gargoyle999

I plan to dress warm until Miami. Avg high in Miami is 75 in Feb. Further north coming down on the water with the breeze is going to be chilly I think. 

Wife and I just booked a cove balcony for this cruise. The deal was too good to pass up. I’ve lived my whole life where it snows during winter so usually like to sail from warmer climes. So sailing from NY in February will be interesting. We are platinum so have sailed on a few ships but I’m looking forward to a newer ship. We’ve had one cove balcony before and enjoyed being close to the water. It’s always fun to have something planned to look forward to!

My wife bought all of it and obviously didn't see the 'fine' print. That is a major change. At the very least it should show as non-refundable on the charge summary we get every couple days while on the ship! All it showed was cruise cash and unused balance.

Other items are listed as refundable or non-refundable. Why not this?

Just got burned for $160!! My Platinum but first cruise since cruise cash came about. Turns out it is not refundable!!! We have always paid for OBC ahead of the cruise then gotten the leftover back at the end of the cruise.

Got a check for $5.32 that must have been tax/port fee reduction. Called about the remaining cruise cash and was just told that there is no way to purchase OBC ahead of time that is refundable. Has to be used on that sailing. Can't cash out on the ship either.

First time in 10 Carnival cruises I am actually :mad:

Thank you for taking the time to do another excellent picture review!!! I'm waiting right now waiting for our car to come pick us up for our flight to Florida where we'll get on the Victory. But we are booked on the Elation in October so this a perfect read!! :)

I have a cabana booked for our March cruise. Appreciate the info about the villas. Hadn't heard of them until now. I'm pretty sure they weren't available under the excursions when I was looking a couple months ago. They do show up now.

Hope whatever group books one nearest to us (I'm going for highest # cabana I can get) isn't too much like a frat house. There are still 4 available so maybe they won't sell out and whatever is closest to me will be empty! :)

Cant wait until the Victory starts doing the new itinerary from Miami, although I love reading about the trips from San Juan, I am wanting to hear about trips to my ports :D

Feel free to post some info from your trip! :D Especially the 2nd part as that is what I will be doing a couple weeks after you!

Here is a link with some pics I've come across:

http://home.g-net.net/~cbrock/HalfMoonCay.html

Lower number are closer to the buildings and higher number are towards the top of the map. I'm going for a high number next month!! :D

It is called the Ultimate Kids Package, but anyone can get it.

Actually it's called the Unlimited Soda & More Package. ;)

I calculated buying the drink coupons saves about $1.30 per drink. This is because you can currently buy them for less than the redeemed value, plus it includes tip on the amount of the coupon.

I used them on the Imagination and Miracle in Nov and was always charged the difference.

Still saves a few bucks. The more you drink the more "worth" it they are.

Best thing Carnival has done to improve the cruising experience.

 

So apparently Carnival needs to increase the tables available to seat the amount of anytime dining requests.

(there was a line of people wanting to change to anytime dining the first couple of nights on our last cruise also.)

 

Clearly Carnival needs to find a better way to more accurately gauge the demand for this dining option.

Agreed, Agreed, Agreed! :)

We are sailing on the Imagination in 9 days and the only seating waitlisted is Your Time. Sailing on the Miracle right after and late seating still available but Your Time waitlisted.

It is becoming a more popular option so I hope Carnival adjusts accordingly. They did the right thing by adding it as an option, hopefully the available seating keeps up with demand.

Thanks for taking the time to post your review! 40 more days and I'll get to check out the Imagination for myself! :D

Looks like you may be professional cruisers!! Lol. Maybe you'll have some suggestions for us first-timers.

If you have any questions just pop over to the roll call for our cruise. It's not very active but the few of us posting might be able to answer you! :)

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1126925

Enjoyed reading all about the ship. My husband and I will be sailing on the carnival imagination for our first cruise...leaving 11-15-10. Excited but nervous!

DW and I will be on this cruise too! Nothing to be nervous about! It's going to be a great time! :)

Alamo has a free shuttle for customers to the cruise port.

Excellent news! We got Alamo through the name your own price site for our Imagination cruise in 43 days! :D

Very much looking forward to the rest of your review!

I've figured out where all the food is except the burrito bar. Can someone explain where exactly that is. I don't see it on the deck plan so I'm guessing it's a part of the Grand Buffet?

I'll be doing a B2B on the Splendor next Feb/March so I'm about to start reading this thread from the top. Will be our first time on this ship. Wish me luck in getting caught up... :D

They have surf and turf on the menu. You get half the lobster tail and half the filet that you would get if you only order one or the other.

From my favorite excursion so far, snorkeling in Roatan. I sure hope I get back someday soon...

It is not like people can check in and out in the middle of the cruise?

Someone else must have been having a terrible cruise as well and decided to just get off in Florida! :p

For those of you that have taken a tour with just 2 people, can you tell me how much it cost? It will just be me and the hubby, but I'm concerned that the cost would be prohibitive with just the 2 of us. Thanks for any info. :)

We paid $150 for the two of us a couple weeks ago. We were with Hector for probably just over 7 hours. Make sure to clarify if you will have to pay extra for getting up close to the divers. We didn't have to pay to get in, but others have. It does not include the cost for lunch either.

I figure because he changes his prices to get the highest amount he can.

Isn't that one of the founding principles of capitalism? :rolleyes:

Now if you send him an email and say I have a group of 60 people, how much will the cost be and how will you accommodate us, then I agree you should get a specific answer to your question.

I also think the tour should include the price of the divers, which it did not, they paid an additional $13 each to see the divers.

This is a good point. At one point during our tour Hector mentioned something about paying to see the divers. But when we got there he talked to someone for about 10 seconds and we got in without paying extra. Rudy was clear before hand that lunch would be extra. Any additional cost for the divers should also be mentioned upfront.

We had our tour with Tours by Van in Acapulco a couple week ago. We were met right where we expected by Hector. This is one of the drivers that works for Rudy. I knew ahead of time that Rudy was booked and we would be with one of his other drivers.

Hector took us to the car, which was a 4 door sedan as we were doing a private tour with just DW and myself. The car was in good shape and most importantly had working A/C! It was hot and humid when we visited.

Hector spoke good English and was very professional. It was quite interesting how everyone drives there. DW liked to say that stop signs, lane lines and speed limits are merely suggestions..ha ha. But Hector was one of the slower drivers and we never felt unsafe while he was driving. I was glad we were just in a smaller sedan as there were some tight squeezes getting through traffic in some spots.

We had several stops for pictures. Also went to the church with the large cross, Casa Tarzan, saw some richer areas and where the average working people live. Even went by Rudy's house for some pictures of the nice view!

We went to lunch at El Zorrito. The food was very good. I did get hit up for a tip by a musician while eating. Told him maybe when I was done eating. But he was gone when we left. And a vendor or two. Guess they are all over.

And we finished the tour with the cliff divers. I got up as close as I could as there were not a lot of people there when we first arrived. It was interesting to watch the divers climb down the rocks on the one side swim across and climb up the rocks to the side they dive from. But as far as watching the dives themselves I would advise you actually stay further back if you want pictures. I was actually too close to get a good picture of them mid dive.

Overall, we had an enjoyable tour and I feel we were able to see a lot of of Acapulco. From the richer to the poorer areas, some of the hotels in the area, and most of the main tourists stops.

I would suggest if there is someplace you really want to go to make it very clear upfront with Rudy and when meeting the driver if not Rudy. We expected to see Diego Rivera's mural and the El Mercado Municipal based on the email from Rudy outlining the things we could do during the tour. But we didn't see either one, so DW was a bit disappointed.

I think Hector thought we wouldn't want to go the the Mercado since as we drove by it he told us that even he doesn't go there, he goes to Walmart! ha ha..

And the mural never was mentioned during our tour. So I think if we would have said we really wanted to go to those spots it wouldn't have been an issue. But by the time we realized it wasn't going to happen it was too late.

Rudy called us twice during our tour and asked to talk to me, just to see how things were going so that was nice. The total time for the tour was about 7 hours and we paid $150 for the two of us not including the tip we gave Hector.

I would certainly recommend Tours by Van in Acapulco. Rudy was excellent with his communication before our trip and I felt we have a very good tour of Acapulco even though our driver wasn't Rudy. Just be clear on any stops that are "must do's" during your time there. :)