jc4me

5 hours ago, CaseyAnn said:

Is there any negatives cruising to Alaska in May compared to later in the summer?

We went in May of this year and loved it!  The roads were clear but there was still a fair amount of snow in the upper elevations of the mountains.  The snow was melting and there were beautiful water falls.  We rented a Jeep from Skagway up the Yukon Highway and it was fabulous.  The bears were awake and we spotted some along the way.  We saw whales, so it wasn't too early for them. So, I would not shy away from cruising in May - our cruise left May 6th.

Thanks for sharing!  We have one of those booked on Breeze in February.  I'm concerned with the small amount of closet space - Yikes!  Will definitely need the over the door storage hanger.  We decided on that room believing it would be quieter than a traditional inside room.

Enjoyed following your trip.  Thanks for sharing!

Thank you so much for sharing!  Looking forward to seeing how long it takes you to "recover".  Have a safe trip home 🙂

This is awesome!  Thanks for sharing.  I typically start out strong on a cruise, but the desserts are just too much temptation for me to bypass.  My regular food I can usually stay strong, but I cave on the desserts.  Great job sticking to the plan!  Hopefully in Progreso you can just stick with the meat and a few veggies 🙂  You are an inspiration!

5 minutes ago, bigcartman said:

Thanks for the info and it did work however something that was in my email that doesn't seem to be included in yours was this line.

 

Please be advised that Shareholder Statement must not be email due to security reasons, for future please fax or mail statement.

The last time I tried to email mine I got that same line, so I just fax now.....well, technically I have my hubby fax it from work 😉

We've enjoyed this when we did it.  If we had other things we wanted to do we would pick up the materials and make them on our own later.

Congratulations!  Hubby and I turn platinum on our next cruise too. 🙂

This might help: https://www.carnivalcomfortcollection.com/

8 minutes ago, maryhou said:

Today is final payment for our cruise 12/28.  We paid for our adult children to join us.  They(our son & his girlfriend) decided to get two dogs...... they told us yesterday that they weren't going to be able to go on the cruise now because of the dogs.  We booked with a travel agency and I was curious if I should try to cancel through them or have them transfer my booking to Carnival and deal with them directly.  I'm still trying to wrap my head around this..... I am NOT a happy camper.  I am hoping to get the majority of my money back, praying and keeping my fingers crossed.  Have you had to cancel before?  We would still go with our daughter but just need to take the two of them off.  

That totally stinks!  We had a remotely similar situation happen to us when we booked (and paid for) several family members to cruise to disburse our parent's ashes.  My brother and his son cancelled close to final payment date and I had used Carnival gift cards to pay for the cruise.  It took longer to get the return of the gift cards than we had to make the final payments, so we ended up with gift cards and a future cruise credit that we had to use.  Thankfully we only lost $50.  I was grateful that they gave us the future cruise credit and sent the gift cards back to me and not to him since we paid for everything.  Sorry this happened to you and I feel your pain!

Before you book, check with Carnival.  We used them when we flew from NC to Seattle and the price was comparable to what we could get online, but it allowed us to make payments.  The total amount was due at the final payment date for the cruise.  We requested flexible air fare so that we could cancel if we found a better price. 

Lots of beautiful wildlife!  Dolphins, flying fish, sea turtles, whales, orcas, seals, sea lions, puffins, eagles, sea otters, brown bears, black bears....that's about all I can think of off the top of my head 🙂  Love cruising and love cruising different places.

I didn't read all of John Heald's posts but what I saw lead me to believe that cans were an option, but it was not yet settled.  Hope they are cartons by the time we cruise in February.  If not, I may just cancel my 3 12 packs of bottled water that I ordered. 😞

I suspect that is to stop Norovirus.  When I fill up my cup I get a clean cup from the stack at the beverage station and then pour the beverage into my own cup to try to be as sanitary as possible.  I also bring dish soap to wash out my own cup each day, but I'm sure that not everyone does that and it could spread sickness.  BUT, as others have said, the beverage station is still self service (at least it was in May).

On 9/26/2019 at 12:23 PM, bury me at sea said:

26 thousand and change.  I don't remember the exact number.

 

First quiz I took no points were added.  I've taken a couple of more since and appropriate points were added.

 

Current balance 27,865.

 

I am an AARP member and purchased a lot of Carnival gift cards and quite a few dining gift cards for gifts.  That's all I know!

 

 

I think mine was around 25K, but I let my AARP membership expire recently.  As long and I can get the cards on Allstate I won't join them again as their agenda is a bit different from my convictions.

3 hours ago, Joe817 said:

Interesting indeed. Can you post a link that says that? Thanks!

No link, it's a pop up that says I can join AARP to get the gift card when I click on it.  Looks like others are having the same experience.  That's great for you if you can make the purchase without an AARP membership! 

Just now, Joe817 said:

No. You do not have to be a member to take advantage of the gift card promotions.

Interesting, mine showed that it was only available to AARP members to buy the discounted gift cards.

I just logged in and you do have to be an AARP member to get the discounted cards.  I let my membership expire, so I will be using Allstate Drivewise to get my cards in the future.

On 9/15/2019 at 5:30 PM, mama_2_boys said:

Is any of the food at Blue Iguana gluten free? 

You may want to contact the special needs department prior to your cruise so they will have a "head's up".  I don't know if the sauces they put on the meats are gluten free; I try to stick to my keto diet while cruising, but it can be sneaky.  Since I am doing it as a choice I don't worry about it too much if a little grain slips in.  I get the taco salad at Blue Iguana and don't eat the bowl. 🙂

9 hours ago, nbrgirl said:

I would think they should notify us ahead of time and give us the option to book something else. Options are limited once on board. I'll have my TA call them I guess. Thanks! 

I got an email a few days ago that one of our excursions for our upcoming cruise in February was cancelled, then yesterday I get a FedEx package with the gift cards for the amount paid for the excursion...they were purchased with gift cards.  I would certainly give them a call (or have your TA call)!

Did you cancel the cruise or the drink package?  If you cancelled the cruise, the future cruise credit would make sense...depending upon the promotion you booked under.  Typically the customer service agents are quite knowledgeable when I have called.

For us, each night was much earlier to bed because we are from NC and the time change was significant.  It was an amazing cruise (We went in May) and I would do it again in a heartbeat.  We stopped first in Juneau where we did an all day excursion that included Mendenhall Glacier, whale watching and a salmon bake which was a really long day.  The next stop was Skagway where we rented a Jeep and drove up the Yukon Highway...another amazing, but long day.  By the end of that day we were pretty tired and we were ready to relax as we cruised Glacier Bay the following day.  We also ported in Icy Strait Point, Ketchikan and Victoria.  As others have said, it is very port intensive and between the time difference (from home) and the time in port we were enjoying our time asleep! 🙂

I see an excursion offered by Carnival called Home Sweet Home in Grand Turk.  Would love to know your experience with it if you have done it.  We have done La Casa en La Playa in Cozumel and it sounds very similar.  Would love to know if the beach is crowded.  We are only in GT from Noon until 6:00 PM.  Thanks for any insight!

9 hours ago, VentureMan_2000 said:

So... given the scant replies, it sounds like the cowboy ribeye will be my choice if I do the steak house.

On our last cruise the waiter said that it can be a little tough and if you like a tender, juicy steak you would prefer the ribeye, which is what we got.  It was delicious!

If you can find a way to swing it, a balcony for Alaska is wonderful.  We went in May and started out in a 4K category but were offered a paid upgrade and took it.  I don't remember the cost, but we were glad we had it.  Sitting on your balcony with binoculars watching for wildlife is awesome.  Either way, you will LOVE the cruise.  Very different from a Caribbean cruise, but amazing!