Going on my first cruise!

[King10Sooted]

Thanks everyone for the information! Definitely looking forward to planning out a cruise and hopefully going on more in the future.

[crusinpsychRN]

Go to the ports forum to see what excursions you want to do. Cheaper not to use Carnival.

[IntrepidFromDC]

Grand Turk - get away from the poolside madness and rocky beach - walk about two football fields down the beach to Jack's Shack, enjoy a much better beach, good food, and Topher the nutty dog.

 

On seadays, on the ship - MDR is open for lunch as well as dinner if you get sick of the slop on Lido.

Edited May 21, 2017 by IntrepidFromDC

[Kamloops50]

Grand Turk - get away from the poolside madness and rocky beach - walk about two football fields down the beach to Jack's Shack, enjoy a much better beach, good food, and Topher the nutty dog.

 

On the ship - MDR is open for lunch as well as dinner if you get sick of the slop on Lido.

 

 

Many ships don't open the MDR for lunch on port days. This gives a chance for the crew members to go ashore or have rest on board.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Remus2010]

First a couple warnings.

 

1. If you get a balcony, you will always need a balcony. I love mine, and use it everyday. Started a a splurge for our 10th anniversary, now we Cannot cruise without it.

 

2. Always remember to stay on SHIP [emoji568] time. Phones and some watches will change to current time zones you go through. The ship doesn't not. Or you may be one of the notorious dock runners [emoji125]🏻 at sail away.

 

Now for fun

 

San Juan - great history, easy walkable town with amazing architectural views, OR taking a tour to the rain forest and hike to the waterfall was awesome.

 

St. Thomas - Coki Beach is a short cab ride to awesome. Can snorkel, scuba, stand up paddle board, or sit on a beautiful beach with a fruity drink in your hand. WARNING, go early to get a front chair for the view. Not a big place and can get busy. Worth it IMO.

 

Grand Turk - rent a golf cart and cruise the island. The wild donkeys are so crazy. Didn't know about them until we were driving along and there is a donkey, ??WTH?? There were everywhere.

WARNING if you start feeding them, prepare to run. It becomes like seagulls at the beach. I tried to feed an old frail looking one and ended up running from a pack while the security guard at the lighthouse laughed at me.

 

Never been to Amber Cove. Sounds amazing tho.

 

As others have said, try and relax. Our first cruise we spent the entire time running from place to place to see and do everything. We were exhausted. Have a great time.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[pinklucky61]

Just FYI- watching people running for the boat at sail time in ports is my favorite activity. Lol

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[ilovethesparkles]

You can pre-purchase a bottle of alcohol or beer/wine from the fun shops to be delivered to your room. This could help with hitting the 15 drink limit also. I do believe there is a limit of 2 alcohol pre-purchases that you can make through the fun shops, so keep that in mind too.

[Neotericisis]

Cruising can definitely be an addiction, welcome.

Grand Turk - a great beach day, walk off the ship and sit on the beach. OK, snorkeling right off the beach. Walk to the left and you will run into Jacks Shack.

San Juan - one of my favorite ports. The forts are wonderful. $10 gets you in to both and they are very different. Old San Juan is walkable, it is only seven square blocks, but it all seems uphill. Find the San Juan Gate, and also tour the Cathedral, it is breathtaking even if you are not religious. Casa Cortes is a restaurant where everything has chocolate in it. I had a chocolate grilled cheese that was amazing.

St. Thomas - a lot to do. If you like marine life try Coral World, and Coki Beach is right next to it.

 

You are very smart to fly in the day before, definitely cuts down on stress. Some hotels have a shuttle to the port.

Cheers is worth it to me, since it includes almost everything. (oh those adult milkshakes...yum.) Tips are included in the price.

 

What ships are you looking into?

 

This is exactly what I was going to say!

 

I've never been to Amber Cove, so I can't comment too much on it, but I have been to Puerto Plata in DR and its my understanding that the beaches are on the same side of DR. Given this, I would skip the beach and do something else like zip lining or parasailing, or even that 27 waterfalls excursion. For San Juan definitely do your own thing and tour the forts, get some yummy pina coladas, and hit a bar up with nice salsa music. In St. Thomas, Coral World has some nice excursions (Helmet Diving was so professional) and Coki beach is wonderful (I've been there a few times, I always get some locally caught fish steamed for me, my husband likes it fire roasted- so good and FRESH!). Jack's Shack is great at Grand Turk, but if you want to do some touring, you can rent golf carts for cheap. I like Coki beach better than the sand at the Grand Turk port as it is more powdery and has great snorkeling.

[Mysticks1]

Before booking learn as much as you can about the cabins that are on each ship and check pricing to determine which type you will want to book. You can find lots of information on these boards and there is a cabin review section. Search on youtube for videos, there are a lot of video cabin tours and that may help you decide which type you want to book.

I would recommend making sure that the deck you are on has cabins above and below your cabin. Take a look at the deck plans (on the Carnival site or cruisedeckplans.com) and make sure you aren't near any things that may bother you. Low decks toward the front of the ship may have noise from things like thrusters or noises when docking and possible noise and vibrations from the engines/props/thrusters when in the back.

If there is a gray area on the deck plan that is probably a crew area and I personally stay away from those because they could be noisy areas. If you are concerned about seasickness it is better to be on a lower floor and towards the center of the ship.

[King10Sooted]

Thanks for all the input everyone!

 

We are most likely just going to book an ocean view room. A balcony would be nice, and in the future we will probably get one at some point. But I don't see us spending a ton of time in our room with so much to do. Will probably go with a run under the restaurant on the 2nd level, it seems that would be better than under the galley.

 

 

 

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Anthomaniac]

Haven't been to Amber cove, but we absolutely loved St Thomas and Grand Turk and San Juan.

 

St Thomas we rented a car at the port, and picked up snacks and drinks at the Kmart in town (Charlotte amalie). We drove to Lindqvist Beach and there were less than fifty people there all day. It was perfect! (It's the beach from the direct TV commercial with the girl on the horse) great snorkeling, amazing view of some of the smaller islands across the bay, quiet, shade available....man, I can't wait to go back!

 

Grand Turk is a tiny desert island. 7 miles long about a mile wide. If you dive, this is the spot for you. Third largest coral reef in the world, iirc. A lot of it is vertical, it's called The Wall. Google images of it, it's unbelievable. We go to a local beach spot called The Sandbar. We get a snack and some adult beverages. Good beach glass hunting right next door, too! Also, every beach on the island is public, so you can literally go in the water anywhere you want.

 

San Juan, we did a sef-guided walking tour, walking uphill at the beginning and downhill all the way back to the ship (it's a very hilly town). El Morro is the large fort and it was really cool. http://www.puertoricodaytrips.com/old-san-juan-walking-tour-1/

 

We are doing this itinerary again in November, except with HMC instead of Amber cove.

 

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[Anthomaniac]

Thanks for all the input everyone!

 

We are most likely just going to book an ocean view room. A balcony would be nice, and in the future we will probably get one at some point. But I don't see us spending a ton of time in our room with so much to do. Will probably go with a run under the restaurant on the 2nd level, it seems that would be better than under the galley.

 

 

 

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

We always do ocean view, we are never in our rooms for very long anyway. However, if we go to Alaska, we will definitely be getting a balcony! :)

 

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk