PacificMountain2012

We cruised out on the Panorama on 5/25 returned on 6/2. I've parked at Galveston and Miami, this is the worst. My advice, avoid parking at the terminal, if they are going to send you to 11 Golden Shore. You first have to deal with the traffic getting into the terminal, then drive to the parking lot. When we arrived at the parking lot, the one to the immediate right of 11 Golden Shore, one of the lot workers had completely lost it and was yelling at drivers going in and out of the little parking lot. When we disembarked, no one appeared in charged of the buses that took passengers to the parking lots and airports, as a result you had no idea which bus to get on; they kept changing the signs on the buses and moving people from to another. When we finally arrived at the lot, the bus parked about a block away, at the bottom of a hill. Baggage was a free for all and the same guy yelling when we arrived was at it again and had added the middle finger to his act, as cars tried to get in and out. You might consider parking at Long Beach Airport and Ubering it over, if you can't find a hotel nearby. Our cruise was great though...Have a great cruise!

Just finished the May 25 - June 2 Panorama cruise. Cruise was fantastic...parking not so much. I would advise avoiding Carnival's offsite parking. We received instructions to park at 11 Golden Shore, after dropping off our bags and passengers at the terminal, that part was not a problem and its not particularly hard to find. Once there however, it was a mess. Half the workers were on their phones not paying attention, which led to the guy in charge, I guess he was in charge, to completely blow his top and start yelling at the cars in front of us because no one told them to stop. We were parking in an open lot to the right of 11 Golden Shore, it isn't very big. It didn't seem like they had very much experience directing the parking of the cars, as cars were going the wrong way down tight lanes and cars were having to park really tight with each other, I got lucky and was able to back into the last spot in a line next to a tree. We then made our way to the buses that took us back to the terminal.  As I said our cruise was great, however we had to return to the lot.

So, you gather your bags, we used a porter, then head outside to the buses. There seemed to be no one in charge, with about 8 or more buses there. Twice we were told to go to buses that were not ours. Finally, our porter gave up, as no one would give him a straight answer. We eventually, after another three tries, found our bus and headed to the lot. After getting dropped off about a half block away we made it back up to the lot, where they were letting cars go into the tight lot as cars were also trying to get out; another mess, no one directing anything. There we got to witness the same guy, supervisor?, giving the finger to four or five cars that were leaving, not really sure why, he was just really mad again. All in all, my advice is to avoid the Carnival off-site lots. Again however the cruise was absolutely fantastic!

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.