Qchell

Hi! Since it appears you have been, I am hoping you can answer something for me. I keep seeing descriptions of 88 stairs "down", but nothing about getting back up. Do you go back up the stairs, or is there another exit? TYIA!

John Heald is employed by Carnival as Carnival Cruise's Brand Ambassador. Any information he relays is official. Any actual opinions he relays are his (as he gets some of the most outrageous questions and comments) and not Carnival's - but the actual information is directly from 'the Beards' as he calls them. You can follow him on his Facebook Page there are numerous posts daily. Our sailing out of Baltimore is not until October, so we are hopeful. Anyone sailing from Baltimore before an official reopen date - should ensure they book hotel rooms that are fully refundable. Hotels are getting pricey - and often if you pay in full upfront it is less expensive - but often you cannot cancel and they are not refundable. Watch that fine print.

Generally, in my experience, private excursions are PARANOID about ensuring you are back to the ship on time because of what you just asked. We all talk to each other on various boards and social media. If they cause one group to miss the ship, everyone is going to know almost immediately, and their company is going to be finished. No one will book with them again. I am finding it very odd that we don't know yet which tour company it was. Something is just weird all the way around on this one.

Forgive me if this question has been asked and answered, but there are a lot of posts on this thread. 🙂 Has anyone seen any explanation as to why they were late to the ship other than "issues with the tour"? Thx!

There may be some validity to this (and someone may have pointed this out already) as there is no bar service in the main theatre on Mardi Gras during the shows like you usually find on board. It actually surprised me the first show that I attended because I didn't grab a drink on the way as I expected there to be waiters taking drink orders in the theatre. I was not Platinum yet on my Mardi Gras cruise, so I can't speak to the Platinum party then. On Magic in April, there were waiters with trays of drinks during the Platinum party.

I was actually wondering what the current gifts were this morning. We are sailing again in a few weeks and I was hoping the gifts had changed since our last cruise. Thanks for the update!

The dogs are a fairly new addition. When we sailed last October out of Port Canaveral (and every cruise we have been on since 2011) - there were no dogs in the terminal. This spring when we sailed out of Port Canaveral, they were having you line up and place your bags down on the ground and stand next to them while a dog was brought around to inspect every bag as part of the check-in process. I can only assume our checked luggage was put through a similar routine. I've also seen footage recently of drug dogs on the ship during the cruise. In one security was responding to something in a stateroom and a dog was brought in.. the best thing to do at this point is just leave anything questionable at home.

For many of the dining venues onboard if you go to Carnival's website, and pull up the venue, there is a link to a menu for that venue on the right-hand side of the screen below the main picture. This is a direct link to the Blue Iguana Cantina page: https://www.carnival.com/cruise-food/blueiguana-cantina

You can find all the fine print about the Cheers! package under FAQs on Carnival's website. https://www.carnival.com/help?topicid=1106

I wouldn't really be using it for phone calls, texts, etc. Just for posting to FB while onboard. On another FB group they reminded me of all the other things on the phone that use data... staying in airplane mode and paying for the social media package is probably my best bet. Thanks!

AT&T has started a cruise package so you can use your phone while cruising without incurring all the roaming fees, etc. I was just pricing it, and it is cheaper than the social media package on Carnival. Has anyone used the AT&T package yet? How did it work for you?

Our last few cruises since they have gone paperless and fully in-app online, you don't get the daily specials any more. What I have found is if you go to the various spa demonstrations (pamper parties, haircare, etc.) and stay to the end, they will then give you a paper with various specials that you can go ahead and book right then. They are actually pretty good specials and I've taken advantage. They also have drawings for free treatments at times. At one demonstration, only myself and one other lady showed up and I won!

I called the hotels directly that were listed as having port transfers. They no longer offer snooze & cruise packages and told me that they had not offered those packages in years. I actually Googled a few articles before posting and they were not from 2023, so I figured I'd check here to see if anyone had managed to book one this year.

Thanks everyone! Just have to keep checking.

I know I have booked snooze & cruise out of Jacksonville before. I have checked a number of listings and called the hotels as I cannot find the package online, only to find out they no longer offer that package. Has anyone booked a package in 2023? Which hotel? (I know this is Carnival - but as Carnival is the only cruiseline to sail out of Jax, figured I would get a quicker answer here.) Thanks for any help you can provide!