idlenote

We've done the Bahamas twice from Galveston but to be perfectly honest if given the choice I would rather do a five day to Cozumel and Progresso than do Freeport and Nassau. Just something about those Bahama ports that don't give me that warm fuzzy feeling.

It will be interesting to have another ship out of Galveston just to try something different but I hope that will not be the extent of it. We are on the upcoming Galveston - San Juan - Galveston b2b next year and with the southern itinerary this looks like a fantastic cruise and a lot of ports we have not done before. Perhaps they are planning on doing more like this? One can only hope.

Just back from the Dream, don't know just what they did to my hankies but they came back blue. Had to throw them away.

Last year we did two TA repos, both on the Legend, one each way. This enabled us to buy one round trip air ticket and use one half each way but five months apart, first half London-Houston and second half Houston-London. Really kept the cost down.

IIRC on the second leg the average age on board was 73, there were 24 kids on board. There really was no night life on board, a couple of times I went up on the lido about nine for a nightcap and the crew outnumbered the passengers.

But, we went to the Azores, Greenland and Iceland, several other ports off the beaten path, and one fantastic night we got to see the Northern Lights. Just don't do them if you find sea days boring, if one bothers you five in a row might make you a little antsy.

One of the best places to find out about these cruises in on the forums here, frequently they are being talked about before the Carnival pvp's even have them on their computers.

We should be milestone by March of next year. I have already been going over this with our PVP to make sure that we are on time on the days that are necessary, She has already told me to get back in touch with her a couple of months ahead of time to make sure there are no problems receiving the discounts/awards.

Absolutely NO offense to you TX people, but the itineraries are AWFUL!!!!

Key West, Nassau, and Freeport?

OR

Belize, Roatan, and Costa Maya?

YUCK

They need to do better.........

I wouldn't cruise out of Galveston for that reason.......

They need to add some 8 nighters and go further...

Belize has the best snorkeling I have ever done, you have to go to the outer islands and snorkel along the edge of the reef but it is incredible.

Roatan has some snorkel areas that are excellent, we've been to some places that are not to be missed.

At Freeport, instead of going to the nasty market downtown you can get picked up ate pier and spend the day on the beach in the other direction. I was out there and looked over and found myself swimming alongside a ray, lasted for a couple of minutes.

Key West, reminds me of New Orleans, but we don't have to walk as far. Always a good day.

I might agree with you on Nassau, but that's only because we've done it a few times.

Any port, if you do your research you can always find somewhere you haven't seen before. Stick with the Carnival tours and expect to be bored. Last couple of years we've done several repositioning cruises so there is always something different to see.

Meantime if we want to just do a quicky out of Galveston the more people that stay away because of perceived "bad" ports the cheaper our cruises our, and for that I thank you.

It would make perfect sense to pull the Triumph and replace it with the Freedom, would give them a few more cabins, but more important would give them a Conquest type ship in Galveston, the Conquest was an extremely popular ship. Also get rid of the Triumph and her bad reputation, DW does not like her at all.

I was on the Freedom last week and I booked a future cruise.The future cruise guy gave me a list of upcoming cruises

It lists a 12 day (one way)1-26-2015 Carnival Freedom

Ft Laud-ST Kitts-ST Lucia-Curacao-Aruba-Cayman-Galveston

[Repositioning Cruise]

I have heard the same itinerary as well, but I was told it is on hold at the moment.

The wine tasting last month on the Imagination was about $10, lasted an hour and you sampled 5 different wines. It's done by one of the maitre'd's and was a lot of fun.

They had a special last month on the Crown Royal. These 4 bottles were a $100.00 with a Crown collapsible ice chest:

Crown Royal $21.99 or 2/$37

Crown Royal Black $25.99

Crown Royal Maple $28.99

Crown Royal Special Reserve $38.99

DW has now been grounded from buying more than 1 bottle on future cruises, the customs agent didn't know quite how to handle her and her six bottles of booze, had to get his supervisor and she waved us through.

No Captain worth his salt would take any ship into a hurricane. Carnival has a whole department watching over their Captains shoulder to double check that he doesn't. The ships are fitted with stabilizers and they can adjust course/speed to minimize vessel movement. You may end up missing a port or two, or even get to ports that were never on the schedule but that just makes the cruise more interesting.

From personal observation down here on the Gulf coast over many years a November hurricane is extremely rare. When we cruise in November i never give it a thought.

Excuse me for butting in but we were on the repositioning cruise and we saw the same problem at the ATD dining room every night. There was an initial rush when the dining room opened, then there was another about 7. We got round this by going up about 6.30 or 6.40 and getting a pager, then retreating to the lobby bar till called. Worked well all but one night.

When you get to the desk ask to be seated on the left side in the middle, if you can get in Joseph's section or the lady right behind him you will not be disappointed.

Just shot the PVP an email, asked her to call me in the morning. She called me right back, said the ship was selling real well. Got the same cabin I've had twice before on the Legend, really quiet area on the Verandah deck. I don't understand why Carnival never built more ships on this deck plan, the three pools on the Lido with the after pool in the Serenity area is just outstanding.

Cabin on deck 7 in November and didn't come across any smell.

If y'all want to go back to the days before the US had income tax you would find out that one of the main sources of income for the government was duties on goods imported, both federal and state. If this was a new deal for the State of Texas to charge duties on liquor I might see why everyone is getting there knickers in a twist, but this is a tax that has been in effect in Texas for years, applies only to state residents, and why should cruise passengers get a free pass?

We were getting them after every cruise in 2103, both the satisfaction and the fttf one. After the Legend T/A coming to NY they really shouldn't have. Food was dreadful, everyone got off the ship sick, I looked for something to be positive about and there just wasn't much. Maybe I'll be left in peace this year.

We've done the Conquest out of Galveston and New Orleans. Always enjoyed being on the ship and crew is usually great. The only drawback I would think I could point to is that there is only two pools on the Lido deck, if you're a sun person (which we're not) you might want to look at the Legend or one of her sister ships, the Lido deck on those have three pools and the chair hogs are not so bad.

Progresso normally dock port (left) side to. Cozumel depends on which side of the pier you dock on.

Swimsuit. Did you know people down south in Mexico are really small?

When we lived four hours from Galveston we drove on the morning of the cruise a couple of times but then we started going the evening before, sure seemed to make the vacation seem longer.

We could of got caught one time when the back fence blew down and blocked the driveway to get out to the road. Luckily we were flying out about 2:30 in the afternoon, arrived at the airport sweaty and dirty after clearing everything away. That would have been one where saving on the hotel could have cost us the cruise.

We've been paying the taxes at the border crossings in Texas for at least the last 20 years. The payment kiosk is located away from the customs inspection place here in Brownsville, I can't remember ever having to wait to make the payment.

Up until very recently the charge was about a dollar a bottle, I don't know when they snuck the tax increase in, I know it was a surprise the first time we paid the $3. Doesn't matter very much on the liquor since it's unusual for us to bring more than one bottle back, it really hurts on the Mexican wines since it raises the price way over what we pay for wine in the local supermarkets.

Very old sailor warning:

"Only fools and firemen sit on the rail"

(Firemen refers to the stokers who used to shovel the coal into the boilers, they were capable of any form of stupidity, kind of like someone on here questioning the danger)

Saw a couple win the $2500 last night on the Triumph. Still wouldn't make me play any of their games though.

Have always had a fast acknowledgement in the past but this time around no response, I've sent it twice. Something is a little off.