Alaskan Joe

I do not like wines YUK! However my DW does and we did the Steakhouse the 1st night on our last cruise, as for the free bottle of wine my wife was YUK! Now our Panama Canal trip in February I have talked my wife into going again night #2, and she hates spending money. I just hope she will upgrade to a better selection of wine, she deserve it.

Our cruise was booked 530 days early, and have seen price drops, to the tune of about $500 between us both. The air fare which we book through Carnival also has drop around $250. Moral of my story is book early!

16 hours ago, 737Captain said:

Leaving on Horizon this weekend. I like my fru fru drinks on the strong side. I know you can’t get a drink and a floater on Cheers package but can I get a drink and pay for a floater?

We find tipping the barmaid/bartender a little extra helps. I know gratuities are already taken out when you order your drink, but if we both get a drink we will tip an extra $1 for each. So if you do this 7-10x a day at 7-10 days it will come out to around $50-70 extra dollars for the whole cruise.  Furthermore, we only do this for "our" main barmaid/tenders only. Which means, we will only spend about $30-40 extra, so not too bad for a 7-10 cruise. With all this said, if you do this it will go a long way. For example, on one cruise we did this and around the 5-6th day (sea day) by 10:00 pmish my DW had drank all 15 of her drinks and could not get anymore. I on the other hand was only at 8 drinks for the day (light weight). So our main/favorite barmaid for that cruise would make me a martini (I only drink beer...wink....wink), you get my drift. Before I get roasted about sharing, I would have not done that if the barmaid did not encourage it...LoL besides it was just between my DW and I.

So I take it MT_Sea_Cruisers that Premier Cruises are connected directly to the casino? Does this mean you have too spend lots of money in the casino to get a Premier cruise?

If you were to talk to my DW and I about the steakhouse you would get two totally different responses. I love the steakhouse and I think $38 is a pretty good price. Its not just about the food it about the service you get also. I love the first night free bottle of wine...well my DW upgrades it, she is not a fan of the free stuff. However with all that said my DW does not think it is worth the $38 when we already have paid for the MDR and she thinks it is just as good. Now she will say "I like the steakhouse it is pretty good" but when you add $38 to the mix it just not worth it. I totally disagree with I think the steakhouse is way better. In fact, I have had the French Onion Soup in both the MDR/Steakhouse. I thought the Steakhouse version was WAY better then the MDR, and yes it was different. So to me it is, to each his/her own, and I think it is worth it. Bon Appetit

We my DW and I are on opposite end of the stick here. I love to review anything, and everything about the ship/cruise before we sail. However, my DW is like now that you have seen the whole ship, you have seen all the menus, and looked at all the funtimes we can just save the money and not go because you have already been of this cruise...LoL 

7 minutes ago, JaxsMama said:

There is only the room service door hanger for breakfast, but it looks like they are now offering hot breakfast sandwiches on some ships for a fee. 

...LoL.......You said HOT.....LoL. No seriously, that would be great if you need to get off first thing. As for HOT I doubt that will happening, but its the thought that counts.

On 5/29/2019 at 9:08 AM, sparks1093 said:

We've sailed Royal, Carnival and NCL and like all three just about equally so price is usually the deciding factor.

We have also sailed these plus Princess. NCL, and Princess we did not like, however RCCL we did like very much. This was a newer Oasis of the Seas (3 years old), so I'm sure that made a different. In fact, it was probably our favorite ship out of the 6 cruises we have taken. We think Carnival is comparable to RCCL in a lot of ways so, we to pick Carnival for pricing.

Just to let you know were my DW and I are on this subject. Next February, our Panama Canal trip is out of NOLA. The return flight is not good, we can get one around 10-10:30 am , or 6pm☹️. We choose the 6pm flight for the same reasons people on here have mentioned, yes it sucks, but we would rather be early then late.

On 4/7/2019 at 10:05 AM, petuniaflower said:

Would I have a better chance if we took Carnival transfers?

Yes, because if they are late they will be at fault, and you know Carnival will not be late because of what it would cost. This is the reason they will not let you book a return flight before 11am

Yes this has happened to us. In fact, we had a port change (rather a day change) same port different day. This port had a brewery which I was looking forward to, and when we got there the brewery was CLOSED . Furthermore, a lot of things were closed in this port? We later found out from a local bar which was open that told us this ship was scheduled to come tomorrow not today, so the locals were not ready for us . This was Alaska and the end of the season and the cruise line never informed Sitka of the change.

Our last cruise we did the Steak house on the first night, our food was excellent (Steak & Lobster). Now this was a 14 day cruise, so one of the nights in the MDR my DW did not fine anything appealing on the menu. So I talked her into ordering from the steak house menu for the $20 up charge. Well let me tell you something, I was in big trouble....LoL. My DW: "Not even close to what we had the first night. How could I let you talk me into wasting $20 geez." I felt like Ralph Krandem: "Me and my BIG Mouth"....LoL So for what its worth, I agree with other post, GO TO THE STEAK HOUSE! 

To the OP, here what my DW and I say. If you drink beer and beer only it will take 9 of them a day to break even, not counting the in between stuff such as; Bottle water, pop, juices, ect. If you drink mixed drinks it will take about 6-7 of them to break even. However, with mixed drinks you can get "top shelf" and it will take only about 5-6 to break even.Furthermore, you can get up to a $50 drink, if high ended cognacs are your thing they have some that are $20 and up(easy way to break even).  My DW and I usually get Cheers however the last one we did not because it was two weeks, and it would have a long two weeks drinking that much. We saved about $500 not getting it. If we did a 3-6 day cruise we would for sure get it because we can hang that long... So only you can know how much is too much for you to drink, good luck on making the right choice.   

On 11/5/2018 at 10:07 PM, niciediva007 said:

You’re saying the Cruise line wouldn’t let them board? I could understand if they were boarding an aircraft, with TSA and all, but the cruise line has more autonomy and certainly could have let them board. Wow. I wonder if there is more to the story? 12 minutes doesn’t sound like enough  of a tardy to warrant being turned away.

I agree 100% there has to be more to the story. In fact, on our 2nd cruise we decided to fly in the day of the cruise. We were flying from Detroit to Seattle. Long story short, we had plane issues and was late taking off. We got to the port about 1 1/2 hrs after our check in time, and about 20 mins before final boarding. They were like we have been waiting for you, we boarded no problems. Now although we did get to board, my DW and I will NEVER fly in the day of again nor will we book a trip without insurance.

I do not want to change the subject from online to on board, just a bit of advice. Although I have not done it yet, it seems you can use unlimited cards online. However, on board you can only use up to $900/or 1000 p/day.

4 minutes ago, Saturngrl said:

I like to find a bartender early in the cruise, hand him/her a $10 or $20 and ask the bartender to take special care of me and my friends.  This is always a success for great service!  

 

This will work also 🙂 

If you frequent a certain bar on your cruise, trust me tipping $1 per drink extra to the same person will get you a long ways. My DW and I do this every cruise, and we will find the one bartender/maid that will hook us up. Like when we are walking up, we get greeted by name and a huge smile. They drop everything and start waiting on you (unless they are making drinks for another guest). One cruise a group of people came in and ordered a round of shots (Washington Apples) it was like 12 of them. When the bartender was done making them it was like OOPS I made 13. So he gave it to my DW its just the little things like that, but then again it to each his/her own, it worth it for us.

hello my friends

I’d Superfly Snuka their derriere back into the Stone Age. Sigh. Really? Don’t know who Superfly Snuka is either? Am I really that old??

I guess I'm that old also, because I absolutely remember Jimmy "SuperFly" Snuka. He was one of my WWF heroes, and yes I said WWF not WWE....LoL I remember a match he jumped from the top of the "Cage", awesome times.

Well the rest of the day was more of the same trivia, the string trio, and the late night rotation, pizza included:D. We needed to get rested for our adventures in Juneau.

Pardon me, but am not all that familiar with west coast cruises - what ship is this?

We were on the Splendor.

If anyone was on the Legend in glacier bay on the same day here you go.

This was a total photo bomb.

Ok that was fabulous Glacier Bay National Park. I will post more later, I just hope its not days later.

This pic is a piece of the Margerie glacier breaking off. We did get to see it fall, and my DW was snapping pics, but as you can see she just missed it.

Here are what I believe to be Sea Otters.

This pic here you can see the staff enjoying the views. A lot of them have never seen snow/ice before except for pics. In fact, our waitress Irma in the MDR had never seen snow/ice, and could not wait for the Alaskan views.

A couple of panoramic views.

Today is another highlight of this trip, Glacier Bay National Park (GBNP). This day we slept in :D, and we had breakfast in on the Lido deck. We liked the MDR better because one you get waited on and two the food was better. For instance, let us talk about the bacon, COOK IT MORE. When I say cook it more I do not mean so crispy that is falls apart when you touch it. I mean firm, not the fatty stuff they served. I well say though the omelet station was pretty good.We finished just as we were getting to GBNP and went out on the deck. Here we got some great pics from the Lido deck, but now it was time to get the full advantage of our AFT balcony. We even got better pics from this view. We got to see some sea otters at one point from our balcony, and lots of great views so Ladies, and Gentlemen I give you GBNP.