Eli_6

Have you flown recently? If not, you might feel differently if any of your vacations had involved air travel. We have not had any major problems with plane travel, but we know plenty of other people who have had flights delayed for days, luggage lost, etc. One of our friends is a professional golfer and the airlines lost his clubs TWICE in a week--going both to and from The Open. My SIL (with her three kids under 8 in tow) had a flight canceled once she was already in a "connecting" city this past summer and didn't get on another one for 3 days. And then there is the fact that many hotels have cut room cleaning altogether except at check in/check out. Or they only clean it once every 4 or 5 days. One time we stayed in a Hilton for a week and they never cleaned our room. When I called, they said their policy is now once a week.

When I search cruises, I notice that the price of cruises from Florida or Los Angeles are often considerably less than the prices it shows me for a cruise out of Galveston. For example, I can go on a 3, 4 or 5 day out of Miami or Jacksonville from $50-99 per person plus tax, fees, etc. Yet, the least expensive interior room I can find on a 4 day sailing out of Galveston is $285 per person and there is only 1 date for that rate in January. Same thing with sailings on the Vista vs Horizon or Panorama. Do cruises out of Galveston simply command a higher price? (Perhaps because there are more cruise lines, ships, and ports in Florida?) Or has the Carnival algorithm somehow identified Galveston as my home port and so makes the cruises more expensive?

The Celebration TA was exactly what I was looking at as we just got an amazing offer. I was trying to convince my husband to go on it, but I don't think I am going to succeed. We went on the Mardi Gras once she was in the US on her second sailing and it was one of my favorite cruises.

How was the internet between Europe and the US once you were out in the ocean?

That is cool! Thanks for sharing. I had counted the days of the cruise, though...so I still need to book a cruise. Actually, I only need 13 days (the 12 day cruise plus 1 day) to be platinum but the shortest cruise I can book out of Galveston is 4 days. Honestly, though, some of our best cruises have been the 4 day weekend cruises out of Galveston. We don't have to fly, leave out half-way through the day on Thursday and get back on Monday morning. Only have to miss two days of work. Only problem is everyone else likes these cruises, too...

Have fun, btw! I am sure it will be awesome!

My husband got a similar deal for this upcoming November on the Celebration, but no way we can take it. 😞

I like the Vista Class for the Havana area. My second favorite ship "class" was the Splendor.

I went on Mardi Gras for the second sailing when she was at only like 65 or 70 percent capacity. I had a great time, but I commented many times to my husband that I would absolutely NOT want to sail her at full capacity or anywhere near close.

I don't do Fly2Fun on long-haul flights for this exact reason: You can only book economy.

I HATE insurance companies. In my experience, insurance companies do anything and everything they can in the world to not pay...even when it is patently unethical and illegal. After a decade where a decent part of my law practice involved either suing insurance companies for their failure to provide proper coverage and seeing the lengths they go to to avoid paying completely legitimate claims, I now pretty much only buy insurance when I am legally/contractually required to have it or when it would mean absolute financial ruin in the event that I didn't have it and there is a decent likelihood of something bad actually happening (e.g. home owner's insurance when I live in an area regularly hit by hurricanes). The policies are written to not cover your claims and the entire system set up to make recovery as painful and difficult as possible. Also, certain rewards travel cards and memberships in certain organizations will cover many situations that travel insurance will cover.

It is Early Saver Sale...so I think it does have price protection? Trying to look up terms and conditions.

Forgot about price protection. Unfortunately, I don't think this rate does, but going to see what the difference is to book with that.

Ok...I just realized that your question was if she could check in later because she can't be there earlier as opposed to simply having a later boarding time. I would call Carnival to confirm that if you have already checked in and are on board that she can check in on her own after you and that you don't have to physically be present there with her to check in.

They will actually let you book kids under 13 be in an inside cabin by themselves so long as they are directly across the hall from their parent/guardian or next door. "Children may only be booked alone in a balcony stateroom when they are over 13 years of age." There has to be an adult over 25 on the booking or cross-referenced with the booking, but not in the same cabin. I believe the OP probably *DOES* have to check in with or before the 19-year-olds even though they can have their own cabin. We also once took my husband's office on a cruise and one of his staff was 19. Her "over 25 guardian" (my husband) had to check in with her at the same time even though he was in a room with me and she was in her own room. Ironically enough, Carnival once put my then nine-year-old child across the ship from us in a cabin by himself when they changed our rooms because they changed "ships" for a given sailing date thereby breaking their own rule. A phone call to Carnival quickly remedied the matter and they moved him to a room across the hall from our suite. In my family, we try to get adjoining rooms where possible, but this was one of the instances where we were "across the hall" instead of in adjoining rooms. Sometimes it makes financial sense to book the kids in a separate room from the adults to take advantage of certain casino deals or Drinks On Us, etc...even if the kids end up sleeping in the room with 1 or more of the adults. It is easy enough to swap rooms after on board or just get keys for everyone in the family to both rooms.

Well, my kids are much younger, but we have had different boarding times before and we were all allowed to check in at the same time and were allowed to check in at the earlier time altogether as a family.

I have had a ton of laundry done by carnival and never had any problems with shrinkage or anything else. I would not send delicate items, but that pretty much goes without saying for any laundry service unless you are doing dry cleaning. I fit quite a bit into their laundry bag. We are a family of 4 (2 adults/2 kids) and were in the UK from the US for over 3 weeks. We flew with 4 carry-ons and 1 checked bag because we were nervous about our luggage getting lost at LHR. When we did an Alaska cruise, we flew with only carry-ons.

Do they ever have deals on the cruise rates on Black Friday or at Christmas/NY? Or just things like spa, drinks, etc.? I think I recall during the shut down them running some awesome deals, but it seems like that was really it and otherwise their "Black Friday" deals are usually not less expensive cruise rates. We are thinking about booking a Thursday-Monday cruise over the Easter weekend because my kids are off that Friday and Monday and my husband's clinic is typically closed on good Friday. Plus, we need an extra cruise to make platinum (number of days) on our 12-day Europe sailing coming up next summer...and given the tender issues last summer, I would really like to be Platinum for that cruise. (We had a suite last summer, but this summer have two adjoining balconies.) The cruise costs a bit more than I would prefer to spend. I am trying to decide whether to go ahead and book or wait and see if the rates go down later on...

We did Chef's Table on the Mardi Gras on her second sailing. We took our masks off as soon as we were seated.

My last three attempts at getting OBC for being a shareholder have been denied with CCL claiming that I was sailing on a discount rate even though in 2 out of the 3 instances I was not sailing on a deeply discounted casino rate or some other deep discount, but simply a regular old "VIFP" discount that wasn't even much of a discount. (I was paying like $1300 for an OV.) Yet, I hear of people sailing on $99 (and sometimes less) deals that have been approved. And I was approved for my August sailing that was on a regular VIFP rate. Clearly, this is completely arbitrary so I am wondering if there is a trick to this. For those of you who were approved, did you send it in via snail mail or email? Did you have a TA apply for the discount? Any other tricks? At this point, I feel like I have lost out on $300 and over the next year, it will mean a loss of another $700 if I am denied for every upcoming cruise.

I noticed on the Vista and many other ships that they have a low deck with high siding that circles the ship. So, if you jump, you would fall on to a deck...unless you are in a cove balcony. Now I wonder if this is why...