Saint Greg's return to Jubilee - Live - August 24, 2024

[Saint Greg]

This is my 29th cruise, 26th on Carnival, 2nd on Jubilee, 4th time on an excel class ship, 7th time out of Galveston, 17th time to Cozumel, 9th time to Roatan, and 4th time to Costa Maya.

 

[Saint Greg]

Here are links to my other live threads from this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a link to a page with links to all of my cruise critic live threads

https://www.saintgregtravel.com/cc/

[Saint Greg]

Booking

Last year I wanted to book a late August Celebration cruise and the price doubled between February and April. This booking was a kneejerk reaction to that huge price increase.

 

That was before I knew I was going to branch off into Norwegian and Princess. This past April when I was researching cruises for the second half of this year, I found I could’ve booked the new Sun Princess for about the same price. It would have come out to be a better deal when you factor in Princess Plus including drinks, Wifi, and gratuities while being still cheaper than the cost of Cheers alone. It probably evens out when you add in the plane ticket but I’d rather be trying out Sun Princess this week.

 

When I started looking to add another cruise for the summer I realized I hamstrung myself with the week I picked for this one. The good prices on most cruises are the last two weeks of August and the first week of September. This one is right in the middle so it would be impossible for me to have another cruise the week before or after this unless the ship was leaving from Galveston. At one point I considered making this a back-to-back. But at that point I would’ve had to switch rooms and move down at least four floors. If I do a back-to-back, I want to be able to stay in the same room. That’s when I finally decided to just return to Alaska earlier in the month.

 

I didn’t get any deals on this booking. It will be the most expensive cruise I’ve ever been on other than my 15-day transatlantic on Venezia last year.

 

I paid for the cruise with Carnival gift cards which saved 10% and I received $125 cruise cash from my travel agent. That will cover the gratuities. I will also have $100 onboard credit as a Carnival stock holder.

 

Pre-Cruise Purchases

I purchased Cheers and WiFi ahead of the WiFi price increase last year. I saved 10% using Carnival gift cards.

 

Hotel

I’m going to be arriving pretty late the night before the cruise. I like to stay just off of the interstate in Webster which is a 30-minute drive to the port. This time I got the Hilton Garden Inn right where I like to be in Webster for $93 ($106 after tax). 

 

Parking

I was pretty pleased with my Discount Cruise Parking experience the last two times I cruised from Galveston. I went ahead and booked it again. This time it cost $109. That’s up $17 in six months. I took a look and all of the lots went up again. You can explore all parking options at Galveston Cruise Parking.

 

Ports

Cozumel

We are visiting ports I have been to many times. Cozumel is the port I have been to the most. The one thing I was really excited about was a seasonal excursion I normally don’t have an opportunity to book since I usually go to Mexico when it’s cooler. I locked it in the Save a Sea Turtle excursion 16 months before the cruise. This is where you go out to the nesting beach on the east side and help the baby sea turtles get out of their hole. Three weeks before the cruise I got a notification that the excursion was canceled.

 

 

I tried to go around Carnival to see if there was anyway to get out there but it looks like there isn’t.

 

 

I decided to look at excursions and found the Lucha Libra Wrestling Show which I don’t remember seeing in past years. I think it’s a new excursion. It only has four reviews. All of them rated it five stars. It costs $80 on Carnival and $70 through other companies.

 

I know I can get 10% back on excursions using my Carnival Mastercard and using the above discount I should be able to get a total of 25% back and get the excursion for $60. Since I had onboard credit available, I used that instead and expect to get about $12 refunded with the 15% discount.

 

Costa Maya

The last tour I want to do in Costa Maya is Dzibanche Mayan Ruins. It’s not offered through the cruise line and once again The Native Choice says it is not feasible for my port time. Hopefully one of these days I’ll be in port long enough to do it.

 

Roatan

Roatan is just going to be a beach day for me as usual.

 

Edited August 23 by Saint Greg

[Saint Greg]

It's been a pretty crazy week. I just got back from Vancouver Monday night. Back to work Tuesday morning. Check-in for this cruise was right before I left for Alaska.

 

I did the basic stuff that locked in my check-in time and skipped everything else. So this week I got a naughty boy email from Carnival that I needed to complete check-in. I did that earlier this week but still forgot to print out my boarding pass and luggage tags. I finally did that this morning. 

 

I'm still basically packed from the last trip I just had to switch some clothes out.

 

Boss is out this week so I wouldn't mind being able to get an early start south towards Galveston today.

[snowdogsmm]

Yeah another St. Greg's live to keep me entertained.

[cruiseny4life]

Well howdy partner! Gotta go with the Texas vibes. Looking forward to following along as best I can with your fast flowing lives. Here's to hoping you (and I) get out of the ole workplace early today.

[SenatorsFan]

Thanks for taking us along again! I'll be following along. 😎

[Jamman54]

Hey Greg! As usual we will be following along,  but this time even closer as we will be heading to Galveston and the Jubilee next April. Have a GREAT cruise! 😎

[jimbo5544]

28 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

This is my 29th cruise, 26th on Carnival, 2nd on Jubilee, 4th time on an excel class ship, 7th time out of Galveston, 17th time to Cozumel, 9th time to Roatan, and 4th time to Costa Maya.

 

You keep a lot of lists....

[jimbo5544]

I am along for the ride.

[Saint Greg]

2 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

You keep a lot of lists....

Just had to go back to my last jubilee cruise and add a one to all numbers.

 

 

 

Edited August 23 by Saint Greg

[pe4all]

Coming along with you! (I wish - lol) 

[ggooglyboogly]

Following along!  Thanks for doing this! 

[Jim and Monika]

Good thing your boss is out, gives you more time for lunch and getting ready for another great live.

[zencruisers]

Nice! Caught this one at the beginning. This will help pass the time until we sail on The Celebration on Oct. 6th. 

[sid_9169]

What?... Didn't you just get back from a cruise a few days ago?... (*He said without the slightest hint of jealousy...)

Edited August 23 by sid_9169

[pcvtmom]

I'm always happy to follow your cruise trip reports!

[dctravel]

Woohoo! Now I know what I'm going to be reading daily for the next week. Enjoy yourself.

 

As an aside, we had an awesome food tour of Cozumel with Cozumel Chef. Great local food at all stops. I know you love to try new food, I wonder if that would be up your alley: https://www.cozumelchef.com/

[LatinaInTexas]

So jealous, next booked cruise isn't until March and it's just a filler cruise while hoping for something better to pop up.

Hope traffic isn't too terrible on the way down but it sure beats flying.

 

[ninjacat123]

Yay!!  Looking forward to your cruise and my cruise!!  Did you decide what you were doing in Costa Maya? The Krazy Lobster is a great beach day 😎

[Saint Greg]

As the regulars know I’ve been trying to watch all of the movies in the theaters for a couple years now. Catching up is always tough. You’d be surprised how many are only in the theater for one week.
 

I saw all of the new ones before I went to Alaska. While I was gone four new ones came out. Then three more came out yesterday. 

 

Since I’ve been back I saw two of the four that came out last week and two of the three that came out this week. 

 

The two from last week I didn’t see were probably insignificant. They were only showing once a day late at night so unless I wanted to stay out past midnight Tuesday and Wednesday nights, I had to skip them. I checked their rotten tomatoes and one scored in the 60’s. The other had no rating.

 

I’m betting that The Crow is still in theaters when I get back next week so that’s the one I chose to postpone.

I’ve seen probably 300 movies in the theater the past couple years but I’ve never seen anything like this. Trigger warnings at the concession stand and on screen. It’s weird. I’ve seen dozens of movies that could’ve had the same warning but didn’t.
 

 

[ninjacat123]

Blink Twice preview looks like an updated version of "Ten Little Indians" by Agatha Christie.  Interesting about the trigger alerts.

[Saint Greg]

11 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

Yay!!  Looking forward to your cruise and my cruise!!  Did you decide what you were doing in Costa Maya? The Krazy Lobster is a great beach day 😎

 

Probably just hang around the ship/port. I'd save something like that for a time when I'm on a ship that doesn't have the best food options in the fleet.

[Knights on the Beach]

I'm so glad to see this one is on Carnival - I've found that I do a terrible job of following along on lives on other boards. It's not that I don't want to (I totally do because I hope to soon branch out and try other lines) - but I have FOMO and keep bouncing back to the Carnival forum. I get way behind and then someone starts another live and I go right down the rabbit hole. It's a vicious cycle. 😂 Anyway, I'm here for the party - let's go! 🚢

[Roscoe13]

36 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

 

Probably just hang around the ship/port. I'd save something like that for a time when I'm on a ship that doesn't have the best food options in the fleet.

If you should get a picture of one of those golf carts that hold 8 people that'd be much appreciated.  Asking for a friend...literally!