JustCruiseMe

My question is why do you even care?

I'm offended by all the people who sole purpose in life is to be offended by every little thing and they think the world evolves just for them.

 

CC cruisers seem to be an easily offended lot.

+10

Geesh in the scheme of life when you are dying are you going to remember who ran onto a full elevator? But you are right, there are a lot here.

I would say no because they offered to put us somewhere and serve us the same food for a week with nothing else to do or see for the same price we wouldn't go. It is a nice addition (14 year old nephew definitely cruises for the food).

I can't say it's for the relaxation because I am dead dog tired when we get home. Probably why we will never get a balcony because we don't stay in the room except to sleep. What's the point?

And it worked out perfectly in case anyone else is interested. We didn't have to pay for the bag because we fly SW. Easy Peasy and we'll def do it again next time.

Was in the casino and had given a dt. mtn dew to a friend and a lady said "I'd kill for a Dt. Mtn Dew about now". I would have given her one but it was almost the last nite and we only had one left and it was earmarked for DH.

So what do they do about passengers that don't get off the ship? We never get off when we port in San Juan.

You know I never thought about it but I am guessing you paid for it just in case you want to go anyway.

PS: I'll never get off in SJU again either.

Can anyone tell me their experience with this? How far is Fort Lauderdale Airport from the Port of Miami? What can I expect to spend (ball park) for transportation to the port? The earliest flight I can find is arriving at FLL at 11:55..is that too late?

 

Thanks for any info!!

Oh no that will be fine. We just got back last weekend. It's a 30 min ride. We used QLS shuttle and they were right on time every time (used them twice). They will be calling you before you call them to let them know you are ready. Very convenient and we had a flight out at 11:15 and we were at the airport by 8am..self disembark.

15.00 pp each way.

Interesting. Where did you find out on your cruise?

Yes, we were just there and I had never thought of it but when told they (carnival) has to pay for every person getting off the ship to the country/port.

Also we put the stock in my and my sister's name so that we (dh and I) and she and her hubby can get each get 100.00 obc per cabin and even if we don't sail together.

Found out on our cruise last month that if they do they have to pay port fees and taxes.

There are just a lot of miserable people out there with too much time on their hands I think. We've only cruised Carnival but I honestly think we could have a good time in a row boat. We are just happy to be on vacation and going somewhere. I wouldn't call it low expectations we just are happy generally.

The OBC you get for having at least 100 shares of stock says you can not use it for gratuities, however, we have done so.

Yes this was our first cruise with shareholder stock and I thought the whole cruise gratuities weren't included but lo and behold we checked our account and they had used it for gratuities. I was a happy camper as my sail and sign bill was only 12.00...

I was on the Valor in January and LOVED it. Another FYI on Barbados. They DO NOT allow anything camoflauge, not even back packs. There was a gentleman turned away that had on shorts. He had to go back to the ship to change. He wasn't happy.

Why no camo? Not that we wear any.

I've had both and I like the new menu better. It might have less choices but evidently the choices are the ones all 4 of us prefer.

Whew I'm glad. I was a bit worried being a new shareholder. Thanks for posting this.

Well I had several more days of menus and pics to post but the negativity and sometimes just plain nastiness of many on here has made me say to myself "why even bother". So I won't. I have specialty restaurant pics also.

Don't be like children and say you don't like something even before you try it and if you have tried and don't like it time for a new cruise line. Leaves more room for us...

I really do wonder why I bother sometimes..Not to mention I requested no postings until I was finished...lol...go figure, even I didn't follow directions.

This doesn't look very appetizing, and certainly not the level we had in 2011. You can just compare to the retro pictures:

 

http://www.embarkandaway.com/cruise-ship-food-photos.html

First off the pics you have show the old way of which each plate has sides included on the plate. This caused lots of waste and is exactly what Carnival, I believe, is trying to get away from. Another thing is your pictures are taken further away so you get the ambiance of the table. I focused on the food. You also have pics of different types of items than we have, salads, etc. That's apples to oranges.

We liked it much better and will be disappointed if the Valor doesn't have it in December. The food to all 4 of us was higher quality and had a much more "home cooked" taste.

I say don't go into it thinking you aren't going to like it before you even taste it and if they don't show your favorites on the menu ask for it, just like the Maitre D said. Everyone likes something different, case in point I prefer the chicken pot pie because it has large chunks of chicken in it but other poster didn't because they wanted more veggies and less chicken.

I say if you don't like the food probably a good time to search for another cruise line you like better. We loved it so we'll go back.

This says St. Thomas but it was really Belize but seems they have the same menu for them both.

If we got repeats like shrimp cocktail I am not reposting. This is out of order.

I didn't know those attached thumbnails would be so tiny. I'll fix them or just do a post with them as jpgs. Sorry 3am time for bed.

Won't let me add any more attachments (?) I'll try to post another with jpg menu.

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I did not like the dessert at all. I am not a dessert person but the "sauce" tasted like warm boxed pudding and it had lumps.

I see my camera started cr@pping out, good thing I changed cameras for further pics. That was luck!

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I am going to get as much as I can uploaded tonite but I'd like to ask everyone to please refrain from posting until I have all seven days so that you and anyone else can come to the top of the thread and see all seven days.

One day we ate in the steak house so although I do have the MDR menu, no pics for that but I did take steak house pictures.

We really enjoyed the new menu. Our dinners never lasted over 1.5 hours. Mostly we had very fast service but once it was slow and I mentioned it to the Maitre D and he said they had one whole cook top line down and seemed frustrated.

Just reiterating that you can still ask for old favorites and the cheese plate is still available.

The Maitre D questioned me about what I was doing and asked how I liked things. He said they wanted feedback as these menus are still in test mode. I told him a few things I didn't care for but I appreciated that he really seemed to want to know.

I am going to upload the menus instead of post them here as I don't think you can read them very well so if you open the attachment in a new window and move it to the side you can see it along with the pictures.

Again I am asking please don't post until I have at least a couple of days up. I will definitely have the whole week up by tomorrow.

On to the food.

For the Table<br><a href="">

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I did some practice on the "test forum" (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=225) since I will be including pics for the first time in my next review. But I can tell you how I did it. I took all the pics from my computer and uploaded them to my Google account (Picasa 3 which is free to use), then I hit the Insert Image icon (looks like an picture of a mountain with a small box in the right hand corner, on the second row of commands-between the insert email & wrap quote icons). When you upload the pictures to your Google account you will be able to view online (then right click to get the properties-copy the URL and insert this into the spot within the insert image icon.) I had to resize a little prior to this step since my pics seems to be rather large.

 

Hope this helps.

Thank you. I see that I am going to have to resize all of them.

OK can someone tell me how to upload a pic from my computer not from a link?

We were never discouraged from ordering sides and I agree the "sides" listed were more for presentation. The menus I have are a little different than the ones I have seen here so far.

I don't know about that specific band but I can tell you this there was a band in the main theater and there was live entertainment everywhere you turned, the pool, the casino, the main theatre, the bars, the atrim, everywhere.

We went western this time (eastern last) and booked southern while on the ship..wooohoo.

Hopefully will be posting tonite. I left the menus at friend's because I don't have my scanner set up and as soon as they email them to me, I'll start on it.

Sorry you didn't like the potpie, just proves everyone is different! Hope you found something you did like..I really loved the flatbread..yum yum and dh had the calamari every nite (but one time ate all but one slice of the flat bread too)..lol..There is 4 slices if you are a table of 2 and 8 if you are a table of 4 or more. Heck we ordered 2 when we dined with friends.

OK just back from LIberty and new menu. We really enjoyed the new menu. I have to get everything together as I took lots of food pics and have copies of the menus.

Spoke with the maitre d <sp> and he said these menus are test menus, nothing is set in stone and if you want something from the old menu just ask for it, most likely they can get it for you.

I asked about the cheese plate and he said "of course" and promptly had one brought out.

We had tablecloths but I did find out the tables aren't in great condition nor are they pretty under there.

So hopefully tonite I'll be able to post a full report with pics of every dinner dining and a few brunch and buffet pics.

Let me just say the chicken pot pie is delicious and huge chunks of white meat chicken in there and the pastry crust was perfect.

Thank you, thank you!