Mklbee

This is awesome! Thanks for the info.

On 11/29/2023 at 3:49 PM, jam19872016 said:

I'm 0-3 so far at catching an afternoon nap but I'm going to try again!

So nervous that Ill drink that tall drink, you cant even get a little shut eye!?

Thanks for the responses. 

5 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

Now that @Mklbee has finished my drink for me, I'm heading off to the walking track. 

🤣 Should have tip toed over and drank it while you took a nap !!😆😇

5 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

So is that what has happened here 🤔 

 

Ha!!!! (BURP !!!)

YEP !!

Your updates are making me so anxious to sail on the Magic in 2 weeks! I want to grab a few of the drinks in the pictures and run to a corner and drink them up..... then put the empty glass back in another picture !! 🤣😆😇

Also, thanks for the football update.

NIce reports!! Were you able to watch any NFL while on the ship?

Huge Football fan here. Ive cruise on XL Ships and love how every game can be seen near the Pig and Anchor spot on the 7th deck. Ive never cruised during football season since 2015, until now. Ill be on the Magic from Dec 16th to Dec 30th. Does anyone know if the games will be shown and if so, where? On the second leg of the cruise, we will be at Grand Turk on Sunday. Im wondering if games be on on the ship while at port? If not, Ill get Premium WIFI and try to watch the games.

Thanks

1 hour ago, csm5986142 said:

Thank you for the good and bad news.  We are on the Spirit out of Seattle in a few months (Panama Canal itenerary) and I'm dreading the Seattle port experience.  I think we will arrive later in the day to hopefully avoid the crowd/chaos (it's the one port we can drive to).  

I agree that it is a good idea to check your account frequently (on all of the ships).  We were on the Dream recently and were charged nearly $100 at Bonsai Sushi (and we never went there).  Initially guest services kind of gave us a hard time asking if we could have bought drinks/food anywhere near the restaurant (kept questioning us if it could possibly be our charges and we weren't remembering).  Finally, I asked what time the charges were made - the representative looked it up and realized it had only happened 20 minutes prior.  Then as we were standing there, more charges appeared.  She then contacted Bonsai Sushi and asked them to figure out what was going on.  I've never eaten there, but apparently people can write their folio number on a slip of paper and that is the account that gets charged?  That is how they explained it anyway.  It took about 45 minutes but the charges did get removed.

 

Yeah, I don't think that they make purchase mistakes intentionally, but we all want it correct. I really do believe that Carnival wants it done correctly regardless if the amount is is $20 in my favor or $5 in theirs.

Our waiter said that his terminal / register wasn't working, so someone else rung it up on on their register. We wound up getting charged twice. Quickly admitted the mistake once it was brought to their attention, but was not corrected. In their defense, they were extremely busy.

14 minutes ago, Buffalobills said:

Thank you for posting about the Port Valet! I was worried what to do with my luggage after the cruise with a late flight. I’m wondering if this is something I need to do ahead of time like the other cruise lines or just wait 

I’m also glad there is a naturalist on board too. 
Did you have to tender the Skagway port? If you don’t mind which excursions did you take? This will be my first time to Alaska and I leave June 26 so thanks again for sharing ..

 

We did not need to tender anywhere on this cruise. I did hear about a port that had so many ships that one ship had to tender the passengers in. We didn't have that experience.

Just some observations of our latest trip on the Carnival Spirit to Alaska (also stopping at Victoria B.C. in Canada.

  - The port of Seattle is a mess in my opinion. No porters to take your bags. You need to find a porter and hope that its the right one.

  - The help at the port tries their best, but there is very little to make me feel comfortable leaving my bag.

  -During the NBA Championship game, Carnival put the game on the cabin TVs. I've never seen that before.

  -The food was surprisingly good everywhere.

  -The food for the brunch was a bit slow...at least an hour and 30 minutes

  -The "seaday" was the actual 2nd day we had and the day we stopped at Victoria was also counted as a seaday. The day at Tracy Arm Fjord was not.

  -The sights to see are very nice. You can sit out on your balcony or Lido and sight see all trip.

  -There is a Nature expert on board that tells you when they see Whales, Orcas, Bears or seals.

  -If you are familiar with Soul Play, you will need to register as soon as possible to get in. When you get the Hub running, sign in!

     (Soul Play is a painting / arts and crafts class that is pretty fun. If you like painting. It is also free.)

  -The shows where good. Epic Rock, my wife adored. The other shows my wife thought were good as well.

  - Double check your account during your stay. The restaurant made a mistake and charged me twice for a drink. They were told about it, said they would fix it, and didn't get too it. They were very busy. Had to go to Guest Services to get it looked at again. Still not fixed. I'm calling Carnival in the morning to follow up.

  - The cabin stewards really are busy. The days are gone where they know your name before you get on the ship.  - Used Port Valet on this trip. I was told that it was Carnivals 2nd week using it in years. I received the Valet paperwork day 4, and on the 6th morning I had the airline tickets and luggage bag tags on my mailbox. 

  - My wife and I spent time at Seattle's Fish Market and Aquarium before taking the light rail to the airport. That train ride was about 35 minutes. The train is not fast at all.

  - We waited in the security line at the airport for nearly 2 hours on a Tuesday morning. Long line. Glad we went to the airport early.

My mother has a medication pump inserted in her side to relief pain from cancer and has issues with the detectors that do the magnetic check ( where you stand and put your hands up) . After she leaves the magnetic type sensors, she says that her pump programming changes. I don't know, I cant tell of course. She is fine with the walk through metal detectors. Does anyone know what type of detectors Seattle cruise port uses?

When I was on the Mardi Gras in November, EVERY game was on in the Pig and Anchor area. They had signs over each TV letting you know what game would be on on that television. 

On 7/26/2022 at 2:38 PM, PaperSniper4 said:

We will be on a Celebrity ship which I understand docks at the International Pier. Can anyone tell me how to get from there to Margaritaville? I have a 12 year T-Shirt that desperately needs to be replaced!😮

 

Doug

It will be very easy. As soon as you walk off the ship, you'll see Margaritaville.

Oh, we love Pancho's Backyard. Have eaten there so many times, we just wanted to change it up.

There is what looks like an entrance that is maybe 20 yards from the Carnival port. There was a guard there and he said that there was no entrance to the Independence port from that location. About another quarter of a mile was a larger entrance. I showed my Sail N Sign card but I'm not sure that I had to. The ladies at the gate just waved us in.

Bubba Gump Shrimp was very closed while we were there. It was buttoned up like it may be closed for good.

My wife and I did walk to a second entrance to access the port area just north of the Carnival port site. That port had different places to eat (Margaritaville, Senor Frogs, Bubba Gump Shrimp) and that's the main reason we went....was to eat at a different place. 

I'm not really a shopper, but my wife was very happy with the deals she found in the mall area at the 'other" port.

 I really appreciate the comments on this board and decided to contribute a short review.

My wife and I drove to Mobile for a 5 day cruise to Costa Maya and Cozumel. We have been to both before, but as many know, Carnival has been offering great deals and we decided to take this one. The Ecstasy is a small ship. You can literally get from one end to the other in about 45 seconds or so. We stayed on the 11 deck (Verandah) which allowed us to take the stairs most of the cruise.

In Costa Maya we walked the entire area "window shopping" and then took the port bird tour. You feed the birds the provided bird seeds and walk across the Indiana Jones looking bridges. My wife and I enjoyed that. It took us about 45 minutes or so to complete. We ate at El Fero (the restaurant by the ocean and dolphin excursion), and the food was decent. I think I had grilled lobster the first time I ate there. This time it was not on the menu. So we settled for shrimp tacos and Chips and salsa. Had a 'yard' of Margarita that was buzz-less.🤪. I cut my wife loose to shop while I sipped on a beer and then we made the trek back to the ship.

Once we arrived in Cozumel, we decided to walk over to the International port next door tp Puerta Maya, the Carnival port. We walked out and turned left. A the first guard shack the guard told us the we were not allowed to walk in. My wife and I kept walking, and we walked to another entrance and we were allowed to walk into the port. Only a Disney ship was there at the time, and the port was pretty dead. We ate inside the International port at Mandys Snack Bar. I tried the Octopus Tacos and they were good. The margarita I drank had more 'octane' than the one at El Fero. My wife found nice bargain's on the inside mall area of the port, so we stayed for a while. I intended to eat at Bubba Gump Shrimp, but it was closed. A little bit more shopping back in the original port. I pull up at the 3 Amigos to relax before returning to the ship.

On the ship, we had a decent time, but there was not a ton to do on this smaller ship really. During the trivia, there was a couple that won about 10 contests by the 3rd day. They were accused of using their cell phones during the trivia. I'm not sure if they were or not, but it was kind of funny that they wanted to win that bad. The trivia is always kind of fun to me. Doesn't seem like it would be mush fun looking up the answers. The guy running the trivia said he would be making sure folks didnt use their cell phones by the 4th day. All of a sudden, other folks started winning trivia 🤔

Other observations

Decent Pros

Took $800 to gamble and walked off the ship with $765. Really wiped out in Blackjack and Video Poker, but hit $660 on the 4th day.

Beautiful weather

Cruise director Chris was one of the best

Mobile is an easy port to get in and out of

Comedian was super funny John Wesley Austin I think is his name. Some of the corniest cowboy type jokes. I literally laughed out loud.

Small Cons

Itinerary was lacking a little bit. No arts and crafts, No band the last 3 days.

Carnival hub did not work for first 2 days. Caused confusion 'registering for meals' and planning the day.

Very rocky ship. Not too much of an issue for me, but if you're sensitive to boat rocking you may want motion sickness medication

No specialty restaurants. 

There are not any refrigerators on board ( I think the suites had them). So if you're platinum , your chocolate delights will melt !!😝

Gotcha. I think we will give it a shot anyway. We are fans of Margaritaville. We've been to Cozumel 4 times and have never looked into going to the International side.

Thanks for the info

No. My wife is interested in different shops and restaurants. I wanted to make sure it was allowed. Thanks for your response.

Can you simply walk over to the Royal Caribbean port from The carnival port?

Thanks

While I was checking in last night, I saw that the children can enroll in child camps. Does this mean that the children camps are open?

While I was checking in last night, I saw that the children can enroll in child camps. Does this mean that the children camps are open?

I have receive a lot of great info from this forum. So I wanted to share a little as well. I dont write as well as most of you, but I did want to share some info about the cruise my wife and I just enjoyed on th Carnival Breeze. Im going to put the comments in 'bullet' form to make things go faster.

Our ride with Carnival was pretty bad. The ride from Houston Hobby to the ship took 45 minutes. From Harborside Dr. to the ship took 45 minutes.

  Later talking to Texas residence onboard, they said checking in early is bad, but late check in (12:30 to 1:30) is great.

Guys Bergers seemed bigger, and still great

You can begin the muster drill with your boarding pass

Steakhouse was ok. Not as nice as I remember but still good.

The Steakhouse would not let us take the cheesecake (desert) to our room as takeout. So that was a bummer. By the way, dinner took around 1.5 hrs.

In room ice is by request only

If you are VIP Red or above, the 1.5 liter of water is no longer delivered to your room, you have to go to the bar to get it. but they wont tell you. LOL.

Lemonade was GREATLY improved

FunTimes is on the HUB, but a generic one is available at the coffee shop.

The music channell on TV played some rated R music (midle finger , f word, ect at 8 am. No problem for me, just mentioning it

Drinks on Us was FAST and the drinks were STRONG

Movie selection was not very good, but not really Carnivals fault

Progresso is officially my least favorite port now. Automatic weapons armed ,military walking around, and not as accomodating as other ports

Our Salsa, Guacamole , Margarita excursion started 1.5 hr late. They had big problems, but we still had a decent time.

Didnt find the smoke free casino annex (on 4th deck) until Monday

Young kids wearing masks was not enforced. The Cruise Director brought unmasked little ones on stage with him, so maybe its not very much enforced. We are vaccinated so I didnt really care 

Cozumel was great again. Just stayed at port and eat ate Pablos Backyard. Food was great drinks ok. A little pricey, but good.

The play Flick was pretty good.