Cruising_Addict

On 6/2/2024 at 2:51 PM, sgttami said:

Amazing what people share sometimes:

 

Posting how long they will be away from home

The airports they are leaving from

Ship names and cabin numbers

 

Click on the profile and there's a family photo in front of their home with the town listed

 

If you want to share your travel experience and photos, do so after it's over...lol

Or you can just make your social media page private and only “friend” people you actually know. It’s really simple to do. 

50 minutes ago, ranchette said:

Can they be deducted from my OBC?

Your OBC is applied to your account. The gratuities are also applied to your account. At the end of the cruise if there is a balance, meaning, your expenses (including gratuities) exceed your OBC, then that amount is what is charged to your credit card on file. 

While I haven’t done British Isles cruise yet (will be doing one next year in June), I have done both the Mediterranean and Norwegian Fjords on Carnival. The biggest difference is that it’s a more mature crowd. The majority of passengers are still American, but people don’t generally fly to Europe just to party. They do so for the experience of the ports. While I do love the Caribbean for the beaches, I see far more European cruises in my future, as long as Carnival continues to offer them. 

On 5/23/2024 at 12:33 PM, geovet said:

My in-laws will be cruising with us in a week. They are listed as atd and wait list for early dining.

at this point,  we will have to ask the md for a change to early dining. 
If he declines, can I then ask to change mine to atd using diamond perk?

Note we would prefer the early dining.

 

 Thanks 

You can ask while on board, but there’s no guarantee there will be room in Early Dining. You would be better off changing yours now to YTD (Your Time Dining, which is what Carnival calls it; Anytime Dining is a different cruise line). At least that way you guys will be guaranteed to eat together. You can always check in at 5:30 and will likely be seated by 6:00 anyway. 

You can purchase this online.  From within your Cruise Manager, click on Categories and then In Room Food & Beverages.

22 hours ago, ladysail2 said:

Does anyone know what the latest time that one can arrive for embarkation?  On turnaround day on a B2B, I’d like to go off the ship and go to a few places. The ship leaves again at 4pm…..would it be prudent to be back at the ship by 2pm?  Thanks so much!

They will give you what I think is called an "in-transit" pass and they will tell you what time you need to be back on board.

39 minutes ago, 1025cruise said:

Lunch is not the Chibang menu, but more like the former Mongolian Wok (I believe). 

That is correct, and something I try to remind people so that they are not disappointed.  It's just like how Cucina is not open for lunch.  They use the restaurant area to serve what used to be called Pasta Bella on the Dream.  It's not the same food as Cucina serves.  Same in this case.  Chibang is not open for lunch. They serve food from what is called Mongolian Wok on other ships at lunchtime in the space used for Chibang. Definitely not the same food.

You can arrive at port late. You just can’t arrive early. 

Honestly, what you can do is raise them right. Plain and simple. Smart kids who were raised right know how to stay out of trouble. It's not difficult. 

Sorry, but no.  When a cabin class sells out, then it's sold out.  You have the choice to book a higher category for the going rate, a lower category for the going rate, another cruise entirely, or don't book at all. Those are your options. Carnival is under no obligation to offer you a better cabin at that rate. Which btw, is a "starting at" rate and is dependent upon a room being available for the specific number of people that you are booking.  For example, you want an ocean view for three people, but they only have ocean view rooms for two people left.  You will see ocean views as available when you start booking, but as soon as you put in your information (number of passengers) the category now shows as having nothing available.

I don’t know what a “DD” is but I have stopped wasting my money on the lower tiered plans because half the time you can’t get anything to load. I buy the Premium plan only and that’s what I would recommend to purchase. 

I love sea days and I would never book a cruise without them, personally. Part of being on vacation is resting and I love being able to sleep in on sea days rather than having to set an alarm to go do an excursion. Occasionally I won’t plan an excursion for one port of the cruise if there is not enough sea days. 

On 12/9/2023 at 1:47 PM, Essiesmom said:

You are looking at an apple, and an orange.  Carnival Legend will transit the old locks, linger on Gatun Lake and return back out of the same locks. No excursions will be offered. 

This is not correct information. I am booked on the Christmas week cruise on the Carnival Legend. The ship is not doing a partial transit into the locks. It is stopping in Colon only. There are various excursions being offered, including those that take you to the locks to view other ships going through. 

17 hours ago, Cruisegirl6 said:

Thinking of taking a cruise and getting off at the port of Aruba, staying a few days and flying back.  I know people will say its impossible but I called Aruba Customs and they said its fine, as long as I fill out online the customs card that I am arriving by sea and flying back to the states on air.  

With respect, Aruba customs is not the people to ask about this.  It's the cruise line.  Ask the cruise line if you can do this and then come back and tell us what they say.  We would all love to know. 😏

1 hour ago, 1taxlady said:

Just did the stockperks app yesterday and it took 1 hour. Rejected password even though conformed to directions. Took 10 minutes to send email verification, then timed out. Why  should guests, especially those not comfortable with technology, have to work so hard to get a few dollars OBC. CCL is moving backward while RCL/Celebrity is moving rapidly forward.

Once you get it set up, it makes the process to redeem the credit sooooo much easier.  I absolutely LOVE it!  No more having to download copy of statements, redacting account numbers, submitting through fax or email.  You just go into the app, find your cruise company, input booking number, sailing date, cruise ship name, name on booking, etc and hit submit.  I would argue that the previous way was harder from a technical perspective.

On 5/6/2024 at 8:24 AM, mitsugirly said:

 

It was his idea to go scuba. He really wanted to try it and picked that over going to the Mariettas. He talked about it all the time prior to the cruise. He's real excited to try again. His mother told him to buy something to prevent seasickness and he declined. I even ask again when we were at the hotel in Long Beach and told him we would pick something up before the cruise if he wanted. Once again he declined. You can't force someone to take something if they don't want to...no more than we forced him to do this dive. I would hardly say he went through a lot to please my daughter. Actually, totally the opposite...she decided not to do the second dive to please him and missed out. He only did what HE wanted to do/try and said he will try it again. 😉 I just don't think it was the best circumstance  for his first try (I had no idea what it was going to be like since we've never been there before). 

I'm sorry that you are having to explain yourself.  As someone that has raised a male human to adulthood, I know full well that when they are teenagers and have their mind set on doing something, there is often no telling them otherwise.  I will say that I am a bit surprised the company allowed him to do the dive with no experience, though.  But, I know nothing about diving aside from reading all of your reviews.  I just remember all of the things you and your family had to learn and practice before going for a "real" dive.  Which was also from land, correct?  I feel like Karl would have, and will, fare much better walking into the water and getting acclimated to the depth that way.  I do hope he tries it again in the future. 🙂 

I usually think of it as all of the unique sailings they schedule for the ship, often in Europe or at atypical ports, before the ship is sailed over to their homeport where they start their "regular" itineraries. Unfortunately it's often cut short due to delays with it's build, which is why I would never advise booking one of the first sailings on a new ship. I would wait and book at least a month out.

It doesn’t show up until you are paid in full. My 12/21/23 cruise isn’t paid off so it doesn’t show, but my 6/20/25 cruise is and it does show where the “pay now” button is on my other cruise. It’s like the system can only show one. 

It has this information right in the details of the room when you book it online.

On 4/30/2024 at 9:54 PM, mitsugirly said:

 

Oh ok. I wasn't sure if you had kept up with those or not. Yea, not giving up cruising but we definitely love our land vacations as well. 

 

OHHHHHH I WANNA GO!  That's been on my bucket list too: Costa Rica and Panama. I would love to do a Panama cruise in the canal. Can't you do ones that start in one place and end in another for a shorter cruise? I'm going to have to check this out. It's so hard for us to leave our animals as well. 

I could be wrong, but I think the ones that start in one place and end in the other are the repositioning cruises that are 14+ days and go all the way through the canal. At least with Carnival. I have yet to be able to bite the bullet and book a different cruise line. We have only done two cruises as Platinums on Carnival and at least for the time being, we are enjoying the small perks we have earned. 🙂 Someday when we can cruise more I’ll probably start booking other cruise lines. 

2 hours ago, mitsugirly said:

 

Aww, glad you found the review. Hey, we were still vacationing (to the ports we visit while cruising) during the pandemic...did you happen to read any of them? We had such a great time!

 

Where are you cruising in December to and what ship?

Oh yes, I definitely read your land vacation reviews as well! I enjoy all of your reviews. But was also selfishly hoping that you weren’t going to give up cruising for land vacations. 🙂

We are cruising out of Tampa on the Carnival Legend Christmas week to Panama, Costa Rica and Grand Cayman. Panama and Costa Rica are new ports for us and while I would love to do a cruise that actually goes through the Panama Canal (we are only stopping in Colon), I haven’t been able to find one that’s much less than 14 days. We have four dogs and I have a hard time leaving them. So I try to keep our cruises to 9 days max. 

On 4/19/2024 at 8:39 PM, mitsugirly said:

Now let's talk air flights! Or should I call them fights because I was really fighting to pull the trigger on getting back home. They were so expensive!! They should cut me a break for having to endure such a long flight and the time change involved in this trip. Don't all you east coast people agree?

Totally agree! My recent trips have been an Alaska cruise, a Norway cruise and a trip to Vegas from the east coast. The long flights kill me. Just booked our BOS-TPA flights for December. Nonstop, just a bit over 3 hours. What a difference! I would love to sail out of California again, but it’s such a trek from the east coast to the west.  

Ahhhhhhh!!!!  I am just noticing this now and I'm so excited!  I have to say that during the pandemic when I was really missing cruising I dug up your old reviews to read just because they make me feel like I am on a cruise.  So I'm looking forward to ready this one since my next cruise isn't until December. 🙂

3 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

My Fly2Fun flight shows up in my American Airlines app. I'm leaving on October 13, so about 3 weeks from now.  That's all I need, correct?

My question was regarding searching for flights to book. Not concerning Fly2Fun flights already booked. 

Does anyone know if Fly2Fun is not working? I’m less than 300 days out so the 321 day max isn’t an issue, but when I try to search for flights, nothing comes up.