maryhou

you can check face/book carnival piano barbarians page, they are always updated

Can you park at the port for the week?  If so do you know how much it is per day?
 

Cruising over New Years, we spend a lot of time in the piano bar. Have you cruises with him?  Thoughts ??

On 8/1/2019 at 3:25 PM, buddylover said:

This is completely correct.....however, one caveat, when you book with a TA, you lose the ability to deal directly with the cruislines.  Any and all changes, and sometimes even just questions, must be directed to the TA (who typically has shorter business hours vs. the cruiselines 24/7 hours) - which is why we typically book directly with the cruiselines and we don't use PVP's - you can call their general 800 number.  The only reason for us to use a TA sometimes is some extra "perks" offered (like OBC, pre-paid gratuities etc) which the cruiselines rarely offer.

we just booked today and I got $300 OBC and a tad better price that Carnivals PVP..... why can't Carnival just give us the perks?  

Getting ready to book our New Years Eve cruise.  I was going to get the credit card to save $200.  Can I book and still get this through a travel agency or just Carnival direct?  I can get a $250 OBC as well through the travel agency.

Thanks in advance!!

do you book direct with Carnival or use a second party?  It seems I always find a better price and almost always get OBC when I book with a travel agent.  I just wish Carnival would offer the best price........

We loved the Red Frog Pub on our last cruise. They had karaoke lots of nights and always had games going on.  We also enjoyed the live music at the Ocean Plaza.

Not sure what class of ship but we absolutely LOVED the Sunshine this past spring break.  They had three level serenity area with it's own pool.  Carnival staff were there sending kids OUT and it was amazing.  Any other ships with this layout? 

Taxis were $120 to/from  a beach CRAZY !!  We spent a perfectly relaxing day right at the port.  They have an amazing FREE area with pool chairs for EVERYONE , several pools, lazy rivers, raft rentals, cabana rentals, amazing looking cabin rentals on the water, cheap buckets of beer, volleyball, life size checkers and chess.  All day zip lining over the pool for $20 a person.  What a great day we had here 🙂 . cannot wait to be back at this port and enjoy it some more.  Yes there were lots of excursions available but I am so glad we hadn't preplanned anything here, this was just perfect for us.  

Taxis were $120 to/from to a beach CRAZY !!  We spent a perfectly relaxing day right at the port.  They have an amazing FREE area with pool chairs for EVERYONE , several pools, lazy rivers, raft rentals, cabana rentals, amazing looking cabin rentals on the water, cheap buckets of beer, volleyball, life size checkers and chess.  All day zip lining over the pool for $20 a person.  What a great day we had here 🙂 . cannot wait to be back at this port and enjoy it some more.  Yes there were lots of excursions available but I am so glad we hadn't preplanned anything here, this was just perfect for us.  

We slept in and had lunch on the ship this day.  Once off the ship we looked around a little bit and found ourselves at the Renaissance hotel.  It is within walking distance of this ship and absolutely beautiful.  You can't miss it, there is a small beach and two infinity pools.  We were told they sold day passes for $40 which included $20 worth of food so that seemed like a greta deal to us.  Nobody ever came and collected our money.......... nonetheless we enjoyed a couple hours in the sun and would definitely go back and spend an afternoon here again.  

We booked this on our own and paid $115 for 4 of us.  We took a 'tour bus' for $5 each to Mamboa Beach and spent the day.  We were able t change clothes at the Holiday Inn right there where they had outside restrooms and walked down for the cruise.  It was so much fun.  Nice and relaxing.  There we adults, teens and families and it sure looked like everyone was having fun.  They have free drinks but nobody was out of control.  The swinging from the rope off the ship provided everyone with tons of laughs.  They had good music and this is definitely something we would do again 🙂  Look at this sunset........ just beautiful

We are NOT buying an internet package.  Is there a number or email our family can contact in case there is an emergency at home while we are on the ship?

Thanks in advance!!

nope we've done it in the past.  We just get an extra key to both rooms from guest services.

we cruise in 7 days I just got mine assigned two days ago..... so 9 days for us in an inside cabin.  happy to have gotten the 7th floor 🙂

We cruise most years over Christmas/New Years.  We LOVE Cozumel.  Paradise Beach is our favorite place and very afforadable to do with four families and on your own.  They have a huge pool area, volleyball, watersports, climbing towers in the ocean for the kids AMAZING place and we go there every time now.  We have been to Granda Cayman and enjoyed the beach there.  It's been awhile but we taxied to a Marriott beach area on our own I believe.  Beaches were beautiful 🙂  In my opinion any islands are enjoyable if you're getting out of the winter weather lol

Just hopped online to order cheers package.  It won't let me just order and pay when we get onboard, is this normal?  I've bought it in the past and paid with my S&S card I thought.  I have one aarp gift card and just ordered another today to cover it...... it will be here hopefully before we leave on 3/28.  I was planning to use those to pay so I called Carnival and he said it's prepay only.  hmmmmmmm

14 days until we are on the Sunshine......  what did you do in each port?  I have nothing planned yet.  We normally something on our own but I haven't sat down to to do that yet.  Did you make it to the piano bar?  I see Cassidy Rae posting all kinds of fun stuff, she looks like she will be a blast.  We have my time dining, hoping that works out for us as everything else was full.  Anything we must do/see on the ship that we may no just wander into...... details details 

anybody know where the laundry facilities are ??

1 minute ago, BoomerSoonerCruisers said:

We purchased it once and regretted it on port days. I'm not a big drinker but my SO is. On vacation I will typically have 3-4 mixed drinks a day and he will have a few mixed drinks and a bunch of beer. We felt like we got our monies worth on the sea days but port days we did not. We found ourselves some nights sitting at the Piano Bar ordering drinks just trying to "get our monies worth".

Us too........... however we cruise in a few days and still can't decide to buy or not to buy . LOL . I love being able to drink whatever whenever we want......... decisions decisions

14 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

I don’t have a recent menu, although I was on Sunshine a few weeks ago.  Both locker rooms have a free sauna. During our cruise the saunas in the locker rooms were way hotter than the sauna in the thermal suite.  Fortunately the steam rooms in the thermal suite got pretty hot and the heated lounge chairs were great for relaxing. 

So are these in the thermal suite complimentary?

Does anyone have a recent dinner menu list ?

Also, do they have a free sauna/steam room in the spa area?

Thanks in advance !!

Does anyone have a recent dinner menu list ?

Also, do they have a free sauna/steam room in the spa area?

Thanks in advance !!

25 days until we cruise on the Sunshine....... sorry to 'yell' but I'm starting to get excited  🙂  Thanks everyone for the tips and info on the ship, any place you loved having dinner the night before in Port Canaveral/Cocoa Beach area?  We love live music and seafood...... and are pretty low maintenance . We are staying at Raddison by the port

On 3/1/2019 at 4:23 PM, K&RCurt said:

We were on the Sunshine on a Charter Jan 25 - Feb 3 and had an amazing time.

 

We thought the food was very good in both the Main Dining Room as well as the Buffet.  We never had dinner in the Buffet as we did Jiji's one night, the Steakhouse another night and the Chef's Table as well.  Lunch time was a bit crowded in the buffet area at lunch, but we were always able to find a seat.

 

Yes, the casino is smokey, but I have yet to be on a ship where it isn't.

 

Luckily for us our Charter TA had a team of folks enforcing the rules for deck chairs.  If a chair was unoccupied for more that 20 minutes it was cleared and made available for someone else.  They also went through and cleared any chair that didn't "have a butt in it" right before 8:00am, so after the first day, no one tried to hog a chair.  IMHO every cruise line should be doing this to enforce their policy, but they are afraid of a confrontation.

 

A few people I know had mentioned a "sewer smell" in the aft of deck 7 & 8, but I never experienced it, and the plumbing on cruise ships is prone to this inherently and almost every ship has some folks complaining of this.

 

The shows we saw, Motor City, Epic Rock and a 3rd I can't recall the name of were very good.  The issues with the Limelight comedy club are legit.  Very hard to get a seat and many seats just have a view of a wall with a fairly small TV screen.

 

The BBQ they served in the Ocean Plaza area on embarkation and two of the sea days was very good.  The Ocean Plaza area was our favorite hang out at night.  There were bands playing there every night (granted a few of them were brought on board by the Charter Company), The Red Frog Pub and Alchemy Bar were right there so we really enjoyed that space.

 

We would not hesitate to sail on the Sunshine again.

Where is the ocean plaza?