cruisinqt

We will be there in a few weeks so I might go check out Sancho’s for a few drinks after eating at Solomon’s. It sounds like a fun place.

We ate at Solomon’s Landing last time and it was amazing and a short walk. Guy Fieri did an episode of Diners Drive Ins & Dives where they visited this place and he was floored at how good the food was. The prices aren’t bad at all either.

We loved Vok baths. I liked that each pool was a different temperature and they had steps and railings so it was easy to get in and out of. There was a nice restaurant with good food and a swim up bar in the pool. The scenery along the way was breathtaking too. It was much cheaper than going through the cruise ship and since we went early in the morning it wasn’t crowded at all. It was very relaxing staring at the beautiful mountains surrounding us while we sipped on cocktails and soaked in the hot mineral water. It was the highlight of our trip to Iceland. If you decide to go there remember to buy your Vok tickets early, they sell a limited number of passes each day so they sell out pretty quickly.

I’m sorry I’m just now getting back to you. We’ve been in Southeast Asia for over a month. We found ASI’s taxi service through Vok Baths. We asked them what was the best way to get to their facility on our own from a cruise ship and they recommended several people and gave me their contact info. We paid for his services at the end of the ride. He was very friendly and professional.

I’ll definitely check them out, sounds like a great place.

Thanks for the recommendation, that’s exactly what we are looking for. We were leaning towards Holetown and this just reinforces our decision to go there. We’ve done tours of the island, enjoyed the beaches, and had lots of fun on the cave tram tour. This time around we just want to chill and have a nice meal and a few good drinks. Holetown seems to fit the bill.

We just got back from Singapore and had the most amazing private tour guide. His name is HJ Ng and we booked him through Tours By Locals. It was $429 for a 6 hour tour (price is for up to 4 people) of the city that included eating at Hawker stalls, Gardens By The Bay, Marina Bay Sands, Chinatown and shopping in Little India. We use Tours By Locals wherever we travel and have had great experiences with them. You pay through their secure website ahead of time so no need to bring along cash except tip money. Oh and at the Hawker stalls HJ paid for our food with his money and wouldn’t accept anything from us to pay for it. He’s lived in the area his whole life and was extremely knowledgeable and so much fun. I can’t recommend him enough.

Thanks for the info that helps a lot.

We have been to Barbados a couple of times and have done tours around the island. This time around we have a very port intensive cruise and are looking for a more relaxed experience. It will be the fifth day of 5 ports in a row so we will be exhausted. We want to go to an area (not too far from port) where we can have a nice lunch, sip a few drinks, then walk around and shop and explore a little. I realize we will need to take a taxi or bus to get anywhere from the port and that’s ok. I’d like a nice restaurant with authentic local food but nothing exorbitantly expensive. Thanks in advance for your help.

I’m so sorry it took me so long to get back to you. We just got back from a 25 day transpacific cruise from Singapore to LA. I’m exhausted but happy, we had a blast. Thank you for the map, that helps tremendously. Now I know exactly where I need to locate a hotel. I guess I need to start narrowing down my choices. Thanks again.

This is exactly the info I was looking for. So many people have recommended staying on the Gold Coast or the Sunshine Coast. But we aren’t into sitting at a beach all day, although we will likely visit a beach to take a stroll and see the sights. We prefer a hotel in the middle of everything with lots of places to walk to in a safe area of town. We can always do a day trip to the beach or the zoo but in the evenings we like having restaurants and shopping within walking distance. So far all I’ve really looked at is using our Hilton points at the Hilton Surfers Paradise. I’ll definitely be checking out the Ibis Capri. Thank you!

We are trying to figure out where to stay in the Brisbane area. We like to be near restaurants and shopping if possible. Being able to just walk over to a restaurant, mall, or grocery store makes things so much easier. We don’t want an old rundown hotel but we don’t want to pay a fortune for a fancy hotel either. And Airbnb’s or apartments are fine too as long as they’re not too far from all of the sights. We’ve never been to Australia so any info at all is appreciated. We definitely want to go to the Koala sanctuary, I’ve always wanted to hold one and feed one in real life. What else would you recommend to do in the area? We are staying there 4 days pre cruise.

We are currently on a 25 day transpacific cruise on the Panorama and I saw the passes at the spa. It was $309 for a single pass and $549 for a couples pass for the whole cruise.

We are currently on the Carnival Panorama transpacific from Singapore to LA. There are lectures very often, today’s lecture was on photography, yesterday’s was called “navigators of the pacific.” There are dance classes almost daily; there’s ballroom dance classes, hip hop dance classes, line dancing classes etc. Today they were teaching the jitterbug which was pretty fun. The outdoor movies are usually the most current recently released movies with a few oldies thrown in. We just watched Argyle a few days ago and today we are watching the new King Kong and Godzilla movie. Theres an excellent violin trio every day in the atrium lobby. Theres also several other musicians playing around the ship, some country, some classic, some pop etc. They have karaoke every evening which we really enjoy too. They will also have the live Family Feud show and the Deal or No Deal show which are our personal favorites. We’ve noticed that on transatlantic or transpacific cruises Carnival has an older age group and a different vibe, it’s much more laidback.

Yes I booked it directly through Vok Baths months before we went there. They sell out pretty quickly. You can check daily though because sometimes people cancel and some times open up. But space is limited so they limit how many people can be there throughout the day.

We are going there next summer so I was able to access the price list for everything. Here it is: Celebration Key Cabana Prices: Over lagoon Super Villa $1,999 Super Villa at beach $1,799 Large Cabana $899 Over lagoon cabana $739 Regular Cabana $599 Aquabana (water cabana) $449 Daybed $149 Water daybed $119

We just got off of the Mardi Gras a couple weeks ago and those extra charge items were on the new menu. They looked delicious but I didn’t try them. I got my usual concoction: beef & broccoli, Hakka noodles, pork belly, a side of green beans, & a side of broccoli. I mix it all together and it’s amazing! I have the spring rolls for an appetizer and the Crema Catalina for dessert.

ASI did great I would highly recommend him. There were lots of other people there but I never asked if any of them were cruisers. We made reservations online at Vok Baths website. You can prepay and add stuff to your reservation like robes. There are several natural pools all with different temperatures which was nice to try out. They have a swim up bar and a small restaurant too. We really enjoyed it, it was nice to have our own private driver for the day.

Well that would be the posters fault because he/she was making posts on a roll call using an account that had their personal info on it. I don’t join Facebook roll calls for that reason, I only do CC ones. The only details someone can see about me in a roll call post here on CC is my username (which is never my real name.) I never have my address, location or personal details included in my account. I know some people include everything but I don’t, even on TikTok I don’t use my real name or even what state I live in. And on Facebook when I make posts about my travels I make it private to where only family can see it. In this day and age we have to be hyper vigilant. But your point is valid, some roll call posts are dangerous.

Yes I know it was a federally mandated law that made that happen. I’m just saying I hope it happens to the rest of the travel industry too. I’m hoping that the government steps in and makes some more changes in the rest of the travel industry.

But if you immediately pay money before there’s lawsuits or lawyers involved you get that reputation of paying cash quickly which makes you become an even bigger target. My friend said word gets around quickly in the scammers groups and they specifically target corporations that are quick to pay cash, especially the ones that don’t involve lawsuits or lawyers. The scammers don’t like getting lawyers involved because it costs extra money. So if they followed your suggestion and paid quickly before it escalated to lawsuits it would make things worse, not better. It’s sad that there are people out there like that making it worse for honest hardworking people like us. As far as the standard in the travel industry changing, I agree that it’s changing and I’m thrilled about that. The new guidelines for airlines with cash compensation within a certain amount of hours was long overdue. I hope that this is the catalyst that pushes the whole travel industry into the right direction. It’s been needing a major overhaul for quite some time now.

Carnival is following the standard of practice in the travel industry which is to offer a credit but no cash when there are unresolved issues. The airlines always want to offer credits instead of cash, so do hotels, resorts, etc. Even though I’m not a fan of receiving a credit instead of cash I acknowledge it’s all I’ll usually get out of the travel industry when issues arise. I’m sure these large corporations have weighed the pros and cons before implementing this type of policy. It must be the better choice or they’d change their policy. I worked for a large corporation for many years and when issues arose and lawsuits were threatened they never made cash offers regardless of the situation. I was chatting with a guy in the legal department and he said when they stopped offering immediate cash settlements, their lawsuits dropped in half. He said it’s because big corporations get lots of frivolous lawsuits with no merit just because people think they’ll offer a quick cash settlement to make them go away. But once a corporation gets a reputation of never offering money up front or settling quickly, the lawsuits disappear. So yes, initially the cost of the lawsuit along with its bad publicity looks like a bad choice, but if you look at the whole picture and how it effects the amount of lawsuits they get then their choice is understandable. Because they save money over the long run from the hoards of scammers looking for a quick buck.

Yeah she’s definitely trying to hurt Carnivals reputation by putting negative videos up regularly. She just put another video up yesterday saying that “unfortunately Carnival hasn’t fixed the security issue.” But she’s losing traction because her first video had over 900k views and the latest only has 5k.

I never thought about that but I guess that could have happened. But her story has run on several news agencies and was recently featured on Good Morning America and Carnival didn’t dispute the 10k offer that’s been mentioned every time. They made a statement basically saying that “consumer experts advise that it’s never a good idea to post personal info about your travel plans.”

She recorded the conversation with Carnival on her phone then posted it on TikTok. The Carnival rep said they would give her 10k in future credit if she stated that “Carnival resolved the issue.” Those were the exact words. She refused the offer. I imagine she regrets that now.