Newbie with questions sail in less than 2 weeks

[Mskerri22]

I've never been on a cruise before and my friends parents said we should all go on this one as they had a great time last year although it was on a different ship. I was wondering after reading many posts on different cruiselines afew things and worried about some minor things since we sail on orchestra on Feb 7th with the irish stars group.

 

Can a soda card be purchased on embarkation day with cash but yet have a credit card linked to my family members sign and sail cards for other charges onboard?

 

Are there many options for dinner in the main dining room I've seen afew posts with menus and they only have like 3 main dish choices and few of which my kids will eat. so many people are saying so many carbs, I would think pasta would have more carbs than meat and fish and not seeing much pasta on the menus that I've seen here anyway. (just confused I guess)

 

Does the front of the ship lira deck have a balcony (not private) people can walk out onto and do an "I'm the king of the world" without actually going to the very front like they did in the movie I know thats not allowed but just wondering on the lira deck or any other deck is it possible? my disabled nephew saw the movie last week and wants to do it.

 

On our tickets it says 4pm embarkation but on the website and on the port schedules it says 7pm. Is 4pm the latest time to be at port to get on the ship safely and 7pm the actual time we leave the docks? Our group was told by the Irish stars TA transportation to port would start at noon from the hotel most are staying at but we don't want to stay at the hotel all morning waiting to go to the port if we're up at 6am.

 

I've read someplace that part of peoples fuel charges are being given back as onboard credit. Is that like your bill only starts after the obc amount is down to nothing? or are there only some things it can be used towards?

[AmoMondo]

Hi there

here's answers to some of your questions. It isn't a soda card as such that you buy but a package for soft drinks where you get a book of 14 vouchers. Any purchases are charged to your cruise card account. They dont take cash anywhere on the ship regardless of whether it is embarkation day or not (except in the Casino). You can pay a cash deposit up front to your account. or you can give Credit card deatials. I'm not sure if you can do a combination of both, as I've nevr tried to do this. Supposes it is worth asking the Accounts desk if you can do this. You can also buy more drinks packages throughout the cruise at bars using your cruise card.

Yes there are only 4 main course options that vary each night on the menu. However they also have an always available section that has spghetti bolognese and chicken, steak or salmon from the grill I believe they also have a children's menu but I cant tell you what it is like as i've never travelled with children.

 

7pm is sthe time the ship actually sails. 4pm is the official start time for embarkation (it is always stated as 3 hours before sailing). However they often start boarding much earlier than this as you will see from reading the posts here. Personally it is the time I aim to go as I've found that if you turn up too early, you end up waiting a while in a q to get on. However take advice from people who reply who have been on the orchestra in the past few weeks, as they seem to be making an effort to get people on quicker and earlier. I would however say that if you are going to be up and about early in the morning that there would be little point going sraight to the port as you will be in for a long wait. The ship doesn't dock until around 8 and can take about 2 hours to get evryone off after Customs and Immigration has cleared them. They then dont allow anyone on until they have finished cleaning the ship - that is public rooms and cabins. So my recommendation would be to go with the coach pick up time unless you want to arrive later.