Bruin Steve

Yeah, Hank, Valencia is the home of Paella...and we'll be there this cruise...but leave before dinner...I once had a really good Paella in Madrid. And I once had a good one in St. Raphael, France of all places. There used to be a really good Spanish restaurant in West Hollywood that made killer Paella...but I think it closed down about 25 years ago...If one can get good Paella in France or Los Angeles, you'd think you could find it in Barcelona!

We'll be in Barcelona before and after two different cruises in the next 10 months...staying at the H10 Catalunya Plaza--right on the Placa Catalunya. I'm looking for a good place to have a nice paella dinner nearby. Reasonably priced, casual. We will be dressed very casual as we're not packing anything too dressy. In the past, we've eaten paella at Nuria, right on the Placa--but it's fairly touristy and nothing too special. Thinking of walking a few blocks to Micu Maku as they seem to have good reviews. Anyone have any other suggestions/recommendations in the area? Thanks....

Every cruise line EXCEPT Carnival embarks and disembarks from the World Cruise Center in San Pedro. Carnival embarks and disembarks from its own terminal in Long Beach. The only exceptions are that, occasionally, another Carnival owned cruise line will use the Long Beach facility for a port day on a cruise that begins and ends elsewhere. The Long Beach Facility has only one berth. Any Princess cruise beginning at Los Angeles will embark at San Pedro--where there are multiple berths--though just two at the main site...a third auxiliary berth is located further down the channel and used only when there are more than two ships in port.San Pedro is located about 20 miles South of LAX. There are two very good hotels there--the Crowne Plaza (close to the pier) and the Doubletree. Long Beach has several hotels but is located about 6-8 miles East of San Pedro, across the harbor. For those staying multiple days and wishing to sightsee, I recommend staying elsewhere--best location is Santa Monica, a few miles north of LAX though some like to stay in Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Universal City or elsewhere. Disney is in the other direction, considerably southeast of the harbor in Anaheim.

From our experience, most cruise ships ban candles because of the fire risk. We were on a Celebrity ship one time during Chanukah and they supplied "electric" candles... But I'm not sure about Princess.

It's pretty much the airlines. With the pandemic and all, they have been canceling and changing flights at a record pace. Air2Sea is merely a "consolidator"--a booking service. We have used them (and Flights by Celebrity--which is actually the same operation) several times now. Often, like everyone else in the travel business right now (INCLUDING AIRLINES) they can be tough to get through to...but we have found them to be very good--especially if you approach them calmly and kindly and escalate to a supervisor if necessary (it often is). For our upcoming "side to side" cruises next month, we used Air2Sea for a complicated set of flights. We are cruising on Vision of the Seas from Barcelona for 8 nights, then, six days later, Celebrity Summit for 12 nights, Reykjavik to Boston...So, we needed flights LAX-BCN, BCN-KEF and BOS-LAX. Air2Sea booked all three legs (we did all of this about 10 months ago). At various times after the initial booking EVERY original flight went through cancelations and/or schedule changes. And EVERY time, Air2Sea worked with us to get new flights...even changing our BCN-KEF leg to be on a different airline (KLM instead of SAS). We actually ended up with some even better flight times--arriving in KEF at 6:45 pm rather than our original 12:15 am. Only on one leg, BOS-LAX did we end up having to move to a different day to avoid a 6:00 am departure and it ended up costing us an additional $50--but we saved a night in a Boston hotel going from 6:00 am to 7:00 pm the preceding night...We wouldn't have gotten much use out of that hotel anyway if we needed to be at Logan by around 4 am to check in! The only issue we really had with Air2Sea is they gave us an unreasonable time frame to reschedule one of the legs after a flight was canceled--but asking to get connected to a supervisor solved that. Sometimes those first agents you speak with don't know all that much...but somebody at Air2Sea will. Just don't settle for an "it can't be done" answer.

On which ship will you be sailing? It looks, from your posting history, like you are a regular Carnival cruiser. Be aware that Carnival sails from its own terminal on the Long Beach side of the harbor and the Crowne Plaza is in San Pedro--on the other side of the harbor. If you are on Carnival, it is not entirely unreasonable to stay in San Pedro...but you will have an approximately six mile Uber (or other) ride from the CP to your ship...and the same back to get your car at the end of your cruise. If you are driving in (sounds like it since youy booked te "Park & Cruise"), no great problems because you'll have your car and can go anywhere if you arrive early...and there are a lot of good restaurant choices very near the CP...but you will need that ride back and forth to the ship. And, again, it's not that far--six miles--so an Uber or even a taxi will be fairly inexpensive...but know the hotel shuttle from the CP only goes to the San Pedro terminal--not Long Beach.

We just disembarked Navigator of the Seas yesterday morning...on June 27-July 1...We actually had one of those "Promenade View" cabins--on deck 7 just above and opposite the cafe...So I did a double-take...because we saw nothing like this and probably wouyld have heard about it. Then I looked again at the article and it was dated June 29 and talked about "last week's cruise"...so I am assuming this was on one of the cruises before us... Now our cruise was fairly inexpensive, but nowhere near the "$100" some on this thread are quoting... We don't do too many really short cruises--usually 7 nights, for us, is too short. But we did this as a quick getaway...and we are not sorry we did...We generally had a great time...and everyone on our cruise seemed to be enjoying themseves... Now, there is often a big difference from 3-nighters to 4-nighters in that the 3s are generally Friday-Monday and 4s are Monday to Friday. Both tend to be around the ame price...but 3s are attractive to those who work M-F and get those weekends off without taking vacation time whereas the 4s require anyone with a M-F job to take a week off work. Our cruise had a very nice mixture of passengers...We met a LOT of professional types and a lot of families whose kids are finally off school for the summer and a lot of teachers/educators who are also finally off work for the summer. And, yes, there were a lot of younger folks--but most appeared to be within the proper behavior and attitude for a cruise...they were there to enjoy the amenities of the ship--even if the itinerary is less than exciting. We didn't see ANYONE poorly behaved. Yes, back in the days when we did a Carnival cruise or two (we won't anymore), we did see some unruly folks on 3 night cruises...but I think a lot of that is because of how Carnival markets itself--"FUN!!!" and "LOW PRICES". It's sort of a first choice for the party crowd. Not that some of them stumble onto a Royal Caribbean cruise. But, just to set the record straight here...our 4-nighter this past week was VERY nice...with a very nice crowd...

Whenever we Uber out of LAX, we find rates to be quite high... But, last couple of cruises--including the one we just disembarked YESTERDAY, we just Ubered directly from home...and we don't live all that close to the port--We live in Calabasas. Surprisingly, we paid only $57 and change to go from home to the ship in San Pedro--just under 50 miles! Going home was $65--probably a little extra as 3,700 people were getting off the ship at the same time--on a Friday morning. Still not bad. We've been spending around $75 typically to get home from LAX--a much shorter trip. And, another advantage is we didn't have to pay any parking (or bus) charges, for gas, put miles on our car or leave our car exposed in a lot somewhere. Our round trip, including tips for the driver, cost about the same as parking alone for a 7 night cruise.

LAX is typically the best choice--because of pricing, flight availability, etc. But some people are intimidated by the size. It is one of the busiest airports in the world. It's only 20 miles from the port in San Pedro, 23 miles from Long Beach Carnival port. Many love LGB--because it is VERY small...and slightly closer to the port than LAX...16 miles from San Pedro, slightly closer to Carnival. Problem is very few airlines fly there and very few flights. Often you need to take other than non-stops to get there--NEVER worth it in my mind. SNA is 33 miles from San Pedro, a little closer to Long Beach--32 miles if by freeway... Burbank is 36 miles fromm San Pedro...39 from Carnival... Both are smaller airports...but neither is really all that convenient for cruisers EXCEPT if you're planning on sightseeing days pre- or post-cruise. SNA is close to Disney, Burbank is very close to Universal, Hollywood, studios, etc. So, what you plan to do becomes a good reason you might take one of those airports. But, for most, LAX is realy the prime choice...more flights, more airlines, cheapest prices, more nonstops from more places...and fairly close to port. Also, if you're one of those who likes the cruise line transfers, they generally go to and from LAX only. BUT,, you need to deal with a few minor inconveniences--like, on arrivls only, an extra short shuttle ride to the Uber/Taxi pick-up lot (unless you fly into Terminal 1 and can walk across the street). Maybe a long wait for luggage pick-up or for the Security line--though I've see some long waits for those at smaller airports as well.

I always check the website often after booking. First, to see if opportunity exists to upgrade or to get a price drop...but, second, out of curiosity to see how close we may be to being "sold out". We are sailing a week from today on Navigator of the Seas--Monday, June 27--4 nights to Baja, round trip from Los Angeles. Curiosly, after sailing on near-empty ships on our first four post-pandemic cruises, this one MAY be close to sold out. Right now, the website is showing zero availability on all categories other than promenade view --and they, somehow, have 29 of those left showing as available. They are also selling "guarantees" on interiors and "virtual" interiors--I suppose if none of those open up, they'll assign those people a promenade view and call it an upgrade--which it probably is. I also assume they MAY still be holding a few guarantees yet to be assigned. And they may sell some very last minute cruises...or give them away just to have someone--RCCL employee, travel industry professional, big gambler, etc. just to have someone onboard generating revenue. Of course, there are a few possibilities for this cruise being less than full: 1) They may have more last minute drop-outs than usual due to positive Covid tests. 2) They may be holding cabins or a section of cabins for emergency quarantine use. 3) They may have made a secret decision to sail less than full to appear to be supporting "social distancing". In any event, it, at least, appears like a fairly full ship. Has anyone been on one of these very recently that can confirm whether or not the ship is actually sailing full?

We have a Transatlantic cruise on Celebrity Rio to Lisbon April 13, 2023. Never been to Rio before. Have no idea what to see, what to expect, how much time to spend, where to stay, etc. Looking for a safe area with lots nearby--restaurants, sights, etc. Also, would three nights pre-cruise be enough? (We have a 13-night cruise followed by 4 nights in Lisbon and Barcelona followed by another 7-night cruise)... Hotel recommendations? Should we book city tour? A private tour guide? Anything we MUST see? Thanks...

Just received notice...New itinerary: Day Port of Call Arrive Depart Fri Barcelona, Spain 5:00 PM Sat Sete, France 8:00 AM 7:00 PM Sun Provence (Toulon), France 8:00 AM 7:00 PM Mon Ajaccio, Corsica, France 7:00 AM 4:00 PM Tue Palma De Mallorca, Spain 11:00 AM 7:00 PM Wed Ibiza, Spain 11:30 AM 9:00 PM Thu Cartagena, Spain 9:00 AM 7:00 PM Fri Valencia, Spain 8:00 AM 6:00 PM Sat Barcelona, Spain 6:00 AM Cagliari, Sardinia dropped...Ibiza is the replacement. Mallorca moved up a day. No reason given.

Flying in to Athens in four weeks for Apex B2B cruises, staying pre-cruise 4 nights and post-cruise one night at the Hilton. Need to figure out ground transportation. I read somewhere that there are fixed taxi prices for Airport to Central Athens hotels, however I'm seeing some greatly varying quotes. Also heard Uber works, but really only as a conduit to taxis...which, again, makes me uncomfortable as to possible rates. Benefit to Uber might be going direct to credit card...but it also looks like I could pre-arrange taxis and charge to card as well. But thinking it may make sense to have the rides pre-arranged. I am a little concerned that they tend to ask for time of arrival...and, who knows, with possible flight delays, time to retrieve luggage and time to make it through customs, what time to ask for. I don't want someone charging me, not waiting and leaving...or charging me a large amount of money for "waiting time"... Any suggestions? Is a taxi the way to go? Should I pre-arrange one or wait and take my chances? Or is there a better way to get from the airport to the Hilton? And how about the Hilton to the ship in Pireus? Basically, the same for the return at end of B2B cruises. Thanks.