wannagonow123

We sailed on the Breeze for B2B sailings 12/1-12/14. As usual, I got the nasty "cruise Crud" as I do anytime I sail more that 10 days. After day 9, started feeling wiped out, coughing and congested. Dayquil & Mucinex is my old stand by relief. Got home, continued to feel terrible, went doctor's office when I got a sore throat. Turns out I got a case of Strep Throat. Well aware you catch all kinds of stuff on cruise ships, I just thought I would warn anyone that thinks they just have cruise crud that is taking a while to clear.

Got my original cabin assignments 12/23 for this sailing. (2 cabins booked). Had a slight issue with them  (nothing I could not deal with). Called HAL and they assigned me 2 different rooms on a different floor. I don't think it's that overbooked, or they would not have changed that easily.

Still whining. Guess I am being stubborn and thick headed, but Holland appears to be penalizing those of us that are booked on deck one, like steerage class. detroit70 stated activities are in full swing at 11:40am. I cannot partake in any of them, because I am not supposed to board until 3:30pm. Maybe I want to see where things are on the ship. I am not 4 stars, so I don't get to board at my leisure. I  am not getting any kind of rate reduction because I can't participate in lunch or activities.

I called Holland today about this, and I was told the changes were made to prevent terminal congestion. My hotel offers a shuttle to the port, but the last one leaves at noon. So now in order to use what I have prepaid, I get the pleasure of sitting in a cruise terminal 2-3 hours fuming. I am in agreement with those saying the boarding procedures should have been communicated when booking. I would have had a choice. 

Sorry, but I am going to be the whiney jerk on this one. 

So I can't board until 3:30pm. Like someone said before, guess I will have to shell out $$$'s for lunch. I finally get on the ship, and I now have to go to muster. OK, so muster is over and it's 4:30pm-4:45pm. I guess my suitcases will not be available to unpack until way later. Guess that means I will have to eat in the Lido, because I certainly would not want offend someone by wearing shorts in the dining room. Oh wait, they are prohibited. Oh, the food cost savings HAL will have. Guess the dining room will need less staff, because us on deck 1 will be denied the Dining room day one. Hey, why can't those staff help with cleaning rooms. I know, I know, put clothes in my carry-ons. May as well carry my own luggage on so I can have the privilege  of the dining room. Oh, but now they won't need as many porters. 

HAL is charging me for day 1, yet I somehow feel my vacation wont start until day 2. I totally agree with 4-5 star Mariners/ suite passengers getting priority boarding, but to make Deck 1 wait until3:30pm is ridiculous. I forgot, I can pay $100 a day and take advantage of Club Orange. Let see, on the 1/3/19 sailing, which is 9 days, that's $900 just to have a meal on day 1. That's more expensive that my fare. 

My lowly 3 star status really gets me nothing, and I am loosing a vacation day. Guess I will see how other cruise lines will treat me with my hard earned money.  

They load funds onto your S/S card . When you go into your balance at a machine, you have a choice of cash/ or promotional cash. 

You cannot "cash out" casino cash. It must be played. You can cash out winnings off it. What we do is hit the dollar machines, calculate the number of spins it will take to use up the casino cash. ( Pretend they give you $100- if you play $2 a spin, you will play 50 spins). After the 50 spins, cash out whatever funds you have left. That remaining amout is what you can actually get $$$$$s for. 

Be advised, you do not collect points while using casino cash.

We are traveling on the Breeze Nov 3rd, and I got an e-mail Friday, from Carnival, stating our rooms would not be available until 1:30 due to the large amount of D/P passengers. (14 day Journey). We are currently Platinum level. Part of the problem I see, is where is everyone supposed to wait? Since they encourage everyone to go enjoy lunch at the Lido, chances are no one is going to vacate a table once they have one. That means the dining tables will not be available for those boarding later. I know it sounds stupid, but before we turned platinum, we boarded the Triumph at 12:30pm, lugging our stuff. There was not a table to be had, nor was there anywhere to sit out by the pools. At that point, we made a decision to travel exclusively  with Carnival to get Platinum status.  (we did not have that far to go, day wise). When we board, we drop off our stuff, have lunch, then leave so others can eat. The Lido area is not designed to have 3,000+ people sitting and waiting. For someone who is traveling Carnival for the 1st time, their first meal will be a nightmare.

Carnival is the only cruise line that I know of, that does not have rooms ready when you get on the ship. 

I got an e-mail from Carnival yesterday stating that because there are so many D/P on my Nov 3rd cruise, that we will be unable to access our stateroom until 1:30pm with everyone else.  I guess they need to change their loyalty program.

Thanks all.

Next Monday we will be boarding the Fantasy for 10 day Panama Cruise sailing. We do not depart Mobile until 6pm. (Paperwork says 5pm final boarding). I know muster will be sometime after 5. with that being said, any idea how dinner is handled? Those with early seating will miss their time due to muster, and if crew is doing muster with us, who's cooking?

Have your TA contact the Players Club rather than the regular Carnival 800#. 866-766-7730). They will sometimes waive the cancellation fee, and jus apply to your deposit.

Having a real brain fart right now. In December we will traveling to St. Thomas and I am trying to book a fishing trip for my spouse. I know daylight savings time is over, and I know we stay on "ship's time".

If we are to arrive at 11:00 am ships time, is it 11:00am S. Thomas time? For some reason my rain just can't figure it out !

The were just a special treat. Kind of like a light sweet yeast roll with orange marmalade in the middle, and an orange. Servers walked around the decks with napkins and warm buns. They even placed trash receptacles for the napkins. Guess it's a HAL thing.

I have done this trip a few times, but always with Holland America. Will be doing again, except this time on the Fantasy in September.

On Holland, on the morning you go through the canal & locks, they serve orange flavored "Panama Buns" so you can eat something while going through the locks. They also have coffee on viewing decks. There is also a narrator over the PA system explaining the process. They do let everyone know that if they plan on sleeping in, they may hear the narrator, as they announce so people in balconies can hear. I do know the Fantasy has very limited, if any balconies.

My questions are, does Carnival have the narrators, and do they serve the WONDERFUL "Panama Canal buns"?

One of the reasons I love Dr.E as a cruise director is he gets involved with passengers anytime he is about, mingling with passengers. I just got off a B2B on the Dream, and never saw CD Brandon except when he had a scheduled event. Event over, he's gone. This has been a trend lately. I remember when you saw cruise directors about the ship all the time. I will miss him on the Magic, but Baltimore is not that far for me!

In the beginning of December, I had quite a few casino offers. (Premier & Getaways). They were from March 2018 through June 2018. The offers said we had until Jan 2018 to book. I went in today, and everything is gone with the exception of Past Guest offer. I cannot believe all offers were full, as there were a whole lot of them.

I know a while back I had the same issue, and I cannot remember for the life of me how I got the listing back. I have signed in & out, both me & my husband, and I removed from address bar and reloaded to no avail.

Anyone got any suggestions?

I just returned from the 14 day sailing. We could not get the room temp under 74, so we had to purchase fans in Puerto Rico.(stateroom 1856). Water in the shower would start almost scalding then down to col, then back gain. No constant temps. Guest services were no help Staff was excellent.

Very boring cruise. Only time we ever saw CD/Asst CD was during trivia, and to announce shows. Not very interactive with guests. No sail way parties, no real music. Everything piped in. The casino had church music one evening.

No more Rottedam for me. Sorry.

We generally tell them at check in desk that there are 2 of us, but we will gladly sit with a solo cruiser. We have met some great people that way. We don't have to wait for a large table to fill up, and gives a person traveling alone to have some conversations. Many people that travel alone has lost loved ones, and are just trying to get back into normalcy, and we have never had a bad experience.

We are sailing on the Rotterdam next Sunday out of Tampa. We want to check in, drop off our stuff, then leave until departure. Sailing is scheduled to be 4:00pm, and I know we have muster beforehand. Would 3pm be a good time to come back on?

I paid for an MM. I got a cat J. Disappointed because I saw the 2nd email and thought I might have gotten another upgrade.

Last June we booked a guarantee (MM interior) on the 12/3 sailing on the Rotterdam. Expected to get cabin assigned a few days before, due to the number of upsell requests I got. Surprise, surprise on Tuesday night (11/21) I got an e-mail from HAL ,"booking confirmation" with my cabin assignment.(cat J interior, so I was happy).

Last night, I got another e-mail from Holland saying "changed booking- reprint your express docs". Not thinking it's Thanksgiving, I thought "oh boy, another upgrade! Merry Christmas to me!". I followed the link to e-docs, and no, the e-mail was just reconfirming what I got on Tuesday night. Ho Ho Ho.

Oh well- by the way, we were assigned one of those sideways cabins- anyone have a thought on those?

For the third time in 3 weeks I have been offered the opportunity to purchase an upgrade on the 12/3 sailing on the Rotterdam. Is this an indication that Holland is having problems selling out this ship? I have been following the post regarding post-dry dock and I certainly hope the water issues have been resolved. (Fingers crossed)

We got an offer from the Casino back in June, making this trip a no brainer. Prices were for Guarantee stateroom. I have no problem waiting for my assignment. Every time I have booked a guarantee we have been upgraded, and with exception of once, we have been given great rooms and have been happy.

Do you think by ignoring the upgrade offers we are somehow telling Holland we are really not interested in upgrading? I will be fine if they don't, but upgrades are always nice. We are booked n an interior (MM) and all upgrade offers are for porthole/obstructed OV and lanais. Nothing for a better interior stateroom.

There is a place called "Ocean World" and it is really nice and a good value. They have different animal/ water-life shows. They have a huge dolphin facility I do not remember if they have swim with dolphins there, but they have a huge tank that you can snorkel with fish. Worth every penny imho.

Last month we were booked on the Magic. Saturday departure. At 5:45pm Friday evening we were in our hotel and we got an e-mail stating a upgrade was available for our sailing. Curiosity got to us, and at 5"55pm we called the # and the extension only to get a message " gone for the day, will return on Monday, please call back".

I kinda thought it was funny.

I had to have some emergency mouth surgery, and I am set to sail on the Majesty of the Seas this Monday. I have been given the ok to cruise, however I cannot chew anything for 2 weeks. I am living on oatmeal, blended fruits, underwood deviled meats and overcooked mac & cheese. (really soft noodles). And of course ice cream.

I want to know how tacky it would be going to the dining room and just asking for a bowl and hot water so I can make some instant oatmeal? We love the food in the dining room, and I want my husband to have some good meals. I know there may be some soups I can have, but none of the good stuff.

Or do they have chicken noodle soup for those with queasy bellys? I could do that and not eat the chicken.

The last time I was on HAL, I asked about free drinks like Carnival, and I was told no, but if the Casino Host saw the amount of play you had, they have the ability to comp you a beverage.