Salem615

We stayed in the suite on our cruise in October. I am afraid it was a bad idea as now that is the only way I want to cruise! I loved the room and the extra space and the shower/tub combo was great. 

We do not do the cheers package either. Neither of us are big drinkers. We do not drink specialty coffees and my husband usually likes a few beers or the drink of the day. I usually have a couple of cocktails and I'm set. 

On 10/27/2018 at 5:17 AM, Purvis1231 said:

Is it really that hot in October? I think this lady may have some other medical problem that caused her fainting. 

Yes it was really hot in October. It was a good 90 degrees the day we sailed. I have never fainted before and I am used to hot weather. We travel to Florida quite often and visited Hawaii this year. I have seen my doctor and I have no underlying issues. Simple fact  - it was way too hot and way too many people clustered in a small space for too long. 

On 10/27/2018 at 9:23 PM, Havingfun2010 said:

I don’t understand the complaints.  Muster is to save lives so take it seriously and stop complaining about it. Plus if it’s too hot than sail in January 

I don't understand this statement.  I do take safety seriously. I get muster is important. Unfortunately I see a lot of people not take it seriously and a lot of people who have enjoyed the bar too much before muster. Being squashed in like sardines and not being able to hear what is being said the whole drill becomes pointless. There has to be a better way. 

As for January - I don't have that option. 

On 10/24/2018 at 9:23 PM, NWACruiser said:

The muster drill on the Ecstasy was started indoors.  Once the announcements were completed, we went outside to the station.  

I like that idea. It seems to make more sense.

On 10/24/2018 at 3:02 PM, kellycambp said:

You can also request to attend the disabled muster drill. My husband has a heart condition and didn’t feel comfortable standing outside for a long time in the heat. They held the disabled muster in the dining room.

This is what I plan to do next time we cruise. I will also be looking into ships that do not do outside drills. 

I have not done Cheers as of yet and so far have not drank enough to justify the cost.  We do not drink any specialty coffees and my husband is mainly a beer drinker with an occasional cocktail and I usually do 2 frozen drinks and an occasional mimosa per day. I usually drink soda or water or the lemonade on the ship and we usually take cruises that are port intensive so we are off the ship more than we are on the ship. 

I have yet to be surprised by the bill at the end. 

If you drink a lot of soda the soda package is a great deal. 

57 minutes ago, Joebucks said:

Wishful thinking, but the muster drill process is outdated. I wish it was when you board, you just have to check in with your muster station area with your sign and sail card to know where it is at. Perhaps you can also opt to complete an online certification beforehand and/or only have to do it once for repeat cruisers.

 

The people there aren't listening. This is what happens with regulations.

I agree. Nobody pays any attention and it is so crowded and noisy that you can't really hear anything. Last year we were on a cruise and there was a very loud person who was trying to be the life of the party during the drill. Nobody could get him to settle down. Being you can't hear and see what is going on and being that many people are already in party mode I can't imagine what would happen if there was a real emergency! I have a feeling it would be chaos!

9 minutes ago, JaiJae said:

This is a great topic to address! My 13 yr old son fainted during the muster drill as well. He’s never had any major health issues and never fainted before. My mom also had to go in do to the heat. It was a very scary experience. This was on the Carnival Valor this past June. There has to be a change in the process before something drastic happens to a passenger. 

Yes - It was very scary. My poor husband said I was unresponsive for a few minutes and a nurse behind us was trying to help. 

I did not know about the locking your knees thing. Good advice.

I do have an appointment with my Dr. just to follow up and I am going to figure out if I can stay inside if the next cruise has an outside muster and we are in intense heat.

I have a hard time with muster as I feel hardly anyone pays any attention and there are a lot of people who have already been partying and can delay the process even more. 

We cruised on Pride of America in May and it was such a simple and easy process. We met in one of the wine bars and were done in 20 minutes. 

I do hope others are careful when doing the outside drills. Stay hydrated and be aware of your body. If you feel "off" let someone know. I am not a fainter and have been a lot of places where it is intense and this never happened before. 

We sailed on the Liberty in Mid October. I really think it is time to do something about the outside muster drill in the blazing heat before someone gets seriously ill or injured.

We boarded the ship around 11:30 and went to our room to drop off our bags and then went to the lido deck for lunch and a couple of drinks. It was really hot out so we decided to go back to our suite and relax and unpack if our bags were there. We were in the room for a few hours and my husband napped and I relaxed and read for a bit. We had a lot of evening plans and wanted to be ready to go. 

The muster started and we were on deck 4. There was already a lot of people lined up and it was as usual crazy. There was a man in front of us who really enjoyed the bar before the drill and his wife was trying to keep him under control. (It was kind of amusing).  The staff was trying to control the crowd and get everyone checked in. As all this was going on I started to get really warm. It was so hot out and we were in a crowd of people. I could feel myself getting shaky and clammy and I leaned a bit on my husband and was hoping the drill would be over soon. Next thing I knew my husband was calling my name. I passed out due to the heat. I never pass out so I was very startled by what had happened. 

A staff member was trying to help us up as my husband went down with me to keep me from hurting myself. As we were being led out of the crowd I felt weak and disoriented and I passed out again.  Staff was trying to get me water and wheelchair but with the throngs of people it was not easy. They did manage a wheelchair and I was being led out along with many other people as the drill was over. It was a chaotic mess. Nobody would let us through and I could feel myself slipping again. 

We made it to the inside and my husband wanted me to see medical. Well trying to get a wheelchair through hundreds of people was no easy task. Everyone was set on getting to where they needed to go. It was a bit scary and upsetting. 

We did get to medical finally but after talking to the nurse and finding out I had to pay $125 I decided to just go back to the room and cool off in my suite with water and ice. I ended up napping and we lost a lot of precious time on this short cruise. The nurse did take my blood pressure and temp. My blood pressure was a bit low. 

Staff is not well equipped to handle emergencies and this could have been a lot worse then it was. Luckily there was a nurse behind us when I passed out and she was trying help. It's really time to move the drills inside. This really is not a safe way to do these drills. 

I talked with Carnival Customer service and they really could not offer any advice.  At least I made them aware of the situation and hopefully do something to prevent anyone else from having this happen to them. 

We sail soon. Thank you. Looking forward to hearing more.

I booked a suite for our upcoming trip and am wondering if I should do Faster to the Fun as well. I know we get priority boarding but are there any other perks? Do we get a priority line for customer service or expedited debarking? The cruise is a short one and there are no tender ports.

Thank you

We made reservations a couple of nights but also walked up to the main dining room and was seated within 5 minutes. You can make reservations right on the ship if you want.

Thanks everyone. We are older but not geriatric. I like having a good time but do like to avoid "rowdiness". We do have a suite so we can retreat to that and enjoy our balcony. We don'y usually hang at the lido deck very much. On ship days we go and find a quieter place to hang out. We do enjoy the shows and movies. I would like to try the piano bar this time around.

The islands sure have taken a beaten this year. we just missed the worse of the flooding when we went at the end of April/early May. Kauai was still cleaning up after the flooding and it was still rainy. We just missed the eruption of the volcano by a day or two as well. I sure hope everyone stays safe. Our area just had some flooding recently.It sure leaves a lot of destruction.

Thank you

I am pretty happy with the location and suite so I will not bother.

We booked a cruise for October and are in a suite. I saw on Carnival's website today that there is a special where you can get an upgrade to a better suite. Is that something that I can inquire about and get the upgrade? I do have price protection.

Right now I am in an ocean suite on deck 7. The upgrade is for a jr suite on the lido deck.

We sailed Liberty last year. we really enjoyed everything about the ship.

We loved our Liberty cruise last year.

The Steakhouse is amazing. One of the best meals I ever had and great service.

Shows were all good.

Blue Iguana has yummy breakfast burritos

Guys Burgers!

We are doing a 3 night cruise on Liberty in the fall. Can't wait!

I think that would be awesome. You might want to run and do laundry before getting back on the ship.

Thank you so much for all the detailed information. My husband and I are booked for the same itinery in October. You helped me plan some of our tours. Many thanks again!

Glad to hear it. I got a lot of great advice from this forum and I am happy to share what I learned as well! Have a great time!

Your review on the Pride of America is very refreshing. We are booked for June 2019 and were starting to have second thoughts. If you could pick your top three not to miss excursions, what would they be? Thanks for taking the time to post your experiences.

Hi

I think our favorite excursion was the tour through Robert's Hawaii. It was the Fern Grotto/Smith Luau excursion. It was priced great and we got a lot of bang for our buck. A beautiful river tour and a stop at the grotto followed by the delicious dinner and drinks at the luau and a great show after. Plus the Smith's plantation is beautiful. We got a short tram ride around the place and if the weather was better I would have spent more time looking around. This was in Kauaii

we also enjoyed our Movie Tour through the cruise lines. This was also in Kauai. It was a very full schedule and we made a lot of stops to see where movies were filmed. We had a nice lunch included as well.

I actually think we enjoyed Maui the most. We rented a car and did our own thing. The second day we went to Lahaina and had the best time. Perfect weather and a very cute little town.

Also - do the Pearl Harbor Tour. This was a great experience. Unfortunately I think you still cannot dock at the actual memorial (I think we were one of the last who were able to before they closed it) but there is still a ton to see and do.

Hello...Thank you so much for the in depth report it was most helpful and very interesting. If you don't mind can you please tell me how you found the staff and service on the ship. I have heard it is not up to par with any other cruise because it is an American ship and the international staff usually works harder than us Americans. Thank you again

Hi - Honestly we found the staff to be great. April at the John Adams bar was wonderful. Such a delight to chat with as we had our Bloody Mary's in the morning.

Our room steward was great as well. She always filled our ice bucket in the morning and at night. Room was well kept.

Waiters were all attentive (there was one snarky one the last evening). I will say at the Cadillac Diner they were not the best but nothing truly awful. Just not very attentive and a bit slow.

I think you will find the majority to very helpful and attentive.

We really enjoyed the Liberty.

The Blue Iguana Cantina makes the best breakfast burritos!

Guys burgers are delicious

Our favorite meal was at the steakhouse. we went the first night of cruising and got a free bottle of wine. Food was amazing. I was stuffed after we left!

Check out the shows. They are a lot of fun.

Art auction is a fun way to spend a few hours. (I always end up with something...)

Was the walk doable for someone with a cane?

Hi - we had a small group and there was an older gentleman with a cane. He did fine. There is a little uphill walking involved at one point but the groups are small and the guides are really good at keeping things at an easy pace. Plus there are a lot of stops to take a break.

Thank you for all the great info! this is so helpful.

As far as money...do we need to exchange american dollars? Do they take major credit cards?

Salem615...Hampton Inn or Embassy Suites. No shuttles from the air port to the hotels or to the Pan Am pier. Approximately a 20 minute taxi ride to the Pan Am pier. Both offer a free mangers reception in the evening and free breakfast in the morning. Both are close to restaurants and stores.

This sounds great - thank you!