dettlja

I used Bonine on my 9 yo. She also gets motion sick in the car. She cruised just fine. Second cruise no meds and she was fine too :-)

Just off the splendor, which is a test ship, I believe. We didn't receive a card. The steward asked us what we prefer and I said both. He did 2x a day with no attitude. The room wasn't that clean tho. Dust on shelves and glasses, stuff on the carpet. You could tell it wasn't vacuumed. But he didn't complain. He didn't ask if we wanted robes or extra pillows. We had robes in our room as usual.

I got 2 in a package a couple years ago and I thought they were crap. They fell apart after just a couple washings. Not at all the same weight or quality as the $22 ones. But they were ok for only $12.

Just off the splendor last week. Yes it was adults only. I didn't realize it until the last day that the fun times said 18+ no idea how well it was enforced because chair hogs ruled and there were no chairs to be found.

I wouldn't take legal advice from a message board about whether it's ok to have an open container in your car. That said we have carried off partial bottles of water, soda and wine with no issues. Only time they have thrown away my stuff is getting on the ship, not off.

Jaimee

I lost my dad to lung cancer a year ago. He lived for 3 years after his stage IV diagnosis and would have been sound for travel all but the last 3 months of his illness. If your husband has the energy, I say go for it. I wish I had those types of memories with my dad and I know for a 15 year old, it will be very important to have that type of experience to look back on, not just the illness.

Man, I got up to go potty in the middle of the night and now I'm sitting here bawling my eyes out. I miss my dad and I'm so sorry that you have to go through this experience. I wish the best for you and hope you have a great cruise.

I wouldnt do a b2b for a couple of reasons. 1: Id do one cruise with the kids, one without. Thats hard to do unless youre ok putting your kids on a plane alone.

2: I cant be gone from home that long. about day 6 or 7 I'm missing my bed and my pets.

So I'd def go with 2 separate week long vacations vs a single 2 week trip. But, that said, everyone is different. Only you know what will work for you.

Jaimee

I got the same email just now. I have an OS booked in 3 weeks and a havana cabana booked on the repo in November. I'm just as curious as everyone else what the water means and the enhanced turndown service...

Im booked in a suite on the Splendor in 3 weeks. I sure wish I knew the details of all this. We have FTTF booked for 2 rooms and we have several cases of water being delivered. It sure would be nice to know what we need and what we dont need. I enjoy Carnival, but their communication leaves alot to be desired. (Yes, I received the same email about 5 min ago and immediately came here to get the scoop. How sad is that?)

Jaimee

We've sailed out of Mia and fll several times with late flights. Usually we rent a car from National at Mia. Take the free shuttle from POM to Mia and pick up our car. Place luggage in trunk and go spend the day doing whatever. We've done the everglades at holiday national park a couple times, some shopping mall in fll when we got rained out, and next time we want to do Coral Castle. Then we return the car to whatever airport we are flying out of and go home. Works out great.

I'm not affected by this, but this is one of those things that really make me mad. There is no way Carnival doesn't know what is going on... there is no excuse for the lack of communication. Excursions are a major part of my cruise experience. I'd be irate if this happened to me. Carnival needs to up its game. Smh. Sorry you guys had to go through this.

I'm pretty sure they go to holiday everglades park (name might not be exactly right but it has holiday in it). We've gone twice but not on the carnival excursion. We rented a car. National has a free shuttle from POM to MIA. So we rode that and picked up a car. Drove to the everglades, did our thing and drove back. Great way to spend the day.

In 9 cruises, they have never asked me to see the credit card. I just put the info in at home as part of the online check in and I'm good to go.

We tried this once. Took magnetic hooks and a thin shower curtain that I paid just a couple bucks for. It didn't work. First the upper bed overhangs the king bed by a good 12 inches. In fact my husband kept whacking his head on it. And the hooks weren't strong enough. Even tho the curtain was thin and light it would fall down. Hope you have better luck.

Lots of tips on the home port board but we like the holiday Inn pom. No shuttle but a 5 min taxi ride to port. You can see the ships from the hotel. And it's right across from Bayside mall which is huge outdoor mall. Our tradition is to eat at Bubba gumps the night before and the kids get henna tattoos.

Thanks for the tips. Especially about proper protocal for 9/11 memorial and naming the public transportation. Youve certainly saved me from a major faux pas.

Wish we had more time to spend in NY but the repo cruise is 11 days and quite expensive, so we are limited on time and funds.

If no regard to sight seeing is it generally cheaper to fly and stay in Newark and then find a way to the port the morning of the cruise?

We do qualify for AARP, and Im a state govt employee (but wont be on govt travel obviously). We will be flying from phx. Return flight is from MIA so either doing an open jaw or 2 one way tickets.

I appreciate your help! Ive sailed many times from Miami but never New York and its very intimidating.

Jaimee

Hi everyone!

Im sailing on the Vista 11/16. My 40th birthday is 11/15. Planning on flying in 11/14 so only have one day really to sight see.

We dont have flights yet and dont know anything about the different airports, so would appreciate airport advice too.

Vista sails port of manhattan, so cost to get to port is a consideration.

We would like to visit central park, ground zero and eat NY Pizza. Other than that, no real sight seeing goals. Just happy to see the city in general. Weather will probably be a consideration in November, but we are both fit and ok to walk several miles a day.

Hotel suggestions? Budget is < $400 a night. Prefer to pay a bit more for a nice place vs. saving money and staying in a rat hole. Had a suggestion for hotelfive44 but they have a 3 might minimum.

Looking at LMTclub Hudson, Central park is about $300 night and seems like a good location. We can take the redline to ground zero?

Thanks for the advice!!

Jaimee

Miracle out of long beach? Absolutely get fttf. We showed up at 1230 and line was wrapped around the block. With fttf we got on in 20 min. Our friends who didn't have it waited in line 2 hours. By the time they got on that maitre de was closed so they could not change dining time. And the wait is outside in the weather.

I'm on the 16th too. Thanks for the heads up. Going to check my booking now.

We were on the same cruise. In fact we had cabin 6232 because you moved out! LOVED the balcony. It will be hard to go back to a balcony without a lounger. We had a great cruise. Love the spirit class ship. This was one of our favorite cruises so far.

Jaimee

I do not use hand sanitizer because I feel its overuse is making germs more resilient.

I do find a rest room and wash my hands with soap and hot water right before I go into the dining room or take food from the buffet.

 

There may be a lot of people who do what I do, so that's perhaps why you did not see many use the sanitizer.

This is me too.

Took a week for me and required a signature so I redirected the shipment to the local UPS store so I could pick it up instead of waiting on the delivery guy.

The $5 package I was talking about is the social media Internet package sold by the cruise ship. I buy that and then use Facebook to keep in touch.

Pretty sure it's 50 cents to send and 10 cents to receive per text. Data is totally seperate so make sure you turn data roaming off. For us, getting an Internet package was the most economical way to go. The social media pack worked for us. $5 a day and we used fb to keep in touch with everyone.

The white is Def not a sauvignon blanc. It's some sort of Chardonnay or a blend. I'm not a wine snob by any stretch of the imagination and I couldn't choke it down. It was terrible! The pinot grigio we got at cucchina for free was excellent!