Bonnie J.

My husband gets cokes on Carnival. He asks for a can and glass of ice. The Cost is $2.25 plus the tip. However, each passenger can bring 12 soda cans on board IN CANS - no bottles. You can bring his soda on board when you check in but do not check soda, carry that on!

Any liquid in bottles will be taken from you except wine. They check to make sure wine bottles are unopened.

You can ask your room steward for ice twice a day and can always get ice in the buffet. If you have a fridge it is more like a cooler than a fridge but you can put your ice bucket in there to keep ice longer.

There is always water, coffee, hot & ice tea, in the buffet 24/7 with juice in the AM and lemonade from lunch on. You do have to pay for specialty coffee at the Java Bar (or whatever the ship calls their coffee bar.)

Once an older lady wanted her soda but didn't want to climb stairs or walk to the elevator. She gave me her card and I had no problem getting her soda with her card.

You may not see a lot of him. Kids find each other and its more fun to spend time with new friends than Mom or Dad!

We went on 8 Carnival cruises last year and are about to book another!.

The Bahamas are right off the coast of Miami and they just had cold temps. Temps are similar so check Miami's temps. If you want to swim we have found the water to be a lot colder in February in the Bahamas.

Mexico should be a lot warmer but our New Years cruise was 72 in Cozumel with heavy winds but that is very rare.

Carnival decks go from deck 12 to deck 14- no deck 13's.

The walk isn't really short back to the ship, you walk over on a bridge over the water, but you can take the cable car to the beach. Don't know what the cost is now but once you pay you can go back & forth as much as you want for that onetime fee. You can see how far the beach is from the ship and decide if you want to walk or take the cable car.

Check this out at the sports bar when you get on the ship.

We have met the same couple twice at America's Best Value Inn in Cocoa (not Cocoa Beach). (This used to be an Econo Lodge) They live in Tampa area and drive down the day of cruise and park their car in the cruise parking 'lot' right in front of the main door. They told me is cost them $30 for however long the cruise is and now there is a $5 fee for the shuttle to the port.

It is easy from 95 and we stay there the night before cruising out of Lauderdale or Miami. We get off at exit 202, turn left and stop at a Publix for dinner sub and then pass a Walmart. After the Walmart turn left at the light with gas station on right. Then left again, go under highway bridge and it's right there.

Their direct number is 321-632-4561. Web site is abviportcanaveral.com

None of the ports in the Caribbean require you to take your passports or birth certificate with you getting off or back on the ship. Leave them in your safe! I don't know about Cuba but you're not going there. Years ago all ships took and kept all non US passports until the last evening. No one needed them.

You only need your ship's sign 'n sail card and a driver's license to get back on the ship.

Watch out, you're going to get hooked on cruising like we did in 1984!

Don't know about Oceania but on most cruise lines you can take one bottle of unopened wine per adult person. If you want to be sure to have a good bottle of wine, then take it aboard with you.

We have cruised a lot (100+) since our 1st cruise 30,years ago. There have been a few times we booked a handicapped cabin not knowing it was a handicapped cabin. After it was booked we were told we'd be moved if our handicapped cabin was needed. That was fine with us, but we were never moved. Handicapped cabins have a huge bathroom and only two closets, but we book only for category & cabin location.

I think Carnival has a few cabins for 5 and in some cases may have a roll-a-way available which is folded up each day or a trundle bed under a bed. Any cabin with a sofa can be made sofa as a bed. Often there is a pull down over the sofa.

If you get two cabins make sure they are connected with a door to the other cabin in each cabin. Then you do not have to go into the hall to get to the other cabin.

Most ships state an adult must be in a cabin with any child. But, the room steward doesn't know where everyone sleeps and if they are adjoining cabins you can leave other cabin door open.

Depending on the cruise ;line, every adult in the cabin must but the packager. You are the only one who can buy a drink. You cannot buy one for anyone else and the waiters make sure you don't. We don't drink during the day and maybe 2 drinks each at night so the drink package is no good for us. We don't drink enough to make it worthwhile. You can buy a bucket of beer for just a bit less than buying one by one. Friends buy a bucket and he puts what he doesn't drink in his fridge.If you ask for the 'house' brand it is not as much $$ and the waiter will not give you the costlier gin, bourbon, etc, drink. You can ask what brand the house brand is.They get 15% of what ever is ordered- including soda. There is a beach and pool right at the Costa Maya port, next to the pier.

In Cozumel you need to take a cab there. Chankanaab National Park has everything, big beach, small museum and you can watch people swimming with the dolphins, etc. Forget the cost to get in but cab fare here should be posted before you get in the cab.

Anytime dining is between 5:30 and 9:30. You can go to the dining room anytime you want.

We like the 8:15 dining time. You are not rushed to get dressed for dinner after you get back from a tour and there is always food on ships in the buffet if you just don't want to wait.

Never cruised out of Tampa so can't help you there. Do go to your Roll Call here and you get in touch with others going on your cruise.

When we went from one Carnival ship to another someone from Guest Services walked us from one Carnival ship to another. (He couldn't touch our bags for us until we got to the street- porters would have a complaint if he did and create a problem for the guy!)

Next time we went from Carnival to RCCL. We were escorted to a cab. It cost $25 to get to RCCL. We think the cabbie took a very long way to get to RCCL!

"Early saver" mens if YOU see a lower price, Carnival will match it. They do not lower it unless YOU call your TA or Carnival and tell them the lower rate and where you found it. Then they will lower it for you. I think there may be some restrictions but don't remember them - might be you can't do this if you only booked a very short time ago. Your TA or Carnival can explain it to you.

Once we got a $240 OBC on a B2B because we kept checking the price which went down a few times!

No problem, bring 12 sodas in cans(!) per person on any Carnival ship. They no longer allow any thing in bottles to be taken on because people were bring gin & vodka in them! You can just carry them on, don't need to put in back back. You'll see others just carrying them on.

But, you are allowed wine in bottles and they check to make sure they have never been opened.

If you buy a coke, in the can, it is $2.25 plus 15% for the tip.

We are cruise-a-holics, just got off our 8th this year - all on Carnival!

In St. Thomas everyone is allowed to get 5 bottles each of alcohol - St. Thomas is owned by the US. Other ports have been 1 litre per person.

I learned when I am given a gift of alcohol I had to put it on the custom form but where it said price, I was told to judy put 'gift'. (On one cruise the maitre'd gave me a bottle EACH night. When he found out it was our anniversary he ALSO gave us a bottle of champagne. Then the cruise director also gave us a bottle of champagne! We took 9 bottles of wine off the ship with no problems!)

We got off Carnival Sunday. We had also cruised in November. On both cruises we didn't have to fill out the customs form as we had nothing to declare. The customs agent just looked at our passports STANDING outside her station. She didn't even scan them!

On our 1st cruise (1985) we decaled more alcohol and were escorted to a small room. The customs agent looked at the alcohol then said "just go , the fine is less than $10 and its not worth it to write it up"'! Don't know if that still happens but I have seen people with liquor boxes than hold more then the 1 liter you're allowed and they just breeze throw customs when they check out.

I asked our waiter on cw how much the ship pays him. He said $85 a MONTH, not day or week, a MONTH. On another cruise I asked our waiter the same question. He also said $85 a Month!

The crew make more on a ship than they can at home and send their pay home. They work 7 days a week, always more than 8 hours a day, never have a day off and work for 6-8 months before taking a vacation and going home. They earn every bit of the tips we give them!

We have been cruising since 1984, over 100 cruises, and have never taken our passports off the ship - they stay in our safe. Thrives can get mega $$$ for US passports! You take your sign 'n sail card and any photo ID to get back on the ship. We have heard cruise directors say on 1st night, in the theater, don't take your passport off the ship.

In the 'old' days, all ships collected every non US passport when 'they' got on board. Their passports were not returned until late the last day.

Keep your passports in the safe for the entire cruise!

Have you thought of canceling your automatic tips and just giving whomever you want a cash tip? We did that once because of our room steward. I tried to just lower her tip but was told I couldn't lower any tip. So, we canceled all our tips. We had a fantastic waitress& assistant so we gave each their tips each night and a $30 thank you tip at the end of the cruises. We did leave a smaller tip for our steward but not what she would get automatically.

Once we asked our room steward how much he got paid and he said $85 a MONTH! We also asked our waiter on a different cruise and he also said $85a MONTH!. A;ll the crew more than deserve their tips for all the work they do, 7 days a week for 6-8 months before they go home on vacation!

If you only have one twin bed and a Pullman just ask your room steward for a roll a way bed. We have done this on Carnival when we had a A1A cabin. It is tight in the cabin but it works. Carnival is known for very comfortable beds.

Go on line at the Carnival site and you can find a picture of your cabin category.

In Barbados you can swim/snorkel with the turtles. You don't feed them- they'd take chunk of you hand if you did. The dive masters feed them and you watch.

As was said there is a turtle farm in Grand Cayman you can take a cab to. They have a concert pond where you can pick them up for pictures. You walk around and see tiny turtles than gigantic ones. But you are not allowed to bring any thing that was a turtle shell back into the US.

We live on the NC coast and have a group that walks the beach to find turtle nests every morning in the turtle egg laying season. When they find them they are fenced of and, I forget, 30 or 60 days later they come back to make sure all the hatched babies make it back to the ocean. During the hatching season, cars are not allowed to drive on the beach because the babies can't get out of the tire tracks.

Belize is a LONG tender ride into the port.The ONLY thing there are shops, you can't even see a beach in or near the port. You must take a tour to get to one. Once we took a water taxi to Caulker Caye where there no cars but it is an island so all beaches. Check the ports here on CC to decide what to do here. We have taken the Cave tubing tour twice and loved it.

We will be at Belize in the next week but won't get off the ship. After my husband's recent knee replacement surgery, he doesn't like to just walk anywhere and we have been to Belize even before the port was built. The tender took us to a dock across from the Radison hotel !

Many years ago when we started cruising the ship held ALL passports that were not US. They were given back on the last night. These passports couldn't be taken off the ship. Stolen passports get BIG $$$. Just take your ship's card and driver's license with you to get back on the ship. We have been on 100+ cruises since 1985 and our passports are always locked in our safe!

If you sailed with him a year ago it is very unlikely they are still on board. Crews work usually 6-8 months then go home for a month or two. They will come back to the same cruise line but not necessarily the same ship unless their boss requests them back. We have run into crew members we met on another ship of the same line though. Love it when they remember and call us by our names!

Join your Roll Call here on CC. You will meet others on your cruise and can talk about different tours. Once a group of us from our Roll Call got together and chartered our own sunset snorkeling tour in Aruba. We got on a sail boat about 5PM and didn't have to be back at ship until 8:30 as ship left at 9PM. It was neat walking back to the ship, in the dark, and seeing it at the pier with ALL it's lights on you never see this as the ship is at sea when these lights are on.

And we love walking across the floating bridge and exploring the sites on the other side of the river.

So, join your roll call!