grozas

We just got off the Freedom and had our first experience with the Cheers package.  

A few notes from a first time Cheers user.

First Texas has some weird alcohol laws like no Cheers while in Texas waters, bottles not delivered to cabins until the 2nd day.

So the Texas Alcohol and Beverage Board treats a cruise ship in Texas waters just like a big bar or night club.

Still Carnival handles this well by not charging you the Cheers fee for the day in Texas waters. You pay with your sail and sign like anyone else.  

It really surprised us the number of $20-$25 tickets we signed the first day.  Think our bar bill was about $140 for two for the the first day.  So it is fairly easy to break even for a casual drinker.

Second - the freedom from worrying about a bar bill was fantastic!!  We tried all kinds of drinks - Alchemy Bar was great. Did not think twice about a bloody mary at breakfast or a drink or glass of wine at dinner.  Enjoyed drinks at comedy shows, theater shows, Kareote, etc..  Tried drinks I never would of tried had I been paying per drink.  Some were great, some not so good.

For us, it was something I would defintly do again.

I wear a suit and tie not because of rules. I do it to look nice for my wife and to look nice in the $300 of over priced pictures she is going to buy

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I believe that the online booking plays games with customers trying price. The software is more sophisticated than you think. First I think they play head games with cabins available. Saying certain sections or decks are full to even out bookings. Second is that they always want it to seem that there are only a few cabins left. We booked 6 months ago for a cruise next spring. First, on the deck we wanted, only aft availability and only 4 cabins. Every time I check only 4 cabins and now they are bow - but bow was full when we booked. Now aft is full but bow has 4 cabins left. Different cabins every day.

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If any of you old timers remember back in the day of little white envelopes what kind of scramble it was to get $1, $5, and $10 and stuff the proper tip into the proper envelope on the last day - you would really appreciate pre-paid tips.

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I can only comment on cruises out of Galveston during the summer. But from what I see is a lot more families with younger kids. Less singles and partiers. On the Magic in July, hallways, clubs were empty by 11 except for a few dozen people in the casino. Most passengers headed back to their cabins to put the young ones to bed. We are talking about the same families and kids as you would see at a character breakfast in Disneyworld

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I hate to hear this, we leave on Saturday. Not sure of a good detour, but we will go super early. My sister is dropping us off, so she won’t be happy to go thru the traffic but we promised her an iced coffee. Lol. She lives in south Houston. We live near jersey village.

 

 

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Hwy 3 or 146 are your alternates. I recommend 146. Less lights and will reconnect with 45 at Tiki Island

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Galveston is the worst port , traffic nightmares and fog and flooding. NO thanks.

Except when you live in Galveston, then it’s like 10 minutes. We normally have someone just drop us off at the port. No flight, no pre cruise hotel, don’t even have to park a car.

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Noisiest room we have ever had!!! (on the Magic a few years ago). Sounded like we were in the casino.

As the previous poster stated, some cruise lines do group tours for select travel agents. Normally this is done after a ship refit to show off the changes.

Occasionally a line of tropical thunderstorms swirls in off the gulf, and the path of the storms is that they continue to hammer the same stop as they form and move inland. This is called "Training". This is what happened Sunday morning and caused 7-8" of rain in Chambers and Galveston counties with most of the storms moving right along the coast. When this happens, alot of the old streets in the Strand cannot handle that much water that fast.

Golden Nugget in La is $25 during the day, $50 in the evening

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I remember the days where they would leave envelopes in the cabin and everyone was scrounging for the correct change to put in each envelope for tips (SS Norway 1981)!!

Believe me, prepaying is a lot easier.

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We are very lucky that we leave in Galveston county right on Galveston bay. Not only to we have cheap access to a lot of good ships cheap, just have a friend drop us off and pick us up, but cruise clothes is what we were all year. Lots of summer colors, nice dress shorts and saddles. Almost all year long to everything but wedding and funerals. It’s what we wear to go out to eat, go to dinner even church. Because I can wear summer casual all year, I spend a lot for my cruise cloths. Now snow ski clothes I beg borrow still

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Gratuities is the one thing that can be added to the stateroom, taxes, port fees when you book a room.

Cheers, endless bubbles and shore excursions require payment in full to be removed from the shopping cart to paid in full status.

What we are doing is buying and getting Carnival gift cards for birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas etc. We can apply the cards $100 at a time to room balance, but we have to wait til we have enough to cover the whole cost of shore excursions or cheers.

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Anyone remember the old Yellowbird boat in Nassau. I can't seem to find it on any search. Used to be a great excursion. But we are talking back in the old SS Norway days.

Guess I am leaning toward the sailboat in Freeport.

Good thing about booking through Carnival is that you can always go to the excursion desk and change. We been with large groups before that have had difficulty deciding what to do. Excursion desk had always helped us out with some night before changes.

Wife and I can pretty much stick to plans, but single girl friends are a different story. Had to change when "those cute guys" were doing a different excursion.

Suit and tie on formal nights - not because of what everyone else is wearing - because my wife loves to hit every photo station and spent $$$$ on those nights

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Another solution would of been two separate cabins - each with twins only. Adjoined if you can get them, but we have found that across the hall works too. It always start out as one parent one child per room, but it ends up as both teenagers in the same room.

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My wife loves dressing up - so I don't have a say in the matter. She enjoys the shopping trips with her BFF almost as much. Then comes the pictures. Sometimes I feel like I am in a wedding again.

I love AIs!!! Matter of fact my wife and I got engaged and married at an AI. And one of the first vacations we did as a family was to take the kids to an AI. It is the definition of relaxation. A few t-shirts and swim trunks are really all you need for the week. And I have found that if you tip good, the service is every bit as stellar as a cruise. Better than a cruise actually. Slip "Jose" a couple of dollars when he brings you that first drink and he will work for you the rest of the week, including bringing lunch, dinner, having chais lounges reserved for you in the morning. Heck, one waiter even went and got snorkle gear for me and my wife from the activity shack and had it ready for us everyday right beside the two lounge chairs he had reserved for us.

The BIG draw for AIs is the free drinks.

I will still do cruises because my wife loves to dress up and take formal pictures as much as I love to relax.