WIFamily

I'm on the "Don't care" bandwagon here. We went on the Dream at the end of 2010, and our food was meh. My steak was tough and over cooked. They brought out another, it was still tough with a lot of connective tissue but cooked properly. When on the Fascination this year my wife ordered the surf and turf (I think that's what it was) while in the MDR for the upcharge... and her lobster was way over cooked and her steak was tough. They refunded her that upcharge.

Maybe it's my mid-west upbringing, but what I've experienced (limited, I admit), it's wasn't any better than an Outback or Texas Road House.

You can take what ever you want, where ever you want.

With the exception of the bridge. I put a towel on a chair to save it, was just running to the rest root Low and behold, hen I got back from my spa treatment, bingo, an hour at the casino, and with a plate of bacon from the buffet, someone had taken my towel! They then had the audacity to tell me I had to leave!

Ship time on the Fascination is the same as embarkation port : San Juan. (AST)

which is the same as Eastern Standard Time. All the islands on your itinerary are on AST.

This is correct, our April 1st Fascination cruise out of San Juan, we did not have to modify any clocks or watches... the ships time was local time at each island.

Just a guess, but I think it's tied to you visiting / searching for cruises while logged in or having a cookie present. I went about a year without any offers, and once we started planning things out, searching and comparing, I started getting offers very frequently.

Only the older ships still have muster out on the decks , The Dream ,The Magic and The Breeze muster is held inside , Lounges , MDR's and theater , You sit in the A/C

On the Fascination in April, our muster was in theater on Decks 8 and 9, and there were other muster stations all inside. After we finally got everyone to attend (about 30 - 40 minutes to get everyone) we were then sent up to Deck 10 outside to see where the actual life boat muster stations were. That took about 10 minutes to get everyone shuffled to the correct outside location. As it was San Juan, muster was after the sun had set. (Departure is like 10 PM or 11 PM)

I’m glad I went with what I thought the CD said this morning which is back on board 3:30 pm and not what is in the fun times which is 5:30. Because we’re sailing away at 4pm. Think I forgot the fun time upload this morning

 

 

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The Fun Time you uploaded, right after shows "Back Aboard" as 3:30 PM.

Before the storm there was a CVS that sold wine/liqour. Cross the street, turn left maybe 10min walk. Don't know if store is still there.

 

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Yes indeed, there's a CVS and also a Walgreens, both West of the Carnival port... about 4 blocks West. Both have a descent selection of Wine, alcohol, beer, and soda.

So, the reduced deposit is usually unrefundable? I could never see the advantage of reduced deposit because you end up paying the same in the end. Now I wonder, is this just a tricky way to make money off cruisers who have to cancel?

Maybe? The only advantage is that if you don't have ready cash available for a full deposit, you can book and spend that time saving. You're right the full payment amount is actually more when you have a reduced deposit... in the end the entire cost is the same, you're just changing what is due and when.

I get third party travel insurance, and we've always been confident that baring a medical emergency or some type of disaster we'll be going on the cruise we book. I always get third party travel insurance which covers just about everything other than a "Cancel for any reason". There are policies out there that cover a "Cancel" and I think the one offered by Carnival does as well.

On my last cruise and I learned that the safety briefing is miserable and useless. Outside in 90° weather, but out of the sun at least. The problem was we were on time and thus against the wall 4 lines of people in front or us deep. Could not see anything as the instructor was putting a vest on a bear.

 

What are the penalties of skipping the ship wide safety drill and doing the one in the theater instead? At most now I know where the life boats are and nothing else.

 

Otherwise the current setup regards the wrong behavior of waiting until the last second inside before joining the drill. Get close to the door, closer to the breeze and not stuffed 5 people deep. Worst experience on a safety drill yet.

The penalties are that the ship will not debark , and in fact the muster drill will not end, until you are in your assigned muster station. You cannot choose where you want to attend the safety drill, as the assigned location is where you would be expected to go if there were an emergency. The best you can do is for your next cruise, attempt to research which cabin has which muster station and pick the cabins that muster in the theater or other indoor venue.

So let's say I check in and bring my 1 bottle of wine onboard with me. After lunch, I decide to exit the ship to check out San Juan for a few hours. When I return to the ship, can I bring yet another bottle onboard with me or will they know I've already brought one on earlier?

They will not know. We did exactly this in April. We carried on one bottle of "wine" for each adult. When our rooms opened up we dropped off our luggage, and walked back off. At the CVS we each bought another bottle of wine, some more soda... and my brother in law and I each grabbed some beer. Security just x-rayed our backpacks, never asked to open them, never even counted what we had. You can make this trip as often as you want.

Recently booked a Dec 7th 2019 cruise on the Magic with some type of deal - it was $49 / person deposit... for four of us the total deposit was $196... and it's not refundable.

I wonder (almost hope) it was due to being close to the last cruise of the summer. We're booked for the Magic in early Dec 2019 on a Southern 8 night and I'm expecting it to be interesting. We previously sailed a Western in 2010 on the Dream, and it was lackluster. I blame the ports and just coming off a Disney cruise. Since then we've done two more Disney cruises and the Fascination in 2018. We had a BLAST on that Fascination cruise.

Okay. I thought people were whining about how they had to pick up debarkation morning, but not giving it back should certainly take care of that complaint. :D

That table at debarkation is for when you bring liquor back to the ship from one of the ports... not embarkation day. You can bring liquor to the ship at any port, you are supposed to declare it and they have a table set up so you can register it with your room number. That lets you pick it up on debarkation morning.

210 Days until Valor Western Carib

469 Days until Magic Southern Carib

(First time I've had two cruise countdowns in my Signature!!!)

OMG, I'm very similar to your husband! End of July we booked a 8 night cruise for Dec 7th 2019.... I had spent the past few weeks thinking just how far away 470 some days is. So I just booked a spring break cruise, Mar 23rd 2019... 211 days away!

I just booked an inside for spring break next year... first one since my first cruise almost 30 years ago. I'm praying for an upgrade call with a descent deal, or if not, then spending a lot of time up in the Serenity area! Maybe I'll just sleep on one of the hammocks!

Have always had a small double bladed guillotine cutter and a small torch lighter in my travel humidor in my checked luggage. Have never had an issue on 5 cruises.

If you do order snacks before hand, are they there upon boarding or delivered later? How does that work?

When you place your order online, you can specify which day you want each item delivered.

I always use my Disney Silver Castaway Club lanyard, regardless of the lines. I have not found a more comfortable material or lanyard length. On older ships where you have to insert your card to get into your room, it's a bit of a pain, but on newer ships where you can just wave the card / place it on the reader, it works perfectly.

I generally do not walk around with a wallet or a phone on the ship, even resisting the nice apps that all the lines seem to have now. I go on a cruise for the destinations, and the disconnection. I don't need an internet plan, anything that I get via email can wait until I'm back stateside.

A twelve pack of water, and tradition dictates some type of champagne and sweet (usually chocolate covered strawberries) on debarkation night. We enjoy that package from our balcony as sailing out of port!

I've gotten myself (not an AARP member) over 13,000 points in the past month just by doing the quizzes and entering the daily promo code from email. 10% off is nothing to sneeze at!

I've just purchased $400 of the AARP Carnival gift cards and found it quite simple to apply to my amount due. My cruise isn't for another 488 days, so I have plenty of time rack up the AARP points to get more cards. Should save quite a sum.

I have done similar Gift Carding in the past to save lots of money on Disney cruises. Target with the Red Card allows 5% off the $25 and $50 Disney cards. Using sites like GiftCardGranny and others, I was able to rack up some massive savings on Target gift cards and for a while you could use those online (I think it was with the Target phone App) plus your Red Card to stack the savings. I think my total savings was about 16% on the total of my last Disney cruise (2 cabins, 6 travelers).

We've been on the Dream and the Fascination in that order. The Fascination was our favorite due to the smaller size and also the awesome itinerary - 5 islands on a 7 night cruise out of San Juan. Yes it was older and yes it was smaller... but being an adult only 20th anniversary cruise for my wife and I, we really enjoyed the ship and the staff.

Ah sorry, I thought you were asking about ships that people were formerly on! LOL. In that case, the closest thing I have is being on one of the Big Red Boats (Starship Oceanic) back in 1990 for a four day to Nassau and back. Premier purchased a ship from Carnival - the Festivale... that's the connection.

I believe you are correct on the spa balconies. We have one on our November cruise so I will find out for sure,

It's been almost 8 years, but if I remember correctly our more forward spa balconies were covered, we were in 12207.

1 bottle pp. of wine.

 

Per trip. :) There's a CVS and a Walgreen's just across the street and a couple blocks West of the terminal.

[edit] If you're looking for some good drinks, views, and local food, I strongly suggest Punto de Vista Rooftop Restaurant. It's a little bit of a walk, probably 5 blocks North and uphill the whole way, but that mofongo is so good!