moongal

What would be ideal would be a "tray plate". I actually have one that I bought a thousand years ago but it is a large square plate that looks like a school cafeteria tray from long ago.

It has different sections built into it like a large square for a main entree and several smaller divided sections for sides and then a round circle section in the corner for a cup to fit and along one side is a long thin divider section for silverware. If they could use plates like this it would solve all the problems.

The tray I have with all the sections isn't much larger than the plates they are using now only think of the current plate squared out and maybe a pinch larger.

This would make it where you did not have to make 2 trips. We always have to make 2 trips. One for the food, then we go look for a place to sit, then one of us will go back for drinks.

Not a tragedy by any stretch without them but a "tray plate" would be nice.

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I think that is a great idea to "borrow" a room service tray to use during the cruise as long as you leave it at the end.

I bring one from home but it would be one less thing to pack so I will def try that next cruise. It's such a pain to try and juggle plate, silverware, drinks. Especially if you get something needing a bowl in addition to plate items.

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Well even before I get to the 24 Hr hold it is saying "no rooms returned" even though I know they are available.

I am entering 2 people in each room and following all the prompts just as I do when booking a single room.

I know I can call carnival but it is a real crap shoot on whether or not I get anyone who knows what they are doing and it seems to take so much longer than if I just do it myself online.

I just don't understand why something that should be so easy is so difficult.

I am not trying to book under any special and I am making sure to have 1 adult in each room etc.

I asked the carnival rep why I couldn't accomplish this myself online and his response was "the website can be tricky". Someone needs to fix their "tricky" website!

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I am trying to book 2 rooms online and cannot get the website to let me.

I can see that the 2 rooms I want are available because if I just try to book one room both rooms are showing up as available. I am trying to book 2 connecting balcony rooms.

I get as far as "choose next stateroom" but then it won't even let me pick any room (even though when I try to book just one room it is showing quite a few available).

It just says "no rooms returned".

This is driving me crazy because I don't know why it won't let me. I tried to do this a week ago and ended up having to call and I was on the phone for almost an hour getting the clueless person I was talking to book the rooms I wanted. I also wanted a 24 Hr hold on the rooms since we were bringing a friend of my teens so I needed to double check some of the personal info for the person before booking as I didn't want to incur any change fees. It seemed to throw this carnival employee over the edge as to what to do to make a 24 Hr courtesy hold. (So simple to do online by myself!!!). But since I was trying to book 2 rooms that time also it wouldn't let me.

Does anyone know why it is doing this? Does anyone have any tips on how to get around this? I called again today and got a better person who helped me quite simply and easily but it still irks me that I have to call in if I want to book myself via the website for more than 1 room.

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I bring a 4 pack of those little battery operated tea light candles. I put one in the bathroom at night so no need to fumble with finding the light switch and we use a couple out on our balcony instead of a flashlight because we like to turn all the lights off and go out in the dark. Also nice for a romantic setting.

I bring 1 tray to take with us to the Lido for lunch or breakfast. That saves us from having to go put our plates down while one of us goes after drinks. It is nice also if getting food for someone else so you can carry it all.

I bring one of those little personal fans you can wear around your neck that I can wear to the muster drill so when I am crammed like a sardine in the summer heat out on deck in Galveston TX in the middle of summer I will at least have a little air. Also nice for standing in line at ports if it is hot.

I bring our own candy and chips for snacking, the prices are so high in the shops. (We like a bit of chocolate in the evenings when on vacay!!)

I bring both a small fan and a noise machine and we never hear a peep of anyone or anything in the halls.

I take a picture with my cell phone of the daily schedule on the fun times so I don't have to carry a fun times around with me. The Hub app did not list everything that was listed on the fun times so having the full schedule in my phone was handy.

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Just off the Valor and my husband and I are steak lovers. Both of us are pretty much meat and potatoes kind of people. Don't like a bunch of weird stuff. Soooo we both ordered the flat iron steak every night of our cruise. (Yeah....we are definitely NOT adventurous eaters!)

We both would order 2 flat irons every night.

I found it to be subpar at best. Seemed to be the luck of the draw. A couple of nights we were brought what could only be described as a "tube" of steak. It was like someone had cut a strip of steak. It was so chewy and dried out , with white strips of sinew? running through it. We were barely able to saw a piece off to eat it. Other nights we were brought a nice juicy looking piece of meat that was tender and tasty. So the flat irons can really go either way. We were too cheap to order the steak upgrade from the steak house. We managed to fill up nicely on the delicious bread and our baked potatoes and desserts on nights when the steak was inedible.

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I was just on the Valor 4 days ago and did not find the Hub app useful at all.

I don't know if I needed an update for it (downloaded it last year for our Liberty cruise which it wasn't available yet for that ship) or maybe different ships have different set up for it but I could not access any of my onboard account info, no menus, the daily schedule was missing a good bit of what was printed on the Fun Times, so much so that I just quit looking at the hub app and carried the Fun Times.

I didn't find the texting ability to work at all. No notification at all. After reading here I guess I needed to leave the app open? Not sure but my husband and I didn't use it. I absolutely had to be able to keep in touch with my teens at home who were on a separate trip with their grandparents so I just used Facebook Messenger. I bought the social plan for $5 day (or whatever it was maybe 4.95?? I can't remember but it seemed very cheap and it worked like a charm. Never had any trouble communicating with anyone. iMessage DID NOT work either which I found odd since I thought it was always supposed to work iPhone to iPhone and we were only texting each other - all phones on the same plan. But I recommend using Facebook Messenger. I was amazed that I could text my teens who were all the way in Hawaii in the middle of the Pacific Ocean while I was in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico on a ship and there was no lag and I got the "ding" notifications all the time. Seemed more reliable than the hub app, which I had had such high expectations and was looking forward to using.

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I don't want to be rude because everyone is entitled to like their own music, but I would hate to be accosted with ukulele playing when out on my balcony.

I think a better place for it would be one of the outside decks or public areas. That way if it is bothering anyone they can walk away or know exactly where the offending noise was coming from.

If he plays on his balcony and the surrounding balconies hear it, they might have a hard time discerning from whence the music is coming from therefore unable to register a complaint other than shouting out generally "please knock it off". Also I think the balconies are where people go when they want a little peace and quiet away from the crowds and noise. At least for us that is how we utilize our balcony. It is an oasis of peace and quiet.

I have been out on my balcony and smelled cigarette smoke and was unable to see anyone smoking. So all I could resort to was making loud comments of "there is no smoking allowed on the balcony!" And just hoping it was heard by the offending party. The same thing might come into play with a ukulele player. Others might not be able to discern who was doing it, as it is hard to see into the other balconies with the dividers.

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Just read an article on aol.com news (it ran the day we got back from our recent cruise) about stuff cruise employees don't tell you (or something along those lines) and in the article it stated that every ship has 2 or 3 people who die on board per month and that there is a morgue on board. That statistic wouldn't surprise me at all given the number of elderly people I saw on my last cruise in wheel chairs, a few of them with oxygen tubes. I'm thinking the strain of traveling might be enough to send them off.

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Thanks for the pics!! It has been raining here for the past hour (Galveston) but seems to be letting up. So happy to see our ship coming in!! Latest update says to report 1 hour later than our scheduled time so I am a happy camper!

We were in Galveston all day yesterday and the winds were quite strong at times.

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Wow thanks for the info! We were wondering because everything seems so calm. The winds are barely blowing.

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Just got a text that our ship, the Valor cannot dock in Galveston this morning due to high winds. They said they would give us an update in a few hours about proceeding to the pier for our cruise that is supposed to leave today.

Anyone else impacted by this storm?

What a bummer!! I've been awake since 5 am just waiting to get on the ship!!! We stayed in Galveston overnight and it is currently calm as can be. A light rain but that is all.

I sure hope we get to leave today!

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Thanks for all the replies. I think I will just leave my phone in the safe. We are not going on an organized excursion. Just my hubby and I so I guess I'll just leave it. Guess I'm just so used to having it glued to my person 24/7 that I forgot there is life wo it!

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We want to go snorkeling from the beach but am worried about what to do with my cell phone.

Do most people leave their cell phones on the ship? Do you bring them into port with you? What do you do with it while you swim?? I've always left mine on the ship because there was always one person in our group who had theirs so we all left ours (would just borrow the other persons) but this time it just husband and myself.

I have bought a special plastic enclosure to put my phone in that is supposed to be safe in the water, I have tested it even by putting paper towels in there and submerging it in the sink and the paper towels all came out dry, but I am still leery about how well it will hold up in actual salt water and prolonged actual swimming conditions.

Any advice? If some emergency arises while in port, is it hard to find a phone to use?

We will be in Cozumel (4day trip)

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Thanks for the info. I do have insurance. I even got full "cancel for any reason" insurance but I was just wondering what would happen. I sure as heck hope whatever might come along waits till I am ON THE SHIP. As long as I get to go somewhere I will be happy.

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They will for most part not cancel for weather (very few exceptions has this happened) as previously mentioned and will go the opposite way to outrun the storm. Somehow they will adjust the itinerary, change ports (if possible) or switch the ports in your itinerary and go to last port first. You do know it is hurricane season right? Just sayin.....:)

Yes I know it's hurricane season. I just was wondering if the cruise is cancelled due to weather (tropical storm or hurricane hitting the embarkation port on embarkation day) will they refund money?

We are scheduled for a short 4 day out of Galveston with only 1 port so I don't think they could shorten the cruise?

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I have been watching the tropics and there are currently 2 systems they are watching that could potentially form into named storms.

I know it's a long shot and the odds are very unlikely BUT (knowing my luck!) what happens if a hurricane or tropical storm hits at your port on embarkation day? I am assuming they would cancel the cruise? Do you get a full refund still if it is due to the weather? Will they move the embarking to the next closest port? I'm not worried about being actually on the ship during a storm as I know they will go around it but was just wanting to know what happens if the embarkation port is affected on actual embarkation day.

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Thank you everyone for all the info!

I had just a few more questions.

Do the cab drivers speak English? Do I just tell them to take me to the Carnival pier? I'm a little worried because from what I am reading there are a couple of different cruise ship docking places, so I don't want to get taken to the wrong one.

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I just wear wrinkles.

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Gosh I brought a fan on both my cruises. I'm planning to bring the same one next time so I hope the rules haven't changed! I can't sleep wo it!!

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I got one and I thought it was weird. It wanted to know all about the entertainment at my cruise I just got back from, only I haven't been on any cruise since last summer, so I thought it was odd.

I couldn't even remember half of the things they were asking about (name of shows etc) so I gave up and never submitted it. It seemed to be mostly all about entertainment and nothing else.

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I've never been to an AI before and we have reservations at Nachi Cocum for our cruise coming up in a few weeks.

Do they just bring you the food, or do you have to ask for it? Is there a certain time you go to eat? If you want to go snorkeling do you take all your stuff with you and how long are you gone? Do you tip the snorkel boat drivers? How long does it take to get to Nachi Cocum from the cruise ship docking place (carnival)

If it is AI, how much do you tip? Do you tip at the end?

I know this is a lot of questions but I don't travel much (ever!) and I am kind of nervous since this will be my first non cruise ship sponsored excursion.

Thanks in advance!

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Has anyone been to Nachi very recently? I have heard that it has gone down a bit. I've never been and this my husbands first cruise so I want it to be the best so he will want to go again, I reserved us spots at Nachi Cocum but now since I have been reading elsewhere that it has gone downhill a bit I am worrying.

Is it easy to get a cab back to the cruise ship?

Do you tip cab drivers?

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For the social internet plan, did you try to use Facebook messenger by any chance? Did that particular app work? By not not working were you not able to do anything ever or was it just spotty?

I will be on Valor in a few weeks with Hubby and kids are going on a separate trip with grandparents so we had planned to use Facebook messenger to text each so I can check on them. Or if they need to get in touch with me.

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Is the Freedom staying in Galveston? Where does one find this info? I wish the Glory would come to Galveston. After seeing pics of that ship I really want to try it. I hear we (Galveston) are getting Vista? Bummer. I would have rather had a Dream class ship. I tend to like the smaller ships. Lol at least out of the 2 I have tried. Magic and Liberty. Loved both of them but liked Liberty better as it seemed less crowded and I liked my balcony where I looked straight down to water and not the deck 5 outer deck. On the Magic there was a hot tub right below our cabin and even though we were on deck 8, I still found it to where if we went out on our balcony the folks in the hot tub would be looking up at us just as we were looking down at them. The Liberty was much nicer. Just looked straight down to ocean. Plus less lines. Sailed both times same time of year. (June)

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