luv2trvlnow

The cart check out being disabled is just the lastest in a string of problems on the AARP Rewards website. Two or three years ago a new company took over the program and there has been nothing but website problems . Everytime they try to solve a problem they only make it worse. They don't solve the problem, just add more problems. People have been complaining there about not receiving the Carnival gift cards for months. It takes time and patience to finally get them. People have been told they haven't purchased them even though the money has been charged to their credit cards or deducted from their checking accounts. I just don't think it is worth the discount there anymore. They just can't seem to solve their many IT problems.

Sorry, but what does the ongoing problems at AARP Rewards Wedsite have to do with Carnival's website? They are two completely different companies. ThaNectar: I hope someone can tell you whether they are having trouble with Carnival's site or not.

Hopefully you will be able to retire confortably in the near future. It is really great to be retired.

Hi NCTribeFan. Do you know who you have booked for your private tour to Taormina? That is something we would be interested in for our cruise next year. We are doind a B2B and stop in Messina on both cruises. So we have the opportunity to concentrate on a site on each cruise. I remember meeting you on the Splendor cruise from San Juan to Miami. We were on the same shuttle from the port to the airport. I was traveling with my son. I was a CPA also, now retired.

I do have a question for you. Did you change time during the cruise at all? If we decide to do a independent excursion in Athens, we need to know the ship's time. I know Rome and Athens are 1 hour apart. I don't want to plan an excursion and then miss it because I am an hour late.

Which October cruise are you on? I am on the October 8, 2023 cruise and I have 14 different excursions listed but 2 of them are listed as sold out. Of course 1 of the sold out ones doesn't make any sense. It's title is "Athens & the Acropolis with airport transfer". But no one on this cruise would need a transfer to the airport. This is not a embarkation or debarkation port.

I don't even know how to do a spreadsheet online, so I would be no help. I started the roll call for this cruise here on Cruise Critic, but so far it only has 8 views and no replies. Even the site that shall not be named doesn't have much activity other than welcoming people. Hopefully things will pick up as we get closer to the sail date. I will be interested in what you had planned before.

We have also booked that same excursion on our October 8 cruise. I feel the same way about doing a Carnival excursion when you are traveling a long distance away from port. I have heard that the road on the Amalfi coast can get very crowded. I read that earlier this year they were only let cars with car tags ending in an odd number on odd days and those with even on even day to cut down on the traffic jams. I also want to get the excursions I want. I don't want to miss out on something we really want to do. I am following that same live review for any tips that will make our cruise better. We had our cruise cancelled in October 2020 also. Just got to keep on trying.

They are probably looking at the Italy, Greece, and Turkey cruise. We are also on two in September and October. Some of the ports have excursions listed already. It looks like there are 2 or 3 that say they are sold out from the Naples port. But they seem to be sold out for a more than 1 cruise. In fact we go to Naples on each cruise and those excursions are sold out on both cruises. I think they might not have a contract set up with a vendor yet. It will probably sometime before those are available. I hope to arrange independent tours and not go on the cruise line ones. I know I will probably end up with 3 or 4 cruise line ones out of the 13 ports. Some ports require going a bit of distance to see things and might be best to use the cruise line. But I still have lots of time to get things settled. I have already arranged 2 private tours in 2 of the ports for just my husband and me. They are a good deal and I haven't had to pay a deposit, so I want to make sure I have a good option. Some of our ports have several ships there at the same time.

Sorry to hear this. That was the excursion we were looking at. We are going to have to rethink this. I have never done a Carnival excursion and was hoping it wouldn't be this bad. But independent excursions are always good either. We have has a couple of pretty bad ones in the Caribbean with tour operators that were hightly rated. Sometimes things just go wrong. Your experience might help others, like me, avoid a similar disappointment.

Which excursion did you do to the Acropolis. I have been looking at their offerings and trying to decide which one to try? This one was a trainwreck? What went wrong?

I remember back when the Playlist shows started. It was said that this would allow Carnival to change the shows more frequently than the production shows. They were using a lot of screens so not as much backdrops and props needed. This way they could keep things fresh and not have the same shows all the time. Just shows that wasn't the case

Great to hear. Happy PLATINUM still has its perks. I thought I heard most people are Platinum or Diamond on these European cruises.

How long did you have to wait in the lounge before being taken to the tender? I will be doing this same itinerary next year and am trying to get an idea of when we might be off the ship.

Not surprised at all. Here our mailman feels mail must be delivered if it has been held for about 7 days. Then he starts delivering it every day. Thank you to our neightbor who keeps a look out and collects it if he delivers it. Which happens at least 80% of the time. And our head guy at the post office says it not a problem. Yeah right!

Maybe. Maybe not. You really can't compare a short cruise to a longer cruise. The short ones do have bachlerette/bachelor parties. A few years ago I read about a 5 day cruise out of Miami. Things got a bit wild. And this was on Celebrity. It can happen on any cruise line on a short cruise. Now the decor can't be changed no matter the length of the cruise. And I can see that the older Carnival ships are very Vegas-like. I mean if you have been on the Miracle you definitely won't forget the Grapes in the dining room. The newer ships have a more subdued decor. I have a B2B in Europe on a Carnival ship next year. And from what I see on the forums I checked, there seems to be a lot of Patinum and Diamond cruizers who are on the older side. Several say they are celebrating their 50th anniversary. I am imagining this cruise to be different from my Caribbean cruises.

The OBC can be used for gratuities. And it is used before refundable OBC, cash, and charges to your credit/debit card.

I would say Princess also. It is the quieter Carnival Corporation choice. The quieter Royal Caribbean Corporation choice would be Celebrity.

Thank you everyone. Equinox it is!!! We have booked one of the hump cabins! It is now in my signature. I am looking forward to this cruise. I did enjoy our cruise on the Summit out of San Juan back in 2016. We had 3 cruises booked when Covid hit. We took the full refund and not FCC. We are now getting back to booking cruises. It is a long wait until 2024. We do have 2 cruises on Carnival next fall in Europe. I looked at Celebrity Beyond since it had several of the same ports, but just couldn't bring myself to pay over twice as much for it. We are going for the ports and will not be spending much time awake on the ship. That $5300 savings will more than pay for this cruise.

Thank you for your responses. I am thinking we will book the Equinox, unless someone can change my mind. We would book a Deluxe Porthole View with Veranda on The Beyond. And we are looking at 7286, a 1A on the Equinox. We have that one on a hold.

I am trying to choose betweeen 2 cruises. It will be just my husband and me. We will be in our 70's by then. I have been to all these ports before. So it comes down to the ship and the price. Celebrity Beyond cost $700 more. Celebrity Beyond in a Deluxe Porthole view with Veranda Sailing: April 12-22, 2024 - 10 Nights Ports: Philipsburg, St Maarten Castries, St Lucia Bridgetown, Barbados St Johns, Antigua Brasseterre, St Kitts OR Celebrity Equinox in a Deluxe Veranda Sailing April 1-11 10 Nights Ports: St Johns, Antigua Bridgetown, Barbados Castries, St Lucia Fort De France, Martinique Brasseterre, St Kitts

Yes your antigen test would have to be proctored. But at least it can be done with your free government tests, anywhere. I have read of people doing it in their hotel room over in Europe. The PCR test would have to be done in person and usually takes about 24 hours to get the results and costs more money. Supposedly it has fewer false negatives.

I thought the same thing at first. It sounded backwards. But - maybe? The difference in timing for the tests is because different types of tests are required. If vaccinated you can do a antigen test. Quicker, easier. If unvaccinated you need to do a PCR, which has a longer time frame for the results and is supposedly more accurate (sensitive). But this is just a guess.

This would be a total waste on my 2 cruises in Europe. I would like to try it, but on our first cruise our last day is in Livorno (Florence/Pisa) for 12 hours. I am not giving up going on an excursion for this. Our second cruise our last day is in Naples for 12 hours. Same thing. The reason I am going to Europe is for the ports. If I wanted to just chill out on the ship I wouldn't fly all the way to Europe for that. I would stay in the US and on a newer ship. I would definitely do it on a Caribbean cruise.

I would take a different cruise also, especially when you are locked into a specific timeframe. That is what we did with our cruise on Celebrity in 2015. We were supposed to be on a Carnival cruise out of San Juan. We had already purchased our airfare. They changed it for variety of ships. At least that was what our letter said. They gave a Fantasy class ship instead of a Conquest class ship. They offered nothing for the cancellation. In fact at first they said they wouldn't help with airfare change fees. So we found the Celebrity cruise out of San Juan that fit our timeframe there and we booked it. Two weeks later they offered to give us our change fee as an onboard credit, but only when we furnished proof of the charge after getting onboard, not before. Py the fee and then hope they give it back to you once onboard. Not helpful. A few others on our roll call joined us and several others went with RC that was leaving on the same day as our Carnival cruise was supposed to start. I was glad we were going in 2 days early and staying 3 days after. With the change of ships we had 3 days before and 2 days after. I was able to change our hotels with no extra charge. And the cruise on Celebrity was $20 cheaper. I hope you find something that will work for you. And maybe even be better like it was for us.