My sister and I won a Carnival Cruise!

[vicky3vicky]

How awesome! I watched this on tv, and when Kathy Lee broke the bottle with the name on it for a free cruise, I remember thinking that was a cheap farewell gift. But when she announced that the entire audience was getting a 4 day cruise for 2 I think I was as excited as the audience was! I hope you have so much fun!

 

 

Edited April 10, 2019 by vicky3vicky
sticky keys

[Butterbean1000]

 I'm so jealous! Have a marvelous time!

[Shaded Lady]

14 hours ago, schazzy said:

You won't like Carnival at all, in fact, I'll do you a favor and take that cruise off your hands for you.

 

 

Seriously though, congratulations! I'm sure y'all will have a great time!

I'm with Schazzy- I'd hate to see you disappointed in Carnival so probably better if you give it to us instead!

[jimbo5544]

22 hours ago, beachbum53 said:

Is this your first time to go on a 4 day cruise? If so, you'll soon notice that it's a slightly different atmosphere than what you'd have on a 7 day. There will be some people trying to cram as much activity as they can into 4 days, and others that will want to just relax and enjoy 4 days off from their everyday lives. Don't try to participate in everything on board. Pick and choose carefully, or you'll wear yourselves out. Enjoy your cruise, and take a little time to relax. Hope you have a good cruise!

Wow....really?

[jimbo5544]

18 hours ago, MCazer said:

I live in New York, and we sail from NY! So no airfare! Yay

taking a Bermuda cruise!

Congrats, have a wonderful cruise on the Sunrise.

[kbklcamp]

I'm very happy for you!  Have a wonderful trip.

[beachbum53]

1 hour ago, jimbo5544 said:

Wow....really?

 

Not quite sure what you're trying to convey here. Care to elaborate?

[KmomChicago]

Congrats. I saw this in the cruise news and was quite jealous!  I'll give you what I love about Carnival.  They have (paid) self serve laundry on board if you need it, which for me has been a better deal than the bags they let you send out on Royal.  Carnival is laid back and fun, as you'd probably expect.  The walk up lunch counters are very popular and tasty, i.e. Blue Iguana and Guy's Burgers, and I think the Sunrise refit is adding BBQ?  The Punchliner comedy shows are usually pretty good but arrive early for seating as they do fill up; the piano bars are a nice option for evening entertainment as well.  If you play trivia you always have a chance to win a trademarked and coveted gold plastic ship on a stick trophy, woot woot! Watch out for cheaters. People will go to great lengths for these.

 

Dinner in the MDR offers filet for an upcharge, but on Sea Day, brunch has steak and eggs with a filet for zero charge - our favorite Carnival hack meal.  If you happen to have littles with you, the various Dr. Seuss activities can't be beat.

 

Lucky you getting aboard what should be a pretty spiffy ride after the extensive dry dock. Since you are experienced with many cruises, we'd love to hear your review / comparison afterward. 

[MCazer]

9 hours ago, Shaded Lady said:

I'm with Schazzy- I'd hate to see you disappointed in Carnival so probably better if you give it to us instead!

 

 

Funny enough, there were two lines of people at the end of the show, those of us that wanted the free cruise and those that said no. They had to fill out paperwork declining it. We had paperwork to accept, and fill out the info for the inevitable 1099 for taxes. 

 

I was like, “give me your voucher”

 

Because, I’ll take more family.  My sister got hers, so it would be so much more fun if we had a group. But the small print said it’s non-transferrable. 

[MCazer]

1 hour ago, KmomChicago said:

Congrats. I saw this in the cruise news and was quite jealous!  I'll give you what I love about Carnival.  They have (paid) self serve laundry on board if you need it, which for me has been a better deal than the bags they let you send out on Royal.  Carnival is laid back and fun, as you'd probably expect.  The walk up lunch counters are very popular and tasty, i.e. Blue Iguana and Guy's Burgers, and I think the Sunrise refit is adding BBQ?  The Punchliner comedy shows are usually pretty good but arrive early for seating as they do fill up; the piano bars are a nice option for evening entertainment as well.  If you play trivia you always have a chance to win a trademarked and coveted gold plastic ship on a stick trophy, woot woot! Watch out for cheaters. People will go to great lengths for these.

 

Dinner in the MDR offers filet for an upcharge, but on Sea Day, brunch has steak and eggs with a filet for zero charge - our favorite Carnival hack meal.  If you happen to have littles with you, the various Dr. Seuss activities can't be beat.

 

Lucky you getting aboard what should be a pretty spiffy ride after the extensive dry dock. Since you are experienced with many cruises, we'd love to hear your review / comparison afterward. 

Thank you 

the last ship we were on with a place to clean our own clothes was the Disney Magic, a very long time ago. And we greatly appreciated it then with little kids. Now they are in their 20’s. This trip is adults only! 

 

We are splurging and getting liquor package. But just read that it doesn’t start the first day with ships that leave NY (at least on Carnival). So I will be bringing those two bottles of wine that we are allowed per stateroom. 

 

Love the trivia, won once because my son can remember everything 

but ive seen those with cell phones cheating, it’s quite sad. What’s the point? 

 

Thanks for for the steak and eggs tip! 

 

Keep them coming guys! Im getting very excited!

[schazzy]

1 hour ago, MCazer said:

Funny enough, there were two lines of people at the end of the show, those of us that wanted the free cruise and those that said no. They had to fill out paperwork declining it. We had paperwork to accept, and fill out the info for the inevitable 1099 for taxes. 

 

Which one was the longer line?

[jimbo5544]

3 hours ago, beachbum53 said:

 

Not quite sure what you're trying to convey here. Care to elaborate?

I over reacted to your post, on first glance I thought you were bashing....my bad.  Must have been the prep for my colposcopy.

[JaniceB]

That's awesome, I was watching on TV and I was green with envy.  

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, JaniceB said:

That's awesome, I was watching on TV and I was green with envy.  

About my colonoscopy???😮    Oh wait, you meant the OP...I agree😀

Edited April 10, 2019 by jimbo5544

[LuckyStar]

On 4/9/2019 at 8:37 AM, MCazer said:

I live in New York, and we sail from NY! So no airfare! Yay

taking a Bermuda cruise!

Awesome! 

[Saint Greg]

That's awesome! Congrats!

[MCazer]

2 hours ago, schazzy said:

 

Which one was the longer line?

You know, I was one of the last people out of the studio and by then it was hard to tell, but I would say a good portion of them.  The line on one side had about 30-40 people in it. 

 

I jokingly commented in the elevator when one women said she wasn’t going to go, that I would take her voucher. She wasn’t amused.

 

I thought maybe she was scared off cruising since the news has been showing a lot of what happened overseas and the airlifting of people off in rough seas! 

[KmomChicago]

15 hours ago, MCazer said:

I thought maybe she was scared off cruising since the news has been showing a lot of what happened overseas and the airlifting of people off in rough seas! 

 

My 13 year old daughter and I were in Iceland for spring break the last week of March.  We flew in while the Viking cruise ship was trying to limp along to Molde, Norway.  We drove along the south coast of Iceland in our rental car a couple of days after they made it to port and it was truly brutal, honestly terrifying driving conditions.   

 

Gale force winds, bands of sleet, freezing rain, and heavy snow alternately blowing in from the angry North Atlantic.  The locals told us they had enjoyed a fairly mild winter but the "past two weeks" had been terrible.  All of which suggests everyone (including us) had underestimated what was an unusually big nasty storm system in the area.   We paused on our drive to watch the churning waves crashing onto shore under dark skies and I can tell you, that's not a pleasure cruise I would have wanted to take. Frankly I spent much of our six days regretting the decision to "try something European" rather than Florida like normal people.

 

We were grateful to make it safely in our rental car back to the airport for our departure flight.  And in another twist of fate we flew out on March 28, the same day WOW air went bankrupt and ceased operations.  Thankfully I had found just as good a deal on rival Icelandair so we were unaffected.  Point being, travel of any sort has risks. Without taking that Viking cruise we managed to put ourselves in danger related to the exact same root cause.

[ontheweb]

Just wondering---was the amount listed on the 1099 what you really could expect to pay for the cruise or was it the so called catalogue price?

[JaniceB]

6 hours ago, KmomChicago said:

 

My 13 year old daughter and I were in Iceland for spring break the last week of March.  We flew in while the Viking cruise ship was trying to limp along to Molde, Norway.  We drove along the south coast of Iceland in our rental car a couple of days after they made it to port and it was truly brutal, honestly terrifying driving conditions.   

 

Gale force winds, bands of sleet, freezing rain, and heavy snow alternately blowing in from the angry North Atlantic.  The locals told us they had enjoyed a fairly mild winter but the "past two weeks" had been terrible.  All of which suggests everyone (including us) had underestimated what was an unusually big nasty storm system in the area.   We paused on our drive to watch the churning waves crashing onto shore under dark skies and I can tell you, that's not a pleasure cruise I would have wanted to take. Frankly I spent much of our six days regretting the decision to "try something European" rather than Florida like normal people.

 

We were grateful to make it safely in our rental car back to the airport for our departure flight.  And in another twist of fate we flew out on March 28, the same day WOW air went bankrupt and ceased operations.  Thankfully I had found just as good a deal on rival Icelandair so we were unaffected.  Point being, travel of any sort has risks. Without taking that Viking cruise we managed to put ourselves in danger related to the exact same root cause.

Thanks for sharing your story, I totally agree with you, many things can affect any vacation. I hadn't heard about WOW air, someone had mentioned that for our trip next year.  

[mizLORInj]

That's awesome OP!   Congrats!   I would be super excited too!

 

We're doing the 4 night Sunrise next month and I'm excited to see how they've redone the ship.   I'm sure it'll be great.

 

IMO even a short cruise is better than no cruise!   

 

ENJOY!  

[MCazer]

6 hours ago, ontheweb said:

Just wondering---was the amount listed on the 1099 what you really could expect to pay for the cruise or was it the so called catalogue price?

They estimate a $900 value on the paperwork, but said it could be more or less. In my case it is more, I think because it’s a New York and preferred timeframe.  But, NBC is also sending us a Tax Mitigation check to cover what they believe the 1099 will reflect next year.  Which was nice of them! 

 

We get a 4 Night cruise in an inside cabin from any of their destinations.  

Since we live in NY, our best choice was not having to fly anywhere. We did pay to upgrade to a oceanview stateroom for $80/person. Which to me was totally worth it.

[MCazer]

9 hours ago, KmomChicago said:

 

My 13 year old daughter and I were in Iceland for spring break the last week of March.  We flew in while the Viking cruise ship was trying to limp along to Molde, Norway.  We drove along the south coast of Iceland in our rental car a couple of days after they made it to port and it was truly brutal, honestly terrifying driving conditions.   

 

Gale force winds, bands of sleet, freezing rain, and heavy snow alternately blowing in from the angry North Atlantic.  The locals told us they had enjoyed a fairly mild winter but the "past two weeks" had been terrible.  All of which suggests everyone (including us) had underestimated what was an unusually big nasty storm system in the area.   We paused on our drive to watch the churning waves crashing onto shore under dark skies and I can tell you, that's not a pleasure cruise I would have wanted to take. Frankly I spent much of our six days regretting the decision to "try something European" rather than Florida like normal people.

 

We were grateful to make it safely in our rental car back to the airport for our departure flight.  And in another twist of fate we flew out on March 28, the same day WOW air went bankrupt and ceased operations.  Thankfully I had found just as good a deal on rival Icelandair so we were unaffected.  Point being, travel of any sort has risks. Without taking that Viking cruise we managed to put ourselves in danger related to the exact same root cause.

Yes, we had our last trip interrupted by bad weather in Italy. Mud slides, torrential rains and extremely high winds.  We sought refuge in the nearest port, and ended up there for 3 days.  The rope lines that had us tied to the dock snapped and our ship floated out, and with the winds, we drifted into the Costa Magica and hit the front of their ship, leaving window washing machine on their deck.  

 

We we were lucky enough to be staying on Rome for a few nights after, but people were given the choice to get on buses for a 5 hour trip at 1am to that they could catch flights.  Some made it, some had their flights changed.  

 

With all the winds and rain, water poured into our cabin and down one wall, behind our couch and bed.  Celebrity came in and quickly mopped up, opened the ceiling, took our clothing and had it all washed.  

 

It is what it is.  We missed Florence, missed Pisa and Portofino. So we are booked on the same ship this year and will go straight to Florence from Rome for a few days.  We even have the same aft cabin! Loved the location. 

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, MCazer said:

They estimate a $900 value on the paperwork, but said it could be more or less. In my case it is more, I think because it’s a New York and preferred timeframe.  But, NBC is also sending us a Tax Mitigation check to cover what they believe the 1099 will reflect next year.  Which was nice of them! 

 

We get a 4 Night cruise in an inside cabin from any of their destinations.  

Since we live in NY, our best choice was not having to fly anywhere. We did pay to upgrade to a oceanview stateroom for $80/person. Which to me was totally worth it.

Thanks, I would think that the amount of the tax mitigation check would also be taxable income. And of course, living in NY State you get hit twice, not just by the federal government.

[MCazer]

3 hours ago, ontheweb said:

Thanks, I would think that the amount of the tax mitigation check would also be taxable income. And of course, living in NY State you get hit twice, not just by the federal government.

Yes, sadly. But I’ll still take it!