Disappointed in Carnival Schedules for 2018-9

[yogibear]

It would be nice to have the longer cruises out of NYC. I am willing to drive to Baltimore in order to do a 14-Day Journey cruise!!

 

Karen

Carnival Pride 14-day Journey November 4, 2018

[PlanoDebbie]

No one is stopping you to do a B2B. See you.

 

This was going to be my suggestion. We booked a B2B on Princess a few years ago for Alaska.

 

The Carnival ships that sail out of Galveston usually do an Eastern Caribbean once a month, so if I wanted a longer cruise, I could book the W Caribbean and E Caribbean B2B to have a 14 day cruise.

[S.S.Oceanlover]

This was going to be my suggestion. We booked a B2B on Princess a few years ago for Alaska.

 

The Carnival ships that sail out of Galveston usually do an Eastern Caribbean once a month, so if I wanted a longer cruise, I could book the W Caribbean and E Caribbean B2B to have a 14 day cruise.

 

Those Eastern Caribbean cruises from Galveston are really just Bahamas cruises and don't really go to the Caribbean. Key West, Freeport, and Nassau.

 

Like the Pride from Baltimore or the NY cruises that go to HMC, Port Canaveral, and Freeport. YUCK!

 

The Pride is a short distance from home but I have never been on her out of Baltimore. I'd rather fly to Florida .

 

Bill

[spencercoop]

I noticed no cruises out of San Juan anymore?? Anyone know why?

 

I liked flying into San Juan a little early...

 

There are cruises out of San Juan still. The Fascination has cruises listed until April 2019.

[jimbo5544]

Those Eastern Caribbean cruises from Galveston are really just Bahamas cruises and don't really go to the Caribbean. Key West, Freeport, and Nassau.

 

 

 

Like the Pride from Baltimore or the NY cruises that go to HMC, Port Canaveral, and Freeport. YUCK!

 

 

 

The Pride is a short distance from home but I have never been on her out of Baltimore. I'd rather fly to Florida .

 

 

 

Bill

 

 

Lol, there is another itin out of Baltimore....

 

 

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[Retired_to_Cruise]

My complaint is why only 8 days? It is much too short for all the packing we do

 

The way alternating itineraries are set up, using the B2B approach can get you 14 day cruises anytime you want with different itineraries for each of the weeks. If you have not tried doing this you are missing a good time. We do this almost all the time now. It amortizes your airfare better and gives you longer cruises.

[hotsauce126]

The way alternating itineraries are set up, using the B2B approach can get you 14 day cruises anytime you want with different itineraries for each of the weeks. If you have not tried doing this you are missing a good time. We do this almost all the time now. It amortizes your airfare better and gives you longer cruises.

 

Are the menus, shows, and activities usually exactly the same when you do a b2b cruise?

[NYcruzzer]

It would be nice to have the longer cruises out of NYC. I am willing to drive to Baltimore in order to do a 14-Day Journey cruise!!

 

Karen

Carnival Pride 14-day Journey November 4, 2018

 

The 8 night to GT, Nassau, and Amber Cove coupled with the 4 night to Bermuda make a lovely 12 night B2B

[mimirdh]

Why are there so FEW cruises on Carnival that go to St. Martin? Only about 3 ships and very limited sailings...Are cruise lines cutting waaaayy back on that port? (NCL, Princess, Celebrity too for that matter. RCCL hasn't released their schedule from 4/2018 and beyond yet).

[Roz]

Maybe there is construction or dredging at the port? For a year or two Tortola wasn't on itineraries for that reason, but now that the improvements have been completed, it's back on. In St. Maarten, ships can only dock on the Dutch side.

 

Roz

[hotsauce126]

Why are there so FEW cruises on Carnival that go to St. Martin? Only about 3 ships and very limited sailings...Are cruise lines cutting waaaayy back on that port? (NCL, Princess, Celebrity too for that matter. RCCL hasn't released their schedule from 4/2018 and beyond yet).

 

I hope not, its my favorite port

[jsglow]

Why are there so FEW cruises on Carnival that go to St. Martin? Only about 3 ships and very limited sailings...Are cruise lines cutting waaaayy back on that port? (NCL, Princess, Celebrity too for that matter. RCCL hasn't released their schedule from 4/2018 and beyond yet).

 

This is just a guess but I think there's two reasons. First, St. Maarten is right at the edge of the 7 day window for most ships out of Florida. That makes mid week there quite congested and probably expensive from a port charge perspective. Plus if you think of the fuel, it's hard to keep the cost down. Second, Carnival especially wants to take you into ports they have built themselves (and thus control). Ever wonder why practically EVERY ship is visiting Roatan these days? Lots of expense to amortize. Well, they've made the same private investment in Grand Turk on the eastern run so will never pass it by without stopping.

 

 

That's not to say they will do this kind of thing exclusively. Clearly the market will dictate. But Carnival is a product with a particular market in mind.

 

 

'Old' cruises we absolutely loved included 8 days out of Ft. Lauderdale all the way to St. Lucia and 8 days all the way to Panama. Don't see that any more. But you do see the new Journeys as they attempt to capture a slightly different market. We're very anxious to try one when time permits. Perhaps Carnival could do some 8 day 'one off' mini Journeys to try to serve those limited to one vacation week. Personally, with more ships coming on line perhaps some of the Fantasy class boats can be refurbished away from weekend party boats to longer Journey style cruises. Interesting decisions.

[maldenmusic]

We did an 8 day cruise on the Carnival Dream Dec. 18 and we had 4 port days. They were in a row and honestly, it got a little tiring. It would have been nice to have a day in between a couple of those ports but with only 8 days it couldn't be done.

[Thrilled2012]

There are cruises out of San Juan still. The Fascination has cruises listed until April 2019.

 

 

 

^^This. Like the OP, I would also prefer to do longer cruises that have itineraries that I consider to be "special". NCL offers much more in this respect. My parents have done some amazing ones. I just booked a 7 day Southern out of San Juan on Fascination for August 2017 that is port intensive and goes to St Thomas, St Kitts, Barbados, St Lucia and St Maarten. In order to lengthen our trip since that is just not long enough for us and I want to get in a good amount of traveling before my kids start back to school in the fall, we will fly to Cuba first and do a 9 day land Cuba vacay first. Then we'll hop over to San Juan for the cruise. Works for us.

 

 

For my kids' spring break this April I had a tough time finding a longer cruise on Carnival and the best that I could come up with was an 8 day but it visits ports that are new for us like Aruba, Curacao and La Romana so I'm happy.

 

 

But, yes, I wish Carnival would offer longer and more "exotic" itineraries like RCCL and NCL

[SOMEBEECH]

I am struggling to find a cruise that works with our kids school schedules in 2018. They have one for fall break but the kids will get out of school on Friday and the cruise leaves the on Saturday. My wife is a teacher so she can't take the day before a break off either.

 

 

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[OhJinkies]

I booked a nice NCL Breakaway cruise for Oct 2018 out of Manhattan – 11 days, PR, St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Tortola in the BVI, and St. Kitts.

 

 

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