S&S Cruisers 1983

I'm so sorry if this has been asked but is there any way to tell yet if cabins 8140 and 8740 will have angled balconies? They look like they might be on an angle, but not sure. I'm hoping they will be just a little bigger if angled. Not sure whether to book one or stick with a regular balcony. Thanks!

Can anyone tell if these cabins will have a larger balcony (8140 & 8740)? They look like they may be at an angle, but not sure. I know they are not what they consider a large balcony, just curious if we should book one or just stick with a regular balcony. Thanks!

Edited - Just found the Bliss thread and posted there.

When a lot of people are on a confined area for a long period of time people get sick. Sit back at the buffet one day and watch people, they rub their nose, touch their hair etc and then grab utensils. This is how people get sick.

 

Sounds like you caught a cold. Bot sure what you are looking for from this post? People catch colds all the time

This is one reason why I go wash my hands after getting food if we go to the buffet. I would rather my food get cold, not me.

We had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner on the Gem, although you don't get to have the turkey carved at your table. LOL! It was not a formal night, just the regular dress code.

We pre-ordered bottled water from “Fun Ship” and it was in our cabin waiting for us. You could also take an empty bottle or a travel mug and use the water at the Lido deck to fill. (Of course using a clean cup from the buffet area to fill your drinking vessel).

I just wanted to add, don't take an expensive empty container unless you don't mind them taking it away. Carnival threw my bottle away at embarkation, even though it was completely empty.

This is 2018, where people get offended by what color shoelaces you're wearing lol. I'm with you, there's no flame and no smell, therefore no fire hazard and no offensive odor. have at it.

What about when they explode in peoples faces and pockets then? And how do you stop people from bringing the bad ones that explode versus what are considered safe ones? My daughter uses one, so I am not against them. I am, however, against an explosion and/or fire on the cruise ship that I am on.

We upgraded once from a balcony to a mini suite. The only difference was the bathroom (a tub/shower combo), and location of the cabin. We would not do it again. We don't use a bathtub on a ship, and the cabin was in a noisy area. I would rather pick my location. Also, the tub was very high and difficult to step into, but I'm sure that varies by ship.

SamFritz, I came back this morning after praying for good news for you. I am so, so sorry for your loss. I am speechless. I hope this song link is allowed, for it gave me some comfort upon my father's passing. Now may not be the time, but maybe listen to it later. God Bless you and your family.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3browtvP7k

Cruising is my favorite way to vacation. I hate being in water, since I have a fear of drowning. I can swim, but just the fear of drowning stops me from going in very deep. I can't even watch a movie with underwater scenes without feeling like I can't breath. But put me on a cruise any day! Give it a try!

Sorry this happened to you. Just my two cents, but I always put reminders in my Google calendar on my phone, even if way out, to renew passports, GOES cards, military ID, nursing license, etc., anything that expires. I put the reminder in early enough to have ample time for renewal before they actually expire. It may be a bit overboard, but at least I have piece of mind.

Hand washing is the key. It may seem crazy but we push elevator buttons with our knuckles, don't touch handrails unless rough seas, and then wash afterwards, and wash our hands after touching anything getting food in the buffet.

We have always taken magnets for our cruises. We take one heavier hook for coats, and lighter ones for paper. This last cruise was the first time that I could not find a single wall that I could use a magnet! I guess I need to start taking some command removable hooks also!

I would go for it. We have had it for a while now and have used it for international travel a few times, but we love the TSA pre-check!

OP is retired and therefore his Military ID is no longer valid. They are no longer valid when leaving the military.

As a side note, retired military (and their spouses/dependents) are issued NEW ID's indicating their retired military status. This gives them access to post/base exchanges, military medical benefits, etc. So many conclusions erroneously leapt to.

Military ID no longer valid? My husband and I both have military ID's. He is retired military. We use them as Shorex stated. I would never assume that they would take the place of a passport though.

OP, I'm sorry this happened. Passports are at the top of our packing list.

Singing karaoke. I have always wanted to do it, but don't have the guts, or the voice for that matter.

The Hub app never worked for all 4 of our phones, so we spent $20 for nothing. On our next cruise we found that it was cheaper to just text each other. The $0.50 per message sent and $0.05 per message received was a cheaper way to go for us. We just made sure data was turned off. But we didn't have kids with us, so less texting. I bought what was supposed to be the faster internet plan on this last cruise to try to keep in touch with my office, but it never worked.

Thanks for your review. We were on this cruise also. Did you have any issues in the main dining room? We were anytime dining and ate dinner in there 3 nights. One night our service was really bad, another night it was mediocre and one night was excellent. All different servers. We had a party of eight and many of us felt that the servers seemed off. Not as high energy and happy. They seemed very tired. Wondering if some were not feeling well or something. Also, there was some issues with some of the food. A couple of us got sick after eating in there on the last night.

 

We went with a grand suite this time as we had heard that the junior suite balconies are very small. We normally book balcony cabins, but as you said they don't have regular balcony cabins on this ship class.

 

The Paris showroom was packed. I ended up standing in the rear lower level. Our Grandson was in the show. I wish I would have gone in there earlier when the bingo was still going on and grabbed a seat close to the stage. The show was beautiful though.

We had anytime dining also and ate in the main dining room every night. We had great service, with the exception of the last night, but the food was a little disappointing. The pork was dry, a steak was tough, melting cake was overcooked, not melting in the middle, things like that. On the last night they forgot one of the appetizers. Then we sent a meal back due to being too tough and didn't get the new one until everyone was done with their meals. On the last night, everyone seamed stressed. We poured our own water, no big deal, ran out of water, and no one seemed to know what they were supposed to be doing.

The show was beautiful. I wish we could have seen it better. We started out looking for seating on the lower level. We had one of those curved benches, but while seated, you can't see. We ended up standing up in the rear of the upper level. Strange seating with the curved benches.

Thanks for the review. I agree that some parents should be much more careful of their children. Did the woman at security who took your bottle and nearly kept your power strip have long brown hair? My husband brought wine and I swear she was going to open that wine just to make sure it wasn't whiskey!

Fyree39, she had brown hair that was a little longer than shoulder length. She acted like my empty water bottle was a federal offense! LOL!

This was our first cruise on the Inspiration. We have been on a couple of other Carnival cruises, one on Royal, but mostly NCL. I would say that we like both Carnival and NCL about equally.

Embarkation was very fast and easy, we were on the ship by 11:30 am. Unfortunately I always have bad luck with getting things past security that should be fine going through security. First, the lady made me throw away a completely empty water bottle. Not a big deal but I had planned on filling it with water (of course the proper way, as not to contaminate) and carry it with me since I am on a medication that requires me to drink a lot of water. Then she tried to take away a very small, 3 plug power strip, still in the box on purpose, since it said clearly on the box "No Surge Protection", as well as a small 4 port USB charger. She finally let me through with them after some...discussion. I thought this was funny because I had asked on a thread before the cruise about what charging devices I should take and was told to put them in my carry on since I have had some of the same things confiscated in my checked luggage.

We did get Faster to the Fun, but since we had upgraded to a junior suite, I only kept it for the quicker luggage delivery. Unfortunately, we still didn't get our luggage until about 3 pm. Oh well, what can you do. Faster to the Fun did also come in handy when we had to go to customer service a couple of times. It did make a few people pretty mad in the other line though. The second time we went, a guy from the other line did step in front of me saying "the line starts back there" but I didn't think it was worth an argument, and the customer service person didn't say anything to him, so I let it go.

This was our first time to get a junior suite, since we usually do balconies. But on this ship, regular balcony cabins are junior suites. About the same size as a regular balcony, with the exception of the size of the balcony. It was quite small. You have to sit sideways to relax in the chair. If you turn it forward, you have no room for your legs. I researched this a lot before cruising, so not a surprise. I am not sure why they don't just put smaller chairs on these balconies.

The crew on this ship was awesome! Everyone was very friendly. Our cabin steward, Juddy, was extremely good. She never asked us if we wanted morning or evening service, she just gave us both. The two comedians on board were very good, and the Christmas show was good. The one thing I will say is the seating in the Paris Lounge where the shows are done is, in my opinion, very poor for viewing the stage. Unless you are seated down in the lower front seating, it is hard to see anything. So go early to try to sit up in straight seats in the front. The curved seating, especially on the second level, is not good.

I know food is subjective, so I won't go into that, other than to say I ate way too much! And I did order what was suppose to be the fastest WiFi. It never worked, that was a bit disappointing. The ship was decorated for Christmas, so it was beautiful. Lots of Christmas activities going on. We sang Christmas carols in the atrium, plus they made it snow. It was very nice.

We ended up just walking around Catalina Island. We were going to rent a golf cart, but by the time we got there, they didn't have any 4 person ones left. If you want one, I would get there early. We took the ship's 2 hour open top bus tour of Ensendada. I'm not sure why we took it and we wouldn't do that again. Nothing really to see and they park and let you shop for an hour. We had been there many times before and there is nothing we wanted to buy. We should have just stayed on the ship.

Since this was our first four day cruise, we got to experience the "booze cruise" environment. We don't drink a lot. I had a couple of margaritas during the whole cruise. Let me say that I am a people watcher, and there were a lot of interesting people to watch on this cruise, and we laughed a lot. The one thing that bothered me was that while walking by the pool one evening, it was quite late and there were 2 kids in the pool. One looked to be around 6 to 7 years old, and the other maybe 11 or 12? The younger one did have a life jacket on, but there were no adults by the pool. The pool area was empty. The only people that were somewhat near the pool were a group of about 5 or 6 sitting at one of the tables by the bar. The table was facing the pool but none of the adults ever looked at the pool to check on the kids. I know this because we watched for quite a while because we were worried about the kids. I don't even know if they were the parents. I have read too many stories on here about children drowning on ships. Thankfully while we were watching, the kids got out of the pool.

Disembarkation was a breeze. We just walked off when our luggage was ready. A short wait to go through customs, no more customs forms to fill out, and we were on our way home. We had a great time. We are one of the "there is never a bad cruise" type people. We would do it again because any cruise is better than no cruise!

If your sailing date falls into a peak cruising time, then Carnival will have "MaxPax / No Spoilage" occupancy restrictions in place and will not allow 3 to be booked into a cabin that sleeps 4.

 

 

If your sailing date is at an off season cruising time, allowing spoilage and under-booking a triple or quad most likely be allowed.

 

Ocean Suites and Grand Suites can be under-booked at any time for any date. Occupancy restrictions don't apply to Suites.

Does this apply to any suite? We had trouble changing our booking recently. We are 2 people moving from a 4 person ocean view cabin to a 3 person junior suite. It was a month out from sailing. After a lot of persuading, she finally let us move. It is on a smaller ship, the Inspiration, maybe that is why?

Lucy, you go some ‘splainin’ to do

Where is that darn like button!!! :D

Finally! That chemistry class that I had to take in college came in handy!!! LOL! :D

Eponym, it will work if you copy and paste the whole link. I did it that way.

Google says: Your Mileage May Vary. The starboard side of that deck is quiet while the port side sees somewhat more foot traffic because the door to the secret deck is forward on the port side. There is a short bisecting hallway that will get there from your cabin to that side in a few steps for those times when you may want to enjoy the forward deck. It's especially nice to visit entering and leaving port when you may want a different view than that from your balcony.

Nice to know! Thank you!

They are part of the staircase you also see on deck 12. This stairwell is an emergency exit from the gym and from the outside the door to the gym is locked. I knocked on it once and someone felt pity on me and let me. YMMV because there's a sign inside the door advising to only open in case of emergency.

Ok, thank you. We will be in V9 and was worried that it would be a busy hallway with people using the stairs. What is YMMV?