DisneyDatknee

Thank you. We are looking forward to our Divina trip this Easter.

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Both are equivalent. Just make sure when you book, they get your voyager number on your booking. Also, membership expires in 3 years if you don't sail with them.

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so my fiancé and I registered for cruise cash for our wedding. Our final payment is due prior to our wedding and bridal shower. Of at the end of our cruise we did not use all of the on board credit, what happens to the rest?

 

Thank you!

It is non-refundable unfortunately.

• Cruise Cash is non-refundable and any unused credits will be forfeited.
  

I think there is a work-around using the casino for a fee, but I'm not sure if you can anymore.

The only thing you can use your phone for check-in is showing your PDF boarding documents at the pier. There are no apps for check-in. Save paper ;)

There are two normal MDRs for free, but there are also two separate buffets on this ship. The Biscayne Bay Buffet & Pizzeria is located on Deck 16 and it dedicated to families, while the "Marketplace Buffet" is located on Deck 8 and I'm assuming it's just a more formal buffet. Not sure. Those are the only free things unfortunately, unless you are staying in YC which has their own restaurant.

I know sometimes they have a kids sail free for 3&4th in a cabin. What about kids 15 and 13? If they charge full fare, is it better to get a third cabin with a “designated” adult in the 3rd cabin. Does Seaside have connecting cabins in YC?

 

 

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I would suggest you look at this at home on a computer as 3rd/4th guest pricing varies and do the math, but 3rd/4th guests are never charged full fare (except pricing codes may change this).

Yikes, I would not want a balcony on the Dream Class that low.

If you want "adventure", pick Amber Cove. I haven't been to Amber Cove yet, but DR will offer more "adventure" excursions than Grand Turk. Grand Turk is a very small, flat island and we just went to the beach and got back on the ship.

Marseille would be much easier. It's only a 3 1/2 hour train ride from Paris vs a 7 1/2 hour train ride to Genoa from Paris. Besides, Milan to Genoa is another train ride too. Marseille is not expensive. I would much rather take the shorter train ride, 7 1/2 is a long ways.

Look at it this way...

A suite will give you priority boarding and end of cruise priority disembarkation. If you or your SO are Platinum+ it will not make things faster but if gold or below it helps by not having to wait on long line then sit waiting for zone boarding.

Either gives you a balcony to sit on while the infant is napping, but an ocean suite does give you the dressing room which might be able to fit the port-a-crib, almost acting as a interior cabin with very little light if the bathroom and cabin door is kept close. This would allow whomever is doing the nap sitting a chance to watch TV in the main bedroom portion of the stateroom. (Or privacy for adult pursuits.)

Speaking of TV if you bring your own cables the suites are the only rooms on board where the TV input/output hook-ups work, this would allow you to bring other devices allowing the in cabin TV to play your own DVDs on a portable player or game console to be used. (A very popular feature for older toddlers and preschoolers.)

I'm sure other posters will be along with other pro/cons for your situation.

I stayed in the OS on the Victory last month. I don't think a crib could fit in the dressing room area and there is no door/curtain that separates it from the living room. The TV is mounted right on the wall next to the dressing room, so the sound can be heard in the dressing room. The TV also is stationary :mad: and does not swivel and faces the balcony window. There is also no double vanity, but the bath tub was very nice and the whirlpool function worked great.

Anyways, I would not book the suite for anything but space or the bathtub IMO. It was only a $100 upgrade for us, but if it was $510, we wouldn't even had think about paying for it. Mind you we were four adults. For the sake of everyone, I rather have one of us sleep in an upper bunk than that horrid trundle bed the steward brought us. Wish Carnival would fix the trundle bed situation as our sofa bed on Holland was way better.

But since you have a child, you can put a crib right in front of your bed if you would like. There is plenty of room. I'm not sure if it will fit on the balcony, but I can promise you it will fit in the Ocean Suite.

hi there, I have read that the Lido buffet and especially Guy's is crazy at around 2 on embarkation day on the Vista. Is the Blue Iguana open for burritos then? And is the free pasta bar at Cucina del Capitano also open? If yes to either one are they much less crazier then the Lido area? Thanks

Yes, they should be all open. We went to Cucina del Capitano on the Breeze and it was not crowded at all on Embarkation day. Very relaxed. I suggest going there to avoid the crowds. Cucina is separate from the lido located on the floor above it, that's why it's unknown to new guests and away from the mess.

Cheers

We have a confirmed booking on the Musica for Greece in April, but one of our land trips have been moved further back in the summer and now we can move to the last week of May instead of April.

We almost booked Pullmantur last year for a last-minute Canary Islands trip, but the dates didn't fall right. Does anyone have any opinions?

It would be the MSC Musica - Venice, Brindisi, Corfu, Athens, Santorini, Olympia, Kotor, and back to Venice.

Or the Pullmantur Horizon - Athens, Mykonos, Volos, Crete, Santorini, Nauplion, and back to Athens.

Have not been on either line, but I do like how the Horizon is more "Greece". I've already been to Venice before, but I don't have a preference. Flights are about $100 cheaper to Athens and on Delta which I would prefer.

The cruises will be about the same in price. I have not gotten a quote from my US travel agent that books Pullmantur and I'm assuming at this point he no longer works for the agency.

Any opinions? I don't want a terrible cruise, but I also want a great itineary.

A further strech would be the Celestyal Crystal, but I'm more focused on the other two for right now.

I've done it, but we were in port from 8 to 6:30, that made a difference. We took a taxi to the pier and ferried over to Playa del Carmen. We walked around, grabbed a Starbucks, and found Dollar on one of the side streets. We paid $47 for a bare to the bones (but still brand new) Nissan Manual Sedan and it came with the highest insurance package. We didn't even have a reservation. We drove down to Tulum and walked around the shopping mall. We took the little bus from the area to the entrance of Tulum and walked around. Very pretty place, but I prefer other ruin sites to Tulum. I think we took an hour in the park itself. We didn't pay for a guide, so if that's what you are looking for, I would find an excursion. At the exit, we bought some fresh paletas and took the shuttle back to the parking lot. We drove back to Playa Del Carmen and turned in the car. We walked around Playa Del Carmen again and dipped our feet in the water. Bought some things and took the ferry back. We walked around Downtown San Miguel, walked to the big grocery store, and took a taxi back to the ship, twice as we had to go back to the store as we forgot to get our driver's license that the store made my mother give up to use the scooter ($27 in taxis right there). The whole day besides the $27 taxi fare for the mess was around $100 (taxi, ferry, car, admission, parking, a taco that we reached over the fence of the back of some restaurant, some paletas) for the two of us. I think RCL was charging $300 at the time for the two of us. I think we got back at around 4:30/5 to the ship. We honestly were not worried about missing the ship as Costa Maya was only a three hour drive away on ADO in the worse case scenario, but still wouldn't have wanted to miss the ship. WE had a great day and we just felt like were just going out for a day trip at home. Would I recommend doing this? Probably not. We speak Spanish and not sure what would have happened if we could only speak English. It saved a lot of money though ;).

We also received a $200 gift card for the art auction/sale from the Hotel Director and a $12 gift card to be used at Pixels from our room Steward. Again not sure if this is something new to Carnival or something they sent to suites or even just random, it was a nice gesture. I do think if the price is right, we would do a suite again in the future.

We stayed in an Ocean Suite on the Victory last month. We got a $200 Art gift card and a $50 EFFY gift card and another $25 EFFY gift card and some chocolate covered strawberries out of the blue... Have no clue why and there was not a note or anything. They were just on the table after we got back from lunch. Didn't use the gift cards, but we devoured the strawberries. ;p

Funny though, we never got a suite perks letter at all. We did get those water bottles on Day 2 which was nice to have.

I saw some where about a "Cruise & Fly" Package. Is it cheaper than what airfare you can find online? And do they still do this? For example: Right now I can buy Turkish Airlines for $670 rt, but when I look up airfare for example on Royal Caribbean's Choice Air, it gives Delta/KLM for $625. I can't find that through general flight searches. The next from Turkish is $987 on Airfrance. Much rather do Delta as Turkish's connections are too tight and I'm probably counting on spending the night in Istanbul.

Here's a picture of what I meant about the cleanliness of the lido..

Proof I connected to the Majesty.

But these are all minor things. Great cruise overall.

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If anyone has any questions, ask away. This cruise was better than I was expecting and totally gave us a better outlook to Carnival. :) Definitely made us rethink any future RCL cruise.

Embarkation:

We flew in the day before and spent the night at our relatives' house. We booked an Ocean Suite and had priority and didn't worry about what time we were going to check-in. The lines at POM worked like this. "Priority/FTTP", "Early/Late Arrival", and "On-Time Arrival". We arrived at 12:30 PM. Both Priority and On-Time Arrival were dead. I'm not sure if they were turning away people since they have the new line, but some people were still sitting outside. Not sure if they were just waiting for the rest of their party or not. They scanned our passports and took the photos off them for the sail & sign card except minors. I'm assuming it's because they grow up so fast. There was no need to sit down and we boarded immediately. We had to stop and add a credit card and there was a priority line and a regular line. Walked up and it was done, easy. There was a line though for regular guests. We boarded all the way at the end at the AFT of the ship and walked up to the atrium doors. On Royal, we were constantly bothered to buy beverage packages as soon as we boarded the ship, but that wasn't the case on Carnival. We just walked through and not one person said a thing. There were express elevators to the lido and regular elevators.

Cabin:

We booked an Ocean-Suite for the four of us. It was renovated and it was a great room. The whirlpool function of the tub was great and two of us used it. The balcony was a nice size and there were four chairs, two could recline so it could be used sort of like a lounger. We loved the decor, same as the Breeze. A good step in direction for Carnival. The only negatives on the cabin was the balcony was a little dirty, the TV could not swivel, and the wifi did not work in our room. I could access the Majesty OTS's wifi that was at the furthest dock away from us in Nassau, but I couldn't access the Victory's... Our cabin neighbors liked to blast music on their giant speaker and the wall would shake. They turned it down when we asked, but they always had it on during the day.... I get it's a 3 day cruise, but blasting the speaker was a bit much.

Room Steward: One of the worst we have ever had. He was friendly, but was not helpful and hardly approached us. They also did not clean the cabin very good and left used wine glasses and cups out everyday. We asked for an extra pillow and fresh wine glasses, but they never came. I know they have a higher workload now, but I just found it weird with only having service once a day. It wasn't the same like other cruises. It just felt odd having the fun times shoved under the door.

Ship: I kept reading the same user on this forum making negative comments about the Victory, but honestly, don't see it. This ship is not flattering by all means (except the rooms, they are gorgeous), but it was a very nice boat for its age. Some public areas were nicely decorated like the AFT lounge and the theatre. The ship had a decent layout. Those mid-ship elevators are useless when getting anywhere except the Lido. The casino really made the promenade smoky and we could smell it when we entered the ship on the first day down on Deck 3. I also did notice that the A/C was not very strong in the elevator lobbies. It was definitely hot around those areas, but the air was perfect everywhere else. Weird. The lido buffet has a terrible design and I did miss the wrap-around promenade. The pools/hot tubs were always filled to the rim during non-meal times, but the AFT pool always had less people than the lido pool. One thing I did hate were the public restrooms. Dirty and dark. However, I would totally cruise on the Victory again and by far would choose it over the Empress of the Seas.

Internet: It was very slow. Slower than RCL. I pre-paid for the social package and I noticed that they blocked facebook calling. I'm not sure if it was because the internet was just too slow, but man, it was much slower than the Breeze. My aunt wanted to read some books on her kindle app, but they were not downloaded, so she bought the value plan. It would not connect so guest services gave us a refund, which was very kind. I would avoid buying the package and see about a data plan in Nassau. AT&T is $10 for 24 hours and you can use your normal Mobile share plan. T-Mobile is free for 2G and Text. Not sure about Verizon and Sprint. I used my aunt's phone since they have T-Mobile (we have AT&T) and I used facetime to call home. Worked great. Internet a little slow since 2G. I tried adding the 24hr pass, but the wait times were long to connect with someone. In Ireland, they sent us a text that we could reply back with some code and it would be added to our plan. I didn't get it this time, but AT&T automated system said it was an option in the Bahamas, yet it still said I had to connect to someone to get it added. I just hung up.

Food: The food was very good and it was very unexpected, but the lido could use some work.

• The lido buffet was ok, but like I said, the design was horrible. I felt claustrophobic at times when it was prime time. The walkways are narrow and the lines are long, long, long. The only time when I didn't have to wait in a line was 6:30 AM breakfast. I did miss Mongolian Wok, but definitely not on this boat as it would make the long lines worse. The pizza was fantastic and just like it was on the Breeze and HAL's New York Pizza. Come on RCL. I mainly had to stick to making a nice big hearty salad and a slice of pizza for lunch at the Lido as the vegetarian options were low. That's why I liked the Breeze a lot as they had Tandoor, Mongolian, and Blue Iguana.
  
• MDR was delicious. We ate there for "Port-Day Breakfast", "Sea-day Brunch", and Dinner. Most of the food was great except some dry pancakes. We picked YTD, but we sat with the same waiter for all meals except Sea-day Brunch (he was working at Dr. Seuss). He was amazing and was really nice to us. His team knew our names and made us feel at home. Very good service. The food was tasty and it was MUCH much MUCH better than RCL. I had soups and salads for appetizers and they didn't disappoint. The pumpkin soup was delicious. I had the Indian vegetarian each night since I don't like the other vegetarian option. The rest of my party (meat-eaters) enjoyed their food and the only thing that was turned back was this shrimp fresh spring roll. She thought it was a fried spring roll. The desserts were very good. Our new carnival cruisers discovered the warm chocolate melting cake and ordered two each night. I was impressed with my deserts which were Crème Brûlée, Tiramisu, and the Butter Popcorn Pot de Creme. They were all excellent. RCL's Crème Brûlée was terrible on every ship.
  

Special Note: I felt like plates etc. were always out on the tables in the Lido. They would just be sitting there and there was no staff around. I'm not sure if Carnival cut staff, but on HAL and RCL, they would grab up your plate quickly. HAL especially was always neat and orderly. We couldn't sit at some sections of the Lido sometimes because they all had dirty dishes on top. I noted this in the survey that Carnival sent us.

Entertainment: Great music around the ship. I'm not a show person, but they had very good dancers in their production shows. The fun squad was great and there were always things to do. Still, RCL does shine in this department, but I did like how Carnival always had music playing in the atrium. I don't recall that on RCL.

Disembarkation: We did self assist and I'm not kidding, it took us 7 minutes from getting off the ship and out on to the road. We did not have to fill out a customs form and just showed our passport. Super fast and easy and it was a perfect end to a great cruise and gave us more time to reflect on the cruise instead of complaining about lines. We parked at the port and our relatives dropped us off at MIA at 8:30. Our flight was at 12:20 PM on Delta for precaution and we had basically 4 hours to kill at the airport. Luckily, our flight was delayed an hour and the handy dandy Delta app allowed us to be rebooked for no charge on the 11:10 AM flight and we got to leave early.

Nassau: Nassau is Nassau, but we got out and went to Junkanoo Beach again. We rented two chairs and an umbrella for $35 and had a great time. It's a small, but nice beach and we relaxed for three hours. I took a nap while listening to the nice waves. There is a bar that sells coco frió which was refreshing on a hot day. It's a 15 min walk to the beach, but bring sunscreen or something to cover yourself if you're sensitive to the sun. There's not much shade on some parts of the walk. We got back on the ship at 4. I didn't really care for the overnight stop, but I know a lot of people were still partying it up at Señor Frogs in the wee hours. I could see it from my balcony. I just wish we stopped at Half Moon Cay or something the next day. It was just miserable out on the balcony at night as there wasn't some wind circulating the air as we stayed docked in Nassau. When we woke up at 9, it was just like a normal sea day and we were long gone from Nassau. I hope Carnival does away with the overnight. Most people were on the ship.

Conclusion: I really would not hesitate to book the Victory if you are thinking on it. It's a great weekend cruise and a great boat. For the price, it's a great value. A weekend cruise serves its purpose. Carnival really does try to make your vacation fun and they proved it. It was very enjoyable even with the negatives. This cruise gave us a better opinion on Carnival and will influence our future decisions, but we want to try more lines to see which one is the best for us. We are for sure marking off MSC/Costa on the list soon as they are the only options in Europe during Early April. We hope to try Celebrity/Princess soon.

Thanks for reading! :halo:

We have two rooms booked. Room #1 is a normal inside room with trundle bed (booked for 3 people). Room #2 is a porthole room with a couch and an upper pullman (booked for 2 people). I want to know if that third person from the first room can sleep on the couch in our room instead, since I could not book it for 3 on the Carnival website. Do all sofas turn into sofa beds? Otherwise, can we put the trundle in the porthole room instead? Thanks!

Did you book an "upper/lower porthole"? If so, there is only room for two in that room. The sofa is one of the beds and it is not a pull-out sofa.

We had that cabin on the Breeze. You could probably fit a trundle bed, but it is not allowed by Carnival.

How do you change a “Steak” menu? Vegetarian steak?

That would be nice for us non-meat eaters ;p. Jk Jk... Just put something on the menu without having to request for something :)

Huh. I have a Cap 1 Quicksilver card and I get no rewards whatsoever, which is why I got the Carnival Mastercard.

That's odd. My rewards appear as soon as the transaction is posted.

We have a Delta Gold card, Barclay Arrival Plus, and a Sapphire Reserve. All three had great sign up bonuses and just keeping the Arrival when the annual fee comes up. The delta card is our primary card right now as they are giving 7000 points for every $2000 we spend up to 21000 points. We got the offer in the mail. I guess they noticed we stopped using it lol. The Sapphire gave us the best deal as it almost paid for all 4 of our Ireland tickets and gave us free insurance in Ireland which only chase does and free Global entry fee. Delta card did get us $100 off a cruise.

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Switch to Quicksilver from what card?

From the Venture.

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I would suggest calling Cap1 and ask to switch to the Quicksilver. They sent us the same card number and that was It. It was a no-brainer as there's still no annual fee. It has a 1.5% vs 1.25% redemption rate.

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There is no Non-alcoholic package like on Royal so it isn't possible to get a discounted rate. Really wish they would start offering one.. I would suggest just doing pay as you go.

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They will be allowed now. They will just be placed in the "early/late" line. That's how it was as of Friday in Miami. We had priority so we skipped the lines. This wasn't the case on the Breeze a year and a half ago when they refused people who came early.

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