cheney_23

Booked directly with Carnival several months ago for the 3/22 Magic sailing.  Have not received any email about option to cancel with FCC and have been unsuccessful getting through to Carnival over the phone.  Am I eligible for the FCC if I cancel?  Do I just role the dice and cancel online and keep my fingers crossed that they give me the FCC?  

My family are participating in the Grand Turk Whale Watching on Carnival cruise in March.  We have previously gone on a whale watching tour in Seattle.  I tried to take SO many photos with my Iphone, but at the end the tour company sold a USB with the photos for a VERY reasonable price.  They had a ship photographer with a good camera and zoom lens... Does anyone know if this is a service provided>  I would much rather sit back and enjoy if I know I can purchase photos later... As a teacher I want to show my classes when I return. 

There are multiple sections... Its quite hard to explain... Let me try this... I was in line... for bacon and potatoes at breakfast... I can literally see the items I want... but cannot reach for it, as I am in line... However, there are many people who just come up and squeeze in for what they want...

Yep... guess I did miss an i... cruising (and cursing) too!

Just arrived back in Ohio today from our week aboard the Epic (March 22-29). We are a family of 4: husband 40 me 38 2 daughters 8 and 5. We cruise for the ship not really the locations. we started cursing on our honeymoon and have not stopped since!

I am not really sure how to do a review so I will just hit on things that impressed me/did not impress me.

We had a balcony stateroom on the 13th floor front of the ship... LOVED the location! 1 floor up to splash academy, 2 floors up for pool deck and buffet. We really only had to ever take the elevators for the shows. Which was a plus as the elevators were crowded and long waits.

Stateroom was OK... I HATED the bathroom situation... when the upper bed was pulled down in the evening it was awkward getting to the balcony, but manageable. Our stateroom attendant, Max did a great job, although it seems Norwegians hours are a little later than RC.

The first 2 sea days the pools and slides were crowded, but we got 5 chairs on the upper deck (my parents were also with us on this trip). My daughters, husband and my dad LOVED the slides! I must admit I only rode 2 and they were fun, however the "green" one made me quite dizzy! We stayed on the boat on Grand Cayman and Cozumel which made for less crowded pool time. However... that being said... the 2 "public" pools had only 1 operational pool those days... the one actually turned green... The slides were SLOW to open on Grand Cayman day, the body slides had no water in them and I am not sure if they ever opened that day. 4 of us got off in Jamaica and did the zipline adventure, and my mom and DD 5 stayed in the ship, and they had issues with pool openings...

The last sea day is was COLD... and by cold I mean less than 70 degrees and windy... People were on the pool deck in winter coats :confused: as a result the pools were CLOSED, slides were CLOSED... Spider Climb... CLOSED... Rock Wall..CLOSED... Epic bounce...CLOSED... which I know is a must... but trying to entertain 2 kids when the majority of what they wanted to do was closed was hard... luckily, there was a Nick themed game show for 45 minutes and back to the kids club! LOL.

Food... we did not ever eat in the dining room or specialty restaurants (except Cirque... which I will address later) We did buffet and O'Shehanns every night... I loved the burger at O'Shehanns. Food was Ok. I think this was the first cruise I actually felt full (I am extremely picky eater :p ) We had the UBP and that came in handy for all of us. Yes, there are still those people who cannot seem to understand a buffet line, and the workers tried to help but there were always "cutters". My 5 year old would often say (to us) No Cuts, not buts no coconuts!

Cirque show... This was maybe my least favorite thing we did all week... We had the standards seats, which is kind of a joke, as you are seated on the floor... in the back... thus you can see only a portion of the acrobat routines in the air... We were also seated with another couple (who were staying in the Haven... and made sure we were aware of it! LOL). They were a little on the odd side... to begin with we met the husband as he was dealing with a bloody nose... that bled and bled... He also lied multiple times to the servers to get more food... I was thoroughly embarrassed! The show was a little long, and like I said, the seats... left much to the imagination. There is also a whistle blowing "clown" that tried every last one of my nerves!

we did Blue Man, Legends, the hypnotist and the second city (which I am not a fan of improve) All were good shows.

Splash Academy... my kids loved it... I found the hours annoying... on sea days they are pretty much only open for periods of 3 hours and then close for 2 or so... having been on Carnival, RC and now NCL... I think that Carnival does the best job at their kids clubs, but my girls still love going there. The last night there was actually a wait!

I did the walk off so I could get my 9:20 flight out of MIA, and I got in line about 6:45... walk off started at 7:30 and I was in my cab by 7:45!

Overall, I loved my trip... all I wanted to do was sit... be warm... relax... read... and I accomplished that! I would like to think I am easily pleased, and yes there were things that bothered me... but did not ruin my cruise! I am sure I am leaving things out, but if you have any questions feel free to ask!

We are going on the Epic, leaving a week from tomorrow!! :D Anyway, my small almost 9 year old wants to do the zipline in Jamaica, offered as an excursion. We have signed up for it, but I have friends that say that she might have issues since she only weighs like 43 pounds... I have only ever gone ziplining 1 and that was 9 years ago (when I was preggo with her LOL). So, I am just looking for anyone that has maybe done that particular excursion and could maybe chime in...

Thanks!

thanks! we have sailed several times with RC and I just didnt remember what those were and if it was anything we "needed" I found it somewhat odd that we leave in 22 days and they are not accessible!

what exactly are these? We leave in 22 days and it says we have elected to receive electronically but they are not ready...

I have almost completed the online check in, I just need to put passport numbers...

Help?

So... we bought a 7 night cruise back in March when they had kids sail free... EVERY time we log into the reservation to make a change the price goes UP!!! I have had to call RC every time and have spent countless HOURS on hold and trying to get my point across to the reps...

Tonight, I logged in... 0 balance... Changed from 5:30 seating to MTD... now I owe 926 MORE dollars! Offices are closed obviously, so I will get to spend some quality time on hold/explaining my situation again tomorrow... Has anyone else had this big of an issue with this? I have my emailed invoice from May 5 that shows final payment and the break down of the cruise costs... The additional money comes from the cruise fair keeps INCREASING on person 1 and 2!

I am so frustrated with this issue! I am afraid that I will show up at the port and be told we owe more money... .That did happen to us once before.. said we used a state discount for a state we didn't live in! SPent quite a bit of time in some little office but in the end it was all worked out (and I will add there were a LARGE number of us in the same boat... so it was pretty obvious it was their error)

Just venting and maybe looking for some people that have been in the same situation!

We purchased a cruise back when they had the kids sail free promo... had MAJOR issues with prices changing... so I am avoiding logging in LOL

Anyway, we used credit card points for money off the cruise and some OBC... is there a way to verify that I have the OBC? My invoice shows the points in the price adjustment but I wanted to verify...

Help?

I have not been on a RC cruise for about 3 years... maybe 4 YIKES!!! Anyway... We are going on a family cruise on the Freedom of the Seas in July and I thought I read somewhere there was a package that you can purchase all of the digital photos that are taken of you on the ship (and a pre-purchase is cheaper) but when I go to the site I cannot really get any info...

Can anyone help!

I was wondering if I could use the 500 off the cruise with the 3 and 4th free... do you think I should call too or does it count just like money?

I will be on that cruise... is he a good CD? Just wondering!

I got 3.5 star Sheraton Suites Plantation for $66 2-21 post-cruise and am very happy with this hotel based on the reviews.

 

We had actually tried for this hotel pre-cruise 2-13 on Priceline and bid from $60 to $90 before we won 4 star Hyatt Regency Bonaventure which has some great reviews and some not-so-great. Wish I had used Hotwire then.

 

I also got some help from betterbidding to identify hotel probability on the post-cruise bid.

If you don't mind me asking, how do you plan to get to and from the hotel? Taxi, Rental Car? I have the same hotel booked in March and I am debating my options for transportation to and from hotel.

Any help is appreciated.