Jacksonville: The Other, Other Florida Cruise Port Alternative

Jacksonville, Florida – not just a city you drive through on the way to Spring Break anymore. In 2012, 195,000 people embarked on cruises out of the JAXPORT cruise terminal. The only major ship that calls Jacksonville home is the Carnival Fascination. On January 11, 2014, Fascination embarks on a five night Bahamas cruise. You can be on that boat for as low as $199 per person.

The Cruise

The five night Bahamas itinerary embarks from Jacksonville, Florida at 4pm on Saturday, January 11, 2014. Over the cruise, Fascination makes two port calls. After a day at sea, sailing parallel to the Florida coast, the ship stops at Key West, Florida on Monday, January 13 from 7:30am to 3pm.

The following day, Fascination arrives at Nassau, Bahamas. The ship stays docked at the largest city in the Bahamas from 12pm until 8pm, before starting the journey back north to Jacksonville. She arrives home at 8am on Thursday, January 16.

Why Jacksonville? With just one major cruise ship calling the port home, passengers miss out on the massive crowds found further south at ports like Ft. Lauderdale and Miami where more than a handful of large cruise ships can all be pulling out at the same time. For those from Southern Ontario who aren’t so keen on flying, Jacksonville is around 17 hours of drive time by car. A long time, yes but still doable compared to the extra 5 or 6 hours to the Miami area.

Note: Carnival Fascination will add Little Stirrup Cay as a port of call on the five night Bahamas itinerary in the spring of 2014. Little Stirrup Cay is a private island belonging to Carnival Corp.

The Price (note: Carnival prices are in U.S. Dollars)

For this cruise, Carnival has a Super Saver fare and Canadian Residents fare that both start from $199 per person for an inside stateroom. The difference is that if you qualify as a Canadian Resident, you have a limited choice of stateroom. With the Super Saver, you are stuck with what they give you at the time of check-in.

Choices of staterooms for the Canadian Residents deal are limited to the Riviera Deck. The Riviera Deck is deck number four of 14 on this ship and the lowest of ten decks accessible to passengers.

Government taxes and fees for this cruise are $85.56 per person, regardless of stateroom. For two, an inside stateroom can be had for as low as $558 with taxes and fees included. Keep in mind that although there is a Canadian Residents special rate, all Carnival pricing is in USD.

I often pat Carnival on the back for having the lowest rates for present and former Military. However, on this cruise the rates listed above are actually lower than the Military rate.

The Ship 

Carnival Fascination is the only major cruise ship that will call Jacksonville, Florida home in 2014. She is based in the North Florida city through the end of 2014 and beyond. Fascination has the sole duty to alternate between four and five night Bahamas itineraries.

Fascination has been in service since 1994 and is one of eight Carnival Cruise Lines Fantasy Class ships. The eight ships per put in service between 1990 and 1998. All were built by STX Finland in Helsinki.

The ship is small by today’s standards with a gross tonnage of 70,367. Fascination is 855 feet or 261 metres in length and has ten decks accessible to passengers. Capacity is for 2,056 guest with 920 crew members.

If you’d like to find out all the dirty details of what happens below the Riviera Deck, Joshua Kinser is a former Carnival and Princess crew member that wrote a tell-all book about his experience. Check it out – the Kindle version is just $2.99 – the price of a 2 litre bottle of Pepsi. More info here: Chronicles of a Cruise Ship Crew Member.

The Small Print

·Because of the nature of last minute deals, the pricing printed here is fleeting and could change at any time.

·Prices are in Canadian dollars.

·Most meals are included in a typical cruise price but DRINKS ARE NOT!

·Also not included are gratuities.

·Cruise pricing does not include air fare, ground transfers and hotel accommodations before and after the cruise.

Have Cruised? Will Be Cruising? Must Read This.

Depending on perspective, a 950 foot long cruise ship that fits over 3,000 passengers and around 1,200 crew members can be both very large and very small. For a guest on board for a seven night itinerary with 3 or more port calls, the vessel almost always seems like a vast floating city. For a crew member that spends eight months at a time living out of a crawl space in the bowels of the ship, it can seem like floating on a rubber dingy. Joshua Kinser wants to tell you all about it.

Chronicles of a Cruise Ship Crew Member

The full title to Joshua Kinser’s tell-all about life as a cruise ship employee is Chronicles of a Cruise Ship Crew Member: Answers to All the Questions Every Passenger Wants to Ask. I think he does a pretty good job of it. If you’re a Kindle owner, you can find out for yourself at the ridiculous low price of just $2.99 for the 258 page book. That’s the total price, including taxes. It’s a little less than a bottle of water from a vending machine at the cruise port... Not a Kindle owner? Why the hell not?

Kinser worked for five years on cruise ships on the high seas as a drummer. He worked in the lounge bands. He worked in the show bands. Most importantly, Joshua lived the life of a cruise ship employee. His Kindle book came out in 2012 in the spirit of Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, although not quite as racy. Perhaps, Carnival Corporation has a few more high priced lawyers to keep ex-employees in check than Les Halles restaurant in New York City.

The story is unique in that it gives the straight story of the process Kinser endured to get his first job on a cruise ship. It also gives a pretty descriptive view of life below the waterline, as well as, above. Joshua really leaves his mark with what the cruise ship life does to a person in a philosophical way and how it changed him forever.

What you’ll see through Josh’s eyes when reading ‘Chronicles of a Cruise Ship Crew Member’:

·         Living conditions for the crew members (cramped living spaces and poor air quality).

·         Enduring Red Alerts when passengers start getting sick (Norovirus).

·         The crew bar, mess hall and crew deck – the best on-going party on any cruise ship.

·         The vast difference in pay and work hours depending on the job and nationality.

·         Rules. Rules. Rules. How life on a cruise ship resembles the strictest private school.

·         The love/hate relationship between crew and passengers.

Joshua Kinser

Kinser worked for Carnival Cruises Lines and Princess Cruises, both under Carnival Corporation. A talented drummer from Florida, Joshua first made his way onto a cruise ship as a replacement drummer for a lounge band. Unfortunately, that gig ended soon after with the band all getting fired because of the actions of the drummer that he had replaced.

He has now moved on to become an author, as well as a musician. A Travel Guide to Florida’s Gulf Coast is among his portfolio. Kinser has also written fiction books based on life aboard a, you guessed it, cruise ship.

My Take

This book is a must for anyone that has cruised and anyone who is thinking of cruising. Does it give an inside view on how to better enjoy your next cruise? No. What it will do is give you a new appreciation of your Filipino room steward that is working up to 16 hours each day without seeing the sun and getting paid a fraction of the minimum wage for a citizen of the United States or Canada. It will give you a sense of just how much effort is put forth to make the onboard service look effortless.

For me, Joshua went too deeply into the music industry for my liking, but that’s just personal. Others, including my son, would be still asking for more. Also, I felt that Kinser could have gone into some racier details of life down below. As I mentioned above, I felt he was trying for a ‘Kitchen Confidential’ feel but the story was a bit too clean cut for that. Perhaps, there’s more to come?

Seriously though, for $2.99 you’re getting a book that would sell for upwards of $30 in hard cover and at least $10 in paperback. This is a great book and it really does answer the questions that I’m sure everyone that has set foot on a cruise ship has wanted to ask.

 

 

3 Night Celebrity Cruises Bahamas Primer From $119

We previously looked at a five night Celebrity Constellation Western Caribbean cruise. The ship takes a little break from the regular routine on January 13, 2014 to run a three night Bahamas itinerary out of Port Everglades at Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This is a short, quick journey but pricing is great and guest can easily turn around and get back on another cruise ship once the three days are over.

The Cruise

 

Celebrity Constellation embarks from Port Everglades at Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on Monday, January 14, 2014 at 4:30pm. On Tuesday, the ship stops at Coco Cay in the Bahamas. Coco Cay is owned by Royal Caribbean and is historically known as Little Stirrup Cay. The tiny island that measures just 1000 metres by 200 metres is used exclusively by Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Azamara Club. Coco Cay is in the Berry Islands and is between Freeport and Nassau.

On Wednesday, January 15, Constellation moves 55 miles south to Nassau, Bahamas. She stays in port from 8am until 5pm before setting sail for Ft. Lauderdale. The ship docks at Port Everglades at 7am on Thursday, January 16.

There are no ships heading back out to the high seas from Ft. Lauderdale on January 16. However, on January 17, Holland America has both the ms Maasdam and ms Noordam embarking on 10 night cruises to the Eastern and Southern Caribbean.

The amazing capacity of the Port Everglades cruise port is evident on January 18 with seven different large cruise ships filling up with anywhere from 2000 to 5000 passengers each. Princess Cruise Line has the Crown Princess, Emerald Princess and Ruby Princess setting out. Royal Caribbean sends out the massive Oasis of the Seas, Independence of the Seas and Liberty of the Seas. Holland America puts out the ms Westerdam. In other words, if you wanted to extend your three days at sea, there are lots of opportunities.

The Price

The lowest rate for this three night cruise is $119 per person for an inside stateroom. With the additional $83 in government fees and taxes, the total price for two would be $404. Ocean View staterooms can be had for as low as $159 per person and a balcony runs a still reasonable $209 per person.

The Ship

Celebrity Cruises is the premium line of Royal Caribbean International. Celebrity Constellation is the youngest of the four Millennium Class ships in Celebrity’s fleet. Millennium came in 2000, Infinity was put in service in 2001 while Summit and Constellation came last in 2002. All have identical gross tonnage of 91,000 and all are 965 feet or 294 metres long.

The Constellation has eleven decks accessible to passengers. It has a capacity for 2,170 guests and has around 1,000 crew members on board for a nearly 1 to 1 ratio.

The ship was built by Chantiers de L’Atlantique in St. Nazaire, France. After this Bahamas cruise, she returns to her four and five night Western Caribbean rotation until late April, 2014. On April 24, 2014, Constellation embarks on a 15 night Transatlantic Repositioning Cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

The Small Print

·Because of the nature of last minute deals, the pricing printed here is fleeting and could change at any time.

·Prices are in Canadian dollars.

·Most meals are included in a typical cruise price but DRINKS ARE NOT!

·Also not included are gratuities.

·Cruise pricing does not include air fare, ground transfers and hotel accommodations before and after the cruise.