Itchy&Scratchy

happened to us in April. SAS shuttle never came. The guy stopped answering his phone after 9:30 am. Before that he just said the shuttle will come around 10 am. There was another family waiting for SAS with us. The other shuttles offered their services, and we finally went with one of them around 11 am. Good thing we did... made it to FLL in a nick of time.

best get your passport in a jiffy.

I know. Hence, me admitting that I was ashamed of my behavior.

as she should be! I am ashamed to admit it, but I had been a nuisance (but I made a firm promise to myself to behave in the future) any time I saw a service dog onboard. I get so excited (I love dogs) that I can't help myself but to walk over and gush all over the dog. I don't pet unless permitted (very rarely), but, dang it, I do interrupt the dog's duty with my inappropriate behavior. I do know that and I try to do better, but my impulse control goes right overboard at the sight of any dog. Becka, if your mom sees this post, please know that I will never do it again and that I am very sorry for distracting you.

OP's granddaughter could be a young lady in her 20s...

the thread is titled "Carnival bottomless soda package," so my question was also about the tax on drinks purchased with a package.

yes, I am slightly obsessive about checking the folio several times a day. They didn't even scan the card - they just looked at the card, saw the word "soda package" and brought the sodas.

is it only Carnival who charges tax on sodas while you are still in POM? When we sailed on RCI a month ago out of POM, all I had to do is show our pass which had the soda package indicated on it, and they didn't swipe the card or anything. So, we got sodas when we were having our embarkation lunch at the buffet. No tax.

I'll go find it and read it when I have time. We sailed on Oasis first week of April, and had no problem with an uber from the hotel to the port. We had a different problem with the shuttle from POM to FLL, but it had nothing to do with POM.

sailed from MIA several times, never had a problem. Uber is cheap as well. Uber from MCO to the Port Canaveral cost us $120 to and $150 on the way back. That's is very expensive.

at the same time, it doesn't sound like you sail during school breaks for only 7 days, when the ship is bursting at the seams, and the crew is overwhelmed by the crowds.

but we DON'T sail in the Haven or the Retreat. I am not comparing him to this kind of people. I am comparing him to us. And since we are limited to school break cruising, MSC is happy to charge $2K+ pp for YC, as I have already demonstrated for our Spring break 2024 cruise. We paid $2,300 for the 3 of us with drinks and wifi included in a Fantastica balcony cabin instead. I hope that we like cruising in the steerage class on MSC, and if we don't, there are other cruise lines that may offer better atmosphere in this class for similar money.

what does one have with the other? Somebody tried the soft serve ice cream for the first time, discovered that they loved it, but according to you, they must now forgo the soft serve in favor of other new things they haven't tried before. I don't care for soft serve all that much, but my DH and DS luuuurrrve it. This is one of the very special joys they derive specifically from cruising. Why should they give it up? They find JOY in it.

we found that out in 2018. I see it hasn't improved.

we escape on a cruise for every Thanksgiving. 🙂 I hate hosting.

we ARE these people 🙂and booked a little bit of a better price on Carnival for Thanksgiving school break. Same itinerary.

that is NOT what I would call Southern Caribbean itinerary, so I'd choose Harmony.

we have been wiping down cruise cabins and airplane seats/buckles long before Covid. Actually, we started doing so when we started traveling with DS. Covid is not spread by fomites, but they didn't know that at first.

where are y'all finding such bargain prices???? I priced a Carnival Horizon and Celebrity Reflection for next March, and the price for a no-frills inside cabin for 3 people is the same: $2,700. The itinerary is the same as well (ABC islands). A regular balcony was actually more expensive on the Horizon. Yes, I know Horizon is newer than Reflection. I ended up booking Reflection for March and Horizon for November. Next year we'll have a lot of firsts. 🙂

another thing we like about Princess is that you don't need to check out towels with your card and worry about losing them/checking them in. Take as many as you want and return them when you want. If you have a drink package, room delivery was absolutely free on Enchanted. We put it to good use. Just be careful ordering frozen drinks - by the time they arrive, they are quite a bit melty. 🙂 I think it's also free on Regal, but we never had a package on Regal.

no, I didn't. But I did get salmonella poisoning as a child and almost died. Do you think that improved my immune system? And every time we went on a summer vacation as a family, I inevitably got noro or rotavirus... My poor mom. EVERY TIME.

surely, you could renew it between April 2024 and November 2024. Renewing it a year in advance seems a bit of an overkill. Our travel is this November, my parents' passports expire in August, they are applying now.

I am a germaphobe but I know that nothing is sterilized or even adequately cleaned. So, I bring Clorox/Lysol wipes and wipe everything down in the cabin. Even if it doesn't help with the actual germs, it helps with my state of mind. Some of our cabins have been relatively clean, but some were a bit filthier.

Here is a veranda pricing for the cruise we will be taking next year: And here is MSC pricing: this is the cruise we were booked on next year for the same week as Celebrity. YC is $6,137 total vs $1,947 total for a regular balcony for 3 people. We can cruise 3 times in a regular MSC balcony for the price of one YC sailing. YC is 2 times more expensive than Veranda.... Now, RCI prices are currently out of control, so yes, I wouldn't be surprised if their regular balcony for 3 were around $5-6K. To sum it up: I will be able to describe our MSC experience in a Fantastica balcony compared to a regular balcony or inside on Princess and RCI in November. I truly hope that we love it and that there is nothing to worry about when trying MSC after Princess or RCI.

tell me you are rich without telling me that you are rich. Yes, I've already seen this post of yours in other threads. Thanks. Not everyone can afford YC, but many may want to cruise. We've always been treated wonderfully on Princess and RCI whether we traveled in a lowly inside or balcony. No YC was needed to feel special and cared for. And free soft serve is included for everyone.