ticktoneer

Me and my BF are going on those below this year !

It is not on the Liberty and at this time there are no other ships in the fleet scheduled to receive Freestyle.

Damn damn damn damn !!

Can anyone tell me if Liberty has Coke Freestyle machines please?

only if every cabins tips the suggested gratuity. Im sure there are many who stiff them:(.

 

fyi, the stewards (and all employees) pay for their own transport to/from employment on the ship and have families back 'home' to support including medical, food & housing, etc. They do far more than make the beds in the cabins, your bathroom is cleaned everyday. fyi, many of the stewards employ assistants (those who work in other capacities about the ship & are moonlighting) to help them get all the work they are expected to complete done.

Re: travel costs for the staff.........a number of DCL staff have told us they pay 50% towards their travel home costs :)

What is AARP eligible ???

Heres a heads up to anyone thinking of booking this cruise, unless you're part of the High Seas Rally group. This is a very large group of motorcycle enthusiasts, this years cruise numbered 1600 or so, that will be sailing on Freedom. We were on at the same time, but not part of the group, and it did affect a lot of the cruise. They are a fun group, but when a group this size is on any ship, it does affect those who are not part of that group. We heard some stories of people filing complaints that RCI should have informed passengers that a group of that size would be on board. Don't know if the complainers got anything as we didn't complain (the group didn't bother us one bit), but some passengers were apparently big time angry.

 

So, unless you don't mind a group of 1500 or so, you might want to think about an alternate booking.

Our first ever cruise was on the beautiful Mariner of the Seas and half of the ship had been chartered to Hogs on the High Seas. It was the WORST experience of my life. While I'm sure there are many very nice 'hogs' we got bullied and abused for a full 7 days for being gay. I can't tell you the names we were called at least once every hour if we were out and about. All from the hogs cliques. Neither of us 'looks' gay nor are camp or effeminate. I used to think - how do they know ???? We also had an incident where I went to the pool bar and 4 hogs started shouting at the bar staff to wash the glasses well so they don't catch fag disease !! There was another incident where my partner got in the solarium pool and all but one person got out. We ended up staying in our cabin nearly 24/7 for the last 3 days. We even ate room service rather than Windjammer or MDR. While disembarking and chatting to people in line we did find out a small contingent of hogs had decided to use us for 'fun' that week and due to the 'pack mentality' others followed and after a couple of days a decent sized group were looking out for us to 'make good sport'. Thankfully when we got back onboard (as it was B2B) we had an amazing, fantastic 2nd week.

17 Days !!!!! Hooray

This is good news for wine drinkers.....How about us Beer drinkers. How about letting us bring a 12pk on board.....

 

Sailing in 3 months and would enjoy being able to bring a cold 12pk on to enjoy in our cabin.

One step at a time !

So what about this corkage fee of $25. for each bottle? Is that a fee charged if the bottle is opened and served in the restaurant by the wine steward? Or is this a fee slapped on every bottle of wine taken aboard - like the airlines charging for each bag checked?

It's if you drink it in a restaurant or bar. The easiest thing to do is bring a BIG glass of it with you out of your stateroom when you leave for dinner or the bar :-)

I'm on Indy for 3 back to backs soon so this is great news. Going to call the UK office and get someone's name when they say its ok to carry on wine so I can quote it if the ship gives me grief :-)

I agree about Drew. We were also recently on FOS and he made the activities a pleasure and the intro to the shows very funny.

I'm on Independence for 24 nights in November and would have LOVED the new machines to be on there :-(

Mr. Pibb is cherry coke, as is Dr. Pepper

...

I leave in two days!!!!!! My first!!!!! I'm just beside myself with excitement!!!! :D

On the gorgeous Freedom as well !!!

Enjoy yourselves !!!

Hi ticktoneer,

 

I don't know about you, but we're boarding the Independence on the 22nd....don't miss the ship!!

 

Really looking forward to Trainman's LIVE posts - Love, Love the Vision Class. Have a great cruise, you two.

 

Trish

Ha ha ha !!! Thanks for the correction or else you might have seen 2 guys swimming after the ship !!!

You'll have to try and spot us on Indy. 2 guys with shaved heads, me a chunky fella and the other one lots of tattoos on his body (so you might need to wait till a warm pool day - lol)

I've never been on a ship smaller than voyager class and don't know if I'd like it. I'm going to follow this with interest to see !!! Lol

23 November we're on Independence for 24 nights and CAN'T wait :-)

Is the vision on new menu or old menu?

We always use Budget at Port Canaveral and then drop the car off at Doubletree near Downtown Disney. It's a 10 minute walk back to Marketplace Downtown Disney for a Disney resort bus. Have a great time !!!!!

Marks_dcl@gmail.com if you need any more help :-)

Only 15 days until Carnival Destiny and only 22 days until Freedom of the Seas !!!!

Yippee !!!!

I'm sorry....maybe it's the two glasses of wine I've had while reading posts...but I can't for the life of me figure out what DOD stands for???

 

Can someone tell me?? Please and thank you!

I know - all these experienced cruise critic users use acronyms and forget about us poor newbies :-(

Carnival attracts a very mainstream, middle America crowd... not that there's anything wrong with that... but definitely a more "traditional values" crowd and I think more opportunity for potential unpleasantness. But on one of the megaships doing a 7 day or more itinerary, you are going to get a more diverse crowd these days.

 

But I would absolutely avoid any 3 or 4 day party cruise on any ship, as the Monarch incident from last year indicated.

What is the Monarch incident from last year?