CGYCruisingFamily

In her signature it says they are cruising on the Carnival Sensation.

We always put our boys 5&9 in pants for dinner. On Formal nights, they wear ties with vests (not jackets).

I can not speak to if Carnival allows shorts for kids or not. I will allow the boys to change back into shorts for kids club after dinner (to keep their pants clean for an extra night or two so I don't have to wash them as often) but they always wear long pants.

We will be in port on Aug. 5.

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Following. We are supposed to be there in 2.5 wks.

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I have been wondering the same thing as the OP lately. If we have a 12 pm flight within Europe, will taking the people mover then the bus work for us? What time will we have to depart the ship by to make it in time to the airport?

We are docking overnight in Venice at the end of our cruise and will be able to scope the peoplemover out the night before but I am torn between this way and getting a taxi/limo (transfer company). I refuse to pay $79 US each for our family of 4 that the cruise line wants to charge us. We do have 2 kids and will likely have a couple of bags but think we can handle them on our own.

When we were in the Amsterdam for a 14 night Caribbean we were in K2534 right beside the L cabins. It was absolutely fine. Reasonable size cabin for 4 of us. No real noise issues in it either.

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I know for some, spending on board is no issue. But for others sticking to a budget is better.

I am wondering how members of this community save once on board. What are some of your tips for enjoying but not over indulging?

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We leave in less than 3 wks for our cruise on the NA WUTH OUR 2 kids. The kids just finished their 2nd cruise with HAL last week on the Zuiderdam with my parents. By far they have LOVED Club HAL the most if the kids clubs they have done and we have loved it the most too. One nice thing compared to some other lines is you do not get charged on port days if the kids want to go to CLUB HAL.

I have no idea what your agent is telling you but HAL is for families. Now there might not be hundreds of kids like on other lines but there should be kids.

And btw, our kids go back in September too. If we could have swung it, we would have stayed on for the 24- days (including the 12-nights your are looking at but financially and holiday wise, it just wasn't an option.

Absolutely get a reservation. The last thing you want is a 3 or 4 sailing wait (loss of hours waiting). It is the long weekend and it will be busy. The extra $30 is worth every dime on long weekends.

I have a couple of quick questions. First we are not big wine drinkers and likely won't exceed our amount when first boarding. I am a little unclear still on things. 1) if we buy wine in a port and bring it back on board we pay the corkage when we board? What if we never get around to consuming that wine, do we get the corkage back?

And second, does anyone know if Sangria is considered wine and can be brought on board or is it one that will be taken away and returned at the end of the cruise?

Thanks

Sorry I guess it is a matter of perspective. All of the interior cabins we have travelled in on HAL have been spacious compared to other interior rooms on other lines if equivalent level. I was also referring to what my dad said (who is currently on the Zuiderdam) a room on that level is like. I never meant to mislead anyone rather just saying ours and my parents observations regarding rooms in that location (my parents are 4* and we are 2*).

My parents are on the Zuiderdam right now on an inside cabin on that deck around where the one you are in. They said it is spacious -according to my dad not quite as big as the room we will be in on the NA on deck 1 in a couple of weeks - we are inside on Deck 1 - but comfortable. It looks like there are similar room layouts on the Zuiderdam and NA with the Zuiderdam being slightly smaller and fewer cabins. Why I am trying to say - probably not successfully- is that the inside rooms tend to be somewhat spacious so you will likely be ok.

Another quick question. How was the weather in general? As I said we are going in August and I am already starting to give some thought about what we are going to take. I am not sure if we take jackets or not. I know it is going to be hot but just thinking about the space jackets take (light ones or fleeces).

We are headed to Belgium for a few days afterwards.

We are on the 12-night from Barcelona to Venice (think it's the same as yours given the formal nights you note) in a couple of weeks.

Did the Culinary centre have classes?

How many kids were on board (roughly).

What time did you board in Barcelona?

In Venice, you stay docked over night right? You don't pull out the return early - we have never overnighted in port. How late could you return to the ship?

I had read somewhere on CC, that there was a port workers strike in Marsaille and that HAL changed the stop to Toulon on another ship. Was the strike on when you were there?

What was your favourite port?

In Corfu, what did you do for the day?

I am sure I will have other question but that's about it for now. Thanks for the info especially about the formal nights.

What is Etna Rosso?

We are docking in Taoromina and after looking at this discussion, I am now a little more excited about it.

I had read that Almonds and marzipan are especially known from this area. Does anyone know if this is true?

We haven't done this package in Orlando but I will say Homewood Suites is a great hotel chain. We have stayed in Ft. Lauderdale at the Homewood and had transfers through them which was really great.

We went to Glyfada beach. Nice beach, lots of chairs available to rent and several tavernas to get lunch. We made arrangement when we got off the ship with a taxi driver, to be dropped off and then picked up at a specific time. Had a vey nice beach day.

Any idea how much you paid the driver? We are looking at renting a car which would be 40-50€.

Westjet ROCKS!!!!

You will clear customs in Calgary. Depending on how many flights come in it might be busy but Calgary is still a smaller airport than Vancouver and Chicago so they shouldnt be too bad.

I would suspect the airline will make sure you have enough time for your connection including customs. If by chance you miss your flight, I am sure Westjet will help get you onto the next flight (as a pp said, flights run almost hourly between Calgary and Vancouver).

We sent off our kids this morning with their grandparents for their Alaskan cruise on the Zuiderdam leaving Saturday from Vancouver. We can give you more insight once they are on the ship about number of kids and how the cruise is.

As I said in a pp, our kids love HAL so they will be a little swayed by that :)

Just for further information, any EU citizen who is a holder of a disabled blue badge gets free entry for them and a carer to many things in Rome. My daughter and I visited Rome in January and used this to visit the Colosseum and the Vatican museum. We didn't have to queue which was a godsend for me as I have MS and can't stand for too long. We were also able to skip the queue for St Peters as well.

 

Just remember to take your blue badge!

 

 

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Does anyone know if the free admission for people with disabilities applied to just EU citizens or is it universal? We are in Canada and my mom is disabled but we cant find a clear answer. We know they lifted the EU qualification for children under 12 (?) and our kids are free but my mom was questioning her access.

We might just buy tickets to be sure but with the cost of this trip, the odd nice surprise for free admission would be nice.

Just a heads up too. We have found that once on board, our family can be pretty responsible about what we charge and how much we charge to our account. We are not heavy drinkers of alcohol and try to limit the tours we go on (not saying we dont do tours but they can add up fast). On our last 14 night cruise for the 4 of us including a couple of nice dinners at the Pinnacle and a couple of tours (we generally try to do ones that are not an arm and a leg), our onboard account for 11 nights was about $1100 in which we paid $800 cash so we came home with only about $300 on our cc.

Remember onboard charges can get out of hand easily if you are not aware of what you put on it.

We also found though that HAL has more included on board than many of the other lines which upsell everywhere. We felt the last time we went on NCL we were nickle and dimed ever time we turned around, an extra $10 here, $20 there (especially for specialty restaurants).

I agree with what AlohaPride said, kids under 18 do not need to pay the $60 a day (still comes to $840 for 2 adults for 7 days). Also you can choose to do a cash option if you dont want to put it onto your credit card. But you have to show up with that $840 in cash at the port to prepay against the account. I also think (and will happily be corrected if wrong), that kids under a certain age also dont get "signing/charging" privileges unless you indicate otherwise. We dont give our kids that yet (they are only 5&9 but still too young to have that responsibility. We get soft drink cards and if they kids want a treat, they can ask and we will get it for them.

Final payment for your cruise would be about 90 days prior to sailing. If you pull out before that, you get your money back I believe. After that there are penalties.

I have read about people who continue to monitor their cruises after they book and have successfully had the cruise cost changed if they find a lower price. However be warned, if you are trying to get a room for 4, we have found those prices dont fluctuate very much as there are a limited number. For instance, on our upcoming cruise, the price never dropped below what we booked it at. Often if it is going to go down, it will be after the final payment is due as the cruise line is trying to sell off those rooms. However if those rooms are in low supply, they wont change or possibly even go up slightly. We always have booked at least a year in advance however there are sometime deals to be had (my parents are taking our kids on an Alaskan cruise Saturday which was booked about 2.5 wks ago. For the 4 of them it is about $1900 incl taxes for the week - they got a great deal with 3 and 4th passenger free - just have to pay the taxes).

It's pretty simple. Yes it is just a form you are given on the plane and as others gave said, fill it out on the plane. It takes just a few minutes. You will need to fill in your details, the hotel you are staying at and a declaration regarding goods you are bringing into the country. (The form keeps changing but that is the main jist if it).

Customs at YVR is a large area. If you drive into Canada, the questions should be similar at the customs kiosk at the airport. Do you have Nexus? If so, I think there is an expedited Lin for that. Once you clear there you are good to go. It's pretty easy usually.

Airfares will be cheaper to Calgary after Stampede and hotels mor available too. I just mentioned the dates of Stampede in case that was when you are travelling.

I see you are from Germany. Just FYI, there are direct flights from Frankfurt to Calgary daily, I know as we are taking one this summer.

There is lots to do as well in Calgary and in Banff (I would say especially Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper). It just depends on what you want to see and when you will be here. At the beginning of July every year (July 3-12 next year) is the Calgary Stampede. I am not sure your dates and if that might be during that time.

I am not against the idea of the island but given your timing, it might just be a bit of a stretch to get it all done.

Thanks for the review but I couldn't access the video on my iPad :( because of video owner settings.