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Me too!!!

Following.. Hoping to see tons and tons of pics before 4/22.

We cruise on this ship 4/22 can't wait to check out the upgrades since dry dock. This is our first Carnival Cruise glad they spruced up the old gal for us!

This is our first Carnival Cruise (the only other cruise we did was on Princess in 2004 and they did not have a cruise package - our bar bill was $550.00 and we were pretty conservative). So we are weighing the pros and cons of this drink package, we are in the pro category right now, whereas water and specialty coffee and energy drinks are included (I'm a runner and *hope* to do some running on the cruise to counter balance all this drinking and eating - so water and energy drink I will take advantage of). I am also a bourbon drinker and I like the good stuff, Makers Mark, Woodford Reserve and Basil Hayden (I am hoping to get these on the ship, I called customer service and they could not confirm or deny that they had these).

Couple of questions: 1) For clarification, while we are sitting in the Port of Miami waiting for our ship to leave, we will be charges FL state tax on our drinks?!?! 2) We do not have the option of paying the tips in cash? We will be forced to pay the 15% gratuity upon purchase of the Cheers package? It would really irk me to pay 15% to a server who didn't deserve it, in the same regard I would tip higher for better service (BTW can you give additional cash tips on ship?, some all-inclusives we have stayed in discourage cash tipping).

Random other question... has anyone gotten up and gotten a drink BEFORE 6am on the day of arrival just to get that one last one in before you arrive at port??? I might be tempted to get up and have a fancy coffee or something and watch the sunrise :)

Thanks so much, looking forward to your responses.

Just to clarify....it will not cost you 500 for 5 days for the two of you. The cheapest that will be is 575. If you prepay for the program, it's 50 pp per day, if you wait till you're on board, it's 55. Add 15% tip and the amount goes to 575 or 632.50. The 50.00 drink limit is also a mirage. There is a 20.00 glass of champagne in the steakhouse and high end vodka, tequila and rum between 15-25. The only taxes involved are also on a per drink basis during embarkation day till the ship hits international waters or while in a US based port, all at the prevailing state's tax rate.