dioxide45

No, you can get a cup on Carnival, but you can't fill it yourself like on someRoyal ships. As I recall, it was $4.95. You can also pre-purchase Bottomless Bubbles online, but I don't know what they do about the cup option that way.

You can just buy the cup on the ship. You don't have to buy Bottomless Bubbles and the cup in the same transaction. If you have Bottomless Bubbles, I think the cup is a little cheaper than if you don't.

I think you have the option to buy a cup. I think it was $6 on our last cruise. Not 100% on that though. I suspect you can have any beverage put in the cup.

It isn't a Tervis brand cup. Though it is double walled hard plastic with a lid.

The corkage fee applies for having the wine served in the MDR. Not just to store it. If they open it and you drink it all, the corkage fee would still apply.

So, I've heard some rumors that on some ships the MDR is open for embarkation lunch. Has anyone every seen this happen? Planning ahead for our Dream cruise in January, planning on doing Pasta Bella for lunch, but if the MDR is open might try that....

The pasta restaurant is the least busy on embarkation day. That is where we usually go when on Dream class. When everyone is swarming the buffet, the pasta bar is nice and quiet. Not everyone has found it yet.

What is the "pre existing" waiver? We are taking a trip with extended family next year and my sister has some health conditions. We only planned to use the standard insurance through carnival after noting that it does provide some coverage of medical costs incurred on the trip. Should I be concerned that if she has health problems that arise before our trip that cause her to cancel that she could be denied due to a pre-existing condition?

Thanks!

You really need to look at each policy to determine what their waiver of preexisting conditions is. In most cases it requires purchasing the policy within x days of initial trip payment. Usually 14 or 21 days. But it can vary. A few companies will cover preexisting conditions if you purchase prior to final payment.

As to your last question, yes. If you buy a policy that does not cover preexisting conditions and have to cancel, they may not cover it if it was cancelled because of the pre-existing condition. Also, if you need to have medical care while abroad, they may not cover that either if it is related to the pre-existing condition.

I would suggest reading through the Travel Insurance forum. Lots of good information there on insurance.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=635

Though I don't know much about Amber Cove, I am not a fan of captive private ports. I would go for #1. Of the four, I have only been to Grand Cayman twice and thought it was great the one time it didn't rain. Not big on having to tender though.

I think you will be okay. I think the four dayers that include the Fri, Sat, and Sun night are the worst.

Well if you live in Texas and already have the card for travel to Mexico, you may as well bring it along so you can use the Passport line when you disembark.

True. If one doesn't have a passport book, then the card is better than just a BC and DL.

I purchased 2- $500. Gift cards they Verizon on 9/19.. They arrived today. I called my agent to use them to pay off my balance. I've been on hold for over 20 min. They r telling me I can't use the entire amount of the cards to pay off my balance..there is a limit! They are hold $168. 50 on the gift card. Really..this is crap! Anyone else have this problem?

I had a similar issue with our TA for our next cruise. We coudln't pay the entire balance with gift cards. They couldn't give me a full explanation, but I think I figured it out. Our final payment actually gets paid to our travel agent and the TA forwards it to Carnival. I think however, that our TA holds their commission from the final payment. So the travel agent is making at least $168.50 in commission on your cruise. Ours was a short cruise and I think the amount we had to pay on a credit card for final payment was less than $75.

I don' know if this is the case or not, but it is the most logical explanation that I could think of.

Some travel agents have the final payment processed by the cruise line, others you pay the TA directly and they pay the cruise line. Ours is a reputable TA, so I had no concerns about this arrangement.

If a TA told me that BS I'd take my business somewhere else. You CAN pay the entire final payment, excursions and use it for spending onboard. I have yet to run into a limit of any kind. Log into Carnival's site and pay it yourself using the gift cards and bypass your TA. Then get rid of them :)

With a TA, you can't bypass them. You can't make payments on the Carnival website. You have to go through the TA to apply payments.

I won't bother with gift cards for paying cruise deposits or even for the cruise balance. Only for on board purchases. I say this because if you purchase travel insurance, there is a chance that amounts paid by gift card won't be covered if you have to cancel.

I think the short cruises that go over the weekend are more of a party boat atmosphere. We have sailed the Paradise twice on five night cruises that sailed on a Monday and we had no issues at all.

Recently or somewhat recently the State Department has also offered a Passport Card you can purchase along with he standard Passport Book. We leave our Passport Books in the stateroom safe and take along on shore the Passport Card. If the card gets stolen you still have your Passport Book to get back into the country. It does cost a little extra but if you travel alot to the Caribbean, Canada, Mexico and Bermuda It can be used as follows as per the US Department of State website.

 

The U.S. Passport Card can be used to enter the United States from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda at land border crossings or sea ports-of-entry and is more convenient and less expensive than a passport book. The passport card cannot be used for international travel by air.

 

Just another option..

 

 

Other than being another official form of ID recognized really only by the US government. The passport card is really only as good as a copy of a passport when in a foreign country. It will help expedite replacement of a the passport book because you are really just applying for renewal. I never really understood the purpose of the card. I think it gives people a false sense of security.

Got a quick question you guys might be able to help with. We have some family members cruising out of new Orleans on the same day we are. We will both be in cozumel on the same day and wanted to visit. Question is our time there is 10 to 6 and theirs is 9 to 4. Since they leave out of new orleans is there ship time a hour behind us making there 4 o'clock departure actually 5 for us? Thanks for the help

 

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Where are you cruising out of, Florida? When is the cruise? Before or after daylight savings time ends?

Your time would be 10:00-6:00 ET

Their time would be 10:00-5:00 ET

Cozumel will either be the same as Central Time or Eastern Time depending on if it is before or after Daylight Savings Time Ends, respectively.

now I'm confused.... I know you have to be on the ship about an hour prior to departure from the ports. so, you are on "Caribbean Island (CI)" and it leaves at 4pm. by 3pm, they have no record that swiped back on the ship. someone goes in your cabin, goes in your safe and takes your passport off? suppose it's not in the safe? suppose you are really on the ship? I know, there are announcements "will happy traveler69 please report to the customer relations desk located on deck 5, please"? this is repeated over and over until they are satisfied that you really aren't on the ship! but suppose you are?

if indeed they really do take your passport off ship, why not take your other items as well?

Back on board time is usually a half hour before sail away. BUT, lots of people show up between that time and sail away time. It would only take 5 minuted to pull passports from a safe. So they probably wait until sail away time before pulling them. If someone doesn't return to the ship, they wait until the last minute or even long after before they sail off.

If you are on the ship and they are making announcements, you better call if you aren't in your cabin. If you don't hear the announcements, it is probably because you are in your cabin. Thus when they show up to pull them, you will be accounted for. I am thinking that they also try to call your cabin before they make those announcements.

YOU can still buy insurance, there is no deadline. Some travel insurance policies cover the case where a traveling partner cannot go and cover the single supplement. Insurance should not be that expensive, check insuremytrip dot com. I just got a $900 policy for 2 people for $56.

Though, if the friend is backing out for medical reasons, this may be considered preexisting, which wouldn't be covered by a policy bought this late. All policies would require it to be bought within a certain number of days of initial booking or at least before final payment.

Do they no longer let you bring on the soda in the plastic small bottles? Why only cans

Bottles are easily used to smuggle alcohol on board. Cans, not so much. It is all about preventing smuggling of alcohol on board.

Yes, but the soda must be in cans. No bottled water or soda.

Thank you! Would you recommend the excursion to St Johns through carnival? Or is there a private company you have used and liked?

For St John, it is one of the few places that I am an advocate for the ship excursion. They pick you up right by the ship and take you to Cruz Bay. They return you right back close to the ship. Another thing is that it costs just about the same amount as a do it your self trip. You lose a little bit of time on St John, but you have no worries as long as you are sure to catch the boat back.

Red Hook where you would catch the ferry is a fairly long taxi ride away. I think the taxi fare there from the cruise port is $10 per person. Taxis in the USVI are expensive and priced per person. If you have a lot of people or are staying on the island, you can probably negotiate. But for a single trip for a few people, negotiating really doesn't work. Then you have the ferry ride to St John. That is $14 round trip. So for a taxi and ferry, you are at $34. We paid $35.75 for a "Self Explore St John" excursion through Celebrity. The tour that Celebrity used picked us up on the same pier as our ship was docked and returned us back to the same place.

For us, St John would win out. While the other beaches are great. Nothing beats Trunk Bay and Cinnamon Bay. It just takes more work to get there.

ETA: On St Thomas, NEVER take a ship excursion to go to a beach (unless you go to St John). All they do is load you up on a taxi and bring you back on a taxi. You can do that yourself. We learned the hard way.

Unless your cabin mate wants a partial refund from Carnival, which at 60 days out they are entitled don't either of you do anything until much closer to sailing time. If you do "act" now then she will be cancelled and you will have to pay the single supplement.

 

Best scenario, if their insurance covers, is for her to contact the insurance company the day before departure and then they just don't show up at the pier. You act dumb at check in saying they are checking in separately. That way you will not be charged anything.

If they are entitled to a partial refund, then insurance or no insurance they would have to take the partial refund. The insurance company is only going to want to reimburse non refundable costs.

The OP didn't indicate if they have insurance. If they do, it is possible that their insurance will cover the issues that their traveling companion is having.

Looking at the situation now, I don't see any way for the OP to avoid the single supplement unless their friend waits until the last minute to cancel. Though at that point, insurance may no longer cover it.

The cruise is paid for. Carnival has their money. If they cancel and it is covered by insurance. The insurance company reimburses your friend. Carnival is still whole and has their money. I would think you are still okay. However, if your friend does not go and they want insurance to pay, I am sure the insurance company will want them to actually call Carnival and cancel their reservation. So Carnival will know that you are now traveling alone.

If your photo copy is stolen the thief has all your information and can use that to make a copy of your passport creating big problems. You would have to cancel your passport also. Your still not safe from problems.

I think it would be much harder to recreate a passport from a copy than what they can do with the original. The original has value to thieves in foreign countries because they have ways of using that original. Like slicing out the photo and replacing it. It is a genuine passport. Faking a passport isn't as easy, having a genuine original is. I don't think you would have thieves targeting passport copies.

Once on St John's are taxis easy to come by? Specially, are there taxi stands at the major beaches? I have a fear of going out to a beach and not being able to get a taxi back.

 

This actually happened to me in Grand Cayman, I had to take the local's bus back to town (thankfully that was an option, and ended up being free because they didn't have American change and I didn't have small bills, the driver told me to not worry about it).

Taxis are plentiful. However, you might want to ask the driver that takes you there if they can come back and pick you up at a certain time. They will show back up if you arrange for it. However, the major beaches will have lots of taxis just sitting there waiting.

You never realize how polarizing a topic this is until you read through these threads.

I can see both sides of the argument. If the ship is going to leave without you, they would pull your passports and leave them with the port authority. Though do they always do that? Is that a chance one is willing to take? Are the chances higher of being a victim of a crime or being left my the ship. I think the odds are about the same.

In either case, if you are without your passport, you will be able to get back home. Though it might cost more and take longer with more hassle. I don't really think there is a right or wrong answer to this question. Just do what you are comfortable with.