CorrieC

Thanks everyone! Yes I cruised on Holland American years ago with my then-boyfriend, and though we did have a nice time, it felt somewhat like a seniors cruise! 

Yes JennyB, it does sound like you are in a similar situation!  My friend and I want to be social, but the young party scene on these short Carnival cruises is a little much, and we are not really meeting as many people our age as we would like. How did you like NCL? I've heard it might be a step above Carnival???

Thanks for the input everyone! Sounds like we need to be looking at longer cruises and maybe a different line. 

Hi!

My friend and I are divorced ladies in our 40s.  Last year we cruised on a 4-day Carnival cruise out of Long Beach and this year we just came back from a 5-day Carnival cruise out of Galveston. Don't get me wrong, both cruises were a lot of fun, but they also both seemed like big time booze cruises with a lot of young drunk people! We did manage to meet some more serious types on both cruises, but we are trying to plan for next year and wondering if we should be looking at a different line or just a different port?  We are both interested in mingling with singles, however we would like them to be a little older and a little more appropriate for us, maybe not so many 20-somethings gone wild! 

Any suggestions on good cruises that fit this description would be greatly appreciated! We are not extremely wealthy, so something like a European River Cruise is probably off the table, however we can certainly afford a more expensive line than Carnival...we've just been going on them because it's what I've done in the past so I'm familiar with the line. We also need to stick with cruises around 5-7 days or less, due to time constraints.  Let me know what you think!

Thanks!

Corrie 💗

Thanks everyone, this is a huge help! I'm hoping that as long as we can leave Long Beach by about 9:00 am, we should be ok with an 11:25am flight, even with the longer distance to LAX, and factoring in LAX being a busier airport. Thanks for the tips on the shuttle companies, I'll start calling them tomorrow!

Thanks, but a taxi might be really expensive! It's about an hour from Long Beach to LAX. :(

Hi, I'm booked on an upcoming Carnival cruise that will be docking at Long Beach on a Sunday at 7am. Unfortunately I have to fly out of LAX instead of the Long Beach airport. The Carnival airport transfer page says that for cruises with an 8am arrival, the earliest your flight can leave LAX is 12noon. I'm looking at a flight that leaves LAX at 11:25am, but because the ship is actually supposed to arrive at 7am, I'm thinking this might be ok. I called Carnival and they said that they cannot reserve the transfer ahead of time, but that I can purchase the transfer while on board the ship. Has anyone heard of this? I'd hate to not be able to get a transfer to the airport, or have to pay for a cab at the last minute, which would be really expensive from Long Beach to LAX. What do you think? There is a later flight leaving LAX at 1:25pm, but the earlier flight would be a lot cheaper for me because I can use some of my miles/points.

Thanks! :)

You guys are right! That is cutting it way too close I agree. I am now looking into flights coming in on Sat 2/14. We will just rest on Sun 2/15, the day before the cruise. Yes, I've been to the downtown area and it's really nice although the hotels are a little bit pricey...I'm trying to do this vacation on a budget this time, which is why I'm using the special discounted airfare tickets....So the kids may have to settle for a hotel near the airport and just watch movies or something...It actually doesn't sound too bad, considering that I'm saving a huge amount on the airfare!

:)

Thanks guys. The Carnival website lists the departure time at 4pm, but in my experience, cruises usually depart around 5pm, so I'm guessing 4pm is the final check-in time. I got the 2:30pm time from the Carnival transfer page, that seems to be their cut-off time across the board for any cruise leaving out of Miami (again leading me to believe that these cruises are actually leaving at 5pm).

But you are right, this is really cutting it super close. If our flight was delayed or there was any problem at all, we would run the risk of missing the cruise altogether, which would be a huge bummer, needless to say.

The other option would have to be flying in 2 days ahead on 3/14, which probably makes sense, but then I have to figure out what to do with the kids during that time, and pay for a hotel, and possibly even a rental car if I wanted to take them anywhere...Or we could just sit in the hotel watching movies I guess, lol! Maybe that's not a bad option actually! ;)

That is what I feared! The other option would be flying in on 3/14 since 3/15 is a blackout day. But then we have so much time to kill before the cruise...and that means paying for 2 nights at a hotel, meals in Miami, etc.

Hi Ya'll! I haven't posted in a long time, but I am thinking of doing another cruise this March over Spring Break with my two boys. The cruise will leave from Miami on Monday 3/16 at 4pm. The earliest we can possibly get in to the Miami airport is 2:36pm. Now assuming that we are not delayed and we actually get there at that time, is it possible to get down to the cruise ship terminal fast enough to get on the cruise in time? I know this is pushing it and it would be better to fly in the night before (3/15), but I have special airline tickets and 3/15 is a blackout date, so we can not fly on that day! The Carnival website says the latest you can arrive at the Miami airport to get their transfers is 2:30pm, so we are just 6 minutes over their cut-off....However I'm thinking it might be quicker (and cheaper since there are 3 of us) just to get a cab anyways. I've been to Miami and I know that the airport is not super far from the cruise terminal, and keep in mind too that this would be a Monday afternoon, so maybe not the busiest time for traffic...But what do you think??? Can we do this or am I crazy?

Thanks! :)