PacificMountain2012

Thank you to everyone who responded. After reading everyone's response and talking it over, we are going to go HAL! Now the next hard part choosing the sailing.  Again, thank you to everyone who responded, you made my decision a little easier!

I'm hoping to get some thoughts from everyone. I have been put in charge of organizing a cruise to Alaska in July 2025 for approximately 45 people. The cruise is in honor of my father who passed away in February. We will be burying him at sea during the cruise, as we did for my mother a few years back. Here is my question, our party will range in age from 14 years to 84 years. Its pretty well distributed between the years. On Holland, I'm not particularly concerned about activities and things todo for the older guests, but more for the younger, 14 - 28 for example. My family has done Alaska before, so we know what to expect; heavy on excursions, etc.. but I want to make sure we don't have a bunch who are bored and frankly I wouldn't want to subject other guests to number of younger guests running around; not to suggest they aren't well behaved. Would you recommend Holland? Note, I'm posting similar questions on Princess and Celebrity's communities as well.  Thank you for your help.

The time you enter the LA Area, that would be Sylmar coming south on the 5, will determine how bad it is for you traffic wise. Obviously the earlier the better. Anytime late afternoon on and you will run into your basic LA freeway gridlock. It won't really matter what freeway you're on or what direction you're are going. If you really want to go to the Santa Monica Pier, you can bite the bullet (you never know maybe no traffic!) and head straight there on the 405 (to the 10 west) and then plan to stay in Santa Monica, Marina Del Rey or the Airport area for the night. Lot's of hotels and restaurants. In the morning get up early and head down the 405 to the 710, traffic should be fairly light, just don't wait too late in the morning. If you can live without Santa Monica, I would stay on the 5 south and stay in the Glendale area, lots of hotels and eating options, not much sight seeing however. Then in the morning you'd have a 45 minute or so drive down to Long Beach (you'll hit some traffic going through downtown LA but that should be it). Sounds like a great car trip you have planned! Hope that helps

Did a 1:50 from Hobby a week an half ago and we were there early enough to make a 11:30 flight. This was during the week though, I don't know how crowded security lines are on the weekends, which could make a difference.

On 1/16/2023 at 12:17 PM, CFIGuy said:

What do people think of the Webster/Clear Lake area?  The hotels there look nice and seem to be an affordable option (Galveston isn’t really affordable in the Summer). Is any one hotel in that area highly recommended?

Stayed in the Hampton Inn, Webster probably a dozen times. Its a typical Hampton Inn, but it close to lots of restaurants (good bbq not far away), has the usual Hampton inn breakfast and is typically priced right.

On 1/15/2023 at 9:36 PM, tiffcruisers said:

Thanks, but we're flying into HOU. Appreciate the info!

 

"Hi! We are on Allure in March and we have never been to Texas. Interested in opinions on hotels near terminal vs HOU airport."
 

The DoubleTree is a half mile from Hobby and they have a free shuttle from the airport. There is a restaurant on property as well as a bar. Its a nice hotel, not great, but for a night works great. We are using it again this week.

My daughter ran into an eye hook on the the basketball court on the Breeze (used to hold up the volleyball net I think). She suffered a large and deep gash above the temple area of her head. To say there was blood going everywhere would be an understatement. Myself and a crew member immediately put a towel over it and the crew member helped rush her to the infirmary. Unfortunately we have plenty of experience with emergency rooms and I can say the service once we reached the infirmary was first class. The doctor saw her immediately and after cleaning the cut assessed it. What I appreciated was that he was very concerned with not leaving my daughter with a large scare and went out of his way to close the wound to minimize it. He could have just sewn it up without thought. He also tested her for a concussion, just in case. Both the doctor and the nurse checked on her during the rest of the cruise to make sure everything looked right. We had purchased insurance to cover such mishaps, but Carnival never charged us. In our opinion the service is outstanding.

Very cool.

Used VIV Tours and they were great. Highly recommend.

Knew that the walk to the drop in point might be a problem with my cheap watershoes on our cavetubing trip. So we made a stop and I bought an inexpensive pair of gel insoles. I was gelling the whole way to the drop in point; no problems. My advice, cheap watershoes and cheap gel insoles!

We were on board in October. On port days, Galveston, Cozumel, and Roatan they only had two movies going and the showings were limited, starting at 7pm. On the Belize port day they had 4 movies going and there were lots of showings, starting at 4pm. On sea days 1 and 3 they opened at 10am. On sea day 2 they opened at 2pm. All sea days had everything playing.

Lines were hit and miss. If you get there about 20 minutes early though, you should be set. Yes, people we saw people turned away when the theater filled.

Hope this helps.

Was at Paradise last month with 2 adults and three children (12/11/7 year olds). Did the "Fun Pass" and everyone had a great time. Plenty to do for the children and as much as you wanted to do for the adults. The food was reasonably priced and not bad; drinks the same. Would definitely recommend it.

Been a few years but when we played it on a land vacation the group in front of us were there on a Royal excursion. I know on our last cruise Carnival offered it as an excursion, two weeks ago. Royal may still. I am sure you can arrange it privately by contacting Pristine Bay Resort and Golf Club. Good fun course

Used VIV Tours last week. It was fantastic. Met us right outside Terminal 1 and had us to the van in seconds. Air conditioned van ride to the the starting part was great, including a quick snack stop at a local market on the way. Plenty of good information was given to us about Belize on the way. Walk to the drop in point was long, hot and humid, but doable. Hint: I bought a couple of cheap gel insoles from Walmart and put them in my water shoes; helped out immensely! Guides gave us lots of info on the jungle going, including an up-close with a tarantula. Reached the drop in point, water was high, but not too high and off we went. Great trip down the river and through the caves; we all enjoyed it. Oh we did not have to carry our tubes there, saw others that did though. Had a nice lunch afterwards, included, while my children zip-lined. The ride back was uneventful and we arrived in plenty of time to do some quick shopping. Highly recommend VIV Tours.

Andy's Hawg Wild Bar B Que in Pasadena is authentically Texas as they come. It is located in a residential neighborhood, family owned and run. We always stop by, when nearby.

Dickinson BBQ Company in Dickinson, another favorite of ours.

Red River Bar-B-Que and Grill in League City, also a stop for us.

Hope this helps, have a great trip!

The only way I see for you to do what you would like to do, fly into DFW, is rent a car. You are not going to find transportation to Galveston in Dallas for any reasonable price.

For barbecue in Galveston, Leon's World Finest Bar-B-Que, is the place. Love the chopped beef. There is also Dickinson Bar-B-Que & Steakhouse in Dickinson, a bit north of Texas City, which we like.

Hope you are enjoying your cruise. Good things are worth waiting for! :p We were on the Journeys cruise 3/13-3/27. Just out of curiosity: do you get 50% off the CRUISE FARE or the ENTIRE amount of the cruise which would include port fees/taxes. OP, if you see Fernando in the MDR, tell him Karen and Jim say hi!

We were on the so called Ebola Cruise and received a 50% off offer. It did not cover port fees and taxes. It work like this, we booked and a put down a deposit for our cruise, Breeze - October 2016. We then filled out a form online with the information from our discount. They then adjusted our remaining balance to reflect the discount. Worked out great for us, gave us a cruise we had not planned on!

There is a Marriott Hotel that is connected to the airport. You get there via a free underground tram/train. I have stayed single nights there a few times and it is extremely convenient, as you don't have to really leave the airport. The restaurant is decent or you can go back to the airport for food. You could stay the night there, then catch Carnival's transport down to Galveston at the airport in the morning or Galveston Express. Don't know what the cost would be for New Years Eve, but normally its around $170 a night.

Yes there are a couple of bars located on the pier. I remember the one with the pool got pretty wild last time we were there. There are a lot of stores selling all you can imagine. If you are doing a tour through Carnival, then you will board your bus there at the pier, they park near the end of the shops. After your excursion, they will also drop you off there.

Our family did Guambalina with Tabayana about a year and half ago and really had a great time. At Guambalina, your tour guide takes you around the preserve, its very jungle like. Our children (12, 11, & 7) enjoyed learning a bit about the history of the island, as well as seeing parrots and monkeys and then interacting with them, they sat on everyone's shoulders or heads. There are also a lot of iguanas there. We then went to Tabayana for the rest of the day and had a great time snorkeling, swimming, and just relaxing. We highly recommend it.

Its about a 20 minute ride, maybe a little more. You'll pass your ship on the way out to the Caye. It is nothing like the ferry trip from Cozumel to Playa. You'll be on a smaller boat, may hold a dozen or so, that goes fast. How rough it is will depend completely on the weather. When we went out it was flat as glass, when we came back it was a bit choppy, kids loved it. Don't know about your other questions.

We were there probably 3 - 3 1/2 hours. Its about a 20 minute boat ride out there and back to, you'll pass your cruise ship going there and back. When we were coming back it was pouring down rain, the children thought it was great. You are on a schedule, so you will return with the boat that brought you to the island. I wouldn't worry about not getting back in time, we were back way before the last tender.

Used Island Marketing about a year and half ago for a trip to Goffs Caye. Had no problems whatsoever. They ask you to put down a 20% deposit and pay the rest in cash at the dock. Island Marketing doesn't actually do the excursion, I think it was Eco Tours, but I am probably wrong. This is how it worked, we got off the tender. There are a lot of excursion operators at the dock looking for their customers. We found the Island Marketing guy pretty quick, he had a sign that matched our confirmation. He took us to their counter, Eco Tours, in a building at the dock. We paid, received bracelets and went back to the dock where the boat picked us up along with probably a dozen others. We boarded and off we went, past our ship, to the Caye. Our children (11, 9, 5) had a great time snorkeling and swimming in the water, as did we. There is some food and drink for purchase, which alright. There were some locals there having a party with music, which added to the fun. We will probably go back in October and use Island Marketing again. Hope this helps.

My suggestion is to ride the bus into Progreso from the dock (you have to as its the only way to get to Progreso. Once there either hire a cab for the day and hire them to take you to Merida or walk up to the Autoprogreso bus station and catch the express bus to Merida. Have the cab take you Plaza de la independencia, this is in the center of Merida. The bus will drop you off a couple blocks south, they have maps available there. Take sometime to walk around the plaza and enjoy the sights. At around lunch time head three blocks north, not a long walk, on Calle 62 to Calle 55 and have lunch at "La Chaya Maya". They serve only Yucatan food there (as authentic as it gets). Once you have finished your wonderful meal there, head back to the plaza and make a stop at "Dulceria y Sorbeteria Colon" for some of the best ice cream you will ever have; try the corn or the guava. From there head back to Progreso by cab or bus. My wife and I did this, by bus, and still talk about the day we had. You can exchange dollars for pesos in Merida or you can use your dollars, either way your change will be in pesos. Have a great time!