CruisinCarps

Thanks for posting this! Gonna check out the other Barclay card.

Another point to make is that if you want to use points for onboard credit, you must do so at least 15 days out. I wanted to do that for our upcoming cruise, but missed it by 2 days. :rolleyes: Gues I will have to save it for next time. ;)

Was that train fare from Denver to Galveston or Miami?

We took the train from North Carolina just a few years back and it was $50each adult and $25 each kid I believe! I know I didn't book it wayyyy out because my husband is military and we just can't book trips that far out. So keep checking those train fares (like someone else mentioned-they fluctuate like plane prices). I hope he would consider therapy (for various reasons), because I used to be TERRIFIED of flying, but had to get over it real quick when we got stationed in Germany. Now I much would rather fly. My husband mas a mild form of PTSD from the wars, but has it nonetheless and has to fly quite often.

Anyways, keep checking those prices. Whatever you do, if you travel by train especially, do NOT book it for arriving day of sailing. I recommend staying night before anyways unless close to the port, but Amtrak is notorious for being late!

Hope everything works out! :D

I can't speak for the OP, but we have had to rent a car. Enterprise is the only company that lets you drop off the day of, but if sailing on a Sunday, they are closed. You have to drop keys off in a box and call a taxi to get to the ship. Also, only one Enterprise hub allows one way rental out of Houston Hobby. (Haven't flown into Houston International/Bush yet so I don't know their set up.)

Last time I used Hotwire and booked a car for much cheaper (almost half) what I was being quoted elsewhere online. We booked our parking reservation online- cheaper, you know where are gonna park, etc. We used Dolphin parking wirh little issues. This time we are trying out Galveston Park and Cruise since they are walking distance from the ship.

There are also hotels that offer a parking/shuttle package. We booked this cruise last minute (six weeks out), and hotels were way too expensive for our taste. Cheaper to rent a car and park it than staying in Galveston. However, if you book well enough in advance, shouldn't be an issue. I booked a hotel in Alvin this time (using Hotwire again) to save $.

Oh and the cove balconies! If you haven't booked your room yet, I highly recommend it! Loved being so close to the water. Saw flying fish, dolphins, and spent hours watching the waves. :-)

Lindsey beat me to it...the Indian food aka Tandoori is soooooo good!

Serenity drinking a Kiss on the Lips. ;-)

Also, now we were a little bit unconventional, but we ate late one night in Lido (or pizza) instead of doing a formal night and had a huge hot tub on the side all to ourselves! :D

Speaking of pizza, it was good and they make it right there. A slice and a free bag of popcorn watching a movie... We are headed back to the Magic on the 11th and I can't wait to do that again.

As silly as it sounds, look out for the funny sign on your way out for a port. Keep your camera ready. I forgot to take a picture last time, but will remember this time. You will know it when you see it. ;)

Some passport offices process everything right there and you can have it in a matter of days even. (We are stationed in El Paso and husband's was in the mail like 4 days later.)

I am on board with the "just get a passport" crew.

We have used port parking in Galveston. Recently at Christmas we parked 3 cars. If you have a military ID it is free! If you reserve and pay on line you get $5 off. Very convienent. Friends used cheaper parking and had to wait for pick up when they returned. We were out of there in 10 minutes!

I am thinking of using Park and Cruise, but the website is acting up and not processing my payment etc... In the meantime, wanted to clarify something in case others read this thread- parking for military at the other place mentioned (Port of Galveston Parking) is free only for those who either have Purple Heart or are disabled with proof. Not all military ID holders. Just wanted to add that. :-)

Glad to read the good review. Now to see if the reason it isn't processing is because they are full on our sailing.

Mine weighed a good bit, but I got on the flight and cruise no problem. But beware some airlines have weight restrictions. Also be kind and let them know, if you can, before they pick it up if it does weigh a good bit. I let them know at the airport so they put a tag on it before they picked it up.

They go in groups (no camp counselor with them, at least not Circle C), and take pictures of things people as required by the scavenger hunt. I saw our daughter walking along having an absolute blast doing it! The counselor told them to be back by a certain time and must stay together.

I am a paranoid type parent, but our daughter is pretty mature for our age so we trust her and they were with a group of probably 8 or so other kids and I had no problem with it.

Our kids (11 and 13) went down once each slide and said it was enough for then (too bumpy). They much preferred the pool or the kids club activities. We spent a lot of time snorkeling in ports too though.

On our last cruise, one of my favorite memories was hanging out with our son one evening just walking around the ship exploring, then later eating pizza and watching a movie. He is a teenager now and doesn't want to hang around Mom too much these days so it was especially nice.

Also, sitting out on the balcony at night watching the waves hit the ship was awesome.

Lastly, on our first cruise, we saw a whale breaching not 10 minutes after I said out loud "Man it would be so cool to see a whale or something right now"!:D

Yeah, we lost $400 between early saver deposit and OBC for switching between a cruise this November to this May.

And definitely Early Saver is not always available. Isn't it mainly for cruises only 6 months or so out?

Otherwise, if you can snag it I think it is worth it. (And keep checking back often for price drops.)

We did two cove balconies, removed th divider and it was awesome! Tons of room, 2 bathrooms, etc. :-)

Tips: Go to goccl.com and it will show,you which rooms have connecting doors and which ones have connecting balconies. (I believe it is either/or, not both.) Go to customer service as soon as you board and ask that they have the divider removed. Also, print out that page on goccl.com showing your balcony divider can be removed. We stood in a long line, got up there and the CS agent argued with me and said 3 times that it can't be done between our two rooms. I told him I had researched it and knew it was possible. He finally realized I wasn't walking away until it got done. He finally called down to our room steward who informed him that, yes, it could be done. :-)

Also, I am not sure if only so many can be done because when they did the balcony cleaning one day, we came back and the divider had been put back. Our steward gladly removed it again for us. :-) But I will still go 1st thing and ask it be done. (We also had punch a hole in our S&S card so we could attach it to our lanyard.)

Enjoy! If we can splurge, we will always go side by side balconies again.

We spoiled ourselves last time and got 2 side-by-side coves and had the steward open up the divider between the balconies for one big one. It was cheaper than a suite for the 4 of us with a lot more room! (Not all dividers open up though.) So that is another option. :-)

This time we can only swing the one cove balcony, but I am sure it will be fine. Most of the time the kids were either still asleep when we were up, in the kids' club, etc. we liked to stand out there most of the time as well. :)

We had anytime dining and did NOT like it! Mainly because several times we had to wait over an hour in line. Once it was almost 1 hr 45 mins! One of those times we got inside and there were empty tables left and right. I was so upset! I am hypoglycemic and had to start bringing those little chocolates with me in case I started getting dizzy, etc.

So our next cruise comings up next month, we want early dining, but we are wait listed for it. It could be just had very bad luck, but we were usually there around 6:30..:lot of people were upset.

Hello all! We just got off the Magic, had a great time, and even booked our 2nd cruise while on board. I requested Early Saver for our next cruise, but was told that "none were available". (Was told this even before we said what ship/sailing date/etc.) I was also told by another cruiser that they were told the same thing. I thought that was extremely odd. So we booked anyways so we could get our OBC. Well, just to see...I went online while still onboard, and ES was indeed showing up for our cruise. (Service was spotty and the CCL website itself wasn't working before we had our 'future cruise' booking appointment, only afterwards.)

So we get off the ship today, and I called to verify that we were not booked ES as we requested. I asked to switch and the gentleman said no problem....but we would lose our $200 OBC. I told him what happened-that we were told incorrect info, etc...and then he proceeds to tell me that the ES rate only became available as of midnight. I know that was BS because I saw it available myself well before that time so I knew dealing with this guy wasn't going to help. How is that fair practice? Shouldnt we be able to get it switched, especially since we were told incorrectly? (The guy who booked us while onboard seemed in a hurry...and I am wondering if he just told us that to eliminate more work for himself, especially since he told others the same thing and he already had more appointments who showed up early and were waiting behind us.)

Has anyone had the same situation and been able to speak to someone who got it resolved? $200 OBC is a good bit of money to lose because of someone else's mistake. Thinking of calling back to see if i get the same answer...Thanks for your help!

Ordinarily I would skip over the personal issues but you have brought them up many times on a internet forum - which opens the door. We all have personal issues, problems and struggles. I hope for the sake of your daughter, yourself and your fellow passengers you can leave the problems ashore and get on with your vacation.

Dang, seriously?! Good grief! Maybe your board name should be "Arushtojudgement". Some people back up their reasons for certain questions with personal info that pertains to said questions. So far, what I've seen her post makes perfect sense.

Anyways...Kaiserek, I hope you have a wonderful time. If I remember correctly, your daughter is having brain surgery soon? Wishing her/y'all well and praying for a quick/full recovery. I am so glad y'all are getting to go together on this cruise. May your vacation be wonderful and create many cherished memories. It looks like y'all can do some other spa-type stuff together still. :)

Thats why we carry our luggage out. Hope it turns out good for you.

This is good info. I didn't know this was an option, really. I think we will carry ours out as well.

I work in lost and found for a hotel at a major tourist destination.

 

Please please please put your contact information in your luggage somewhere. I cant get a hold of you to get you back your stuff if I don't have a phone number or email address. And if you put an email address then PLEASE check your email on occasion.

Also, good to know. I am gonna print out stuff today!! (And maybe try to find some unique looking luggage tags to help our generic black bags stand out a bit to try to keep this from happening. My husband has a suitcase that is somewhat rare...at least we thought. That was, until we got home from the airport. They called (airport personnel) and said we probably have someone else's bag! Sure enough, went and looked and an identical suitcase- not identical belongings inside. Thank goodness the airport is only a 10 minute drive away and the poor guy didn't have a pressing connecting flight. Lesson learned- double and triple check those tags!

Like others have mentioned, you *CAN* get a passport rather quickly if you go to a passport agency. (Not a post office, not mailed in, etc... They require an appointment and they do all of it right there in the same office.)

My husband went to ours in El Paso and even with them mailing the new one to us, we received it in just a few days. (Could have received it even quicker if he went back to the passport agency to pick it up.) Like the attached link says, you have to pay the usual fee, plus $60 for expedited.

http://travel.state.gov/passport/npic/agencies/agencies_913.html

When John Heald posted that they were offering up champagne and other goodies for M & G, I thought that was above and beyond. I just want to meet the other cruisers from our roll call. I think Carnival owes us nothing in that department. I would think they already have enough on their hands, duty-wise, etc. JMHO :)

I had issues starting last night. I went to 'Manage My Cruise', was already logged in and it just kept asking me to log in...even with my name appearing at the top showing I am already logged in. I re-started the page...didn't help. I had to log out, close out the page and just start over. It took a couple of times, but that finally did the trick.

Well, according to their updated blog post- they have received a full refund from Carnival. And...Carnival has retracted their statement that the 'child could have sailed'.... Would like to know why, now, Carnival is saying that. And, yes, yes, passports make it easier, etc...we get that!! At this point, I guess that's all we could tell anyone who might have the same issue happen with them. It still doesn't answer why the re-adopted birth certificate issued from the state of N.C. wasn't enough (now, according to Carnival's most recent statement to the family per the family's blog).

LOL! I was about to post perhaps you didn't wash your fruit well enough before eating it. (That has happened to me- but from store bought fruit, nothing to do with a cruise.)

Or I was about to look up your symptoms and pray for you...lol.

Enjoy your Platinum tingles! ;) (That sounds like something only certain "specialty" stores sell....) :p

This thread reminds me of an episode of "The Office" lol. :D;)

I honestly kept thinking that after I read the chicken tenders part (or lack thereof), that the OP had accidentally hit 'reply' before finishing...because of the whole 'the Freedom sucks' bit. I definitely would not have wanted off the ship for that. We had a head waiter who was rude to us (on another line), only saw him once at the end of the cruise even, but it didn't make or break our trip- we had a blast in spite of that one minor incident.

As others have said- you should have complained right then and there. I have worked in customer service for years (at animal clinics). If there was an issue with service, we need to know then, so we can fix it. It might have been a misunderstanding, etc...but the time is 'now' to fix something, if possible.

On the other hand, maybe I am different...but I go on vacation to experience different foods, cultures, entertainment, etc. Our son is the 'chicken tender king', lol, so we really try to get him to experience new things, especially when it is all inclusive. I can understand allergies, etc but I would have gone elsewhere in the ship maybe that night- or order off the kids menu, etc. Regardless, the waiter should definitely not have been rude to you like that. Saying it isn't available and then saying he just didn't want to put in a special order is contradicting himself and uncalled for.