LRene

Who did you book the Moko Jumbie to Nevis with Pereira Tours ? About how much was it? Thanks for your information :) !

$560 for the first 6 people / $85 for each additional for a private charter. Just contact Liz: lizpereiratours at yahoo dot com.

Liz is great at arranging whatever you might want to do on St. Kitts. Even if it's just a beach day you want, let her arrange your transportation, chairs, umbrella...whatever. We have used her services at least three times (maybe four) and always have a wonderful day. :)

I highly recommend the Moko Jumbie power catamaran to Nevis if you have a group of 6 or more. It was a really great day, snorkeling, hanging out on the beach in Nevis, eating lunch on the boat (plenty of shade) with the rum punch and other drinks flowing. Really great crew!! We had 8 adults and were plenty comfortable on the boat. Everyone enjoyed their day on St. Kitts!

The vape cloud is the same stuff coming out of the fog machine at the ovation theater. Propoline glycol (sp).

 

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Exactly. The liquid in an ecig has up to four ingredients. Propylene Glycol (PG) which is considered safe by the FDA and used in many medicines, probably your vitamins as well as a ton of cosmetics (absorbed through your skin). Vegetable glycerin (VG) is naturally sweet and is used most likely in your toothpaste, many FOOD products as well as those fog machines in the theater.

Then there is water and flavorings. Anyone want to dispute those? And lastly nicotine, chosen at various levels by the vaper and if used to quit smoking, is hopefully reduced to zero on a step-down basis. if present, the nicotine is absorbed in the mouth and nasal passages (mostly) and the amount expelled into the air is extremely minimal at best. There is no odor, no fire, no mess, no other chemicals.

Ecigs have a HUGELY successful rate in smoking cessation and for the smoker, they are a thousand chemicals better for them as well as the people around them. So throw all the science out there you want, but ecigs, although not known if they are 100% safe for the inhaler, are not hurting someone 50 yards away.

In the OP's case, I would have congratulated the person vaping in the theater. Rules or not, it's not my place to enforce rules that are, consequently, unsubstantiated to begin with.

Just off the Dream this morning and It's exactly $249 for a couple. One thing I'd recommend is that you choose a cabin mid-ship or forward. You get to the spa via the forward elevators. That trek to the spa from the aft is quite a distance. We found we used it longer on sea days and a few mornings first thing but it was too hard to find enough time otherwise to probably get our money's worth. Loved the thalassotherapy pool and the aroma steam room though!

Does anyone remember when Carnival used to provide a flyer in your cabin trying to sell you the mattress sets they use? They had some name for them like "Cloud" something or other. Not any more! Having cruised with Carnival 26 times, over 14 years, I can assure you these are not the same mattresses. Like many other items they became victims of cost reduction. I read something about 3-4 years ago which contained a statement from Carnival they were still buying mattresses from the same supplier they had been buying from for years and that there was no change in the quality of the bedding. I envisioned a bit of "nose growth" with that one!!!

I 100% agree with you on that one. After 30 cruises on Carnival they are NOT the same mattresses they used to have and sell as comfort bedding. They've denied and denied changing but too many people noticed. I now find them either rock hard or worn out most of the time. The only thing the cabin stewards can do is put another comforter under the bottom sheet to try to make it a little better. No more egg crates on most ships.

For $25, it's not worth the headache of having to do everything through the TA.

If they are wine drinkers at all, I'd go with a nice bottle of wine or champagne which will cost less than a lot of the other options. The last thing I'd want is more food on a cruise ship. The cabin decorations get in the way after the first day. Other than that, the drinks and cooler option would be my choice.

Try the Indian food. It's awesome, authentic and downright good. I order it on the side of my entree and share it. Good stuff you won't find everywhere.

The loss of perks is not your TA's fault. It's Carnivals. They put the screws to TA's a while back and regulated what they can give which is basically $25, I believe. We never use one for Carnival but always do for Celebrity where we get major perks and better pricing.

We've had several and are not really fans unless it's an aft wrap on a Spirit class ship. I think an aft in Alaska or New England/Canada is nice and we had one in Europe once that was OK but they're miserable in the Caribbean. For all the reasons previously stated. With the exception of the first time we booked one, every other time we've had one it's been due to an upgrade after final payment. Now, we're booked in one on a Celebrity ship (and didn't start out in that cabin!) but those balconies are much larger and have a canopy awning over a lot of it. I'll still miss the breeze.

Nachi Cocum, Mr. Sancho's, Passion island or Paradise Beach are all better than Playa Mia.

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They have GF buns at Guy's burger joint and OMG are they ever horrible! Way better without the bun. And all of the sauces at the wok have soy sauce in them. The scrambled eggs (and omelette mix) on the buffet have gluten and if you're very sensitive, you'll want to ask if the fries have a dedicated fryer. On ships where they still do breaded chicken at the grill, they have been known to use the same one.

As for desserts, the ice cream and yogurt mixes in the machines are safe. They will make GF desserts in the MDR. I wouldn't trust much of any desserts on the buffet.

There is red wine vinegar on the salad bar. They won't care if you want to bring on some of your own condiments.

For quiet, go Celebrity. No comparison.

Our current favorite is Celebrity. We have gotten fabulous prices that include their beverage packages and longer cruises on some of the prettiest ships at sea. We've sailed NCL, RCL, and HAL also but Celebrity fits our current lifestyle the most. That's not to say we won't ever sail Carnival because we will but even though we're now Diamond, I don't really have a strong desire to book anything. Variety is the spice of life! :)

We were asked to switch on board by the party in the other cabin. We were next to friends but once onboard, discovered there was a permanent divider between our balconies so no hope of opening. We were just going to live with it when the party on the other side of our friends asked if we'd be interested in switching because her daughter was on the other side of us. Absolutely!! We both went to guest services and were switched in 2 minutes.

The key to doing that is to make sure you are there when they arrive. If we had started any unpacking, we probably wouldn't have bothered.

Awesome cabin! Best location, great balcony, very quiet. It's one of our favorites. You got lucky!!

I've done my last 10 cruises or so after a Celiac diagnosis. Carnival does a pretty good job with it. They've improved their bread a GREAT deal recently. The pizza is....meh. It takes about 15 minutes for them to make.

I've never gotten a sandwich at the deli but I did get a guys burger on a GF bun and it was REAL bad. Keep in mind, you will need to pre-order for the dining room for breakfast, lunch or dinner. At breakfast you can get pancakes or French toast. I haven't gotten them lately because I now try to stay away from all grains. For dessert, I sometimes order the banana split from the kids menu. There are other flavors of ice cream every day in the dining room also. And they will make the chocolate melting cake (pre-order) or creme brûlée.

I've asked room service several times and have always been told no. Frankly, room service is the one thing Carnival falls short on compared to ordering GF items on other cruise lines. Other than a vegetable sticks, fruit or yogurt, there's nothing to order.

The grills close early on almost all ships so no where to get fries late at night.

They do ask. I'm also Celiac. Unfortunately, I did the Chef's table many times before being diagnosed a few years ago so I never experienced it. But I do remember them asking us the night before when the chef visited our table. I'm not sure they still do that however, and I know they don't if you have anytime dining. In that case, you'd need to speak to the Maître 'd.

Although you book ahead of time, Tours Plaza is very accommodating and very quick to respond to emails. Even if it's close to the time for your cruise, they will likely be able to squeeze you in for the day.

Enjoy your time in Cozumel! :)

They're usually full but it's not very warm down here! I remember boarding the Fantasy in NOLA once in jeans, sweatshirt and sneakers freezing to death and sitting out on deck in the sun next to a lady in a bikini. LOL For most Southerners, February is still cold. But those from the North don't seem to think so!

It took me years to talk the DH into going to Alaska. He kept saying it was too cold. This year, we'll be back in Alaska for 10 days and we won't do a cruise at all. Land trip all the way. We've sailed 3 different cruise lines up there including Carnival.

I found the dining room to also be more casual. They will serve some of the local fish at times. I believe they even had casual anytime dining for everyone a night or two due to later port times. The scenery is jaw dropping. The weather is totally unpredictable. We've gone in July and been cold and gone in early June and worn shorts. I liked Michelle, the naturalist, and thought she was very informative. Some of the other lines have none and then we had one that was just plain wrong on some of the stuff he reported.

Take advantage of laundry while there to cut down on some of the packing. There is so much info to research, that first trip can be overwhelming. We now just go blend in with the locals. I totally agree with Budget Queen that the Seattle itineraries don't get to the really beautiful parts of the state. We enjoy the Kenai area the most and can't wait to be back there in June!

My DH got the offer. He also always gets the email surveys. I never have. Sometimes we fill them out and sometimes we don't. We've never received an upgrade offer nor an upsell call. We have 30+ cruises on CCL, nothing booked in the future as we mostly sail Celebrity now, and our last carnival cruise was only 4 months ago.

We don't gamble, prepay our gratuities, are shareholders of Carnival Corp., don't buy photos or spend money in the gift shop, sometimes buy a wine package and usually eat once in the steakhouse. We never book Carnival excursions. Our S&S bill is sometimes a couple hundred, sometimes less than $5 and sometimes they owe us money in the end.

We book balcony cabins and are mid-50's. We've booked as part of a group maybe 3 or 4 times.

I don't see any real pattern to the offers and no one else in our family nor any of our friends received it.

We have only used Tours Plaza and have known them for years. Very dependable and a great tour of the island. We've enjoyed a few trips around the island with Gerry and have taken quite a few other people who all agreed it was the best day in Cozumel. :) Any of their drivers would be good (I'm partial to Gerry though) and they're a reputable company. There is so much to see and do outside of the normal touristy areas.

http://www.toursplaza.com/

If you've done a lot of the normal things on the island, I highly recommend doing a tour with them to see the rest of beautiful Cozumel!

So glad Shelby found things she liked. It has to be harder for a child than an adult Celiac like me. Carnival changed their bread recipe recently and it is 100 times better than it used to be so I'm with Shelby on that one! All in all, they do a pretty good job on Carnival.

Sorry to hear the face painting caused a problem. I'd be a bit ticked off about that since they were told it could be an issue.

My DH got the letter. I didn't. We both have exactly 198 days sailed on Carnival, never have much of a shipboard account, don't gamble. We last sailed in November but have nothing booked with them in the future. He always gets the email survey also and I never have. Who knows what crystal ball they use??

We don't spend enough money to be a desirable candidate for Carnival and we actually prefer other lines now anyway. Unfortunately, even a free cruise doesn't tempt me a whole lot but maybe it's because we just got home yesterday from a 10 day cruise and the laundry isn't even done!