Cruisin' Chick

On 12/12/2018 at 8:32 PM, LHT28 said:

Didn't the Carnival ship do the same route on the west coast ?

 

No.  It was originally built as a non-smoking ship and sailed on Caribbean itineraries.  We were on the Paradise when it was pretty new and loved the experience.  It was so pleasant to be on a ship and not have to worry about any clouds of smoke wafting one's way.  No holes in the carpet from cigarette burns.  Everyone on board was so pleasant.

On the comment card, we put down to PLEASE send this ship to the west coast as so many there would appreciate a healthy type of cruise.  Unfortunately, Carnival never did this but abandoned the experiment pretty quickly.

I remember telling a TA about this ship and she didn't have a clue that there was a non-smoking ship.  After our cruise, when we were staying in the Keys for a  few days, we told some parents at the hotel pool about the cruise.  So maybe part of the problem was lack of marketing as I would imagine many parents would have booked the Paradise.

Just be prepared to be flexible.  Our girl was 23 months of age on her first cruise...and we just did day trips via car before then.  But some friends did fly with their son at 6 months of age (LA to NYC).

That one post early on had a good list, but you won't need to worry about vaccinations as you're basically just going to US and Canadian ports (and unless things have changed in 21 years, you can't get your child vaccinated at 7 months of age).  

Bring everything you might need: including extra diapers just in case baby goes through a lot (you can't be assured of finding a specific size that easily in the small ports, and the ship's store probably won't carry diapers), any medications (again, you can't be guaranteed in finding baby Tylenol, etc.), toys and books, a portable bath, etc.  
Your baby will not be allowed in the swimming pools even if with swim diapers.

I hope your flight isn't until late in the morning.  January is in the middle of our so-called wet season, and traffic to LAX can be bad if it is raining...even on a Sunday.  (hopefully not as we're going in the other direction on the 405 to get our girl back to her campus after winter break)
Even if you get the earlier walk off time, if your ship gets the whole CBP treatment, you may not disembark as early as you want.

Glad you decided to switch hotels. The area around LAX is not a great area.

We spent some time in SF a few years ago when our daughter was going to college her freshman year in Northern Cal. It was such an easy city to come up with things to do and see. You can walk from where your ship is docked to the Fisherman's Wharf, to the Exploratorium, to catch a cable car and go to plenty of other places.

Columbus Day is really not one of the more popular holidays in California. Whether there's tapings or not on that day would depend on if the unions count that day (for double time, time and a half, etc.).

I would be more concerned about finding a show that allows children that young, a show that has live audiences (some shows don't), and that you'll be able to even get tickets for. You can try, but I wouldn't hold my breath. And the more popular shows will be difficult to get tickets for a specific day.

If you are in town for a limited time (a day or so) would you really want to spend that time standing in a line to get into a taping, and then the time sitting in the audience? There are so many other attractions in Southern California that will appeal to your children like the Long Beach Aquarium.

I suspect that most crew workers (at least the ones in the tipping pool) are kept busy to the point that any free time after their shifts are spent talking with family members (skyping or whatever means via computer that they can do), relaxing, sleeping. But not going on line to post on Cruise Critic or any other forum.

The website the OP has mentioned is known for being run by an ambulance chasing type of lawyer, only one devoted to suing cruise lines. As someone suggested, a website to either ignore or take with a grain of salt and just view for the sake of entertainment. There's another website that lists various "incidents" at sea (one of the cruises we were on got mentioned because some kid fell off the gangway into the water while we were docked in Ensenada -- the toddler did get saved, but the mother should have been more careful).

We started cruising before the auto-grats were instituted, and spent some time on the last day of those cruises stuffing tip envelopes with cash. The auto-grats made things easier on us as we left them in place, and then if the crew members gave excellent service (which is much of the time), we'll tip extra in cash on top of the auto-grats, and even fill out a "consummate host" card for these crew members.

you probably will want to avoid coming to Los Angeles. The black widow spiders here actually run toward you. Right now I have several bites on one of my feet and lower legs.

We also have coyotes that roam the area I live in (people are advised to keep small pets and toddlers under watch if outside) -- not kidding. We also have bear sightings from time to time. And in the last couple of weeks, we have seen possum in our backyard.

The lizards, on the other hand, are numerous, but run away from humans...they are very harmless.

I too was lost during the OP. Too much irrelevant (about other cruises) info. IMO, if you didn't want the moreover offer unless your friend got the same offer, I would suggest just nicely saying, thanks but no thanks. Usually the offers, AFAIK, are targeted toward certain types of cabins, and only for the number needed. If someone declines, they go to the next person with the desired category cabin with the same or a better offer. Maybe if you declined, your friend would be the next to be called.

Princess was under no obligation to make the same offer to your friend. Just remember, you can't just call Princess and tell them you want to be on the short list if the cruise is overbooked.

On our third RT cruise LA to Hawaii on Princess, we were in Hawaii during Christmas week. Usually on that itinerary (at least when we did it), Honolulu was the Tuesday port and Maui was the Thursday port, but probably because Christmas Day was on Tuesday that year, those two ports were switched. I think it's because Pearl Harbor, which is a popular place to see in Honolulu, is closed on Christmas Day.

I would check anyway for the places we want to check in part to make sure they're open on that day (even for non-holidays). That time, we wanted to go to Whaler's Village, but its website didn't have info about holiday hours and closings when I was researching, so I asked on its Facebook page and was assured it would be open, other than the museum there. As it turned out, most of the stores were open as well as one of the restaurants and some of the food court.

Personally I find jeans to be bulkier than regular pants. I usually don't bring them on cruises, even though on my last cruise, I brought a pair of black skinny jeans, which looks a bit more dressier than blue denim.

If you need milder detergent, bring your own. We have someone in my family who's allergic to regular detergent. If you don't like using pods, you can measure out a load's worth of powder into a ziplock bag. Put all those bags into a bigger ziplock bag just in case of breakage.

Hey, that's what I do. It works great. :p

That's what I do. I just use it in port to call taxis if needed or to use as a spare camera if something goes wrong with my digital camera.

I think some people are confusing the form you fill in at the terminal when checking in (where you say that you're not sick right now), and that's for each passenger....with any special needs type of forms.

If you do stay in Long Beach, make sure to tell your driver that you're going to the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, and not from the Port of Long Beach.

Glad you posted and came back. It’s rare when all of us agree on the same solution. Have a fun day at the park. You did not specify which dates in January, but hope it is when most kids are back in school so maybe it won’t be so busy. Now your next task is to figure out which rides are your must do ones. You can’t do it all in a day but a little advance planning can help. Among the old time rides (I first went in 1956), I still love the jungle boat. It’s always fun to see the backside of water.

Sorry I missed that you had posted dates. It will be fairly busy when you are there as early in Jan you will still get a lot of out of towers who followed their football team to the Rose Bowl. Even more reason for planning ahead as to your choice rides.

You may be okay as far as the Rose Bowl crowd as that game will be on January 1. By the 3rd or so, those coming in town may be already gone (especially if some came early for any sightseeing). The championship game will be in the Bay Area a week later so no worries from that.

Maybe a bigger concern is that our rainy season (when we have one) is during the winter. So if your daughter has a problem with being outside during a rainstorm (and again, here,when it does rain, it can be constant for a few days, all day), you may want a Plan B planned.

I did a cruise when I was about 16 weeks along, with my OB-Gyn's blessing (he's into cruising, too). The second trimester is generally the best time for trips as you're through with morning sickness (which I didn't have, ducking now) and generally, unless you're unlucky, you shouldn't have problems. My only problem at that time was I needed a new crown on my wisdom tooth, and had a temp put on right before the cruise, which kept popping off. The funny thing is that my tablemates at our table didn't know I was preggers until the second or third night when someone bought a bottle of wine and offered it around, and I said I couldn't have any and then pointed to my belly.

What's really weird is that my manager's wife who was some months ahead of me in her pregnancy, but over ten years younger than me, had all sorts of problems including worsening asthma and gestational diabetes. Plus, her water broke six weeks early.

One thing I didn't do is request any special consideration, including at embarkation or disembarkation time.

Personally I don't want to carry my phone around on the ship (I put a digital camera in my purse for taking photos that are better quality) and I know my hubby doesn't want to either. On our last cruise, we left notes on the door for us and our teen. Worked out fine. We had a traditional seating for dinner so we knew when to meet up at the cabin, and if we missed each other for lunch, no biggie.

How do you find out what any of theme parties are on the cruise?

 

I am going on Adventure of the Seas on August 3rd and my friend is going on the same ship August 10.

Are you talking about special groups that have booked the same cruise as you or are you talking about on-board parties? Two different things.

The cruiselines won't tell you if there's any special groups booking your cruise (but for any cruise on a ship larger than small ships....there will be family reunions, etc.). You can check with your roll call on this site or google the cruise you're going on to see if anything pops up.

If you're talking about fun nights, and there aren't any special holidays (Halloween,etc.), you can ask on your roll call or see if you can find the daily newsletters for a similar cruise (same ship and itinerary).

The only time I can see staying by LAX is if you have an early flight the next day (and don't want to get up extra early in order to stay in a decent area).

Even if you get into LA late at night, get a taxi to take you to a hotel in San Pedro or Long Beach...the traffic will be light and you should be able to get to your hotel in a short time. Then you can sleep in a bit on the morning of your cruise, catch the hotel's shuttle to the port (if there is one) or grab a taxi to the Port of LA or LB depending on where your ship is.

You definitely wouldn't want to walk around the airport area. Please trust us locals.

Yes, consider the second flight as that is one of the busiest days for most airports. It's not just the extra traffic, but people get pretty stressed out so if you pad in some extra time, you'll be less likely to feel affected by those raging.

Weather can be very variable at this time of year (March thru May). We've had some overcast days recently, but today it might actually get into the 90s due to the Santa Ana winds (I live where it's really windy -- my community is one of the go-to's for news crews shooting a wind story) and I'm about to go on a highway that gets very affected by windy conditions as it goes through the mountains:o:o.

We have a condition in May called "May Gray" and in June called "June Gloom." For a reason.

And there's just one entrance to the World Cruise Center (Port of LA) via Harbor Blvd. Your shuttle will take the Harbor Blvd exit (no matter whether from the south or north 110's), cross Harbor, and enter the WCC, and then continue up to where the ship terminals are (and you'll see your ship). Not sure about this 46, but it would probably be very rare that it's used. I've been on six cruises out of San Pedro and they've all been at 91, 92, or 93.

As I type the area South of the cruise center is being demoed. Only a couple places left. But don't worry, as stated there are plenty of places to eat.

Of course, there are cruises to the Mexican Riviera, and cruises that go to the Caribbean side of Mexico.

I would agree with those who say to stay in San Pedro the night before your cruise.