Hpham1013

I look forward to reading your review. This will be my first time cruising on Carnival. So whatever helpful hints/tips you can provide would be appreciated. Also, what excursions did you do at each of the ports? Thanks for your time.

I was able to pre-book reservations for my upcoming cruise in October on the Jewel for a party of 36. Some cruisers have the Specialty Dining Package and some don't.

You need to email SpecialEventsJewel@ncl.com (replace Jewel with the name of your ship). Include your NCL reservation number, the restaurant you want to dine at, the date and time and the number of people in your party. You can request a reservation for each of the night5 that you will be eating together. They will respond within 2-3 days and send you a confirmation of your reservations. Make sure to print it out and bring it along on your cruise, just in case.

Just know that they may not be able to sit all of you at one long table, but it depends on your group size. You will probably get several tables near each other for larger groups like mines. Last year, we had 28 people and we sat at 3 different clusters of table, near each other and we were fine with that

I recently booked dinner for my group of 36, for our cruise in October. I had to email a request to the Group Events department for our ship. The email is groupeventescape@ncl.com (replace the name of the ship in the email address, for other ships)

Include your name, reservation number, the date and time, the number of people and which restaurant you would like to make reservations for. They are good at responding and sending you a confirmation. Make sure to print out the confirmation and bring it with you on board (just in case)

We were on the Getaway and brought a case of water for each cabin. We were prepared with an extra luggage tag and tape, so when we got to the port, we taped the luggage tag to the case of water and dropped it off with the porters along with our luggages. Each case of water were brought to each cabins without any problems.

Zqvol, you are correct. I re-read my email conversation with the Special Events team, and it did say that they do not prearrange table, but the Maitre'D will accommodate the group in multiple tables in the same area or close proximity. I am fine with that. Last year, we were on the Sky and didn't make reservations, so the wait to be seated together in close proximity, was long. So waiting with hungry kids was a nightmare. But we didn't mind sitting at multiple tables near each other, as we were able to still see each other and all eat at the same time.

Hi, I am sailing with a party of 28 in a couple of weeks on the Getaway and was able to make reservations in all of the MDR for group dining. I emailed NCL Special Events and they were able to get us reserved in the MDR on all of the nights. I asked if anyone from our group rather do specialty dining on of the nights, can we change the number of people and I was told that we can let the dining rooms know ahead of time. In fact, I am waiting for a response to change one of the dining options to a specialty dining on one of the night. if you are sailing on the Getaway, this is their email: SpecialEventsGetaway@ncl.com I am not sure what are the other ship's specific email address. Maybe they can help you find it. I hope it works out for you :)

Thank you for your detailed review and helpful tips. Regarding punching a hole into the keycard and putting in a lanyard, did NCL provide a lanyard, or should we bring our own? Will they do it for adults too? Thanks for your response.

Thanks for the review and helpful tips. I will be on the Getaway in a couple of weeks. Can't wait!

I started to lose weight, then maintained, then wanted to lose 20 more lbs., but I have been procastinating. I have 23 days and I said, forget it. I'll start DIETING when I get back. So here I am, eating a box of Cheez-its. I started to read this thread and quickly shoved the box away. I feel guilty now. I better get moving. A couple of lbs would still be good. We CAN do it!

For our closed loops cruises, bringing a U.S. Birth certificate was enough. We never had any issues. The recommendation to bring the passport are for 'just in case'