Justinetime2cruise

I would hope CC is working with Carnival to fine tune the M&M so more people would find out about. Cudos to both if this is happening. .

I would suggest that if you want to meet..make your own plans..we got no email or anything in the fun times. We wore leis and I found somebody that way at embarkation

Dont be sorry make your own before you go.

That's what it sounds like - I looked at my email from my Freedom cruise & it just said it would be listed in the Fun Times - no mention of an invitation. I never saw it in the Fun Times, although someone on CC reported it was only on the printed version, not the app version, which explains why I missed it. Maybe they have heard the complaints & decided to use invitations now. Have fun!

I would hope CC is working with Carnival to fine tune the M&M so more people would find out about. Cudos to both if this is happening. .

Just off the Pride today..one word..Awesome!! We LOVED him, funny..witty, energetic, would see us at events and talk to us as well as everyone! Ylu will ne a lucky person if you get the chance..made an impression on us, only one other one did that to me in many cruises, that man is John Heald..says a lot huh?

We've had friends that waited to buy liquor bottles on board and it took quite a while to deliver. They did order on the first day so everyone was busy with other things. It's so much easier to just order a couple of weeks before you go and it's in your cabin when you arrive to get the party started.

 

We buy cheers now though and drink only high end spirits at home and on vacation. There's a patron that is $25 a shot and a high end run for about the same - sounds better than bacardi to me! lol

 

We definitely get a good value with cheers with energy drinks and grey goose or higher quality spirits in our drinks. If you drink a bunch of the on special frozen ones or the $7 drinks, you might struggle to get value. Our drinks average about $10 each so it works for us.

Did you get the Patron and the Rum in Alchemy. Heard there is Pyrat rum that is 25 dollars a shot..not sure which bar, I would imagine it's alchemy unless it's in David's.

Yes it is, does anybody know anything about him?

Okay, just seen that Steve Schwartz is the cruise director for our upcoming cruise on the Pride, anybody know anything about him?

Can you get drinks from the steakhouse bar when you are not eating there?

We love a near empty ship to just relax .

I am looking forward to this at Cape Canaveral..been a few times, did everything except coco beach. Think we are staying on, never did it before but you might be able to get a drink faster and use our Cheers, and get in the pools and hot tubs without too much problems.

Awesome review, props to you for keeping track of them all! LOL i wanted to try to take a picture of every drink I consume when we cruise next month as a way for me to track. Thanks for posting!

Good idea!!

Nevermind A_Sea_Bug I found where you saw your info as well. After speaking with IT support for the carnivalgiftcards.com they are going to remove the info from both places on the web site. It is incorrect. The Cheers FAQs web site info is correct. It says: Currently, we are not able to process the Carnival Gift Card for Fun Shop orders. If you wish to purchase CHEERS! with a Carnival Gift Card, you may do so onboard. This is the link for their info. https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1106

 

I dont want anyone else wasting their time trying to call. I have invested about 1 1/2 hrs calling in multiple times and speaking with different people hoping to get a different answe but sadly everyone is saying the same when I call so don't bother trying

I actually called them just to find out if I could use a gift card over the phone for Cheers, the guy said oh yes you can. Thank goodness, I called a few days later to ask again (because I seen people saying you could not) and she told me no that you could use them on the ship when you board only. So it tells me either he was not listening to me...or he just assumed and did not know.

Seen Gentleman's Jack on the list.

Well thank you for your replies never did it before on a cruise just wanted to make it a little suprise for my sons birthday..nothing too crazy just minimal, guess I am overthinking it. I have to agree there are so many other things on the ship to cause a fire..sounds like it's a door issue, going to try with command..if they take it oh well then. They are decorating the inside ON his birthday.

What kinds of items or crafting items are considered fire resistant for door deco? Not much info on it anywhere.

When I buy something, such as a mattress, that has one of those tags that says "Do not remove under penalty of law", I remove it. And if I see a sign that says "Wet paint. Do not touch.", I touch it. And I have been known to wear white after Labor Day. Yes indeed. I'm a rebel. :D

Lol..I always have to laugh at the cruisers who think they are "the cruise police"..no matter what you say they think it is their job to smack your wrist. Maybe they own part of the ship..Carnival will let you know if you are wrong and if need be will take a non legal item..thank you for trying to be helpful..but somtimes to me it just seems like bossiness if it is not a danger. 😘

Thanks for posting these!! Not our itinerary this time but still a lot of useful information. One thing I did not see (or maybe just missed) is where it shows you what the dress code is each evening? Are there two "dress up nights"?

This is our itinerary on the 26th..so this is a big help..thank you!!

Sure does, we are sailing on the Pride. I will take some command strips..thanks! 😉

Can you tell me if the outside doors are magnetic, never decorated our door before, but my son's 16th birthday will happen while we are cruising and I would like to make it extra special. Dont know if I should use magnets or tape. Thanks in advance for any info!

Yes, Don Julio at many bars and my favorite also. My last 3 cruises were Sunshine,Liberty & Legend and all had it.

Awesome news..thank you!

Does carnival offer this at any of the bars?

I am thinking that maybe they didn't research, and I am sure Carnival don't want us drinking the most expensive stuff if they don't have to. I seen another post somewhere on here stating that they have Pyrat Rum cask 1623 that was $25.00 a shot, not sure what bar. I don't know if it is true but I am sure going to find out! I will be drinking a lot of Patron too.. ;)

Miami Vice

 

I love these too from the first time years ago cruising on Carnival...make them at home and when we rent a house on the beach for everyone...they are a winner! These all sound sooo good, just hope I can drop some lbs before then so I can really indulge. ;)

Well, darn, I'm sorry I didn't see it. Maybe that was the day I had the fish bowl at Red Frog!

Need to know what this is and what is in it "the Fishbowl"...sounds kinda interesting.;)

Is there confirmation of this? Has someone actually called and paid for CHEERS! with gift cards?

Why don't you just give them a call?

So for roughly the last year I have been gradually saving Carnival Gift Cards. My intention was to use that money to pay for the Cheers. With the new changes to Cheers, I have to pre-order or spend more on board. At this time, I cannot pre-order online and pay with gift cards. Does anyone know if I can pre-order and pay with gift cards by phone? I have talked to others on FB groups who said this was an issue, but nobody has talked to anyone from Carnival yet. If I can't, I can't. I'll just put that $$ towards something else onboard, but I'd like to use it towards Cheers as I can't see spending that much on anything else.

Yes you can, you must call Carnival and they will help you that way with your gift cards, I had the same exact question the other day and called them to ask this question before I go buy my gift cards. Enjoy!!

Camp Carnival: Like I said earlier, we chose this cruise b/c of Camp Carnival. In general, on the sea days the kids went for a couple of hours during the day, and then at night from about 8-10. They enjoyed the pool and splash park - but at their age, it lasted about an hour or so and then they had nothing else to do. They loved it camp though! The staff was so nice and they had many activities for them to do. Each night was a different theme and they did crafts, played games, etc. It was very secure in that you pre-register online and you can delegate several people to pick up and drop off the kids. They get a nametag to wear all week with their name, age, and muster station. They also give you a cell phone so they can call you if there is an issue. I never needed to use it though. My son is 5 ½ and my daughter is 2 ½ - so my son was just on the border of the 6 year old group. Luckily he is a “young” 5 so he liked the games and he liked being with his sister. If your kid is more mature or has older siblings, I’m not sure they would enjoy it. At one point they let my son play with the video games that were in the older section and he asked to go into that section at night and they told him no. The staff was super nice and best of all there were lots of kids in there - sometimes at resorts and stuff they have these programs but no one goes, so they aren't as much fun. There were always kids in there and that made a huge difference.

 

We missed the Dr. Seuss parade b/c the kids were swimming at that time.

 

The kids did the Teddy Bear Workshop, which is a scaled down version of Build-a-Bear. I had read about this on here or I would have had no idea what it was. There were only a couple of families there. The kid chooses an animal, and you get the whole package (stuffing, a little star to put inside, a cardboard “house”, a Carnival tee shirt for the animal and a birth certificate). You have to stuff it yourself though – there is no machine. This was my kids’ cruise souvenir and they loved it. My son picked a blue owl and my daughter a monkey. The total for both was $39 and I think it was totally worth it.

 

My “improvements” for camp carnival – I don’t know why Carnival designed the ship like this, but on the Pride, the camp is on the 5th floor all the way at the front of the ship. It's a LOONG walk from some places - like the dining room. With so many kids walking there, i feel like it should have been more central. It’s a small area, dark, and there really isn’t much stuff there. Luckily, the teachers were great, so they kept the kids entertained. But it certainly wasn’t a big playroom with lots of stuff. At night, if you leave the kids after 10 there is a charge. They usually just had the kids laying down on a blanket with pillows watching a movie. This was actually my son's favorite part and he liked being the last picked up.

 

I think there is HUGE opportunity to make this space more attractive and fun. I actually think this could be a big money-maker for Carnival. I would have been more than happy to pay more for extra activities that they did with the kids – stuff beyond generic arts and crafts. I would have expected more unique activities – it was essentially just a daycare center. I would also suggest that they provide food for the kids. Sometimes my kids wanted to stay longer, but I had to feed them so they were forced to leave – which lead to crying and screaming and me forcing them to eat. If the camp had some sandwiches or snacks, it would have been enough. I know there are allergy issues, but there has to be a way.

 

Pixels Pictures: I’ll start by saying that I spent $450 on pictures and that I’m slightly obsessed with pictures in general (although I don’t even own more than my iPhone camera). My mom and MIL also spent a ton of $ on pictures. Even though I think they can make this so much better, I'm glad they had it and I love my pics. I’ll also say that this entire process was wayyy too painful and time-consuming and stressful. I took my first cruise on Celebrity 20 years ago and the photo process back then was the exact same process in place by Carnival today.

 

The good: there were photographers everywhere, which I loved. They took posed photos every night, you could always find a photographer if you were looking for one. That’s about the only good stuff I have to say.

 

The bad: They were expensive ($22 for a 8x10), they print out all the pictures and put them out on the walls for you to search and find. It’s fine if you take 1 photo and can go look for your 1 photo. But we took soooo many that I don’t even know if I saw all of ours. I also think that the photography was very 20 years ago – it was just traditional backdrop photography. Some of the backdrops were sooo corny.

 

The ugly: After I found my pictures and put them into a pile, they wouldn’t hold them for me in one spot so I could wait until the end of the cruise to select. I tried putting them in an bottom corner, but they were moved - so I had to go searching all over again. I was livid.

My other issue with the pictures was that there was always a line to pay or no one around. When you did pay, you were supposed to get a free gift depending on how many photos you bought. This was inconsistent depending on whom you were paying. I wanted to get my pics on a CD (they don’t do that) or a USB – which they only do after you buy 10 photos and charge you $1 per photo. I only learned of that the last night of the cruise b/c someone told my MIL and I had to go and get all the photos that I had packed out of my room and drop it off to them within 10 minutes of them closing. It was a disaster.

 

The photos are probably my biggest room for improvement in the entire cruise – Royal Caribbean uses the facial recognition technology so you don’t have to search for all of them. Disney gives you the card so that all of your pictures are together. Its 2016 – everyone offers digital photos and the ability to edit them or make them a different size. I’m actually surprised Carnival is so behind the times on this one.

The new Vista is now doing digital photos, about time..would be nice if you could get a cheap package and on cd then print them yourself at home.