Bobbylah

 

Did most of you know (I havent read the whole thread), that you can order home made Indian food in the MDR if you order 24 hours ahead of time thru the maitre d? last time i asked about it and the maitre d kept aaking every night if i wanted it. its a hard choice, i love the indian, but has to be ordered 24 hours in advance. they give you more than you can possibly eat and its not mass produced. the main cooks are indian and cook for themselves and you get whatever all they make for their own dinner, its wonderfull.

I have done this on the last three cruises. I just talk to the maitre d' and then our head sever and request the non-vegetarian indian dishes each night. The server then confirms each night if he should bring it along with whatever other entree I order. I do it each night as I never have the desserts, so enjoy the entrees. Yummy.

I for one would much prefer that type of food. The majority of the buffet on board is very meh, but they have to cater to all sorts. I am also of the opinion that if you want to eat, go to the restaurant, if you want to watch TV somewhere else. A bar/pub is for drinking and chatting, nothing else. Probably the Brit in me coming out! Don't get me started on 'Sports Bars'.

So you are not a moderate drinker .

'two specialty coffees two pops and many bottles of water along with champagne before dinner wine with dinner and an after dinner drink',

Seems pretty moderate to me?

Steak and eggs

 

 

 

 

 

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I usually start with a spicy Bloody Mary, bagel and smoked salmon, 3 eggs (runny) 2 sides of bacon, side of hash browns, white toast (no butter), grilled tomato, pineapple juice and plenty of coffee. Sets me up for the day. Almost never do buffets (although when younger I used to be a regular at the champagne brunch buffets in Singapore (The Mandarin I recall as being very good).

Rather agree with you!

While we never over expect ... we never under expect.

I tend to sit on both sides of the discussion. I apply your thinking at work, so people who don't meet expectations, typically get shown the door pretty quickly.

As a family we do value the trips more than material gifts. We are lucky to have an extended family get together every two years, which started right when I started dating my now wife back in the late 90s. Started in Hawaii, then Thailand, France (Paris and an awesome canal barge trip, where we rented two barges and did the Loire Valley I believe it was). Then people started having kids, so we scaled back on the distant trips and went to the Bahamas, Isle of Palms a few times, Portugal, and most recently 3 weeks in Italy (one in Rome and 2 in a villa in Deruta, Umbria). I know my kids always talk about these trips and not about the Xbox they received for Christmas or other minor gifts that lose their shine pretty quickly. We never begrudge spending on the trips (I do get a little cheesed off though at some of the junk we do buy for the kids for birthdays and Christmas!)

Like everyone, 'your mileage may vary'. We much prefer the late dining as we don't do the shows, we tried a few times, but always end up walking out as there is little of interest going on (for us). The typical evening after dinner starts with us in Red Frog crushing the trivia with friends.

I have seen many funny people such as the guys in the hot tub drinking from wine bottles in the blue jeans and one in his BVDs. These guys might have made some people upset especially when kids started coming to the pool.

Now that sounds like my sort of crowd. I get more cheesed off at the annoying kids in the hot tubs.

Cheers

We cruised on the Sunshine at the end of Jan this year and loved the band. I believe they were called Szzergy (or something similar). Are they still playing and if so which ship?

Cheers

What a bum! Sounds like her car may be in need of a set of new tires in the near future due to some unexplained nails.

The week after our Sunshine cruise next January has been chartered. It is a bear cruise. I am glad we are going before the charter.

Bear or Beer? :')

Always a kilt with an Argyle jacket and waistcoat, ghillie brogues, skian dubh, . No need for a BPC.

Got a flyer in the mail today. Looks promotional and legit, however there is a link on it to win a cruise on the Panorama in 2019. States it is a sweepstake and ends Aug 31. Link is carnival.com/julypanosweeps. When you put this in, it comes up as a potential bad site. I cannot find anything on the Carnival site about that sweepstake, so that is a couple of red flags right there. Also advertises a couple of other cruises, but notes price is based on quadruple occupancy. I don't ever recall seeing that before. It just doesn't pass the smell test. Anyone got any better info than me?

Thanks

OP - for 6 hours we would likely drive the day before and stay at a hotel. For many cruising decisions though, it depends on your situation and comfort level. At our stage of life 7-8 nights is about the max we can schedule to be gone. If we allowed for an extra day or two on each ends, we would only be able to take 3-5 day cruises - which hold little to no interest. There are also added costs to traveling the day before. Many families find it easier to drive vs. fly even for long distances, plus hotels and restaurants. (I often hear how it is such a small cost compared to the cruise, but take all the "small" costs and you have another cruise or two before you know it;)) There is always risk in travel and you have to know your tolerance level. Our last cruise was at the end of February and we were driving 3 hours to the port. We felt the risk of winter roads was enough to make the extra day work (and hotel cost wasn't much more than parking at the port).

 

 

 

I'm curious when I see this logic: how early do you leave the hotel for the port? Most ports are in large cities and accidents and vehicle issues seem almost as likely to happen on the way to the ship that morning. If you are staying within an hour of the port, do you allow 2 hours for potential accidents - more?

 

We will sail out of Baltimore and my understanding is that I cannot enter the parking lot until after 10:30. We plan to leave home around 7 (3-3.5 hour drive, Sunday) thinking that if we arrive on time we will be good and if we hit reasonable delays we should still arrive before final boarding. Maybe I have a high risk tolerance though.

This!

I am very risk-intolerant regarding the important things in my life. Missing a cruise barely registers on that scale.

I am amazed how many folks take a couple of extra day before and after the cruise. Really how much vacation time do you have???:cool:

Same as most people, as many as I feel like. Taking pretty much the whole of July off to go to Italy with the wife and kids (and no I don't own my own company or work as a consultant - I am salaried like most).

And that is why I make sure we have a little extra cargo room in the vehicle. That full size flat tire is not going to fit in the compact spare storage area.

7 P's right there! Kudos.

Umm... I'm Platinum and I'm about as "engineery" as they get. I'd (and a host of other men such as myself), would welcome entertainment of this sort. If they let me bring my tools on board, I'd be happy fixing broken stuff on the ship. Pool games, drinking til you drop, stuffing my pie hole with burgers, gambling, Bingo, etc. just aren't my style. Boat building contest on board? I'm in! :D

Engineer here too. Although its been a long time since my hands got dirty. I can delegate like a beast though. Long time since we built a concrete canoe at University.

You didn't have a spare?

+1.

A 30 min delay at most.

I just think it's mostly funny stories. Kind of like watching dock runners! ;p

Ha - totally agree. I never have issues with chair hogger, I am happy pretty much anywhere. However I do enjoy looking at those chairs that people save with towels while I am sitting at the bar. If no-one shows up within the timeframe Carnival stipulates and I am of a mind, I just move the towels to an adjacent area (floor/table etc) so someone else can use the chairs. They get taken pretty quickly.

We drive from north of Charlotte NC for every cruise. I usually get home from work, eat dinner, pack my bag, and take a nap.

 

Then we drive from 12AM (it varies) timed out to reach the IHOP at Exit 3 in Georgia at 6 or 7AM. After a nice breakfast, we drive the rest of the way to the port.

 

This allows for time lost in traffic, breakdown, etc.

 

I am pretty much awake all day on the ship, but sleep like a baby on that first night!

Ditto, except we leave around 3am. Such an easy and relaxing drive. We actually run down 220 through Cheraw SC and then over to 95. I put some tunes on and just chill and enjoy the drive. It's the start of me getting off grid, so phone gets turned off. I see our main difference being that some people stress out about missing the boat. Our take is that stuff happens. Don't sweat it. Just book another one.

If you miss the sailaway at the original port, you can only board your ship at a FOREIGN port.

Interesting. So can you board in San Juan, as that is still part of the USA, albeit unincorporated?

You're lucky. One wreck on the seven mile bridge and your cruise is ruined!

Unless the first port of call is Key West! ;p

I agree with you except if you have a mechanical/traffic issue...and...no ones around. In some remote areas there aren't many detour options if an accident happens and they shut down the freeway out in the desert. The drive itself isn't bad at all, we just prefer to get there a day early and gives you options if there are any issues etc.

Gotcha. That does make sense. mechanical issues will always throw a wrench in the works (pun absolutely intended!). That's why we always get travel insurance to cover those eventualities. We can always just book another cruise with the payout. Not worth stressing about.

We rent a car locally in central Florida for 1 day @ $39 and drive to within an hour of Miami where rooms are cheaper and a decent room can be had for under $75. In the morning we turn in the car at a small Budget office near the ship and get their free shuttle. Easy. Our return trip from that same small Budget office was $189, so we took the free shuttled to MIA Budget where it was $43. TOTAL: Car and room : $157 VS Parking at port for $22 per day was $308 for our 14 day cruise, we saved $151, AND renting a car saved wear and tear on our car and left our car in our driveway so the house didn't look empty. AND renting the room let us board the ship rested so we could enjoy our first day and evening without turning in early because of a Long day.

You could look at this a whole bunch of ways, but assuming you did Parking Port Canaveral at $10.95 a day, your 14 days would have cost $153, so you actually broke even, assuming you did not pay to get to and from the local rental pick up and drop off point near your home.

We’ve driven overnight about 8 hours for a cruise. From SC to FL. The biggest issue was I was so tired I wasted a day recovering on the ship.

I guess different strokes for different folks. The drive that does not tire me may well wipe out someone else. Also, what needed so much energy on the first day? I through the whole point was to relax? Recover/relax, what's the difference? Sitting with an adult drink or 7 will equally do both. :-)