MWBearFan

My wife bought me a cheap rubberlike ring that I switch to when leaving the ship so I don't risk losing my wedding ring again. My original one came off in Lake Michigan when were at the dunes (sad times)...  At least the Jeweler felt sorry for us and gave us a nice discount on replacing it.  And thank goodness it was mine and not hers.  But from that point on I wear the cheap rubber one when I go swimming or when I'm on a shore visit on a cruise.  

We were on the Victory last October. My wife's second cruise, my first.  We had a blast and were sad to get off the ship.  As you noted you're well aware it's not exactly the newest ship in the fleet, but, it didn't "feel" old to us.  It was well maintained, clean, and well appointed.  Crew and stewards were all friendly, and everyone we were around seemed to be having a good time.  We were on a 4 day Bahama cruise we stayed in an aft balcony and loved the view. While it may not have all the bells and whistles that the newer ships have what it does it does well.  We had a great cruise director in Philipee (sp?) There's something for everyone.  What's the itinerary?   Ours was Half Moon Cay (amazing), Nassau, sailing out of Miami.  Half Moon Cay was amazing, beautiful private island beach and the "I wish I could stay here forever" sign says it all.  Nassau we weren't as impressed with but enjoyed our time at the Warwick Resort day pass.  The food on the ship was all good with exception to the lido buffet for dinner we weren't impressed with that.  We loved Guy's, Blue Iguana, Pizza Pirate, and the Main Dining room.  If it's available I'd recommend Faster to the Fun, found in the excursions page in your booking.  We felt it was well worth it. We were on the ship within 30 min of arriving at the port, our room was ready when we got on board, didn't have to wait in line at customer service, and we were on/off the ship quickly for ports and debarkation.  

Another thing to consider is security.  Saving money to leave your car in a sketchy area is not worth the risk.  Organized Chaos had a good tip to use Google satellite view to get a feel for each lots situation.  We cruised out of Miami last October and chose to park at the port in their enclosed garage as it has 24 hour security and we'd heard horror stories about off port parking of people returning find their cars broken into and even one case where someone returned to find a homeless person sleeping in their car.  Now I'm sure many have cruised out of Miami and had no problems but we chose to pay the 22/night for peace of mind.  Definitely research the lots the areas, as well as cost.  Sometimes security is worth a little extra cash.  We can't speak for any port other than Miami though as that was our first cruise.  Our next one is out of Port Everglades but we won't have a vehicle to park.  

Definitely agree with arriving a day early and staying overnight if at all possible.  Depending on where you live vs the cruise port flying out is ideal.  Our first cruise was last October and we decided to drive 16+ hours from Indiana to Orlando two days prior and and drove the final 3 hours the morning of embarkation.  Never again we were still recovering when we finally got to the ship.  never again.  You want to arrive at your ship well rested and ready to relax and enjoy your tropical vacation.  It's an experience you will never forget, and likely will be hooked as we were.  

Try not to over plan, focus on enjoying the moments and keep in mind that anything you may miss out on you can do on your next cruise.  Go with the flow, do what you want (within the rules of course :P) Experience new things.  You can do as much or as little as you want.  7 days is a good length of time you should have at least a couple sea days to explore the ship.  Our October cruise on the Victory was just 4 days and we had a blast but wished we could have had more time to explore.   We are also booked on the Breeze for an 8 day cruise in 2021.  

Treat the staff with respect and take time to interact with them, they work hard to make your vacation special, and they are away from their families for long stretches of time.  The interaction is welcome and makes them feel appreciated.  

Pay attention to time when in port. Ships time trumps local time if they say be back on board by a set time be there and good practice to be back a little early.  If your not on the ship when it's ready to leave it will leave without you.  You don't want to be one of those people running down the port watching their ship sail away.  That said on our cruise it did seem that they were a little lenient in this area as the ship didn't set sail right at the time just don't rely on that leniency.  

Be sure to bring plenty of sunscreen, and meds you think you'll need like motion sickness, aspirin, Tums, etc.  While you can buy on the ship it's marked up cause they know they got you.  Packing is a balance of bringing just what you need without over doing it.  Where that balance lies depends on the person.  One tip though is to plan versatile wardrobe that can be modified/accessorized to have variety. Plus you'll probably spend more time on the cruise in your swim wear than regular clothes, and you can wear the same outfit for multiple elegant nights again think versatility over quantity.  

Cruising has a learning curve and the best teacher is experience.  We learned things good and bad on our first cruise that we'll carry into our next cruise and so on.  

I'm sure marketing plays into it as it always will but it's not the only factor.  Consider it from a business standpoint, overhauling/refurbishing vs building brand new.  The cost difference of overhauling an existing ship verses building a brand new ship even of similar size.  The older a ship is more there's only so much can be done to update it without making major changes to layout/cabins, public areas, and venues.   They do mention in their ship descriptions of these rebranded ships that they have been rebranded, though it's not plastered all over the advertising so those not familiar with cruising could easy think "new ship" when it's only partially new, the shell and much of the guts are the same but from an appearance and feature standpoint it is newish.  

7 hours ago, Steve551 said:

Embarkation - Luggage Information

To help you plan, we suggest you limit your luggage to a maximum of one bag per person, if traveling on cruises of 3-5 days duration, and no more than two bags per person, for cruises of 6 days or longer. In addition, you must personally carry-on any boarding documentation (passports, Visas, I.D), valuables, medications and items which require special handling.

 

I remember seeing that before our first cruise last October and asked here about it.  As others have pointed out it's  not a hard limit.  It's a suggestion.   I think they put this out there to cut down on people going nuts and bringing several bags.  You probably could bring 2 checked bags each and 1 carry-on each, but as other's mentioned you might find that 2 bags and a carry-on each will be more luggage than you need. And if your flying it's extra money for baggage that you likely wouldn't need.  

We were on a 4 day Bahama cruise on the Victory and we both checked one bag, and our carry-ons.  We realized soon we'd overpacked, which is so easy to do.  We each had a checked bag and one small carry-on.  The night before the cruise we were pulling things out of our luggage for the cruise to just leave in the car.  I've heard people say pack what you think you'll need then remove half of it.  One thing to remember is you'll often be in swim wear and, even though on a 7 day you likely have more than one elegant night you can always pack to wear a variation of the same outfit and nothing says you have to attend both nights.  We're booked for an 8 day and are considering packing what we did for the 4 day cruise for our 8 day cruise.  

We are booked for a cruise on the Breeze in April of 2021 and of course no excursions are yet available we do want to purchase it.  I'm sure it won't be till sometime in 2020 or early 2021 that it will become available along with the other excursions.  We booked through our cruise through a Carnival personal vacation planner who made the process easy.  I could shoot her an email and ask about being put on an early waiting list and maybe get it added as soon as it's available.  One thing I know people have said in other posts regarding it is that even if it's sold out today, keep checking as sometimes people drop it and you might be able to get it.  

Our first cruise together was last October on the Victory and we did get the faster to the fun.  I can't with any certainty with regards to the orange tape.  I do know that all our tags and boarding passes had the FTTF logo clearly printed on them.  It does seem like we had tags like the orange one in the picture posted by PortSideCruzan.  It's even possible that is still on my luggage.  As I haven't cruised without FTTF I can't compare cruising with it to without it.   Like many things on a cruise it can be subjective.  Some will say it's totally worth it and would never not get it (at least till they reached the status where those perks are earned).  Some will say it's a total waste of money.   For us we felt it was worth it.  We liked arriving at the Miami Port and having a special entrance, and being able to skip the wait/lines and were on the ship within 30 min of arriving at the port.  We liked being able to stop by our room, have our cards and drop our bags off and go off and eat and explore.  Priority access to customer service was also nice.  One time we had a guy behind us in the priority line waving his platinum card, we just laughed as we talked to customer service.  Being on the tinder boats early for Half Moon Cay was great as well as being able to get off the ship early on debarkation day.  We personally feel it's worth it and will get it on our upcoming cruise. I feel like it's worth trying once.  But really asking others and researching what you get with it will help in deciding it's worth it to you.  Essentially you are paying for some of the loyalty perks that diamond and platinum cruisers get.  

On 3/18/2019 at 3:10 PM, grandmarnnurse said:

You will absolutely love the Breeze! We just got off the Breeze on March 9. Fabulous ship! We are booked on a B2B on the Magic (Breeze sister ship) for a Southern Caribbean cruise in 383 days. So excited! 

We are looking forward to it.  We've heard so much good about the Breeze.   We had a great time on the Victory last October.  if only it wasn't 700+ days to go.  

Read on a review that someone had followed suggestions to use a clip similar to what you'd use to clip your towels to a chair to keep the door slightly propped.  We'll have to try this on our next cruise. 

20 hours ago, Schoifmom said:

 

I have asked this question in the past and JH assured me that any cash given to a team member is kept by that team member.

This is good to know.  I know there are lots of threads on this topic, it does matter how that cash is handled.  Our last cruise we had a really good room steward so we left him cash and a nice thank you note before we left our cabin on debarkation day.  I'd have hated to have that cash taken from him to be "redistributed" when he deserved it.  If cash given were to be redistributed it'd make giving gift cards a better idea.  We brought an envelope with ones for tipping.  

If you haven't already and it's still available consider adding FTTF (Faster to the fun).  We did that on our previous cruise and it was well worth it to have pretty much priority everything.  Having your cabin ready when you board after an expedited boarding process so you don't have to lug your carry on with you when you do the obligatory first day lunch and exploring is so nice.  Not having to wait in line at guest services and priority tinders, etc.

edit - I'll second or third or whatever to the melting chocolate cake that was amazing.  The smoked salmon filet was great and I'm pretty picky when it comes to fish.  Also do make a point to go to the welcome aboard show, you can win things like excursions, drink packages, internet, etc.  You fill out a raffle ticket and they draw for lots of things to give away.  We won a $90 kayak adventure.  

On my last cruise one night I did order two entrees because I couldn't decide which one and there was no up charge.  They are very flexible it's part of the cost of the cruise, you can get what you want, if you don't want an entree you can get a couple appetizers or an entree sized app, or any number of options.  The only reason I could see them considering charging for this in the future is if a lot of people order excessive amounts and there is excessive waste.  I'd only ever order what I feel like I can eat.  The entrees aren't huge portions anyway so don't feel bad ordering extra. 

One thing you have in your favor is booking through the cruise line as if something goes wrong they will assist you in getting rerouted and join the ship.  Not a fun scenario but it's better than missing the boat and having your vacation sail away without you.  Coast to coast is a long trek and things can and do go wrong.  Bad thing is that with your work situations that extra day isn't possible.  Flying in the day of would make me nervous, and a flight that long would have you wiped out by the time you got to the ship.  I can't really speak from experience as I've been on one cruise, my wife has been on two.  Our first cruise together was last October (we got lucky and had beautiful weather 90% of our trip) We actually drove 16 hours from Indiana to Orlando and stayed two nights in the Drury Inn near Universal.  Then the morning of drove the 3 1/2 hours from Orlando to port of Miami.  We have another cruise booked but are definitly planning on flying in the day before.  In our case it's a little over a 3 hour flight.  Our choice to drive (and we love road trips) wiped us out by the time we boarded.  Even two nights in Orlando as we spend one day with some friends there.  We were dragging much of our 4 night cruise.  If you can get an evening/night flight that would allow you to arrive the day before that would sure help even if that day is spent crashing/recovering.  Being refreshed as much as possible prior to boarding is ideal.  

754 days.  We'll be on the Carnival Breeze on an 8 day southern Caribbean cruise out of Ft Lauderdale.  Half Moon Cay, Grand Turk, Bonaire, Aruba with 3 fun days at sea.  

It feels like an eternity but gives us something to look forward too.  We'll be cruising with my wife's parents and the cruise will be twice as long as our first cruise together on the Victory that only had two stops HMC and Nassau.  

Can't speak for the Breeze or Magic, though we are booked on the Breeze for a 2021 cruise.  But I can speak for Carnival.  Wife and I had our first cruise together (my first ever cruise) last October on the Victory.  We had friends badmouth carnival and talk about how it's just a party ship we have to watch ourselves from all the riff raff, debotchery and so on.  We experienced none of that on our cruise we had a wonderful experience start to finish.  Our only complaint is we wish we'd have booked a longer cruise.  Service was great, staff helpful and friendly, we had a great cruise director named Philipe (sp?).  Food was all good only exception is we weren't impressed with the buffet (with so many other good options this didn't bother us).  Our fellow cruisers were generally friendly as well had good conversations with about anyone we came in contact with.  For the price we felt we got our money's worth.  It didn't feel cheap or trashy like we'd been told.   Our itinerary was Nassu and Half Moon Cay.  Half Moon Cay is awesome and we will be returning on our next cruise. It is a private island so the only people on the island when your there are the people from your ship.  It is a tinder port but that's not a big hassle.  I would recommend Faster to the Fun which can be booked under your excursions.  That will give you priority tinder access along with many other benefits including things like priority boarding, your room will be ready when you board the ship, priority debarking, priority spot at the service desk, among other things.  On our cruise we got to the port, parked and they had a special entrance for priority boarding, we didn't have to wait in long lines to board. I'd say within a half hour to 45 min from arriving at the port of Miami we were on the ship.  Dropped our carryon bags, and headed to Lido for lunch at Guy's Burgers.  

My wife and I have only done one cruise so far and have a second one booked.  We chose your time dining, and our thinking was the flexibility of having dinner when we wanted rather than have to plan our evening around a set dining time.  We liked it and so we've got our next cruise set for that anytime dining too.  It's really a personal preference sort of thing.  We can only speak for the anytime and we liked the flexibility it provided.  

One thing I forgot, do attend the "Welcome Aboard" show/talk.  It's a good overview of the cruise, the ports you'll visit, excursions etc.   You can win excursions.  We won one on our cruise, a Kayak adventure on Half Moon Cay.  

For us we decided early on not to go with the cheers.  For one if one person in your room has it both have to have it.  I don't drink, and my wife only does on occasion.  The draw for us would be all that's included beyond just Alcohol.  But even then it just didn't seem worth it as we'd have to drink a lot of specialty drinks to get our money's worth.  We did consider the bottomless bubbles as we do like soda, but considering each person can bring 12 cans of non-alcoholic drinks and a bottle of wine each, we chose to skip any drink package.  We spent way less by paying as we went especially since you can pretty much get tea, lemonade, and water whenever you want it.    It's really one of those things that is a personal choice.  

Many good lessons learned mentioned already.

My first cruise was last October on the Victory, it's been my only cruise but I was hooked the moment I boarded.  We've since booked another cruise. This site and shipmate as well, as youtube's Cruise Tips TV and EECC Travels were very good places to find tips, tricks and reviews. 

Things I learned from my first cruise in no particular order:

1. Pace your self whether it's dining, activities, excursions etc.  Remember you are on vacation.  Over the years I've learned the the less I plan out other than the obvious necessities the more fun I have.  What I've learned to tell myself is "you can always come back or do this or that the next time"  Like any other vacation you can do as much or as little as you want.  Pick some things you definitely want to do, and play the rest by ear.  Not only will not trying to do everything save you money it will allow you to relax more.

2. Faster to the fun was worth it for us, we were on the ship soon after arriving at the port, our room was ready when we boarded, priority tinders, boarding and so on.  It's a personal choice but we felt the benefits were worth it.

3.  Bring empty tumblers with you to fill at drink stations.  They do have glasses you can use but they are small and it's nice to not have to refill as often.  

4. Definitely bring money to tip and it's nice to bring a care package of sorts for your room steward.  Also be kind and patient with staff. They work hard to make your experience pleasant.  On the last day of our cruise I saw some guy treating the customer service person horribly, yelling and swearing at them repeatedly demanding to talk to their manager.  I felt so bad for her she was trying to do her job and didn't deserve to be treated that way.  

5. You will be hooked quickly.  The cruising bug is extremely contagious 😛 

Haven't been on here in a while.  Was going to comment when you posted the review but the boards were locked then. Wanted to say I really enjoyed reading your review then and again today as it brought back good memories.  

My wife and I were on this cruise as well.  It was in celebration of our 1 year anniversary.  Ironically we were one deck up from your rowdy neighbors.  We were in cabin 8434 which is one of the aft extended balconies near the middle of the ship.  I didn't recall noticing the disturbances but then again we weren't in our cabin a lot.  We had FTTF so we got early boarding.  Arrived at the port around 12:30 and were on the ship by around 1pm dropped our stuff off in our room.  It was so hot that day that by the time we got to our room I hit the shower to cool off.  Once we left our room we were off to explore the ship making Guy's Burgers our first stop (I'd been looking forward to that since we booked the cruise lol).  As you mentioned the food lines got long quick on the first day.  With our bellies full we continued exploring and getting lost a few times along the way lol.  We went back to the cabin for a bit to relax and wait for the muster drill and ended up having a good chat with one of the crew members, everyone we interacted with crew wise was pleasant, friendly and happy to help.  

The we spent most of the sail away watching from one of the starboard side rail areas it was so cool to watch the coast guard blowing their horns and the people on the Carnival Ecstasy waiving to us.  Then watching Miami slowly shrink into the distance.  Once we were out of the harbor we went back and enjoyed the view from our aft balcony.  We couldn't get over how amazing and vivid the blue waters were in the wake of the ship. What an amazing and romantic sunset to share.  This was my first ever cruise and first time outside the US as well.  My wife had cruised once before with Norwegian.  I was hooked the moment we boarded the ship. We loved our room but being on the back of the ship we felt the movement especially when we could tell they were speeding up to make up time.  

We definitely liked this itinerary and the highlight being Half Moon Cay the sign that says I wish I could stay here forever says it all.  Beautiful clear water, like you the beach looked crowded but never felt crowded.  The hot lunch was good, and just a good day to relax and enjoy the beautiful beach.  We did the Kayak excursion on HMC which we won at the Welcome aboard event.  We were thinking of doing the sting ray one.  But couldn't believe we were the first name drawn from the raffle.  It's fair to say that my wife enjoyed it more than I did.  The kayaks aren't built for tall people and it was a struggle for me to stay upright or find a position that didn't make my back hurt.  But the guide was great and we did a two person kayak.  It was overall cool it took us to a lagoon where they talked about the island, culture, etc. and we got to see various sea life like star fish, conch, some kind of upside down jellyfish, sea cucumbers.  It's probably something I won't do again (kayaking) but glad I did it once.

On Nassau we got a day pass at the Warwick Resort which we took a taxi to.  The resort was nice and we enjoyed our time there.  We left in time to do a little shopping at the straw market and to get a t-shirt at the Hard Rock Cafe.  I wanted to get a Del Sol t-shirt but were unable to locate the store and din't feel safe enough to spend time exploring to find it.  We weren't overly impressed with the market or Nassau in general.  It felt dirty and not particularly safe.  If it's on any future itinerary we may just stay on the ship.  We did get a neat Christmas ornament made of shell.  Our thing is collecting ornaments from places we've been.  

All in all we had a great time on this cruise.  Ship crew, stewards, and service personnel were all friendly and helpful.  Our fellow guests were friendly and pleasant as well at least those we interacted with.  For the money it's hard to beat what you get on a cruise experience.  The food was good, and plenty of it, if you starve it's your fault lol.  Loved having access to tea, lemonade, and water any time.  Definitely bring a tumbler of some kind they provide cups but they're small.  Also you can get ice cream or frozen yogurt virtually anywhere on the ship.  It was a nice introduction to cruising for me and a way better cruising experience than my wife had on her Norwegian cruise (mainly due to people she cruised with and weather).  My only disappointment really was the shortness of the cruise we felt like we weren't able to do/try all the things we wanted to and often had to pick between things.  We booked our next cruise.  An 8 night cruise in 2021 with my wife and her parents.  We went with a mid balcony this time to maybe have a bit less motion than the rear balcony.  We wanted to have more sea days and we get three of them.  We also get to go back to Half Moon Cay along with Grand Turk, Aruba, and Bonaire.  Again I enjoyed reading your review, like a trip down memory lane.  

Definitely some good ideas.  I think on our last cruise we got off the ship early am after having breakfast on the lido deck. It could have been somewhere around 7/8 don't remember exactly.  So far on our cruise booking page excursions aren't yet listed but I may look around more on Carnival's site.  We definitely have the luxury of time to research.  Most hotels offer free shuttle from the airport and most offer shuttle to the port for a fee.  We'll have flexibility on booking flight times both coming and returning. 

We have booked an 8 night cruise with Carnival sailing out of Ft. Lauderdale in spring of 2021.  Our general plan is to fly into FLL airport the day before embarkation day and book a hotel for that night.  Assuming we can get a shuttle from the Airport to the Hotel, then on embarkation day get a shuttle to Port Everglades.  After the Cruise we assume debarkation will be sometime in the morning so we are planning to book an evening return flight.  We'll have some time to kill from the time we get off the ship till we need to be at the airport for the flight home.  What are the best options for transporting our luggage and doing a little exploring before heading to the airport.  Other than the obvious taxi or uber.  There will be four of us (my wife and I and her parents).  As the trip is so far out we can't play with real flight times to know more exactly how much time we'll have to kill.  Our previous cruise my wife and I drove from Indiana to the port 19 hours on the road (not doing that again), so we had our own car there.  Is there public transit?  My concern is lugging our luggage around the Ft. Lauderdale area.  Should we seek to book a flight closer to when we disembark like say around 2pm or so and just get a shuttle from the port to the airport.  And then for our flight down book early enough that we can explore the area pre-cruise?   The positive is we have time to research and look at our options.  

Thanks in advance for any info or tips.

still broken, half the links I click on return an error page saying to manny connections with a button that says try again that I have to click several times to get a page to load (which loads verrrry slowly).  Seems like a lot of old threads are missing, one I'd started yesterday says it doesn't exist.  Guess I don't get to see the replies... 😞  other threads I was going to comment on are no where to be found and the search feature doesn't seem to work very well.  Hoping they get the bugs worked out soon... I miss the old forums.

Thanks for all the responses, and as a first time cruiser, it's easy to overthink things because we have no personal experience to reference just the cruise companies printed policies. My list was more to cover what a person could conceivably pack for a cruise. I wanted to get an idea of what people typically pack in their checked bags and their carryon. We'll have our phones, probably our small point and shoot cameras (mine fits in my pants pocket), medications/first aid, toiletries, our allotment of soda and wine, and clothing. No intention of bringing the laptop or anything bulky. The wife is thinking of bringing a small oil water diffuser. Essentially we're planning to bring one checked bag each, one carryon backpack or small duffle. We were thinking of bringing the cans/wine in their own small roller bag. We chose FTTF because we like the idea of our cabin being ready when we board, along with the other perks that come with it. We'll be able to board and head to our room to drop off our stuff and explore the ship. We chose not to go with a drinks package because we don't see the value in it, we're not heavy drinkers alcohol or soda. Our plan is to pack as light as we can but we also don't want to under pack.