elcuchio24

Many time the 'upgrade' upsell is the same amount as if you'd booked the upsold room originally. Always do your homework. We have very rarely taken an upgrade, since we usually book what we want.

The UPGRADE FAIRY used to be around a bit more, with actual upgrades at no cost, but seems to have vanished, at least for me, over the last decade...

Kennedy Space Center is awesome, if you are at all interested its a great time. 

Just now, Rick&Jeannie said:

And get hit with a *second* bad exchange rate....

No, we just hang onto any extra as well.  I've got Euros and British pounds (currency and coins) sitting in our "travel" drawer! Probably not enough to do much of anything but maybe a few tips...

In all reality, we find we usually use credit cards anyway, pretty rare to have to use cash unless you prefer it 

17 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Well...it's "easy" but not exactly cheap in my case.  My bank requires you to purchase $200 in US equivalent to whatever foreign funds you want...and you CANNOT "mix & match" the foreign funds.  All of one type, so if you need Euros AND British pounds...$400!

 You can typically trade them back if you have unused currency when you get home. We usually get $500 of each at a time, but travel enough that if we dont use it all, we'll just use it the next time.

You can also just use at ATM or currency exchange while in the specific country. We've done that before as well, just make sure to use a cash advance credit card with no foreign  transaction fee. 

On 3/23/2024 at 11:53 AM, cruisekitty22 said:

We love NCL  for all it offers. How does MSC compare for a balcony room,.  Do people on board speak English or is it all foreign languages 24/7?  How does the food, drinks ect compare?   Do they offer a good drink package?  How much is the cost?  How is it sailing from Brooklyn?  Sorry for so many questions.  We are used to NCL and have yet to try MSC. 

Even for European cruises we've taken on MSC, the primary language is English (which is interesting because often only 10% of guests are english speaking).

We like MSC alot. I thought the food was similar to NCL, although different especially on Euro cruises. Drink packages are similar cost on RCL/CCL and probably similar to NCL when you figure in the Free at Sea package upcharge. Brooklyn is pretty easy and the sail away is beautiful. Enjoy!

very easy to get euros from your local bank ahead of time 

15 hours ago, moviegal said:

A big, hearty "thank you" to  everyone who responded. Super useful information, and I really do appreciate it! Now I know my homework when I sail: try to find all of the "above $20" drinks and report back, LOL!

you fancy!

3 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

Sounds great!! Reason I asked was that Pride arrives the day Venezia departs Bermuda and we are planning on meeting some CC people from Venezia for a drink that day.  Wanted to extend the invite to you!  Have a great cruise with your family!!

That is very kind and thoughtful of you. Great to have nice civil people on these boards still, reminds me of the old days!

Enjoy your cruise as well, and time with fellow CC'ers--catch you the next time around. 

19 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

Are you sailing on Pride out of Baltimore?  Or Venezia out of NYC?  

NCL Gem out of Boston. We sail CCL some but sail alot of other cruise lines often as well. 

18 minutes ago, JGmf said:

@elcuchio24 Can you let us know if your answer is based on a sailing this month, post dry-dock?  There are rumors on this board regarding the elimination of selected (or all) food and snacks in the OL on the Joy. 

 

I'm also wondering what the most recent experience has been.

No, the last time we were on Joy was about 6 months ago. I wasn't aware of any changes after dry dock, and unfortunate if they removed this!

1 minute ago, cruiseboy89130 said:

MSC has it too! Just more hidden....

Thats interesting, makes sense there might be that functionality. Maybe the just hide it in a pipe in the normal stack at the back.

It was a Med cruise we did in November....so many europeans smoking on their balconies...didnt give me warm and fuzzys on a LNG ship! Ha. 

1 hour ago, cruiseboy89130 said:

It is a vetilation emergency for LNG use

Doubtful that they would look that far ahead to add this. We recently went on MSC World Europa, which is LNG, no such similar stack

Its a nice, but limited buffet. Lots of pastries, fruit, yogurt, a few other options. Fine for a light breakfast but not the full set up of the main Buffet area. Great, uncrowded bar in the morning hours also...

North East we usually go back around Labor Day. Its the week after for us this year. THAT BEING SAID....we're planning on taking the kids on a cruise to Bermuda the week before school starts...end of August...so you might have those folks trying to squeak in last minute cruises before school starts, like us.

21 hours ago, wrcjr98 said:

Does Carnival offer the fresh squeezed Orange Juice?  I know when we sailed Royal Caribbean, they offered it, for a fee, but, it was offered.

They have a bunch of fresh squeezed options and push them pretty hard. I want to say its $4-5ish

Officially no. I will say, depending on your cruise, if there are alot of Europeans on it, they tend to dress MUCH fancier that Americans for even casual occasions. Dressed to the 9's often, and men carrying their clutch's made me do a double take at first. 

. 

4 hours ago, sparks1093 said:

We've sailed on NCL, Royal and CCL and have found the food quality to be very similar across the three lines. If I had to rate them I probably would put CCL last, but it isn't by a wide margin at all and when I consider what I'm paying to cruise CCL it takes a leap forward. Whenever we book we do look at the other lines and they are always substantially more than CCL (sometimes by thousands) and given that price differential one would expect their food to be miles ahead, and it isn't. I think Guy's is a good burger, but only because I'm not paying for it and I probably wouldn't pay any extra for it if they started charging for it. I've read a lot of good things about Shaq's and look forward to trying it soon.

Shaq's and Guys are two of my favorite spots on any cruise line, anywhere. High class/fancy? No. Delicious--100%

On 2/24/2024 at 1:18 PM, jimbo5544 said:

Food is def a subjective topic.  I can even have the same thing on different ships and it taste and look different.  

Absolutely. Had two CCL cruises last year, food on Celebration was sub par in general, but went on Horizon and it was quite good...

Got these for my kiddos....5/8 at the time, they both loved it. Very young kid safe, its just a stuffy/blanket, and they still love it and have it in their beds. Good deal too and they were so excited when they saw it in the room!

you'll need to dig deep to find drinks that expensive...

They can port 2 ships at a time, only one pier is damaged. If yours is the second one, you're going elsewhere. 

On 4/12/2023 at 6:24 AM, chengkp75 said:

While that is about a mail boat up in Hancock County (which is where Bar Harbor is), what is being discussed is the Casco Bay Ferry Line "Mailboat Run", down in Portland.  This has been a licensed mail carrier since the 1870's, and delivers not only mail and packages, but groceries, and propane tanks to islanders in Casco Bay as well.  Islanders will shop for groceries on the mainland, then at checkout, they tell the cashier that it is an "island delivery", and the food is taken in back of the store, boxed up (usually one bag of groceries goes in each of a top or bottom of a banana box), refrigerated or frozen (shoppers usually provide coolers), and delivered to the ferry terminal in the afternoon, with the owner's name on  the boxes.  Each island's deliveries are palletized and wrapped, loaded on the boat, and delivered to the island dock.  The owners then come down and claim their stuff and take it home.  Some islands don't allow cars, so golf carts are the delivery haulers.  Some islands do allow cars, and several families will frequently go in together to buy an old car that probably would not pass state inspection (too much rust, etc), and designate these as "island cars", which don't need inspections or license plates as long as they don't leave the island.

 

Casco Bay Ferry also provides the transportation  for middle and high school students from the islands to the schools on the mainland, both ways, morning and afternoon.

 

I live in Portland, and one son worked for Casco Bay Ferries for a while, so if the OP has questions about the "run" or the islands, I can help.

Grew up in Stonington, they run a mailboat out to Isle a Haut. If you ever get a chance I'm sure you'd enjoy the ride. 

We've never had an issue bring back alcohol or food back on the ships in Europe. Much more loosey goosey over there. 

Excel class probably the only CCL ships we'll sail going forward, enjoy.

Great beach day, good snorkeling if your into that. Second vote for Jacks Shack, we go there every time. You can get a couple loungers and umbrella for $20-30