Summer Jubilee: Planning
Booking
Last year I wanted to book a late August Celebration cruise and the price doubled between February and April. This booking was a kneejerk reaction to that huge price increase.
That was before I knew I was going to branch off into Norwegian and Princess. This past April when I was researching cruises for the second half of this year, I found I could’ve booked the new Sun Princess for about the same price. It would have come out to be a better deal when you factor in Princess Plus including drinks, Wifi, and gratuities while being still cheaper than the cost of Cheers alone. It probably evens out when you add in the plane ticket but I’d rather be trying out Sun Princess this week.
When I started looking to add another cruise for the summer I realized I hamstrung myself with the week I picked for this one. The good prices on most cruises are the last two weeks of August and the first week of September. This one is right in the middle so it would be impossible for me to have another cruise the week before or after this unless the ship was leaving from Galveston. At one point I considered making this a back-to-back. But at that point I would’ve had to switch rooms and move down at least four floors. If I do a back-to-back, I want to be able to stay in the same room. That’s when I finally decided to just return to Alaska earlier in the month.
I didn’t get any deals on this booking. It will be the most expensive cruise I’ve ever been on other than my 15-day transatlantic on Venezia last year.
I paid for the cruise with Carnival gift cards which saved 10% and I received $125 cruise cash from my travel agent. That will cover the gratuities. I will also have $100 onboard credit as a Carnival stock holder.
Pre-Cruise Purchases
I purchased Cheers and WiFi ahead of the WiFi price increase last year. I saved 10% using Carnival gift cards.
Hotel
I’m going to be arriving pretty late the night before the cruise. I like to stay just off of the interstate in Webster which is a 30-minute drive to the port. This time I got the Hilton Garden Inn right where I like to be in Webster for $93 ($106 after tax).
Parking
I was pretty pleased with my Discount Cruise Parking experience the last two times I cruised from Galveston. I went ahead and booked it again. This time it cost $109. That’s up $17 in six months. I took a look and all of the lots went up again. You can explore all parking options at Galveston Cruise Parking.
Ports
Cozumel
We are visiting ports I have been to many times. Cozumel is the port I have been to the most. The one thing I was really excited about was a seasonal excursion I normally don’t have an opportunity to book since I usually go to Mexico when it’s cooler. I locked it in the Save a Sea Turtle excursion 16 months before the cruise. This is where you go out to the nesting beach on the east side and help the baby sea turtles get out of their hole. Three weeks before the cruise I got a notification that the excursion was canceled.
I tried to go around Carnival to see if there was anyway to get out there but it looks like there isn’t.
I decided to look at excursions and found the Lucha Libra Wrestling Show which I don’t remember seeing in past years. I think it’s a new excursion. It only has four reviews. All of them rated it five stars. It costs $80 on Carnival and $70 through other companies.
I know I can get 10% back on excursions using my Carnival Mastercard and using the above discount I should be able to get a total of 25% back and get the excursion for $60. Since I had onboard credit available, I used that instead and expect to get about $12 refunded with the 15% discount.
Costa Maya
The last tour I want to do in Costa Maya is Dzibanche Mayan Ruins. It’s not offered through the cruise line and once again The Native Choice says it is not feasible for my port time. Hopefully one of these days I’ll be in port long enough to do it.
Roatan
Roatan is just going to be a beach day for me as usual.
