Canadian_J

Most balcony doors are hinged, not sliding.

I think their comment may have been tongue-in-cheek, in referring to your balcony doors as a big sliding window :p although you are of course correct!

You've pretty much got the gist of it. If you choose to do an assigned dining time (early - approx 6pm, late - approx 8pm) you are assigned to the same table and wait staff nightly. You must go at that time, or you'll have to do an alternate option if you miss it. You can request the size of table, such as a table for two, table for your family, or a large table with others. We've had success with both.

When you board, your Sail & Sign card will have your assigned time (though you should know this in advance as you can book it) as well as your table number. It's a good practice to go to the dining room on the first day and check out your table. That way if you requested a table for two and it's a table for ten, you may be able to have the Maitre'd change it for you.

The other option is Anytime/Your Time Dining (referred to as either ATD or YTD). This allows you to dine anytime the dining room is open (about 6-9pm) and request any size of table you like at any time. The catch? It's like a restaurant that doesn't take reservations. So if you show up looking for a table for two at 7:30pm, you'll likely either need to settle for a different table (with others) or they'll give you a buzzer and let you wait for one to free up. You may not have to wait, but it all depends how busy it is and when everyone else shows up, if you choose this option. This needs to be requested in advance and often fills up quick.

Included food is the main dining room (mentioned above) for any meals, buffet, 24hr pizza, room service, and some other little things like the Taste Bar. However, the "specialty restaurants" such as the Steakhouse, Cucina De Capitano, etc do have a fee. I'll tell you though that the $35 fee for the steakhouse gets you a meal that could easily run you nearly $100 at a comparable quality steakhouse on land. Well worth the cost!

Hope this helps :cool: I'm starving now thinking about it!

One agent told us that a Breeze BL guarantee would NOT be a cove, as they're considered separately. However, my PVP who I trust much more, said the coves are indeed part of the BL guarantee. They are the "lead in" category of balconies, so this makes sense.

We have two cabins booked on a BL guarantee for our Breeze cruise next month (one bumped from cove assigned to BL guarantee due to a great sale) and everyone is excited about possibly getting a cove. My friends who have been had no complaints and said it was a very unique experience!

Good luck :)

I've done both of these locations, both great in my opinion!

Lido will be great if you like to be steps from the pool and buffet and are mostly up on the higher decks. However, I don't always like staying next door to the people I'm traveling with.

Deck 7 is about the most central location you get. Two decks from Lido, and two decks from Promenade. We like deck 7 because we never need to take the elevators and are never far from our rooms. We used to be big Lido cabin fans, but now we prefer mid-deck mid-ship for the convenience. And as I said, I like having a few cabins between my travel companions. Need a little privacy :P

I'd say that was a good upsell :) congrats and enjoy it!

That is an extremely common Mexican/Caribbean weather forecast, especially this time of year! This is "rainy" season and it is not uncommon for there to be rain/storms predicted daily. When I went south at this time last year, it called for rain all 4 days, we never saw a drop. Also remember that some areas don't have great weather radars and such available, so the data is usually pretty basic. As hard as it is, you'll just have to wait and see! Try not to let it get you down, the weather very well may be a-okay!

We booked a room on the empress deck it's a 4E we talked some friends into going on their 1st cruise they booked a 1A letting carnival pick their room. Today they got their room assigned and they are a few doors down from us.Do you think its because they were linked to us or just luck. Would our pvp have something to do with it. Just excited only 19 more days

We did a guarantee and an assigned once, the assigned was in inside on the Panorama deck (because we like the higher floors). Sure enough, the guarantee got assigned to one of the walkway facing "inside" cabins on Panorama too!

I asked our PVP and she said that since our bookings are "linked" that the department who assigns guarantees does sometimes take things like this into consideration in order to keep groups together, when able.

So while I know there is no guarantee, I think there is a good chance that when you link them that you'll be a whole lot closer than if you don't!

Im really sorry most ppl who have answered have nothing nice or constructive to say just trying to poke fun. :(

What do you want everyone to say? You're on a board with a lot of pretty skilled cruisers, this isn't where I'd expect to find any sympathy. I think we all agree that you're entitled to know where your FTTF payment went, but that is a question for CCL and your CC company. If CCL really can't tell you where the money is, go to your CC company and let them know that you want to dispute the original charge, and let them get to the bottom of it. I'm not sure about CCL, but I know some credit refunds can take X number of days/weeks to become posted. Or maybe the policy is to refund it as an OBC? Not sure, just thinking out loud and trying to give you some context.

Morale of the story: traveling with others can be hell :p lol

Not that I know of. I'd be surprised if you could get anything more than an "idea" of the available cabins. That's pretty business sensitive info.

Good luck finding what you need though!

I think all she said was cause your boarding is at 10pm so you pretty much all day to board.

 

 

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If that's her reason, I see where she's coming from, but from experience I strongly disagree. I've sailed from SJU twice, once with priority and once without. The time I didn't have it, it was nearly a 2hr process to board. Would have paid good money to have skipped some of those lines! Sadly, it was before FTTF. Reality is that most people still arrive either super early or mid-afternoon, so crowding definitely still occurs if you plan to go at those times.

Interesting! Didn't know this was on the confirmations, good info :)

Very jealous of both of you! I've done business with the Upsell Fairy twice now to an OS and both deals were good, but never that good! Enjoy the Suite Life :cool:

There's a Bloody Mary cart? Awesome!

 

 

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It's what I use my "free drink coupon" for every cruise at brunch :) those are to die for!

My PVP told me the only one not to buy it for is the Valor, otherwise it would be a waste of money.

 

 

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Did she elaborate on why the Valor is any different?...

Buried somewhere in that Ticket Contract that you read and agreed to before you confirmed your cruise, there's a clause that states that Carnival has the right to change vessels without compensation to you. So yes, they won't give you anything to make up for the change. Thankfully, you're switching from one Conquest class ship to another class ship. They are sister ships, although Liberty has some new bars and restaurants. At least they didn't swap you to an old Fantasy class ship! :eek:

Bingo. Compensation will be an uphill battle. I've been on Valor though and had no complaints. If it really is that big of a deal, perhaps cancel or change cruises? I know it sucks for you, but unfortunately I agree that compensation isn't owed. This is one of the risks we have to take. Hope you enjoy it either way though :cool:

We've stayed aft on Freedom. For the non-corned aft cabins, I don't think there is much difference in terms of size. As for privacy, yes if people are looking over the railings above then they can see down, but we didn't find people to be doing this often, and we didn't care, we would sometimes wave to them lol. Finally, for location, personally I would do Verandah. We've stayed on Upper before and found there to be a bit more noise than we'd like from the lounge below. And if you're concerned about privacy, technically the lower you go, the more people you have above who could be looking down! So, if I were you I'd do Verandah Deck.

Hope this helps!

We did a B2B and we turned platinum on our second leg. Because it was a back to back we got the platinum perks for the first leg too. :D

I did the same, and I thought that was a very nice gesture from Carnival :) the perks were well enjoyed! Including 2 platinum gifts!

I've never heard of anyone having success with this.

Just say cash and apply the e certificates at guest services when you board. They will ask you if you want to change to cc at check in, but you can show them the certificate.

 

I use cash and gift cards with no problem.

Agreed, that's what I'd do as well so there isn't any confusion as to what is charged first etc.

Don't forget that when you arrive at SJU, you need to have your bags scanned curbside and receive the sticker from them before the airline will check your bags in. Agriculture check or something like that. But I've heard of a few people forgetting that and needing to go do it then re-join the line, slowing them down quite a bit!

For an itinerary/duration like that and especially for an aft, I'd do it in a heartbeat :) we had an aft for Alaska and absolutely loved it, great for cruises where there is lots to see!

See what I mean by "no definitive answer?" ;)

They need a big notice about this at the top of the forums :p this question seems to get asked almost daily and you've summed it up better than most! It's a big game of "we'll see"!

Thanks for the info. I wish that Carnival would make that kind of info available on their website.

I think the reason they don't is the same reason they don't post bar menus and such online, because they're subject to change and can vary a bit. I'm sure someone can point you in the direction of some price lists from previous cruises though :) at least then you have an idea

Depending on how late, they may not have a problem with it. However, it can cause some logistical problems and inconvenience to other YTD cruisers who prefer to go late if you're occupying a table twice.