cruisingbajan

3 hours ago, Ferry_Watcher said:

 

Try to get on a Icy Strait Point whale watching excursion with Glacier-Winds.  Small boats (6 passenger and 13 passenger boats), and is a family run business.  It's amazing!

 

https://www.g-wind.com/

Thanks for the info/link. Will check it out👍

Primo Restaurant in St. Lawrence Gap is also a good choice.

3 hours ago, martincath said:

You will probably walk further from your plane to the train, and again 'curb to cabin' at the pier, than the distance from SkyTrain platform to pier! Google Map for the best route with bags is here - this assumes you pay a little attention on the platform and take the exit to Granville Street (if you board the rear of the train, it's that end of the station, but there are signs).

 

Worst case and you follow the crowds to pop out into the main Waterfront station lobby, it's actually an even simpler route just a little uphill instead of a little downhill! Walk out the doors onto Cordova Street, walk to your right/uphill until you reach Howe St, turn right again, follow the sidewalk, arrive at pier.

 

Train itself ~26mins end to end, you are boarding at one terminus and exiting at the other so the train stops and waits - let any crowds clear before pulling your bags out from under the seats rather than fighting your way through to near the doors while the train is moving!

Thank you so much for your concise and helpful hints!!👍🙏

Hi Guys,

I am a first time Alaska Cruiser going on RCL's Radiance Of the Seas in September out of Vancouver (Round Trip)

We are doing Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka, Icy Strait and Inside Passage (x2),

Any and all recommendations on what to do and see would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

19 hours ago, martincath said:

It depends how early you arrive! Anyone cruising that day can drop bags, but since the official start time is listed as 'between 10 and 10:30am' any time before that for early bag drop is a bonus, there is no official policy about when it starts but logic dictates it can't possibly be earlier than the longshoremen show up for work (unlike the industrial docks, the cruise pier is not a 24/7 operation).

 

I've personally used it ~9:30am and have seen others report using it around 9am several times, so if your flight is say 8am or even a little earlier you should give it a go, it'll probably take at least an hour from touchdown to get through immigration, baggage pickup, customs, then SkyTrain downtown even if the queues are very light (~26min ride). Look for signs at the pier telling you which level to head to on the elevators, and there should be big metal wheely cages and some longshoremen supervising them, with (quite small!) signs indicating which cage goes to which vessel - they'll also have luggage tags. Personally I would use the tags the line sends you by email, print them at home and bring them along already written out - you'll have ample time to pull off the plane tags and replace with the cruise tags while riding the train in, one more little bit of efficiency improvement!

 

If you have a flight at say 6am though, then I'd consider spending a few bucks and using a nearby luggage storage option - the Pan Pacific hotel bell staff are on the ground floor, right above the pier, so it doesn't get more convenient than that... reported rates last season were $10 (CAD if you have it, no change given for USD) per bag, and the hotel does run 24/7!

 

Note also that Vancouver is not a city of early-risers! Anything involving tickets almost never opens before 9am even in peak summer season, but fortunately our parks are not locked up after hours so even if you arrive pre-Dawn (officially parks are open 'dawn to dusk') you could wander the seawalll to catch the sunrise (head for Brockton Point Lighthouse, but anywhere along that sweep of land from the yacht club past HMCS Discovery and Hallelujah Point looks back toward the city and should give a nice view when the sun pops up)

 

You can also use that map link to check bus schedules - quicker than walking! If you wanted to wander Stanley Park, then as early as possible is the time to do it. Avoid Seawall crowds, and have plenty of time to get back to the pier - I would save the closest things which entice you to the period right before you plan to board, especially if you're trying to push it as late as possible... with US CBP to deal with on top of regular cruise check-in/security, 2 hours before your ship is supposed to leave is as late as you should attempt, but in general the later the better for lighter queues. FlyOver Canada is right at the pier, takes about 45mins for the whole program; Gastown is only ~10mins walk away and is very popular for cruisers to wander Pre and Post; maybe the Harbour Centre lookout, also <10mins walk? These are the places you want to be visiting as your boarding time approaches to avoid risk of traffic delays - never a good idea to be on the other side of a bridge from the pier with less than an hour to go!!!

Thanks for the info. My flight arrives in YVR at 830 in the morning. Factoring in clearing customs and so on I may be able to do the "normal" drop off.

Typically how long does the sky train take from YVR to the port?

Logistically how easy is it to debark the sky train and get to the port?

Hello Folks...I just want to piggy back a question of the OP's original question.

We will be arriving at the Vancouver airport very early the morning of the cruise and are planning to take the sky train to the port. Is there a way we can utilize the early drop off option highlighted by @martincath?

It will also be our first time in Vancouver and we would like to do a little exploring as well.

Thanks in Advance 

I have never stayed at the hotel but I have had brunch there and the food was fantastic!!

Also from what I saw it is a ell appointed and maintained hotel.

On 9/4/2023 at 12:59 PM, tartanmom said:

As the title indicates our cruise ship will be in Barbados on Dec. 25th. Does anyone know of any beach clubs that might be open that day? I would like to prebook now to assure space.

There is not much open in Barbados on Christmas Day. The whole island pretty much shuts down.

You can probably make it a beach day if you want as all beaches are open to the public.

Cruisernat is correct. It is the Oistins Bay Garden.

It has been updated quite a bit since these photos.

On 5/16/2022 at 1:06 PM, Jamman54 said:

Ahoy, Cruise Critic family! My beautiful wife Patti and I have just returned from another month long adventure. We spent three days in Port Canaveral / Cocoa Beach, then boarded the beautiful Mardi Gras for two weeks, then finished off our trip with six days in Orlando. Our first week on the Mardi Gras was a 7 day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean, stopping at San Juan, Amber Cove, and Grand Turk. The second week was a 7 day cruise to the Western Caribbean, stopping at Cozumel, Costa Maya, and Isla Roatan (Mahogany Bay). For us, this was the perfect rotation as the first two days of the first cruise were sea days, and the last two days of the second cruise were also sea days.

 

These cruises on the Mardi Gras were a long time coming. To tell this story let me take you back to January 2019. Bookings for cruises on the Mardi Gras were to begin at 10am on January 30^th. At this point no itineraries had been released, and only unofficial copies of the deck plans were in existence. At 7pm on the 29^th my PVP called me and said that we could book. Startled at getting the call, and not knowing what the itineraries were, we told him to book us on the first cruise out of Port Canaveral. Having seen the unofficial deck plans, we booked an extended balcony on the “hump”, as we loved our “hump” balcony when we sailed on the Explorer of the Seas.

 

The next day when the itineraries had been released, we saw that there was a 15 day repositioning cruise from New York to Port Canaveral. It had an awesome itinerary and was just what we were looking for. We changed our booking to that cruise, and we were able to keep the same “hump” balcony that we had originally booked. To say we were pleased would be an understatement. Now all we had to do was sit and wait for the ship to be built.

 

Fast forward to December of 2019, when Carnival announced that because of construction delays, the first eight sailings would have to be cancelled. We were devastated to say the least. The 25% Future Cruise Credit that was given helped soften the blow a little bit. Having our 2020 and 2021 cruises already booked, we chose our April, 2022 dates and booked her again. Three months later the nightmare that is the pandemic came, and is still here today, but I don’t want to dwell on it anymore, so let’s fast forward back to the present day.

 

We will be driving down to Florida once again. Being away from home for so long it just makes sense to have your own car down there. You can pack as much of your stuff as you want to, since you don’t have to worry about luggage weights and car rentals. Back in the day when our vacation time was limited, we used to drive straight through in one shot which used to take about 16 hours. Since we have the time now, we break it up into two days.

 

This is going to be a very long review so be patient with us. Patti took well over four thousand pictures during this adventure, so I have a lot of sorting, cropping, and re-sizing to catch up on. Even though I took my laptop with me and worked on the photos from time to time, there’s no way I could keep up with Patti’s itchy shutter finger! We also have to catch up with life, work, and such, so we may not post anything for a day or two from time to time, but just remember we have always finished our reviews.

 

As usual, our reviews start and end at home and cover everything in between. I know that some people like to get right into the cruise stuff and I understand that, but when doing these reviews we want to re-live the whole vacation, not just part of it. So, the cruise stuff may take a few days to get to, but once we’re on it, we’re on it! Our format will remain the same as our past reviews with a day by day account. As always, there will be many, many pictures with plenty of explanations and details. For those that are wondering, our go to camera is the Canon PowerShot XS720 HS, and our water camera is the Fuji FinePix XP60.

 

So, let’s get this party started! We strive to make you feel that you are cruising right along with us, so grab yourself a DOD, and hop on board with us and join the fun!

 

To be continued…..

Yaaay another Jamman review.👍

Can't wait to read the rest of what I know will be another fantastic review!!🙏

On 9/3/2021 at 2:44 PM, Jamman54 said:

Ahoy, Cruise Critic family! My lovely wife Patti and I have just returned from our first post shutdown cruise on the beautiful Carnival Horizon. This was an 8 day cruise to the Southern Caribbean from Miami with port stops in Aruba, Curacao, La Romana, and Amber Cove. It’s hard to believe that it’s been 1 year, 11 months, and 25 days, (but who’s counting?), since we last sailed on a B2B on the Carnival Sunrise. This was our longest break between cruises since 1995 when we took 3 years off to have our two sons.

 

We were originally not supposed to sail until October when we head back out to Long Beach to sail on the Miracle and Panorama, but we received a casino offer that we just couldn’t refuse, so we booked the Horizon. Air fares were through the roof, with many last minute cancellations, so we decided that we would drive down to Miami and back.

 

I still have a multitude of behind the scenes prep work to do, but I have enough done to get this party started. For those that are wondering, our go to camera is the Canon PowerShot XS720 HS, and our water camera is the Fuji FinePix XP60.

 

We are so excited to be doing our reviews again. This will be our first cruise on a Vista Class ship, so Patti is so happy to be able to photograph something a little different than our previous cruises. Our format will remain the same as our past reviews, with a day by day account of all the fun. As always, there will be many, many pictures with plenty of explanations and details. We strive to make you feel that you are cruising right along with us. So, grab yourself a DOD, hop on board with us, and join the fun!

 

T-Minus 3 Days -  8/18/21 - Off we go!!!

 

Well, not quite.  A couple of weeks before the cruise we received an email from Carnival that we would have to be tested for Covid-19 before we could board the ship. Since our cruise leaves on a Saturday, they said we could be tested anytime starting the Wednesday before. Since we’re both vaccinated we were allowed to get the rapid antigen test.

 

We immediately booked appointments at a fairly close CVS for Wednesday the 18^th. That’s today, so we drove over to CVS and got our tests. When we were done they told us that they were a little backed up so it would be about 3 hours before we got our results, which they would text and email to us.

 

Those 3 hours were the most tense and stressful hours of our journey. We were all packed and the car loaded up for the trip down to Florida. What if we tested positive? What is our contingency plan? Should we even have a contingency plan?  Finally, at 5pm, almost exactly 3 hours since we were tested, the results were revealed….

 

 

             

We were both negative! A giant weight had been lifted from our shoulders, and now we could relax. I could now take my nap before beginning our drive.

 

Since we had the time, we would take two days to drive down to Miami. When we drive down to Florida, we like to leave at night to avoid the morning rush hour traffic in Baltimore and Washington. It is such an easy drive when there is very little traffic on the roads. I just set the cruise control to 79 mph and listen to tunes all night long. We left at 11pm, and of course Ryan took the obligatory departure picture......

 

 

To be continued…..

Fantastic!! Another Jamman review👍. I am a bit late to the party it seems but am looking forward to catching up.

I was actually married there in 2010 and had a pool view suite for 1 night as part of our package.

Beautiful property.

There is Sunbury Plantation in the parish of St. Philip as well.

It's off the beaten path so you would definitely have to be going there to see it.

15 hours ago, Aplmac said:

Here's a link to an article in our local Barbados NATION-newspaper

talking about the cruise ships temporarily 'sheltering' here

 

https://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/244545/positives-relationship-cruise-sector

 

The interesting bit is one short paragraph, below

where our Minister of Tourism alludes to

something I found myself wondering about, a few days ago

- the good possibility that this Summer's Med Cruise Season is a BUST!

 

Symmonds is hopeful there is an option for an expanded cruise itinerary

to include the summer

- when the vessels traditionally go to the Mediterranean.

 

Normally ships will start crossing the Atlantic in April,

and remain in the Med until October.

Will they do so, this year? with Europe a mess of Covid-19?

 

 

I also thought that was interesing statement. It maybe too early to tell the way this virus is going if Europe or even the Caribbean will recove in time to entertain cruise ships (without causing a panic within the general populace)

As I write this we are currently now at 17 confirmed cases and it may spike even more!

On 3/18/2020 at 4:19 PM, Aplmac said:

 

- and they were imported cases...not home grown.

 

This thread was started Feb. 2nd. It took awhile to get here, March 17th.

Does not matter how it got here. It is here and since this post the 2 went to 5!!

We now have to deal with it.

We have just recorded our first 2 cases of the COVID-19 today😱😷

On 3/10/2019 at 1:42 AM, Jamericannn said:

I love looking at cruise pics. Sometimes I don’t even want to do the lengthy reading. I just want to see pics. I figure out I would make a post requesting pics from your cruise. The only writings in this post should be short notes.. example “view from my balcony on Carnival Dream room 6310”

A kindred spirit.🙂.

If a review has no pics I hardly ever read it!

Fantastic Thread!! Great Idea Jamericannn👍

Nice review. Thanks for sharing.

1 minute ago, crewsweeper said:

If you're thinking Maya Chan. Book early. They could be full.

I certainly will. Thanks for the tip

18 minutes ago, MisterOJ2 said:

 

Yep. Pretty much. And I'll second Maya Chan if you decide to make it a beach day. It's the best AI beach I've ever been too.

I did notice that May Chan for the most part gets rave reviews. So if we do do a beach day it will come down to them or Tropicante based on what I have been reading.

Thanks for the input guys.

So in essence my choices are, hang out at the port area, Beach Day, or Mayan Ruins.

.

This will be our first time in Costa Maya and I have been doing some research and have been trying to figure out what to do.

Since this is our first visit we don't want to necessarily do any of the AI beach days. We would like to see a bit of the island but are not sure if we want to commit to a lengthy excursion.

I have been trying to get an answer to if  Costa Maya conducive to just winging it and doing your own thing outside the port area? I have not been able to discern this from reading the threads. Can anyone answer this for me.

Thanks in advance.

Burn the Floor , yes make reservations 
 
Howl at the Moon , no reservation taken, fills up fast though. First come, first seated.

Hope persons are still followng this thread.

Can anyone tell me if you have to make resevations before had for the shows, Burn the Floor and Howl at the Moon.

I have been reading nothing but good things on these two shows and am really looking forward to seeing them.