Builder31

Just got back from a Carnival cruise out of Tampa and have a couple of tips:

1. Use Park Connect at https://www.myparkconnect.com.  It was $35 vs $75 (5 Day cruise) and you park in the same Channelside garage across the street from the ship.  It's an absolute no brainer.  Get a ticket upon entry as usual and simply hit the Help button on the way out and tell them you paid with Park Connect.  They didn't even ask for my confirmation # or anything, they just opened the gate.  Spend the extra $40 on a round of drinks.  I bought the parking the morning of our sailing after reading it here.  Thanks to whomever suggested it.  

2. If sailing from Dock #3 as we did, go to the line on the right side to check in after you go through security.  Its a bit deceiving because the lines were the same depth.  But after we were in line for 10 mins on the left, we realized that the length of the lines on the right was much shorter.  People that got in line 10-15 mins after us, were processed before us. Not a huge deal, but at that point you just want to get onboard!

Happy sailing!

On 3/31/2019 at 11:45 AM, Gupemp said:

We spent a day in Cuba two weeks ago and had Alex as our guide with Blexie Tours.  He was amazing, informative and personable.  It was way more than we hoped for and made us long to go back to Cuba.  It was one of the best days we have spent on a shore excursion ever.  I highly recommend Blexie Tours and Alex!

So glad to hear this. We have Alex booked for next Monday and are very excited. Thanks for the review!  Can’t wait. 

We recently visited Bonaire and were trying to decide whether to rent a golf cart or a car. We ended up renting a car and am very glad we did. I thought I would share some thoughts for anyone trying to decide.

We had 5 in our group so would have needed 2 carts for a total cost of $200. The suv we rented fit all 5 of us comfortably and only cost $67 so it was quite a bit cheaper. We wanted to see most of the island, and I really don’t see how it would have been possible in a golf cart. We passed many golf carts going much much slower than we were traveling. The roads were not busy and it was easy to stop and pullover wherever looked like an interesting spot. If you are just going to 1 side of the island a golf cart would probably suffice. But we wanted to see as much as we could, and it was the way to go IMO.

It was also a hot day and my kids were happy to be able to get into an air conditioned car after each stop. Toward the afternoon many of the people we passed in carts looked fairly miserable. On a cooler day I’m sure it would have been better for them. It was also nice to have a secure spot to lock our stuff when we stopped st Lac Bay, 1000 steps, etc.

We rented from Hertz and were able to make reservations online through the regular Hertz website. Avis would not accept reservations, but said to call once there to check availability.

IMPORTANT NOTE: There are 2 Hertz locations. One is located in the Flamingo Divi Resort which is less than a 10 minute walk from the ship. But once there I realized my reservation was for the location at the airport. However the woman was very helpful and she had them deliver the car to the Flamingo Divi location in 5 minutes and we were on our way.

They had a good map and driving around the island was very easy. I really don’t think we could have gotten lost. I think the entire island could be driven around in 1-1.5 hours without stops. But with stops at all the interesting spots for snorkeling etc, we took around 4.5 hours.

We loved Bonaire and can’t wait to go back. Hope this helps.

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Ok thx. I will spend more on this cruise than I have in cards. So if I buy general cruise cash now it will just get applied to my S&S account onboard? So essentially it will do what I want right?

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I bought several AARP e-gift cards for our upcoming cruise. Can I somehow put in the gift card numbers on my account online before I sail? I assume I can apply them via guest services once onboard but prefer to avoid that line if possible.

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What if you get to the port later than your check in window? Any penalty? Specifically for Port Canaveral.

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Here are the deck plans

https://www.cruisecritic.com/carnival-magic-deck-plans/dp/

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Let me start by saying, I agree that people can do whatever they want on a cruise, it is their cruise.

 

 

 

I am very interested though in the reasoning of people who seem to do things on a cruise that they can do on land much cheaper. If you like just reading a book, watching TV, drinking to excess, playing cards, working on a puzzle. Why spend the money on a cruise to do this?

So what is it that you do on a cruise on sea days that you can’t do on land?

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Please, enlighten us! I have DirecTV, and have no idea what you are describing? Is this a new wireless DVR??

 

 

 

I have the DirecTV Genie wireless system in my house, but the DVR needs a direct connection to the Satellite dish!

 

 

 

Just wondering??

I have the genie system and the main receiver has the hard drive (the minis don’t). Honestly I’ve never tried to play the content stored on the hard drive without it being connected, but I don’t understand why it wouldn’t? If I get satellite fade during heavy rain or snow I simply watch stored content on the dvr. In that case there is no connection to the satellite right?

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Anyone have the fun times for the Sunshine 8 day Southern Caribbean itinerary to Aruba, Bonaire and GT? Have found the eastern itinerary online but not southern. Thx.

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We’ve always done late seating which we like. Most of the time 8:15 is a good dinner time for us but once in a while we would eat a little earlier around 7:30 if we could. Is it worth switching to YTD if we are mostly good w late seating? I’ve read some reviews that there can be a wait. We are a family of 5 and will be on the sunshine.

If you all have iPhones and don’t mind spending a little more you can get the social media internet plan and simply use iMessage. We found that worked much better.

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From what I’ve read hertz is not far and is a 5 minute walk. Avis is further near the airport but they said they would come get us at the cruise port if we call them when we get there.

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The 3rd person has cost more on nearly every cruise we’ve been on. We always cruise during spring break. Lots of families mean more than 2 in many rooms and the boat reaches capacity before all the cabins are booked. So the 3rd person becomes a huge premium. We are a family of 5 and I have sometimes gotten my kids to recruit a friend to go with us because it has actually been cheaper to sail with 6 (in 3 rooms) than 5 (in 2 rooms).

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Find out how much obc the TA can get you. We used to book with a PVP then found out you can get the extra OBC with a TA. Now we typically save around 10% per interior room via obc. I think about it as getting 1 free cruise for every 10 or so cruises simply for booking with TA.

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Yes, and it will work a lot better than the Hub.

Agreed. Get the basic internet plan and use iMessage. Hub chat is marginal at best in my experience.

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For cash needed onboard I simply get it out of the ATM in the casino. My bank reimburses me for the atm fees.

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Can you use gift cards (AARP) that are loaded onto you S&S account for chips in the casino? And if so, can you get cash for the chips or will they apply the credit back to your account again? Wondering what I can do if I end up with too much gift card credit on our upcoming cruise.

We’re planning to rent a car. My family of 5 can be together and the cost is way less than 1 golf cart let alone 2. I’ve also read reviews that said if you want to see a lot of the island that a golf cart is just too slow. I’ve reserved via hertz but also contacted Avis. Hoping to get a Jeep but sounds like it’s first come first served on Jeep availability.

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For whatever reason the prices for discover Scuba in GT are double everywhere else in the Caribbean. I can’t figure it out. Maybe lack of competition. My kids and I are opting to do our discover dive in Aruba instead for $90pp on a private tour.

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Heading to Aruba in March and my teenage kids and I want to do a Discover Scuba course. Any recommendations on which dive company to use? I’ve contacted Happy Divers, Aqua Windies and Jads. Please let me know any experiences you’ve had (specifically with a discover course) with these or any others.

Thanks.

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We’re planning to rent golf carts for the day in Bonaire because we’d like to see the salt flats, etc. However we also would like to do some snorkeling. Any suggestions on good snorkeling areas accessible via golf cart? Are there any places that rent snorkel gear? We can bring our own if we have to but prefer not to tote it. Thx.

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I honestly don't want to get you going, but what about Skyride is horribly executed... (There are two tracks....not sure what else they could do). What time did you go for Pizza that had a horrible wait? I guess the second question is what would have been acceptable. Everybody has favs and dislikes, which is fine, just had to ask.

 

 

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Specifically they should have had at least 3 people running the skyride. 1 to get people harnessed in, and 2 to load/unload. They only had 2 total so they would hand the harnesses down to people in line to put on themselves. As a result when people get up on the platform the tech loading people in has to check and adjust the harnesses. I estimate it took him an extra 30-60 seconds per person to do this. When the average number of people in line is 50 that could save 30-45 mins. Several times while I was in line all 4 cars were in the loading station which should never happen. They should either properly staff it or go to a time slot reservation system.

My other issue with the skyride is the limited hours. For instance it closed at 2 the day we were in Grand Turk from 12-7. A couple people in my group got back on the ship to do it only to find it was closed. They also regularly closed the line an hour+ before posted hours. On the last day a few people who didn't ride it all cruise due to the long lines tried to ride. Posted hours were until 430 and so they went at 330 only to find they had shut down the line. If the line is going to be consistently 1.5-2 hours, they should post an "in line by" deadline. Otherwise how are people supposed to guess when they will shut it down?

In my opinion a ride with such limited capacity wasn't the best choice to put on a ship of 4800 people. If it was executed better then it might have been ok. Waiting 30-40 mins seems like it should be the goal. I was really looking forward to riding it several times with my kids, but only rode it once since I wasn't willing to spend another 2 hours of my vacation in line.

As for the pizza I never got any. However it's one of my boys favorite meals since we don't eat much pizza at home and they look forward to it. As I said this was our 7th carnival cruise in 6 years and they both said the line for pizza was consistently way too long. Much longer than any other ship we have been on. It seems like the pizza oven making capacity was the same as other smaller ships and that just seems odd to me.

I guess we just had higher hopes for a brand new ship and all 5 in my family said they would rather go on a different ship next time.

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Just off today and we felt it was crowded. My kids commented that it was just like the breeze but with more people. This was our 7th carnival cruise in 6 years and probably among our least favorite. My boys like to get pizza and the wait was ridiculous most of the time. For pizza...really? And don't get me started on the skyride. Not well planned and horribly executed. We went with an extended family group of 28 and I think only maybe 7-8 people actually did it due to the extreme wait and limited open times. The whole ship seemed understaffed to me. The only bright spot was Matt and he always makes the cruise a good one. We love Matt but it was the first time and last time on the vista for us.

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Also going to St Maarten and San Juan. Will probably end up doing it at one of those ports but we were wanting to do other excursions there.

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