Booking Our First Cruise... Help with the Details Please?

[AMae]

Hi all! Me and my husband are getting ready to book our first cruise. I have read a whole bunch about the different ports of call and narrowed it down to a specific western caribbean itinerary that I want. However, there are two cruises going on that same itinerary within the same week, both with Carnival. So...

First, would you recommend Carnival to two mid-twenties young adults? We are the type who very much want to be doing things on our vacation - sitting around the pool is great for a little bit but we don't want to spend all week doing that.

Next, the two ships are the Legend and the Liberty. Does anyone have experience with both of these and have an opinion on which is better? I understand that the Liberty has more passengers... does it seem crowded? And does that make for a longer wait when tendering? Liberty leaves from Miami and Legend leaves from Tampa.

Would you recommend booking shore excursions through Carnival or independently?

Unfortunately the time that we can both get off of work for this trip is in August... what would happen in the event of a hurricane?


I'm super excited about the cruise but there's SO many options and it's a little bit overwhelming since I haven't been on one before. Any other advice is appreciated. Thanks!

[MCPayne]

What are your ports of call? Since it's the Western Caribbean, I'm assuming they're Grand Cayman, and Cozumel?

Seeing as how this is your first cruise, I would book with a travel agent, and not through Carnival when it comes to booking your cruise, if you haven't done that already. As far as excursions, I would book through Carnival, since this is your first cruise, and you are not familiar with the ports. If Jamaica is in your plans, then I definitely would book through the ship, and not on your own. Cozumel is safe to do on your own, but it depends on what you want to do. Both times I went there, I just took a cab to a beach club, and had a beach day. Carnival is a great choice for your age group, and I think you may find lots of young adults on the cruise.

As far as weather, safety is the #1 priority of all the cruise lines. Should hurricanes interfere with a port, they will either revise the ports of call so they can miss the hurricane, or if they have to, skip the port all together. This happened to me last time. The weather was bad in Grand Cayman, and it was deemed too dangerous for the tenders to run passengers ashore, so they cancelled the port. If this happens, any excursions you booked through the ship will get refunded by means of an onboard credit. Any excursions that you booked independently, get in touch with the tour operator to see what their refund policy is because of bad weather.

I know I mentioned tenders before. This is because in Grand Cayman, the water is too shallow near the shore for ships to dock, so they must anchor out in the harbor, and use tenders, or small ferry boats to ferry passengers to shore.

Bon voyage!

[Wheels87]

I know that I already answered some of your questions in the other thread, but since you asked about excursions, I wanted to give you a tip.

If you and your husband are a bit adventurous and willing to spend $200, I would recommend taking the Twister Boat to Isla Pasion while in Cozumel. It is a great way to see a good bit of the beautiful island from the water and Isla Pasion (Passion Island) is a really beautiful place. Plus it is all inclusive so there is free food and of course, all you can drink is also included.

Have fun!

Brad

[Paxman]

Hi Guys,
You need RCCL so there is more to do for energetic people and more varied due to ship size. Legend is 85k tons whereas RCCL Freedom of the Seas for example is just shy of 160k tons with boardwalks and many more entertaining features. the private island in ladabee has great fun activities too.
email me if you want me to help!