bguppies

If no one has any new suggestions for you, may I suggest doing what our groups do when we have a large, diverse of intrests group in Cozumel. We've had some go do Dolphin or other excursions and then meet us at a beach club later. Maybe have the part of your group with kids, go to Playa Mia and the happily childless couples go to their beach club of choice. (Nachi, Sanchos, whatever) Then meet up for a late luch or drink before heading back to the ship. Best of luck in your quest for a beach day.

If they're expecting Florida will get clobbered this year, the Bahamas will have it worse. (the same general area as the Miami/ Keys beaches, just a tad easterly) At least Florida can load it up in dumptrucks and haul it away. Where do you take this much Sargassum on an island? (barge 1,600 dump trucks a day, away?) And for those thast say it happens every year don't worry. Its been getting worse the past few years. From the reports I've been watching, alot of scientists think that fertilizer runoff from South America where they have been converting rainforests to farmland has been feeding the natural yearly bloom of Sargussum that flows from Africa to Florida/Mexico each year. (Kind of looks like it grows bigger off the South American coast)

Anything shorter than 7 days tends to be a bit more "lively". But more so when its a weekend cruise that people take a long weekend to blow off some steam. We are getting older and prefer the "quieter" cruises also. (late 50's) Living in the Charleston suburbs, this is a go to for us, when DW needs a quick break from work to tide us over to our next longer cruise from Florida. (Pride-Dec.-Tampa) I'll say we have a less than ideal terminal like the Florida ports and the ship is older and shows her age. Not sure how long its been since your last cruise, but the downgrade to the Carnival product from before the shuitdown and after the restart is a bigger concern to me than the port, the ship or partying onboard. (our two cruises last year were nowhere near as good as before, but decent) If it is one of the weekday cruise, to fill in between weekend cruises I wouldn't worry at all. If it is over a weekend, maybe slightly.

All the beaches will be affected by Sargassum like this. Maybe try an educational Mayan Ruin excursion. (not as much to do in Costa Maya, as in Cozumel)

Heald posted on his popular Facebook page, “So I would like to add my congratulations to Mike Pack who along with one other Cruise Director has been promoted to Fleet Cruise Director. " Sounds like it is going to take two people to do Heald's job.

It'll be heavy in Costa Maya soon. Plenty of Sargassum this year to make compost for all the farmers on the planet. Hopefully when we go in early December, there won't be so much since the fertilizer runoff from Brazil that has been making the Sargassum worse the past few years won't be there since they will just be starting their spring/summer down there. Best of luck to you. Costa Maya and Cozumel are no fun when its heavu. (done both once each and it was terrible)

Florida is gonna look like Costa Maya most days. As bad as Costa Maya usually gets hit every year, I can't imagine how bad its goinna be this year.

Just saw a report on the Today Show, I believe Wednesday morning talking about the threat to Florida. Showed a Satelitte shot and the Sargassum "blob" stretched from The South American coast all the way to Key West. Pretty wide blob too. Apparently they think that the Brazillian Farmers converting their rainforst to farmland are dumping lots of fertilizer into the ocean which is feeding the Sargassum. Hopefully they can definitively ascertain if that is true and find a way to put a stop to it.

I'm pretty sure its a Mexican Riviera problem, niot a Caribbean problem.

This was us in December and will be again this coming December. I think it was $18, so the two of us just planned on a $20 each way.

Thanks for all your input... It is incedibly helpful for everyone to have their best possible vacation.

This seems like pretty close to perfect for me, I just can't find a similar cruise for 2025 yet. Sky Princess Apr 27-May 5, 2024 Sat London (Southhampton) 'Sun Sea Day Mon Haugesund Tue Geiranger Wed Olden Thu Skjolden (SogneFjord) Fri Stavenger (Lysefjord) Sat Sea Day Sun London Is this cruise, 4 Fjords out of 5 days or is it a possible 5 out of 5? (I know nothing about Haugesund)

Mr. Sanchos is right next door to Nachi, so exact same beach, but a more lively atmosphere for the kids. (DW and I are in our 50's, me pushing 60, so we prefer the peace and quiet and less crowds at Nachi)

DW is now debating between 3 different Norwegian cruises., 1) In Search of the Northern Lights (no dates yet for 2025 but she was looking at the itinerary for the 2/17/2024 sailing as an example.)(my personal LAST choice) Sat. Feb. 17 - Bergen Sun. Feb. 18 - Bergen Mon Feb. 19 - Scenic Sailing: Norwegian Inside Passage Tue Feb. 20 - Scenic Sailing:Norwegian Inside Passge Wed Feb. 21 - Alta Thu Feb 22 - Alta Fri Feb. 23 - Tromso Sat. Feb. 24 - Tromso Sun Feb. 25 - Narvik Mon Feb 26 - Scenic Sailing : Norweigian Inside Passage Tue Feb 27 - Sail the North Sea Wed Feb 28 - Amsterdam Thu Feb 29 - London (Tilbury) OK judging by the days, it seems that Alta and Tromso must be in the Artic Circle and staying 2 days to allow for night watching of the Lights? Not sure how good any of those ports are. Is the Norweigian Inside Passage just like the Intercoastal Waterway on the US East Coast? I'd personally prefer to cruise a deep Fjord (which I know this cruise has none) even if you could 100% guarantee me seeing the Northern Lights. 2) Viking Shores and Fjords - June 22- 2025 Sun June 22 Amsterdam Mon June 23 - Sail the North Sea Tue June 24 - Skagen Denmark Wed June 25 - Oslo Thu June 26 Krisitiansand Fri June 27 Stavanger (my birthday) Sat June 28 Flam (wish this was my birthday) Sun June 29 - Bergen I know Flam is in a deep fjord. Are any oither fjords accesible from any of the other ports via excursion? Any other must do's in any of these ports? 3) Into the Midnight Sun - June 23, 2025 Mon June 23 Bergen Tue June 24 - Bergen Wed June 25 - Geiranger Thu June 26 - Sail the Norwewegioan Sea Fri June 27 Lofoten (leknes) (Again my birthday) Sat June 28 - Tromso Sun June 29 - Honningsvag (Nordkapp) Then the Norwegian Sea to Scotland and eventually London I know Geiranger is a deep water fjord. I'm assuming Lofoten, Tromso and Honningsvag are all in the artic circle to see the midnight sun? Reading through this thread I've seen alot of other cruises that seem to have more fjord stops. I just need to see if there are any around my birthday on June 27th. (DW is determined to try and have it over that week) What would the weather be in southern and northern Norway in the last two weeks of June ? Would a few weeks earlier or later improve the experience much over thye end of June? Thanks in advance for any help anyone could give.

When we were there in December we stayed on the ship that day and it was the second worst rocking we have experienced in over 20 cruises, the other was passing through the tail end of a hurricane on the way back to Florida from Nassau. We were down sitting at pier level watching the Allure of the seas next to us bobbing up and down crazily, while us on the Pride were banging repeatedly into the pier and watching waves on the oceanside splashing over the windows all morning. It was pretty windy that day and four ships docked that day.

Been to Nachi 6 times from 2007-2022 and will be booking it again for this December. If you want a super relaxed atmosphere, with a nice sit down 4 course meal (either in the restaurant or delivered to your palapa) and unlimited alcoholic (or non) beverages all day (again delivered to your palapa or via swim up bar in the pool) well kept grounds, a super nice pool (hot tub next to it) and nice loungers stretching all the way down the beach (under palapas) and beds and loungers poolside. With the 130 person limit per day, you never have to worry about overcrowding like at some of the other similar beach clubs. (as the ships get bigger and bigger, the amount of passengers in Cozumel per day has skyrocketed, even if the number of ships per day has not) I have never been disappointed in my meal there ever. (only once ever made it to dessert) And have never found the service lacking. The four main beach clubs talked about in the boards are all along the same stretch of beach on the west side of the island, so not much to differentiate them geographically They mostly differ in the clientele they cater to. Nachi is for people who want a quiter, more relaxed beach day. Mr. Sanchos is for a more lively atmosphere. (livelier music and water toys, etc) Playa Mia with water slides and nicer kiddie pools more geared towards familys. Paradise Beach which seems to cater to a mix of all of the above. All of them have had decades of good reviews, so you probably can't go wrong, but just try to pick the one which most closely meets your groups needs.

Just an idea of the kid friendly pools at Playa Mia. Plus I think most f the cruiselines offer an excursion there if you don't want to do it on your own. (I would always do it on my own and save a ton of money, but some people fear taking the chance more than saving money)

Playa Mia for sure

Thanks so much for all the great info. Luckily in January 2020 did another bucketlist trip where we spent a week in London (at the Tower hotel right next to the Tower of London with Tower bridge just outside our window)and a week driving around the Cotswolds. (and a super nice tour of Highclere Castle to feed DW's Downton Abbey fandom) Sadly we skipped a daytrip by train to Edinborough and another to Paris as we were having such a great time in London with severely uncrowded tours of Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, Parliment, etc. We are excited to get to see Greenwich and maybe we can carve some time to get to the British Museum, Portrait Gallery, etc. (the tours at the other sites were so in depth and behind the scenes, we stayed much longer at each instead of hitting multiple spots each and every day)

Thank you so much

Looking at doing the "Into the Mignight Sun" cruise on Viking the last week of June (in Norway) and the first week of July (Scotland/London) 2025. Bergen - 6/23 and 24. Geiranger - 6/ 25 Sea Day - 6/26 Lofoten (Leknes)- 6/27 Tromso 6/28 Honningsvag (Nordkapp) - 6/29 Sea Days - 6/30 & 7/1 Shetland Islands (Lerwick) - 7/2 Orkney Islands (Kirkwell) - 7/4 Edinburgh - 7/4 Sea Day - 7/5 London (Grenwich?) - 7/6 & 7/7 If anybody has any input about things to do in any of these port stops or the quality of these stops, we would be greatly appreciative of anyone's experiences with these ports. Gonna take us a couple of years to save up for this trip, so we really want to ensure the best itinerary we can for a once in a lifetime cruise.(at least for us) If anybody has any other tips about weather, daylight times, etc. those days at those ports would be appreciated also. (ANY input would be appreciated)

Just did the Sunshine and Pride in the past few months and NO 24 hour soft serve. Pretty soon Carnival will cut back Guys burgers to a couple of hours at lunch and the buffett in two hour windows at each meal. The days of cruising your way and eating on your schedule are swiftly coming to an end.

If you are on a Carnival ship (Princess, HAL etc.) you'll be at Puerto Maya pier. If you are on RCL (Celebrity etc) you be at international pier. (literally right next door to Puerto Maya) If you are on NCL or some smaller lines you'll probably be at the old pier downtown, which is a few miles north of the other two piers. The two main dolphin excursions are both on the way to Nachi from either southern pier. To find out the cruise schedules just use google and type in cruise port schedules and Voila.... (you can't link to any in here.) The Island of Cozumel posts the schedules for the current week with the finalized pier schedule each week.

Yeah let the people determined to do the Dolphin swim do that on their own first, as it will be closer to any cruise pier. (our group did that a few years ago. DW refused to lose one minute at her favorite spot in the world, Nachi, for a dolphin encounter. LOL) Then have the ones just wanting a fantastic beach day go straight to Nachi and you can have them set aside some palapas or loungers by the pool for the rest of your group arriving later from the dolphin swim. Remember Nachi has a limit of 125 people a day, so make sure not to wait too long to book it. (Especially if it one of those heavy passenger days with multiple huge ships [Oasis, Mardi Gras, etc], or 10-12 average sized ships scheduled to be there that day)