RanchoDeluxe

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You're one of the few people on the roll call. You must make it. ;)

But seriously, hope you are both well enough to cruise.

The real deal pickle , been to GT a few times :D. We docked and the next ship tried several times and then some , didn't happen :rolleyes: . The same ship left the port and came back with a medical emergency ,docked the first time :eek:. No duff , no snuff . Both were Carnival ships

:eek: DUN DUN DUUUUN!!!

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I'll be trying a Sea Cow Stout in 8 days! Yum!

I dont think it works like that.

 

 

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The rule varies by cruise line.

:) Nice:

Carnival gives you the level you will attain during your cruise when you check in.

:mad: Mean:

NCL does not acknowledge the new level until your next cruise.

:confused: Others? I don't know.

Perhaps if you brought a carnival wine menu printout that showed port as part of the offerings?

Their response to my email was that they didn't receive anything from me and to email it instead. I did so, but still haven't received confirmation that they've processed it after 48 hours. Cruise is now two weeks away so I'm hoping it's done in time.

 

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I email or fax mine and I am always sending it too close to the cruise date.

Sometimes I send it the week of my sail date. :eek:

I always include in the subject line my ship and sail date. I'll write something like: EPIC 11-26-2016 Sail Date shareholder credit please

The email message is brief, but includes the sail date, booking number, name, number of shares and ship laid out clearly

Close with an acknowledgement of the reader's work:

I write our ship, sail date and booking number on each of the documents I attach, before I scan them with the shares highlighted in some way like underline, circle, arrow.

I try to make it as easy as possible for the office staff to enter my on-board credit and I have never missed getting one. I just look for it online in my booking. I have never had a problem with Carnival or NCL.

Maybe I should do the paperwork for my January cruise now. ;) ........... Naw, I'll wait for my December statement,

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We hit the Spaaaah after dinner. The Epic Mandara Thermal Suite is so sweet. (yeah, I did that on purpose) The procedure to access the spa is to stop by the front desk, turn in your key card and get a spa key card. You are assigned a locker number for the visit if you want to leave items in the locker room. Now I can only speak for sure to the amenities of the ladies locker room. You key yourself in thru a hallway which then opens to a typical room of lockers and benches. There are towels, robes, hair dryers and a few amenities, like shower caps and q-tips. After the locker room you reach an area with showers, and toilets. The showers have body wash and shampoo, but no conditioner. We also had a good size steam room and smaller two saunas. One sauna is drier than the desert (maybe it’s infra-red) and the other had the hot rocks you can pour a little water over to control the humidity. Both the ladies sauna rooms have full ceiling to floor windows to the sea. The men’s only saunas do not; I asked DH and he grumped that their locker room was in the middle of the ship. Before you come to ladies only area exit there is a sitting area. Then you exit and walk out to Valhalla.

At the entrance the Thermal Suite (mixed-sex use area) are more towels (so you never run out), some cold infused water and hot tea. In front of you is ultimately the aft of the ship, but to get to the aft balcony area you have to walk past three rows of comfy padded loungers and two rows of the tiled, heated loungers. Out on the balcony are six more loungers and at each end a little day bed - very ritzy with throw pillows and blowy curtains that make you feel like you’re in 1001- Arabian Nights.

To the left as you walk out are the pools. One little not-so-hot tub in which you have to cycle the bubbles, so you can soak without bubbles if you wish. Then there is the giant thalassotherapy pool.

Stole this off the web.

ALL parts of this pool are good. In the back by the big circle on the wall, that is the rows of underwater loungers. Round bars make up the seats and these comforting bubbles surround you, kneading and soothing. On each side of the pool center are three alcoves to sit in. Strong jets hit you. The center fountain has three different massage showers; these pound your shoulders, neck, and back. Then there is the little circle offshoot pool in the front bottom of the picture with the steering wheel in the center. I heard someone refer to that as the massage pool. Well, all I know is you better hang on to the wheel.

There’s more but this is all we used that first night. After a while in the pool of bliss, not enough sleep, a long day and a full meal it was time for bed. Sometime during this day we had unpacked. It was before the spa because we didn’t go naked and I think we had changed for dinner. We did spend a little time on the balcony, we are stargazers.

Speaking of which the Geminid meteor shower is occurring. I need to go see if I can catch a falling star. Goodnight!

BTW I’d had a Mango Meltdown up at Spice. Very tasty and it is not premade.

After the party broke up we went down to Manhattan for dinner. If the restaurant cannot seat you right away they give you a buzzer for while you wait. Then you can wander. At Manhattan you can wander to the casino very easily, or the casino bar. We had several beepers during the week, but the wait was never very long and just gave us time for cocktails. I think this is the night we both had Steak Diane. It was cooked properly (ordered medium rare) and very good. Whichever night we had it, it was our best entrée for the week. Service was not a problem. I find it is never as quick as a restaurant where the staff wants to turn the table so they can get another check going, but we only felt like the meal dragged a little once or twice over the week.

After dinner we had our wander around the casino and also thru some of the public spaces, trying to learn the layout of the ship. It’s not too difficult. Make sure you score a couple copies of the ship map while you are in the terminal and carry it with you that first night.

Muster is scheduled for 3:30. We had muster station F-1 which is at Maltings Whiskey bar. Sounded promising, but when we arrived at 3:00 they had just shut down. No drinks, or drunks, allowed at muster. We bellied up to the bar anyway so that when it reopened we would have prime seats. I saw the crewmember with a clipboard, went over and checked us both in. They did not swipe our cards, just checked us off a roster.

Muster went fairly quickly, but had an itty bitty slow down when we had an elderly lady who either fell down or fell off one of the high stools. Poor dear was mortified, and was trying her best to get people to just leave her alone. Everyone wanted to help. She was behind me so I respected her wishes and did not turn around to gawk. A special squad was called to give her a hand and I am pleased to say it sounded like she was okay, just shaken. After muster we waited for the bar to open, ordered two drinks and got ourselves up to Spice H20 for sail away.

A cruise critic member named Callimero (Oliver) suggested a sail away gathering at Spice H20 bar. As we have done before members of the roll call wore beads so we could find each other. We wore beads with Pirate medallions, but brought extra beads.

In her senior year of high school our daughter (DD) went with a trusted family to Mardi Gras. They went to Baton Rouge and Mobile. DD is very attractive and the Baton Rouge parade had a lot of college age participants. She came home with 2 suitcase sized bags of beads, and a couple of spears. I still don’t know what to do with the spears, but we take a baggie of beads when we go places where people may need them. Does anyone know why there were spears given out?

Here’s DCL Sailing away

And Carnival sneaking past

We had a great time at sail away. Met Oliver and lots of other new people. It was a co-mingling of Cruise Critic and non CC people on the deck but everyone was there to have a good time. We handed out most of the beads and refused to take home the leftovers. I wish I had a few names to put with more people. There was a group of three that had novelties, a gentleman traveling with two ladies. I think he was with a company that imported or manufactured novelties. I now have a funky jelly ring that flashes when you push a button and a parrot pin that also flashes. The poor lady who gave me the parrot pin must have questioned her decision at first because I just screamed! I am a Parrothead and cannot wait to wear this at my next concert. We also had a Santa (T-shirt santa costume) with three ladies wearing HO-HO-HO shirts. Then a competing Santa appeared and there was some smack-talk.

Behind us was a beautiful sunset over Florida as we headed east out of the port.

Before we headed out of the room I took a picture from the balcony of the other ships in port: Disney Fantasy and Carnival Sunshine.

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argh! fighting photos

Forgot to ask. How big or small are the beds. Don't need that much room just prefer not fall off if I roll over :p

Just visited a studio on Epic last week. We were in a balcony and our new friend had a studio. We all agree that they have two regular beds pushed together, just like our room configuration. Bed size is not an issue.

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It’s 2 ish and we’re in cabin 14119. It’s midship, not near anything. No rooms across the hall because the fitness center is located there. To be honest I don’t see a difference between the regular balcony cabins and the spa-aah! version. Décor not really different. I did get some nice soap, shampoo, conditioner and body lotion, but it was never replenished. I thought maybe the towel animals would be leaner and fitter, but they were no different.

If it were not for the balcony, I think I may prefer an inside cabin on this ship. I loathe the wave cabin. Thanks to the curve, there is almost no place two people can pass. Unpacking and packing could only be done by one person. But the storage is worth writing about.

If you know where to look there is plenty of storage. Let’s review for newbies: Walking into the cabin my shower and cabinets are on the right, water closet, couch and bed are on the left. Staying on the right side, above the sink is a medicine cabinet. Below there is a drawer and a basket for wet towels. Towels and washcloths are stored on shelves. Because my wave cabin bed is by the window, I have my full size closet right past the sink. This is the best set up because the closet wall creates an enclosed area for the sink which reduces the splash zone. Past the closet the counter top resumes. Above the counter are enclosed shelves which include the safe (keypad, not mag stripe card needed.) Below is a full minibar cooler. There is a mirror/vanity with the hair dryer. Then a little under counter door that opens and there are electric plugs. That’s right plugS – plural – as in two American plugs. Was very nice since I forgot my little $2 three plug extender thingy. Next under the counter are two doors that swing out and each door has a wire basket. We just crammed things in the from time to time. No real logic to it and not best use of space. Finally there are three drawers under the counter top and a shallow closet above. Be aware, these are not nice deep drawers, they are like 6 inches deep and about two feet wide. Great for underwear and rolled up clothes. You hit the balcony door and you are done with right side of the cabin. This is all the obvious to the eye storage.

Turn to the opposite wall and look up above the bed in the wavy wood trim. It you can reach it, the last section opens. Now walk up the cabin to the couch. There is a lot of hidden storage in the couch. The back cushions are hinged and the entire back of the couch opens. Under the couch seating are two large drawers. Since we drive over we bring way, way, way too much stuff and we had more than enough room. Once we shoved the massive suitcases under the bed we never looked at them again. Usually we are putting our dirty laundry in the suitcases as the week passes.

The balcony was standard and I thought it was quite nice. Two chairs and a table. Plenty of room and privacy. Because these cabins are on one of the ships bulges, you do not have a direct look down to the cabins on deck 8. Many of those deck 8 cabins are in full view of the higher decks.

The shower and water closet are everything you have heard. And you can hear everything. Size was ok for me and I am not skinny. However I would not recommend this for a very obese person. I have friends who would be uncomfortable in the available space in both shower and toilet. (on the Star DH and I could shower together it was so roomy.)

The indirect lighting is nice except for when I wanted to put on my face. Horrible lighting for that. Nice reading lamps in bed.

I have no pictures; there are thousands on the web.

After exploring the cabin, we still had nothing to put away, so off we went to wander the ship. We have nothing planned until after muster. First stop is on our floor - the Spaaaah! But they won’t let us go see the Thermal Suite before 5 unless we are on a tour. Really.? So we get our stickers and head back downstairs to find a bar before muster.

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Thanks for the welcomes. I will not let this review drop, but as others have said it does take a little while.

Oh my am I jealous now! I wanted a spa room SO bad - but hubs isn't a spa person, and I knew I wouldn't use the spa pass to its fullest without company - heck, hubs doesn't even get a haircut alone - he makes me go with him

Very nice upgrade! So he was a very happy Santa indeed!

We first did the thermal suite on the Star a year ago. I will not book it on all cruises, but it is the boss on Epic.

50 days to Paradise

Was just on this EPIC route and completely forget about a passport stamp in BVI. Bummer.

Remember that there are a limited number of pages in your passport, if you fill them up you have to get a new one, you can't add any more pages. IMO it is best to keep it for places that actually require you to present it to be stamped, than it is to get unnecessary stamps.

I wish I traveled enough to have that be an issue!

We were shipmates. I am enjoying your review! Thanks for taking the time.

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People should always have a cabin story; if nothing else I want to know why you picked your location.

As I said, Santa sails on price. Around June he found this cruise at $499 for an inside including the UBP and jumped all over it – after six agonizing days of spreadsheet analysis comparing this to other cruises.

We selected cabin 12306. This is the last inside cabin on the port side of deck – you guessed it – 12. Now many people would find this cabin undesirable. It’s a long walk back to a little rectangle, being taunted by balcony doors the entire way. But it had some plusses.

• First it’s a long walk; I need to burn as many calories as I can.
  
• Next deck 12 is a nice midpoint floor wise. I can go up or down easily using the stairs, and again – exercise.
  
• It should be quiet. I am surrounded above and below and around by cabins. And not many people will wander down the corridor.
  
• It was right outside the secret staircase – so I could access fresh air and a view fairly quickly.
  

I had convinced myself that these were valid and true points and was ready to settle into my little nappy hideaway. Nothing like sleeping in the dark interior cabins.

Then I started reading up on Epic on Cruise Critic. We had done some preliminary work before booking so I knew about the wave rooms and the special closeness the bathrooms offered a couple. Well the interiors do not wave and as I mentioned earlier, my DH is not afraid of public restrooms. But there was more: traffic bottleneck issues; the pool deck is choppy; too much smoke in the interior from the casino; only two sets of elevators; the ugly protruding forehead above the bow; no promenade deck; 4100 passengers.; a hotel feel – no sense of being at sea.

Perhaps the secret staircase would not be enough. :eek:

I kept reading CC and discovered the Upsell department. About one week before our sail date I did a mock booking and found the types of cabins that were available. Oooooh! Lots of spa balconies. I called and said I was interested in upselling to a balcony. The first agent told me that they did not start on the upsell until three days before the cruise so call back then. So I waited……. 45 minutes. My second agent offered me a balcony upgrade for $300 - $150 per person. I told her that was interesting, but I would have to ask my husband as he was out squeezing nickels. We made some small talk about cheapness vs frugality and I drove the conversation over to spa balconies. Were any of those available? As it turned out I could have a Spa balcony for $500 – that would be only $71 dollars additional per person.

Now I had not talked to DH about this and debated doing so, but I went ahead and made the change. If he became Mad Santa so be it. He, and now you all, dear readers, already think I cannot do math so he may question my logic, and I did not have the time to explain. After a quick look at the deck plans I selected 14119, with the wavy bed by the window, not the water closet.

Now let me explain why this cabin only cost $71 more per person, not $250. I had already purchased two Thermal Suite passes for the week at a cost of $358. I would pay $500, but receive the $358 back making my net increase $142 – or $71 per person. Well worth it for a Spaaaaah balcony, with the Thermal Suite included.

Santa said I was nice not naughty. ;) :D

Staff was awaiting us as we stepped from the gangway onto the ship’s shuffleboard deck, but they were a quiet group. No leis, champagne, confetti. I guess I’m in the wrong century and/or hemisphere. We proceeded to meekly follow non-verbal directions and stepped thru the bulkhead to the interior of deck 7. Having boarded many ships with Carnival’s flamboyant décor I was a bit underwhelmed. We boarded at the entrance to Bliss Ultra Lounge and right by a set of public restrooms. Ken however was thrilled to be right there and promptly inspected the facilities. I spent time inspecting some of the hanging chains at Bliss. Could be useful on sea days.

I knew Taste was somewhere below us and wanted to eat there. So we headed down a floor and started looking for the escalator. As we walked through O’Sheehans I was afraid my husband would want to stop to eat. He is a fan of Shenanigans (what we call the big O’) and their chicken wings. But I wanted something quieter. ( I, I, I, me, me, me)

First we had to stop at the Atrium Bar and get something to clink together. May I recommend an old-fashioned where the fruit is muddled and the whiskey is Honey Jack.

I have no food porn pictures but I can remember the Taste meal. It’s the only dining room lunch we had all week. Ken had a spring roll and the lamb entrée. I had a Caesar salad and asked for the Pho soup as my entrée. All were delicious.

Cabins were ready shortly after we left the restaurant.

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I can't find a way to share a link to embed Google Photos and I am not opening a new file sharing account tonight so I will just upload these pictures. You do not want to see them up close anyway.

1 Getting ready to cruise

2 At the Park N Cruise

3 & 4 on the gangway

499 days until the cruise

 

We are officially under 500 days. The time seems to be going fast. It seems kind of silly but now at 499 days I feel like it is just around the corner. With 4 kids and the other day we got a kitten time just seems to fly.

 

Planning has kind of went to the back burner the last month or so and I expect it is going to stay there for the most part until after the new year or so.

Your kitten will be a cat when you cruise.

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Trying to determine if I can share photos in a post from Google photos

So far it's not working.