Darcy03231

Thanks everyone.  We decided to go ahead and book it.   It was too good a deal to pass up, although we had to go from an interior cabin to an ocean view to stay in the same cabin for both sailings.   It was only a total of $130 to do it, so well worth not having to change cabins.

Thank you.   I'm going to try to get the same cabin - - I don't want to have to pack and unpack and if I don't have to.

We're currently booked on the Carnival Paradise for a 5 day cruise and are contemplating booking the next 4 day cruise and have some questions.

Do you have to disembark at the end of the 5 day and then go through the whole process to get back on board?

Do you stay in the same cabin for the whole 9 days?  

Can any OBC left transfer over to the next cruise, or do you cash out and set up a new account?

I prepay my gratuities and then tip extra for extra service.  Depending on the cruise it could be waitstaff, room steward, bar tenders, etc.   I also keep small bills to tip porters, excursion operators, cab drivers, etc.

I've been using the same TA for years and he's great.   In addition to more OBC or stuff like free specialty dining one night, he stays on top of any changes or possible deals.   He also can alert me to less than desirable cabin locations.

On ‎6‎/‎16‎/‎2019 at 7:55 PM, young_ens said:

While the compensation is not too bad, it really depends on the people.  For me personally, not sure I'd be ok with it.  Extra vacation day (would mess with other vacation days), the airlines would likely charge more for rebooking that what is offered, if the flights are full, might be another day or two (so more vacation time) and hotel/food.....  

 

Good deal for retired and/or within driving distance folks.  

This could happen even if you don't take a cruise and you wouldn't get this type of compensation.   When traveling back from Great Exuma in April there were major weather delays.  We eventually got to Miami but missed our connection.  We ended up having to spend the night and fly home the next morning.   While American put us on the next flight and there was no charge, we did have to pay for the hotel, meals and take another vacation day.   I had travel insurance which covered the hotel and meals, but I ended up working a Saturday to "make-up" my hours so I wouldn't lose the vacation day.

I just looked and the regular price comes up for me.

I'd keep everyone together.  

11 hours ago, DaisyRose said:

Well, we have requested our travel agent cancel our December 2019 Sensation cruise that went to Havana.  Our revised itinerary went to Ochos Rios instead, and that is not a place I was interested in visiting.  Carnival offered $100 per person OBCR to stay on the cruise, but I would have still spent close to $2,000 for cruise, gratuities, travel, etc., to go to a place I was not interested in visiting.  So, sadly, we have cancelled our cruise.  Maybe some day we will get there, but not this year.  

I would have canceled too if it were going to cost that much to go somewhere I didn't really want to go.   For us we booked our airfare and hotel the night before on points.   Our cruise, including gratuities was a bit over $1000 for two people, with an original $50 OBC,   With the $200 OBC they're now offering we just decided to go with it and make the best of it, although our ports are Grand Cayman & Cozumel - which we've visited multiple times.  I could have canceled and gotten my points back, but we just decided it ended up being a pretty inexpensive get-away.

Keep in mind that if you miss the ship you need to get yourself to the next port of call.   While it's great to have insurance (and a must have as far as I'm concerned) it may not cover all your expenses and you have to pay up-front and get reimbursed.

This is what happened to us on our August 2018 cruise:

Scheduled to fly out the day before the cruise (Friday, cruise left Saturday).  Storms up and down the east coast.   Party of 10 people.  2 flew in from Nashville without any issues, 2 were leaving from Boston at 8pm Friday night (JetBlue) and 6 were leaving from Manchester NH (Southwest) on Friday late morning.

The Manchester flight was canceled due to weather.  Airline was able to rebook 4 of the 6 on a later flight.  I rebooked the other two on another airline (American) leaving out of Boston mid-afternoon.   Manchester flight made it to Baltimore where it was delayed due to weather.  It finally took off around 9 pm.  Boston mid-afternoon flight was canceled.  Airline rebooked them on a later flight, which also was canceled.   I managed to get them on our 8 pm flight - -but the cost was $1375 for 2 one-way tickets from Boston to Ft. Lauderdale.   When everything was said and done we all managed to get to Ft. Lauderdale, albeit in the early morning hours of the day of the cruise (I think our last group of 4 landed around 3:30 am).

The $1375 I ended up paying for the JetBlue flight was covered under travel delay at $200/pp so I got $400 back (more than a 6 hour delay).  I was also refunded $300 from Southwest for the canceled flight.  Essentially, I ended up paying $675 for two one way flights to Ft. Lauderdale.  American tickets were refunded so that was a wash.

If we were flying the day of there's no way we would have made it.  I would try to make sure you have a non-stop flight that leaves as early as possible.   

We're booked on the Paradise in August.  Our cruise ports changed from Havana & Cozumel to Grand Cayman & Cozumel, both of which we've visited multiple times.   After weighing all our options we decided to continue on with our cruise.  We booked well in advance at a steep discount and with the on-board credit we received at booking and the pp/OBC we'll be getting by staying with this itinerary it will be the least expensive vacation we've ever taken.

Our August Carnival Paradise cruise that was originally Cozumel and Havana is now Grand Cayman and Cozumel.   

Since we booked the original cruise at a pretty steep discount with a $50 on-board credit, and will now be receiving an additional $200 on-board credit we decided to just go as planned.   While it would have been my first choice for ship/itinerary, the price more than makes up for it.

Plenty of people attempt to fly in the day before but then THAT flight gets cancelled. It's too simplistic to chalk it up to....."They shoulda flew in the day before".

 

So you're at the airport the day before, your flight out gets delayed, delayed, delayed then finally gets cancelled. The airline tells you....."We can't get you out tonight, we'll have to get you on a flight tomorrow". Hmmm, Ok then tomorrow's flights are all full, now getting on ANY flight out is a big problem.

 

This is how many people get caught. "Shoulda flew in the day before" comments are too naive.

That happened to us in August. 10 people flying into Ft. Lauderdale for a cruise the day before. Flights up and down the east coast were being canceled due to weather. Because of all the cancellations it looked like we wouldn't all make it in time. Luckily, we ended being able to get some of rebooked with the same carrier and some of us with a different carrier (at a lot more $$$) and made it in on time, but it was really stressful! We did get some money back since we bought insurance, but now I think we'll fly in two days before.

We just booked the AC Hotel San Juan Condado, it is a couple blocks from the beach and gives you exchange privileges at Marriott San Juan & Stellaris Casino which is beachfront. It's also on a bus route to Old San Juan. The reviews look positive and apparently it was accepting guests and held up well after the hurricanes.

I'd book a back-up too. We were scheduled to stay at the AC Hotel and confirmed by phone (directly with the resort), email and facebook multiple times. Two days prior to our stay we received a cancellation email. When I called about it no one could really give me a reason as to why we were cancelled when other guests reported staying there without any issues. Luckily we had a back-up and ended up staying there instead.

Wow! We spent two weeks in Grenada and didn't run into any of this. Everyone we met was nice and friendly and honest. In fact, at the grocery store the driver let us know up front how much it would be to take us back to our condo and what a short walk it was (albeit all uphill with groceries - we took the taxi).

We spent most of our time on BBC Beach, but did go over to Grand Anse and didn't have any issues at all. We can't wait to go back!

There would have been a $65 pp fee though for downline embarkation.

I would have been fine with that. Actually, while I wouldn't have been happy about it, I would have paid the $600 to save having to travel for 2 days to get to San Juan. It was the misinformation about being denied boarding that was the deal-breaker for us.

I had a pre-cruise issue on my AOS cruise in October. After our return I wrote to RCCL to let them know that while we loved the ship and enjoyed our cruise, we were less than impressed with our pre-cruise dealings with their customer service department.

I received a telephone call to discuss our concerns. The gentleman was very nice and apologetic and it turns out that all of the information the customer service representative gave me was wrong! In fact, she shouldn't have given me any information at all. I should have been transferred to a different department altogether. There absolutely would have been no issue with me boarding in St. Kitts and no fine would be involved since we would be boarding in a foreign port.

For those that may not remember the original thread, we were cruising out of San Juan after Hurricane Maria. We were spending the week pre-cruise in Grenada, and then flying to San Juan to board the ship. Our flight from Grenada to San Juan on Liat Airlines was canceled shortly before the cruise and there were no other flights between Grenada and San Juan.

Since our cruise was departing at 8:30 pm on Saturday and arriving in St. Kitts at 8:00 am on Sunday I called to find out what the process was to board the ship in St. Kitts (rather than spending two days to get to San Juan as the only option was to fly from Grenada to the US, spend the night in the US, and then fly to San Juan the next morning). Liat could easily get us from Grenada to St. Kitts. The customer service agent (and I use that term loosely) rather rudely told me that I would have to send a letter in to their "team" that deals with these issues explaining the situation and they would decide and "be prepared, the answer could be no!" and that we would face a $300 per person fine to be added to our on-board account.

Since not being able to board wasn't an option, and we were tight on time, we ended up flying from Grenada to JFK, then JFK to San Juan (cheapest option).

Well.. After 90min with united, they changed the flight with no change fee (just flight difference) and another 90min with expedia where United essentially told expedia 'customer is paying, we already waived 1 change fee'

We had 2 separate bookings as originally was just wife and I, then she decided to bring the kids.

 

Anyways, a simple mistake costs $1300cdn extra and we wont have to rush.

 

Thanks all for the input.

 

Merry Christmas, happy holidays!

 

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FWIW I think you made the right decision. I had to buy same day flights for our August cruise when a flight was canceled and the airline couldn't get us a seat for 2 days, which would have made us miss the ship. Price was $651/pp one-way!

We had the same food issues on the Adventure in October. We were at the late seating and I don't think we got anything that was above warm, with most of it being cold.

I've been reading reviews of other ships and have heard some of the same complaints. Hopefully, whatever the issue is will get resolved. We mentioned in our survey that we were disappointed in the MDR and also mentioned it in a follow-up letter I sent about a pre-cruise issue.

We experienced the same issues with the MDR food on the Adventure in October. Our service, however, was fantastic and every crew member we saw on the ship had a smile and a greeting.

We cruised with Norwegian in August 2017 and then Royal in October 2017. We thoroughly enjoyed both cruises and wouldn't hesitate to sail on Norwegian again.

We had a full ship on Norwegian and I didn't feel that we waited in long lines for anything. We ate all of our meals in the "free" restaurants and I found the food to be excellent. I thought their buffet offered much more options than any other cruise we'd been on, and was, again, excellent. In fact, for the first time we ate dinner at the buffet on a couple of nights.

The guys loved the fact that they could wear nice shorts in the dining room. I will admit that I missed having the same wait staff every night. Longest we waited for dinner was about 15 minutes. There was a bar right in the lobby area so we just sat and had a drink while waiting.

We loved all of the entertainment offered and thought it was much better than anything we had seen on any of our previous cruises.

Only downside for us was we thought our room was a bit small and laid out poorly, but we really didn't spend much time in there anyway.

Related question is it possible to make a 10;45 AM fight out of San Juan airport after docking. We’re on Jewel of the seas in February. How long time wise is the airport away.

We used self-debark and took a cab and were at the airport at 7:36 am. We also used the porters at the airport to get through the agriculture check and bag check which really speeded the process up.

11:36 am? I guess I'm going to miss my flight then. Were you one of the first people off, because that's my intention. Not to CASUALLY walk off with my stuff but to hustle when the announcement that customs is cleared is made.

 

 

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Sorry, that was a typo. We were at the airport at 7:36 am.

Hi! I have a 10:55 flight booked the day we return in Jan, 21st. If you also leave same day as returning to port, can you report/describe taxi status leaving port and conditions at airport. We will do self assist debark to make it speedier, barring any actual delay in returning. Thank you so much! Enjoy your cruise!!

We did the self-debark on 11/4 and were at the airport by 11:36 a.m. We used the porters at the port terminal, a taxi and the porters at the airport. Using the porters makes everything go faster and smoother. At the airport you need to get your bags checked by the agriculture department and get a sticker on them before you can check them or go through security.

I have not been there, but what is in Ensenada that would keep anyone from being on the ship? I figure it was a crap hole, and that everyone could not wait to leave. Is it just cheap beer in a bar????? The best for me has always been in Cozumel, and the Spring break cruise there a couple of years ago was a classic. On TAs we have twice been last port of call at Madeira and one time on a Sunday when nothing was open, it was amazing how many people who would next see the ship in 6 days in Florida show up an hour after scheduled departure time. One of which was on our roll call. Classic. Doing a TA next October for the first time since 2009. There is only one port on the Symphony. People are talking about renting a car to go to Alhambra and I am like the ship doesn't hit land again for 10 days. Take a ships tour. I expect that will be a late departure, but I will be on the ship watching the pier...

 

JC

We did an excellent wineries tour in Ensenada. One place also produced olive oil and the other brandy. I ended up bringing home some wine and quite a bit of olive oil!