mississauga

Sorry, just saw this. You may have found your answers elsewhere already but just in case, here are my answers /tips to your questions in red.

Congratulations to your in laws and daughter. Have a great cruise!

Hi

 

First time poster. This is my second cruise. I sailed with NCL years ago. We are headed to Miami from NY next week for the a Vista Cruise leaving on 8/20.

 

There are 23 (ages 4-75) of us sailing as we are celebrating my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary and my daughters Sweet 16. It was her idea for the cruise it's all she wanted was for her whole family to be together...on a boat...with no where to go...lol Kids!

 

Please excuse me as I don't know all the abbreviations

 

Anyway, just a few questions - We have 6 Ocean Suites.

My luggage tag says priority and has the FTTF logo on it my boarding pass only has a priority marking.

 

Am I correct in assuming that this gets us on the boat faster and that is it? No guarantee of the room being ready? That is my understanding. You board after the wedding parties, Diamond, Platinum and that's it. If your luggage tags say FTTF, your luggage should have priority getting to your suite early.

 

Does an automatic gratuity get added per person/room/day? Can I have that removed and tip on my own? the total automatic gratuity usually gets added to each person's folio about the second last day of the cruise. Please don't remove the tips. The tips are shared and you may not come face to face with some crew that have shared in making your cruise a fun one. You can go to GS to remove them but usually is done only if you have a good reason such as poor service to do so.

 

I myself have 5 children - I was not getting all of them the soda pkge. yay or nay? Same with alcohol pkge. My husband and I happen to be registered in separate rooms to accommodate all the kids so really only he or I could purchase one since we both are the only adults registered to our rooms. Did you know that you are allowed to bring on 12 cans of soda per person? That might be less cost than buying the soda pkg?

 

Because we are such a large group do we have any negotiation power for the excursions? For the most part we all want to do the same ones. Blue Hole in Ocho Rios, a stinray snorkel thing in Cozumel and the Turtle Farm in Grand Caymen. If a no with the negotiations should we pre-book? I believe the prices are per person and no group rates available. If you wait until you are on board, the spaces you need for your large group may not be available for all. Spaces are limited on most excursions

 

Is there any other tip that can be offered with such a large group? We are hoping to have at least 1 dinner to celebrate the birthday and the anniversary at the steak house. I undertstand we may need to be split into multiple tables - out of the 23 people 14 are kids

Again, since you have such a large group, to ensure you are able to get reservations for such a large group you should pre book if it is not too late already

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Jaine is probably on vacation after the last date you see her scheduled.

Either the schedule does not go to two months ( usually the gap between her contracts ) after when she returns or they do not know yet which ship she will be on,

Right now the Paradise is Jaime's ship so there is a good chance that she may be on the Paradise again.

I agree with you. Jaime is awesome! A great CD and a wonderful person!

Yup, twice a day, once around 3-4 and once around 11-12 in Club...

It's Buy One Get One for $1 for any drinks - soda, beer, wine, cocktsils, etc.

Thanks! DH will be happy

Congratulations! Enjoy!

The most resistance we ever got was a barista saying "this is from another ship", so you can only finish out the speciality punches, not fresh brewed. OK by me, still got to use my punches.

If you only want the fresh brewed, can you use the punches for it?

Do they still have "happy hour" designated times when you can buy 2 for 1 alcoholic drinks/beer?

Im going to be on the sunshine in 5 days. I wanted to bring my curling iron. Do you think I can plug it in with no problems? Also, my hubby wants to know if we can plug anything into the TV in the rooms. We want to watch our own stuff.

As long as your curling iron is in good condition with no fraying, you can definitely bring it.

Perhaps someone else can answer your 2nd question

Andy, a very balanced review. Thank you for taking the time to do one.

We have been to Nassau many times but was not aware there was a chocolate factory. Does it have a tour or more like a store with lots of varieties. Could you give me an idea where it is?

Do you have to prebook with Gail or just show up if doing the pay as you go?

I see there is an option to pay for Wifi on the ship. It is only a 4 day cruise so it is really not a necessity to have it all the time but I was wondering if there is any areas on the ship that have free wifi ?

If you only want social media to access Facebook, intagram or twitter, it is only $5 a day. Not sure what it would be for all 4 days. Maybe $18???

We were on deck 5 and were able to use magnetic hooks on both walls that we used them on.

ShannonRRT, on Sunshine again for 28 days in Jan 2018. See you are cruising after us in February. We know the Housekeeping Mgr well so will ask her if other decks can use magnetic hooks or magnets. What cabin/ deck are you in so I can find out for sure for you?

Got email this time that they would reply in 3 business days. Only got confirmation yesterday......took 8 business days.

Sometimes have heard within 2 hours. Guess it depends on how busy they are.

Is the Seafood Shack included or is there a separate charge for this food? Also did you try it and was it any good?

I tried the Clam Chowder when on my own. Very good. Then 2 friends and I each ordered a different dish and shared all three. Fried buffalo shrimps, lobster rolls and crab cakes. All were very good but there is a wait for them. All are made fresh after your order is put in. You will be given a beeper until your order is ready.

They do have Linguine & Meatballs and Spaghetti Carbonara.

Been too long sincee I have seen a Cucina menu, I guess:eek:. None of my dining companions or myself have ever order a pasta dish for dinner so memory not too good about a pasta dish:D.

Get all my pasta at lunch time. My favorite go to for lunch.

My guess too but could be the name of the Horizon's main dining room.

It is already the name of a Vista dining room. I don't think they will repeat it on the Horizon.

Whatever they name the dining rooms on the Horizon may be indications of what the newer ships will be called. My guess.

Yes, the "Excellence" or "XL" class are the ships due to Carnival in 2020 and 2022. The class will also include two ships for Costa (2019 and 2021), and two for AIDA (AIDAnova in 2018, and another ship in 2021).

So the mention of Reflection was before they knew about Vista 3. Maybe they will use Reflection for the 2019 ship and come up with new names for the 2020 and 2022 ones.

Thanks. Good point on can cancel... For dinner can u try more than one thing like MDR or $15 per entree? Where on ship is pasta place? I'm a big Italian fan but wasn't impressed with Pasta Bella how does it compare?

The dinner concept in JiJi's is sharing. If there are two of you, you can choose 2 from the appetizers, 2 from entrees and 2 sides. They give you enough of each for 2. Each person chooses their own dessert. If 3 or 4 people, they suggest 3 from each section. We went as a group of 12 and got to try all the dishes and there was enough for everyone to try every dish.

The Italian place for dinner is called Cucina del Capitano. Other than spaghetti as a side, no pasta that I recall. Entrees were more like chicken parmesan etc.

I believe ( although cannot say for sure ) that in all of the pay for venues that only one entree is allowed but maybe extra sides if requested?

The portions are generous.

One of the YouTube videos for Horizon or Vista actually uses the phrase "perfect panorama" so that could be a hint, much like one of the videos for Vista had "in 2016, big things are on the horizon".

 

Horizon's announcement video also uses the phrase "embrace new perspectives" so Perspective may be in play as well.

 

Given there's a model of the "Excellence" class ship with "Carnival Reflection" on it, I doubt that name is going to be used for Vista 3.

I was going to guess Carnival Reflections as Horizon and Reflections are the names of the 2 dining rooms on the Vista.

What is the "Excellence" class? The two for 2020 and 2022?

Since you have your parents and in laws with you, you should be fine.

When our grand daughter was 13 1/2 months, we took her and her parents on a cruise. Our ports were Half Moon Cay, St Thomas, San Juan and Grand Turk.

Since we cruise a lot and our son had not cruised since he was 11 and his wife as a teenager, we took most of the responsibility for her so they could really enjoy their cruise.

Hopefully you are in the same situation with your parents and inlaws so that they will help out and you can all enjoy your cruise. It is a lot of work with a 13 or 14 month old on a cruise.

We had late party goers in our hall so always lots of noise late at night when the baby is trying to sleep. Ironically in over 50 cruises, this was the only time we had noisy neighbors. Then in the early mornings when the baby cries, you don't want to disturb others. I remember taking her up to Lido in her stroller so we would not disturb anyone sleeping.

HMC and Grand Turk were nice beach days for us as a family. She loved the water. San Juan, we went on the free trolley with her and her parents but after her parents got off to explore the forts, we stayed on with her, got off in old town, walked around a bit and went back to the ship with her. In St Thomas, it was so hot and her parents wanted to go downtown to shop so we walked with her around the port area and then went back to the ship.

We went to early dinner in the MDR with our friends. My son and daughter in law took our grand daughter for dinner on Lido. After dinner we took over so they could have dinner for 2 in the MDR.

We didn't get to go to any shows but hey, we already saw them on other cruises.

You may not want the 2 sets of parents to spend as much time as we did wirh our grand daughter but even if each help out one or two nights each, it will be a big help.

If all three couples take turns with your 14 month old, you can all enjoy the cruise. If you have to do it alone, I think it would be hard.

After boarding, go to GS to get extra keys for the parents so they have acess to your cabin when in charge of your baby.

Enjoy!

Which dining room is "Your time" dining on the Sunshine?

 

On the Glory it was the front dining room and there was always cigarette smoke from the casino wafting in which made it gross. I'd like to avoid the front dining room on the Sunshine.

The front dining room on the Sunshine is assigned seating on deck 3. No where near the casino. Casino is on deck 5.

The aft dining room is on deck 3 and 4. Deck 3 is YTD. However you have to go to deck 5 to get your YTD seat assignment each day. ( it is an easy process. If they have a table ready for you, you proceed to deck 3 to your table. If you are given a pager, then you can wait in the Ocean Plaza and enjoy the music or have a drink at the Alchemy Bar )

Yep. She's the one with the sideways inside 5205.

Was the sideways one noisy? The ones on deck 7 were so noisy on the Inaugural we had to move.

We also had a ideways one on the Glory and although we sometimes heard the elevator at night, it was bearable. Not so on deck 7 on the Vista. Noises were loud plus throughout the day too.

What happens when there are 2 cruise directors scheduled during the same week?

The one who has been there first is the CD of record. The 2nd one is there to parallel and " learn the ropes" of that particular ship. He/she takes over the following week when the other CD leaves

I think that Carnival's bread and butter are the short 3 and 4 day cruises. They are catering to new cruisers who want to get a taste of cruising and since its a short cruise, do not mind a high bill for 3 or 4 days.

However, they also need us oldies to fill the ships. We do cruise more fequently and our bills are probably lower per cruise but overall we may be spending just as much per year on cruising. Maybe more. We cruise 5-7 times a year vs the newbies who may cruise only once or twice a year. We continue to cruise because we love cruising, not for the small perks we get. We appreciate them but the ones we enjoy really do not cost Carnival any money. Boarding early and being able to access our cabin upon boarding are our favorite perks.

As far as the itinerairies, there are only so many islands in the Caribbean. Some are more cooperative with the cruise lines/tourists and some are not as much so I think that goes into the choice of itineraries too.

We were on the Sunshine Feb 11- 24 and Emma was the CD. Mason must have just been covering for her in early Feb? When Emma was the CD, Mason was part of the Fun Squad.

We love the Sunshine. Have cruised 50 days on her already and have another 28 days coming up in January 2018.

On our 2 cruises in February, the first one was 8 days. The second one was 5 days. On the 2nd one, it was Family Day in Canada and also a holiday Monday in the USA. So it went from maybe 10 (? ) young children to a few hundred children and teens? What a difference the demographics of a cruise makes. Not saying it was bad but it certainly was noisier and more lively on the 2nd cruise. Very different for sure and felt like we were on a different ship.

I am sure those on the 8 days cruise had a different perspective of the Sunshine than those on the 5days.

Whichever cruise you choose, it is a wonderful birthday gift and I am sure will be greatly appreciated by your father.

Enjoy!