Out to sea!

Loyalty Programs are a great head-game invented by Marketing.

 

It works. It works very well! Folks get caught up in it

and it appeals to those who need to achieve status!

 

 

 

And then along came FTTF -and pixxed a whole lot of folks off! :D

Status achieved for fifty lousy bucks.... dear oh dear!

 

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And of course, those Plats that complain the loudest about FTTF are the ones who made Plat on 2 and 3 day cruises! :D

 

We were crusing before cards, it was cash or credit cards.

I remember having a key for our cabin door on our first cruise.

Nope, but didn't have any expectations of making Plat by the end of the year either. Will have 7 cruises on Carnival, not sure when (if) the next one will be. Next 3 are on NCL (starting this Saturday!).

Hi Steve, Thanks for the review. I'm on the ship nov 23 would love it if you could email me the dailies. Thanks!

 

Ljgadams@aol.com

Did you get a copy of the dailies? If so, could you forward them to friedshrimp@cfl.rr.com ?

Do you feel that a more expensive stateroom gets you better service from the cabin steward?

 

I have sailed in interior, balcony and suite rooms. I will say that some stewards seem better than others but one of our all time favorite stewards was when we were in a interior room on riveria deck.

 

Just wondering if other people had similar experiences?

Nope, same level of service.

So you go through checkpoint and then head back out? What do you do with the bags? This I need to know... I'm leaving next week and this is a new one for me.

 

The port parking and check in are literally right next to each other.

If you're staying in the same cabin on a B2B, you just leave your bags in the cabin.

I can understand that you can drop your bags immediately and it might be better if you have several tender ports, but the FTTF crowd boarded about 10 mins before we did on our last Dream cruise and we were zone 23. Not worth $50 to me to get on the ship 10 minutes early.

If you read above, there is a lot more to FTTF than just getting on board early and dropping your bags.

Yes, you just walk across the street from the terminal to the car park, grab your wine, and reboard.

what are the exact show times?

7 and 10 pm.

Yawwwn.

Yea, I feel the same about your "it's all about me and rules are meant to be broken" posts as well. :rolleyes:

well, that's good to know. thanks so much for that info.

 

 

 

 

people buy it for all sorts of reasons. some people like to pay a little bit at a time if they know money is tight so by the time the cruise rolls around, it's all paid for and they can just sit back and enjoy without having a bill to worry about after the cruise.

 

in my case, i am buying for 2 other people in my room. my mom and her friend. i wanted them to have a little extra spending cash to spend on photos or sodas or whatever the heck they want to spend it on....but my mom probably won't drink $25.00 or $50.00 worth of sodas. if she spent $10.00 on soda and they gave her the rest in cash, that would be great. but, if she spends 10 bucks on soda and Carnival keeps the other 15, then that just sucks. it would just be better for them to buy what they want and then i worry about the bill when it's all over myself.

 

 

this has been very helpful, so thanks everyone.

Yes, I understand saving a little each week/month but instead of giving that money to Carnival and letting them earn interest on it, put it in savings and you earn the interest on it. Add each week/month and then take it all on board and put it on your account (which also makes it refundable OBC as well) or pay the CC bill with it when you return. It's the exact same principle, save a little each week/month for your cruise bill but you get to earn the benefits of your saving habits, not Carnival and you also get to keep what you don't use without jumping through hoops to get it back.

For those you want to know how to pull your OBC the last night in the Casino, simply go to any slot machine (may work on other machines as well). Insert your S&S card (required) and make a withdrawal from your account to "gamble" with ($10, $20, or however much you have left in OBC on your account). Immediately (without actually playing the slots), "use the cash out option and then head over to the cashiers cage to collect your "winnings" (your leftover OBC). This is what I did on the Liberty (had $74 in unused OBC) so I had a $6 S&S bill when I left the ship (I believe you can only pull even dollar amounts).

Some rules are meant to be broken. I'll always be a *bit of a rebel-Keeps me young:)

Wow, just wow. :eek:

So I guess you clap for line breakers and CHOGS since they are just showing the "rebel" in them? :rolleyes:

Really? I follow the rules when I am on the ship. Their ship their rules.

I agree!

Some people couldn't care less what the rules or laws are if they are inconvenienced by them. :rolleyes:

I was concerned about the weight limit on the pullman bed on the Breakaway but was relieved when i seen this. i know others have concerns so i hope this will ease your minds

So which number is accurate? Is it 150kg (320 pounds) or 300 pounds (136.4kg)? :p

You guys are all making me very hungry right now:D:D I guess I am boring. I did the Ringer and Plain Janes all week, and then proceeded to the toppings bar and add another pound of toppings to them.:eek::eek:

I was tempted to try the Pig Patty, but it looked like a TON of bacon. lol I know, people LOVE their bacon, as do I. Just not a burger encrusted in it.:D I have at least 5 months to go before we get back on the Breeze. Grrrrr. I guess I'll just have to live vicariously through you guys!!!!:D

Oh no, the Pig Patty is not a bacon encrusted burger, it's a burger made entirely out of bacon placed on top of a regular burger. I tried one and it was okay, the bacon kind of smothered the burger flavor. My favorite was the Ringer (loved those onion rings).

In 15 cruises, I have never seen dogs checking bags coming off the ship. Worst thing that will happen is they take the food. I have seen alcohol being tagged coming back on the ship, but not beer.

It doesn't matter what the worst thing that could happen is. It's a violation not only of Carnival rules but US law.

You are not supposed to take food off the ship in foreign ports unless prepacked like cereal. They do have dogs on occasion checking for this and if caught you would be in trouble.

 

Would think it would be ok in a US port.

I believe you are not allowed to take any non-pre-packaged food off at any port. I believe it is supposed to be checked by customs which is why it's not allowed. Pre-packaged food though is okay which I did at several Caribbean ports. Mainly cereal.

I've never used Cruise Cash so I can't tell you the ins and outs. But I just can't help but wondering why anyone would want to buy OBC? It doesn't change the cost of things and you're giving up your money before you have to.

Sorry, I disagree. You should NEVER leave your passport "on the ship". Sounds like you are "guaranteed" thinking you are getting back on the ship? Well nobody is, and having your passport is necessary to get out of a lot of Caribbean areas.

 

If you think this doesn't happen, I can assure you it can.

That's okay to disagree because I disagree with your line of thought as well. It's true, I've never sailed with NCL before so I'm not sure how they work things but I do know, on Carnival, if someone is going to miss the ship (at a port), they remove the passports from the customer's cabin safe and leave them at the dock for the person so they can get back home. Therefore, I ALWAYS leave my passport in my cabin safe when I go on shore. If you're worried about a cruise employee stealing your passport, well, let's just say I put more trust in them than those on the islands to not steal my passport.

BTW, the ONLY guarantees in life are taxes and death. Everything else is a crap shoot!

Just curious...

 

When you first booked your cruise, was it through a Travel Agent? or did you go direct to NCL?

I first booked this cruise on the NCL website 24 days from sailing. I called NCL about possible OBC and got the upgrade instead 12 days from sailing. I never go through a TA anymore although I use a few TA websites to look for deals.

You can board any ship with a Passport. Nothing else is needed.

But as stated earlier, unless you plan on taking the passport off the ship at each port, take your DL. Easier to carry and usually asked for for reentry to the ship by local authorities (along with your S&S card).

Loved Jamie Deitch. Good assitant and I am sure a good CD. Funny and a real person.

Concur. She was our CD on the Liberty back in 2011.

Just did seaworld and had to show ID and give a fingerprint. I was using the Florida discount rate but seemed overkill. I can understand proof of residency but a fingerprint? I was using a pre purchased paper ticket.

 

Sure hope it was to check for sex offenders or something? I didn't have to remove my shoes at least :)

The fingerprint, boimetrics, or whatever else is used is simply to ensure that you are using your ticket and not someone else's. It's about the money, not sex offenders.

unfortunately this seems to be one area where cutbacks have taken hold - in the past it seemed there were always 2 channels running movies, but recently on the Gem there was just a single movie channel and it would have long time gaps between the movies... Seems if a movie finishes up, the next one can get rolling at the next quarter hour, but they waited until pretty much the next full hour it seemed.

 

movies can be nice, but for the most part it is frustrating to try and schedule around them.

If you mean movies on the cabin TV, you could always just roll around in the hay while waiting for the next movie to come on. ;)

Thanks! 11 more days...I can't wait

 

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I know, I'm so looking forward ti the cruise myself.

I too would be interested in the dailies from the 7 day Epic Eastern cruise.