jwalk03

Disney just dropped PV from the Wonder's Panama Canal cruise that is currently happening.

I am planning on taking a 7 day Carnival Cruise to Mexico. I will be joined by my parents who are citizens of India and will visiting the United States on a tourist visa.

 

I read in this link - https://mexico.visahq.com/requirements/India/resident-United_States/ - that "Starting May 1st, 2010, all foreigners, regardless of their nationality, visiting Mexico as tourists, transmigrate or for business matters will not need a visa for Mexico as long as they hold a valid US visa and arrive in Mexico from the United States."

 

From this it seems, travelling to Mexico on a cruise wouldn't be a problem as my parents would be having a valid US tourist visa. Is my assumption correct?

 

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

I beleive you are correct, but I would contact Carnival and make sure so you don't have any last minute problems.

It just depends how well the cruise is selling. If it is selling well with few empty cabins remaining the prices will continue to rise. If there are lots of empty cabins prices may decline. It is all based on an algorithm.

Real L.I. Iced Teas are made with 5 liquors, but on Carnival, they are trained to make the with only 4 shots. I usually make friends with a bartender, and they'll make mine with all 5 shots. And it only counts as 1 drink on Cheers Program.

True that it is typically 5, all the clear liquors, but its only 1/2 pour of each liquor, not a full pour.

Been a little while since we have sailed on Carnival.

 

First off, I do not plan on getting Cheers. Our cruise is 21 days and Cheers would cost us $2100, that is ridiculous, especially since we would not go anywhere near the 15 per day. Also, 15 ports in 21 days so not worth it IMHO.

 

In December we sailed Princess and they had a Happy Hour twice a day...one at 3pm and one at 11pm. During Happy Hour at a specific bar, you could buy one drink, get one free...all drinks included. Celebrity also offered this last time we sailed them for Dos Equis, worked for us since we drink beer.

 

Just wondering if Carnival has any thing similar to this?

Sorry no happy hour.

My question is not really cruise related, but so many people on here have such a wealth of knowledge I thought I would ask here anyway.

We are going to Los Cabos for our honeymoon in 2 weeks! We are staying at Secrets Puerto Los Cabos, which I understand is quite a ways from actual Cabo San Lucas, but we still want to go to the marina area in Cabo at least 1 day while we are there.

The hotel told us a cab ride is around $55 each way, but I read on a tripadvisor review that there is actually a local bus that runs up and down the corridor that you can ride. I was thinking of riding the bus from Secrets to the Marinia to spend the day and then taking a cab back at night.

Can anyone tell me more about the bus? How easy will it be to catch? What hours does it run? How far is the walk from the resort to the corridor road where the bus runs? I understand it's very cheap like only a few pesos? I am a pretty big guy and not easily intimidated so I'm not really worried from a safety perspective, particularly during the day, and as I mentioned we will likely just take a cab back at night versus trying to take e bus back.

Any other useful information you can offer is also much appreciated, as this will be our first time in Cabo!! We are going there again in October as well as a cruise port stop with our 2 year old daughter too, so hopefully we can find some cool things on this trip that will make our cruise stop in October more enjoyable as well.

My first cruise was on the Imagination, thats what started my cruising obsession. While I agree it is not a new world class type ship, it is still perfectly acceptable for a short 3/4/5 day trip.

I may be in the minority but I greatly PREFER the Serenity Area on the Fantasy Class ships to the Conquest Class ones. (I havent been on the Spirit Class yet, so I can't compare those.) Serenity is all the way Aft, which provides a wonderful view and it is akward to find, so it is WAY LESS CROWDED than any of the FWRD Serenity areas on the Conquest class ships!

Prices are ALWAYS higher overall in markets with very little (or no) competition. Basic Supply and Demand people. In Florida there are so many options you can't count them all, so prices are lower overall and margins thinner for the company. Ports like Charleston & Baltimore where there is high demand from people who don't want to spend money on airfare, but a low supply of rooms equals much higher prices.

Norfolk is another good example of this as well for the limited cruises that are offered from there. The prices are always higher than what a cruise from a Florida port to the same places would be becuase there is such a low supply and a pent up demand.

No whale watching tours will be offered in July in Cabo. If you want to see whales in July, you better take an Alaska cruise instead of Mexico.

It isn't going to be retired before next April. People that start these rumors have nothing else to do!

While I agree Wikipedia is not a credible source, I will say that Carnival does frequently cancel cruises and changes ships AFTER people have booked, when they repo ships. If Carnival really is retiring the Fantasy, I would assume it would be replaced with something, and to be honest whatever that replacement is would have to be considered an UPGRADE over the oldest ship in the fleet.

CD makes ZERO difference to me. I couldnt even tell you who the CD was on my last 2 cruises, I have no idea. My first 2 cruises on the Imagination & Freedom both had Brad as my cruise director. I only recall this becuase I thought it was weird that I had him both times on 2 different ships. Didnt interact with him at all either time, still had great cruises.

I will say that it would be kind of cool to meet JH, just becuase he is a little more "famous" than your typical CD, but I wouldnt be mad or go out of my way to make that happen. It would just be an added bonus if JH happen to be on a cruise I booked for other reasons.

Bingo is (IMHO) still a form of gambling' date=' but it doesn't require a fixed space. On the Magic, I've seen it in the Walt Disney Theatre and in one of the nightclub areas--in both cases when I was coming in for the activity scheduled to follow. One CM is able to carry the needed equipment into the venue and the clean up is minimal to non-existent. (we didn't see any clean up before our event, so no addition to general room cleaning).

 

It is much less "invasive" than a casino in terms of space, personnel, etc.[/quote']

 

I agree that Bingo is a form of gambling. So is a raffle, or a lottery, etc.

I am just saying that those types of gambling are more widly accepted than casinos.

Your question is being taken way too literal.

 

There is no casino on board. For whatever reason it was not included. However, there is Bingo. That leads me to believe the absence had nothing to do with disapproval of gambling and probably more to do with adding that much more adult only space.

 

Characters are all around the ship. However, they are usually planned ahead and listed in the Navigator. There are lines of families waiting to see them. There is a disney presence everywhere but it's often subtle and quite classy. Much of the fun is noticing the "hidden Mickey's" imbedded in railings, tapestries and general design. One does not feel like they have landed in a Disney Channel world. I find it more like Disneys Moderate to more high end resorts as opposed to the "in your face" theming of the value resorts.

 

We found there was plenty for adults to do and never felt overwhelmed by kids. Although there are TONS of kids onboard my experience was they were entertained enough not to be disruptive to others. I also felt like families on board were relaxed and enjoying their families in contrast to many families appearing overwhelmed and exhausted in the parks.

Bingo is a far cry from having a full casino. I mean every Catholic Church in the country plays Bingo, but there are still a lot of places that would not allow a casino to be built in the church basement.

But it doesn't have the Princeses and Mickey and Minnie, etc.

I bet for the right price, Disney would send them a Mickey & Minnie for a week! And come onthe Saudis already have plenty of "princesses" lol

No way in the world Sunshine gets retired in the next 5 years. WAY too much was spent on that project to dump it so fast. The entire Fantasy class will be gone before Sunshine goes anywhere, and we are still quite a long way away from the whole Fantasy Class being gone, seeing as how not a single one of them have been retired yet and there are a LOT of Fantasy Class ships.

Yesterday both cabins were available. Today they are both gone...so someone has booked them or at least placed a 3 day hold on them.

I was thinking the same thing. That cruise is not showing any suites left. So SOMEONE must be willing to pay that $68K! TOTALLY INSANE.

Walt knew he was a public figure and he hid the fact he smoked as much as possible so as to not encourage kids or adults to smoke. I don't believe that photo was changed' date=' he never let pictures be taken of him smoker in later years.

 

As to casinos, I think your going to find more and more lines will be reducing their size as the profit is not as great a it once was. There are casinos all of the US now, people can gamble near home now.

 

AKK[/quote']

 

I agree that the casino pie is declining as more and more states legalize casinos. Use to be not that long ago the only places to gamble legally were Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and cruise ships. Now I think something like 75% of the states have at least 1 casino. People can gamble much closer to home and not spend as much time on vacation doing it.

 

All that said, the casinos DO still make money or cruise ships wouldnt keep devouting such large chunks of deck space to them. Casinos on cruises also have the additional advantage of not being regulated, so they can add stupid rules like 6:5 Blackjack, only offer 1X odds on craps, and pay as little out as they want on slots and video poker. Cruises also have a captive audience when the ship is at sea, so there will always be casinos on board (except Disney of course.)

 

It would be VERY interesting to see what the comparison is between cruise lines on board spend. My guess is Disney continues to charge higher fares becuase their onboard spend is lower than other lines. While they have an advantage related to merchandise spend, they get zero casino, and much lower alcohol than other lines as well Im sure. They do have some added money makers like a nursery, the most expensive upcharge restraunt at sea, BBB on Fantasy, Royal Tea, etc. I would still be willing to bet other lines have much higher onboard spend overall than Disney does.

Wait for sales LOL

GOOD LUCK! Sales are few and far between on Disney Cruise Line. They don't seem to have much troubling selling there small inventory without offering deep discounts.

The biggest difference to me between Disney and say Carnival is that Carnival always sails "full", so they continue to cut the price until they sell out the ship, but Disney appears perfectly content not selling every cabin on every cruise.

Barbados had the clearest water I have ever seen! We were out on a glass bottom boat in 20 feet of water and you could still see the bottom.

St. Kitts had very blue water, and very pretty hills and the combination of the two just made the island stunning.

So I chose those two ports for the sheer sights alone.

Activity wise, I think bar crawling through Key West is a blast, and the Dunn's River Falls climb in Ocho Rios is also a major highlight as well.

Barbados & St. Kitts are my two favorites.

If you go here: http://disneycruiselineblog.com/ Scott has posted what the announcements were this morning.

Great info right here! Has all of the sailings broken down already!

I can't wait to hear what's next for the Wonder after Alaska! The long awaited re-imagination!!

Don't skip the Main Dining Rooms, especially on the short cruises on the Dream where you only get to experience each one once! Having a different setting, but the same servers every night really was awesome. Your servers will go out of their way to get you the meal you desire each night. On our last cruise one of our tablemates had a food allergy, so each night they would show him the next night's menu to ensure there was something that he could eat, and if not offer to get him what he wanted.

GO THEM!!!

 

Hubby and I were wondering if you were retired and healthy if you could just live on a cruise ship basically? If you booked a basic cabin which includes your meals and entertainment versus the cost of let's say an apartment, utilities, meals, etc......would you come out ahead?

 

The drawbacks we came up with was lack of personal items, where would you store the stuff you accumulated over a lifetime and doctor visits, etc.

 

Fun to think about!

There was a story recently about a retired woman that lives on a Princess ship. Been on there for several years, and lived on an HAL ship for a year or 2 before that! (She changed ships when HAL got rid of their dance hosts, becuase she loves to dance after dinner each evening.)

It really was an interesting read. I have to say though I would never do it. I LOVE to travel, and I LOVE to cruise, but I cruise for the destinations more than the ships themselves, so staying on one ship going to the same places week after week after week just isnt that appealing to me.

We booked our upcoming Disney cruise for this October last May when the dates were released. I booked on the first date available (to the general public, as I am not Gold or Platnium.) and we got a very reasonable rate. The price is now 2.5 times higher than when we booked!! I would never pay the current rate, too rich for my blood, but it also a very limited number of cruise sailing from San Diego, so with the limited supply the price has skyrocketed it seems.

Carnival does have a "booze cruise" reputation sometimes, but in my experience it is not always a fair reputation. While there short cruises certainly have a fair amount of boozing and partying, the longer the cruise the older the crowd will be and the less overt partying you will encounter. I do not think a Carnival cruise in Europe would be a "booze cruise" at all. And Carnival will be doing Europe in Summer of 2016 with its new ship Carnival Vista, though I dont believe any of their European cruises are around Norway.