ScottsSweetie

I have a question about the Cosol tour in St. Lucia - since people are in and out of the mudbaths / waterfalls, is everyone wet when getting back into the van? Are there changing facilities anywhere on the tour?

Also, I had assumed (and your review confirmed) that there are vendors at most of the stops along the tour - what kind of wares do they have? I'm guessing cash only? Trying to decide how much extra cash to bring along without bringing too much.

We will probably tour St. Kitts as well and do some of the same stops - are there vendors at most of those places also?

Loved your review - just a few more weeks for me!! :D

Try www.avenue.com. DH's aunt gets a gift card to this store every Christmas from us - it's her favorite store! :)

We are platinum on Carnival and have sailed on one NCL cruise - Norwegian Pearl. Differences:

Rooms a bit smaller on NCL, but that doesn't matter to me at all.

Entertainment better on NCL.

You will see officers EVERYWHERE on NCL - not so much on Carnival (but maybe not on a CTN).

NCL's buffet is 10x better than Carnival - Carnival's dining room food is 10x better than NCL. NCL does do anytime dining very well (we do not care for it on Carnival).

We book cruises based on price, homeport and itinerary - would absolutely book and enjoy another NCL cruise!

Just got off the Fantasy yesterday - a few thoughts to share:

Embark / Disembark went well (disembark much better this time than last time).

The first night in DR (8:15 seating), we were not served bread until we asked for it after our entrée had been served. After that, no more issues.

Our room seemed to stay stuffy the entire week even with the vent wide open (however, that may have been due to having 4 people in the room).

The ship was REALLY crowded, but did not really suffer from long lines anywhere. Did not see a lot of chair hogging, but all chairs were full at all times - it was difficult to find 2 chairs together on any level.

Played lots of trivia - won 2 ships on a stick! :p

Saw one family comedy show and 2 adult comedy shows - all were funny.

This seemed to be a really "young" sailing - most people were families with kids 15 & under or young couples/singles. Probably saw the least amount of older people and scooters that I have ever seen on a cruise. Perhaps that demographic mostly sails during the off season (as do we).

Saw the Grandeur of the Seas (ship with the fire) in Freeport - WOW!

We had a medical emergency onboard and wound up docking in Port Canaveral around 7:30am on Wednesday to offload a passenger to an ambulance. This was sea day for us and did not delay our return to Charleston.

Happy to answer any specific questions!

CARNIVAL FANTASY 5/3/13 BAHAMAS

 

Background: this was my 18th cruise, 16th on Carnival (I’m counting my October B2B on Fantasy as two sailings). I’m a 60-year-old professional, been single for just about forever, so I was solo on this cruise (DD got married just before my B2B).

 

I had a February’s-worth of nights on Fantasy already. I do love the ship and the class in general. I never set out to sail so much on one ship, but I love Charleston, and love being able to drive 5 hours to a port. Yes, I prefer the 7-night itinerary, but I needed a cruise after another very stressful tax season. Normally, the fares from Charleston are pretty high, and I wasn’t even looking for a cruise, but went to Carnival.com one day and just started browsing. When I saw the price, I couldn’t resist.

In my opinion, these are the BEST types of cruises - the surprise ones that just jump out at you!

Love sailing out of Charleston - it's a convenient port, if not a little oddly set-up (as you noted).

I just finished dinner and am stuffed - but that Guy's Burger looks awesome!! :):)

Price, port, and itinerary is normally what drives our decision to book. It is awfully hard to beat past guest prices (specials) when comparing to other lines. We have also sailed RCI and NCL. I can't remember much about the RCI cruise. It was in October right after 9/11 - I remember it being a very subdued cruise and probably would be unfair to compare that with a "normal" cruise. Our NCL cruise was lovely - the biggest difference, in my opinion, was the food. NCL's buffet had many more choices and their food was much better there. In the dining room, on the other hand, the food was "meh". Desserts were especially terrible on NCL. We were SO disappointed in that aspect of our cruise. I would sail them again, however - we would just eat in the buffet every meal! :)

Bath and Body Works also makes a great room spray - very small bottles. I never leave home without one, whether cruising or land vacations. :)

Congratulations to you and your family!!

Happy Cruising! :p

We cruised on the Pearl as our first NCL cruise two years ago - there were many more similarities with CCL than differences. Biggest difference to me was that NCL's buffet is WAY better, but the food in the dining room on CCL is WAY better. I would not hesitate to cruise with them again.

And, I hate to say it, but I absolutely cannot stand the washy-washy people. I'm an adult - I know how to wash my hands with soap and water and do not care to be accosted by them when walking into the buffet. I saw people walk by who said they were just on their way to the back of the ship (not eating), and the washy-washy people just about tackled them to the ground in order to spray them.

Music Degree was on the Fantasy earlier this month. That doesn't fit your criteria, as that does 4- 5- and 6-days, but if you're just looking to find out the names of other bands, there you go. And they could move around between now and when you're looking to cruise.

 

They were pretty decent, I thought. We danced to them at the deck party. They also played in the Cats Lounge, and when they said something about it being Valentine's Day, someone shouted out "Wonderful Tonight" and they just started playing it. With a lot of the performers on the ships these days, if you request a specific song, they have to flip through the song book to find it, or just tell you they don't play that one.

 

They also appeared as the Beatles in the production show "Ticket to Ride."

We enjoyed Music Degree also (we were on Fantasy last week of Jan). We saw them first at the deck party, and they were okay, but we were really impressed when we saw them in the lounge. They played Rush, Queen, Journey (gotta fight thru those tough times, LOL!), etc. This was the last night of the cruise, and we had a private show through almost their first set.

We also enjoyed them in the production show.

These guys are a very close second to Blood Power, who remains our favorite Carnival band!! We have often joked about finding out where Blood Power is and picking our next cruise in that way. :p

The thing that strikes me about looking at your beautiful pictures is that most restaurants advertise pictures of their food on television and in print ads that look nothing like the food you actually get when you order it at their restaurant. This food is all beautiful, and it is exactly what you are eating - no embellishment needed!

Oh, I am so jealous. We love that band!

DH and I (+kids) were on the Imagination the first week in June. We also were displaced from a fall cruise, because we also don't like cruising on ships full of kids (our kids have a fall break the 3rd week in September and that's when we like to go). It wasn't too bad this week - we actually sailed on May 31 - so no kid issues on our cruise.

We did, however, notice in our dining room the late arrivals almost every night. The first night, someone from the table behind us kept getting up, walking to the middle so she could see the door, looking at her watch, and sitting back down. This went on for about 25 minutes until the people she was waiting for arrived at about 8:40. On elegant night, the ENTIRE table for 10 next to us arrived at 8:45. Now, when people don't dress on elegant night, it does not effect me. But when people show up 30 minutes late and I am sharing their waiter then it DOES have an effect on my service. I wish they would have a deadline for seating people!!

Lastly, we had similar room on the Elation a few years ago - loved sitting in the window looking at the wake, and loved the privacy of being on that back hall! :)

Hotwire - Paid $54.00 PER NIGHT for two nights at Holiday Inn (3 star) in Miami for Memorial Day Weekend (sailing on 5/31). Can't believe this price for a Sat & Sun during holiday weekend!

Hi ya'll! I just found this thread. As you can see, we're in Woodstock. Scheduled to cruise again this fall on the Legend. Woo-hoo!

Here are a couple of my favs - 1st one is self explanatory. 2nd one is the Liberty leaving St. Thomas (we were on the Glory). If you look closely, you can see the full moon behind the clouds above the bow of the ship (while the sun was still out).

Did you cruise on the Glory? I found 3 paperbacks and a hardbound book and read them all!

Why, as a matter of fact, I did. You're welcome!! :p

The two books by Ken Follett, "The Pillars of the Earth" and "World Without End". The first is about a man who builds cathedrals in Europe in the 12th century, and the second book picks up in the same area 200 years later. I read the first and loved it - just got the 2nd and haven't started it yet - hoping it's as good as the first.

Just a side note to this thread - I normally go to my local goodwill store and look for books to bring and read. Paperbacks are .75 each, so even if I have the book at home, I will buy one for this price - that way, if it gets wet, suntan lotion gets on it, or I forget it somewhere on ship - no biggie. Also, if it's a book I've never read before, if I don't like it enough to re-read then I leave it on the ship. Last cruise I took 5 or 6 paperbacks and not one of them came back with me.

We used Hilton Honors Points to cruise last September on the Ecstasy. Points paid for an ocean view room (6A). I think that it included the port fees and taxes, or maybe just the port fees. We had to add tips. We also purchased 4A across the hall for the 4 kiddies. It's not a great value to use the points, as it takes so many, but it was really the only way we would ever afford to take all 6 of us on a cruise.

I just checked the rewards recently - it seems that they have limited the dates available this year. Last year, there were no limits listed on the website - now, you have to pick from their list of weeks. Doesn't seem to be as flexible as it used to be.

I just finished reading a great book recommended by DS that he read in Lit this year - "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel. I'll warn you that it starts out a little slow, but if you can get past the first 50 pages or so it is a great book.

Our first cruise was on the Regent Rainbow in 1994. We went with another couple, had a great time, and have loved cruising ever since! The maitre'de was named Giseppe - whenever he would come over the loudspeaker at dinner time, he ended with "Have a very sunny day" in a VERY thick french accent. We still repeat this saying all these years later!