richmke

If you want to be first on, then keep the time slot. If you want to minimize the wait, then get a 2:00 pm time slot.

If you show up towards the end of the 10:30-11:00 time slot, you should have one of the earliest boarding numbers. But, you might need to wait until Noon or later to board. Ideally, they start boarding Priority People around 11:30 before they get to you.

Note: You can always show up after your time slot, but not earlier. So, you might want to keep the time slot, with the real decision being when do you want to go. Maybe show up around Noon. By then, they should have started boarding, and with staggered check-in, the lines should be reasonable.

I used the Sign and Sail card. I suppose that someone who found my card could get into the Cabin, and then the Safe. But, the cabin number is not on the card.

I can't comment on the ships or the ports but ...

I just got off our first cruise, a 7-day cruise with 4 ports. That gives you 2 sea days. Depending upon what you do at each port, that can be tiring.

8 Days and 4 ports will give you 3 sea days.

Assuming you just got married when you take the cruise (vs. a delayed honeymoon), you may want the extra downtime after the wedding.

Comparing the 2 ships side by side on carnival.com, the Magic is 20% bigger, and has more to offer. IMHO, food on Carnival is ok, but I would not go out of my way for it. So, more food choice on Magic is not a factor. I loved the Alchemy Bar (mixed drinks), but I would easily give up the bar for an extra day. Everything else seems to be close enough.

Congrats. If this is the hardest decision you have to make, you are doing well.

We are just trying to figure out if it is a big pain to try and put all your luggage on the shuttle with everybody else.

Just did it, and yes, the luggage space fills up quickly. Better to drop your luggage off first.

Also, with your bags in the back, they might get accidentally unloaded with other passengers at an earlier stop.

Note: It does add 15-20 minutes to drop your bags first, and then drive out to the car rental place.

It cost me $50 to rent a car from FLL to Port-of-Miami with Budget.

Drove from HLL to the Hotel, Hotel had free parking, and then from Hotel to Port of Miami.

We would like to rent from Enterprise in Atlanta Ga and drop off the next day at the Enterprise at Miami Airport prior to boarding the ship. Is this possible?

All the major rental car websites allow you to specify the pick-up and drop-off locations. Try the Port of Miami as a drop-off location.

I understand, hubby and I can take one bottle of wine each on board.

One bottle, no larger than 750ml

So, if they see one bottle of wine in my checked luggage, they will let it pass?

No. Bottle must be hand carried on. Bottles found in checked bags will be removed.

How do they deal with boxed wine?

Not allowed because:

1) It is not a bottle.

2) Boxed wine is typically larger than 750ml (usually 3 750ml bottles worth).

So, I could, but I know I shouldn't, put one bottle in my carry on and one in my checked suitcase?

No, because not allowed in checked suitcase.

The book is $25, and it is available from the "Personal Shopper" on the cruise. I forgot what the book was called, but they had coupons for some of the stores in most of the ports.

Basically, the Personal Shopper is employed by an advertising agency. The shops pay to advertise through the agency, and the Personal Shopper promotes those stores. the main stores are: Diamonds International, Tanzanite, Del Sol (color changing clothing), place that sells sheets made of bamboo, and some of the gift shops.

For the most part, the shops in the ports were the same. The gift shops were a little different.

I have no experience, but if I were Carnival ...

When the category sells out, then I know what rooms are left over for assignment. That could be months ahead for a high demand time, or a week ahead for a low-demand time.

Maybe keep a few cabins unassigned for cancellations.

A lot of responses presumes the passenger knows what to do. When you are a first time traveler, you have no idea what to expect. I was a first time traveler last week, I drove myself to the dock, and it never occurred to me to look up at the ship for its name. I was looking all around the terminal itself, and saw nothing. The signage may be a lot better coming out of the tunnel, but when we drove, we came across the bridge and never went through a tunnel.

Also, the table mates DID ASK THE BAGGAGE HANDLER IF THEY WERE DROPPING THE BAGS AT THE RIGHT SHIP. The handler confirmed they were at the right dock and took their bags. The handler did NOT LOOK AT THE CARNIVAL TAG to confirm that the bags were tagged for the correct ship. IMHO, the baggage handler was 100% at fault. The Passenger did not blindly leave the bags, but made an affirmative inquiry. The Baggage Handler did not provide the correct information that should have been known by the Baggage Handler.

For those who think bombs are easy to detect: you don't need electronics and dense explosives for a WMD.

I do agree that when they arrived at the dock for check-in, and realized they dropped bags at the wrong dock, they should have notified the check-in person right away. However, consider this: Due to delays, it took them more than 1 hour from when they dropped their bags to when they arrived for check-in. Good luck in trying to find the bags at that point.

Finally, the Baggage Handler is an agent for Carnival. The Baggage Handler may not be directly employed by Carnival, but they are indirectly employed by Carnival. I don't care how many companies removed the Baggage Handler is from Carnival. Carnival could contract with Ports-R-Us -> Port of Miami -> Docks-R-Us-Management-Company -> Bags-R-Us -> Employment-Agency -> Temp-Agency -> Long-Shoreman-Union ... Carnival is contracting with the Port for the dock and services. The services being provided to Carnival's Customers is thus an Agent of Carnival. Carnival has to hold those service providers to a certain level of expectations. Carnival is the only one who can demand that the Agents perform at a minimal level. If it is not part of the Baggage Handler's job description to know which ship he is loading, it should be. Maybe the guy who is pushing around the cart could care less, but the guys who interact with the passengers should know.

>*Look* - can anyone tell me what I have to insure?

You insure what you can't afford to loose. IMHO, it is pretty expensive to insure $1,500 of trip cost. If you had to loose it, would it really "hurt" you?

What I am getting at is: Medical.

Most regular health insurance policies you have through work do not cover outside the United States (or whatever your home country is). If you have an accident or illness in a foreign country, the costs can be huge. That is a low probability, high cost event. Exactly what you want to insure - something you can't afford to pay, and is relatively inexpensive to insure.

As of March 2, 2016, the limit is $50 drinks.

but people should be able to see what ship is where and where they are dropping their bags off at. :eek:

There are no signs that I could see. You could tell which dock you were at, but I never say a sign saying which ship was at that dock.

When we dropped off our bags (I had a rental car), I remembered Dock E from looking it up on the POM site. I never saw a sign that said the Glory was at that dock. I asked 3 persons (2 were directing traffic, and the porter) if this was the Glory. Since I got the same response from all of them, I felt fairly confident.

Only when I returned on the Car Rental Shuttle did I see the electronic sign at the entrance that showed for 1 second which terminal the Glory was docked on.

I definitely feel it is a lack of signage at the dock, and lack of caring by the Porters, that caused the problem.

Entertainment was good. There were 4 main stage productions in the Amber Palace, and 4 comedians (2 at a time) in the smaller lounges.

On the last day, they premiered Epic Rock. It was a good show of rock songs from the 70's and 80's. Very high energy. They must have been exhausted. I recommend that one. Motor City (Motown) was also good. We missed Latin Nights. Divas was so-so. Maybe because we didn't know their songs, nor care for them.

Unfortunately, the entertainment was on the first two, and last two nights of the trip. Leaving the 3 middle days void of any significant entertainment. I wished they could have scheduled the main stage and comedians on different nights so there was a show every night.

I just got off the Glory, and we were in Belize last Wednesday.

We had a Carnival booked Excursion, and everyone with a Carnival excursion was put onto the first tender.

However, I recall seeing two tender boats. The Excursion Boat was right under the Amber Palace Theater. A second tender boat was loading farther back. I'm guessing that the 2nd tender boat was taking priority and other non-excursion passengers.

I'm guessing that each boat could hold 200+ people.

When we checked in for the Glory last week (before staggered boarding), there was a line on the West side of the building (by the van/bus drop off are) for all "regular" people to line up for Security. The door on the South Side of the Building (the faces the roadway) was for priority people to enter. They had an expedited security line.

Once you get past security, you go up stairs, and there are greeters that direct you to the correct line (short priority line, or long regular line) for check-in.

If you buy liquor from the duty free shops on the first cruise, you will have them in your room for the second cruise. But no monetary incentives otherwise.

Interesting option. If you book the same cabin on both cruises, you can claim your alcohol at 6:30 am, and store them in your cabin. Tip the cabin steward to not clean under the bed.

We sat in the MDR with a couple that drove down to Miami. Carnival's signage in Port of Miami is very poor. All I saw was one sign on the way in that told you which ship was in which dock. If you missed that scrolling sign, you were SOL.

The couple ended up at Dock D, whereas our ship was at Dock E. They asked the baggage handler if it was the Glory, and the guy said "yes" and took their clearly labeled bags - You know, the tags Carnival gives you that has your ship, sailing date, and Cabin number.

They went to park their car, and when the shuttle dropped them off, they suspected a problem.

Well, the bags ended up on an 8-day cruise on the Breeze, vs a 7-day cruise on the Glory. It took Carnival until Monday for the Breeze to acknowledge that the bags were on the Breeze. Then Carnival told them they would not be able to get their bags until Sunday, when the Breeze returns to Miami.

As far as we know, Carnival never "owned" the problem, and said it was the passenger's fault. The couple did get a few token things like a 20% discount in the ship's store to buy some clothes, free laundry, and a free bottle of wine. I know the Cruise Contract says that Carnival is not responsible for luggage until Carnival has the luggage "on board". Since "on board" is never defined ... well, the bags ended up "on board" of the "wrong ship".

I understand that dock workers are not "employees" of Carnival, but they are hired by Carnival to handle the bags for Carnival. As such, they are Agents for Carnival. If I were a lawyer, I would sue Carnival and the Port of Miami, and let the Defendents work out the liability between themselves.

If Carnival never "owns" the problem, then they have no incentive to keep the problem from happening again and again and again. The Dock worker wants their tip, and could care less if the bags are for the right ship or not. Maybe the passenger bill of rights should be expanded to include luggage handling by AGENTS of the Cruse Line. Carnival can always claim it is the other guy's fault. Let's say a bag is lost when you disembark. Who's fault is it? Carnival's or the Port's? Carnival will claim they gave the bag to the Port, and the Port will claim they never received the bag. How can a passenger prove anything?

Carnival should also put electronic signs everywhere on the Dock letting people know which ship is docked there. Just like you see an Airline's sign everywhere at an airline terminal where you drop off/pick up passengers.

We pre-ordered 12 bottles of water, and brought on 2-12 packs of pop.

We only went through 1/2 the pop, but we got the pop we wanted, and still cheaper than buying from Carnival. We left the extra pop for the Cabin Steward.

The 12 bottles would not have lasted the entire 7-days. However, I refilled them with water from the Lido Deck. The bottles were nice for having in the cabin, and for taking on excursions (along with the pop).

I would call the food "decent" with few outstanding items - Chocolate Melting Cake.

I tried all the free dining on the ship. Guy's Burgers were ok. Burgers were too flat and overlooked. I would have preferred a thicker, juicer, patty. Fries were good, but Checkers fries are better. The burrito, deli, and pizza places were ok too.

The Main Dining Room had a nice choice. I made an effort to order things I would not normally order - Frog legs, rabbit, ox tongue, etc. I figured if I did not like it, I could always order something else, or get something at the buffet/pizza place.

Execution at the MDR could have been better. Ice Cream that came with a dessert was usually partially melted, although orders of ice cream only was fine. Some appetizers came out warm instead of hot. Basically, the food was assembly line, rather than much care given to each plate.

On the whole, desserts and pastries were disappointing. The Amaretto Chocolate Cake lacked any Amaretto flavor. Although the pastries are made fresh daily, they still lacked flakiness and tasted like what you would buy in the grocery store. Everything looked nice, it just didn't taste as good as it looked.

I highly recommend the late seating (other than families with young children). You can always grab a snack on the buffet to tide you over. In those situations, look at the MDR menu, then go to the buffet. Many of the MDR dishes are on the buffet. So, you can sample on the buffet to help you to decide what you want to order when you are in the MDR. Late seating makes the day much more relaxing.

The next time we cruise, the food will be less of an "event" and more of grabbing something to eat. I will eat what I am in the mood for, instead of wanting to experience it.

We did regular debarkation, and were Assigned Group 2. We were off the ship and at the Airport by 9:30. Oddly enough, the longest wait was after going through the Ship's security with the Sign and Sail Card, we creeped along on Deck 3 under the Life Boats to get to the single line gangway to cross onto shore. Customs had lots of lines, and moved relatively quickly.

Walking through the hallways the night before, I saw tags as high as Group 32. I'm guessing that since we had an "early" flight (12:30), we were assigned an early group. We were never offered the Luggage Express option, which was fine since we needed to put stuff in the checked bag before giving it to the airline.

Just returned from our first cruise, and it was very enjoyable.

We had Cabin 1418 on the Riviera Deck. It is an Ocean View on the Port side. I was initially concerned about noise since it was at the base of the Elevators. With the distance from the elevators (inside cabin, crew passage) noise was not a problem.

The cabin location is great. For the morning coffee runs, short walk to elevators, quick ride up to the Lido deck, drink station right around the corner (or coffee bar if you want to purchase more expensive brews). the same elevator bank takes you to the entrance of the aft MDR's (Decks 3 and 4), and entertinament loungs on Deck 5. The only long walk is when you want to go forward for the shows or disembark/embark.

The cabin has a good size window (about 4 feet across) that you can look out while sitting in bed. I liked being close to the water line:

1) You can see the wake and waves up close;

2) The ship lightes are a nice Night Light

Enrique, the cabin steward was awesome. I tiped him $20 when we arrived, and gave him a list of requests (wine glasses, ice, empty the mini bar, etc). Nothing unusual. He kept the cabin nice and tidy. I read some comments about having to select morning or evening service. We never recieved that card, and were serviced both in the mornings and evenings. We left him another tip at the end of the cruise.

I did get to peak into an inside cabin. Other than the view, the main difference is OV's have a couch and coffee table. The couch can serve as a 3rd bed. The extra space was nice.

We may try a balcony in the future (especially for a cruise with lots of sea days, or for a Panama Canal Cruise), and can't justify the cost of a suite (unless we were travling with the kids). Otherwise, the OV on a low deck is perfect for us.

Just got off the Glory. On the 2nd Elegant Night, there was a Filet/Short Rib combo.

That's a big assumption to make that a 240v socket will only provide 110v if you use 2 of the vertical holes. Are you sure that is the case, or was it that your laptop power adapter down converted the voltage? Many laptops are dual power capable, whereas any other item plugged into this outlet may immediately burn up. Since Carnival includes no label or information that this outlet provides anything other than 240 volts, no one should be surprised to lose their 110v electronics by plugging them in without a proper voltage converter.

The socket is 220v. My point was that I did not need an adapter. My electronics are dual voltage.

By any chance are you confusing the head waiter with the MD? Usually have head waiter and two assistants. Easier to just leave the auto tips on and hand cash to those that deserve it.

Definitely not the the MD. Usually there were 2 assistant waiters, and I occasionally saw a third. Maybe the 3rd was from another table and helped occasionally.

We have auto tips on. I was wondering if I should give more. Seems like not.