Stacie.

No hot tub. 

There is a Guy’s and Blue Iguana on the Elation. 

On 8/6/2019 at 6:57 PM, ToniV said:

If by Amber Cove you mean the beach...your non-trained child can go in the ocean water. But not in any cruise ship pool, not even the "family" pool. As far as I know, Carnival doesn't have the splash zones -- those are not pools, just wet areas with sprayers and sprinklers and so forth -- for non-trained children; they must wear swim diapers in these splash zones and children who ARE trained aren't allowed in them, making it difficult if not impossible for one parent to supervise two children at once. And yes, the rule is enforced, and if it isn't it should be, for the sake of your own children and everyone else. And if it isn't, other folks will see that it is, I promise. 

I'm fairly certain OP is talking about the splash park at the Amber Cove port, not on the ship. There isn't a beach suitable for swimming right at Amber Cove. As far as the swim diaper issue, I can't help you with that as I have teenagers. Maybe try posting on the Carnival message boards which has more traffic. 

As long as it isn’t a balcony room she should be fine by herself without have

ing to change things around.  Then I would let uncle have his own room and move her in with you. 

3 hours ago, centerpoint said:

Stacie, which sailing in November?  My wife and I are booked on the Thanksgiving cruise to these ports of call.

We’re going the 11th-16th of November, so there will be another cruise in between ours and yours. 🙂

2 hours ago, sandi1967 said:

We LOVED Grand Turk.  We got off the ship and walked left on the beach and headed to Jacks Shack.  Best day!!!  Umbrella and two chairs is $14.  The food here is amazing.  Oh my gosh the jerk chicken and cracked conch was the best!!  Drinks were yummy also.  The water is beautiful.  They have been hit hard by hurricanes and you will see some cars that haven't been removed, but the people were lovely.  I would go back in a heart beat.  Oh and the dogs...........its a shame I couldn't sneak one home.  I fell in love with all of them.

 

Sorry so long,

Sandi

Amber Cove and Grand Turk were two of our stops in February and we loved Grand Turk so much that we booked the shorter cruise with GT and AC for November. I’m looking forward to trying the jerk chicken at Jack’s Shack this time. We had cracked conch and conch fritters last time. I thought the cracked conch was good but the conch fritters were amazing. My kids adored Topher and Calyso. My 11 year old was almost in tears when she said goodbye to them. She’s very envious that DH and I are going back so soon. I promised pet them for her. 

I had it on a five day cruise a couple of years ago. It’s one of my favorites too! 

I have four teens and they far prefer CCL over RC. We’ve been on both. Initially they were excited about the fun stuff on RC but the novelty of these items wore off quickly after standing in the sun for 45 minutes waiting for their turn on the FlowRider (after spending at least 30 minutes in line to get the waivers signed and the wristband). The basketball courts were always occupied by the same people so they never got a chance to use them. We did manage to get tickets for ice skating but they are experienced ice skaters (we live in MN on a lake) so the rink seemed so tiny and they pack so many people in each session that they just ended up skating slowly in a circle. They did enjoy people watching on the rink as it appears there were a lot of first time skaters there. They did not enjoy that the ice cream machines were only open for certain times. The lines got really long for that. (This was Navigator of the Seas, right before a dry dock). 

To compare, we’ve been on Paradise (before a dry dock) and most recently on Glory. Hands down, they said Glory beat NOS and they say they think they even liked Paradise better. They enjoy the kids/teen clubs much more, they love Hasbro the Game show (five of us actually made it on stage—three on Paradise and two on Glory). The ice cream is 24/7, they find the ship easier to navigate, and the staff went above and beyond to learn their names, high five them in the hall (when they were younger, LOL), leave better towel animals, the MDR staff was absolutely amazing with their dietary needs, etc. They were able to play basketball and volleyball several times. 

I prefer smaller ships with less people so DH and I are going on Elation in November. Less expensive and we don’t do rides, etc. We are there to relax, visit, and enjoy the ports and the sun. 

48 minutes ago, h_blond2 said:

No...the female crew member's name was Nichola (sp?) and she told us she was from England. I don't remember the male crew member's name though.

Terry is the guy standing up with the hat on, I wonder if it was him you were with. He was from Zimbabwe. Such a great guy! 

I bet the staff members from the kids clubs were Terry from Circle C and Khene (actually from South Africa but has a British accent) from Club O2. My kids LOVED them on our Glory cruise in February. Terry actually came and hung out with us a bit at Jack’s Shack when we were docked in Grand Turk. The kids had a great time with him at the beach. 

I like the omelets and the eggs benedict for breakfast.

I love the Grand Mariner soufflé. Also love the fruit soups, especially the mango and strawberry kinds. 

We've done both Carnival and RCI and hands down my kids prefer Carnival.

We took my son’s friend with us in February when we cruised. I got him a passport—long complicated back history, fortunately his mom showed up at the passport office with the correct paperwork (his and her birth certificate, divorce papers, custody papers, etc) although she showed up an hour after we were supposed to meet, 20 minutes before the office closes. 

While I had her there I also had her sign a consent for minor child to travel and permission to seek medical care for a minor and had them both notarized. 

The customs officer absolutely asked for the notarized consent to travel, his passport, I threw a certified copy of his birth certificate in the pile as well, and he spoke to him while the rest of us stood off to the side. It took at least five minutes and he was doing quite a lengthy and thorough job of checking through the papers. 

4 hours ago, MsSWhite said:

Yay!  Doing the same itinerary in 18 days!  We have a different CD--Simon London?!?  Anyone sailed with him before?

 

We have a party of 8 doing anytime dining as well.  Any issues or long waits to get a table?  Do they use the Northern Lights dining room?  

 

Lastly, (for now--lol) we dock early in San Juan.  Was anything open?  I've read that Old San Juan stores and restaurants may not open until 9:00am-10:00am?

 

Thanks in advance!

We docked at 7 am in San Juan and we had breakfast and coffee at Chocobar Cortez at 8 am. We passed by a few other cafes that were open then. OSJ is a beautiful place to walk around in. If you want to go to the forts you could grab a coffee and walk there—by the time you get there they would probably be open. If you go to El Morro and it isn’t open yet you could wander around in the cemetery for a while. 

On a previous cruise we had DH and me and two kids in an interior room (tight!) and our two other kids shared a room with our friends’ two kids (the boys were both 13 and the oldest in the room). The kid room was sandwiched in between our room and our friends’ room and there was no problem with having no adults in that room on the reservation. When I tried booking for the cruise we went in in February it wouldn’t let me book the kids in their own balcony room. Honestly a pretty good policy. We booked two balcony rooms next to each other.  On the reservation I was in one room and DH was in the other room. In reality, my DS15 switched with me so we had four kids in one room and DH and I and DD13 (who sleeps like the dead) in the other room. Cabin steward didn’t say anything if he noticed. 

I can’t answer the scissor question but I use KT tape for a knee injury and when I travel I just pre cut a bunch of strips and bring them in a ziploc bag. 

San Juan is one of my favorite ports. If you haven’t been there before I would recommend checking it out. It was the port I was least excited about when our cruise started and when we got back on the ship I was wishing we could do two days in San Juan and skip St. Thomas altogether. 

We enjoyed Tropicante. There were 26 of us so we basically filled a tram and since I reserved ahead of time there was a guy from Tropicante waiting for us at our stop. It was beautiful and not overcrowded, and the food and drinks were good and reasonably priced. 

I think the forts close around 5 pm so you'll want to hit those up first. We walked to El Morro, did not have time to visit the other fort. There is a pretty cool cemetery right next to El Morro--we saw several large iguanas on the walls there.  

There is a free trolley that drives around Old San Juan but we just walked everywhere. Tip for you: There are not street signs on the corners. Look at the corners of the buildings instead, that's where they are displayed.

You'll probably want to go to the umbrella street (Fortalezza Street). The governor's mansion is at the end of the umbrella street. You'll probably walk past a restaurant called Barrachina on your way there--the birthplace of the pina colada. 

We were in San Juan from 7-4 so we stopped at Chocobar Cortez and had a lovely breakfast but the rest of the menu looks delicious as well. They incorporate chocolate in every food item.

Old San Juan is a very walkable area--easy to navigate and very pretty. Have a great time!

Do the Java Blue and the Coffee Bar have the same drink menu/prices? I'm sailing on Elation in November and I believe they don't have the Java Blue. I've been on ships with the Coffee Bar but usually send my DH to get me a coffee. My friend is sailing with us this time and I want to have the correct information for her. 

6 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

M23

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are also two more USB outlets beside the bed next to the porthole wall.  EM

Thank you! Our friends are in M24 and we're in M30 so I'd imagine they should look pretty similar. Very happy about the USB plug ins!

34 minutes ago, Essiesmom said:

All cabins on Elation now have fridges.  They took out the drawers under the desk and put in the cabinet for the fridge.  We had a porthole cabin on her after drydock and we had a fridge.  EM

Do you remember what cabin you were in? I have a porthole cabin on the Elation in November and am wondering about the refrigerator and also if there are more USB ports or electrical outlets. 

17 hours ago, SandiLynn said:

We have a Glory cruise for our 25th Wedding Anniversary in late July. We love the Dream and hope to love the Glory also. I have heard that the Muster Drills are all outside, I am hoping that is not true. We were on the Triumph a few years ago and I thought I was going to need meds to get through being on the deck with people to close for comfort. It is the only bad part of the cruise,well other than it ending. 

Oh, did you happen to see where the sushi is sold?

Muster is outside. 😞

Sushi is situated on one side of the grand buffet...it's just a window you walk past if you walk from the main lido pool to the adults only pool at the back of the ship. If you go on one side you'll see the deli in a window, the other side will be the sushi window. 

At the time of sailing they were 15, 14, 14, 13, and 11. They are escape room fanatics and love games and mysteries but for whatever reason this just didn’t float their boat.