Nevada Jen

As an almost first timer I can tell you 2 mistakes I already made. I assumed I had to go out of Florida. Airfare to Galveston at that time of year was considerably cheaper. So consider that in your money equation. There might be a port other than Miami that is cheaper and just as easy for you. Also, make sure you understand the fare you are getting. Mine was completely unchangeable and non refundable and I have no say on my cabin. I honestly had no idea of that when I booked. Royal or carnival might be perfectly fine for you the second week of January because it will have a different demographic by then.

Apparently I booked a pack and go rate which makes the entire thing not cancellable. What kills me, is I was never told this is what I booked and it is literally no where on any of my documents. And if it was like some stellar deal, maybe I would have been on notice, but it wasn't. Plus, even if that is their policy, why would Carnival not let me change to a cruise that is twice as expensive? I'm done. Never using that agent or sailing Carnival again. I know this is technically my fault. I also paid a shocking amount for my first car 25 years ago. Never bought another Nissan or used that dealer again. I may just no call no show and cut my losses. At least carnival will not be able to make another cent off me.

OK. Now I am just extremely unhappy. Are there actually non-cancelable fares? My agent is telling me Carnival will not allow the change. I'm 65 days out from the cruise. I can't follow Carnival's cancelation policy but it looks to me like any fare can be cancelled more than 61 days out. Worst case you lose 50 bucks a passenger. By the way, I didn't get a super awesome fare. Its 10 bucks cheaper than what you can get directly from Carnival. I'm not super trusting that my travel agent isn't the problem here.

What is the earliest flight you would feel comfortable booking out of Hobby with a ship returning to Galveston scheduled to arrive at back at port at 8 am on a Saturday? I will need to check luggage at the airport but I am pretty sure I can carry my luggage off the ship myself. I'm not one who wants to cut it too close, but I don't want to pay to stay overnight in a cruddy hotel if I can avoid it.

Good point about the insurance. I would have forgotten that. I am assuming I cannot call Carnival myself and make the change since I used a travel agent? It is annoying the heck out of me to watch plane fares go up while she twiddles her thumbs.

I'm new to cruising and to vacation planning in general. I wanted a 7 day cruise but didn't see any for my dates when I booked. So I booked a 4 day. To places I am not very excited about. After reading the boards and carnivals website, I see I just wasn't pulling up the 7 days cruises. I now see a really good cruise from a different port. Is it possible to switch cruises for little to no cost? My travel agent hasn't got back to me and I'm going a bit nuts. From reading the contract it looks like I am right at the spot where maybe I could cancel for no charge but I don't even know what kind of fare I have. The new cruise is way more expensive to the extent that matters. Thoughts?

Hmmm. . . not liking the sounds of that. Considering that I have already determined that it will be too cold to lay out by the pool this weekend because it will only be in the 90s, I am guessing we might be miserable on waterslides in December!

We are doing a 4 day Bahamas cruise at the end of December on Liberty. I have seen a few mentions that it is hard to get the room cool. We have a balcony cabin. Is it so bad in December that I need to bring a fan? I will never sleep if it is too hot in the room but the fan pretty much pushes us to having to check luggage.

Anyone have any advice as to whether Atlantis is too cold to enjoy the slides in December/January ? The excursion is pretty expensive and the water park is what makes it worth it to me.

This issue just occurred to me too for our new years cruise. Is the water park at Atlantis even worth it at that time of year? We are from Arizona. At 80 degrees we are wearing hooded sweatshirts!

Stupid first timer question, but how do you physically tip? Like your room steward the first day. Do you hand him 20 bucks? At the MDR do you just leave it on the table? Do you just add it to receipts if you have cheers or do you hand over a dollar or two?

Ok. So maybe I will uber from port to Disney. I want to get the as fast as possible. Does uber have a designated pick up spot at the port? I'm not an uber person so I'm not sure how to do it.

Thank you! I just needed someone to tell me what to do! Booked Springhill suites which I noticed had a free airport shuttle (haven't seen one of those in decades!) and contrans. Now I need to do the other end. Does Disney do transportation from the port on non Disney ships?

We get in to mco at 430 on December 30th. Cruise leaves port Canaveral on December 31. We have 11 am boarding. I'd rather not spend a ton of money on a hotel that one night. And can't figure out whether to stay in Orlando or canveral. The port hotels are largely booked or expensive so I'm thinking Orlando might be cheaper but then it seems like I have to pay to get tO hotel then back to airport the next morning to catch a shuttle to the port. Is there an easier or less expensive way? On the return we are staying at a Disney hotel. I don't suppose you can catch a Disney shuttle from the port?