Cruise Envy

On 12/10/2022 at 5:27 PM, 2552phxcrzr said:

OCEANIA INSIGNIA ATW 2023 BLOG

 

Greetings ... I will be blogging our 200-day+ voyage.  However, I have set my FindPenguins blog for this particular trip to Followers Only.  (The only difference between this and a public blog is that you need to receive a "private link.")

 

You do not need to set up a FindPenguins account to follow the trip ... simply click the "private link" whenever you want to check for new postings ... no notification when new footprints are uploaded unless you are a Follower (for which you would need to set up a free account). 

 

If you would like to receive the "private link," send me an email at eerkun (format for yahoo).  Please mention your CC handle in the email so that I know the request is not spam.

Sent you an email!

There should be an option in their planner to make specialty dining reservations.

33 minutes ago, Cruisegirl6 said:

Hello,

 

I booked up the Breeze yesterday for May 25, 2019 sailing and found out it is a Premier cruise, we have a few questions if anybody can answer them for us, thank you!

 

1-  What is the gift now that is given upon arrival in your stateroom?  

2-  The drinks on us card is only for the casino correct?  Are we able to get drinks at the casino bar right outside the casino?  

3-  Has anybody won any of the tournaments for free items?

4-  What is the gift that they leave you on the last day?

5-  Do you find the slot machines are tighter on these cruises and the table games stakes are raised higher?

 

1.  In February it was players club Tervis tumblers

2. Casino only, and only if you are at a machine or table.  You can’t walk up to the casino bar.

3.  My companion (who actually had the offer) has won on occasion.

4.  It was a cheap bag, IMHO

5.  Casino was super tight.

YMMV.  Good luck and have fun!

Thank you!  Yes, she checked the website but apparently missed it.

I am asking for a friend headed there in late April.  Question 1 - how far apart are Mr. Sanchos & Playa Mia?  Question 2 - Does Playa Mia have paddleboarding?  If they don't offer it what are the odds an independent vendor on the beach might offer it?  Thanks in advance!

Tomorrow is April Fools Day folks.

They will refund your tour back to the original source of payment.  I am sure tours for Tortola will be posted soon.

You can choose from Guy's Burgers, Blue Iguana, the Lido Restaurant and La Cucina (the italian place upstairs from the Lido).  All of these are free for lunch.  I personally do Guys as the line moves fast.  It will totally depend on what you like to eat.

17 hours ago, ranger dave said:

Anybody have a picture or know what the prices run?

Friday I paid $10 per lb for peel and eat shrimp, and $23 for a lb of snow crab legs.  Those were “market price”.

We have had both rooms that were connected twice.  I never heard my kids unless we had the doors open.  Once was on the Fantasy, once on the pride.

I have done it three times.  So totally worth it.  If you were considering a cabana anyways, definitely consider this.  Having a private bathroom, a cook, a bartender and a host at your disposal is a great luxury.  I will confess to them bringing drinks down to the waters edge for us many a time!  

If if you don’t have a group you can always reach out to your roll call to see if some might want to split it with you.

Thanks.

Kim thanks for a great review!

I am traveling with a friend who has a power scooter.  We would like to go to the beach, but I can’t remember how steep it is up from the dock to the port area.  Her scooter doesn’t do inclines well.  Will we be able to get her to the beach on her scooter?

5 hours ago, oxymoron11 said:

You can only get drinks in the casino and only from the servers, you cannot go to the bar and order for free.

 

If you also have an offer for the Ultra you will be included in the big drawing, if no offer then you will not be included.

Thanks.

Question from a "Plus One" on the 4/27 Ultra on the Sunshine... does this one have just the DOU card or does it allow you to get drinks anywhere on the ship?

Also, I understand from the above thread that the +1 guest won't get the big prize (iPad mini etc) but do we get the other gifts that are left in the cabin?

Case of water, a fruit basket for my husband, and sometimes a four pack of beer.

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I am doing this in a single post, so it is long...but easier for me to just cut and paste once. Enjoy!

 

 

 

Galveston Breeze August 12-19, 2018

 

 

 

Itinerary:

 

 

 

Galveston

 

Sea Day

 

Sea Day

 

Jamaica 0900-1730

 

Grand Cayman 0700-1500

 

Cozumel 1000-1730

 

Sea Day

 

Galveston

 

 

 

Cabins: Lido deck 10 interior 10214 and 10218.

 

 

 

Background: This was our 6thcruise in the past 7 years, all with Carnival out of Galveston. Previous cruises were Triumph, Magic (2) and Breeze (2). We drive from near San Antonio to Galveston via I-10 to Sam Houston Tollway to I-45 south. There were two construction zones but none of them involved any lane closures so it did not impact our Sunday morning travel at all. This is a very easy 4-hour drive…and by easy, I mean we stop 3-4 times along the way. We parked at Galveston Park and Cruise immediately across from the terminal. When booking I requested a “good spot” as we are 6-time returning customers. They did not disappoint! We were in the pink building for those that might want to Google Earth this location. Price was $100.77 for interior/secured parking. Great location that allowed us to park and roll our luggage across the street. No waiting in a traffic line to drop off luggage, no shuttles, etc.

 

 

 

Embarkation: We arrived at the parking at 11:58 am. Dropped our luggage under appropriate deck location sign (no porters involved so no tip). Proceeded to the terminal and with our 1200-1230 checking, were able to walk right in. There was NO wait, except for I had highlighted the names on our boarding passes, so the lady who scanned our passports told us they had to reprint them or else we had to go to a “special line” that would take longer. Who knew? That took about 2 minutes for them to reprint them…but this time they were small like a cash register receipt that easily slipped into our passports. We proceeded to security and were one deep at the scanner. The lady in front of me beeped and they asked to see her boarding pass. It was highlighted (go figure) which for her meant she had a medical implant. So…she had to gather her stuff and go to that previously mentioned “special line”. Now I know. We breezed through security (see what I did there?), and up the stairs. The lady at the top looked at our boarding pass and told us to proceed immediately to the ship. One last checkpoint and onto the ship. We were carrying a suitcase that held 24 cans of soda, 7-8 books and a couple dozen magazines, so we were lugging that heavy thing along. We immediately went to the elevator and luckily Carnival workers were manning them. One opened up and we were right on. The operator stated he only stops on decks 5 and 10. PERFECT! Up to 10 we go. Working our way through the buffet, I noticed the lines were not too bad, however every table was occupied. Given the speed at which we got on the ship, I figured most everybody probably boarded before us. But that did not bother us as we were headed to the Italian restaurant. And as usual there was nobody there…and by nobody I guess I mean only one other table of four. I looked at my watch and it was 12:23. So that was 25 minutes total from turning off the car until being seated in the restaurant. Cannot imagine that taking any less time if I was diamond, platinum, suite guest, or purchased FTTF. After a leisurely lunch, we headed to our cabins about 1:25. By the time we got there, our sign and sail cards were in our mailbox. BEST. EMBARKATION. EVER.

 

 

 

MDR: We chose 6pm early dining. I emailed the Maitre’D about a week earlier requesting a window table. He did not disappoint. We had the very back table for 4 on deck four in the Blush dining room. Excellent view. One of my mantras in life is there is a trade-off to everything. And that applied here as well. Our wait staff, headed by Rudifel was flat out incompetent. Two nights we were in the MDR for 1:55. Numerous items we did not order were put on our table. Items we did order never showed up. Water was refilled twice the entire week. Other times we had to ask. Once they brought us our soup…but did not bring the spoons for another 7-8 minutes. There were other similar issues. Just bad service.

 

 

 

FOOD: I have said before Carnival does not do beef well. But they have stepped up their game. Both the prime rib and filet in the MDR were very good. The filet at the brunch was very good. The brisket in the MDR was still noting but average pot roast, so still room for improvement. I noticed the total lack of beef at the Blue Iguana. The Mongolian Wok only offered beef once (but still the best food on the ship) during the week. Not good for a Texas based cruise IMO. Overall my wife and I thought all the food was better, especially the deserts and MDR entrees. Guys was as greasy good as ever. Tandoor spicy as ever, and the Pizza line as long as ever. Never went to the deli but my son said it was good. It might have just been me, but it seemed the variety on the lido buffets has been scaled back. Not sure what is missing, but obviously still plenty of variety. And maybe less choices make the line move faster. I will stop with the food comments since it is so objective.

 

 

 

CABINS: Our steward “Korn” was wonderful. Extra tip for her! Previously we have always stayed on either deck 11 or 12. By comparison, the lido deck was like staying in the slums. Kids running up and down the hall at all hours (including 2am the last night), dishes and trash put out all hours of the day. The topper was the 3-4 dirty diapers outside of cabin 10212. Not sure if it came from that cabin, but that was the location. It was DISGUSTING. I know many like the lido cabins…have at them…I will never book lido deck again. In the past, I was a balcony only guy…but man do I sleep well in those interior cabins (when kids are not screaming).

 

 

 

CLOUD 9 SPA: I bought a week pass for myself. Another of my mantras is “No Cloud 9 with T-Pool, no Cruise”. Best $139 I ever spent. I went 2-3 times every day and the T-Pool would start out very hot, and eventually cool to its normal “not quite hot enough for a hot tub” temperature by late afternoon. One morning they were still doing an extended high chlorination (according to the prominently place sign) so the T-Pool did not open until about 9am. One lady (senior citizen) went off in a classic rage, ranting and raving about this until she lost her audience. Never saw here again in the Spa so the hour delay was worth it. And to confirm…the bubbles were working the entire week except for one afternoon. I alerted the staff and they had the bubbles working in about 10 minutes. That was the only exception. Having access to the Spa absolutely makes my cruise. Without it I would rather not cruise (thankfully the Dream is coming to Galveston). Believe it or not, I spent almost 32 hours in the Spa.

 

 

 

SHOWS: The first comedy show I saw was Jim Brick’s adult show on the first night. Absolutely hilarious. This guy has no PC filter, so you will be easily offended if you choose to be. Too bad I saw him first, as he made the other three comedians look really bad by comparison. Or maybe they were just really bad. I will never know. I would show up about 15 minutes before the five shows I watched. The doors were wide open so never a line and always lots of seats available. Two the shows did fill up to standing room only. My wife and did attend three Playlist Production shows (Motown, Flick and 88 Keys). They were all entertaining. We did not expect Tony Award winning performances and our expectations were met.

 

 

 

SHIP ON A STICK: For the first time ever I decided to play trivia. The first one was sports. Hey Carnival…this is a Texas based cruise. What is with all the Cricket and Lacrosse questions? I got 6 correct, with the winner getting only 7 correct. The second trivia was Beatles Songs. And yes, I was the Peoples Champion, immediately knowing “Golden Slumbers” and “Long Tall Sally” to separate myself from the pack. I was a team of one. All other teams were 3-6 people. Made it extra rewarding. I will display that SOS proudly until it needs dusting, at which time it will probably go in the trash. I decided to end my trivia career right then, going out on top and all that. After winning an older gentleman came over to congratulate me and I was trying to be gracious, saying “even a blind squirrel can find a nut”. He told me in a stern voice that he plays trivia all the time and is not a blind squirrel and left in a huff. Easy there Sparky! Then his wife came over and said that Beatles trivia is really just for old people (I am mid-50’s). I then thought she should have kicked my butt being at least 15 years my senior…but I let that low hanging fruit alone.

 

 

 

HOT TUBS: Some of you will not like this…but I did not see any bubbles in any of the aft, lanai or serenity hot tubs the entire trip. Just some minor current from the water jets. Did not keep people from using them though. Most were crowded most of the time.

 

 

 

FUN SHOPS: Same old crap. Nothing new. Did not purchase anything.

 

 

 

EXCURSIONS: In Jamaica we did the hop-on hop-off bus. But you could not hop off until it went all the way to the Rose Hall shops. It was a combination of the junk they sell at the port and the jewelry/watches/booze that Carnival sells. Could only see Rose Hall a couple miles off in the distance. What a waste of time. Our second stop was Dr Caves beach. The beach (sand, water) was great. The locals worked hard to sell the tourist dope. They were successful as one family was puffing away most of the 1.5 hours we were there. Made us feel uncomfortable for sure. And then, looking back, I think they tried to scam me. The Carnival lady who helped with getting the hop-on hop-off shuttle told me I could not get on the shuttle back to the port since I was wet. Nothing about my kids or another family that were wet too. Then a local taxi driver tells me for $7 per person he will take me back to the port. No thank you. I am riding the HOHO shuttle. The Carnival lady then tells me again I cannot ride the HOHO. The taxi driver again tries to get my business. I told him since I am on a Carnival excursion, it is their responsibility to get me back. Then the HOHO shuttle arrives. One more attempt to get me to buy another taxi followed by a magical relaxation of the “rule” that allowed me on the HOHO – as long as I took off my swim shirt and sat on a towel. Bad show Jamaica…bad show. Hope to never visit your country again. In Grand Cayman, I reserved some wave runners for myself and my two boys. $75 for 30 minutes plus another $10 for transportation and access to the beach club. We were told to stay between two buoys about ¾ mile off shore and about 1.5 miles apart. No guides. Great fun. Highly recommended. GC is a tender port and the tenders started running at 7:15. I figured if we went to deck 0 about 8:00 we would meet our reservation time of 10:00. I was way off. Once we got to deck 0, there was no line for the tenders. We got right on, waited about 10 minutes and we were off for the shore. Total time from cabin to shore was about 20 minutes. Another 20 to get the cab to the beach and we were really early. Luckily, we were able to get the wave runners right away. I absolutely love 7-mile beach. I could live there. Seriously. In Cozumel, it was more wave runners and beach snorkel via a Carnival excursion. Water was pretty choppy but still a blast. The snorkeling was okay. They provided decent gear. In the ports, we bought a total of 5 t-shirts and one bottle of vanilla (my wife was against this purchase…we will see).

 

 

 

MASSAGE: On night 6 I heard an announcement for reduced full body massage. 60 minutes for $99. Not sure if that is a good deal (never had a massage), but after getting beat up on the wave runners, it sounded nice. And my wife was encouraging me…so what was I do to? So off for a massage. It was great, if not painful for a couple seconds a few times. I was given a sales pitch, but just said no and was on my way. Slept really well that night.

 

 

 

DEBARKATION: We decided to carry our luggage off the ship, as we needed to get home sooner rather than later as we were immediately driving back to TX A&M to drop off my son to start his college career (it was a long driving day for me). I told the family to be ready to go by 8am and that I meant standing in the hall with your suitcase ready to leave. We were told all day Saturday that all the fun would start at 815am. I was hoping to pre-position ourselves on deck 4. But at 7:35 they called all the self-assists from decks 11 and 12. Two minutes later they added deck 10. Luckily everyone was ready so off we go. The elevators were chaos…too many people waiting with their luggage. So down the steps we go with our big suitcases. I fully expected a backup by deck 4, but it did not happen. We made it down to deck three, and the CD asked if we had all our luggage and all our people. I said yes and he directed us to the exit. There was NOBODY in line. We were scanned off the ship. At customs, there was NO LINE. We cruise through that, wheeled our luggage across the street and were driving before 8am. AMAZING!

 

 

 

FTTF: I did not buy this. Did not even consider it. But as you can read above, it would have been an absolute waste of money.

 

 

 

SUMMARY: Overall a very nice cruise and good family time before our boys leave the house for the upcoming college year. But all of it was familiar, bordering on routine, which is not good for a vacation. There was no "oooh or ah moments". I think if we did another cruise in the next year or so, it would cross that border of becoming routine. Odds are we will cruise again, but not after we have explored other vacation options the next few years. Time for break!

Thanks for posting your experiences!

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The staff did a great job informing those of us on board about the delays. We even got a letter from the captain about it to use (if needed) to help in getting airlines to waive any change fees. Spoke to an eyewitness to the treatment of the guest -- they said the crew formed a bit of a "wall" around what was happening to help protect the privacy of the patient. We also didn't have to be out of our cabins until 11am, and they opened lunch facilities at 11 am for us.

It was well handled on board. So sorry to those caught waiting to board for any snafu's there.

Hats off to all you savvy posters with the phone numbers etc. It is a shining example of what this board does well. OP, I hope things work out. Keep us posted!

Thanks!

Great review! I like many others had wondered where you "went" -- glad to see you cruising again!

I consider myself a fairly picky eater. Prior to my first chef's table, I did NOT like pumpkin, beets, a lot of veggies... In four trips to Chef's table, the only thing I have turned down is a stalk of broccoli. I ate pumpkin something and LOVED it, as well as some beet concoction. As long as you are willing to try, you should be pleasantly surprised. As someone mentioned above, it's not a lot of any one thing, so if you get a bite that isn't your favorite, move on. It is a DELIGHTFUL experience!

Traveling with a friend who can't walk far at all, and will have a rented motorized scooter for our cruise. I understand that we can rent a beach wheelchair from the Shore Excursions desk for Half Moon Cay. Anyone know if they meet you at the tender with the chair? We are guessing she won't be able to take her scooter on the tender.

I would love to hear from anyone who has tackled this already at HMC.

I am traveling with a friend who is new to having a scooter on a cruise ship. How accessible is the port area in Grand Turk? Are there lips or steps up to the shops in the port area? Are the doors wide enough for a scooter to go through?

I have similar questions about Margaritaville there. We are trying to determine if she can leave the ship and enjoy the shops/Margaritaville. She can stand and walk, but is VERY limited to distance due to breathing issues. She is renting a scooter for the cruise.

Are there beach wheelchairs available to rent at Grand Turk? I am thinking it isn't worth it due to the sloped nature of the beach and the rocky entrance to the water.

Thanks in advance for your insights.