jtdlmc

Would the 3-person sofa/2 person loveseat be the bed for 2 people or do they also have a Pullman?

Looking at the deck plans I'm thinking most any balcony cabins on deck 7, 8, or 9 would be ok since decks above and below all of these have only other cabins? Is this the case or are there some better or some not so better locations?

I'm looking to book just a standard balcony cabin. There were only two options available when I looked - D1 and E1 and there was only a few dollars difference between the two. What is the differences between the two categories? E1 has cabins on 6,7,8 and D1 has cabins on decks 6,7,8,9,10.

I was just going to book our first cruise with RCI today but now I will wait until tomorrow. The OBC sounds good to me as long as the prices don't go up to compensate for it.

We're looking at booking Freedom of the Seas in Feb. 2016. My 13-year-old son would like to bring a friend but seeing that it is almost 1 1/2 years away I don't think we can plan on a specific person this far in advance. Does RCI allow you to book a quad cabin for three people so that we could maybe add a fourth person later?

I realize we will have about 1.5 days in the cold both ways on the BA but seeing as we usually head to Niagara Falls or Kalahari in Ohio for our winter vacation, a cold weather vacation doesn't really bother us. We have never seen NYC or the Statue of Liberty, so that is a draw as well and would never consider doing a cruise to anywhere hot in the summer. I think with the different activities on BA, we will be busy enough with indoor attractions that we won't mind the cold for those days. I would love to try some of the food options on BA and I think it would be a better overall ship for my son seeing that he is a somewhat shy kid and has never went to any of the kids clubs on previous cruises. Thanks for you opinions though and keep them coming :)

I was really enjoying this review - I wish it had continued :( Anyway, I'm hoping NCLbigfan is still around and can tell me about the balcony on 11182. Does the balcony go out even with the outcropping of the ship so you can see past it or is the view blocked that way when sitting on the balcony?

This will be our first NCL cruise. I am looking at Feb 2016. We live in SW Ontario so would be flying to either port since it will be iffy to drive 9 hours to NYC in February. I love the Spirit itinerary but not sure what the ship has to offer for a 14 year old boy. It seems Breakaway has enough stuff for teens to do that will keep him (and us) busy inside during the colder days. Any thoughts?

All itineraries until the end of the winter season 2015/2016 are out.

 

Winter season usually ends around end of April and summer season around end of October.

I just asked my cruise consultant last week if there would be any more sailings announced for winter 2016 this is his response:

"Yes as time continues we also continue to open later sailings, we can only open itineraries so far in advance. Especially with all the rapid growth and new ships being added to our fleet."

So I would take that to mean that there will be more itineraries offered for winter 2016.

It was on just last week. I didn't see it mentioned on NCL website anywhere but my cruise consultant had mentioned it and when I did a mock booking it came through as $125 deposit per person. I asked my cruise consultant how often they offer reduced deposits and he said about once a month.

Thinking of going on the Spirit Western Caribbean in 2016 - love the itinerary but wondering about the ship for a 14-year-old boy. Is there much for kids to do? Do they have a teen club of sorts?

Thanks for all the responses. I guess the ultimate reason I wanted to try NCL is the food since it seems like there are more venues (free and pay) to choose from. We have done Your Time Dining on both of our Carnival cruises and loved it but would love even more not to have to pack for Carnival's elegant nights! I'm still not sure which one I will go with though so keep the comments coming.

I have been on two previous Carnival cruises. I had been planning on trying out NCL next but when comparing prices Carnival is cheaper by $400 (total) on basically the same cruise - same date, same number of days, same ports, same type of ship (Sun vs Liberty) - I'm not comparing an old Carnival ship to a new NCL ship. I've seen a previous post regarding what puts NCL ahead of the other lines but I'm wondering if there is a difference between NCL and Carnival that you would pay $400 for?

OP, I'm glad you posted this question. I would never have guessed that the dividers couldn't be opened! We get the balcony dividers opened on Carnival ships but are planning our next cruise on NCL. I would much rather have an open balcony but at least now I know to look for adjoining cabins.

I'm lurking around these boards trying to decide on our next cruise line and ship. You may have me sold on NCL and Breakaway :)

Legend out of Tampa and as a Canadian will never cruise out of Tampa again because of the immigration procedure at 6 am the morning of debarkation - unless they have changed the procedure since then!

No Carnival does not offer a texting package, you have to get it through your own cell phone provider. Usually only $5-10 for a month long international package. Do not text without it or you will be looking at a huge bill.

Probably from their own forum. John Heald HATES Cruise Critic big time lol

Yes, John hates CC, but don't kid yourself that all cruise lines don't have people monitoring these CC boards since they are the most active.

I had to leave after about an hour I was sick. It smelled so badly in there. I'm worried we won't be able to use the casino on the ship because all of the smokers will be congregating there. I just wish they had a cigar bar or something!!!

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Oh they do have cigar bars on Carnival ships but the nonsmokers bitched because they couldn't enjoy the space and now smoking isn't allowed in the cigar bars!!!!!!

Does anyone in this thread really think that posting here is going to change a thing about cruise lines' smoking policies or change the mind of anyoen else on the topic of smoking? Seriously people move on!

Carnival appears to look at what people have to say on these boards. John Heald has posted that the beards are now coming up with ways to improve smoking areas on Carnival ships and an announcement will be made within two weeks. No mention was made of this a week ago when they announced the balcony ban. He state it was due to feedback on facebook and Carnival's own forum, but I suspect they get most of their feedback from CC.

Like I said before, whatever CCL decides to do for the smokers be it a special area or a nice bar.....the anti-smokers will fuss because they don't get to use the space too.

You got that right on the head - just like the cigar bars!

Let me start off by saying I am an ex-smoker (9 years) and they say that ex-smokers are the worst at complaining about smoke. On all of my cruises in which we had balconies, I never once smelled smoke from another balcony. Maybe I've just been lucky, but with all the ranting and raving I've been reading "EVERY TIME we get a balcony, it is wasted because of chain smokers next door" from so many different posters, I find that hard to believe - that is IF their complaints are actually true (which I also doubt). It is beyond me how smoke can linger in a balcony on a moving ship enough to bother anyone if they did in fact get a whiff of it at all! I've got a whiff or two of that black crap that comes out the whale tail and I would much rather get the odd whiff of smoke then smell that! That has just as much, if not more, carcinogens than cigarette smoke but the zealots won't complain about that will they - that would affect them if it came down to actually something having to be done about those emissions - namely higher fares. Seems to me that the overzealous non-smokers just take things a little far in all aspects when it comes to smoking. Whether they actually believe these things they complain about (psychosomatic) I don't know, but I guess they complain the loudest and so are the only ones heard. If capacity goes down and fares rise because of this, you bet you will hear them complaining the loudest once again.

I'm an ex-smoker but my husband is a smoker. We will also be switching to NCL. Actually I have always wanted to try NCL but I just didn't want to lose the perks (although minor) of being a repeat cruiser on Carnival. But now, unless NCL brings out a no smoking on the balcony policy, we'll soon be NCL Latitude members :) If NCL institutes no smoking on balconies then I guess we will go back to AI vacations only.

I'm an ex-smoker (9 years) and have never smelled smoke on my balcony, maybe I'm just lucky but I highly doubt it, I do not for a minute believe that smoking on a balcony (AKA outside) on a moving ship can cause an adjacent balcony to fill up with smoke and cause those people on that balcony breathing problems or any other kind of problem. I would rather have someone smoking on a balcony beside me then 200+ of them smoking on the deck across from me all at once because they have nowhere else to smoke, or in the casino where I really will be breathing second-hand smoke from the now 200+ smokers who will go in there just to smoke because they can't on their balcony. The rest of you nonsmokers who had to whine and complain and carry on for years about smoking on the balconies - don't open your mouth to complain about the smoke on the outdoor decks or in the casino as you were the ones who caused that new problem.

As for Carnival going completely smoke free - I highly doubt it anytime soon since they tried one ship and that sunk rather quickly due to loss of profit.

If your other cab came back, would it have been another $10 per person again?

Yes, the second driver gave us a deal so that he would have a fare and not have to drive back empty as there weren't many people left at the beach.

Enjoy the beach until 5ish and grab a cab to Paradise Point for the best pictures? Any idea on this cost?

Cab will be $10 per person back to Paradise Point. We bought the PP tickets from Carnival at $19/person and to purchase them at PP they were $21. The bushwhacker was somewhere between $7-9 I think, I didn't actually see the per drink price just the total bill.

We were at Sapphire Beach last week. The cab (truck) was $10 per person. There were about 12-15 people in the truck to start with and we went from beach to beach dropping people off. Five or six of us got off at Sapphire. The driver ask what time we wanted picked up, we told her and she said she would be there at that time and gave us her card. After waiting about 20 mins longer, another driver asked us who we were waiting for and we showed the card (he was from the same company) and since she was already 20 mins late he said he would take us back (only us in the truck cab) for $35, so they do make deals.

I found it to be the most picturesque beach I have ever been to but far from the best beach. Others have mentioned how shallow it was but it was over my head (5' 6") not far from shore (maybe 3 feet out) just to the left of the middle! It was windy that day so maybe that made a huge difference in the depth of the water??? Because it was so windy and deep we didn't snorkel - my 12-year-old son had a hard time getting back to shore just being 4-5 feet out because of the wind.

The beer (Bud Light, not sure what other brands) was $3/bottle from the stand by the dive centre, pop was $2/can. When my husband was waiting to order, someone in front requested a customized drink consisting of a few different liquors and he was only charged $9 for it. DH said it was a pretty big drink. We did have one person come by asking if we wanted to order pizza or salads but never saw any food areas. There looked like what had at one time been a food service place at the point by the closest resort but it was pretty forlorn looking when we were there.