Mic101680

Depending on what rate code you use to book and what the terms are, possibly, but I doubt it. Either way, you're likely going to have to call Carnival (or a TA) if you really want that specific cabin.

Yes, call and ask for that specific room. Worst case is they make you book it for 3, in which case have a "TBA" for the third instead of a name and call back at a later time to have that third 'person' removed.

They're not allowed to accept homemade food/drink items, so I doubt they can accept open food/drinks. If I was in their shoes, I definitely wouldn't for safety reasons. You can ask the bartenders to make your drink as a double and it's usually a little bit cheaper compared to having 2 drinks.

They place holds periodically throughout the cruise based on how much you've spent on your onboard account. So initially, it will be $200 held, then when you spend a certain amount, they will place another hold. If you don't have enough cash on your debit card, or enough available credit on your credit card, it may prevent you from charging anything else to your onboard account until everything is settled.

I would use a credit card over a debit card if you can so your actual money isn't tied up for a few days while you're waiting for holds to settle or drop off.

It really doesn't matter - you'll be facing landward going out or coming back, and when you cruise the glaciers, they spin the ship in circles.

It varies, depending on the check in agent and where the cruise is going. I think some of the agents ask out of habit from the last few years. I would bring your cards with you just to be on the safe side, but in most cases, they likely won't ask to see them. On Paradise last month, they didn't even ask us if we were vaccinated, but none of the ports on that sailing required it.

Keep in mind that Carnival may have had to increase their excursion pricing to keep the same profit margin because the tour operators they partner with likely have increased their pricing. Yes, it sucks, but this is something that's not necessarily all Carnival's doing.

I am guessing here, but I don't think they escort B2B guests off until they have cleared the ship of other passengers first. If the ship is delayed back to port for some reason, it can delay this process as well. I'd stop by guest services and see if they can answer this question for you.

From what I've been told, the gifts are not a guarantee and are up to the hotel director on the ship. But it seems to be pretty common and is definitely a nice touch!

Same here. My only issue with this is that the flight costs from Florida to Australia are beyond insane. Otherwise I would have been on these cruises at least twice by now. Sadly, I had to just let these expire. And my only complaint about the casino offers, is that currently, my other offers have had better pricing and value to me than the casino offers.

This! I just did a B2B last month and the hotel director onboard had mimosas waiting for us once we got back from customs, and I had a fruit basket and champagne in my new room. It was a nice surprise! We also took a group picture, which everyone got a copy of. And nwcruiselover already covered everything else. My room steward from my first room stopped by to see how many bags would be moved and let me know when he was going to pick them up. I got instructions the last night of the first cruise with where to meet, what to bring (passport or whatever travel docs you're using), and what to expect. I also received a transit pass in case I wanted to completely disembark and come back later (I'm guessing this speeds up the re-embarkation process when you return to the ship, but I chose to stay onboard and enjoy the empty ship for awhile - it was both eerie and peaceful!) At the meeting spot, we had coffee, tea, juice, and pastries available while we were waiting. Enjoy! I loved the B2B and would definitely do it again 🙂

This will depend on how many you have in your party. Usually they only have a couple of tables to seat 10-12 max and there could be a long wait if you have anytime dining. The next best thing they can do is seat everyone at smaller tables close together, but even that can be a longer wait for large parties. I would suggest trying to get everyone on the same early or late set dining time to help get everyone together at once, or see if everyone can get reservations at the same time for a specialty restaurant on the celebratory day. Someone may need to correct me on this part because it's been a long time since I've done it - but to be seated together for the early or late seating, you may have to contact Carnival to get the reservations linked and/or speak to the maitre'd once you're onboard the first day to arrange this.

I've done it a couple different ways, but usually we will either hire a travel agent to secure a group of rooms and everyone books through the TA (takes the hassle of arranging everything on your own) or someone in the group will book a trip and everyone else just books what they want on their own. We make loose plans to meet for dinner or at one of the bars or whatever, set a time for everyone to meet for a group picture, then the rest of the trip is on our own. We all will get the chat plan and have a group chat so we could say "I'm going to the comedy club if anyone wants to join" and then everyone can respond or just show up if they want to meet up. We found this works great - we've done it with just 4-5 people and as many as 40 and have had a great time every time.

This is for platinum and above, OP said they were gold.

In some cases, there is no apparent reasoning for it. While yes, free cruises are most often offered to the gamblers, it's not always the case. In the last year alone, I've booked four free room offers with OBC, usually for interiors and I just had to pay the taxes/port fees. Why I get these kinds of offers and others don't get them is beyond me - I'm not a big onboard spender and some of my cruising buddies have more or fewer cruise days under their belts than I do. Until very, very recently, I've also not ever spent money in the onboard casinos or linked a land based casino account to my Carnival account. That said, as cheap as Carnival cruises generally are, I'd still book the same way free or not.

Yes, you still get the 1.5 liter bottle of water. My last 3 cruises, I just took the one from the room and they either didn't charge me for it (it never showed on my bill or as a later charge) or used the 'coupon' on my S&S card. But you can choose to get one from any bar instead. You also get a complimentary drink/cocktail on cruises 5 night or longer. Redeemable at any bar on the last night after 5pm. Weird that it's so specific, but whatever, it works for me. The pin has to be picked up sometime before the last two days of the cruise. Again, no idea why the timing is so specific. I've never seen the information or letter in my room for the loyalty perks - I just looked it up on the website once I hit gold and keep a screenshot on my phone for reference while cruising

You can ask the maitre'd once you're onboard and see if they can change it for you - in some cases it may take a day or so to go into effect (if they even have the space and availability to make the requested change for that sailing). Another option is to switch to any time dining. If you prefer having the same dining staff every night for ATD, just be there right when the dining room opens each night, check in at the hostess station rather than the app, request the same team and they can try to seat you in the same area.

I don't know about the room service potato salad, but they usually have one on the lunch buffet that I love.

Officially? Not unless you all have the same level of priority or same boarding code on your boarding pass. If it's not busy in the terminal when you arrive, they *might* go ahead and let you board together, but this is NOT in any way a guarantee. The earlier arrival appointment times are going to be much busier than the later times, so if you want to board together, a later time might be better.

You can ask after you board the ship - it's also possible they may not actually have any openings online and you have to reserve while onboard. Who knows with Carnival's funky website these days.

This! We did an excursion on our 2018 Alaska cruise, and despite it being spelled out on the excursion description and on the excursion tickets in bold letters, AND a person announcing multiple times before we got on the bus, while we were on the bus waiting for others to show up, and before the bus left port that a passport was REQUIRED for this excursion, there was one guy who said they didn't have a passport as we were driving up to the border, which was a good 40+ minutes away from town. 🙄 Not saying this would always happen, but border control ended up letting the guy go through with us, after holding up the bus for 30 minutes while they asked him a bazillion questions and scrutinized his U.S. driver's license. Had they not done that, or had he been a non-U.S. citizen, I don't know if the bus would have turned around to take him back to town, or if they would have just kicked him off the bus until we came back through. Dude was LUCKY.

Yes, you can - I do it all the time. *Most* of the time, it's just adding that second person's taxes/port fees, but the base fare per person could change depending on the promo code you booked with, if any. If you have OBC, it might change from you getting all of it, to it being split between you and the other person, which is also dependent on the rate code you booked with. If the ship is sold out, then there is a possibility you may not be able to add the second person, but I have never encountered that myself.

Yes, it would be fine, but I promise you're not going to need that much stuff for a cruise. Nobody will likely notice - or even care - if you wear the same thing multiple times or mix/match the same few pieces of clothing. And don't forget you'll have pretty limited space in your cabin for everything. Personally, I don't like keeping up with that much stuff while traveling, and stick with a carry-on and a backpack or similar sized tote bag.

Has anyone booked Pride of America and used both NCL's air and hotel add ons? Customer service wasn't able to answer these questions and I was curious is anyone had any experience with this: I was able to add the desired air deviation to my reservation, but does anyone know how early you can add the hotel? If I book a hotel on my own, will NCL's transport still do the pickup/drop off at the hotel (for at least from the airport and from the cruise ship?), or do I need to arrange different transportation? Also, we have 4-5 cabins of people going as a group/not an official group - is there any reason we should link the reservations together? None of us have sailed NCL before, so everything is weird and new to us!