niciediva007

It’s a savings of 10%. I just bought a $500 gift card for $450 with 5000 points I earned from taking quizzes on rewards for good on the AARP website. Once you earn your points, click on gift cards tab or purchase and look for Carnival. It came in 3 business days by UPS but you have to sign for it. I called UPS and had them send it to their holding location since we were at work when they came 3 times!

This helped a lot! This is an awesome deal. Wish I had known about this before I paid for my cruise and excursions! Could have saved $500!!

On the AARP website look for Rewards for Good.

 

There's a complete explanation there.

Thank you!

I can’t seem to find be link on the aarp website that allows one to learn about these cards. Is this something we have to call to inquire about? What’s the deal? Anybody have a link?

If you buy Cheers ahead of time it's less than the 56.95. It's 51.95. I use the 10% off gift cards I purchased to buy it so with that discount it's $46.76....so that's another savings. :-)

And where are these 10% gift cards you speak of??

If you buy Cheers ahead of time it's less than the 56.95. It's 51.95. I use the 10% off gift cards I purchased to buy it so with that discount it's $46.76....so that's another savings. :-)

That’s still $779 total. Not exactly equal to 400-500. And our $400-500 estimate is with us deciding to throw all caution to the wind. We drink but we’re not planning to walk around wasted every second of every day. If I were 25 and could recover faster...maybe. My poor kids would be like, “why is mommy still sleep?? It’s not morning anymore!”

So many things I don’t understand about these arguments; if anyone has any steam left to engage. I am confused as to why no one is listening to one another. 🤦🏾*♀️

As a corporate business exec myself, it is not an absurd notion that the gratuity is padding the bottom line and the “bonus” payout to employees is determined by revenue protections. If projected revenue is not achieved, no bonus is paid. It’s really very simple. Specific business practices are held very closely (regardless of what is marketed) and not a single one of us who are not in their board rooms drafting their contracts and policies can make accurate assumptions on the issue. Period.

On the other hand, Carnival is a customer facing company with a lot to lose if they mishandle or botch their employee relations and/or brand expectation. There is a lot to be said for that.

My point at this juncture is that we are ALL making assumptions. Every last one of us. With the best information we have and none of it is whole. And most people care about other people, so we should back off of each other with the judgment. 🙅🏾*♀️

With all this said, I personally do not like the disingenuous business model that cruise companies employ. These service people work so hard for so little and for consumers to not be unequivocally sure that tips are going in the right place is a valid perception issue. They need to fix this.🤷🏾*♀️

But!

My opinion is that since I DO NOT unequivocally know. And since I can afford to pay the auto-tips. And since leaving off auto-fatuity feature could potentially hurt someone who has far less than I have, I will continue to auto-tip. Even if a part of me loathes that Carnival could be profiting from the gesture.

Every cruise I take, I will reassess my opinion here. I am not cheap. And...if I decide to remove this feature I will purposefully tip well above the standard. ‘Cause, hey, I’m cool like that and also blessed beyond measure. 👊🏾🙌🏾 But to call me cheap because I’ve decided to use my hard earned and God-given critical thinking is lower level thinking. Just sayin’.

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OP-

 

I don't think anyone answered your question about juice for the kids. In the buffet, at breakfast they will have OJ, Apple and Guava punch; plus milk. Hot cocoa, hot tea and coffee are available 24/7, along with a water dispenser. At lunch and through dinner, it switches to unsweet ice tea and lemonade. You can take sports bottles and fill them and have extra of any throughout the day. The MDR (where we much prefer to eat breakfast) will also have pineapple, tomato and prune juice at breakfast.

 

My oldest doesn't like soda and my youngest is fine with juice, milk, lemonade and tea, so we never get the soda package on Canrival. Now on Princess, yes, we get the non-alcoholic package for them as it is about $8 per day and includes the milk shakes and non alcoholic drinks like strawberry daiquiris.

Okay now I’m leaning towards not getting B.B. How does it work if they go to the kids camp? Will they have access to lemonade? They also drink water and milk but I wasn’t sure if it was free anywhere without the package.

I would certainly need Cheers!

Well when you put it THAT way!:halo:

Have you looked into going to the steak house the first night, just you and your hubby, for the free bottle of wine and 1/2 price for other bottles of wine. If you purchase 4-5 bottles of descent wine that could get you a "free" steak dinner.

I’m not sure I know what this is? Is this Chef’s table?

You're cruising with two kids also, right? I'm guessing Grandma will be in the second cabin with the kiddos, but even if not, have her listed that way. Then you and the Mister can buy Cheers, without Grandma being required to. :)

Ehhh...I really wish that were the case!

We booked one cabin (a four-person grand suite) for four originally. Then MIL got added and carnival wouldn’t let us downgrade to get two smaller cabins but let us upgrade to the five person extended balcony grand suite. So, no...one room, five folks.

If you add up the $400, plus the drinks part of the $250, plus however much you're spending on the three bottles of carryon wine, I bet Cheers probably does make sense for you. Do you ever drink soda, coffee, bottled water, etc? It's much easier to spend ~$50pp/pd than you think. :)

We’d have to buy the package for my MIL who will have one glass of anything the whole trip (she’s a holy roller:)). So that’s $750 versus about $525 or so. For the two of us I would have gone and done it, but since they require all adults to buy one, it won’t make sense.

Edited to add that cheers is listed as $56.95/day so that’s actually $854 for three, but really two of us.

For me I have a spreadsheet and here are my categories:

I'm also going to attach that handy dandy Cheers Evaluator for you too so you can see the exact costs and brands of your wines. Enjoy your cruise!

üCruise

Drink package

Excursions

 

Taxi

Park economy at airport

üto ship from airport in FL

üfrom ship to airport

üAirfare - cheaper to FLL (by $200)

Tips - 100 cash??

shuttle to RDU

luggage at airport RDU

luggage at FL Airport

shuttle to ship

luggage at ship?

room service

Excursions

Luggage departing ship?

shuttle to FLA airport

luggage at FL Airport

shuttle to car

Wi fi

Pictures

Though for neither myself nor my husband did the cheers package seem to make sense, it did help me estimate the alcohol budget better than I could have done!

If I didn’t mention it, our $250 funshop estimate also included another bottle of wine and a four pack of beer. We will use the bottles for the port days off the ship primarily, and then on ship just buy from the bar.

So bar-wise, we’re looking at about $400 in wine/beer over the five nights. Not too bad for spending the whole week wasting away! :cool:

For me I have a spreadsheet and here are my categories:

I'm also going to attach that handy dandy Cheers Evaluator for you too so you can see the exact costs and brands of your wines. Enjoy your cruise!

üCruise

Drink package

Excursions

 

Taxi

Park economy at airport

üto ship from airport in FL

üfrom ship to airport

üAirfare - cheaper to FLL (by $200)

Tips - 100 cash??

shuttle to RDU

luggage at airport RDU

luggage at FL Airport

shuttle to ship

luggage at ship?

room service

Excursions

Luggage departing ship?

shuttle to FLA airport

luggage at FL Airport

shuttle to car

Wi fi

Pictures

Fantastic!! This is so great! Thank you!

This has all helped so much! Thank you!

I didn’t think about the travel to Jax, but there’s the gas and hotel and also the port parking. I totally forgot that i want spa treatment (never had on a cruise).

Good to be reminded how much the drinks cost. We don’t want cheers as my MIL doesn’t drink and we don’t plan to indulge so much that it will be worth it beyond our carry on allotment.

The arcade! Last time we went was without kids so I can’t even remember where the arcade is located. My kids will definitely want some of that action.

The casino was one of our most memorable times at the end of our cruise last time. I’ll definitely budget for that as well.

If we eat in the dining hall, can my kids have juice or soda without the bubbles package? I don’t want to have to lug juice around with me for every meal.

Our cruise sails from JAX Nov 19 to Half Moon cay and Nassau on a 5-day cruise.

We are traveling with two kiddos (11 and 9), and my MIL.

I’m trying to create a budget and I can’t recall the things we spent $ on before (besides wine!), and even then, i don’t recall how much things run you.

We are wine and beer drinkers only. My 40th bday is the day we (hopefully) tender to HMC. We have a cabana.

So far, I’ve got like $250 worth of items in our fun shops cart, to include roses (a birthday splurge), champagne, beer, water, Bottomless bubbles for the kids, and a social package for one phone (since I think we can take turns on the same account to post).

We are bringing 3 bottles of wine on board, but only two regular drinkers.

I know gratituty is on my list, but if we average about 4-5 glasses of wine for two people a day, and hit the public beach on Nassau, what is a food budget to have?

Or first cruise, I don’t recall buying much of anything on the ship besides wine. Maybe one or two photos? Am i missing something obvious?

Carnival will store and refrigerate the insulin for you in there medical center. Just give them a call ahead of time.

I didn’t know that. But, I was thinking of the port days when we will be away from the ship. She’s got to have it all day (she’s insulin dependent). In the room we have a fridge, I believe.

If the mattress on the sofa bed is a worry, ask room steward for foam pad. Also HMC cabanas have a small refrigerator and a ice chest with your sodas and waters and lots of ice :)

I’ll do just that and request a pad. But, I’m not so worried about the mattress. I’m getting old but not so old I can’t handle a tough mattress. Lol.

I’m thinking we will leave the yeti, and just grab a cheap $30 cooler and use it for nassau. I may just forget the cooler altogether though since we will mostly be buying food and drinks from vendors. My MIL might need a small pack for her meds but that’s it, as I think more about it.

If by the double sofa you mean it breaks out into a double bed, why not give that to your MIL as I would think a double bed would be plenty big, the kids take the upper and lower Pullmans and you take the king. You and hubby sharing a double sofa bed will make for a long week. I may be reading the bed configuration all wrong especially about the pullmans, hope not.

In our suite there is no lower Pullman. Just the upper. So we have two twins or a King, a double sofa, and one Pullman...to sleep 5 max.

Thanks for the review! We sail on Elation to Bahamas out of Jacksonville in November!

There is critical information in this thread! ;)

We arrive on Half moon cay Nov 21 and nassau Nov 22 so I’m interested in answers, too. I expect it will be warmer than a TN November so that’s all I truly care about. Turning 40 on my trip! ;p

I read somewhere there is another drink place with beach chair rentals past Tiki Bikini Hut but I don't remember where I saw it.

Is there a less populated place not far from Tiki I can walk to for a quieter beach day while in port? Tiki prices look great but if there is something similar close-by but away from the masses - bonus.

I’m not sure if it’s what you were thinking of, but recently in my own research I’ve come to find two places that rent chairs/umbrellas and serve food/drinks. Crabs and Tings got excellent reviews on TripAdvisor, and Welcome to Gloria’s as well. We will hit one of these two up for sure.

We are traveling in November and are seeking little huts that are kid friendly with a clean stretch of beach on Junkanoo.

My original question about the mattress...I think I’ll withdraw. Based on your responses it seems like overkill and a nightmare. I was thinking to carry it on in luggage, and then pop it out using the pump and lay on the floor. I’ve heard of others doing this but not sure I want to bother either the hassle and the wasted luggage space for all my extra shoes and swimsuits! Lol