dioxide45

Prices are sure up from last year

Could it be partly attributed to the the itinerary though? I know that the Magic currently sails out of Galveston. Perhaps Amber Cove, St. Thomas, San Juan, Puerto Rico and Grand Turk are more desirable than Roatan, Cozumel, Belize, Grand Cayman and Jamaica?

Call Carnival at this number for Gift card questions. 1-866-270-1064 . I gave them the GC number and they told me it was good for $500.

 

I could not check value myself because card did not have a pin. Have been told it is under the silver on the back, but did not want to scrape off anything.

No reason you can't scrape that silver stuff off. The pin is under that. Scratching that off won't render the gift card invalid.

I find it easier to check the balance through the gift card link on the main page. Much faster than doing a mock booking.

Yes, we put all 9 bottles on the form. There were 2 of us (my wife and me). We were probably close on the limit, but they didn't say anything.

You were not close to the limit, you were over the limit. Your limit for two people would be 2 liters of alcohol. If you had 9 that were only 3/4 of a liters, you would have still been at 6. In most cases, customs doesn't bother to collect the customs as it would cost more to do the paperwork than what they actually collect. We get waived through with three or four all the time. Even when driving through the boarder.

To answer the OP's question. You are wrong. Todays cruise prices are much less than years ago. I found my first cruise tickets for our honeymoon cruise in 1990. For a 4 day cruise we paid $1900 for an inside cabin. With airfare to Miami from Chicago. Per an inflation calculator I found on line that is the equivlant to $3464 today. even at todays airfare costs of $350 round trip pp that means that cruise cost about $2764 in todays money.. So if anything we are paying much les for cruises now than we did in the past.

I am not sure the OP was comparing cruise prices of today to those of the 90s. I think they were looking more at today vs last year or even two or three years ago.

It would make sense with so much more competition now, bigger boats and much more capacity now that prices would be less than they were in the 90s.

I am looking for some experiences with The Merida City and Shopping Tour from AutoProgresso.

I think we are going to cancel the Uxmal tour we have booked because of some mobility issues. Simply too much walking involved in the hot Mexican sun.

Has anyone taken the Merida City and Shopping Tour? How much walking is involved. I would expect some walking at the Bazaar toward the end of the tour, but how about the rest of it? Is it mostly on the bus with a few stops to get out and explore? Can you hang out on the bus or come back early if you don't want to walk too much? I know quite often when everyone gets off the bus it is parked and locked.

While are are disappointed we won't be able to go to Uxmal, we are looking for something that requires less excursion.

I agree with others, no compensation is due. If you don't like the changes, you can cancel your cruise and book another. If you are really bothered, book on a different line and let Carnival know that is what you are going to do when you cancel. They probably won't care, but they won't know unless you tell them. Vote with your feet.

Deals are still out there. I'm on the Dream next month for ten days in a balcony for $1200 plus OBC for two of us.

I would agree, though sailing in the fall has always been a good deal. We are on the Magic for 7 nights for about $850 total for two people in a Spa Interior. Sailing in the off season is the best deal, not everyone can do that and those traveling during peak time are probably seeing a bigger increase in prices.

Out of Galveston it's not 3 hours and there is a good selection of drinks!!!

Could be, depending on what time you actually board. I think perhaps the three hours isn't just from sail away time.

We claimed our 2 liters of alcohol on our customs form, but they just sent us on. We were told that they don't pull everyone aside. They said that you still want to put it on your form, so that if they do pull you aside, it doesn't look like you're trying to hide anything. What we bought on the ship is not available in the US, so we were willing to pay the tax if need be. This was May of this year.

Even if the alcohol is part of your duty free allowance, you are still to claim it on your customs declaration form. So you did what you were supposed to do.

*Templars ... but I get it :)

Are Travelers Cheques the treasure that is buried on Oak Island?:D

We did an AI years ago in the Bahamas. I really would never consider an AI again. We don't cruise for the semi AI experience, we cruise to see new places. We would be okay with a cheaper cruise far and pay a la cart for meals. When we travel outside of cruising, we like to experience the dining options the place has to offer. We have been to Cancun and Aruba twice each. Both places have lots of AI options, but I wouldn't consider doing AI in either place. Too many great restaurants in both places. I don't want to do a land trip that feels like a cruise because I am tied to the resort restaurants.

Because we aren't heavy drinkers, I have compared land based AI to non AI and non AI usually comes out cheaper. We usually buy something at the local grocery for breakfast and snacks and only eat one main meal out each day. This works out far cheaper than any AI would cost us. Most of the AI cost is inflated to cover alcohol. Of course, consider that we are getting lodging for about $75-$100 a night using timeshare.

It's in the left corner of each post. Like your post is 8:08 p.m.

I know. But a forum I frequent far more often than Cruise Critic has the thread start date in the actual thread list in the forum. So easy to catch it there. I often miss checking the dates on every post, easy to do this when someone brings a thread back from the basement.

I am not aware of any quality Bahamian rum - it generally being a product of the Caribbean: Puerto Rico and Barbados in particular.

Yeah, both Bacardi and Captain Morgan are products of Puerto Rico.

My bank also recently discontinued them. I bought some to take on a trip to Aruba several years ago. I don't bother with that again. Just notify my bank of my travels and pull cash at the ATM. My bank reimburses ATM fees, to it also makes it fee free. Though the travelers cheques were fee free too.

The Road to Hana is truly spectacular. We have drove it twice when on land based trips to Maui.

I think you might be better to do this trip on your own if you could rent a car. I don't know if I would want to do this in a bus or even a mini bus. Lot of curves and lots of one lane bridges. I recommend the trip and it is a whole day, but it is definitely worth it.

Do you remember what time i would need to be there to get tickets for the first tender?

I just started a similar thread on this topic.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2261396

Couldn't ne too bad, it was 2 months ago:D

:doh:

Missed that. Really wish CC would include the thread start date in the main forum. I am so used to it on another forum I frequent.

did you pick up tickets the night before? im just wondering if in order to get one of the first ones that I need to line up at a certain time

No, tender tickets are available the day you are in port. If you have FTTF, you go to guest services and they will escort you to the tender for priority tendering ship to shore.

can someone refresh my memory on how tendering works at grand cayman if you dont have fttf? i vaguely remember you need to pick up a ticket and wait in the theatre but not sure when you pick up ticket and?or how long the wait will be

We picked up our stickers/tickets on the main pool deck stage on Lido when we sailed the Paradise. We didn't go and wait in the theater. Just waited until our number was called and headed down.

Now if they discontinued Warm Chocolate Melting Cake then I might make a big stink about that and try another line! :eek:

I would have to agree on this one. I order that just about every night. Chocolate Melting Cake with chocolate ice cream.

First of all, there are no tender tickets, there are numbered stickers to be placed on clothing, hats, beach bags, etc. (They must be visible.)

 

On to the topic at hand. In order to get the low numbered tender stickers, we used to go to the designated lounge as soon as we saw land. We learned not to wait until the time listed in the Carnival Capers (pre-Fun Times) because we ended up with double digit stickers. After that first time, we saw land in the horizon and headed to the lounge. There were always crew members already handing out the number of tickets each party needed. (One per person.)

 

The tenders are very big and hold a few hundred people. Numbers are called two to three at a time.

 

Have a great cruise.

Thanks. I was aware that they were just stickers with numbers on them. Though the CD on our Paradise cruise and i think also the Fun Times, called them tender tickets. I do recall them calling several numbers at a time. Just trying to figure out the best way to get a single digit number.

Can one person get tickets (numbers for those needing to be technical) for several people? After you get the tickets can do you go back to your cabin or wait in a certain area? (Would everyone need to be ready to go in otherwise when you went to wait for the tickets?)

Yes, I do know that only one person from the group needs to go to get the tickets. They just ask how many and hand them over. You can then go and wait anywhere until your number is called. Though keep in mind that it may be hard to hear them called in your cabin.

Even better hide it in plain sight.

 

Take an old wllat or purse with as many old cards with magnetic strips as you can find.

 

You will all know it's the XYZ card, no one else will.

Though it would probably only take someone three minutes to run all the cards through?

Isn't hiding the card in the room kind of like hiding your house key under your welcome mat or above the door frame? Or hiding your valuables in your house where only yo know where they are? Thieves know all of these places.

We have sailed to Grand Cayman twice before, one time it rained and our Carnival excursion was cancelled, the last time we took a taxi to Cemetery beach and the public bus back. For our November Magic cruise we are renting a car. We are in port from 9:00 - 5:00. We rented our car with a 9:00am pickup time, but picking it up later won't be an issue.

I am wondering how we can go about getting the earliest tender ticket possible? We are only gold and didn't purchase FTTF. I don't really want to buy it if I don't have to. Though it is sold out on our sailing. On our last cruise we weren't in a real hurry to get off the ship, so I didn't rush up to get a tender ticket. This time around we want to maximize our time on the island. Any tips? What time do people start to line up for tender tickets?

Looks like an automated reply. Keep e-mailing them and wait about 24-48 hours to see if they respond on the next business day. Also keep checking the excursion list several times a day until your cruise. With any luck they'll release some slots. That happened to me on one of my Ecstasy cruises. More slots opened up about 30 days before the cruise.

Not sure why you would have to keep emailing them? The automated reply has specific details about the wait-list for FTTF. It seems like extra effort to keep emailing them if they have the wait-list requess on a list already?

For those ports where all the luggage is in a huge warehouse type area with the luggage sorted by zones, are the higher zones bag in there even before they start calling the first zone? Meaning, could you have zone 35 and get off the ship with zone 1 and still have your bags ready? I have often wondered this...