Tzutse
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Posts posted by Tzutse
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I am a newcomer to Princess, but the sip & sail promo was offered at the same time last year.
This year we switched our booking for 2018 to the sip & sail. A well known online Travel site recently offered it but added free gratuities to the deal.
Needless to say, I have two bookings on the same ship, same room class, that I'm going to sit on and wait to get the best deal.
We are also newcomers to Princess and looked for that sweetened deal.
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We just used Coral Breeze to get over to Caye Caulker. It was easy easy and worry free. We had about 3 hours there. We rented a golf cart and went everywhere on the island and then ate and swam at the split. Thumbs up for Coral Breeze!
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If you are not a customer and thus do not have the big brother drivewise apparatus installed in your vehicle, how do you accumulate points?
I got 5K points just for joining and another 2K for entering in a promo code. That's was enough for 7 $100 cards.
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Great tip - thanks! I am not a customer and I was able to sign up through the Drivewise app and then log in to the Allstate Rewards site from my laptop. Somehow it allowed me to buy 2 $100GCs and then another 5 in the same day. Sooo much easier than stalking the Verizon website.
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Thanks for the information, looking forward to the Magic in just 51 days....
I am confused on the internet, though. Haven't sailed since 2013, and back then both FaceTime and iMessage worked fine while on the ship's wifi. Is that no longer the case? I saw you said that you lost iMessage once out of ports?? So that does not work at all on the ship's wifi - they block it?
Yes, they tell you iMessage is blocked. I was confused because I received iMessages almost an hour after sailing and then it cut off. And then when we got into a port, it would work on wifi again. One time I received several iMessages in the middle of the water - they snuck through the fence, I guess!
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Thank you for all the information. The internet/messaging is my biggest "problem" at this point. Carnival confirmed that the Magic does not have the Hub app yet, and my cell service will not be an option onboard. So I am left with the question of do I get internet for everyone? How was the ships wifi without the service? Do you know? Assuming Whats up works on both iphone and Galaxy and can use the ships wifi. If so, that will be how we communicate with our teenagers while on board in May :)
I thought the ship's wifi worked fine and I use apple products. Worked fine for my kiddo's iPhone too. I did have to reconnect a few times early in the cruise. On Deck 2 it was the weakest although it still worked. My husband's Galaxy was not as cooperative. Maybe it was user error, though. He was able to get messages from whatsapp although I think he had to often reconnect to the ship wifi.
It cost us $25 per person for the entire trip.
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Tzutse,
May I use your picture of the cruise ship in your first post?
I'm getting all my pictures ready to make my kids scrap book, and I can't believe I didn't take a picture of the ship in Galveston!! We were just so excited, and the kids wanted to get on the ship so quickly, I just totally spaced!
Of course.
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How many days into the cruise did you do this? Also, did they discount the days that you didnt have the Cheers package?
We purchased the cheers package on day 2 so there was no discount. I didn't ask for a refund on my bottomless bubbles, and I believe they kept one day of that cost for each of us.
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Great review! Thank you for the details! We sail in July. We have sailed her before, and are anxious to see the upgrades. I'm glad that you enjoyed your first cruise!! Hope that you are already planning the next one! What was the reasoning for removing the foil on the wine bottles? Seems like it would just slow down the boarding process...
I don't know - I didn't ask. Maybe I looked sketchy!
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Thanks for the review. We are on her the first week in October and this helps ease the wait. :D
How did you like being close to the water in the Cove balcony and did you mind the solid type railing instead of the see thru?
We loved loved loved being so close to the water. With the rocky ride, we often got some spray on the balcony and I liked that. I didn't mind the railing and didn't think it obscured our views in any way. I was sad I didn't see a single flying fish or dolphin!
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Thanks for the review. Did you try the Alchemy Bar? What about the bbq? There's conflicting info if fat jimmys or not and what it offers.
The one time I went by Alchemy it was closed :mad:. My husband did have several items there and loved it and the mixologists.
The BBQ is called Oceanside, not Fat Jimmy's. There was so much food on the ship, I didn't even think of trying the BBQ. Sorry I don't have better info for you. I saw there was another thread that had better comparisons of pre- and post-dry dock.
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My family and I were on this cruise too. This was my 4th time on Magic and I enjoyed the upgrades. I was bummed about all the wind. Made for rough sea and chilly conditions. I also noticed all of the carpet shedding and the smell of new carpet. There were tons of kids onboard... Mine included. One of mine was 14 so maybe they met!!
There WERE a lot of kiddos. On our tour they said 25% were littles! Maybe our kids did meet!
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Could you tell us a little more about the cheers program, you must of had the new program. Were the coffees included? what was the limit on the prices of the drinks? were there any expensive drinks on the menu? The water was supposed to be included also. Thanks
I'm not the best person to ask about it, probably. I don't drink coffee. There was no limit on the prices of the drinks we had, but most of them were $8.25. I might have had a glass of wine at dinner that was over $10.
I never looked at a menu so I don't know if there was anything super expensive.
Bummer about the water. I didn't know that. But it wouldn't have mattered - I had already purchased the bottled water before we left.
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You said that they removed the foil from your wine bottles, I have not heard that one before, did they say why?
I didn't ask, because I just wanted to keep moving. My husband thought they did that to ensure the bottle hadn't been opened and replaced with liquor. Man, that would be a lot of work!
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Thank you for your review, would you happen to know th name of the band that plays outside the casino?
Maybe it was Alterr Band, Bradley Edge (Pub guitar at RedFrog Pub), or Joe Perri (Pub Guitar at RedFrog Pub)
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Thanks so much for the review - I JUST booked a cruise on her for Summer 2017 (SO far away!) but we are excited nonetheless.
Did you try the Indian restaurant? We loved it on the Breeze - wondering if you enjoyed it (if you're into that) on the Magic.
My boys (twins) will be 13 at the time of the cruise - Can you share your kids' experiences in Circle C? Staff, activities, etc..
Not a fan of Indian food, so I skipped Tandoor.
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We are sailing with B/G twins that will be 13 this October :) and I am also wondering about Circle C opinions/interactions, etc. On our last cruise the teen club staff could not have seemed more disinterested and it was a disappointment.
The boys said there was someone in Circle C 'just to make sure you didn't tear the place apart'. If there were kids in there just sitting around doing nothing, the staff person came up and talked to them and started a game.
They had a dodgeball tournament, video games, bingo, and on the last night they had a T-shirt signing party.
Circle C was a meeting place and hang out for them sometimes. Although most of the time, they walked around the decks, played basketball and soccer a TON. They watched the later movie almost every night. My 14 year old kiddo had to check in with me every hour and had a 1am curfew. I met all of the kids he was hanging out with. They were all sweet kids!
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Thanks so much for this review! We're sailing on Magic on the 27th, and I've been dying to read what she's like out of dry dock! Did you notice if there is still a barbecue on sea days???
There was! 12-2:30pm
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Thank you so much for doing this review. We will be on the Magic in September.
Did you happen to see or eat at the barbecue on Deck 5 Lanai. Did you notice if it had been remade into Fat Jimmy's C-Side BBQ?
I didn't eat there but it's called Oceanside Barbecue. I remember hearing some people talking about being disappointed there was not a Fat Jimmy's.
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Behind The Fun Tour
Once we got on board, I forgot to ask about the tour. I think it was the second day at sea before I remembered. There were 6 places still open so we snagged three.
I almost forgot about the tour. Saturday morning was so rough I had planned to sit in a lobby and read. Then I remembered and almost thought I would skip it. I'm soooo glad we didn't!
The tour was almost 4 hours long. Two HR Coordinators led the tour and had people from each of the departments talk to us about what they do. We went to the
- Main Galley, between Northern and Southern Lights. If you dine on deck 4, know that your servers roll on fast moving escalators down to 3 to get your food
- Up to where the lifeboats are. If you ever need them, drink lots of water, dress warmly and make sure you go potty before you get in them!
- Crew training facility
- Crew dining room
- Morgue and Jail
- Crew fitness center
- Storeroom
- Steakhouse galley
- Engine Control Room
- Laundry
- Crew outside facilities
- Incinerator
- Loading area
- Bridge
I loved seeing everything behind the scenes. It's like a little city. We took pictures with the Captain, drank champagne, and left with a lot of goodies. When we got back to our room, there were plates of pastries waiting for us, compliments of the pastry chef.
Hard Working Crew
I was so impressed with Carnival's staff. They take a lot of young people from so many countries and help them become a team. They work h.a.r.d. I would see our dinner servers at the late seating and then see them up in the Lido at 6am. A bartender from the pub serving drinks at dinner in the main dining room. And they were the.nicest.people. I work in HR so did ask alot of them about their hours and asked the tour folks too. Carnival apparently treats them well. They get time off during the day to rest as well as days off. They seem to work hard to make their employee's lives on the ship as engaging as possible.
That's it for our first cruise. It definitely won't be our last. My son told me that when he's in college, he wants to go on a cruise with his friends - no parents. Uh oh......
Is it a bat, a stingray, or a baby elephant in a hammock??
And I made this one for our cabin steward one afternoon:
- Main Galley, between Northern and Southern Lights. If you dine on deck 4, know that your servers roll on fast moving escalators down to 3 to get your food
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Ports - Cozumel
I have spent many weeks on Cozumel. Some I remember, some I do not remember. :rolleyes: This was my family's favorite port. That was surprising to me. We pulled into Cozumel at 10am. There were at least 5 other ships there. They hadn't been there long because there were people still pouring off of the ship.
We got off of the ship fairly quickly. They opened 3 gangways and I think that helped a lot.
We had 45 minutes before our excursion met so we wandered around in the port village. Again, my 14 year old found this funny. We came up with lots of sections in the store - Pot and Pepperoni, Barbituates and Bologna, Heroin and Ham. He learned a lot about street drugs. #motheroftheyeareveryday
We did find a zipline excursion in Cozumel and that's what my kid wanted to do. So we did. It was cheap - I think $50pp so I thought it would be trashy. I was wrong. It was a lot of fun and exactly what we needed. It was close by and the staff were very professional. It was like a ropes course but with a collection of zip lines. Afterwards, they took us to the otherside of the port and dropped us off at a little beach club. No one was interested in the beach. We shopped the town a little and then headed back to the port area. We had appetizers and drinks at Tres Amigos and headed back on board at 4:30.
We were supposed to sail away at 6. That did not happen. When we first got back, we saw this man standing just outside of the ship, apparently waiting for someone. My husband saw the staff take him inside, probably to see if the person he was waiting for had come back. Then he stood outside some more. Not long before 6, this lone person came through the gate and he headed that way. They walked back with a lot of space between them. And got a lot of cheers.
But they didn't take up the gangways. They took up one and we kept seeing one of the staff looking at their watches. At that point we knew we weren't waiting for one or two lone pier runners but many more, because they left two gangways open. As the last RC ship pulled away at around 6:15, a water taxi came running past that ship and up to the pier. Must have been 200-300 people pouring off of that water taxi and hauling it to the ship. A short video of the first of them. You can see the water taxi in the back and people still coming off of the boat. It was after dark when we left Cozumel.
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Ports - Grand Cayman
This is a place we have never been to. The only way I knew about it was it was the island in The Firm where the files were and where Gene Hackman met his demise.
I think we pulled into Cayman at 7am. What a beautiful sight! There were two other ships there, an NCL and RC. Tenders were ready. And, it was windy! I was afraid they might not let us off the boat. They did!
So, I really wanted to rent jet skis out to Stingray City through a non-carnival excursion. But my 14 year old wanted nothing to do with the animal that killed the Crocodile Hunter. So we didn't do that. The other family wanted to do a pirate cruise, but I had no interest in that. So we decided to do a snorkel excursion. We had to book what was left and that excursion was at 9. This is one of the ports that FTTF would have helped us get out to the island faster. Instead, we met in the Showtime lounge at 8:00 and they put us on a tender. Worked out well. Except that when we got to shore, we found out our excursion had been cancelled because of the high winds. Bum.mer. The only things left were things the boys weren't interested in. So we shlepped back to the boat to change into non water clothes and explored the island on foot.
Because the boys had so much fun at Margaritaville the day before, they wanted to go to the one on Grand Cayman as well. So off we went. again. Except that the pool at this one was full of drunk college boys and our boys were a little nervous so they never got in. If I would have known that I would have gone to one of the fish places that was recommended by this board. This was a bigger, cleaner Margaritaville than the one in MoBay. And there was entertainment!
The Norwegian ship as they were leaving:
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Ports - Montego Bay
My husband and I had spent a week in Ochos Rios so we had no desire to sit in a van/taxi for that long. We wanted to do a ziplining excursion and it was full when we went to book it. So we decided on Doctor's Cave Beach, the CruiseCritic way. Because there were so many people on the ship, this port was a freaking crazy madhouse.
We arrived at 10am. Apparently there were people filling the stairwells, hallways, elevators. Wee Jimmy made several pleas for people to back it up, although I don't think many did. It looked like a Jimmy Buffett concert, except people were pushy. I think they may have only had one gangway open. We decided to hang out in our room until 11:30. There were still a lot of people on the boat and it probably took us 1/2 hour to make it outside from deck 2.
First option was the Hop On/Hop Off bus ($20pp all day) but the line to get on those was long, so we went outside to get one of the Juta vans. We got on one and they said it would be $7 one way per person. Once we left the terminal, the hard sales began. There was a shortage of buses; you will get a much better tour for $25; it's hot today; don't you want to go on the best tour? Don't talk to anyone else that was wearing a white shirt, they were fakes.
When she asked if anyone did not want to take the tour, we raised our hands and said we were meeting our family at Doctor's Cave and we had to go there. Lie. She was deflated because that was 6 of us. She also wanted us to prepay her $7pp for the ride back and she would pick us up. I told her our family was taking us back to the ship. Lie. As we were waiting to get out of the bus in front of the beach, some guy tried to sell my kid a joint. That was probably the highlight of his trip. The lady sitting by the window opened the window and exchanged money for the joint. Probably the next best highlight from kid's trip.
We were the last boat into MB so there were no more umbrellas. We just paid the $6 to get in and sat up on the top deck at a table with chairs. It was perfect. Everyone used it as home base and had a great time at the beach.
Craig was one of the fakes in a white shirt. He tried hard to sell us on going with him on a tour and then back to the ship. I told him we were waiting for our families to join us from another ship. Lie. He must have asked 20 times.
Late in the afternoon we walked over to Margaritaville, had lunch, and went down the water slide a lot. There were a lot of locals set up there selling stuff. After lunch we asked our waitress if she could get us a taxi back to the ship. She took us downstairs and called over one of her friends who gladly took us back - $7pp. We found out that the guys in the white shirts aren't fakes, although some of them are a little sketchy. He said there is not a shortage of buses and taxis; it's quite the opposite. There are too many. He was really nice and got us back to the terminal. We did have some guys wash the taxi's windows. They looked to us for money. I told the taxi guy that whatever I gave him came out of his fare. So he paid them a few coins.
The young ones saw the last folks onto the boat and were excited to get to cheer them on with everyone watching. Fun day!
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Weather
From the start, the upfront sea days were win.deee! And the winds were coming directly from the south at the front of the boat. I felt it most in the main dining room - our table was on deck 3 in the very back of the boat. It was a constant, jerky back and forth kind of chop. Only once did I lay down on the bed the opposite way. It was a topic of conversation amongst some of the crew too. During the sea days, it was cold and windy on deck, even when the sun was out. I think it was on Monday they closed the doors out to decks 11 and up. Serenity was closed during those first two sea days, which is a shame because I wanted to hang out there. In all of the ports, it was breezy, sunny and beautiful. On the way back, the jerky chop changed to a rolling roll. On our last sea day back (Saturday), there was an hour where we went through a little bit of a storm. My husband and I were on Lido grabbing some breakfast when the boat started listing heavily to one side. The fruitbowls on the buffet went sliding. My husband lost his appetite and just wanted to go back to the room - I think he was legitimately scared. This short video was the front end of the storm. It got a little worse for a short period of time.
By noon, the weather cleared and it turned out to be the most gorgeous sea day. I parked it on a lounger and didn't move until almost 6pm.
Crowds
If you are not a fan of crowds, this might have been a frustrating week and I imagine the remainder of March and April might be the same. There were 4K passengers on board and 1 in 3 were kids. The elevators were crowded alot in the mornings and at dinner time. There were times the elevators were quick. At some point, I just stopped taking the elevators and took the stairs. Better for me anyway. Although going from deck 2 to deck 11 on the stairs was easy for my 14 year old, not always the case for this mama. Sometimes I took the stairs to deck 5 or 7, walked around the circle of shops and then went on up to 10. I usually took the stairs down.
There were hoards of people waiting for the main dining room doors to open. We learned to leave our cabin at 8:13 and by the time we got up to the Southern Lights it was fine and we could walk right in.
If you love being in the middle of it all during the day, mid deck, decks 10-12 was where it was at. DJBlendz was a great DJ and did a great job with the music.
The Tides Pool area at the back of the ship was super crowded on sea days. I wanted to sit back there the first two sea days because it was so warm out there, but it was a little too crowded for me. Lots of little ones in the two jacuzzi tubs. If you want to sit in relatively uncrowded spas outside of the Cloud 9 spa, the ones on the side(s) of the ship are your best bet, I think.
Movies
There were usually two movies each night. An early one for the little ones and a late one that started at 10. One night there was just one movie (Friday), and on Thursday night there were three movies, with one (Mad Max) starting at midnight. Movies were usually crowded - get there early to get a seat! Before we left I saw a list of March movies and all of the ones on our ship were on that list.
Shopping
We didn't do much shopping. I think we went into the shops twice. Every day, they had a lot of stuff outside of the shops. Watches, wraps, jewelry. And every day they had a special. Because you all prepared me so well for our trip, there wasn't anything I needed or wanted. I think our kid bought a couple of things at the candy store, Cherry on Top.
My Favorite People on Board
There were so many favorites, and two stand out. From the first day there was a cute family and I think Dad's name was Mitch. He was always on Lido participating in every.single.activity. Every where I turned, there was Mitch. I only took this one video during the WIN! Pre-show of Mitch, which doesn't do him justice. Loved you and your family, Mitch!
Every early evening, I took a bloody mary up to deck 4 and tried to go through pictures. After that beat down, I sat on the couch that looked down on the deck 3 lobby and watched this freaking adorable couple dance. I imagine they have been dancing like this since they were dating and they still had all of the moves. I loved them and I hope to be dancing when I'm their age! I wished I had taken a video because they really were awesome. All I have is this little picture:
Pictures
Everywhere, someone wants to take your picture. No joke. And, they print off every one of those pictures they've taken of you and 4,000 other people and put them on Deck 4 for you to find and buy. They try to label the sections so you at least know what you are looking for, and they move them off the board into a condensed section and you can take the whole section and look through them.
I was overwhelmed at this process from the get-go. All I could think about was the waste of printing each of those pictures, sometimes twice. They really need to move to a process where they take advantage of the picture they have of you on your sign and sail card and use it for facial recognition. Disney does a great job of this, in my opinion. I would rather scan my sign and sail card whenever they took a picture, and then scan my card at a kiosk and see all of my awesome awesome pictures and buy a CD or a thumb drive or print them. Some pictures I never found, a lot we didn't buy.
If you wanted, you could never take a picture on board and still leave with a lot of cute pics of your family. If you can find the pictures.
Ports, Our Behind the Fun tour and the hard working staff are coming up. But first back to the grind!
Splendor- Hurricane Bud light trip.
in Carnival Cruise Lines
Posted
We were on the same cruise. Although we were disappointed we didn't get to Cabo and PV, we still enjoyed our vacation. What a crazy experience that was. We usually drive down to Galveston and cruise from there so this was the first time we had flown into a port. Looking forward to finding our next cruise!!!