JimmyTheSaint

We booked through the shore excursioneer website. https://www.shoreexcursioneer.com/cozumel/mini-submarine-scooter.html?_toplink

Sea Trek mini submarines at the Cozumel Hotel & Resort, about 10 minutes in a taxi from the cruise terminal. Underwater scuba diving for people who can't scuba. We had someone in our party who couldn't swim but they did it and loved it.

Sea Trek mini submarines at the Cozumel Hotel & Resort, about 10 minutes in a taxi from the cruise terminal. Underwater scuba diving for people who can't scuba. We had someone in our party who couldn't swim but they did it and loved it.

It's one and done for us. We sailed Nov 12-19 and while we enjoyed the cruise it's not a ship we'd be rushing back to cruise on again. I didn't find it to be a game changer, it's massive but not massively impressive, it's not a beautiful ship. It just similar to other Carnival ships but just packs more people in. The dining experience in the MDR was mediocre on it's best night, some were just terrible. The worst was dinner in the Pig & Anchor Smokehouse, no flavour and served cold. The Lido Marketplace is an awful layout that can't cope with the numbers onboard. The addition of Street Eats and the Big Chicken are a big positive, they really should extend the opening hours. Serenity is usually our favourite place on a ship during daytime but it's not a calm and tranquil place on Mardi Gras. It's huge and never crowded but it's incredibly noisy as it's beside the Beach Pool and the DJ blasting his music and playing his silly games, his voice booming all over Serenity. We found the entertainment onboard to be a big change up compared to previous Carnival sailings. The production of the shows in the main theatre and the Centre Stage theatre were excellent. The shows in the Centre Stage were the best we've seen on a cruise. The Punchliner comedy shows were all very good, apart from one comedian. Overall an enjoyable cruise but not a ship that suits how we like to cruise.

Hope you can help, I've asked elsewhere but no reply yet. How long did it take for your Travel Authorisation to come through for Bermuda? We applied six days ago and haven't heard anything. I sent an email trying to chase it up but no response.

Same for me no issues whatsoever booking direct with Carnival. I'm about to go on B2B2B sailings with Carnival that I booked directly through the website. Is there a reason for the question?

Another vote for staying in Dover and visiting Canterbury by local train. Canterbury is a very historic town, very walkable, great daytrip. Dover castle and Leeds castle are also great suggestions.

Here's my suggestion. Get a direct flight from Southampton to Dublin and spend some time in Ireland. It will be a different experience from your pre-cruise travels in England. Different culture, different currency, different country, same language. The added benefit is when you fly home from Dublin you clear US Customs and Immigration in Dublin airport so no need to wait in line when you arrive in LAX after a long flight. Just collect your luggage and go.

It's free to look at the rocks, you pay if you want in to the visitor centre. The path leading to the Giants Causeway is free if you walk, pay for the bus if you don't want to walk. The Giants Causeway is a UNESCO World Heritage site attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. Can't please everyone, if looking at unique geological features isn't your thing then the Giants Causeway probably is a waste of time.

The cruise port in Barcelona is huge and is of a huge financial benefit to the city, it isn't closing or moving. What is happening is that some of the smallest cruise ships have used the docking facilities at the Trade Centre in the port but the authorities are now closing these to cruise ships. They need the space for the ferries and other vessels.

Hi pkster Yes we returned to London by train after the cruise. We booked the train tickets with Southeastern from Dover Priory to London Victoria. The train departed Dover at 08:45 which gave us plenty of time to get from the ship to the train station. I think we were arrived at Dover Priory before 08:00. We choose London Victoria to arrive in to as it's where we would catch the Gatwick Express train to the airport. We choose one of the last groups to debark the ship, we were group 21 out of 22 groups. I think people started leaving the ship at around 05:30 and everyone was due off before 08:00.

We travelled from London to Dover Priory on Friday 10th June for a cruise to Norway. There were 5 taxis waiting at the train station when we stepped off the train. A five minute drive to the cruise terminal, 10 minutes to complete embarkation, easy peasy. Same again getting off in Dover, no issues. Maybe we were lucky or others recently have been unlucky.

Here's my suggestion to help chose a first cruise line.....avoid Marella like the plague. That'll narrow your choices. If my first cruise had been on Marella I'd never have cruised again. Fortunately we'd cruise a few other cruise lines before we went on Marella so we knew they were beyond terrible compared to the others.

We have a square cabin booked for a sailing in November. Booked it as it's something different from a regular inside cabin. Really looking forward to it.

Sorry I made a bit of a mess of that......we booked a coach transfer from Stavanger with a company called Go Fjords. Went like clockwork for pick up and return to port. It was a five minute walk from where the ship docked.

Very good trip report, glad you had enjoyed Pulpit Rock. This is our view when we did the hike, we were on the 10th June sailing from Dover. We took the bus from Stavanger, booked through Go Fjords.

I was on the Norway sailing that left from Dover on the 10th June, balcony cabin deck 5. The balcony was cleaned twice during the sailing but you wouldn't have noticed any difference, partly because the dirty water doesn't drain away but sits in the gutter. There were two problems with the balcony: one, it's incredibly small, I wouldn't book this again; two, the floor, chairs and table were covered in paint splatters which made them appear dirty.

Agreed, very very special.

We're Gold with Carnival but will hit Platinum later this year so it's fair to say it's our favourite cruise line. We like the Fun ships atmosphere, vibe or whatever you want to call it. The food's good and we like the entertainment. We've also cruise RCI, NCL and MSC. We haven't tried any of the premium lines as we're not at all interested in dressing up for dinner, lectures at sea or going to bed at 9pm (only joking, well half joking). The great thing about cruising is there's something for everyone. Having done one cruise on each of RCI, NCL and MSC we haven't gone back for more. NCL was the best of these but since they've gone all inclusive and hiked the price up we haven't felt the desire to cruise with them again. No point paying for things we aren't going to avail of. RCI was good, very similar offering to Carnival but a couple of negatives, first being they were very pushy with trying to upsell at every opportunity, secondly the timings of the entertainment at night time meant that a lot of things overlapped so you had to miss some things. We would go again if we found a good deal. MSC was terrible, stunningly beautiful ship but everything else was awful. Food, entertainment and the general atmosphere onboard was the worst we've ever experienced. Never again.

Carnival, have done one Transatlantic with them and have another booked on Carnival Pride later this year. I'm not a partier, don't drink alcohol, but enjoy the Fun ships. Horses for courses. I'm the sort of person who would never consider HAL, Cunard, etc

I was at the Q&A with Felipe towards the end of our cruise to Norway, certain he said he was going to be the CD for the entire Pride European season. I didn't come away with a good opinion of Felipe as CD, everything felt very flat. He was really put in the shade when The Flying Scotsman came on for a one night performance. I'd really look forward to being on a cruise if he was the CD.

There's a taxi stand at Dover Priory train station and a taxi stand at the cruise terminal, fixed fee of £8 to the cruise terminal or train station. Plenty of taxis available, we had no wait time for both journeys. Taxi and train journeys saves a £ or $ fortune compared to the Carnival coach transfers.

We had a balcony cabin deck 5, no USB ports in the room, one American and one European outlet. They're so close together that you can only use one of them with a travel adaptor.

Some tips and hints for a fellow Brit sailing on Carnival 1: Bring your own tea bags, you won't like the free tea provided 2: Bring an extension lead with 3-4 sockets as you'll only be able to use one socket in the room even with a travel adaptor 3: Download the Carnival Hub App, everything works through the App, booking dinner, times for activities, etc 4: You can't book for the Production shows, Comedy Club, etc but the good thing about Carnival Pride compared to the newer Carnival ships is that it has a really big theatre and a big Comedy club so there's no need to queue or get there very early.

I suggest you look at going to Seville from your port stop in Cadiz. Fabulous city, it has everything you're looking for. That leaves you free to roam around Malaga, plenty to see and do there. The HoHo bus has a stop close to the cruise terminal.