What Ports Should be Eliminated??

[Odd Ball]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3]I have favorite ports and not so favorite ports, but any port in Jamaica I wouldn't mind being dropped. [/SIZE][/FONT]

[Cruisinetta]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3][COLOR=red]St Thomas and San Juan!!!! I hate getting up so early to do that passport check. I will never forgive HAL for having me get up on NEW YEARS DAY at 7 am in St Thomas. :mad: That was just plain mean. Many peeps were still drunk from New Years Eve. :eek: :mad: [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[Himself]

I would not disagree with you on that one. Better to anchor at Sea overnight and spend two days on Grand Caymen than five minutes in Jamacia, in my humble opinion

[jimmy2x]

[quote name='gizmo']That was over ten years ago. I also was there around 1996 and took a tour from one of the locals. It was fine. There were plenty of cabs and vans lined up at the dock.

This past trip in 2005, the police gave me and many others, the creeps. I never saw so many police around the ship and dock. There were NO cabs lined up at the dock nor where they available anywhere.
Shopping is very,very exspensive.[/quote]

Am sorry to hear that. It certainly was not inexpensive when we were there but only bought a small bottle of French perfume. Makes me wonder whether there might have been a completely seperate reason for the police presence or if this has somehow become the standard. Really cannot imagine why they would do that as it certainly seemed peaceful enough. As you say, ten years can be a long time.

[gizmo]

[quote name='jimmy2x']Am sorry to hear that. It certainly was not inexpensive when we were there but only bought a small bottle of French perfume. Makes me wonder whether there might have been a completely seperate reason for the police presence or if this has somehow become the standard. Really cannot imagine why they would do that as it certainly seemed peaceful enough. As you say, ten years can be a long time.[/quote]

I have no idea why there were so many police. It was very creepy.

On my first trip I bought some silver jewelry is a small shop. The prices were not bad at all. I still wear it today. There was no problem finding cabs or local tours.

This last trip everything was so high. I was looking at children's clothes and couldn't believe the cost.
We did want to take a short tour around the island but there were no cabs to be found. We ended up going back to the ship after we bought some spices.

[jdrblue]

[quote name='sail7seas'][B]Don't I wish we could. We'd love to go to Havana some day.[/B][/QUOTE]
I spent 3 days in Havana in 2003. I went on a legal "educational" trip. We also spent one day at a resort area, Varadero Beach. Cuba is worth a trip. It is like a time warp in some ways because of the 1950's model cars and it seems that in Havana nothing has been built since the 50's. Our hotel in Havana was the Hotel Nacional built in 1930 but renovated in the 90's. We stayed at a Melia resort in Varadero which is a joint venture between the Cuban government and the Spanish hotel chain. Cuba is a very poor country. The people have no money and no disposable income. It is inexpensive though. The food is generally of very poor quality because they cannot get good quality ingredients. The people are wonderful and the music is great. Cuba is clean and safe. My Havana hotel room had a partial view of the harbor. There was almost zero shipping of any kind. Just the opposite of the crowded harbors described in this thread.

[cp556]

[quote name='jdrblue']I spent 3 days in Havana in 2003. I went on a legal "educational" trip. We also spent one day at a resort area, Varadero Beach. Cuba is worth a trip. It is like a time warp in some ways because of the 1950's model cars and it seems that in Havana nothing has been built since the 50's. Our hotel in Havana was the Hotel Nacional built in 1930 but renovated in the 90's. We stayed at a Melia resort in Varadero which is a joint venture between the Cuban government and the Spanish hotel chain. Cuba is a very poor country. The people have no money and no disposable income. It is inexpensive though. The food is generally of very poor quality because they cannot get good quality ingredients. The people are wonderful and the music is great. Cuba is clean and safe. My Havana hotel room had a partial view of the harbor. There was almost zero shipping of any kind. Just the opposite of the crowded harbors described in this thread.[/quote]

I, too, spent 4 days in Havana in May 2002, on a US-govt-sanctioned "educational" trip. Those loopholes in the law have since been closed. We stayed at Hotel Telegrafo in Habana Vieja (Old Havana) and it was very up-to-date and European.

One tour took us near the cruise terminal, which welcomed ships from non-US ports. Our guide told us that the Cubans were ready to receive American tourists via cruise ship at the earliest time possible.

I believe most major cruise lines have plans at the ready to commence calls in Cuba when the laws allow it. It's a beautiful island, but as jdrblue said, very poor. That will change when thousands of American tourists start arriving weekly....

I feel very fortunate to have been able to visit Cuba.

[cruisecrasy]

[quote name='m steve']Let's have limits on ports so if RC and Carnival are docking their mega ships then HAL, Princess and other lines with nice people will not be overrun with the loud, drunk and obnoxious people and their broods who screw up the vacations of the rest of us. Since we don't need climbing walls, bowling alleys, hairy chest contasts and water slides we can really enjoy the best of the islands. This may make us lose St. Thomas but we could land at St. Croix which has lovely beaches and duty free but no crowds. On the other hand those ships never need to dock anywhere and just have 24 feeding events and bingo.[/QUOTE]

Oh u 'wicked' fella - saying in print what so many think!!! :)

I like St Croix also a bit better than St Thomas, then again as has been so well stated already - anywhere wld be awful with too many ships in port at one time and those mega ships comin' up are 'scary' -:O

Ah well, stay onboard - join the others who make the ship the destination and help fill it with 'nice' people :)