of the more experienced board members would have suggestions on if we'd be better off going on to Merida for her to do some shopping. We would also like to hit some authentic, local place to eat and have a couple cheap drinks lol. I don't really want a touristy or chain type restaurant, I much prefer hole-in-the-wall local places myself.

Thanks!

I always arrive to the port around 10:30 Boarding with Carnival typically starts at 11:30ish. Sometimes it's later if there's been a hold up with customs clearing the ship or an inspection or something like that, but that doesn't happen every time.

Honestly though, we stay at a hotel the night before and we have to be out of the hotel by 11 anyways. My husband is kind of slow going in the morning and it can be hard to get him moving so I always try to get him out of the room and to the port early because it always seems like I have to completely re-pack his suitcase the morning of the cruise.

If we didn't head to the port that early we really wouldn't have anywhere else to go other than the lobby of our hotel. I realize we could have the hotel hold our luggage for us while we go do something but that's a lot of back and forth when you could just head to the port. Unless you go extremely early, say 8am, they aren't going to turn you away.

 

OP- if you're talking about the email Carnival sent you about a scheduled time you should arrive to the port you can absolutely ignore that email. IF something bad happened that actually delayed the ship you would hear about it all over cruise critic. Carnival sends out those emails in hopes that people will not all come at once and will be more dispersed through out the day.

We had initially planned on going to port about 10:30'ish ourselves. The info I was referring to was in our cruise documentation I printed out from Carnival's website with our boarding passes and luggage tags.

Thanks to everyone for the comments. I would prefer to get there and get boarded earlier in the day, but I also didn't want to end up having to sit from 11 or 11:30 until 2 or 3. As first time cruisers I feel like there is a ton to learn, lol.

Thanks for the quick responses. We will probably end up just getting there a little early I guess and see how things go. Then if we have to wait at least we haven't waited for several hours.

We are first time cruisers and are leaving out of New Orleans on Feb. 2nd on Carnival. I've heard some people who suggest arriving well ahead of your scheduled embarkation time and that you can get on board, eat lunch, explore the ship, etc... This was our plan to arrive early in the day well before our 1:30-3:00 p.m. boarding time. Looking through my documents from Carnival however I see a "Special Notice - Embarkation" that says you are encouraged to NOT arrive more than 30 minutes prior to your scheduled boarding time.

So my question would be should I arrive earlier in the day or not?

Come on over to the portion of Cruise Critic devoted to New Orleans, located here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=21

 

for lots of info.

Will do... Thanks, I must have missed that area.

My wife and I are first time cruisers. We are going to be sailing out of New Orleans on Feb. 2nd and I was doing some checking and saw that parking at the Port of New Orleans is $16 per night. I did a little checking around and found parking at the Fulton Garage through New Orleans Parking Co. for $8 per night with free shuttles to the port.

I'm curious if anyone else has parked here or another place? Also, is there a problem parking somewhere like this vs. parking in the port parking garage? I hate to spend double on parking if not necessary.