timenprayer

15 minutes ago, CruisinRach said:

Here’s the schedule from the August 20th sailing on the Legend…

Thank you for posting this; very helpful.  Can you confirm that for port days, programming for under two's began at/around the time of port arrival?  What did they advise about picking up the under twos for lunch/dinner times, as I don't believe they feed the under twos in Camp nor do they take them up to Lido like they do the Penguins (2-5) or Stingrays (6-8).  

On 9/4/2022 at 4:41 PM, lesters said:

Thank you everyone for the info!   Very helpful and I will be sure to post a review and summary of our trip here!

 

i missed noting for Aruba we have a loose plan of Eagle Beach in the morning.  Back to the ship for a quick refresh and then reservations at the West Deck - just found it after doing some research. Looks like a great spot and will report back!

 

Hope to also check out the local casinos in Aruba and Curaçao - we’ve often talked about spending a week on both islands and now we get the chance to get a little taste and  decide about returning!

Looking forward to hearing your report back and review - hope you had a great time.  Can't wait to hear if you did Eagle Beach and how that went.  

2 hours ago, tm_aw_love said:

Children this young would only be eligible for the night owls program that you pay hourly for. 

I have not cruised since prior to Covid, but we are getting ready to cruise again with our kids in about 30 days.  I do not believe this is correct.  Carnival has a dedicated section on their website about "under 2s" and activities in Camp Ocean.  From what I understand, everything for under 2s is at an hourly fee if you want to leave them in camp by themselves on port days.  Check these things out:

https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1077/~/camp-ocean-infants-under-2%3A-things-to-know

I will report back after our return in early November about what I learned/experienced as we are cruising with 3 kids: 17mos, 4yrs, and 6yrs. 

No worries; If I were cruising without kids, I'd probably steer clear as well.  🙂 

If you have a moment, could you stop by Camp Ocean and grab an activities schedule?  We cruise in about 30 days on this itinerary and I just want to get an idea of the kids club activities for the Penguins and Stingrays group.  Thanks so much - and no worries if it doesn't work out.  🙂 

Can anyone please point me to or share the Camp Ocean Schedule / Activities for the Carnival Horizon 8-Day Southern (Aruba, Curaçao, La Romana, and Amber Cove) itinerary? 
 

I can’t seem to find it since camp Ocean re-opened post re-start. 
 

Thanks! 

Just want to bump this up again. I had received the email from Carnival on 10/1/17 that my pre-booked shore excursion had been canceled due to an itinerary change.

It's now 10/18/17 and I still have not received a gift card via FedEx from Carnival.

We sail 10/28/17 and I really want to use that gift card balance for on board activities. Should I call again, even though my PVP originally told me it would be OBC?

I received the email stating it had been refunded to my credit card ending in.... "no numbers" on September 30th. I called my PVP that day and he followed up and said since it was a gift card it would be back in 5-7 days. I received the gift card Fed Ex today October 4th.

 

I don't know if they are going in order by sail date or something, but we sail next Saturday, October 14th... so they may be doing them in order by who is sailing 1st to try to make sure they get them before they sail... I was happy to see it today as I was wondering if it would make it before we left next Friday or not too.

 

PS: I do NOT use a TA, so my stuff is all handled direct. Those that use TA's seem be having big delays in receiving their refunds. I have always cut out the middle man and just go direct. My PVP is helpful though and I am glad I got him instead of just a random, regular customer service rep to work with.

Thank you very much. Very helpful and much appreciated.

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Just wanted to come back and let OP (and others) know, what my PVP said is correct. No OBC, I received it in the form of a carnival gift card today via Fed Ex.

Thanks for the update. Can you confirm on what date Carnival canceled your excursion and then on what date you received the gift card?

Just want to make sure that I’ll get the gift card before we cruise. I don’t really want to get a Carnival gift card after we sail as I won’t immediately have purpose for it. [emoji3]

Thanks!

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Ok, I called today to our PVP. I was told that because the excursion was canceled by Carnival, that it would be applied as OBC on our 10/28 sailing. Had I canceled the shore excursion myself, then I would have been issued a new Carnival Gift Card that would've been mailed to my address on file. PVP said that it would take "several weeks" for the gift card to arrive had that been the case.

I am very glad that I did not cancel the excursion myself or else the gift card might not have arrived prior to sailing.

Hope this helps.

I think they refund via gift card if for some reason you end up having a positive balance on your sail and sign card post cruise if you deposited gift cards only in your account. I do not think they will issue you another gift card and mail or email it to you prior to your cruise. That does not make sense to me.

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Hi - sailing on the 10/28 Glory which was moved from Eastern to Western. I pre- purchased a Half Moon Cay cabana using a Carnival Gift Card.

I then used the remaining gift card balance to pay on our cruise. As the card had zero balance, I tossed it.

Now, since the itinerary has changed, Carnival has stated that pre-purchased shore excursions would be applied as OBC. But today, I got an email stating that it would be refunded to my credit card. The strange thing was that in the email today it said it would be applied to my “credit card ending in” but did not specify the ending 4 digits.

How will the refund be processed, and what happens if it goes to the gift card and I don’t have it anymore?

TIA for any help.

She maybe interviewed by a nurse before boarding.

Based on recent personal experience or how? Just curious about this...

I will be on Glory next month and pregnant as well, so I am interested to hear any responses

Awesome! We can learn together! You'll be back before our family goes, so please update upon your return!

Congrats to you both! I cruised in my 20th week with my youngest daughter (now 17!). I don't think much has changed since then, but I highly recommend that you see your doctor as close to your departure date as possible and bring THAT form. I think you may have problems bringing a form dated in July for October.

Other then that, it was smooth sailing. The staff was very attentive and went out of their way to see that I was comfortable. My cabin steward would even leave little snacks for me in the evening for those midnight cravings! I might have also used FTTF if it was available back then. It might make your debarkation a lot easier. Again, best wishes and hope this helps....

Hmmm. We already sent in the form for our cruise - and that form very clearly provides gestational information as of the date of the form - so I am not sure why another form would be required. Have others encountered this or what do you think?

I love that your cabin steward left little snacks for midnight cravings! Any chance they could leave pickled okra behind for my wife?

If you are wondering if she will get sea sick, do you live some where you can take her out on a small boat tour and see how she does with that?

Every pregnancy with women is so different.

And congratulations. I have never been on a ship being pregnant. If it were me I would just have a note from the DR. just stating she is in the guidelines of not being close to the 24th week.

Is your wife ok with wanting to take a cruise? If so enjoy yourself and go with the energy level she has onboard. Maybe get her a nice facial or foot massage. If they have baby clothes buy a little outfit for the baby. Bring mom some snacks for the cruise if she gets craving for certain things. Let us know how it goes and have a great cruise!!

I'm not thinking she would get sea sick, but maybe it would affect her different in pregnancy... She did cruise before when pregnant, but it was so early that we didn't even think twice about it then.

My wife and I are both equally excited about taking the cruise. From what she's shared, I don't think there are any hesitations on her part. Thanks for your suggestions and will be sure to take note.

Cruised while pregnant in 2012.

I had major problems getting the Doctors Letter. My OBGYN refused to sign the letter even though there was zero reasons I couldn't go. I ended up having to switch doctors. I think there might be a post about this somewhere buried in the archives of CC. So my big take away from the experience was talk to your Doctor EARLY in the process. You never know! (As a side note my 2nd Doctor signed the note with no problems, she was amazing. I am almost grateful for Carnival requiring the letter and the fall-out.)

As for the embarkation process, they didn't even ask for the letter. It didn't slow us down or alter embarkation at all. I agree with getting FTTF if you can, especially since you already have a kiddo.

My room steward was awesome but not because he did anything special for my pregnancy. No one ever mentioned it. I'm plus size so he might not have even noticed unless it flagged on our file.

I didn't have any morning sickness during my pregnancy and nothing while on board.

With Zika as part of picture now, I'd take more precautions on excursions or if you plan on leaving the ship. Long sleeves and long pants, in light colours. Use mosquito repellant, stuff like that.

Have a great trip.

This is very helpful - thanks so much. I am glad we checked with our OB early as well - just for that reason and to avoid any issues later on - which we do not need. Thankfully, our OB is also a Carnival cruiser and it was nice to talk to her about our shared love of cruising!

The Zika stuff is a for real concern and my wife has been researching and planning accordingly. Something for even me to think about as I can get bit by a Zika mosquito as well.

Hi everyone,

My family is getting ready to sail on the Carnival Glory in October for our fifth cruise. This will be our first cruise taking along our daughter who will be 23 months old at sailing.

In addition to this being our first family cruise, a couple months ago, my wife and I found out that we were pregnant with baby #2 and we are beyond thrilled with the news. We have completed the Carnival pregnancy form and are within the acceptable limits in that my wife won't enter the 24th week of pregnancy before or during the cruise.

I want this to be super special for our family - so I have a couple questions that I'd like to get some group feedback on:

1. Have you ever cruised when pregnant? How was that for you? Did you have any problems?

2. How was boarding and embarkation? Did they actually check your completed pregnancy form? Did they contact your doctor's office before you sailed? Did the pregnancy slow the boarding process in any way?

There may be more questions along the way - thanks in advance for any help.

I did some searching of the boards and found some dated pregnancy during cruising threads; just wanted to get some more current feedback.

Subscribing. Great review.

Subscribing. We are on the Glory this fall. Have a great time!

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Subscribing. We're on the Glory in October. Thanks for the pictures.

Thanks for your review so far. We are booked on the Glory this fall.

We have done this at our local grocery stores (Kroger, Giant Eagle, and Meijer). They each have a fuel points or fuel rewards program that lets you earn free gas or cents off on the gallon. This week, we were able to essentially earn 10% reward coupons at Meijer by buying Carnival Gift Cards there. We spent $300 in gift cards and earned $30 in coupons to spend at Meijer. $30 off the grocery bill will help some.

We always try to shop around and try to get what is the best deal. Good to save money where you can!

The part of the tour that I think was most enjoyable was the glass bottom boat tour. For the first part of the tour, you rode up on top of the boat as they talked about landmarks near the island. One of the first landmarks (and most memorable) was the "Sleeping Indian."

After a short ride to the "best" underwater location, they had everyone go down into the bottom of the boat. It was pretty cramped in there, so this would not be ideal for a person with claustrophobia. No one in our group minded though and it allowed for a close-up view of the terrific blue water.

We were able to see several fish, corals, and other types of sea life. There were even sea turtles that often came out on the left side of the boat. The tour guide repeatedly commented about "turtles on the left" such that I even made a witty comment about why there were no "turtles on the right." :p

As part of the tour, they had a diver go out to feed some fish and entice them to come closer for everyone's viewing pleasure. They even had the diver pick up (what I remember to be) a sea urchin and show everyone as he swam by.

I think this portion of the tour lasted anywhere from a half hour to 45 minutes. I don't remember it being too long as it was stuffy and cramped in the glass bottom portion of the boat. I still very much enjoyed it, however, as God gave me lungs and not gils - so it was a nice way to view underwater sea life up close. (I'm a terrible snorkeler and I would probably never try SCUBA).

After that, they took us back up to the top of the boat for a nice ride back to the dock where the tour bus was waiting for us. There was another short guided tour as the bus made it's way back to the cruise terminal. Overall, I really enjoyed this tour and I would consider doing it again if given the choice.

Great shot of the Valor when we walked back to board the ship.

Wow. Almost two and a half years later and I realized that I never finished this review. I doubt that very many will care or take interest since the Valor is no longer in San Juan, but...my wife and I have booked another cruise for this fall with some good friends that that means that I've made my way back to cruise critic.

In so doing, I noticed my incomplete review, and I've once again allowed myself to be very excited to be part of the cruising world. For our next cruise, we will be on the Glory out of Miami and we will be cruising as a family of three, rather than just my wife and I. I'm so excited to be cruising as a family and I'm optimistic that taking our then nearly two year old daughter will not be a mistake and we will make many great memories.

October 11, 2014 - What I can remember about St. Maarten and the Accompanying Excursion:

I remember that we had booked an excursion through Carnival that was an island tour coupled with a glass bottom boat experience. I had never been on a glass bottom boat and I was intrigued about what that would mean.

Like many excursions, we left the ship and were able to board a bus a short walk away. More great views of the ship in port.

I remember that the bus tour took us around several places on the island and there were several stops for photo opportunities. I took several photos that overlooked the island.

I also was able to snag a quick photo as we crossed from the Dutch side to the French side (or vice versa, can't remember).

After a couple photo opportunity stops, I remember that the took us into town and did a longer stop for some shopping. Our group walked around for a little bit, but honestly we were pretty tired from such a port-intensive cruise, so we actually came back to the bus to wait in the air conditioning for most of the "shopping time." I took a couple pictures of the shopping area.

After everyone on the excursion had finished their shopping, it was time to make way toward the glass bottom boat part of the tour. As we boarded the boat, I took this photo - I am always stunned by the blue-ness of the water in the Caribbean. That's part of what keeps me coming back, for sure. I also really laughed about the name of this little boat.

Up next: More photos and details about the glass bottom boat portion of the tour.

(And it will not be two and half more years before the next section appears). :')

For our day in St. Kitt's, I was very pleased to be able to go golfing at the Royal St. Kitt's Golf Club. I had really wanted to try and golf while cruising, but I had never done it before. This time, because we traveled with friends, I had one of my buddies with me to enjoy the round with. As I had mentioned before, the excursion sponsored by Carnival was canceled - so I had to go online and book directly with the Marriott instead. I am really glad that I did because the cost was much cheaper this way. The excursion through Carnival cost me what the green fees plus club rental cost - so I am glad that it ended up canceled otherwise I would have had to pay a lot more.

After we arrived in port, my buddy and I set out to find a taxi to take us to the golf course. There was no problem getting a taxi and it wasn't expensive. Once we arrived at the course, it pretty much seemed like we had the entire course to ourselves for the day. That was great!

For me, the experience of golfing anywhere outside of midwest Ohio was incredible. Some of the views from some of the holes were just incredible.

I took up golf probably about four to five years ago and I love the challenge of the sport. I also have a really good time with my golf buddies and we love to laugh at each other. This past season, I shot in the 80s for the first time ever - so when I played at St Kitt's I was happy to have a round in the 90s. As a newer golfer, I found that the course had a some good challenge to it but it was not overly difficult. Again, there was no one on the course on this day - so we played at a leisurely pace and if we hit a bad shot - we hit another! After all, we were on vacation!

At the turn, we had a nice sandwich and fries inside at the snack bar. The food was pricey for sure, but that was to be expected. When the round was over, we sat inside for a good while and enjoyed the free wifi inside the clubhouse. The staff at the course called a taxi for us and it arrived a short time later.

Once back at port, I saw that Disney Magic was also in port. When I was in the stateroom relaxing later, I heard the Valor and the Disney Magic having a horn battle. That was something new and was a neat experience. The horns were so loud! (You can see more of the horn battle in the youtube video in the first post).

For the evening, we went to dinner at our assigned time and had a nice meal. I don't remember any of the details at this point, but we never had a bad experience. After that, I think we may have went to a show, but honestly I also don't remember that. I just know that I had a great day golfing while on vacation with my friend.

My wife and my buddy's wife had a good beach day as well. They did the Carnival sponsored beach excursion and had a nice time. My wife and I had done the same excursion when we took this itinerary on our honeymoon, and the beach wasn't all that great - there was a lot of crud in the water that had been stirred up from a passing hurricane. This time, however, my wide said the beach was much, much nicer and that she really had a good time.

Next up: St. Maarten and the Accompanying Excursion

Sorry again for the long break. My wife has made it clear to me that I often don't finish what I've started, so I'm back to work toward proving her wrong...

I'll pick up where I left off with some final thoughts on the Land and Sea Combo tour that Carnival provides:

1. The tour is really LONG. Both the land and sea portions of the tour seemed to be longer than they needed to be. I was honestly ready to be back to the ship by the time the tour was over.

2. The land portion was extremely bumpy with many twists and turns along the way. If you are easily car sick, I would not take this tour.

3. The food on the tour was terrible. Often when browsing the Fun Ashore excursions book, I like to find tours that offer food so that I can sample the local cuisine - but for this tour, I would NOT recommend the food at all.

4. If you are looking to experience a catamaran, I would also NOT recommend this tour. The "catamaran" we were on was older and much larger. It was also not comfortable at all.

5. All in all - this tour was not my favorite and I would not do it again. That being said, I enjoyed it all right and it was a very nice way to see the island of St. Lucia. I got to see more of the island than I ever had it was a great way of doing that.

After the tour had ended, everyone in our group was pretty hungry and tired - so we went up to Lido for a bite to eat before heading back to the stateroom to get cleaned up for dinner. Tonight was the second formal night of the cruise.

Prior to dinner, my wife and I visited probably six or so of the ProPortraits backdrops to take some pictures. Up until this cruise, we had never purchased any pictures, but after taking six different poses, we were able to find a couple that we really liked - so we splurged and bought them.

Dinner was very good on the second cruise elegant night. I was also impressed because our bar waiter, Gabriel, had pre-populated the table with the soft drinks that we would have ordered anyway. To me, that is the epitome of excellent service - knowing me well enough to anticipate what I want and having it ready to go. To me, Carnival really stands out with how they do this.

When we arrived back to our stateroom for the evening, I received a notice that the golf excursion that I had booked for tomorrow in St. Kitt's was cancelled because not enough people had booked the excursion. My buddy that I was traveling with had agreed to go golfing with me while the ladies had a beach day. Honestly, this worked out for the best that Carnival canceled the excursion - because I was able to buy some internet time and get online and book the golf myself. It was a significant savings from the Carnival price and I was happy to save the money.

Next Up: Golf at Royal St. Kitt's Golf Club

After our time at the St. Lucia Botanical Gardens, we boarded the bus again for a short drive to the pier in Soufriere. On the way there, the tour guide told ridiculous jokes that I thought were funny and family friendly. Once we arrived at the pier, our tour guide had to say good bye, but the tour guides from the other two buses joined us.

Everyone from the three buses joined up for this part of the tour and we boarded a large catamaran. On the catamaran, there were patio chairs for sitting on the deck and there were "pew" type seats along the edges, facing the water. As one of the first on board, our group went toward the "pew" type seats along the edges so that we could be closer to the sides to see for pictures. In hindsight, I wish that I had not done that as they were not comfortable at all. The plastic patio chairs that were on the center of the deck were much more comfortable.

First of the pictures from the catamaran:

After everyone was seated, the catamaran set "sail" via the powered engine. After about 15 minutes or so, they served lunch.

I must tell you that the food on this excursion was amongst the worst that I've ever had while on vacation. This is just my opinion, but the food lacked any kind of taste and it was severely under seasoned. They served some chicken (on the bone, legs and thighs - they called this Creole chicken but I don't think any Creole chicken could ever be seasoned so poorly). They also had some rice, some salad, and bread fruit. The bread fruit was an abomination and tasted really bad. I can't really remember much about the food on this excursion, other than it was really bad. For drinks, they had coke and they later served rum punch after the swimming portion was over.

After everyone had eaten, we continued to sail around the shores of St. Lucia. On this day, it was cloudy and there were hit or miss rain showers. The rain would come with a quick down pour and then it would stop just as abruptly as it started. The sun would come out in between the rain and all in all it was a nice day.

You can see the rain patches on the water:

After about an hour or so (at least it seemed that long) of sailing, we came to a place where we were going to do some swimming. The pulled the catamaran close to shore and then tied to a palm tree on the beach. We were able to swim there for maybe 45 minutes or so. The beach was not as nice here as in St. John - but it was still a great time. The catamaran was parked far enough out that you still could not touch bottom when you jumped off - but it was only a short swim to where you could touch.

One thing that really amazed me was the local vendors that would come right up next to the catamaran and try to sell their goods. They would bring their canoe or boat right next to the catamaran to sell their things. We did not feel comfortable leaving our belongings on the catamaran while we were swimming - that is how close they came - so we had one of group stay behind on the catamaran.

You can see one of the vendors in the canoe below headed toward another group that was also on the beach for a swim:

After the swim, we continued to sail around the edge of St. Lucia toward Marigot Bay. They took the catamaran into the bay so that we could take some pictures:

Up next: Final thoughts on the land and sea combo tour to Soufriere.