Erica@cruisecritic

I'm sailing on Carnival Pride and we're visiting Freeport on a Friday for just the morning. I'd like to go to a decent beach for the morning. Can anyone recommend a resort that offers day passes for cruise guests? It doesn't have to be all-inclusive since I don't think I'll be doing much drinking or eating before lunch. The Carnival tour goes to Pirate's Cove; I believe that's the beach I went to before and was underwhelmed.

Anyone been recently and have suggestions? Staying onboard is not an option.

Jumping in as the family expert from Cruise Critic's editorial team! 😉

Is this your first kid? 1.5 year olds are all kinds of energetic, and it's hard to know at 8 weeks the personality of yours. Will he be the kind of kid who happily sleeps in a stroller through a show and play happily with whatever toys are at hand, or will he be like mine who at 1 was trying eat the decorative rocks in the atrium, spent endless hours pushing a walking toy up and down the cabin hallways and would only nap in his pack n play. I can tell you the latter is exhausting, and 2 weeks with nowhere to go would have been torture. YMMV -- which is why I recommend getting to know your kid before booking a long cruise with no ports. Some will handle it gracefully, and others won't.

Also, my son at 1 and my daughter at 2 on cruises did a typical kid thing and stopped eating/drinking normally while away from home. While this is a normal little kid response to change in routine is that something you want to handle on a long sailing? Sleep also gets disrupted; transatlantic cruises involve daily (or almost daily) time changes, and your kid is not going to adjust as well as you to the schedule. Make sure you're cool with that.

If you do choose a long cruise with a toddler, bring extra clothes, diapers, toys, kid snacks, etc. Be prepared to pay for laundry or bring a lot of detergent for washing in your sink. Also soap to wash out bottles or sippy cups each night. And be sure to get them adorable outfits for formal nights (we got my son a tuxedo onesie!) because those photos will be priceless. 🙂 

We wrote an article on this hot new trend! https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=5144

Looks like Coral does not have pickleball yet (or didn't at time of writing).

If people are still wondering, I cruised Zaandam in August, and there is an Indian menu (with veg and non-veg dishes) that you need to special request. I believe you need to alert the dining room the day before, but you don't need to commit to eating only Indian food all week. When we found out about the menu the last night at dinner and asked politely, they were able to bring us a vegetarian Indian entree (though not necessarily the one from the menu), and it was very good and flavorful, and everyone who ate it agreed it was delicious -- even the meat eaters.

Since I'm researching this, too, see https://www.nps.gov/acad/planyourvisit/tidepooling.htm It looks like you can walk to Bar Island from the port.

Following! When are you going?

Puppy pads ordered (since they were cheaper than chux/bedwetting versions and essentially the same product)! I'll bring one washable mattress pad we have and layer the puppy pads on top because gerif is right: I'm more concerned about soaking the mattress than sheets that can be washed. And I'll alert my cabin steward on day one that he will likely be changing the sheets more often. And limit after-hours drinking and hope for the best!

We're talking the disposable incontinence pads, yes? I believe they were called "chucks" when I was in the maternity ward and they'd put them in the babies' bassinets.

Thanks, everyone! I will have a word with the cabin steward to give him/her a heads up that her sheets might need to be changed more regularly. I'll strip the bed if it's wet. And I'll investigate my mattress pad options because as horse gal suggests, a couple of puppy pads or similar might be better than bringing one larger one.

I'm cruising with my 5 yo, who goes through phases of wetting the bed at night, even though she's been potty trained for years. We've never done pullups, so I don't really want to introduce them now. But we're going on a Princess cruise in a week, and I'm not sure what to do. I can bring a waterproof pad for the bed -- but will I end up doing laundry every day? Wondering if other families have experienced this and if you've come up with solutions I have not thought of. Thanks!

22 minutes ago, tymike said:

Any chance they will revise their response?

Emailed with MSC PR. Their first post was misleading. She has sent me the revised compensation/cancellation policy and says they're working to update the website:

Guests currently on board MSC Armonia and their travel agents have already been informed and will receive: 

·        $400 USD per stateroom as onboard credit. If this credit is not fully used during the cruise, MSC Cruises will refund the difference upon check-out from the ship. Any shore excursions in Havana that were pre-purchased before the cruise, or which are included in the ticket, will be automatically refunded to the Guest’s onboard account.

Guests on future MSC Armonia sailings that was scheduled to visit Cuba will be offered:

·        $400 USD per stateroom as onboard credit if they choose to remain on their currently booked sailing. If this credit is not fully used during the cruise, MSC Cruises will refund the difference upon check-out from the ship. Any shore excursions in Havana that were pre-purchased before the cruise, or which are included in the ticket, will be automatically refunded to the Guest’s onboard account.

·        The possibility to change ship and itinerary. MSC Cruises will waive cancellation fees and transfer already paid funds to the new booking.

17 minutes ago, travelwide said:

If I am reading this correctly it says those who are currently on board a ship today will be getting the $400 onboard credit. It does not address what those of us who have future cruises booked will be getting. Can The Cruise Critic rep clarify this for us please. Thank you.

Oh, good point. The wording is rather confusing. I will chase the PR.

1 minute ago, docboy said:

 

How did you receive this info?  So far I have not receive any sort of email, call, or text from MSC re: my upcoming August 2019 "Cuba" cruise.

I work for Cruise Critic! 😉 They sent the release to their media distribution list. I haven't checked to see if they posted on their website.

Here's the press release we just received:

MSC Cruises updates Caribbean itineraries including Cuba following changes made by the U.S. administration

Geneva, Switzerland, June 6, 2019 - In connection with the U.S. Administration changes to regulations regarding travel to Cuba which eliminate as of June 5 the prior authorization permitting cruise ships to travel from the U.S. to Cuba, MSC Cruises will modify effective immediately all its cruise itineraries previously scheduled to call that country.

Due to these substantial changes in U.S. law and regulation, MSC Armonia is no longer authorized to call the port of Havana, Cuba, as part of her current Caribbean sailings. The alternative ports of either Key West, Florida; Costa Maya, Mexico; George Town, Cayman Islands; or Cozumel, Mexico will replace Havana, Cuba. The remainder of MSC Armonia’s itinerary will remain as originally planned.

Guests currently on board MSC Armonia and their travel agents have already been informed and have been offered the following options:

-        $400 USD per stateroom as onboard credit. If this credit is not fully used during the cruise, MSC Cruises will refund the difference upon check-out from the ship. Any shore excursions in Havana that were pre-purchased before the cruise, or which are included in the ticket, will be automatically refunded to the Guest’s onboard account.

-        The possibility to change ship and itinerary. MSC Cruises will waive cancellation fees and transfer already paid funds to the new booking.

I’m wondering, how did the ice show in Marseilles attempt to fulfil the Azamazing goal of reflecting local culture.

Um, there was French music and they did the can-can?

Update: she says they have not yet weighted the curtains and they still cling. :(

I'm 6 feet tall and definitely had issues in that shower, mostly because my elbows would bang into things and knock them over and then I'd bend over to pick them up and that was problematic.

I happened to be cruising at the same time as Azamara's COO who said they had a design team working on a better shower solution for Pursuit and they couldn't find a workable solution. I'll ask my colleague who's on Pursuit to see if this happened, but the COO said the plan was to weight the shower curtains so they wouldn't swing and cling so much.

I saw the ice show in Marseille the first time Azamara offered that evening. Let me say that everyone who saw it (including the cruise director) will agree with me that you are better off going to the same AzAmazing Evening twice in a row than seeing the ice show. It's a testament to the line wanting to offer good experiences to its guests that they canned that show. ;)

That said, I totally understand your frustration with the change.

Yes, that's right! And that suite was incredible. ;-)

Enjoy your Seabourn cruise -- it's a great line! And you can special order (with 24-48 hours notice) whatever type of meal you like, whether that's Indian or Thai or a specific dish. I find with Seabourn and vegetarian eating that you will have the best results if you just ask for what you want (do you have tofu you can add to that stirfry? can you make this interesting dish without the meat?), rather than assume that if it's not in print on a menu, you can't have it.

I guess I should have said not as much diversity in proteins vs. lack of. And don't get me wrong -- I love me some cheese and pasta! But sometimes I get bored with them. Or feel like I'm gaining too much weight! (And the bigger ships don't necessarily have the edge here, either, in my experience.)

The great thing about Seabourn is that you can special order, and the crew is so lovely about trying to accommodate.

As someone who's pescatarian when cruising, I can say that Seabourn is not my favorite line for vegetarian food. Your best bet is the Restaurant, and making special requests. (Had a fabulous vegetarian Indian dinner, specially ordered.) The Colonnade is very rarely veggie-friendly. If your ship has Earth and Ocean, that venue also has some good veggie choices. So helpful that they give you the menus the night before so you can decide.

The Patio has a veggie burger that's yummy and made onboard, but it's not on the menu so you have to know to ask.

My biggest issue with cruising while vegetarian on the majority of cruise lines is that vegetarian options are meant to look fancy and involve a lot of pasta and cheese, while there is a real lack of vegetarian proteins (tofu, beans, lentils, etc.). Also always ask specifically about soup stock when contemplating a vegetarian-sounding soup.

I had an amazing three-day tour with TJ Travel, and I wrote a story about things to consider when planning an independent (private or group) tour in SPB. You can find the story here, and I'm happy to answer questions about the experience, too.

https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=1304

Thanks for the reports!

My friend and her boyfriend (both 40-somethings) are going on Silver Galapagos this year. They live in California, Silicon Valley, where dress is so casual, lots of jeans and T-shirts. She says her boyfriend owns no slacks other than jeans. I told her about the official Silversea dress code, but I'm wondering, is dinner dress in the Galapagos just as strict as on other ships and on other itineraries? In other words, would a button-down shirt, nice shoes and jeans work in the restaurant or get you kicked out? I will pass on advice from those who have done this cruise. (I've already told her to buy him some khakis!) Thanks.

Interesting about comped vs. sold out -- I didn't think to ask that question!

I am definite, however, about the opening of the shutters (on Ovation only). I'm attaching a photo. However, the hotel director did say that cabanas are first come, first served, so if you're only interested in a cabana with opening shutters, there's no way to guarantee one when booking.

Just a note to say that on Ovation, the 6 side-facing cabanas now have plantation shutters that open to the sea views. So a small improvement.

I wasn't able to do more than tour The Retreat because it was SOLD OUT on the one sea day on our jam-packed seven-day Baltic itinerary. That despite the weather being rather chilly but I guess once booked, people aren't going to cancel for possible weather.