jdyer09

Thank you. I think im going to bite the bullet and go for it. Why not? Worst comes to worst, its only 4 or 5 days right? I think id regret not going more! Thank you for the reassurance and the advice. MDR is one of the things that makes me nervous. I dont even like eating by myself in public at home! Silly!

Thank you again, perhaps, Ill do a solo review. Who knows? :D

Thank you everyone. Yes, solo, not single. Sorry for the mix up. It seems a bit intimidating since Im not a very outgoing person as far as chatting up strangers! Im comfortable cruising and being such a short cruise, it may be the best way to get my feet wet solo cruising.

Hey everyone, after many personal events in my life, I am debating taking a solo cruise for a few days for the first time ever. Thinking the Ecstasy to Key West and Cozumel for 4 days, or 5 days to Dominican and Grand Turk. KW and Coz are familiar ports. As a 30yof Im looking to dive in both ports, and just relax for a bit?

Any advice for a weary first time single cruiser? Thanks!

I am trying to decide if I want to do the East out of Galveston it will be the end of January 2016. Just afraid it might be to cold then we probably won't be going in the water but looking around. I will have my parents with me and they both have scooters which cruise would be a easier one to do as far as ports? Not sure if they can even take them off the ship.

My family has done the East Carib, out of galveston twice, both in early february and have been fine. Water a little cold in the bahamas, but certainly not unpleasant by any means. The ship is cold the first day or so but then warms right up. The fog is the worst part of jan-march galveston sailings. We were lucky both times, but cruises on either side of us were delayed both times.

Thanks everyone. Im the youngest, at 30, so im sure ill be delegated to the upper bunk. Thats ok, Id rather have day seating.

We'll get with our steward, glad to hear theres some hope though!

We are sailing 3 to a balcony on the Magic in October. All three are adults. Obviously the third bed would be the sofa, is there a way to request that its the upper bunk instead to allow use of the sofa for the cruise? Has anyone done this with any success? Are stewards accomodating or is there a policy against it?

Thanks!

I dont know if you can buy individual charms of each ship, but James Avery, a popular store here in the southern states for charms and sterling silver jewelry makes one thats engraveable.

http://www.jamesavery.com/product/Luxury-Liner-Charm/156134.uts?keyword=SHIP

Question, what is the charge for a cheers package on the Magic 7 day sailings. You cannot buy it until the second day and cannot use it on debarkation day really, so do you pay for 5 days, 6 days?

Thanks.

Great, thank you everyone. I think I may use Jamaica as a spa day! Thanks for the advice!

Ive been on 9 cruises, 10th one in October, and have only ever even visited the spa once, with my husband on our anniversary cruise. Ive had a really rough year and decided to treat myself this upcoming cruise. The pre-purchase options online seem more expensive then what I remember the flyers and specials being on ship, but again, I usually threw them away without even a glance most times. Do you find the on board specials worth waiting for or is it worth booking in advance. Im not really looking for anything overly special, just a treat.

Thanks!

It either has to be new or not something that actually exists. Perhaps people are talking about buying cruise or bar cash and applying that to the balance for their soda card on board perhaps, as a way of prepurchasing? I dont really know.

Im looking at the funshops and cannot find where you would purchase it online? help please?

Does anyone know if the Hop on/Hop off bus still runs? We are going in October and dont really have any plans. We went about 10 years ago, but werent overlyimpressed by the island. This seems like a reasonable option. Does anyone know how much it costs?

Thank you, he most certainly will not be wandering the ship alone, my now 11 year old doesnt even do that. You never know whos in those halls. We turned off purchasing abilities just in case we decide to let him try a lanyard and it ends up lost somewhere.

Good afternoon! We are taking my 5, almost 6 year old nephew on his first cruise, and hes going to be traveling without his parents, just me, his aunt, and grandmother on a last minute cruise.

While Ive traveled with my daughter, aged 8 at her first cruise, and was able to keep up with her own S&S card via lanyard, what tips do you guys have or what solutions have you used with younger childrens cards? I was thinking Id just keep it with mine, seems like the safest option, but wanted some other ideas.

Thanks guys!

-J

We recently did this, we'd only ever cruised out of Galveston and NOLA. Ventured to Miami for the Slot Tournament Finals. We were nervous about a new port, esp one with soo many ships leaving the same day, but we found it easier than Galveston.

We arrived the day before and stayed in FLL. Left about 9am and drove to Miami, took about 45 minutes, we allowed 2 hours just to be safe. WE did some last minute exploring and shopping, Walgreens, etc. and got to the ship about 2pm. We walked right through security and the check in terminal, absolutely no wait. It was fabulous. We returned the rental car at the Budget Cruise Port and took the shuttle over. Waited about 20 for the shuttle, but the ride only took a few minutes.

We stayed at the Staybridge Suites in Plantation Florida. It was about 45 minutes away, but had plenty of space and was easy to access the highway and airport, some members of our party were arriving late the night before the cruise.

The number of ships and watching them all leave is quite fun. Have no hesitation about Miami! We explored the South Beach area post cruise, and honestly, I would not want to stay there before a cruise, the traffic alone was comparable to downtown houston at 530pm. Took almost 45 minutes to go a few blocks. Stay in FLL and drive down beforehand, highway all the way to the port.

Good luck and have fun!

We will be in port on the Carnival Breeze, with the conquest also in port that day. Are the free trolleys really the best way to get around? Are they practical or do you waste too much time waiting on the trolleys because they fill up quickly? Thanks!

Hello everyone. We are a group of 6, ages 57-11 traveling on the Breeze. For our stop at St. Thomas we are wanting to visit Coki, 2 are non swimmers s they can do Coral world, two are divers and two want to snorkel. Coki seems like the easiest place for all this to happen and be close to each other.

A couple in our group have also decided they want to visit the Magic Ice Bar. Is there enough time to do this? What is the time frame to get from Magic to Coki? Would it be better to do it through the ship or independently?

We also want to do some shopping and heard this is the place to do it. Are we packing in too much to our day? I dont anticipate spending a full day on the beach, maybe a couple hours at most.

Thanks!

Just did it and added my moms and brothers reservations under my cruise manager. I am doing the flight tickets, cruise, etc and keeping it organized for our group. I haven't added any excursions or gifts yet, so I don't know if they would show up, but they can be seen on yours.

From my experience if I recall correctly, tax is charged on the bottomless bubbles package if it is purchased prior to hitting international waters. I may be incorrect, but I'm pretty sure that's the case. After you hit international waters, when the casino opens is a good way to judge most embarkation ports, tax is no longer charged. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Good morning! We are officially 30 days away from sailing and 28 from leaving home! I was looking at the bon voyage dept gifts this evening and see that they no longer offer the drink tickets/coupons but "cruise cash bar". We aren't drinkers so we may buy three or four the while cruise, but it says that these can be used for the purchase of sodas, waters, etc. Could you or has anyone bought these as a way of pre paying the bottomless bubbles package that we will each purchase? Has anyone done this?

Thanks guys!

We will be in nassau from 12 noon to 7pm on November 15th on the Breeze. My brother is itching to go deep sea fishing but so far we have had no luck finding anyone or excursions for an individual to go without renting an entire charter for a half day (4 hours) at $600! does anyone have any other suggestions?

We are also visiting antigua, St Thomas Thomas and Puerto Rico, but not much luck their either. Thanks again!

Thanks for the help everyone. I guess we will stick with the original plan!

Hey cruisers! My family of 6 is flying into FLL from Houston on Nov 7th. We have half the group arriving at 3pm and the other half at 11pm. We have a hotel in FLL for the night and are planning on most likely renting a car so we can explore for the afternoon and all drive down to POM together the next morning. We are allowing about an hour for the drive, does this sound reasonable?

We are also trying to figure out the rental car thing. From what I understand it must be returned to the Miami Airport then they provide a shuttle to port?

I think the driver, most likely me, will drop everyone at the cruise ship port with luggage then just return the car and one person, maybe hubs too, will catch the shuttle to port. Does this sound correct? We've never traveled like this for a cruise, with Galveston being less than an hour from our house, but we are branching out to the Breeze.

Trying to make sure all our ducks are in a row!

Thanks everyone.

We bought 43 of them, one initially as a test and the others after the first one went through. We have 6 people traveling so we paid for the cruises in full at once. However, after purchasing one, then trying to buy the others in bulk it freaked out the system and after three days between Carnival, B of A and Verizon we were able to get it worked out. They just basically voided the old gc's and replaced them with new ones. This was before the $500 cards were an option. Just a word to the wise, if youre planning on buying a large amound, buy slowly. And yes, they all had to be entered one by one. My PVP is great, so I forwarded him half and I did the others and between us we were able to knock them out quicker. He can enter muliptle at once.

We are planning on buying more for OBC but will wait until a bit closer to our cruise date in november.

We saved $430 doing it this way!