heatherbelle

:D

That will do nicely if it becomes reality.

I'm curious about the nuts and bolts of Carnival going to China. As an American, will my cruising experience be totally different boarding a ship in Shanghai than it is in the US? Will I hear English on the ship, and will the menus reflect American culture, or will everything be tailored for a Chinese customer base? I've heard from John Heald that Carnival is an American company so they cater to Americans, but I'm guessing this might be different when their ships sail out of other countries/cultures. Has anyone sailed on Carnival out of Europe or Australia? Thanks for the quality replies and for the flamers.

European cruises are exactly the same as Caribbean cruises expect you get real Bacon. By that I mean none of that horrible streaky fatty bacon that Americans eat. It's like the bacon we get here in the UK, nice and lean with plenty of meat.

Edit going over to RCL to read the review thanks for posting that.

I usually cash out Non refundable OBC in the casino to get my hands on the money or use it for tips.

Oh this is such exciting news. All we need now are the dates and routes. Please Carnival let there be some dates available in August and do not charter out your ships just to the Chinese, like some other lines do.

Carnivals Asia offerings! I have missed that.

Have you rung about the deposit?

As the OP is outside of the US, then make sure you book with Carnival.com in the US. I do not the rules where you are here I. The U.K. If I booked with a UK TA or Carnival.cuk I would not be entitled to any price drops.

My advise is if you are deffinately going to go, book online at Carnival.com at the Early Saver rate, then watch those prices like a hawk to get your price drop. As soon as you see one, take a screen print and then phone Carnival in the US to get it.

You will only get a drop though if the same category of cabin for the same number of people is available,

So for example there is only 1 4j for three people, if you book that one and only cabin and the 4j's for two drop in price, you will not get that price drop.

There are not that many cabins on this ship for three or more. Whereas if you are only booking a cabin for two, then there should be lots of drops along the way.

You can upgrade at any time for a small fee, just watch the prices.

Velvet, I can see you are still thinking about this. You cannot cancel your Med cruise what about all of us on your roll call LOL!!!

Having read this post here, I think you should go to NOLA your heart is clearly there. If the air fare is right now go for it, it might be more expensive the year after.

As far as your carnival deposit goes, if you booked ES with Carnival.com you will get this as a future cruise credit less $100 and you can put this towards your Dream cruise. If you booked it with Carnival.UK ring them and ask if they can do anything.

Follow your heart. You only live once and who knows what will happen in the future, maybe little ones and then you are paying for more, I know I have three to pay for, hopefully only a few more years and number one son will be paying for himself and not wanting to come with us.

BA are currently having a business class sale, they code share with AA so it might be worth checking the BA website.

Also Quatar are having a sale too and they are part of the one world alliance, but their sale only covers flights up to 30/06/16

To be honest I do not consider Carnival to be fine dining. I haven't sailed on Celebrity, so cannot compare the too.

I have sailed on DCL which is very expensive. The food quality when comparing steak to s teak, lamb to lamb etc is the same. Although Disney has a better selection in the Buffett and also fancier things on the main menu. We like plain food so CCL suits us better.

If you want fine dining I would try one of the more up market more expensive lines. The Italian restaurant and the Mongolian wok are very nice and we usually have lunch from there.

The food on Carnival is fine, the service is excellent although at times very slow. Sometimes the food is cool by the time you get to eat it it. But now I let them know in the dining room now that I like my food hot and after that it has never been an issue.

Food can be a very subjective subject what is good for one person can be bad for another. There is nothing wrong with it and this will be my third Carnival cruise and I do like my food. You get what you pay for.

We never pay extra for food we just eat in the MDR.

Tendering has nothing to do with it Velvet. On my Caribbean sailing there we no tender ports, by FTTF was still available.

Message John, I for one would happily pay for it, just so I have a room that I can dump all of the hand luggage in.

There was no FTTF on my Venice to BCN sailing on the Sunshine late July 2013.

My guess is that it is some sort of railing.

The cabins may overlook a crew deck at the back of the ship and railings similar to those at the front of the ship where passengers can go. Crew only at the back of the boat. On the Sunshine we once ended up on this deck by mistake.

Ive just rang back and this time I was told no price drops, because in the T&C it say new bookings only, didnt really inderstand.

 

Its a bit disappointing to first be told one thing then the opposite the following day.

 

Planaholic, what fare have you booked? How did you apply for the price drop?

 

If I see one I may just complete the form and see what happens.

Send a email off to Miami telling them about the poor customer service you have received, I am sure they may be able to help. It has worked for me in the past. As a result I always now book either with a U.S. tA or directly with carnival us.

My understanding is if you book with Carnival UK no price drops whatsoever ever, unless you pay in dollars.

If you book on Carnival.com (U.S.) then you get the price drops up until final with most rates and up until 2 days with ES.

Unless things have changed.

On one cabin I booked directly with the U.S., they could only take the deposit in £'s which seemed most unusual.

You cannot book a Princess cruise through a U.S. TA you have to book with a UK one sadly. Princess are far cheaper in the main in the U.S. too, so it's really annoying.

You can book RCL, NCL, DCL Celebrity and Carnival with US TA's.

It really depends on your budget and if you want to be in the hub of things or a more relaxed area.

The first time we went we stayed at the top of Las Ramblas in a very over priced hotel, I guess we were paying for the location. We paid over $200 for the room The second time we went we stayed at the Novotel City, it's in front of a shopping centre, the metro and HOHO bus is a 10 min walk away and the beach is 20 mins tops, this room was $100 including breakfast.

Sometimes the Novotel offers cruise packages too.

For those wanting rooms for more than 3 you will struggle and you may find it cheaper to rent an apartment rather than pay for two rooms. Pay special attention to the bed arrangements for families, I struggled finding a hotel room to sleep 3 with a pool (DS's requirement LOL).

A good area mentioned by others is the main square, but it's very busy there.

Personally I like the marina, but non of the hotels there have pools that we can afford.

To be honest I don't think we will need it in BCN, things appear to be so much more organised than Miami, having departed from both. Miami was horrendous never seen anything like it. I think the everyone arrived at the same time horrendous, so glad I had my FTTF there.

We too are jumping from the DCL pool to try the Vista, we'll be on the 6/3 Mediterranean. I've been immersing myself in all things Carnival for the last few months and it's nothing like the, "be the first" DCL mentality. Certainly there are some things you really have to be on top of but its not like trying to get a cabana on CC and being hosed unless you're concierge or platinum. I so hope we really enjoy CCL because I'm so tired of paying DCL prices. We booked this cruise about 2 weeks before DCL released the middle of 2016 cruises, we got this cruise for $4400 for 2 insides, (4 people), on opening day, the same week for the Eastern Caribbean on the Fantasy was $8600 for 2 insides (4 people).

 

I've been reading tons of reviews on the bigger CCL ships here on CC and am getting really excited about this cruise. I know it will not be like DCL in many respects but to be able to see the Mediterranean at about have the price of the Caribbean, I'll forgo getting "free" soda on DCL.

Ex DCL cruiser here, now on my third Carnival cruise, love them, the only thing I miss compared to DCL is the free buns in cove cafe and their desserts. Great value for money IMO.

I feel your pain fkying across the pond, as airfare from the UK to the U.S. is even more expensive around $1500 direct, $1100 indirect.

Good times for us to bag cheaper prices to the states are generally in October, Dec (Christmas Day) and April, with U.S. Carries, Delta, AA and United, so it may work out similar times flying from the states.

For anyone heading to the UK first, then we have cheap carriers called Easyjet, Jet2, Ryan Air, monarch baggage is extra for getting to BCN.

If you are looking for transfers once you get there I can recommend Suntransfers, used them three times now.

For getting to the states the cheapest routes for us, are, Dublin, Oslo and Frankfurt, using repositioning flights first of course.

I've been looking at booking a 10 night cruise, but if I am reading this right, the UBP will cost me over $200 in tips. I don't think I would spend over $200 if we were paying cash for drinks.

TA's should know by now, anyone?

I have heard that the drinks will be back, this is purely rumour but I wonder if the 3rd person in a cabin will still be free on the sailing I am looking at?

TA's should know by now, anyone?

I have heard that the drinks will be back, but I wonder if the 3rd person in a cabin will still be free on the sailing I am looking at?

You have to book with a U.S. TA or NCL.com to get price drops, not with a UK TA or NCL.COM.

Some of the UK TA's are based in the U.S. Always always ask the question about price drops before booking anything with a UK TA.

The itinerary may get changed at any time. On the Sunshine cruise 9 months out both Majorca and Monaco were lost and Turkey and Athens added. Personally I think that this was done to try and boost sales.

We were all altered to the fact by the ports changing on CC's website, so it looks like the App is having a blip and for now both Turkey's country and thanksgiving are safe.

There is no reason whatsoever not to travel to Turkey. I would add that I would be delighted if they pulled Uzmir and added Istanbul instead or even got read of Athens, horrible dusty place.

VAT will be added to cruises that depart from BCN and do not stop in an non EU country. If your cruise stops in Turkey en- route there will be no VAT.

I seem to remember a big discussion on this before. I cannot remember if you are better off buying it before you leave home or outside Spanish waters to avoid the VAT.