New member here! Hopping our second cruise in 20 days!

[lucibelle64]

Hello everyone! I am so excited to join the club here. We went on our first cruise last year (Bahamas on the Carnival Fascination out of Jax) and absolutely fell in love.....with the ship, the experience, our dinner companions, the whole nine yards. Just couldn't wait to book another cruise this year.

So on Oct. 30th, we're sailing on the Carnival Paradise (a 5 nighter) to Grand Cayman and Cozumel. Small group going; myself, hubby of course, my sister, and my oldest son and daughter-in-law. Staying in Tampa the night before and getting the party started at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino. Even booked our hotel close to the Casino so we don't have to drive that night. We are ALL mentally ready to go, just have to get the packing done.

We've already planned our day at Grand Cayman. But I would love suggestions from anyone regarding things to do at Cozumel. We don't want any big excursion-type things. Maybe parasailing; best company to use for that. Also, any hints on the best bars/restaurants--or any to stay away from.

Any and all ideas will surely be entertained. Looking forward to my time here on the forums.

[Sarge6870]

Welcome to CruiseCrazies luci!!! You have come to the right place for ANYTHING cruise related. First off, as a resident of Tampa, let me tell you that your cruise is going to start off with a bang when you experience how easy the boarding goes at the port of Tampa. We cruised on the Jewel of the Seas this past May and were onboard (from the time we walked into the check-in area to the gangway) in 10 minutes FLAT!! The other great thing is it takes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours of sailing the channel leading to the ocean with a great sailing under the Sunshine Skyway bridge. I always love long sailings up the canals on embarkation day so I can wave at those on the shore and try to muster up a tear for them seeing to how I'm on a cruise and they are NOT!!! Back in May, when we visited Cozumel, I did an online chat in our "Cruise Chat Live" room from beautiful Paradise Beach. I followed that up with a video of my beach day there. Truly a wonderful place and when you navigate to some of the pages here on the site, you will see their banner advertisement to the left. You can click there to be taken directly to their website. Did I mention they are ALSO a member here? To see my video of Paradise Beach in Cozumel, click here......

http://www.cruisecrazies.com/forums/topic/49042-paradise-beach-video-interview-on-day-of-the-live-chat-542013/

If you do decide to visit Paradise Beach, make sure you ask for Krista or Meemo (they are managers there) and tell them you are a "CruiseCrazies" member. They will take good care of you

Feel free to ask me anything about the beach you like, I'm always willing to talk CRUISE!!!!!

[Jan115]

Luci - Welcome, again, to our friendly cruise community, and congratulations on your upcoming cruise! Enjoy!

[WeCruiseToo]

Hi Lucy! Sounds like you’ve got some fantastic plans for your next cruise. We agree with everything Sarge said – we’ve been recommending Paradise Beach to everyone for many years now! We had a blast sailing on Carnival Paradise – you’ll love it – let us know if you have any questions. Happy cruising!

[lucibelle64]

Thanks to all of you, especially for the tips about Paradise Beach. Will most definitely be looking into that

[Karen55]

Welcome to Cruise Crazies Lucy!!! I hope you enjoy your stay and make yourself at home!!!!

We were in Grand Cayman in February 2012... and loved it!!! We love cars so we booked the tour of the car museum... It was fantastic... some very speical vehicles not seen elsewhere... If you aren't into cars, 7 mile beach is beautiful!!! The Tortuga Rum Factory tour is great as well...

Our shore excursion on Cozumel was the America's Cup Regatta...We have our own sail boat and really enjoyed sailing aboard a real America's Cup comptetition sail boat...They have two boats that actually were part of the America's Cup racing teams, including Dennis Connor's Stars and Strips the winner from 1988.

Enjoy your trip!!!

Edited September 16, 2013 by Karen55