aggie182

My wife told me to quit pouting and to upgrade to a balcony.  Done!

I appreciate the reponses.  It felt weird to me that an Oceanview was considered a downgrade from a Spa Interior according to the person I talked to on the phone.

Seems like some agreed and some disagreed.  

1 hour ago, sid_9169 said:

I suppose that they consider the spa inside a higher category than an ocean view... I was booked in a regular inside on deck 10 recently, and they sent me offers to "upgrade" to an ocean view, but in my mind that was a "downgrade" to me, due to the deck 1 location... If I were you I'd just be happy with the spa inside unless you can score a balcony for a decent price.

We'll be happy either way.  They could stick us in any cabin on the boat and we'd make the best of it and have a good time.

34 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

Just curious why you booked a spa interior in the first place, because they are pricier than a regular interior.  Was it the location?  We had spa interiors on Sunshine and loved the access to Serenity.  Have a great cruise either way!!👍

We booked the spa interior becuase when we booked it, it wasn't much more than a regular interior.  We had a spa balcony on the Dream in the past and didn't utilize the spa amenities very much, even though we thought we would.  We're on the Breeze this trip and the oceanview that we're wanting is one of the ones facing backwards.  We had an aft oceanview on the Ecstasy on our last kids-free cruise a few years ago, and we really enjoyed the view.  If this room was available when we booked, we probably would have nabbed it, but it wasn't available then.

We have a spa interior booked for an upcoming trip and we decided we'd call and pay a few hundred extra bucks to move in to an oceanview cabin.  We booked directly through Carnival and when I made the call, they said they couldn't do it because it was a downgrade.  That seems odd to me, I figure they'd want our extra money.  We'd prefer the window over the spa amenities but it sounds like we'd have to step up to a balcony for the "view".

Has anyone had a similar situation?

Thank you allowing us to tag along!  Our first NCL cruise is in March and it was nice to see some of the ins and outs and hear about the potential waits in line, etc.  Thanks again!

29 minutes ago, KSSS2013 said:

I won’t make that public. The wife had to take a “nap” a bit ago. I’m hanging on but ordered one last green monster before we head back. 
 

Ah dang.  Maybe the "drunk you" will post away!

21 minutes ago, KSSS2013 said:

Random Mr Sanchós pictures. Post quality will be going down as I drink more. 

 

Looking forward to the derailment!!

1 hour ago, KSSS2013 said:

 You have to email them for it. It’s not inexpensive at around $600. I think that covers up to 4 though. The one next to use has 15 or so people. 

Thank you!

Awesome!  How did you reserve the casita?  I didn't see it on their site.  I saw the couples romantic package for $260, but I think that is different.

Enjoying it so far.  Thanks for taking the time.

Looking forward to keeping up with your review!  We're on the Breakaway in 6 weeks.

We were on the Vista for Spring Break 2022 and we swore we wouldn't cruise over Spring Break again (but we are this year, go figure!).  It was the first full capacity cruise after covid and it seemed like a lot of the kids didn't remember how to act in public.  We had a room near the arcade and it was a wild scene at times with the gatherings and behaviors of the kids.  We didn't let our kids venture out without us much at all on the cruise in an effort to not let them get mixed up in the chaos.  Kids were climbing on the video games, pushing each other down the 1/2 flights of stairs by the arcade, and all kinds of other stuff.  We still had a great time but will attempt to avoid Spring Break cruises in the future.

We've been pretty loyal to Carnival and have a bunch booked with them through 2024 and 2025.  We're going over Spring Break and the cost on NCL was a good bit cheaper than Carnival's offerings so we decided to give it a try and we're looking forward to it.  In all honesty, I'll have drinks at any bar.  My wife is much more picky and loves the Alchemy Bar on Carnival, which in turn, made me enjoy it more, being able to have drinks with her somewhere she enjoys.  We're looking forward to giving NCL a whirl. 

We're not staying in The Haven, but have thrown around the idea of bidding for the upgrade.  I don't think we will, but knowing that their bar may offer more of what she's in to, that might help in convincing her, it's just a lot more $$$!

Thanks again for the info!

Thanks for the info, much appreciated!

A few from our Thanksgiving trip.  If you get to know them, they'll make you some fun drinks.  

3 minutes ago, ColeThornton said:

 

You might want to describe what the "Alchemy Bar" entails.  😉

Here's an older version of the menu. They'll sub liquors, flavors, etc, etc, etc based on your preferences.  A strawberry basil drop is our go-to but we let them experiment a lot based on what we're wanting.

We cruise with Carnival quite a bit and love the Alchemy bar.  Is there anything similar on NCL, specifically the Breakaway?

41 minutes ago, vcop said:

We are sailing on Spirit the week of Thanksgiving. We have been to Mobile before but usually park at the hotel & shuttle over.This time we are parking at the port. We are Platinum so we are going early.My question is can we line up about 9:30 or will they turn us away? I know the port opens at 10:00 but I wanted to be in line. I don`t mind the wait but was a little confused on lining up.

Thanks for your help!

I'm no help with parking, but we'll be on the Spirit with you!  We're parking at the hotel and shuttling.

I just printed luggage tags and the FTTF logo is on the end of each tag.

Looking forward to y'all's thoughts if you use it.

Sounds like this has been rolled out on some ships in the form of kiosks.  Any first hand info on this from recent cruisers?

Thanks for the review.  We're parking at out pre-cruise hotel for the duration of the cruise.  Sounds like that may be the way to go!

I'd be interested in the table minimums in the casino, specifically on BJ and craps if anyone has feedback on those items.  We're a few weeks out from venturing to Mobile for a 6-day on the Spirit!

Based on the itinerary, I'd go Vista.  Based on the ship, Mardi Gras.  We did Christmas on the Vista this past year and had a great time.  You can't go wrong with either.  Coin flip for me.

Has anyone seen any updates?  Google still seems to only turn up the same Summer 2022 articles.

It seems odd to me that summer 2022 had a bunch of stories on sports betting coming to Carnival ships, with some referencing Q1, 2023.  Now, in 2023, there's nothing on it (that I can find, at least).  You figure this would be newsworthy, on some level, with all of the cruise ship bloggers, vloggers, reporters, media etc. etc. etc. , if it was in fact "coming soon".