tiggerlover

If you receive the free unlimited drink promotion and are charged the 18% gratuities upfront, are you charged an additional 18% per drink?:confused:

Thanks for your review! We are sailing on the Fascination again for Thanksgiving. Can't wait. You have a beautiful family. :)

Carnival Fascination, ported in Jacksonville, is an easy ship to embark and disembark. I don't remember long lines either way, hence no long waits. :)

We loved the Sunshine. :p No complaints from us! The service, food, entertainment, drinks, etc were awesome. Not to mention a very attentive entertainment staff led by the energetic Jaime Dee. I've never seen such a caring crew.

This ship has the largest variety of food on any ship I have seen. Our room was kept clean and I wish we could have taken our room steward home with us.

As for us, we will definitely sail on the Sunshine again! :)

I too, just returned from an 8 day, B2B, and I too had a FANTASTIC time aboard. Service at my table in the aft dining room was EXCELLENT, and service on the entire cruise, and at every point was outstanding as well. Only complaint I had was that the music performed in the atrium was WAY TOO LOUD. Shows were FANTASTIC, and I'd recommend "Valor" to anyone wishing to have a great cruise.

 

"SKY"

that's wonderful news! we're booked on her in October 2016. thanks! :)

Ironic to me Carnival lowered Cheers at same time they announced new smoking policy.Now the policy is in full effect they raise cheers again. ..hmmm

that's exactly what I was thinking! :confused:;):)

loving your review & pictures. we also visited the alchemy bar quite a bit. awesome drinks & service. :)

Loving your review and photos! Thanks so much for sharing. Curacao is one of my favorites. :p

Silly question, if i have cheers program, and I order a drink, can i get a soda or non alchoholic drink at the same time? Or do I have to wait 5 mins?

Thanks!

From what I read on prior posts, you have to wait 5 minutes between all drinks. I guess this is to try to cut down on sharing. ;)

thanks for the review awesome pics! :D

yay! so happy for you, sounds like a great price. :)

Loved it! Can't wait to go back. Fun, Fun, Fun! :)

We tipped afterwards and loved the food & drinks. A great time was had by all.

I've seen them in the ship's stores too. They usually offer them 50% off marked price. I've also seen them in surf shops. :)

Boy do we miss the Celebration! Ahhhhhhhhh the memories, good times & great friends! :) Thanks for sharing. :)

Also, the food offerings on Castaway Cay is incredible. :p I love the BBQ on Half Moon Cay but the spread at Castaway Cay has so much more variety. :)

One thing we love about DCL over Carnival is the fact that you can hand your camera to a cast member & they'll take a photo for you. Even with their backdrops! This would never happen on Carnival. :eek:

We love both lines but we don't feel the photo pressure on DCL like we do on CCL. :)

On our first Disney Cruise, my husband was napping in a chair by the pool. He was awakened by something tickling his face, thought it was me and told me to Stop! Imagine his surprise when he looked up and found Pluto tickling him with his long soft ears. Priceless!:)

Another time while strolling outside while in port we ran in to Captain Hook & his motley crew. They pretended to try to throw my husband overboard much to the delight of the people docked on the ship next to us. :D

Many, many, many more awesome memories. <3 Disney!:p

appointments? LOL. my friends did this and they pulled all the way up to the port. the kids were excited to see the ships...(they were just having a family day together) mom pointed them out and said do you want to eat lunch on the ship? the kids said "can we do that??" mom and dad said "absolutely because we are going ON a cruise!" kids flipped out. LOL have fun!

love this one! :D

Just back from the 3 day Magic. First night we wore to dinner the clothes we wore to board the ship....jeans & Disney t-shirts (it was cold & after the muster drill & sail away, it was time to eat.)

Next day we wore shorts in the morning & changed to pirate garb for dinner & the pirate party.

Next day, we went to Castaway Cay so shorts & or swimsuits were in order. For dinner, I did wear dress pants & a dressy blouse on the last night. Not because I had to, just because I hadn't worn ANY of the dress clothes that I took with me.

In hindsight, next time I will only take casual clothes for 3 nighters since there was more people in shorts than dressy garb and it will be so much easier to pack. Our dining experience was no less enjoyable because of our attire or the attire of those around us. ;)

Hello fellow cruisers,

 

We are booked on the Valor out of San Juan, PR in April 2015 with the following itinerary:

 

St. Thomas

Barbados

St. Lucia

St. Kitts

St. Maarten

 

My BF and I are more sightseeing than adventure folks and are looking to get the most out of these islands on a pretty tight budget.

 

We are pretty sure we want to spend the money to do the Land and Sea tour in St Lucia with Spencer Ambrose. Other than that would like to do the following activities (inexpensively) during our cruise; snorkel, beach, shop, experience local cuisine and culture and explore on our own via rental car/cab/bus.

 

What would you do where? Any ideas, suggestions for one or all islands would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks so much in advance! :)

We love Sunny Liston in St. Thomas & Bernard's Tours in St. Maarten. You can't beat the value and fun. Sunny is high energy , happy, happy , happy with plenty of time to shop, sightsee & snorkel. Bernard's is more low key but his includes a cooler full of water, soda, beer & rum punch with stops at an iguana farm, an awesome French bakery, and the infamous Maho beach where the planes fly close overhead as well as your shopping, sightseeing & snorkeling. This is a no brainer for us as we'll be using them again in a few months.

Enjoy your cruise! :)

OP thanks for posting these questions as I was wondering the same things.:)

I just like the fact that I can have it paid for before we get there. :p

Thanks for your AWESOME review. :) Hurry October! :D

Either way you can't go wrong. :) If it were me, I would save my money, visit with my DS & keep what I had for this year, but get with the friends about booking together for next cruise.

Next year, you will be able to cruise to the ports your friends are doing out of Port Canaveral. Yay! Can't wait.:D

We've also been to the same ports many times but LOVE them all. In St. Thomas we use Sunny Liston, in St. Maarten we use Bernard's Tours and in Nassau our favorite places are away from the port area.

Spent little $ for some awesome excursions and also got to get some more belgian chocolates. Yummy!

On the flip side, we LOVE the Freedom too. The ports you mentioned are IMO some of the most beautiful we have been to. ;)

Sorry, not much help but either way you will have a wonderful time. Enjoy your cruise!

Be sure to practice up on your trivia! We had a blast with Elliott at the Ocean Plaza. Also remember to pack something red to wear for one of the nightly parties as well as something white for " white hot " night in the disco.:)

We like the Blackjack band too; they are in the Ocean Plaza on deck 5

they play music you can dance to from different periods of time.

and they have some humor too

give them a try

We love to hear the Blackjack Band play. We just retuned from the March 23rd sailing and spent a lot of time listening to them in the Ocean Plaza. The beauty of it is that they play lots of different types of music that appeals to people of all ages. We saw everything from toddlers dancing to 80+ dancing & having a great time. IMHO,nothing compares to live music.:)

We also caught the other band that plays in the Plaza and they were no comparison to Blackjack. A gentleman requested a song and the arrogant lady from the band told him, "I told you when we first started playing, we play want we want to." :eek: We got up & left and returned when Blackjack played later that night. We saw them happily taking & playing requests as time permitted. There is no comparison of vocal talents as the female from Blackjack can sing circles around the lady with the other band in the plaza.

We also enjoyed the duo that played in the lobby bar. She is so cute & friendly and we loved hanging out sipping our DOD while listening to them.