nhilding10

Thank you for this information! My family and I are doing Aruba and Curacao with the DR in September on Horizon (first time on Horizon, and first time for this Itinerary!) and had been struggling with what to do with Curacao because we're only there 7a to 3p. I had never heard of the Free Walking Tour but that looked perfect for us. I booked it for our trip and will be looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it! Thanks!

We are booked for this itinerary at the end of September, as well! Cannot wait!

Thank you! I must have missed this, I even tried looking on their website! This is very helpful, and much appreciated!

First, I apologize if this is answered somewhere else. I promise I did some research first, but am not seeing the answer I THINK I'm looking for. If so, please direct me to that and I am sorry I used up time and space for a repeat. That said, here are my ramblings mostly in question form... If I buy Carnival gift cards and bring them with me onboard to use toward my account, and I put them all on my account on day 1, at the end of the cruise, if I still have a credit balance remaining, will that go back on to my gift card? Meaning, will they only use enough of the gift card to cover my expenses, or do I lose that amount because it was all applied upfront and considered non-refundable? I can't seem to find that info anywhere. My second thought, then, is do I just not put the gift card on the account at day 1, wait until the cruise is over, and then brave Guest Services to "pay" the balance due with gift cards, and then it'll just use the amount necessary to pay the balance due? Or is it an all or nothing sort of thing with gift cards? I hope those questions make sense, and I'm not just dense and overthinking it. 🙂 I want to buy the AARP gift cards for the savings, but am just trying to find the best way to use them and not lose them. Thanks all!

Sweet Caroline has got to go! Next time I see a post of new things to add, or things to change, about cruising, or life, or anything, or nothing, I will absolutely die on the hill of Sweet Caroline has got to go!

I've often wondered why they print a receipt with every single order. I completely understand, or think I do, that it creates another opportunity for additional gratuity, but it's such a waste of paper that it feels like could be completely avoided! And much less of a hassle to everyone involved if you didn't have it. I'd like to see that go by the wayside eventually, but like I said, I do get WHY they do it. It's just...yet another meaningless minor inconvenience in the category of first world problems.

Thanks for bringing us along on it! As many have stated before, it was a pleasure to follow along, and I really enjoyed the sights and scenery that you showed us. It was great to see the real side of the ports from wandering and just enjoying, and taking it all in. Really gives some great ideas on things to try the next time!

How dare you! That’s an ‘83 Honda!

Thanks for having us! Appreciate what you've done for us! Best of luck to you in the future and I hope it is whatever you want it to be. Safe travels!

oooh! ahh! I wanna knooooooooowww....

Buxton here!

Keep it off ... Don't blame you. I only turn it on to track the ship progress. I like to see where we are and see the sea level measurements and such. That fascinates me. Otherwise leave it off I say!

I absolutely adore the architecture and colors, and just everything, about San Juan. I love walking the streets and just taking it all in. Our last stop there in Sept 2023, we stopped at a local art store and found some of the most amazing paintings, hand crafted items, and such, that became some of our most favorite souvenirs. I bought a painting of the buildings with nice bright colors and I love looking at it everyday. Best part was that we supported local artisans and not one of the "cheesy" souvenir shops. If you get the chance, pop in to Puerto Rican Arts & Crafts, 204 Fortaleza St. Oh, how my envy kicked up a notch today!

Tours? Where she's going, they don't need tours...

It's the big one!

I am so insanely jealous...I really hope you like it!!!

If you like blackberry and gin youll love it! Marko makes a mean one!

Marko is awesome! We sailed in September with him and he was the best! Highly recommend the Bramble!

I'm curious what you thought of it!? I drank way too many of em over a week. May have set a record 🤣

I can't remember his name but find the guy at Latitudes...he's awesome and takes great care of you...and if you like blackberry and gin...the Bramble is the way to go!

Go just past the towel station toward food and right around the corner is one!

Long-Time Lurker, First-Time Poster (LTLFTP!) here...loving the start up to this Live, and based on this, booked the ALoft for September, as we'll be on an 8 day with the Horizon. We stayed at the Courtyard Brickell in 2022 pre-cruise, but are hoping this is better! Have fun on the trip and can't wait to read all of the rest!

What ships on Royal? We too were that way and took a chance on the Mardi Gras. We had sailed Anthem, Harmony, and Freedom, so we felt like we had a pretty good mix of experience on Royal when coming into Mardi Gras. I will say this, if you love the theater, shows, etc. on Royal then you'll absolutely love the Mardi Gras. For us, the Grand Central area was very cool. It was a good play on the 270 from Anthem, and they use it for the shows fantastically. They can do so much more in there than they can the Main Theater, so it's really cool to see. However, that said, get there early. The "good" seats up front and on the lower level do fill up fast, and they are mostly necessary to see everything in a given show that goes on in Grand Central. We tried seats in the upper levels, different areas, and you just can't quite see everything. Still entertaining, and worth it, but just "not as good". Hopefully that will make sense. The one big drawback we found from Royal vs Mardi Gras, was that Mardi Gras never seems to have that big open, promenade section like Royal ships are known for. The Mardi Gras really chokes that off on Decks 6, 7, 8 because of Grand Central, but the areas around it can get pretty congested at night with shows, photos, dinners, etc going on. Just be prepared for things to be a little more busy and leave yourself the time, and it won't be that big of a deal in the end. We let it bother us more than we should originally, constantly trying to play the Royal vs Mardi Gras game. Once we got over that and enjoyed Mardi Gras simply for what it was, we actually did enjoy the ship quite well! The upper Lido areas are a lot of fun (they need a second bar on the main Lido deck, I'll stand on that hill all day every day!) and the entertainment up there blows Royal away; I wouldn't worry about it. Note what you like and don't, but don't let it get you down like we did. The Mardi Gras has its pros and cons, but I think you'll find it enjoyable and your cruise won't suffer one bit for it!

We unfortunately had many of the same issues and have seen a lot of similar reactions and opinions since. That's very discouraging. We got off the MG on 10/1 and our initial thoughts were that the wait times at bars and venues were horrendous and the food was meh at best. The servers who were there did a phenomenal job, I'm not taking anything away from them, at all. At all. They did exceptionally well and we let them know that, however, there needed to be about triple the amount of them, that's all. The wait times at any bar were that way. The Lido could stand to have another bar in the corner, replace Street Eats and add a second bar. When you have Sail Away, the Glow Party, the Mega Party, all of that, and the deck gets full, the one Red Frog bar just can't handle it. They were doing all they could, and I commend them for it, but they needed serious help that just doesn't appear to be coming. One of the comedy clubs, I can't remember which (maybe it was both?) didn't even have a bar, and there were just too many choke points. The layout is what it is now, but it could have been better. Grand Central is nice, the shows there are good, but posters are right, either commit an hour (at least!) to getting a seat, or try again another time. Also, we ate at Cucina and I had the chicken parm, it tasted like a frozen microwaved reheated store bought meal, at best. It was the worst meal I've ever had on a ship. I dont hold that against the servers or the staff, they did what they could with what they had, but you can tell the quality just wasn't there. If that's a supply chain issue or something else, I dont know, but it was disappointing. Overall we loved the entertainment, the activities, and everything about the cruise, MG has its flaws as others have pointed out with sightlines and such, and that can make it tough at times, but overall we felt it was still more Pros than Cons, and loved the vacation. I can nitpick on any little thing, and believe me I did, but still found it to have value at the end of the day. If they (and this is the million dollar question, right?) could get more servers and more staff, MG would be a lot better. It does feel like they're still figuring out their way around operating a ship that size, and given that, it can only get better, right? So it's worth another shot to us, we're booked on Celebration for next September and already looking forward to see what improves, as I'm sure it will.

I fell for the Verifly hype pre-cruise and was surprised at how useless it was. I wanted it to work and be as amazing as you hear about, but it wasn't even close. I did all of the pre-trip legwork, uploaded the documents, had everything as it should and got my green checkmark; ready to go. When I presented it to the reps at each line they looked at it, set my phone down, and then asked for all of my physical copies anyway. So all Verifly did was end up slowing me down, as I went through all that, at each point in line, just to pull out the documents anyway. I'd say skip it, honestly. Hopefully if you still try it, it works better for you, though!