Avril

Since you'll be visiting HMC and Grand Turk, here's a great suggestion for you. Bring along a collapsible cooler. On the days prior to visiting those 2 ports, at the end of the day, get unopened beers to reach your limit of 15. Leave a note the night before for your cabin steward to fill your cooler with ice. Place those beers in the ice filled cooler and take ashore to enjoy in HMC and Grand Turk.

That's an awesome idea, thanks!! :D

I was just on the Splendor last week and purchased the Cheers package and loved it! I was told that in NY you can't purchase the package till 6:00 pm on day of embarkation but your purchases up till you get the package will be credited. I was stupid when I bought my first couple rounds before I had the package, I should have used both my card and husbands. Instead I gave my card for both drinks so because 2 were bought at the same time they weren't credited back. Oh well, at least it was only 2 rounds of beer.

 

Enjoy the package and enjoy the Splendor!

That's good to know, thanks!! :D Can you buy the package on Day 2 of the cruise (which for us is a sea day)? I only ask because I have 6pm dinner so won't be able to be at the bar (any bar) to buy the package then. That's too bad about not being credited back but as you said, it was only a few beers. I'm really looking forward to both the package and the Splendor!! :D

Awesome review and I'm loving all your pictures (especially the ones from around the ship, inside and out). I'm sailing on Splendor on October 16th (in 22 days!!), can't wait!!!! :D

No buckets of beer or souvenir glasses. You can get soda and that doesn't count toward your 15. You get a discount off of specialty coffee drinks (cappacinos, lattes etc) . The cost is i think 37.50 per day.

Awesome, thanks!! :D I know buckets of beer and/or souvenir glasses aren't included in the package but can you buy them and just pay for them like you would without the package? Do specialty coffees count towards the 15? Good to know I can get soda and it doesn't count towards my 15, I do tend to drink a lot of Coke in a day!! :eek:

I will be going on Splendor on 10/24 for the 5th time since Feb and YES, Cheers is worth it..at least for me. Coffee isn't part of cheers but you can have sodas and they do not count towards your daily limit.

 

Example: I drink Coors Light...on Splendor they are almost 7.00 each (18 oz) so if you drink 6 a day, you have already gotten your money's worth.

 

On the 8 day cruise the new pricing is $345.00 for the duration of the trip, inlcuding gratuity.

 

You can have up to 15 a day (6am-6pm) and can mix up what you'd like as long as the drink is under $10.

 

Some days I had bloody mary, beers, a wine or two and maybe a martini or pina colada...One day I only had 4 beers all day. In the long run, it was still worth it for 8 days.

 

Only once, in 4 cruises, did I hit my 15 limit per day!!!

Thanks a lot, this is a big help!! I think I'd have trouble reaching 15 in a day but I can drink enough to make it worth it for sure!! :D

I hope you have a great cruise, you'll be getting on when we get off!!

I'm sailing in a few weeks on Splendor (sailing from New York) and am thinking about getting the Cheers Package. :D I know I drink enough/day to make it worth it. I'm just wondering, are non-alcoholic beverages (coffee, soda, etc) included in the package and do they count towards your daily limit? Can you get alcoholic drinks (and/or drinks in souvenir glasses, buckets of beer) that are over $10 and just pay for them like you would normally? How much is the package for an 8 day cruise? I'm so excited to sail, can't wait!!!! :D

Thanks a lot!!

On our last cruise we used our cards up and had to purchase a couple onboard.

Aren you refering to the Signature Beverage Package? It's 15 drinks per day (not per cruise) right? Not sure how you used them up then (since you get 15 more every day) and I didn't know you could buy extra cards onboard. Thanks for the info!! :D

I'm loving your review and can't wait for more (and more pics)!! :D Your daughters are absolutely adorable. I want to do this exact itinerary, on the same ship now, sounds awesome!! :D I'd also love to go and visit Hawaii sometime, you're so lucky to get to live there.

Nope!! Don't remember mine of the top of my head. Maybe that's because I'm only a 2 Star Mariner, maybe when (if!) I get to 5 Stars, I'll remember it. But then again, I don't even remember my Carnival number and I'm Platinum with them. :o I have to go find one of my ship cards when it's time to book a cruise. I really like the idea of putting them all into your smartphone, I think I'm going to go do that!! :D

I did an Alaska cruise back in 2003 and loved it!! :D I'd love to go again and can't wait to read about your adventures and see you pics.

Yeah, I read that and DH and I got a laugh about it a few years ago. He even wrote about it in his Glory "Memoir" back in July 2011.

 

Here's your answer:

 

http://mentalfloss.com/article/51391/why-do-canadian-contestants-have-answer-skill-testing-question

 

Laws and loopholes.;)

Interesting!! I'm from Canada and didn't know that. I've always wondered why we have to be good at math (which I'm not) to win something. Thanks for finding the answer (and sharing it with us)!! :D

I just returned from the 4-night sailing on the Imagination yesterday, and received my post-cruise survey from Carnival. As we all know, they draw from completed surveys every month and give away one free cruise. Just for funsies, I was reading the fine print and came across this:

 

Drawing and Skill-Testing Question for Canadian Residents: If selected entrant is a Canadian resident, in order to win the Prize, the selected entrant must first correctly answer unaided a time-limited, mathematical skill-testing question by telephone at a predetermined mutually agreeable time.

 

I'm sure there's a reason for this, but heck if I know what it is. Anyone know why the Canadian residents have to be good at math under pressure to win? :D

Well, I wouldn't be winning anything that's for sure. I suck at math under pressure or not. :(

That is why Canadians have to take a skill test. In the U.S. 2x2=4:)

Hey, guess what? I'm from Canada and 2x2=4 here as well!! :D

Yup 15 a day is plenty for us too. About the deck plan, some sites have a different deck plan than on HAL, like CruiseCritic is different, maybe things were changed after the refurb. So on deck 4 HAL shows 25 VF's (4005-4042), and on deck 8, 8 at the front the 18 at the stern. The lowest verandah is VH, only 4 of those on deck 4, smaller verandahs b/c the hull of the ship curves in. So I suppose they could give you a VH but what are the chances when there are only 4, and they could want to use those for price enticement promos and then upsell to callers. Yup I'll call before final payment and whine and moan and see if they'll move us to deck 8. Might even work best after final payment when cancellations have opened up some cabins.

 

I did see a drink menu posted here somewhere, lots of mixed drinks under $7 if you don't need premium brands.

 

We picked this itinerary b/c we haven't been to Gr. Turk, but it looks like the standard sea and sand island, mostly water activities. And altho we've embarked in San Juan we've never docked there and might try the El Junque rain forest, we like hiking, the waiters give you double desserts for doing that. St. Thomas is pretty big, lots of options there.

 

Good old Southwest, the last airline w/o baggage charges. Spirit even charges for carryon, and it's more than for checked bags. They're as bad as EasyJet out of the UK ... a purse or laptop counts as your carryon :-( So I leave my purse at home :-) Detroit is Delta's home so they usually have good prices and choices of flight times, around $500 return to Florida in peak season. Still have to get a hotel at FLL for the night before the cruise.

-B.

15 is definatly plenty, lol. Maybe one day I'll try and reach that many, time for us to cost HAL money instead of them costing us money, haha. :D I was looking at the deck plans on HAL's site, somehow completely missed the rest of the VF's on Deck 4, duh. :o I would have thought there'd be more cancellations before final payment than after. Don't you lose all your money if you can cancel after? It's worth a try to get some kind of upgrade later, for sure. Let me know if it works for you, I'm really not crazy about the steel balconies. But then again, I'm just happy to be on the ship!! :D

Oh ya, I'm sure there are a lot of options!! They wouldn't sell a package you can barely use (at least, I don't think they would). I'd just like to see what kinds of different drinks they have, just curious. If you could find the list, that'd be awesome!! In the meantime, I'll keep looking.

You'll love Grand Turk!! :D I was there last year on the Carnival Breeze and it's super awesome. The cruise centre is really nice and the huge pool with swim up bar at Margaritaville is a great place to relax and cool off. Just down the beach is Jack's Shack which has really good Caribbean style food and drinks. You can also hang out on the beach there. If you're into the Space Program at all, you can go and see the spot where Astronaut John Glenn splashed down into the ocean when he returned to Earth after his mission. I think there's a little museum there as well.

Half Moon Cay is a great place, love it!! We were there on our 1st cruise on the Eurodam and can't wait to go back. The sand is some of the softest I've ever felt.

Where can you go hiking in San Juan? I'll do anything for an extra desert, lol. :D

Been to St. Thomas many times, not sure what we'll do there. Already been over to St. John's as well. I do love the Skyride to Paradise Point so maybe we'll do that again.

Ah yes, no baggage fees is one of the reasons we love Southwest. I hope they never change that. We also like the people who work for Southwest, so friendly and (most of the time) super funny. WOW, purses and/or laptops can count as carryon? And some airlines charge for them? Remind me never to go with them, eekk!! :( I've been with Delta before, they're pretty good. It would take us a lot longer though to drive to Detroit than it does to drive to Buffalo. It's only about an hour and a half for us to get to Buffalo and the airport there is great!!

Sorry. I thought it was tile. I'm embarrassed and will no go stand in the corner and think about what I've done. :(

Suggest you take a drink or two with you!

LOL!!!! :D You 2 are hilarious!! :D

Thanks everyone!! :D Awesome list and I can't wait to try them all. Just reading all these posts is making me thirsty, lol. Keep em comin!! :D

Of course, since you have the SBP, you should try them all!

This. Best, idea, EVER!! :D :D

Wang Wang recipe from an old post...

1/4 oz Vodka

1/4 oz Gin

1/4 oz White Rum

1/4 oz Scotch

1/4 oz Bourbon

1/4 oz Tequila

1/4 Triple Sec

1/4 oz Brandy

 

Top it off with Pineapple and Orange Juice

 

Add a splash of Grenadine and let the games begin!

OMG, that sounds so good!! :D Maybe even better than a Long Island Iced Tea which is my current fav cruise drink.

Hey Avril,

We’re just down the hwy in St. Thomas near London, I’m waving at you from our deck. We got the same mailing from HAL, man they mail a lot, every few weeks. Ours did not mention the bev package, probably scared we’d drink them dry, but did have the HAL Canadian funds promo for the Eurodam Dec. 28 for a VF verandah for $1325CAN, also on their web site if you signed in with a Canuck location. So I called and the HAL rep hadn’t heard the bev pkg was offered, and said we missed Explore 4 by a week, has to be 2015, but when he looked into the deal he found the free sig bev pkg. Fastest booking we ever made. The rep said the VF verandahs in the offer are the ones on deck 4 that have a solid steel railing/wall that you can’t see through, not the VF’s on deck 8 that are some kind of see-through glass. Which cabin category did you go for?

Had a bev pkgs on another cruise, Celeb I think, with no 5 minute minimum delay between drink orders, and no daily limit, and we were able to pass the card around to our friends to order drinks, even together in the same bar with the same waiters. Our stateroom acct at the end showed the drinks with no charge, gawd there were hundreds … Celeb hasn’t sent us any offers since then :-(

Have you seen the other posts about the bev pkg re: dinner wine? There is no wine on the wine list cheap enough to qualify (under $7). Someone found out that to get dinner wine you have to ask for the house wine, which has a few reds and whites, the winery is Santa Carolina from Chile, and posters found some pretty good ratings, upper 80’s.

We fly out of Detroit, way cheaper than Toronto, where do you fly from?

-Bob

Hey Bob!! Awesome, that not too far from us. I'm waving back at you from our patio!! :D We got the offer in an email, it mentioned the SBP at the top of each cruise they were offering. Said something like "Book an Oceanview or higher and receive a free Signature Beverage Package". Haha, going by what happened on your Celebrity cruise, they might have good reason to worry you'd drink them dry!! I've never had a package like this on a cruise before so I'm real excited to try it!! :D Not sure I can drink 15 a day though, that's an awful lot. We have a Balcony Guarantee so I'm not sure what category we're in. The offer just said oceanview or higher though so I don't think category matters. There are only 6 VFs on Deck 4 (3 on each side of the ship). I can't believe they're only offering 6 packages. There are 8 VFs on Deck 8 (oddly enough). That's still only 14 packages if you put all VFs together. You might want to call back and ask if you can switch categories and still get the package. Right under those cabins is the main showroom, might be kinda noisy.

I wish I had been on that Celebrity cruise with you, sounds like a blast. I'm trying to find a list of all the drinks that qualify (wine included) but haven't been able to find one yet. I'll let you know when I do.

What are you going to do in our ports, decided on anything yet?

We fly out of Buffalo, way cheaper than Toronto and we really like the airport there. :D We usually fly either Southwest or JetBlue.

I have the Signature Beverage Package on my upcoming cruise on the Eurodam. :D I'm looking forward to trying different drinks that I may or may not have tried before. Just wondering, what are your favourite Signature drink(s) that are a must try? Any that should be avoided? And not only for by the pool on sea days but also for in the evening/at night when I'm out and about around the ship. I'm just trying to plan ahead here, lol and make a list of interesting and yummy things to try!! :D

Why wouldn't you be able to wear white anywhere in the world at any time of year? :confused: Why does location and time matter to what colour you choose to wear? I guess maybe it's an American thing (I'm Canadian)? I think white is one of the best colours to wear on a Caribbean (or any other hot destination) cruise, it'll keep you the coolest!! :D

Even if there's no group onboard, there still may be a lot of Asians booked on the cruise (who booked independently and not part of a group). Just saying. And just so you know, a lot of people from other parts of the world do speak English (maybe not perfectly but they do speak it) as well as their native language. :)

Explore4 is a promotion that HAL is offering right now. It includes the SBP, allows for reduced deposits, reduced fares for 3rd and 4th pax in same cabin and a free Pinnacle Grill dinner (for the first two in the cabin). That is likely what you and your mother received.

Huh, not sure. The promotional email only mentioned the free SBP. I didn't see, read, or hear anything about a Pinnacle Grill dinner free or otherwise. That sure would be nice though!! :D

When you print out the cruise doc's, on one of the many pages there should be the package deal for your cruise. If this is an 'Explore 4' promotion you should get one card each for the beverage part of the promotion. You should find them on your bed when you arrive. Take them to one of the bar's to get them activated.

When printing out your doc's, I usually only print out the first page and then find which other page that mentions your package and print it out. Usually there is no problem with Hal knowing what you get but just in case it doesn't hurt to have a copy of it.

Thanks so much!! :D I'll defiantly check our docs once I get our online check in finished. I always print out the entire doc (every page) just to be sure I don't miss anything. It's better to have too much paperwork than not enough (IMO). What so we do if they're not on our beds when we get there? Go to any of the bars onboard, show our paperwork to prove we're supposed to have them, and ask for them?

What's Explore 4? Not sure if that's what we have or not. Mom got an email advertising the sale and it said something like "Book an Oceanview cabin or higher and receive a free Signature Beverage Package". Something like that anyway.

I'm really excited to try out the package, I've never had anything like it on a cruise before!! :D

Hey fellow Canuck, we're thinking of doing this cruise too, wondered if you booked directly with HAL or a TA to get the bev package?

-Bob

Hey Bob!! Where in Canada are you from? We live in Burlington, Ontario. We got an email from HAL advertising the sale (and the promotion for the free package). We booked directly through HAL. I hope to see you onboard, it's gonna be a blast!! :D

Yes. You can buy a drink. No, it doesn't count towards the 15.

Thanks!! :D

Can you buy a drink over $7 and just charge it to your cabin card (like you would if you didn't have the Signature Beverage Package)? If so, do those drinks count towards your 15/day?

We booked our New Years cruise on the Eurodam during a sale that includes a free Signature Beverage Package if you book an oceanview or higher (we booked a balcony). :D The HAL agent we booked with confirmed that it was part of the sale and on our reservation. However, it's not listed anywhere on our confirmation (not sure about our boarding docs, haven't done or online check in yet) so I'm a bit worried. My question is, how does HAL know we're supposed to get the cards and how do we go about getting them when we get to the ship? Also, will each of us in the cabin get a card or because it's a free card promotion, will it be 1 card per cabin (there are 2 of us in the cabin)? I hope these questions makes sense.

Thanks!! :D

I'd love to be on this list!! :D Here's my info:

Eurodam - 28-Dec-14 - 7 Day Eastern Caribbean from Ft. Lauderdale (New Years Cruise)

119 Days to sailing, can't wait!!!! :D

Thanks a lot!! :D

There was a thread on here somewhere for us to let others know what cruises we're going on and so we could be mentioned in the Bon Voyage thread(s) but I can't find it anywhere. :( I'd love to be on the list if possible!! :) Here's my info:

Eurodam - 28-Dec-14 - 7 Day Eastern Caribbean from Ft. Lauderdale (New Years Cruise)

Thanks so much!! :D