• The TUGBBS forums are completely free and open to the public and exist as the absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 30 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 30 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 30th anniversary: Happy 30th Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    Free memberships for every 50 subscribers!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $21,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $21 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    60,000+ subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

Shore Excursions During 4-Night Carnival Cruise ?

AwayWeGo

TUG Review Crew: Expert
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
15,686
Reaction score
1,630
Points
699
Location
McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.
Resorts Owned
Grandview At Las Vegas

[triennial - points]
After having a luxury ocean cruise on our someday list for many years, The Chief Of Staff & I will finally be taking the cruise plunge in January 2018.

As part of our January 2018 after-holiday vacation, we decided to take a 4-night cruise on the Carnival Liberty, departing Port Canaveral FL Jan. 7th, the week before we check in for the 1st of 2 timeshare weeks in Kissimmee FL.

The cruise is just to the Bahamas & back, with opportunities for shore excursions at Nassau and at Princess Cays, the cruise line company's private island destination.

We don't want to skip anything we'll later kick ourselves for missing, but we're not sure we want to sign up for any high-excitement or high-cost shore excursions at those 2 places. After all, there's lots to do aboard the ocean liner (according to the company web site) & the whole cruise is only 4 nights. Plus, we took a nice Bahamas vacation in Nassau several years ago (traveling by air), so we have a certain been-there-done-that feeling about touring Nassau.

Any insights & advice & suggestions, etc., from TUG folks who are not cruise newbies like us ?

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​
 

moonstone

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
2,761
Reaction score
2,766
Points
599
Location
Moonstone, ON
Resorts Owned
The Beach Club at St. Augustine Beach, FL (1 floating week, purchased in 1982)

77,000 RCI points (Sunrise Ridge Resort, TN)
Alan you should check out the Cruise Critic forums ( https://boards.cruisecritic.com/ ), especially the Bahamas sub-section in the Ports of Call section. It will have things to see & do there as well as possible links to other companies to book shore tours with (cheaper than the cruise line). We found the site a wealth of information for all of our past cruises.

Sounds like a great way to start your January vacation! Enjoy!


~Diane
 

VacationForever

TUG Review Crew
TUG Member
Joined
Dec 5, 2010
Messages
16,196
Reaction score
10,607
Points
1,048
Location
Somewhere Out There
My issue is that you have expectation of being on a luxury ocean cruise when you are taking a Carnival cruise. Carnival line is known for relatively low cost party ship, geared towards college booze kids. While many adults do enjoy Carnival cruises, just be warned that you may leave the cruise with bad taste and swear off taking another cruise again. The advice on checking out cruise critic is a good one. That is one place we do our research on as to which cruise lines are to our liking.

I have taken several cruises years ago. But with my husband, we took 2 Celebrity cruises in the last 18 months, another 2 Celebrity cruises signed on for 2018, one Oceania cruise in 2019 and another one on Cunard in 2019.
 
Last edited:

PigsDad

TUG Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2006
Messages
10,072
Reaction score
7,076
Points
898
Location
Colorado and SW Florida
Resorts Owned
HGVC Elite: SeaWorld, Surf Club, Charter Club, Valdoro
I second the recommendation to look in the Ports of Call section of cruise critic. If you are comfortable doing so, look into arranging your shore excursions yourself, independent of the cruise company. You can usually save around 50% doing so. For example, on our last cruise we stopped in Belize City. I booked a "cave tubing" excursion that was just a little over 1/2 the price the cruise ship wanted. We went to the exact same place, we had people that schlepped our tubes for us (the cruise ship customers had to carry their own), and to top it off we got about an hour more time (did more caves) than the people who booked with the cruise company. It was great.

We did a similar deal on an Alaskan cruise. We didn't even pre-book; we just got off the ship and found one of the vendors who ran whale watching tours. We had a small boat with maybe a dozen passengers, saw lots of humpbacks and orcas, and paid about 2/3 of the cruise ship price.

Kurt
 
Last edited:

Passepartout

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2007
Messages
28,462
Reaction score
17,213
Points
1,299
Location
Twin Falls, Eye-Duh-Hoe
Alan, having just been in Nassau by cruise ship in the last week, I would recommend keeping your expectations fairly low (Carnival is a lowish end line and their short junkets such as this attract a young, 'party-animal' crowd). The cruise port in Nassau is HUGE! when we were there, it hosted 5 large cruise ships. I'd estimate 12,000ish passengers disgorged there, all wanting some sort of 'authentic' Bahamian experience. There is a cluster of overpriced jewelry, t-shirt and tchotchke vendors at the entrance to the old town. If you have booked some experience, simply walk through the gauntlet both ways. If I ever do it again, I'll stay onboard the ship and enjoy the relative lack of fellow passengers and enjoy the ship's offerings (maybe a spa treatment, or yet another overly rich meal).

As always, we recommend joining www.cruisecritic.com then go to to the 'roll call' and look up your individual cruise ship and sailing date. You can 'meet' other passengers, there may well be activities- like a sail-away party, or meet & greet that the cruise line sponsors for cruise critic members. You may also find others who have set up shore excursions at lower cost than the line that you may be able to join, though the time is getting short- many of these roll calls on longer cruises will be set up over a year ahead of the sailing. Our recent 16 night Celebrity transatlantic cruise had over 250 cruise critic members had it's own website!

Most of all, have fun!

Jim
 

Passepartout

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2007
Messages
28,462
Reaction score
17,213
Points
1,299
Location
Twin Falls, Eye-Duh-Hoe
Did you do the west bound transatlantic? We did the 16-night east bound one on Reflection in April of this year.
Yeah. Southampton to Boston, NYC, Bermuda, Bahamas, and Miami. on Eclipse. After our first eastbound t/a with 6-in-a-row 23 hour days, I only do westbound ones with 6 25 hour days! You have to fly one way anyway.
 
Last edited:

Passepartout

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2007
Messages
28,462
Reaction score
17,213
Points
1,299
Location
Twin Falls, Eye-Duh-Hoe
Alan, we did the semi-submarine in Nassau called Seaworld Explorer. The ride took 2-3 hours and included narrated minibus ride around the high points in Nassau. We bought the tour aboard the cruise, but it's probably available for booking ahead of time at lower cost, and since you've been there may be of limited interest.

Jim
 

klpca

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2006
Messages
8,273
Reaction score
7,280
Points
749
Location
CA
Resorts Owned
SDO, Quarter House, Seapointe, Coronado Beach, Carlsbad Inn, Worldmark
Fwiw, my mom has cruised on Princess, Holland America, Royal Caribbean and Carnival. She has no issues with Carnival (and she is tough to please!), so maybe it will be fine for you. You'll never know unless you try. And it's just 4 days. It will be over before you know it.

I can't comment on the shore excursions. We've done both ship sponsored ones and those we arranged on our own. Both have their plusses and minuses. Nothing wrong just hanging around on the ship, especially in Nassau where you have already visited.
 
Last edited:

pedro47

TUG Review Crew: Expert
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
22,072
Reaction score
8,533
Points
948
Location
East Coast
Please check out Cruise Critics website. It is like the TUG website;but will only be about cruising information. It will share with you everything from A to Z about cruising and it will also share with you actual cruise reviews on every cruise lines.

Second Carnival is not a luxury cruise line in my humble opinion . Do not take my word read the cruise reviews from Cruise Critics.

The Cruise Critics website, will share with you; all the various Cruise Lines Information, Excursions Information and all the Information On every cruise lines and every cruise ships;
The Cruise Ship Review Section are all“Free”.

There is no Fee to join Cruise Critics.

Finally, cruising is fun ., just pick the right cruise line and the right cruise iternary and you will be one happy cruiser.

We have 16 + cruises under our belt with one cruise next year on the new cruise ship cause The Celebrity Edge.
 
Last edited:

r1lee

TUG Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2015
Messages
343
Reaction score
97
Points
139
Location
Toronto
Resorts Owned
WKV, SVV
We’ve been on 14+ cruises over the years (started 9yrs ago) and we love it. We have found that shore excursions can be found much cheaper then what the cruise line offers. The only time I concern myself with cruise excursions if the excursions are long and can last the entire day. If they do, then we use the cruise ships. The reason is, if you are late, then the cruise ship will wait for you. If you do your own excursions and you don’t make it back, your pretty much going to have to get yourself to the next stop. But if it’s stuff like parasailing, sea doing etc, I just go and try to get the best pricing direct. Remember that the day you are on carnivals own island, you’re not going to be able to look for your own excursion. But those are great days to sit and relax on the beach.

4 night cruises are going to be on a small boat, so your experience might not be as luxurious as you think, especially on a carnival. But it’s still lots of fun. Go check online and see all the excursions that are offere by carnival, then do a search on the ones you like. We’ve been on 2 short 4 night cruises. Royal Caribbean in June and a Disney one a few years back. It’s really a good starter, to see if you enjoy it or not.

We have an upcoming cruise on the allure in March, this will be our 4th or 5th on the oasis classes of ships. We love to cruise and we recommended it to everyone. But it sure gets expensive with 2 kids and we try to limit ourselves now to at least once a year.
 
Last edited:

Glynda

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2005
Messages
3,781
Reaction score
2,552
Points
599
Location
Charleston, SC
Resorts Owned
Bluegreen Points Lodge Alley Inn.
Brewster Green (two weeks).
... I have taken several cruises years ago. But with my husband, we took 2 Celebrity cruises in the last 18 months, another 2 Celebrity cruises signed on for 2018, one Oceania cruise in 2019 and another one on Cunard in 2019.

We did a 14 day Scandinavian and Russian cruise on Celebrity Eclipse in July. We're doing The Moody Blues cruise out of Miami in January on Celebrity's Eclipse again. In March I'm taking our daughter and 16 year old granddaughter on a Carnival Eastern Caribbean week for Spring Break. Granddaughter thought Celebrity too old for her this summer so I'll do Carnival for her though I'm not crazy about it. Then in August we are doing a two week Ireland and Iceland on Silhouette for our 50th anniversary. Celebrity is our favorite!
 

VacationForever

TUG Review Crew
TUG Member
Joined
Dec 5, 2010
Messages
16,196
Reaction score
10,607
Points
1,048
Location
Somewhere Out There
We did a 14 day Scandinavian and Russian cruise on Celebrity Eclipse in July. We're doing The Moody Blues cruise out of Miami in January on Celebrity's Eclipse again. In March I'm taking our daughter and 16 year old granddaughter on a Carnival Eastern Caribbean week for Spring Break. Granddaughter thought Celebrity too old for her this summer so I'll do Carnival for her though I'm not crazy about it. Then in August we are doing a two week Ireland and Iceland on Silhouette for our 50th anniversary. Celebrity is our favorite!
Wow! We only learned about the Moddy Blues cruise recently and everything was sold out. We are not going near a Carnival cruise, period. For family oriented cruises, Princess would likely be a better choice than Carnival. I cannot start to fathom spring break on a Carnival Caribbean cruise. Good luck! ;)

Flying to other continents is always hard, even though we only book business class seats. Hence, Transatlantic cruises are so desirable. If we are free from obligations, it would not be an issue spending months on a cruise. We hate being gone for long and our older cat is a little bit of a touch and go at the moment. I have to give him medications every few days to make him eat.
 
Last edited:

Glynda

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2005
Messages
3,781
Reaction score
2,552
Points
599
Location
Charleston, SC
Resorts Owned
Bluegreen Points Lodge Alley Inn.
Brewster Green (two weeks).
Wow! We only learned about the Moddy Blues cruise recently and everything was sold out. We are not going near a Carnival cruise, period. For family oriented cruises, Princess would likely be a better choice than Carnival. I cannot start to fathom spring break on a Carnival Caribbean cruise. Good luck! ;)

Flying to other continents is always hard, even though we only book business class seats. Hence, Transatlantic cruises are so desirable. If we are free from obligatioons, it is not an issue spending months on a cruise. We hate being gone for long and our older cat is a little bit of a touch and go at the moment. I have to give him medications every few days to make him eat.

We booked Moody Blues a year ago. It sells out fast and doesn't even appear on Celebrity's website. I am just glad that my daughter will be doing the chaperone duties on Carnival Spring Break! I was so relieved when we got our granddaughter home safe after a week in England followed by two on Celebrity this summer. We haven't done a TA. I think I would like it but hubby might go crazy with so many days at sea. My 95 year old mother lives with us so we have to find a place for her to go when we travel overseas as well as someone to care for our two dogs. We're giving our 14 year old meds every other day to increase appetite too!
 

SmithOp

TUG Review Crew
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2010
Messages
7,609
Reaction score
3,403
Points
499
Location
Huntington Beach, CA
Resorts Owned
HGVC King's Land 2BR Premier 23.040K Points.
Don’t pass on the company island, it should be a no cost excursion. We went on NCL in May and it was a nice day on a tropical beach with all the amenities (three bars and a catered bbq picnic).


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
 

Passepartout

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2007
Messages
28,462
Reaction score
17,213
Points
1,299
Location
Twin Falls, Eye-Duh-Hoe
Don’t pass on the company island, it should be a no cost excursion. We went on NCL in May and it was a nice day on a tropical beach with all the amenities (three bars and a catered bbq picnic).
Agreed. I looked at Alan's cruise itinerary, departure day- 1 day Nassau- 1 day Princess Cay- 1 sea day- disembark day. Personally, I'd call the Nassau day a 'ship day' and avoid the crowds of 12,000ish people descending on the hapless town, then enjoy the no-cost private island catered relaxation day on day 2, maybe book a specialty restaurant onboard for that evening then enjoy the ship's offerings on the sea day before packing for the disembarkation.
 

moonstone

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
2,761
Reaction score
2,766
Points
599
Location
Moonstone, ON
Resorts Owned
The Beach Club at St. Augustine Beach, FL (1 floating week, purchased in 1982)

77,000 RCI points (Sunrise Ridge Resort, TN)
There is a cruise ship port schedule online for every port. Looking up your ship & port days can give you an idea of how many tourists will be arriving. Here is one for Nassau ( http://www.cruisemapper.com/ports/nassau-port-27?month=2018-01#schedule ). It appears that there will only be 3 ships in port when Alan is there but 1 is the Allure of the Seas (+5000 passengers) which departs at 1pm. The Carnival Liberty is the last to dock (10am) so it shouldn't be too crowded at the dock.

There are also webcams for nearly every port. ( http://www.cruisin.me/cruise-port-webcams/caribbean/nassau-bahamas.php ) I was able to see DS & DiL's ship leave the port of Rome on their honeymoon a few years ago, and watched them arrive back a week later. Amazing!


~Diane
 

Talent312

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Jul 4, 2007
Messages
17,461
Reaction score
7,277
Points
948
Resorts Owned
HGVC & GTS
At Cruise Critic, there's a roll-call feature - you search by cruiseship and departure date.
You can chat with folks who will be the same cruise, and maybe even set-up a meet+greet.

At the risk of raining on your parade, a 4-day cruise is not enuff time to get the hang of it.
When I did my 1st 7-day cruise, I thought I'd be bored silly. 7 days now seems too short.
It was for the Baltics (2016) & Alaska (2017). So next year, 12 days in the Mediterranean.

Carnival is not a 24/7 party boat. There's plenty of adults, but it caters to cost-cutters.
IMO, Royal Caribbean & Norwegian are a cut above. Princess & Holland America are next.
Celebrity may be near luxury, and Seabourn and Regent are "in my dreams."

.
 
Last edited:

Karen G

Moderator
Joined
Aug 17, 2004
Messages
9,470
Reaction score
1,983
Points
749
Location
Henderson, NV
Resorts Owned
Once owned these: FirstFairway@Walden X 2; Lawai Beach; ManhattanClub; PuebloBonitoRose; 4 South Africa--now timeshare-free
Agreed. I looked at Alan's cruise itinerary, departure day- 1 day Nassau- 1 day Princess Cay- 1 sea day- disembark day. Personally, I'd call the Nassau day a 'ship day' and avoid the crowds of 12,000ish people descending on the hapless town, then enjoy the no-cost private island catered relaxation day on day 2, maybe book a specialty restaurant onboard for that evening then enjoy the ship's offerings on the sea day before packing for the disembarkation.
I agree with these recommendations. Also, don't be worried about Carnival, Alan. We've done a couple of Carnival cruises as well as cruised on Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, and Viking Ocean. All of them were fun and we enjoyed ourselves on each ship.

We've been on the Carnival Liberty right after a week-long cruise on Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas. We sailed with our daughter, son-in-law, and grandson for a week on Royal Caribbean and went by ourselves on the Carnival cruise immediately upon disembarking the Royal Caribbean. The two ships were at the same port and we just walked off one and walked on the other. It was lots of fun and we met some wonderful folks on the Carnival ship whom we've stayed in contact with through Facebook.

I hope you have a relaxing, fun, wonderful experience, and hope it whets your appetite for more cruises in the future. It's my favorite way to travel!
 

Glynda

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2005
Messages
3,781
Reaction score
2,552
Points
599
Location
Charleston, SC
Resorts Owned
Bluegreen Points Lodge Alley Inn.
Brewster Green (two weeks).
...Flying to other continents is always hard, even though we only book business class seats.

We too have begun flying overseas business class. Makes a huge difference. It's time to book our flights for next summer to England and I'm wondering if you, or anyone reading, book your flights through the cruise line. If not, when do you start looking and where?
 

WinniWoman

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2010
Messages
10,762
Reaction score
7,057
Points
749
Location
The Weirs, New Hampshire
Resorts Owned
Innseason Pollard Brook
We took a Carnival Cruise a long time ago when we were in our twenties and it was really nice. (*Cozumel, Jamaica and Grand Cayman). We had a lot of fun.

But we decided after that that we really enjoyed being off the boat rather than on it- because we like sightseeing- and we haven't cruised again since. I also do not like crowds and I also felt "confined" on a ship- though I am sure that might not make sense to most people.
 
Top