vadersprincess12

On 4/26/2024 at 7:09 PM, Mum2Mercury said:

We've saved more than a few bucks going with Guarantees!  

I think this fear of a horrible room is over-rated.  I've had rooms that were better than others, but I've never had a genuinely bad room.  

We usually end up on the 6th floor with Guarantees, and although it's not a crowd favorite, it's become our favorite.  

Once our kids were out of the house and we retired, we decided to try Interiors.  While a Balcony is certainly nicer, we actually like Interiors.  

I don't get the point of an Ocean View.  An Interior is inexpensive, and it's fine if you just need a room for a place to sleep and shower.  A Balcony gives you more space (and a place for Dad to disappear while his daughters are dressing), and it gives you a real connection to the ocean.  But I don't see that an Ocean View has any real benefit over an Interior.  

Agree.  Excitement, anticipation, curiosity -- sure, but not actual stress. 

To be fair, a functional problem could happen in any room -- whether you chose the room or not.  

We have had a terrible cabin.  It wasn't on Royal, but it ended up being under the galley so there was constant noise especially at night after the dining rooms closed and things were being cleaned up and prepared for the next day.  Could hear pots and pans being banged around and one night it seemed like a cabinet door wasn't closed properly and it kept banging and banging.  

It's a shame they charge for something that used to be free.

On 4/22/2024 at 5:01 PM, miyanc said:

We book gty. Often it's the difference in going or not.  We are very agreeable with most things. Good room or bad. I should be knocking on wood.  I have had bad luck while picking my room myself and good luck letting them do it.  Maybe you get a bad room and get fcc out of it.  Maybe you only loose if you end up spending more for your room plus royal up compared to what it would have been if you booked the room straight away.  

I won't do gty because I'm afraid of getting stuck under the galley or other areas where there is a lot of noise to the rooms below.  I always pull up a deck plan pdf of the ship we are booking so I can see the location of the cabins before I book.

Hello ~ we have a stop at Prince Rupert, BC on the way back from our Alaska cruise.  Any recommendations for what to do?  TIA.

Hello Everyone ~ wondering how the sailing is from the West Coast (LAX, SF) going to Hawaii.  Most of our cruises are along the East Coast and into the Caribbean so looking for a comparison.  TIA.

Thanks.  Also wondering if anyone knows how long you get in Disney Springs.

Good Afternoon Everyone ~ has anyone done the Disney Springs Excursion and return to the airport when getting off a Royal Caribbea ship?  Wondering what time you get back to the airport.  The description says it's for flights after 5 p.m. but if you need to be at the airport 1.5 hours before your flight I want to make sure we choose the proper flight.  Thanks in advance.

2 hours ago, shof515 said:

tomorrow the ship is suppose to go half moon cay. Ship AIS data shows it is going directly to nassau

 

are you skipping half moon cay due to that delay or due to weather?

We are skipping due to weather.  Apparently a storm front so very windy and some rain so they won’t shuttle to the island.  

We are delayed over an hour. Police on scene and people walked off ship after an hour of announcements for someone.  Hope everyone is okay!

We got a survey just after our sailing on the Venezia in November.  My response was pretty brutal because the smoke in that casino is the worst we have EVER encountered on any cruise ship we have sailed on.  The smoke permeates all over the place and especially down the hall toward the "smoke free" annex and into the 3 level atrium.  I tried to contact Carnival about it but kept getting passed around to different departments.  We are sailing on the Venezia again in 2 days (it was booked before our November sailing) but will probably not spend any time in the casino unless by some miracle they addressed the smoke issue.

1 hour ago, MsTabbyKats said:

Due to the fact that DH is not a gambler, gives me bad karma when he stands behind me and if I win $1 he tells me I should quit while ahead....I do my gambling early in the morning, while he's sleeping.

Thanks for the info.........

 

🤣 I have the opposite problem.  DH and I usually play together.  I'd rather bet low and let my bank go up and down and enjoy the fun; he'd rather bet high and hope to win big.  Either way we enjoy selves.  

There are about 25 slots machine plus table games in the casino annex and while there isn't smoking there, during our cruise the smoke from the main casino just permeated the entire area around the casino.  It permeated into the atrium area too and you could smell it on decks 3, 4, and 5.  Maybe there were just more smokers on our sailing but it was absolutely awful.  

The casino annex is very small and tight.  You could barely walk between the chairs and then you have the scooters coming in so it was uncomfortable and pretty full the times we attempted to go there.

On 12/12/2023 at 5:12 PM, mleng said:

We just came back from a 10-day cruise on Venezia out of Manhattan.  I posted my review and it’s waiting for the censor to approve, but I thought to provide a few more practical tips to folks on the boards here. 

 

1.    We had Oceanview Cabins on Deck 2 Aft.  Very spacious.  The best part was that the cabin had one and half bathrooms:  one had a shower, a toilet, and a sink, and the second one had a bathtub and a sink.  It’s great when I and my wife both needed to get ready.  If you are trying to squeeze 3 or 4 people in a cabin, having 2 bathrooms would be a life saver.
2.    Maybe due to the location of embarkation, the clientele of this cruise was much more multi-ethic and multi-culture.  What you may take for granted of certain etiquette and standard practices on a cruise are not necessarily the modus operandi by these folks.  My advice is that just be prepared as you go into this and try to be more patient.
3.    A lot of the guests on our cruise chose to eat in the Lido buffet than MDR. We did MDR 5 nights out of 10.  It’s never busy.  Each time, I used the App to “check in”, and a table was assigned to me within a couple of minutes.  And when we were in the dining room, we could see that the room was never more than half full.  On the other hand, dinner in Lido often required a 10-15 minute standing in line. On other cruises, when we had to eat in Lido, I managed to make it a similar experience as in a real restaurant by getting only one food item at a time – get the salad first, wait until my wife and I both finish the salad then go back for an entrée, then go back for dessert.  But with such long lines in Lido on Venezia, I had no choice but to pile up all the food on one plate.  The different foods were touching, the flavors were mixing, and I felt the need to eat everything quickly before it got cold, instead of leisurely eat and talk and focus on the interaction with my eating companions.  Basically, the crowdedness and the long lines in Lido totally destroyed the eating experience.  So my tip here is that during peak time of 6~7 PM, you can probably finish a dinner in MDR quicker than in Lido. 
4.    Manhattan Cruise Terminal is not good. We have done more than a dozen cruises mostly leaving from Ft Lauderdale and Bayonne.  In comparison to those 2 ports, the Manhattan Cruise Terminal looked old and ill equipped.  They paused the check-in process during embarkation because too many people were backed up on the gangway.  We had to stand in line for more than 30 minutes, with no water, no bathroom (because we didn’t know when the pause would be over).  Finally we made onto the ship an hour and half after arriving at the port.  On our 3 recent cruises, we never spent more than 20 minutes to embark, so this 90-minute process was a stark contrast.
5.    Disembarkation was just as bad as embarkation.  We opted to do self-assist.  The announcement was made at 7:30 that people could disembark, and we left our cabin at 8, but we didn’t get off the ship until 9. The gangway was on Deck 3, and we were on Deck 2, but they blocked off the hallways on Deck 2 and Deck 3 in mid ship without anybody stationed there to direct traffic, so we had to carry all the luggage from Deck 2 to Deck 4, walk from Aft to Fwd, then go back down to Deck 3. Once on Deck 3, there was this meandering long line that literally took us more than 30 minutes to go through.  As far as I could tell, the bottle neck was at the gangway where there were only 2 stations to scan people’s cards.  I am wondering if it’s a limitation by the port.  There was only one gangway during embarkation also. At all other ports, there were 2 gangways, but in NY, when the entire ship is trying to get on and off in the shortest time span, they only put out one gangway?  If you are flying out of NYC, don’t try to book any flight before noon, since you would not be off the ship by 9 AM at the earliest. 
6.    My last advice, and probably the harshest, is that if you don’t like cigarette smoke, don’t go on this ship. Unlike some cruise lines, Carnival still allowed smoking in the casino.  It’s located in the middle of Deck 4, with a stairwell right at the entrance of the casino, and the open Atrium of San Marco Piazza at the other entrance of the casino.  The smoke from the casino often wafted up and down to other decks.  On a couple of days, we could even smell it on Deck 2 Aft outside our cabin.  My wife was sensitive to smoke, so after the first day, we basically stopped going to the San Marco Piazza and the surrounding areas on Deck 3, 4, and 5.  We essentially missed out on all the shopping places and a lot of the entertainment options. 
 

The smoke was a big deal for us too.  We go to the casino on some of the ships, but this one was so bad we didn't want to go near it or the areas you talk about.  Unfortunately we booked for February before our November sailing, and they won't allow us to transfer our date so, they won't get any casino money or shopping money from us on this upcoming cruise.

11 minutes ago, BND said:

I guess that means you don't have a gas cover that has to be released inside the car or did they pry it open?.  In all 15+ of our cruises out of Baltimore, we've never had a problem and have never met anyone who has and we know several people who park there and cruise regularly.  

The gas pump nozzle had a to push it open. We’re thinking whoever did it had something to keep it jammed open but regardless of that, where’s the “secure” parking?   

Be careful!  We parked there last year for a cruise and although the lot is fenced and locked someone siphoned our gas.  We filled up on the way to the cruise terminal and came back to a car that wouldn't start.  We thought something was wrong with the new battery and had to have it towed to our mechanic.  The gas tank was empty!!!!!!

Make sure you test it before you put anything in it.  On the Horizon on September and on the Venezia in November we had to have someone come to replace the battery.

We usually get the middle plan on the wifi and we have used the WhatsApp for texting and video calling with no charges.

12 hours ago, mz-s said:

I really think it's just that on longer cruises there is so much more luggage for the crew to handle it takes them longer to process it all. And on longer cruises there tends to be more Priority guests than a normal cruise so the Priority text on the luggage tag means less.

mz-s ~ I think you are probably right about the longer cruises.  Let me pose this question to you; I posed it to a Carnival rep a month or so ago, but they didn't have any explanation.

On a sailing prior to ours someone posted a message they got stating that there were so many Platinum and Diamond members that they wouldn't be offering priority embarkation on that sailing.  I asked if they were still doing priority embark for those who pay for FTTF but they couldn't answer me.  I think this would be totally wrong, offering it for paying customers when they are not offering it to those who have earned it.  What do you think?

Just to help in the future, because I personally cannot have artificial sweeteners, there is a difference between being allergic to something and having a reaction to something.  I get a reaction which is severe muscle pain and headaches that last for days, but fortunately it's not life-threatening.

A true food allergy affects the immune system. Even small amounts of the offending food can trigger a range of symptoms, which can be severe or life-threatening. In contrast, a food intolerance often affects only the digestive system and causes less serious symptoms.

It's important that they know what is life threatening to you.  Some lines will actually let you choose your menu the night prior so that they can prepare your food based on your needs.  I hope you are able to work everything out.

1 hour ago, dbancroft said:

We were on this sailing also elevator etiquette definately was lost.  Especially the older cruisers they would get on the elevator before we got a chance to exit.

On the sailing we just returned home from, people did this and I would nicely say, "would you please let us get off the elevator before you get on" and then we'd move forward basically blocking them from getting on so that everyone could get off.

I don't agree with the comment from someone about "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen".  There are rude people everywhere and you can't hide yourself away but there are ways of dealing nicely with those rude people.  

If it happens again in the future just don't stop; can't stand when these entitled people do things like this.  Elevator courtesy is non-existent anymore.  If we are waiting with someone in a scooter/wheelchair we always allow them to board first.  If however, a group has been waiting and they come in their scooter as the elevator is arriving I think it's fair that those who have been waiting should board.

On a recent cruise on another line a group of adults had been waiting and just as the elevator arrived a group of 5 boys came flying down the steps and ran for the elevator.  I had absolutely NO issue yelling to them that they should have some manners and let those who have been waiting board the elevator.  They took off back up the steps.  People applauded!  I guess if their parents won't teach them manners someone has to and I won't hesitate.

2 minutes ago, staceyglow said:

They make way more money than $5 - $10 per person on the extra charges.  If they did that and then umbrellas were free, there wouldn't be enough of them for everyone who would want one, and then there would be threads griping about that.

 

At least this way people are paying for what they really want and not paying for the things they don't.

$5.00 extra per 4,000 passengers is $20,000.  Renting 50 umbrellas at $80 for a port call is only $4,000.  I do see your point about the griping, although it seems there is a lot of griping about everything these days.  Ex ~ sailing on Disney, if you want to do a special event like a Princess Tea you have to book it in advance and it's first come, first serve, but people always complain if they don't book in time.  Unfortunately it's the world we live in these days.

2 minutes ago, Elaine5715 said:

If you are in the same stateroom, you can board with the highest VIFP.  You always get the status increase on the first day if you turn during the cruise.

Yes, he boarded with me on several cruises before he turned Platinum.

1 minute ago, staceyglow said:

If they can get $80 for two chairs and an umbrella while still charging me rock bottom prices for my cruise fare, I am all for it.

Truthfully, I'd rather see them raise the fare $5.00 - $10.00 per person and just stop nickel and diming.

I turned Platinum a few cruises ago but my husband was gold.  He was allowed to board with me.  On this past cruise this month he was going to turn Platinum sometime during the sailing so they gave him the new status at the beginning of the sailing.