angelsfort

We had the bottomless bubbles on our last cruise (on the Liberty) - we also brought 30 oz double walled stainless cups (that I personally designed / created for our trip). We took our cups to the bar and gave them to the bartender, who filled them with ice and our choice of soda... the cups were large enough that we got the entire can of soda AND because they were double walled stainless, they stayed cold and the ice melted very slowly, so our drinks didn't get watered down. It was a win / win! LOL my BF is a huge Purdue fan (and Purdue graduate) so of course the cup I made for him had to be Purdue related!!

I get what you are saying and I agree with you BUT... that last line of the post "Failure to bring documentation bridging the name differences could result in denial of boarding. " is enough for me to want to cover ALL the bases. My BC doesn't match my drivers license... here's why.

Exactly. When my daughter was little, I always brought my husbands death certificate as well - so they didn't give me any trouble traveling with her alone. I was her only guardian - no need for a letter approving my travel with her.

It's not OUR definitions that change, it's the radio industries definition. I still think that the music my 81 year old dad listens to is "oldies" and my music from the 80's & 90's is classic! 🤣

I always bring my marriage license as well, just in case, because it links the drivers license and the birth cert together. (but I've never been asked for it) I'd rather be OVER prepared then under-prepared... and if there's an issue off the ship, I feel like it'd be better to have some sort of evidence of the name change

I'm pretty sure you can (call Carnival) but they're going to charge you a fee (I believe its $100) to do so. did you try to do it online? I've heard that if you make changes online (and I've not confirmed this myself, so take it for what it is) that you don't get charged that fee...

are rooms assigned when the ship is fully booked? or maybe just when your specific cabin class gets fully booked? I can see that they wouldn't need to wait any longer, if all cabins were sold out...

for those that still wanna do that "doc dance" - for a small fee I'll accept your digital documents and print them out and mail them to you!! 🤣

I thought of a few other items that we received in our gift exchange card games (UNO / Skip-Bo) travel sized games - we got a little yahtzee game (tiny dice & tiny score cards) and a little game called "toss up" (another dice game) in a little plastic container. I can see how you can get real creative with the travel sized games if you're okay with spending a little more on your gifts for the exchange. I really enjoyed getting these little games in our bag and I've already started collecting them (buying a few at a time... so that by the time we go on our next cruise, I'll have plenty and won't have a big expense all at one time)

hmmm.. Freedom is a couple years younger than Liberty and it has a "splash park" for the kids (which the Liberty doesn't) both have waterslides but the Freedom has a more robust water park area and the waterslide itself has more twists & turns that the Liberty's slide. I wonder if that may be the reason Freedom is more expensive?

I go into the all of the other cruiseline boards to see the chatter going on about their particular line and I am never dissappointed! EVERY cruise line has a bunch of folks who are upset about changes being made to the line and they also have those loyal fans that just roll with the punches. I promise there is not a single forum in here that doesn't have complaints and issues rolling around... It doesn't matter which cruise line you are on, if you are someone who nitpicks and finds fault in everything, you won't be happy with any line and you may as well just stay with the one you're on.

Not necessarily true... I am lactose intolerant for the most part. But I can tolerate A LITTLE... so I use half & half because it has LESS lactose than regular milk does and I tolerate it better. half & half is exactly that, it's half milk and half cream (and cream has very little lactose in it)

also if you add a "mailbox" to your door, you may come back to find that you've been gifted with some goodies while you were away from your cabin!

I would definitely reconsider doing the MDR's on board. Do what you have to do to get yourselves there on time (set your watches back a half hour or something!) the dining rooms on board are fantastic experiences and I feel like they're one of the things that sets DCL apart from other lines. (I said ONE OF THE THINGS! Don't come at me!)

where is freedom sailing from? I know the Liberty sails from Port Canaveral, which is a pretty busy cruise port. They need to be more competitive with their pricing because of that... this could be the difference between the two

I don't see anywhere in her posts where she said that the nanny had ANY responsibilities for the children OR where she was staying or who she was staying WITH... you're just assuming she also didn't post that the children were even on the cruise with them... she's already stated that the nanny was NOT working, I feel like that should be enough of an explanation for you.

I have my "kindle" on my phone - also the library's e-reader app as well. I download several books prior to my cruise, just in case I get some downtime and have a chance to read. We did, however, go hang out in the library on board on embarkation day. After our muster, we grabbed some food from the Lido deck and went down to the library to have a seat and eat in peace. It was nice & quiet and nobody else was in there... once we were done we just hung out until we had access to our cabins. while we were in there, we saw a crew member come in with a box and start filling the shelves with books (I say "filling" but it was just one box of books and he spread them out amongst the many shelves in there)

and I'm confused about why you feel the need to comment on a thread that is obviously not for you. If you're not interested in participating in a gift exchange then don't participate. Pure and simple. the gift exchange is not a "be all end all" type of event... its simply a fun addition. Not all gifts are going to be good and not all of them will be bad but you go into it already knowing that and you set your expectations accordingly. Even for the gifts that I wasn't super excited about, it was still fun to come back to the cabin to find a gift waiting. Not everyone has the same kind of budget... we set our gift exchange with a minimum $ but no max $, so everyone could get whatever they wanted. Some obviously went above and beyond with their gifts and others went to the dollar store and filled their cart with things that "fit the bill" - and again, you sign up for the exchange KNOWING that there will likely be both types of people in your group. And as Momof3cruisers stated, it's also fun to walk around the different decks and see the door decorations and creative ideas other folks have come up with.

I'd be interested in seeing where you got these "stats" from... where did you get the information that Carnival is the industry leader in numbers of people jumping overboard?

We did a gift exchange on our last cruise... some of the items we received were: (we had 14 cabins participating and most chose to gift to all cabins) small hand sanitizer bottles little glass bottles with beach sand and sea shells inside framed image of the ship we were on (was a holographic frame with ship name cut in cardstock around it) duck keychains rubber ducks plastic cups with lids/straws and our names in vinyl on them chapsticks (many... in multiple flavors from different cabins) fridge magnets from the city/town the gift giver was from drink coozies glow sticks (bracelets, necklaces, etc) sunglasses (in carnival colors) USB charging port shaped like a chili pepper night lights mini-towel animals (made from baby washcloths) letter initial resin keychains (the first initial of each cabin participant) small sketch book with colored pencils bottle of cajun seasoning from one of our New Orleans participants (YES!) Carnival pen / pencil set ginger tea bags very strong hook magnets (in carnival colors) for the cabin walls/doors candy spiral notebook with pencil yellow highlighter I'm pretty sure that I'm forgetting some stuff (and if I think of it, I'll come back in and add more to the list!)

seriously! This world is going to be filled with a bunch of people who have NO immune systems because they've used so much hand sanitizer and lysol to kill every living cell around them... their bodies will have no chance of ever building up any immunities to germs. I'm just waiting for the reports to come out about how eating hand sanitizer has harmed their organs (cuz if you have "washed" your hands with sanitizer before you eat, you ARE eating that hand sanitizer!) on the subject of hand sanitizer, did you know that it DOESN'T kill all the germs? Here's some info direct from the CDC's website! WASH YOUR HANDS PEOPLE! Hand Sanitizer and Wipes. Soap and water remove certain germs that hand sanitizers don't kill, including germs that cause diarrhea such as norovirus, Cryptosporidium, and Clostridioides difficile. Soap and water also remove harmful chemicals like pesticides and heavy metals.

simple solution folks... when you go to get your own water, bring an alcohol wipe and wipe down the spout of the dispenser... chances are they didn't touch the INSIDE of the dispenser with their cup so you're good. seriously - it's your own responsibility to protect yourself. They aren't going to be able to police every single thing on board and you need to take ownership of your own safety. Wash your hands before you eat (yes, wash them after you get your food too - you're touching the same tongs & serving spoons as everyone else is... )

before I give an answer... I'd like to know what the "bonus points" can be redeemed for? 🤣

not me rushing off to find this thread about Guys fries...