CanWeGoYet?

Celebrity & NCL have had problems with their azipod equipped ships.

Avoid a room under the kitchen galley area if you're a light sleeper. My cove balcony room on deck 2 of the Vista was horrible for sleeping due to banging noises up above us all night long.

 

 

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Sage advice! I always check deck plans, to make sure I'm not above or below the galley. Banging pots & pans, carts rolling 24/7. There's a thread on cruise critic - http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=483344 with great advice for people with questions on the cabin they are considering - across cruise lines.

What parts? Whenever I looked for rooms it kept asking front mid or back and to me it makes no difference! We did RC last year through my husband's work so we didn't get a choice on room. They booked it, paid for it, and we were happy with what we got because it was FREE! We were on the 5th floor front and it was just fine for us. I can't remember where we are this coming trip. I know 8th floor, I think towards the front. I guess I didn't realize it mattered! Insight please!

Lower deck, (more sway side to side possible on the high passenger decks) and mid ship is most stable. But avoid high deck, front of the ship at all costs if you are sensitive to motion. My first cruise, they "upgraded" me from a mid deck inside to a porthole cabin at the very front of the ship. When we hit rough water going by cabo, it was like riding the maliboomer - there was so much up & down movement of the ship. My name was Ralph. Never, never again the front of the ship.

If you don't get seasick easy, your front of the ship 8th deck cabin may be fine! Or if you have calm waters. But I know when the seas are rough, it's hard for me to work out as the gym is on the top deck - I really feel it in some parts of the ship more than others.

That writing something on the card will NOT get you it if they don't offer it on the menu.

Yes, I actually tried it by wanting some scrambled eggs for breakfast room service. I got everything I marked except NO eggs! LOL I tried...

I have had some luck though with calling room service, and asking for something they don't have listed as offered.

Like cheese plate. First the young lady told me no, they don't make cheese plate. But I pointed out they offer cheese on sandwiches, and fruit. Just put a few slices of cheese on a plate & some of the fruit - didn't look as fancy as a plate with wedges of blue cheese or brie, but I was able to get it.

I wish I had known to check for price drops, and they would honor them. I didn't learn until my 4th cruise, when I had joined Cruise Critic. This was back in the day of price drops granted up until sailing, not just before final payment.

I also wish I had known there are better areas of the ship to book your cabin on, to avoid sea sickness.

There are always discounts, how much & how many depend on how much trouble they are having filling their books. So it really all depends. I see more discounts offered on port days, of course, when they don't have a captive audience. I see lots of specials for the cheaper treatments - often find a 3 for $99 that you can pick & choose from a list. You never know, I don't think you can lose anything by cancelling & then re-booking, even if you don't see a discount.

Remember also, that if you buy CCL it isn't only good for Carnival. The OBC applies to other cruise lines under the Carnival umbrella. Like HAL, Princess, to name a few. Those cruise lines have longer cruises - so the $100 OBC doesn't really apply to the calculations. If you go on a 14 day cruise, the OBC is $250.

All I did was transfer some retirement funds out of my work account, to a Charles Schwab retirement account. I didn't have the option of Carnival stock in any of my work related retirement accounts. Recently this is what I did - years back when Celebrity was at $5 or so a share I bought 100 shares before a transatlantic. Then sold when it hit $40, so I had to buy it again when I decided I would keep cruising with celebrity. The hit was bigger then at around $25 a share for RCL (instead of the $5 / share I lucked out at years earlier) , so I just redistributed some retirement funds to buy the shares of carnival & celebrity. You won't pay a penalty since it is being rolled over into another retirement fund.

And it was a good decision - my cruise stock has performed as well or better than any of the rest of my portfolio. Especially when you consider the onboard credit.

It might not hurt though to at least look at the 52 week high and low. The stock price will cycle up and down, you may want to see if you can wait for a drop.

I think people typically stay until people have finished their courses. But if there is something special you need to get to, like a show that is starting shortly - or if you feel too full for dessert - I also have seen people excuse themselves with a brief explanation. It's really up to you. I don't think its a problem to leave early, so long as you acknowledge the others & excuse yourselves. It is a problem for the rest of the table (and the servers) if people are late to the dinner.

Funny you mention this. We saw Cats on our Oasis cruise and for us it was a highlight of an otherwise mediocre vacation. We also enjoyed the stage productions on our Disney cruise.

I love the shows too. But I can't imagine the dance crew being so concerned with audience reaction that it would affect their ability to perform. Certainly not on a cruise. That's what I was commenting on.

My son caught a respiratory bug, and it made his asthma flare. I made sure he got seen at the infirmary before his asthma looked too bad - as they have a pretty low threshold for what they are willing to treat on board. I was impressed for the most part with how well they were equipped to handle it. Everything that would have been done in a land ER was done in the infirmary. Doc was great, films of his chest, antibiotics, nebulizer & a short course of steroids to decrease the inflammation. The bill was only around $200, which is ridiculously low compared to what the visit would have cost at home. Trip insurance covered it. I will say though I wonder about the supposed ICU / ER background of the nurse or technician. She couldn't figure out how to put the nebulizer together - I had to do it for her. Something any floor nurse in a hospital would know how to do. They still billed for her doing it - which I guess I would have raised a fuss over if the bill had not been so reasonable / insurance covering it anyhow.

Captain went to Bubba Gumps and hasn't returned

:D Too funny!

 

And like I said the feature stage performances had less attendance than I've seen even at nightly karaoke on NCL. It was quite sad and unfortunate since it seems to have affected the enthusiasm of the dancers and singers.

There are some great dancers on cruise lines, but I wonder how much they rely on the enthusiasm of the audience to fuel their delivery. Dancers taking cruise ship gigs know that their audience are likely there because it's something to do, and the show is free. Much of the audience will be made up of folks who have no interest in dance, the arts, & may have never bought tickets to a dance performance in their lives. Maybe not even the nutcracker.

The first performance show I saw was on carnival, a long time ago - and I was flabbergasted by the disinterest of the audience - who smoked, (back in the day) talked to each other, drank & treated the performance like background music & a distraction to their night out. Later in the cruise I ran into one of the dancers & commented on the behavior of the passengers watching the show - she just shrugged her shoulders & said this is how it is - they dance & do their best & if no one notices it's still their job to put on a good show.

Is there anything you eat at home if you have an upset stomach, that seems to settle it? Like saltines or shortbread cookies? Bring along a package so if you start to feel ill, you can at least try to keep some food in your stomach. Getting too hungry can make the nausea even worse. I wouldn't try to get by with the lido deck cookies, because despite looking good they taste terrible, in my opinion.

Also, green apples. They work wonders. Pick up a few from the buffet to keep in your stateroom at the beginning of the cruise. It's a tip that a crew member told me about, the crew use them to ward off sea sickness in rough water. And if you wait until the water is rough, they disappear. For me, it works as well as bonine or possibly better. Not as good as a scopalamine patch, but the side effects can be so miserable I only resort to one if I'm desperate.

I know there are the electronic wrist bands for nausea too. Can't vouch for them, as I haven't worn one. But they get good ratings on amazon, if I cruised more often I would definitely invest.

I've thought in the past that food between Carnival & Celebrity is pretty similar - with the buffet area on celebrity being quite a bit better. Haven't tried American Table yet, maybe that will give a further edge to Celebrity. I always shop for bargains cruising, and Celebrity has so many perks between the gratuities / drink package / OBC promotions. I am not so sure that Carnival is such a bargain when Celebrity rolls those perks into the cruise fare. I really wonder about the comments on how Carnival is a low class cruise line - whether the folks who post that kind of thing have any first hand knowledge or its just what they've heard. From what I've seen, between carnival, celebrity & HAL, there isn't a lot of difference.

Squaremouth.com usually for me, once in a while Insuremytrip. I love being able to compare features & costs, exclusions of the different plans side by side in a graph.

I think a tip for room service is expected. It isn't part of the gratuities on the cruise.

YMMV, but I'd feel as uncomfortable not tipping the person who brought the tray as I would not tipping at a land restaurant.

The amount I tip depends on how much I order, but considering they serve every item on a separate plate - those trays can get heavy if you are ordering a few things & a pot of coffee.

I always buy my trip insurance on my own, shopping rates & features. While I'd hate to lose the cost of the cruise or airfare, the main reason I buy it is in case of serious illness / injury. I don't think Carnival insurance is that good, I haven't used it in years but to my knowledge it doesn't cover pre-existing condition. If there was something serious at sea, you wouldn't have the option to stay on board. Cheapest would be the ship diverts to a nearby port & you are hospitalized there - most expensive would be an evacuation at sea where you'd need a medevac. Plus a hospital in a foreign country won't bill your insurance - you must put funds down in advance for treatment.

It's worth it to me to have good insurance I don't need to worry about. I got primary coverage, which means for a covered event they pay - I don't need to first submit everything to my health insurance & have them deny it.

I'd be willing to shop a travel agent for perks like gratuities or OBC, but you have to know what their policies are. On some cruises there are a lot of price drops, for me to be willing to lose control over my booking it would need to be a good perk from the TA. Some charge a fee for any change, as in you found a price drop & want them to get it for you.

This is an old post - so maybe not even relevant to you any longer. I would guess you are wanting to venture out & not stay in amber cove? The tourist areas are probably fine, but venturing out on your own might not be a good idea. There are armed guards at the all inclusives, and I have heard they advice tourists not to venture out on their own. http://www.countryreports.org/travel/DominicanRepublic/crimes.htm

There's so much to do on a cruise. From morning until night, there are exercise classes, organized games, grab a lounge chair, port outings, you can go to work out at the gym on your own, read, & all the stuff already mentioned. Bring a book if you like to read, there's nothing like finding a nice spot to tuck yourself away on a cruise & enjoy your book. I only had one drink on my last cruise, it was a transpacific so a long cruise. Bring a highlighter to help you keep track of what activities you want to try, plan the night before when you get the Funtimes so you don't miss anything that looks good for the next day.

I want to avoid DEET too, I ordered repel lemon eucalyptus spray. Consumer reports listed it as one of the more effective repellents. It does smell powerful. Haven't used it yet to say how well I think it works, but at least we'll have something on hand. I didn't want to get stuck buying something ridiculously expensive on board or in the gift shops at the port, and not having the choice of a product I'd want.

Consider a cruise to Alaska.... Alaskan mosquitos are Zika and Dengue free.

Granted the mosquitoes should be Zika free, but they were horrific when I visited Alaska in june. If one needs to avoid them due to severe allergy, I'd say Alaska is not a good choice. Unless you go at the very start of the season, when it's still cold. We were swarmed continuously on our excursion into the Yukon. Mosquito swarms all over us whenever the bus door opened. We were slapping bugs constantly to keep from getting bit.

You actually get a bit of a break, better than the point per dollar ( by a small amount, maybe $10 or $15) if you use points to pay the ships gratuity. I kept hoping the $100 gift cards for 10,000 points would come back, they finally pulled it from the rewards site after showing "out of stock" for months.

Anyway just a suggestion. There is also a 20,000 / $200 spa gift card, or as mentioned the $200 gift card for 20,000.

That is so sad...even on x??

 

I can drink lots of types and just ok is ok but wow on X that is sad.

Hey you, been a while.

Yeah, I've only cruised with them twice, but both pretty long cruises. Transatlantic & then a transpacific. The first one, all the coffee was SO BAD.

Everywhere. Tasted like it had been cut with rancid grain. Horrific, and I'm really not that picky. Everyone I spoke to agreed it was phenomenally bad. Nothing like being on a ship with 8 sea days & no way to go find coffee at a port.

My last cruise on the Millennium, the coffee was fine. Typical cruise ship coffee, it was fine. And I had a non-alcohol drink package so I could get all the bistro coffee I wanted for only a tip.

Do they have Splenda available or another sugar substitute?

They do have sweetners, I think I've seen splenda & some others.

The coffee is sometimes ok, and sometimes pretty bad. I always bring packets of instant now, via or similar. If you are on a cruise where all the coffee is just horrific (my transatlantic on X, where all of it was bad, even the pay for bistro) will never cruise again without my own supply. It was so bad even folgers instant would have been a step up.