me-shel

We were near the last groups off our ship on Monday and walked off around 11am. There were people scattered around sitting outside and a pretty good line already queued up for those waiting to board the next sailing.

Our boarding pass said 1-4pm, but I got an email a week before departure saying if our travel plans were flexible (they weren't) to arrive for check-in between 11:30-12:30. This was on the Inspiration.

From Carnival:

EMBARKATION CHECK-IN AND BOARDING TIMES

Long Beach, California

Guest may check-in and board as follows:

Carnival Imagination and Carnival Inspiration: Guests may check-in and board between 1:00pm and 4:00pm. The ship departs at 5:30pm.

Carnival Miracle: Guests may check-in and board between 1:00pm and 3:30pm. The ship departs at 4:30pm.

If we have YTD, is our entire party of 4 expected to attend dinner at the same time each night? If we're not together can we just show up in parties 2 at entirely different times/different tables without ruffling any feathers?

Our then-10yo was on the water slides while we were still docked, and thought it was the coolest thing to be on them as we pulled out of port. Of course, that was 3 years ago on the Freedom out of Fort Lauderdale. Not sure what the variables might be. I'd suit them up 'just in case' but that's just me - or at least have suits in the carry on. Good luck!

Yes, I'm possibly being a little paranoid, but I just need some reassurance that a Passport Card is all that's needed for travel. We'll be on the Imagination in October: Long Beach - Catalina Island - Ensenada - Long Beach. My daughter's 20yo friend will be with us and she can't find her Passport Book, but she does have her Passport Card.

I've read the State Department site and it sounds fine.

I've read Carnival's site and it sounds fine.

Can someone reassure me they've traveled with just a card with no problems? It seems like the only danger would be if you had to fly home for some reason.

My very first cruise was out of Galveston. That's when I learned (the hard way) to pay attention to the ground transportation logistics before booking! It's been a few years now, but we ended up renting a car and paying to park it for a week. At least it allowed us to see a little more of Texas and tour the space center on the way back to the airport. Still, I wouldn't choose Galveston again unless it was an ideal itinerary/ship/price.

Best of luck to you!

Wow, I wouldn't have expected people would actually be thrown off the ship, but it looks like they establish that in the contract:

Guest acknowledges that the minimum age permitted for the purchase, possession or consumption of alcoholic beverages aboard Carnival’s vessels is twenty-one (21). Guest agrees to supervise all persons under age twenty-one (21) under Guest’s charge to insure that they do not violate this, or any other, shipboard regulation. Guests who attempt to purchase alcohol by using false identification or the Sail & Sign card of a Guest who is twenty-one or older will be deemed in violation of this policy. Any Guest twenty-one or older who attempts to or purchases alcohol for any guest under twenty-one will also be deemed in violation of this policy. Guest agrees that Carnival has the right to disembark any guest who violates this policy and as well as any adults traveling with minors who violate this policy or any other shipboard regulation.

I've never seen a bigger discount, and I agree it isn't that great, but depending on how many you apply, it'll buy you a drink, or pay a good portion of a days tips.

I recently had a $10 price drop and almost didn't "waste my time" spending a few minutes filling out the price protection claim. Then I realized I'd happily spend the same few minutes to fill out a form to get a free sail-away drink - so $10 OBC is now mine!

I'll definitely be watching for these gift cards to be available again, I didn't realize you didn't have to be an AARP member to get them.

Will your daughter be 21 when you board the ship? If not but turns 21 part way through, you could go to CS to request new photo to allow her to drink.

Yep, her birthday is actually mid-September two weeks before sailing. She's always been a huge rule follower and is really scared of any kind of confrontation if she tries to get a slushy, fruity blended drink - and I don't want to spend the trip escorting her when I finally have a fully independent "grown up" on my hands. ;)

We're planning a cruise for my DD's 21st birthday this fall and she asked me last night, "If you go to the bar to buy a drink, how do they know you're 21?"

I'd honestly never thought about it, so I can only guess. They obviously have your ID/birth date confirmed at check-in. Does your picture pop up at the bars when they scan your S&S card? I can't imagine you have to carry additional ID around with you, do you? I was already in my mid-30's on my first cruise, so it never occurred to me to wonder about this.

We've now booked the River ecotour that somoene on our roll call started. It's slated from 10-1, but we don't leave port until 6. Any suggestions on other things to do in town? I'd like to find the Goonies house and the column, but doesn't appear to be an easy way there (about an hour walk each way to the column from the pier per Google maps). I see there's a trolley, as well as the maritime museum (we've done a couple of the maritime museums here in the Great Lakes area, not sure how interested the rest of the group will be in this).

Any lunch suggestions, besides going back onboard? Three of the group love seafood, 1 can eat fish but not shellfish

Thanks,

dogdoc2002

Astoria is a hillside town, and the Column is at the TOP. It would be a very ambitious walk (actually a climb), but amazing views if you can get there.

As mentioned earlier, the current owners of the Goonies house "shut it down" last year and people are really discouraged from still trying to visit. For an alternative, there's a small film museum of movies made in Oregon. It's housed in the old county jail, which you'd recognize from the movie. It's priced right for its size at $6pp, and the riverfront trolley could get you close if you're on foot.

http://www.oregonfilmmuseum.com/page/14

I also meant to ask: Is it difficult to switch who's in which room? If we DON'T share a room, then odds are we'd prefer the original two be split up and each go with one of the new people.

We're looking at booking an upcoming girls' cruise, and have friends that may/may not join us and may/may not share our room.

If I book a 2-person room now, how difficult is it to change to a 4-person room later? I understand availability could change, but let's assume we'd be in the same Category.

If the rates have gone up in the same Category, will our original 2 people cost more as well?

Any issues making changes if our original 2 people are on a non-refundable fare?

I love my friends, but I've learned that sometimes if people are indecisive you need to move forward with your own plans and hope they figure it out! ;) If it's something that's too big of a headache, however, I might wait for them to decide.

Get a floating strap on ebay too.

I second that - definitely get a floating wrist strap! They're cheap on Amazon, too, and alleviate any anxiety of handing off the camera while you're in the water.

We have one "kind of" like this, and like it because tightens up around your wrist easily and you can just click off the floating piece when you're out of the water. There are lots of cheap options that would work!

https://www.amazon.com/Polaroid-Floating-Underwater-Waterproof-Camcorders/dp/B0054L1SOM/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1466543300&sr=8-9&keywords=floating+camera+strap

Nothing from bon voyage or the fun shops online is payable with gift cards. It's always been that way.

I'm so glad you made me read the fine print! Our upcoming cruise is a 'surprise' for my husband and I was going to pick up a gift card at the grocery store for some bon voyage goodies so he wouldn't see any "Carnival" charges on our account and spoil the surprise.

Looks like I'm going for Plan B: Give the cash to one of my friends and have them order the goodies. ;)

I prefer embarkation port cities that SW flies into. Therefore, I cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale, for instance, instead of Miami. Since you're on the west coast, have you thought about San Diego? A VERY easy city to sail out of.

 

Roz

I'd actually been looking at LA/Long Beach as a backup plan, but hadn't looked at San Diego yet. Being on the Left Coast we already visit Mexico fairly regularly - and we'll actually be there for a week next March. Because this is a milestone birthday trip we're hoping to get a little more "exotic" and the geography out here doesn't lend itself to much variety. I'll definitely add San Diego to my backup plan, though, don't know why I'd been ignoring it!

FLL is sounding pretty ideal... and Port Canaveral may be more than we want to deal with. Which is great to know, because it was actually on the short list! When I'm the one planning the trips (which I love to do) I end up being the shepherd of the group (which isn't as fun), so short & sweet is what I'm after.

Pay attention to your flight times for the day you return - you do not want to spend your cruise worried about making y our flight home.

Returning home from all of these ports I would not book a flight before 12-1pm. Rather sit an extra hour in the airport than miss my flight.

We actually went through FLL/Port Everglades 3 years ago. I just looked at our old files and we had a 12:45pm flight home. There were issues with customs being incredibly understaffed (responsibility of the port, not the cruise line) and we ended up with our entire family RUNNING through the airport as they were calling for us, and closed the doors behind us as we got on the plane. Don't want to relive that again! ;)

We have a group planning a cruise for NEXT summer, and we want to commit to our plans THIS summer. My first trip was out of Galveston and I learned one lesson the hard way: pay attention to the ground transportation options if you're flying in! I didn't start researching that piece until after we booked. I'll just say that the ship/itinerary/price would have to be perfect for us to choose Galveston again.

The core group is 9 people / 4 cabins (probably adding more), so the expense and convenience of moving people on the ground is a big deal. We're coming from the Northwest, so easy overnight pre-cruise lodging is also important.

So where do you prefer? Miami? Fort Lauderdale? Orlando? Any jumping off point that will get us sailing to the Caribbean with the least amount of pre-trip stress...

If I'm looking to share a room with a friend, is there an easy way to split the deposit while making the reservation?

I know there are ways we could shuffle money amongst ourselves, but we have other summer plans to cover so I'd rather not tie up more money than I have to right now. Just wondering if the Carnival system can handle this so we don't have to.

We don't go anywhere without our locking beach bag any more. We have the large Kyss bag (http://www.kyssbags.com) and it holds absolutely everything we need for the pool or the beach. It's so nice to be able to hook it around a chair and lock it shut and not have to worry about constantly monitoring our stuff just to go into the water for 10 minutes.

We got it AFTER I found myself stuck babysitting our gear on a beach instead of playing in the water with my youngest. I'd seen them before that cruise and didn't get one... totally regretted not having it!

We've only gone out of Long Beach once (back again in 53 days!) and used the parking garage. Finding parking and boarding were no trouble at all, no complaints. Getting OUT of the parking garage was awful! For me there's nothing worse than waiting in a long, slow line of cars when the fun part of the trip is already over. We won't have a car this time, but if we parked there again I'd be focused on getting a good spot to get out of the garage when we returned. Or at least have myself mentally prepared for garage gridlock. Still, it all worked out just fine.

We flew out of Sea-Tac in March (non-cruise) before the news coverage had ramped up so we were totally unprepared. We were in the security line over an hour and a half. We missed our flight, along with most of the others around us. Fortunately we got rebooked, but instead of flying out at 7:50am, we flew out at 6:30pm. We spent the day chatting with countless other people (different airlines, different destinations) who also missed their flights due to the TSA. One family with 3 young kids had to upgrade 2 of their seats to first class in order to rebook and get out the same day.

Experiences are obviously going to vary. Historically I've never planned to arrive more than an hour early and we've never had problems. I guess there's always "that one time!" ;)

Try clicking on your name at the top right. (For me it says "Hi, MICHELLE" right next to the Logout link.) That takes me to my profile and there's a selection on that page for "My Cruises" where I can see everything.

The other way puts me in the same loop that's already described.

Well, I haven't gotten a response from Sunseekers so instead of pestering for an answer we decided to do a hybrid of these suggestions:

We'll take the free Passport bus (which I didn't know existed!) across to the Avis office by the convention center. We got a car for the day for $45 and we'll do some self-guided touring around the area. No worrying about the tour running late, no worrying about lugging our bags around... and more fun than just hanging around the LGB port area or LAX all day. Thanks for getting me inspired! :cool:

Congratulations, and here's to a speedy countdown!

I have 77 days until our "surprise" cruise. The day before embarkation is my DH's bday and our anniversary so I'm HOPING to keep it a secret until that night. I didn't even put his VIFP# on the reservation because I'm afraid they'd send him an email!

We'll already be on a vacation, but he thinks we're staying with friends the entire time. Little does he know we'll be cutting our visit short to jump on a boat! The upside is that he'd pack the same clothes whether he knew about the cruise or not. ;)

I appreciate all this info as well. We'll be doing something similar - ending a week's vacation in the area, returning our rental car to LAX and needing transportation to the port. I've got some great options now!