CascaisCruiser

Each person orders and app, an entree, a side and a dessert and you can share all of it.  It is so much food, so go hungry.  

We left the port area last week for a tour (not booked through our ship) and were not charged anything. 

Just got off a Horizon 8-day cruise. I did not see this offered.

We dove with Jaguar Adventures last December.  We met them at the port and took a very short walk to their dive boat.  We had great contact with Javier leading up to our arrival and his team took great care of us.   

We've cruised 3x post pandemic on Carnival (Cozumel, Costa Maya, Belize, Roatan) and have another booked for March (Bonaire and Aruba).  There have been no scuba excursions on any of the cruises.  But we did find great local companies to dive with in each port.

It is also available at the Coffee Bar is you plan to have any specialty coffees. 

We were at YaYa Beach 2 days ago.  They offer a couple of different packages (chair/umbrella only, chair/umbrella/drinks, or chair/umbrella/drinks/food).  We got the drink package and ordered food ala carte (the ceviche was fantastic!).  They  offer massages, which a lot of people were doing while we were there.    

They have a net that catches the sea grass so I didn't see any in the beach area.  The water area is very shallow.  There isn't a whole lot to do but it's a nice place with great service if you are looking to relax.

There were a lot of vendors that came by but not at all pushy.  

There were 2 ships in port the day we were there and it was full.  I would recommend making reservations in advance, although you don't pay until you get there.  They are also open a bit later than some of the other places, which is nice if you have later port times like we did.  

It was about a 10 minute cab ride and was $4/per person each way.

I've cruised numerous times on Carnival in cabins for 4 people.  With the exception of one cruise, the upper pullman was left in the down position for the duration of the cruise.  It may not make your couch as useable as you'd like as you'll have a bed above your head. 

You may be able to ask the cabin steward to put it up each day, not sure how accommodating he/she would be to that.  

We ordered birthday decorations for our cruise in December. The cabin was decorated when we arrived.    

We were recently on the Magic and our connecting doors did have magnets (or something) that kept them open.   Hopefully all of the ships are the same.   

We just did this same itinerary Christmas week. 

In Belize, we went diving with Jaguar Ventures of Belize. They also do snorkeling tours.  We had never used them before and definitely checked out their reviews on Trip Advisor before booking.  The diving was great, I imagine the snorkeling is too.  We were the only ones on the dive boat (family of 4).  Perhaps a snorkel tour may be more crowded?  They were very professional throughout (my husband had done a lot of e-mails back and forth with Javier, the owner.)  We met them outside the port and there were other vendors there who I think you could book an instant tour with.   

In Mahogany Bay, we went to Little French Key for the second time (last time was pre-pandemic).  It's beautiful there and was not crowded at all.  We added a single tank dive to our day and they do have a snorkel excursion you can add to your package.  Again, a great dive. I'm not sure where they do the snorkeling here. The water is very clear, so I imagine it's good. 

In Cozumel, my husband and daughter dove with a private company.  My son and I went to Paradise Beach just to relax on the beach. 

I'm not opposed to Carnival tours. Our cruise also included Costa Maya where we did a Carnival tour to Mayan ruins.  The ruins were 2+ hours away and our tour took the entire time in port. If I'm going to be that far away from the ship, I would only go on a Carnival tour.  

We have cruised 4 to a room many times (me, my husband, 2 teens).  Yes, it's tight but we made it work.  For me, the biggest negative to 4 in a cabin, is the upper bed is pulled down the entire time, which does make the cabin tight.  Should be less of an issue for 4 teens.  We just did our first cruise where we had the kids in a separate, but connecting cabin. If you can get it, my personal recommendation would be 2 connecting, balcony cabins.  Even with 7 people, it would probably feel like a lot of space. 

We were on the Carnival Magic Christmas sailing and disembarked on December 26th.  We are Platinum and carried our own luggage off.  We parked at the port and were in our car driving away just after 7am.  They started letting us off just before 6:45.  I could not believe how quick it was.  

We returned from Magic this past Sunday (Christmas cruise).  They had all the backdrops set up along Deck 5 (many that I remember from 2+ years ago) and a few on Deck 3.  I don't know about outside but since it got dark early, I doubt they had anything outside.

The only line I saw, that was more than a few families long, was for the backdrop that included the decorated Christmas tree (the actual tree, not the canvas with the tree on it).  

We were on the 12/19 Magic sailing.  We had approximately 3500 on board which I was told was about 85% capacity.  This week there are supposed to be 3700 onboard.  I agree with PSU2LSU, with the exception of the decks around the pools, the ship didn't feel crowded.  

I have seen spa deals on Black Friday.  I believe it was 20% off and did include Cloud 9 spa passes, if you are on a ship that has one.   

We recently sailed the Valor in an aft balcony.  We were in cabin 8450 and like the Pride, it's is slanted.  Ours was right under the Lido aft pool area. It had a bit of an overhang for privacy, but if we stood at the railing and someone was looking out the Lido windows, they could see onto our balcony.  It was great for stargazing and watching the wake.  I will agree with the shuddering, my husband and son did not like the movement. 

I was happily surprised, though, by the size of the balcony.  It is huge. It's very deep because of the slant but width-wise, it's easily the size of a normal balcony and a half. It's much bigger than any other aft balconies on that deck (with the exception of course, of the aft wraps).  There were 3 chairs and a small table but it could have easily fit a couple of loungers.  

I just got off the Valor yesterday.  It's definitely classic Carnival décor, but I really liked the way the different venues were decorated, with most venues honoring heroes of some variety.  The dining room is definitely pink, though.  Although once it's filled with people, I didn't notice it as much. Your cruise may still have holiday decorations up too, so that might cover up some of it.  

One bright side, I thought, was the ship entertainment.  There is a lot of live music on the ship.  In particular, the Valor Rock Band was really good.  We also went to both shows (Studio VIP and America Rocks) and I thought they were excellent.  The singers can really sing. 

Enjoy your cruise!

They were open on Valor last week.  

We had Fly2Fun seats booked for our Europe cruise this summer (cancelled due to COVID, of course). i was able to call Carnival and change my routing.  Unfortunately once booked, you can't see what the alternatives are.  The person I spoke to at Carnival had to talk me through the various options and prices.  

21 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

(1)  Look at the other options at each port and see what you would miss by going to Santiago that day.

(2)  Consider scheduling Santiago both days, because Galicia is very rainy and Santiago is much more enjoyable if it isn't pouring rain – and there is nothing at either port that I consider better than Santiago.

 

PS - Be sure to eat some Tarta de Santiago while you're there.

Thank you so much.  I appreciate your recommendation.  The Tarta looks really good, too.  

On 3/17/2021 at 7:36 PM, mskaufman said:

Here are pictures from La Coruna and Santiago.  My gut feel is to go to Santiago from Vigo but recommend checking to see for where the excursions are better.  We did Santiago on a land tour so did not have to make that decision.

 

Portugal and N Spain (shutterfly.com)  (La Coruna)

 

Portugal and N Spain (shutterfly.com) (Santiago de C)

 

 

Thank you so much for your recommendation.  Your pictures are beautiful, thank you for sharing them.  The last one of the church against the blue sky is really stunning.

I have port calls in both Vigo and La Coruna on my cruise in summer 2022.  I'd like to visit Santiago de Compostela.  Would you recommend one port over the other for this?  Any other recommendations for what to see in these ports?  

Thank you!

26 minutes ago, CascaisCruiser said:

I went through this two weeks ago.  My PVP made the new booking and transferred all the money from the cancelled cruise to the new booking.  No additional money needed until final payment.  My new cruise is 13 months away.

My cancelled cruise was paid in full so it completely covered the minimum deposit on the new cruise.  Maybe that is the difference?  Just seems odd they couldn't make the new booking for you and just have you pay the difference from the previous deposit.  Sorry, I was unable to PM you, I guess that's disabled here.  

I went through this two weeks ago.  My PVP made the new booking and transferred all the money from the cancelled cruise to the new booking.  No additional money needed until final payment.  My new cruise is 13 months away.