iamsteph

I'm booked on the first cruise on the Mardi Gras out of Copenhagen. I've been keeping my eye on airfare opening out that far (British Airways is almost open out that far) to book a cheaper airfare. Maybe I'll wait.. Does travel insurance cover when the ship isn't ready 😧

I'm married but have done several solo cruises.  I take a book to read for brunch/lunch, and Carnival has always placed me at a large table with other solo and/or female groups for dinner.  There are plenty of activities on board that you can participate in (trivia, comedy club, etc) and no one is going to care if you do the Chef's table as a single.  It's nice to be able to do what you want to do when you want to do it.  For ports, I'll get off and walk around or book an excursion.  The only time it was ever awkward was at brunch one day, it seemed like every single waiter that passed by was like "are you dining alone??" and didn't understand why I'd cruise without my husband.  So now when I get asked, I just say he's in the room or not hungry lol

22 minutes ago, Bases5 said:

I understand the Havana pool area is Off limits to is steerage passengers until 6 PM.  Is it the same for the bar area also?

Inside of the Havana area is open to all passengers all time of day, including the bar on the inside.  Outside havana area and the outside part of the bar are only for Havana guests during the day. 

1 hour ago, sra12574 said:

I liked  the  old  se  day  brunch  . Seems  like  it  lost  some  options  and  now  there  is a  charge  for  juice

Wait, now juice will cost extra? 

3 hours ago, CA_Cruzing said:

i'd be interested in hearing what's in the BBQ join'ts food. please share. we've had zero issues eating here for GF (meats only).

 

 

 

A good number of rubs contain wheat and if the sauce contains any sort of soy/worcestershire sauce or beer for flavoring, it's not going to be gluten free.  

If I remember correctly, the meats at P&A rotate.  This could be why some people are told that nothing is safe, I was told that only some things were safe, and you've evidently had no problem.  Some people are also more sensitive to cross-contamination than others - a gluten intolerant person might be fine with the small amount of wheat that might be in a rub on the BBQ, whereas it would definitely make me sick.  So even while something is *probably* 99.9% safe, it's always best to ask each and every time, rather than to assume and end up with half your vacation ruined.   

1 hour ago, Gatordad815 said:

My additional questions, to the extent you have experience, would be:

 

1) At the quick service places that offer GF options (I’m thinking Pig & Anchor, Guys Burgers & Pizza Pirate), did the staff appear knowledgeable about exactly what was GF and proper procedure to avoid cross-contact? When staff appear clueless (on land and sea), we tend to just avoid as not to risk her getting sick.

 

2) I’ve read the Cucina place serves a pasta bar at lunch. Do you know if they can make a GF pasta dish at lunch, or is it just the bar?

 

3) Any experience with the deli? I know some deli meats are GF (Boars Head, for example), while others are not.

 

4) Any other input?

 

Thanks again! Much appreciated!

 

 

Fellow celiac here, with my advice:

1.  Pig & Anchor - the last time we were on a ship with one, I was told that some of the meats were safe and others were not.  Only one or two of the sides were.  Go right when you get on board, before the line gets long, and ask someone behind the counter.  They'll probably tell you they have to find one of food managers, and honestly, that's probably for the best.  I've had the line servers tell me everything was gluten free, including the bread! So I don't trust when they tell me that all the meats are gluten free as well.  Pizza Pirate - they are supposed to make the gluten free pizza in the back, with toppings from a separate bin.  I've seen them bring out the gluten free crust, put toppings on from the bins out front (where they are also throwing regular pizza dough and flour) and then give me crap when I said it was now cross-contaminated and I couldn't eat it.  I've also seen them bring out the cooked gf pizza and then slice it with the same cutters they do regular pizza.  Quick trips to customer service fixed the problems, but I would say make sure you watch them until you know that your pizza is going to be safe. Guys burgers - they can do gf burgers AND fries, just make sure you tell them you want fries when you order your burger because the ones out front are not gluten free. 

2. Cucino and JiJis - they can do gluten free pasta and noodles lunch or dinner, and it is delicious! Highly recommend it over the other three for lunch, just because it seems like the cross contamination risk is less than the other places, especially during the busy lunch rush time. 

3. Avoid the deli. I've not come across one yet that seemed to understand cross-contamination and that they cannot slather the gluten free bread with the same stick/vat of mayo they use for the regular sandwiches.  Some of the delis seem to be heading towards premade sandwiches, which aren't gluten free. I gave up on the deli years ago. 

4.  It's not impossible to eat from the buffet.  Find someone in chef whites or one of the hostesses.  They will find you someone to talk to and let you know what you can eat.  Usually, but not always, they will offer to bring you out a plate of your choices from the back, so as to avoid any cross-contamination from the buffet. 

The dining room is open for brunch/lunch and you can pre-order food the night before, same as you do for dinner.  It is the safest option on board.  Room service used to be hit or miss about whether they would/could make a gluten free sandwich, but I feel like they've been better recently. 

Basically, don't wait until you're starving - go early and ask questions and then ask even more questions if you suspect the person you're talking to doesn't know what they're talking about. It's not worth the days of pain and suffering if you get glutened!  

On 6/4/2019 at 11:39 AM, amyotravel said:

You have to have the Carnival MasterCard (topic name on this thread) and earn points to convert into on board credit.

If you have the card, check the current terms.

Ah, ok, I do have that card, I thought this was something new.  We usually save our points to redeem against a Carnival charge (usually a final payment) rather than redeem for OBC. Get a better rate of return 🙂 

11 minutes ago, TVLady3 said:

The $100 OBC that will be posted to my S&S when I sail, can it be used toward paying the gratuities?

What's this promotion and how do I get it? 

I've cruised many times gluten free and HeyNowMama is right, Carnival is great about GF options!  However, you still have to be diligent, because I've watched the pizza place cut my GF pizza with the same slicer they used for the regular pizzas, I've had my "gf" pasta  come out as regular pasta, etc.  If you have any-time dining, and you find a team you like, you can request them each night. I find this helps prevent any mishaps in the main dining room. 

There should be an option for a waitlist under your booking reservation, but if not, you can call to get on the waitlist.

If you have anytime dining, after the first night, you can request the same table/waitstaff that you had the night before (but you should in line before the open up for the best chance of the same table being available). 

7 hours ago, cbell21219 said:

Take Uber or Lift, taxis are a thing of the past. And they come directly to where you are, no reason to try a find a cab.

We stayed in NYC prior to our cruise and used both Uber/Lyft and regular taxis. We found that depending on traffic conditions and our purpose, the taxi could be better and cheaper.  We also had the one Uber driver who wouldn't use the air conditioning even though it was 85+ degrees out.  The time it took us to walk a couple of blocks was the same time it would have taken to pull out the phone, call up the app, put in our trip info, and then wait for an Uber/Lyft to actually show up. 

27 minutes ago, iamsteph said:

We had that problem in NYC when we got off the Vista, and we were off pretty early (Platinum group).  There were no taxis to be found.  After waiting in a taxi line for 10 minutes, and only seeing one taxi go by, and since we each only had a carry-on, we ended up walking east a few blocks and had no problem catching a taxi.  

And by the Vista, I mean the Horizon lol

1 hour ago, JimmyTheSaint said:

One of the things putting us off booking the transatlantic on Mardi Gras is debarking in New York. We did the transatlantic last year on Horizon ( great cruise ) but New York was a shambles. We did the self debark so we were off the ship early as we had a plane to catch at La Guardia. Getting off the ship was fine and the Customs & Immigration people in the port were fine.

 

The problem we, and several hundred others, had was getting a taxi at the port. We waited almost two hours in a very disorganised line with a lot of people getting very agitated and at times very aggressive with fellow cruisers trying to cut in etc. A very unpleasant end to the cruise. I accept this is not Carnival's responsibility and it caught us unaware as we had expected there would be taxis just queuing up for 4000 people getting off a ship.

We had that problem in NYC when we got off the Vista, and we were off pretty early (Platinum group).  There were no taxis to be found.  After waiting in a taxi line for 10 minutes, and only seeing one taxi go by, and since we each only had a carry-on, we ended up walking east a few blocks and had no problem catching a taxi.  

Fort McHenry, maybe? Birthplace of the Star Spangled Banner.

This. Take a cab/uber there from the airport, walk around (pay to go into the historical area if you want, the park outside of the historical area is free, but the historical area and kind of neat/kind of corny video they show is definitely worth seeing at least once), take cab/uber to the port. Fort McHenry is super close to the port, and bonus, as you sail out of Baltimore, you sail right past the Fort so you can point and go "we were just there!"

If you eat early to avoid the crowds, as you say, then there should be no issue finding a table.

But technically, cheers isn't "unlimited." It's 15 drinks a day.

It was not working on our sailing on 5/28. I think they were testing it on the TA. Not sure if it's gone live or not yet though.

 

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Also on the 5/28 sailing, and it was not working. Glad to know it wasn't just me :p :pI was actually hoping it would be to avoid standing in that long check-in line, but luckily the check-in lines weren't too bad this cruise (only one night was looooong).

We'd only ever had balconies, and had an extended aft Havana balcony on the Vista. Just got back from a Havana interior on the Horizon. As our first interior, it wasn't that bad! Did we miss being able to pop our heads out and see what the weather was like? Sure. If it comes down to Havana interior vs. balcony and having $800? We'd chose the interior every time. Set the tv to the webcams when you wake up, because then you can see what the weather was like. We found that the aft extended was WAY too hot for our liking and barely used it. With the interior, we definitely used the havana area more, even when we weren't in the sun/in the pool (they have nice comfy chairs to sit in and read and it's uuuuusually pretty quiet).

Actually no, they cannot all show up to Your Time Dining if half of the party has an assigned dining time. All those in the party have to have YTD to be seated in YTD. If you reread all of the OP’s posts, half are waitlisted for YTD and half are waitlisted for one of the assigned dining times.

 

To the OP: while I do understand that this is frustrating, I think you have to realize that stuff like this happens when you make a change to your booking so late in the game. You decided to add a person. That’s on you. I’m sure Carnival will do all they can to accommodate you as far as the dining times are concerned. And you can all board at 2:30. You do not have to show up earlier and wait at port.

 

 

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Actually, I misread the OP's post. I just reread it, and see now that they are each waitlisted for something different. But actually, if they both end up assigned to anytime dining, then my advice is actually sound.

If you cannot get it fixed, you all can show up together for the later boarding time. As for dinner, you are now assigned Anytime. You all can show up together, at the same time, at 8:15 pm (when late dining starts), be seated together, and you can request the same waitstaff every single night.

Enjoy the Havana area, it's wonderful!

You'll have to ask the person working behind the counter/a chef. When we were on the Vista, we were told that nothing was gluten free. On the Horizon, the pork, chicken, cole slaw (and sausage maybe?) were, but not the potato salad, etc. Didn't inquire about other sauces.

At least on the Vista/Horizon, it's crazy hectic, so go right when they open (or a few minutes before) and find someone to ask, and go early in the cruise before everyone else finds out about it :p

Thanks for this excursion reminder! I have two excursions booked on my upcoming cruise, and checked, and the same tours were cheaper if booked directly through the same operator. Submitted my price protection forms yesterday and heard back last night! $56 back in OBC! Not a huge amount, but I'll take it!

The problem with the port of Baltimore - very limited parking. So until enough people get off the ship and leave, incoming cars cannot park. Since the incoming cars cannot park, they end up stacking up, and once enough are stacked up, the ONE entrance to the port for parking AND drop-offs is blocked.

This is why it's best to go based on time after docking versus a specific time. And it seems the Pride never docks at the same time, all the time :p:p

Any gluten free Carnival cruisers out there that have had the milkshakes or specialty coffees? Did you find that the drinks were mostly gluten free? Cross-contaminated? Not gluten free at all?

I'd love to hear your experiences!

Thank you! I didn't even think to search videos. That was perfect!