MistyRo76

We're taking our soon to be 9 year old daughter on a cruise in October and I know she would love to do Build-A-Bear! She is a stuffed animal fanatic...probably has close to 200 of them! Were you able to reserve this online before your cruise or did you have to book it once onboard?

Awesome...didn't think about the mocktails, juices, and coffees...makes sense! Thank you!

Great...thank you!

When we took our girls cruise last fall, we decorated our cabin for my BFF's birthday which was earlier in the month. I bought some decorations on Amazon and brought them with us. We snuck back to the cabin while she was busy making some last minute calls to her family and decorated. It was not as easy or quick as I expected it to be. First - make sure you bring tape/double sided tape or some kind of sticky stuff to hang items on the walls/ceilings. Command hook type stuff can work as well. Alot of our decor needed to be assembled - banners had to have letters hung on the string, balloons have to be blown up, etc. It was fun to surprise her....but looking back, I wish I would have just paid for Carnival to hang their decorations up for us instead! Then I could have enjoyed another Fun Ship Special up on desk with the rest of our group! 🙂

Hello all! I am a seasoned cruiser - if we're just talking about Carnival (going on my 20th Carnival cruise this fall!). But I am looking to potentially venture out and try VV next year! My sis had to cancel a VV cruise for this summer because she tore her ACL skiing last winter and didn't know if it would be healed enough to travel this summer. She recently rebooked for Spring, 2024 and invited my husband and I to join her, her boyfriend and some of our other friends. The cruise we are looking at is in March on the Brilliant Lady going to: Tortola, Guadeloupe, Barbados, St. Lucia and Antigua & Barbuda. I have not been to ANY of these ports, so the itinerary itself has me stoked! Plus the ship looks amazing and the food options look devine. We are foodies and love trying new cuisines and different dishes! Things I'm wondering about at this stage: * what experiences do people have with VV booking their airfare? I did a quick flight search for options going to San Juan and airfare is already looking to be over $1k per person. Thinking we may be able to do better price-wise letting VV book our airfare. Any feedback on this would be appreciated? * My husband recently gave up drinking. With this being a port intensive itinerary, our days should stay pretty busy. But was wondering what N/A beverage options they might have on the ship. I saw another post where some mentioned they have Heineken N/A beer. Do the bars serve any good craft N/A cocktails? Any other N/A beer options? * Our travel agent can get us some Sailor Loot and Bar Tab credits - do those get split evenly between the two of us in the cabin? Since my husband doesn't drink, am I able to use all of the bar tab credits myself? Thanks! Looking forward to our first VV sailing!

I need this to be my hubby when I ask him to do a "little" home repair project! 🤣

👆 This is me before even reading a word of this review! I'm so excited!

We will just miss each other as we are driving in from KY on 10/6! Is there a beach nearby that you'd recommend? We want to see as much as of the area as possible in our short time there! We are staying in the Mt. Pleasant area!

We are taking our soon to be 9-year-old daughter on the Sunshine in October (but shhhh....she doesn't know yet! 🙂). I have no qualms about her going on the Sunshine. I know she'll enjoy the kids camps and the food (especially the sushi!). And the Sunshine, while an older ship, did go through a massive refurb a while back so she has many of the upgrades newer ships have - waterworks, newer dining venues, etc. I would recommend booking the Seuss at Sea breakfast (usually the last sea day). It's a fun time for kids and adults! And check on CC and online for "roll call" pages for your specific sailing date. You may be able to connect with other families who have kids around the ages of yours. We are also going to CHS a few days early to explore the city some! Not sure when you are sailing, but I plan on doing a trip review once we're back!

Often we would go to the casino bar cause the service was quicker than at other locations. Then we would just take our drinks down to where our friends were hanging out! Or I got a drink on my way to my salon appointment on formal night. Or on our way to dinner. But yes...your point is well received and valid! LOL The tiramisu martinis don't tend to last too long in whatever glass they give it to me in!

This sounds just like my sis and brother when they were younger. My sis was frugal always spent her money very judiciously and my brother would blow his all in the hotel arcade on the first night. Although, my parents didn't give him anymore. So he would end up borrowing money from my sister, who would then charge him interest to pay it back! This explains why she was able to retire at 57! Unfortunately for me, I tended to take after my brother and not my sis...at least in my younger life. But I did eventually learn! lol

yes - we just hopped in a taxi at the port. And when we were ready to leave, there were taxi's available right at Jamie's. I can't recall how much taxi's were, but it wasn't much! Jamie's was $52 per person, all inclusive. It included all drinks and food. And we had reserved chaise loungers right under a palapa. Digby was our waitress and she was amazing! The food and drinks were awesome! It was a great day!

I enjoy both ports for completely different reasons. In Belize, we have done some amazing excursions - ziplining in the rain forest, cave tubing, exploring caves, etc. It's a beautiful country especially once you get away from the port area (this could have changed as it's been quite a while since I've been to Belize). But alot of these excursions are quite a far distance from the port and require a long bus ride. I love Costa Maya for a great relaxing beach day. We usually take a taxi to Mahahual. In October, we did an all-inclusive day at Jamie's at Blue Reef and had an amazingly relaxing day! Food and drinks were amazing, the water was great, service was outstanding! It was truly the perfect beach day. And I find Costa Maya to be very inexpensive compared to other ports. Costa Maya you can walk right off the ship - though there is a quite a long way through all the shops and restaurants to get to the taxi stand. Belize you have to tender and compared to other tender ports like Grand Cayman and Half Moon Cay, the tender ride is quite a bit longer. Costa Maya has a completely built up port with all your standard restaurants, bars, pools, beach access, shopping, etc. When I was last in Belize (10+ years ago), there wasn't a ton at the immediate port area. Not sure if this has been built up over time or not.

Percy Crews is my absolute favorite comic they have on Carnival. We saw him well over 10 years ago and I didn't realize he was still doing shows on the ships! Fingers crossed that we have him on our October Sunshine cruise!

I think it's the humid, salty air that saps the carbonation right out of sodas very quickly! I noticed that even with sodas that we carried on. If they weren't finished within 10 minutes, they would start to go flat.

I have only ever done fixed dining - always LATE seating! Not that I wouldn't try YTD...but since it's been around, we have almost always had a large group (usually 12-25 people), so we like being able to easily sit together and ensure we have the same wait staff nightly. With a group that large, I'm just afraid we would have long wait times with YTD. If we ever go with just our family, I'd give YTD a try.

As for dessert drinks - you have to get the Tiramisu Martini. it is literally dessert in a glass! Just ask for it in a "walk-around" glass. Much easier to carry around than a martini glass filled to the brim. Unless, you're having it with dinner or seated at a bar and not going to walking around with it.

Another vote for escargot! And when they offered it, the Warm Pumpkin Soup! And I miss Key Lime Pie on the dessert menu! It's a Caribbean must!

Thanks! I just thought it would be fun for her to start learning them before hand to make her more comfortable (she has a bit of stage fright! :)) and also to help while away the time before the cruise and keep/get her excited! Thanks for the feedback though!

I would usually have a couple mimosas or Bellini's every morning! I didn't notice them marketing any special mimosas but you can ask for any kind of juice to go with that you want! A local winery where I live does a mimosa flight with OJ, grapefruit juice, pineapple juice and cranberry juice. We enjoyed mixing and matching the flavors. One of my faves was OJ and champange with a splash of cranberry. I also like adding some mango to my mimosas. The Bellini's are made with peach schappes and I think I remember them having a special Birthday Bellini at the Sea Day Brunch one day that was tasty. Also - check out the Serenity bar for some different drink options. Lots of lighter drinks - spritzers, sparkling drinks plus some good sangrias. It was a fave location of ours on the last cruise, plus it's kind of off the beaten path so it's not usually as busy as the other outside bars.

I have only sailed once since the post Covid sailing restart and on that cruise, we didn't do much in the way of any of the typical line dances at the deck parties or anything like that. We are taking our soon-to-be 9 year on a cruise this fall. She doesn't know about it yet, but once we tell her, I thought it would be fun to teach her some of the usual fun line dances before we go! Help to get her excited and feel comfortable doing these dances out on deck with her "old" mom (and maybe we'll even coax dad into participating!). I know the Cupid Shuffle still gets played, but other than that, I'm outta the loop! So recent cruisers - what line dances are the main go-tos right now on Carnival?

My inner compulsive need to have everything centered is really struggling with these two pics!

I'm a few days behind as I've been caring for my sick 8 year old! Strep AND a stomach bug for her...double whammy! But she's on the mend which means momma has some free time now! Love seeing the pictures of your beautiful family on the original Celebration! We've sailed twice with our daughter, but she was only 1 & 3 and doesn't remember them much. She doesn't know it yet, but we're taking her on a cruise on the Sunshine over her fall break this year! So excited to read along on your new Celebration journey! 🙂

We had a large group traveling together seated at one table in the MDR. We saw a gal at the table next to us dining alone. We told her she was welcome to join us, but she politely declined. Being a party of one, she got through her meal pretty quick so she was almost done by the time our apps were coming and we noticed her alone. I would think on the larger ships with more for-fee dining options available, it is likely more and more common that people aren't showing up for their assigned dining time. But I believe for people with late dining, they are restricted to dining at the for-fee venues until later in the evening. For the buffet, it won't be an issue to show up anytime you'd like. As others have said, check in with the hostess stand in the dining room when you board and see if you can be switched to your preferred dining option. I think many times they will be able to accommodate you. And prior to your sailing, your TA/PVP should be able to add you to the waitlist. Happy sailing to the OP! And congrats to your daughter on her job!

We cruised on the Valor 5 days to Costa Maya and Cozumel back in October, 2022 and had an amazing time! It was our first time cruising out of NOLA and we actually found the crowd on the ship to be extremely friendly and courteous! We didn't see any behavior that I would say crossed the line outside of one group of young ladies were seated next to us at dinner. They were very crass, showed up to dinner late, were cussing, flashing their breasts, giving each other lap dances, etc. We talked to them one evening and one gal seemed a bit embarrassed by their behavior when they found out we were near them at dinner. She said they were all a bunch of mom's on a much needed girls trip. So they were really cutting loose! We requested to be moved to another location in the dining for the rest of the trip and had no other issues. I wouldn't have had an issue with their behavior if it was in the nightclub...but at dinner was a little much. Other than that - everyone was great! And we had a great time. The ship itself was fine. I didn't notice anything glaring as far as upkeep or maintenance. The ship temps were comfortable both in our cabin and around the ship in general. We enjoyed the food for the most part. Didn't do the buffet much, but the main dining room breakfasts and brunches were great. Service, overall, was very good to great! I did a photo trip review after the cruise on here. If you search my name, you should be able to find it!