Favorite day before cruise activity?

[havanadaydreaming]

For those that like to get to the port areas the day before a cruise - what's your favorite day before cruise activity?

 

(We usually cruse out of the southeast florida ports and i LOVE to see live jai alai at either Dania or Miami casinos. My wife isn't that big on it but happily feeds the slots for an hour or so.  Sadly, both frontons are dark next month when we are cruising...gonna have to find something new to do!)

 

 

 

 

[VentureMan_2000]

In Long Beach Port, we usually hang out at the Hotel pool as it is very nice.  And we can leave our car at the Hotel for the duation of the cruise.

In Miami, we stayed at the Holiday In Brisbane and enjoyed the Bayside Market Place with many restaurants, bars, and shops on the water.  

Edited August 4, 2019 by VentureMan_2000

[teknoge3k]

We usually spend at least a week in the city we're sailing from pre-cruise, and post-cruise so we like to take in all of the sights and eating and shopping that we can. We're also huge escape room enthusiasts so if there's an escape room, we're doing it! 

[JMAE]

Leave work and then head to the port.

[bakersdozen12]

When we arrive the day before it’s usually in the afternoon, so we go to the hotel and take a nap if we are tired, then we find a nice restaurant to have dinner. Then we generally just relax in our hotel room and I try to sleep that night, though it’s usually hard because I’m so excited! 

[naxer]

I usually cruise with a foodie friend who has a knack for finding dives with very good food--that's the favorite thing.  We stay in hotels in or near a walking district, find our wine to buy, and just take in the vibe.   The morning of the cruise we do a leisurely breakfast at a breakfast joint he's found, and then check out as late as possible.  

[Shaded Lady]

We sail mostly out of Galveston and will head down there early the day before... I like to sightsee, drive the Seawall, last cruise we had our grandson with us so we spent the afternoon by the pool. Then we have a nice dinner, and an early bedtime, so we can start our cruise bright-eyed and bushy-tailed! Our hotel of choice (TownePlace Inns on the Seawall) includes a continental breakfast, and as long as I can get coffee, that's all I really care about!

 

I mentioned a nice dinner- our cruise last month we had our grandson with us, and we ended up having leftover subs from HEB that we ate at lunch! Talk about haute cuisine!

[RWolver672]

We cruise with my brother and sister in law. We always fly in one day ahead of time, sometime two.  We normally get to the hotel before the rooms are ready so we put our luggage in the holding area of the hotel and go out by the pool.  After the rooms are ready, we grab our luggage and check out our room.  Then we head out to find a place to eat.  

 

After that, we usually just go set by the pool and people watch until it's time to turn in.  The next morning we have breakfast, sign up for the shuttle to the port, then wait by the pool until the shuttle starts boarding.

 

After the cruise, we stay another day and basically do the same thing until our ride comes to take us back to the airport.

[CruizinKittie40]

We drove straight to the ship last cruise but next week when we port out of Seattle, we are going the day before and do all the touristy things.  Space Needle, glass gardens, Ferris wheel, Pike's Market, etc. 

[mss22859]

My favorite thing the day before is to get checked in at hotel! That way, I know our cruise is here!!!

[evandbob]

The night before a Caribbean cruise I usually spend an hour or so packing, checking travel docs, and setting my alarm so I can either drive to the cruise port or catch my flight there.

 

For European or Alaskan cruises, I'll be in the port departure city and will enjoy a local meal at a non touristy restaurant.

[CruizinKittie40]

3 minutes ago, evandbob said:

 

 

For  Alaskan cruises, I'll be in the port departure city and will enjoy a local meal at a non touristy restaurant.

Can you recommend a non touristy restaurant close to the airport?

[PhillyFan33579]

My favorite activity is packing, since I know I will be on a ship soon. I always plan to start packing early, but without fail, I always end up packing the day before a cruise. 

[evandbob]

7 minutes ago, CruizinKittie40 said:

Can you recommend a non touristy restaurant close to the airport?

 

 

We landed in Fairbanks for the Princess land tour prior to the cruise and went to a strip mall a few miles from our hotel that had a restaurant/bar serving buffalo and elk dishes several years ago.....don't remember the name, but we were about the only out of town visitors.

 

When we got down to Anchorage 5 days later, we dined at the hotel's restaurant. By that time we were just looking for a quiet rvrning before boarding the ship the next day.

[CruizinKittie40]

Apologies, I just assumed you were porting out of Seattle.  My mistake 😩

[Joebucks]

Get a nice hotel, walk around the city, grab dinner, relax by the pool/beach if possible

[naxer]

23 minutes ago, CruizinKittie40 said:

Apologies, I just assumed you were porting out of Seattle.  My mistake 😩

(If you go the the Port of Calls and North American Homeports and Departures section, you sometimes get people living in the port cities making the recommendations, along with the travelers' finds.)

Edited August 5, 2019 by naxer
addition

[CruizinKittie40]

2 minutes ago, naxer said:

(If you go the the Port of Calls section, you sometimes get people living in the port cities making the recommendations, along with the travelers' finds.)

Thanks 🙂

[naxer]

5 minutes ago, CruizinKittie40 said:

Thanks 🙂

(I edited it--also North American Homeports and the appropriate Departures.) 

[Chervil]

Like Shaded Lady, we live about 4 hours from Galveston so we usually drive down the day before.
Usually get an "early" start, around 6 or 7 in the morning.

We take our time getting there, stopping at Buccee's for some Jerky to take on the cruise.
Then when we get to Galveston, we'll have lunch, do some last minute shopping for snacks or for fun.
Cupcake enjoys browsing stores so we will usually spend some time with her having fun doing that while I amuse myself checking out whether there are any local events or special activities going on.

After checking in at the hotel and refreshing, we will go grab dinner and drive around a bit.
Usually there is a band playing in the hotels and we will sit and listen to music and have an adult beverage or even go walking around downtown.
It's a nice way to unwind, and get into "vacation mode", as we call it. (which technically starts when we pull out of the driveway)

We usually like to eat at Salsa's (they have excellent Ceviche and Shrimp Cocktails) and sometimes splurge on Gaidos (delicious and big enough that we usually share a plate).
Although we also spent one evening sampling most of the food trucks that are scattered around town!
Those were hit or miss, but we did find some excellent tacos at a few of them!

[havanadaydreaming]

I must agree with the "go out by the pool" people and the nice dinner folk, great way to spend the day or night before a cruise. 

 

last time we sailed out of Miami we stayed downtown at the Intercontinental and we ordered from a great Italian place in Little Havana, wish I could remember the name of it, via uber eats.   I hate late night and morning after pizza!

 

 

[patrice1]

When we lived in Key West, we always drove up 2 days before to spend some time in a "big city", lol. Now that we're in Lisbon, our next Med cruise leaves from Venice, so we're spending 3 nights pre-cruise to explore the city.

[Warm Breezes]

I try to book an Embassy Suites at our Departure ports for the night before and enjoy the evening managers reception with free drinks and snacks.  When the DD(22) and DS(25) are with us we usually get a game of Uno going while we enjoy our evening refreshments.  If there is a casino close by we will sometimes visit there for a while too.

[sw33twif3]

My wife and I live in New Orleans and cruise out of this port. So our day before cruise is spent doing last minute packing, taking our dog to her grandmother's, and cleaning house (love coming home to a clean house!).

 

We may go out for dinner so we don't have to cook on the final evening before our trip. 

 

Next morning is a light breakfast and an uber to the port building.

[Darfun]

We normally cruise out of Miami or Ft.Lauderdale.  Depending on the time of year we see a sporting event. In December we watched a Miami Dolphins game and a Miami Heat game. The Florida panthers play out of Ft.Lauderdale so could see a hockey game. Wanting to see the Vancouver Canucks play when they play 2 days before the cruise.