Time 2 Cruise

 As the 2024 Hurricane season is going out with a bang, many people are not thinking about their next cruise right now, or wondering what other cruising options are available next year that are not in hurricane alley.   This is a great time to start planning an Alaska Cruise.  These cruises only operate from May until September due to weather.  By no means is an Alaskan Cruise going to be a fun in the sun wear your bathing suit everywhere cruise, but it is something every avid cruise fan should have on their bucket list. May and September will be the coldest, but can come with bigger discounts along with better availability being these are still during school season..   The more popular dates are around the Summer Solstice.  The week leading into and from the longest day of the year gives the best opportunity to enjoy the "midnight sun". There are plenty of tours to do, however, the closer you are to the start or end of the season can limit some o...

 There are a lot of pros to decreasing the carbon footprint of even just 1 cruise ship, but when you think about the fact that there are now over 320+(and growing) ships currently in service, the impact is exponential.  But as cruise lines work to meet standards, either set by governments, or even themselves, they have to be careful to not step on expectations of the guests on board.  This is where some cons come in. The  (current) lifespan of an ocean Cruise Ship is between 17 and 30 years.  Once they are no longer in service, they usually go to a cruise ship graveyard to be dismantled.  The process is dirty and not environmentally friendly, but getting better.  There is a really cool article here that you can read about it.  Before that happens, a ship will go through a few dry dock refurbishments to improve guest experience and updates to remove the dated feel along with working on decreasing the carbon footprint of the ship.   Howev...

Whether you're a fan of themed cruises or not, they are definitely growing in popularity. I’ve personally experienced both sides of the coin. First, I sailed on Shiprocked, a music-themed cruise where my wife and I got to enjoy some of our favorite bands. Then, I unexpectedly found myself on a Carnival cruise where over half the ship was dedicated to a Country Music theme week, which we hadn’t planned for. There are generally two types of themed cruises. I’m focusing on those where passengers pay extra to join a theme—whether it’s Comicon, music genres, LGBTQ+, TV shows (yes, those exist!), and more. These differ from onboard seasonal events, like Halloween themes organized by the cruise line, where everyone can join the fun. I’ve done those too, and they’re a blast! Themed cruises offer a lot of benefits if you're into the theme. You can meet celebrities, connect with like-minded people, and fully immerse yourself in your passion. However, participating in these events usually...

 You may have seen that Royal Caribbean has recently added "outlet extenders" to their list of prohibited items.  This is any device that splits an outlet, including surge protectors.  But what other things should you leave at home beyond the obvious, like fireworks, irons, and electric kettles? To much cash:  When you re enter the U.S. you have to declare cash in excess of $10,000 regardless of where you started with it.   Drones: While this should be easily understandable, they don't want you getting any ideas about flying your toy off the deck of the ship, and many ports of call prohibit bringing them ashore, so it makes sense to just prohibit them in the first place. Straws and Plastic Bags:  This one was not something I thought about before but with cruise lines focusing on the environment, banning single use bags and straws makes sense.  We did notice that on our most recent cruise it was paper straws and only on request. Mini Star Link Sate...

Being a big Star Wars fan, I got to cross off a bucket list item I didn't think I would. Get to visit the Hyperspace Lounge.  But this post is not about that even though it was part of why we (I) decided to cruise Disney.  We had to be in Florida and we're looking for something to do on the weekend whe the Disney Wish popped up in our search. Being we don't have children, we were hesitant, but the price was right (we'll for Disney). Cost for 4 day, 3 night on the Disney Wish with all taxes and gratuities was just under $2000.  Being close to Halloween, it was a Halloween cruise, with trick it treating and encouraged costume wearing for all, not just kids, which probably added to the cost. This is about double what a comparable cabin on Carnival would have cost but we took the plug anyway. I'm going to start with our con list first.  No casino if you like to gamble Theater seats not very comfortable  Yep that was it.  Now the pro list. This isn't necessarily...

 My wife and I have been on themed cruises before, both as guests sailing with the theme part of the cruise and also as normal cruiser that was not aware there was a themed cruise until we were already onboard.  Taking a themed cruise can be great!  We did Shiprocked a while ago and if you are into Rock would highly recommend it!   However, we went on a cruise we booked months in advance to find out it had a Country Music theme going on.  What this meant for us and the others not part of the theme was many venues were off limits and standard shows were canceled.  If we had known before we booked, it may have changed the date we chose or even the ship/destination. Now, with less than a month before the inaugural Comicon Cruise, there are still rooms available.  As someone who does Comicon, had this been at a better time, we may have tried to make it work for us, but not this year.  But with rooms available, would you book this cruise, or any c...

 This blog has been dormant for a while, but the cruising industry, and our passion for cruising has not.  Then 2020 happened.  Covid-19 has caused cruising to drop anchor!  Ships are not moving, money lost, stocks are down, but there is light on the horizon.  With the increase in people getting vaccinated, this will speed up the ability to get moving again! Many of the cruise operators are looking at getting going faster by requiring proof of vaccination for all members or your party before you can board the ship.  This along with decreased capacity, and increased cleaning regimen will make for a safer cruise for everyone.  While we are not sure how the decreased capacity will have any affect on the pricing in the near future, it will help with checking out those venues that you may have skipped in the past due to the long waits and overcrowding.

If you didnt see it all over the news, Carnival's ship Carnival Triumph had a fire in the engine room and lost power.  As of this posting, it has been without engines for 2 days and is currently being towed to land by 2 tug boats with a third on the way.  Passengers are still on board because it was deemed safer than trying to transfer them at sea.  Once docked, Carnival is expecting the ship to be out of commission for at least a month and has started cancelling and refunding the future bookings While this is sad for current passengers and those booked over the next month, it is not a common occurrence and it looks like Carnival is doing everything it can to compensate those on board.  Life happens! It will not detour me from booking with Carnival in the future.

While we have decreased our cruise vacation allowance to gear towards more land based vacations things have happened that I missed recently Like Carnival doing a serious decrease of Western Mexican Riviera ports of call.  Gone are Acapulco, Mazatlan, Manzanillo, and Ixtapa.  The cruise we did a few years ago no longer exists at all while another has been drastically changed.  Carnival has good reasons for the drops. Mainly problems that lead to safety issues for the tourists and are doing the best thing they can to keep their passengers safe.  Now, our decrease in cruises has nothing to do with safety of this type of vacation, but more a chance to pull a few items off our bucket list (Ireland in a few months for example).  However, we still check back for deals and to see if new ports get added, just not as often as we should I guess.  Finding that the ports are now gone is a little both dis heartening and a good feeling knowing that it was done in the na...

If you are a member of the Ocean Players Club (Carnival's casino) you may have recently received a little gift in the mail.  They have recently sent members cards (mine was for $25) that are redeemable for play on board.  While I am not sure if the amount goes up or down depending on how much you played in the past while on board, it is a nice gesture on their part to say please come back and gives us more of your money!