AmberMarie

We got a $50 dollar gc to spa. Very appreciative of that, although ended up spending 50 more to get a product rather than a treatment. No photo coupon which I would have preferred, but wasn't expecting anything to begin with.

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I didn't see the Tiramisu Martini on the Alchemy Bar Menu on the Carnival site. Was this offered as a special? Is there an additional Alchemy menu?

We loved the Alchemy bar.

Our favorites were Cucumber Sunrise (very refreshing) and she also concocted a Blueberry Basil Drop (and I think she made a strawberry one also) that was really good. I also really loved the Fiery Tropical Passion Martini.

https://www.carnival.com/onboard/bars-lounges/~/media/CCLUS/Images/pdf/Alchemymenupdf.ashx

Thanks, that is what I was hoping for:)

I wanted to also add that my husband and I brought on two bottles of wine. We asked to borrow a wine opener for the week, and our room steward did it for us with no questions asked. Just something to consider!

We caught a few Pokemon before we turned our phones over to airplane mode. Caught a seal looking one and a squid looking one, which were firsts for me. :)

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Waiting to get off Liberty now and thought I'd pop in with my experience . Enjoyed the Cheers package, although we tipped a dollar per drink so that added up quickly. One day we may have only had a couple drinks but I think we made it up on other days. We never had an issue getting a drink for each other as long as we had both sail and sign cards. They also never opened the Rock Stars for me which is good because I would save them for the next morning.

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Yeah, I know what you meant. A lot of us call them L shaped balconies even though it's not the balcony that's L shaped, it's the room. Also affectionately known as Bowling Alley Balconies because you could bowl on them LOL. I've never had one but did get to see one on a cabin crawl - and WOW!

 

 

 

Enjoy your suite!

Haha okay then we were on the same page. I call them that, too, but didn't know if you did.

Thank you, we will! Sailing Monday! ☀️❤️[emoji41]

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You had an L shaped balcony?! [emoji15]

No the room was L shaped at the back of the ship, so the balcony was like twice as long as normal balconies but we paid the same price as a standard balcony.

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Now you know for next time. Oh and tell hubby to leave the bargaining to you [emoji6]. Enjoy your suite and the cruise!!

So true. He was the one who actually called back to say no to the upgrade to the smallest suite from our already nice balcony (we had the L shape). 10 minutes later he gets off the phone and says, sooo I got a grande suite. ???? Sigh.

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Yeah if you got a call and it wasn't from the person you booked with then it was the Upsell Fairy. They say just about anything to get people to bite because they have a quota to fill. I'm guessing you booked direct as in no TA this time because otherwise Carnival cannot and will not contact you. It might not be too late to go back and get FTTF if it's still there and the perks are important to you. If not, enjoy your suite!

 

If you are a Past Guest you will get the free bottle of water no matter which cabin you are in.

Thank you for the insight. My husband couldn't help but bite, even though I had warned him what I read about people thinking offers are great deals when they really aren't. It's okay, though-- hey, I'm in a suite.

It's not super important to me, I think getting on the ship past the long line was the reason we got FTTF to begin with. :)

Did you talk to a PVP or an Upsell Fairy?

Might have been a fairy. I usually go through outside TAs so I may be using the terminologies interchangeably when they aren't.

I did some further searching on here and, yeah, you're absolutely right. Looks like the only suite perk is priority boarding. We have an early boarding time, so we may be carrying our things for a while. That's okay.

It also appears that we are three weeks shy of getting the laundry and bottle of water.

Edited to add-- We had a suite last year on the Freedom, and I could have sworn we had a large water and one laundry service, but I guess I am wrong on that.

No. You should have kept your FTTF. Your cabin will not be ready upon boarding so you won't be able to drop your things off. You will also not have the Priority Guest Services Line, nor the Priority tendering.

Bummer. When she called she told me the the price of the upsale from Balcony to Suite. She said, but really it's only $____ much more, because you wouldn't need FTTF anymore.

We won't have many bags, anyway, so it's not a big deal I suppose. But, yeah, bummer she didn't tell us the true differences between the two.

So it appears that if you are diamond or FTTF, then you would not be ignoring any rules if you did go on in and put your stuff in your room. Good to know.

I am curious, we upgraded to a suite giving us priority check-in, so our PVP canceled our FTTF. Does this mean they are one in the same?

I haven't sailed since they added the RockStars and have no idea the policy on opening those. However, every time we've gotten Cheers!, when we had a few "regular" bartenders we would go to and throw a decent tip to, they would not open the extra beer I'd grab for my husband and we could keep some in the room (there were lots of times he'd be closer to 15 than me, so it made sense for me to grab the extra beer). Some people will say this is an abuse of Cheers! but we spend well, tip well, don't get ****-faced drunk (my husband might have 17 on a sea day, with a couple of mine, if we start drinking at 10am, because he's 6'5'' and metabolises alcohol like a dude his size), and never go over 30 total.

 

 

 

Based on my experiences, policy or not, I have no doubt that if thrown a decent tip and a kind word, a Carnival employee would give me an unopened Rockstar.

Okay thank you.

Let's go back to the beer thing. I thought I had to only get one drink at a time every five minutes regardless of the type of drink. Does that go back to the kind word and good tip? I was just wondering because what if I go to the bar to get us both another round or vice versa? Or if he goes in the morning to get us both RockStars... I was afraid we would always have to both be there. I wonder if he could take both our cards to the bar? Hmm

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I would also contact your BnB.. I've had a few allow me to stay a little later if no one is scheduled to come in that day.

Supposedly the rules state all bottles and cans must be opened by bar staff, although I wouldn't doubt there are plenty of stories of those who tip well getting special consideration from the bartender. I have thought about getting a non-insulated water bottle and the night before getting one, filling the bottle, wait five minutes, get another, repeat until bottle is full, put bottle in fridge. I doubt it would go too flat if the cap is sealed well. Of course the refrigerators, if you can call them that, don't keep things too cold either, so I may prefer to make sure I have the steward leave a bucket of ice each night and keep the bottle in there.

Great idea.

I am sailing out of Galveston, so our first night we will have to pay for drinks. I was thinking about getting the beer package with the little cooler and using the cooler to do just what you described. I'm assuming the room attendant will keep ice in it if we ask him/her to with a tip, of course.

ETA: Welp, just went to purchase the beer package like a genius and DUH. If the cheers package doesn't start because of Texas law, then I probably can't get beer the first day either. Bummer! :P

ETA: And you can't buy the cooler and coozie set by itself. Bummer! I kinda wanted a little Carnival set of that, but I guess I can bring my own.

Will they give you cans at the bar unopened? I was wondering about getting a RockStar the night before, putting it in my fridge, and drinking it in the morning.

Same with bottles of water and juices.

I had no idea they were that difficult to get. We bought ours 2 weeks ago and we sail Monday. We ended up falling for an upsale to a suite when the Upsale Fairy called, so we released the tickets-- so if you're sailing on the Liberty Monday there are two more out there! :P

Does this include the drinks in the room also?

 

 

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No

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The addition of coffees, energy drinks, and bottled waters sealed the deal for us.

We also like to try new things, but don't usually pick a cruise to do that. We usually stick with our regular beer, occasional fun drink, occasional low shelf bloody mary. Now we can do our usual trying of new things while we are on vacation.

Even if we did our usual cheap beers and a couple of fun drinks, if we get a coffee, an energy drink (I have an unhealthy dependence on caffeine) and a bottle of water-- I think it would pay for itself. I think for us it will be worth it even on port days. If it's not, we will have spilled the savings from the sea days.

We are excited about the peace of mind, although I do wonder if having the Cheers package equates to not as good of service to bartenders or eye rolls and watered down drinks? I hate to sound critical or cautious, but it's a thought I had. We generally get nothing but positive service and good convo from bartenders, and I am hoping nothing will change that.

It would be cool if they could somehow keep tally of what you take from the mini fridge, even if it adds to the next day's tabs. I doubt I would ever reach 15 alcoholic drinks, so I wouldn't mind "paying for" what I drank the night before in the mini fridge.

Haha ew. Just my way of building my immune system.

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I booked three weeks before cruising and they had it.

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I go to the pizza counter and order two slices of pepperoni pizza, made with both extra sauce and cheese. Then I go get just a plain hamburger patty from Guy's, no bun. Put the burger between the two slices of pizza, and voila: an original "pizzaburger" - Mmm, so good!! (No other condiments are necessary, but you can further customize it by adding some of the sautéed onions, mushrooms, or even some bacon from Guy's fixins bar.)[emoji14][emoji1]

 

I'm always surprised when no one else has ever heard of doing this, because I grew up eating them nearly 50 years ago, at a little pizza joint in western Pennsylvania called, Joe Stringhill's. Try it, you'll like it! [emoji487][emoji488][emoji487]

I just cried happy tears, but then got heartburn.

Sounds yummy! But I'm a sucker for kid food and its corresponding concoctions.

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You get a free bottle of wine on the first night, so that's a perk.

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I take mine and get it stamped.

I didn't know you could get it stamped on a cruise.

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I wouldn't worry about going solo. If you have a feeling it wouldn't bother you, give it a shot. I think it'd be enjoyable to indulge on your own.

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