divinmule

So lots of variety in the answers. I have pretty much convinced them to go ahead and get faster to the fun and I think I will just go ahead and purchase it for my mom's cabin. Sounds like the safest bet. That way she can avoid all those lines.

Tried the handicap assistance for her last cruise due to mobility issues and it took forever for her to get on the ship with her one companion. I think this way she will have a nice place to wait, be onboard quickly, and have her luggage early. Sounds good to me.

I'm in the same boat, submitted the form and have heard nothing. I was especially troubled when I hit submit and then the form just reappeared blank....no "thank you for submitting" or anything like that, so there is no way of knowing if the form even went through..

Mine did say "the information was successfully submitted. Thanks for filling in this form."

But that is the last I heard

I submitted one on Thursday and haven't heard back. Starting to wonder if they ever received it :/ There is someone else on the boards who got credit for the exact same excursion/alternate that I submitted but me? Nothing yet.

I submitted mine the day it came out and then resubmitted three days ago...still haven't heard anything.

Wish they would at least send an email confirming receipt.

Just wondering what the response has been regarding the excursion guarantee?

Has anyone received approval? How quickly?

Did you receive any automatic emails after submission?

Has anyone been denied? Reason?

Thanks, I have been waiting on mine which seems pretty staight forward but haven't seen on heard anything.

JUst submitted ours. The dive thru CArnival is $100 more for the two of us versus thru Unexso directly. Will see if they honor the difference...or simply state that UNEXSO is their operator so they will not honor the difference. very interested to see the outcome.

This will be our first cruise traveling with extend family while Platinum. I just wondered how that worked in tender ports and at embark/ disembark.

My mom is elderly and will be in her own cabin and there will also be two other cabins of extended family.

I wondered if any of them would be able to board, etc with us or do we need to just plan on boarding with them in the usual fashion? What about the priority tender? If not all of them then what about just my Mom?

If they get faster to the fun will they then pretty much be with us for these processes?

Thanks for the info

Depending upon your time table and depending upon which port you are leaving from...the best manatee interaction is in Crystal River Fl. If your going sometime in the cooler months. They come into the Springs to stay warm and they are soooo interactive.

We always try to go down a day early before our cruises our of Tampa and stop in for some Manatee scratchin.:D

we bring all our dive gear except tanks and weights...you'll be fine with snorkel gear. Have fun!!:D

also bring their fins....much more efficient to snorkel if you have your fins on.

great info thanks for sharing!!!

Thanks Capt BJ

Sunset was highest on my list and your opinons seemed to support what i was thinking. I have emailed them and am just awaiting a reply.

Will post what we end up doing...but the trip is not till April. I am just and early planner.

Thanks very much.

 

How challenging were the dives with Kenneth's? I have fewer than 10 dives and none in the past 2 years, so I don't want to slow an advanced group.

The day we dove they were very nice dives with variable profiles. You could adjust your depth a bit depending upon air consumption and comfort. The end of the dive was done near the boat so that if it was time to end your dive. Then the DM could send you up while still allowing the others to troll around looking for critters.;)

We did the following on this itinerary.

St Thomas Blue Island Divers- good dives with some enjoyable dive masters, great bottom times. Would dive with them again

Barbados- Ecodive Barbados- Awesome dives, great dive master, great bottom times, small boat but hey your there for the water not the boat. Would dive with them again for sure.

St Lucia- we went with the Carnival dive operator based upon reviews and it was wonderful. Small boat, small group, The Pitons! My all time favorite dive this trip. Also great bottom times. Papa Smurf was awesome as a Dive Master!!!!!

St.Kitts- Kenneths Dive Center- Nice folks, really good dives, great bottom times, large boat. Would dive with them again.

St. Maarten- went with Carribean Dive College the Carnival ship operator. Was not a group I would go with again if there was another option. They were very nice but were basically just a bunch of kids on the day we went. Which could be fine if they we the right type of kids. But these just seemed a bit lost at times. Very nice though.

The bottom times were very short and the 2 dive sites we went to were not very engaging.

I will definately dive St Maarten again but will make sure to find a different dive operator. We went with them due to some time constraints and any dives are better than none. But after all the above diving, it made for some disappointment on this stop.

Have fun these are great dive ports

I am interested in this as well.

Just booked a family cruise and I have several nondivers going that are quite interested in diving. Two have already done a discovery and loved it, 3 will be trying for the first time. And I'm sure that I will have a couple that want to come and just hang out while we dive.

I was thinking about booking privately so perhaps we could bring our gear and rent some tanks and then tag along at a distance on their discovery shore dives.

We are stopping in Grand Cayman so I was thinking about Sunset house since they have that nice semiconfined area for them to get started in. But also thought about Eden rock due to proximity to the ship. Any other ideas or suggestions?

We are also stopping in Cozumel so the same questions apply there. But I thought the shore diving would work better with Grand Cayman.

Great pics

Do you remember if Eden Rock had a small beach? I want to take the kids on a discovery scuba but the adults may want to lie on the beach...trying to find a place to do that. Thinking either Eden Rock or Sunset house.

We just booked on the Carnival Magic for Dec 28, 2014. The itinerary hits Key West, Nassau and Freeport.

 

In looking at the available shore excursions, I don't see any scuba diving! Does Carnival not offer any diving in Freeport and Nassua?

 

D.

Right now they are not. Rumor has it they are working on it.

My advice...hound Carnival about it. The more noise that we make the more likely they are to get an operator lined up.

Best two options for now seem to be Bahama Divers or Stuart Cove depending upon your port times.

Sad to see that they still can't come to terms with one of the dive shops there.

I had asked JH about it and he said "they are working on It"...guess they are not working hard enough.

I feel very comfortable using the island operators when there is adequate port time but for this trip I think we can just barely make it to Bahama Divers for their am dive on our Feb cruise... just scares me cutting things so close.:( I keep hoping carnival will get their act together on this.

I agree with you, but obviously the original poster is answering their own question, and what we posted is irrelevant.

 

Like I said after 35 cruises and over 75 Carnival excursions.....

 

....let us know how that works out for you:p

Wow, you guys get a bit testy over these things.

I am posting exactly what I received in writing from Carnival regarding the situation. Trying to relay the info as we received it to perhaps help others wondering the same thing.

And in terms of numbers..while we don't have the awesome 35 cruises. We are platinum and since we dive every port on every cruise we have a pretty good handle on how excursions are typically handled.

So thanks so much for the input , hopefully the take home message for folks is to go straight to the horses mouth and get it in writing...then go enjoy an Awesome cruise. That is of course our plan. :D

Be careful! Many others have called with you situation and were told that the OBC for this promotion can only be used for excursions purchased on the ship. If you were to call Carnival you will likely get the same response.

 

There is no grey area here - the fine print on the promotion clearly states that this is only for excursions purchased on board. If you change your rates and have to pay more to get this promotion you will most likely end up very upset.

I think I feel very confident in this case. I have their reply in writing. So I would be very surprised for Carnival to not honor that.

I think the folks that called and got a different answer need to contact the correct department..in this case the Shore excursion department directly. When I called the individual told me that this had to be handled thru the Shore Excursion department.

Also, If you read the fine print it does not say it has to be purchased onboard, it does state that it "cannot be used to reserve shore excursions prior to sailing"

For us its an easy decision, but of course everyone else will have to make their own decision.

So I received a reply from Carnival, nice to see how accomadating they are regarding prebooking the excursion...

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.

Has anyonehad any experience using the current promotion for the OBC for shore excursion and how that works if you need to do an advance purchase.

The promotion fine print reads that it "cannot be used to reserve shore excursions prior to sailing".

With that in mind if I reserve an excursion in advance with my credit card...can the OBC then be used once I am onboard to offset the excursion that I reserved with my credit card.

We really need to go ahead and reserve our excursions since there are only 3 spots currently still available for the dives we want to do. I find it amazing that 90 days out there are only three spots but we sure don't want to miss them since there are no good alternative dive operators in this particular port.

I have sent an email to the shore excursion group as per the direction of the Carnival rep that I spoke to, but was just curious to see if others had delt with this situation while I awaited their response.

Thanks

Yeah a Valor review!!! Can't wait.:D

I haven't used them...but investigated using them to dive for our upcoming cruise.

I was put off by the fact they charge 100% fee if you miss your excursion of the trip even if your ship doesn't make port. :eek:

We had two of us looking to dive...needless to say we are booking elsewhere.

Just got San Juan Beach and Water club $105 for one night precruise.

I am soo happy...I can just see us sitting at the roof top bar watching the ocean!!!

Ok so I just had to try this picture thing once I read ur review.

Thanks for posting .....We are doing this trip in August.

Will have to try again...that didn't work...tried grabbing from facebook

Looking to book this cruise for August. Your review is awesome!!! Thanks!!