Linsuesue

I would love to hear more about the hotel! I will be traveling with a group of 16 next January. We are looking for free shuttle from airport, restaurants nearby as we are all arriving in the late afternoon or early evening. I am hoping for free breakfasts and some way to get a shuttle or cabs lined up to get us to the port the next morning. The Hampton Blue Lagoon gets many favorable reviews on this board. 

Hands down get a deck 4 Vista View!  Bigger overhang, multiple rooms, more usable balcony , because the rail isn’t so slanted as the upper decks, and walk down 1 flight of stairs and you are at the dining room. We have sailed in deck 4 Vista Views multiple times and will be again this July. Best cabins in the fleet!,🛳️❤️

17 hours ago, ray98 said:

What ship is this from and are those recent prices?

I don’t see Fosters on that list, and I am pretty sure years ago we got some Fosters onboard. People in our group were saying it was the best buy because it had more ounces than the other beers. Did I dream that?

1 hour ago, BillB48 said:

As far as I as I know, if the ship is is scheduled to use the original locks and instead is shifted to the new locks, the ship will not incur any additional charges.  The Canal makes that decision because it it advantageous to them, so no additional charges to the vessel.  To put it in perspective, out of 14,000  total transits it happens less than 200 times.

 

Some of the largest container ships have paid just over $1 million in tolls.  This should not be confused with ships that can bid to "go to the head of the line", the recent record for the highest bid is just under $4million.  Those bids are above and beyond the toll charges.

So the Panama Canal has First to the Fun also! 😂

8 minutes ago, BillB48 said:

The tolls are determined by the size of the ship and you are correct that normally it does cost more for a ship to use the new locks.  However, the primary reason it costs more is because the ships using the new locks are larger.  Take for example, if the Carnival Spirit for some reason requested to transit the new locks, they would pay more in tolls than what it would cost to transit the original locks.  The reason is there are slightly different rate charged for each Panama Canal Ton.  Ships are measured by Panama Canal/Universal Measurement System (PC/UMS) and is a measure of volume and not actual weight.  It is a measurement similar to a ship's Gross Tonnage.  For a ship like the Carnival Spirit, it would cost about $400,000 for transit though the original locks.  Because there is a slightly different rate charged per PC ton the cost for the Spirit to transit the new locks would run about another $30,000.

 

There have been numerous times ships that could have transited the Canal using the original locks have been diverted to the new locks for Canal convenience.  To date these ships have all been ships carrying cargo... containers, grains, autos,, petroleum products and so on.  Only once since the new locks were opened did a passenger ship that could use the original locks use the new locks.  There were so many unique circumstances to that transit it can't be taken as anything that you would consider precedent setting.  Without almost any doubt, if the Spirit can fit in the original locks, that's where she will go.  

That is an astounding amount of money either way! If it is for the canal’s convenience to move you to the new lock, do they charge the ship the extra fee? I am thrilled to pass through the old locks anyway, so all of this is good news for me.

1 minute ago, Elaine5715 said:

Pretty sure there is a schedule.  I found a ton of interesting information about fees plus the number of people that you need to pay off and for cruise ships transits, you bring them aboard, put them in cabins and feed them.  Most of the Canal employees don't assist in the transit except as "safety".  I think there were at least 6 on the excursion boat.  

I just searched for some schedules and found a few. None of the ones I found specified which locks the ship would enter. 

4 hours ago, jsglow said:

I almost guarantee that you will be in the old, smaller locks. The Passage fee paid by ships is hugely different between the two with the new locks being much, much more. I can also assure you that it's not determined as you pull up that day. Passage is slotted many months in advance. There's no 'decision that day' involved.

Now what I would NOT expect is for Carnival to say anything to you. You're not going to get some kind of email about it. But you can 'count on' the original locks; 95%. Enjoy.

Thank you for the quick response! I figured lock fees were based more off the size of the ship and didn’t realize that it costs much much more for the new locks. That makes sense though, they need to pay them off.  There are sites for port schedules that I have checked out before. Is there a site for Panama Canal scheduled transits? I will have to look. 

I will be doing a Panama Canal cruise on the Spirit in 2025. Since the Spirit is a smaller ship, does that automatically mean we will go through the old locks? I prefer them to the newer locks, but it doesn’t specify on the itinerary. 

13 hours ago, MisterOJ2 said:

 

I've seen people post things about Soul Play that don't match up with our experience, but this is what happened on our trip. We had four sea days and Soul Play had two sessions scheduled for each of the sea days. One was a painting session at 9 am and one was a craft session at 3 pm.

 

We noticed that you could reserve your spot for each session early on embarkation day through the Hub app. Before we even left Mobile, there were no spots left for either session on the first sea day. My daughters reserved spots for both sessions on the second sea day and one of the remaining sea days. There was no charge for any of them.

 

The first painting session, they did a painting of an island with a palm tree. The second time it was a sunset. For crafts, they did a paper Christmas ornament they could decorate with stickers and the second craft session they made a cute little message-in-a-bottle necklace. They really enjoyed it a lot each time.

Thank you so much for this information! I am traveling with a group, and I know these craft classes will appeal to some in our group. 

Thanks a million for posting this! I would have never noticed it otherwise. Just booked our tickets and am excited to see all of those spots on the ship!

We have sailed the Miracle and Spirit more than any other ships. The Spirit class is our favorite for sure. There has never been a Soul Play when we sailed on them. Do you make reservations for it as soon as you board? Is there a cost for each session and limit for participants? I am curious to know more about that and the kinds of things you make. We are booked for her in July and can’t wait. Thank you for your great review!

Here is a photo of that cabin from cruisedeckplans.

215 to Alaska! 🐋🧊🐻🦭🍣🦀🛳️

5 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

The USCG MH65 Dolphin helicopter has a range of 400 nm, or about one day's sailing for a cruise ship.  Only specialized military helicopters have in-flight refueling capabilities.  If the USCG helicopter has to go long distances over water for the rescue/evacuation, they will send a fixed wing aircraft as well, just in case things go sideways, they will be there to coordinate further measures.

Can you tell if this is a MH65 Dolphin? Some people onboard said the range of a helicopter is only 250 miles. 

I don’t know if this helps you, but here is a photo of a pool on the Pride I took last year. 

We had one on our cruise to Hawaii this January on the Miracle. Our ship had to backtrack for many hours to get close enough to the California coast so the Coast Guard helicopter could meet us. I never knew about the limited range of a helicopter. The pilot did an outstanding job of getting close to the ship and then backing away repeatedly-the seas were very rough with lots of wind. It must have been so scary for the patient and his wife, and he ended up getting the heart surgery that he needed and recovered.  We lost a whole day in Hawaii because of the backtracking to the coast, but were so glad the gentleman got the help he needed. It was a fascinating process to watch! 

On our last cruise our room steward said he had 35 rooms and he had a part time assistant for a few hours in the morning. 

I liked the Funderstruck Nacho Burger, but not sure if you can get it any more. The borracho beans, crispy corn tortilla strips, fried jalapenos, and pico de gallo were great! 🍔 🍟 

Spirit Class-Vista View-Deck 4! Can’t beat the space, 2 rooms, magnificent view, and ample overhang for shade! 🛳️

The Spirit class ships-Miracle, Spirit, Pride, and Legend-have them.We have used the deck 4 aft ones, but I think they have them on decks 1, 5, 6, and 7 as well.

   We have only sailed on NCL and Carnival. Hands down Carnival wins for pleasant, engaging, customer service friendly employees. I never even met the room steward on our last NCL cruise. We had to flag somebody down to get ice in our room. Our room stewards-and other employees-on Carnival have always been visible, friendly, helpful, and doing their jobs to the best of their abilities. 

   I love the Groove for St. Jude on each cruise! I think it is such an honorable charity and it is fun to support it.

    The comedy clubs on Carnival are our favorite. We prefer the adult shows and have met many  great friendly people while waiting for the shows to begin. I find the passengers on Carnival are more approachable.

   We were on the NCL Encore this year. There wasn’t anything fun about having to reserve a seat in advance for the shows. They way they handled large crowds waiting to debark for excursions was the very opposite of fun.

3 hours ago, DeanDeeDee said:

So are mine for my Hawaiian cruise!☺️

So happy for you! Hawaii is definitely one of those places were certain excursions are a must do! 🌋 

7 hours ago, californiatripman said:

Excursions are back up. Was a glitch

Thanks for posting this! I checked twice this morning and there were still only 24 excursions for the week-now there are 79! I am so glad it was just a glitch!😀

33 minutes ago, RD64 said:

Yes it did - and definitely worth it. I see that you are from Arizona - but if you do not find it too cool - spend as much time on the observation platform as you can for a truly incredible experience. I found the temps I the train cars to be stifling -but that is just my opinion.

I have read that is the best place for photo ops too! Thanks for the tips. I am originally from Colorado so can handle small amounts of cooler weather! 😀