bguppies

After you try another line, please come back and let everyone in here know how the service and food shortages (the Carnival BS, bacon shoratge) and food quality are in comparison. We have one more cruise on Carnival in 3 weeks, but after that, unless it is a great cruise, after our experience in September on the Sunshine, we will; be branching out ourselves. We have been pretty lazy about branching out due to Carnival's ports being so convienient to us. (Charleston is a short drive to downtown, Jacksonville, Tampa and Port Canaveral.) But the staff on the September cruise were great as usual, just stretched way too thin. When you bring that up in here all of the apoligists just shout out any non-Carnival opinions, like they own the company personally. I'd be incredibly anxious to know if other cruiselines are as shorthanded as Carnival has been running their business. I personally feel that Carnival has intentionally kept their staff shorthanded to save some labor costs, while cutting thheir product as close to the bone as they possibly can. But I would love to hear confirming opinions of this. (or if the other cruiselinesd feel shortstaffed , PLEASE come back and say so) I greatly appreciate your honest assesment and review of your cruise.

Grand Cayman any excursion to Stingray City you shouldn't need to snorkel as the boats all gather at a shallow sand bar at the entrance to the bay that the stingarys congregate at to eat food scraps (from back in the fishing days of the island) to this generation of rays has been hand fed by tourists and the guides there their entire lives.(personally I'd recommend an in dependant excusrion over a Carnival one in Grand Cayman, as the Carnival one will hanve hundreds of people on that excusrion versus 20-30 on an independant boat. Last time we went, We arrived at the same time as the Carnival boat and the 10 people on our excusion got right out and started interacting with the Rays immediately. Meanwhile for the next 20-30 minutes the people lined up on the Carniuval boat were slowly getting into the water. By the time the last person was getting off, they had to start reloading their boat. The entire time the large group was loading and unloading, we were interacting the entire time with the Rays.) In Cozumel, any decent snorkeling excusion will take you a short ways off shore by boat, to where the reef is at its best. You'll definitely appreciate lessons for the Cozumel leg. If you ever go to Roatan, there is some fantastic, easy snorkeling for beginners at West Bay from the shore.

Does MSC only sail from Miami? If our Pride cruise in a few weeks is as bad as our Sunshine cruise in September, we'll be looking to try something new. Keep hearing how MSC's product has been improving since the restart, while Carnival's product keeps dwindling. They are definitely trying to give the big 3 a run for their money.

I did not say it was unsafe, just not as safe as the comparison of Grand Cayman. Did you actually read what I wrote? Does Mahahual feel as safe as Cozumel? The person has safety concerns and I just tried to put them in perspective for them to evaluate and make an informed decision based on their comparison. Anyone who says Mahaual is as safe as Grand Cayman is lying. Offshore banking pays for an extremely nice police force and infrastructure there.

Doesn't feel as safe as on an island like Cozumel, but not bad either. But, I've been to dozens of countries and dozens of caribbean ports and have only been marginally concerned for my safety in Ocho Rios Jamaica and New York City. If you have safety concerns at every little thing, Costa Maya is nowhere near as safe feeling as Grand Cayman. (a very rich island, with modern infrastructure versus Mahahual, with very antiquated infrastructure and very poor area on the Mexican mainland) Anywhere you go outside the port area, they will be trying to sell you something. A polite no has always worked for me, but some people don't like being spoken to constantly. (having lived in Turkey for 2 years, I know its just poor people trying to hustle to scratch out a living, so its never bothered me too much) I haven't tried one of the private beach clubs outside of town, but I have wandered around in Mahuhual and hit a few beach clubs along the Malecon and the vendors will be bothering you all day if that is a problem. (not sure if there are any vendors at Maya Chan or Almaplena outside of town) I haven't personally done a Mayan ruin excursion here, but did one in Progresso to the north and it was one of my favorite excursions ever. I know the excursion in Costa Maya through Native Way gets rave reviews in here if you think your group might enjoy an Indiana Jones day. I doubt you can get more represntative of the area and its history than Mayan ruins.

As much as Carnival is nickle and diming the crap out of everything, I'm sure this easy reve ue stream will be back as quick as they finish jacking up the prices of everything melse in the Fun Shops. (suprised they didn;t do this first)

This is how you do it if you don't want to carry your own luggage. Not expect everyone else to wait for you.

Many ships probably have more than 50% carrying their own luggage. (Especially on cruises of 7 nights or less) Until the days when Carnival hires enough Genie's to magically blink all of the luggaeg off the ship and lay it out for pickup....Those not industrious enough to carry off their own luggage will just have to wait their turn.

Take a look at what ships you'll be in port with on your day. It matters more about WHICH ships will be in port rather than how many. We have 6 in our day in December, but the only larger ship is Allure of the Seas,(over 4,000 pax) the rest are under 3,000 passengers. A day with multiple Oasis class megaships or the Mardi Gras or larger NCL ships will be worse than a day with 8-10 smaller ships. I think we have only had one stop in Cozumel over the years with less than 8 ships in port and it has never seemed overcrowded in Cozumel.

This descibes it perfectly. We prefer a quiet, guaranteed less crowded day so we always choose Nachi. Be back for the 5th or 6th time in december,

Here's somebody's October response about Sanchos. Sounds like AI guarantees a spot and PAYG is space available. Posted October 5 Yes. I emailed about doing PAYG on an upcoming cruise and was told they would not be accepting PAYG guests since they were completely booked on

Here's a September response Posted September 28 I clarified with Paradise Beach. In case anyone needs the info: Our A la carte option is only offered if we have space available that day. It includes the use of our facilities (Including the rental of lounge chairs, beach umbrellas, use of the pool, and free Wi-Fi). We only charge $10 USD per person AND a $10 USD minimum consumption fee on F&B. We don’t take reservations for this option, and there are only a limited amount of a la carte tickets available per day. A la carte tickets are honored on a first come, first served basis. The FUN PASS is an additional $18 USD per person and includes unlimited playtime with our famous water park, kayaks, water hammocks and stand-up paddle boards. Also includes snorkel rental. To secure your spot, we highly recommend booking in advance by booking the EXCLUSIVE ALL-INCLUSIVE. We are offering the “FALL IN PARADISE” promotion on our EXCLUSIVE ALL-INCLUSIVE F&B. Reservations can be made on our website using this link paradisebeachcozumel.com

c-leg5 who gives great information about Cozumel posted this on another thread about PB. "The information is even more difficult to find on the new website, and it was bad enough before! It is under the “Helpful information” tag on drop down menu, several psges. IS THERE A NON-ALL-INCLUSIVE OPTION AT PARADISE BEACH? There is the possibility that on the day you're traveling, Paradise Beach might be sold out with Exclusive All Inclusive customers, so we really encourage you to book your spot in advance on our website. However, on certain days when we are not sold out, there's an à la carte option for a $10 US entrance fee with a minimum consumption of $10 US per person to use our facilities. This includes lounge chairs, umbrellas, pool, free wifi, restrooms, and showers."

Thats what I've been reading in here, getting ready for our December cruise. If nobody with direct experience chimes in this weekend, if you scroll down this page or a couple of pages, there should be a couple of threads talking about Sanchos, Paradise or both, that talk about this a bit. I honestly thought somebody who has been recently would have chimed in for you by now. Hopefully over the weekend.

Sounds right. My Family from Dallas is kind of nuts like that.

Any of the ports outside of Florida will cost more than any of the Florida ports. (Why we sometimes drive from Charleston, which has the Sunshine, to Jacksonville or Tampa which have similar cruises for much less) I always assumed it was a supply and demand thing. How many cruises a week are departing from Miami, Tampa, Port Canaveral and Jacksonville? How many from Galveston? Looks like 5 sailings on 3 lines over the next 4 games. Charleston-2 Carnival cruises per week. (at least Galveston you have 2 Carnival ships and RCCL and NCL) Much more competition from other Carnival ships and from other ships from every other cruiseline in Florida. For instance.Miami..today -4 ships from Carnival, RCCL, MSC and Virgin Tomorrow - 5 ships from MSC, 2 RCCL, carnival and Disney Sunday - 3 from NCL, Virgin and Carnival Monday - 5 from NCL, RCCL, Celebrity and 2 from Carnival So 17 choices in just 4 days. Versus no competition in Charleston, Galveston, New Orleans, Baltimore, etc. Jacksonville only has to compete with all the other Florida ports.

I think both Sanchos and Paradise beach have been pushing the AI since the restart. I think they both still do PAYG, but AI guarantees you a spot. Hopefully somebody who has done either recently can confrim the PAYG still being available. Might want to see how many ships are in port that day, to see how full the two spots will get. (so as you know your odds of PAYG being available, or AI filling up both) Otherwise you can pivot to other suggested spots that I'm sure many will chime in with.

Its just a matter of being passable when other options aren't very good. (when buffet food all looks blech and the deli line is 30 minuites long too. On the Sunshine last month, the deli line was longer than the pizza line everytime I checked.) I can't think of one mass market pizza it is better than. (which is sad)

Thank you so much for the review.

"9 months later..." How many pages does one have to dive for that.

The bisquits last month on the Sunshine were harder than hockey pucks. Never even got as far as the gravy after that. Didn't even worry about the grits, if you can't make a simple bisquit. Said to my wife at breakfast, how sacriligeous, on a ship homeported out of Charleston, SC , you can't make bisquits, gravy or grits.

First dinner in ATD on the Sunshine last month, dinner was well over 90 minutes and we missed the start of the Welcome aboard show. (I really wanted to see the movie at 7PM, but that was a pipe dream for sure) 2nd night was decently paced. The last night was super slow again and we missed the Rock show that night. So clearly it is happening to some folks. Glad you've never missed a show, wish we could say the same. Clearly the poor crew is understaffed and overworked. (our 3 servers were great and hustled their butts off, but they had too many tables to keep up with) Maybe if Carnival wants to keep running with a skeleton crew to keep costs down, maybe they could quit wasting thier time with the singing and dancing and let them serve.

Bowling alley balconies are fantastic. Did one once on the Legend. First cruise that I finally felt a balcony was worth the money.

Easily the Spirit class but sadly they will be gone in a few years and we'll be left with only the overcrowded giganto ships. The Spirit class wins anytime this is put up for vote, yet Carnival builds their new ships completely against why people love the Spirit class so much.

Hopefully somebody else in the family harbor, also wanting bacon, will catch Robin Hood making off with all the bacon and break both his hands, to help him think through such stupid ideas. (maybe Robin can get Friar Tuck or Little John to apply his suntan lotion the rest of the cruise)