finoky

My policy is to never tip prior to services rendered. We have always received excellent service and any extra we fell like giving over the auto tips is done at the end of the cruise.

I have the forum 6 of the mass market cruise lines bookmarked in my favorites. No matter which one I pick I get page reload over and over. The work around for me is to simply click any of the others in my favorites and it loads right away. Each subsequent one will as well.

We have sailed ten times as platinum and our experience is that our luggage most often arrives around 3pm. A few times earlier and a few times after muster.

You can absolutely get an omelette made your way at the buffet each morning.

You do not have to show them any type of credit card, debit card, gift card, etc in order to board or setup an account if you want to use cash. Simply go to Guest Services and setup your account with cash, any amount you so desire, no minimum amount required. Some ports they can do this during check-in. Just remember that unless you prepay gratuities they will take them out of your account automatically on I think the second or third day.

We are on one of the sailings out of Norfolk in October and all of our bookings have disappeared from my Cruise Manager as well.

We have two booked but both are for next year, March and October. Next up for us is not a cruise but a week in Myrtle Beach in 4 weeks.

We have purchased a day pass at Melia several times and really enjoyed it.

We are sailing with friends on March 24 out of Tampa and have wanted to get this for our friends as sort of a surprise. We have long been platinum but they are not. Thanks for this alert. I was able to purchase FTTF and attach it to their booking.

We have cruised in 2470 or 2473 many times now. Next cruise on the Glory is 2473,

We love these cabins, I wish the new class of ships had these.

As far as vibrations go. I guess everyone has there idea of what is bad or loud.

For us it's a very minor, ymmv

They are great rooms for the money and like above poster we would stay here over a std balcolny any day

Same with us. We have sailed in 2470 many times and it's our favorite cabin by far.

First one was in 1998 and have taken 19 total with Carnival Currently have 2 more booked.

We have never had a problem changing our cabin within the same category, ex: 8B to 8B. We've done multiple times before regardless of the rate booked and have never paid extra, lost obc, etc.

These are actually from the Miracle, a sister ship in design. So ymmv as to if it is exact.

Back when the Paradise was smoke free we did the same itinerary in back to back years on it and also in the same cabin.

It's really up to you. Can you accept being anywhere on the ship? If not then pick your cabin. We have been on 21 cruises and always pick our cabin. Not worth rolling the dice to us.

My favorite drink by a mile I actually got on Princess. It's called a Beverly Hills Iced Tea. It's very similar to a LI but with champagne.

Us and some friends had a total of 4 spa balcony cabins on the Sunshine. We didn't really take advantage of the spa but loved walking down the hall and right out to the serenity deck. It's very quiet around the cabin hallways. The only negative is on embarkation day it was very difficult to get an elevator that went up there cause they use them for luggage. There is only one set of 2 elevators that went to deck 12. We had to actually get a ship's officer to secure one for us using his special key. We could have all walked up but one member of our party was confined to a scooter. Even still we would book a spa balcony cabin again in a heartbeat. Enjoy your cruise!

A simple no thank you has always worked for me.

I am with you FBW. I live 30 minutes from the port and have taken 3 cruises out of Norfolk. It would be nice to have longer cruises that go someplace besides the Bahamas. Guess we will keep paying airfare to sail out of Florida or San Juan.

Have two cruises booked, one works, one doesn't.

Awesome story, thanks for sharing, glad you came a little out of your shell and had a great time!

Reading stories of credit cards over charged, double charged, holds, pending charges. I want to use only cash. I have all my gratuities paid. Also have the bubbling bubbles package. We do not typically drink to much alcohol, so will only drink in the ports or use our 50$ OBC for drinks on the ship. I do not have a credit card on file and selected cash on my check in. How does this work? Do I leave a pile of cash for them to "hold" and they give it back at the end in cash? I really do not like using credit cards especially out of the country.

We have used cash only on all 20 of our cruises. Since you already have tips prepaid and don't drink much you can down really as little as you want. It can be done sometimes at check in but most definitely can be done at Guest Services or at a kiosk. At the end of the cruise I usually go down late the last night and close out my account and they give me cash back. You can also leave the ship without doing that and they will send you a check as long as it is over $10. I think if it is under $10 they donate it to a charity like St Jude I think. Hope this helps and enjoy your cruise.

I absolutely love packing for a cruise!

We have had "tablemates" only once and never again. We had a rectangular 8 top by the window. No matter how early our group arrived this couple would already be there, sitting closest to the window, across from each other. All they did was complain about everything. I bought a bottle of wine for us and to be polite I offered them some. They proceeded to talk about how bad it was. The rudest people we have ever met on a cruise. This was very early on in our cruising life and learned our lesson. Now we only sit with the people that we cruise with. No more strangers for us.

You may not get the exact same table but you can certainly request to be seated in a particular wait team's area so you end up with the same servers each night. They will definitely honor that request.