Native Texan here, so I guess I am just acclimated to the heat. An AC set to 69 degrees sounds unreasonably cold to me unless it is winter time. And these cruisers complained it wouldn't go any lower? 🥶Sheesh! In the summer, our home AC stays at 77 degrees. Anything lower and our electric bill is as much as our mortgage. Okay, I'm exaggerating, but you get the point. 🛳
We live in St. John’s and are not used to the heat. We boarded the Carnival Pride in Dover last August and our room was extremely hot compared to our kids room. We immediately mentioned the difference between rooms to our steward. He sent a work order up the line and within 20 minutes someone was at our room with a temperature gauge and said it was too hot. Shortly after maintenance came by and fixed the issue. We were very impressed. It sure set the tone for a great cruise.
When it is 30° outside, you don't want your room AC to be lower than 23 or 24. Humidity removal is the bigger job in tropical climates, not temperature. 20° (which is 68 in US temperatures) is way too cold. If you have had balcony door open all afternoon, your AC cooling the air once you close door will take much longer because it has to cool all the water in the air till it condensates on the coils and drops out. Once the humidity is removed, then coolng is much more efficient.
Santorini is close to being overwhelmed by tourism. We were there at the beginning of June and only the Marella ships Discovery and Explorer were there but Fira was shoulder to shoulder. Our guide to Akrotiri said they can currently have up to five cruise ships in at the same time, including some of the monster ships. I would not have wanted to be there on a day like that. As it was, at an off-peak time, the queue for the cable car took about 20 minutes. Shelter was minimal and the temperature was in the mid-thirties Celsius (mid-nineties Fahrenheit). Lovely as it and Mykonos are, there is a real need to limit tourism. They’ll start with cruises but will undoubtedly come for other tourists later. The locals are *very* fed up because their kids have no chance of getting a house. Anything that comes on the market is snapped up to be offered as accommodation.
Bidding is fine, as the country is maximizing their potential value. Just like cruise lines charging a crazy premium for their new ships like the ICON!
In addition to the bidding, they should (well beforehand) make sure the amount of visitors doesn't exceed the capability of the area. Limit the numbers, not just charge them! I get the whole concept of trying to make the experience nice, and if you are shoulder to shoulder with too many others, it will be a horrible experience.
Absolutely and cruise ships completely skipping these places is also a possibility. Be careful what you ask for, at some point the cruise ships may find somewhere else to go.
Regarding on bidding / port fees. I'd like to see a rate dependent on the capacity of the ship. The smaller ships get a lower rate compared to the larger ships with 6,000 passengers. After all, they are trying to reduce the tourist impact.
We primarily cruise on Princess and can relate to the people complaining about the air conditioning in cabins not working properly. BTW, while we are not “skinny minnies “ neither are we extremely overweight. We have talked to various stateroom stewards about this and have had technicians come to inspect the rooms. We have actually been told by a stateroom steward that other people keeping their balcony door open can affect others air conditioning. We have had this problem in various staterooms more often than not. We’ve pretty much given up asking for help, and just ask the room steward to make the bed with a thinner blanket and take away the heavy comforter which they are always happy to do. We also make a point of turning our air conditioning down as far as it will go when we leave the room for supper so it’s as cool as possible when we come back for bed. My husband thinks they turn off the air conditioning at some point during the night.
Glad there okay. I love the Carnival Conquest. Monsters of rock 2525, Slaughter is the band, I would go see. Trying to figure out to do this cruise. Bidding is going to send prices through the roof
Mikonos and Santorini are not huge places, they can handle only a certain number of people and might be now victims of their own success. With travel being relatively cheaper than in the past, overtourism is a thing. And overtourism is an instance of the tragedy of the commons. But yeah, let's blame greedy politicians.
I didn't realize that the port of Tampa was growing so much! We lived there a couple years so I'm now more inclined to sail from Tampa if there's an itinerary from Tampa that's appealing to us.
Hi 👋 Don. I’m glad the people on the tour boat was ok. As for the “Themed” cruises. I would love to go one but they are just out of my budget. I just saw where they are having a Love ❤️ Boat one soon. Maybe one day I’ll splurge. Have an awesome day!
Santorini was amazing, I could see people bidding to get in there. I’m not 100% sure Mykonos is also worth a bid, I think we could’ve easily bypassed that island and had just as good trip.
Ok; so I know ships stopping at advertised ports is subject to safety issues, but now there’s a chance that your cruise won’t stop at a particular port because they lost a bid? I can definitely see a lot of confused & angry passengers; if this becomes a reality. Would definitely make me do my homework as to the docking rules & the odds of being able to visit the ports on my itinerary. ❤😢😮🚢
Traffic sucks in Tampa, you can sit there all day just to get into the middle of town. Period. That said I would love to go on one of those cruise ships and sale under the skyway bridge.
I was on the carnival legend in june 2022. we had a suite. The cabin was always hot and humid. Everything absorbed the moisture. boxed candy (our kids had) became one huge lump. I had a box of pepto bismol and the cardboard curled from the moisture. I did talk to our steward when we first got in the cabin. He told me it would cool off after we left port. It never did. I didn't even know I could complain. I do now and it ticks me off. Also nothing dried. nothing. not the hand towels, not the bath towels, so yeah, we had to have new ones every day. And we like to be eco friendly, but i'm not drying off with a damp towel.
I just saw the beautiful gift. I am a long time watcher on tv. So generous. How would I find out I’ve won? Not to familiar with this stuff. I love crusing on Princess. NCL is okay too. I like cruising from San Francisco as I live close by. Love hearing about your health journey as we are close in age. Take care!!
I’ve noticed a lot of Carnival cruiser say bring a portable fan. I haven’t sailed on Carnival in 20 years ( our 1st cruise line). No problem for us on NCL, Royal, MSC & Celebrity… no fans need. #55Club
Good Story on the tour boat passengers glad they were safe. I have sail out of Tampa once and enjoy it like to see them expand. But wonder with the bridge is it possible. I Believe I would try the Margaritaville Islander looks like they did a good job with that ship. Guess I'm with you DON, never heard of any of those bands LOL.
If they want a bidding wars I wonder what they would do if the companies say 'stick it'. There's plenty of other places to go and greed can end up with nothing.
I've heard of several of the acts on the 2025 Monsters of Rock Cruise and even sailed with a few of them on other music charter cruises. The top line acts on that cruise are mostly very old - they've been around since the 80s or early 90s. Perhaps the ones on the undercard are newer and younger.
The quality of air conditioning can very greatly from cabin to cabin. As for Greece I understand stand their thoughts on bidding. I don't see it expanding to air and such. People aren't going to fly there unless they have a place to stay booked and the government already has control of business licenses so it already controls how many rooms are available. These blasted oversized ships are ruining cruising. Way too many people at one time, simply destroys most ports.
Yes, don't complain after the fact. Doesn't give the ship time to address the problem. Love your videos, Don. I have never cruised yet, but I am 50/50 on whether I will or not and your videos are encouraging to where I might. I don't know so many dark ways that things can turn while cruising, I don't know.... we will see.
I have been on four different boats by komodo island and pink beach. None looked as good as the one that had the problem.My friend from Flores helps arrange boat rentals
Did the couple even contact anyone while they were on the cruise? I'd start with my room steward then guest services. I do agree that sometimes the temperature setting on the AC does not reflect how it feels in the room.
This is interesting about Greece since I am planning on going on a group cruise to Greece next year. It is on the Celebrity Infinity in May 2025. I am interested to see what happens.
I would go back to Santorini but not on one of three cruise ships tendering onto the island. The infrastructure can’t handle doubling the island population. An 8 hour port day and we only got about 2 hours to visit. The Santorini sites were too packed to visit.
Bidding! What a stupid money grabbing idea! If I was the Cruiselines I'd say Up Yours we'll go elsewhere! That would cause so many problems on so many levels!
I wonder what would happen if cruise lines decide to spend money on other islands to upgrade them to be cruise ready, what’s going to happen to these two islands…..
Hi Don, there was a story about a year ago that the Port of Tampa was trying to get approval to dredge the channel deeper. Do you know if they received approval?
That couple that said they weren’t cool enough should try silverseas, their newest ships do not show you the temperature, they just show you higher or lower. I was just on the nova and it is a beautiful ship, but there was no way of knowing how cool the room was, I think I if I would’ve had been 400 pounds I’m sure I would’ve said it wasn’t cool enough, luckily ours ours was an Alaska tour and had we really been hot We could’ve just opened the door.
I'm glad you made this video, I can recall when my husband died of cancer, things got hard for me and my son until $76,000 biweekly began rolling in, and my Life went from a homeless nobody to a different person with good things to offer. Thank you, God!
It is the digital market. That's been the secret to this wealth transfer. A lot of folks in the US and abroad are getting so much from it, God has been good to my household. Thank you Jesus
