Davey Wavey

The coupon says you just have to book under rate code PTF. The upgrade fairy will book a different cabin type under the same rate code. Feel free to call Carnival and confirm you are still booked under PTF.

Bring your own.

^^On Carnival, this.

Most people do as you did, just shake his/her head and "tsk, tsk" the unacceptable behavior. Although I guess it was just offensive and disturbing behavior that was acceptable to you. If it is really unacceptable to you, consider calling security. They can't stop it if they don't know about it. They may not consider it a problem if only one person complains. Silence equals acceptance, and no need for the perpetrators to alter their behavior.

A 2pm arrival is quoted by Carnival as the latest arrival for their shuttle service, even with checked baggage. SAS is a good choice for $15 per person, but if you anxiety gets the best of you, consider Carnival's shuttle at $30 per person. Of course at $15 per person extra, you could buy a few drinks on the plane to ease your anxiety.

You get so many answers because people have so many different experiences. We have gotten off as early as 7:30 (but then waited 45 mins for our bags because we didn't self-disembark) to as late as 12:30. If everything goes as planned, 8:00 is very reasonable to be off the ship in a hurry, but feel free to take your concern to guest services and see what they can do to speed you along. I believe if you show them your early ticket they will put you in the earliest disembark group.

If you do self-disembark you can be off the ship very early, usually before 8am if you care. SAS does first pickup at 9:15am and the ride is about 40 mins BUT BUT BUT SAS does NOT service the Miami AIRPORT only the CRUISEPORT, so don't use SAS. Depending on how many in your party (like only 2), a Carnival transfer might be what you need.

Match play coupon? How do you obtain those for the casino?

Purchase one of the "standard" drinks or drink of the day and receive a match play coupon for EACH drink purchased. I THINK you have to purchase from the bar in the casino, but not sure on that.

We will carry ours on since we have faster to the fun...

Isn't part of the point of FTTF to drop your luggage off with the porters and they get it to your room quickly? We used FTTF once and 1 bag was outside the room when we arrived and the other came an hour later, where they usually don't arrive until 6pm or after.

My wife (did I say that out loud?)

Yes you did and I'm a tellin'

I'm gonna say a brush. I shouldn't have to brush anything while on vacation. But swishing my teeth out with a pina colada is kinda painful and doesn't really do a good job.

Does Carnival still allow topless sunbathing? I know this used to be allowed in the adults only area. We were also surprised to see thongs allowed at every pool and not just the adults area. Has this changed?

It is still available on my balcony. Don't mind that guy in the window with the camera tho.

Don't blame them, really, because if I got a better deal through them, I'd eat the $100 cancellation on my ES rate NYE sailing. I suspect CCL wouldn't be too happy with their casino contractor if that were allowed to happen frequently. Anyway, we had a great time and hope to receive another offer in the future.

On my last premier cruise, I had already booked ES when I found via letter at the end of a previous cruise that the cruise was premier. I simply had them change the rate code. There was no cancellation fee or any other fee.

Oh one more question' date=' can you text on the ship without any fees?

 

thx:)[/quote']

 

I think the big carriers all have $0.50 to send, $.05 or $.10 to receive per text. This is a good deal if you only send a few.

Your carrier probably has cheaper data package than what is on the ship. I found it to be fast enough to easily send messages on Skype, but voice calls were pretty bad...not useless, but bad. I sent messages home and asked if there was anything I needed to call about. Then with free wifi in port were the days I always called to check in with grandma and the kids.

These letters started going out in February. They're a special promo from Carnival , winners were drawn by a computer using your VIFP number...

This particular letter that went out did not have anything to do with the casino.

A lot of the confusion was because there were actually 2 promos going on at the same time. One was for random VIPF, the other was from the casino. Both letters were on identical letterhead with identical wording. The only difference was in the first sentence where they added something like "on behalf of the Ocean Players Club" to those like me who received the offer from the casino.

I only play roulette and I always use my card as soon as I sit down at the table. Tell your husband to get with it!

St. Thomas and San Juan are considered domestic U.S. rates for all the major carriers. Grand Turk is not. I use free Wi-Fi from Jack's Shack to make 2 cent per minute Skype calls in Grand Turk, but any wifi will do.

I haven't seen poor service from Jack's in the times I've been there. I'll be there again in 2 weeks. The girl at the bar was the pleasant sort. The young guy serving food wasn't smiling but he was efficient and I didn't think he was angry or depressed or unhappy. Certainly the owner and his wife are nice people.

The place has changed some from our first visit. Our first visit there was just Margaritaville and a 15 minute walk down the beach. Jack's was just a shack with a grill, a small bar, and beach equipment to rent. Now there is a small casino next to Margaritaville, and another beach shack place next to Jack's. There are usually some guys with water toys in front of that beach place, although it might just be a shack for equipment storage as I've never seen it open. Jack's is still the same small place, but part of the shack has a souvenir shop. It's a laid back place, no wild parties. Just people sitting on the beach eating, talking, drinking, music playing, decent beach scene kinda stuff. My kids enjoyed it. I didn't see anything that would concern me for my kids.

There is an inflatable rock wall and rubber slide right next to Jack's. It wasn't part of Jack's but looked like an independent setup that anyone could pay to use. There were also towed banana boats rides from the same people. I didn't use them and didn't pay attention to prices.

I would say that if you think that a place that serves food should be sterile like a stainless steel cafeteria, you won't like Jack's. It is a beach tiki bar with an old BBQ grill. But the jerk chicken that comes off that grill is only outdone by an old BBQ grill on some beach in Jamaica. And the conch was so fresh, tender and tasty, it's the best I've had.

What about wifi? We were thinking about going to jacks shack and they claim they have free wifi. What about internationals charging?

Jack's Shack does have good free wi-fi and it works all the way out to the edge of the water (oh and try the conch). I use Skype to make free messaging and Skype-to-Skype calls (the kids have it on their cell phones and the calls come through like a regular call) or $.02 a minute landline calls when in ports. The only international charging would be if I wanted to call a landline in some country other than US or Canada. Then the per minute charge is higher. But Skype-to-Skype is always free.

The $25/100MB cellular at sea data sounds pretty good, but I don't know how much data a voice call would use. And not all ships have 3G speed. The Wmsatsea site lists all the Carnival ships and what cellular data speed is available. Most still only have 1x speeds. Wmsatsea handles the data connection for all the mobile carriers, so the speed is the same for all the carriers ON EACH SHIP. I have used the ship's wi-fi on the Dream for Skype. Messaging was great but the voice calls were usable but spotty.

Thanks. That appears to be wifi based not cell network based...anyone have experience with it?

Oh sorry. If you want reviews of your carrier's coverage on the ship, just search for wmsatsea reviews. All land data and voice cellular traffic goes through the same connection...not at 3G speed but at 1G speed (under 56kbps). Also remember that 25MB doesn't go very far depending, of course, on what you are doing. They offer examples of msn.com or typical newsite homes pages as 5.5MB (or $21). So, even if the company pays be careful of what you do with your internet connection. I'm not sure how much data gets sent by iMessage when first starting up and while it is running. Messaging apps have to register your status and maintain that status while it is open. Consider that if you have to maintain an open message channel versus using the $.50 text messaging.

I have used the onboard wifi and was able to sent Skype messages easily, and even did a short (pretty crappy) voice chat. But don't count on voice streaming to work very well. Also consider while in port using a free wi-fi connection to make streaming voice calls for $.02 per minute using Skype or Google Voice for your personal use as an alternative to cellular roaming (depending on where you are going). Some ports like San Juan and St. Thomas are included on domestic cellular coverage.

Straight from Carnival FAQ

Fun chips are yellow "cash" chips that have no cash value. You have to play them. They pay you with cash chips and take the fun chips. For example on a roulette even bet, you play $25 on black on it hits. They pay you $25 cash chip and take your $25 fun chip. If you don't hit, they just take your $25 fun chip. Any cash chips you win can be taken to the cashier and cashed in. Sometimes they don't have fun chips and will just give you cash chips.

I received a free cruise from the casino department on the last night of my previous cruise and booked for June. Does anyone know whether or not I can book a back to back with the free cruise if I receive it again on my upcoming cruise. Meaning I'll receive the letter the last night and then book that same night for the cruise the next day.

I don't think it's possible. Even with the letter, the player's club doesn't receive the gaming report from the current cruise for at least a week, and that is what they use to officially allow you to book the free cruise. Using the letter, I tried 2 days after my previous cruise to book a discounted casino cruise and that is what they told me. There was also a post on these boards maybe last week where someone said they tried to do this and the response was they had to check back after a week before they could book the next cruise. I suspect the length of wait is dependent on how fast the ship sends in the report. Even when I told them I just finished the cruise, they still went to check if the report was in, so maybe some ships send it faster than others.

Do you know why "Guy's" wasn't put on the 2.0 upgrade that the Dream went through?

It was added to 2.0 after Dream was designed and they said it and 1 other eating venue change couldn't be done retroactively. I don't remember where I read that but I think it was on Heald's blog.

We were at guest services to get key cards switch when a woman came running up and said they needed to open the door because they left all their money, credit cards, and luggage in the car. They showed her the ship was no longer docked, and she just screamed at everyone. "JUST LET ME OFF! I'd rather not go at all!" We just pulled up a sofa and watched the fun.

Carnival gave the whole family 2 logo t-shirts, pants, and flip flops for each of them. That's all we saw them wear all week.

So if I figure out how much each timeshare week costs us for a year and convert the points into dollars, it works out to be about the same cost as a past guest rate. But the huge bonus is that rather than let the timeshare points go to waste, I get to take a cruise!

RCI used to have a really good deal where you could trade points for a cruise. It was usually a 1 week = 7 day cruise. It was great for swapping a cruise out for a land vacation. Then a few years ago they changes it to points for a discount. Totally ruined it for us. The percentage discount works for the expensive cruise lines, but Carnival bookings with the RCI discount is the exact same price as booking with Carnival directly. Fortunately, the plane tickets are still a great deal...until they take those away.

I've been reading lots of posts lately about casino offers but I just don't understand how "spending" (:rolleyes:) oodles of money in the casino in hopes of getting a cheap cruise offer is such a great deal. Why not just save the extra money you plan on "spending" in the casino and buy a cruise? :confused: It would probably be cheaper in the long run...no?

Chasing after rewards is a losing proposition in most cases. My grocery store has buy 10 for $10 get 11th free offers all the time for stuff like bags of pretzels or boxes of cereal. Because people will chase after rewards even when it makes no sense. People will use rewards credit cards with higher interest rates just to get rewards and not pay off the balance each month, instead of at least using a lower interest card that would cost less interest than the "rewards" they receive. Gambling just for comps would follow that same losing pattern.

But your wording seems to imply that people gamble just for comps. I guess there are people who do, but I gamble for fun while cruising. We have a casino in town and slot machine venues that I have never visited. I have only gambled on a cruise ship. I don't track points or play at certain levels with hopes of comps. I do what is fun until it isn't fun anymore. I did download a free casino video game to try...it wasn't fun like real money. I am fortunate to have received a discounted cruise and a free cabin for the fun I had. I don't feel any different about my casino comps than I do about the "rewards" points I get from the loyalty card I use at the gas station or frequent flyer miles. It's all something I would have done anyway, and anything I get back is nice.