bguppies

Also booked Nachi Coucm through their website and took a cab from the pier there and back. Easy peasy. Nachi Cocum is a quieter, relaxed experience with nice facilities, but it is AI, with all you can drink alcohol and a fantastic 4 course meal included. Mr. Sanchos is right down the beach but a little more of a party atmosphere.I know they used to have AI and pay as you go options before the shutdown. Playa Mia is just down the road and is more geared to kids with waterslides and lots of kiddie activites. Paradise Beach is the closest to the piers on the same stretch of beach and is kind of in between Nachi and Sanchos and I think has both AI and Pay as you go options. I'm pretty sure cab fare is the same to all 4 clubs. (since they are all on the same stretch of beach) Hope that helps. Like I said a beach for every kind of beach day.

The East side of the island is rougher waves and shores. Most of the beach clubs you hear about in here are all on the West side (facing the mainland) Paradise Beach, Mr. Sanchos, Nachi Cocum, etc. All are on the same stretch of sand on the west side, but each has a slightly different vibe. The west side has less trouble with seaweed, than the east side, but MUCH less trouble than all the beaches in Costa Maya. (Costa Maya's flag should have a huge clump of seaweed on it)

Beaches in Cozumel arer much, much better than the best beach in Costa maya, so if you are thinking about a beach day between the two, definitely choose Cozumel. (I can't imagine what beach you went to in Cozumel that was meh? We found Nachi Cocum on our first trip to Cozumel and have never thought about going anywhere else. I will admit the waters on other islands are much prettier Grand Cayman, Bimini,, St. Martin, etc. But Cozumel has the best varities of beaches for any taste)

Yeah no bathroom access at the free beach kind of killed that for us too. Plus now that we are both having minor mobolity issues, pool area might be better than a solid day on the sand. The pool there looked very nice. Thanks for the input.

ninjacat, did you get the RW pass w/lunch through the ship or buy lunch on your own once there? Saw a you tube video that mentioned the ship charged a $25 upcharge for lunch, but then when they got handed the menu at RW it stated on the menu, anything on there was $15...(so basically Carnival pocketed $10 per person)

$16-17 sounds about right on.

There are many videos on you tube that show the facilities pretty welll and some also show food prices when they get lunch. I quit looking into Margaritaville when our Nassau stop got switched to Bimini.

Would help to know which pier you are docking at. Downtown is more expensive than Puerto Maya (Carnival) or International (RCI). The piers south of downtown are closer than the downtown pier, thus cheaper rides I know my research for my December cruise looks like $17-18 from Puerto Maya to Nachi Cocum which is just past Sanchos.

I don't think any mass market ship can handle completely different menus in two main dining rooms, simply from preparation purposes. (the reason, even the buffett is usually serving the same items during dinnertime)

I would just check the pier schedule for your day and try pay as you go at Paradise for your water, then hit somewhere for a nice dinner on the way back to the ship. Any other ships should probably left by the timeypou are heading back. Have to town to yourselves, after some beach'pool time. Docking that late, most things in town will already be full with all the ships ahead of you. (we are the 6th out of 8 ships on our day in December) Maybe you'll be there on a slow day in January.

Yeah the water here is nowhere near as beautiful as Grand Cayman, the Bahamas, Roatan or other Caribbean islands. The water is murkier than Cozumel, but the same sea weed problems. (just much worse than Cozumel) Similar to swimming off a Jersey Shore beach, than Florida or the Caribbean.

I'm starting to think Carnival is just blaming any shortcomings on "supply chain issues" or "staffing issues". Which apparently other lines, including those under their own corporate umbrella, do not seem to be having nearly as many problems.

The roll call area and even some of port boards are just super dead these days. I posted on our September Sunshine cruise and December Pride cruise for 3-4 months and it has been mostly, me talking to myself. I've been researching updates for our December Pride cruise on the Costa Maya and Cozumel boards, And they sometimes go for days with no new threads or responses, where they used to get hundreds a day. Hopefully you can get someone to chime in, but the moderators can't make people on your cruise respond.

Savannah has little to no shot. (Two hours closer to the Florida ports. Like somebody already said, only 2 hour drive from Jacksonville, with the same bridge problems and no terminal in place) If Carnival was to have to kick in to help with a new terminal in Savannah, Norfolk or Wilmington, I'd think they'd try to get a terminal built in Jacksonville on the other side of the bridge, so they could use a bigger ship than Fantasy or Spirit class. Norfolk and Baltimore are too far north to have a larger prescence. (Too much fuel to get to the easiest places, like Bermuda or the Bahamas.) Living in Charleston for the past 22 years, it has irritated me to no end, at how perfect a town it is for crusing, yet to not be able to take advantage of this due to the SNOB's (rich people Slightly North of Broad St) trying to block the cruise industry at every turn. Yet now after years of fighting a new state of the art terminal at the docks, to replace the old shipyards there, that entire area in the past 2 years has been turned into eyesore after eyesore condos on the water. (which to me is way worse than a cruiseship being docked down there every couple of days until 4 PM._) I think Charleston could have been a fantastic stop for ships in NY, Baltimore or Norfolk to stop at on their way south to the Bahamas or Caribbean. There are lots of historical things to see a short walk from the ship., Market street, with all the local shops in the open air shops are a half block to the right when you disembark. The higher end shopping on King Street is 3 blocks over. The boat to Fort Sumter is just a few blocks north at the Aquarium. Boone's Hall Historic Plantation (where the minseries North and South was filmed) and the other 3 historic plantations are on the other side of town, on Ashley River Road. All 4 plantations are a short 40-45 minute ride away from the pier. Many beaches, also a less than a 45 minute drive from the pier. (although the beaches down here are mercifully undeveloped, unlike those I used to frequent on the Jersey, Maryland or Virginia shore back in the 80's-90's.) It reminds me of stopping in Key West but with much more to do unless you just want to get drunk. (then Key West is king) Sadly an increase in the cruise industry in the area could have been a boon to the workers in the area and small business owners, but the rich would prefer more rich people living in the condos there, rather than a daily influx of tourists.

You responded to this thread in the peoper board 2 weeks ago if you forgot.

Better weather than Miami in Winter, so if people are still swimming, etc. in Miami, guaranteed they will be in Nassau. I think once we went in February I felt it was too chilly to swim. I'm sure anybody from north of the mason dixon line would find November in the Bahamas balmy.

Might help get your answer if you could state which one of the 3 piers in town or the tender pier that your ship is scheduled to use. (1 pier and tender pier in downtown and 2 piers on the southside of town) But as far as I know none of 3 piers has a decent beach close to the pier.

First thing I thought about when the Griner story broke. When we moved to Turkey when I was 11, the State Department sat all incoming passengers down in a side room before we left the airport and told us if we made any infractions while living or viisiting there, we would be held and tried under Turkish authority and there was little to nothing they could do to help. So I haven't felt at all bad about an entitled athlete who felt the rules didn't apply to them, spending so much time in a Russian jail cell. Hopefully the OP is smart enough to not follow the bad advice of a loudmouth. (crusinguy007) A passport is a good idea in ANY foreign port, but NOT required. If the OP is the kind of person to do the bare minimum at all times, all that is usually required is a photo ID in most ports. But they will let you know on the ship if more is required. Hope the OP has a wonderful cruise.

Love the Graycliff. Hope somebody that has been recently knows. You might be able to contact them directly if nobody knows. Future FIL will love a smoke in those plush leather chairs in the smoking lounge and watching them roll some cigars. MIL and Fiance can tour the hotel grounds. Did that with my wife our last time there and she loved the grounds. (think Beverly Hills in the 1920's - 30's) https://www.graycliff.com/graycliff-cigar-company/ Contact info at the bottom

We do too. Have an upcoming out of Charleston in September and a Decembewr cruise out of another favorite, Tampa. Jacksonville is super cheap ,and convienient, but for a quick Bahamas weekennd, I'll pay a little extra for the cruise and get a ride to and from the port and save on parking and the gas for the drive there and back again.

Clear to me that my usual western or Bahamian runs are good to go and now MIL can cruise unvaccinated and keep her sanity on any of those cruises. I'd be shocked if Carnival or RCI or both don't follow NCL's lead by the weekend. Be nice if they didn't, but they will.

That's how you leapfrog the 2 companies ahead of you and get way out in front of the many companies behind you. Make smarter decisions. Give the market something they want but other companies won't give them.

If Carnival is foolish enough to keep their pre-cruise testing in place, on 7-8 dsy cruises, looks like I'll be trying out NCL again in 2023. It would be nice if one major line got rid of everything, one got rid of testing, but kept vaxxing requirements and one kept it all for the fearful out there and see where the bottomline falls. Give the marketplace the most choices.

I believe the Bahamas dropped their mandatory covid tests since this post in early April. You might want to double check beforer getting too worried about it. I know RCI and Carnival will both have dropped pre-cruise testing foir the vacinated going to the Bahamas by weeks end. NCL dropping the testing next month on all of their cruises. (except Canada and Bermuda)

Carnival's Puerto Maya and RCI's International pier are right next to each other, much closer to the beach clubs in Cozumel. Just google Cozumel's pier schedule and either Puerto Maya or International are 15 minutes or less to the beach clubs.