First Time Cruisers w/ a few Questions....

[target32]

Hell all !!! Eddie here in Pensacola Florida. My fiance' and I are taking our first cruise out of New Orleans on the Fantasy this weekend !!!! 5 days to Progresso and Cozumel. SO EXCITED !!!

 

Few questions:

 

1) How much can we expect to pay for "adult" beverages?

 

2) How busy does the cruise terminal get and how early should we arrive to leave and coming back from excursions?

 

3) It takes almost 2 days, or it seems, to get to the first port. What do you enjoy the most on the fun days at sea?

 

Thanks in advance everyone, cant wait for Friday to get here !!!!

[*Mach*]

Hell all !!! Eddie here in Pensacola Florida. My fiance' and I are taking our first cruise out of New Orleans on the Fantasy this weekend !!!! 5 days to Progresso and Cozumel. SO EXCITED !!!

 

Few questions:

 

1) How much can we expect to pay for "adult" beverages?

 

2) How busy does the cruise terminal get and how early should we arrive to leave and coming back from excursions?

 

3) It takes almost 2 days, or it seems, to get to the first port. What do you enjoy the most on the fun days at sea?

 

Thanks in advance everyone, cant wait for Friday to get here !!!!

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic, Eddie!!

We're thrilled to have you aboard and congrats on your first cruise! The Fantasy is a great ship with a wonderful crew and staff. You'll love her!!!

Drinks are about the same as one might expect to pay in any reasonable size city... five... six bucks. DODs in a souvenir glass are more but bloody marys and mimosas are normally $3.95 in the mornings. Beer are somewhere around four bucks.

Plan to be back on the ship NO LATER than 30 minutes before you're scheduled to sail. It's not a question of how busy the ports are but how intoxicated some of your fellow passengers will be! It's always fun to watch the drunks stagger down the pier at the last minute trying to make the ship... Coz in particular!!!

Enjoy being at sea... it's an amazing thing. Take some time to wander aft on the Lido Deck to the wings, areas port and starboard at the back of the Windows On The Sea... lovely... The new Evolutions of Fun areas are fantastic!!!

Check your Capers... you'll find plenty to do!

Have a wonderful time!!!

:)

[yst347]

1) How much can we expect to pay for "adult" beverages?

When you order a drink you will be billed for gratuity also. With gratuity drinks will run around $6/drink. You can look at a bar menu from last year here. http://www.zydecocruiser.com/pride_08/menus/Bar.htm

 

2) How busy does the cruise terminal get and how early should we arrive to leave and coming back from excursions?

 

We last sailed from New Orleans in 2003. The busiest time at embarkation ports is usually noon to 2:00 pm. Ships often begin boarding around noon so we prefer to arrive by 11:00 am. If you have filled out you Fun Pass online in advance at Carnival.com and have your ID and credit card ready the check-in process is quick and easy.

 

3) It takes almost 2 days, or it seems, to get to the first port. What do you enjoy the most on the fun days at sea?

 

It doesn't really, you will not leave New Orleans until 4:00 pm. You will be on the Mississippi river for almost 8 hours. You will spend a full day at sea crossing the Gulf of Mexico and the next morning you will awake in your first port call, so it is really just one sea day.

 

The ship will have many activities available. They will be listed in the Carnival Capers, the ship's newspaper. A copy will be in your cabin when you board and each evening your cabin steward will leave next day's copy for you.

 

Have a great cruise! :)

[target32]

Thank you both VERY much for the replies. We are getting VERY EXCITED !!! Like I said we both have never been on a cruise so we are really looking forward to this.

 

And yes, we already have our fun passes and everything they asked us to do before has been done. So hopefully the boarding process will be a simple ordeal.

 

Not too bad on the drinks really. We went to Disney World last year for a vacation and paid around the same, so no suprise there. The way some people were talking I thought it was going to be $15 a drink or something.

 

Thanks for the tip of going to the "wing" areas on the ship, will for sure check those out.

[firefly333]

I think the only $15 drink is if you order it in the monkey coconut head. Funnel glasses are extra too, even more than the usual $2 for the special DOH glass. You can save the extra money by ordering your drinks in regular glasses or having the first one refilled if you really want to drink out of the special Carnival glass.