Ask the Locals – Cruising tip!

Imagine you are standing on the top of a Twelve story building as it is floating out to sea.  You are on a Cruise Ship and you are not alone, you have 2,000 neighbors.  You say hello to the person standing next to you and he informs you that this is his eleventh Cruise.  He then tells you that each time he leaves port it feels like his first.

Cruise ships are amazing, not only are the big and have everything your heart could desire in one location but they have tons of power and control.   They make their own water and recycle just about everything else.

My wife and I were lucky enough to have a room on the 1oth floor of  “Victory” (the name of our ship in the Carnival fleet) and I would recommend that level to anyone.  Some friends we met on the cruise had a room on the second floor.  Not only was their room on a lower level of the boat, but it was also the front most room, so it was very loud with the crash and boom of the waves hitting the ship.  It was very powerful.  Luckily they were newly weds and said they didn’t need a lot of sleep.

So how did we get such a great room?  Well it was the perk that our awesome travel agent got for us.  She was an amazingly friendly woman with a wealth of knowledge about the travel industry.  We are also outgoing and friendly people so the two of us working and chatting together had so much fun as we planned this vacation.  I think this worked to our advantage because she in turn really went the extra mile for us, getting us perks and advantages that we would never have gotten without her assistance.

I think this is a great tip for everyone to apply when working with anyone in the service industry.  Be especially nice to everyone, you never know when you will be able to help them and in return when they will be able to help you.   This is really what happened with us.  She hooked us up with lots of extras that we didn’t know were extras until the cruise was underway or even until it was over.

One example of an exemplary service that you should request if your travel agent does not offer it to you is the ability to fly into the airport a day ahead and get checked into the ship at your Hotel.  By checking into the ship from the hotel it enables you to skip all of the check in lines.  All you have to do is walk up and go through security.  We literally were able to walk around 2,000 people that were taking the same Cruise.

Something to keep in mind is all the photo opportunities that will happen on board.  The Ship has crew that walk around just taking pictures of cruisers.  They even have a Photo day where several backgrounds are set up and you go in your nice suits and dresses and get lots of pictures taken.  Then at the end of the cruise you get to pick the ones you want and buy them from the Photo Gallery.

We were on our way to the Caribbean and one definite item on our trip agenda was snorkeling.  In looking at the ship info we quickly realized that spending the extra money for items we already owned was not high on our priority’s so we decided to take our own snorkeling gear with us.  One suitcase had our travel supplies like clothes and accessories and the other had our masks and fins.

I learned years ago while I was going through my scuba diving certification classes that poor gear can ruin your fun.  I did not want this to happen on my vacation.  The second way I ensured that we had a great place to go snorkeling was by asking the locals for good spots to swim and dive.  They know and are happy to help give you a ride in their taxis.  We asked one such fellow about a certain beach that the Cruise had recommended (they also wanted 60 bucks a person for that tour) and he said it was a poor area to snorkel.  It did not have any coral or good sea life to see.  He then suggested a better area that was on the other side of the island.  We agreed and paid our 7 bucks per person and jumped in his Volkswagen Van with some other Tourists.  During the drive to the beach he gave us a tour as he provided tons of awesome detail about the island.  It was like our own personal tour but a less expensive version and probably more accurate.  Where else are you going to get a tour that points out every detail… even that they have a Napa Auto Parts store?

When we got to the beach, we found a little island off of the bigger island.  It was so close that my wife and I gave our stuff to our friends and we swam to the island while they paid the fee and took the small ferry boat (three bucks round trip).  It was great our own private beach!  Well private for about one hour and then the rest of the tourists started showing up and the beach got full.  The island was so small that it didn’t accommodate to many people and was still really nice.  It had a great little garden with streams and birds, it was really cool.  The snorkeling was great also, warm water and great coral and wildlife to see.  Like the barracuda that scared my wife out of the water.  They say not to wear shiny objects like rings or necklace because the barracuda will bit at them.  When we saw our friend barracuda hanging out by us we could not figure out why he seemed interested in us.  We had had taken off all our jewelry.  I was trying to figure it out when I noticed the rainbow like colors sparkling off of the under water camera that was strapped to my wrist.  As soon as I got rid of the camera I never saw the barracuda again.  Check out this camera Sanyo Xacti VPC-E1 6MP Waterproof MPEG4 Camcorder with 5x Optical Zoom (Blue), looks like it would be less sparkly.

Once we returned to the boat we talked with the other couples at our dinner table and found out they went snorkeling on the tour that the Ship had provided and  saw no fish, no coral, nothing but sand.  We were extremely glad that we were able to score such good local information.

When in doubt ask a local.  That is the Tip of the day!

I will get into more Cruising adventures in future posts!  Have a great day.

Lord out.

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