Keys2Heaven

I realize a lot of your post was written to be comical but..... last March Carnival Corp said they were ordering 9 new ships. Four are from Mayer Werft. These are the four you mentioned, two going to AIDA, two to Costa. They are also ordering five from Fincantieri (the company currently building Vista). They have announced two are going to Costa Asia, one to P&O Australia, and one to Princess. That leaves one that they haven't announced. So who knows, maybe your onto something!

There is a sister ship to Vista to launch in 2018.

This from Dec 2014:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-relea...300012323.html

<<>>

Carnival Cruise Line's as-yet-unnamed 3,954-passenger vessel, which is the 26th ship in the line's fleet, will offer many of the newest and most popular features from Carnival's current ships, along with several innovations that will be exclusive to this vessel. The delivery date for the new cruise ship is scheduled for March 2018. Homeport and itinerary information will be announced at a later date.

The new ship will be a sister ship to Carnival Vista, which is slated for delivery in spring 2016. Carnival plans to announce details on the many unique features and innovations of Carnival Vista during a three-day event for media, travel agents and consumers in New York Jan. 22-24, 2015.

<<>>

As of noon today.

Its worth it since she has MS alone. That was not stated in 1st post.

 

You don't need FTTF to get off the ship early. You simply let them know you have early flights.

I didn't mention it, since it is relapsing/remitting. She's not progressing which is good.

DEpends. Is it worth 60 bucks to cut lines ?

 

FTTF is not for us.

I'm not trying to stir the proverbial is it or is it not worth it pot.

It's like this: my wife has MS and tires out a lot faster nowadays. If this helps with that, great. If not, we'll, we learned our $60 lesson.

The other reason I booked it was to take advantage of getting off the ship as early as we can. I have always booked flights that leave after noon, but I think Delta tweaked the schedule and now have us departing a little before noon. No biggie, but don't want to be rushed.

For April 24th sailing.

And, I'm going to sound like a hypocrite, but I've never been a big fan of the extra cost/Carnival mind games of FTTF, but I booked the darn thing. Flight departure is slightly before noon and I don't want to feel rushed getting over there and settled.

Sure hoping it's worth it. I'll be sure to write an honest review about it when we are back.

From the Carnival Cruise Line Italia FB page. This was in response to someone's question about sea trials:

"Sea trial will be performed later this month, probably 27/3"

I assume this means March 27th to start trials.

Thank you for the suggestions!!

Yes, Fish Shack looks very popular, but wife says she doesn't want to wait that long for seating.

Cafe Seville is on our short list.

Will definitely check out the other two options.

Restaurant recommendations:

 

For fresh fish:

 

• you can't beat the Fish Shack (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g34571-d2348083-Reviews-Fish_Shack-Pompano_Beach_Florida.html). Great TripAdvisor reviews have made it wildly - and justifiably - popular. It is truly a hard to find, hole in the wall (seats less than 20 and doesn't take reservations) restaurant but the fish is out of this world! They are closed on Sundays and Mondays; open from 11:30 to 9:00 pm on the other days. Get there at 11:20 for an early lunch (they have chairs outside to sit in while waiting for it to open).
  
• for a nice outdoor lunch or dinner (with music some nights), try the Nauti Dawg in Lighthouse Point (http://www.nautidawg.com/). You can sit outside at a marina on the intra-coastal.
  

For Cuban (which isn't all that easy to find around Pompano unfortunately):

 

• we've enjoyed eating at Little Havana in Deerfield Beach (just north of Pompano Beach) (http://www.littlehavanarestaurant.com/).
  

For Spanish:

 

• Cafe Seville in the Fort Lauderdale (http://www.cafeseville.com/). Their paella is wonderful!
  

My absolute favorite restaurant in Pompano Beach (we've been going at least a couple of times a month since they opened 3 years ago) is Mediterraneo Cafe and Grill (http://www.mediterraneopompano.com/). Their Italian (and especially Sicilian) food is out of this world. It is a small family run restaurant owned by 2 brothers (one in the front of the restaurant, the other the chef and his wife is the pastry chef).

 

 

If you do end up renting a car, you can expand your dining horizons even further -- downtown Fort Lauderdale has many excellent restaurants!

You are really going to have to rent a car in that area.

 

Palm Aire is nice but convenient to nothing.

 

I'm guessing you mean Walmart when you say Wally world? Publix is far superior.

Yes, Wally World = Wal-Mart. Only mentioned it as it is across the street from Palm Aire.

I agree, we prefer Publix if in the area we travel to. Excellent customer service.

Have a car booked at the airport. Used Enterprise ONLY because we get sky miles for booking them through our preferred carrier Delta. Building these up to pay airfare for next cruise.

Not too hip on having to return the car, then hire a taxi to take us to the port, but don't see any other way around it.

There is a local family-owned car rental company in Fort Lauderdale that we use every time we travel in the area. It is called Gold Coast Car Rental. They are actually located just outside of the airport. If you are interested in renting a vehicle, they offer pick-up service at the airport or at the local hotels. They can also drop you off at the cruise-port when you return the vehicle which saves an expensive cab-fare if you don't already have transportation. We have used them for several years now and have never had any issues. They are extremely reliable, the service is quick, and everyone who works there is very friendly. If you go with any rental company in Fort Lauderdale, I would highly recommend them.

Thank you, I'll look them up.

We looked at Royal Vista, but they didn't have anything available. There is a daily shuttle from Palm Aire to Royal for the beach. We might do that one day.

Since we will have the kitchen, we might pop by Wally world and get something to make for dinner. However, we love fresh fish (grouper for her, snapper for me). I really want to try some authentic Cuban/Spanish cuisine. Something we don't have around here.

I'll look into a car rental. Might make more sense.

I live in Pompano Beach and I have a couple of questions for you first :D.

Do you realize that the only thing near Wyndham Palm Aire is a casino and racetrack? That Wyndham is convenient only to I-95 and the Florida Turnpike (it is right between the two). You are quite away from the beach (4.5 - 5 miles) and local restaurants. There are other Wyndhams (Sea Garden, Royal Vista and Santa Barbara) right along the beach.

If you are staying a few days have you thought of renting a car? Local car rentals in south Florida can be downright cheap so it might be worth investigating since a cab (or even Uber) will start to add up.

Things to do in Pompano (check out the official website too http://pompanobeachfl.gov/index.php/pages/tourist_info/tourist_info):

 

• the beach is lovely and there is a very nice park along the beachfront at the pier including exercise equipment and playgrounds.
  
• deep sea fishing
  
• fishing from the public piers
  
• diving
  
• golf
  

If you have a car it is easy to get to Fort Lauderdale and ride the water taxi or take the sun trolley. Check out the Fort Lauderdale (actually it is for all of Broward County including Pompano Beach) tourist website at http://www.sunny.org for lots of info.

 

 

Give me an idea of what kind of restaurants you enjoy and I can make some recommendations.

Flying into FLL on 4/21 for a few nights before our cruise the following Sunday. Staying at Wyndham Palm Aire (Wyndham Owners) for those 3 nights.

No car...but open to using Uber.

Question: Aside from eating and the beach, anything exciting to do in the area? Don't want to drop a ton of money having someone shuttle us around.

Just looking for ideas.

Concerning 2018, PG Cruises posted this in another thread:

 

"Greetings!

 

We plan to announce our 2018 itineraries much earlier than we have in the past, and we expect they will be available sometime in May 2016.

 

Paul Gauguin Cruises"

I saw that as well. Very excited.

Greetings!

 

We plan to announce our 2018 itineraries much earlier than we have in the past, and we expect they will be available sometime in May 2016.

 

Paul Gauguin Cruises

Thank you. My wife and I would love to book our 20th wedding anniversary in 2018 with one of your cruises.

I received e-mail announcing 2017 dates on January 20, 2016.

 

I use TA.

 

Current sale pricing for 11 night Cook itinerary in 2017 starts at $4945 per person for a porthole F and $6295 per person for d balcony.

 

Many here will tell you the balcony is not worth the extra $ while others will obviously disagree. We generally go for an F and use the money saved for excursions, pearls, future trips, etc.

Thanks for the info. We're so use to cruising with a balcony, but figure we could go topside and enjoy just as much with fewer passengers. From the review I've been reading, sounds like the trips between islands are fairly short anyway and a hour or two on the balcony might not be worth the extra $4G. YMMV though.

I'm going to take it that I won't be able to seriously entertain this until late this year or early next year, correct? And, with booking outside the 330 day window for flights, how is that handled?

Do most of you go through a TA? Any you can recommend? I created a login with PG and, within 1/2 hour, received a call from Avoya travel (voice mail) regarding current specials.

What's a good price range for the 11-day Tahiti/Society/Cook Island trip for 2 with lowest balcony room?

I'm reading through 'Familygoboston' excellent review, so some questions might be answered in there.

This is on our bucket list and I'd like to do something special for our 20th wedding anniversary. It's in April, but I hear this isn't the most opportune time to travel to the South Pacific. Wait a month or so?

If you go to "Thread Tools>Show Printable Version" and then "Show 200 post(s) from this thread on one page" it will narrow this thread down to 2 big, printable pages.

 

It will look like this.

 

Then, depending on your browser you can go to "print" and "save as PDF" for each page.

Thank you. Learned something new!

Can you create a PDF file of this wonderful writeup, so that we can download and consume offline?

Well, its finally time to get started...after returning on Oct 4th jet lagged with 2000 photos to process, a HS senior who needed assistance with college applications and portfolio photos, and my parents unexpectedly visiting for a week... with their dog... and their cat, I have finally managed to get everything together!;)

 

Now of course we are awaiting the effects of Hurricane Sandy here on the East Coasts, so I will start, but we may find we are interrupted!!

I will begin with lots of planning and packing tips and then go into a day by day travelogue...hope there is something to help out everyone, and keep your fingers crossed that the power and internet holds out!:eek:

If you're talking about the recent facebok post about 4 free cruise tickets for Carnival's 50th anniversary, it's a scam at the most and data mining at the least.

In either case, don't click on it, forward to 5 groups or whatever it tells you to do. If you know the person, ask them to delete it.

It's currently unclear if it's ONLY for use of the passengers in the Havana cabins during the day or if it will be open to the entire ship, but I understand that the Havana Lounge/Bar area will have some small snacks/breakfast types of food throughout the day.

Hmmmm, I thought I read somewhere that the Havana pool and lounge will be open only to Havana cabin guests until 5 or 6, then or will be open to anyone.

Sorry, but if my wife and I are looking for a couple of deck chairs and nobody is around but towels, then said towels will get relocated. I'll ask folks around there first, but no response and you lose.

Hello,

We just booked an Havana Ext Aft cabin on Vista for March 2018. Also booked a Havana inside cabin for our teenage girls. Now, the more i think about this location i'm worried that it will be noisy and not very private. We booked centre Aft. on deck 7.

 

After 5pm when they open the Havana area to everyone, do you think it will get loud and crowded? Does Carnival close the pool at a certain hour? Or is it open all night?

 

We Love having a nice quiet balcony where we can stare out at the ocean but i'm thinking that perhaps the Havana Cabana cabin would be a bit quieter? :confused: The thing that concerns me with the Cabana Cabins is that we would have to keep our curtains closed most of the time while inside the cabin, because people walking by would be able to see in.

 

Which would you choose?

So, I don't know a ton about Latin/Cuba/Puerto Rican culture, but I do know from our cruises out of San Juan that Puerto Ricans like to party. I'm guessing that the Havana area will embrace Cuban culture and lend itself to more of a party atmosphere. Will it get quiet, I'm sure it will, but I can imagine the party going for awhile at night.

Hello,

We just booked an Havana Ext Aft cabin on Vista for March 2018. Also booked a Havana inside cabin for our teenage girls. Now, the more i think about this location i'm worried that it will be noisy and not very private. We booked centre Aft. on deck 7.

 

After 5pm when they open the Havana area to everyone, do you think it will get loud and crowded? Does Carnival close the pool at a certain hour? Or is it open all night?

 

We Love having a nice quiet balcony where we can stare out at the ocean but i'm thinking that perhaps the Havana Cabana cabin would be a bit quieter? :confused: The thing that concerns me with the Cabana Cabins is that we would have to keep our curtains closed most of the time while inside the cabin, because people walking by would be able to see in.

 

Which would you choose?

We're in 7456 for our cruise in April 2017.

Most, if not all, of the starboard side life boats were in place last month. Most of the port side life boats are also in place. I'm no expert, but I'm assuming the final port side life boats are being left off right now for construction access. She has more than enough life boats on her for sea trials.

I'm curious about the age of some of the photos. They began installing the SkyRide track over 2 weeks ago, but this most recent photo shows no progress since then. Did they stop? Or is this photo 2 weeks old but just now becoming public?

Having seen ship construction up close and in personal, this is most likely a month old or older.

For a cost-effective cruise...nothing, unless something out of control happened during the cruise affecting everyone and Carnival decided to not do anything about it.

If I want luxury, I'll book a luxury cruise line.

As far as comedy club, can't stand comedians who have to "f" bomb every other word in the adult show, just because it's the adult show. Does that somehow make your jokes better?

Waiting to see if a Hawaii cruise will be available from LA in April 2018 (our 20th). BUT I WOULD LOVE TO SEE CARNIVAL OFFER A HAWAII/TAHITI cruise.

Well, you're on a Carnival board, so what do you think you will hear?

We've sailed both cruise lines. My wife likes RCCL a little bit better (we sailed Serenade of the Seas back in 2009) though.

I don't mind either one. Carnival does cater to more cost-effective cruises, which often make for some interesting cruisemates, but a cruise is what you make of it.

If your mother and sister-in-law are laid back and don't nit pick, you'll probably have a great time, NO MATTER WHICH LINE YOU CHOOSE.