I Am Canadian, Eh

Do kids get anything extra when they turn gold. My great grand son will be turing gold on his next cruise. Just curious. Thanks

Nothing extra that any gold member doesn't receive.

In theory, he should get the free drink coupon for the last night of the cruise that he can use for the non-alcoholic beverage of his choosing.

At platinum, they get a $5 arcade credit in lieu of the BOGO blackjack/slot tournament entry.... but that's a bit down the line.

MDR will be open, but I've always found it to be a bit "rushed" compared to the rest of the week - they also might not have as many pastry choices, etc.

Indeed! A fine choice.

5 days or less, collected on final morning.

6 days or more, delivered final evening.

Travellers' , One Barrel or a Cashew Rum?

maybe if us football fans knew this in advance we might have booked during the playoffs, too late now. Whoever thinks NBC, CBS or FOX have anything to do with ESPN, needs to do some research. ESPN will have no ability to show the game unless it's on ABC a sister network

Yes, but the ESPN feed the ships use (or used to use) is the ESPN International feed. NFL rights are negotiated on a county-by-country or region-by-region basis. I honestly don't know if it's ESPN International, FOX International or somebody else who has the rights to the playoff games in the Carribean, but they will either carry the CBS/FOX feeds or produce their own version (unlikely except for the Superbowl) to show the game to that part of the world. .

Just like in the UK, you turn on Sky Sports, but still see the CBS telecast with their own in studio "experts" during commercial breaks and halftime.

But none of this really matters if the ships don't have those satellite feeds available to them anymore, or are restricted to only the sports bar.

We ask for the rate in USD and CDN at the time of booking. We found Carnival's exchange rate to be better than what we can buy USD for at the bank so we booked in Canadian.

Good advice - once you deposit your cruise, the price (converted at the current Carnival exchange rate) is locked in. You could be a winner or a loser if there's a big change in the dollar.

Downside to booking in non-USD is you can't do Early Saver. (if that's important)

Not free like on Princess, but VERY generously sized and I believe mostly under $5.

We withdrew from the Scotia bank in Grand Turk and we had no charge. I use bank of America so I'm thinking maybe they are partnered with them or something. Thanks for the responses. I would bring more cash but I'm getting paid while on the ship:)

You're right - there is an ATM alliance that both Bank of America and Scotiabank are part of that allows customers to use each others machines for "free", but there may be a lower daily limit than you're used to, and it doesn't cover any fees if you normally pay per withdrawal, or you're only allowed x transactions per month.

I'm a Scotiabank customer, and find it VERY handy for when a direct deposit comes in mid-cruise!

no phone service works at sea as there are no cell towers. The ship uses Sat phone service at $1.99 a minute. If you buy the ships wifi, only the top 2 tiers you will have enough signal to wifi call

Not entirely true. Your phone will connect to the ship's service and work if you allow it to roam, and while the stateroom's phones are $1.99/minute, the wireless rate is often more than $1.99/minute depending on your carrier.

from http://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1129/~/cellular-phone-service

Carnival Cruise Lines, through agreement with Wireless Maritime Services, offers an advanced roaming network on board Carnival Cruise Lines ships, allowing you to make and receive calls while at sea using your own mobile phone and telephone number. International roaming charges will be conveniently billed to you by your home mobile carrier. Please contact your mobile carrier for specific rate information.

Stay Connected While At Sea On Your Cruise!

WMS offers an advanced roaming network onboard cruise ships allowing you to use your phone just like you do at home. Service for voice calls, texting (SMS) and data is available onboard while the ship is at sea. Once the WMS network is switched on, while roaming on our cruise ships, you will see a distinct display on your handset that differs from your home carrier. Depending on the make and model of your phone, the handset will read Nor 18, cellular@sea or 901 18. As a reminder, international roaming charges apply and will be billed by your home carrier and not by WMS.

Included in Cheers but not the soda pkg.

Bottomless bubbles only includes soda & juices. (unlike some other cruise lines)

Virgin daiquiris and the like are $5.25 + grat ea. Milkshakes are $3.95 + grat. I'm not aware of any package they're included in, except Cheers!

If you REALLY wanted to, you could purchase $50 in Cruise Cash and that would include her one a day plus a little extra.

The casino is very smokey most of the time so we, kids include it, avoid it like the plague. As other have said, they can walk through, but no hanging out. [snip] .

+1. It's usually the smokiest place on the ship, as the number of places that smoking is permitted diminishes.

Many ports will ask for a photo id as well (DL/Passport/Etc)

Being from Texas I can't use the Cheers program the first day. I I'll I be charged for it? What about the last day? We'll make port at 8am. I don't think I should try to break even in two hours!

No charge for the first night, nor the final morning (no bars are open). If it's a 7 day cruise you'll pay for 6 days' worth of Cheers

They are reasonably new fleet-wide. Some ships have had them longer than others.

If you're doing the cab, they'll be lined up outside the terminal. You may have to wait a little bit for a minivan or split into two cabs. Just watch for the guys between the door and the taxi line trying to get you to take their shuttle (priced per person vs per ride).

Anyone know the cost to rent one of the clam shells?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

$30. No advanced reservations, just pay at the watersports building.

Yes, but then they wouldn't be able to enforce the 5-minute rule, or make sure that the person using the card was the person linked to the card. So there would be too much sharing of cards.

I guess the thing that disappoints me is before the Cheers program even existed, the soda card was accepted on HMC with no problems. They could honour the soda card and Cheers! for non-alcoholic beverages IF they wanted to.

It always used to be, but not any more. Neither Bottomless Bubbles or Cheers! works on HMC.

There's allegedly a technical reason they can't link the data from the island to the ship (to track the 15 drink limit) but there's no reason they can't still look at the soda sticker, IMHO.

so let me see if i understand correctly....i can buy 5 or six liters in st thomas as long as one is a "native" brand, and one in every other port, giving me a total of 8-9 bottles?

Sadly no - 5 in total - 1 needs to be "native" and at least 4 of the 5 need to be purchased in the USVI. (to be duty free at least... if you don't mind possibly paying some duty and fees on the overages, knock yourself out... unless you're sailing into Texas of course!)

12 pack in cans only, and bring some tape to repair the carton in case your port is one of the ones that "delicately" opens the case up to check the contents.

Wouldn't count on anything other than games on NBC.

everything bad for you is cheap in St. Thomas, cigarettes about $2.50 and a liter of Stoli is about $10. Rum is going to be your best value as it is made in the islands. St. Thomas is by far cheaper than any of your other port with Grand Turk being the most expensive. If you do your homework camera and watches are very inexpensive. We had a specific Citizen watch my wife wanted. We looked in the U.S. jewelery stores, JCPenney and online. The watch was $300-$350 in the states and was $275 in St.Thomas and no tax.

Good example of doing your homework! More likely to find a bargain on a specific item than shopping blindly.

The Nassau port is a bit of a mess right now as it's under construction. All of the little "shops" that were inside are outside in a fenced-in area between the ships and the exit to the street. It's a bit more crowded & it seemed easier for someone to get into from outside as the id check is past the shops and before walking down the pier vs before getting into the terminal building itself.

Just something to be a bit more cautious of than usual there.

Pricing can really vary. Being Canadian, liquor is almost always a better deal for us, but depending on where you're from it may not be as much of a bargain.

The bonus about St. Thomas is your duty-free allowance increases from 1 litre to 5 litres, as long as 1 is made in the Virgin Islands and at least 4 litres are purchased in St. Thomas (which wouldn't apply on the ship)

Just do your homework before leaving to see what watches, jewellery, etc goes for at home/online so you can tell if that "amazing deal" on board or in port really is.

Small hint - that $9,000 watch marked down to $29.95 probably isn't as much of a bargain as they'd like you to believe. :D