Kruzer Zuker

50 minutes ago, Ashland said:

Yes you can take one from Pan American to SJU...But really you won't save more than a couple of $'s over a taxi..regulated fares....Much easier we think to just go out and jump in the next taxi available...which there will be plenty lined up. We just did this in September and easily made an early 9:45am flight (not our choice..many AA flight time changes).

Thanks.  How much is the regulated fare between Pan American to SJU?

Can you take Uber from Pan American to SJU? Any restrictions on either end?  

I have been experiencing with booking with independent TAs lately and yes you get perks and obc and lower prices but most TA don’t work 24/7 like most cruise line customer services do and you may miss a sale if it happens on weekends.   Still worth it though. 

Next time I will give big box TAs a try.  

Thank you, POA, you are the man!  

9 hours ago, ChinaShrek said:

I will be on the Veendam in December and the ship is visiting Cienfuegos.  I am trying to decide between seeing Cienfuegos itself (and the castle) or Trinidad.  Any suggestions?  Is Trinidad a must do?  I really hate long drives while at a cruise port.  They seem like a waste of time.

Given the choice I would see Trinidad. The good thing about long drives is you see the countryside which is very interesting.

Also there are private guides who would give you a tour that include both Trinidad and Cienfuegos.  Cuba is one of the ports where private tours make a lot of sense and are very rewarding.  Safe, less expensive and you get to see more.  I would ask the guide to go to visit Trinidad first and come back to tour Cienfuegos if it eases your mind about getting back to the ship.  

Is there a limit to how much you can bring on?   

Would browsers with data compressors like Opera Mini really save data usage compared to Safari?

Also if I just clear cookies and stay logged out of CC would it save data usage since that way CC wouldn’t keep refreshing?   I only read for the most part. 

4 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

 

If you don't know HAL is not Carnival and it is not Celebrity, you might want to keep looking for a cruise line that suits you better.  Take your pick from all the other ones that offer Tikal shore excursions.  Norwegian stops at Puerto Quetzel.  Plenty others also make stops here, but Norwegian was the cheapest.  Don't know if they offer Tikal but maybe you could arrange this on your own which could also save you some money.

Not sure why you would think anyone might think HAL is Carnival.  My comment was to say some cruise lines (Carnival, Royal Caribbean to name a couple) do have shorex sales from time to time, therefore it is perfectly reasonable to check if HAL does too, especially around Black Friday time.   Not expecting a sale like you said in an earlier post, but to check.  

Thanks to the rest of posters who answered my question.  

Carnival also has some shorex promo on Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend.  

Of course not expecting a sale.   Was hoping there might be something on Black Friday, Cyber Monday.  Doesn’t look like it.  

15 hours ago, Alberta Quilter said:

HAL sometimes offers a View & Verandah promotion which has, as one of the perks, a discount on certain shore excursions.  When I booked under that promo, I found that the "sale" was about $5 less than the original price.  And, it was on the least popular shorex.  One time, I booked a cruise to Hawaii under the V&V promo - no shorex in Hawaii were reduced.  Only two shorex in Vancouver or Victoria were reduced.  I found that perk to be very disappointing.

 

OP what itinerary and which shore excursion are you looking at?  Maybe we can offer alternatives...

The one I am looking at is Tikal from Guatemala.  Charter flights involved.  $650pp x 4 people.  Was hoping for a sale or a promo or discount code like 5% off or something like that. 

A land tour in Central America would be another (probably much better) way to see it but I am not very interested in that at the moment.  

My TA just called me back telling me I would have to reprice and it wouldn’t be worth it.  A little disappointing but I will live.  

That’s why I am checking to see if there might be a sale.  

I know there is no general correlation.  Just the specific one I am looking for is more expensive than the cruise fare.  

Another thing, excursions prices are not shown until after booking.  Unlike other lines.  

Hopefully the sale lasts through Monday because my TA doesn’t work on weekends. 

Do HAL shore excursions ever go on sale?   The ones I want are more expensive than the cruise fare.  

Very sad.  Didn’t even know tender accident was a thing.  

Does Cuba no longer allow overnight port visits?  That would be a real bummer.  

Western, especially Mexican, Belize, Guatemala all have amazing Mayan ruins.

Cuba, the biggest island in the Caribbean, has cities, beaches and mountains and everything in between. Beautiful.  

We live close to ports and prefer Saturday.   We drive to the port on Saturday morning on embarking day and board the ship by noon and on disembarking day we get off on Saturday morning and have a full weekend ahead of us to do normal weekend shopping and cleaning. 

2 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

For those who think that Tapatalk can’t work with these forums.....another forum I am a member of, Amtrak Unlimited switched to Inivision software this week. Tapatalk was down for one day. Tapatalk is working fine with the same forum software used on Cruise Critic. 

I am a member there too and discovered it yesterday. I was thinking the software must have been having a sale, lol.    Tapatalk is back for them?  I gotta go check.   It wasn’t working for me yesterday yet.  Do you need to do anything special?

RCI does not give refundable deposit anymore?  

If you want a good feel of what a middle of the road Caribbean cruise is like, I would:

Go with Florida departure. Preferably Miami or Fort Lauderdale.

Go for a 7 or 8 or 9 day cruise.  Too short you run into the party crowd and tons of kids.  Too long is a bit risky for a first timer. 

Go for Eastern or Southern Caribbean.  Western route is great too but generally needs more planning to get the most out of it.  

Go with cruise lines like Celebrity, Holland America, Princess, or Royal Caribbean but stay away from holiday weeks.  I wouldn't go with Carnival or Norwegian even though I personally enjoyed my time on them.   

1 hour ago, crystalspin said:

KZ, I think you make a very good point! The funny thing to me is, so many of the suites are too high, not center/midships, and/or under the pool-deck! Speaking industry wide, not RCI in particular.

Yep.  And on larger ships I like to stay close to elevators.  Some of the highly prized balconies are all the way forward or all the way back.  

The 12 and 10 day Vancouver round trips look good.  Are there not something like those in 2019?