kcruzgrl

15 minutes ago, Seany527 said:

Basically the same policies back at home. Stay 6 feet apart. Wash your hands. Take the stairs, not the elevator.  Masks do not have to be worn anywhere that I have seen. The chairs on the deck are spread apart in groups of two, but seating is normal at the bar. 

 

 

You mention taking the stairs, is that a suggestion, or are they not allowing elevator use?  Thanks and have a great time!

Had the same issue with a Carnival cruise in the early 90's I took with my college roommates. They could not look me up by cruise date, or SSN, but they also said if I had a receipt I would get credit for it. One other thing they would accept was an official embarkation photo. Of course I didn't buy that, and I looked through the one roll of film I had from the trip and I didn't even have a picture of the ship, let alone receipts. :-) Go figure. Oh well, I was a little annoyed, but not enough to write Carnival off completely. It would be nice if they gave me the days credit, but I understand they did things differently back then and didn't have the technology to keep track of everything. In the long run, the 7 points are not that big of a deal to me but it makes me fell better that other people were given the same story. Sorry it didn't work out for you either.

Crazy! We never thought we would be Carnival cruisers, but after trying them, we were pleasantly surprised at drinks prices. They really do a great job of having a super variety with great menus, low prices, and better beers than we have found on other lines. I have to say we were impressed. We are sailing Royal soon and because of the price increases will be the first time we are doing the drink package. We will see how it goes..... :-)

This has actually happened to me. I got an email about a cruise I didn't know about 19 days before we sailed. I told my husband and was actually mad because he was going to have me go on a cruise without knowing what to pack. He was going to pack for me. I would tell. It's only 2 weeks away and you still get part of the fun of planning and being excited together. It still was a surprise, just not the way he intended you to find out. Have fun, it's sounds like a good one.

No special line, just put them in your carry on and there will be no problem. :)

I have always had a great time on all our cruises, but the one ship I would never sail again is the Jewel. Believe it or not, we could never find anything to eat! After about 11:00pm there was cheese pizza and that was it. We were always searching for something other then the buffet during the day and places were closed. I guess after sailing the Allure with like 25 places to eat, that's what we get. We did do Chops one night and it was not good on the Jewel, so generic, like they just put it in a room, no nice views, nothing special and not worth the extra money. That being said, if that is the worst, I'll take it, I don't need the extra calories anyway. ;)

Didn't read all 3 pages of comments, so don't know if anyone touched on this, but the Chocolate Soufflé on DCL at Palo is a million times even better than Carnival's molten lava cake. (Same idea, but you order it at the beginning of the meal because they are made to order and take 45 minutes, they are hot and gushing with liquid chocolate) Usually the server will order you one even if you don't want it because they are that good. I like the ones on Carnival, but they pale in comparison to Palo's. Give it a try next time you are on DCL.

We bought both of them on our last trip, no lids :). My question is, how does one get a Tervis with the Carnival logo? I am guessing it is a past guest perk? We always buy them from places we have been.

I have a little different take on this one. I took a Carnival cruise 20 years ago and it was fine, I had nothing to compare it to. Then we started going on Disney and Celebrity and I swore I would never go on Carnival again. In fact, we used to make fun of our friends who would only go on Carnival. Until....we started looking at some of the prices are realized we could cruise every few months with Carnival. We decided to give it a try. We had super low expectations and went with a good attitude. We had a blast. We keep booking Carnival because of the price. I do miss the lectures and activities on Celebrity, and the top notch food, but I have always enjoyed the food on Carnival too, it's just not over the top. We did try Princess this summer and I had high hopes, but I have to say that with our experience I would rate Princess below Carnival. The food was terrible on the ship we were on, bad service, and nothing to do. I know it is all subjective, and I really believe we just picked the wrong ship, because I know tons of people that love Princess. I am just excited that we tried Carnival again and now we cruise even more! Happy sailing.

Oasis and Freedom class ships are great, but especially on Oasis class, I never saw the water. I think it was worth doing once because the Allure was spectacular and I think had 25 places to eat, so much to do and see, so much fun, but I did not feel like I was on a cruise. You could not go for a glass of wine, or sit on a sofa and enjoy music watching the waves, absolutely everything that faces the water is taken up by balcony cabins. The shows in the aqua theater (one place you could see the waves), were unbelievable. I believe the set up on the Freedom class ships may be a bit better, but not much.

I look at it this way, if you love cruising and like to go a lot, Carnival is a much better value, and like others have said it is way more laid back. Food on Carnival is better than Princess, way more choices both in and out of the MDR, I was shocked by this when we took our first Princess cruise this summer, but it was true.

People do it, but it is nothing like on Disney Cruise Line where it seems like everyone does it. We did it once on Royal when we traveled with a large group and used the magnets to hang notes for the other cabins.

We did this early Nov. a few years ago. We tried to research ferry time to Capri ahead of time and didn't see a return time that worked. When we got to the port we looked and they had ferry's that ran all day. We took the earliest ferry to Capri, took the ferry from there to Sorrento, then took the train to Pompei, and then the train to Naples, from there we took a cab back to the port. It was a long day, but we did it all.

We saw some of the worst behavior on our 4 night on the Victory out of Miami, luckily we did not have our teens with, but we kept saying, what if they were? We would not have left them out of our sight or let them hang with the teens on board. This is the only time we have seen this behavior on a cruise. That being said, after reading many reviews I am convinced that is kind of what you get on these shorter weekend trips out of Florida, a lot of bachelor/ette parties and girls and guys weekends, a lot of booze cruisers. From now on we choose week long more family cruises to avoid. Sorry to hear about your experience.

I have found, the less I pack the better. Besides things that can't be bought once you leave, like Rx meds, leave all the extra stuff at home. Really think about how many times you have used each item the last few times you have travelled. Like yes, I do bring a power strip, and a Sharpie, and a highlighter but each time I bring less and less. Remember, you can always buy things on board if you need them. Chances are you won't need to buy much. Relax and don't try to bring everything for every case scenario. On a recent girls cruise, my friends's first cruise, she followed one of the lists but out there by expert cruisers and her bag was 56 pounds! For a 4 day cruise. My goodness, this girl even brought duck tape! She didn't need any of the extra stuff. Too much packing stress. Just plan in your budget an extra $20 for things you may or may not need to buy. I guarantee you will be much happier with less stuff. Just my opinion for those newbies who are stressing out from packing. :-) Relax and have fun, you are going on a cruise!

FTTF, we have done it twice and really enjoyed it. Boarding early is important to us, and we do not have status with Carnival, so this was our way to get on as early as we could. Both times our room was ready with bags in it the minute we got on. This is a nice feature, however I hear it doesn't always work this way. It is nice to avoid the line at the front desk and just walk up without a wait. And we like to be in control of when we get off the ship. For us it has been worth it.

I am cracking up at all the food and eating traditions the morning of the cruise. We are the opposite. Only coffee and try to board first so we can eat until we are sick on the ship. :p One thing we do is try to get to the place we are cruising from 1-2 nights in advance, if possible we book a room high enough so we can watch the ships come in and out, especially they one we are leaving on the morning it comes in all light up. Not only does this build up the excitement, but we can relax and know that we are already where we need to be. We have heard so many stories from friends who fly to their destination day of and almost missed the ship. That just starts your trip off with fighting and panic.

Yes, we did a cruise the week before Halloween on the Wonder once and they provided treat bags. They had a map of all the locations the kids could find stations to get candy. It was super fun and they got a ton of candy (the same mix they would get at the parks during Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party). We had to bring a extra suitcase just for Pirate and Halloween costumes for 5 people. It was worth it and the characters also wear their Halloween costumes, so the pictures we got were great.

We have only been on one Princess cruise and the food was the worst we have ever had on a cruise, even the specialty restaurants. Disney food is good, not spectacular, but way better and we are not too picky. I think the Wonder has the best in the fleet. Back in the day when there were only 2 ships, Disney by far had the best food and I am guessing they are just cheeping out because they can fill the ships no matter what. That being said, the Celebrity Solstice has the best food we have ever had on any ship. I wouldn't base an Alaskan cruise on food though. Look at itinerary and on board activities. I would choose something other than Princess for Alaska, we just did it and it was boring at times, just not enough to do when it is too cold to be at the pool. We were in port one day with the Wonder and wanted to get on that ship instead. :p I think you will be glad you chose the Wonder.

I agree about January. Especially in the Bahamas where you are not very far South, it is a given you will not want to go in the water. That being said, it may still be warm enough to be in the sun. I agree, have a backup plan. Sometimes it is warmer just staying on the ship and being at the pool. The water in the Bahamas in early May is still to cold for me though, I'm only happy when the water is like bath water, so I may not be a good judge. :p

Watch one of the movies under the big screen while swimming in the pool during the opposite dinner time that you have. We do this and have the pool all to ourselves and also the Aquaduck. (tip, a lot of kids eat first seating, so get late seating if your kids can stay up for it and take advantage of this slow time at the pool with your family during the first dining rotation) Do it on a night where you don't care if you miss the show, or sometimes they offer the show during the day another time during your week.

Thanks for the info. Some of the trip advisor posts and older posts on CC were saying it used to be $140-180 a person, that's why I said the cost had gone down. :)

Good to know about the ferry every hour to the private island, I wondered about that, I wouldn't want to swim back to make it to the ship on time.

I went to panchos the first time & nachi Cocum last time. Both were very good. We are planning mr. Sanchos this time. Any opinions on their food?

 

 

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We have done both Nachi and Sanchos, and there was no comparison. Nachi was 1000 times better. Sanchos just has a buffet, so even if you have a server they just go to the buffet for you. Although they both had guacamole that was good, nothing else was better at Sanchos. They have cheese quesadillas, gray hamburgers, hotdogs, stuff for fajitas, and cheese sauce. Yuck. The chips were stale too. At Nachi you have a huge menu to choose from and real cheese on the nachos, we loved everything we had there, especially the fresh fish.

We are foodies and did Remy once on the Dream. It was wonderful, but not something we feel like we have to do every Disney cruise like we do Palo. As a matter of fact, about an hour after we were done we went for snacks because we were still hungry. Now we were there in the first 2 weeks of the Dream sailing, and there were service issues all over the ship with it being so new and staff still learning, so dinner took extra long and the portions are very small. That being said, it is worth doing once for the experience. One thing we did learn was to never sail a ship during in inaugural season. Uggggg :o

Hi! Don't know how long your trip is going to be, but there are 4 night Navigators that are as current as July I believe on disneycruiselineblog.com

Don't know about the gift....let that be a surprise, that is always fun