Teibban

34 minutes ago, Maria63 said:

 

We had suitcases also that we handed in the night before. As we had been given stickers for the earliest debark time, I went down to reception to ask to have them changed to later. This is when I was told that there was no need to change the stickers, but that we could stay onboard until the last group indicated in the debark-info was to get off. This last group consisted of guests who had purchased an MSC transport to various parts of Spain, and the time given for them was 3 pm. I don´t know if this was a one-off or something they do on every cruise. However, as they don´t have to clear the ship before the new guests are allowed onboard (like for instance on the US-based cruises), there was no great issue with getting people to leave the ship as soon as possible.

 

If I remember correctly, the carry-on storage was in one of the lounges, but we didn´t use it as we kept our things with us (nothing wrong with the storage, but we didn´t feel we needed it). I cannot say if they would agree to store large suitcases too. We debarked around noon and our suitcases were still fine though they had been sitting in the luggage hall for several hours.

Perfect thanks for the detailed info. Greatly appreciated.

5 hours ago, Maria63 said:

We disembarked MSC World Europa a few days ago in Barcelona. As this cruise operated as a "hop on hop off", where guests embarked and debarked in almost every port, we were actually allowed to stay onboard until 3 pm. Cabins should be empty by 8 am, but they offered storage of carryons until something like 11.30.

Thanks a lot for the information. Did you have large luggages also? And did you leave them outside your cabin? We would be coming from Canada and would probably require 2 large luggages along with 1-2 carry-ons as this will be a near 3 weeks vacation for us. Just wondering if we could store with the carry-ons. They store them at the service desk?

Thanks again for input.

Hi everyone,

It is our first Mediterranean cruise and we have a question for disembarkation.

We are doing a close loop starting and ending in Barcelona end of June. We have a flight to Brussels at 6PM. Until what time can we stay on the ship? It is leaving port at 5PM. We would like to stay at least until 1PM if possible to not spend all morning and afternoon at the airport or in the city carrying our luggages.

Thanks.

Jonathan

What was your terminal finally? We will be taking Uber to the port and I think you need to specify which Terminal you want to get to. Am I right?

Hi everyone,

Going on the Seascape in 14days. The app does not show the terminal that the ship will ve docked. In the etickets paper, in the fineprint at the end, it says that Divina is terminal E and Seascape is terminal C. Is this still the case as I have seen some people in January saying the terminal sometimes change.

Thanks

Jonathan

Any news this morning if the cruise will start on time today?

5 hours ago, alyssamma said:

Excellent responses, but I will add/clarify one thing. I don't think they honor price drops. With YC, it's basically too bad 🙂 With other categories I believe you have to cancel and rebook.

 

Of course, what you said about calling back several times is *always* true, so who knows. I have a YC cabin I've called probably 5 or 6 times and wasn't able to get it dropped. I have a non-YC cabin with the same thing...they made me cancel and rebook.

I did a price match by phone before final payment (800 cad). Took 10min. No trouble at all.

On 1/10/2023 at 1:14 PM, bafinegan said:

cruising for the second time this APril (last was Jan 22) for 7 days with 5 kids ( extended family!) ages 2-12.  There is TONS of stuff for the kids to do in or our of the kids club.  TIP:  get them a "funpass" ahead of time ( pay $80 for $140 worth of game time).  The arcade has the usual stuff PLUS a bunch of virtual reality stuff.  The kids will love it!

 

The waiters we had were great with the kids.  SO good that I actually went to the service desk on day 4 to compliment them by name.  I must have really raved ( I know we weren't an easy group-6 adults and 5 kids) because the compliment was forwarded and they goe the next might off.  We thought they were sick.  The next night they were so appreciative it was kinda embarrassing.  They will bend over backwards for the kids!

Can you purchase 1 fun pass and use it for both kids?

Going on the Seascape on February 26th. 2 canadian families with kids. Any staff speaking French you have encountered?

Hi everyone,

Here is my personal review of the cruise I just took on the Carnival Breeze. For some background, we are a family of 4 with 2 kids aged 8 and 11. It is our first cruise with Carnival and our 4th total (2 with NCL and 1 with RCCL). I will try to give you my honest review and compare it to NCL and RCCL but for anyone that do not want to go through all my details the cruise was enjoyable and we really liked our time on board.

1- Getting to MCO airport. We flew from Montreal the day before (on the 28th) with approx. 1h30 delay at Montreal airport waiting for the plane to arrive. We arrived at MCO at approximately 9PM. Called the Fairfield Inn for the shuttle, waited 30min and the driver did not show up. Took a taxi instead. The staff at Fairfield inn was great and refunded the taxi drive. FYI I got the hotel at an amazing rate of 83 USD for the night. Room was spacious, clean and comfortable. Breakfast included in the next morning and classic included breakfast.

2- Getting to Port Canaveral. Took a UBER XL to get to Port Canaveral. I reserved the ride while waiting at the airport the day before. Driver showed up on-time and took approximately 45 min to get to the port. We arrived at the port at 10h30AM, gave our luggages to the porter and was in the waiting room by 10h45. FYI we received FTTF free from our travel agents. For the people asking about the added security for CORONAVIRUS, a paper had to be filled about the health which added a question about visiting China but nothing more was seen. (temperature control or anything else). We brought in 2 bottles of wine and no questions asked. We were called to board at 11h10. Flow for embarkation was amazing and the best experience in our 4 cruises.

3- Boarding. As we had FTTF, our room was ready as soon as we boarded. With each a backpack and 2 carry on, this is something we really liked. Dropped everything in our room, met Jose our steward who asked us about morning, night or both options for cleaning. We took morning only. First impressions on the room compared to our previous cruise: Carnival offers more closet and shelf space. Also, having the closet on the side by the entrance instead of being on the back wall of the bathroom help I believe with the flow in the room. Balcony was nice and a little more spacious than NCL. I still prefer the sliding door of NCL and RCCL though. Bedding was the most comfortable of all cruises. Cleaning in the room was OK. In the closet you could see dust on shelves and the vent in the room for the air conditioning needed cleaning too as there was dust hanging from it. Bar was not keeping water cool enough so we asked for a bucket of ice everyday. Overall Room was very nice and because of the bed comfort, I would put Carnival first in front of RCCL and NCL. We also ate at PIG Anchor BBQ which was delicious.

4- Saturday Departure. Muster drill was very quick (quickest we have seen and done in 15 min). On the first night, we went to the dining room. Service and food in the Dining room was amazing. We took Your Time Dining and through the app you can reserve a table. We got a table always under 5min after request. Temperature was fairly cold so we hung out with the kids playing board games and exploring the ship on the first night and went to sleep early.

5- Sunday Fun day at Sea. We really like the animation on the LIDO deck even though the music can be sometimes loud. As this first day was also cold, we hung out outside but did not use the pool/waterworks. Tried the buffet and Guys Burger which we all liked. We felt like the flow of the ship on the BREEZE is strange. For example, we were located mid ship. We take the elevator which were the mid ship one to get to the main dining room at the 3rd level and we get in front of closed doors. We need to get to the 4th level, get to the lobby, get down one level and then get to the dining room. This happened more than once on our cruise. Also, it seems that the flow is done on one side of the ship instead of in the middle and venues on the side like on NCL or RCCL. We did not like this and we wonder is the Vista class is the same. Went to the Motor City show. OMG did we step down in terms of entertainment vs NCL and RCCL. The main male singer was ok, the main female singer was yelling all the time, the secondary male singer was really bad and the secondary female signer was really good and should have been main singer. This was a big let down for us but the kids liked the show as there was dancing at the same time. FYI the Ovation Theater was never full and we could find really good spots even 5 min before each show. 

6- Monday Amber Cove. Was raining all day. We switched our excursion from beach to Monkeyland. What I really like from Carnival is that they cancelled every beach excursion and refunded everyone and all others who wanted to cancel (such as us) could be credited on their account. We still did the excursion. The interaction with the monkeys was amazing. The part of the Dominican flavors where we could taste coconut, coffee, mamajuana etc... not so great but the explanations by the tour guide on the history etc... were very interesting. Came back to the ship around 1PM and still pouring rain. Also, I do not know if it changed since our last cruises with NCL and RCCL but they were offering free cheap ponchos. On Carnival we had to buy the 5$ but they are better quality and honestly they were great to have with the monkeys who were all wet. Went to the dining room that night and same great service and good food. On that night we also did the Country Road show. Sea was really bad and the group sang but did not do any choreography which was best for them. As it did not entertain the kids, and still bad voices we did not stay until the end. 

7- Tuesday St-Thomas. This was our second stop in St-Thomas. We took a cab to Magen's Bay and stayed there for 4hrs. Great beach but heavy waves and the water, because of the current, was not as clear as before. Still saw some turtles. Went afterwards to Paradise Point for the sunset. Amazing place to see sunset. We could see at the other port the beautiful Celebrity Equinox which I hope to sail one day when kids will not ask for waterworks anymore :). Stayed the latest at St-Thomas that night and went to the buffet. Although the selection is not great, the food is really good. No show tonight so hung out in the public places with the kids.

8- Wednesday San Juan Porto Rico. Great day walking around the city and visiting the 2 forts with the kids. Walked over 16,000 footsteps during the day. Was hot but not too humid. The location of the port makes it really easy to do the visit by yourself. We tried the restaurant Triana's Tapas close to the port for lunch. Expensive but very good quality. Tapas are huge plates so if going there, take that into account. They have kid menus. Kids went to play in the waterworks in the afternoon and really like both waterslides and the kids area. There was 4 people checking the area to make sure that everything went well and was safe. Went to see 88 Keys that night and it seems the secondary male singer found a little bit of his voice back. This was the most enjoyable show of the week. 

9- Thursday Grand Turk. We were able to disembark at Grand Turk and not be denied like the MAGIC the day after. Read on Cruise Critic about Jack Shack and went there with the kids. Nice friendly place with good food (took the mixed plate) and good beer. There was a lot of people at Jack Shack that day (I would say close to 200) and service to get drinks was long. Kids played in water until 4PM. Beach is nice and clean and compared to Jamaica where locals harass you all day to sell something, locals at Grand Turk are nice and do not bother you when you say no. This night was Flick and was the show I was the most excited about. It is a really nice show visually but again the singing was really not good.

10- Friday Fun day at sea. Temperature went down on that last day. Kids went to play in the waterworks right after lunch time and we had to stop in the middle of the afternoon as it started to rain. Went inside and played board games, went to the arcade and relaxed in our room balcony. 

11- Debarkation. Arrived at Port Canaveral at approx. 6AM. Started debarkation around 7AM. We went down at 7h30 as asked on the paper (As we put our 2 big luggages outside the previous night) we received but we were denied and had to wait as they said FTTF had past already. Talked to another person on-board who got us a spot in the first groups out. It seems that if you have FTTF, even though you are assigned one of the priority group, you still need to debark before the groups are called. All in all, it took 45 min to debark and we were off to Alamo for rental car. Spent the afternoon at Disney Springs before taking plane. 

Here is the ranking (best to ''worst'') on everything we did on the cruise and all aspects. This is my opinion and for sure not everyone will agree 🙂

Boarding: Carnival, NCL, RCCL

Room: Carnival, RCCL, NCL

Dining Room Food: RCCL, Carnival, NCL

Buffet: NCL, Carnival, RCCL

Entertainment: RCCL, NCL and far away Carnival

Ship flow: Oasis of the Sea, Getaway/Breakaway, Breeze

Bars drinks selection: NCL, RCCL, Carnival (NCL and RCCL bars were open most of the time of the day where Carnival had special opening hours for a lot of the bars) 

Outside venues: We really like having a ''boardwalk'' so NCL, Carnival, RCCL.

Specialty restaurants: did not do any on Carnival so cannot comment.

I understand that rust is to be found on a ship sailing in saltwater but please Carnival, do yourself a favor, and hire 5-6 more guys on each ship and just ask them to paint a little bit at every port like we have seen NCL and RCCL do. This would just help your reputation a little bit more. 🙂 

Overall, we really liked our cruise. We had a great price and found the stops really interesting. We are not loyal to any cruise line and we hate to visit ports more than once. We prefer to select our itineraries based on new ports and also on the price 🙂 We will probably sail Carnival again but NCL remains our #1 for the moment and we are looking at their cruise on the EPIC departing from San Juan.

If anyone has any questions, let me know and I'll be pleased to answer them.

Happy cruisin to everyone 🙂

What I would like to see from Carnival, and this could potentially bring more customers to them, is to have a universal loyalty program across their whole fleet. My parents are cruising on HAL and have a great loyalty program and refrain themselves from trying Carnival, Costa or another of their cruise line because of the perks they have been getting used to have.

This could be a game changer for them as they are the largest cruise line and this could also spread Carnival cruisers to their other cruise line brands don't you think? and could bring new ones also.

3 minutes ago, Jamesatgsu said:

And let me skip that line getting back on!

I agree 100% on that. And I do not believe that there is that many people having it so the line could be use temporarily when people with FTTF are present and if not, you use it for people not having it.

2 minutes ago, Jamesatgsu said:

I apparently need to be using a TA. With your arrival time it is a big advantage since you can get on by 11am with FTTF generally instead of waiting until 12 to even get to checkin. 

The only thing I do not like about FTTF is the priority debarkation for tendering only. They should have a line even for standard docking. But hey we got it free so no complaining here 🙂 BTW first time I got something for free from a TA.

2 hours ago, Jamesatgsu said:

If you buy FTTF to get on quicker, it definitely is a mistake, unless you don't want to worry about getting an early check-in time.  Before the arrival time appointments, it was a lot more valuable as lines were much longer.

 

The big advantage is your room is ready when you get on board, and your luggage will get there by the afternoon, rather than potentially after dinner.

We did not buy it. We got it free from out Travel Agent.

Hi everyone,

We are looking at doing the Damajagua Falls and Monkeyland tour with Carnival. I have a few questions about the falls:

1- We have someone a little bit afraid of jumping. Do you have to jump at all the falls of you can take a ladder at each of them if the person does not feel like jumping? I read somewhere that the first one jump is mandatory.

2- how deep is the water. You have life jacket but just wondering as we would have a 8yrs old kid with us.

Thanks

ok thanks all for the answer.

Hoping to have a great cruise on Carnival and to be the first of many.

Hi everyone,

I checked my documents for my cruise on February 29, and it says my boarding time is 12-12h30. However, I thought that with FTTF, you could board at anytime and just after Diamond and before group 1? Am I right or do I need to follow the boarding time?

Thanks

Ok thanks all

Small question here. We received FTTF free from our cruise trip agent and she said we had priority debarking at ports while I read only tendering ports. Which is true?

42 minutes ago, Capt_BJ said:

No

 

between Carn' terminals and the National/Alamo/Enterprise office is a draw bridge which is closed to foot traffic ..... security will stop you ... no sidewalk ....

Ok thanks so need to use the shuttle then.

Hi everyone,

We are renting a car at Alamo at the end of our cruise in Port Canaveral. There seems to be a shuttle but can we walk from Carnival Cruise Terminal to the Alamo location?

Thanks

Jonathan

Hi everyone,

New to Carnival here but not new to cruising. I have a few questions about camp ocean carnival:

1- Are they strict on the age group? My 2 kids will be 8 and 11 and would prefer to be together.

2- On NCL, they had periods of ''free time'' where all groups were mixed and playing together. Is there something like this on Carnival.

3- Anyone ever notice any of the camp staff speaking french? As we are in Canada (province of Quebec), our native language is French. Kids know a little bit of English but not enough to understand all requests for activities.

We will be cruising on the Breeze departing on February 29th, 2020 and if someone has a program for the camp, that would be helpful.

Thanks all

Jonathan

Our cruise is ending in Port Everglades and the time for disembarkation is 8:00AM.

There is a flight i would like to take out of Miami at 12h15. Is it too tight?

First time I have a cruise disembarking so late.

Thanks.

Could you ask for once a day for sea days and twice for port stops?

20 hours ago, jserio2001 said:

I was there on the Disney Wonder in Jan 2018. The ferry to Jost Van Dyke was not within walking distance of the cruise port.  This might be a different ferry, make sure it's going to Jost. 

Thanks just checked on Google Maps and saw that it is my mistake. The one for Virgin Gorda is near the cruise pier. The one for JVD is further to the south of the island.