Behind The Fun

[Raxter54]

DW and I are considering this for our upcoming Dream cruise. For those of you who have experienced it, is it worth it? The Carnival site says it can cost anywhere from $55 to $95. What did you all have to pay? Any info would be appreciated.

 

Thanks!

[jimbo5544]

DW and I are considering this for our upcoming Dream cruise. For those of you who have experienced it, is it worth it? The Carnival site says it can cost anywhere from $55 to $95. What did you all have to pay? Any info would be appreciated.

 

Thanks!

 

I have down it on the Splendor and loved it. The reason for the price difference is based upon the ship and the length of the excursion. On Fantasy class ships there is just less to see and the price is $55. All others are $95 and ours lasted over 3 hours. You get some nice gifts at the end and well worth it. The only drawback is no photos (other then the ones they take and give you).

[jayscore]

First off, you have to be "quick-like-a-bunny", and get to the excursion desk the minute you board ship to sign up. there are only 15/30 tickets sold.

Is it worth it? For me it was. I got to see many areas of the ship excluded to most, see the bridge, and meet the captain!

Another thing is, you WILL be walking. A lot. It's not what you would call a"handicapped friendly" tour. And it lasts lasts three hours.

That's it in a nutshell. I hope this helps!;)

[PortSideCruzan]

 

Hi Raxter :)

 

3 to 5 day sailings (2 hr tour) - $55

6 day or longer sailings (3.5 hr tour) - $95

 

Carnival Behind The Fun Tour info located @:

https://www.goccl.com/~/media/Files/Irman/bookccl/shipboard_knowledge/BehindTheFunTour.htm

 

Have a great day!

 

 

:)

 

[edinboro cruiser]

Did it on the Liberty last year and loved it. Would do it again

[klfrodo]

I've done it.

Must wear closed toed shoes. No Cameras, and a lot of walking and climbing stairs.

Myself? I didn't like it and won't do it again.

 

You have front of the house and back of the house.

 

Front of the house, glitzy and glamorous with exceptional service and warm smiles. A beautiful meal presented and served to you for your enjoyment.

 

Back of the house, hot, sweaty, twice the number of people just working their arses off for you. Very few smiles.

 

I may enjoy a good steak. I really don't care to go to the stockyard to see the animal put down and butchered. That's the back of the house to me.

 

Some things were interesting, but I just can't board a ship anymore with the eyes wide open full of excitement like I did before my Behind the Fun Tour.

[miataman19]

OH NO!!!! Not another 3 hr. tour....:eek:

 

 

[DobberDog]

Did the behind the scenes tour on the dream in Jan this year. WELL worth the $95.00. Got a bunch of pics (the photographer takes em and they deliver them to your room later). You also get a few other goodies too (choc covered strawberries, mimosa, etch) The bridge tour was awesome. Learned a lot on the whole tour. There were 2 groups the day I was on it. It was ALOT of walking. Saw crew areas, the decks below Riviera, galley, etch. I'm hoping to do it on the Triumph for my Thanksgiving cruise.

[joepeka]

We did this tour on the Miracle several years ago and it was, in our opinion, very well worth it. As mentioned above, there are areas that are not very pretty but then again, what operation doesn't have it's grungy, out of the way sections that the public isn't meant to see?

 

As to smiles from the crew in those less-glitzy areas, one thing I still remember from our tour was the stop in the room where the waste food is processed. They have these large machines that basically liquefy the leftovers and the room is very warm, has a odor that certainly isn't appealing and the work seems to be very grimy and nasty but the two guys who were working that day were all smiles and seemed genuinely pleased (not forced friendliness) that the passengers stopped by and got a chance to see them in action. I sensed some pride from them in having us as visitors and I didn't expect it but always will remember their happy faces at seeing us.

Edited September 5, 2015 by joepeka

[Barry ATL]

I did the on the Fascination in March. It was well worth it. It seemed more relaxed than some others have described here. It may be because it is a Fantasy class ship. Smaller ship, less walking, and more time to fill 3 hours. I really enjoyed the behind the scenes for the entertainers. We were able to linger long enough to chat up some of the entertainers. The captain met us on the bridge. He gave us a little history of the Fantasy class ships and talked about the newer ships that Carnival has. While the Fascination was in Nassau, the Captain met his counter part on one of the newer larger ships and got a tour. Overall well worth the money.

[Barry ATL]

Duplicate. Sorry. :)

Edited September 5, 2015 by Barry ATL

[Rudyard]

Haven't done it on Carnival but did it on NCL. Well worth the price. I plan to do it on Magic in April.

[leenieweenie]

Yes! Really worth the price. Got to meet the captain and see the navigation deck. All the behind the scenes working areas of the ship, the crew quarters, captain dining room, kitchen, and laundry work spaces. We had an enjoyable tour and got some goodies and pics at the end. You won't be sorry if you do this. However, make sure you go immediately to guest services when you get on the ship to sign up. These sell out fast.

[Raxter54]

Thanks to all for the answers. Whether we do this tour or not will depend on how DW's knees feel when we get onboard. A lot of stairs may be problematic....

[GalFitness19]

Loved it. Took this tour on the Magic with my dad, who grew up on his father's charter fishing boat. Needless to say, he was fascinated with the engine room and control room, which was really neat. If you're the type of person who wonders what makes things tick, I highly recommend it. You learn how things operate and about the employees. Did you ever wonder why you hear so many British accents from staff yet few (if any) Americans? It's because they don't have to pay taxes when working aboard whereas Americans would. It's little things like that you learn. Well worth the cost, which was $95 when I took it.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

I would say it is a neat thing to do a few times, just to see how different ships look behind the scenes. I have done it a few times but I'm into that kind of thing - I'm interested in the operational side of the production. I did it on i believe the Freedom when the program was in its infancy about 5 years ago and it was enjoyable then. They were very interested in feedback to make the tours better and they have tweaked it a little since. It does take a lot of time to do and you do have to get up early in the morning on a sea day to do it but it's worth it. And yes, if you cannot move quickly you won't enjoy it or be able to keep up. They are also very serious about no photographs or anything as you do have to go thru a security search before the tour starts. But you get to see parts of the ship that nobody really gets to see and learn things about the complexity of the operation that you never thought about before. In addition, you do get to meet the captain and get a bridge tour and picture which is pretty cool. Like I said before though, once you see it a few times on a few different ships, there isn't really much to see that is different from what you have already seen. It has come a long way from just taking everyone on a quick galley tour like what they did in the past. And one more thing - you get to see a lot of department managers during the tour and they love to answer questions so go into it expecting a lot of interaction with the staff during the tour. Have fun!

[caribill]

First off, you have to be "quick-like-a-bunny", and get to the excursion desk the minute you board ship to sign up. there are only 15/30 tickets sold.

 

However, make sure you go immediately to guest services when you get on the ship to sign up. These sell out fast.

 

Which one is correct?

[joepeka]

Which one is correct?

 

The excursions desk is where we booked our BTF tour, pretty sure it's the same on all the ships (Guest Services tends to be busy on embarkation day so I doubt they would want to handle reservations for BTF as well).

[Ahmne]

Does anyone know if this conflicts with the Dr. Seuss breakfast. I want to do both.

[bradboy]

Was thinking about taking our entire family (2 ads,2-10 ur old and 14 yr) but I bet the kids would rather have their last day at waterworks!

Thanks for the post

[Pellaz]

I've done the BtF tour four times, on three different classes, and learned new information on each tour. Some have been more informative than others, some suffered from lackluster tour guides (or benefited from great ones), and some have offered surprises, like seeing into a crew-cabin.

If you're interested in the backstage workings of what amounts to a city at sea, I recommend it highly.

 

BTW, they must have changed their pricing structure. Before, it was:

 

Ships with a steakhouse: $95

Ships without a steakhouse: $55

 

Hence, Liberty and Freedom were $95, Imagination was $55, as you'd expect......but Victory, which is nearly the size of a Conquest-class ship, was only $55.

[cruznjan]

Do they do the tour in the morning or afternoon?

[jimbo5544]

Do they do the tour in the morning or afternoon?

 

 

Mornings

[joepeka]

Does anyone know if this conflicts with the Dr. Seuss breakfast. I want to do both.

 

I don't know when the Dr. Seuss breakfast is scheduled but the BTF tour is normally on the last sea day. I say "normally" because if your itinerary gets changed for whatever reason, it could be on another sea day besides the last one.

 

One other thing which may have been mentioned above: no cameras or video allowed on the tour. They do take quite a few photos along the way which you will receive in your cabin later but you cannot take your own photos or video. This is a bit of a shame since I know other cruise lines do allow the passengers to take photos.

Edited September 9, 2015 by joepeka

[jimbo5544]

I don't know when the Dr. Seuss breakfast is scheduled but the BTF tour is normally on the last sea day. I say "normally" because if your itinerary gets changed for whatever reason, it could be on another sea day besides the last one.

 

One other thing which may have been mentioned above: no cameras or video allowed on the tour. They do take quite a few photos along the way which you will receive in your cabin later but you cannot take your own photos or video. This is a bit of a shame since I know other cruise lines do allow the passengers to take photos.

 

They usually are the same day (last sea day), if you had the early seating for Sues breakfast, you would be fine with both (no conflicts).