johno1234

Reading back I see what you mean - my bad writing!

Had planned to go to Stone Island but family wanted to do the bus tour around the town. Jumped off at the GZ and hired a beach umbrella/loungers on the beach and the boys did a parasail ride and loved it. But there were vendors busy there!

Yep, that's what I'm sayin'

Ok that is not what my friends had. They were told by tour operators not to make eye contact or respond. Also she said she witnessed several people being asked multiple times by same vendors. So I was curious because i have actually neve been asked by any vendor when on a beach in the caribbean.

 

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Skipped Stone Island and went to the Golden Zone beach. I found the constant pestering by vendors to be quite intrusive. They were not rude or pressing, but there just a lot of them. I still do feel sorry for them, trudging along the beach in the heat of the sun, making no money. Maybe next time I'll print up some tee shirts that say "No, gracias".

At Cabo we paid a few bucks to sit in the roped off lounge chairs/umbrellas so you aren't pestered in there. I'd always do that now if such a facility is available.

Note that they don't have "real" darts and boards - they gave the 'safe' darts so nobody loses an eye!

Today I see Galveston in the list!

A big thank you to whoever listened and added it!

Sure. Point being there are no cruises that depart from there, yet it's in the list of departure ports whereas Galveston is a cruise terminal port and isn't in the list. Be nice if CC could fix that so we could search for price drops on cruises departing from there.

I did wonder that very thing, EB, but there are indeed price drops for Galveston (which you can find by searching "Any Port" and "Western Caribbean"), but none for "Wrangell" wherever theheck that is but the latter is in the list of departure ports.

Hi - not sure if this is the right forum to ask this, but could the Price Drop at

https://www.cruisecritic.com/price-drop/

... have its departure ports updated? In particular I would like to see Galveston as an option. It's a significant cruise departure port but not available as a choice yet there are many US ports listed that would probably never have a cruise departure.

Cheers

JohnO

When we sailed Miracle at the end of April, we had Conrad as our waiter in YTD. He was the best we've had in many cruises.

Same for us - Conrad was lots of fun and the kids particularly loved him. We always made sure we were seated in Conrad's section.

Our whole family did the Los Veranos canopy tour ziplines in PV. It was really fun - but it is quite a long ride from the port out there and back in their rattly old bus! But they do know the ship schedule and will make sure you are back in time.

Hi, I only picked up on this thread because I was searching for port intensive itineraries... not actually looking at any specific cruise line - have only been on Carnival and NCL in the past. Also the departure port could be anywhere in the Pacific - USA west coast, French Polynesia, Australia, Fiji etc. We can also get as far East as Houston on a nonstop flight. Really want to avoid multi-stop flights as they become just too brutal.

Cheers

John

This is a good thread, just found it looking for 'port intensive'!

What I am looking for is a 7/8 day cruise with plenty of port visits at nice beaches. The Caribbean 7 day itineraries mostly seem to actually have 3 port days and 3 sea days. It would be nice to find one that has one less sea day, and that stops at beaches or close to beaches. I want to avoid getting past hawkers at ports. Ideally the destination would be in the Pacific somewhere to reduce the travel required (from New Zealand). We already did the NCL Pride of America Hawaii cruise and that was fantastic - no sea days at all! Just did Mexican Riviera but the first port was Cabo and it spoilt us for the subsequent ports which were not as good (if you do Mexican Riviera try to get the reverse itinerary that finishes at Cabo on the way back).

Any other suggestions?

Thanks

John

5am? Even more reason not to be hanging around a seedy bus stop!

Just looked at the SkyBus webpage - looks like the terminus is at 396 Queen St and there's apparently a free shuttle from the waterfront.

Meh... You've just finished a luxury cruise costing thousands of dollars, and have flights costing thousands of dollars. Why scrimp on less that a c bill and have to wait around to get on a slow bus with all your bags?

I guess about US$70. Uber X about US$30 and UberXL about the same as a taxi.

Thanks for the advice. I'm having a hard time with carnivals website for some reason. It keeps saying I can not have multiple tabs open even when I do not. I would call to look at options but I'm not quite ready to put the deposit down so I don't want to call and bother a PVP quite yet either. I just didn't know if anyone had previous experience on what kind of connecting rooms the dream does offer.

Forget about the website. If you want connecting options give them a call. They see staterooms that don't show as available on the web.

We did YTD with a family of 5 on Miracle. We'd just rock up to the maitre-d and either go right in or be given one of those wireless pagers if nothing was ready. In that case we'd just head over to Alchemy and smack a couple of martinis onto Cheers. It never seemed a bad thing or a long wait!

Got Cheers for my and DW, and BB for the kids. Cheers was well worth it. For us, BB was a waste of money, but at least it didn't cost much.

The problem with BB is that it does not include water and milk and juice and shakes. My fault for not doing my research!

I'm NZ based and personally never carry currency. I use plastic for everything.

There are two cruise terminal wharves in Akl but cars can drive onto both to pickup/dropoff zones. I would use Uber but be aware that UberXL availability is not reliable whereas you can almost always get UberX in a couple of minutes.

As a Kiwi I absolutely hate the tipping culture when I travel in the USA. Of course I do tip and I don't begrudge the staff getting the tip but I still hate it. Why? For a start, coming from NZ I am used to being cashless. I just don't like carrying cash and pay for everything with a wave of a card. Can't do that in most US establishments I've been to. And the math! I've just had a meal and few wines, I am in no position to be calculating tips. Supposedly it's 20% right, for good service? How often do you tip less for average service? And if you do, why should you have to feel bad about it - you are the customer it's not your fault!

I understand that the wait staff are on minimum wage and require the additional income from tips, and that the idea is that good staff get tipped more. But why is that my problem? Surely it is the job of the management, not me, to ensure that good staff are rewarded? Just pay your staff a fair wage and weed out the useless ones - I shouldn't have to be helping you with your HR problems!

Glad to have got that off my chest!

We took 3 - 16yo B, 12 yo G and 10yo B last month. Our girl made a group of friends in the CircleC club on the first day. After that we hardly saw her! The boys were a bit less social and hung around with us about 1/2 the time and hung out with other kids the rest.

We found the ship to be a very safe environment with plenty of things for the kids to do.

You should compare those for value to a simple pair of cabins (inside, OV, balcony) with connecting door. It's like a 2 bedroom suite but I've found it to be much cheaper.

Nope it's a simple door with a handle either side and a deadbolt but only Carnival has the key so you can't lock it and either side can open it.

The menu and the food was pretty good. A couple of items on the menu changed each night, and there are always a handful of steakhouse items (surf 'n turf, lobster tail) on there for a $20 upcharge.