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We have a Carnival Cruise in Feb 2020.

It's been fully paid and all we have is a receipt from the travel agent confirming that!

Anybody know when we can start booking excursions through Carnival?

We don't have any confirmation or contact from Carnival!

Thanks.

On our 8 day cruise I didnt see a single person pay any tips!

I didnt pay any either, and tell you the truth it wouldnt have made any difference!

Weve done Hawaii twice now from Western Australia and both times did the POA, with time pre & post cruise in Waikiki.

Would do the same again tomorrow for a third time!.

Be prepared to see as much as possible on each island!

The queues at Guest Services were never bad when we cruised in April, and I think the most people in front of me was probably 6 - never more than a 5 minute wait!

We travelled to Fort Lauderdale from WA in March!

Then went on Carnival Conquest, which took in St Marten.

Brilliant spot for plane watching!

Must say the food on the ship was excellent!

We only put our head around the corner one night the piano bari was coming to a close, but it looked like the small crowd had been having a good time.

The comedy club was open late and was packed both times we went.

Didn't come across any late bars where people were hanging out though the night club was going off into the night!

Pernod Absinthe, Bacardi Rum, Grey Goose Vodka, Bombay Sapphire Gin, Midori, citrus and a dash of Sprite!

Well that was just one unit at the Alchemy Bar!

Not even going to read the previous replies......the way it was going!

Was there the other week.

No problem, get your drinks - 5 minutes later get your friends drinks!

I got the impression the only Drinks Police are on these sites & not on the ships!

They put it on at the bar - just make sure you have put money on your S&S account otherwise at the US ports they will not be able to process it for drinks because they need to charge you the tax.

We did the 8 night Eastern Caribbean, sailing on April 1st 2017 from Fort Lauderdale.

First time we have been to the Caribbean, so just wanted to see the place and not do activities.

We live near some of the best beaches, so even snorkelling etc wasn’t on the to do list.

We arrived at 1:20pm expecting to walk straight on, however the queues were out of the building and along the walls!

Even so, 1 hour 15 minutes later we were having lunch in the Lido dining room.

That took about half an hour and we then went to our room.

Almost straight away our suitcases arrived.

We spoke to another passenger during the cruise – he said he arrived at 11:30 and didn’t get on board till 1:30.

On signing up for the S & S card, Cheers package included, the staff said they were no longer taking cash and we had to do it once on board.

This became a pain, because whilst trying to use it, as the sail away was about to start, I found out it couldn’t be used, because we were still in the US and tax was trying to be taken out of it, (still zero balance).

Off I went to guest services, and was told I could deposit any amount I wanted!

I said ok, just put $100 cash on each card.

By the time I got back to the main deck, after getting lost several times, the party and the sail away was pretty much over!

With the Cheers package, the first day or so was a bit of apain with plenty of rude people, pushing in before you to get served first.This got quite annoying and I basically just had beers the first couple of days– didn’t want to waste even more time waiting for cocktails to be made.

Must say some of the bar staff seem to have an attitude problem, and shouldn’t be in the cruise industry – not mentioning anynames…Blue Iguana!

In our opinion the ship & the majority of the staff were great!

The performers doing the shows were excellent, especially the first half of the cruise – I think they changed after that.

The food was excellent and could not see any reason to pay for any of the speciality offerings!

We just did any time dining, most nights and never had any dramas getting a table for 2.

On just one occasion we were given a buzzer and we just waited at the bar for 30 minutes.

With elegant night, it seems everybody makes a big effort for the first one, but the second one, not many do!

I wouldn’t miss it if they didn’t have one!

Back to the Cheers package, you could say me & the wife are ‘drinkers’, yet we went one day without a single drink! 30 Drinks lost!

I think it was because we had been at Maho beach all day getting too much sun, and had a couple of beers there. I tried getting a credit at guest services, but they said it was non - refundable – party-poopers!

We hit our limit on 3 other occasions.

Kept getting bottles of water , every 2nd or 3rd drink at the bars.

Didn’t see a single person tip the bar staff during the cruise, though I did tip one lady who delivered the drinks to where I wasseated.

Maybe people on here who say they always tip are actually cruise bar staff :-)

I got into a routine of having a spiked coffee for breakfast everyday just to make sure I got my monies worth!

We had a few drinks at the Alchemy Bar – you get your value there, though some drinks are potent!

St Marten was the first stop and even though there were 6 ships in dock, we were on a minibus to Maho Beach in a matter of minutes after getting to the end of the pier.

We were able to stay right back for the KLM landing at about 3:30 and got back to the ship with plenty of time to spare.

At St Kitts we did and open bus tour of the Island.

It was interesting, but if you don’t like breathing in diesel fumes, you might want to get a normal mini bus for the tour. The brakeswere also squealing and I think a piece of the exhaust fell off near the end!:-)

At San Juan, we just did a quick 1 hour tour – bit of a pity really because a lot of the shops etc didn’t open till later in the morning andwe didn’t do much else.

Grand Turk is a nice spot.

Got ripped off at Margaritaville – ordered 2 Margaritas, she said do you want large ones, I said ok, ‘ching’, she put them in 2 $10 fancy plastic glasses, so they cost me about 43 bucks!

She said the refills would only be 12.50 – too late, they weren’t getting another dollar off me! :-)

After that we went down the beach to Franks Bar.

A bit over rated, just a crumby, little, home made, bar!

Just had 1 drink there and went back to the ship.

Getting off the ship was no big drama. They called our floor 7, several times, but we just went down when we felt like it and there wasn’t too much of a wait to get through customs.

We were unable to get any Uber taxis from the port for our trip to South Beach Miami.

I don’t know if they are allowed through security if they are empty?

We ended up just getting a taxi – came to 80 bucks – gave him 100 and said keep the change!

I reckon Uber would have been half that!

We would certainly go on the Conquest again, and probably get the Cheers package again.

At least my wife’s ambition of seen the planes at Maho Beach was achieved! :-)

What would be the cheapest package for just texting people overseas?

Same question if you just wanted to go on Facebook?

but I do know there is no doors on any of the casinos. .

How do you get in? :-)

Thanks for easing our concerns! :-)

If desperate, I was thinking of even paying a local 30 bucks to take us!

Isn't that for providing the glasses & cleaning them?

There are several stops, the Olas area is blocked due to dredging

We will be staying at The Riverside Hotel on Olas - can we get the taxi near there?

We will be in port on Tues April 4th, and we believe there will be 6 Ships there that day!!

Will we be ok getting a taxi to Maho with that many in port?

And back again!

Also, does anybody have a link to the flight schedules that day?

The only ones we can find are for the next 24 hours.

Is there plenty to see & do if we got off at most stops?

We were hoping to spend a full day exploring using the water taxi.

Are most bottle of wines in the US now screw tops?

People say bring a corkscrew!

You've saved yourself 70 bucks! :-)

Have you even tried the Carnival steakhouse?

 

 

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Never been on Carnival! :-)

Like I said would rather use the 'money saved', towards a meal in Fort Lauderdale, South Beach or Vegas, where we are heading.

You will love it, the food quality in the steakhouse is amazing. For $35pp you get to pick appetizer, salad, entree, side dishes, and dessert. .

Dont you get to pick similar in the MDR?

Maybe our previous experience with NCL has got us wary!

With NCL we were able to go to 2 large elegant restaurants, every night, for a 3 course meal, with waiter service - all inclusive!

For my wife's special 50th birthday, we paid $20 for the speciality restaurant - and as I said previously, we walked out part way through, because the meal was very poor, compared with what we had been having the previous nights in the 'included' restaurants!

Coming from Oz, with a crappy exchange rate, 70 bucks converts to almost 100 bucks.

I would rather save that money for a meal at some of the other places we are heading to on this holiday.

BTW, the MDR cant be all that bad can it, which makes you want to pay $70 for something else?

If you are forfeiting an 'all you can eat meal' somewhere else on the ship, probably with a value of $35, the $35 charge for the Steakhouse is really making the cost of the meal $70 per person!

I think it is a bit of a rip off, considering you have already paid for free food during the cruise.

On NCL we paid $20 per person for a speciality restaurant and it turned out to be one of the worst restaurant meals we have ever had!

We walked out part way through and got a full refund!

Yes. We just ask the crew about the locations in port. They get in touch with their families back home if they are on time off on port day.

Thanks...will check them out!