AandBmom

We did Jolly Pirates last week and loved it. Our group consisted of 4 adults and 8 kids between ages 7 and 17. Everyone loved the excursion. The crew was amazing and the ship was so fun. We loved the snorkeling, dancing, music, lunch and best of all the pirate rope swing. I recommend this tour to everyone! Then after we hung out at their beach bar having drinks.

Just wanted to give a helpful tidbit of info re: cabin selection.

We had a horrible time trying to sleep last week on the Vista as did our children in the cabin next door.

These cabins are directly on top of the Ocean Plaza Stage where bands play every night until at least midnight.

Then after the band stops the disco/club music starts up the deck under and goes until 2am ish.

Our beds were shaking to the bass and we could hear the music very clearly every night in our cabin.

Nap time in the day was interrupted too by the activities over the microphone in the Ocean Plaza in the days.

Our fault for not researching better. Hope this helps someone.

I'd say bring your own sports water bottles and fill them on the ship to bring everywhere. Bring your own soda on board, it's way cheaper.

We were on the same sailing.

Things we liked:

- itinerary

- guys burgers

- mongolian wok

- sandwich bar

- evening music

- mexican restaurant

- bbq restaurant

- adults only serenity

- comedy shows

- Matt best CD

Things we didn't care for

- cabin service only 1x daily

- slow dining room service and boring menu

- long waits at times at buffet and other places

- theater shows were lame

- theater has a horrible lay out

- hub not working and ship computer system often down so staff had to manually charge everyone

- poor communication around delays boarding, delays in ports, etc.

- cabin was so loud with music from nearby bar until 2am

First let me say that my wife and I are experienced cruisers and have cruised on Carnival, Celebrity, Norwegian, and Royal thus far. This post is not meant to bash on Carnival in any way... just looking for opinions. Does anyone else notice that it seems like Carnival is really going down hill quality wise? Food problems (quantity, variety, and temperatures), customer service issues, common area ship and stateroom cleanliness complaints, poor entertainment, etc. Is it just me or does it seem like Carnival is having problems? Our last Carnival cruise was very disappointing and we both agreed that our Carnival days were over until changes were made. Many small things like return guest perks, mints on the pillows, and complimentary toiletries in the stateroom bathrooms, to much larger issues like food, cleanliness problems, and a general feeling of a lack of concern for customer satisfaction. It also seems to me like the fleet is showing signs of age and they do not seem to be keeping pace with other lines in regard to introducing newer ships with more current features. I do understand that they try to be the "value" line and must keep costs low, but it just seems like their has been a real effort to take away the few last remaining reasons that we would choose to sail with them in the future.

This was 100% our experience last week on the Vista. It seemed like they had half the staff trying to do the same amount of work. Cabin service is cut in half. Dining room service slow as heck. Bartenders seemed swamped and very slow. Staff didn't seem very friendly. Etc.

Ship - VISTA

Deck - 6

Stateroom # - 6411 AND 6417

Quiet Stateroom? (With comments on problems) – NO. Very, very loud. The cabins are right on top of the Ocean plaza stage so you hear bands until very late (at least midnight). Then after that you hear and feel the bass from the disco until 2am sometimes. In the day you hear the microphone from whatever activities are going on.

Was stateroom a connecting stateroom? - NO

Any specific problems with this cabin? - only 2 sections to the cupboard so hardly any space for 4 people.

Any other comments? Easy access to dining room, ocean plaza, aft pool and lido buffet.

We just booked for next Spring Break, me and one of the kids in a balcony and my husband and two of the kids in an interior one room away down the hallway. Our PVP said that they would make sure to make extra keys for us to get into the kids' room upon embarkation. This set up will make Cheers much more palatable.

Can I ask what you did at check in? Did you formally put adults together and match up keys? Did they make you add a 2nd cheers package?

I'm hoping this doesn't turn into a debate about kids on their own in cabins. I've cruised a lot and know what I'm comfortable with and our kids are old enough to be on their own next door. I do however need some info....

In order to book a cruise we had to put an adult in each cabin. So I'm in a cabin with my daughter, and hubby is in a cabin with our 3 sons.

We however will be sleeping adults together and kids together. I have read people do this all the time, just can't book like this.

How do cruise cards work? In the past we've had a connecting door so we didn't switch any cards around.

This time we do not.

So....what do people do? Switching cards doesn't work for onboard purchases, etc. Will they switch the names when we check in?

Also, I don't drink, hubby does. He has cheers, I do not. This works now b/c we're in separate cabins. If we switch to one cabin will they then relook at the cheers booking and force me to buy it?

I guess someone who can't spell AMERICAN.

LOL literally.

Hi,

I just did this last week. I highly recommend a GPS if the rental company has ut as an option.

I can try to answer questions if you have any. I rented with Advance car rental and was very pleased.

Hey there. can you advise how the company worked? Did they meet you at the pier, did you get a shuttle? Their office seems to be 23 minutes from the pier. Thanks so much

We use the ice bucket in the room and bring it up on the pool deck often. Just doesn't help for ports.

Can you please advise if that taxi cost is per person?

Looking for recommendations for transportation to Hato Caves from Mega Pier for 12 people. Thanks in advance.

We're in port until 10 or 11pm. We were thinking maybe we'd leave the kids on the ship and go out with the adults for an evening. Any ideas near port?

We are on an 8 day cruise. We will be doing lots of adventure stuff in other ports. In Grand turk we enjoy a relaxing day. The fun of Margaritaville, the beach, etc.

To the poster that said why go to Margarittaville when you can do that at home? I live in Ontario Canada. We don't have that type of thing anywhere near here and we enjoy it on vacation.

Not looking to sit on a beach all day.

Thinking trikes, De Palm, Jolly Pirates. Thoughts????

Does anyone know what ages can drive or ride? We have kids aged 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 . Thanks

I enjoyed reading your comparison. It was quite interesting.

We have now sailed Princess, Carnival, Royal Caribbean and NCL, with repeats on NCL and Carnival.

I'm convinced now that many of these things are ship dependent, not always line dependent. Sometimes you seem to get a really attentive, keen crew. Sometimes they seem to care very little. I suspect certain ships get the newer staff, certain ones get the experienced ones. I'm sure the management on the ship makes a difference too.

A few procedural things though are line dependent.

Like the ice cream set up, seems much better on Carnival.

Also I like how Carnival gives towels and robes in staterooms.

I like showtime at dinner.

One line, I forget which one, gives blankets for movies under the stars, others do not.

It's fun to experience the differences.

I

Looking at booking family harbor interiors for our families. children range in ages 7-17.

Please let me know is it noisy b/c so many kids?

would older ones hate it or is it similar to other cruises?

Any other thoughts?

We are considering booking deck 2 on the Vista. It appears to have the reflections restaurant above us. Thoughts on likely noise as we are light sleepers. We once had a pool deck above us and couldn't sleep due to chairs being dragged around. Another time we were under a restaurant and heard trays wish dishes clanking very early am. Just curious.....has anyone stayed in this area and can comment?

When the freestyle concept was introduced every other line had traditional dining only. That was why we started with NCL.

 

As the ships got bigger & reservations became required we felt left out of various activities because before our 1st voyage on a mega ship we didn't make any reservations in advance. Then by the time we boarded we were closed out of everything. That sucked.

 

For our 2nd mega-ship trip we made the required reservations in advance but that was simply annoying. On vacation we prefer not to schedule anything more than a few minutes in advance which no longer works on NCL. We had to be here & there at specific times. It made freestyle -- which I enjoyed as "unscheduled" -- feel a lot less free.

 

My life is measured by where I have to be all the time during the work week so the lack of structure on vacation was appealing.

 

After this next cruise we're probably going to take a break from cruising for a while, or at least switch lines, but it would take an awful lot to get us back on a mega ship. Too much structure. Didn't feel like "freestyle" at all but an extension of my regimented life.

 

Other people are happy with this system. The system won't change so we have to take it or leave it.

This is basically what I meant.

I was on the Star a few weeks ago and I couldn't find any record of my reservations on the iConcierge app, not even the ones I made on the app itself. I obviously can't use it right now, but do you remember how you looked them up?

I couldn't either. Reservations weren't displayed on the app or tv. I assumed they would be do i didn't write them down.

Pardon me for asking, but how do you function in your everyday life? How do you remember which restaurant and time you made a reservation at for Friday night? What about doctor's appointments? School conferences? Appointments to have the HVAC guy come to service your system? What you need to get from the grocery store or Target?

 

Do you write anything down, or do you just make appointments and then rely on your memory or wait for them to call you to remind you?

 

I have never forgotten to go to anything on a cruise. It's extremely easy to go to MyNCL, print out your listing of booked dining reservations and show times and bring the papers with you onboard.

 

I do agree that the specialty restaurants tend to book up. But even then, on the first day, you could just go to the guy taking reservations in the Atrium and see what is available. Or even just show up at the restaurant. With the fairly newish a la carte system and not needing to pay in advance, plenty of people make reservations and then just change their minds and not show up.

Ironically I'm quite type A and very organized. I have 4 kids and a very demanding job so on vacation I pack away all phoned, agendas, etc.

I get why people are frustrated with my post.

I'm happy to read others have felt this way too. I think ppl are correct that this feeling is more apparent on the larger ships. Something I hadn't considered.

Thanks for the input folks.

We were in Harvest Caye last week.

It is beautiful. The pool is gorgeous. The beach is nice (sand rough though). The bars are nice. The splash pad is great.

Does it feel like an authentic Belize experience - no....But can it be a beautiful day on a nice clean island for sun and fun without being bugged to buy stuff and tip people and "come look beautiful lady"...absolutely.

I recommend making this a relaxing, inexpensive day.

We've sailed on Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Princess and NCL.

While NCL talks all about being Freestyle, I found it more difficult to book specialty restaurants, especially for a group of 6, book shows, get turned away for not having reservations, etc. If you want to get everyone in to the things you want it's helpful to book in advance, like before your vacation starts....but you often forget what you booked for when once you're aboard. Also, you may feel like 5:30 dinner reservations are great 2 months in advance but that day you nap at 5pm and oops, missed it.

Anyway, just curious if anyone else actually found figuring out what's included, what costs more money, what needs prebooked, etc more annoying than just being able to show up at any show or restaurant when you want???

Also NCL talks like you can't dine on other ships whenever you want. Well we haven't had a fixed MDR time on any ship in years, all seem to offer some sort of "my time" dining.

Just my 2 cents.