DukeASUGirl

I think I'll bring it up with all the families going, laying out all the facts and let them decide. Personally, I think he's being overly cautious, and feel that as long as you stay in the tourist areas and take basic precautions, it should be fine. We could even compromise on sticking to only Carnival tours, or possibly even remaining on-board during Ensenada, but I don't personally see the need to totally change everything.

Especially since the "Threat Level" is a Level 2 both in Cabo and the Bahamas.

4 minutes ago, staceyglow said:

It makes sense that the Maitre'D allowed you to have a set table and time if you needed to pre-order your food for medical reasons.  But to let everyone have a standing time and table for YTD would be defeat its entire purpose. 

Right, and once I realized that they were likely were making an accommodation based on medical reasons, I acknowledged that it may not have been a standard procedure.

1 hour ago, staceyglow said:

especially if the group is well chaperoned 

We have 7 teenage girls and 6 moms going. GSUSA supervision ratios say that for 7 girls we only need 2 adults technically for their age level, and we have three times that. (In fact, the ratios say we can travel with only 2 adults for up to 20 girls their age, but obviously we disagreed with that.)

Only one girl is attending without her mom, and she's in my cabin. 

2 hours ago, phoneman69 said:

I don't know what type of success  your going to have finding cabins in nice locations for your new sailing. I am sure your rooms are all close in your present booking. I would just stay in the port area or remain on the ship.

Right now we have 3 cabins all next door to one another, and the fourth one is just down the hall. If we changed to a different ship, we would likely be randomly situated all over the place. (Plus we would have to fly across the country, instead of driving one state over, so our total cost would be more, even if the cruise cost itself is less.)

Just now, RoperDK said:

I could be wrong, but I don't think Carnival does that.  You can reserve dining times on Royal in advance.  We do this and get the same waitstaff every night.  We don't eat in the dining room each night on Carnival and don't try and get the same waitstaff.  If we had great service on the nights we go, we usually leave some cash on the table and don't tip at the end.  

I acknowledged in a later post that it may have been a special situation for us because of food allergies, although I didn't realize at the time (actually until now) that they were making accommodations that Carnival doesn't normally offer.

17 minutes ago, staceyglow said:

Why exactly is this dad not recommending Cabo or Ensenada?  Both places seem perfectly safe in my experience if you take the most basic precautions you would in any other city, especially if the group is well chaperoned. 

 

It sounds to me like an overabundance of caution on this dad's part. I hope it doesn't ruin the trip for everyone else. 

Honestly, I'm not sure. I've been to both places (granted, I haven't been to Ensenada since before the pandemic, but I was in Cabo just last May) and I wouldn't think it would be any more dangerous there than in any city in the US, including where we live.

My reading of the State Department travel advisories places Baja California Sur state (Cabo) in the same "threat level" category as the Bahamas, France, Germany, or the UK, with Baja California Norte one level higher. So if he wants them to stay on the ship for Ensenada, whatever. But I'm not sure it's necessary to change everything since we could still enjoy Cabo.

Obviously the State Department doesn't do travel advisories for the US, but my guess is most US cities would be in Level 2.

10 minutes ago, staceyglow said:

It's not. Unless this person found some sort of exception that I haven't heard about in 20+ YTD cruises, you have to check in every night. 

 

Now once you check in and told your table is ready, you can go to the hostess stand and request the same service team. But you can't just walk to "your" table and sit down every night like you do with set time dining. 

 

 

 

 

Except that's exactly how it worked for us. Maitre d' allowed us to make a standing reservation for the same team every night. We did in fact check-in at hostess stand, and they would tell us to go to "our" table.

That being said, it could in fact have been because of our long list of food allergies, so we place an order for my and my daughter's meals the night before. (Everyone else in the party orders like normal.) Our order tickets are with the server who took it the night before, and the kitchen needs to know where/when the special order will be going. 

But I didn't ask to make a standing reservation - it was offered to me by the maitre d'. And we did it because it was great for us to know ahead of time. So we essentially had a set seating during the Anytime Dining schedule.

We generally make a standing dining reservation during Anytime Dining, which then works out to the same table and waitstaff each night.

We have a cruise booked for June, with a final payment date of March 11. We have four cabins, and 13 people going.

We are currently booked for a Baja cruise out of Long Beach for a Girl Scout trip, but one of the dads (not attending) gets intelligence briefings due to his job, and he's advising that we don't go to Cabo or Ensenada. So now there is discussion of simply not getting off the ship and just remaining onboard, which really defeats the entire purpose of the trip for the girls.

So a suggestion was made to look into the possibility of applying our deposits to a cruise to the Bahamas instead. (We need to stay in the same general price range, since this would be done with cookie money and we'd already set a budget - and even though the cruisefare is cheaper to Bahamas, we would now add airfare, increasing the total cost) I found a relatively comparable (cost-wise as much as possible, and very similar dates) cruise, but don't know whether this would work.

We're a month out from the final payment date, and the girls are neck deep in cookie sales right now. I don't want to bring this up as an option unless I know it's possible, and I'm waiting for a call back.

But does anyone happen to know the answer? Can we switch itineraries and apply our deposit to the other sailing?

On 1/4/2024 at 4:46 PM, joyful34 said:

Infirmary visit alone is pretty high not to mention any service provided. 

That's what I always hear, and yet both times we've been to the infirmary on a cruise ship (once on Carnival, and once on Royal) we never got a charge. We were fully expecting to be billed, and nothing. (Definitely not complaining!)

Both times it was for anaphylaxis (food allergic reaction), and both times we administered epi before arriving at the infirmary, and they were monitoring afterwards, so I'm not sure if that makes a difference.

On 12/8/2023 at 5:42 AM, mz-s said:

 

The shows are now basically karaoke in front of a big screen playing a screensaver. There are very few props or set pieces that would be difficult to change out if they wanted to change out shows outside of a drydock.

 

Oh, okay. Got it. I thought you meant that there were no more live performers, and I was like "Oh man, I knew it had been a while since I've cruised Carnival, but seriously?!"

They'll usually open the buffet around 6 am if there's a 7 am port call. However, I prefer to order room service continental breakfast on those mornings so we can get off the ship quickly and not deal with the crowd at breakfast.

12 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

Some people buy the cheapest shore excursion and abandon it after tendering. Otherwise it is tender tickets and people start lining up LONG before the distribution begins.

For a 10 am port call, what time should we line up for distribution? On Royal, distribution began 3 hours before port, so would distro begin around 7 am here? And we should line up by 6? 

How many tickets can you get? There are 13 of us in our group, and I'm just trying to figure out if I can be the one lining up for everyone while they're sleeping in or eating breakfast, or if I'll need others.

Thanks! Can you just line up and go?

We tendered at Cabo on Royal Caribbean and it was a huge process. Our visit was scheduled for noon-8, and we had to line up in the morning beginning at 9 am for tender tickets. I got into the line at 9:04, and it was already super long although it moved quickly. I ended up with tickets for Tender 27.

They told us to wait on a certain deck beginning at 12:30 so we would be ready when our group got called, and only then could we head to the deck where they were boarding the tender.

They announced the tender groups beginning at about 12:30, and Group 27 didn't get called until after 2 pm, and we were ashore roughly 2:30, making us late for the tour we'd booked. Fortunately they tour company waited for us because it was a private tour, but I was so surprised that it took about 2 1/2 hours after the scheduled docking time before we could go ashore.

Hoping it's not like that on Carnival.

Based on our Royal experience, I wouldn't book before 1 pm, but it would be great if we could go earlier.

If you haven't reserved a shore excursion through Carnival, when can you expect to be able to take a tender ashore? This is Cabo, in case that matters.

Our times in port are 10 am to 6 pm, and we're planning to walk to Medano Beach for the meeting location for our private tour, so I'm just trying to figure out what time we should book.

Fortunately, we only have 1 girl who won't be traveling with a parent. Every other girl's mom decided to come along!

13 hours ago, Homosassa said:

When I was a Girl Scout leader (Brownie through Senior), I had a form for every girl in my troop that I kept in the first aid kite that was close by for every meeting or outing. 

 

In short, the form gave me permission to obtain any help or care that was needed for their daughter until the parents/guardians could be reached (no cell phones existed ).

 

I only needed that permission once for one girl in my twelve years as leader, but when you need it, you need it.

Yes, this is actually required in our council. (I'm assuming in all councils.) It's a standard part of the first aid kit, and is part of the approval process to even be allowed to go on such a trip.

3 hours ago, mz-s said:

In the past they only changed the Playlist shows out during drydocks, but now that they're basically just screensavers they can be changed out more often.

What do you mean by "basically just screensavers"?

They said they don't take one-day volunteers. 😞 But would be happy to give us a tour of the facility if we're interested.

This doesn't say anything about notarization, but I know the other cruise lines require that the form be notarized. I assume this will work with a simple signature?

59 minutes ago, dallasdan said:

See attached

26e9e3f6-0a34-41ea-acb3-e914b194d56f.pdf 372.47 kB · 4 downloads

Thank you! This is exactly what I was looking for.

I've found this form for other cruise lines, but not for Carnival.

Does anyone have a link handy for the form needed to be signed and notarized if a child is traveling without a parent?

I'm taking my Girl Scout troop on a cruise, and most girls will have their mom, but there are a handful who won't have a parent in attendance. I want to be sure I get everything in order.

Looking for recommendations for a horseback tour combined with Bufadora in Ensenada. There will be 13 of us, but that seems to be more than most private tours.

4 minutes ago, whee-sailing said:

@DukeASUGirl I've been in Cabo for a number of weeks now and have learned that there is a Casa Hogar here, too! Could work out for you and your scouts for a visit:

 

https://www.casahogarcabo.com/

Thank you! I'd actually Googled to look for ideas right after reading this thread, and found that one. I sent them a message, so hopefully it will work out.

The girls will still want to do a shore excursion in the morning (looking at either kayaking or snorkeling, along with the Arch), but maybe there would be a short service project they could do in the afternoon that would work with our timing.

I love this! I'm going on this cruise with the 8th grade Girl Scout troop I lead, so that's such a great idea. We have port stops in Cabo and Ensenada.