Stephandboys

Our first cruise! We are going to splurge with a couples massage! I've looked at scheduling and could book now, but wondered if they run specials once the cruise has started?

Not crazy at all. Husband and I are doing pretty much the same thing.

I believe a glass of their least expensive wine goes for between $6 and $7. You can buy a bottle at dinner and they will save the unused portion for you and bring it out at your next meal. I want to say their least expensive Chardonnay is around $23 or so (and you can buy a bottle at any bar or entertainment venue where there are bar waiters).

Thank you!! That helps a lot. $7 is normal for an average restaurant glass of wine.......more to think about! I appreciate your info!

You can bring one 750ml bottle of wine in your carry on per person over 21.

 

Just pour a glass in your cabin and bring it to the dining room with you. Any bar will give you wine glasses for your cabin.

Now, that's a great idea!! :)

You can send it back, but, it will still cost you 12 bucks!:)

AHAHAH!! I'm sure! I think I should have restated that one.....hmmmm!;)

Again - first time cruiser.

Bottom line question: Does anyone know about how much a glass of wine typically is when purchased with dinner? Average price. I'm sure more expensive wines are more, etc.

We are considering bringing a bottle of wine with us (as I've read is permitted) to share in our cabin. (I know the cork fee if we brought it with us to dinner) But we're not sure if it's really even worth it. We are not big drinkers. Don't ever have to have wine. Just on occasion. But it might be fun here. I realize alcohol is a profit center as it is in all entertainment situations. But I think I'd send it back if I found a glass of wine was $12 a glass considering I pay about that for the entire bottle of wine at home! AHAHAH!! (wine connoisseur, obviously, I am not! :cool:)

So - I'm just curious!

Thanks!

First time cruiser! Going on the Feb 26 - 7 day Cruise. Ports are Montego Bay,

Grand Cayman and Cozumel. We've never been to any of these and plan to go on shore for all three. But it looks like it gets pretty expensive to go on an excursion to all of them. That'd be upwards of around $600 for two of us just to go do something. We'd really like to learn about and explore all of them, but........:p

So can anyone share their ideas and experiences that may not be so expensive? We will probably pay for at least one nice excursion and listen to your experiences for the other two, perhaps? Thanks!

If you are near the parade route after the parades reach that part of St. Charles you will not get a taxi. So go drop bags early.

ekajun1957 - just as I had posted below - do you happen to know if the port WILL take your bags early? We had read that they will turn you away until your board time. That is why, even though our hotel is a "Park and Sail" hotel (the original reason we booked with them), we are thinking to not take that benefit and just go ahead and park at the port parking deck around 9 and just walk around until time to board.

Kind of along the same lines as Kittybork - once you are parked in the parking deck and they have taken your checked bags, can we leave our carry-on's in our car (our backpacks) and go watch the parades and then go back to the car in the parking deck to retrieve our backpacks just before we board the ship? We are going on the Dream on Feb 26 as well. Our FIRST CRUISE!! WOOHOO! And we had no idea it was during Mardi Gras - so when we realized, we added two days to our vacation and are coming down two days early and staying in a hotel just 8 miles from port so as to enjoy Mardi Gras - also for the first time!! :)

But, we are planners and don't want to be sideswiped with something we were not aware of. This thread is so helpful!!

We could simply carry around our backpacks, but hope to park EARLY - like 9am and wander around until we board. We read about how if you take Uber or a taxi to the port - that they will turn your luggage away until it's time to board, so we don't want to walk around pulling luggage. So, it's better to park in the deck early and let them have our luggage, there, right?

And besides walking around for 3 hours with backpacks on our backs, we also are concerned they wouldn't be happy to see backpacks on our backs for security reasons......?

Don't worry about the class of the ship. Cruise lines work their asses off to make sure you have a good time. Just soak it in and have fun. Don't sweat the small stuff. Too many people look for things to complain about. I watch them all the time with a dopey grin (which I call my cruise face). Enjoy!

 

 

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geduffer - Well, since we ended up canceling this cruise due to the weather (I wrote a full explanation about it somewhere in this post - still trying to figure out how this works.....), in my attempt to not get TO depressed and try to get some kind of cruising fix even if it's not on the actual ship yet, I started rereading all the posts to my questions and I just realized something. You haven't taken any Carnival Cruises. Is that because of where you guys are located? And I have not seen any Celebrity Cruises down here in the deep south, I don't think anyway. Are the cruise lines geographically located?

Interesting. I get migraines often and get car sick sometimes, however in 15 cruises I have never gotten seasick.

That is VERY good news, then!! In preparing for the cruise, we ended up not taking this week (previous post), I had started taking Bonine. I was told to take it the day before you sail. I also took it the day I THOUGHT we were going to sail. I mistakenly took it on an empty stomach and was ready for a nap!! AHAHAH! Good thing I realized that now! The day before, I took it with breakfast and felt no adverse effects.

BUT - I hope not to get seasick either.....when we FINALLY sail!! ;-)

WELLLLLLL...........not sure if all you awesome folks who posted and replied to all my questions over this last month will be notified of this post - I hope so. Because I wanted to thank you for all your insight and help - it WILL eventually pay off! But just not today! I asked every question imaginable except the one that happened.

Weather.

Good grief - who would have thunk it. But I should have realized as we were driving south in the middle of a tornado warning......hmmm. Fantasy could not make it to port. We had driven down the night before we were to sail (Sunday, January 21) and spend the night in Mobile and sail the next day. We got the first notice at dinner on Sunday night: Fantasy cannot come to port due to high winds. More later.....

The next morning, the ship is still out at sea. So, we went through an eyelash-pulling-bloodpressure-raising several hours of trying to keep our hotel room, which was overbooked because of all the folks who drove down the day of the cruise and needed to spend the night waiting for the ship to arrive a day late. The manager is the one who was pulling out his eyelashes - I was unusually calm. We ended up keeping our room just as another update came over the wire - Fantasy not expected to dock until around 11am on Tuesday.

SOOO......not being a savvy cruiser yet, I simply used logic. IF, a typical cruise went like this: Ship docks at 6am, guest disembark at 8am, crew cleans, cleans, cleans. Next set of guests embark around 11am, sail around 4pm. That's about 10 hours in port. I figured Fantasy would not set sail until around 8-10pm Tuesday night. I was right.

AND, to prevent a domino effect of further cruises, my cruise was shortened by one day. (with compensation,of course) The problem was, they took out Cozumel and left in Progreso.

Kind of a bummer. So, we took the 100% refund (even though we did not buy the vacation insurance) cut our losses and drove the 5 hours back home.

I looked at the live webcam - and sure enough, they JUST NOW sailed.

BUT.....we are not deterred.....we came home, slept it off like a bad hangover, called and booked another cruise and we are not on the countdown for our STILL FIRST CRUISE!!!

And we chose a longer cruise! We are going on a 7 day Feb 26-March 5 - Western Caribbean!! I am very excited once again! 33 days and counting down!

So - I'm sure I'll have more questions once again - but will be shifting over to Carnival Dream threads, I guess. (still figuring out how this works!)

Thanks to anyone who responded!

Bon Voyage!

We are headed to our first cruise in less than two weeks now....(Yes, we are counting down!! :))

We are only about a 4.5 hour drive to Mobile, so we are naturally going to drive. In all the advise we are receiving from cruise savvy friends and from everyone here, I'm hearing both sides as to whether to go down the night before or the day of the cruise.

We have already reserved our boarding time for 1:00.

We are trying to decide whether to go down the night before "just in case" or just leave at 0-dark-early to get there "in enough time"..........

PHEW....to many decisions! :o

We looked on the Carnival Mobile website and saw there is a covered parking lot for about $18 a day.

If we did do the parking lot at the dock, is it hard to get in? Will there be plenty of spots, or will we arrive and panic with no spot?

The hotels are going to cost around $200 (with junk fees and tax) to stay the night before just to park with them.....looks like the parking lot is cheaper....

So, what say you Cruise Critic experienced cruisers??!!!!

Everyone's advise on all my concerns have all been so good and I appreciate everyone's experiences! Thank you!

If you want a professional picture of the family you can get dressier. If not, just wear slacks and a nice top to dinner on elegant night. It's very casual now a days. Welcome to your new addiction of cruising!

 

If you pack clothes in dry cleaner bags it stops wrinkles somehow. I leave blouses and slcaks on hangars when I pack, makes unpacking easy. Nothing really wrinkles with the dc bags. You have to wear close toed shoes for the Behind the Fun tour. No steakhouse. They do offer steakhouse items for a fee in the MDR.

What great advice!! I can't wait to try the dc bag idea!! Thank you!

For severe seasickness you probably should have some Dramamine with you (generic stuff at Wally World is really cheap)... but one thing I always bring with me are ginger pills... they're also pretty cheap but since they're all natural no side effects, like drowsiness (even the non-drowsy stuff makes my hubby feel like nap time!).

 

The ginger pills are great, even if you don't get seasick- on a cruise you can tend to overeat or eat different things that your system isn't used to- a ginger pill afterwards is easy to help take that feeling away. (they're also great if you overindulge in the bars too!)

 

The thing I like most about ginger pills is that I don't have the aftertaste that I would with ginger ale or ginger candy, which can also help.

Thank you so much for this info! I have heard of ginger pills. I cook a lot with ginger - we're kind of health foodies in our family. But I've never taken the pills. I get dizzy sometimes in our ballroom dancing when there are a lot of spins. Instructors are working on teaching us dizzy heads to focus on one focal point when we turn. But I heard one instructor to find and suck on ginger. So, all these ideas are coming together. Just generic ginger pills can be found with vitamins and supplements? Also - I had heard of taking Bromine instead of Dramamine because Bromine doesn't make you drowsy. And also to start taking it the day before the cruise and even the day after to settle until you have your "land legs" back........have you heard any of this?

New question-sea sickness. I had struggled with car sickness all my life-typically having to ride in the front or drive as I got older. Funny, after my Lasic eye surgery in 2004 and change in hormones in 2007(TMI), the car sickness has greatly diminished, oddly enough. Weird. I can now even read in the car if the road isn't to windy. Even weirder. (on the hormone issue-I have read there is some correlation between migraine headaches and motion sickness...who knew...) So, naturally I'm very concerned about sea sickness. Your experiences??

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Thank you all for your wonderful experiences and suggestions.

Sauer-kraut - I looked at Cunard's Queen Mary 2 offerings. Very nice. May need to save a little longer to reach that goal, but a definite elegant goal. Thank you for the information.

And, cruiseonthebrain, an Alaskan cruise was actually my number one choice years ago when thinking about floating on that giant pond. We'll get there, I am sure of it. Thank you for the report.

And thank you for all your internet suggestions. We'll piece it together - free WiFi on shore and pay for something while at sea. You have given me a comfort now in starting our new chapter of cruis'in!! :rolleyes: We don't plan to work, per say. We know when to stop. We have no manager - no need. But our clients pay us handsomely to have their 24/7/365 availability. Never in the 15 years of holding their hands, though, has anyone taken advantage. I'm sure there will be no problems we can't handle remotely on this trip either. We travel a lot, just never by sea before. I always make sure we've got some type of connectivity where ever we end up.

See you on the Serenity deck!! ;)

Thank you so much for your experiences and replies!

I particularly liked the idea of working on my dopey grin, geduffer! Perhaps a margarita or mitie could assist in achieving this new goal I now have! :D And I have a heart for the service industry. Rarely am I disappointed in hard working folks. And their rewards are well deserved as well. I look forward to meeting some of them on this cruise.

And on that note - I read somewhere that you can take a "ship tour"...? I'd really like to do that. Seeing the inside or guts of an operation stirs my soul! Have any of you taken such a tour and how much is it, anyway?

And realizing this is not so much a bottom rung ship, rather just a smaller one, maldenmusic and dogbert's mom, gave me a different perspective. Thank you! I am sure we'll be on larger ships in the future, but I bet the smaller/more intimate will be more satisfying for us. We're pretty incognito kind of folk anyway.

Thank you also, Schoifmom, for the copy and paste of the general rules. Kind of humbling - I should have searched farther. But glad for your help. It was suggested in another post that this is a vacation and perhaps I shouldn't even be thinking about our business. If I had that attitude, we wouldn't have our business for very long.......'nough said there. That incognito thing again....

Hmmm....Shaded Lady. Thank you for telling me about the impromptu dancers. We had heard that before and I have a feeling we'll be one of the couples starting that train. (perhaps after that Mitie I mentioned above...or two....with my newly discovered dopey grin already in place!! ;)) We are only three years into our ballroom dancing bucket-list experience, so we can still be a bit shy at the start..... The group we are traveling with is a dance group, so we won't be the only ones on this first cruise. I was just kind of feeling it out for future sails that we may take solo.

Short dress, easyboy. Not a problem. Easier to pack, too.

And speaking of packing....I was disappointed that I could not pack a steamer. I'm kind of a bit OCD about wrinkles......ok, ok....I'll REALLY work on my "don't care" attitude here......:o

And thank you for the heads up and suggestions about avoiding the smaller-sized-people on these floating vacations, Thebosn1 and Schoifmom. As I mentioned, I raised my boys and funny, when they were shorter than I was, noisy didn't really bother me. But now that my own attention span has shorted to about the length of a knat, I too, prefer serenity. Thus, the Serenity deck is sounding pretty nice!

And one more question if I haven't lost you all already......has anyone paid for and taken advantage of the massages? I know a bit pricey, but its an indulgence I'm willing to pay for. I'll forgo the margarita's for a massage any ole' day!

Thank you again for your time.....and now...back to work!! Crack that whip!;)

Thank you!

First cruise - waited a long time. I know we are taking the "bottom rung" ship for our first one, but it's a good starter. (Carnival Fantasy) Going with a group, so it will be fun. From what I'm reading, we will have no where to go but up from here, as far as cruise lines are concerned, it looks like! (like Carnival Breeze and Dream and Magic...?) But we'll certainly have fun on this maiden voyage regardless.

Anyway - one reason we have waited so long is to get our boys through college (two graduating debt free in a matter of months now) and a very active business. Being business owners, there are no "down days". We just take our business with us via our laptops.

First question - I've read that internet is an extra fee. Anyone know how much that fee is and are there restricted times we can access the internet?

Second question - I've heard differing opinions on the dress code. We are doing the Cozumel/Progreso cruise, so I know it'll be summer casual dress 99% of the time. But what about the one nice-dinner dress night? Suit for him/dress for me, or is it even more casual than that?

Third question - it's pretty obvious we are not youngsters anymore - we like nice relaxing, little romantic venues. We also ballroom dance. I'm thinking Fantasy may not be our top pick for those types of things. Anyone have recommendations for future cruises that cater more to us "older" folks who don't want to do the ropes course or the water park? We are still very active, though - hikes, dancing, runners, etc, etc.

Thanks for any tips!

Bon Voyage and all those fun words!!

First cruise - waited a long time. I know we are taking the "bottom rung" ship for our first one, but it's a good starter. (Carnival Fantasy) Going with a group, so it will be fun. From what I'm reading, we will have no where to go but up from here, as far as cruise lines are concerned, it looks like! (like Carnival Breeze and Dream and Magic...?) But we'll certainly have fun on this maiden voyage regardless.

Anyway - one reason we have waited so long is to get our boys through college (two graduating debt free in a matter of months now) and a very active business. Being business owners, there are no "down days". We just take our business with us via our laptops.

First question - I've read that internet is an extra fee. Anyone know how much that fee is and are there restricted times we can access the internet?

Second question - I've heard differing opinions on the dress code. We are doing the Cozumel/Progreso cruise, so I know it'll be summer casual dress 99% of the time. But what about the one nice-dinner dress night? Suit for him/dress for me, or is it even more casual than that?

Third question - it's pretty obvious we are not youngsters anymore - we like nice relaxing, little romantic venues. We also ballroom dance. I'm thinking Fantasy may not be our top pick for those types of things. Anyone have recommendations for future cruises that cater more to us "older" folks who don't want to do the ropes course or the water park? We are still very active, though - hikes, dancing, runners, etc, etc.

Thanks for any tips!

Bon Voyage and all those fun words!! :rolleyes: