augustonchick

On 12/21/2019 at 4:03 PM, 2+2 said:

Let me know if you happen to run into a place to get a complimentary  latte or cappuccino. I am not in Haven. I have no problem going to Starbucks, but if there is a good alternative secret , why not.

I watched a video yesterday that showed an automated Starbucks coffee machine in the buffet area. Used the room card for payment. Most likely similar to Haven machine, but for a fee. Of course i cant find it now..

GARDEN BUFFET: Grade C. On embarkation day, after BBQ and a burger, I then meet my wife in the garden buffet and sampled several items which were all hot. The line at the first buffet line after entering from the pool area was moderate to long, but the best kept secret is to keep walking to the aft buffet because no one was there and no lines. I give the garden buffet a grade of C for two primary reasons: 1. The lines tend to get long at peak times; and 2. The breakfast does not open until 7:30 on sea days which is late for early risers leading to a big line right at 7:30 when it does open. The lines on port days when it opens at 7:00 were non-existent. It generally started getting busy around 8:00. Otherwise the food is on par with other cruise lines.

 

DELI. Grade B. The sandwiches are good and freshly made to your liking which would have received a grade of A except I downgraded because the service can be described in three words: SLOW, SLOWER, and SLOWEST.

 

MONGOLIAN WOK: Grade A. Great mongolian / Asian food and fast service despite normally long lines.

 

PIZZA: Grade B. The pizza on Carnival is very tasty--fresh made in a wood fired grill. Lines can be a bit long at peak times but it’s open 24x7.

 

BLUE IGUANA. Grade A. Another great Tex-Mex option with great tacos, burritos, and taco bowls. You can get shrimp tacos as well (although shrimp is not listed on the taco side it is available on the burrito side). Lines for the tacos are normally short and fast but the line on the side for the burrito / salad bowl can get long during peak times.

 

REDFROG PUB. Grade C on this ship (On the Vista I would give it an A) My wife and I headed to the redfrog pub on deck 5 hoping it had half off happy hour on embarkation and port days like the redfrog on Carnival Vista did. Much to our chagrin and disappointment, no such luck on the breeze. Further disappointing was the lack of self serve beer taps like the Vista. If you want to drink Redfrog beer it looked like it would be at full price the entire cruise--bummer! Also, they only served the red variety (not the IPA, wheat, etc as served on Vista)

I follow a vlog on YouTube, a married couple and their family who just finished up a cruise on the Breeze. In one of their videos i watched her use a self dispensing beer tap somewhere on the ship, I think it was $4.00-$5.00 per pour and maybe outside by the Pig and Anchor??

According to the marketing materials I received from Carnival, "no." My marketing materials say 3 Ultra participants from each ultra cruise will get to meet Shaq on a future cruise, which sounds to me like the "winners" will have to book another cruise to make that happen.

Thanks Winddawn, appreciate the info.. The 3 19 year olds we are dragging along with us on this 14 day adventure thought it would have been been pretty "cool" to see him.

Being that this such a long cruise and during school months there probably won't be too many younger cruisers onboard.

I'm sure Shaw will be around the ship that day for everyone who wants to meet him.

I'd like to see how he sizes up against 2 other big guys I actually met, basketball player Artist Gilmore, and wrestler Andre the Giant! -)

Not part of the "Ultra Crowd", but did book this cruise as a family vacation a few weeks ago.. Is Shaq supposed to be on this cruise or a portion of it as part of the Ultra experience?? My teenage son and his friends would LOVE IT!!!

We got one Feb 2015, we had a midrange OV booked. Upsell was 400.00 for a junior suite and 600.00 for the grand suite.

The called when I wasn't home, spoke with my husband and sucked him into the grand suite.

Great review! We sail on the Imagination next week. How was the temperature inside the ship? Did they blast the a/c?

I'm curious about the AC in ship as well. Last spring when we were on the Imagination I found it to be really chilly in all the public areas. I had to wear a jacket or sweater all the time. We have a cruise booked on her 12 days from now and I'm trying to decide how many sweaters to bring!

Nope. We are in exactly the same boat. Family of 5...always book 2 rooms. DH always gets a casino rate. I don't. There's no way around it.

 

Sorry I don't have better news for you!

 

 

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And the casino rate doesn't apply to a cabin of 5 either, I just tried...

O well, this is probably the last time we take the teenager with us on vacation, I'll just have to suck it up and pay the extra!!

Has anyone ever been successful at this? We are a family of 5, and under my offers is a "casino rate". I have 2 adjoining rooms on courtesy hold, one with myself and 2 daughters, the other my husband and son.

My room comes up with the reduced rates, but my husbands room is priced 100.00 higher per person because the rate isn't under his VIFP#. We are the same family, I'm paying for it all, I just choose not to squeeze all of us into one room.

Anyone have any experience with this. I usually don't have much luck reasoning with any of the pvps on the phone.

Forward, deck 6 would be great. The kids club is at the most forward point on deck 5. I wouldn't do deck 5 forward, lots of foot traffic to and from the club.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2213255

Carnival Legend Questions

Wow! talk about being in the dark about how nice the Miracle is!! We definitely must sail this ship! The pool in the Serenity area - is that a big hot tub with another hot tub added on? I thought I noticed jets? Or is that an actual adult pool to cool off in that is ACTUALLY IN THE SERENITY AREA??? If so, I am booking my stateroom even faster than I thought! :D

The Spirit class ships, so the Miracle, do have a real pool in the serenity area. It is not huge, but it does it job.. I think this class has the best Serenity area overall. There is a huge bar, it is located adjacent to the lido buffet with lots of seating to enjoy your meals kid free, and tons of lounge type seating.

If I'm reading my fun times from May correct, the casino is open during the Tracy Arm Fjord day. Tracy Arm must not be a national park area. And in Skagway it reopened 1/2 hour after sailing, the night before it just says they are open till late...

Now that we know lemonade is free and available in the MDR, we don't feel the need to buy the unlimited soda pkg. We'll just buy cans ad hoc when we want them. But roughly 5 bucks for a 12-pack at a local store is a lot better than $2.25 x 12 = $27 onboard.

 

We're doing an Alaska cruise next week. Doesn't look like there's an easy place to buy a 6 or 12-pack near Port 91. But there may be in Skagway halfway through the cruise. Just not 100% sure if we'll be allowed to bring it onboard, as that policy reads just a big confusing.

There is a grocery in Skagway, I purchased a bunch of snackfood, including a 6 pack of pop. No problem bringing it onboard.

Can you mix and match the beer in the bucket? I would choose beer, all with the same value per bottle.

There is a review of the Miracle, Mexican Riviera from April 2015 that has all the Fun Times. I saw it one of the nights activities. I hope it is still scheduled for my cruise in September. We have participated in it twice, it was so much fun both times.

Can you mix and match the beers in the bucket? Say if you were to ask for 2 of each different beers, both being the same $$$$ value.

When we were on the Legend in May, the milk was no longer in cartons. The had each variety in a large silver carafe type dispenser. The cereal was in dispensers as well, no little boxes...

We asked at the buffet for chocolate milk during lunch buffet and were told no, not available.

I would appreciate it so much! My oldest is 14 and is wondering what the club activities are. The other two would be in Camp Carnival. Theirs is about the same across the lines.

 

tamirpr@aol.com

No problem, I have all the camp ones as well if you are interested?

Darn, they posted so blurry... I can scan it at work on Friday and email if any one is interested.

Circle C 12-14 year olds, sorry I don't have the 15-17 year olds. It was posted outside the room and they had no extra copies for me to pinch.

This really seems to vary from ship to ship. This was the Legend 3 weeks ago. They also had signs at the entrance to the Redfrog and the Piano Bar with the age restrictions after certain hours. The sports bar was all ages, all the time.

Like this....

I would definitely agree with the recommendation about getting there at the last minute so you can be in the front row. It give the little ones something to look at/watch to distract them. We just took our 2 five year olds with us to Alaska. At the drill we thought we had waited long enough, and then they started another row in front of us. The little ones kept getting bumped about and their toes stepped on by the people in front of us who couldn't seem to stand still.

I have another Early saver question cause you all seem to be in the know...

So we had 2000.00 in non refundable deposit for a journey cruise in Jan 2016 that we had to cancel. We sucked it up and took the 250.00 penalty to cancel ( we decided that bringing our children would cause us to throw ourselves overboard)

This left us 1750.00 to put towards another cruise, which we had to use all at once. Fine,we splurged and got an extended aft cabin at Early Saver rate to use it all up.

Question is if the remaining aft cabins drop in price, should I try to submit an Early Saver form?

I think that many cruisers have done this to themselves. I know my position won't be a popular one, but here goes anyway. At the few parties I have attended, I have seen many people who were not invited, but came with someone who was gold, platinum or diamond. I know this because when the person running the party asked how many were on their first cruise, many admitted that it was their first cruise.

 

My other thought is that people, and I have to say mostly young, (nothing against young people) that felt they needed to get drunk at the party and have as many drinks as possible. Some guests reported that they never got a drink because people were taking drinks off the waiters trays before they got to areas that weren't served. The reason I said young is that most older/mature people don't feel the need to get as many drinks in 45 minutes so they have drinks for later.

 

I know when people asked about bringing a guest, on here so many times posters said sure you are allowed a guest or guests. I know that JH also said that a family member could attend with a guest, but that wasn't/isn't the policy of Carnival. Even if one guest , ie significant other, cabinmate or whatever, that didn't mean that in a quad all 4 people were invited etc. It also didn't mean everyone in the family in other cabins were invited. An invitation to one person was meant for that one person. If both in a cabin were gold or above, both got invitations.

 

I sail frequently on Royal Caribbean and have had access to the Concierge lounge all day based on my status with them. Now, only suite occupants have that and Diamond Plus guests are able to use the lounge only in the evening. I read about this when people were discussing their new ships. I haven't sailed them, but, to me, that is about the same or worse than stopping gold members. Lots fewer days/cruises to get to Gold than Diamond Plus.

 

Lots of changes have been made to the loyalty programs on Carnival and not all for the good of the passengers, but good for Carnival as a business. I am sure there will be some fall out from this, but there will be others to take your place and that's what Carnival is counting on.

 

I probably am wrong, but I don't think Carnival is going to care that a gold member, staying in an inside cabin, sneaking their own booze on the ship and not spending much money is going to be a loss to them. I think eventually the loyalty program will be based on money spent rather than days spent as there are many Platinums who said an inside cabin, got there by 10 3 day cruises in the old days, don't spend money on excursions, pictures, alcohol or the casino. No cruise line wants that kind of business, so if those in that group stop sailing Carnival, the cruise line will be far ahead dollar wise. NCL already does things based on dollars spent on cabins as an example.

 

Sorry for the rant, but I just get tired of all the complaining when in fact it's a lot of the cruisers who have brought the "cutbacks" on themselves. Not all of them though, and I do understand that, but if you are one of those causing the changes, then you have no right to complain.

 

I know I will get flamed and I expect it, but that won't change my opinions as they are my opinions.

I agree with the above, no flaming from me. The invitation doesn't say plus 1,2,3.....10. Carnival needs to stop worrying about offending people, and turn guests away if they don't have an invite.

I recently cruised with mother on another line, it being my first cruise with them. While she went to her loyalty party, I put on my "big girl panties" and found something to do by myself.