Eli_6

Actually, I will say that the ONLY real benefit I can see out of FTTF is the shorter line at guest services. I forgot about that detail because we never needed GS on our cruise...but the regular line for GS was always ridiculously long.

Yes, and yes. I saw it still for sale on my most recent cruise a few days before debark. Not sure exactly when they stopped selling it. With that said, I just got off of a cruise where I had purchased FTTF. I had purchased FTTF in the past for cruises prior to Covid. I felt like it was worth it back then. I no longer feel that way. Every ship and port is probably different, but I felt like I got very little benefit for it on my recent cruise out of Galveston on the Breeze given the way things were ran at the port and with debark.

As of today, 2 of the holds disappeared and 2 are still there.

Oh, I agree. And I do give tips rather than food. I was just saying that I could totally see some little, old southern lady making homemade candy or cookies for the crew. This is very much something that I used to see a lot in "small town" Texas. Even when I was going through ART, I once sent a big batch of cookies and desserts to my clinic. Giving people you saw as less fortunate "hand-me-downs" was also a big thing in the small town I came from. I used to get "hand-me-downs" from my "rich" cousin from Houston when I was a kid. I didn't mind it at all, though, because all her stuff was designer. I even got her prom dress and it was amazing. Granted, I would never give a cruise ship worker my old clothes or purses. (Although, now you can sell all that stuff on therealreal, etc. so giving them a gently used Chanel bag is probably something they would appreciate.) My point is just that I get why Carnival had to make the rule. I don't think, however, that it is people being cheap. I think it is people trying to be thoughtful. In certain parts of the country and in certain circles, people consider it more thoughtful to give a small gift rather than cash to show your appreciation. I suspect for purposes of thanking Carnival employees, leaving a thoughtful "Thank You" note with the cash is probably the best bet if you want to truly thank the crew.

My husband and I had a good time on this cruise. We were glad to see after our disastrous Pride sailing that not too much has changed with Carnival and, at least, we can depend on our cruises out of Galveston for a reliable “fun” time. CABIN: This stayed in cabin 2260. This was the first time we stayed in a Coves Balcony and I really liked being so close to the water. I would recommend it for anyone. I would NOT however, recommend the location of this specific cabin because it was too close to a large elevator bank which made it difficult to sleep in or take a nap during the day. The noise was never a problem at night fortunately, but we could hear a lot of what was going on during the day. I would have chosen a Coves balcony more towards the middle or the aft of the ship. I actually liked being on floor 2 as well because there wasn’t as much movement to the ship and we only had to go up 1 to 3 floors for most of the activities. FOOD: The buffet food, deli, sea-day brunch, and pizza were all decent. In the MDR on the first night was really bad and we noticed after that first night that the MDR was never more than half full again at dinner. It was only slightly better the third night. The second night we went to the steakhouse. I have to say I can’t really leave much of a review because I started feeling sick from the boat rocking and left after my appetizer. My husband, however, said his steak was excellent. The last night of the cruise we did the MDR again and it was just okay—not anything to write home about, but not terrible. The only two things I had on the ship that were really tasty was the Bitters and Blanc dessert in the MDR and Guy’s Burger. WIFI: We purchased the best wifi package we could and it was slow and hit-or-miss. I hope this isn’t the new Starlink system because, if it is, it isn’t any better than the old. STAFF AND FELLOW PASSENGERS: I loved the crowd we cruised with. This was a 5 day, Sat-Thurs sailing and IMO. Very few kids or 20-somethings. Most were active, middle-aged adults like ourselves. It also seemed like most everyone was from Texas and surrounding states – Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, etc. Everyone was very friendly and nice. No rudeness from fellow passengers or nasty remarks or sarcastic comments like I have at times experienced on other cruises. The staff was also excellent…we never had a single issue with anyone. Unlike on our Pride sailing, our room was SUPER clean and the attendant very friendly and always willing to help. SHIP: The ship also was in good shape and easy to get around on. I think she went in to dry dock about a year or so ago and she felt like a relatively new ship to me…at least compared to my last sailing on the Pride. (Although, the Breeze is much newer than the Pride even apart from her recent dry dock.) One of my favorite things was the new non-smoking casino. We loved it and spent more time in the casino than we ever have before. ITINERARY: We didn’t end up doing anything in Cozumel because I was still recovering from my seasickness the night before. We also went to Progresso for the first time and took a Blue Hole Cenote Swim excursion. Our group was the only group in the cenote park and it was excellent. We greatly enjoyed it and would highly recommend it. We got to swim in both an underground cenote and an above ground cenote and then enjoyed a Mayan dinner with entertainment (dancing). Our guides also gave us a little history lesson on the Mayan culture which I enjoyed. Following that we had an alcohol tasting and then loaded back on the bus to return home. ENTERTAINMENT: We didn’t take in any of the theatre shows, although they did announce there was a new one. The comedians were great, though, and they also had a magician doing a morning show as well. They had some violin players who were also great. I also am happy to report that they DO have TCM on this ship. And HGTV. Much better than the pride which had neither. FTTF/BOARDING: The only thing I will say that was slightly negative is that I felt like I didn’t really get what I was paying for with FTTF. We had arranged for my kids to stay first with my mother and then with my in-laws during the cruise. However, the morning of our departure, my Mother called and said she was sick so instead of driving my kids 1 mile away, we had to drive them an hour away to my sister-in-law’s house so she could watch them. This ended up with us arriving to the port about 10:30-10:45 and right when it seemed like EVERYONE was arriving. No one was checking boarding ticket times at all at Galveston port. In fact, there was no one even outside and the signage was unclear. At one point, I got screamed at by a very rude port worker because I was apparently in the wrong place and he made me get out-of-line and go around a rope about the length of a football field and re-stand in the line after I had already been standing in another line. It was so unnecessary and the guy was not even polite about it but acted like a complete ***** and like I was purposefully doing something wrong when that wasn’t the case at all. I had followed unclear signage. Then, my husband and I got put in two separate lines at security. (And since I had just been screamed at and sent to the back of the line by one port worker, I wasn’t about to not do exactly what they said or protest that I wanted to stay with my husband.) This resulted in us being separated. He got hung up first because he was searched for having a multi-tool in his suitcase. Even though it literally said on the outside it was TSA approved, they took it from him. He has flown all over the world with this tool and taken it on a good 10+ cruises, but he said he wasn’t about to argue with them and then have to return it to his truck and go back through the line...especially not what happened with the other guy due to unclear signage. Then he got searched again over my Dr. Pepper. (He was carrying it. I had the wine in my bag and was in a different line, but didn't get searched. He had no alcohol but was searched over Dr. Pepper--so weird!) They also did a terrible job at putting the Dr. Pepper container back together again after they had to break into it and it was busted by the time he was on the ship resulting in us having a bunch of loose Dr. Pepper Zeros. There was not a different line for FTTF until you go to the very end. And, since I arrived about 20 minutes before my husband due to the two searches they did on him, the FTTF gave us no benefit at all. Even if we had arrived at the same time, there was only about 10 people in the regular line versus 2 or 3 in the FTTF. Same with boarding…they were already well into boarding and past the point of calling FTTF and there was a SUPER long line to board…which, of course, we had to stand in. There was no “priority” line to go to the front of the pack for FTTF. Then, when we finally got on board and got done with muster (between about 12:30 and 1), we went to our room assuming it would be ready. Our cabin door was open, so we stepped inside. Within a couple of minutes, our room steward politely told us our room was not ready. (It looked clean to me.) We left our luggage and left. So, while we got to drop off our things, we didn’t get access to our room any sooner. For debark, FTTF, suites, and diamonds/plats were all given a letter to meet in the dining room. We got there 45 minutes early to try to be first off after diamond, suites, and platinum so my husband could work a full day. He is a physician with his own practice and had patients scheduled so we were hoping to get off the boat asap. The annoying thing was that even though we were the second in the FttF group there, other people coming in after us would put their suitcases in front of ours and the other people who were there early and the guy running FTTF did nothing to stop it even though he was standing there watching them do it. One group of people came in and put their suitcases at the front of the line and they arrived literally an hour after we did. However, the even more annoying part is Carnival started letting people who were just camped down in the lobby off the ship in a different line and debark at the same time as platinums, diamonds, suites, and FTTF. So, we literally got off LATER than if we had simply STAYED IN THE LOBBY when we initially came down at 6:30 am (there was only one family there at that time) than we did by waiting in the FTTF area. So…lesson learned. Not paying for FTTF again as I feel as though I got almost no value for the money--didn't get on the ship earlier, didn't get off the ship earlier, and didn't get access to my room earlier. Only "value" I got was being able to drop off my luggage "early" but that isn't worth $90 to me because we don't travel with much luggage anyway. So, in sum, I greatly enjoyed my 5-day cruise on the Breeze. 2 thumbs up to the staff. 2 thumps up for the ship condition and layout. 2 thumbs up for the nonsmoking casino. 2 thumbs up on my Carnival excursion to the Blue Hole Cenotes. 1 thumb up/1 down on the internet and food. 2 thumbs down for FTTF.

I think this may be a southern thing. My husband has gotten many edible gifts from patients before. Sometimes they are cookies from Tiff's Treats or that Bundt Cake store, but we have gotten homemade stuff before, too. He has also gotten liquor, cigars, plants, homemade jellies, fresh fruit/vegis grown from yards, etc. One patient even knitted him a blanket when we had our youngest son. I also recall my neighbors bringing over casseroles, etc. when we had our children...and people definitely do this in the south when someone dies. Casseroles and pies galore. Another patient once bought him two bags of pecans from her yard. In fact, when I was growing up in the 90s, many Sundays after lunch everyone would bring a dish and the whole church would eat. And growing up my grandmother would always have "sweets" in her freezer to dethaw just in case someone stopped by her house she could quickly dethaw them. And she did have people just drop by on a regular basis.

I have four charges "pending" to my credit card from my sail-and-sign account. Only we paid our balance on our S&S account while onboard with gift cards. Will these eventually fall off or do I need to go ahead and contact carnival? Edit: To clarify, we just got off today.

Us, too. Just got back and spent the most $$$ we have ever spent in the casino.

Just boarded the Breeze. Loving the new nonsmoking casino which is so much bigger and nicer than it was our last time on the Breeze a year ago. The on board maps also show a Thrill Theatre that my husband and I have yet to find.

It was often that way on my Europe cruise.

Horse racing? I am intrigued...

I may try the fish. Has anyone had the Chilean Sea Bass?

I am boarding the Breeze tomorrow. Do I need anything other than my passport and boarding pass? Last time I cruised, we still had to do the health assessments, show proof of vax, and negative Covid test. It would appear that those have all been nixed, but I just want to make sure I am not overlooking something.

I would do Celebrity hands down for the same price or even $100 more.

IDK...they have disappeared before. I think if someone is approaching final payment (like I am) they probably need to go ahead and buy the GCs.

Note: It says it is sold out if you go to book, but at least it is on the website now.

It is back on the website! Yay! Hoping this means it is definitely sailing.

So, is there a place to dry dock the boat in Singapore? I though the dry docks were usually in Italy.

My husband got this once on an NCL cruise and I can confirm that it is absolutely horrible. I thought he was going to die.

I saw this and was super excited. I just wish it was in the summer!!! I wonder what she is going to be doing between August 22nd and October 24th...

John Heald just announced several unique itineraries for summer/fall of 2024. The Splendor will be doing a couple of Journeys cruises from Sydney to Signapore and back and the Panorama will be doing one to Japan going through Alaska and one from Singapore, through Vietnam, the Phillipines, Malaysia, Guam, Hawaii, and back to LA.

As an aside, I am using these to fly to cruises in Europe.

You mean they aren't catching them off the bow?

I know people on here may not be able to answer this, but thought I would ask anyway. My husband and I both have British Airways Chase cards. The way it works on the credit card is once you spend so much on the card every year, you get a friend fly free BUT you have to book the friend fly free ticket on the BA website and use avios to pay for the main pasenger's ticket. So, for example, this past summer, my husband and I both purchased our tickets for ourselves with Avios and then used a friend fly free for each of our two children and we were able to all fly roundtrip business class to Europe. We are doing the same thing for this upcoming summer as well...already have the tickets booked. We have two more friend fly free tickets we have to use by July 2024. (He has one and I have one.) Problem is, we only have enough Avios for one round trip business class ticket and it appears they went "up" on how many avios the flights now cost...i.e. they used to be 120k avios and now they are 180k for business class. My thought process was to have my husband close out his Avios card and then after about a few months, reapply because they offer a 100k sign on bonus. He would qualify because it has been more than 2 years since he got the new member offer and the fine print says you can get one every two years if you open a new card. My question is this: If he cancels his current BA credit card, will that then cancel his "friend fly free" ticket that he has already earned? I would not think so because those Avios and the friend fly free ticket are already "earned" and on our British Airways avios account. But...you never know. I was wondering if anyone knows... My other thought process was to have him take out a new amex card and get their miles (which transfer to British Airways) and then transfer it to his british airways. (We put everything we possibly can that doesn't charge a fee on our credit card and pay them off every month...I have put kid's private school tuition, furniture, monthly bills, etc. on my credit cards and then pay them off just to accumulate avios/miles.) And, yes, I know that I am thinking about this way in advance, but I have to in order to make sure I have the avios/miles ready to book the flights when the rewards flights come out approximately 11 months in advance. Many flights only have 4-6 business class reward tickets available per flight and since we are trying to get 4 of us on the same flight, I obviously want to book them as soon as possible.

I flew through London Heathrow from IAH to Edinburgh on a business class British airways ticket last July and to retrieve my suitcase, re check, go through customs, and then go back through a nightmare of a security line. I was told that there was no other option. With that said, it may have been because I was staying in the same country (i.e. the UK) and England was my first stop. I did not have to go through customs at Edinburgh. It literally took about three hours to get my bag, go through customs, etc. No way I would have made it with just a 2 hour layover. I plan to try to fly with carry on only next summer.