CarnivalCruiser32

3 hours ago, youngncruzin90 said:

Yes, because you don’t have the exemption yet you select “No - I am not fully vaccinated and I do not have a letter” for her. Really I don’t understand when anyone would be able to select the one saying you have an exemption because the survey has to be completed within 48 hours of booking and I’m sure it’s rare if even possible at all that people are getting exemptions approved before having to do the survey.

Thank you! That's good to know. I agree, I think it's a weird option to choose. My PVP told us not to fill out the exemption request until at least 24 hrs after the booking to make sure that everything there fully went through or something along those lines. Maybe so they can find the booking when they review? It's an interesting new process for us as pre-pandemic frequent cruises for sure

Hi all! 

It's been a veryyyyyyyyyy long time since we cruised and this will be our first during the pandemic. We booked via phone and the PVP let us know that the child would be eligible for a vaccine age exemption and we would need to fill out the form. Which is fine and we will do that. I'm just confused as to how to answer the "vaccination survey" for her? If you're getting an age exemption do you have to answer "No - I am not fully vaccinated and I do not have a letter"?

any and all insight is appreciated!

I wish I understood how to invest in the stock market. I tried googling it but it was so confusing. I wouldn't want to spend so much money and not even know what I was doing

I think it depends mostly. We saw one of Norwegian's newer ships go wayyyy down in price for balconies in great locations leaving tomorrow from NYC. We were trying not to kick ourselves for not just booking last minute when we could've gotten a GREAT price (less than what we paid for our Horizon balcony) for a balcony leaving from our actual city and avoided needing to spend extra on a hotel the night before and airfare. Sometimes it really does pay to wait but it's not often that something like that happens

We stayed in a little hotel right off La Rambla just a couple of blocks from the port and they didn’t have a shuttle. We had a hard time finding a hotel that had a shuttle service that wasn’t outrageously overpriced. We used a service called “Welcome Pickups” and the process was so easy and smooth. They were there waiting for us when we landed With a sign with our names on it and took us as close to the hotel as they could get because traffic is restricted in that area. We walked about a block and got into our hotel safe and sound. The service was a little more expensive than a regular taxi would’ve been but I felt it wasnt too much more expensive and to be able to book it in advance felt like a good trade off. Still cost less than the hotels that had a shuttle. They send you a picture and the name of your Driver as well. 
 

We scheduled them to also pick us up From the hotel a few days later to take us to the port and that was a fair price as well. At the port there were lots of taxis available so we just hopped in a regular one back to the airport once off the ship.  

We got my niece a bunch of smallish things from the carnival online gift "fun shop"! They were kind of expensive but we figured it was a price we were willing to pay considering it's for her birthday and we don't have to drag the stuff with us to get there. We've noticed the offerings change I guess as things come into or out of stock so it's worth it to check relatively often in case they put up something you'd like.

We got my niece a stuffed animal, a mermaid towel, a mermaid water bottle, a mermaid like drawstring bag (all separately so we could give them each a different day like a build up), a build-a-bear "cruise cash" (though we have no idea how this actually works yet), and we plan to *hopefully * get into the Dr Seuss Breakfast. They had the same mermaid items also in a shark design and they also had just carnival "little cruisers" themed items as well like bear, shirt, backpack, water bottle, etc. They also had dr seuss themed backpack packages with towels, water bottles, books, activity kits, and more. They had beach toys for $10 at one point but I didn't buy them at that moment and now they're gone so I keep checking every now and then. I could've sworn they had arcade "cruise cash" (but it might've just been regular cruise cash) when I was looking but I'm not sure if it comes on a card (or just digital?) specific to a person or the whole cabin. Obviously, this stuff can add up but I got my niece's presents when there was a sale so you can get def get a portion off the usual price if you keep an eye on your emails for a carnival fun shop sale. Most importantly, you can choose to have each item delivered on a different day and time which is really beneficial in general but especially for you so you don't even have to think about it and you'd know which presents will be delivered on each day you chose!

21 hours ago, cmichael1279 said:

The crappy part is people likely scammed Carnival in the past, thus the rule...  Look at the number of people on these boards who find it acceptable to share Cheers, etc.!

I have never seen anyone on these boards say that...not ever. I've only seen folks talk about how unacceptable it is to share and why don't people understand that 🙈

22 minutes ago, CarnivalCruiser32 said:

 

just wanted to add: I think the kids will each count as a person at the table so the high chairs wouldn't be smushed in with 6 other people taking up their space. It would most likely be that only 4 other people would join the table and I think they'd do their best to seat you guys with another family if possible tbh. in my experience cruise lines have been really considerate about that when they're managing reservations

Oh also - I realized I forgot to answer about the talking question! In my experience at Benihana there’s a fair bit of “performance” by the chefs but there’s definitely time to talk in between and that’s not been considered rude to do. We talked to each other and to the other family we were sitting with more than a few times and it was always totally fine. We also got really excited about some of the tricks and were like “OMG look at that!!!” to my niece and it was always fine. Unless people were upset and they never told us but generally I find you can feel the upset vibe if there is one and we’ve never felt it. Talking was totally allowed and picture/video taking was encouraged (again, at Benihana at least, idk if the ship will have different expectations)

11 minutes ago, ziggyuk said:

The issue only arises when the children don't behave and the parents can't/won't identify when its right to remove the children, it can be a great experience for children but a disaster when misbehaving children are not dealt with, not only a disaster for other guests but the children and parents too.

Agreed!! I think there's a balance to it and the issue is definitely when parents/caregivers won't leave the situation when the child is not behaving appropriately or don't think that certain behavior is an issue when it is. I generally think it's a disaster to go into something thinking they'll misbehave though because if you're expecting that the chances of it happening are higher you know? But if you spot that something is amiss then the right course of action is always to remove them and yourself from the experience. I've seen a handful of moms do that quite successfully and I've gotta hand it to them because it's difficult as heck and I'm only an Aunt

8 minutes ago, CarnivalCruiser32 said:

I completely disagree that it's not the place for kids and that it's not toddler friendly. I haven't been to Teppanyaki on a ship before (none of the ships we've been on have had that option before the one coming up this December where we have a reservation for my niece's 5th birthday) but we've been to Benihana countless times with my niece starting when she was just 1.5 years old and she's always loved it.

 

We never had a problem with our table mates (as far as we know anyway) thinking she wasn't behaving or acting out of line and ruining the experience for them. It's really a fun time and in our experience, at Benihana at least, the chefs pay special attention to the kids and try and amaze them which was extra fun to watch. To see the tricks they do myself is obviously awesome, but to also see how much my niece LOVED seeing them as well was well worth any dirty looks we might not have noticed we were receiving. My niece really loved the onion volcano and the fried rice heart the most, but she's always leaned into the artsy side so she really just overall enjoyed watching the chef perform the knife tricks. I personally don't think it's dangerous and yes they do throw utensils up in the air, but as far as I know they're trained really well because if they hurt people - that's a lawsuit you know?

 

The first few times we took my niece we went for Lunch so maybe that was a different type of crowd and it might benefit you to try and get the earliest seating to avoid possible attitudes about kids ruining dinner.  I think also just make sure that the 2.5 year old will eat the fried rice (ex. my niece is: Picky. so we did a sort of trial run with just takeout chinese fried rice before the first time we went to Benihana just to make sure she'd actually eat rice because she has always refused to eat meat so we knew she wouldn't partake in that part and we didn't want to starve her at the restaurant hahaha) and you should be good to go. You can always hype it up to them and be like "we're going somewhere super fun to eat super yummy food!!!" and they'll automatically be excited because you've already framed it that way for them. The chances of them having a good time are higher just bc they're already excited and are looking at it in a positive light

 

Also, the huge benefit of doing that type of meal on a ship is that if they don't like it or don't actually eat much (I'm looking at my niece who recently has started taking one tiny bite and saying she's full...until we leave the restaurant and suddenly she's STARVING XD) you can pop by the buffet and get them some mac and cheese (my niece's main food group) right after 

 

tl;dr - just take them! it's really fun and they would probably love it. Yummy food and fun entertainment! An all around awesome experience for the whole family in my very personal opinion.

 

p.s. - if you don't expose kids to different experiences and teach them how to behave in restaurants then they'll never learn how to behave in restaurants. Then you'll be stuck only able to go to like McDonald's forever (this is not a knock against MickeyD's whose chicken nuggets I would die for) because you're afraid their behavior will make fellow diners upset at more "upscale" restaurants like...that kind of thinking will just hold you back from experiencing awesome things with them. We find my niece behaves "better" in restaurants than some of her peers because we started taking her when she was really little and made it a normal thing instead of waiting until she was older and more "ready" to be seen out in certain kinds of restaurants with us. Our expectations were always that she behaved in general and that extended to restaurants and if she didn't (kids are tiny humans - they have meltdowns it happens, and I can't blame them bc I wanna have meltdowns all the time too) then we just left.  Like...everyone said "dONT take a 2 year old to Cinderella's Royal Table at Disney World she's going to ruin the meal for other older kids who've waited a long time to meet Princesses!!!!" and my niece was better behaved than most of the adults there and //I// got to meet princesses, so... idk. We've never used an iPad or a phone to distract her into behaving either, though we do bring emergency snack packs (think gold fish, pretzels, actual bread rolls lol, etc) in case she needs to munch on something before the food arrives. YMMV but just my experience has been positive to exposing kids to stuff early - they seem to thrive on learning new things and actually do enjoy doing more "grown up" stuff with you when you don't automatically assume they won't behave *shrugs*

just wanted to add: I think the kids will each count as a person at the table so the high chairs wouldn't be smushed in with 6 other people taking up their space. It would most likely be that only 4 other people would join the table and I think they'd do their best to seat you guys with another family if possible tbh. in my experience cruise lines have been really considerate about that when they're managing reservations

I completely disagree that it's not the place for kids and that it's not toddler friendly. I haven't been to Teppanyaki on a ship before (none of the ships we've been on have had that option before the one coming up this December where we have a reservation for my niece's 5th birthday) but we've been to Benihana countless times with my niece starting when she was just 1.5 years old and she's always loved it.

We never had a problem with our table mates (as far as we know anyway) thinking she wasn't behaving or acting out of line and ruining the experience for them. It's really a fun time and in our experience, at Benihana at least, the chefs pay special attention to the kids and try and amaze them which was extra fun to watch. To see the tricks they do myself is obviously awesome, but to also see how much my niece LOVED seeing them as well was well worth any dirty looks we might not have noticed we were receiving. My niece really loved the onion volcano and the fried rice heart the most, but she's always leaned into the artsy side so she really just overall enjoyed watching the chef perform the knife tricks. I personally don't think it's dangerous and yes they do throw utensils up in the air, but as far as I know they're trained really well because if they hurt people - that's a lawsuit you know?

The first few times we took my niece we went for Lunch so maybe that was a different type of crowd and it might benefit you to try and get the earliest seating to avoid possible attitudes about kids ruining dinner.  I think also just make sure that the 2.5 year old will eat the fried rice (ex. my niece is: Picky. so we did a sort of trial run with just takeout chinese fried rice before the first time we went to Benihana just to make sure she'd actually eat rice because she has always refused to eat meat so we knew she wouldn't partake in that part and we didn't want to starve her at the restaurant hahaha) and you should be good to go. You can always hype it up to them and be like "we're going somewhere super fun to eat super yummy food!!!" and they'll automatically be excited because you've already framed it that way for them. The chances of them having a good time are higher just bc they're already excited and are looking at it in a positive light

Also, the huge benefit of doing that type of meal on a ship is that if they don't like it or don't actually eat much (I'm looking at my niece who recently has started taking one tiny bite and saying she's full...until we leave the restaurant and suddenly she's STARVING XD) you can pop by the buffet and get them some mac and cheese (my niece's main food group) right after 

tl;dr - just take them! it's really fun and they would probably love it. Yummy food and fun entertainment! An all around awesome experience for the whole family in my very personal opinion.

p.s. - if you don't expose kids to different experiences and teach them how to behave in restaurants then they'll never learn how to behave in restaurants. Then you'll be stuck only able to go to like McDonald's forever (this is not a knock against MickeyD's whose chicken nuggets I would die for) because you're afraid their behavior will make fellow diners upset at more "upscale" restaurants like...that kind of thinking will just hold you back from experiencing awesome things with them. We find my niece behaves "better" in restaurants than some of her peers because we started taking her when she was really little and made it a normal thing instead of waiting until she was older and more "ready" to be seen out in certain kinds of restaurants with us. Our expectations were always that she behaved in general and that extended to restaurants and if she didn't (kids are tiny humans - they have meltdowns it happens, and I can't blame them bc I wanna have meltdowns all the time too) then we just left.  Like...everyone said "dONT take a 2 year old to Cinderella's Royal Table at Disney World she's going to ruin the meal for other older kids who've waited a long time to meet Princesses!!!!" and my niece was better behaved than most of the adults there and //I// got to meet princesses, so... idk. We've never used an iPad or a phone to distract her into behaving either, though we do bring emergency snack packs (think gold fish, pretzels, actual bread rolls lol, etc) in case she needs to munch on something before the food arrives. YMMV but just my experience has been positive to exposing kids to stuff early - they seem to thrive on learning new things and actually do enjoy doing more "grown up" stuff with you when you don't automatically assume they won't behave *shrugs*

24 minutes ago, reeinaz said:

It's being rolled out to all ships. It was a discussion on a Carnival Valor FB page a few weeks ago. Like I said, I just made reservations on Sunday and didn't have to pay. I went to the website the next night and it requires it to be added to a cart and purchased. This was for the Legend.  I already had steakhouse reservations for a Valor cruise in December. I looked at that cruise last night and it would require being added to a cart and purchased. The webpage looks completely different than it did before.

Interesting!! Mine for the Horizon in December still has the Reservation request forms

3 hours ago, Starry Eyes said:

Are you before final payment or after?  

 

As your cruise is on the 20% off list and your Pcc did not tell you it was a one-off, I will guess you might be before final payment.  If so, I think you can continue to monitor for price drops freely until final payment.  Thereafter, watch for opportunities for affordable upgrades or perhaps a one time adjustment.

 

If you are already post final payment, then you may well have used your only adjustment.  You could still watch for inexpensive upgrades opportunities if prices fall further on better cabins, though be careful to compare perks of new offer vs old.

Yes we're still well before Final Payment (I'm just excited so checking it out on the NCL website all the time) and she mentioned I could call back if I saw another one but I know sometimes what you get told over the phone may not be the most accurate info. Thanks for letting me know! That's really helpful to know and I'll keep it in mind once we hit final payment

wait so I'm confused. I just saw a price drop and called NCL and asked if we could adjust our pricing to the price drop. She did me one better and added the 20% NCL lat discount in addition to the price drop and we kept our same room number and pre-paid grat. and so on. Does that mean if there's another price drop I can't call to try and adjust pricing because I already did it once? Obviously, the 20% off won't last forever and that's something to take into consideration (aka not having it if we tried to adjust due to another price drop) in the future but are you guys saying that's it? That they won't adjust it again because we already asked them to adjust it once? 

Hi there,

Newbie to airline miles/rewards travel and hoping some of you might have some knowledge on this! I opened an AAdvantage business credit card a while back and earned enough miles for a round-trip award flight for me + 3 companions for our cruise which was really exciting. I booked the tickets and paid the taxes/fees with my AAdvantage Credit Card and it has been ticketed - this was months ago. Unfortunately, in the time between booking that flight and now I've had to close the card. SO the question is: Will we loose all the card benefits associated for the flight because I no longer have the card when we fly? One of the companions is convinced that we'll still receive the one free checked bag per person because I had the card when the flight was booked, but I truly just don't have any idea how any of this works. Obviously, it would be great to still receive those perks for this flight but I don't want to just assume we will because it was booked when I still had the card. Since it was already ticketed with the information that I was a card holder does that make a difference?

all insight is greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!!

On 8/17/2019 at 10:19 PM, mitsugirly said:

It's easiest to go out to the street and go down IMO, but you can go down by Jack's and you'll need to head out toward the street. You can not walk all the way down the beach to get to it.

about how long was the walk there? 

What about for kids? We'll be at sea the day of my niece's birthday, do you think they might do anything special? like if you had to give it a percentage - what percentage do you think it is that they might surprise her with like a special slice of cake at dinner or something?

We've cruised for birthdays before but never on the actual day of any of our birthdays (usually after) so this is a new one for us : )

30 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

Actually kids are safest in strollers at WDW over Christmas, it can be dangerous with wall to wall people (I could never do it).

Normally I'd agree but what we saw this past year....folks were on another level to put it nicely. Routinely banging into our stroller, pushing it, stepping on it -- it was a mess. Don't even get me started on the ECV one of our family members had - but essentially it seems like people really hate disabled folks...they really do

Anyway, we'll never be back at that time of year again. We said "HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH" sarcastically for the entirety of the two weeks because everyone around us looked and acted completely miserable the entire time. Very rare to encounter folks who even held a door open behind them like that is how wild it was - where were even basic manners? guess we'll never know. but we've never experienced the kind of vitriol and flat out rudeness anywhere in the world (and we're from New York City okay supposedly the rudest city in the world or whatever) as we did those two weeks at Disney World it was WILD

29 minutes ago, NLH Arizona said:

So you are saying, if someone shoots another person and it would be bad for them and their family if he goes to jail, they should lie and blame an innocent party, because it would basically be the same scenario.  If the Grandpa was negligent and that resulted in the death of the child, he should take his punishment.  Sorry, but what your way of thinking is a great way to teach children not to be responsible for their doings.

sorry (not sorry) but your way of thinking is what keeps people in prison for minor infractions (just an example) for extended amounts of time wasting tax payer dollars and lets other very guilty people walk free bc our prisons are too overcrowded to keep them

1 hour ago, NLH Arizona said:

No different and pretty sad you would feel that way. If the grandfather actually was negligent in the situation, then he and his family need to man up and admit what happened and take responsibility.  This is what is wrong with our society; folks want to blame an innocent party so they don't have to admit to their wrong doings, go to jail, pay restitutions, etc. and then they have the nerve to sue that innocent party.  What a great way to show our children how not to take responsibility and to always point a finger at someone else for your doings and then profit off it.  BTW, it would not be manslaughter, it would probably be at most child endangerment.

No according to Puerto Rican authorities he'd be charged with negligent MANSLAUGHTER. for a tragic accident. Yes people should take responsibility when they make mistakes however this very much seems like an accident not you know...murder... so no I do not think that her grandfather should be in PRISON wasting tax payer dollars over a tragic accident that he's going to torture himself over as long as he lives anyway

On 7/10/2019 at 9:37 AM, GA Dave said:

In all our trips to themeparks over the years, it amazed me how many people still put their children up on their shoulders in a crowded park.  All it takes is one bump, or even just a parent's sweaty hands, for that child's head to become a watermelon hitting the sidewalk.  And there were a few cases of people suing Disney over the years for behavior like this.  Very sad situation.

tbh this is a very bad example because we were at Disney for two weeks over the Christmas holiday and the safest place for kids was on their parents shoulders. Really rude and NASTY people in every single park were pushing with no regard for who they were pushing. Older folks? Pushed. Children? Pushed. Pregnant women? PUSHED. Parents with babies literally in their arms? PUSHED to the ground. Yeah we actually saw someone elbow a woman with a baby in her arms so hard she fell to the floor - for no reason. Anyone's kids could've fallen and gotten trampled with the way grown adults behaved in Disney World just this past Christmas. It comes down to selfishness

On 7/9/2019 at 8:12 PM, rcclmiami said:

There are windows that open on the older ships. But all the glass is tinted blue. You can tell the difference between an open and closed window. And a 1 year old cannot climb up to the window level. SOMEONE put her either on the ledge or hand rail. It is sad that the family is trying to buy away their grief and refuse to accept responsibility. I guess RCCL has to get rid of all the balconies???

Based on the videos and pics from the other thread on this I don't think it was obvious at all that it wasn't glass actually. It was their first day on the ship and it seems like a BUNCH of the windows are always open so it kind of just looks like a pattern of some blue windows and some clear windows. I know if it was my first day on the ship and I wasn't the type of person to look this stuff up beforehand -  I wouldn't just expect that some of those would actually be open and not just clear windows.

The family isn't trying to buy away their grief or accept responsibility at all. They're facing actual legal charges from the Puerto Rican authorities they 1000% needed a lawyer yall are so messed up that YOU have to toss blame and accusations around at the people who are enduring the tragedy.

The way folks are so callous on these boards when something tragic could happen to ANYONE is just on another level...

On 7/9/2019 at 7:32 PM, NLH Arizona said:

What I don't understand is while they are grieving the death of their child, the first thing they do, probably before they bury her, is to call an attorney. Just shows what our society has come to:  blame someone else and try to make money.  Sad.

 

May the little girl RIP.

 

 

well Puerto Rico has pretty strict laws about negligent manslaughter in which the grandfather could be charged for so they absolutely 5000% need a lawyer immediately...

not everything is about money...

On 5/29/2019 at 11:57 AM, bjd2 said:

I believe they change up the colors as it was rumored that some were being sold on ebay. I have 2 of 2 different colors from my cruises in the Havana area. Crowded or not, it is cheating to give wristbands to non Havana guests.

I have never ever seen a Havana wristband being sold on eBay and if you go search right now there are zero results...

On 5/29/2019 at 10:25 AM, Eli_6 said:

Can you give one of your extra Havana bracelets to an adult guest not staying in a Havana room?  

 

Let me explain the situation:

 

My husband and I went on Vista last October and stayed in one of the wrap around Havana balconies.  We loved the Havana area.  We were given 4 bracelets even though there were only two of us.  We talked to another couple on board who planned to give their extra bracelets to friends but I never heard if that worked or not because I did not see them again.  

 

I booked a cruise again on the Vista and got the same Havana balcony.  I wanted to book my nanny (age 37) with my kids in another Havana room but because my kids are under 12, Carnival would not allow it.  Therefore, I got them one of the family harbor rooms. 

 

When the kids are at the Kids program during the day, will my nanny be able to come in the Havana area with one of my extra bracelets even though she is booked in a non-Havana room?

 

 

I hope that they let her go in with you guys. You paid a premium for the Family Harbor room as well so everyone talking about Havana leeches or whatever are just being mean