soonernstlouis
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Posts posted by soonernstlouis
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41 minutes ago, devinc said:
Update: Just off the Vista yesterday and very much enjoyed the adults only Havana! I asked both Havana bar staff and life guard/doormen why the rule change was implemented and everyone I spoke with said it was because of kids. Apparently, they would gather in the bar area fist counting down the time and then invade the pool and hot tubs. I was told that they were simply too many kids being disruptive, loud and trashing it. Many pax complaints came from the aft balconies.
I think this quote from the Carnival marketing website is very telling of what the Havana area was intended for:
- Children must be 12 years of age or older in order to cruise in a Havana stateroom. The Havana staterooms and experience is designed to be a place where guests can relax and recharge in a more intimate and private setting and the age requirement will enable us to sustain the desired atmosphere.
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I’ll see if I can find and photo scan my September 2019 ones later today if no one else responds before then.
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I would also appreciate to see personal reviews here. Have seen a few mixed in since they were located near certain hotels but why not topics specifically about restaurants recommended near POM, MIA, FLL, Port Everglades since many flying travelers arrive at one airport and cruise out of the other city?
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We did option #2 above last September (Dominica substituted for St Thomas due to weather). My review is linked below.
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You may want to list the ages of your family. A couple of unique features of Vista Class ships (which Horizon is part of) is Family Harbor staterooms and Havana staterooms. The former offers amenities to younger children and the latter requires all guests to be over 12 and gives those staying exclusive access to an area that has a pool and 2 hot tubs with an aft view. There is a surcharge over an equivalent cabin for each but helps alleviate some of the crowdedness these high capacity ships tend to have.
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Thanks Joe. I thought someone many pages back said the $100 denomination was e-gift but maybe that was only the AARP one. Since I’m never home when they deliver I worry about signature requirements or porch pirates.
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Sorry if this is a repost but are the $100 Carnival gift cards hard/mailed cards or e-gift cards. Thanks
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St Maarten definitely has public restrooms in the port shops area. It’s a bit of a walk from the ship so be prepared.
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Sorry I should have been clearer-the prepay discounted option was at Intercontinental (which I prefer because of the great bay view). I’ve prepaid at other IHG hotels & you never know when they will change. Probably not willing to pay close to $100 more there than at Hampton Brickell for comparable pay-at-stay.
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Not to derail this thread in any way but how often are folks doing hotel mock bookings to check for price drops? I’m already used to doing the same for Carnival & did get a little $40 bonus on my last cruise but was thinking hotels would be a little less susceptible to downward market fluctuations than cruises.
Anyhow I was between Hampton Brickell and Miami Intercontinental for our Oct-2020 cruise & the all-in difference is down to about $60 IF I prepay (not a fan of this as they can charge your card anytime between booking and travel). Last time I did this my card was charged right before traveling so I had to make a payment on my travel card as I like to have full funds available. Sorry for the long post.
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My first cruise in over 20 years was a 5 island itinerary with only 1 full sea day. Due to bad weather the sea day was moved from the last day to the 2nd. It was exhausting for us & we did spend less time on the beach or walking in the heat than we would have with less port days. Just getting off most ships in port and walking to a taxi can be 1/2 mile or more.
In the end what was sacrificed for us was MDR dining and evening shows along with needing a vacation after getting back from vacation. Was really fun though.
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22 hours ago, sixesandeights said:
There is so much included food on the ship, why pay for this?
Depending on the ship, only certain restaurants are free for lunch and some only free on sea day lunches.
Most dinner options are pay outside of buffet, main dining room, pizza, Guys Burgers, and the deli. The first 2 I would not eat very often and the last 2 may close by 6pm. I never went hungry on my last cruise that had no pay options but I certainly did get bored with the selection.
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17 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:
I GT it, but that is what they are there for. Of course it is your option.
Again I wanted it reserved immediately & wasn’t going to assume my TA would place that hold at 9pm on a weekday. I had been doing mock booking on that particular cruise for a couple of weeks and the available room were dropping fast. Glad I did since the price jumped about $200/cabin for similar rooms about a week later & never went back down to what I paid.
Since you are a TA, it would be helpful if you confirm the courtesy hold works the same as an individual 48 hour hold.
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1 hour ago, jimbo5544 said:
I always scratch my head on this topic, if you want a TA to have the booking then start with a TA.
I put a 48 hour hold on my next cruise a few months ago because it was the last one available of that category on the deck level we wanted. I hadn’t yet got 100% buy in yet from the boss (wife). Once she had time to review & agree we put the deposit down and gave the info to our TA. I guess I could have started with having the TA put the courtesy hold but I wanted immediate assurance in this case.
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On 1/23/2020 at 4:43 AM, Canuker said:
In the Caribbean you can expect to see quite a few species of birds both up in the sky, scooting around at wave level and following the ship as she leaves port
I wish I had taken a picture at the time but we noticed a small bird follow our ship last year sailing away from St Kitts for over 30 minutes; not your typical white sea bird but a very small dark colored land bird. We guessed it was keeping up with the ship looking for food scraps but never saw it land. Was just surprised how fast it was flying to keep up & we were a little worried the little guy would run out of energy & get disoriented over the water. Hopefully he made it to land.
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I am so tech challenged. I type one response and something intended to post days ago came out sequentially. Sorry if this doesn’t make
sense..
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I was talking to a co-worker today who booked her 5th or 6th Carnival cruise. She never tried booking AARP or Allstate Drivewise. I’m almost onboard with her thoughts of just go with what’s out there. I saved $50 on my last cruise thru AARP before they changed but worry now.
Signed up recently thru Allstate. I’ll give it 2-3 more weeks before I will pay retail. -
On 1/20/2020 at 5:45 PM, PrincessArlena'sDad said:
So on the allstate rewards home page, if you scroll all the way down, it says:
Shop our most popular brands
Carnival
1 new item!
Keep on the lookout tomorrow morning! (link doesn't go anywhere, at least not yet)
I saw that link yesterday & yeah it probably is a placeholder....waiting patiently.
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1 hour ago, Oldskl said:
Serenity is fine for adults, and other areas for children are great. Carnival needs to update pool areas on Lido deck and aft pool making them larger to accommodate more guests or add additional pools or whirlpools.
Countless posts have been made where Carnival has not monitored or enforced the Serenity guidelines. There are no adult armbands for those areas. You can easily take a blind eye to that but expect us to fathom your situation where you can’t be bothered not having access to a small part of a ship you didn’t pay a premium to access with your young daughter. I hope at 4 years old she is potty trained so that not only her swimmy is protecting others from raw sewage.
And in case anyone is interested in your stance when Havana WAS open season after 7pm; you were not even happy then. Your review
from 2 years ago was still critical of any exclusivity before 7pm.
To summarize , your schtick is played out.
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3 minutes ago, Stinger-pr said:
Please, I'd suggest everyone refrain from doing this. It might seem like a good gesture but an "off the record" Uber trip leaves you completely unprotected by Uber should anything happen along the way. For example, insurance doesn't apply to you since you'd be a private, non-comercial passenger in the vehicle and you will not be able to make ANY claim to Uber. You'd have to privately sue for damages, if any. Stick to an app-initiated trip or a taxi. Just my personal suggestion.
I’ll take your advice going forward. She was such a nice driver with great conversation about PR and I wanted to give her a longer trip and 2nd tip. I did the same thing (pre-arranged a 2nd trip) with taxi drivers in St Maarten and St Kitts to not only give them business but make sure we didn’t get stuck or have to wait long time for pickup. But I see what you mean.
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On 1/17/2020 at 1:25 PM, kcsavage said:
We've used Ricardo Riley from libertytoursjamaica@gmail.com twice and both times were excellent. Very personable and makes sure everyone is comfortable and having a good time. Always felt safe and the prices were so much better than thru the cruise line.
kcsavage,
Most of the reviews I’ve seen for Liberty Tours were of Blue Hole. They also have a Dunn’s River Tour out of Ocho Rios. Since Jamaica will be new to us, I’d prefer Dunn’s over Blue Hole on the 1st trip there. Have you done Dunn’s thru Liberty? Thanks
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2 minutes ago, coevan said:
We loved Dominica, a rare stop
Where did you go in Dominica? It’s a beautiful island but I didn’t think much of Roseau or it’s beach area.
Capers?
in Carnival Cruise Lines
Posted
Hopefully you can zoom in on these enough to read. Do to port changes, they probably are not in the same itinerary order you will experience but the shows likely will be.