divinmule

We bring the awesome little stemless plastic wine glasses that they sell for use onboard boats. Then we just take a glass to dinner each night.

They really look nice but I don't have to worry about breakage or them taking the glasses by mistake.

Best purchase we ever made for the drinking wine onboard:D

What if I am purchasing an excursion...can they be used precruise for purchase? I have paid off the cruise with the gift cards and saved a pretty penny.

 

I would love to do that for the dive excursions as well. :D

Guess I answered my own question. Did a mock booking for an excursion and it gave me the option to use a gift card. Excellent!

No, you cannot add them as OBC prior to sailing. But you can bring them with you and have them applied as OBC at guest services once you are on the ship. That's what we did on the Dream 08/24. Applied 10 $100 e cards that took care of our Cheers package, gratuities for 4 and had a little extra for arcade for the kids!

 

 

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What if I am purchasing an excursion...can they be used precruise for purchase? I have paid off the cruise with the gift cards and saved a pretty penny.

I would love to do that for the dive excursions as well. :D

In Freeport...the most important thing is GO DO SOMETHING. Visit the ports of call section and there are lots of options listed.

We love the diving and the dolphins with UNEXCO but there are great beaches and snorkeling.

But don't just hang around near the ship.

There is nothing there...Its a great place much better than Nassau...you just have to do a little bit of planning. Have fun.:D

Hello neighbor, are you on deck 7 ? I seen a couple more have been booked. I think the chairs would be more comfy for relaxing than those benches. My wife and I are both platinum, but I might just give it to the porter, the less I carry the better :)

Yup. We're in 03 on Empress.

Excited to try these cabins but must admit we still might jump to a balcony if the price gets right.

We will be happy either way.

I haven't made my platinum yet...I got cruise number 9 and 10 about 6 months too late. But I dont mind riding dh's coattails. :)

Mine is on deck 7 in February and deck 9 in October.

Hi neighbor.

We are in a 4j on the liberty cruise in Feb as well. The chair is a great idea. We were planning on using the deck some to dry our dive gear in the afternoons. A chair would let us hang out and relax while the gear is

rying.

Hubby is platinum so I would think we could just carry it on and take it to the room.

Great idea.

So we booked a cruise early saver on Aug 25th...now I notice that thru the verizon rewards program I could have booked the cruise about $100 cheaper. :(

Talked to my PVP and he suggested I could transfer my booking to Verizon rewards, like with a travel agent, since I am still within the 30 day window, and be able to take advantage of the savings. (and FYI it apparently would not hurt his numbers if I did that, he would still get credit for booking the cruise for me).

So I called Verizon rewards to talk with them. They said that is not doable as they are not a travel agent and cannot transfer a booking.

So I submitted an early saver request...

I figured it is an advertised fare that I am qualified for.

What do you guys think...will they honor it? If not, why?

I will let you know when I get a response...I must admit I am not very optimistic.;)

Would love to hear about your actual port times versus Cozumel and grand Cayman time.

What night is the Past guest party?

Have they removed the Sushi cart on all Carnival ships? I'm sailing on the Sensation in 6 weeks and will be really disappointed if the sushi is gone.:(

I feel your pain...but there is no more sushi

If they take your wine, where do you get it back at the end of the cruise?

Is it a big hassle?

No..we had one taken on our Charleston cruise. Picked it up the last morning in one of the dance clubs onboard. Super easy and made a nice parting gift for our room stewardess. :D

WE are looking to book with them as well. So thought I would give this a bump.

Tripadvisor reviews look very good.

Thanks for the advice however this was the only excursion we planned on doing through the ship. I think we're just gonna book ahead of time... I'd hate to get on the ship and be disappointed that it's full.

It is ok. Book your excursion online. When you get onboard go to the excursion desk and tell them you did that. They will then do all the appropriate juggling to utilize your obc for the shore excursion.

I just did this on the Fantasy and the young lady at the desk said that..."yes this was the 100% correct way to do this."

So book the excursion and rest easy.:D

Try http://www.caymanturtledivers.com/index

 

We booked a charter through them because its the only way we could do scuba and sting rays. They will pretty much do whatever you want if you book the whole boat.

Thanks so much I sent them an email..will see what happens

Eden Rock is my fall back but I'd love to get them out on a boat if I could. Would be nice for the ones that just want to watch.

In April we are traveling with our extended family of noncertified divers. While we are very excited about this, it makes organizing the excursions a bit of a challenge.

I have three of them that have done discovery scubas before and would love to dive again while in Grand Cayman along with my husband and I.

But I also have about 8-10 not sure about diving folks that want to snorkel while we dive.

We really like to stay as a family on these trips. So I am looking for an operator that could accomodate this.

My preference would be from a boat for some portion of the excursion.

And if they also stopped by stingray city that would be a bonus. Any ideas?

So I wonder...we are due to cruise next week and we have a family cruise booked in April. We are booked early saver of the April cruise.

If we see an onboard credit offered and the price is the same or better for our room type...then I assume we can ask for the difference since we have the early saver guarantee? Is that correct?

This program has been great for some folks....but many of us have been left just frustrated at the whole process.

Submitting forms...never hearing back.

Refusing to honor the difference because the tour is not 100% the same ...especially when the new tour offers MORE for less.

Its just been a frustrating process for myself...but I am happy for those that managed to get some dollars back.

I had the same problem. So I asked the shore excursion department. This is the letter that they sent to me:

"Thank you for contacting Carnival Cruise Lines. We have received your email message and appreciate the opportunity to be of assistance.

Please go ahead and book the tour online. Once you have boarded the ship please stop by the Shore Excursion desk and they will make the adjustment on your onboard account.

If there is anything else we can do for you please do not hesitate to ask.

Regards,

Tour Operations

Carnival Cruise Lines"

Now I mentioned this before and got blasted by some other cruisers.:(

But personally I feel very comfortable that Carnival will honor the above email. Hope that helps.

We just called, we don't qualify for this promotion because cruise needs to be booked between 2/3 and 2/16. She tried to find us a better rate, but the cruise actually went up in price so we have the best rate. We did book early saver.

Seems like they should have honored it since you booked early saver. That is the whole point of the early saver promotion...they are guaranting you rate will not be undercut by an offering at a later date.

You might want to go ahead and submit an early saver form and push the point a bit.

My claim for the diving went to management and it was still denied.

 

For what it is worth, I emailed the diving company in Freeport, roundtrip transportation is provided but they do charge $15. Their total still still beat Carnival's price but that was the loophole Carnival used....extra charge for transportation.

 

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Yeah thats what I figure they are going to tell me to. But I do think it is just wrong. And thats what I just told them...even with the add on fee for the transportation...they are still cheaper than Carnival. Seems pretty black and white.

I was content with there overpriced charge in the beginning ( I like UNEXSO) but then THEY started touting all this wonderful EXCURSION GUARANTEE...

My response to them is stop all the false advertising...it just makes them look soooo petty.

So that being said...yeah I'm over it, time to move on. I will just go back to getting ready for my wonderful cruise!!:D

So today they stated no go because the roundtrip was "not included". So I resent an email asking how a two tank dive with round trip transportation was different than a two tank dive with roundtrip transportation?

Will see what they say.

They are squabbling with me over verbage on a diving excursion in Freeport. I told them they can either honor the price guarantee and just make up the $50 in OBC (not losing any money) or they can lose the whole $176 because we will go with the third party.

 

According to the response I received, Carnival offers transportation to the diving excursion, the third party doesn't say that they do....what does this paragraph say to you (taken from their website that was sent to Carnival)???

 

 

Typically ships arrive after the normal scheduled departure times on the island; what do we do? Change our departure times to fit your ships schedule! Just contact us and let us know which ship you will be arriving on and we will take care of the rest of the details.

 

Yeah, I think Sunn Odyssey Divers are more accommodating than Carnival :mad:

When I contacted them...they said they would pick up for $15pp roundtrip...so I sent this to Carnival...so far they are still denying the price adjustment. It is still much cheaper than Carnival's Freeport dives. So I have no idea why they are still denying it.... I am still squabbling with them....

Yeah, seems to me this just sort of looks petty for Carnival. Most of us were used to the fact that they charged more and we just accepted it. We either used them or went with the alternative.

Now we have to get teased into the idea of a better price, only to have many of them rejected for silly reasons. Just rubs salt into the wounds.

One of mine that I finally heard back from them on (after I really persued it) was denied be cause it was the ships operator and I could not book with them since the ship used them. Uhh hello Carnival their regular price is $100 dollars less...this looks pretty silly for Carnival!!:rolleyes: I understnd needing to make a profit but come on......

Congrats to those that got a price reduction.

We are looking to book a stingray and snorkel excursion in Grand Cayman. My mom is elderly but game. However with bilateral knee replacements and bilateral shoulder replacements...I would like to charter the boat that is the easiest for entry into and exit out of the water.

There will be about ten in our group...any ideas?

Forward for us as well when we sailed in August.

I did try to go thru guest solutions. They recommended that I send an email to shore excursions. So I just did that.....we'll see what happens. They said there was not an extension for me to contact.