mistycruiser

We did an Hawaiian cruise on Carnival and the casino was open when sailing between ports.

Galveston is more of a hassle to cruise from if you are flying in. There are 2 airports in Houston, IAH and HOU. The closest is HOU and mainly served by Southwest. It's about 45 minutes from HOU to Galveston. IAH serves most of the other airlines and is about 75 minutes to Galveston. Transfers to Galveston from Houston are pricier because of the distance to Galveston from the 2 different airports. I think we paid approximately $75 pp round trip.

We cruised from there in January on the Magic. We flew in the day before and stayed at a hotel by the HOU airport and then went back to the airport the morning of the cruise and took the cruiseline shuttle. They do have some private shuttles you can book that are cheaper than the cruiseline but it's best to book them in advance or they fill up. We found that the hotels in Houston were much cheaper than going to Galveston the previous night and many of the hotels in Galveston also wanted a 2 night minimum stay.

So yes it is not as easy as either Miami or Fort Lauderdale but if the price is enough of a difference it can still end up cheaper. JMHO

Thanks for the review, I really enjoyed it. We'll be on the Conquest 5-14-to 5-28 with this itinerary 1st and then staying on for the subsequent 6 day after. I think Josh will be on vacation during that time so I think we'll miss his history lessons. You mentioned Hitler and whether or not he actually died in Berlin or not. Recently there was a series, History Channel I think, that was titled searching for Hitler or something like that. It was really interesting and thorough. You might look it up and see if you can find it. It definitely makes you wonder if what's been taken as fact for years is true or not.

Since it appears that you plan on the hotel being close to the MIA airport and not in Fort Lauderdale it sounds like a good plan to me.

FYI This thread is from 2010.

Carnival doesn't guarantee table size. The best they'll do is what selection for time that you want either early, late or ATD. The normal route is via the maitre'd upon embarkation. It's possible you may be assigned a 4 top but you wouldn't know until you are onboard and can check out your table number. If you e-mail the maitre'd you can request a 4 top but it's not guaranteed that will happen and the maitre'd is not required to respond to email's.

I suspect it was for gas. We were in Houston in January and rented a car. I kept telling hubby even if it was only $1.00 we needed to top off the gas. When we returned the car they wanted a receipt for gas purchased. And since we didn't have one they charged us for a full tank of gas. Next time he rented a car I didn't have to remind him. LOL.

I realize you don't want to get home as late as midnight, but I think the earlier flight is just too risky. The airport is about 45 mins. away from the cruise terminals and TSA security at SEATAC is very crowded during cruise season I've heard. Even if I got home late, I'd go with the later flight to avoid the stress of worrying about catching such an early flight. JMHO.

My daughter and son-in-law had to cancel due to deployment and they used USAA for that reason. But I'm pretty sure that they had so show that the leave was rescinded in order to file the claim. You can also look into "cancel for any reason" policies. They usually cost more and have to be purchased within approximately 14 days or so of the deposit but that would also cover any scenario.

Normally large buses don't have car seat requirements and since the 18 month old is free I would assume they expect them to be a lap sitter but if the bus isn't full they could use a seat. No perks that I can think of but at other ports people mention using a porter with the luggage to speed up the process thru customs. We did that at Galveston and it was an advantage. Don't know if it's the same at Port Canaveral or not but it's worth a try.

The current rumor says that if you have 5000 points or more from a previous cruise that you're entitled to a DOU card at the beginning of the cruise. You can e-mail the player's club prior to the cruise to see what if anything you may qualify for.

You mentioned that you wanted casual, have you considered NCL? They have dress up or not nights so no dressy clothes required. We did a 7 day Northbound on the NCL Sun, Vancouver to Whittier. It now goes to Seward instead of Whittier. It doesn't go to Tracy Arm but it does go to both Glacier Bay and Hubbard glacier on the Northbound route. Then you'd still have a week for a land tour. You could take a shuttle or the train back to Anchorage to pick up a rental car and then have time to drive up to Denali and return to Anchorage for your return flight. I'd also recommend getting a travel guide for Alaska. I purchased "Alaska by Cruiseship" and it has lots of information on both the land and sea portions.

Thanks neighbor for the info on Fastrak. I imagine ours aren't carpool capable because we've had them for years. Oh well, we'll be leaving around 4 a.m. so it should be clear. Thanks.

We must be almost neighbor's because we're in Tracy and from your description sounds like you must be close by. We're going on the Escape May 7th so I'm really enjoying your review. We're flying out of SFO also but we have a really early flight so I'm hoping we don't hit traffic but we do have TrackPass so maybe we can use the carpool lane also. Haven't tried it yet but I'm certainly tempted if the traffic's bad.

We've driven a rental car between Orlando and FLL. Check the prices for rental cars on Costco Travel or AAA if you're members of them. We've found they

are normally cheaper than others and once you've booked it keep checking the prices because sometimes they even go back down so I cancel and rebook.

At Orlando the rental car return is at the airport so it's easy peasy to drop the car off and the rental car center at FLL is attached to terminal 1.

We've found Alamo to be cheaper on the per day transponder charge than others have been. You can check the transponder charges on the rental cars website to see what each charges. Also, we usually pay for the tank of gas when we pick up the car if we're going a fair distance because it's easier than finding a gas station on the return and we try to return the car as close to fumes as we can . :D

Carnival doesn't take reservations for ATD. A larger group will probably take longer than a smaller party but going early does seem to speed things up.

The 5 cartons thru customs duty free only applies if your ship docks in the USVI, St. Thomas for example, and you buy I think it's 4 cartons there. You can check the customs allowances at the customs website. Sorry, don't have a link. Otherwise duty free is 200 hundred cigarettes pp over 18.

Also don't forget that at SJU that checked bags have to go thru the agriculture check before you can check the bags and go thru security so that adds additional time as well.

What we've done is rather than get new S&S cards, one person in each cabin carries 2 cards. One is the official S&S to pay, get on and off the ship etc. The 2nd card just opens the door for the other cabin. To me it seems simpler because the S&S is already set up for charges etc. One person per cabin would need to go to guest services to get the duplicate room keys.

I've used Carnival transfers in several different ports, most recently in January in Houston to get to Galveston. Carnival will use regular full size busses that hold approx. 50 people or so. They've always helped with luggage when I've used them and as someone mentioned you would meet the Carnival person in the baggage claim area. Yes, they will normally wait for a full or nearly full bus before they leave the airport but I've never considered it that much of a hassle. I guess I just don't sweat the small stuff. JMHO.:)

I had the same problem about a month ago. I just called in and they manually applied the credit. Might try that.

We used the Carnival Shuttle from Hobby in January. No problem at all. We had flown in the day prior and took the shuttle back to the airport in the morning. Waited by baggage claim about 30 minutes or so for the shuttle and then headed out for Galveston. Just because someone had a bad experience once doesn't mean it happens all the time. Have fun on the cruise.

Yes you need to call to have the prepaid gratuities added if you didn't request it upon booking.

You should have received an e-mail confirmation when you booked the cruise. On the front page it should list the name of the PVP and an extension number. Check there for the ext. and call back.