abaci

We are a young couple going on a 15 day Princess cruise in Nov. We have a three year old and was wondering if anybody could recommend excursion that are ok with a stroller or very little walking. This is our fist cruise and we want to do things that can only be done in Hawaii.

Thanks for your help

I would ask specifically in the Hawaii section or the section for whatever ports you are stopping. More people will probably have helpful info

I've always wondered how people afford 4+ weeks off for travel/trips without going into debt? I would love 6 weeks off but probably wouldn't be able to afford to go any place significant and therefore wouldn't use it. I enjoy my job and rarely take any random days off.

I work for a bank that requires everyone to take 5 consecutive days off. I get 3.5 weeks of PTO plus 80 hours of sick time and you can only carry over 40 hours with anything more lost. We have been taking one 2-2.5 week vacation and sometime another small week long vacation and I still have to "kill" PTO days many years to get down below 40 hours. When I carry over 40 PTO hours it can be hard and expensive to travel for 4.5 weeks.

I'm sure as we get older (currently early 30's) and our 3 year old son grows we will have more disposable income and wish we had more travel time. However, right now we are paying extra on our 15 year mortgage (only debt) and saving a large percentage of our income in an effort to retire in less then 25 years. Maybe some day I will feel like we have the money to spend on trip for all of the PTO time especially as I keep adding more days, but at this stage of life we just aren't there.

We are looking to book our first cruise with RCL for June 2018 to Alaska. My brother's family (4 people) and my parent's are going to be booking cabins too for each of their first cruise. When I started looking the end of June RCL had a BOGO on the 2nd guest and the 3/4 guest as well. That ended in June and was since restarted in July & August.

Everyone finally just got the confirmed approval for PTO for the dates we have selected and now I see they have a Labor Day special which only includes the BOGO for the 2nd guest and leaves out the 3/4 guest BOGO sale price. As of right now that sale ends in 47 hours.

My question is concerning this "BOGO" sale. Is this a marketing ploy that RCL runs in perpetuity? I'm trying to figure out if we should book now with the Labor day sale even though the price has gone up about $300 per each 3/4 guest since about 2 weeks ago or just wait until the current Labor Day sale ends and book with the normal BOGO sale that was running the last several months that included the 3/4 guest.

Any insight from those in the know with RCL would be great. Thank you

I'm interested in displaying our cruise cards. (we only collect our own). Has anyone made any wall displays or other interesting ways to display cruise cards? If so, I'd like to see some pictures.

thanks

I thought about watching this sports card display frame or something similar. If it could be hung with the cards horizontal it would probably work.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Black-Trading-Card-Display-Case/11034743

We buy Christmas ornament and one of those ship models they sell in the gift store. We also try and find local handmade/carved items. However, we have to really like the ornament or handmade/carved item to buy it as we don't buy something from every country/port just to buy something.

Snorkeling off the split in Caye Caulker can be good. But look up the private excursions for Shark Ray Alley that have stops at Caye Caulker. They will get you back to the ship in time.

 

Also, while Lamanai appeals to those who want a more "Indian Jones" type of experience at Maya ruins, there's absolutely nothing wrong with going to Altun Ha. If you think the Mayans lived amongst the vines and limbs of an overgrown rainforest, you need to refresh your history.

 

As far as walking around Belize City. You'll need a couple of hours. There is a museum on the port side of the swing bridge, although a ways a way from the Tourism Village where the tenders dock. And you can then walk along the Parade route by the sea and look at the lighthouse before returning to the cruise center. The old Anglican church and the Cultural museum, where the Governors mansion used to be, are about a 1/2 mile or so down Albert Street after crossing the swing bridge. Most of the rest of that area is working city buildings with some shops. The city is not a Tourist oriented city like other ports.

Thanks for the info. I understand that it wasn't vine covered when they lived there, but we will be visiting ruins in Costa Maya and where wanting to do a ruin tour that was longer then 4 -4.5 hours as that's what we are doing in MX. We were deciding between Lamanai or snorkel and had settled on the ruins. Now NCL has made our decision. Do you know of any or used any excursions for Caye Caulker that you would recommend or are supposed to be good?

We are on the NCL pearl in Dec and I had planned on taking their tour to the Lamanai ruins. With 45 days to go it is still not available and at this point we are trying to find something else.

So that leaves our options for a private tour to ruins that are close enough to not fear missing the last tender as being Altun Ha. Maybe there are more but from my research the others appear to be too far to book privately. We are starting to think a beach/snorkel day is in the cards

What are best places to snorkel? From my limited research we are looking at Geoffs Cay or Cay Caulker. Are there any other places we need to look into? We have our own snorkel gear and so anything with snorkeling off of the beach would work. Or a boat tour. I saw that we could take a water taxi to Cay Caulker, but is that reliable and/or a good option?

We would love to see some of Belize and not just the beach if possible. I think we are leaning towards Caye Caulker as it has a village, but is the snorkeling that good? Or is there better snorkeling somewhere else?

One last question....Is it possible to leave the port and see some of Belize City by walking around if we get to the port with some time to spare? Any help would be appreciated as time is running out and I'm really busy with work so time is limited to get this figured out. Thanks

Looking for a company we used in June 2015 for carnival cruise line tshirts. They made them custom made, had the cruises and ships already designed. Just had to pick the one we wanted according to ship. Date we was going. And got to customize the details. Anybody know which tshirt company it was that we used??

maybe try asking on the Carnival boar. Maybe someone there will know if you don't get an answer here.

We have Cressi gear and I think fins are worth taking along. Most companies have travel size fins if you are worried about luggage space. I think using fins that everyone else uses is just as gross as using a snorkel. Feet are so gross and who knows what foot fungus the prior user had. I'll gladly make space in my luggage for my full size fins.

Just make sure you have your sun screen in your carry on bag and not your checked bag. On our first cruise my wife got fried the first day walking/sitting on deck waiting to sail away. We didn't get our luggage for a couple hours after we could enter our room.

Yes but USAA charges 13-15% interest.

If you don't carry a balance then this doesn't matter and therefor shouldn't matter to this discussion.

I'm going to be taking the TSA approved lock off of my suit case to use on the zippers of my book bag and then use a bicycle lock to lock the bag to a chair or tree. This is not a fool proof plan, but I figure potential theives are looking for easy targets and not something that would take a little work. I also have a water proof bag that I can wear over my shoulder while swimming that I have always put my personal items in while we are both out in the water.

BillB48...generally you are correct. Usually the last ships heading for Alaska from Florida will depart very late in April...so possible there may be one or two cruise ships transit in very early May.

 

For the OP, no cruise ends in Cabo, as it is a tender port. Getting all the people off, and new people on, along with bags, and any re-supply, would be a nightmare. Plus the airport is not heavily used, doesn't have very large amount of "lift".

I'm assuming the OP was not looking to end in Cabo, but just wanted a stop there. I think you may have read a little too deep into his question.

wlbox, We will be at Puerto Limon Dec. 2016 on NCL Pearl. I would very much like to do Cahuita National Park like you guys did. Only difference is our ship gets there at 0900 hrs. instead of 0730 hr. In your opinion is it still a good idea, with much later arrival. Don't want to miss the boat. Your input.

Are you going to be on the Dec 8th sailing of the Pearl? If you are and are on the roll call for that cruise I apologize as I don't recognize your user name. We are on that cruise and this is our plan. The Pearl (for Dec 8th) docks at 9:00 but doesn't leave until 6:00 pm. The original poster mentioned being back at 3:00 pm by taking the 1:40ish bus. So with a couple extra hours I would think it's enough.

We are planning on going as soon as possible so we should get their between 10:00 or 10:30 and we will plan on taking a bus bag around 3:00. So it should have about 4.5-5 hours there. That's only around .5-1 hour less then the OP. We are planning on that being enough time.

As someone who works for bank and started as a personal banker I can say that the vast majority of people don't use them and if they do they are guaranteed to be over 60. I wonder if our bank still sells them and I now have a question to ask tomorrow. I can't believe we sold them back in 2013 when I moved up and out of the branch.

Thank you for your answer. Good to know it goes into town. Thanks again

This really sounds like a very good idea. I might bring some corked bottles to my next cruise as well. It would make a nice souvenir for each beach that we will visit the next time! Thanks for this!

I would recommend bringing ziplock bags and then putting it in the corked bottle when you get home. Then you won't have to worry about the cork coming separated from the bottle and spilling sand in your bag.

We spent a few days in Helsinki last year. I don't know anything about Porvoo, but I was amazed at how we had walked all over Helsinki and saw all the main sites it basically one day. Suomenlinna can take quite a bit of time if you wander all over, but besides that a day is more then enough to see all main sites. If I do Helsinki again I will venture more out of the city. It's a beautiful city, but after spending a week in Stockholm it was much smaller then we had anticipated. If you get a chance find the Bad Bad Boy statue still makes me laugh when I see the pictures.

We have white collar jobs, but live like we are blue collar (actually we spend less then most/all of our blue collar friends).

Travel is really the only thing we spend money on and what we enjoy. So after we pay the basic monthly bills and save heavily in retirement accounts we save for travel. We also don't stay in five star resorts and and on cruises always just book an inside cabin. We save on the aspects of travel that don't matter to us (like the room we only use for sleep) so we can spend on experiences that we want.

As far as paying for the vacation we do several things for extra travel money. I donate plasma religiously and get $2,500 +/- a year that all goes towards vacation. I highly recommend plasma if you don't mind large needles. I have nearly 600 donations under my belt and I think everyone who can should do this option. I also started a side hustle just over a year ago and am expecting my taxable income for 2016 to be well in excess of $15k, and so some of this will go towards vacation (the majority is going to the mortgage). We also use cash back cards for all of our normal expenses, but as we are not big spenders this usually only nets us about $250 a year (maybe less) that is only spent on vacations.

When we start talking about vacations we do a few budgets for different circumstances to at least have an idea of what we need and if it's feasible. Planning really is the key and then saving to hit that goal. We have been known to save for a few years for certain trips. For example we are planning on Australia for 2017 and so we started saving a couple thousand a year just for this trip starting in 2014. If we didn't start saving until sometime this year we would never make it. Planning and saving keeps us from having stress about the money during the planning, during the trip, and after the trip of how we are going to pay. For this trip we paid it in full when we booked so we don't worry about payments and can focus on the planning.

I'm sure the full transit is a superior choice, but I'm thankful the partial transit is an option. As my wife and I are in our early 30s with work and family obligations the full transit is out if our reach for a while. A PC cruise is a bucket list item and the partial will allow us to take an excursion to the Pacific side without taking more time away from our son and work. I'm sure someday we will do a full transit, but not having the ability now makes the partial a great alternative. Can't wait until Dec.

We are looking at doing this in December, but have a quick question. Does this bus go into Cahuita or does it stop on highway 36 without going into town? Looking at Google Maps there is a buss stop/terminal were La Union meets highway 36 and there is a bust stop/terminal on Calle Principal next to the Hukuna Matata Hostel. I was thinking it was the one on Calle Principal, but looking at the MEPE site I'm just seeing buses that drive past Cahuita (don't go into town) so I'm thinking if they stop it is just the one on highway 36. Thanks for your help

We have different colored sand (white, black, green) from Hawaii and used little bottles from Hobby Lobby. They came with a cork and a small wire handle thing, but I removed the wire.

Thanks for your reply. My wife and I have discussed it and late November and/or early December will be the winner. I looked briefly at NCL and that seems to fit the bill, but would it be worth spending $500-600 more for Princess over NCL? NCL seemed to have the most out of the ones I looked at (Carnival, RCCL, Disney, etc.). are there any other cruise lines I should look at?

Thanks again

We are planning on doing a Panama Canal Cruise in 2016. I have just briefly looked into this, but I think it is going to be a partial transit. I'm starting to look into this now because the Spring of 2016 will come soon. We can get the two weeks off for a full transit, but I'm thinking with our son the shorter one will work best. Our son will be 2 years old in August of 2016. Also the very limited research I have done we are looking at Norwegian Cruise Line.

One question is if there is a better time to go? The Spring or November ish? Also we would do the ferry through the whole canal if possible, but with a young child is this feasible?

We are leaning toward November as it would allow us to not have to save the cash so quickly. Also it is really cold in WI that time of year. However, the spring is fine as we have a few thousand saved for an Australian vacation in 2017 we can borrow the money from. November would require a 3rd plane ticket but that's not the end of the world.

Just looking for info on dates and with a young child

Or just use a debit card w/ a few grand in the checking account. thats my plan