cruisinqt

I’ve been researching doing both but wasn't sure we could fit both in comfortably. I’ll try to though.

We are family (parents and adult children) so we don’t want to split up.

This will be our first visit to Iceland. We will be visiting Reykjavik, Grundarfjordur, Akurreyri, and Seydisfjordar. My biggest delimma is what to do in Reykjavik. Our group consists of 4 adults and we will be there from 9:00 am until 11:00 pm. Half of us want to visit the Golden Circle and the other half want to visit the spa at Blue Lagoon. Originally we planned on visiting the Blue Lagoon (then exploring downtown) then seeing the craters, waterfalls, geysers, and other similar attractions at the other ports. But upon further research it sounds like the Golden Circle is a must see attraction in Reykjavík. Most of the tours that combine the two are very lengthy tours lasting 11-13 hours. That’s a long time to be on a tour bus and I also worry about getting back to the ship in time. Any suggestions or experiences? Should I just choose one or the other? Or is it possible to combine the two without being too exhausted and too late?

Carnival has a 12 day London cruise on the Pride that’s got a lot of Iceland stops. It has 4 stops in Iceland (Reykjavik, Grundarfjordar, Akurreyi, Seydisfjordar) two stops in Scotland (Isle of Sky, Invergordon) and one stop in Ireland (Belfast). As far as great port choices go that’s hard to beat.

I’ve been researching it and you can book tickets to Blue Lagoon through them personally and they offer transportation also for $48. They will pick you up at the cruise terminal and drop you off back there or return you to downtown Reykjavik it’s up to you.

Cheers is 15 alcoholic drinks a day but it includes unlimited sodas, water, milkshakes, coffee, energy drinks, etc. We also like to drink on our balcony. I just order my beer in a can unopened so I can take it to my room for later and they never have a problem with that. I’ll do it several times throughout the day so I have a stash in my cabin fridge. I do the same thing with sodas. I love having lots of cold drinks available for some quiet time on my balcony. They also allow you to bring one bottle of wine per person on board. I love sipping wine on the balcony. You can make it work for you with a little planning.

We’ve been cruising over 20 years. Our girls were 3 & 5 when we started. They are 23 & 25 now. We’ve booked cabins side by side under each of our names (we get great casino offers) then split the girls between us. Once on board we switch to whatever cabins we want with no questions asked. I wouldn’t get “extra room keys” because it’s confusing. Everyone’s bills will get confused since you use your S&S cards to pay for everything. I would use up any on board credit ahead of time for excursions and specialty dining. The only reason to keep yourself officially in the original cabins is if there’s some type of drink package you’re wanting to keep.

We were in that area and had no issues with noise. Bolt doesn’t run constantly, it closes fairly early, and is often closed due to high winds. I don’t think it’ll be a problem.

I’ve done both and I preferred the Panorama mainly because of the itinerary. Unlike the rest of the Caribbean where it’s very hot year round and you’re sweating profusely, the Mexican Riviera is in the mid 70’s year round. We loved that it was sunny and warm enough to swim or do beach activities but not overly hot like it usually is on a Caribbean cruise. I didn’t even break a sweat, it was awesome! We also loved the ports. They were all big cities that were well built up with lots of activities to choose from.

We are all flying American Airlines so now I know to go to terminal 3, thanks.

Thanks I’ll look them up

So if I’m understanding this correctly then if my girls take the train from Heathrow to London it doesn’t go directly to St Pancras and they’ll need to take a bus, Uber, or taxi over to St Pancras. As far as buses go, there’s no direct route from Heathrow to Dover with them either. And it sounds like there’s timing issues too. And I’m not crazy about the bus train combo with Victoria station because it wastes so much time traveling. Im leaning towards doing a private transfer from Heathrow straight to Dover. Their flight arrives at 6:45 am (on a Saturday) so we could get on the road fairly early (hopefully avoiding the heavier traffic) and arrive in Dover early enough to do a lot of sightseeing. If we decide to meet up with our daughters at Heathrow what would be our best option for traveling there from our hotel? We are staying at Park Plaza Westminster Bridge. Is there a train or bus near our hotel or would we be better off using Uber or a taxi? We will have suitcases but nothing crazy, we aren’t over packers. Probably one large suitcase and a carry on for each of us.

My husband has already researched which credit cards have the least fees while being used in London so I’m good there. I had no idea how bad some of these credit cards are when being used out of the country. So we will definitely do the touch in touch out with our credit cards. Thanks for your help.

Okay so it sounds like we should either meet up at St Pancras station and take the train to Dover from there or meet up at the airport and take a cab or car hire service from there straight to Dover. So those would be my two best choices, right? Sorry about the Dover castle comment. I got Dover castle in Dover and the Abbey and cathedral in Canterbury confused. I meant we were going to Canterbury to see the cathedral and abbey then later we will look at the castle in Dover.

Our daughters (22 & 25) have decided to join us on our cruise. We are arriving in London several days prior to the cruise and doing some sightseeing. Our daughters are arriving one day prior to the cruise. We want to meet up with them and head over to our hotel in Dover the day they arrive (one day prior to the cruise). Hopefully we can drop our luggage off at the hotel (Best Western Plus in Dover) then head into Canterbury to see Dover castle. Our problem is where to meet up with them and what transportation to use to get to Dover. They will be arriving at Heathrow Airport at 6:25 am on Saturday 8/19/23. Since it’s a Saturday and there won’t be rush hour traffic and it’s the day before the cruise and fairly early in the day we were thinking a car service might be best. We are looking for something quick, easy, and not too overly expensive. We could meet up with the girls at the airport and then use Uber, a shuttle, or a car service to go to Dover. Is this the simplest quickest route? Or should we meet up with them at a train station and take the train? Or is there something else that’s better that you could suggest? We are staying at Park Plaza Westminster Bridge and thought about having the girls meet us there then heading out but my husband wants to go to the airport. He’s worried they will be lost and confused at the airport since this is their first trip overseas. I’m not as worried, they’re extremely smart and graduated at the top of their class in both high school and college. Any suggestions on how to navigate from Heathrow to Dover?

There are a limited amount of comfort plus, economy plus, and other similar seats on most airplanes. Therefore, I’ve found that they sell out fairly quickly and rarely drop in price like normal seats do.

They are sister ships so they’re identical with a few exceptions like the shows. The main show on the Mardi Gras that everyone talks about is an illusionist and he’s extremely talented and puts on a fascinating show. The big show in the Celebration is the Big Top Circus with huge tents and acrobats. I would highly recommend eating at Emeril’s. It’s every bit as good as his restaurant in New Orleans at a fraction of the price. The beignets are fantastic, big enough for 2 people and only $4. I would also recommend the Bonsai Teppanyaki place where they cook right in front of you. Cucina Del Capitano was voted best Italian cuisine on a cruise ship and the reputation is well deserved, I’d try them too. The lobster and steak were top notch. Rudi Sodamin’s seafood place is awesome too. And any of Guy Fieri’s restaurants are an absolute must try (and they’re free.) There’s free freshly made pizza (cooked in a brick oven) available till 4 am. Bonsai Sushi is usually open pretty late I remember eating there after 11 pm. The kids would be in 2 different groups, 6-8 and 9-11. But they will allow the older child go to a lower age group. They don’t usually let kids move up to a higher age group but it does occasionally happen.

Yeah I saw a great offer on a last minute cruise too but I’ve already booked several cruises and couldn’t justify squeezing that one in. I’m hoping more pop up too. I’ve always wanted to do the Panama Canal.

I’ve seen some pretty good discounts but they’re all casino related offers.

With the elevators you just go to the kiosk and select a floor (tap the floor number 3 times for 3 guests etc). It will tell you what elevator to go to. That elevator will only go to that floor (unless it stops to let someone on), there’s no buttons to push once inside. I saw a number of people just randomly jumping into whatever elevator was open and hoping it was close to where they were going to because they were too impatient to wait. One day a young couple raced into my elevator and proceeded to ask me where it was going. I told them deck 14 and you should have seen their faces. They were late for dinner and didn’t even check to see if the elevator was going up or down. As I got off at my floor the woman sighed and told her husband “well at least we know what goes up must come down.” Her husband replied “yeah but how many floors is it going to stop at before it gets to deck 3?” The moral of the story: use the kiosk. 😉

That did the trick, thanks

I’m platinum and currently have 5 cruises booked and I get tons of offers for free or steeply discounted cruises. But 75% of those are casino related offers. I don’t think it has anything to do with what you’ve got booked. I think it’s more about how much you spend in the casino or elsewhere on board. If they make a lot of money off of you it’s worth it to give you a great deal. If not then there aren’t that many good deals. I have 2 friends I often cruise with (both are Platinum), the first friend doesn’t gamble but spends tons in the shops on board (she says it easier than buying souvenirs while in port), on the specialty restaurants, the cheers package, and always books the more expensive excursions through Carnival. She gets some pretty good offers. My other friend is more budget minded, she watches every dime and spends very long little on board. She rarely gets a good offer. So I think they offer good deals to the cruisers that spend over a certain amount.

Mine doesn’t work at all. No countdown timer or anything.

The app doesn’t work till you’re on board

I did the same thing earlier in the year. Just email the casino host and they’ll get right back with you and let you know what deal you booked. They got back with me in under 24 hours.