ILCruzr

I was on the regal last month and bought the card. It was such a great deal. I don't drink, so it was kind of my "Drink" card. I got blended drinks like every day and gelato. I loved the banfree banana drink the best. YUM YUM...I could go for one now lol...I didn't even end up using the whole card, have it saved for a future princess cruise one day :)

But yes it includes tea and coffee, but only if there are punches left. They only punch for speciality drinks, not for basic coffee and tea. Just make sure you don't use the card completely. Was such a deal!

Enough with the 5 emails a day for the Itinerary change on the Carnival Liberty. [emoji568]

what was the change?

We booked the pacific coastal one on September 30! Can't wait. This will be my first NCL cruise. I think it will be like the escape foodwise.

Interesting review. I was on the sailing before you and thought the food was great. The ship was very clean, unlike some carnival ships I've been on. I do ageee with you on the beds. They were so awful! Makes it hard to go back on the ship when sleeping was tough. That ship needs new matresses!

Boggles my mind you can't have empathy. What would you have them do?

 

 

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Tell the passengers and keep them aware of the situation. Let them have phone service and WIFI connections to change flights. Most airlines were working with people to get re routed. The FLL airport was closed that day and part of the next and I am sure Carnival knew that. If i was on that sailing I would have been mad. So rude to not inform people of what is going on. Actually it is pretty strange they didnt.

just out of curious what room where you in? We are on the 8th deck in Feb....and I am hopnig our room gets re done by then. I have been seeing really nice pics of other rooms. We usually stay on the 6th deck but this time chose something different haha...just our luck!

Thank you so much for all your responses. Carnival also did say the same. I am curious if anyone knows tho, Will I be able to purchase a cheers package for just myself? I am assuming the 4th passenger name would be removed from room if a no show? Thanks

No, everyone has to have the cheers package in the room.

We debarked on the 18th and customs was backed up. You can't get on if everyone is not off. Princess says boarding will start around noon. So if you arrive at 10:30, you will wait.

 

 

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Yup...we also debarked on the 18th and it was a nightmare going on and off the ship. I have sailed Carnival and Royal and had never experienced the amount of waiting I had to do for princess. They need to streamline their embarkation and debarkation process a bit better with the 3600 passengers on board.

I just got off of the regal on Sunday and I thought the majority of food was really good. Try the Horizon Court/Bistro options. I thought the food was REALLY good up there and you didnt need to wait forever and a day in the MDR. That was my only complaint of this ship, was the MDR was SLOW and the waitstaff were over staffed and very crazy busy. We ate in the MDR 4 nights of the 7 and the last night our waiter kind of forgot about us and it took 2 hours to get the food-and it was so so. Another night, we had just sat down and a party of 18 split between two tables sat down and our waiter was in charge of that section. But then someone took over one of the tables because it took to be too much. So, I agree when you say they are understaffed.

and 500 kids, that is NUTS! The waiter on our last night said he was dreading the next two cruises. I think on our cruise was like 40-50 kids. Not very many, so it was nice!

Have a great cruise, we did on the Regal! PS try the fettucini, it is out fo this world!

Happy to hear you enjoyed the cruise overall. We found plenty of places on Sunday and Monday out of the wind. It seems there were areas where it was bad and other areas because of the direction of the wind where we could find calm. Since it was warm it didn't bother us but it could have been better. The other days were so beautiful.

 

Entertainment is a funny and subjective thing. We thought it was excellent. We loved the comedian. My cousin and brother commented that they hadn't laughed that hard in a long time. It's such a good thing that there is a variety of entertainment on a ship so there is something for everyone.

 

I've heard about those tiny balconies on the Regal and Royal. We were fortunate to snag extended balconies but we booked 18 months in advance. They went fast.

The balcony itself was decent...it was the room. How were your beds? Our were awful!

I was on the 12/11 sailing...but was in the line with the masses...we arrived at like 11:15 and didnt get on the boat until 12:30-there was a HUGE line for embarkation and it was very disorganized with no signage of where people should wait. The people in front of me were priority but didnt know they were supposed to be in a different line and waited in our line for about 30 mins before they got to where they were supposed to be. Embarkation for princess was a total disaster and having sailed on Carnival and RCL, it was much more organized with them.

Now Debarkation took like an hour-it was awful. They try staggering the times but so many people just walked off and they wind you through REALLY long lines and make you wait. Again it was better on Carnival and RCL...we just breeze on and off those ships-Princess likes to control things....was really bad and mentioned in that in our post cruise survey.

The Havana Bar had a live band with a dance floor that mostly stayed empty when I was there. I never really saw more than 20 people in here. It’s a shame because they were good. The second night, the band had a break and the Fun Times had that Latin music would be played. The DJ played mostly Latin music, but also played some reggae and the occasional wobble. The party was supposed to be going here until 1 am, yet at 12:30 am he started talking about the last song was coming soon. Huh? My experience has been that the evening venues will stay open if there’s a good crowd. Well this was the one night the Havana Lounge was packed! I can respect the fact that people want to get off work on time and not stay after hours. But if there’s a room and dance floor full of people dancing and having fun, at least close when you’re scheduled to close and not 15 minutes early.

 

 

Matt is truly special and is the most memorable cruise director I will probably ever have. I’ve seen for myself why people love him so much. He has this energy where it’s hard not to smile and have a good time in his presence. His deck parties were crazy fun. I would love to be on another ship with him as cruise director.

 

 

I only had one issue with a crew member. This might be petty, but I thought it was tacky. One late night, I headed up to get some pizza before heading to bed. About 10-15 members of what I assume was the entertainment staff (I assume as not many crew are allowed up here) showed up loud, obnoxious, and a couple were obviously drunk. A couple of guys were in line directly behind me standing THISCLOSE to my backside and their hands kept brushing my rear end. I was polite and turned to them like hey, I don’t know who it is but someone’s hand keeps hitting my behind. Instead of saying sorry my bad, they started laughing loudly and one of them said “I’m gay!” As in I’d never want to touch you. I was like I don’t care if you’re gay, I just want my personal space. They continued laughing and this guy then stood with his back directly to me, as if to taunt me and say eff you. When I moved, he moved, When I shifted, he followed. After a couple minutes of this, I turned to him again and asked why he was doing this on purpose. He opened his mouth but before he could say anything, one of the ladies in his group pulled him aside to her as if to say stop. No I didn’t report him, as I can handle myself with some drunk prick kid. I don’t have an issue with Carnival allowing certain members of their staff into the guest areas, however I do think behavior like this is highly inappropriate.

 

 

The ports of call were Amber Cove, Dominican Republic, and Grand Turk. I booked the 12 waterfalls of Damajagua with Iguana Mama (Google them, this is awesome) in DR. In GT I had lunch at Jack’s Shack and enjoyed some beach time.

 

 

Overall, I had a fun, enjoyable cruise. There are still some kinks that need to be worked out on this ship. The Vista is HUGE and the biggest ship I’ve sailed to date. I’m not sure that I’m a fan of the mega ships and not sure that I would book the Vista again or even the Horizon. It's just so many more people with smaller areas because they tried to cram so much onto this ship. Feel free to ask any questions and I’ll be happy to answer if I can. :)

Kim! I almost had a chance to meet you! I was on the Regal Princess, which was the other ship in port with you on the Amber Cove day. I witnessed the sky ride incident where the guy was stuck on it for about an hour and they had to crane him down. That was quite a show-and a bad reflection for carnival on their new ship. It was interesting to see for sure.

But the Vista looked beautiful from the Regal and I hope to one day sail her. BTW have you ever tried Princess? I really liked the Regal-it was elegant and it had the BEST food I have ever had on any of my cruises. The Lido deck on that ship is AMAZINGGGG and knowing you are a foodie, I bet you would love it!

But if you do book the royal or regal and want a balcony-book deluxe or higher. The standard balcony room is TINY with an equally TINY bathroom (let's just say sitting on the toilet you feel like you are almost in the room lol) with small balconies. But the rest of the ship I loved-you should try those ships.

Wish I could have seen you in the DR....maybe some other time!

I was on this cruise too! We had a fun time but wish the weather was a bit better the first few days of the trip.

But loved the ship-beautiful. Food was excellent! Loved the Lido deck on this cruise-so much selection, it was overwhelming at times. Entertainment was great too-loved that Fieria show. The singers and dancers were so good. Liked Nathan Foley too. The opera singer was great. Didnt care too much for the comedian.

Only downfall to me on this ship was the cabins. We were in a standarad balcony and it was too too small. This was my first princess cruise and on my next one, I will defintely upgrade to the bigger room. Missed the couch in the room. Also the bathroom was SO small in that room plus the beds were horrible, it felt like sleeping on a piece or wood or the floor. They were very uncomfortable.

But other than the cabin-we loved the cruise and would sail Princess again.

Great to know-we are doing that tour next week while we are on the Regal :) Can't wait to see St. John!

Great itinerary. Did it on the glory in 2013....west bay beach in roatan is awesome. We used victor bodden. It was cheap and a great tour. He's highly rated. Stingray city is awesome! Enjoy!

I am right there with ya! I am leaving Saturday for my first princess cruise on the Regal on Sunday!

My bags are pretty much packed and I am ready to fly down to Florida haha. Just gotta make it through the next two days...but the days leading up to a cruise are so exciting :)

Bon Voyage!!!

We have looked at Chicago. Southwest does have some pretty good prices to Houston. Chicago is still an 8 hour drive for us though.

You can also try Milwaukee or Indianapolis-Southwest usually has cheap flights from there.

Too bad you are going out of Texas-I live near Chicago and fly out of O'Hare all the time. For my feb cruise, I found a RT ticket on JetBlue to FLL for 184 including one free bag each way-not sure what they are to TX-but you call always look.

Have fun planning your first cruise! I feel like you in a way. After 7 Carnival cruises and 1 Royal- I am leaving Saturday for my first Princess cruise. I have been planning this one and it will be a whole new world- You will be addicting to cruising and your DW will ask when is the next one after you get off-be forwarned cruises from TX are generally colder than ones out of FL...so pack warmer clothes for the first few days before you get to the Caribbean :)

Cozumel is great in Feb! I have been there a few times-its around upper 70s/low 80's. I will be there the week before you :)

Have a great cruise!

Lido is always open....dining room is not.

following! I am on the 12/11 Regal Sailing. First Princess experience and I can't wait!!!! 7 days and counting until I am FL bound :)

Just curious. How does anything that happened here reflect on sailing out of Galveston? There were problems with the ship, not the port...

 

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It seems to be colder from there, than from FL....didn't really know that. Thought it was more tropical.

Ok, so maybe i was a little negative yesterday and no i "don't know all about the working of the ships or how much food provision they have, frankly i dont care how much they have, as long as its enough", i was just speculating the reason for the change because there was no information on why the change was made for the arrival and guest care just told me that corporate called them and told them to make 9 am arrival, no other information. Plus it struck me as odd that my PVP told me to expect my refund within 5 business days after submission of documents, its now been 12 business days since I submitted and not a peep.

 

And yes, i did have an excellent time, not once in my review did i say the cruise sucked, i was pissed because I jumped through hoops (and money)to get five people's flights changed from upstate ny down to texas a week and a half before the cruise because the arrival time got changed to 2 pm and then for them to turn around right before the cruise ends and say "everything is fixed now" and for us to make more calls to change flights which would have been more money out of pocket.

 

This was a christmas present for members of my immediate and extended family so i was fronting all of the money for 9 people, so it gets very expensive when changes are made and i had to make plans to entertain all 9 people in Houston for the day because of Carnival's changes. If it was because of something mechanical, weather related I would totally understand, but this was a conscious decision to change the arrival time.

 

And no, i did not file a travel insurance claim because carnival said they would pay for it in the email they sent out which I expect them to uphold because it is in black and white.

We were supposed to be on the same cruise as you, but we canceled and used the money to book a new cruise leaving next weekend. I am so glad we canceled because a friend of mine was on the ship and she said it was going very fast and it was also very cold. It wouldn't have not been an experience I have wanted for a cruise. I had never cruised out of Galveston either, so now that I know a little more about Galveston, don't think I will be booking anymore Galveston cruises.

We too are also waiting for our airefare reimbursements too. We used miles for our tickets, but of course since we booked our tickets back in May for this cruise, the miles went up for FL and we had to basically buy brand new tickets to get to Florida next weekend. And on top of that, the fees to get our miles back. I called carnival on Monday about this and they said it could take up to 6 weeks for the refund. Which is ironic bc the day we canceled the Liberty, we immediately got the refund back for the cruise.

I am sorry you had such a bad last few days of your cruise :( The San Juan itinerary is awesome. We did it on the Valor last year and that was SO Fun. Carnival needs to put a better ship in SJ than a junky fantasy class ship. lol..if you change your mind about SJ, my parents loved Jewel of the Seas out of SJ. They also did the adventure of the seas and I know that has been refurbished too.

Thanks for you review! I am sailing on the Regal in 10 days! And I cannot wait. This is my first Princess cruise, so I am learning all about what princess has to offer.

I have heard about the buffet and having sailed on Carnival and Royal, the buffet is nothing special. So, I am excited to hear how awesome the buffet on the Regal is. What items do they serve at lunch and dinner? I am really excited to try alfredos.

Looking forward to seeing more of your review!

Carnival needs to find that kid and then ban him for life on their line. What he did was dangerous and unacceptable behavior and by sharing this video, it is promoting this type of behavior is ok to have a laugh at it. It is just sick!:mad:

We did the Divinia twice - once was a Moody Blues cruise, and we didn't think much of the service at all, but figured it was because it was a charter. When we went last year, we agreed that we would never do it again. It's just a different level of service - indifferent at its best. The food was okay, but I believe Carnival's was better - except they did have great pizza. The ship is GORGEOUS, but that only goes so far.

I shouldn't ever say ever, because that new MSC ship looks pretty neat, but I'd have to read a lot more reviews before ever considering it again.

Thanks for letting me know. I have been so curious about MSC. I have seen the ship in port and have wanted to sail on it. But I might wait for the Seaside to try them.