Inconspicuous

54 minutes ago, GetToLivin said:

I will say, there were a lot more kids on this cruise than others I've been on during this time frame (I normally sail March/April or Sept/Oct), but maybe our sailing fell under a Kids Sail Free promotion. I wasn't necessarily bothered because we stuck to the suite amenities/areas, just more surprised than anything.

I think your cruise was a Kids Sail Free promo - we sailed on Harmony the week before your sailing and ours was definitely KSF (we brought a 9 year old and 20 month old).

Thanks for the great pics and ideas for beach excursions for future cruises for us.  Definitely will look at doing Infinity Bay next time we're down there in Roatan.  Your Costa Maya stop looked good as well.  

We're jumping on HOS a week from today when you return from this sailing.  Glad you're documenting it well as this will be our first time on the ship, much appreciated!

19 hours ago, Inconspicuous said:

I just double checked and still no-go for 9/1 HOS.  

Entertainment reservations opened up overnight for 9/1 HOS.  Maybe the other September 2024 sailings have opened up as well.

1 hour ago, Another_Critic said:

Show reservations opened this morning for 9/1 Symphony.

I just double checked and still no-go for 9/1 HOS.  

We're on the 9/1 sailing of HOS, show reservations still not available for us either.  

1 minute ago, Galveston Cruiser said:

The Port of Galveston controls the parking at RCL terminal.  Don't blame RCL and don't blame the Port.  

It costs to build parking lots with required infrastructure.

Supply and demand is in every business model.

And, as stated above, being on the island is expensive.

Spend thousands on a cruise yet complain about parking costs for your EV???

Doesn't matter that it's an EV, it's a car just like any other.  It's nice that Port Parking has EV hookups, but they had them 4 years ago and for the most part, vehicles parking at them aren't pulling all that much power from those hookups.  Just a one time boost up with essentially no power draw after that.

Spend thousands on a cruise...and then what?  What's a reasonable parking rate?  It's a separate cost.  Should Disney cruisers pay more for parking because they pay more for their cruise?  

Supply and demand certainly plays into this, but cruises were sailing plenty full prior to COVID.  What's changed?  Of course labor costs have gone up, and apparently utility and taxes have gone up as well, but enough to justify over 100% increase?  I'm sure there was a ton of demand once cruise lines got back up to full capacity and it makes sense that demand would boost those parking costs up.  When do they come back down?  Answer is they won't, because the parking companies there saw all that money roll in and they know cruisers are stuck having to pay it.  

Discount Cruise Parking is $92, with uncovered parking as the only option.

EZ Parking is $160, with uncovered parking as the only option.

Port of Galveston Parking Garage is uncovered, $178 or $200 depending on which lot you pick.

Lighthouse is $120 for uncovered and $145 for covered (which is just a canopy over the cars, not enclosed like Port Parking is).

Patriot Cruise Parking is $152 for covered, $111 for uncovered, but their Google reviews were just awful about 5-8 months ago when I first started looking.  Seems like they've improved, but $16 more for a place I had a good experience with previously and has a hookup for our EV is worth it.    

Still unbelievable rates - and if the local government in Galveston had something to do with it, then they should unwind whatever they did.  However, from reading around, it sounds like these companies saw what RC was charging for their parking when their new terminal opened up, and saw that customers willingly paid it, and thus increased their rates as well to follow suit.  

I finally just bit the bullet and booked covered parking with Port Parking for a 7 night cruise in September.  This same parking option for 7 nights in March 2020 was $75; I went back and looked up what I had paid.  This year, it's $158.  More than a 100% increase in only 4 years, which is absolutely ridiculous.

Didn't find any other better options that have good Google reviews.

Parking in Galveston is such a racket now.  Not sure if anything can be done to regulate it but there's simply no other option if you're in a position where you have to drive to port, and the parking companies know it.  

Right now for our cruise on Harmony in September the site has the deluxe drink package on sale for $71/pp/day, which is 35% off.  This is the best price I've seen and I've been refreshing the page daily for a while now.  

We went to Maya Chan in 2020 right before COVID.  The water was murky, we only spent a little bit of time in it.  We mostly just wanted a nice, quiet beach getaway where we didn't have to worry about paying for alcohol and food a la carte, and this fit the bill.  They have a nice freshwater pool (might be saltwater, guess I'm not sure) set back away from the beach in a shaded area if you want to chill in a quiet pool area.  

They had the best fresh made guacamole I've ever had.  I also bought my wife a massage while we were there.  Nice little place without the loud music and big flashy signs and such, and no one being pushy to try to sell you upcharge items.

I've already reserved our visit when we sail down there on Harmony this September.  Looking forward to it.  

Sad....we sailed with Captain James on Liberty back in 2019 or 2020 (can't remember which sailing it was for sure).  Sat at a table right next to where he was in the Windjammer.  Nice guy.  Condolences to the family.

I haven't been able to log into the Android app at all today.  I get past the sign in page and then it just sits on the loading screen without moving forward.  The app is fully updated on my phone.  Hope it clears up soon.

21 minutes ago, ggTexasGal said:

@kitten816 If you haven't already made your reservation for parking, have you checked https://www.patriotcruiseparking.com/?

We used their facility this past January.  We found the their services to be good, with friendly helpful employees, and will be using their facility again January 2025!

I took a look at Patriot/Falstaff previously and some of their Google reviews are really bad.  Sounds like if there is any rain at all you and your car will be trapped in the lot until the waters recede.  They also apparently have issues with keeping the pickup shuttles running in a timely manner.  I see their reviews over the past month look a lot better. 

On 10/31/2022 at 4:50 PM, cruisegus said:

Most are not taking into account the Port of Galveston new lots at Terminal 10's new pricing (which rivals Miami & Bayonne now) has allowed the once competitive private lots to also raise their prices to match, well almost match, they are all slightly cheaper than the Port.

You can blame some on inflation, but 40-50 increase that I am seeing for next year compared to last month rate, reserved in spring, is All on Galveston Wharves pricing structure 

As I started searching for parking for an upcoming cruise I was wondering if your first point above was more of a driver of these increases than the inflation/property taxes/port access fees and such going up.  I paid $75 for 7 nights of covered parking in an enclosed warehouse type building at Port Parking for a cruise in March 2020, and now that same lot is wanting $175 for 7 nights in September 2024.  

I thought to myself "geesh, Port Parking went crazy over the past 4 years!  Gotta be better options out there."  So I go out searching and found most of the lots have dramatically increased their rates as well and there isn't much to be saved by going elsewhere and keeping covered (with access to EV charging that I would like to have as well).  Seems like they all saw that cruisers are willing to pay the higher rates and took advantage of that fact....and it seems like there isn't really a great mechanism of competition forcing them to lower their prices.

Anyway, with all that said, has anyone run across good covered parking options in Galveston recently?  EV charging access would be nice but not a necessity.  I see a lot of Google reviews for other private lots indicating slow pickup times at the port upon return; hoping to avoid that also.  I can walk it on my own if it's close enough to the port.  Thanks!

I'm ready to book a 7 night cruise set to sail in July for our family but won't hit that "Book" button until all testing requirements are lifted.  Hopefully they do it soon so they can get my business. 

During a January 2019 sailing on Liberty we had a server named Amine, from Tunisia.  He was awesome.  I usually just want to get in and out of the MDR as I don't like trying to keep our (at the time) 3 year old daughter under control and not annoying everyone else.  He was great with her - She'll sit and not eat, Amine noticed this and would come over and cut up her chicken strips and feed them to her in a fun way, which allowed my wife and I the time to enjoy our own dinners.  He also created all sorts of different dessert concoctions for her, a new one each night.  He knew our favorite dishes and was very prompt.  We were on My Family Time dining so we weren't set up for a specific table, but we went in at the same time each night and requested to be sat in his area, and they took care of us.

I tried to find him during our March 2020 sailing on LOS, but to no avail.  I was somewhat disappointed.

8 hours ago, NavyCruiser said:

I hope they won't delay this project.

First, it's almost 2 yrs away, & hopefully, cruising will be back to normal by then.  There'll be pent-up demand for a third terminal in Galveston by then.

The local economy & construction crews are ready to get back to work now, not months or a yr from now.

 

I agree.  I think it's pretty short-sighted to delay this project due to the current situation.  This will not last for the long term, definitely not through the projected end of construction.

Just checked and for our March 1st sailing on LOS it's still sold out for all the balconies and suites, only interior rooms remain.  Been that way for a couple months now, it seems. 

The details.....are overwhelming.

8 hours ago, Two Wheels Only said:

 

It was never online, AFAIK.

 

Before anyone had seen/reported anything about a video, the attorney showed a video to CBS. In that version, Anello looks out of the window for "about a second" then lifts the child up and about 5 seconds later, she is gone.

 

About a week later, CBS somehow got a hold of the full video. Begnaud then explained that what was originally reported wasn't correct and that Anello looked out of the window for more like 8 seconds before picking the child up and that he held the child out of the window for more than 20 seconds. 

I didn't realize Begnaud had already done a follow up on his original report/interview.  I watch CBS quite a bit - they definitely teased the original interview with the GF quite a bit but I guess it shouldn't surprise me that they likely tucked a correction/update into a larger segment since it wasn't nearly as salacious. 

I'm waiting for CBS and David Begnaud to do their follow up interview with the GF after the first one where he's weeping about being color blind; show him the video clips right there while he's on the CBS camera and ask him to explain what he's seeing and describe what he was doing. 

My guess is I'll be waiting a while for that.

On 7/13/2019 at 7:41 AM, HBE4 said:

 

Most likely, in October-ish 2018, the Jan 2019 cruise still had a lot of unsold cabins and it was withing 90 days of sailing , they dropped the price.

 

The Jan 2020 cruise is still 6 months away. Check back in Oct-Nov time frame to see if there have been any price drops.  Of course, there is always the risk the ship has low inventory and prices have gone up!

 

EDIT: wanted to add that the Jan 2020 cruise is post-Amplification so that may explain the higher prices.

 

Kicking this back up now that KSF is on.  With KSF we're now at $2,952 for this sailing, compared to $3,300 that it was under BOGO 50%.  So, certainly a better deal but I think we'll wait a month or two to see if prices come down some more.  I'm not interested in paying for a bunch of "amplification" projects that I don't really care about and won't be stepping foot on a new ship anytime soon.

Last year sometime in October-ish 2018 we booked a 7 night that sailed on January 20th of this year.  We got in on the Kids Sail Free promotion.  2 adults, 1 kid.  The total price was $2,174 with a spacious ocean view balcony room.

I was just looking to book again, the same exact cruise, same ship, same stateroom, ports, 7 nights and all.  With the current 2nd cruiser at 50% promotion, that exact same cruise, leaving around the same date in January 2020 and it would be $3,300.  Guess I'll be waiting to see if they do the Kids Sail Free promotion again.  The math doesn't even come close to adding up between the two.

17 hours ago, herewego2017 said:

I just wanted to thank everyone for their responses. It has been very helpful in helping me decide what to pack and what to pre-book. Character breakfast was available for pre-booking, but based on your feedback we won’t. Same with cupcake decorating. Will check it out on board and take our chances if my daughter decides she wants to do it.  Finally, thanks for the google tip.  Seems fairly obvious now, but I hadn’t tied that.

One week to go!!!  : )

We're on the same cruise.  Hoping for some great weather!  Looks like it'll only be about 50* out during sailaway, though.....

Thanks for the info on Maya Chan. I checked out the reviews at TripAdvisor and they are spectacular. We've been on 3 cruises, all with Carnival, and we've never done a non-cruise line sponsored excursion. We've never had much luck finding beaches on our own that weren't packed to the gills with no shot of getting a beach chair or umbrella. We're booked for LOS sailing date 1/20/19 and I'm looking forward to the trip to Maya Chan. Going to make our reservations soon.