luv2cruiseeverywhere

My husband and I flew down 2 days prior to the cruise and enjoyed our time around Port Canaveral. I have reviews on TA of the hotel and activities. On Sat. morning we checked out at 11 and headed to the port. We dropped the car off at Alamo about 1130 and we were on our way to the port within 10 minutes. Once over at the port, we were in the traffic line for several minutes. When he pulled in to drop us, the luggage porter was right there and we gave him all our luggage.

Embarkation-This was probably the fastest and easiest we have every had. (this was number 7 cruise) After dropping our bags, we walked up the stairs, left was fast to fun, right was regular boarding. We went right. Got in line, stood maybe 1 min., went to the desk and had our sign and sail and was off for our picture in less than 5 minutes. Then we was on the boat and on lido at Guys by 1215. Enjoyed the afternoon walking around, got our room organized, attended the safety drill and then went up on deck for send off. We were suppose to leave at 4 but didn't get out till almost 530. Two others left before us. We chose YTD and ate in the dining room every night. After dinner, we watched Daddy's Home on deck.

I would go with the Valor. Just did an 8 night on her and it was great. We carried off our own luggage and was off the boat and at Budget car rental around 9 am. I think you would enjoy her upgrades also.

Have you looked at allegiant air out of toledo/detroit? The fly into sanford/orlalndo. Might be worth checking into. They are like Southwest and others, you have to wait to see when they open up those dates. Good luck.

I want to book another cruise for next Summer- out of Galveston. And, I've narrowed it down to wanting to try the Breeze. But I can't decide which itinerary or room. We want a balcony, had one on our only previous cruise and are addicted.

 

But so many experienced cruisers seem to know which rooms are best, which side of the ship, which deck, etc. How do you find that out?

 

We will be cruise with myself, DH, and two kids- they will be 10 and 5.

When we decide to go on a cruise, I always look at the itinerary. I want to go to places we have not traveled to before. As for rooms, we have always gotten interior rooms, but we do usually book higher up, try for midship. Good luck deciding.

Thanks for the nice review. We were on the Valor a couple cruises ago and am excited for the up coming cruise. We plan on going to the steakhouse possible the first night and we also have the Chef's table booked. I am really looking forward to the Chef's table. I have read a lot of reviews about it, and all of them have been positive. This is the first cruise for my husband and I by ourselves and I am excited, so I want to do a couple things we have never done. Thanks again for the review. I will do a review once we get back in June.

I haven't been able to get a reply from Royston, or Bernard for that matter. I did hear back about the jeep tour but you have to book through Carnival which is quite a bit higher than website price.

I would just keep trying. A little secret, we are going to Aruba in june thru carnival. I booked an excursion thru them because the one I wanted to go with said I had to book thru the ship. I just looked the other day and the price of the excursion was cheaper by the the company than Carnival. Carnival has the deal if you find an excursion that is almost the same, they give you the money back. Long story short, it was originally $213 for 2, now $188. That is about 25 OBC. So I would book thru Carnival, then send them the form and hope to get OBC.

Last year we had stops in both St. Maarten and St. Kitts. We used Benards also, but did not go to Orient Beach. (remember, Orient is clothing optional). We did have a stop at Maho Beach and we wish we would of just went there. The airplanes coming in so low was awesome. We were only there about an hour but it was fun. We will go back there if we ever cruise to St Maarten again. In St Kitts, we booked with Royston. Awesome tour. We had him personally in his open air van. We went all over the island. We left about 0830 and was back about 4pm. It was only 45 a piece. We would book him again also. This cruise we are going on in June also goes to GT, and like you we have been there 2 other times. So, this time we have a golf cart rented for the day and are going to explore the island. Hope this helps.

We sailed on the Liberty out of San Juan last June and the ports are great. You can not go wrong with these ports. I look at the ports we will be visiting, don't really at the ship. As other posters have mentioned, go in early in the day or the day before. PR is so pretty. All of the islands are great.

I booked my cruise thru another company because I had lots of points to use. Do you ever get up grade calls from Carnival if you didn't book thru them?

We are excited for the Chef's table on the June 4th sailing on the Valor. I have not found one negative comment about this experience. Can't wait!!

They sound great! If we go to Maho to watch the planes, would we have time to go over to Orient to enjoy the beach and let the kids play? If not, I was looking at Mullet Bay. It looks close to Maho.

I am not sure about the time frame. We were on an island tour of both the French and Dutch sides and Maho was a stop. You mentioned kids and Orient beach, just remember, Orient is a clothing optional beach.

You will love all these ports. In St. Maarten, we really enjoyed going to Maho Beach and watching the planes come in. Husband was even the first on the fence when a plane was ready to take off. St. Kitts we did an island tour with Royston. Look him up on here and trip advisor. Can not go wrong with him for a nice island tour. Puerto Rico is very pretty. We just walked around Old San Juan, went to the forts, and shopped a little. Grand Turk is very nice and the port is nice. Our first 2 times there we just stayed in port. We leave on June 4th, and this time to GT we are renting a golf cart to explore the island. Good luck, and I really don't think you can go wrong with these ports.

Maho Beach is great. We were there for about an hour and several planes came in, including one of the big ones. Our boat was the only one in port and it still took several minutes once we got close to get to where our driver could let us out. We have already said next trip to St. Maarten we will be heading to Maho Beach for the day. Enjoy your day!

You know, I've been ruminating on all this the last two days, and I have some thoughts. I may be talking to myself, but maybe I'll feel better if I say it on here. ;)

It sounds like Cliff does this the right way. He gets his passengers out there early so they can experience it without hundreds of others. But I'm sort of perplexed. He didn't specifically call out any one other company, but he did say "the other" companies would all go at the same time, and there would be a ton of people in the water kicking around and the turtles are scared, and you won't see many turtles because of that. Well, if it's such chaos, and there's hardly any turtles with these other outfits, how can there be such high ratings (on TripAdvisor) for "the other" companies -- ratings that are just as high as his? I'm just trying to be the devil's advocate here, because I may have to "settle" for another company. There are outfits that I've contacted that only take 8 people out at a time -- so very small groups like his. (But he DID tell me that if he did go out on the day we're there, he would only do the $35 tour and he would be taking 16 passengers out.) There are two other companies that have five out of five stars on TripAdvisor AND have more reviews than his... So I may bite the bullet and just get my confirmed booking with one of them. If I see ONE turtle I'd be excited. I've been on six Caribbean cruises and NEVER seen a turtle while snorkeling...

There were other tours that came while we were there and they left before we did. Charles feeds the turtles to keep them near his people, and we had 5 swimming near us the whole time. It is very awesome to see these turtles. Whoever you book with, make sure to take an underwater camera. We bought one on the boat for 10 bucks and it has a water proof case to reuse. The pictures were pretty good. Good luck.

There's only two of us otherwise I would have posed that question to him. I posted on my Roll Call yesterday and no one has responded. I'll have to make a decision soon because I'll be really upset if the good ones get booked because I waited on booking Cliff. [emoji17]

it may take a few days for your roll call people to answer. not sure of the website, but you can check how many cruise ships will be in each port. we were the only ones in port at every port on our cruise in early june. and it was very nice. good luck, hope you get to book him. and by the way, we booked the 70.00 one and was about 4.5 hrs.

I just got off the phone with Cliff. Unfortunately he said that he can't confirm anything this far out as he doesn't know which cruise ships will be in port that day (besides ours) among other factors. He said to call him around September. He gave me the low down on the turtles and the crowds. (Which I sort of knew from reading about him on this site...) He sort of implied that we should get a group together from our ship. I'll see what I can do on my roll call, but since I don't personally know the people on the roll call, I hesitate to "organize" something in case they are flake-y and don't show up or don't get off the boat first as he suggested. His philosophy about getting there before anyone else is spot on. So now I'm afraid to book through another company that may show up when hundreds of other people are also there! Sigh....

When we first started looking at this cruise, there was just the 5 off us. What he did say was we could book and pay the deposit for 6 people and it made it private. Then my cousin and her husband decided to join us which still made it private. Depending on how many you have in your party, this is an option. Hope it works out for you, it is a great tour.

Charles was great. It was amazing swimming with the turtles. Well worth the money for the experience. He is also very kind, and personable. My daughter got a little motion sick and he worked with her to keep it under control. We had about 5 turtles and was there about an hour. He worked with my cousin also to get her in the water and she was able to snorkel also. Awesome guy, Awesome tour. We were with him from 830 to 1300. Very nice, memorable day.

We were on the 14th, so he hasn't posted the pictures yet. I'm stalking him like a crazy person on facebook I'm so excited. HAHA We had no issues getting a taxi. Charles will tell you to go outside the main gate to an area where there is a tree in the middle of the road and catch a taxi there. He says that because sometimes, with lots of people leaving at the same time, you can get tied up at the main gate coming out in a taxi and that will delay you. We were so early getting off though that there was no one else around and it took seconds to get outside the main gate in the taxi. We were off the ship at 7:00 on the dot. We were at the boardwalk where he meets you at 7:20. It was very easy.

I will keep an eye for your pictures. The ones i have seen are so good. We are there June 10th. Very excited. We plan on being down to get off the boat early and hopefully have no problems. Thanks again for all this info! What other islands did you visit?

We were easily the first people off the ship at 7am. No one else was even trying to get off that early. We caught a cab and were at the boardwalk where he will pick you up by 7:20. He said that was highly unusual to get off and through that early but it was a piece of cake for us. If your in port time is 8am there may be a longer line to get off.

Thanks you so much for all this info! I am really excited about this excursion, all the pictures I have seen are just amazing. what day was you on his excursion? he has posted some on his facebook page, i might of looked at your pictures lol.

do all the ships dock at the same place, and did you have any problem getting a taxi to take you where you needed to be?

Oh awesome that you have a private tour. When we went we had a group of 12. 4 were in my group. We dropped everyone off and then Charles offered to drop us off at a beach near the place he anchors his boat. He took us for a boat ride like none other. Our stomachs hurt from laughing. We had for a 1.5 hour tour and we spent 5 hours with him. He's so island cool. Get in line at 7 to get off. I think he tells you where to catch the taxi. We had about an hour with the turtles. Once the other tour boats started to show up then we left. He took us to see the race horses training in the ocean, on a little harbor tour and then we stopped to snorkel over some ship wrecks. He'll have rum punch, some amazing sweet bread and chips for you to snack on. He seems insane while hea trying to get you to the turtles but once your done with the turtles he goes on island time and is super chill

thank you for all this great info. we will plan to be down there by 7 to get off the boat. just need to figure out which side of the boat the will dock to

if you can offer any other advice i would appreciate it very much.

We got in line to get off the ship about 45 minutes before they started letting people off. Charles will give you email addresses of others on the ship doing your tour. Then you will arrange to meet those people onboard before the tour day so you know who you are looking for. You will all get inline together to get off the ship and taxi over together. Charles will be in go go go mode but once you are in the water with the turtles he becomes a chill island guy. This will be the highlight of your trip. Have fun!

Thanks for the info. we actually have a private tour, so it will just be the 5 of us. we are suppose to dock at 8, so 715 be in line, is island time ahead or behind ship time? how long did he keep you out with the turtles? all his reviews are awesome.

is there any certain taxi we should take, can you give us any pointers on this part.

thanks for all your help

We went with cliff Sharker. We were the first boat there and had 9 turtles to ourselves for almost an hour. http://www.cliffsharker.com/en/mobile

hi, we are booked with cliffsharker in early june. we will be on liberty. how hard was it to get off the boat first and get a taxi to take you to where he is waiting? we are very excited for this tour.

thanks for your help.

We have always had our dinner in the main dining room. It is just a time to sit, relax, and enjoy your meal. We have our 6th cruise in June, and we will be eating in the MDR again.