heatherandfred

We’re sailing on Oasis in August. Are they still doing the Quest??

1 hour ago, goldmom said:

I have never had to pay a reservation in full unless I was booking past final payment.  We have always been able to make a reservation and give a deposit.

It must be some kind of glitch.  Hopefully when you call you'll be able to get it worked out.  Good luck!

Me neither. It’s such a good deal and the room is enough for me and dh and ds. Dh not pleased about no balcony, but it’s got a lot of inside space and a virtual wall and concierge access.

51 minutes ago, dexddd said:

Since you last cruised NCL, they have generally increased deposits especially on higher end rooms.  Lower end sometimes specials with low deposits.  

I’m sure they have, but who is giving them a $5000 deposit? 🤣😂 I’m going to ring them and see what’s going on, if the deposit is manageable, I’ll book it.

19 hours ago, kjquilts said:

Appears to be glitch in system today.  Full payment required for oceanview as well as family suite on random May 2023 cruise on the Dawn.

I hope it’s a glitch. I don’t have $5000 up front🤣 I’ll give them a call and find out what’s happening.

Hey good people! It’s been years since we’ve cruised on NCL (2009 and 2014). Have they done away with deposits?
 

I found a great price on a family suite for 2023, but it seems as if they want the whole payment up front. I won’t do their monthly plan, as I don’t feel like paying month to month. 

Thank you all for your answers.

Has anyone ever used the Key for a guarantee balcony? It’s been since forever since we cruised last and am looking at purchasing the Key for our family. 

Since we have a guarantee balcony cabin, would they be able to tell us which room we’re in once we get to the terminal to use the Key or do we need to go to a separate line for room assignment? Cruising in Oasis 8/14. TIA!! Feels great to be back!!

Our last cruise was in 2016.  We were scheduled for a cruise for our anniversary, this year, until Rona stepped in.

Hey! Has anyone ever renewed their Vows in Grand Turk? We are thinking of using a company that also does excursions.  Exclusive Escapes Tours.  Has anyone ever used them? 

That’s so scary.  That happened to my mother when she was in Egypt, years ago.  I pray everyone is safe and evacuated quickly.

In all my cruises visiting these two ports many times, I have never recieved a letter like this before. Wonder if it was something new since you were docking late .

We were supposed to get in at 1:00. We got the letter the night before. We didn't know we would be late til the afternoon of.

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FTTF only has priority in tender ports, not in Grand Turk. I know the cabanas are expensive but delays happen. Grand Turk can get pretty congested when multiple ships are in port and whoever gets there first wins. I usually look at whatever ships are in port the same day we are when deciding what to do. Sorry you were not really happy with the Sunshine, and I hope you get whatever resolution you want.

Please refer to the picture I posted of the FTTF letter we received. I'll be calling Carnival and requesting a refund, as I was truly expecting to enjoy my cabana for a good amount of hours. We knew that the Magic would be in port, I do my due diligence prior to sailing. It was absolute chaos.

I'm sorry you do not find the food satisfactory. Sunshine is our favorite ships because of all the unique food options and it has always been fantastic.

 

Also sorry you had a bad experience in GT. But it's not unreasonable for shore excursions to get reports back before they determine compensation. Seems to me a partial refund may be in order but you did use the cabana so did receive some benefit.

 

Further, I will say that I likely believe your pier issue has to do with Magic and not Sunshine. When we were there last, it took us an hour to get back on the ship - the line was back to the shops. It was one of the little details that made us prefer Sunshine over Magic as 3000 people is much more workable than 4600.

 

 

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We've been to GT several times with more than one ship there and never experienced what I saw.

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A couple of Questions???

 

 

 

(1) First Since when did Priority Passengers get Priority off the ship in a Port before Golds, Reds Blue Etc. Didn't see that on the Breeze on my B2B in Feb, Did this Change??

 

 

 

(2) If you knew that the Ship was getting in GT at 2:00 and you have to be on board by 6:30, Why didn't you go immediately on hearing this to Shore Excer.and ask for a Refund right then and There instead of Going, using the Excursion then complaining about it later???

 

 

 

Questions Questions!!

 

 

 

Mike

 

mpdog42

We were not made aware of anything until we got to the Limelight Lounge. We were told to be there between 12:45-1:15. We did not receive information til maybe 1:45 that we would be delayed and not get off til around 2p. How were we to know there was a logjam after we got off the ship? I went to the shore excursions after our time got cut short, the onboard time was 6:30p, our driver told us that he was taking people back to the ship between 5-5:45p.

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Just off the Sunshine and the ropes course was never open. Strange...

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Carnival Sunshine...not so sunny. 8/12-8/20

Hi everybody. Just fresh off the Sunshine and it was good and bad all at the same time. I specifically chose this ship, based on price, camp for our ds 3 1/2. Wasn't expecting too much, but what can you do when you cruise during hurricane season. I'm a seasoned cruiser and married on the Miracle in 2010 with a b2b. This is NOT a bashing post, just wanted to post a review.

Embarking: I bought FTTF for ds, dh and myself. Got on board after going through checkpoints, getting cards and setting up accounts. Room was ready and our luggage was there within a half hour of our arrival on board. It was worth it...more on FTTF later. Ship is clearly in need of being retired. It's showing it's age and you can only paint over so many rust spots. Cabin was comfortable for the three of us. We had Agus as our steward who is an absolute doll! He made towel animals for our son who enjoyed the surprise every day.

Food:

Now I'm annoyed, the food was lukewarm, if that. Practically bordering on cold. Pizza took 15 minutes to be made. I've been on bigger ships, where all I did was walk downstairs and the pizza was ready for me. The food is standard fare, nothing special. Some staff stand out Melony, from Costa Rica, working for 25 years! You go girl! Hari, in the dining room where we had breakfast. Staff was incredibly pleasant.

Activities

Emma is an AWESOME cruise director. Upbeat, happy and just a nice person. She kept this ship rocking and rolling.

We out our son E3 in the camp and he would stay all day long til practically midnight. Thank God he came willing for breaks and always asked 'when am I going to see my friends?' We enjoyed the Motown revue and Rock and roll show. We are originally NYers and not interested in broadway type musicals, since we can see the real thing. Some activities that were outside, had to be rescheduled, due to the weather.

Ports

Yes, hurricane season is among us. That sucks...but it's what happens when you cruise this time of the year.

San Juan, we totally missed, which I was fine with. We were trying to avoid Hurricane/Tropical storm Whoever. We received a credit for our port charges.

St. Thomas: a bit rainy when we got there, but we did the sub and sea lion encounter at Coral World and our ds loved it! Went to Coki Beach next door and enjoyed that for a few hours.

Grand Turk: here is my problem. So remember FTTF, right? Makes me think we receive priority disembarking..um...no. We are told to meet in the Limelight lounge between 12:45-1:15, nobody there. Go to guest services where we're told there is a 'jam' in the port and we are arriving late, how late I ask? "2:00p" is the answer. So I had already booked a expensive cabana at Bajari Beach.

So we are getting in late and already shaving off time. So we wait and finally disembark!! OMG!! Now I've been in ports where there are multiple ships and have NEVER seen anything so disorganized in my life!! We suite, FTTF, platinum and diamond people disembark aft. So we Get off the ship, you couldn't even move on the pier!! I've NEVER seen that many people in my life! Apparently the traffic jam was also involving the Carnival Magic, who I knew in advance would be there, and our time would overlap, somewhat. It took us a 1/2 hour to get down the pier. From what I saw, there was no queue for the Magic guests, just an all out free for all to get back onboard. That left us and all the Sunshine guests, maybe 2 feet of walking space, it looked like it was 20 people deep, width wise, with the Magic guests taking up the space.

Well, we finally get to the booth for the excursions and receive our wrist bands.

By this time it's 2:30p and we have to be back on board by 6:30p. Took us about 15-20 minutes to get to the beach. As we are leaving the cab, our driver tells us that their last run back to the ship will be between 5-5:45p. So I said, that leaves is practically no time to enjoy ourselves. Our cabana was nice and we played in the ocean and sand and had a bit to eat and drink. So we leave at 5:00-5:15p, so as not to miss being on board by 6:30p including a bit of shopping and clearing security.

After getting onboard I went straight to guest services where I'm told 'you need to ask the shore excursion desk, who opens at 6p for a refund.' So it was 6p on the nose and I walk over and speak to Luke. Per Luke, he has to 'wait for the report from the tour companies, which he won't receive for 24 hours' in order to determine if he can help me. So my DH gets involved and places a call to Carnival, who says that they can help me once I return to NY. We shall see.

Overall, We are still on the ship and have two days left and are current being chased by a hurricane or whoever. Water is rolling and rocking a bit.

We are finally home and the FTTF was worth it. We were off the ship by 7:30a and at our car at 7:50a. Home by 9a.

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Not at all. However, don't believe everything you read about Anthem. I have been on her and loved it - going on her again next month and again next November.

 

 

 

Don't base which ship you go on because random strangers that you know nothing about like or don't like the ship. :-)

Preach!

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I use this for hurricanes

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

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We tipped two of the workers $20 each at the end of the cruise as our son enjoyed his time with them.

We were on the same ship with you guys. We found that 270's music totally sucked! A lot of the music sucked. I actually passed the Dj a note and asked him to play 70s and 80s songs. It took him a while to actually get it together, but he finally did and we got ONE dancing night out of the 9. I was quite disappointed, but whatever, I could dance with my iPhone. It was an enjoyable cruise and we had fun!

We had cabin 9174 and loved it. Port side.

I've organized every roll call on every cruise I've been on and we've had a great response. It depends on the people and level of participation.

This is THE most of comprehensive and thorough review I have read thus far. We will be on her and July and cannot wait, I wish I saw pictures of the nursery as we have a two-year-old but realize you can't be everywhere.

I thank you and my family thanks you, this really makes me even more excited to get on board.

Will be on her in a month. Look forward to your review .