OurDogCisco

Thanks.. I decided to do JiJi Asian kitchen the last night instead of sea day to enjoy the main dining room

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First time sailing on Carnival. Do they have a special menu on Sea Day? Is it formal night? I'll be on the June 11th sailing and there is only one sea day. Not sure if we should skip the main dining to eat in a speciality restaurant?

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Picture looks perfect on my iPad. I can't wait to read more

Which ship did you book? I've been wanting to do Europe, but it is just so costly.

I booked on the Carnival Vista. For us it is cheaper because hotels in Europe generally don't hold a family of 4 and the food feels like it is free on a cruise. Lol... Still a lot of money so we will see if we actually go.

Yay!!! I'm excited to read your review especially since I took the plunge and booked a carnival cruise for next summer in Europe...

How are they for a family of 4? We are basically 4 adults, 15 year old and 18 year old. Are bunks right above the beds?

Thanks..

Interesting...l. We were on the Pearl last June 2014 and our ship had an outbreak of Noro. By the 3rd day it was evident when they cleared the tables of salt and pepper shakers, no self service and hand sanitizer in the elevator. Sorry you got sick as I'm sure that wasn't fun.

Great review. I just booked the 2 bedroom family suite in the haven on the epic for next summer.

Do you utilized the haven breakfast room. Do you have a picture of the food and/or menu? Did you think,it was worth it?

I didn't read through all the comments but we have sailed on DCL 6 times. We sailed the Pearl last June to Alaska. My girls were 13 and 16 at the time of sailing. Compared to Disney the girls were very disappointed. The theater shows were pretty boring to them. The rock climbing wall was closed most of the week. Of course, on our sailing they just removed the slide which ended up not being a big deal as it was way too cold to swim anyways. For some of the indoor things they liked the bowling but that is like a one time activity to do for about 1 hour. The movie selection was pretty poor as well. Now, remember their age. I just felt like for this ship that NCL was catering to an older crowd. The buffet was okay we definitely like Disney better. I thought the food was much better in Disney's MDR than on the Pearl. My kids LOVED the specialty dining on the Pearl. In fact we only ate in the dining room 2 nights and did specialty the other 5 nights. It was nice that kids could go out with us unlike Disney where the specialty restaurants are adult only. Plus, we like the décor better on Disney as it was more appealing to us visually but we are Disney nuts so take that with a grain of salt if you know what I mean. We had a great time on the trip as the purpose was to visit Alaska. We did some great things like fishing for Salmon, taking a boat to Tracy Arm (I highly recommend this tour offered by NCL-- we got pretty close to the glacier), seeing sled dogs, etc... Have a great trip...

Edit to add more: The kids club was a bust for them. This sailing was pretty early in June and so, there weren't very many kids on board. We did visit the club and it was just okay. Nothing like what Disney has on their newer ships like Fantasy and Dream. Finally, the movie selection wasn't too great. Luckily, we were staying concierge level and we could check out videos for free. So, we watched a ton of movies. They had one movie Divergent that we watched on their regular TV channels.

Thanks for taking the time to post a "live" review. Hope you knee feels better soon! No need to respond just wanted to make sure you knew you had an audience...

We prefer the speciality restaurants. I thought the food was too much like cafeteria style. Plus there was lack of theme. For example one night they had a Mexican inspired appetizer, salad and dessert but no main entree. I thought the food was below average. We even had suite room which allowed us a sit down breakfast every day in Cagney. The food was excellent but the menu never changed and they had no specials.

Amazing photos.... I just added this trip to my bucket list. It wasn't even on my list but now with your prospective it is. Thanks for sharing and taking the time to post.

WOW... that cave is huge. I'm not a cave person because most of them are so small but this I could do. Loving your trip report. Thanks for taking the time to upload the photos.

I'm excited for your LIVE report especially since you have a teenager and I need to branch out to,other cruiselines as my daughters are getting to old for Disney.

Wow, Cindy... What an awesome review. I bookmarked all your links. So very helpful and kind of you to take the time to write a review. I've even been to a few of the places you visited. Off to read your other reviews...

I'm so excited that you are posting another review. I just finished reading your Royal Princess one on your blog and came here to see if you went on another holiday cruise... My oldest daughter is going off to college next fall and we are huge vacation travelers. We usually travel the week of Thanksgiving but most colleges don't give you the full week off so I started researching other options. Cruises look fun during Christmas time and so far I was impressed with your weather conditions . The only thing that scares me is airfare. We have done a disney cruise over thanksgiving and the ship was decorated very nice. Do you prefer cruising Christmas week or New Years' week?

Following along.... We did an Alaskan cruise but with NCL out of Seattle. We were to lazy to drive over the border to go on Disney. So I'm excited to do a little comparison between your trip and mine.

Yikes... it is everyone's fear. I'm sorry you missed the ship.

I'm anxious to hear what happened next...

We had the same issue and basically being a newbie to NCL we didn't know better. Most of the speciality restaurants at least for our cruise had ton of availability. So, we ended up being able to cash in our on board credit at the casino. It cost 3% but it was better than losing it all. First, cruise where we had the smallest on board bill. It seems like since you prepay tips, prepay excursions (we only booked one that was unique) and prepay speciality restaurants there wasn't much left for us to spend it on. We had a $400 on board. We thought we spend it on drinks but usually we only had one or two drinks a day. 3 of our ports returned late in the evening so we only had 4 nights of drinking available.

Also,at least for our cruise no advance reservations were really needed. They had opening every night in all the restuarants. The only one that I would do is Teppanyaki as that one had limited seatings. Plus, towards the end the week Le Bristro was booked. But I have no idea if there was availability earlier in the week. I was on the Pearl.

One day at breakfast I asked them to cook and keep 5 slices of crispy bacon so I could have a BLT with avocado for lunch. They were happy to do so.

Wish I had known that. We ate only ate breakfast and lunch 3 times each in Cagney because,of the limited menu. No one ever mentioned making adjustments to our order. Mostly for the teens in our group the menu was too limited as they didn't want to have a burger everyday. The other items weren't to their liking.

The buffet area was very crowded on the Pearl. It was always a big mess trying to walk through the area. It was wall to wall people every day. So, when you waited 5 minutes for that tea or coffee your food got cold. The table area was packed. I understand the precautions are put in place to protect the passengers. My point is why aren't people washing their hands. This means they are not washing their hands after going to the bathroom. I understand people have an irritant to the antibacterial spray. I did too and my hands are all cracked now from the harsh soap, etc... But I did not want to get sick so I washed my hands more than I do at home. I was washing my hands after I ate which isn't something I normally do at home. But when you see tons of people not using any precaution it makes you wonder. This is after you followed them up the stairs while they held the handrail. I didn't see them go to the restroom to wash their hands before refusing the spray. Anyways, I guess, the setup area of the Garden Cafe isn't helpful when something like this happens. Don't worry I had a great trip seeing Alaska. It did make me realize I want to see Alaska again but via a land vacation so I can enjoy the ports longer...

I believe we now have Monica as Concierge on the Pearl. Does anyone have any experience with her? Sailing June 22.

 

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Just got off the Pearl, we had Monica for Concierge and Charlie as a butler. We were in a non haven suite and it wasn't really clear what to expect. We received letters from Monica about where to meet for early walk offs, meeting place for early entry to the chocolate Buffett, etc... We never met her at all. I would have no clue what she looked like. Our butler walked us on the ship and walked us to Cagney's for lunch. He was basically responsible for all food inquiries and DVD movie check out. He was very nice. We got treats everyday and brought us extra chocolate dip strawberries. But we aren't too demanding. We were initially going to use the walk off for disembark day but it wasn't necessary as there were no lines for us.

I'm in... I always lose weight on cruises even with all the eating. I do wish i had stairs at home to go up and down all the time

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If you have a balcony room, sleeping bags worked great during Glacier Bay. We just got off the pearl ship. It was sunny the whole week and we got very little rain. But it was not warm enough for shorts on shore excursions. I loved the Tracy arm excursion through NCL. You dock on the smaller boat from the ship. You never set foot in Juneau. The glacier was amazing.

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