Drazil65

Many retail stores also sell EFFY, mixed reviews through out the years on the quality. I agree, expensive for what it is and the reviews across the board.

The other sodas are regular size cans but the ginger ale is in the smaller size can. This has been the case for a little while now, sailed 3 times in the last year and it was like that all 3 times.

This is what I saw for explanation...(if you plan on buying EFFY items) Effy Cruise Cash provides an immediate credit to a guest's Sail & Sign account. This credit is only good for any Effy charge made to their account

Never sailed out of NYC port and I am from there (grew up outside the city but grandparents lived in Brooklyn so spent a lot of time in the city and am very comfortable when in the city), that said, we would probably never choose to sail from there for many reasons. We have had many invites to join family on cruises from there over the years and have declined every time. Also, for the record, we are not interested in sailing on the Venezia so this would not even be on our radar regardless of port. running wildly around the ship at all hours, totally blocking stairways so you literally had to climb over them, etc. By the end of the cruise security was posted outside the clubs to try to control the issues. Unfortunately some parents seem to think they (parents) are on vacation and let their kids run wild and do not supervise them. First, I guess addressing the teens (mostly preteen to mid teen age range I would say from our observations) running wild on the ships, we sail both CCL (mostly) and RCCL (occasionally) for 20 plus years. So a lot of observation time and also DS was in this age group at one time so closer observation with the kids he interacted with. Have observed this behavior (running wild, unsupervised and rude) on just about every cruise we have sailed on in some manner (lido pool, on deck movie time, arcade, running through halls, pushing and shoving on sports deck and sitting on stairways etc.). This has happened on both cruise lines (we also sailed NCL one time 10 yrs ago, same). The pounding on cabin doors around midnight is a constant it seems and especially if you have the "sleep/snooze" sign on door. We do not like or think this behavior is appropriate and absolutely do not condone it, we place the blame solidly on the parents, period. DS was not allowed to run wild and certainly was not out and about after we were back in the cabin (truthfully he had to be in cabin by 10:00 and was checked on), he did not hang with the kids that acted out like this (in life in general, never been his crowd not even in college now). This account of what happened to that young girl is horrible (and sad) and we believe some action should be taken by way of consequences to the parents (banned from CCL), if they can prove etc. (another conversation totally). That being said, I am not going to lie, one of my questions after reading about the incident was "why was a 13 yr old (with some special needs it appears) girl around a group of teens that obviously were not a good fit for hanging out or being around?". To be clear, this was not to blame her parents/whomever (I am sure I would have been the worst helicopter mom especially for a girl child if I had one), its hard for me to process what situation would lead me to let my 13 yr old (girl) end up in a place where she was that vulnerable on a cruise ship full of strangers. It's like letting your kids roam around a small city basically, probably worse since security is practically non existent on a cruise ship. According to the OP, the mother had stated that these same kids had already been bullying her daughter (and apparently her 9 year old was also being bullied as well?). I cannot for the life of me figure out how the 13 year old is even allowed near this group of teens unattended and alone long enough for her to end up on ground unresponsive, cant lie, it baffles me. My school aged children were taught to say yes m'am, no m'am, etc. So, you are right in that growing in NY we were not required to say "yes, m'am and no m'am but we were taught to address all adults (outside our family) as Mr. (last name) and Ms/Mrs. (last name). Being that I grew up in NY and DH is from Midwest (Columbus, OH) and we moved to NC when DS was almost 4 (he is 21 now so def raised in the south), I can attest to the fact that those words do not make the kid a "good or polite" kid. It is all the "other words" that are spoken AFTER the "M'am" in the south that you should pay attention to, none of them would come out of DS mouth... We have a good mix of regional cultures in our home obviously, and we did not raise our son to say "m'am, as that was not the part of being in the south that we felt would be a benefit to him in the future. He was raised with manners and to be respectful and polite to all people including his peers. We are lucky that we travel often and live in a smaller, tourist town that has a population made up of all regions of the country but truthfully probably more residents from the north than anyone else. DS has been exposed and knows how to interact and respect all cultures and people and that should serve him well as he enters law school next year and begins his career. With all that being said, I do agree that NY is way too cold!

Very similar layouts (venues have different names) to Celebration and Mardi Gras (all excel class sister ships). If you google the same cabin type for Celebration or even MG (oldest of the 3 excel ships) , you will get not only pix and video links for the other 2 ships but reviews that could help you with your question for excel class ships. There were a couple of great live reviews this past week with a lot of pix of cabins, food and venues on Celebration, you should check those out.

Thank you for the great ride this trip, many times it felt like I was right there walking along with you (especially OSJ), it was a pleasure my friend! Safe travels and the best going forward 👍...

We tend to favor the bigger, newer CCL ships with the Sunshine being the exception. We love the Sunshine and Charleston. Charleston itself is a great city to visit whether you are cruising or not and since its a little over 3 hr drive from home its an easy port for us (we have another cruise scheduled on Sunshine end of this year and will miss her being in Charleston for sure). Sunshine has one of the best serenity areas (adult only area) of the fleet IMHO and being a midsize ship there are plenty of venues for things to do. Someone mentioned the shuttle at debarkation back to the port parking but we walk with our luggage to our car, its easy and quicker than the whole shuttle thing (for us anyway). We have also sailed on RCCL occasionally in addition to CCL but we by far choose CCL and are rarely disappointed with our choice. Its a fun time every time but a lot of that is attitude and seeing the positive of being able to cruise as often as we do and appreciating that fact. Have a blast and enjoy!

You know what they say about "tomorrow" being the most popular day of the week. Sometimes you just need to do it...sounds like you finally made it to tomorrow! Move forward with no regrets...its the only way to go! Now go have some fun in St. Thomas and will be looking forward to some great pix from today (love St. Thomas).

Great pix of OSJ, we were there a few weeks ago and its one of our fav ports! Thank you for posting your pictures, bringing back some great memories of the last few times we have been there.

It definitely sucks especially being caught off guard with no notice that this had happened. Unfortunately, it is kind of like when someone steals your identity or uses your credit card and charges a whole bunch of items, you are left holding the bag and trying to fix it. No one really helps you and it can take months to get everything back to good. Not fair for sure, this person frauded you and CCL and as already mentioned, they probably have done this more than once. CCL lost out and I think they will only be looking to be made whole at this point (I doubt they care how or who as they have already settled it on their end as far as they are concerned with the chargeback and their reaction to it). If your brother referred you and a friend, do they know anything about where this person may be if you need to contact? Although, I agree probably will cost you much more than the $2600 to pursue. I do not use a TA or a PVP, I handle everything when it comes to travel myself (but we travel often and I am very comfortable booking all kinds of travel) and I agree always use a CC for transactions. Wondering if this collection showed at all on your credit report at some point? Being that its been several years and you were connected to collections just wondering if they reported it and maybe it still showed on report. A good reason to regularly check your credit report for things like this, cant help now of course. Good luck, I think your options are obvious and may not seem fair but you did take the cruise (and paid) but you did not pay CCL directly so the onus ends up on you since you ultimately received the goods. Hopefully you can get the deposit back on this most recent cruise.

Did you go into your invoice detail page or just look at the balance (where you make a payment) page? The invoice detail page should show paid in full and you can take a snapshot of that I guess. At the very least you should get a payment made confirm email.

You are correct Mardi Gras is a bigger ship. The Heroes Lounge on deck 8 (aft) is setup with comfy couches and chairs in an open area right near the bar and the BBQ eating venue. Lots of table and chairs (not all of the table/chairs will be good viewing for TVs) also setup in this area are the slider doors to aft pool area (lots of foot traffic in the designated walking path to get outside). Not going to lie, it gets crowded (and loud) as there is one huge TV screen in middle of wall and a couple/few smaller ones on same wall space to side of bigger one. Get your spot early for sure but it is a blast and everyone is into it (at least the crowds we were sailing with both times). That being said, we have not been on this ship during the Superbowl so I do not know if it will be shown in additional venues around the ship.

4 days after debarkation last month it was out there.

We were on MG the week before Christmas and we asked for paper menus in all the restaurants we ate in. No issue or pushback and as a matter of fact, in Rudi's, the server asked if we would prefer a paper menu (we had not had a chance to get our phone out yet) before we asked. I did notice many of the other passengers had paper menus in Rudi's as well that night. We tend to read the menus ahead of time anyway either online or at some point during the day as we are walking around the ship and have a pretty good idea what we will order.

Sounds like its going to be a good one especially with all the live reviews going on. Actually should feel like the rest of us at home are as close to being on the cruise as we can be while not on the ship! Different perspectives should make for a more 4D experience seeing it from so many angles. Have a blast!

You know how I feel about that place… it stresses me out. I feel you on this statement! We stopped one time a couple years ago on way to PC to see what all the hype was about and its a one and done for us! Took about a minute to realize good bathrooms or not, its not for us and could not wait to leave 😬.

Great start to your review. Back in the day when DS was young we always purchased FTTF for the same reasons, the priority boarding and need to drop things off. That and a balcony (where mom would go with a glass of wine and good book once he fell asleep 🙂) cabin for naps, wouldn't've cruised without them back in those days. Cant wait to read the rest of your review!

we each order a different entree that we both want to try, and then split them. So, we are eating really 1/2 serving of 2 different ones. In addition to this method, keep in mind you can order most entrees (off regular MDR menu) as apps (get a smaller version of the main entree barring the lobster and steak of course). Apps are a good way to "taste" some of the entrees (you will still have your 2 entree selections like normal). That being said, if someone at your table only wants to order 1 entree for themselves you could have that person order 2nd entree for you in addition to your 2 entrees (we do this on lobster night for DS as I don't eat it so I give my lobster to DS so he has 3 total).

I prefer the cabin done in the evening, I was asking if this was ok. We have never had an issue with requesting evening service (our preference even when there was 2x a day service) from our cabin steward. Also, never an issue with meeting with him/her at some point on day one, if you need to speak with them and have not met them in person yet, they typically leave their card on desk in cabin so you can call their extension. We were on MG a couple weeks ago and saw our lead steward everyday in hallway at some point and I would say this is our normal experience regarding that.

If you add it now you will need to use it by purchasing cruise cash for your account but if you wait until you sail then just add it at a kiosk or guest services as regular cash on account.

DH always gets 2 4-pks of beer for cabin fridge and that has never stopped us from purchasing the wine package once onboard.

There was a recent thread (12/2023) on this subject with good input, just use search area at top to find.

If we eat in MDR this is what DS typically orders and the lobster tail alone is larger than with the filet (or at least has been in the past). Out last MDR experience was in last 6 months on Sunshine (we did not eat in MDR on MG a couple weeks ago) so fairly recent info.

Last year we had a suite on deck 12, was a corner bump out balcony, loved it! A couple weeks ago had a cabin in Havana area on deck 8 and loved the privacy and outside area that comes with Havana cabins. Deck 8 turned out to be a great deck to stay and we had a blast! DH loved deck 8 Havana more than any other we have had so far (for DS and myself, its a toss up, love both cabins) but could have something to do with great access to Hero's Lounge aft deck 8 😏.

Just in the last 6 months we have been on Sunshine in August and MG a couple weeks ago. Both cruises we were asked for our cabin service preference (morning or evening). We always choose evening (we also have fresh ice for the cabin brought in for drinks in the evening) this is more than enough for us (have never used the 2x's a day service even back in the day, no need). For us, the gratuities go well beyond cabin service alone.