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That's been my experience too.

Thank you

I said in my post that we planned to do just that, but I was asking if anyone knew what the official policy is.

No, we are following Carnival's policy on this. Not a concern. Where minor guests can be booked in relation to relative or guardian: Guests 12 and younger If the relative or guardian insists on booking separate staterooms, minors must either be directly across the hall or next door. Guests 12 and under may not be assigned to a balcony stateroom without a relative or guardian (25 years of age or older) traveling in the balcony stateroom with them. Guests 13 - 17 years of age Can be separated by up to 3 staterooms from a relative or guardian (25 years of age or older). Guests 18 – 20 years of age Do not have any restrictions and may book whatever location they prefer. Thank you

I said in my post that we planned to do just that, but I was asking if anyone knew what the official policy is.

We have 2 rooms booked. One for us (parents) and one for our kids. One is an adult child and the other is a minor. I checked for our cruise and the website kept crashing so I went straight to pick a boarding time. I checked the earliest time of 10:30-11:00 and the page wouldn't update. Thinking it might be my computer or a google chrome problem, I logged out and switched browsers but it wasn't any better. I was able to go through the process to check in by constantly refreshing the page. When I got to the page to choose a time it had saved the time for our room but not our children's room. The earliest time was no longer available but the next time (11:00-11:30) was so I chose it. We are in the "B" boarding group and our kids are in the "C" boarding group. It won't be a big deal if we just board at 11:00 but I'm just wondering what the actual procedure is in this case. Are children allowed to board with their parents or do the gate agents go strictly by what the boarding pass says? It is the port of Galveston is it makes any difference.

I just found this "live" this evening but I'm all caught up 🙂 Thank you for doing this. I will be on Jubilee next month so I'm excited to read your review.

I'm pretty sure it's too late to get CFAR insurance through a third party insurance. My concern is only that I can rebook the trip if something were to happen at the last minute, say a road closure or bad weather on the way to the port. With Carnival insurance they will allow you to get 75 percent of your money back or rebook another cruise. My question is does Carnival have a cut off date that this insurance will work. If they do, why is it still possible to purchase the insurance?

The final payment date was December 17, so does that mean it would be pointless to add the Carnival Vacation Protection now? I wonder why they still offer it on my booking if it wouldn't work if needed?

My cruise is still 2 months away and I realized I never added the insurance. I'm fully planning on going on the cruise but I always have the worry that if something were to happen, I would be out what I paid for the cruise if I don't get some sort of insurance. I'm not really worried about it for the medical aspect. If I add the Carnival insurance and something unforeseen were to happen right before the trip would the insurance still work or would I have had to added it before the final payment date? I've read through the policy that Carnival has on their website but I haven't been able to find this information.

Since we had the Christmas Gala Dinner the first formal night, we only had one actual formal night menu. Pictured: My favorite seeded bread. This was the only night it was served in the mdr. Also, crawfish fettuccine, lobster tails, creme brulee.

I'm interrupting the food pics to share our strange experience in La Romana. We didn't have an excursion for this port and had planned on just staying in the port area since it has a nice pool. When the ship docked we could see this little train ride coming and going and decided to find out more about it. When you walk through the port area there is a place that goes outside of it to a window where you can pay to ride the train. It is actually a Carnival excursion. It cost $24.99 per person to ride but the man gave the people ahead of us a small group discount so I asked him if could do any kind of discount for our group of 4 people. I didn't expect to get one but he only charged us for 3 people. The charge went to my sail and sign card. There were 2 trains running so we only waited a short time for one to come back so we could board. A worker rode hanging on the side of one of the train cars and there were 2 policeman on a motorcycle that followed us once we got outside the port area. As we were going down the first rode people kept walking along the side of the train holding out necklaces and boxes of cigars trying to sell them. I was thinking that the police should have been stopping this but they didn't say anything to them. We kept going on the train and went onto a 4 lane divided road. It looked like a highway but went into the city so I suppose it was a busy city street. We were going probably about as fast as the train could go to keep up with traffic. I'd say around 30 mph. People on motorcycles started driving up next to the train trying to sell cigars, jewelry and bottled water. I don't think anyone bought anything. I don't know how you would even know how much to pay them when driving along so fast. They could easily get your money and drive off without giving you the product. The tour went around a few blocks in the city. There wasn't much to see but it was kind of neat to see the city. When we came back to the road leading up to the port the train abruptly stopped. There was no announcement about why we stopped. The man riding on the side of the train got off and just stood there. The two policemen on the motorcycle stopped and starting videotaping us with their cell phones. It was kind of unnerving. We weren't sure what was happening. Finally after a few minutes they went on to the port. If anyone has done this train ride, I'd like to hear your experience and if this happened to you.

First picture is from the breakfast buffet. They only had bacon every other day. On those days they always had these homemade looking cinnamon rolls right next to the bacon. They were really good. Also shown on the plate are some of the breakfast potatoes. More lunchtime cakes...

I've read that they don't care if you just switch and sleep in a different cabin.

Does the ship seem rocky-sway a lot? We were on Horizon last week and could really feel the ship's movement. I'm hoping it won't be as bad with Excel class.

Could you have just let your husband move into the room with the infant without officially changing it?

This night we decided just to eat in the buffet. Most of the foods were the same as the ones listed on the main dining room menu. Two of us ordered steak and cheese sandwiches and while they were making them some water misters in the ceiling came on and sprayed everything. The ladies in the deli just kept working. I told one of them I was afraid to eat the sandwich with water from the pipes on the ceiling spraying down on it and asked for a new one. Oddly, she made me a different one but left the old ones there and handed the person I was with one of the ones that had been sprayed. I didn't want him eating it either so I gave him my fresh one and just ate something from the buffet. The last picture is the tiramisu and bartlett pear almond cake which is on one of the mdr menus. The tiramisu was good but the pear cake looked like corn bread and had no flavor whatsoever. The texture was very dry. I wonder how they thought this was a good addition to the new menus.

Some buffet breakfast foods, a Mexcan rice bowl from Blue Iguana, a salad and some cole slaw from the buffet, More cakes...

Jambalaya pasta appetizer (pretty good), Beef Wellington ( My first time having this, I thought it was good and the cheesy potatoes with it were really good), a main dining room pic during "showtime", melting cake (Someone else ordered this. I went all week without trying one.) I think the last pic is Hazelnut mousse.

Hopefully it was just a bad week. The food also varies from ship to ship. We liked Guy's burgers on Vista and didn't think they were very good on Dream. They were really good on Horizon this time. Our next cruise will be on Jubilee in a couple of months so I know we will be trying some of the new restaurants and eating less in the main dining room.

I asked for a Quattro Formaggi pizza with pepperoni on it once when they weren't really busy and they made it for me. Some more of the cakes fro the lunch buffet and a mocha chocolate getaway drink. They had pineapple gelato one day in the lunch buffet and it tasted almost just like Dole whip.

Oh no, that sounds bad. Notice my carbonara picture in my latest post. It looks pretty sad. It was dry and it looks like they threw some bagged bacon bits on top.

Appetizers from our table on this night: shrimp cocktail, caesar salad, Hawaiian shrimp poke (not something I normally eat but this was excellent. I really liked it.) BBQ beef spring rolls (didn't care for these), roasted sirloin of beef, fried chicken, spaghetti carbonara (also pretty bland), fruit plate, cappuccino pot de creme.

Some photos of extra cost items from Java Blue Cafe

I kept looking for food pictures from the new menu for this cruise before we sailed so I told my family I would be taking photos to share on here once we got home. There were a few things I wish I had tried and didn't. Maybe next time.