Dan

That picture they are using makes it seem like this place is secluded. That green space at the right side of the picture is actually a RIU resort. I wonder how they feel having a couple cruise ships docked right outside their windows lol

Dock in Grand Turk as well, at a Carnival built and operated cruise centre.

Yes, it's New Brunswick. The easy way to tell is it's Saint John, while the USVI island is St John.

I wonder why Belize doesn't just finish the port project they started about 6 years ago, about 3 miles from the current tender port. It's right next to the container pier just outside of the city and if you look at it on Google Earth, it's the U-shaped area that projects out into the bay. They used to have a website with drawings for the 2 piers that they were going to put there.

I bit the bullet and booked the air yesterday. I was checking the flights and noticed that it was becoming difficult to get seats all together for the 4 of us. The earlier flight also went up, so I decided to go 90 minutes later for $40pp less. Also for the flight home, the only seats together were comfort economy, for $29 each upgrade, so we have those now too. At least I'll have legroom going home LOL.

I'm probably going to book next week for our January cruise. I only booked the cruise a few weeks ago, and I've been watching the air fares bounce around a bit lately, so I have a good idea of what I'm going to pay. At this point, I'm basically waiting for the next billing cycle on the credit card to come.

I also collect shot glasses from each port and each ship. Funny thing is I don't drink LOL

1 HAL, 1 RCL 3 Princess 3 Carnival (with the 4th booked)

The old HAL Westerdam, for our honeymoon in 1995. I was just about set to return to HAL this January until I discoverd some Christian revival group had half the ship booked. So we are booked on the Carnival Dream for our 9th cruise.

Too late for the OP, but my understanding is Port Canaveral charges for both the embark and debark days now, at the rate of $15/day. So a 5 day cruise, you pay for the 6 actual days you are there. Kind of a double dipping thing for them, as they get $15 for your car when you leave by 9 or 10 in the morning and then they get another $15 for people who come in the afternoon. If protected from the elements is important, then you'd need to pay the price at the port to be in the garage. If being parked outside is fine, I would park at th Radisson, who charges something like 6 or 7 bucks a day and shuttles there and back (this is for non guests). And as mentioned, they also have parking packages when you stay there as a guest.

The programs don't mean much to me. We are going on the Carnival Dream in January and this will be our 4th cruise with them. We have 5 others on other lines so we like to sample a bit. I'm even considering the new Norwegian ship out of New York. Carnival gives great value with their fares as it is that I'm not worried about getting some perks for loyalty.

This unit sounds like something for deep ports without a pier. Which leaves out most of the Caribbean ports. Belize, Grand Cayman, the private islands etc, the ship can't get close enough to use something like this. Where this could help is ports without enough dock space. Say Grand Turk as one example. The ship pulls in behind one of the other ships already docked, and they roll this thing out so it can reach the pier. It would basically be a temporary "pier extender".

I've seen a ton of "wishy washy" reviews regarding their US sailings. But, they certainly are affordable. I priced out a superior balcony for 4 for just over $2200, which is great. They, like HAL, don't seem to soak you for 3rd and 4th in a cabin, where Carnival and RCI will charge upwards of 70% of the fare the first 2 people pay.

I'm seriously considering an ocean suite for the Glory in January. I can get that for around 3 grand for the 4 of us. Grand suite looks really nice, but that's another $1400, so I think I'll suffer (if we end up booking that cruise).

Definitely the ship over itinerary for us. But cost is the major factor over both. I would choose the Oasis/Allure over any other ship if we could justify the cost. I'm not seeing those ships running double or triple other ships, but they are about 50% higher for the 4 of us for 7 or 8 day itineraries on Carnival. But that's also the case with many of the other RCI ships as well (Freedom and Independance are all in the same ballpark as Oasis and Allure in January during the week I'm looking at). But I'm also not going to go on a favourable itinerary that's cheap on a ship I'm not interested in.

Cool story. I remember being on the Grand Princess in 1999 in San Juan. As we sailed out, I was watching the pilot boat approach. Usually you just see the pilot and maybe someone else get off the ship, but there were several people getting on the ship before the pilot got off. Found out later these were passengers who arrived late at the pier, and managed to get on the pilot boat for $25 each. Heck, if I would have known, I would have paid that LOL.

I also noticed that summer 2013, the Glory will do a few 7 day Canada/New England cruises from Boston. Ports will include Portland Maine, Saint John NB, Sydney and Halifax NS. We did this exact cruise on the Victory in fall of 2001, as the cruises were moved from NYC to Boston after 9-11. Off the top of my head, I think they have 1 week in June and 2 weeks in July, as well as some other 4 and 5 days mixed in before the ship goes to New York for August and September.

Not sure I see the issue here. This wasn't a cruise of a lifetime booked over a year in advance. This also isn't rare. Cruiselines are constantly making "move over offers" as they always overbook. They, like the airlines, have statistics saying how many bookings typically cancel. If that number isn't met, then obviously someone isn't going, and why wouldn't it be the people who booked last? Perhaps they tried calling some other people first to see if they would move, with compensation, or maybe they did it the easy way and called the people who didn't have assigned cabins, and told them the news. Either this certainly wasn't the first, and definitely not the last time this has happenned. And I do think $300 OBC for a 4 day cruise is quite adequate (generous actually) compensation.

Just back from Labadee a couple weeks ago. No "Haiti issues" at all there. The food and drink all comes from the ship, all the activies are up and running. It's far removed from where the earthquake hit, and I think the cholera outbreak is more in the earthquake zone as well. Lots of great activities if you want to participate, and lots of open beach (several beaches actually), if you want to lay back and bake. Have fun.

Just simple supply and demand. It's the new hot ship and people want to sail on it. And New Year's always commands a large premium. I can't wait to sail that ship, and while I won't pay that price, I certainly understand why they are so high. The Grand Princess wasn't cheap when it came out either, when we paid over $1000 per person for an inside in the slow week after Thanksgiving.

This is all I need to see to want to book aft again.

The first one always has a warm spot, and this ship was ours, although it was the Westerdam by then.

Not sure how RCI handles it, but with Princess, as long as you enter all your information online, you can print your boarding pass from 75 days out. I know it's not as exciting as those old little booklets with about 50 pages of microscopic text, but anything that lets me on the ship is still exciting LOL.

I have trouble getting vacation time during school vacations, so we'll be looking at taking them out sometime in the next couple years to go on a vacation together. My kids will only be first or second grade by then anyway, so I'm not too concerned with a week lost. We'll discuss with their teachers about what they can do while away. I don't remember ever learning anything about the Bahamas or Virgin Islands in school, so this might actually be a "value added" thing for them LOL.

Air Canada has been refurbishing their fleet the last couple of years and is supposed to have them all done by this summer. All new seats and tv's at every seat.