p_mori7

Sailing southbound in October from Montreal to New York. Does one side of the ship have better views when coming into the various ports (Quebec City, Charlottetown, Sydney, Halifax, St John, Portland, Bar Harbor, Boston and Newport,) or cruising the St Lawrence Seaway?

Thanks.

Quebec would be Port side.

Charlottetown would probably be Starboard side.

Sydney am not sure, but would guess Port side.

Halifax would be Starboard side.

St-John would be Starboard side.

I don't know about the USA ports.

~Phil.

My answers below:

• What is the benefit these spa rooms I see referenced, and what is this pool people are talking about?
  

Access to the Spa, Special cabin décor, Special little goodies in your cabin, Thalassotherapy pool in the Spa.

• Does Carnival enforce their suggested boarding times?
  

Not that I saw in Long Beach...BUT...we were there just 15 minutes before our allotted time.

• Could I make a 12:15pm return flight out of LAX?
  

Yes... I would do self assist debarkation before 9am and take a cab to the airport.

 

Taxi service is Excellent in Barcelona.

Our last time was off Vista, Athens -> Barcelona, our flight was at 11:30am and we made it with plenty of time to spare.

9:30am is a little early for my comfort...but should be doable provided you can get off by 7am at the latest.

The cab ride is about 20 minutes, depending on traffic of course.

~Phil.

Thanks for the great review & everyone else chiming in that was on board! Very helpful!

 

I have a question, hoping someone can answer. I've been offered an upgrade from an OV to a balcony just above the casino, seems it's right above the cage. Was the casino noisy?

Nope. I would take that in a heartbeat depending on the price for the upgrade.

Yes, provided you do not encounter any flight delays.

Very nice job on the review !

We were also on this sailing...I think I may have spoken with your husband at some point during the cruise...I remember talking to a guy from Wyoming...at the Meet & Greet maybe ?

We enjoyed this cruise.

Embarkation was fantastic...15 mins tops from getting out of the cab at the terminal to being on board...Amazing.

Debarkation was just as quick...once announced...we were directed to wait at the Black Pearl Dining Room...right next to the gangplank.

Our pre-cruise hotel was the Hampton Inn Long Beach airport...decent rate...great rooms.

We rented a car from Avis...dropped it off at the ICB building in LB...short cab ride to the terminal. Vice Versa upon return...they don't have a lot of cars at that Avis facility though...

Our flight home was on Sunday morning...so we spent the day cruising down the PCH...had brunch at Ruby's Diner in Newport Beach...then back up to El Segundo to an AIrBnB I had reserved which was minutes from LAX. Dinner that night was at In-N-Out Burger...Mmmmm ! Bought a T-shirt that I will wear when I cruise around in my '64 Falcon Convertible this summer !

Dinner was always very good in the Dining room. Service on Valentine's was not so good...had a chat with our head waiter after the meal...he acknowledged they could have done better...and the next nights were A+.

Breakfast was almost always in the Dining room as well. Port day choices were good...and QUICK ! Less than 30 minutes. I had the broken egg breakfast sandwich both times.

SeaDay brunch always good. My wife likes Eggs Benedict...many times the eggs are overdone...but not on Splendor...they arrived perfect every time she had it.

Music...Latin band was OK...singer had a nice voice...BUT...they were lazy...started late / finished early... and next to Casino...so some smoke...but not too bad.

The main band was called "Free at Midnight"... and we thought they were very good...Male lead singer Tyler has a great voice a wide pitch range...is also pretty good at working the crowd. The Female lead was OK. Nice girl...spoke to her for a bit. Found out the keyboardist was from Quebec...Sherbrooke area.

Shows...here is my BIG gripe...show start times do not work well with the dining time. Early 7:30pm Late 9:30pm. We had to leave the show early to be in the dining room on time (Late 8pm). We would never finish dining early enough to get the late show...This really needs some more planning.

CD MarQ...we liked him...found him laid back, easy to talk to, not intrusive or pushy with the sales pitches.

We met a lot of really nice people on this cruise !

~Phil.

Which Ship ?

What sail date ?

San Juan PR is accepting cruise ships last I heard.

or ask an aunt/uncle or other family member to travel instead ?

Havana Bar every night has very good live Latino music.

Ocean Plaza every night...though the band does mix various types of music.

RFP every night usually has an entertainer in there...depending on who it is, there may be more or less music to dance to.

RFP, when they have an entertainer in there. Otherwise Ocean Plaza when the band is playing there.

We sailed Vista last year, Athens to Barcelona.

Kathy, we were on the same sailing...what a great cruise ! Too bad we couldn't make it to Turkey though.

The free Red is usually a Santa Carolina Merlot (from Chile).

I don't know what the White one is.

If you are on a 5 day sailing can you buy Cruise the Vineyards more than once?

 

Can say you buy one and then your spouse in the same room buy one? That way you end up with 6 bottles instead of 3?

 

Also, same questions for the 5 bottles for longer cruises. Can you buy the package twice?

Sure.

Contact CCL Special Needs Dept.

Distilled water should be available on-board at no charge via your cabin steward if I am not mistaken.

~Phil.

We've been on 10 & 12 day cruises in Europe with CCL. Both times there were 2 formal nights. We dressed up nice.

There are usually 3 tiers.

Shortest cruises I've been on were 7 days, each package usually had 5 bottles you get to pick from a selection offered for each tier.

I want to say about $120 / $150 / $180 for the package...but don't hold me to that.

Gratuity is Extra 15% automatically added to the bill.

You can usually find the offer in the atrium or near the shops once you board. You can also ask your dining room staff.

Can you call Carnival or your TA(if you used one) to change boths legs to the same cabin.

THIS^^^

We were booked on the Sunshine in 2015...and our PVP sent us an email asking if we would move a couple of doors down so that somebody on a B2B could have our room for both legs.

The "free" red is usually Santa Carolina Merlot, and it's a really decent bottle.

Any unused portion or unopened bottle can be transferred to the Main Dining Room for the following night. You can also bring it back to your room.

~Phil.

5217 on Vista while she was in the Med.

Yes you can hear the music.

No it is not loud.

The band usually quit around 12:30

Once my head hits the pillow, my lights are out pretty much no matter the noise around me, so it never bothered me. It did bother my wife a little bit, but not enough to never book another Havana inside (if they weren't so gosh darn expensive right now...looking at Horizon in Feb 2019 8 day to Aruba...)

~Phil.

Here you go:

Another vote for Havana ! Also a good selection of Cuban treats to eat there.

Regular coffee only on Lido deck for Vista.

Coffee shop brew is good.

Hi everyone,

 

After our first 2 cruises (NCL Getaway and RCCL OTS) we are now trying a third cruiseline, Carnival. We have looked at the Carnival Breeze 7 nights from Galveston going to Belize, Mahogany Bay and Cozumel for next March 4th 2018. I have several questions for you who have been with Carnival before:

 

1- Is there a link to see an up to date MDR menu? Only ones I found are from 2015 unless they are still the same :)

As stated by previous poster, Look up American Table menus.

2- How is Anytime dinning? Is there a lot of time waiting if going with kids around 6PM?

We prefer assigned seating. The one time we tried Anytime, we did not like it due to wait time, rushed service, and different tables / servers night-to-night. We prefer the familiarity when servers get to know us.

3- Does Carnival have wine packages like pick 5 from a list for a fixed price?

Yes. Usually 3 price levels with corresponding quality wines. We usually take the lower or mid-level, and have never been disappointed with any of the selections.

4- How is Galveston currently? 6 months should be enough to fix everything from the Hurricane?

Yes

5- Kids will be 6 and 9 and merely speaks English (French is our primary language). Anyone knows if they have any French speaking personnel at the kids club? this is a long shot and not a deal breaker at all :)

Je ne suis pas du tout certain qu'ils vont avoir du personnel francophone.

6- Does Carnival have sometimes promotion including the alcohol package?

No. Every day has a different "drink of the day" that is $1.00 rebate from the regular price.

7- Looking at ************* website as in Canada we have rarely nice OBC promotions from travel agents. I got offer from different travel agents such as CruiseOne etc... Are this reliable? If someone from Canada knows a good travel agent that offer perks, please let me know :)

We are also in Canada, and I always book using either a CCL agent or directly online myself. If you decide to use a travel agent, I would suggest using somebody local to you that you can see and talk to. CCL website and Cruise agents usually always have visibility to promotions.

 

Thanks all for your help. After this cruise, we will choose with which one NCL, RCCL and Carnival we will stick. At the moment NCL is #1 for us but might have been an off week for RCCL but service and food was not as good as NCL for us.

 

Jonathan

 

Norwegian Getaway May 2014

RCCL Oasis of the Seas February 2016

Enjoy your cruise Jonathan !

Yes !

It is different on every ship. Did not try Cucina while on the Breeze though.

One thing that I found very good were the Arancini...have had them every other time we went to a Cucina !