JillK

Hi everyone.

We have booked a family cruise over Christmas and it will be our first time cruising with Princess in a very long time... well before medallion net was a thing.

For the life of me figure out how to pre-purchase wifi for my daughters for the duration of the cruise.

Hubby and I have it included as we booked under the princess plus fare, but I l cannot find it in the cruise planner when I'm in my daughters' non-princess plus booking (they have their own cabin as they are 16 & 18).

Can anyone direct me where to find it? 

Thanks!! 

On 6/11/2022 at 9:53 PM, juraspark said:

Hi, we sailed out of Port Canaveral (May) and Miami (April) and used Walgreen's and CVS for PCR and Antigen testing. As well we were able to get testing at the Port of Miami Terminal J with results before we left the parking garage. All were at no charge. If you go online and book your tests prior the hotel will print out your results for you. Or you can go to an Office Depot and get them printed in minutes for about a quarter. We had driven to Florida, so had a vehicle, but the Walgreen's was close to our hotel and could have walked there. The hotel printed our results for no charge. We plan to do the same for our December cruise if they are still required.

Can you tell me how you were able to book your antigen testing appointments being non-citizens with CVS?

Carnival made a policy change a few weeks ago making my sons not "up to date" with their vaccinations (they aren't boostered as they don't qualify yet) meaning they cannot test before we leave home and have it valid for boarding - we need to get them tested when we're in Long Beach. 

I am having a hard time navigating their booking system as a non-citizen and am unclear as to the pricing.... might go the proctored switch health route but if I can get them booked into an in-person test, I think that would be my preference.

Thanks!

Hi electro.

I'm likely going to route of buying these tests for my sons for our upcoming cruise. Since they do not yet qualify for the booster shot, Carnival apparently considers them not "up to date" and they have to test 2 days before boarding when we will already been in the States.

We will have to upload the results to Verifly as well - can you let me know how you managed to solve your issue in case I encounter it myself? 

Thanks! 

4 hours ago, 1kaper said:

Ah.  That has changed since we sailed then.  It is confusing because Canada and the US are different. I would go with 2 days personally then.  If you can't get an appointment in the US you can take proctored tests.  We purchased test kits from SwitchHealth.  They aren't too expensive and you can do them anywhere.  It was fairly easy. 

It certainly is tough to keep up with the shifting policies. I have found a CVS near our hotel so I will call them directly. The site is difficult as they are looking for insurance info and your state of residency. I

If that doesn't work we will go the switch health route but what a drag! 

17 hours ago, 1kaper said:

 

I sailed the end of March.  The requirement was the same  

Except where destination requirements differ*, guests who are up to date with their vaccines may take their test within three days prior to sailing.

• Up to date means a guest has received all recommended COVID-19 vaccinations, including any booster dose, when eligible.

 

Your children aren't eligible.  So they are considered up to date. 

OK thanks so much. It was this post that had me concerned since the CDC's guidelines changed in late May.

1 hour ago, 1kaper said:

 

You can test 3 days ahead for them.  They are not eligible for a booster.  

I sailed with my 7 yo who was fully vaxxed but not eligible for a booster.  We tested 3 days ahead. 

I assume you cruised since Carnival updated their policy? 

That's great to know - thanks for your reply.

When we booked our early July cruise we were good to test at home 3 days prior to our boarding date as all five of us have had both shots and those of us who qualify (our teen, hubby and I) are boostered.

With the CDC revision to the guidelines for the 5 - 11 years olds in the States I'm unsure how to proceed. 

I have read here that Carnival is following the CDC guideline and requiring 5 - 11 to be boostered in order for them to be considered "up to date" (meaning testing can be done 3 days prior to boarding rather than 2).

My questions are around our 10 and 12 year olds.... 

1/ Our 12 year old does not qualify for his booster shot until mid-July (168 days after second dose).

2/ Health Canada does not appear to have approved the booster shot for use in the 5 - 11 age group unless they are immunocompromised... when I try to book a booster appointment for my 10 year old, I can't. 

I assume this means that even though the kids are up to date with their vaccinations where we live, I will have to find somewhere in Long Beach to test my sons since we will be there 2 days ahead of the cruise (assuming there isn't a change in policies between now and July 9th)?? 

2 minutes ago, JillK said:

 

We have done exactly this - some family cruises and a few without the kids where hubby and I were just people for a week. 

 

We do not see the kids club as babysitting - but rather a space where our kids can meet other kids their age that has activities geared specifically for them. When we do cruise, our kids expect to be able to have time away from us at the kids club based on previous cruise experience. As another poster said, we don't make them go, they ask to go.

 

Our family has always enjoyed cruising because there are opportunities to do things together (meals, time at the pool/slides, shows, shore excursions) but also opportunities to have time independent of one another.

 

Frankly, after two years of being cooped up at home with few breaks from one another, my kids really wanted to have some time away from us on our cruise in March and were VERY disappointed when I told them the club was closed all week. My 12 year old actually said "oh great - now I have to be with you all week." This same child also chooses a cruise over a week at Disney World every time we ask so some kids DO prefer a cruise experience over other types of vacation.

 

It's unfair to paint all families with the brush that they don't watch their kids. When we take our kids on a cruise we do not ever take a vacation from parenting. If our kids aren't at the kids club, they are with us.

 

I too dislike being around other people's kids who are completely unsupervised and behave obnoxiously running ramshod all over the ship but I would never come on CC and attest that this applies to all families who are cruising. 

Thanks for posting about your recent experience so everyone is aware what they can expect.

We are boarding the Panorama in early July and I think my 10 and 12 year olds would like to try Camp Ocean (it will be their first Carnival cruise).

They were VERY disappointed when we cruised on the Norwegian Getaway this past March to find out two weeks before the cruise that the children's program weren't running at all. We had specifically booked cabins nearby so they could take advantage. We booked directly with NCL and the agent never mentioned it was closed, nor was there a notice posted on the NCL website. Very disappointing and really altered the dynamic of our cruise not being able to have a few hours each day to relax without having to mind the children.

At least Carnival is offering the program, even if it is with reduced hours. 

Interestingly, NCL generally has similar hours (pre-COVID) as to what Carnival is currently offering (closed over meal times). They made that change from always open somewhere in the early 2010's because some kids were being left at the club all day which was a problem because NCL has never provided food at meal time in the kids club. Agree that Carnival is likely not wanting to provide food at meal time due to COVID hence the closure at that time.

As a note to the fellow Canadians posting on this thread...

I booked three inside cabins for an 11 night cruise for this December two weeks ago directly with Princess because they were showing a more favourable price point in Canadian dollars vs. booking with the US-based cruise site I typically book through.

In re-checking prices when I heard of the "sale", I was very glad I locked it in when I did because three cabins in the same category as I booked are now $1,296 Cdn more (two cabins with no perks, one cabin with princess plus).

Interestingly the rate on the US travel site I usually book through is unchanged over that same period of time. I am guessing that the price increase I am seeing is due to Princess adjusting their exchange rate. 

I was not expecting to see any additional decrease as this is a holiday cruise but very happy that I booked when I did.

20 hours ago, waytoodeep03 said:

 

 

That is very unfortunate. No idea why they require payment in full so far out from the sailing date.

As others have said, the 90 day final payment period is fairly standard across all cruise lines and has been that way for the duration of the time that I've been cruising (early 1990's). 

I really hate that NCL has moved theirs to 120 for cruises over six days and hope that other cruise lines don't follow suit in the future. I know they were being more flexible during COVID but think that's dropped off now - full payment (with standard penalties applying) four months ahead is egregious in my opinion.

Hi there.

Admittedly it's been a while since I took the time to write and post a review (I think the last one was in 2008) but if memory serves, it took about a week before it was posted and I did receive an email telling me it was live. 

Will keep my eyes peeled for yours to be posted! 

Pre-COVID I was told by Carnival directly that I could not book a pair of connecting staterooms because we wanted to split our family 3/3 and one of the cabins held 4. They would not allow us to book them unless we were booking 3/4. I'm not sure I understand the logic of that decision as I ended up taking my money to Royal since I was able to find a connecting pair with them. 

As others have mentioned, you may be able to book a 4 person berth if it's "bookable" and viewable to you when you search for 3 but may be moved if the cabin is needed. 

Good luck and enjoy! 

Just now, tallnthensome said:

Bar cash is stupid and pointless when cruise cash does the same thing and can be used anywhere onboard. Many different rates and offers for various guests without reason.....

OK- that's what I figured but appreciate the confirmation - thanks. 

Going to buy some with the discount on hubby's account. Looks like he'll be in charge of running to bar that week! 

Struggling to understand the difference between Bar Cash and Cruise Cash. Assuming Bar cash is only valid on bar purchases but can I not just buy Cruise Cash and have it work on bar purchases? 

As another poster mentioned, this code does not work when I am logged into my manager under my profile, but does work for my hubby's. Between this and the preferential rates he is being offered, I'm really not feeling the love from Carnival!! 

8 hours ago, Ellaleah said:

I was unsure of where to look for these offers.  It’s the “to do list?”  About how far ahead of your cruise do you see these offers?  Thanks.

When you log into your Cruise Manager, scroll down past the "Shop by Category" options... it should be on the left-hand side-- "Before You Go: My to-do list." If you don't have an offer (like me) it just lists ONLINE CHECKIN and MY VACCINATION SURVEY. 

I am getting the same message trying to book a specialty dining for five of us in two cabins.

Earlier today I made some purchases for specialty dining/wifi totalling six "orders" spread over our two cabins. 

The message I'm getting is saying I'm at my maximum amount of orders for the day? Didn't realize that Carnival wanted to make sure I don't overspend on the cruise!?

No I booked both of them but he is the primary on the cabin with him and my sons and I am the primary in the cabin with my daughter. 

Booked his cabin a month ago and mine just today. 

Just thought it was strange that his info would pop up when I was logged in under my profile in my booking. 

Hi all.

We have two cabins booked under two VIFP profiles for our cruise in July and when I log into my profile and go to the manager, my husband's name appears.

When I get to the payment part of the process, his name, email and phone number appear in the billing section. I am logged into my account and have cleared cache and cookies - why and how would it pull his info into my account? 

Just curious if anyone else has experienced this? 

My husband is booked in a balcony cabin on the Panorama with my two sons for a cruise in July. He had an upgrade offer in his Cruise Planner to move to a Junior Suite for $516. Not interested as the cabin itself was completely forward and one of our sons is prone to motion sickness so we prefer to have a cabin mid-ship.

However, I do prefer that it's a direct offer, where you know the price to upgrade and know exactly which stateroom you would be moving to. This is a much better process than the blind bidding with Royal and NCL in my opinion.

On 4/25/2022 at 10:57 AM, lx200gps said:

Got it, thanks. Looks easy enough.

Sorry - was off line for a few days but yes as njhorseman says just cross the street and call from there. It really is quite easy so if you go that route, I think you'll be pleased. 

Regardless of what you decide, happy cruising! 

1 hour ago, mjkacmom said:

To park for 7 nights is $280. We live 10 miles from the port and pay to park. We are a family of 7 so it’s a little cheaper to park than 2 Ubers each way.

Oh gosh - yes, you're right of course! My goof. I thought I saw $400 somewhere but I should have known that was wrong since I had done all the calculations before our trip in March! 

I can see how in your case parking works out cheaper as you likely need two Ubers as we did and would have to take on all the cost yourselves. As for us, we couldn't fit everyone and all our luggage into one vehicle and my parents paid for themselves (and fortunately for us, they took and paid for our sons too) so we only had to deal with four people.

In our case it would have been $560 USD for both vehicles ($700 CDN) to park for the week. Cost to Uber ended up being around $250 USD (or approx. $325 cdn) for two cars both ways including tip. We paid slightly more than my parents because we tipped better but it basically came out to $125 USD a car return trip.

For what it's worth, ordering the Uber after we disembarked was the same process as meeting with the shuttle offered in the past by the hotel (which was a private car, just like an Uber) but was in fact much faster. 

With both the pre-paid hotel shuttle and the Uber, we had to wait to be off the ship and out of the terminal before we contacted them to be picked up. The Uber was faster for pickup as the closest available vehicle took the job, whereas we had to wait for the shuttle driver to arrive. We waited about 5 minutes for the Uber driver and about 25 minutes for the shuttle driver and were picked up at basically the same spot across the street from where you exit the terminal near the taxi stand.

Although we had priority disembarkation (group 2), there was a delay in getting off the ship and we ended up disembarking over an hour after the time we thought we would be off. Just something for you to keep in mind if you plan on pre-booking transportation.

I'm sure you'll find a solution that works for you. For us, going the Uber route worked best given the size of our group as we would have had to have parked two vehicles meaning $800 USD or just over $1000 Cdn for the week- uh, no thanks! 

We also had a long boarding process when we cruise the Getaway this past March though not as dramatically long as what you just experienced... very long lines both outside the terminal and then once inside despite showing up at our assigned time. If I recall correctly it took us around 2 hours from arrival to setting foot on the ship.

As for Norfolk... we had this stop the last day of our cruise. We arrived at 7 am with a mandatory disembarkation to clear US customs. Our back on board time was 11:30 so by the time you had gotten through the line up, off the ship and cleared customs, you basically had 2 hours or less to do anything. My son, mother and I rushed through a self-guided tour of the USS Wisconsin which was docked beside us while the rest of our party just got right back on the ship. It was interesting but we would have  appreciated more time - there wasn't enough time to do much making it pointless (outside of the customs check).

In our opinion being forced to get up that early on your last vacation day for a mandatory customs check sucked. At least in the OP's case, a stop there on the way out where disembarkation would be optional and I assume time in port would be longer would be much better. The only upshot was that disembarkation in Manhattan (though poorly handled aboard the ship) was easy once off the the ship as customs had already been done. 

16 hours ago, lx200gps said:

I've read about possible issues with NY taxi drivers not taking fares into NJ? If we disembark from the Manhattan terminal off an NCL ship, would we have any chance of finding a taxi driver willing to cross into New Jersey to drop us off at a hotel? Some do, some don't? Failing that, does Uber run between these locations?  Sorry for cheaping out, but with parking at the terminal running just shy of $400 for a week, I'm looking at Park and Cruise options out of NJ, through Trinity etc.  Thanks...

We had a group of 8 with a stay and park package at the Hampton Inn in Ridgefield Park, NJ in March meaning that we had to return to the hotel post-cruise to pick up our car. The last time we had cruised out of NYC pre-pandemic, we also stayed here and at the time they offered a shuttle option. This is no longer available so we ended up ordering two XL vehicles on Uber to get to the Manhattan terminal and back. 

Our only issue was on the return, our driver took the tunnel instead of the GWB (which has always been our past experience) and then proceeded to get lost driving around in loops, through tolls and then neighbourhoods to try to get back on track. Our other party arrived at least 25 minutes ahead of us due to the driver. Based on that, should we ever do this again I would specify to the driver which way to go.

As a reference, the trip to the terminal was $64 including a healthy tip so it's significantly less than parking at the terminal.