centralcalicruzer

I leave tomorrow and just sailed on her last December so I'll see if I notice anything really different and report back.

I just faxed mine in today. With Princess I usually get an email right away acknowledging receipt of the fax, but I haven't received anything yet from Carnival. I can't remember how it worked out last year on my Carnival cruise, but I know the credit was applied really quickly. Where do I look in my online Carnival account to see if the credit has been applied? 

Also, the Star does not have Alfredo's

Why only one night in the MDR? What you have described fits perfectly fine with Princess's request for attire in the MDR on all non-formal nights. Most people will be dressed similarly. 

I wonder if the Mediterranean, where we are staying pre-cruise, would allow us to store our luggage for a few hours post-cruise. Anyone that has stayed there before know? I can easily give them a call but don't want to come across as demanding if that's something they would never do. 

As luck would have it, our flight from Seattle leaves at 7:00, one hour after the Port Valet deadline for Southwest. (I didn't know about the 6:00 deadline when I booked our flights) Does anyone know of other options, similar to Canada Place in Vancouver, for storing luggage for several hours prior to a flight? I assume we'd need to head to the airport at around 4:00. 

Nice review so far. For some reason, after post #8, your photos are not showing in the succeeding posts. 

Most of the water taxis have the glass bottom - they are glass panels on the floor of the boat. Although TBH on the one we were on you couldn't see very well out of them. But when we stopped for a few moments near the snorkeling area, you could see a lot of fish just looking over the side.

We did a short Carnival cruise in early December and I was surprised at how many people got really dressy on Elegant Night. Mostly cocktail length dresses, but quite glitzy. I was glad I had packed a fancier dress, as based on what I had read on these boards I almost didn't. Still, there were plenty of people who were dressed more casually but still nice and neat for the dining room. You will be fine with what you have described.

I would say St. Lucia is one port you want to make sure you have an excursion planned. Our first time there we did a catamaran trip out to the Pitons, and the second time we did ziplining. It's a beautiful island, but just not much to do right at the port. 

13 hours ago, msstatemom said:

Are the wine and food tours through the ship or independent tours?

We did ours through the ship. It was a Carnival cruise, but I have seen the same tour offered on a Princess cruise that stopped there. 

We just did the wine-tasting for the first time last month and really enjoyed it! Two wineries, lots of food to snack on with your wine (cheese, bread, olives, crackers, jellies, etc. but quite filling), plus we each received a bottle of wine to bring back. 

We just did this in November - The first photo was taken from the ship, the second two from our water taxi tour. They required everyone to wear a life vest. Yes, the boats are small and a lot of them are kind of old. But I never felt unsafe. And I am fairly risk-averse. On the Sea of Cortez side of the arch (where we are standing in the boat), the water isn't really all that deep and people snorkel fairly close by from Lover's Beach. I can swim, I wasn't too worried about falling overboard. The water is rougher on the Pacific side (third photo), and I wouldn't have stood up in the bow over there. 

We cruised out of San Pedro on Princess on November 20 and our sea day the next day was beautiful - sunny, warm, we sat out by the pool in swimsuits. However, our last sea day on the way home was cold and windy, all the pools were closed. Two weeks later (December 6) we cruised out of Long Beach and almost didn't make the ship due to snow on Interstate 5. It was pouring (and snowing in places) on us until we got to Long Beach, but thankfully the rain stopped in time for sailaway. The next day at sea, it was fairly warm in the morning, and again there were people in the pools and hot tubs. Not as hot as summer, but you could swim if you wanted. Then later in the day, some really dark clouds came up and it got quite a bit cooler. 

I have been seated at the "two tops" where one seat is along a banquette and you are literally right next to the next table's diner. But we are just off the Emerald, and all four nights we ate in the ATD MDR, we were seated at very nice tables for two that were not extremely close to other diners. Actually, one night they sat us at a four top next to the window. We were given pagers three of the four nights but waited only moments to be called. Only one of those nights did we even have time to order drinks before being paged. We went to the Michelangelo dining room around 7:00-7:30 each night. However, this was a Thanksgiving cruise with LOTS of families on board, so there may have been a lot of groups wanting earlier dining and every cruise has a different demographic of cruisers wanting different dining times.

Thanks everyone. I still have the option to book Crown Grill or Share, just wasn't seeing an option for Salty Dog. We'll probably play it by ear anyway, depending on the MDR menu that night. It's only a five night cruise, so keeping our options open at this point.

We're sailing next week and it's not available to pre-book like Crown Grill and Share. Can you only book once on board? It wasn't on the Emerald when we sailed on her in 2012.

I just ordered a bottle of rum for our cabin last week, so it's probably just a current issue with the website. Of course we will still buy drinks out and about on the ship, but it does save a bit of money (especially if you bring on a few mixers) and nice to have in the cabin. More expensive than on land, but saves quite a bit over $8+ every drink.

I got an email from Carnival saying they had applied the credit. I haven't printed anything out yet so maybe it will show up then. If not, I'll just check onboard and show the email info if I have to. I'm sure it's fine. Thanks everyone!

Ok, so I have now faxed my info to Carnival. Where do I look in my booking on the Carnival website to find out if the credit has been applied? So far I can't find anything that shows my onboard credit, even what I got from my travel agent. On the Princess website it is easily visible when I log in. 

St. Lucia is beautiful, but you definitely need to get out of the port area to really appreciate it. Our first time we took a cruise along the beautiful coastline down towards the Pitons, it also included a short beach/snorkel stop. The second time we did the ziplining, over on the east side of the island, it was a lot of fun, very "jungle-y", and we then made a photo stop overlooking the Atlantic on the way back. Both tours were through Princess and fairly reasonable cost.

Thanks, I have that already because I just submitted for a Princess cruise I'm doing in a few weeks. So you just add a cover letter with ship, cruise date, etc. and fax in to the number on the list?

Does Carnival have a specific form to send in? I have one I use for Princess, but it says "Princess Cruises" at the top so I wasn't sure if I could use if for my upcoming Carnival cruise.

4 hours ago, Paula_MacFan said:

 

We were pretty fired up about it at the time!  I immediatley got on Cruise Critic to post a thread and see if this had happened to anyone else, but unfortunately, that was the week the Boards were down for the upgrade so I was unable.  I calmed down about it over the course of the cruise, and we had a great time otherwise, but it still bugs me.  We are Platinum so this was by no means our first Princess cruise and I know better!  The server was apologetic and said to my husband "I'm sorry sir, it's not my policy, it's management's".  And this was a server who 'knew' us because we had frequented his bar area all week.  He was nice about it but it still annoyed me.  I even went down to the IC to see if there was some sign about taking food away, and of course there was not.

I wonder if it was because you took it into a "bar" area? Were you in Crooners? Because clearly you can take food from IC back to your cabin. As busy as the IC usually is, there's no way everyone that gets something from there can be expected to sit right there and eat. Heck, I've even taken a sandwich from there into the theatre to watch an afternoon movie (I wouldn't take food in there during a production show.)

I have had the standing request for a robe in my personalizer for years. If there's not one in the cabin upon embarkation, I mention it to the steward. Usually they tell me they are being laundered and will be in the cabin as soon as possible. I've never not gotten one.