Cruising with a new and mildly hesitant cruiser

[MastersLevelMama]

Here's a tip you probably won't get from others. On Embarkation day, arrive at the port around 2pm. You'll be able to check in and then board right away. You'll be able to go to your cabin right away. You'll also avoid the crowds both in the port terminal and on the Lido deck first day lunch rush and waiting game until the cabins are open at 1:30pm. That way you can completely skip the disorganized crowd scene.

 

Here's another thing - look to see if there's an excursion on Princess Cays that you want to do. Excursions generally meet on the ship (like in the theatre) and then are led to the tender boats. Nice and orderly.

 

 

That is a great tip!!!! I keep reading how bad it is at the port. We would much rather have a nice morning. I don;t think we sail until 4 or so so 2 pm should give us plenty of time.

 

I will check those out. Is that Carnival's private island?

 

In addition to pizza, the buffet will be open until around 9pm (salad bar, dessert bar, hot foods), and the pizza and deli are open (pizza 24 hours; deli until 11pm).

 

Excellent! Thank you. Is the pizza any good? I gorged on the pizza on our Disney cruise. LOL!

[MastersLevelMama]

Happy 50th! This reminds me of taking my reluctant husband on our first cruise...by the third night he was asking when we could do it again:)

 

 

Here's hoping and thank you! :D I am happy with the ports I chose.

 

Yes the tips are added, but we always tip $1 per drink as were are in the service business. If you tip the poolside servers, they will find you more frequently, wink, wink.

 

Gotcha! I served and was a bartender during my undergrad so I am all about tipping extra; just not double unless the service is insanely amazing.

[BoDidly]

That is a great tip!!!! I keep reading how bad it is at the port. We would much rather have a nice morning. I don;t think we sail until 4 or so so 2 pm should give us plenty of time.

 

I will check those out. Is that Carnival's private island?

 

 

 

Excellent! Thank you. Is the pizza any good? I gorged on the pizza on our Disney cruise. LOL!

 

Only problem, your luggage will arrive latter than everyone else's. You may want to drop your luggage earlier . Other than that you can carry a change of clothing in your carry on luggage.

 

The pizza is average they don't like to take special request. But if you go when their not to busy they will take your request.

[meatloafsfan]

That is a great tip!!!! I keep reading how bad it is at the port. We would much rather have a nice morning. I don;t think we sail until 4 or so so 2 pm should give us plenty of time.

 

I will check those out. Is that Carnival's private island?

 

 

 

Excellent! Thank you. Is the pizza any good? I gorged on the pizza on our Disney cruise. LOL!

 

Princess Cay's is actually Princess' private island (owned by Carnival Corp).

 

The pizza on Carnival is excellent - it's thin crust and made for you. I've had the pizza on Disney cruises and it's very basic (frozen crust, minimal toppings, basically kid styled pizza); Carnivals is 10x better. Hot and fresh, right out of the pizza oven.

[MastersLevelMama]

Only problem, your luggage will arrive latter than everyone else's. You may want to drop your luggage earlier . Other than that you can carry a change of clothing in your carry on luggage.

 

The pizza is average they don't like to take special request. But if you go when their not to busy they will take your request.

 

 

Hmmm good to know. Late luggage might cause an issue as we have early dining (for now).

 

Thanks for the pizza tip! I see this as an after hours/after booze option.

[MastersLevelMama]

Princess Cay's is actually Princess' private island (owned by Carnival Corp).

 

The pizza on Carnival is excellent - it's thin crust and made for you. I've had the pizza on Disney cruises and it's very basic (frozen crust, minimal toppings, basically kid styled pizza); Carnivals is 10x better. Hot and fresh, right out of the pizza oven.

 

That makes so much more sense. I was wondering why Carnival would name their island Princess. :') So Carnival and Princess are owned by the same parent company?

 

Awesome! We both prefer thin crust. I better plan on taking the stairs the entire cruise.

[Fla Senior]

While in Grand Turk make sure to visit Jack's Shack. Very layback with great jerk chicken and a show with his dog Topher. Also go to his website and download a coupon for free shot of rum. Our favorite place in GT to chill in a lounger on the beach, take a dip, enjoy some adult beverages, chow down on great jerk chicken and watch the Topher show. https://www.jacksshack.tc/topher/

[simmingdenise]

I don't see that your dining question was answered. Unfortunately you can't go to YTD if you miss your early dinner seating. You can ask the maitre d' to permanently change you for the sailing but you can't switch around between the 3 options. Happy cruising!!

[MastersLevelMama]

While in Grand Turk make sure to visit Jack's Shack. Very layback with great jerk chicken and a show with his dog Topher. Also go to his website and download a coupon for free shot of rum. Our favorite place in GT to chill in a lounger on the beach, take a dip, enjoy some adult beverages, chow down on great jerk chicken and watch the Topher show. https://www.jacksshack.tc/topher/

 

This sounds perfect. And it's not something I have to pre-book correct? Thanks for the coupon tip too. How cute is that dog!!

 

I don't see that your dining question was answered. Unfortunately you can't go to YTD if you miss your early dinner seating. You can ask the maitre d' to permanently change you for the sailing but you can't switch around between the 3 options. Happy cruising!!

 

Thank you! I could not find the answer anywhere. Makes sense they wouldn't allow it.

[Fla Senior]

This sounds perfect. And it's not something I have to pre-book correct? Thanks for the coupon tip too. How cute is that dog!!

 

No reservation required. It's about a 20 minute walk from ship or short cab ride. Topher is a hoot!

[MastersLevelMama]

This sounds perfect. And it's not something I have to pre-book correct? Thanks for the coupon tip too. How cute is that dog!!

 

No reservation required. It's about a 20 minute walk from ship or short cab ride. Topher is a hoot!

 

Topher is adorable. I was reading the site and its a cute story how they started the place. Love a good love story.

[coevan]

That makes so much more sense. I was wondering why Carnival would name their island Princess. :') So Carnival and Princess are owned by the same parent company?

 

Awesome! We both prefer thin crust. I better plan on taking the stairs the entire cruise.

 

 

Yes, and if you own 100 shares of stock you get a $100 on board credit, the NYSE symbol is CCL. Our 14 day Journeys cruise in January will net us a $250 on OBC

[MastersLevelMama]

Yes, and if you own 100 shares of stock you get a $100 on board credit, the NYSE symbol is CCL. Our 14 day Journeys cruise in January will net us a $250 on OBC

 

Wow! Thats awesome! The TA I booked with gave me $75 OBC. Is that pretty typical?

[coevan]

yes, you would have only received $50 from CCL. One of the advantages of booking through a cruise travel agent is they are more flexible on perks. We did a B2B and the agent had a bottle of wine in the room and 2 steak dinner coupons, nice.

[newNCLcruiser2010]

At this point we have early dining. I am not sure he will love that. He prefers to eat later than the rest of us. Having said that, we are on West Coast time so maybe it'll be okay with the time difference, which I need to find out. If we decide to miss our early dinner time, what are our on ship options for dinner aside from pizza on the deck?

 

On our last cruise on Carnival Victory we took a nap and accidentally missed our early dining. My DH doesn't like to eat dinner on lido, so I called guest services and they said no problem, just go to late dining in the same dining room. We did and we had no problem getting seated.

 

Also on The Magic our waiter told us it was fine to come as late as 6:30 for the 6:00 dining. This helped us have time to get ready when we didn't come back from port until 5:30. So there is some leeway.

[ricew001]

Great tip, thank you. Hubby will opt for 1/2 off the good wine. ;) Only 6 drinks? Thats a no brainer then. Plus the thought of just having it paid for sounds fabulous. Just one less thing to think about. Do they automatically add gratuity?

Please note that you Cheers includes NON ALCOHOLIC Now - like water, sodas, milkshakes, etc. so it really is a good option.

[MastersLevelMama]

On our last cruise on Carnival Victory we took a nap and accidentally missed our early dining. My DH doesn't like to eat dinner on lido, so I called guest services and they said no problem, just go to late dining in the same dining room. We did and we had no problem getting seated.

 

Also on The Magic our waiter told us it was fine to come as late as 6:30 for the 6:00 dining. This helped us have time to get ready when we didn't come back from port until 5:30. So there is some leeway.

 

 

Thank you for this info, good to know. I wouldn't purposefully arrive late but I'm glad there is a little leeway. Lido is the buffet?

 

Please note that you Cheers includes NON ALCOHOLIC Now - like water, sodas, milkshakes, etc. so it really is a good option.

 

Can you tell me about the coffee it includes? Is this bottle/can soda? If we book the steakhouse, can we use Cheers there?

[MastersLevelMama]

yes, you would have only received $50 from CCL. One of the advantages of booking through a cruise travel agent is they are more flexible on perks. We did a B2B and the agent had a bottle of wine in the room and 2 steak dinner coupons, nice.

 

Is the OBC based on the price of the cruise? Thats a fabulous gift; you've got a great agent.

[BoDidly]

Is the OBC based on the price of the cruise? Thats a fabulous gift; you've got a great agent.

No ,different TA's offer those benefits to attract new customers.

[MastersLevelMama]

No ,different TA's offer those benefits to attract new customers.

 

 

Thanks! Mine gave us $75 total. Wondering if I should have shopped around or is that pretty typical.....

[dmdiver]

On our last cruise on Carnival Victory we took a nap and accidentally missed our early dining. My DH doesn't like to eat dinner on lido, so I called guest services and they said no problem, just go to late dining in the same dining room. We did and we had no problem getting seated.

 

Also on The Magic our waiter told us it was fine to come as late as 6:30 for the 6:00 dining. This helped us have time to get ready when we didn't come back from port until 5:30. So there is some leeway.

 

 

The only thing about being 30 minutes late for dining is that if you share a table with another party, they will try to wait for everyone to get there before taking orders, etc. That happened to us on some of our early cruises. It was annoying, since we chose 6pm dining to we could get to shows on time.

[missmichele89]

I was reading about the Cheers program. It sounds like it takes all the work out of it. Do you think with 4 port days, it's worth it? We have been known to imbibe quite a bit on vacation. Or on a Friday night. LOL! Being nickle and dimed to death will drive him insane though; paying for every drink, doing any sort of math or having to worry about it. Having said that, I don't want to purchase something I won't get my money's worth.

 

Serenity Deck? I haven't heard of that. Sounds like an adults only type thing?

 

 

Cheers Is definitely worth it! My boyfriend and I were on a 6 day cruise with 4 port days and did not have the Cheers package on this one. We completely regretted not having it. The amount we spent in drinking conservatively would have definitely made the package worth it. Plus, premium coffees, soft drinks, virgin cocktails and bottled water are included in the price of Cheers.

 

As for the Serenity Deck, it is a 21+ environment. It's a lovely, comfortable and quiet place to relax. Unfortunately, I do not believe there is a Serenity Deck on the Conquest. :(

[jdemps]

If anyone doesn't like crowds, I would suggest getting on the ship as late as possible. It looks like a shark feeding frenzy for the first few hours if you get on early.