venicia

21 hours ago, TxTeach79 said:

passing MSC’s new terminal which is taking shape…. Still apprehensive on that one. I’ll do it eventually I’m sure. 

 

 

 

LOVED MSC Seaside Yacht Club, better than most suites.  Will be scheduling her again now that she is ported at Canaveral.

Thank you all for your speedy replies.  We won't starve after reviewing all the restaurants aboard.    I suppose since not sailing Carnival for such a long time we got used to the option of full "dinner" at lunch in a dining room.  I think the cruise will be wonderful and looking forward to it.

We are booked on Mardi Gras in January and it has been approx 20 years since we sailed on Carnival.  During that time we have drastically changed our eating habits.  We are retired and have a large lunch and snacks or other light food at dinner time.  I do know there are multiple restaurants on Mardi Gras and it is one of the reasons we chose to book it, but I was wondering if anyone one has menu's for lunch in the dining room on days it is offered there.  Thank you in advance.

This should be interesting, they appear to have excellent speakers.

Try talking to a supervisor one more time and insist it be a supervisor.  Tell them TA out of business and if no resolution is done immediately (while you are on the phone)  you will file dispute with credit card company.  FILE THE CREDIT CARD DISPUTE!! There is a 1 - 800 number on the back of your credit card, use it.  I worked in banking, was the Risk Management Officer, you need to do this ASAP.  Mention the dates you tried to contact your TA and found out they are out of business, then the times you contacted CCL with no resolution in site.

2 hours ago, Dixe Lee said:

So happy for you 😁  We just booked the Ecstasy for October 1 out of Jacksonville.  Could not believe the low price for a porthole room so we took the chance that this will sail. How do you get an upgrade offer.? We have never gotten one as I recall. Does Carnival email you? And can you get an upgrade offer without having made final payment yet?

I check the confirmation off and on and it was posted there by Carnival, there was no way I was going to let an offer like that go away.  I jumped on it immediately and just like that we had a Grand Suite.  I always check my reservations on all the ships once a week to see if anything appears different.  Once a week I check amenities to see any changes. 

The other day when I checked one of our Royal Caribbean reservations I saw the Deluxe Beverage Package went from $72.00 a day down to $57.00, I thought since the cruise is in Jan I would just keep checking.  We now purchased it for $43.00 a day, one of the best prices we ever got. 

Just once a week go into your booked cruises and see if anything has changed, even check the pricing, last year saved $700.00 on one of our cruises.  

1 hour ago, bambilin said:

Awesome!  What date/ship was it for?

Ecstasy on Oct 24 from Jacksonville

got an upgrade from balcony to Grand Suite for $400.00, we took it

The last time I was at Disney Springs the gondola's were not completed.  Disney Springs is almost next door to Epcot, not really walking distance, but just to give you an idea which theme park it is close too.  I'm not positive but I think the gondolas go from some of the theme parks to Disney Springs.  You may want to look up the new Gondolas that are now in operation.  As I mentioned, they were in the process of completing them the last time we were at Epcot and it looks like a great way to get around.  Parking is free at Disney Springs, but as someone else mentioned it is almost all shopping or restaurants, but boy are the restaurants great.  

28 minutes ago, sjb317 said:

Where can you get decent pizza in Florida?  We live about 20 min south of Canaveral and I’ve had no luck so far.

 

Sherri🙂

Come up to St Augustine, we have some award winning local "mom & pop" restaurants that are amazing.  

8 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Plenty of really good pizza all over the USA. 

And the world!! The very, very best Pizza we ever had was on the Champs Elysee in Paris!  Also, had the best hot dog there as well.  Loved the baguette they used.  

I truly believe they need to stay with Holland America.  Absolutely not for me, and I am a  very senior citizen, but sure is for hundreds or thousands of folks. Two worst cruises in my over 50 cruises were on Holland, just not my cup of tea.  Not bad ships, just not enough going on and way too "calm".  I'm going to go sliding into my grave, WOOOOOOOOOOO   HOOOOOOOOOO!  Look out here I come

5 times on Oasis, 3 times on Allure and anxious to get on Harmony.  I've been on multiple lines and Royal is one of my favorites and the Oasis class is top of the line, never bored.

This is why there are so many lines to choose from, something for everyone!

We were on MSC Seaside and are Royal, Regent and Princess cruisers.  Same feeling as you,  I won't say never since that is a long time, I will say very doubtful.

We were also granted Black Card status and we stayed in the Yacht Club.  The cruise would have been almost unbearable if not for the amenities of the Yacht Club.  Our cabin Stewart and butler were fantastic and our cabin was lovely.  The Yacht Club lounge and restaurant are excellent.  

You are probably asking your self why I found the cruise to be less than good.  We were very disappointed with entertainment, just as mentioned, different costumes but same routine.  Costumes were very nice though.  Food outside YC very disappointing and crew not nearly as friendly as the other cruise lines.  

Any food outside YC was extremely disappointing, flavorless and cool and no seasoning.  For an Italian ship I would have expected excellent pasta and gravy.......I am able to make better Italian dishes than what we were served.  Yes, we have been to Italy numerous times and each region has their own way of preparing food, but I always gain weight in Italy.

We as well went to Butcher's Cut for our Black Card meal.  You receive a different menu than what is normally offered, a limited menu.  The menu was fine for us, but the food was very disappointing.  DH and I both got the 6 oz filet, it was cooked medium but a bit cool and flavorless.  I don't know how you can do that, but they managed.  Our sides were mac & cheese, it was ok and overcooked broccoli.  Our server highly suggested a lobster tail to go with the steak and we paid the extra for it.  IT WAS GOOD!  

We went to the Hibachi for one dinner and it was nice but we have better restaurants for much less cost here at home.  Food was plentiful and presentation was very nice.

My conclusion, if you sail in the Yacht Club its a nice ship..........I will say I would never sail outside the YC.  Best news of all, I lost over 5 lbs on this cruise, unfortunately it found me when we got home.

Prayers have been going out since this was reported.  I think I saw that Savannah has also placed boats in the search & rescue effort.  

I'm a port agent and not all ports can accept doc's off your phone.  Print them out so they can be quickly scanned with the hand held scanners used by the agents.  

If using a passport, have it out with your boarding pass.  If using government issued photo ID, have your birth certificate with the id.

You can make it faster and easier to have your printed docs and identification ready instead of having to dig through large purses or carry on luggage.

Oh my word!!!  This is awful and how rude of the server.   

It seems as if it is only on Harmony, never had this type of problem with Oasis or Allure.  

I have friends that returned from Harmony about one month ago and they were very disappointed with MTD times.  As soon as dining opened they reserved 6 pm for every night.  When they boarded they were told their time was changed to 6:45 because there were too many persons with early fixed dining and they transferred many of them to the American Icon, the MTD room.  So persons that initially requested MTD and wanted to make reservations early got bumped.  Needless to say this caused issues with their reservations for the shows.  When they  dined at 6:45 the dinner took 2 hours and they missed their show that evening.  They had the same problem the next night even though they went around 6 pm, they had to stand in the no reservation line which was long.  They ate in the Solarium Bistro and Windjammer the rest of the week.

I have sailed Oasis class 8 times and this is the first I ever heard of this, but I as well cannot book anything before 6:30 for MTD for my cruise on Harmony in January.  I am with a group and a few of us wanted to have dinner together so we made reservations together in the Solarium Bistro.  The other evenings I will be in the Coastal Kitchen.  

We had an amazing Butler, Cabin Stewart and waiter in MSC Seaside Yacht Club and we tipped extra at the end of the cruise.  DH shook hands with them with currency in his hand.  I think he also tipped extra to one of the waiters in the lounge, but not sure about that.  

We always pay our grat's with the final payment and we think it would be fantastic to simply have them included in the price.  So what if they raise the price, if you pay your grat's it will still come out to the same amount of money.   

On 4/24/2019 at 9:35 PM, OCruisers said:

 

You'll be fine.  It's just a two hour drive.  

Enjoy your cruise!  

We live in St Augustine and cruise out of Canaveral about 3 times a year.  We leave our house around 8 - 8:30 and get to Park & Cruise around 10 -10:30, drop the car and at the port in no time at all.  We have never gone to Canaveral the day before a cruise.

4 hours ago, Mike A said:

When we sailed on the Anthem in February we had anytime dining. We were a group of 6. When we went to the dining room the 1st night we asked if we could get the same table at 5:15-5:30. We were immediately accommodated and were given a great table in the back of Silk. The waiter and assistant, as well as the head waiter for our section were amazing. We also noticed everyone in our section were at the same table every night and we were told that section was saved for those who had anytime but wanted traditional.

As an aside the service all around on our cruise was fantastic even though it was President’s Week with a full ship and 1700 children on board. 1st time on RCL and won’t be the last. 

We don’t want to schedule every night, just a few together.  Some would like to have different times and I will schedule a few nights in Coastal Kitchen.  We did want to dine together 3 or 4 nights together early and then what ever times others wanted they could arrange.  This has always worked for us on 8 previous cruises on Oasis class ships, maybe just not this time.

31 minutes ago, janetz said:

You don’t need to reserve with MTD 😊

Well, after 5 cruises on Oasis and 3 on Allure, I’ll always reserve our dining time. There is a line for reservations and another line for no reservations.  You are correct in one respect though, I am in a grand suite so I do not need to reserve but some others are in balcony cabins and we enjoy all dining together, so yes, we do make reservations.

Thanks Biker19.  We'll keep checking to see if it changes.  If not, will just try to schedule us as soon as we board.  We DO have several months before this cruise.

My notifications are working.  

4 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Ask in the Roll Call thread for your sailing.

Yep, did that and no answer there.  I was hoping one of the amazing experts here may have heard something about why the change.

We have several persons going on Harmony in January and have been trying to schedule early dining in MTD.  The earliest time available is 6:30 but the group prefers 5:30 so they can go to the early shows.  Is anyone else having this same issue?