silentbob007

If you put in the ship the operator should know where you will be, especially for Oasis class.

There are show spots available when you board and standby lines if you don’t even want to do that. Too big of ship with too many people to not make a conscious effort to space out the crowds a little bit.

Been on both many years ago. Haven’t been on newer Carnival ships but liked the design of the Spirit class more than others. Really like the Radiance class but Radiance had such a long stretch of plumbing issues my family still calls it the poop ship (though not in Carnival’s league with that moniker). Granted that was many years ago and hopefully things have been fixed. I would lean Royal for status perks, but it would really come down to price.

The prices fluctuate a bit and they are also different per ship and sailing. On my next booked cruise it is $80/pp/pd plus gratuity.

I think they run set hours in the first day so may not be open other than during the open house times. We just registered during that time.

There are show slots available when you board. Use the app once you are connected to ship WiFi to try to book or look at the planner for where you can go book in person. My Time Dining has two lines: one with a reservation and one without. You can always get in the no reservation line though on our sailing MTD didn’t open until 6. Also in the planner is an open house for the nursery services (babies and tots). If you want to leave your child with them it costs $6 an hour and reservations are definitely recommended as they can only watch so many kids. You have to schedule with them in person or maybe with a phone call after you initially register. Inside the kids area there is also a playroom with a mat, toys, and play houses if you just want to take the kid up to play a bit while you watch them. We did that with our son a bit each day.

Put in a request with special needs via their email. I think they want a month lead time. I did about a week out and had a gallon of water and extension cord waiting in my cabin on embarkation.

Not to speak ill of Allure but she desperately needs it. I took family in her in April for their first cruise and they had a great time but noticed done of the rough edges (besides Central Park of course). Of course, I say that and saw Carnival Glory (a ship I’ve sailed twice, once on her maiden voyage) in Cozumel and her appearance gave a new meaning to the word rough.

Used to be 2. Now one per legal aged adult.

Only once in the many many guarantees I’ve booked have I been upgraded to a different category. If you honestly don’t care where you end up and are happy with the worst cabin in that category, it is a good way to save money. If you absolutely have to be midship or near an elevator it is better to just pick your own room.

I missed the twice-a-day with 3 in a standard balcony with regards to the pull-out sofa and the trash situation with a toddler still in diapers. I asked the attendant a few times to empty the trash or provide some other extra service though I did just throw the bed back into the couch each morning on my own.

My TA was able to get me a price drop today of about $100 with the current "sale" and kickers.

I once called to book airport transfers and couldn’t even get those for myself.

I’ve only cruised once out of Galveston with a Sunday arrival and departure. Upon arriving there seemed to be a large number of people unable to get shared rides or cabs. I’m not sure I’d trust availability though a late flight might make things less stressful.

No the concierges hold desk hours in the suite lounge. They will help with disembarkation but generally you have to go talk with them or you will receive a letter in your room. Only star class has genies with personalized cabin service.

They are not very strict IMO and lunch is even less so.

On our April cruise, my son woke up with a very high fever and we took him to see the doctor during posted hours (Tylenol brought the fever down so we did not do urgent care). He was diagnosed with an ear infection and given liquid amoxicillin. We were charged $180 to our folio for the exam and the antibiotics. We received an itemized bill with diagnosis codes the next day in our cabin. I submitted that to our travel insurance I had purchased on my own and was very quickly reimbursed without further question or investigation.

I worried about this for my cruise this past April. I’ve always sailed with my passport. It was a last minute cruise and did not have time to get one for my young child. Boarding was fine. He developed a 105 fever when we were docked in Mexico. We were able to control it with Tylenol so took him to the ship’s doctor. $185 later we had diagnosis of an ear infection and some amoxicillin. They gave me a great printed summary and it was the fastest reimbursement claim for travel insurance I’ve ever seen.

I’ve boarded both places. As others have said, Barcelona is much easier logistically though we had a car service to take us from Rome to the port and that was pretty easy and check in was quite fast. The train wouldn’t have been too bad though was not feasible with my travel party.

Thanks for this thread. I was thinking about this drink the other day. This is one of those things I works have never tried except for the drink voucher system.

I've been on a late arriving ship and made a noon flight at MCO though it was not the most fun experience and was in my early days of cruising. It generally should work out.

I cruises with my newbie family members at the start of April out of Galveston. Unless you are Suite/Pinnacle, there wasn't a separate entrance. We queued up together and got checked in next to each other. We got yelled at for waiting for them after our checkin (after I had asked if we stood in that spot and waited), but whatever. We were there before boarding started so we sat in the same area. They called each status and said we were welcome to board early by ourselves or wait for the rest of the group. We waited the extra 20 minutes or so and were smoothly onboard.

Yes that’s fine for new bookings but I think a little different for those with existing bookings and different expectations. Everyone rolls with changes in different ways.

The concierge should email you the week before and you can make dinner reservations. Breakfast and lunch are open seating.

One a day service was a pain with the sofa bed made up taking up most of the floor space and a toddler in diapers with a tiny trash can. Yes I was able to put the bed away myself but for the money we were paying each day in gratuities for three people, it was a bit irksome. Perhaps we should have chosen morning service but our mornings were much less structured and didn’t want to feel rushed to give him time to clean. We saw him a lot in the hall and one day I did ask for him to change the trash midday.