maryred

15 minutes ago, holiday-shrek said:

I seriously doubt it was because of the shorts!

The have no "dress code" just a suggestion - so the staff has no right to turn anybody away!

Nope heard staff say to the passengers at the hostess desk "No short allowed at diner" then pointed suggestions to either change to pants for males or capris/skirts for females or enjoy the offerings at the Windjammer. Did not see kids that were obviously under 10 turned away if the arrived with shorts on as long as the parents/guardians and teens dressed to code.

Are last 2 cruises and Royal have been out a Cape Liberty, on the Adventure (7 Night) and Anthem (12 Night), & the hosting staff on these ships must be more strict than on others.  Allmost every night, except embarkation night, at My Time Dining we witness people being turned away because they were in shorts. Even the 2 nights we had dinner in the Solarium  Bistro people were asked to change out of shorts.There were no nights listed as being Smart Casual, just casual or formal. On the 2 formal nights men without button-down shirts were also turned away, though a few with Hawaiian shirts were evident.

Also if there were any themed nights none of the passengers were prepared to dress for them as we witnessed no large gatherings of people in any particular era, style, or color clothing on any night. Though a good portion of those that attended the Bolero dancefloor on any given evening did wear Latin style dance wear.

It will interesting in Oct and Dec to see if the Grandeur out of Baltimore is as hard core on the dress code.

On 7/2/2019 at 11:27 AM, Purvis1231 said:

The last I heard, Carnival will still honor the vouchers- so book a cruise and use them!

Not any longer, the cut off date for redemption of the drink coupons tickets was Feb 1at 2017.  Anyone with any left now has a nice scrapbooking souvenir. 

To anyone that wishes to carry on/off their own luggage good for you it's your choice. Just realize all home ports are not created equally. It would be good to post this ? on your ship's roll call so those with experience for that particular ship and home port can chime in. 

Just as an example the port at Baltimore is a single ground level terminal very easy to navigate from car to door and around the check-in area or customs clearance section. BUT but many are taken back when they get to the gang way for the Pride which can have a climb as high as 3.5 stories with up to 5 switchbacks and no mechanical alternatives. 

To anyone that wishes to carry on/off their own luggage good for you it's your choice. Just realize all home ports are not created equally. It would be good to post this ? on your ship's roll call so those with experience for that particular ship and home port can chime in. 

Just as an example the port at Baltimore is a single ground level terminal very easy to navigate from car to door and around the check-in area or customs clearance section. BUT but many are taken back when they get to the gang way for the Pride which can have a climb as high as 3.5 stories with up to 5 switchbacks and no mechanical alternatives. 

Why is a marriage, divorce, or other name change papers possibly needed for a cruise?

Well the simplest answer is the CBP might ask for it if the name on the DHS manifest (booking name) does not match the proof of nationality for repatriation at the end of the cruise. Without the name change bridge documents between the proof of nationality and the photo ID being used if whatever database the CBP uses is down or does not have the 2 names already linked it could cause a significant delay in the person being allowed out of the cruise terminal on debarkation day. This is something no one involves wants, not the government clerks, not the port personnel, and most certainly not the passenger that might have flights or other travel plans in place.

A birth certificate is a proof of nationality. A driver's license is proof of identity. A Passport, book or card, is both, acting at the same time as your proof of nationality and your photo identification and name change proof. Also acceptable to the CBP is a Real ID act compliant enhance DL (Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Vermont, and Washington are the only states that currently meet the federal requirement). Any document (excluding proof of current residency) needed to obtain a Passport or federally recognized EDL can be asked for by the CBP for reentry to the USA at the end of a cruise when a Passport is not being used as your documentation. So as long as a booking matches the name on the Passport then no other paperwork is needed. BUT if only cruising using separate proofs of nationality and photo identity then all paperwork showing the links from name to name should be on hand. 

Other factors for FttF being available is your cruise date going to be one of the Casino hosted, special invitees (TAs or bloggers), or large group (or partial charter) cruise. So until there is a good head count on these other special circumstances they tend to hold off offering FttF. 

12 hours ago, sailaway4 said:

Great, thanks. My husband and sons have an early excursion one day. Hopefully they can get moving in time to get an early tender.

For tender ports the meeting point for early excursions (cruise line purchased) maybe on board and if so will be in s separate area than the priority tendering meeting. Even if they have priority they need to make that meeting point on board for the the tour, information will either be on or with the excursion tickets, if not there then a letter regarding the tour will be delivered to the cabin the night before. Certain tours sometimes go on private tenders, in some cases (mostly snorkeling, dives, private beach days, or fishing trips) completely bypassing the port dock and heading straight to the area the activity will take place in. If referencing a privately purchased tour then just go to the priority tendering area.

On 7/1/2019 at 12:10 PM, PCWalton1 said:

This is the screen I get with has a cash option

 

On 7/1/2019 at 12:20 PM, custompcsys said:

Well, just for yucks and giggles I tried doing the edit with Internet Explorer (I was using Chrome when I checked in the first time) and there big as life was the screen just like PCWalton had posted.  Clicked on the option for cash and finished the check-in for myself and my wife.  So basically their website is coded to IE and won't handle cross-browser issues.  As a software consultant I'm kind of shocked at their IT people, that's a huge no-no these days.

The above screen is what I get using Google Chrome Version 75.0.3770.100. With IE 11 all I'm getting is a never ending circling arrow on a blue screen until I get a failure to load notice. 

We've used Victor Bodden tours just because on their private tours it's just you & those you pick in roomy vehicles with all stops are pre-arranged via email so there are no surprise costs if you choose to do things not part of the "packaged" group tours. Once your driver is assigned they (personally) may even send additional emails with other options to fill-in the time otherwise they will discuss this with you before leaving the port area. We enjoyed not having to wait (if we found a place boring) or be rushed (if it was more interesting than we anticipated) through places based on a group timetable and found the per person price for the vehicle and driver/guide to be affordable and it covered up to 8 hours of touring.

On the other hand if there is only 1 or 2 attractions you wish to visit, there are many well rated tour companies that have open group tours to several places on the island. The ports section here, tripadvisor, expedia, and shore excursioneer are all decent places online to start your search for which company meets your needs.

2 hours ago, Garyjames220 said:

 

Thats good

 

see part of me thought, a one year old if just to young but when you look at you tube videos you actually see loads of baby’s and strollers etc. Quite surprised how many do it 

 

but can’t be as relaxing as a cruise and the option of the nursery on it and chilling on the beach etc 

 

we did think of doing the two weeks in the parks and just going at a lot slower pace. Like half days in parks and half days at the resort etc but my partner seems to think the cruise would be better now

What many online videos don't show is that the family with an infant in a stroller may also have older sibling(s) or larger extended family group doing the vacation along with them. So if those are your only 2 wants for a immediate family holiday with no nanny or family member to help with baby care during your stay I would go with the cruise. Just because it does allow for more parent alone time if you are able to get the Nursery care offered by the ship.

On 6/30/2019 at 5:37 AM, jmcancruise said:

With priority tender they will give you a location to meet and will accompany you off.

Yes a letter should be delivered to your cabin the night before. It might be mixed in with the printed FunTimes or alone in your mailbox. 

Priority passengers will be loaded to the tenders after passengers with early in the day excursions for the first hour or so of the tender process. Additionally if you miss the "lounge" meeting point times you can usually go to the Priority line at guest services for an escort if there is still lines for the tenders.

Personally I would review the credit card's point redemption vs points applied to the billing. For the most part on many of our cards that allow for points, miles, or "cashback" to applied as a billing credit after a certain point value the ratio to do so is more favorable than getting a check, gift cards, merchandise, or on board perks.

Just as an example the number of points needed for $700 in GCs (2*$100 + 1*$500) would get me $750 in account (billing) credits. Plus the new purchase of goods or services for on board goes to building my points back up.

As stated you can start your online check-in at 12:00:01am Eastern time on the 90 day mark prior to the cruise, and it closes out for edits and reprints at 11:59:59pm Eastern time the night before embarkation. 

In general the earliest listed Arrival Appointment time does roughly coincide with the boarding of the Wedding party, with the first wave of Priority passengers boarding 10-20 minutes later. At many ports Priority passengers are allowed in the terminal for inprocessing about 1 hour prior to that time. 

On average priority boarding will start about: 

For small and medium ships about 3-3.5 hours after docking

For Dream Class ships about 3.5-4 hours after docking

For Vista Class ships about 4-5 hours after docking

Of course these general times can be thrown off by special inspections, or medical (or legal) problems concerning departing passengers.

Timing for general boarding will depend greatly on the number of priority passengers that show up early, as the priority lounge and FttF section needs to be cleared before they start zone boarding. Priority passengers that arrive after their section of priority boarding has begun will proceed to board upon completion of in person check-in.

I'm thinking that it's a case of the lousy IT for Royal striking again. 

I just did the check-in for our Anthem cruise on 9/26, last night. At first the system was doing the whole bounce back and forth through the "normal" login and register the cruise page using the booking number and then to the try again later page, even though I have already been using the Cruise Planner for this cruise for 5 months now. 

After checking my browser for any updates, making sure my pop-up blocker was off, clearing my history, and finally restarting the computer was I finally able to access the online check-in. When I reached the Seapass account setup page a cash account was definitely an option.

On 6/28/2019 at 6:45 PM, VelmaS said:

 

So if we received gift cards for our cruise, we can then use those to pay for our wifi in the FunShop for example? Or water delivered to our room for when we get there? 

Carnival gift cards can be used to pay for the cruise, make purchases through the online FunShops, prepay for excursions, secure spa appointments, and/or to fund your on board account. A gift card need not be used in its entirety in a single transaction, as the remaining balance will remain attached to the card number after any purchase that uses only part of the value. ALso if a purchase online exceeds the GC amount you will be prompted to add another GC or credit/debit card info to complete the transaction.

A few packs of ThermaCare style air activated heat wraps would probably be a better bet. No need to worry about port security confiscating them, and no need to ask for your steward to provide an extension cord to use them. 

Hi Velma, Mary from the roll call. 

Just be careful about purchasing too much value in gift cards or in Cruise Cash. Cruise Cash is non-refundable and Gift Card funding is refundable but only as a new gift card. Also there are 2 different types of Carnival gift certificates, one is an all use gift card or e-card usually sold through the Carnival direct website, in person at certain grocery stores, and through discount purchase programs like AARP Rewards for Good and AllState Drivewise. Then there is the other one which is actually a booking certificate usually available as an exchange in its entirety for points from credit card bonus programs. The first  type can be used for almost any Carnival related payment or purchase made pre-cruise and to fund your on board account once on the ship.The latter is only good for the initial booking and through the CS # listed in the offer's TOU.

With the cruise over a year away you may want to look to see if your bank offers a no fee escrow style savings account like a Christmas Club but for planned large purchases or vacations.  Unlike a traditional Christmas Club these allow you to pick your payout date (my suggestion would be 3 months and 1 week before the cruise), but like the CC makes you adhere to small incremental deposit schedule. If you can get one with its own separate debit card all the better,  because if you decide to put that card on file for your on board account (as primary or as back-up) no worries about holds messing up your checking account.

Here are the exclusions Carnival posts to the FttF program:

*Faster to the Fun is not offered on Carnival Journeys and Europe cruises.

Faster to the Fun is not offered in the following home ports: Honolulu, Norfolk, Vancouver. 

Faster to the Fun will be offered on the Carnival Panorama, starting with departures in February 2020, Carnival Radiance, starting with departures in January 2021 and Mardi Gras, starting in 2021 (date to be determined).

What they don't publish is on certain dates like a Premier Casino cruise since they are extending Priority embarkation/debarkation FttF will not be offered until that casino special closes out it's promo, which can be as little as a few weeks before sailing. Another alternative is if there is a large closed group booking that arranged special boarding privileges as there group perk, in which case FttF might not be offered for that cruise date.

Now here is what I know about the Twizy. Rental is $99/day, mandatory local insurance is $30/day, and must be pick-up and returned to either (offsite delivery has been suspended):

- The Hamilton Princess and Beach Club: 76 Pitt's Bay Road, Pembroke  or

- The Fairmont Southampton: 101 South Shore Road, Turtle Hill, Southampton 

So you need initial transport to either of those resorts to get your rental, if you don't want to wait on the public transport schedules for the ferry to Hamilton or the public bus to the Horseshoe Bay Beach stop ($4 token/ticket for 1 way), a cab will run you $35-40 to get to either location.

There is only a couple of parking spots with charging stations in the Dockyard located near the Frog and Onion Pub. There are only 15 public use charging locations (most with multiple parking spots) on the whole island, there are others but they are located on property of resorts and reserved solely for the use of guests registered there.

Here's what I know about how Carnival handles time changes and a good portion of it comes from a conversation with E/CD that has "defected" to work on RCI. On closed loop cruises Carnival will change the ship's time to local time, if and only if, more than 50% of the total cruise's port of call time is in that other time zone and there needs to be at least 36 hours between when the time change can occur (during an overnight) and arriving at the port of call and continuing to the next port of call (in a different time zone) or returning to homeport to have time for passengers to adjust for it. If all the conditions can not be met they will tend not adjust ship's time to local time.

So in the case of a ship doing a 5, 6, or 7 day cruise with Bermuda being the only port the ship docks at for 36-54 hours, the time change will usually be announced on embarkation night by the Maitre D, the CD at shows, and comedy club host(ess) as well as noted as part of your printed FunTimes. So set your watch or other time piece ahead by an hour. For the return the night that you depart from the Royal Dockyard you will be reminded to turn you clocks and such back and hour in anticipation of docking at the homeport some 36-48 hours later. For the quick getaway 4 day or less cruises it's rare to do the time change, but it could happen depending on sail away and return docking times to the home port.

But in other cases where Bermuda is just a stop for less than 30 hours it will vary as to if they adjust to Atlantic time. It really depends on how many seadays you will have between your ports and what time zones the previous and upcoming ports are on. So say a Journey's cruise leaves from Charleston with stops in San Juan, Amber Cove, and Bermuda: there is a very good chance as all 3 ports are in the Atlantic Time Zone that there will be a time change (just be careful though Amber Cove does not observe daylight savings time so if an adjustment is made during the summer ship's time there will not be local time). Now using the same home port but instead the ship is going to Bermuda first then 2 ports in the Bahamas, it's less likely because the majority of ports are in the Eastern time zone. Again it will depend on the amount of hours between ports so it is always a possibility.

On open jaw type cruises such as a Transatlantic or repositioning cruise time changes for ports of call will really depend on what time zones your departure and arrival ports are in, and where along the voyage that the stop in Bermuda happens.

I think somebody does not understand taxes very well. Business taxation is a prime example of trickle down effect,. If tipping is changed to a mandatory it is no long considered a gratuity and becomes a taxable portion of the fare, that means passengers will have to pay higher governmental fees when booking.

Secondly in many of the countries the hotel service crew members are from salary, hourly, or contractual set pay is taxed sometimes at a very high rate (50%) yet gratuities or tips gained need not be reported as income. So that means much higher wages would be needed to be paid to the crew under contract to equal their previous pay that included non-taxable tips, making for higher base fares to provide the increased pay.

FInally since discretionary gratuities even when charge on an automated program are considered a transitional collection of funds by an employer on behalf of an employee and are not considered profit or payment to that company., Once  they become mandatory this instead becomes part of the corporates reportable profits and taxable by the state and country (the USA) that the business has a physical presence in (Florida and whatever the particular ship's home port is). SO again another bump up in the overall charge to cruise.

As for your supposition that cruise lines do the automated gratuities as a way to appear artificially low on their booking adverts, have you booked a hotel or resort in the USA lately. Most lodgings have between a 7-19% resort fee that is not disclosed until you nearly finalize the reservation, some even tack on surcharges for local municipal compliances like a energy conservation fee (3-8%). This is a one of the reasons why AirBnB  can undercut many established hotels, being a private home they are exempt from having to report the "rent" (up to a certain amount) annually as anything other that secondary income. 

Port information: www.NYcruise.com

 New York Manhattan Cruise Terminal Pier 88/90/92

 711 12th Avenue at 55th Street

 New York City, New York 10019

Parking at the port: On-site Parking is open, and porters for checked luggage are available by 9:00am. Check out no later than 1:00pm or you will be charged an additional day. They do not accept reservations. Space is subject to availability and is provided to passengers parking on a first come, first serve basis. Returning ships arrive between 7:00am–8:00am, and passengers who have parked at the terminal are often finished with customs and off the lot by 10:00am–10:30am, freeing up parking spaces. (Remember your shio may not be the only ship at those piers that day, and the pier uses the 1 rooftop parking area as the primary for all piers there.) There is an 8’3″ height restriction for all personal vehicles. There is no upcharge for sport utility vehicles.

Parking Rates:

Same Day rate (10 hours or less) $35.00

Cruise length parking: $40.00/per night to a max of $400/vehicle

Taxes are included in the rates.  Payment accepted by cash and Visa and MasterCard Credit Cards, and is due upon arrival. If you have any further questions, please call 212-641-4440, Monday through Friday, 8:30am–5:30pm.

Actually it might be the doing of the TA. Many travel companies will book open group cruises to be able to offer special pricing, perks, OBC, or some combination of some or all of those extras. The TA office may of inadvertently linked your booking to another person that is also a client of theirs (not necessarily for your specific agent). 

53 minutes ago, suesnake2002 said:

To avoid crowds get there by 10am

Or after 12:30pm as most of the traffic has subsided and the terminal is virtually empty for fast processing.