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mi3stooges

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    Reykjavik City Center transfer to Cruise Port

    in Iceland and Greenland

    Posted

    9 minutes ago, Capt_BJ said:

    you are looking at a distance of under 3 miles (average)  .. there are plenty of taxi.

     

    Our last cruise ended in Reyk' and the hotel was about 1.5 miles. Taxi was easy and credit card was easy to use ....

    Do you remember the approximate cost?   Anytime I do a search or "mock" reservation, its like $127!!

    NCL Sun ~ Boarding Time

    in Norwegian Cruise Line

    Posted

    1 minute ago, tallnthensome said:

    You can arrive at the terminal for the sun when the terminal opens. You will be given a group boarding number placard ....Board when called, not before. The earlier you complete check in at the terminal the lower number you’ll receive. 

    Thank you!

    NCL Sun ~ Boarding Time

    in Norwegian Cruise Line

    Posted

    18 minutes ago, www3traveler said:

    With some of the larger mega ships (Escape, Encore, etc), you are asked to select an " Arrival" time to the terminal in an attempt to manage crowd control.  Your "Arrival" has nothing to do with what time you are allowed to board.  Boarding will begin after all of the passengers of the previous cruise have left and Customs and Border Protection gives the okay to begin boarding.  If all goes well, boarding begins between 11:00 A.M.and 11:30 A.M.

    So I am correct that I can "arrive" at anytime understanding that I can "board" once the ship has been cleared.  So being that it is a small ship, they don't schedule "arrival" times?

    Magic 7 Day Eastern Review

    in Carnival Cruise Lines

    Posted

    Hello everybody. I've just gotten back from a 7 day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean on the Carnival Magic sailing 5/26-6/3. I love reading other people's cruise reviews while waiting for my next cruise to begin and I hope that by sharing my trip with others, I can help someone else pass the time as well.

     

    A couple disclaimers, I LOVE cruising and always have a good time. But I like to be honest in my review. Everything is not perfect on a cruise and I do intend to include the bad with the good. Just because I complain, does not mean I did not have a great time.

     

    Also, I may not hit on everything that interests you as a cruiser. I would say from reading many reviews that my cruise style is different from the norm, and that is okay. Please feel free to ask questions about something I do not cover and I will do my best to answer anything that you would like to know about.

     

    About Me:

    I am 30 years old and am lucky enough to live in Florida so taking cruises is more affordable and easier to do than for many people. This was my 17th cruise, 14th on Carnival and my first time on the Magic.

     

    Cruising with me this time was my mom. She celebrates a birthday on this cruise and she also retired the day before the cruise began.

     

    Prior to this cruise we sailed together on the Norwegian Epic which you can read about here. If you just want a quick summary - it was quite a let down.

     

    I thought I knew what to expect and was fully aware of the Epic's shortcomings. The bathroom is in the stateroom with you. The ship has no view of the ocean. There were many things I was not prepared for. There was nothing really wrong with the product, but I don't think it is for me.

     

    Carnival really brings the fun while NCL gives you a bunch of bells and whistles and leaves it up to you to make your own fun. I also did not like having to make reservations to see a show and by not doing so missed out on many things I wanted to do. I realize this is a large ship problem and expect Carnival to have the same shortcomings when they start building ships that large.

     

    I found the food to be terrible and sorta alienated most of my reading audience when I described my meal at the up charge Italian place "the worst meal I've ever eaten on a cruise". A pretty bold statement and I used some pretty colorful negative descriptions, but I meant every word of it. It was absolutely horrid. The meal was free because I had a dining plan, but a la cart for two would have been $64.

     

     

    Before that I cruised the Vista - review can be found here. I was also less than impressed with that cruise. Carnival did a lot of things wrong with that ship that I hope they can correct with future builds. The things that stuck out the most was how absolutely miserable all the crew seemed to be. With the exception of the entertainment team, and one lady working at guest services, I did not encounter a single happy face all week. In fact most seemed genuinely bothered that I was there. It was like the entire crew had burnout and was not what I was used to from Carnival.

     

    But the lackluster cruise on Vista was not why I ventured out to NCL. No, that was thanks to the Carnival Player's Club - the corporate face of the on board casino. I have been spoiled with really great casino offers for free or very heavily reduced cruises early on. Since late 2016 though, the offers have gotten harder and harder to come by. They are cutting back on offers to everyone, not just me. They have made the business decision to stop providing the level of comps they used to and do not care if they lose our business as a result. Their bookings are strong and there are new gamblers to replace us everyday.

     

    Other cruise lines are not following Carnival's lead, almost every major cruise line is expanding their casino comp programs. The problem is why pay full price on another cruise line when even the crappy premier offers are worth something. That was why finding urcomped.com was a godsend. I signed up, took a screen shot of my Carnival offers as well as a picture of my Sail&Sign card and the offers started rolling in. I took them up on an offer for a comped NCL cruise. There is a $20 daily "admin" fee that NCL charges which is a little annoying, but still a much much better deal than anything I have gotten from Carnival lately.

     

    But, as I found out the grass is not always greener on the other side. NCL expects a $2500 loss to comp another cruise. I can say with certainty that I have never lost anywhere near that amount on a single Carnival cruise. I am also embarrassed to report that NCL has comped me another cruise.

     

    As for Urcomped, well I reached out to them to see what else they could offer me as my offers were not updating. I did not get a response. I emailed them again and still no response. Since then I have gotten new offers for discounted sailings on Royal. At this point I am content enough with Carnival to not accept anything but free to sail on another line. I am not saying that won't change at some point though. The thing that really humbled me was that with losses that doubled what I reported my average bankroll to be (which was already a bit of a stretch of the truth) Urcomped would not respond to me with even a courtesy "at this time all you qualify for blah blah blah" form letter.

     

    Higher rollers than me are having much better luck with both offers from NCL and Urcomped, but for me I have tested the waters and realize Carnival is what I prefer.

     

    So with the two previous cruises being less than perfect, I had a lot of hopes for this trip on the Magic. I am happy to report that despite a bit of a rough start, this ended up being a fantastic cruise for me. My mom not so much. She is unfortunately one of those people who are perpetually unhappy and simply zero in on any negative or perceived negative and allow it to define their trip. It's a shame because I would like her to enjoy her retirement, whether it be cruising or whatever she chooses to do. There will be some negatives, most minor, that I will highlight along the way but all in all this was one of my best trips to date!

     

     

    Loving your review thus far!! I will be on this itinerary in September and it's my FIRST time on Carnival! Most of my 17 cruises were on NCL and although I did not read your review of the EPIC in its entirety...I have to probably agree with you...especially the part on the views...the design of that ship.... which is why they don't have sister ships, but, they have the Breakaway Class which I think is amazing! If you were to ever give them another chance try the Breakaway or Breakaway plus class!

     

    Looking forward to the rest of your review!! :D

    Carnival Gift Cards 15% off at Ebay

    in Carnival Cruise Lines

    Posted

    DING DING DING we have a winner

     

    Because there were 7 cards' date=' I was copying and pasting the numbers into excel, so I'd have them all in one place. Well, Excel was truncating the last digit! :o

     

    All gift cards are valid!

     

    Sad to say, this is NOT the most stupid thing I've done in my life.

     

    Thanks all for sticking with this drama.[/quote']

     

    I want to laugh with you...but...its something I would have done. Glad to hear they are good because you had me very worried about mine!! BTW...how can I check to see the balance on mine??

    AARP Carnival Gift Cards

    in Carnival Cruise Lines

    Posted

    I just went to use some GCs to make a payment on a cruise and the TA (Chase's agency) would not take them. They claim it's a new policy and they don't accept GCs beyond the initial payment. I used them last year though Chase with no issue, but supposedly she confirmed with management. Anybody else run into this?

     

    I'm confused...the agency won't take the GC's or overall, no GC's for payment?? I was planning on buying a few to use for payment and/or on board...

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