Blueboss

Wow! Loved it! First of all, Thank you for remembering our troops on Thanksgiving Day. I had to wipe a few tears. This is the second holiday season my son has been overseas and I'm not dealing with it too well. I just want to scream, "Army tough my ass! I want my son home!". I know he is doing his duty and I will be fine in a few days. Hate that the waterworks are so easily triggered right now.

Loved seeing the Magic again, brought back so many memories of our cruise on her in January. Found myself looking for familiar crew faces although they are likely on other ships now. The pictures from the ship in Cozumel look so much like mine, Conquest was docked next to us as well.

Thank you for the Build a Bear pictures. Thought I was going to get to do that if I booked Triumph in April. DH nixed that cruise yesterday. Said I was flying to Germany for Christmas and was taking my daughter and future daughter in law with me. Said he refused to put up with me crying through the holidays next year. :o Guess I'll just build one on my Liberty cruise instead.

I get one after every cruise I take. Haven't ever seen one pre cruise even though I call or file for price drops.

Day stop pier is different one than the embarkation piers.

Thank you! That's what I was hoping for.

Interesting and thought provoking thread. I would probably stick to Carnival, for the most part. Some of the other lines have intriguing ships and I would like to sail on those for the experience. Dream cruise would be a B2B2B Panama Canal, Hawaii and Alaska, which we plan to do upon our retirement. After that, we have the whole planet to explore so the frequent flyer miles will get a healthy boost.

Was reading through this thread and I have a stupid question. We will be in San Juan next year on a Carnival cruise as a port stop, not our embarkation port. While in any port, we usually buy alcohol that we can't get in the US and expect CCL to hold it for us until the last night of the cruise. Never a problem but this has me wondering how they will handle that since it is also an embarkation port. Will the ship still hold it or will we be treated like we are trying to smuggle booze on at embarkation? We have not been in SJ yet so have no idea what the set up for security is like. I would think that getting back on the ship would be the same as any other port, but I have been wrong before. Any insight on this? Thanks.

Tourist info Center Plaza Del Sol.

 

 

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Thanks for the info.

Thank-You....this vacation couldn't have come at a better time for me and my dad.

 

I will definitely be doing an extensive photo review when I return. I just bought a DSLR camera last Friday and I am so eager to try it out

Have a great trip! 2000 pictures coming right up! :D

I remember how many I took the first cruise after I got my DSLR. :eek:

I booked my Nov. 2014 cruise during one of their sales, got a decent deal but really would've liked to have ES. The deal I got has some restrictions about price drops, according to my PVP. I can get price drops until final payment date, after that, I'm screwed. I'm thinking they are trying to limit or phase out ES. I don't know how many times I've seen a post about a price drop, go check mine and file for it if there is one. The last 7 day cruise I took, we had almost $600 in OBC, most of which I got after the final payment date. I don't have that option now. Are they hoping we will up our S&S budget to account for less OBC which would mean more money in their coffers? Usually when I book a cruise, I have a certain budget for the whole package. If I get a deal on the cruise, I spend more onboard, not as good of deal, less onboard spending. Wonder if they hope I will go over budget to keep my onboard spending the same?

Just my thoughts on this.

I love this idea! I could easily do this for my kids since they give me all the information anyway.

We did Magic last January to Roatan, Belize and Cozumel. Below is a link to the review of that trip with a lot of pictures. Hope this helps you.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1778916

It can be done in San Miguel.

Where at?

That's a big pain these days.

Some ports, yes, other ports are pretty easy. Mahogany Bay and Belize, the office was right there at the port. I've heard that for Cozumel it can only be done on the mainland. We'll see about our ports next year on the eastern side, although two of those are US territories and probably won't stamp ours.

Considering the things I have seen people do and heard them say onboard that were tolerated, I have to believe that things like this are quite serious to result in being removed mid cruise.

I have to agree with this. Last week on Elation, a lone, female security officer was trying to get a belligerent drunk herded down the stairs, amidst racial slurs toward her, the F-bomb spewing out his mouth and threats of bodily harm to her or anyone else that got in his way. They didn't toss him off the ship. We saw him occasionally the rest of the cruise.

Just got back from our 5 day Elation cruise. We had a good laugh about your cornbread until the third day of our cruise. My nephew went to get something to eat and came back with this. LOL

Can't wait to see your Camp Carnival pictures! The kids loved it! There were only 20 kids total even after combining Camp Carnival and Circle C. That meant the older child could stay near the younger one. Neither child wanted to leave when one of us would go pick them up. They each came home with the Build a Bear. I already told DH I was going to do that myself (on the next cruise) if they would allow a middle aged woman in for it. He just shook his head and rolled his eyes. LOL

We split the difference. We try to take a spring cruise and then a fall cruise, one is 5 days the other is 7 or 8 days. The shorter cruise is usually an inside, the longer cruise is balcony only. Neither DH or myself can handle an inside for a week, 5 days is our limit. Next year, it looks like I'm going to get a ton of overtime so I may get a balcony for our short cruise too.

Getting off our cruise last week, with extended family, opened my eyes to how easy it is with a passport vs. without. DH and I breezed right through customs. My sister, travelling with small children and BC, took a little longer. Since there is no photo ID for the kids, they had to answer a few questions about how old they were, who they were travelling with, etc. This caused one of her kids to pause, not sure how to answer or if he should even talk to this stranger. She said the whole family will have passports before their next cruise as well as looking into a state issued photo ID for the kids. Just our experience with young children and a customs agent.

We are doing the Liberty Nov. 7, 2014. We are mid 40's, empty nesters. Grand Turk is a beach day for us, St. Maarten is Maho Beach, St. Thomas is snorkeling. Not sure about San Juan since that was not on the original itinerary when we booked. Looks like that will be a tour port for us. Can't speak about the ships, haven't been on either one yet. While doing my research of the ports, I used CC port threads for some great info and ideas, used Google Images for pictures of the ports and Google, in general, for any scrap of information that I might have missed. It was a toss up for us between the two itineraries and ships as well, but it came down to the dates as the deciding factor. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

We have been on Elation twice with a large group. The first cruise, there were 11 of us and they sat all of us at a large, round table. Was back on Elation last week with a group of 8. We figured it would be just the family at a table, but they squeezed another couple in with us. Thankfully, he was military and she was a prison nurse so they had plenty in common with our military and prison guard family. LOL You should be fine if all are linked together.

Ok- so between myself and my daughter I will have (literally) a backpack full of medicine and medical supplies when we board the ship. I'm concerned that this is going to be a problem and take a long time when we get there. Anybody have any experience with this? We are first time cruisers so I just want to be prepared. Thanks in advance!!!

We cruised last week with my niece who has to carry a lot of prescriptions as well as medical equipment with her. One piece of equipment was quite large and my sister was worried about it being larger than Carnival's stated carry on size. She called special services, explained the situation (size of equipment, number of prescriptions, etc,). There was no problem checking in or going through customs when we got back. She did have all her meds in the original bottles though. They did, however, put a green sticker on her S&S card at check in. We assumed it was to alert the crew of a medical issue if she was incapacitated and none of us were with her. Haven't seen that before on a cruise and this was her first one so not real sure if that was the reason for it or not.

Finally got caught up with this review. Your pictures are wonderful! The rainbow colors in Jamaica are neat and your sunrise is stunning! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!

We had a great time on Elation, rough seas for 3 days, but still had fun. I have decided not to do a review of our cruise. It was my young niece and nephew's first cruise and my pictures reflect that. My sister would not appreciate me plastering her 6 and 9 year old children's pictures all over CC. Suffice it to say, those kids are now hooked on cruising! LOL

Carnival's website goes on the fritz pretty regular, keep checking it. We booked our FTTF for Nov. 2014 back in Sept. when we booked our cruise. With the tender port you have, it will sell out fast! Been there, done that. If it's already sold out, keep checking back. We sailed Magic this past Jan., I had missed the initial offering, but they did release a few more closer to our sail date so was able to snag one of those. Just keep checking back and keep an eye on your roll call for any mention of it.

I think it has everything to do with the motion of the ocean, cold fronts and your ability to hold it together. We just had a cold front come through so it was very windy the last week, so that may have been what you experienced. I've been on the Liberty and had some rockiness in Feb last year and it was definitely bearable for me, not so much for my friends.

We were watching the weather map on the cabin TV and saw the cold front dip down our second day out. It got rough for our last three days. I don't mind rough seas, they are great for rocking us to sleep. We usually book balcony but this time was interior and it got to me a little if I was moving around the cabin. Due to the high winds, they closed off most of the decks and had us all crammed around the Lido pool. The smells of food, alcohol, perfume, body odor and smoke mingling together didn't help. I have a cast iron stomach, but that was pushing my limits.

Thanks for the replies. The first time on Elation was very calm. This trip.....Wow! They didn't cancel shows, which surprised me, I was expecting that a couple of nights. Rough seas here or there are actually kind of fun, but days on end was getting old quick. I did get my exercise though. When I hear the elevators banging away in the shafts, I'm taking the stairs! I can now navigate stairs for 4 decks, wearing 5 inch heels, staggering like a drunk and not break my neck! LOL DH just shook his head and said a prayer for all women. :D

Thanks. That's kind of what I was thinking too. DH says we are not getting back on a Fantasy Class ship again. I think we will, just different time of year. We knew this one would be rough since the oil rig, at the mouth of the Mississippi River, was measuring 12 ft seas the few days prior to us sailing. We just didn't expect it to last for days.