atobols

21 hours ago, arlodog said:

We rented from Avis on 2 different occasions.  It was an easy walk from the pier for my husband and I. We just went back to the ship to pick up my mom and sister who had mobility issues.  

I don't know about the cost between the 2 companies, but we had no issues with Avis.  It was very cost effective for 4 people. 

We did the same thing.  It worked out really well for us.  I would warn you that the Avis is slow and there are a bunch of people trying to get cars at the same time.  It took about 45 minutes from arrival to actually getting in the car and we were #2 in line.  The line was about 10 deep by the time we were done.

On 2/5/2020 at 1:21 PM, cruisingguy007 said:

Steakhouse has the best wine. Everywhere else seems to be hit/miss, even if they have a menu. Serenity bar had the most options on the last cruise. It seems wine is not catered to like beer/hard/mixed drinks. I really hope Carnival will change this and have more consistency. The randomness of availability is frustrating.  

Do we have to eat in the steakhouse in order to buy wine?  We're a vegetarian family so eating at the steakhouse holds little appeal.

We haven't sailed Carnival in 15 years but we've booked 2 cruises in the next 6 months.  The port is about 30 miles from my house.  We also pay about half of what we did sailing with Princess.  I'm thrilled they brought a ship up to SF.

I'm always fascinated by what people do on their balconies.  I'm watching the people below me as much as I'm looking out at the scenery.  I've seen people bring their yoga mat and use the balcony for morning yoga.  One time there was a guy who brought a blow up mattress and slept out on his balcony every night.  I see lots of battery operated fairy lights strung across the balconies.  We're boring, we just sit or stand out there.  We'll usually bring binoculars because it's pretty common to see whales when we leave San Francisco.

Where can I find good wine on Carnival?  Is it in one particular bar?  Does every bar serve the same wine?  Is there a published wine list somewhere?  We're trying to decide between doing cheers and the wine package.  Zinfandel, Tempranillo, and petite Syrah are some of our favorites. 

We did the whale watch and Mendenhall glacier combo tour. They aren't joking when they say it's difficult to do.  We got to Mendenhall about 45 minutes to closing time. We hiked/ran down to see it.  It's totally worth it because you can walk in the water and get really close to the waterfall.  It took us about 10 minutes to get down there, we had about twenty minutes to enjoy it and walk around.  We ran a bit faster on the way back, and then had five minutes in the visiting center before it closed.

If you aren't able/interested in running down the trail to see the glacier and waterfall,  then I would advise skipping it.  Just looking at the glacier from the visitor center in nowhere near as thrilling as Glacier Bay.  

We cruised to Alaska with Princess last summer.  They offered us a mimosa brunch delivered and set up on our balcony on the morning we cruised into Glacier Bay.  Does Carnival offer anything like this on scenic cruising days?

We did Glacier bay last year on the Grand Princess.  It was nice because our kids could swim in an indoor pool.  Most of the time it was too cold to swim outside.  We were up there at the end of June and into early July.  It was hot on the days we were in port, but of course those were the days we were out exploring and doing excursions.  The days at sea were still pretty chilly.  This summer we're going to do the Carnival Miracle, which is getting water slides during its dry dock next month.  My kids are excited but I'm not sure how much they'll actually use them when we get up north.  I'm also choosing Carnival because I wanted a little more to entertain my boys.  The kids club on Princess was great when they were younger but now they want entertainment outside the kids club.  My boys are 12 and 13.

The NPS will bring their stamps on the ship.  They will also bring junior ranger books and badges with them.  We went up and got them as soon as they opened up.  

1 hour ago, Tapi said:

Also in our 40’s with two kids. We also took a break from Carnival from 2012 to 2019. In between, we tried several cruise lines and destinations. Overall, we had a very enjoyable cruise when we finally returned to Carnival. Some things are still the same, while some have deteriorated. But the laid back, unpretentious, casual “fun” factor is definitely still there. My main disappointment was with the general condition of the particular ship we sailed on. Even with a recent refurbishment, it looked sadly neglected.

 

Here’s a link to my review of that return cruise. Hope the information is helpful:

 

Tapi’s Fantastic Return to Carnival - Aboard the Carnival Fantasy

Amazing review and exactly the kind of information I was looking for!

1 hour ago, Stick93 said:

There is more entertainment on carnival as a whole. Not all of it is amazing - I don’t like their theater shoes (some ships don’t have a real theaters) but the comedy is unparalleled to the other cruise-lines and they have small things going on everywhere on the ship until late. 

 

It really depends what you are looking for if you will be happy back on carnival. 

I'm really excited about the comedy!  I also really like when the cruise director and their staff interact with passengers during games.  The theater productions aren't usually my favorites.

When we first started cruising, we did Carnival cruises.  It's been close to 15 years since I've been on a Carnival ship.  In that time, we've done Costa, Royal Caribbean, and Princess.  We liked those, but there was a lack of fun and entertainment on those ships, especially for our children.  Carnival has moved a ship to San Francisco, so we've booked two cruises in the next 6 months.  I'm starting to get a little nervous that we jumped the gun on reserving two cruises.  What if I hate the first cruise?!  I'm looking for more fun and a ship which doesn't close down at 10pm.  I remember Carnival offering that.  I also remember some things Carnival did which I didn't love, like selling scratch off tickets before every show.

I don't want to walk on the ship with false expectations.  What do you think, will we find what we're looking for?  Does Carnival still sell those tickets before show?  Is there anything else which has changed over the years?  I've heard that the midnight buffet is gone.  Oh, and the husband and I are in our early 40s. We have two boys, ages 13 and 12.  I would love to hear the impression of others about coming back to Carnival after some time away.

A balcony is nice, but it's not always worth the added expense IMO.  In Alaska, I want a balcony because there is so much to see.  We did a cruise from SF to Hawaii.  That was 15 days long and we had a balcony.  It wasn't worth the added expense.  There wasn't much to see for most of that cruise.  It was rainy, cold, and we stayed inside until we got to the islands. 

That being said, we usually opt for the balcony because we're cramming 4 people in a room and two of them are teenage boys.  I need all the extra space I can get 🙂

I took my Brooks running shoes and my Keen sandals.  We could hike right through small streams with those sandals.  It was also close to 90 degrees when we were up there last summer.  We were looking for ways to cool off.  I doubt we'll get that lucky this summer so I'll probably take my rain boots too. 

We went last summer.  My boys were 11 and 13 at the time.  We did a whale watch/ Mendenhall glacier tour through Juneau Tours & Whale Watch.  It was the highlight of the trip for my 13 year old.  We whale watched first, and saw 5 or 6 Orcas.  We got to Mendenhall pretty late in the day.  We fast hiked down the trail to the glacier.  It took about 10 or 15 minutes.  We passed a porcupine sleeping in a tree.  It was close enough to touch and it couldn't have cared less about us staring and taking pictures.  Down at the glacier we were wearing Keen sandals do we walked right into the water.  It was cold, but beautiful and the waterfall was right next to us.  It was a long day but totally worth it.  

On 1/19/2020 at 1:22 PM, Great Sky Girl said:

I hope no one gets  a little mad at me, but as Emerald Lake is beautiful and such a pretty color, it is small. I would say very small. Just don't get your hopes up for something spectacular. My husband and I chose to rent a car in Skagway and I felt we were blessed. There were places we just fell in love with and wanted to stay a little longer. Glad we were not on a bus.

 

I completely agree.  We rented a car and drove.  I have many great memories of the places we stopped along the way.  Emerald Lake wasn't one of them.  It was pretty, but I much preferred the stop where we were alone and could take our time to enjoy the views and listen to the birds.  You're up fairly high on the road and looking down at Emerald Lake.  At the other pull off areas, you can walk down and get right up next to it.  

We did our Alaska cruise in June of 2019.  Before that, we had only done warm weather cruising.  My boys are 13 and 11.  They usually want to do surfing, scuba diving, and snorkeling.  I was worried they were going to hate Alaska.  They didn't love it quite as much as a Hawaiian cruise, but they still liked it.  We went whale watching and they saw Orcas.  They loved watching the glaciers calving off our balcony.  They loved that it didn't get dark until midnight.  Other than that, it was basically the same as any other cruise.  They met friends, they went to the pool, they watched movies at night under the stars, they ate too much ice cream, all the normal things they enjoy on a cruise.  They liked it enough that we're thinking about doing it again this summer and they're excited.

ETA : My 13 year old walked into the room so I asked him if there was anything else.  He said he really enjoyed watching the eagles soar over the ship.  They were everywhere once we got into port.

I've never been in Mexico on Christmas day.  I have been at Mexican ports on both Easter and Good Friday.   We booked excursions for both of those days and they were completely normal.  Honestly, we forgot they were holidays.  Some friends planned to walk around the port, shop, and lounge in a local bar to watch the people go by.  They hated it because they said nothing was open.  They walked around and ended up heading back to the ship less than two hours later.  

In June, we had to sit and wait about 20 minutes to board.  I'm not sure of the exact time we got there, but we were sitting and eating lunch in the dining room at 11:40.   The previous December, we got into line at 11:30 and slowly wound our way through the line and onto the ship without having to sit and wait.  It probably took about half an hour to get on that time.

There is snorkeling at the port, but I'm not sure how fun it would be.  The water is pretty cold.  We'll be scuba diving the previous day and we were told to plan for 7mm wet suits, hoods, and to bring gloves if we want them. 

Our ship has lots of excursions available, but they're all alcohol related.  I'm trying to find something my kids will enjoy in Ensenada.  I have no idea about getting taxis and doing Ensenada on your own.  The last time we were there, it was early evening, pouring rain, and cold.  Nobody was out trying to sell anything to people getting off our ship.

On 11/12/2019 at 3:50 PM, 1025cruise said:

The vegan patty isn't on the menu, you need to ask for it.

Good to know, thanks for sharing that helpful tip!

We live about 30 minutes away from the SF port.  We've done two cruises our of there so far.  On the first one, I chose to stay late hoping to enjoy a leisurely breakfast.  We struggled to spend a lot of time at breakfast and then we were shuttled into our staging area.  It was hot, cramped, and nobody enjoyed it at all.  Now, I choose to get off ASAP.  Last cruise, were were home and unpacking by 9:30am.

Normally they don't make much of a difference.  I think it was my second Carnival cruise where we had John Heald as our CD.  He was by far the best CD I have ever encountered.  I would absolutely book a cruise just because he was going to be the CD.

On our last trip, I waited too long to buy a dive skin.  I improvised with a long sleeve rash guard shirt I already owned and a pair of spandex leggings.  It worked out so well that I decided to keep doing that rather than buy the skin.

There is a Zipline tour in Mexico we really want to do.  It's not offered through the cruise line, but I found it on Shipmates.  Has anyone ever booked through that app?  What was your experience like?  Any feedback would be appreciated!