snorkelman

Thanks. That clears up my question #2.

Hopefully someone can assist in advice about whether I should buy this now or wait. I am only thinking of waiting in case the price gets cheaper.

That second post came in while I was typing.

The website claims the web price is 15% cheaper than buying the wifi on board.  I have no problem buying in advance. I am specifically asking whether the price will drop in the next 2 months.

I am 61 days until my cruise and the Carnival website says I can buy the premium wi-fi plan for $14.45 per day.  My wife and I will both need to be able for our laptops to connect to wifi to check email daily for work and possibly upload court filings.  This is a minor inconvenience, but the only way that we can go on the cruise.  We can log on separately.

1. Will the current price get any cheaper as the cruise gets closer?

2. Can we just buy one wifi plan and share it over 2 devices?

Any tips? (It is on the carnival Victory)

We arrive with princess bus/train at 4:40 pm and have scheduled a private excursion for 6pm. That should be enough time to allow in case the arrival is late and for us to check into the lodge and drop our bags, right?

Fwiw, we will be doing the white water rafting excursion with shoreexcursions.com

Thanks for the advice everyone. We decided to just keep things simple and enjoy the high quality at the CC for $285. Not worth the hassle, even if we could save some money. Kids plus elderly in the mix and we decide to just keep it simple.

Also looking for a hotel less than USD $200 for June 19. 2 adults & 2 kids.

The metropolitan seems to fit the bill but website seems to suggest only one bed per room - either queen or king. That can't be right, can it?

I need 2 beds to fit the 2 adults & 2 kids. Usually one adult and one kid fit in a bed in hotels in the USA that we visit...

Thanks. I found out that the Cook offers a room for $285 with "no amenities (gym/parking breakfast credit).

Since we will be arriving at 7pm, I think we may just stay at the Marriott inside the airport for $285. 2little time, the Holiday Inn Express is the same price ($280) so it makes no sense to leave the airport, especially since we have a free shuttle the next day from the airport to the Cook, and I assume the airport has a food court.

Any other thoghts?

We are sailing Princess in June 2016 and doing a land portion in addition to the cruise, and I understand that we get one free night at the Hotel Captain Cook. However, we wanted to fly in a day early to make sure that we didn't have any problems, but the TA just informed us that would cost $310 + taxes/fees for one night. Does that sound right?

I am wondering if we waited too long to book our hotel in Anchorage.

Now that they are saving trees and sending these out digitally via email, I wonder how much of a decline they are observing in customers filling them out.

I have always filled out the paper ones, when I was sitting around the morning of disembarking, but I never filled out the ones they email.

Thank you so much for the pictures. Was there a lot of seaweed or is that now gone?

We saw some, but the Kontiki raked it all into a pile so no problem on that part of the beach. I don't really recall it being any type of problem.

Here is the background of a picture that shows a part of the beach.

http://oi61.tinypic.com/iehthd.jpg

I also was on this same cruise. We were told that there were 6200 passengers on this sailing. I suspect that is why service in the MDR was pathetically slow the first night. It got better during the week.

I agree that CATS is simply too long. We left at intermission, and were told that most of the others did too.

I agree that SABOR is great. I also agree that the $20 sampler was enough to feed my wife and I at lunch.

Disembarking sucked - bad. 90 minutes.

I have cruised many time (40+) and this was one of the worst disembarking experiences I have had.

The diamond lounge was nice before/after dinner and also in the morning. \

For the person who asked, I was on the flowrider plenty.

http://oi58.tinypic.com/yngn5.jpg

They have the same restrictions as they have had for the past couple years with regard to most tricks not being allowed on the boogie board.

They do have a new line system in place for the boogie boards. Rather than allowing you to stand INSIDE the rail as they have for the past several years, the line now is on the other side of the rail. If you look in the above picture I linked, you can see a kid rubbing his face...well that kid is at the end of the line.

I took these pics last week

http://oi62.tinypic.com/2cz7gjc.jpg

http://oi58.tinypic.com/bg8dj8.jpg

http://oi61.tinypic.com/2eltdom.jpg

I was there last week. This is really no big deal. When you stand on the beach, looking at the water, only the very far right side is under construction. The vast majority of the beach is normal.

Basically the construction starts on the other side of the Kontiki.

I took these pics last week

http://oi62.tinypic.com/2cz7gjc.jpg

http://oi58.tinypic.com/bg8dj8.jpg

http://oi61.tinypic.com/2eltdom.jpg

FWIW, Kontiki charged us $20 for two lounge chairs with thick cushions, and an umbrella. That gave us access to free wifi, showers and bathrooms.

I was there a few days ago and the picture posted above in #2 accurately reflects the current status of the beach. If you go there for a picture, fine but you will not have a beach to lay on. Head to another location for a sandy beach.

That sounds like they were keeping your kids safe from a possible drowning????

No. Not the floating water toys.

Here, I found a picture.

http://www.thelollipoproad.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/PB170069.jpg

None of the kids who were signed into the kids program were allowed to use that ^^^. The kids program is 2 feet away from this. I had assumed that when I dropped my kids off there, my kids would be having fun in that cool area. Instead, they were sitting on the sand while a guy held a hose near them.

OP, if you don't want to pay the set gratuities for your kids, you will catch flak here on these boards, but yes you can get the auto tips removed.

I believe the OP wanted to avoid buying a WiFi package.

yes, but as a diamond member I know that I will have some free wifi on the ship and I will also probably have some at a port or two.

Keep in mind that you also use FaceTime audio while on Wifi to call anyone that has an iPhone. You don't have to use video if you just need to talk.

yes, and I believe that option may be used in the event we get a poor wifi connection because I understand facetime audio uses less bandwidth.

FWIW I took someone's advice above and did a test right now. I turned cellular data off and sent a text just fine, but I had access to wifi. Then I turned off wifi and tried to send a text to another iphone and it did not go through until the second I turned on wifi again

Doesn't RCI contract with the locals about that? Seems like it is part of the "deals" they make to force thousands of passengers to walk through shops funneling money into the local economy.

I have been charged the $2.49 for calls that I did not answer. In fact, I got charged several minutes (at $2.49 per minute) for calls that I did not answer where the caller left a long voice mail. That's why I mentioned setting the phone to automatically go to voice mail.

Thank you, but how would setting it to automatically go to VM help if you git charged for a long VM? Perhaps I am just too dense to get it. Thanks for your patience.

Thanks all for the help so far.

So if I turn off cellular data and a friend tries to send me a text, usually if they also have att it is in blue and gray, but I know that sometimes if the text fails you can send it a different way and it is green. Is that what you are talking about with the difference between SMS (green) vs. Imessage (blue) ?

...

Note that without cellular data, you ... can make and receive voice calls in this mode. If your phone rings from an incoming call, you will get charged a minimum of $2.49. You may want to set your phone number to automatically go to voice mail.

I am confused about that^^ Do you get charged the two fifty just because someone called or only if you answer? I am completely fine turning off the phone aspect. I occasionally get automated calls such as from a pharmacy telling me a prescription is ready to be picked up. I can recognize such numbers and would simply choose to not answer unless I felt it was a call I was willing to pay for.

We have taken our kids off with us every port but one time. One of the RCI private Islands (I forget which one) has a little kids area and my wife and I dropped the kids off and went 100 yards away in a hammock. We happened to walk by the kids area and were shocked to see the camp counselor holding a hose squirting water into the sand and some kids playing in that. I walked over and asked why none of the kids were actually playing on the water toy area. I was told that they used to do that but because of liability issues they cannot let the kids do that any more unless the parents check the kid out and play there with the kid themselves. I was upset and removed my kids and on a subsequent cruise to that private island we chose to not use the kids program because of this.

That is my sole bad experience with RCI's kids program when it comes to the kids program on a port day.

I plan on using texts as a means for people to contact me if I need to check email or call home. I understand from another post that text messages are $0.50 per text to send on AT&T and Verizon. No data, no WiFi needed.

I have a question about that ^^^

I have AT&T. How do I send/receive texts on my iphone without unwittingly incurring massive roaming charges at sea?

I don't want to get charged for receiving massive amounts of emails just to check if I have any texts.

I had been planning on turning on airplane mode after we set sail.

I always leave "data roaming" off anyway, but I also was planning on (after we set sail) switching "cellular data" off.

Will that allow me to see if I have received any texts, without incurring any other charges?

Do most of you manually check somehow texts while at sea or do you just leave it turned on somehow?

Thanks in advance for the technical help.

P.s. I will plan on using facetime when I have access to free wifi. I believe that I can still accomplish that with the "cellular data" turned off, right?

I have seen it when a group rents out the flowrider and also when individual people pay the $60 or so to get private time in a group of 6 or 8 or whatever. Both scenarios that I have seen involved sports staff assisting and teaching. Maybe they realize they are more likely to get a tip if they do that ;)

Here is my definition of formal - Restaurant Grande, Quantum of the Seas, 12 Nt. Southern caribbean from Bayonne January 2015.

link to review

those are some serious bread sticks.

For some reason, I can't think of good outfits for this. Do women wear nice jeans? Leggings? I'd love to see what you wore.

I have seen many people wear jeans on casual nights.