4 Day W. Caribbean Cruise - Fantastic time! (incl. cruise tips)
Written: Dec 28 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great time at a great price. Very much worth it.
Cons: Day at the Sea events were a little weak and excursions are pricey.
The Bottom Line: Carnival cruises are inexpensive in the pre-Christmas, post-New Years lull, take advantage of them and get your airfare early to snag good deals on those too.
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| wangarific's Full Review: Carnival Imagination |
The dates of the cruise were Dec 18th - Dec 22nd, departing Miami, FL. This was the first cruise I had ever been on and it was also the first for my girlfriend. It was a sort of Christmas vacation/celebration of my graduation last May and finding a job/celebration of her finding a job and graduation in May. Since we were still students, I wanted to find an affordable cruise that wasn't too long that we would get tired of it but still took us to sunny locales and provided a nice vacation.
A few quick tips and pointers!
I know when I was reading reviews after I selected a cruise, I wanted to get a list of quick tips for things I should bring or prepare for and so here, at the beginning, is my list of tips:
1. Bring $1 bills. While there isn't any pressure to tip, when you do want to its nice to tip in $1s and not $5's, esp. to the baggage handling folks when you first get on the ship. (Remember to tip room service, it is "free" after all)
2. If you have an inside cabin, with no windows, bring an alarm clock. It will be dark, even at noon, and if you oversleep you'll be very disappointed.
3. Carnival will allow you to bring all the soda, juice and water on board. Only liqour isn't allowed, by rule, but if you sneak it on board they probably won't be able to tell. BRING WATER.
4. Duty free is great, but if you can pay local prices, that's the best. Liqour is the easiest to find. For example, we had dinner in Cozumel and asked the waiter where to find some nice authentic Mexican tequila with some nice authentic Mexican prices. He wrote down a grocery store that resembled a Wal-Mart named Chedraui where we found liters of tequila for a scant 6 or 7 US dollars. They took credit cards too.
5. Customs: You get 1 Liter of alcohol per person without any taxes. You can roll the dice and see if you can get through customs without a search (which is actually not a problem) or you can pay the mere $1 or 2 per bottle. With Liters of Captain Morgan at $8/bottle compared to probably $17 in any state (i'm quoting quaker PA prices), I paid my $1.50 in taxes and didn't risk having it confiscated. While I paid for all my liqour, if you just paid for a couple bottles and flashed the pink receipt, I honestly believe customs wouldn't even think about searching you.
6. Scrap the buffet options for Breakfast and Lunch. Always go with the Open Seating meals, they are awesome. The waiter/waitress will take your order and present very good food for you to eat. None of the cafeteria-type buffet eggs or bacon, there's smoked salmon on a bagel (lox n' bagels) and all sorts of fruit goodies. Every day the breakfast/lunch/dinner menu's are on display throughout the ship.
7. Consider flying into an airport other than Miami. Shuttles from the port of Miami to the Miami airport are $11 each way, shuttles from the port of Miami to Ft. Lauderdale airport are only $16 each way. My flight on Southwest from Baltimore to Ft. Lauderdale was $148 (booked in advance).
That being said... here is a review about the cruise itself.
Clientele:
The reviews all said that Carnival was the young person's cruise line but I found that, while there were quite a few young people, there were a lot of families and retirees on the trip. Perhaps the selection of pre-Christmas played a role in that, I did it because of the prices. Everyone was very friendly and our dinner companions were all very nice people and fun to talk to.
Cabin
My cabin was R175, which is an interior cabin on the Riviera deck. There are pluses and minuses to the cabin but overall, I'm glad with my selection. Pluses? The loading and unloading (when not in Miami) occurs on the 3rd Deck, Riviera is only one deck above that so you get on and off the ship very quickly and easily. Since it is low, the sways of the ocean are not felt as much as they are higher up in the ship. Final major plus? Price. The cruise cost a hair under $300 including taxes and port fees, you can't beat that. Minuses? Interior cabins means all artificial light, it was hard to tell what time it was since there was no clock. Since it was lower in the ship, it took a little longer to get to the activity laden decks about four to seven decks higher. Elevators made this not as major an issue.
Excursions:
Pricey! But we were expecting it so we made careful decisions on what we'd do. The only excursion we signed up for was the Mayan Ruins of Tulum in Mexico, which cost us $79. I felt it was worth it. I believe most of the cost is in the 1 hr boat ride from the island of Cozumel to mainland Mexico and then the 1 hr bus ride and tour guide to the actual ruins. I'm sure Carnival made their nice little markup but I didn't feel ripped off. The ruins are gorgeous and you should check them out.
Key West? It's a nice laid back touristy town that takes pride in Key Lime pies, mile marker 0 for Route 1, and being the southernmost point of the United States (believe it or not). We walked all the way down Duval Street to see a gorgeous butterfly exploratorium, for a lack of a better term. Thousands of butterflies and my girlfriend was ecstatic. Total cost? $9 per person, not too bad.
Majors points aside, I'm only going to talk briefly about the other aspects of the ships because I'm sure many review readers are familiar with consensus opinions on many things (such as the casino, and the sushi bar, etc) so I'll only mention things that I thought were different on my experience that I didn't expect.
Vegas-type shows (and other entertainment): Very fun, definitely worth watching, sometimes a little weird. Every night there was a show then followed by an adult comedy act. While I didn't like all the comedians, one stood out, TC Tahoe. His mix of magic and ad-lib comedy is really a lot of fun to watch. There's a Captain's Cocktail party where you get free drinks, something very unexpected, definitely something you want to check out!
Day-time events: This was the only thing lacking... on the day where we had "Fun at the Sea" I thought the day-time events were a little weak. Hairy chest contest? I'm not sure about that one...
Overall? Great time at a great price, a fantastic first cruise experience. Thank you Carnival.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Couples
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Epinions.com ID:
wangarific
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Member: jim
Location: Elkridge, MD
Reviews written: 53
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
I'm a software guy for a government contractor who thought writing reviews would be fun.
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