Scottohiocpa

I have upgraded many times.  They don't refund the difference, but hey, you get better rooms for the same price.

Enjoyed your review! We will be on her soon! We have sailed the Triumph twice before and each time was a lot of fun. I love New Orleans!

I just saw in your signature that you went on the Big Red Boat. I did too. It was my first cruise when I was 6. Just found that interesting because I've ran into plenty of people who have never heard of it.

My wife and I honeymooned on the Big Red Boat. I still have the brochure. It was an awesome time!:cool:

I wanted to let everyone know what to watch out for if you lose your room key.

My wife had this happen last week. She went to the guest relations desk and they made her a new one. A few hours later we found the original one. I put it away for safekeeping and she just used the new one. That is until......we went to get off the ship in Nassau. Apparently guest relation had made a new key to get her in the room, but it was not valid to get off the ship??????:confused:

She went back and got the old key and we were on our way.

I guess you need to specify that you want an entirely functional new key????

Just off the Enchantment 5/30 - 6/3, 2016. Overall it was a fun time, with lots of plusses and only a few minuses.

I wanted to mention how the Debarkation Day Breakfast played out. They told us it would be served in the Windjammer between 7:00 and 8:30. I was there about 7:30 and it was very busy as you might expect. There were normal waits for the food stations, and I got what I wanted. My wife and daughter came up about 8:00. Some items were now completely gone, but there was still a lot of food left. They got some danish for my teenage son who sleeps alot at 8:10. Three out of four kinds of Danish were now gone and they only had 1 kind (the little round ones with custard) to get him. By 8:15 they were down to just bacon, sausage, and eggs left. No fruit, danish, and most other stuff was entirely gone.

My advise to anyone on this ship is that if you have specific items you prefer for breakfast, get there by 7:45 since they stop replacing items at about 7:45 except for some key stuff like bacon and eggs.

The only RCL ship I have been on is Enchantment. Is this a fleetwide phenomena or just unique to Enchantment? I seems RCL does it to deliberately get customers out of the food areas into their debarkation locations.

I don't remember having food run out like this on recent Carnival cruises.

First time posting here in Cruisecritic! Name is Cory.

My wife and I will be taking our very first cruise at the end of July. We will be going on Carnival Valor and hitting Half Moon Cay, Nassau, and Freeport.

 

I have a couple of ideas on what I want/would like to do and I just need some guidance from all of you.

 

First and foremost, I want to have fun!

 

First stop is going to be Half Moon Cay.. I plan on doing the Jet Skis there and just hanging out on the beach all day really.

Anything here worth doing? I understand there will be a buffet provided on the island?

Next stop is Nassau.

This is the place I am having trouble with planning.

I heard Junkanoo beach was worth going to but then I was reading about Cabbage Beach and Cable Beach. From what I understand, its best to take a water taxi to Paradise Island (which I think sounds like a lot of fun) and the Water Taxi's are near Senor Frogs close to the port?

I also want to see Queens Staircase, which I know is in the opposite direction of Junkanoo Beach.

So help me out here with Nassau... I want to explore, drink, play in the water, and soak up the sun and just relax and have fun... point me in the right direction :)

Last stop will be Freeport. I have heard from a friend that I HAVE to go to Banana Bay café and then go out onto whatever beach is right there.

 

Basically, I know that being on a cruise, you don't have all day to explore around, so I want to make sure that I hit the spots that are worth it at each island.

 

What do you guys recommend? My wife and I are 27 and would love to explore new things and just have a great time.

How much time do you have in Nassau?

If it's short, I would go directly to Junkanoo Beach. Clear water, soft sand, FREE, nearby, and a little Spring Break Party all rolled into one.

Longer time - Cable Beach or Cabbage Beach. There aren't any restrooms at these two like there are at Junkanoo. There also will not be as many people and it should cost less than $20 roundtrip for two.

Really long time - Blue Lagoon beach day. There is a ferry that takes you out to the island, but it only goes at certain times. Look at their website to see when and how much $$$$.

Two years ago we booked one just outside the straw market. It was a catamaran and it took us about 5 miles east of the port near Rose Island and Salt Cay (aka Blue Lagoon). I think it was about $30pp. Two or three other boats came out to that same location, so there are several to choose from. Nassau has reefs all over the place and every time I have snorkeled there has been a lot of coral and a variety of fish to see. Not as good as Hawaii or Cozumel, but a close third.

We were there several years ago and it was very good. I would give it 7 out of 10. We took a cab to the beach ourselves and booked a boat to take us out on our own.

On Coco Cay there are some man made shallow lagoons for people to get wet in. If you go past the man-made rock formations, there is a lot of interesting stuff to see just feet from shore. I would rate the snorkeling here an 8 out of 10. Also, the southern half of the island where barefoot beach is has a very shallow sandbar that runs out for 1000 feet or more. Last time we were there we found live Conchs wandering across it. We also saw stingrays swimming through and one guy picked up what we thought was a Conch, only find it had an enormous hermit crab inside it instead. A lot of people visit the island without ever knowing about the barefoot beach area and they miss out on seeing this unique habitat.

Just brought back memories! Goombay Punch was one of our young daughter's favorite Grand Bahama souvenirs!

Yes, Goombay punch is good even without adding the rum.

If you are on your way to Junkanoo Beach or some other beach, make a stop at one of the liquor stores near port.

Buy some Ricardo Gold rum (200ml) and some Goombay Punch 12 oz. cans. Mix together and you are ready to party!

I love Goombay Punch made by the Coca-Cola company, but you can only get it in the Bahamas.

We will be there on May 31st and I can't wait to get some.

Vickiw0318 -We are on the same sailing as you. 5/30/16 Enchantment.

I think we will not book a shore excursion until 1:00 just to be safe.

My family is on the Enchantment next month. We are going to Nassau and then Coco Cay. Our third and final port before returning to Miami is Key West.

I believe the ship will have to clear customs before we can go ashore in Key West. The itinerary says we have from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm in port.

My question is, will we really be able to go ashore at 10:00, or will it actually be later?

Unfortunately the last time we were on a cruise that stopped in Key West after going to Cozumel, the entire ship was not released to disembark until about 3:00 hours late. They kept calling several foreign sounding names over the loudspeakers and asking them to report to customs, so I suspect that was the delay....

Nothing to do with the ship issue, but please consult you dr regarding use of distilled water.

 

Distilled water is also demineralized. Which may at face value sound like a good thing, until you consider that it absorbs minerals from the body and allows them to be eliminated. It is also biologically pure, and an excellent medium for life. This means that "things" (bacterias) can and will easily grown in an open container of distilled water. You if you choose to use distilled water, you may want to consider the smaller bottles so the chance of a "bad bottle" is less.

I don't think science would agree with this........

I called ahead on my last two cruises. An extension cord was waiting for me when I got there - it was a heavy duty 100 footer. You know, just in case I brought a power saw to use halfway down the hall.:cool::D

For water, one had it in my room for $2 and the other was free, but I had to call room service to remind them about my order. I then waited about 2 hours for the room service guy to show up.:mad:

The water on the ship is condensed from steam, so I would probably just use it next time.

Thanks for the update. I thought my friend was on the Glory, but maybe it was the sunshine.

I tried to follow this, but got lost. If this helps, we just got off the Glory yesterday Jan 17th, 2014 and there were no incidents that would cause damage, we didn't collide with anyone, and the 2 weeks we were on her were really fun. They were doing some work to the floor however, it seemed like they were redoing some of the floor tiles, not sure what that is all about. :D

 

Right after we docked in Miami about 715 am or so, there was a code bright star, I believe at the aft, when we went up to the lido to eat, the aft was closed off and there were Miami Dade Police on board. Not sure what that was about but Code Bright Star is a death or medical emergency, so I pray everyone is ok.

Was there a reason why the ship was late into San Juan and missed Grand Turk?

Oops, I mean itinerary

I have a good friend who was on the January 10th sailing. She just got off on Saturday, so she hasn't returned to Ohio to give me more details.

What I do know is that she has been on 7 cruises, 4 with Carnival, and she wrote me and said she would never go on Carnival again.

She also posted that they didn't arrive in San Juan until later in the day, and skipped Grand Turk entirely.

We were on the Glory on June and had a good time, although it was unusual that we never saw our room steward the entire trip.

This review made me feel like I was actually there with you. Oh wait, I actually was.:)

We got off the Glory on June 6th. They did not let ANYONE off until 9:30 and then we did not get off until 11 something with assisted debark.

The problem was that there were 4 foreign passengers who needed to be found and presented to Customs for them to release the boat. We kept hearing over the loud speakersa that they were trying to find these 4 passengers and asked the to go to the xxx lounge to meet customs.

I suspect that these 4 passengers caused many people to miss their flights and I'll bet they didn't let new passengers on until after noon.

Yikes! Which cabin were in? We are on the Glory for a B2B in October. We always enjoy meeting our cabin steward and get to know him/her. Good for you on not leaving extra tip. We also leave the extra, but if this is going to be the case..... Please let me know!

We had balcony room 7372. It was an excellent location - close to the buffet, cabins above and below for sound insulation.

I image that whoever had our room will not be there in October, so I think you are safe.

This was for sale in the "dufry" shop that you have to travel through to get off the dock.

I just checked the port schedule. We're on the Caribbean Princess, arriving in Grand Turk at noon on August 7. The Carnival Splendor is getting there three hours head of us but will be leaving at 3. I'm thinking of waiting until around 2:30 to get off the ship. That will give us three or four hours to enjoy the beach after the Splendor's passengers have left.

It might clear out sooner because some people will opt to get back on the ship instead of buying lunch for $$$$.

You could also use 1:00 to 2:00 to take a walk down to the southernmost point - Boaby point - about a quarter mile. Or take a look around in the shops.

We went to Sapphire beach in St. Thomas. Great snorkeling just a few feet from shore, but no facilities or concessions.

Grank Turk had beatiful water and sandy beach, but the snorkeling was a bit far out from shore since we didn't have life vests. If you are a good swimmer, you could go out the 400 to 500 feet to get to the reefs. Some of the snorkeling excursions by boat were in the same area. Less than 1500 feet from the cruise ship and 400 feet from shore.

Recent prices were:

Mixed drink $9.

Shot of rum $5 (not a full sized shot)

Jerk chicken $11

Chicken and Conch $16