jsjjkelly

I love this post! 

Let's see- we're military and don't have a homeport. We've cruised out of Port Canaveral the most, followed by Long Beach. We've also been out of New York, Miami and Tampa.  We've just recently moved to the Panhandle, and we're itching to try going out of Mobile.

We've only done an inside cabin twice as a family-- and the last was a norovirus cruise that we were not immune to.  The smell......  we will only cruise with a balcony now because of that "what if".

First cruise- 2010 on the Splendor out of Long Beach.  It was 1 or 2 cruises right before it died in the water.  Last cruise the Panorama December 2022.  Only 5 days to Platinum and we can't wait for the free laundry!

We did a repositioning cruise (New York to Miami) and it was awesome.  I would love to just do those.  Everyone just settles in, you get new ports, and it was our best cruise hands down.

We hardly ever pay for the restaurants, except for our last cruise where we had all the Carnival on board credit from Covid, We loved the steakhouse and will go back.  We did the Japanese steakhouse and it was just meh.  We usually try to do the specialty restaurants for lunch.

We just booked a cruise out of Dover England on the Legend for next August for our 30th Anniversary. We also spent our 25th anniversary, my 50th birthday, hubby's 49th on board, and both kid's graduations on board.  Celebrating onboard is fun.

We have only booked 1 excursion through Carnival and it was a nightmare (St Maarten)  We've been successful going with someone else for all the rest of them.  

Forgive my ignorance in all this, but we got the free government covid tests.  Can we use those to test?  Or even like take them in the terminal with us and test there while someone watches?  I'm hoping this testing thing drops by our June cruise.  It's truly my only worry about this trip.

12 hours ago, cruisingguy007 said:

 

The jet skis can be rented right on the beach in port, no need for an excursion. There are plenty of options. Some you can even negotiate the price and it's cheaper in pesos. The ATV excursions are available both through ship and through private third party vendors that can be looked up at each port or through places like Viator or various local excursion outfitters with an online presence.     

Thanks for this!  I'm one of those planners that like to have it arranged before we get there.   I was hoping he had the company they used for going to the meteor hole! 

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On 7/25/2021 at 9:38 PM, IntrepidFromDC said:

In Cabo San Lucas there is an excursion where you take an ATV from town to a HUGE hole in the earth where a meteor struck and you get to go round and round the meteor hole like you are a pea being swished around in a bowl.  One of the most amazing experiences I've ever had.

@IntrepidFromDC did you book through the ship or book it on our own?  Just read your comment to my kids and they were like - SO COOL and we wanna do that.

We too are looking for ATV and Jet Ski excursions.  My kids will be 18 and 22 so paying for 4 adults through the ship gets costly.  Thanks!

We're interested in this too, mainly because we've been watching how it's haunted and my kids think it would be cool to stay in something haunted.  We're cruising in June 2022....  please continue to post any updates!!

We're up by Sacramento and we never hear anything about that area.

Thanks all!

🙂
Shawn

We had something similar.  We had a 4 people cruise booked June of 2020.  When it cancelled, persons 1-3 booked a canal cruise for Feb 2021 and all 4 were booked on the Mardi Gras out of PC for June 2021.   This transaction gave each person $150 OBC.  So the Feb had $450 OBC and the June had $150 (each tied to the person).

Feb canal was cancelled.  We moved all the monies to the June cruise.  When all was said and done, Persons 1-3 have $200 each (from the feb cruise), and #4 has the original $150.  So the 4 of us have $750 in OBC from all these cancellations.

Do people honestly think Carnival is going to keep giving $600 and it accumulates?   They'd be out of business for sure! Don't we want them to keep sailing? 

Thanks for these suggestions!  Looks like I have a lot of looking around to do!

Thanks all!  No we won't be able to get together in advance as we're coming from all different time zones!  Looks like we might be cruising out of Charleston, and we live in California!  Family driving in from OH,PA & NY.   But I'm definitely thinking per cabin now instead of per person!  Looks like I need to pack them in a bag that can be folded up into our existing luggage.  

Silicone straw is a great idea!  Thanks for the idea!

Hi All!

So we're planning a family cruise, and based on initial response could be quite big.  We were tossing around the idea of gift bags - I do them for when we have a smaller family cruise - like 5 rooms or so - and we put them in a big beach bag.   If we have a lot of rooms, that's a lot of bags!  In the smaller bags we put cruise essentials and goodies - Tylenol packets, gum, dramamine, door decorations, candy (the movie theatre boxes from the Dollar Tree), when we cruise at St Patricks Day we had St Pattys Day decorations, etc.    I saw we can get personalized lanyards for less than $30 for 100.  

Can we give them to Carnival in advance and let them deliver?  I wasn't really wanting to put them in a suitcase and wait until it's delivered to be able to give them out to everybody.  And yet I don't want to schlep a big bag through the boarding process either.  

Has anyone done something similar?  Any pointers?  Any cheap ideas to add? If initial interest sticks, we could be having 20-30 rooms in the group!  

Thanks in advance!

We've only been once, and my kids were 6 and 10.  We did the Los Veranos Canopy Tour. They took such good care of us, and brought us back to the cruise ship.  It was me, my kids, and my father in law (grandpa) so we had all ages.  We still talk about how awesome it was.

My mother in law and husband walked around the Malecon.   Transportation from the ship was all cab/bus related.  You walk off and they're like "How many to shopping" and we just piled into a 10 person van.   

I did walk across the street to the Walmart which was cool.  And if you forget something it's super easy to go pick it up. I bought Mexican blankets for gifts because they were like $6 or something ridiculously cheap like that.

But I wanted to chime in about Los Veranos.   They were awesome.

Shawn

We took this itinerary back in 2010 (Cabo, PV & Mazatlan) and looking to redo next year.  We had a tour with Mazatlan Frank and he was great!  He took us to all the touristy destinations, and we didn't feel unsafe at all during the time we were with him.  And it felt good to support someone local.  Then the port closed to cruise traffic and we heard he relocated to Canada because he supported his family with the tourist business.   

Now that it's back open, did he go back to Mazatlan?  Anyone know?  We'd like to book with him again!

Thanks!
Shawn

We did this on the Vista and were disappointed. My kids made sure we went to each clue reveal, and each time it was tied to something asking for money... lots of bingo.

Then at the reveal? It was for, like 2, and they did a whole 30 minutes of Bingo before revealing at 2:30. They just announced one winner and it was less than 30 seconds. All that buildup for nothin. At least acknowledge the kids! Send them a piece of paper saying they're a great detective but they didn't win! Give them one game in the arcade or something!

Same thing happened for the lucky duck game. We've travelled on Thanksgiving twice, and they put ducks all around the ships and you have to write down where you found them, turn it in, then go somewhere for the big reveal. On one ship, the reveal was like at 10. My kids were exhausted and they were laying on the seats as we waited for them to keep doing round and round of bingo. The cruise director walked by, and asked why we were there, and we said we were waiting for the lucky duck reveal. he went on stage, grabbed the envelope and said "excuse me for interrupting but the winner was Bob Smith" (or whoever). Wow. Way to acknowledge everyone who played! Or even say "here's where they all were" for those who couldn't find them. We were super disappointed in that one too. But at least it was fun going all through the ship versus the clue game where you had to sit through all the extras.

Hope this helps someone avoid these time traps!

Shawn

We were on the Liberty when it went out of San Juan. The ship is fine. There will be plenty for you to do onboard and you should all have a blast.

The itinerary is what you make it. We cruised when my kids were little, and you just choose excursions that are fun for the whole family. Realize kids aren't going to sit for tours (mine are now 17 and 13 and still complain about taking tours), but the beach is always fun. The great thing about cruising with that age is you control what you do, and you can pick things your kids would like.

Don't fret all the reviews. Picking a smaller ship for your first go round was absolutely perfect. My kids find something to do no matter what size ship we pick, or what ports we go to.

Enjoy your cruise!

Be careful about saving this for a milkshake. On our last cruise, my kids headed down to use theirs for milkshakes and they had run out of ice cream.

We usually get smoothies. My son gets a bottle of Powerade or gatorade since I buy the Bottomless Bubbles for them, so a Fanta or Coke wouldn't make sense.

We had a suite on the Vista in November, and we kind of wish we would have done the Havana suites instead. We thought we were splurging because it was a repo cruise (NY to Miami) and we would be in our room more days. We travel with our 2 kids, so we were thinking the suite would have extra room. The bathroom is definitely bigger, and you had a little bit bigger area where the closets were. The problem I have is that in a traditional balcony room, with a 4 person setup, we usually have a king, one person sleeps on the "sofa", and the 4th bed comes out of the ceiling. So 3 people taking up floor space so to speak.

When we walked in, I was just shocked. The 2 twin beds that usually go together into the king stayed twin beds. THEN, the sofa bed pulled out so that it was the king. I couldn't believe it! The room steward said this is the only way to configure for 4 people, because if you put the 2 twins together to get the master, either my kids would have to sleep together on the sofa, (both teenagers who would NOT want to sleep in the same bed together) or the adults sleep on the sofa pull out and the kids get the twins. There was no other option for 4 people.

In essence, I paid a whole bunch extra to sleep on a sofa bed.

But what I didn't like is that when we cruise, it always feels like in the rooms we're navigating a one person wide pathway from the front of the room to the balcony door. And with the suite, having 4 people sleeping on the floor (so to speak), we still had the same 1 person pathway. Throw over some covers, or big shoes (which my teens tend to take off in random places and leave in walk ways), then it can be treacherous to walk!

We got to look in how the Havana suites were, and they had TONS of more room! We even said that would have been worth the money instead of the suite we booked.

Just wanted to throw that out there! But we loved the Vista and would definitely go on again. Just not in a suite.

HI!

I have 2 teenagers who are bored silly at a beach unless there isn't something to do. Are there any beaches in Aruba that have the toys anchored in the ocean like Paradise Beach in Cozumel? I've attached a picture in case you haven't been!

Thanks in advance!!

Shawn

Hi!! I have 2 teenagers who are bored silly at a beach with nothing to do. Are there any beaches in Bonaire that have the big toys anchored in the ocean? Like Paradise Beach in Cozumel? I've attached a picture in case you haven't been.

Thanks!

Shawn

Hi!

Wanted go chime in here. We did the scoot coupes in November on the Liberty and had a horrible time. The little cars were cool when they worked. You travel in a line with a guide in the front and a guide behind, and being in the traffic was weird at first but the locals look out for the little cars. The guides also block traffic around traffic circles, etc. They can go like 35-40 mph but with no windshields, we kept getting hit in the face with like sand. I had sunglasses but my son did not, and he had his head down the whole time.

My husband's car died right from the start, and once we got him a replacement, mine died. My son &I were on the side of the road for about 45 minutes while the guide went to go get someone who could fix it. The group waited for us, and in the end, she gave us 15 more minutes of beach time. There were locals harassing people to buy things, braid hair, etc and the people who worked the beach would run them off. Bathrooms were clean though.

Kinda thought 15 minutes of beach time didn't equate to 45 minutes being stuck. Carnival gave us our money back. We told them they needed to inspect the cars because things like the horns didn't work on all the cars, the brake lights didn't go on, etc.

So if they've taken them off, it's a blessing. If the cars were maintained, it would have been a lot of fun!

Shawn

For those of you getting free cruise offers, do you use a PVP?

Just wondering because I don't... I book my own... and have never gotten an offer...

Well, we have 4 different parties in our extended family, and we all use the same PVP. This past spring, 2 of the 4 families received the cards for free cruises. The gambler's party didn't get one. We have the most cruises under our belt, and we didn't get one. The 2 parties who did had only been on 2 Carnival cruises before. My mother in law (the gambler) was MAD she didn't get one, so she called our PVP. He said they have no idea who even gets the cards, but it seems like this promotion was to get those cruisers who have been on a few to come back to Carnival (and hooked in our opinion). He said sometimes they can figure out the criteria of who gets them, and other times they can't.

Just shedding some light (I think) on what we just experienced with this just a few months ago. I sadly was not one who got the free cruise... :-(

Shawn

Ok, all you wonderful people with PVPs. How did you get one? I emailed Carnival and requested one, but have never gotten one. While I've never had a problem with the various agents I speak with at the 800 number, it would be nice to have the same person each time.

 

 

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I called the 800 number and asked if they existed and how did I get one. I was transferred by the customer service people to one. We've used him ever since.

He also explained to me that they get credit on the number of rooms, not the type of rooms. So he doesn't care if we book bottom of the boat insides, or suites!

Hope this helps you!

Shawn

We have some friends going on a cruise in a few weeks & are thinking of ordering something for them. Alcohol is way too expensive & we don't want to do cruise cash, but we can't decide between the other options. If someone were to send you a gift, what would you want?

Whenever we cruise with our kids we try and buy them something that's delivered to the room that serves as a surprise for them.

My husband sent me roses for my birthday. They were beautiful but someone told me I couldn't take them off the ship. Then we saw people carrying them off at debarkation and felt stupid for getting rid of them. We gave them to our waiter on the last night so he could give them to the all the ladies at his tables. They really did last the whole week cruise.

We've bought the Fresh Baked Cookies. They were really pretty good. The Oceans of Sweets didn't have common candy in it my kids were familiar with. And were a little stale...

We've gotten the coke packages from my mom. Those were awesome, but you still have to buy the cup and can't buy that in advance.

There's always the chocolate covered strawberries!! Those are always a hit.

We've gotten the Cooler Soda Package under the Gift sets tab, but got it with Diet Coke. It was pretty nice and served it's purpose. BUT, as far as functionality as a cooler? Nope. The thing leaks like a sieve. We bought it to use at the beach at Half Moon Cay, filled the thing with ice, and carried around this dripping thing all day. It comes with Carnival plastic cups and a bottle opener too.

The towel creations book is pretty cool. My kids still pull that one out, especially when making team gifts (like swim team, cheerleading, etc).

The new beach towel is really thin. We like the really thick blue ones. But the robes are pretty nice if you know they're robe people.

And finally, the Giant Candy Box is disappointing. It's not full sized stuff but sample sized. We made our own for the kids buying the $1 candy at the dollar store and hot glueing the boxes together in a box shape. I know you're not going with them, but our whole group loved these because we could personalize it to that persons favorite candy. Wrap ribbon around it, put on a cruise style tag with their name, and off you go!

These are just the things we've done through Bon Voyage. Hope this helps you some in your decision!

:-)

Shawn

I didn't realize on our first cruise you could order 2 appetizers in the MDR. I ordered shrimp cocktail and after those 4 shrimps were done, and everyone was still eating their salads or soup I said I'm sticking with salads. I didn't realize you could get both!

We also didn't do trivia until our 3rd cruise. Definitely do it every cruise now.

Sadly, my kids found room service on our first cruise.... it's now an every cruise thing too.

We also just did the comedy club for the first time on the Dream. One of the guys was funny, and I'm not sure why we never went before.

:-)

Shawn

We need to make an excursion by 10:30 in Grand Cayman (their time). The arrival time of the ship is 10am - I am assuming that is the ships time which should be Eastern Standard time since we are out of Tampa. The tour operators told us they are one hour behind us. That gives us 90 minutes to get a tender ticket and tender off the ship and walk 4 minutes to meeting place. This isn't my first rodeo but I think that might be cutting it close. We are on the Legend in June. I don't want to buy FTTF if I don't need to. Also I have tried to locate the FTTF option on the website with my booking number but can't. I know they don't release a lot of them but where would I look for it if it was there? Thanks so much ahead of of time for any suggestions!!

Please make sure and check island time. We made this mistake in Grand Cayman as we did jet skiis with Fat Fish, and our arrival time was a 1/2 hour after the ship was cleared. It felt like we were up at the crack of dawn waiting to get that first tender, only to find out island time is 1 hour behind the ship time. We now had an hour to kill, and no stores were open!

You should be more than fine... and the tender ride is pretty short.

Have fun!

Shawn