Raiderguy8

On 11/10/2023 at 11:44 PM, groundloop said:

Cans or cartons, but not bottles.

 

You can also replenish your soda on a port day and bring another 12 pack on board with you.

I just recently heard that and feel dumb I didn't know this before.  😄

I am going to throw this out there as a possible reason how this would happen.  By any chance do you have T-Mobile as your carrier?  My wife and I were Sprint customers who wanted to change plans and were forced to close out our Sprint account and open a new T-Mobile account.  We have been on two cruises since then, on two different cruise lines so it is not solely a Carnival situation, and we would both get email notifications and she would get Facebook and YouTube notifications as well.  I cant remember if she could use Facebook messenger or not.  These notifications only started happening after we switched to the T-Mobile plan and have been wondering if it was carrier-specific.

I have never truly felt that any comedian on a cruise ship provided entertainment that was on par with what I would expect when paying to go to a comedy club onshore.  That changed last week on the Celebration with Tim Young.  Thought he was genuinely funny and laughed more in his half hour set then I probably laughed during all other Carnival comedian's sets, that I have seen, combined.

In the air right now flying to Miami from Ohio. This will be our first Christmas cruise and, like you, can't wait!

Do they also serve turkey this way, pressed in the MDR and carved in the buffet, on Christmas or do they not serve turkey at all on that day?

I am curious how the "official ship time" works when crossing the Atlantic with its multiple time zones.  Is it keeping the same time (from Southampton?) the entire way?  That would be terribly confusing when reaching the final destination port of Miami which would be off by five hours.  Maybe they change it on the last day?

I wanted to provide a recent data point.  I submitted my OBC request for our December sailing on October 6th and got the approval email on October 30th.

3 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

Thanks for sharing.

 

BTW, Cleveland, Ohio is one of his stock phrases.  I have my doubts that those trophies are actually made there.  How do you say "Cleveland" in Mandarin?  Or what's the local equivalent? 😉

My ships on sticks say they were made either at a company in Miami or another company in Hialeah.

We also like to win one on every ship on which we sail.  We were on one of the last cruises that the Fantasy ever did (February 2020) prior to going to the scrap yard and they were giving away medallions to the winners of any game.  We were told that they had run out of the ships on stick so, when we got home, we bought a Fantasy ship on stick off of ebay.  I always wondered if they had reordered ships on sticks for the Fantasy and somewhere, in some warehouse, there are thousands of them that never got to be used.

On the Sunshine two weeks ago the fun squad members told us that they are giving medallions to winners of trivia and giving ships on sticks to the winners of the games where you pair up with others and form teams.  Which, of course, then leads to that awkward discussion over who, out of 8 or so people on the winning team, gets to keep the ship.

On 9/22/2022 at 11:17 AM, ninjacat123 said:

Were you in airplane mode? We are with T-Mobile as well. TIA!

My wife and I are on T-Mobile and had a weird experience on the Sunshine two weeks ago that may or may not be related to T-Mobile.  We always get the highest level of internet and this had not happened on any other cruise.  We will trade the internet between each other and the one of us that wasn't currently connected would still receive notifications from email, YouTube, ring doorbell, etc.  If we would click on the notification it would let us know that we couldn't connect because we didn't have internet but we would continue to get the notifications.  A point of note, this was the first cruise since our service was switched from Sprint to T-Mobile after they merged so the only thing different was the phone network.  I just checked my usage this month and there are no roaming charges on my bill.

This is how the fine print is worded.  It only says a purchase but also mentions reservations.  As clear as mud.

For those who have been on cruises, and I am sure it varies from port to port, what have been the time ranges from which you have been able to select.  Do you remember how late the last check in times might have been?

I wanted to add another data point as I noticed this on my Citi Double Cash card this morning.  I have to pay off a cruise in the next few weeks and this will certainly come in handy.

Yesterday, I booked a November cruise on the Valor and FTTF was available.

We were booked on the Sunshine out of Charleston on February 1st and our final payment was due today.  I was really stressing over to make the final payment knowing I would be offered OBC if it cancelled or if I should just move my already paid amount to a different cruise and forfeit the OBC.  This timed out very very nicely for me.

We parked there in September.  You pull in and the first thing they have you do is pay.  You then proceed to a station where you drop off your luggage.  After dealing with your luggage they then move you to the area where you can park.  They have shuttle buses that then take you and your carry on bags to the terminal.  I am not able to answer about the 11:00 question.

Actually my wife just reminded me of a couple that we talked to on the bus.  She wore a Buckeyes shirt and carried an Indians bag and I talked to her a bit about baseball (I'm a Reds fan).  I bet that was them.

2 hours ago, buckeyefrank said:

Sounds like your car just escaped.  So glad it's fine.  I saw a video of the port with storm surge water coming over the dock.  

 

I was not on that excursion but my FIL and MIL were both on there.  They mentioned hearing someone was from Dayton and I assumed it would be you.  They were the ones (especially MIL) probably complaining about almost everything.  LOL.

 

She must have been on her best behavior because I didn't notice anyone complaining about much.  One woman did lose her husband and she wasn't too thrilled about that.

Our car was in the open parking lot at the port and all seemed find but within a few minutes of driving I noticed my shoes were squeaking on the floor mat.  I pulled over and the driver seat floorboard carpeting was wet.  Not soaking wet but damp.  the passenger side and back seat floorboards were completely dry.  I opened the engine compartment and all seemed fine and the car made it through the ten hour drive without a problem.  So strange that it was just the one floorboard that had any moisture.

Yes, we were on that excursion.  My wife was the one with the rolling walker.

We parked at the port and we drove through some deep water entering the parking lot that had accumulated from a rain storm.  I cannot imagine how much will be there when Dorian comes through.  I called my insurance company and I am covered for storm or flood damage.  I am really concerned that I will come back to flood damage which would make it very risky to drive ten hours home.  Oh boy...

2 hours ago, buckeyefrank said:

Thank you very much.  On the ship at 10:55am.  Fastest I've ever boarded.  Very quick and painless.  Everyone Stay safe in your travels

We are on as well after a very trying ordeal to get here.  We had hotel reservations in Orangeburg which is about 60-70 miles north of Charleston.  We would have a quick hour drive into town and easily make it to the ship, right?  Well they closed I-26 at 5 AM so we had to travel on back roads all the way into town.  With the highway shut down everybody else had the same idea so it was bumper to bumper all of the way in.  Took us 2 1/2 hours.  Processing went very smoothly once we got here.  Whew!

1 hour ago, buckeyefrank said:

Safe travels tomorrow on your way to Charleston.  We will see you on the ship.  I think too be sage we are parking at the airport.  We would like a dry vehicle for the ride home.

You too.  If you see a guy with a Dayton Flyers lanyard and he is with a woman with a New Kids on the Block lanyard come up and say hi!

16 hours ago, buckeyefrank said:

Was talking to my wife about this too.  We may be on a cruise to nowhere as well.  There's not many places we could get to with the storm still out there I would think.  I don't know that we could get down to PR or St Thomas area, Nassau could be a mess, HMC will likely be a mess.  Bermuda is an option, but not likely with no berths left.

All of this time we have been wondering if we would be able to get out of Charleston.  With the latest forecast I am now starting to wonder if we will be able to get back in on the morning of the 8th.  If Dorian stays off of the coast of Florida as some are predicting:

Charleston appears to be almost a direct hit Thursday morning.  Will we be able to get back in and what shape will the port and the city be in when we do get in?  This has been the craziest week watching all of the twists and turns.  Seems like just yesterday it was thought that the Hispaniola mountains would tear Dorian apart....

2 hours ago, buckeyefrank said:

Was talking to my wife about this too.  We may be on a cruise to nowhere as well.  There's not many places we could get to with the storm still out there I would think.  I don't know that we could get down to PR or St Thomas area, Nassau could be a mess, HMC will likely be a mess.  Bermuda is an option, but not likely with no berths left.

This was part of the Carnival 6:00 update:

Carnival Sunshine 09/02/19 – No change to itinerary, we plan to operate as scheduled.

Really surprising that they think we will be able to visit any part of the Bahamas on Wednesday and Thursday.