Mike45LC

From Orange County, CA, the obvious choice would be the Panorama out of Los Angeles (Long Beach). Save the airfare for four people and drive to the port instead. The Mexican Riviera ports are as nice as the Caribbean ports you are considering. (Much as I enjoy San Juan!)

I cruised Carnival twice out of San Juan, PR. Dec 1997, the Fascination and the Inspiration. One was a 7 night Saturday and the other a 7 night Sunday, so I had a night in a hotel in Condado, San Juan. I guess they were technically not a side-by-side with that extra night in between.

We use Verizon, and Mex and Can are part of our plan. I have not used my phone (phone, text or data) extensively in Mex, but I haven't had any problems with low speeds. I tend to check my email while in port, and make any necessary phone calls. I don't try to stream or to upload large files.

In New York last month, getting off the Venezia, I was not even aware of whether there were separate lines for people with birth certificates. We have passports, and we just walked right through with barely a hitch in our pace. But I did have to take off my hat. Facial recognition took care of everything.

I was on the Venezia in March 2024. The $25 Free Play was not offered as cash, but only as credit on the slots. Once you play the $25 through the slots once, any winnings are yours to cash out. The no-smoking casino is completely separate. It is its own room. Unfortunately for me, there is no craps table in the no-smoking casino.

We were in Ensenada on Dec 25, 2022 off the Celebrity Solstice. We took a shuttle into town ($4 pp round trip). Ensenada was dead. We ended up taking a horse-drawn carriage ride, and we bought some junk (t-shirts, sweatshirts and baseball caps) for friends/relatives. We were back on the ship in under two hours.

I recently had a similar problem in NYC. Got off the ship at 9:30 a.m., flight out wasn't until 6:00. What to do? With four suitcases. I could not find a reasonable excursion that allowed luggage. So we sat at JFK Airport for hours. And we could not even check in our luggage (and therefore could not go into any of the lounges or restaurants inside the secured area) until 1:00 p.m. I hope you find a better solution.

I think Theo (or Osprey) had a good idea. If you buy the excursion while on the dock, you don't have to worry about some boat leaving before you are there!

I think my foreign excursions booked through Viator were all charged in US dollars in the U.S. Or any transaction fees were included in the prices I was quoted and charged. This issue never came up.

@jgb: Helps a lot! Thanks for the info.

I am not aware of any Shareholder's discount on the cruise fare. What there is is an On Board Credit which varies in amount based on the length of the cruise. My last cruise, I was denied the Shareholder's OBC because my cruise was booked through the casino at a great rate -- I was not allowed to stack the two deals. The casino rate was so good that I cannot complain!

I have never tried, but there have been threads in which people have reported that with a Universal Remote, they were able to plug in with a HDMI plug and access their phone/I-Pad/hard drive. Supposedly, the Carnival Remotes don't allow this. I had to buy a USB-C to HDMI cable for my wife's new iPhone, in case she wanted to plug her new phone into the TV, but we didn't try it.

I've parked at the pier and once at the Maya DoubleTree's "Stay and Park" or whatever they call their "Park and Cruise" program. I haven't considered the Long Beach Convention Center and will follow this thread.

Princess limits the number of alcoholic beverages to 15 per day [6:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.).

By "Day 1", do they mean embarkation day? Because for many purposes, Day 1 refers to the first full day of cruising. I don't sweat this, my embarkation day's bar tab was about $30 total for two, a minimal amount compared to the total cruise cost (air fare, hotel, cruise fare, WiFi, specialty restaurants and MDR upgrades, ...).

Never heard of it on the Venezia March 25 debarkation. Tags still set out in kiosks in public areas for the passengers to take.

This week on the Venezia, there was the "old-fashioned" debarkation program -- get your luggage tags from a kiosk and wait around for your group to be called. No digital debarkation program. The old-fashioned debarkation worked very well. Facial recognition and streamlined Customs/Border Control worked very well. I had a hired car picking us up at 10:00 a.m., so the only question was how to kill time. We were in the Marco Polo Restaurant sitting (no food service) until 9:00 a.m., when we finally joined the line of passengers queued up to leave the ship. We got in line at 9:00 and our porter was giving our baggage to the driver of the hired car at 9:30! We were at JFK airport by 10:40, much too early for our flight home. I don't see how digital debarkation could improve this experience.

I rarely go into a pool or hot tub on the ship, thanks to carrying my phone and Kindle with me. I can't take them into the water, and I don't want to leave expensive electronics unattended if my wife is not poolside.

I just got off the Venezia this week. Generally, I was favorably impressed by the Venezia. It was very crowded. Long lines for people to get into evening shows for all shows: production shows, game shows, comedy shows. Lido deck buffet and Guy's Burgers and the Mexican food place [Tomasomo or something] were all crowded. Prime time buffet seating was at a premium. Lots of kids. But I didn't see any problems with unsupervised children. I did not see any drunken brawls. But this was a ten day cruise, not a short party cruise.

I was in San Juan last week. Took a Carnival excursion. So far as I know, we were not warned about anything. [But I did not go to any port or excursion talks.] I did not hear/feel any mosquitos. Unlike Butterbean, I will get bitten! But we were on the Old San Juan/New San Juan city tour and did not do any jungle visits. And the ship left San Juan around 5:00 p.m., long before the mosquitos come out to feed.

This is so true! Pathetic, but true.

We have been scammed by farmacias in Mexican ports -- antibiotics and other medicines that are (1) fake, (2) old and/or (3) otherwise not as advertised. Hank has posted the names of some farmacias he has used. When I buy medicines in the Mex Riv, I go to Costco. Be aware of the price you pay in the US, after insurance. MY insurance does not contribute for the meds I buy in foreign places, so I have to consider Mexican retain price versus my US co-pay price!

We did "My Time Dining" or whatever Carnival calls it. On the Venezia. We requested a table for two, no sharing, every night. We never had to wait more than 30 minutes from the time we sent a request for a table. We requested our table via the "Hub" while in our cabin getting ready for dinner, and it always worked well.

Complementary cookies??? I was cheated! But I grabbed cookies from the Lido Deck buffet at least once every day -- except once when the bowl of choco chips was empty.

Venezia Ocean Suite, last week, no tote bag, no umbrellas. Cheap slippers and robes were in the cabin. Plus two beach towels. No "pillow chocolates" either. Water slides were open every day, even when cold outside.