JohnBoy in NC

Mine didn't show up, guest relations not helpful...TA is sending me a check post cruise.

On the Seaside last week we missed San Juan and the refunded port fees were $33 each person

(Assuming you're asking me?)

 

2/9/19 Equinox from Miami. C3 category. Aqua is $400 more. If you time it right they'll throw in another $100-150 TA OBC too.

Yes thanks...couldn't find that price range with all 4 perks....nice deal that you got!

Which sailing? Thats a great deal

Do you have a back up? We're on the same cruise as you...had already received cancellations from Coral Princess and Holiday Inn Express Condado. Still have a reservation at the Wave, and I talked to them on Friday. Fingers crossed that reservation sticks!

I have previous reservation for Embassy Suites...but nervous about it.

May do an airbnb at the last minute if needed

Can't wait, worse case sleep on floor at friends hotel at Tres Palms

Just received my notification of cancellation for the night of January 12. I'm confused as other people reported staying there in the last couple of weeks??? Frustrated too. This is the third reservation I've had cancelled for the night of January 12.

I was cancelled for January12th as well today

Got the email today...keeping St. Croix but losing St Maarten and Dominica (replaced by St.Kitts and St. Lucia)

January 13 sailing

Keep posting. Doing my first TA and NCL on the Epic next November!

What is their Port Change coverage?

Inconvenience benefit that if cruiseline changes a port of call before you sail and you still decide to cruise, you get a payment (depending upon which level of policy you buy) when you return. They have great other coverages as well And nice price compared to other policies. Check out insure my trip .com for some comparisons. Might just pay for my next cruise...

Thanks for the tip on looking at the map vs written word January 20th Equinox: San Juan, St Thomas, St Kitts instead of written word San Juan, St Maarten, St. Kitts. Wonder if/when they'll change the written word to match the map.

Hoping Celebrity will do soon so we can plan accordingly...plus we have the Nationwide cruise insurance (nice port change benefit)....so we are sorta routing for an official itinerary change. :)

what is interesting is on the Celebrity website....if I do a mock booking for my January 13th Summit cruise....and view the itinerary, it shows our current designated ports. The desktop version of the website has a link to "Itinerary Map" and if you click on that - it shows what I think will be our true itinerary - with St. Croix, St. Marten, and Dominica being replaced by St. Kitts, Antigua, and St. Lucia respectively.

yes i know it is the Celebrity website---hmmm - but I think they are giving us a sneak peak of what is to come?

Hello All,

 

I see from Celebrity's website that the Summit Itineraries have been changed until the end of December.

Has anyone heard or been contacted about changes in January Itineraries??

 

Thank You.

Not yet, but I see that the St. Lucia port authority has us visiting during our Jan 13th cruise...the same day we are supposed to be in Dominica. We shall see (other port schedule sites also show St Kitts and Antigua for our cruise as well)...but no word from Celebrity or my TA.

Interesting because I called them oct30 and they told me they are not open until January. I have a January 13 reservation and they said they hoped to be open the first . But keep in touch with them for my Jan12th

I booked them as a backup on Jan 12th too

I have this Nationwide policy for our upcoming 11/5 Oasis cruise which was changed from Labadee/St. Martin/San Juan to Nassau/Costa Maya/Cozumel. It looks like I may have a claim. I will call on Monday and report back with my results. We'll see what "up to" means.

 

"In the event a Cruise makes a Change in Your Trip Itinerary prior to Your actual departure date we will pay up to the Maximum Benefit shown on the Confirmation of Coverage.

 

Change in Your Trip Itinerary shall mean the Cruise has a documented change of Port of Call from the scheduled itinerary.

 

Verification by the Cruise of the change in the scheduled Trip Itinerary will be necessary for claim payment. "

 

I had no idea - thanks, CC!

Keep us posted, have the same policy for my upcoming trip!

John in NC

I can't find the weather alerts/itinerary info anywhere on their website, can someone clue me in?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Very top blue banner on website, hit learn more on Carribean Itinerary Modification Alert

We were really looking forward to it. Not so sure what will happen now, with the exception of Grenada and Barbados, our other 4 ports have all been devastated by these two hurricanes.

Same here...are you on the Summit?

In Dominica I booked river tubing with an added stop at Mero beach in November through Antours.

 

This is what I was told to expect time wise.

 

Thanks much for your feedback. I am sure the girls will have great fun on the river. It's also safe activity.

Reference timings of the entire excursion, here are the details.

Ship to river - 30 to 35 mins

Breifing and gearing up - 15 to 20 mins

Tube Ride - 50 to 60 mins

Transfer to beach - 15 to 20 mins

Beach to ship - 30 mins

The tour starts on the dock at 9.30am and finishes at 2.30pm

Did this tour a few years ago, great time. In fact have it booked again this January however Maria may alter that, praying for the great people in Dominica.

I have on board credit and it certainly came up when I booked some excursions. Unfortunately despite telling me I could use the credit it wouldn't let me book unless I used a credit card. Obviously one of the many IT glitches

I tried today and the same thing....slide the toggle...clicked apply credit....and it won't let me go further without credit card info...and final checkout page seems to indicate it would charge my credit card since no indication of a reduction in OBC available.

uggghhh

Been some time since I have been Carnival and when I returned I wanted to try one of the newer ships. However, my 19-year-old daughter really wanted to cruise on a certain date (week after finishing the spring semester) and only a 5 day due to work. She wanted to take along her best friend and since they couldn’t book a cabin by themselves, my wife and I booked the two cabins in our names. Luckily at the time we scored a great deal on an OV and were able to bring our 13-yr-old son at little to no cost. This would be our first cruise out of Jacksonville, and driving wise (from NC) it was great. The port itself was nice and parking was relatively inexpensive and very convenient (short walk to the ship).

The benefit of booking a cabin for me and the other cabin in my wife’s name was that I alone could purchase the Cheers package since my wife doesn’t drink as much as I do (and would never get the full value of the drink package). So a quick Cheers review. I didn’t like signing receipts every time (and yes I always tipped a dollar each time) but it is what it is. I was disappointed in the lack of bourbon choices ship wide and how crowded the bars were. (I know it is a small ship but everywhere we went there was lines. I have been on plenty of small ships and this time it just seemed packed everywhere we went). There were not many roaming bar servers at the pool area (we used the aft pool mostly) and one “secret” is to use the bar that is open only on sea days behind the basketball/volleyball area. There were only 3 or 4 people at most at a time there. Atrium bar service was good – even when crowded. I didn’t go over 15 anytime during the week. Like Celebrity it was nice to have the specialty coffees included (but I loved not signing receipts on Celebrity!) and I enjoyed the Music Bar every morning. I was lucky enough to grab 3 ($100) gift cards on Verizon to save 10% and apply the difference ($12 or so) to my sign/sail account onboard (the machine was working so I had to wait in line for guest services).

Overall I enjoyed the Elation (she was clean and in good shape) but I have never felt so crowded before. Given the future dry dock later this year (hoping she gets some nice upgrades) and convenience of Jacksonville I might consider doing the Elation again (or a B2B as I prefer longer than 5-days).

Embarkation: We had the 1:00pm to 1:30pm check-in slot. I understand the need but I still prefer to get to the port at 10:30am and get on the ship by 11:30am – even though that 1hr or so can be hectic and a pain. We arrived at the parking lot around 12:30, had a guy carry the family over in a golf cart and were into the terminal right before 1pm. The security lines moved fairly quickly and check-in was pretty painless. Took the obligatory picture and were on the ship fairly quick.

Food: We ate in the MDR (anytime dining) every night but one. The food was a little above average, nothing too special or remarkable. One night the service was SLOW…we skipped desert since we wanted to catch a show. Bar service was always good in the MDR, which was nice. The buffet was below average to me, small of course due to the size of the ship but the choices were bleh. Breakfast was average. The sea brunch however was really good in the MDR. Compared to other past Carnival cruises I think the food quality was poorer this go around. I know all the mainstream lines have cut back. I actually enjoyed Carnival’s food (especially their steakhouses) in the past but it has been since 2013 since I last sailed Carnival. I wasn’t expecting a wow factor or to be impressed, but I was a little saddened that it didn’t meet my old Carnival expectations. I know it can vary by ship and cruise itself, but I wish I had a choice of Guys or specialty restaurant to substitute a night or two. And yes, I did miss the tablecloths every day.

Lunch was a zoo, and finally on the last sea day we were able to grab some food at the Mongolian Wok. (every day the line was 50 people+) but showing up 5 minutes before they opened. Even the pizza pirate place had lines around 15-20 people and it just moved slowly. I managed to grab some slices during off times (breakfast and late afternoon). We did the Taste Bar one night and the samples were good. We did one Tea Time (held at Dukes piano bar) and that was small and crowded (last time on Carnival it was in the MDR) and they didn’t have as much of the good stuff as before.

Smoking – yikes. I don’t smoke and I really don’t mind others smoking. I guess I was surprised at the number of inside places where once could smoke on the ship (like I said before, it has been 4 years since I have been on Carnival). My only “complaint” was that the live band always played in the Drama bar in the evenings, and this is a great bar for one to smoke in. And everyone was! Anyhow my wife is extra sensitive and we couldn’t enjoy a drink and listen/dance to the live band. We stood outside near the Music Bar to at least hear a song. BTW they held trivia at the bar as well and it was too much smoke to enjoy for us.

Our Cruise Director was Kevin Donahue and he was great. He lived up to the picture of what a Carnival cruise director should be: energetic, fun, and zany. He did a great job during 80’s trivia in the Atrium one night – don’t miss this performance.

We did see two production shows – Rock of Ages and Divas. Both were pretty good and enjoyable. We saw one family friendly comedy show and I thought it was pretty good. There wasn’t a lot of people and that had an impact on the whole atmosphere I think. We also saw one Hasbro show and it was ok, fun to watch the kids participate. We went to one piano bar sing-along and that was ok as well.

Half Moon Cay: like most people have said, it is a beautiful beach. It was our first time there and I am glad we made it. There were plenty of chairs and the water nice and calm. It felt crowded at times but was still enjoyable. If you walk all the way down there are less people of course, and some hammocks to use. It is frustrating that you can’t use the Cheers package here. The food was good (burgers and jerk chicken) and the weather was very nice.

Nassau: We decided to walk to the John Waltings Rum factory, where we did our own tour and rum tasting. Afterwards I ended up shopping (ok, watching two teenage girls try to haggle for T-shirts/knick-nacks in a hot/humid straw market for an hour) while my wife and her friend ended up at Sharkeez for some drinks and jello shots.

Disembarkation: Uggggh. The worst yet of all my cruises. We were walk-off and there was mass elevator confusion and several bottlenecks. It wasn’t a fun scene but once we were off customs went by fairly quickly.

So even though I wanted to sail the Breeze or Vista when I returned to Carnival, I did enjoy the Elation for what she is. She was in great shape overall and after her upgrades I would consider driving down to Jacksonville again for a quick getaway. My last cruise in January was on the Allure, so this is about as stark of a contrast as one could get….and I did have a good time. I still want to try a newer Carnival ship at some point but I don’t know when I will get back to Carnival…too many good deals (considering overall value) on NCL and MSC right now. We will see – I am looking at 2019 right now.:D

Yours in cruising,

JohnBoy in NC

Thank you for the awesome review. We are taking the elation for our honeymoon and leave Monday. We are extremely excited because we have never been on a cruise before. When getting off at different places and exploring the beautiful areas, I'm aware that the cheers card doesn't apply. Do they accept cash or card?

The beach areas, is it crowded where you can't get a seat?

I'm sure I will have more questions as the day goes on. My mind is going crazy right now with prewedding stuff.

Thanks!

Congrats!

At Half Moon Day use your ship card for purchases....Bahamas cash and credit card (some locals cash only).

Crowds at Bahamas depends upon how many ships...cruisetimetables is a great website to see how many ships in port that day.

Have a great cruise and wedding!

John in NC

It looked like all the rooms on the riviera deck on the starboard side toward of the bow from the forward elevators were done and I'm guessing they are working on the port side because that corridor was blocked off by plastic sheeting.

 

We did make it to Half Moon Cay, even though there was a fairly strong breeze that day. Fortunately we are 3 for 3 on getting there lol... It was amazing as always. If you have never done so I recommend taking a cold beverage (or 2 or 3) and enjoying a leisurely walk all the way to the end of the beach, it is very deserted and peaceful and you can really feel like you're on an island by yourself when you are facing away from everything.

 

Yes we had Cheers, we have had it on all five of our cruises and it has always been a great deal. It's not hard at all to break even and it's nice not having to keep track of your bar tab and debate if you really want another drink. I can only imagine the terrible feeling of getting your statement the last night and seeing all those charges reading $7+ instead of $0.00 haha!

 

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Any great bars/bartenders that stood out? How was embarkation? (what time slot did you have).

I just returned home from and absolutely wonderful 5 day Bahama trip on the Elation. Let me know any questions you may have about this ship or ports and I'll do my best to answer them!

Nice to hear, how was embarkation...what time slot did you have? How was drink service and pool crowds?

Left on 3/16 on the Elation. Had 1:00 to 1:30 check in time...... line was extremely long when we arrived at 12:50. Thankfully we had priority check in so we didn't have to wait but the lines was all the way to the parking lot!

Grrr. Have 1pm check in time in May.

Hoping others post recent experiences as well!

Thanks

Thanks OP for the heads up, our TA got the $100 OBC added to all of our traveling party.

I was worried we would have to increase our deposit since we had originally booked with $50pp special but we didn't have to.

I am 3 weeks after you and researched the Florida/east coast boards here on cruisecritic. I decided to pay ahead and use JaxPort due to convience and safety vs waiting for shuttle etc.

You will see reviews and pros and cons on that board....