sewut

I haven't been to RI in years, but I still consider myself a Rhode Islander. I'm enjoying your review, will be doing a b2b on the Magic for my birthday in January. We will be driving down from Kansas, Galveston is our closest port now. I'm looking forward to seeing what you choose to do in the ports. Thanks for doing the review.

I have often ordered the dessert cheeses "to go" The waiter just leaves the cover over the plate.

They say that the higher you are, the better the cabin. I disagree. I'd prefer a lower deck with less movement in bad seas. Our favorite cabin is a Cove Balcony which is on deck 2. You're right down near the water and away from all the noise. I have no desire to be up near the Lido deck, too crowded and too loud.

I liked to order it to go and they leave the cover on the plate. I take it back to our cabin for a late night snack. I hope you can still order it.

We have a cove balcony booked on the Magic that we have stayed in before. This particular balcony doesn't have a lifeboat above it.:D

I was prepared to give up mine if I was unable to get #8 or above. Maybe someone else will feel the same way. I would also keep checking daily. If you don't get one, there are hammocks and clamshells and shaded areas to sit in.

We use a waterproof waistpack that we purchased on Amazon. We take our passports ashore with us. If, for some reason, we missed the ship, we will need them to fly home. We also take a credit card for the same reason. We generally do excursions involving snorkeling, but if not, we have passport pouches that we wear around our neck under our shirt.

If everyone in the cabin plans to board together as a group, print the all in one. If not, print separate.

Love love loved our cove balcony on the Magic so much that we booked it again for next January. You can see flying fish, dolphins and maybe sea turtles if you're lucky.

And check RewardsBoost before you make any purchase! For instance, say you were going to run over to Lowes or Home Depot and pick up a new (grill, fixture, power tool, etc.). Don't. Go to the RewardsBoost page from your credit card account online. Both Lowes and Home Depot are RrewardsBoost retailers. Make your purchase online (I believe both stores offer free shipping for purchases over $50), and sit back and watch your points rack up.

Both Lowes and Home Depot offer 3 bonus points per dollar spent. That's 3 points per dollar in addition to your regular 1 point per dollar that you get anyway. That equates to 4 points per dollar - double what you get for Carnival purchases! And 3 points per dollar is one of the low examples of RewardsBoost multipliers. Some retailers offer much higher rates.

Especially if you have a big purchase to make, always check RewardsBoost before you buy elsewhere!;)

Thanks for this info! DH takes care of the bill paying, and he never realized there were so many stores. He just looked at the featured ones and said we never shop there. I just ordered from Avon last week and could have received 5/$ ! I know better now. Thank you!

My daughter broke her arm like that when she was in 3rd grade. She was the main character in a performance of The Little Red Hen, and the sling looked like it was her wing. lol I do remember having trouble washing her armpit and it being very smelly. Good luck with that.

We had YTD on the Victory last month. We were a group of 8, and never had to wait. We loved the table and servers that we had the first night and asked for and got them every night. It was table 140 with Melvin and Dan. Great servers and great times.

Both parents need to sign, not just for medical treatment, but giving you permission to take the child/ren out of the country. The customs agent really scrutinized ours last time. The cruiseline doesn't need the permission form, it's U.S. Customs.

Christian and Andre on the Elation back in 1995. That was when they still gave out the placemats with a picture of the ship on the last night. I asked them to sign the back of it and Christian drew me a picture!

On our Victory cruise earlier this month we had table 140 with Melvin and Dan. They were so good with our 4 grandchildren. Dinner was always a fun time.

There was a waiter on the Fascination in 2007 that spoiled my DGD rotten.

We've never had bad service in the MDR except for one cruise on the Ecstacy. We found out that our headwaiter had an abcessed tooth and other waiters were filling in for her. They still took the trouble to sing Happy Birthday to our DGS.

We booked ours right after we booked our cruise and that was over a year in advance. Keep checking the shore excursions offered.

We have taken grandchildren with us on cruises and always got the notarized letters. They don't need them to go on the cruise, they need them when you go through customs coming back into U.S. I have had agents that didn't even want to see the form, and agents that scrutinized it. Sometimes they will ask the child questions. Better to be safe than sorry.

We tried Princess last January. It was a great cruise and we enjoyed it very much. I especially enjoyed the Ultimate Balcony Breakfast on my birthday. We decided that we would go on Princess again if the price was right, but we will eat at Horizon Court (buffet) the first night. On the first night we were seated at tables with others which I have no problem with. We enjoy eating with others on Carnival. Our tablemates, however were very snobby, looking at us like we were something they had stepped in. They spent the meal bragging. I was not impressed. Maybe we just got bad tablemates, but it left a bad taste in our mouths.

I'm reading all your reviews in order and just finished this one. My DH and I LOL at the cornbread pictures. He's from SC and I'm from RI. When we first got married (over 43 years ago) he asked me to make cornbread. I made cornbread like your first picture. He said, "No, that's not cornbread, that's corn muffin!" :confused: I told him that corn muffins were baked in a muffin pan and looked like cupcakes. He told me that cornbread was flat and round and fried in a cast iron frying pan. I told him that was johnnycakes. We definitely had a language problem. lol My poor kids, if they picked up something that they shouldn't, I would tell them to put it back, or put it down. DH would tell them to put it up!

It's been interesting.

Love your reviews, and now I'm on to the next one.

We'll be on the Victory in December also. Subscribing.

. But our best passport stamp was at the little gift shop in Hell, Jamaica.

Hell is in Grand Cayman.

In Jamaica, in Montego Bay, there is a place in the port building that will stamp your passport. It's in the big room to the left, go through the hallway with stores.

Great review and pictures! We are taking the Victory next week for the first time on her! If I wasn't already excited, this review & pictures are making it even harder to concentrate on my last few days of work!

 

We are travelling with our son (2.5) and wanted to just walk around Nassau and go to the queens staircase & the fort; do you remember how long the walk was and/or if there were sidewalks and safe to walk with a child and stroller?

 

Thanks & keep up the great review!

 

Kim

There is a walking tour of Nassau online somewhere. I think I saw it mentioned on the Port of Call board for the Bahamas.

Why were you not allowed to keep your S&S cards? I save mine in an album with a picture of the ship, our boarding picture and the S&S cards.

I'm loving your review. You convinced us to book this itinerary.

Enjoying this review! I had to hunt for it, it was on page 3.

Now you did it. You haven't even finished the first leg of your B2B, and you've made me book a cruise. I hope you're happy now. lol

We've never been to Grand Turk or Half Moon Cay and we've been looking for a cruise for December 2013 to do along with my DD and her family. We will be going to WDW first and that is their department. Finding a cruise is our department. Well, last night I was looking at this itinerary on the Victory and the price was unbelievable. I called DD after showing it to my DH and we were on the phone in a conference call with DD and Carnival until midnight. We booked two connecting OV rooms. Then I was "too excited to sleep" and was awake until 1:30 this morning, and we all have church. DH is a pastor also.