kctwinmommy

I can't say the exact prices, but we spent about $130 last month. We had 4 alcoholic drinks and 3 of them got the special glass with it, the 4th one didn't. Then we had 1 non-alcoholic drink in the special glass as well. We also ordered the nachos and calamari. That included tax and gratuity. That should give you a small idea of the prices.

Yes it was a bit confusing. It's directly from Carnival's site. I emailed them and presume if it's available, I'll get more information. :)

Yes, it's done through email. They will reply with your confirmation. Then once you're on board, you'll be charged for it and you'll get your tickets in your state room. We really enjoyed it, it was certainly a nice excursion, neat to get up so close. I'm pretty sure I have a photo of the 3 of us in my trip report.

Unless they are pregnant or trying to get pregnant I wouldn't even give it a second thought. For the average person the risk is low and most people that get the virus have no symptoms.

Yep! We were in GT, Aruba & Curacao, all places with Zika. Honestly, Curacao was the one that we were bothered the most, but I think it was the shady we were at by the beach. So we got a few bites. And then when we got off in Aruba, we saw there was bug spray to use, which we did. Didn't do anything though in GT and didn't notice any problems there.

Thank you for your quick reply. I am afraid if I were cold that I would not enjoy it. I guess it would be worth the $25 luggage fee for an extra suitcase if everyone's warm clothes were packed.

 

Last Summer we went to Maui. We went to the sunrise on the Haleakala volcano. I had read many many reviews of how cold the temps were at the highest elevation which was 10,000 feet above sea level. HOWEVER, I only brought a sweatshirt and I was freezing. Standing there for 2 hours waiting for the sun to rise and it was spectacular but not as enjoyable since I wasn't prepared. Don't want a repeat of that.

Haha! You sound like me! So yes, I think you'll regret it if you need it and don't bring it. I thought I over packed, but I just mis-packed. :p I brought a few too many lightweight things that I didn't need. I think I was hopeful. :D They do sell many things on the ship though, obviously they know their passenger's needs.

Great review. We are sailing next August on the Pearl R/T from Seattle.

 

We have booked the Wilderness Safari as well. Looks like you had some heavy weight clothing. Do you recommend a heavy jacket? My husband and son have fleece lined pants. WOuld it be a good idea to take those?

 

Thanks!

Honestly, I wish I had packed a little bit more of heavy clothing. It was hard though, packing for 11 days! I ended up buying the jacket I'm wearing in the pictures on Carnival. It was a decent price, like $40, and was pretty warm. It's not a winter parka of course, but with layers, it worked well. I would bring the pants just in case. I get cold easier than most people though. It is a lot of walking around though, so make sure it's comfortable. We really enjoyed that excursion a lot! The guys that run it are great! Very fun and interesting! LOL!

This past month we got there around 10:15-10:30 and walked right on the ship! It was super easy to get through everything and get on board. We had FTTF and our friends were Platinum.

Nice trip report,thanks! What was your departing port? was it seattle r/t?

Yes, Seattle R/T.

The guests had the wedding reception by themselves.

I guess, I wasn't there! :D And I meant I didn't know what the bride & groom did.

If you choose to get married at a port of call, be prepared to make alternative arrangements IF for some reason your ship cannot dock at the port where your wedding is. The rule of thumb is if that you must be at a destination at a specific time, it is best to do it as a land trip, not a cruise.

Yep! On our cruise last year, we were supposed to stop in St. Thomas. This couple had everyone fly there to meet them for their wedding and we were diverted to Amber Cove. I can't imagine that happening, or why someone would plan it that way, but they did. So all their friends/family were in St. Thomas and they had no wedding there. Not sure what they ended up doing.

We did the Magic last month, that same itinerary. This was the largest ship we'd been on and I was worried about feeling lost, or that it would be too crowded, but oddly enough it wasn't. There were quite a few different things to do each night, shows, comedy, deck things, movies, etc... I guess that's on all ships though! LOL! I'm working on my trip report here on CC, I've gotten through day 4. We did enjoy having the 4 sea days, it's nice to just kick back and relax. Although I didn't like the lack of deck chairs, my biggest complaint, on all the sea days. But again, that's always a problem, especially on the bigger ships it seems.

Day 4 - Curacao - We did do a Carnival excursion for this port. We had planned on just going to a beach of some kind, but our friends wanted to do this one. So we did the beach break by boat and sunset. We went to the dining room to wait for debarkation, it took maybe 10 minutes until we started getting off. They basically had all the excursions, or most of them, waiting in that dining room because once we got off, everyone fanned out to the different lines. They had the signs up for all the different excursions that were going out that day. Thankfully, ours decided to gather off to the side, so we weren't standing in the big crowd of people. ;)

Once he had all the people who booked it, we got on the small boat. It was one of the double-decker type ones, with bench seats around the top deck to sit on. The guy gave some info about Curacao on the 20 minute ride over to the beach. They also passed out rum punch for everyone, or non-alcoholic for those who didn't want it and the kids. We got to the dock by the beach and walked over to the beach area. There was a woman from the boat who came with us to make sure we all got chairs (there were some we weren't supposed to use, it was for the resort area I guess). Since we were a group of 7, it was a little difficult, and we weren't right by the water, but that was fine. She ended up giving us a pair of the deck chairs that had the table & umbrella attached in the middle. The boys went out to go snorkeling, there's a rock breakwall out there too. They went a little beyond it though, just to see what else there was. They had a good time. We also got a soft drink ticket, so we all got some sodas and I ordered some nachos from the waitstaff that were walking around. The nachos were $14, but quite big and very good! We all shared them around. We were there until the sunset, so about 3 hours of beach time I think. Now, to get back, they had charter buses for all of us. A majority of the group got on the first one, and then we saw there was another one across the street. There were 2 guides from the company to make sure we all got back. However, her comment of "This driver just learned to back up the bus yesterday," should have been a clue for what was to come! :eek: It was bad!! We're pretty sure he hit something at some point, he couldn't seem to be in the right gear, and at one point, he had to come to a complete stop, going up hill, trying to make a left turn!! And there were a few sections of road that went along a cliff. Obviously, we all made it back, but it was a bit scary, even the guide said she was scared!

We got back to find the dock really crowded too! I'm guessing a lot of the excursions ended at the same time, since the sun was down. So the line to get back on the ship was like 15-20 minutes or so. The shops were all open though, my husband and friend grabbed a beer while we waited in line. We got back on the ship around 7 p.m. I'd say.

One thing about Curacao is that they have free WiFi around there. So we were able to check in at least.

So I'm looking at the Fun Times from the Magic cruise we just went on. It looks like the Late Night Snacks are there from 11:30 p.m. - 1:00 a.m. (10 Aft),Red Frog Pub Grub until 1:00 a.m. and the Deli until 11:00 p.m. And of course, Pizza and Room service is 24 hours.

Day 2 - Sea day - We went to the brunch like we usually do and honestly, service was quite slow. We waited at least 15 minutes to have a waiter even stop by the table, we finally got bread, but no plates. The couple that were seated next to us came about 20 minutes after we did and yet our food came out with theirs. So ours was slow and theirs was rushed. But, it was still good! Great french toast, hubby had the steak & eggs which was good.

Deck chairs are once again an issue. Walked around 2 decks to try and find just 1 open chair and couldn't find a single one. Walking around, it seemed that as usual, many chairs just being saved. Obviously, I'm not watching every chair, but there were certainly ones that sat "saved" for a long time!

Formal night dinner, still had a little issue with timing. It took at least 20 minutes until we even got bread, then orders taken. I ordered the Caesar salad, which I've always enjoyed and it was awful. The dressing was like mayonnaise, with NO flavor! My husband and our friend all tried it too, said the same thing. Dinner was very good though - lobster & prime rib was eaten by a couple of people in our group. We went to the comedy lounge after dinner and it was crowded. We had to wait in line and they clear it out after each show, so you have to wait in line each time. We saw Joe Marlotti and Nery Saenz - Saenz was the better of the two and we went back to see him again the next night. Oh, we also saw the show 88 Keys in the main theater - we thought it was good. But that theater fills up fast, so be prepared to get there a little early or be off on the side. During the evening we also walked by the Dolce Strings and I highly recommend listening to them a few times - excellent musicians.

Day 3 - Sea day - We did a Lido deck breakfast then hit the decks. Once again, not a single open chair anywhere on 10 or 11. We ended up going down to deck 5, and had a nice, quiet, time relaxing. Pig & Anchor was OK, nothing spectacular in our opinion. The salad bar on deck 5 was good, although I prefer to have it serve yourself, but that's just me. It was still good. Dinner had lamb shank which was very good, according to my son. We also saw Nery Saenz again, and very funny!!

Also, check with your provider to see what they offer. We had service in 2 of our stops through T-Mobile. So I was able to check in then. I didn't need to check in though, but it was nice to at least let family know we were all good, having fun! ;) And we also used the Hub app this time, which was nice to find others from our group.

Yep! The create your own pasta is what they have for lunch. We went there on embarkation day and then another day I went with my son. It was good pasta! You could get like 4 different noodles, 8 different sauces, and you could add a couple of meats (chicken, shrimp, meatballs). You can also get a Caesar salad and bread on the side.

So I had to look back at my messages. I booked mine in May for our latest cruise we just went on. I paid $130 then. So yes, it appears it has gone up. :(

As mentioned above it was Kelsey's. Last time we were there was this past Feb and food was good but service was rather rushed. Didnt like getting salad and than entre about 45 seconds apart.

Oh wow, didn't even notice they were closed. We walked right by them to go to the restaurant we chose. We didn't care for them either the last time we were there a year ago.

One strange thing we found before the cruise. We like the diner type restaurant next to Radaisson and were planning on going there but the Friday night before the cruise it was closed.

Are you talking about the one IN the Radisson? Or Kelsey's next door? We've been to Kelsey's in the past. A long time ago, it was good. Last year, it wasn't good at all. That's why we found a different place this time. The restaurant IN the Radisson we only go to for breakfast, which is good (hard to screw that up! LOL!)

I am glad to hear the positive comments about the Radisson. This is our first time cruising out of Port Canaveral and we are staying there, as it seems to be the place to stay. However, we have read some reviews on Trip Advisor that have us second guessing our decision.:rolleyes:

What were the reviews saying? I mean, we need a place to sleep, somewhere that is clean and safe. I don't need fancy. The rooms have always been clean to us. I've always felt safe. We usually seem to get a room further in the back, and this time was no different. It actually faced the parking lot near the back, which was fine, it was quiet then. And we always get a good price with the military discount they offer. Considering when we get there, until the time we leave, it's usually about 16-18 hours! LOL!

I'll get this started and add onto it as the days go along. We booked this cruise last January, with friends of ours. We typically don't care too much where we're going. Living in Chicago, by November, we just want someplace warm with lots of sunshine. We didn't need to be doing anything crazy with excursions either. Having done Alaska this past summer, we just wanted to chill. We didn't know when we booked this, that it was a big Wheel of Fortune slots tournament, which meant a lot of people on board were gamblers and had won their way on the ship. Our group was my husband, my 13 year old son, and myself, along with another couple and their 14 year old son and 25 year old daughter. They're all Platinum and have obviously been on many cruises.

So, we stayed in Cape Canaveral the night before, at the Radisson and used Cocoa Beach shuttle to get there. We've stayed there for the past 10 years we've been cruising out of there and have never had any problems. The rooms are decent, clean, and they have a nice pool. This year, we walked a bit further down the road to GoodFella's pizza place.

Embarkation Day - Saturday morning - We grabbed breakfast in the hotel and then met our friend. They live local, so the husband dropped of the wife & 2 kids at the port, then picked up the 3 of us at the hotel. He parks his car right across the street and the 4 of us took the shuttle from there. We had FTTF and our friends are Platinum. We got to the port around 10:15-10:30 a.m. and walked right in, went through security, walked over to check in with Carnival (got our S&S cards there, with pictures taken). We skipped the sail away photos though, we didn't need/want them. Went upstairs to go through that checkpoint, where they took my husband's and my picture again since the one from downstairs didn't turn out well. Went up the gangway and went right to our rooms on deck 11, room 11264.

Our room steward (Agus) was just finishing getting our rooms ready, we had rooms next to each other with the balconies connecting. So we just hung on the balcony for the 5-10 minutes he needed to finish. After that, we went to the Cucina restaurant for lunch. It wasn't busy at all and it took maybe 10-15 minutes to get our meals. We all ate the create your own pasta dishes, lots of options - I would recommend checking the out for lunch during a cruise, it doesn't cost anything like it does for dinner.

Our luggage got to the room around 1:30ish which gave me time to unpack everything before dinner and just relax. For dinner, we had the early seating in the Southern Lights dining room. We had Rodren for our waiter and William as a head waiter. Both were very nice. The only thing I didn't like was that they brought out our dinners with the appetizers, if you didn't order an appetizer. I suppose we could have asked them not to do that for the week, just never though of it. LOL! There were like 2-3 nights when I didn't order an appetizer, and same with 2 of the kids, and they bring the dinner out with everyone else's appetizers. Again, not a big deal, but would have been fine waiting and eating with everyone else. The one person's flat iron steak was also super rare, so they had to correct that.

After dinner we checked the boys into Circle C and didn't see them the rest of the night. In general, it didn't seem that there were a ton of kids in Circle C. I mean, over the summer (which I realize is summer vacation), the Circle C had like 40-50 kids, because my son took a picture with the group in the main staircase. This cruise, there were maybe 10-15 kids I'd bet, and sometimes they were hanging out with the Club O2 kids, which was also a smaller group.

We've booked a cabana to ensure we have a spot of our own :)

We did this on our last cruise and loved it! It was nice to have a base camp to hang out at and then everyone could run back and forth to do what they wanted. It also turned out to be a good thing since one member of our group had unexpected surgery about a month prior, so she couldn't really go into the water much. It gave her a place to rest and relax. It was totally worth it to us.

Everyone has their own opinion on what they want to do. They wouldn't offer things there if nobody wanted to do them. For us, we just wanted to relax in the sun. We'd been running around a lot in the weeks before between work loads and school. Plus we did Alaska this summer and that was a lot of touring and adventures. We live in Chicago, we just wanted sunshine and warm weather! ;)

Our 2 favorite excursions were on our cruise...

Skagway - Glacier Point Wilderness Safari - we thoroughly enjoyed this trip. It was 6 hours long, but worth it. The men who ran the tour were very informative, interesting and funny. We were able to walk up on the glacier, see some of the beautiful scenery, and had such a fun time.

Juneau - Mendenhall helicopter ride - without a doubt the best thing we ever did. I realize the weather can play a role in this, but we were fine. We actually had amazing weather, we could see mountains that were miles away!

You can read about our excursions here...

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2382500

I agree with many of the other posters here. You can find plenty of things people fault with Carnival and many other cruise lines. There are certainly things that go wrong and like others said too, I take what people say with a grain of salt too. I wasn't there, so I don't know what happened. Not saying people lie at all, but sometimes, people exaggerate things. Other times, it's a legit complaint. When someone with a couple posts comes here and posts a big negative thing, I usually dismiss it.

Today, it seems that many people are looking for compensation for things when they don't go 100% the way they wanted. We're so used to being safe behind our computer, we can say whatever we want. And it happens a lot! Were all our cruises perfect? Nope! A few little hiccups happened, but for the cost and ease of it, we enjoy it. We were with Carnival because we cruise with other friends, and they had been using Carnival. We know what to expect, we're used to it, so there's just no reason to change anything, but that's what works for us.

Someone else already mentioned this, but the snorkeling right off the beach by Margaritaville and up towards Jack's has gotten markedly better in the 4 years since I've been coming to GT.

You'll have to go out close to the line (marking the boundary of the swimming area) to find fish and coral. Look for the two sunken anchors and the sunken cannon. :)

The depth is around 15 feet up until you get to the dropoff (where the channel was dredged for ships to dock) and around 35-40 feet past the dropoff, which is pretty dramatic in itself. I dove to the bottom there -- we spotted a defenseless cinder block down there and just HAD to touch it :) -- and it felt like at least 35 feet.

I also noticed some coral growth there, including some brain coral, so please try not to damage any of it. I had to remind some kids to be careful with their fins.

Completely agree! My son & husband didn't go deep enough to see the coral, but the fish they saw were awesome they said. They also saw the cannon and an anchor. Honestly, for the price, you can't beat it! ;) Now that my son's getting older and more comfortable, we may look at excursions that go further out and deeper, but for now, he's totally fine with this.

What is the earliest you can board if platinum. Shuttle is at 9am which seems stupid.

We were walking on around 10:15 just 2 weeks ago. We had FTTF and our friends are Platinum. We were eating lunch in the Cucina by like 11:15! We didn't wait in any lines the entire process, never sat down to wait, etc... Got in, walked up to the initial check-in, went through security (which took like an extra minute just as people were putting their things up there), then walked right to a Carnival check-in, got our pictures taken, S&S cards, skipped taking the group photo, up the escalator, showed ID again (did have to retake my picture because it was goofy looking he said), then walked right onto the ship.