mleng

My family have just come back from Sao Miguel (the island, where Ponta Delgada is the capital city).  This is our 2nd trip there.  One day is really not enough.  We went there and stayed in an Airbnb for 8 days for each trip.  I am on this board researching another cruise trip, but when I saw this topic, I felt obligated to offer my suggestions.

If you want the convenience of a guide tour, previous posts have provided you with some options.  If you are a bit more adventurous, I have 2 suggestions for you.  (see attached photos) 

#1 is Furnas with the famous Terra Nostra Garden. It has a huge geothermal pool (size of a football field) with rust-colored water and 100 degrees temperature.  (Bring a dark color swimsuit because it will be stained.)  Admission is 16 Euros per person, which includes unlimited time in the pool and access to a beautiful garden (several acres, equivalent of most city's main botanical garden).  Beware that the place closes at 4:30 PM.  To get your money's worth, you need to get there by 1:30 or 2 PM at the latest.

#2 is Ponta da Ferraria -- a cove in the ocean that's fed by underground geothermal spring.  In the back of the cove, the water temp can be as high as 105 or 110 degrees, and the ocean water outside the cove is about 70 degrees.  It's super interesting to feel the hot water coming from your back and cold water coming from your front. The best time to visit is during low tide, but based on my personal experience, if you are 2 hours before or after low tide, the experience is still well worth it.  It's free to enter, and there are free changing room and bathroom nearby.  The area around the cove is also great for hiking -- black volcanic rocks and cliffs.  You can check the tide time at this website https://www.captaintide.com/tide/Ponta da Ferraria/ 

I would consider both options as "nowhere else can you do this" type.  I would choose them over hiking if you only have 1 day in Sao Miguel.  Don't get me wrong, Sete Cidades has breathtaking views, but there are many places on earth with beautiful views.  You are also at a whim of the weather if you want to go up the mountain, whereras these 2 places are perfect on cloudy and even rainy days.

For either option, you can just take a taxi from the cruise port.  The taxi prices are mostly fixed to well known destinations.  I would estimate about 40~50 Euros one way.  

@FionaMG  Your mentioning of Star Alliance may have just tipped the scale, as I do have status on United.  Also, my wife and I have visited Azores a few times and really enjoyed it.  I have picked up a little bit of Portuguese along the way, too.  (Not enough to converse, but it helps a little when looking at signs and menus.)  It seems #2 is the front runner now.  Obrigado!

Another related question: we will probably fly into the embarkation city 2 or 3 days ahead of time, to adjust for the jet lag and to do some sightseeing.  Between Lisbon and Barcelona, which is more "enjoyable", and which is easier to get around logistically?  

Hi, we are trying to choose between 2 Transatlantic itineraries (for Oct 2025 and both are 13 nights) and would appreciate your input.

#1: Barcelona, Spain - Palma De Mallorca, Spain - Alicante, Spain - Cartagena, Spain - Malaga, Spain - Fort Lauderdale

#2: Lisbon, Portugal - Seville (cadiz), Spain - Lanzarote, Canary Islands - Gran Canaria, Canary Islands - Tenerife, Canary Islands - Orlando (port Canaveral)

My wife and I are in our early 50s and are in good shape. At the ports, we are most likely looking for excursions (self-guided or with paid guides) of hiking and walking and other nature-related activities. We are not into shopping or wine/liquor.  We are not foodies either.

They are on different RCCL ships and with different prices, but for the ease of comparison, I am going to ignore those factors and only consider the port of calls. 

I started reading about these ports on the forum, but after 3 hours I realize that I would need a lot more time.  I want to book the trip soon in order to capitalize on a good promotion, so I am hoping to get inputs from people who have been to those ports.  Thank you in advance!

@Laminator and @electro thank you for your input on the HAL smoking policy.  I know there is a dedicated discussion thread on HAL smoking and it ran thousands of entries.  I cannot possibly read all of them.  Can you (or anybody else who is knowledgeable) boil it down for me regarding a couple of simple questions:

1. Why does HAL have different smoking policies for different ships? Is it due to a specific quirk in a ship's layout/hardware, or is it due to a geographic area and the cultural preference?  What's the key difference between the ships that allow smoking in casinos (Koningsdam, NS, Rotterdam, Zaandam, Volendam) and the rest of the fleet?

2. Do you think the ships that currently allow smoking in casinos are going to gradually ban them?

Thanks.

On 1/11/2024 at 12:26 PM, Laminator said:

With the ships filling up the generosity of the casino offers has declined. There's a group of nearly 5000 HAL casino players that discuss this constantly. 

 Can you tell me where to find the discussion thread?  Is it on CC or somewhere else?  My family just started cruising with HAL (did one in 2019 before COVID, then did one in 2023 and another one last month). We really liked the nonsmoking casinos and may end up doing most of our cruises on HAL going forward.  It would certainly be nice to know a little more about the ins and outs of the HAL casino and their offers.

We were on Nieuw Amsterdam last week.  Our cabin was 4079.  A few doors down, there were 3 cabins named UP001, UP002...  They don't show up on the deck plan, but they look like regular cabins.  They even have the normal mailboxes by the door and once I saw the daily program in the mailbox.  I was on Eurodam last year and I remembered they had cabins like that too.  Anybody know what they are?

My family just finished our cruise on NA from Jan 6 to 13.  BB King has been officially rebranded as Rolling Stone Lounge.  Billboard on Board is not a room, but an area off the hallway, without any wall,  right across from the casino, which doesn't have any wall either. They use the area for trivia during the day, but the noise from the casino makes it hard to hear.  At night, when the pianos are going on at BOB and the slot machines are going full throttle, it's not a pleasant place to be for your ears.

Also, during our week, the ship was plagued with bad odors.  Something must have gone wrong with a broken pipe or something.  Deck 2 and 3 midship had a strong sewage (human waste) smell.  The carpet in the hallway was stained and the maintenance crew were there everyday.  Outside, on the walking track around the ship on Deck 3, at a certain section, there was a strong smell of garbage (spoiled food). Same smell at a certain spot on Deck 10/11. 

Just came back from the Nieuw Amsterdam trip and wanted to provide an update to my own question.  Yes there was a motion activated light under the dresser/closet by the door.  However, the light was not ideal for what we needed.  First of all, it only stays on for 10 or maybe 15 seconds.  Basically, it goes off while you are still in the bathroom.  Secondly, the light is actually quite bright (when the room is dark) and is visible to the person sleeping in the bed.  Not a good thing if you are trying to not wake up the other person.

So for us, we brought a night light and plugged it into the bathroom Shaver outlet. It's much dimmer than the motion sensor light, but that's enough for one to see and not trip over things. Then we put towels on the floor to block out some of the motion-sensor light, but leaves just enough light to see the path back to the bed.

Also, two valuable FYI:

1. The bathroom door on NA can be opened completely and be held in place by a strong magnet on the wall.  We left the door open at night so that it's easier for these middle of the night pee trips.

2. The shaving outlet has a toggle switch to choose between 120 and 220 V.  Make sure you select the 120V if you don't want to burn out the night light. 

My family will be on Nieuw Amsterdam in 2 days.  We will be in an Oceanview cabin on Deck 4.  I am wondering if the bathroom has some kind of built-in night light?  If not, I will have to pack one.  

I liked their Pizza, especially the white pizza.  The dough was very good.  I have been on more than a dozen cruises and Venezia's pizza was the best. 

1 hour ago, madamerkf said:

So the fun continues. Captain came over loudspeaker to say that due to the storm, the port authorities are closing the Hudson River channel from midnight to six pm tomorrow. So they are going at full speed and planning on docking at NYC at one am and debark should be as scheduled. However they are closing the casino and shutting down the cheers/bubbles program at about 11:30 pm to comply with the laws. So two of eight nights spent at NYC port. What a crazy trip!

So sorry to hear.  That's winter cruising for you -- weather from week to week could be so different.

1 hour ago, Frank12 said:

Never has been...not on any ships we've sailed !

I could be mistaken.  It's been a few years since my family last went on Carnival.  

I may be confusing Carnival with HAL.  I am pretty sure HAL app provides free chat, right?

Just remembered another "pet peeve":  Carnival charges $5 per person if you want to use their Hub app to text other guests.  

I deliberately chose not to buy WiFi package, so that I could truly disconnect and not be tempted to pick up my phone every few minutes.  That worked well. 

Their Hub app was quite helpful -- no need to carry the paper version of the daily program, and you can see the restaurant menu and scheduled activities in advance.  It's really useful to plan which entertainment option to take, if I know that the same option is offered 3 days later.  However, on past Carnival cruises (before COVID), we had used their app to text each other while on board.  It was a free feature.  This time, they wanted $5.  So if you were a group of 4 people, all 4 had to pay $5 each.  The money was not a lot, but out of principle, I refused to pay it.  

I don't know when they started charging for this, but that's another thing (same as herbal tea) that I consider to be petty on Carnival's part.

16 minutes ago, Haljo1935 said:

Cruising both Carnival and HAL, I look forward to your thoughts and comparison - they are very different. 🤔 Those differences are what make keeping them both on my list enjoyable.

One note, if I may, on MDR dining - you may want to plan on doubling your time as I don't see you getting in/out of dinner in an hour.🫣 

Oh one more thing - they have a nice selection of teas 24/7 at the Lido at no charge. Enjoy!

My wife and I took HAL in April 2023 on a Panama Canal cruise.  Enjoyed it.  And yes I remember they had good herbal tea selection.  😀 

Unfortunately for that HAL cruise, we were looking forward to Lincoln Center and other Classical music offerings and we were disappointed to find out that they didn't offer them anymore. 

11 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

Carnival has a deal with Art of Teas now, that's why they stopped carrying the other brands more than anything.

If they want to give me Art of Teas for free, that will be nice.  I may even be converted to a regular customer when back on land.  But I cannot see myself paying $3 for each cup.  So if we go on Carnival again, I will just bring a couple of boxes of Celestial Seasoning.

@madamerkf  Sorry to hear about your bad experience.  My family just got off Venezia on Dec 10.

What was the reason for not able to leave NYC until Monday morning?  Was it due to weather also?  

Half Moon Cay is our favorite stop in the Caribbean.  We almost always book a Carnival or Holland ship so that we can visit HMC.  I just wish they would invested in some infrastructure to build a real pier at HMC, so that they didn't have to do the tender and didn't have to be at the mercy of the weather.

Seems like some of the posts on this thread are going on a tangent and becoming not productive.  Since I started the thread, I will attempt to bring it back on topic.

A few other things that I forgot to include in the original post:

1. Melting lava cake -- still my all time #1 dessert on all cruises.  Venezia didn't disappoint.  Its lava cake in MDR is very warm and very melty and very chocolatey.

2. In general, Venezia had good desserts.  I remembered a good Pistachio cake, and several good chocolate cakes of different varieties (peanut butter, coffee, etc.)

3. Weather -- when we woke up the first morning, the ship was next to Virginia Beach, which is almost to North Carolina border.  It was warm enough to wear shorts that day.  We had planned to be cold for the first 2 days, but in reality, it was only cold for the first night.

4. MDR no wait -- we were on My Time Dining and each time I requested a table, we got one assigned within 2 or 3 minutes.  The meal itself is pretty quick too.  We always finish the whole meal (all 3 courses) within an hour.

5. Not happy about the fact there was no free herbal tea.  Lido and MDR only have black, decaf black, and green.  When I asked for a herbal tea after dinner in MDR, I was told that it would be $3.  I don't need fancy tea.  A regular Bigelow or Celestial Seasoning Mint or Chamomile tea costs 10 cents per bag at retail.  How much can Carnival save by not offering herbal tea?  So if you are a herbal tea drinker, bring your own!!!

We are going with my other side of the family on a Holland America cruise in Jan, leaving out of FLL.  It would be an interesting comparison to this one.  Stay tuned...

@pe4all @kona_wahine Regarding the clientele of the ship, I don't think it's fair to simply say "New Yorkers are rude".  A big factor is that people that live in big cities (NY or Miami) tend to be louder and are used to smaller personal space.  It's just a different social norm. I had a friend in college who came from a different country. He was told "back off, you perv" when all he did was standing maybe a foot away from the middle aged lady in front of him at a supermarket checkout line.  Obviously that lady preferred to have more personal space and felt that he was encroaching to the point of being offensive.

Regarding Venezia, I noticed that a much higher percentage of the guests were black, appropriately reflecting the racial makeup of the population of major cities of NYC and Philly.  Also, a lot of them were first time cruisers -- I knew this because the comedians always asked the audience, and they were always surprised to hear the answers from the crowd.  And, (I don't know if it's correlated), based on what I saw, almost all the first time cruisers were black, at least on this ship. 

So, it's a combination of regional culture (tough Northeast vs polite Midwest), social norm (urban vs surburban), cultural difference (black vs white), and cruise experience (new vs old), that makes this cruise different from the typical cruise that people would expect with an overwhelming Caucasian AARP crowd.  Just to be clear, I am not making any judgment.  One is not better than the other.  I am just making an observation and trying to come up with an explanation why some people would consider the guests on Venezia "rude".  

@Beaverhut Yes, the weather was great, and the cruise was mostly enjoyable, except the strong cigarette smoke permeating most of the central part of the ship, and the inexplicably slow embarking and disembarking process. 

By the way, during the second half of the trip, I noticed there were always several Security staff standing around the pool area on Deck 10, usually in front of Guy's burger and/or Tomodoro.  During any of my previous cruises (more than 10), I have never seen a single Security person onboard on any ship. I am sure every ship has Security staff.  It's just that they always work in the background or maybe you can see them walking through the ship on their rounds, but I never saw groups of them stationed in one area day in and day out.

Something must have happened? 

We just came back from a 10-day cruise on Venezia out of Manhattan.  I posted my review and it’s waiting for the censor to approve, but I thought to provide a few more practical tips to folks on the boards here. 

1.    We had Oceanview Cabins on Deck 2 Aft.  Very spacious.  The best part was that the cabin had one and half bathrooms:  one had a shower, a toilet, and a sink, and the second one had a bathtub and a sink.  It’s great when I and my wife both needed to get ready.  If you are trying to squeeze 3 or 4 people in a cabin, having 2 bathrooms would be a life saver.
2.    Maybe due to the location of embarkation, the clientele of this cruise was much more multi-ethic and multi-culture.  What you may take for granted of certain etiquette and standard practices on a cruise are not necessarily the modus operandi by these folks.  My advice is that just be prepared as you go into this and try to be more patient.
3.    A lot of the guests on our cruise chose to eat in the Lido buffet than MDR. We did MDR 5 nights out of 10.  It’s never busy.  Each time, I used the App to “check in”, and a table was assigned to me within a couple of minutes.  And when we were in the dining room, we could see that the room was never more than half full.  On the other hand, dinner in Lido often required a 10-15 minute standing in line. On other cruises, when we had to eat in Lido, I managed to make it a similar experience as in a real restaurant by getting only one food item at a time – get the salad first, wait until my wife and I both finish the salad then go back for an entrée, then go back for dessert.  But with such long lines in Lido on Venezia, I had no choice but to pile up all the food on one plate.  The different foods were touching, the flavors were mixing, and I felt the need to eat everything quickly before it got cold, instead of leisurely eat and talk and focus on the interaction with my eating companions.  Basically, the crowdedness and the long lines in Lido totally destroyed the eating experience.  So my tip here is that during peak time of 6~7 PM, you can probably finish a dinner in MDR quicker than in Lido. 
4.    Manhattan Cruise Terminal is not good. We have done more than a dozen cruises mostly leaving from Ft Lauderdale and Bayonne.  In comparison to those 2 ports, the Manhattan Cruise Terminal looked old and ill equipped.  They paused the check-in process during embarkation because too many people were backed up on the gangway.  We had to stand in line for more than 30 minutes, with no water, no bathroom (because we didn’t know when the pause would be over).  Finally we made onto the ship an hour and half after arriving at the port.  On our 3 recent cruises, we never spent more than 20 minutes to embark, so this 90-minute process was a stark contrast.
5.    Disembarkation was just as bad as embarkation.  We opted to do self-assist.  The announcement was made at 7:30 that people could disembark, and we left our cabin at 8, but we didn’t get off the ship until 9. The gangway was on Deck 3, and we were on Deck 2, but they blocked off the hallways on Deck 2 and Deck 3 in mid ship without anybody stationed there to direct traffic, so we had to carry all the luggage from Deck 2 to Deck 4, walk from Aft to Fwd, then go back down to Deck 3. Once on Deck 3, there was this meandering long line that literally took us more than 30 minutes to go through.  As far as I could tell, the bottle neck was at the gangway where there were only 2 stations to scan people’s cards.  I am wondering if it’s a limitation by the port.  There was only one gangway during embarkation also. At all other ports, there were 2 gangways, but in NY, when the entire ship is trying to get on and off in the shortest time span, they only put out one gangway?  If you are flying out of NYC, don’t try to book any flight before noon, since you would not be off the ship by 9 AM at the earliest. 
6.    My last advice, and probably the harshest, is that if you don’t like cigarette smoke, don’t go on this ship. Unlike some cruise lines, Carnival still allowed smoking in the casino.  It’s located in the middle of Deck 4, with a stairwell right at the entrance of the casino, and the open Atrium of San Marco Piazza at the other entrance of the casino.  The smoke from the casino often wafted up and down to other decks.  On a couple of days, we could even smell it on Deck 2 Aft outside our cabin.  My wife was sensitive to smoke, so after the first day, we basically stopped going to the San Marco Piazza and the surrounding areas on Deck 3, 4, and 5.  We essentially missed out on all the shopping places and a lot of the entertainment options. 
 

Hi my family (including my parents in their 80s) will be on Venezia next week.  We have arranged a park-and-cruise deal at a hotel across the river from Manhattan.  The instruction from the hotel said the shuttle pickup spot upon our return (on Sun Dec 10) would be at Pier 90.

I understand there are 2 piers at the cruise terminal.  My question is: if Venezia comes in at Pier 88, how is the walk from Pier 88 to Pier 90?  Is there an inside passage or do we have to go outside in the cold air?  My parents are relatively healthy (for 80 year olds) and can walk on their own with the luggage, but they won't be able to carry suitcases up and down stairs, or staying outside in the cold for too long. 

If anybody has done this -- getting off at Pier 88 and walking to Pier 90 to be picked up, I would appreciate it if you can share your experience. 

We are going on Venezia on Nov 30.  I always enjoy the serendipitous nature of browsing a ship's library and picking up some books that I would not have read otherwise.

If anybody has been on Venezia recently, can you tell me the location and size (book selections) of the library on Venezia?  I did a search on this forum and found one picture taken by somebody on a June cruise -- it showed two mostly empty shelves.  I certainly hope Carnival have stocked the library with a few more books?  

On 10/23/2023 at 12:24 PM, Beaverhut said:

As it looks on the websites of different ports of call, the list below shows the days and ships in our ports:

Dec 4 - Grand Turk - Carnival Sunrise and Carnival Venezia

Dec 5 - Amber Cove - Carnival Celebration and Carnival Venezia

Dec 6 - San Juan - Ritz Carleton Evrima, Carnival Venezia, and Carnival Celebration

Dec 7 - Half Moon Cay - Carnival Venezia - all alone!  yay

@Beaverhut I am not sure which website you were looking at, but on Carnival website, the itinerary is shown as

Dec 3 - Half Moon Cay

Dec 4 - Grand Turk

Dec 5 - Amber Cove

Dec 6 - San Juan

My family don't plan on doing any excursion, so it's not a big deal for us, but we do care about the crowdedness at each port, especially for beach days like Half Moon Cay or Grand Turk, so I really wish those 3rd party cruise schedule/map sites would hurry up and make updates.

I would love to read more reviews on lesser known but possibly better value cruiselines like Nicko and Viva.  So if it's not too much trouble, please add them to the Drop Down menu.  Thanks.