Umwakichwa

4 minutes ago, IMANOT said:

It arrived at 5:45pm.  Ship is leaving and arriving from Norfolk.  There is a 5 hour bus ride as an option and a $100 on board credit per room.  Got the news 3 days and 19 hours before boarding.  Better late than never.

That’s really terrible, I’m sorry that happened. So many people are going to be out hotel money and need to scramble to find alternatives and parking and flight changes. I’m worried for those that are driving and looking at maps of drive time, because crossing the tunnel to Norfolk is just awful and just that last stretch can take hours and there’s construction right now. I hope you have a good trip after all of the stress though.  🙂 

On 4/19/2024 at 8:50 PM, IMANOT said:

I am sailing in just over 3 weeks. I called Carnival and they are not providing any information until 15 days prior to sailing.

what are people doing?  Rerouting my flights for 3 people will cost an extra $1000. I am finding this very stressful 

I just wanted to check in and see if the email they said would come today arrived as I haven’t seen anyone post it as they have been with the other notices?

31 minutes ago, IMANOT said:

I got the same email. Carnival’s communication skills leave much to be desired.  What are the chances that the ship can disembark in Norfolk and then make the 198 nautical mile journey to pick us up?

I was thinking the same and wonder if they’ll depart norfolk then return to Baltimore one of these times.  The post on fb header was “Carnival Pride  - Norfolk  - Baltimore”

John Heald just posted on fb that those sailing 5/12 would be getting an email on Wednesday 5/8 and will likely need “an immediate response”

The “hairdryer” is like one step up from what a little girls play set comes with. Very little power or heat. 🤣 

49 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

Yes.

 

https://docs.gl-inet.com/router/en/4/faq/connect_to_a_hotspot_with_captive_portal/

 

 

Thank you and can’t wait to see more updates from your cruise!

I’ve cruised a lot but never done this. I’m aware of “fish hangers” on Disney cruises but how does one organize/become involved in one of these on carnival? Thanks in advance for any experiences you can share!

I think you’re going to need to start a whole new thread for the router (when you get back) ……because we have questions 🙂 

I followed the link and as I understand it, you connect your device via your purchased WiFi but then other devices share the connection? (So you don’t have to logon/log off each device)? 

You can’t withdraw the money because the account “settles” the last night of the cruise. However, have you checked with your credit card company about fees? We are in the opposite situation often and my credit card companies actually adjusts to the best exchange rate for the billing cycle. Carnival will place “holds” from the sail and sign account then they back those charges out and push one “actual” charge after the cruise ends. So there’s only one “real” charge from carnival. I do wonder if anyone has used a prepaid (US) card to avoid foreign transaction fees, because that also may be something that you could do. 

They changed the 4/28 and the 5/5 on the website to norfolk 

Not sure where you live but we have a few craft stores here that sell cruise (nautical) themed scrapbooking gear and also Etsy often has a great selection if you are looking for a sort of “template” since it’s the first cruise. 

I second JMAE and there’s a third channel announced today but I’m also confused because I found this https://www.norfolk.gov/6030/Cruises and I live in Norfolk and they are talking like the pride is returning here from its current cruise (the morning news likes to broadcast with the Norfolk port in the background and they talk about the ships coming/going) so as the above poster says, hopefully some kind of confirmation from carnival soon regarding what the plan will be….

13 hours ago, IMANOT said:

I am sailing in just over 3 weeks. I called Carnival and they are not providing any information until 15 days prior to sailing.

what are people doing?  Rerouting my flights for 3 people will cost an extra $1000. I am finding this very stressful 

I also called and was told that they were only contacting people “a week out” via email. Others found out via John Healds Facebook page days before they received an email. 

Found your post because I live in the norfolk area and have a cruise that likely will leave from here and was curious about how they were moving people here/embarkation. I saw you have an extra day here and wanted to suggest heading to the Virginia Beach oceanfront to check out dolphin boats at rudee inlet, or nice beachfront dining at waterman’s or catch 31 🙂 

36 minutes ago, Elaine5715 said:

Could be.  I will be in Orlando prior to my cruise without a car.  Most places I found were "drive up" , not knowing which were reputable, horror stories of last minute cancellations, no testing supplies and the fear of a false positive.  That's alot of unknown.

We are always in this situation and we have tested at CVS because they have clinics for testing inside at many Orlando sites. You can check by site during registration, and you’ll see some sites have “vehicle not necessary” noted which indicates testing inside the clinic. 5308 W IRLO BRONSON MEMORIAL HWY,KISSIMMEE,FL 34746 Is the site we use, and we just take Lyft there. 

The Miami children’s museum is right next to the port, you could go there while he picks up the rental car.

My child also doesn’t do well with loud noises. We do anytime dining and go right when it opens, and haven’t seen a show during the times we have been eating dinner. This is on ten carnival cruises, so you may want to ask when the shows happen and try to plan around it (that’s what we do).

While Disney Dream has the most extensive indoor club I’ve seen, it was crowded and the kids didn’t get individual attention. The larger carnival

ships have large clubs and I see you ask about the sometimes attached playgrounds. In our experience, on ships with playgrounds attached to kids clubs the equipment like slides get very hot and isn’t very nice to use so the kids are often kept inside. We have also been on ships like Caribbean princess that have small outdoor area with tricycles the kids can ride and it’s shaded so that was good. The pp included some great pics of the available water parks on some lines but those are not the actual kids club domain. If you’re looking for great kids clubs and want to avoid the expense of Disney the clubs on the larger and newer carnival and royal Caribbean lines are fantastic. The Vista has sort of an arctic theme for your child’s age with interactive indoor igloo with slides and my child loved it at your child’s age. Even smaller ships with less “fancy” clubs have always kept them

entertained because of personal attention from staff and interactive VERY active activities. 

So the dolphin “swim” is usually restricted to older kids, because it requires you to be able to swim out and follow directions on your own. A dolphin “encounter” is one in which you stand in the water and get to pet the dolphin and get a kiss etc. both usually have age restrictions and require parent in water with children of certain ages. A dolphin swim would be really difficult for most 5year olds (some have you float on your back while the dolphin pushes your foot at really high speeds, for example. A dolphin encounter would allow you to be with your child and experience interaction without being out in deep water. My kids really like the encounters, they are under the age for the “swim” and also not good enough at swimming on their own to do one yet. Hope that helps a little. You can see videos of the difference between swims and encounters on YouTube. They are different in each different port/facility. If you do find one that allows the five year old to do the swim I’d be curious how they’d facilitate that, and the “parent must accompany” provision is because some kids get scared or need help following directions but they get the same experience as the adults in our experience at 4 different dolphin excursions.

I just checked and the carnival site says that “under 2 time” is s only for children under two and will occur during hours that are not activity times for other ages. Also it’s repeatedly stated that under 2 times vary by ship. I can tell you that we have been on several carnival cruises and the under two time was 8-10am before camp opened to the older kids. I have not encountered a carnival cruise that offered for-fee babysitting except night owls,although I do see that listed on the website for port days. Since it’s a port day this could have to coincide with other age groups at camp but it’s stated that “under 2’s” cannot participate with older ages for activity time. This must be relatively new or only on some ships though because we were recently on the liberty (sept 2018) and the sunshine and didn’t see any babies in any of the kids areas....

1 hour ago, ikreroma said:

Thank you. I'll be coming from NJ which doesn't offer it, but you're absolutely right, it may be best option for the op. 

Mommy poppins has a list of car services with seats in New Jersey, pasting link below. It’s from a yearish ago, and many are limo/town car companies but we use a limo company in Orlando because they offer car seats and they’re cheaper than cabs so maybe worth checking into? https://mommypoppins.com/new-jersey-kids/family-travel/family-friendly-car-services-with-car-seats-in-nj

I haven’t used kidmoto, maybe others can chime in on that one? 

2 hours ago, ikreroma said:

Following because I'm taking my 16 month old on the Escape in February. Was going to take an uber to port until I remembered I'd need to bring the car seat, which I am desperately hoping to avoid. Thanks for asking these questions!

You can request an Uber with a child seat. I’m pasting a link for Uber car seat NYC because the op mentions that city but the option exists in major cities all over. https://www.uber.com/info/nyc-car-seat/

We cruised Disney on the dream in the first part of November and there were sooooo many kids screaming and crying everywhere. However, a larger portion of the ship was “adults only” than on any other ship I’ve been on so there would be places to get away. However, if you are cruising with kids (which is what it sounds like from your post) you’ll be in crowded pool areas or waiting in line for the water slides with rambunctiousness all about. I didn’t like it (I was with kids) and the kids clubs were also totally packed and chaotic. We had to wait in lines to get the kids in and out—-lines as long as 20 minutes in a narrow hall that became hot because of the amount of people. There were also lots of sleep-deprived kids because of parents trying to “do everything because we paid for it.” I much prefer some of the royal Caribbean ships with enough for the kids to do but not overcrowded with kids. I’m not sure the ages you have, but arcades are on most royal and carnival ships, some have water slides and splash zones, they all have kids clubs and kid activities but there are far fewer kids and it’s less chaotic. This is especially true if you cruise in the regular school session. My kids get more personal attention in the clubs, they also do kids dinners so you get time alone and there are theme nights in the clubs (dinosaur stomp, pirate night). Even princess had decent kids clubs and has licensed discovery channel and themes accordingly, including shark week stuff. Holland America is not a good choice as there was nearly open hatred of kids by the passengers (have a look at any of the roll calls where people mention taking kids on that line).Carnival has cat in the hat costumed charavters for pictures and a themed breakfast “green eggs and ham.” I heard royal completely phased out their characters. I’d go with at least 7 day royal or carnival (the short cruises are party cruises mostly).

You could call and ask but I highly doubt they’ll be able to purée foods for you-and I’m not sure I’d trust that they’d have exactly what you need and so I’d suggest bringing your own. Many times people are told one thing via phone and find a different situation onboard-and that would be awful if it meant no baby food. Royal Caribbean has Gerber Organic foods you can order to the stateroom, but I haven’t seen anything like that on NCL. I always bring all baby/child supplies (even though it’s a challenge to pack and haul it all) because I want the peace of mind. I’d bring a little more than you’d feed at home because travel throws off plenty of babies in terms of sleeping and eating and you’ll likely be throwing away more than usual. I’m not sure if you’ll have a fridge in your stateroom, but I know that on some ships this can be requested in the event of medications that need refrigeration so maybe you could put in a request for that if your room doesn’t already have one.