auburneyes

I am on the Grandeur now and have only sailed Carnival and Princess before.  This ship is so boring. There is nothing to do and the food choices are abysmal unless you are fine with a buffet.  We never eat from the buffet on Carnival so this was a huge letdown.

Cruise Cash is promoted as non-refundable.  My husband and I love putting $500 towards our cruise and not having to worry about a thing while we are cruising.  However, it’s very simple to check your balance the last night and see what you have left.  If you have $50 - go to the casino put $50 in your account and then cash out! We have done this for over 5 years and it works like a charm!

1 minute ago, firstcruiseoct11 said:

The jeep excursion sounds fun! My kids love adventure. I was scared to book with an outside company for our first cruise. Maybe I'll look into one for this trip. I'm thinking doing excursions for 2 of the stops due to cost. After reading Belize seems to be one to book for. Our first cruise we do Cozumel and progresso. 

I used to only book Carnival excursions for the same reasons that you are probably thinking but honestly, I finally took the plunge and have not looked back.  The others are much cheaper and they care just as much about getting you back to the ship in time, etc because seriously - their life depends on it.  Tourism is the main income for most of these ports and they relay on Travelocity or Trip Advisor reviews to stay in business.  The biggest bonus for me though is that the tours are much smaller so you get a lot more personal attention.   You can ask a ton of questions and not worry about staying with a large group all day long.  The Carnival excursions always have convenient little stops at shops where they try to make you buy stuff - that is not my cup of tea.  We have really loved our excursions more once I stopped booking through the cruise line.

Cozumel has an excursion where you ride in a dune buggy and go to various places around the island that we like. Swimming with the Dolphins is always amazing but more expensive. 

Progresso is a tough port - there isn't much to do.  You can easily take a bus to the shopping area and walk to the beach.  They have a double decker bus tour that goes in a circle and kinda tells you about the place but its pretty short and you have to duck to avoid the telephone lines that go across the street. You can get cheap massages, hair braiding and stuff like that but there is not much else to do there unless Carnival has come up with some other excursions.

I have washed everything we brought on the ship with the exception of dress clothes and we have never had a problem with anything coming back shrunk or faded.  I love this perk!  3 bags for a 7 day cruise.

1 hour ago, firstcruiseoct11 said:

Basically a newbie. My husband and I have been on one cruise and it was in 2011. We are thinking about doing a 7 day western Caribbean cruise for our family vacation this year. It will be my kids first cruise. They will be 9 and 11. 

* What's changed since 2011 that I need to know?

* The boat we are looking at is the Glory out of New Orleans

* Looking at May Dates

* Ports would be Cozumel, Belize and Mahogany Bay 

* The one excursion my son wants to do is the ATV in the jungle. Anyone know if there is an age restriction on this one? 

How fun!  I travel with my husband and twin (boy/girl) 13 year olds.  We did a Jeep Excursion in the Jungle of Belize and it was so much fun!  We did not book through Carnival though (much cheaper).  www.cavetubers.bz  One person in your party will drive the jeep (hopefully can drive a standard, they do have 1 automatic though.)  We LOVED this tour so much!  We went mudding basically and the Jeep was deep in water and mud most of the time within the jungle.  There was also a cave that we hiked up to that had thousands of bats. After driving the Jeep for about 45 minutes through a jungle, you go have lunch prepared by Beliezean women - chicken, rice, beans, potato salad and plantains.  

In Hondoras, we haven't booked an excursion because there is shopping, a chair lift to ride down the hill and a beach within walking distance of the port.

We were on the Vista 2 weeks ago and the only rule was that anyone under 21 cannot sit at the actual bar.  They can sit on the table tops and in the booths though.

I have only done it on Princess but I am sure it's very similar.  You start going through the locks in the morning around.  If people have an excursion, they will get off before hand.  The ship goes through the locks, then turns around and goes back through.  All times depends on the amount of traffic because they line them up in order of arrival.  Its amazing how close the ship gets to the lock walls, kinda creepy!

Bon Voyage!

On 1/6/2019 at 1:19 PM, shof515 said:

I took my first princess cruise in October, i loved the international cafe that had sandwich 24/7. Wish carnival had something similar

They do, its called the Deli and its available 11am - 11pm