cganesh

If I purchase a $500 gift card could I use it to pay for 2 cabins gratuitys? We leave the 5th thanks

 

 

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If you have any problems getting it to work online call whoever you booked cruise with and they can make it work. If they can't let any balance left go to your onboard account just take the card that has a remaining balance onboard with you and you can get it put on your onboard account. We're doing that for all of our potential cash needs since you can pull cash out anytime to use ashore.

Cherie

It's not a real large room and pretty bare bones waiting area but usually has room for those wanting to utilize it. The ship usually starts boarding by 10 am and goes pretty quickly. It's best to get to New Orleans port no sooner than 10 am since it's crazy when porters are helping departing passengers and trying to check in bags for new passengers at the same time. We were some of the last to disembark on our last cruise from New Orleans and were off by 9:30 and through customs in about 15 minutes. With priority boarding missing that crossover between cruises can be a good thing because you usually the go right inside, do final check in and get on ship. We got to where we would get there 11:30 or so and just walked right in, through a very short line for check-in and immediately onto ship, drop bag in cabin and get lunch..

Good choice for hotel. There's an outlet mall in the shopping center next to river and Hilton Hotel. Hampton Inn may have a shuttle that would take you to the entrance of the mall. It's a nice cool place and has great view areas to see the river. From there it's about a 2 block walk to get to the streetcar that goes to French Quarter. There are nice places to walk around if you get off at Jackson Square and a riverboat that takes you on a cruise around the waterfront. Leave your car parked as much as possible since parking is very tight in French Quarter and areas between the Hampton Inn and French Quarter. Make sure you have GPS to get to the Hampton Inn since the highway you take to get to that area is raised and can be very confusing to know where to get off. There are one way streets around the Hampton Inn. Check out this website for things to do and how to make reservations for the harbor cruise. Sometimes you'll find discount coupons on that website. www.neworleansonline.com/

I took a quick look at hotel rates for Thurs-Sun the week of Thanksgiving this year and just checking Hilton brands rates ran from $165-190 ave per night. Right now you can see dates through early July 2017 so in about 4 months you should be able to see Nov 2018. If you book as early as you see rooms available on any of the hotel booking websites, you will probably get the best pricing as compared to what you may see three-four months ahead of your dates. If you check out the New Orleans tourist commission website there are often deals there that you might see for the dates you need rooms and you might be able to see which restaurants will be open this Thanksgiving Day. NOLA is such a tourist town I would think you'd find quite a few places open on Thanksgiving Day and most full service hotels have there main restaurants almost never close.

I'd check with whoever you are renting the 15 passenger van from to confirm height of van since none of us have that answer. However, the interior ramps in the garage are very narrow so will feel very tight in a large van. You might be better parking at the port and paying their higher daily fee. Seems you have enough folks in the van that that small additional cost shouldn't be an issue. There are some outside parking spaces at the port where you wouldn't have to deal with tight garages. You can just drop everyone off where porters take the checked baggage and then park the van and return to the check in area. I would also suggest you take a copy of your boarding pass in case you get separated from your group.

I love going to one of the Portuguese or Brazilian restaurants in the Ironbound area of Newark. Great food for very reasonable prices. There are many goid restaurants in Secaucus area so ask the hotel desk person where they recommend based on kind of food you're looking for.

Cherie

There is a play area in the Camp Ocean area where you and baby can go to play. Here's a link with some 3rd party info on what's available for infants. https://travelmamas.com/anthem-of-the-seas-with-kids/ I do know that there is a small splash where you can sit on edge with feet in water and let baby splash around. Will need to be in swim diapers. I think the other splash pools require them to be potty trained but maybe the link I sent you will give you more info. Have heard lots of folks with infants comment about bringing an umbrella stroller and one of those cloth baby carriers that you put around neck. Put hats on their head and find a goid sunscreen for baby. I think Neutrogena makes one. We live their adult sunscreen for sensitive skin. Have a great time and do take advantage of the nightime nursery care so you and hubby can have at least a few nice date nights on the cruise.

Cherie

I just paid off a cruise with egift cards I got through Allstate. I was a little nervous since it kept wanting shipping information and concerned they would be shipped. However one paid for a email was received with receipt and link to download the egift card data. I donloaded it into a spreadsheet and saved it. Then went to My Cruises and clicked where it said make payment. I was able to copy and paste the ecards code into the form and when complete it gives a chance to add more gift cards. I had no issues and then made note on spreadsheet which ecard had a remaining balance and how much. Paid receipt from Carnival then became available to print. I'll be buying more for gratuities and to load onto onboard account. You just have to print out spreadsheets with codes and can then add them to onboard account at a kiosk when you board.

Cherie

Go to the employees standing at the kiosks outside the building near where you give bags to porters to assure you go to right place.

Cherie

Check with Carnival. On another board it was stated that all guests are to do final checkin and board at same time.

Cherie

Check in since that's when you fill out all the info for each person cruising. If they have the option to pick a time to arrive at terminal for final checkin, it will come up when you finish the cruise documents and if you want the perks that go with FTTF, it will show up in excursions if available. Some cruises delay letting you choose times. If that occurs you will see a checkin window and need to check back from time to time to see if they've opened that up. If you're not in big hurry to board I'd suggest either noon or 12:30. We rarely have to wait but a few minutes at those times.

Cherie

Fascination had them on the one sea day and another one after 5 on a port day. The times will be listed each day in the newsletter or you can ask casino host.

Cherie

In Juneau you shoukd see some great deals to go to Mendenhall Glacier. Need the bottom of the sky tram that goes up the mountain and near where ship shuttles drop passengers, there are lots of excursion vendors. You should be able to find something of interest tgat you can do in the time you'll be in port. I'd be leery of doing helicopter or airplane ones that take you to glaciers since you could potentially have a delay and miss the ship. In Skagway we did the White Pass Train. If I had it to do over I'd book an excursion on train going up the mountain and bus coming down. Each cruise line has specific cars their people go on. We got a ticket at a booth near the train to do the round trip. That's something you might consider booking thru ship to be able to do the bus back down mountain. It stops several times so you can get out and take pics. We did one that started after lunch and spent the morning walking down main street in Skagway browsing in shops and went in a little museum run back park service. Make a mental note that the museum is best place aling the street to find restrooms. In zketchican we just walked around town but as soon as you disembark you should see a small terminal building and there are very helpful people who can go through what you might want to do and where to get reservations. We took public bus around town and stopped at a totem museum that was very interesting. They rescue old totems that have been neglected and restore them. They have a whole room of very old ones in climate control glass containers. The lady that guided us thru was a wealth of knowledge. They have modern ones outside for pictures. Juneau is great place to buy coats, tshirts, etc. At very reasonable prices. We used Trip Advisor to research the ports to decide what we wanted to do in each port. Have a great cruise.

Cherie

Is anyone using Drivewise via the Allstate App? When I download the Drivewise app, I get an error that states "We have moved to the Allstate app!". Drivewise is active in my Allstate app, but it won't show me how many points I have (just says "Your points are safe, we're updating your account"), or give me an option to enter any of these promo codes.

Just go to the allstaterewards website, login and you can see your points. That's where you get the gift cards if an Allstate member.

Cherie

Are you sure you have the right app? It's the drive wise app not Allstate. It didn't ask me for a policy number but it is asking for an activation code (says get it from agent). I'm wondering if they have changed their policy to customers only. I even drove to town and back and it didn't track my driving without the activation code.

Unless your a policy holder and have the Drivewise done installed in the car, nothing is tracked to the best of my knowledge. The Drivewise system is set up to track driving habits to help keep policy costs down. It's of no use to anyone who isn't a policy holder using the Drivewise tracking system. If you want gift cards you'll just have to watch AARP since their site is wide open and thus cards go quickly. Verizon is only other source that has discount using points.

Cherie

Tried creating account several times but phone app and laptop won't let me complete sign up. Keeps saying "please enter a valid policy number" when I leave that box blank! I thought you could sign up without actually having an allstate policy, right? What am I missing here?

I think they recently made some changes that require you to have a policy number to use the allstate rewards program. We do have policies and think it should only be available to policy holders as a benefit. The Drivewise app no longer really does anything and that info is now on the Allstate app.

Cherie

We prepay gratuities and any CCL excursions we plan to do and use a credit card on board that gives us points on our MGM casino player card for everything onboard except end of cruise additional tips for extraordinary services gotten. We use cash for taxis, small purchases, etc in ports and tips needed between home to ship and back home. Do not use debit card. If cc has low credit line, you're better off bringing cash and putting in your onboard account. If needed you can go to any machine in casino and get money from cash deposit then cash out cadino balance at cashier. Avoid ATMs if possible since you'll incur charges from both ATM provider and your bank.

Cherie

It could be at coffee bar or at the large bar areas. I know coffee bar on Dream had some specialty canned beverages and I think I saw coconut water.

Cherie

A good portion of the road driven for the Tundra Wilderness tour is through a mountain area with narrow two way road. The first part of tour which is the same as the short tour offered didn't have much elevation change so it might be done. You are on basically a large school bus nothing like city buses you may be more familiar with. There are also areas where caribou and elk tend to wander out onto the road so snow can make stopping for animals a little tougher. Hopefully it won't snow snow too much or temps drop to allow it to stick. It was a beautiful tour when we were there early Aug a few years ago, clear skies and no clouds except covering Denali Peak (Mt McKinley but Alaskan prefer the traditional name Denali Peak). Hopefully you'll be seeing the husky training facility that's near Denali. Loved that and got to hold tiny huskies.

Cherie

The one way cruises either northbound or southbound have more glaciers. We did a NCL Seward to Vancouver that included 3-4 hrs at the big glacier between Seward and Icy Straight Point and a full day cruising glacier bay. In Juneau you can take city bus or taxi to Mendenhall Glacier where there is a nice facility by national parks service. In Skagway do the train (you can buy tickets at train ticket booth close to pier). Scenery is beautiful and ride very relaxing. If itinerary includes Icy Straight Point you can see whales from the wharf or along some walking trails by the water and see a very well done play done by young members of the local Inuit tribe about some of their culture. Get a balcony and be prepared for sensory overload especially in Glacier Bay.

Cherie

Itinerary then total price (cruise, airfare,hotel). We live both New Orleans and Mobile but in winter time don't like the one say out and one day on return that are cold. In winter we fly to anywhere that's it's warm when we get off plane.

Cherie

No sofa but one nice chair. We didn't miss the sofa and really enjoyed the layout. The rectangular rather than square bathroom was larger than normal and had glass enclosure for shower. Nice long countertops in bathroom due to its layout being almost as long as the wall our entry door was on. Interestingly, the entry doors are in an alcove with adjacent cabin entry so bathrooms were back to back. No noise at all from adjacent cabins.

Cherie

I had issue booking inside for a 2018 Cuba cruise since all were shown as waitlisted for OLIFE package. Got booked thru TA for inside with OLIFE benefits except airfare and will be booking airfare later. Current airfare and the price different between full OLIFE pkg and what I bought was the same as current price of airfare. I was really happy and a little posed that cruiseline rep didn't offer that option. They no longer show this option in marketing materials but now know it does still exist as an option to check out.

Cherie

I finally found that if I need to get RCI cruise info on my Samsung smartphone it works great opening the regular website using the native browser on my Samsung. I use Chrome primarily but Chrome and the RCI website just don't play well together. No more blank white screens.

Cherie

Check the two links and you should find a phone number to call.

Cherie