MechE31

We did a family oceanview with 2 adults and 2 kids on the getaway. The room was pretty large and not really cramped and had a dividing curtain between the main bed and the "bunk beds". The 3rd and 4th beds were a single sleeper sofa on the bottom and  a pullman above it, which look like a bunk bed. The curtain provided good visual privacy, but not much in the way of sound. Is it ideal for 2 couples? Nope. Could you make it work if you wanted to take advantage of 3 and 4 in a stateroom free? Absolutely. 

I've been on all 3 lines. My opinion can best be summed up by our current bookings, one on NCL, one on Carnival and two on Royal (one of which was chosen by the people we're going with, they are loyal to Royal). 

We like all 3 for different reasons and won't hesitate to book any based on itinerary (our NCL for Bermuda overnights), ship (Harmony and NCL Encore) and value (Carnival). If we had to rank, it'd be Carnival, Royal then NCL. Our kids (5 and 3) loved the kids program on Carnival and liked NCL. Their first RC is in May. We've been on multiples from each line and been on older smaller boats and larger newer boats on each line. 

Quick pros and cons

Pros

Carnival: comedy, quick service food, our favorite organized daytime activities, kids club, kids loved waterworks (other lines have great areas, but the had taller minimum height, so kids couldn't go), value

Royal: stage shows (+ice and water shows depending on boat), amazing boats with tons of stuff to do

NCL: boats nicer than Carnival but short of Royal, best stage shows we've seen on a boat, O'sheehans, beverage package promo, speciality restaurant variety and dining promo

Cons

Carnival: shorter weekend cruises have a rowdy crowd,  stage shows are lacking compared to other lines, boats lacking amenities

Royal: price (especially on Oasis class), itineraries lacking on bigger boats, less organized activities we liked compared to Carnival

NCL: price is in the middle, while shows are awesome, not enough of them, least to do during day for us

The pricing between lines varies a lot depending on when you are going. When we booked our last cruise, we had a specific week in January 2020 we were looking for. We were open to leaving from any port in Florida, wanted an OV for 4 people that was 7 nights. We're not brand loyal (currently have 4 cruises book on 3 different lines). Carnival was $2200 for an 8 day, NCL was $3000 with kids sail free (balcony same price as OV), RC was $3000 for Adventure, $4200 for Allure or $4800 for Harmony, Disney was $6500.

On the Sunshine in November, you could get all the clues without going to any revenue generating pitches. It was very easy to find the answer as the suspect, weapon and person were linked together and they normally gave out at least 2 of the 3 uniquely per clue. The final draw was at bingo, but it happened before bingo started.

ISP also has a huge coastal brown bear population. If you hit it at salmon run times, you can see a lot of bears.

With that said, having been to both, I would pick Skagway and not look back.

We just booked for June 2020 and they had Orlando to to NYC as $99 for first 2 and $438 for the other two for an average cost of $268/person. Looking at flights for June 2019, it was about $175 a person round trip. We also want to spend some time in NYC pre-cruise, which they won't let us do.

Another promotional oddity, 3/4 sail free was active on the cruise every time I checked in the week leading up to booking including day of. Went to book direct through NCL on the night of 12/31 and they were charging $399 for 3 & 4. I booked through a large online agency at the same time with 3/4 sail free, but only pick 3 offers with 3/4 free as one and extra $200OBC. I don't normally book shore excursions through the cruise line and I like disconnecting, so I'm ok without having those, just found it odd. 3/4 free is now back on the NCL site.

On 12/15/2018 at 4:15 PM, zdad59 said:

I use the Chase sapphire Reserve card.    As long as you use their card to pay for the trip their trip cancellation coverage is very good.   You also get lost/delayed baggage coverage and OCONUS medical coverage.  

Be careful with this, they only offer $2500 in medical coverage (plus $100k evac). We've got a reserve and pair it with cheap medical only coverage. Our last cruise, it was $24 for pretty good medical coverage for a family of 4 on an 8 night cruise. 

I think they have added some. We sailed 11/23 and had a fridge in a balcony room on deck 7, which was not noted as having one.

Got refreshment package on both our upcoming cruises for $17/day.  We drink a lot of coffee and with the changes to the coffee card... We also get water and red bull and smoothies and juice...

We've done 30+ nights on both lines. We've done Independence, but haven't done Oasis class yet (Harmony booked for May). Overall I agree. I think the food overall is better on CCL, especially the free non-MDR options. The shows on the bigger RC boats are better, but Carnival wins hands down in comedy. I feel that there is more to do doing the day on Carnival versus the RC boats we have been on, even Indy. On week long cruises the crowd doesn't play in much, but I don't think I'd book a weekend Carnival cruise again.

Neither lines sways us enough in either direction to stay loyal. We've got three cruises booked right now, two on RC and one leaving Friday on Carnival. We book primarily based on price and ports. We're looking at January 2020 and Harmony or Allure are over twice as expensive as the Magic. We plan on booking the Magic with the bounce back offer from Carnival when we get off the ship.

One change we noticed from 2016 on the Getaway to 2018 on the Jewell is that they started charging full price for kids. In 2016, they let them order off the normal kids menu for free.

I have to think, but I think the breakdown is as follows

3 carnival (1 booked)

6 Royal (2 booked)

2 NCL 

1 Celebrity

Sometimes two cabins can be as cheap as one for four people. Just make sure your price it out both ways to be sure. Just kind of depends on supply and demand for the given week.

For our next cruise, 2 connecting interiors was effectively cheaper than 1 with 4 people. It was about $20 more but came with an extra $50 OBC. If we just chose the cheapest two cabins and not worried about connecting, it would've been cheaper with more OBC.

Both of these were from NCL ships

We're booked on a private with http://www.personaltourscuracao.com/ for our November cruise with 8 people. You could also look at privatecuracaotours.com. They will take 7 and we are top pick, but they were full on our day. Both had very good trip advisor reviews, but around Curacao had 200+ reviews and personaltourscuracao only had 15.

We use the Chase Sapphire reserve. If you have pair it with the freedom unlimited, you can get 2.25% back on all purchases and 4.5% on restaurants and travel when it goes towards travel, including cruises on any line.

We just got $3500 towards our next cruise and will pay for the airfare with the earn in between.

Drawbacks, points can only be used on initial deposit and it goes through the Chase travel agent.

Did they punch per drink or per shot of espresso?

 

DH got it worked out for us for this cruise but who knows if it's going to help others. Since we get iced drinks and they don't even have a tall iced drink it was going to be a problem for us!

 

If you're on a cruise where they punch per shot do NOT get a triple shot drink on the card. It will not be financially worth it. (That's not our situation though)

On majesty two weeks ago, it was punch per drink, no matter the size. I even got one with an extra shot for one punch total.

 

 

Hi :)

 

My wife & I are sailing on the Anthem February 7th to 19th, Valentine's voyage. The coffee card is available in my cruise planner for purchase. I have a minor question however; is the 15-coffee (punch card) delivered to my stateroom on embarkation day or do I use the receipt to pick it up at a speciality coffee location? Thank you in advance, have a terrific day!

 

 

 

:)

 

 

 

Just back from Majesty with a pre-purchased coffee card. We had a letter delivered to our room that implied it should have come with the card, but there was no card. Took the letter to Latte-tudes and was given a card.

Interestingly though, there was a souvenir cup delivered. The cup was activated for the freestyle machines.

Punta sur and expora beach

 

So I just purchased rccl jeep to punta sur excursion. Weird question but do I have drive? Or can I ride in the tour guide's jeep. I do not like to drive on vacation. I have a job that has me driving a lot so I prefer not when I can avoid it. I know I could have booked something else but this excursion was closest to what I was looking for offered by the cruise line. Also the exursion say that we go to explora beach is this part of punta sur? Google is not finding anything about explora beach. Also Is the guide with you while you snorkel. I will be going out with my niece and I am hopping someone will be keeping an eye out for us.

We did a different Jeep excursion with RCCL at Cozumel, so your experience may slightly differ.

They put 4 people in pretty much every Jeep. If you didn't want to drive, most parties wouldn't have a problem with driving. You may also be able to hop in with the instructor.

Another note, all of our Jeeps were manual transmissions. This severely limited the driver pool, so many groups couldn't drive period.

When I parked there several years ago and did a late embarkation, the garage next to our terminal filled up. There was plenty of parking at other garages, but it required a decent walk. This was on Celebrity. On our most recent NCL, we were there about noon and there was ample parking at the closest garage.

First, stay safe..

 

All of Brevard or just coastal areas?

 

As of now, it's just the barrier islands.

Hey everyone! Need some suggestions/ motivation/ Validation here. We have been loyal Carnival cruisers for a few years now, who have fallen in love with both the Dream and sailing from New Orleans. However, I think we're about to try the Getaway out of MIA.

 

For those who have been on both ships, how similar are the crowds, both demographically as well as in how full the boats feel?

I'm very excited to try the whole Freestyle thing, as well as getting the experience different kinds of meals while on board. Also, it appears as though the Getaway has a ton of bars---and now Margaritaville!!!

 

I guess I would like opinions on what we can expect. I know it's a cruise, and it'll be a blast no matter that...but what kind of large differences can we expect? Thanks yall!

I've sailed the Breeze along with several other non-Dream class Carnival ships and did the Getaway 2 weeks ago. If I had to pick one boat, it would be the Getaway, but just barely.

The quality of shows on the Getaway was far better, but there were less of them. The comedians were better on Carnival. I found more activities that I wanted to do on Carnival as a whole, but didn't find the Getaway lacking.

As far as crowds, I feel the Getaway felt ever so slightly more crowded, except the theater. The pool deck on the Getaway feels small and crowded during peak times. It seemed that I had an easier time finding tables on the Getaway at the buffet, but it was still pretty full during peak times.

We were in 5190 a few weeks ago on the Getaway. No noise during the day except when we were tendering. During the evening hours, we could barely make out the music from the atrium events, but it was soft enough to be drowned out by my wife's fan that goes everywhere with her.

I was on the same cruise with 2 little ones (3 and 20 months) and had a pretty different experience. We were pleased overall with the kids club for our 3 year old and didn't feel that the wait staff didn't want us there. We all had a great time overall, but there were a few things that could be done better.

Service times were long for the specialty restaurants. We usually ordered, took the kids outside and let them run around and then have someone let them run around outside again during dessert.

They scheduled all of the guppies (under 3) activities for 12:30 and 5:30, which are nap time and bordering on dinner time for most little ones.

They didn't have lids for any of the cups at the restaurants, but straws were no problem. The only lids we were able to find were from the atrium cafe coffee shop. When dining in the steakhouse, they actually went to the atrium cafe to get them for us.

I'm off the Getaway today and they stated no flip flops, shorts or t-shirts in Le Bistro or Ocean Blue. Everywhere else was cruise casual. I wore flip flops most nights to dinner with no issue.