amanda219

2 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

All I did was a hike up to  a sugar mill, but I bet there's more.  Is Carnival offering excursions?

I will do research but..work. New stresses. Snow storm on travel day (Sunday.) New test crisis. 

This is a lot to process. I thought cruising in Sept during Delta was stressful, but...nope. This is tough.

Hopefully we make it on board w a fabulous itinerary waiting for us

1 minute ago, ninjacat123 said:

All I did was a hike up to  a sugar mill, but I bet there's more.  Is Carnival offering excursions?

They said should be loaded by tomorrow

4 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

I hope so as well! Tortola is a great stop, did that on a private sailing.  Amber Cove we did the 2 stop snorkeling through Carnival and it was a blast!  Saw tons of fish!  Is the test a rapid test at the port?

Looks like rapid at the port.

Help me on Tortola! New port & zero research. Advice??

5 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

Where are you guys going?

Old itinerary: St Thomas, St Maarten, Antigua, St Kitts, San Juan

New itinerary: St Thomas, St Maaeten, Antigua, Tortola, Amber Cove

I just hope I make it on the ship at this point lol

Want to add I think it's specific to the 1/17 sailing of the Sunshine.

Just now, ninjacat123 said:

Is that for vaccinated as well?

Yes. Got the email tonight. Couple of port changes & testing at port in addition to 2 days before. Likely due to it being a 10 day.

Well my 1/17 cruise stress just escalated. Now we test 2 days before (normal) and again at the port.

We (hopefully) board her Monday for the 10 day! Covid test Sat & possible snow storm in our travel path has my anxiety sky high.

We sailed the MG in September, but the lead up to this one is waaayyy more stressful.

I had 4 covid canceled cruises & one of them included a Mardi Gras "not ready in time" specific FCC. I did not move any of my credits. I continued to book future cruises, but left my covid cancels unapplied to a specific booking. Once ships started sailing, I got with my PVP, and applied those credits/deposits & OBC to my 5 bookings. 

TAs are awesome & had used one for past couple of years. But when covid hit I decided it was best to deal directly with a Carnival PVP. The way she handled, & advised me to hold instead of apply at booking, all my canceled cruise/obc was AWESOME. I was able to retain & maximize all my credits.

3 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Back in 70's & 80's I found Hong Kong & Singapore were the best ports for purchasing watches. I purchased an Omega for my dad in HK.

 

More recently, for DW, I found St Thomas was the best place to purchase an Omega with respect to selection and prices.

 

Which models are of interest in. When purchasing the Omega for DW we had researched the catalgue and had a list of preferences and prices. Good luck finding one. 

Seamaster is about as deep as I get in the watch knowledge. I know it's a relatively unique one he has on his interest list. I'm in charge of research on where to buy. Nothing more.

We have shopped multiple ports before. Nassau had good selection and going there 1st. St Thomas & St Maarten in January. Aruba in May.

If there is not much difference, as long as reputable dealer (I'm the research girl so it will be) he will probably purchase at first port (Nassau.)

Appreciate the input. This is intended to be something passed down to his son one day.

No and that was really our only issue while there. We had one booked via booking.com. I did my research, found one I liked, researched their site etc etc.

Our Amex provides rental insurance but you have to decline their's. We did. It was a no go from there.

1st the vehicle we booked "wasn't returned" on time so not available. Our friend from the area was at the airport with us when the rep from rental company met us and was able to translate. "No worries, we can rent you this van at same cost. Let's go to the office 2 blocks away."

We went in the van. Our friend was coming within minutes with his wife.

They told us since we declined their insurance they would need to place a $13k hold on our card. Ummm...no. I did research. Hold should have been about 20k pesos ($1k.) They kept trying to get us to swipe card.

Friend showed up, translated, took charge & told them no thanks. We left & our friend was able to drive us entire time. 

We were fortunate to have a different option. Be careful what company you rent from there. I will definitely have to get a better game plan for next trip.u

1 hour ago, IntrepidFromDC said:

I've seen used Rolex watches as cheap as $49 in Hong Kong and Manhattan, but I just don't get the whole Rolex infatuation.

Yeah that's not we are looking for. And definitely not a rolex.

To be honest, I don't get it either. Not something I would spend this much money on. But it's important to my husband. He has his Omega his Dad passed to him. He wants one he chooses..with the thought of leaving it to his son one day.

Just trying to be helpful & do some research for him

My husband has been considering purchasing another Omega watch for the past few years. We looked in Nassau, Key West & Grand Cayman before. 

Nassau is now on our Mardi Gras itinerary. We also have an Eastern cruise w stops in St Maarten, St Thomas, St Kitts, Antigua & San Juan relatively soon. 

He's made up his mind he is ready to purchase. We shopped at John Bull & the Omega store in Nassau before.

Anyone have any insight on the best port to purchase a high end watch? I know I had read before about St Maarten or St Thomas being an ideal place. Just wondering if there is any benefit (substantially cheaper) to those ports vs Nassau?

Appreciate any info!

Update: Just got off phone w PVP and booked Sept 30th, Havana interior room 5205 (thanks SNJ)

Really appreciate all the great info from all of you!

All of you have really stepped up and each of you has given me great info. I sincerely appreciate it. We will be booking late Aug-early Sept soon in a Havana interior (most likely 5205.) 

Thanks guys and best wishes on your return to sailings! For us it will be Mardi Gras Sept 25th. 60 days to go!

5 hours ago, Applealex said:

LOL Long Beach airport is like 10 miles from the port, ~15 minutes away by car. Not to mention WAY more convenient than the nightmare that is LAX. Just thinking about that dreaded horseshoe *shudders*

 

Fly into Long Beach if you can. For me, there are direct flights from Dallas to both LAX and LGB. LAX was $315 and LGB was $322 so it was a super easy decision. An Uber down to the cruise terminal from LAX will run $60 - $90, depending on traffic (which is always bad). I’ll be flying in a day early and just staying in an Airbnb right next to the 710 highway that takes you to the port.

 

I’ve done the 7-day Mexican Riviera run many items (though not on Panorama, yet, dang COVID) so let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks so much for the info! Sounds like a home port I can easily navigate. Appreciate it!

4 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

Great decision regarding the Havana Inside cabin.  Did it twice on the Horizon, staying in 5205, which is a sideways interior that I would highly recommend.  

Great info! Thanks! Havana interior was pretty cheap. I think it was a $380 upcharge from regular interior so with the cost of cruise being fairly low, it's something we want to try. It was waaayyy more than that on Vista and an upcoming Horizon booking.

May I ask what you prefer about the sideways inferior? You have peaked my interest on that.

20 minutes ago, IntrepidFromDC said:

In Cabo San Lucas there is an excursion where you take an ATV from town to a HUGE hole in the earth where a meteor struck and you get to go round and round the meteor hole like you are a pea being swished around in a bowl.  One of the most amazing experiences I've ever had.

Sounds awesome..& right up our alley! Thanks so much for the recommendation!

18 minutes ago, Wanna_Cruize said:

You can fly into either LAX or Long Beach - both airports are about 25 miles away from the cruise port. There's no way to easily get to the port by public transportation, the Metro doesn't go that far, and you have to transfer to busses on multiple routes. Uber/Lyft (I've heard) is about 30 from the airport to the port. One other option is to find an airport that has both an airport shuttle and a cruise port shuttle. Of course, Carnival has their airport shuttle; some people stay at hotels near the airport and then take that. We live somewhat local, so we just drive. Also, make sure you are referring to the Long Beach Port, and NOT the Los Angles port. Carnival Panorama uses the Long Beach Port which is next to the Queen Mary.

 

We love this itinerary, and are booked on several cruises this fall on Panorama. We lucked out and are on the very first cruise out of California on August 21st. We're in a Havana Cabana (Shhh, DH think's it's an interior, so I'll have lots of comments/pics of the Havana area. Here's a link to the thread I started about that one, if you have any questions you'd like answered: 

 

We'll also be on Panorama in mid-September, and the end of November, so lots of chances to gather data. Just let me know.

Thanks so much for the great info! Sounds like late Aug-mid Sept may be good timing for us. 

Congrats on having a 1st return cruise! I'm super jealous! I was soooo close to driving to Galveston for the July 3rd Vista! 

I will definitely be following along with your restart post!

Just now, IntrepidFromDC said:

The biggest difference between what you're used to and the Pacific is the Pacific is FRIGID.  Forget about those floating-in-the-sea days.

Good to know & glad I asked/you replied. Thanks.

I'm OK with not as much water activities in ports. I'm sure we can find local cultural experiences. This trip would be most about trying something new & the bonus is the cost of Havana is pretty cheap.

Any info on how hard airport to port will be to navigate? I'm good at this part...but definitely outside of my expertise with zero knowledge going in. 

Need some guidance on a Panorama cruise please. All suggestions welcome 

Background: Platinum cruisers & have been all over the Western, Eastern & Southern Caribbean. Have 4 cruises booked between Sept 2021 & May 22. I have 1 more canceled cruise with OBC to book. I like the idea of something new/different & looking at booking Panorama in 2023 between May & Sept 30th (when offer ends.) Looking at a Havana interior. 

I'm most interested in info about weather in late August-Sept? Sailing out & ports. Never been on West coast so I'm unfamiliar. Over here in the Gulf/Caribbean that is hurricane season (& we always roll the dice & sail during that time.) When weighing out dates vs price..is late August much different than mid-Sept? 

How difficult/expensive is it to fly in day before sailing? Flights will be from airline miles so not an issue. More interested about how easy of a home port will it be to navigate? 

Any help will definitely be appreciated as we will likely book something within the next week. 
 

We used Iguana Mama for the 27 waterfall tour in Oct 2017. They were fantastic & offer several tours. We were definitely impressed with the.

Really looking forward to this ridealong! 

We were supposed to be on her for the 15 day repo from NYC to Canaveral. Building delays got that one. We have had 4 others (different ships) covid cancel. We will finally sail Mardi Gras Sept 25th with 4 others booked. 

Sincerely hope you guys enjoy your return to a ship!

We just returned from an AMAZING 9 days in the Progreso, Mexico area. As cruisers, this can be a difficult port to figure out how to best spend your time. I have visited 4 times via Carnival ship & this was our first land based trip here. We fell in LOVE with the area on cruises, and when our May cruise on Horizon canceled, we decided to fly here. 

I'm here to offer to answer any questions, give info about what there is to do in the area etc. If you don't do your research & plan ahead, you are likely to miss all the beauty the Yucatan has to offer. Beach, ruins, cenotes, traditional culture in an extremely safe area of Mexico..but the real beauty here lies in the local people. They are hospitable, gracious & anxious to share their culture with you. We speak very little Spanish & were able to communicate fairly well with some help from Google translate. 

We stayed in a beautiful beach house, 10min from the Progreso Port cruise pier bridge in a beautiful small beach community. In our 9 days we: explored 9 cenotes, visited an abandoned hacienda, went to 2 sets of magnificent ruins (Uxmal & Chichen Itza), went in shore fishing for tarpon, shopped in local markets in several small villages, spent an amazing day in a small village with a local Mayan family, got to know the entire port area of Progreso including the Malecon, spent a day in Merdia (a stunning city with a mix of Spanish colonial culture/architecture & modern), took a horse drawn rail ride to cenotes, took tuk tuk taxis all around the beach area, and...so much more. We ate all but 1 meal at local markets, small roadside restaurants, and with local families..very authentic. No one got sick at all. It's very safe. 

I am more than willing to answer any questions anyone may have about what to do when visiting this port. I have friends there in the tourism industry that I can put you in touch with upon request. 

The Yucatan really is one of the most unique places we've ever visited. There is SO MUCH to do & explore. And the best part is that it is an EXTREMELY safe port to venture out & find your own adventure. We can't wait to go back!

4 hours ago, nae418 said:

My daughter is in a destination wedding in Mexico next month, and although she is fully vaccinated, she had to have a covid test 3 days before she flies to Mexico with results in hand. Also, she must have a covid test 2 days before she flies back to the u.s. Who knows what she will spend in Mexico for a covid test?  🙄  I'm not doing all that.   A local beach in the u.s will be fine. Something I could drive to. Also, I fly first class, I did peek at some prices, due to the gasoline hacking the prices are thru the roof.

I will be local this year, if I don't sail.  

Fully vaxed. Headed to visit friends in Progreso in 2 weeks. Mexico does not require testing to enter. Negative test required 3 days before re-entry to US.