*OFFICIAL* CC Group Cruise 02/15/2014 Cupid's IV Southern Caribbean - Carnival Breeze

[HeidiHo]

Good Morning!

 

I missed a call from Crucon this morning. Since Erin never called me back last week I sent her an email last night asking her to call me today. Today one of her co workers called me on my cell phone and left a message that she was out sick. I missed the call because my phone was on vibrate and I was still sleeping when the call came in. there is nothing crucial that I want to ask so I'll just wait till Erin is back in the office. I just want to talk to her because she didn't really answer my questions from my email last week and I'm still confused. I had asked her if there were ANY cabins in ANY category left that would still receive the OBC and I asked about price drops and she didn't really give me a clear answer so I really want to speak with her rather than email. As far as price drops right now though, there aren't any. This cruise has gone up in price quite a bit. Our 8C cabin was $200.00 per person more last week. I was asking about FUTURE, possible price drops though.

 

My back is getting better. I managed to work 6 1/2 hours yesterday. It doesn't really hurt more when I am standing. Sitting probably hurts more and it tends to stiffen up when I sit for a while so getting from a sitting position to standing hurts.

 

We had a nice weekend with sunny, spring temps. It's going to be kind of cold again for the next couple of days but then warm up again. I already bought my flower bowls that I buy every spring. Costco always sells beautiful bowls of violas that can with stand temps down to 25 degrees. It is supposed to be in the 20's the next couple of night so just to be safe Dave put them back in the garage but they would probably be fine outside.

 

Staci is still here. She had class today but said she could miss it so she decided to wait till today to go back. we've seen a lot of her lately but this might be the last time before her graduation on May 11th. Then she'll move back home. It's going to be strange having a child living here full time again. Of course she plans to move out as soon as possible but she'll need a job first. LOL.

 

Have a great day. :D

[Cruisin Dave]

Good afternoon Cupids,

Renee, I know it would be worth it for me to get the Drink Plan but not for Bettie. She doesn't drink allot, at the most only 3 drinks a day.

Rick, good luck with the back packs.

Heidi, hope you feel better. My back was a little stiff this morning from working in the yard. The weeds are growing so I have to mow them.:( Put out weed and Feed yesterday.

Dave

[HeidiHo]

Heidi, hope you feel better. My back was a little stiff this morning from working in the yard. The weeds are growing so I have to mow them.:( Put out weed and Feed yesterday.

 

 

 

 

Dave - right now I just wish it would warm up enough here for ANYTHING to grow, even weeds. LOL.

 

My doctor finally called this afternoon, 3 days too late. :mad: She's prescribed a muscle relaxer but I needed it FRIDAY!!! Oh well, at least I'll have some on hand for the next time, and I'm sure there will be a next time. I've had these issues for years.

[ooulio]

Just wanted to say a quick hello to everyone. Also hello to the couple from New Hampshire. We live in Rhode Island. Just wondering what floor is everyone on? We always stay on the 7th and 8th. This time we just paid a little more and did the 9th floor.

Have you booked any excursions yet or group casino yet.

[HeidiHo]

Just wanted to say a quick hello to everyone. Also hello to the couple from New Hampshire. We live in Rhode Island. Just wondering what floor is everyone on? We always stay on the 7th and 8th. This time we just paid a little more and did the 9th floor.

Have you booked any excursions yet or group casino yet.

 

We have side by side balconies with Sue (momofzeke) on deck 7. We will open the balcony partition between them.We did that on the last cruise and it was great.

[Cruisin Dave]

We have side by side balconies with Sue (momofzeke) on deck 7. We will open the balcony partition between them.We did that on the last cruise and it was great.

 

And it was a nice way to surprise Sue in bed!

[Cruisin Dave]

Bettie and I are also on deck 7. We are on the port side. Are we posting room numbers.

[Flick]

I think we are going to do the Cheers program. We normally buy a case of wine for the cabin and drink there as well as the dining room, the show, the casino, well you get the idea. Last night we crunched some numbers and realized that we easily could drink close to $150.00 per day! Cheers will cost us approximately $100.00 so the math works in our favor. We will never drink 15 drinks in a day but wine now costs $8.00 per glass. We also talked about a stretch limo to go to Miami but the "cheapest" was $600.00 so forget it, we will go the night before and stay at the motel. I have no idea where Kay came up with the idea that a limo would be cheaper than the motel. She must have been smoking something on her first day as secretary at the Lodge.

[momofzeke]

We have side by side balconies with Sue (momofzeke) on deck 7. We will open the balcony partition between them.We did that on the last cruise and it was great.

 

And it was a nice way to surprise Sue in bed!

 

It sure was!!!!! That was definitely the highlight of that last day of the cruise for me. Having all of you show up to say goodbye when I felt so icky was a very nice surprise! AND you brought me mac & cheese! :D

 

Renee ~ I have thought about the drink package, but I don't think we would get our money's worth out of it on days when we are in port. On sea days it would probably be a good thing. I wish they would offer it for the sea days only, but I guess that would be too hard to keep track of.

 

Question about the drink package ~ does anyone know if we can buy it once onboard, or is it something you have to purchase ahead of time? I'm still pondering it....just not sure yet.

 

PASSPORT QUESTION ~ our passports expire in January, so obviously we have to renew them before the cruise. But I was planning to renew them in October or November, which would give plenty of time for them to arrive before the cruise. But now I'm reading on Carnival website that you should have a passport that is valid at least 6 months beyond the date of your cruise. That would mean I would need to have a renewal date of August 24th or earlier, meaning we should send our renewal application in at least 2 months before that...which would be end of June. That seems weird to me, but am I reading that correctly?

 

Esther ~ I don't think anyone has booked any excursions yet. I haven't even looked at excursions. I need to start doing some research on that.

 

It rained hard here night before last, through the night and a little yesterday morning. It was very welcome! We need some rain here, and it was a nice one.

 

Heidi ~ glad your back is feeling better. Hang on to those muscle relaxers for next time! Let us know what you find out from Erin. I kind of doubt if there will be a reduction in price for this cruise, but I guess you never know.

[Flick]

Sue I have to renew my passport also since mine expires 6 months and 1 day after the end of the cruise. Your new passport is good for 9 1/2 years so you needn't worry that it will expire 6 months after you return from your cruise. I have to renew because all I need is a delay in getting back and I'm suddenly on an expired passport. This will be my fourth passport incidentally!

Edited April 2, 2013 by Flick

[walkswife]

Sue my understanding is you can purchase on board the day you board or the second day.... it is 49.40 a day.... I guess first day depends on if you want to drink enough after embarkation...

[momofzeke]

What the heck was I thinking? :rolleyes: Of course since I am renewing my passport BEFORE the cruise, the expiration date will be 10 years from renewal date! My brain wasn't thinking straight this morning, I guess. I was thinking it needed to be renewed at least 6 months before the cruise ends....brain fart.

 

Thanks, Rick!

 

$49.40 per day for the drink thing, huh? If I could do that for sea days only, I totally would. But on days in port, I just don't think we would get our money's worth out of that. A couple drinks before dinner, a glass of wine at dinner and maybe a drink after dinner would be about all we will do on the days we are in port most of the day.

[Flick]

Sue no problem. I was pretty sure you understood how it actually worked. I may purchase, if I can, Cheers before embarkation so that it is paid off before we sail. Since most of the ports are beaches and we live on the beach (heh, heh) we may well spend more time on the ship even in Port so Cheers works for us. We prepaid a lot on our last cruise and it worked very well for us...also I don't see a lot of shore excursions that I am interested in so I don't expect a big shock at the end of the cruise. Speaking of beaches Friday nite is a beach nite for sunset and wine...hope it doesn't rain but you probably hope it does. Winter is gone but it still is comfortable enough to open the windows rather than turning on the air conditioning. (Yay!)

Edited April 3, 2013 by Flick

[HeidiHo]

Good morning!

 

Now that air fare has been released for our cruise I have set up an email alert with Kayak. So far the cheapest non stop flight is $470.00. Hopefully we won't have to pay that much. It's very early though so no rush in buying air. A few months ago there was an article in our newspaper about when the best time to buy air was. I still have it somewhere but I can't find it right now. I will look for it and let you know what it says. As I recall it said how many weeks prior to travel is the best time to buy and I think it was something like 12 weeks or so. We might do better with SWA into FLL instead so I want to wait and see what their rates are. I would just have to take into consideration the extra cost ivolved in getting to Miami if we do that.

 

It's warming up a bit again but still not warm enough. I want summer. LOL

 

Have a great day. :)

[HeidiHo]

I found the article.it was in our local paper but you have to pay to read our paper on line so I did a search and also found it in the Wall Street Journal. here is the link. Hopefully it works.

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323539804578260162548443472.html

 

Basically, the article says the the average best time to book domestic air is 49 days prior to travel and 81 days for international. Of course there are tons of variables.

[Flick]

Heidi as you know airlines release tickets 341 days before a flight. The cheapest seats are going to be the first seats. I, for one, have certainly never seen ticket prices go down on tickets already sold. I would think that Miami being a bigger market would command lower prices from Chicago that Ft. Lauderdale just because it has more traffic. Of course SW will do what it pleases.

[keene state mom]

Hi everyone, hi to the family from RI ...we live in Nashua so not far at all, and as far as floors we are on the 9th floor vista wrap .this is the wrap with not too many windows so it comes with an 8 D price tag. I had it on the Dream also and it was nice, just a long walk to get to the front.

 

 

gail

[walkswife]

Well I looked into airfare for us and it was ranging in the $550 area..... ouch!!!:(

[momofzeke]

Checking flights and it makes me frustrated. Very expensive, but also there is not a single nonstop flight from Reno or Portland. Southwest seems to have the best scheduling...leaving Reno at 7 am and getting to Florida at 5:30 pm. But then we have to get from FLL to Miami. Other airlines we wouldn't get into Miami until almost 11 pm. There is one flight that gets us in earlier, but it has a very short layover in Dallas, and I'm not going to risk that. I tried that once and missed the connection so now I won't do a layover of less than an hour.

 

We flew Southwest into FLL the last time we sailed out of Miami and it was ok. I hired a private car to take us into Miami, which was great. But on the return to FLL after the cruise, the guy showed up earlier than I had told him to and then was irritated with us for not being off the ship yet! HELLO!! We can't get off until they LET us off! I will have to look into a shuttle or maybe even just a taxi if we decide to fly into FLL again.

 

The well drillers put in a long day yesterday, until 8 pm. They are getting close to being done, thank goodness!! This has been a very long and slow process. I had no idea what is involved in a big well like this. They drill an 8 inch hole to 400 feet or so to make sure it is straight, then they drill part of it out to 12 inch and put casing in so it won't collapse, then they go down further with the 8 inch....to about 500 or 600 feet, then they take the 12 inch casing out and drill a 20 inch hole down to the basalt layer, at about 400 feet. That is what they were doing last night. Today, the 16 inch casing will be here and they will case it and then pour concrete around the casing. They should finish up next week, hopefully, then we will know exactly how much water we have, which will tell us how many pivots we can run.

 

Gail, that sounds like a nice cabin! Is it on Lido deck or a deck below Lido? I can't remember if Lido is 9 or 10. It would be nice to be so close to the food and pools.

[keene state mom]

my cabin is on vista 9th floor right under lido, I will hear some of the scrapings of chairs, but its the price you have to have to pay for the room I want..We are not sleepers anyway we get up so early, however we go to bed early also. I am going to start practising to stay awake a little longer each night so we can get our bodies use to it. After several cruises it has not worked but I can keep trying.

 

Gail

[HeidiHo]

Right now it's cheaper to fly into Fort Lauderdale. ORD to MIA non stop is $470 and ORD to FLL non stop is $388.

 

Sue - if we both end up flying into FLL, depending on our arrival times, maybe we could look into sharing a rental car or whatever type of transportation we choose.

 

I know I mentioned in the past that our group was the last official Cruise Critic group cruise formed. I assumed it was because Carnival did away with OBC's so there just wasn't much interest anymore. That may be partially correct because until recently there weren't even and "Possible" group cruise threads started. There is a "Possible" group cruise thread going right now though and just out of curiosity I checked it out. They just got word today that they cannot be an official CC group because CC isn't looking to do any new groups. I am shocked. It's not as if there are too many other groups for around that time. I wonder if Cruise Critic is looking to do away with "Official" groups. If so, they really should update their groups page to say that. I wonder what this means for future Cupid's groups. Of course, we can still do them, they just won't be official "Cruise Critic" groups. I just find it very strange that they were turned down.

[HeidiHo]

I wonder if Cruise Critic is looking to do away with "Official" groups. If so, they really should update their groups page to say that.

 

Wow, I think I spoke too soon. The groups page is gone. At least, I can't find it by going to the top of the page. There used to be a tab for "Member Cruises" which took you too the groups page. That is gone now. It was there a few days ago. You can still access it through my signature though. They must be doing away with groups. I left another message for Erin again today but she has not yet returned my call. I'll have to ask her about it. I know she's not Cruise Critic but it's got to be hurting the TA's that handled the groups because groups are where TA's make the best money.

[HeidiHo]

I FINALLY heard from Erin. Here is what she emailed me last week.

 

I spoke to a representative in the group department and they advised that under the past passenger rate under the group they have the following categories available.

Category 4A inside with upgrade to 4C inside total of including taxes $1055.02 per person

Category 6A ocean view total including taxes $1205.02 per person

Category 8A balcony upgrade to 8C total including taxes $1605.02 per person

Non past passenger promotion

Category 4A inside with upgrade to 4C total including taxes $1105.02 per person

Category 6A ocean view total including taxes $1255.02 per person

Category 8A balcony with upgrade to 8C balcony total including taxes $1655.02 per person

All categories booked under the group code will receive the group amenity of $100.00 for the cabin.

She confirmed that anyone who books into the group at the above rates and categories, they will receive the $100.00 on board credit. These are special group rates and are a bit higher than if you booked Carnival direct with the Fun Select rate code or Past Guest rate code. Once you figure in the OBC though, it's a little cheaper. You can still book other, cheaper rate codes like Early Saver but wouldn't get the OBC and those rates have lots of restrictions. You really have to be sure you know what you are booking and understand the rules of the rate before you book them. OBC is available with Military rates though. I asked because my sister is interested in this cruise and would want to book Military rate.

 

All of the original inventory that was set up for the group is gone now so that is why the rates are higher than they were when the group was set up.

 

A also asked about price drops and just as I was told a long time ago, if the rate drops and you want the new rate, you would then be removed from the group and lose the OBC. So the price drop would have to more than $100.00 to make it worth while.

 

Of course, even the above rates are subject to change.

 

I asked her if she knew anything about Cruise Critic doing away with groups and she said that they hadn't officially gotten word from Cruise Critic on that but that yes, it looked like that was coming.

[HeidiHo]

Good morning!

 

It's not such a great morning for me. I'm fine but I am in shock. I opened this mornings newspaper to find an article about one of my co workers at the OG. He was arrested yesterday for possession of child pornography. :eek: I was very fond of this kid too. I'd like to believe that it isn't true but the article said that police searched his residence yesterday and arrested him. I'm sure they must have found hard evidence in order to make the arrest. It really saddens me but if he's guilty, then he needs to pay for his crime.

 

It's finally beginning to feel like spring here. The trees are just starting to bud. last year at this time everything was in full bloom or green but that was just due at a very rare, warm March. I just checked the weather and it might get into the 60's tomorrow.

 

Have a good weekend.

[momofzeke]

Sue - if we both end up flying into FLL, depending on our arrival times, maybe we could look into sharing a rental car or whatever type of transportation we choose.

 

Yes, that would be great! Since we are staying at the same hotel, it would work out well if the arrival times are close enough.

 

Gosh, that's too bad about Cruise Critic doing away with the group cruises! Not that we couldn't still cruise together, but kind of sad that they won't be doing the official cruises anymore.

 

The well drillers are all ready to start putting the casing in, but it was too windy yesterday for them to do it. The pipe is 16 inches in diameter, and they are 20 foot long chunks, so it would be too dangerous for them to be raising those up with a heavy wind blowing like it was yesterday. It is calm so far today, so maybe they can get started, although they don't seem to be here yet. They have an hour and a half drive to get here, so maybe they just haven't arrived.