sailor_jimc

Thanks though now Im more confused.

 

Ill be on the Freedom out of Galveston, wondering if there is a limit.

 

From one of the replies above it sounded like they cost more on the ship than i can buy them at home.

 

I dont smoke myself, was hoping that the ship sells them for better prices than i can find on the internet and here in Texas.

 

Ive been in a shop in Cozumel, would they actually have better prices than say i could find on cigarsinternational site online? as low as 1.75 each if you buy a box.

 

I just wanted to bring the guys back something that was a good buy and a treat. my other ports are roatan, and probably wouldnt leave the port, and belize, and plan on the pharmacy there, but dont remember seeing anything in the port. the city made me nervous the one time i took a cab into town and no deals in belize i saw, maybe roatan but then id have to pay for a cab.

 

Im traveling solo, the old cruise price X 2 deal, bah humbug. Im going to get at least one bottle of scotch but dont need help there, just didnt know if there was a limit on cigars assuming i could find a deal in cozumel.

 

its been about 2 years since i cruised, so im completely out of touch, thanks for any additional information or clarification of above

firefly-- I am a cigar smoker and I sail from Galveston all the time- answers to your question- yes they sell cigars on board, not Cuban cigars but they do sell them. NO THEY ARE NOT less expensive than you can buy them for at home. There are many online retailers that sell them for half the cost of what the on board shops sell them for. So do not waste your money there. If you want to get them a couple of Cuban cigars AND your ship goes to Cozumel or Grand Cayman, then you can get true Cuban cigars in either of those ports. Grand Cayman - La Casa Del Habano cigar shop in the shopping mall across the street from the tender area. Licensed by Cuba to sell cigars. In Cozumel there is also a La Casa Del Habano. second floor of the building across the street from the ferry terminal downtown. This is the ONLY place in Cozumel where you are going to get a true Cuban cigar. Everyone else will tell you theirs are genuine but they are not selling real Cubans on the street... Either place you can have them give you a zip lock bag for them.. They may also be able to give you a humi-pak (a little pouch that will keep them humidified until you get them back) Better yet, buy the ones in the metal or glass tubes so they don't get crushed in your luggage. They will cost you $15 to $30 a cigar so be prepared for sticker shock. To be honest they are not worth the money. It is the mystic of smoking a Cuban cigar but you really would be hard pressed to tell the difference between a Cuban and a Dominican cigar. But people still want them. When you get back to Galveston keep them in your carry on (carry off :-) ) bag. You can bring them into the US now. BUT do not tell the Texas tax person outside of customs that you bought them or you will pay extra tax.

Well the friendly smoking bar you mentioned on the Victory(I believe) is what used to be the Jazz lounge on the Conquest class ships. All the Conquest ships that I have been on (I'm a Cigar smoker) have this lounge as an indoor smoking cigar bar/lounge. This is located Deck 5 Aft Port side. It has a closing glass door and they have put in smoke scrubbers. I am really shocked by how few people actually know of this space. I have been told they are on all Conquest Ships but the ones that I have been on and have used this cigar bar are : Triumph (not Conquest ship) Freedom, Conquest. NOT The LIBERTY BTW, it does have this lounge but it is non-smoking. From your post OP I will add Victory to this list.

Other good ships would be the Vista. They have a very nice out door smoking area. The casino .. not so much (not that they allow cigars int he casino for some dumb reason..) the ventilation in the Vista casino bar is not great.

The MAGIC and Breeze have out good door smoking areas Magic - red frog pub outside where you can get bar service and Breeze -ocean plaza outside where you can have bar service. the Breezes red frog bar is close enough to the area that if you flag one down and tip them the first time, they come by if you are out there.

I am booked on the Valor in July.. hopefully they will have the cigar bar open as it is too hot to smoke a cigar outside in July. Whereas a cigarette can be smoked in a few minutes and the heat can be tolerated for that long. A cigar and a whiskey can be an hour long proposition.

Hope that helps.

Not the same by any means. The Breeze has a true theater. The Vista is trying to do the Sunshine's "nightclub/theater" concept. The picture you posted shows bench seating with tables. There is also room for the servers to walk down the row with drinks. On Vista its rows of chairs with no tables are spaced so that your knees almost touch the chair in front of you. If you have a drink, you have to hold it the entire time as there is no place to put it down. The chairs also get moved around a lot. On Breeze the floor is not flat. it does have an incline to it which affords some view over the person in front of you. On the sides and the upstairs seating there is a dramatic incline to make for better viewing . On Vista if you are in the second row upstairs you can't see the stage (or at least not most of it.) The Vista also does not have NEARLY enough seating for the amount of people the ship can carry. And to make matters worse, they used the entire back middle of the theater for a bar... which would only be good for the dance club. it goes mostly unused for shows except for the few bar stools. The Vista theater is a MAJOR fail in every way... except for maybe a dance club, but I am not sure it was ever configured as a dance club in our 6 day cruise.

Was on the same sailing. I agree with everything you said about the Liquid lounge (show lounge) It is almost useless as a show theater. I counted .. it you put a body in every seat the main floor could hold almost 500 people.. About a third of those people would not be bale to see the stage. Up stairs was worse. if you were in the back row, you were looking att he balcony ceiling and had to duck down to be able to see and then only about half the stage was visible.

I wanted to try the Pig and Anchor BBQ.. but I didn't have 3 hours of my last cruise day to spend on waiting in line.

I loved the decor, but as with any new class of vessel, there seems to be some issues that HOPEFULLY can be addressed with the next ship

Well I am sure it's disappointing, they don't really have to send you a notice. We have had changes and didn't know until we were boarding. It would be nice of them to notify you but they don't always do.

Your room steward can keep your cooler filled with ice if you let him/her know that is what you want. However, I have taken my ice bucket up to lido to an aft bar and they will fill it for you. Any bar on the ship that is staffed can fill your ice bucket for you. Not sure I would ask them to fill a cooler though. I think Liberty has refrigerators in the cabins though and since Carnival stopped stocking them unless you request it, you should be able to turn it on and store your bevvies in there.

I Know someone on the Fantasy for this sailing. Said they actually docked at Royal Caribbean's pier when they went as the Carnival pier was full.

So you may port there. I would actually prefer to dock downtown so you wouldn't need a taxi to get there.

You used to be able to email him directly, but too many people abused that and sent him too many insults and crap so he stopped giving out his personal email address.

The closest you can come is to post on his facebook site. IF you don't want to see it in public.. then your next best option if to email iCare@carnival.com

I am doing a Back-to-back in three weeks and was wondering the same thing. Anyone know?

They give you a new S&S card for the second leg of the B2B. They have to as the Folio numbers for your account change for each cruise. They do this to completely close the accounts for each cruise. So I would assume you will get a new one in the new system but how and when that takes place is unknown to me. If the stewards distribute the cards to the mail boxs and you are staying in the same cabin for each leg then they may just give you your new card instead of leaving it in the box. Or they may just do it they way they do it now - you meet in the lobby with the other B2B cruisers get new cards for the next cruise and then get off, go through customs and get back on....

I don't care how people choose to relax.. if Pokemon Go is what they want to do on their cruise.. hey it's their cruise and who am I to tell them what they should do...

BUT... I really don't think the game is going to work in the middle of the ocean. If the game hits a server that tells it where the Pokemon characters are, I doubt they will program in a location at sea. AND even if they did, the ship is moving (unlike land locations where the server can say... hey there is a critter at these GPS coordinates..) so even if they did put them out in the ocean, the location would move through the ship as the ship moves through that space...I doubt you could catch one anyway...

But like I said to each his own.. go ahead and spend the money on the internet time to figure this out...

If you are NOT platinum then doing your laundry (at least the stuff that is easily machine washable) yourself may be the best bet cost-wise. The BEST time to do it on on turnaround day between your cruises. NO ONE will be using the machines since all of their clothes are packed (except for other b2b cruisers that is. And for the little bit of time you will be gone to do your second leg customs check, no one else is one the ship anyway so the cloths can sit in there. You should be able to get it all done before the new cruisers get on the ship, but if not ... no one is going to want to be washing on the first day...

If you are platinum, take advantage of the free bag laundry service everyone that is platinum should get 2 bags worth a cruise. Works really well for t shirts and shorts and such. I do my casual shirts but the wife doesn't use it for stuff she is fussy about the way it is washed..

You folks do realize that the water isn't blue right? The water is clear and is simply reflecting the color of the sky.... You want clear water.

Thanks All!

Will be coming from Dallas so will be on I-45. As long as the highway itseld isn't flooded I should be ok. There are a couple of spots along the way (up in Navarro County that currently show extreme heavy traffic, but those may just be accidents. I checked TXDOT and it did not have any closures due to flooding reported. (thanks for the transtar reference, that was very useful..)

Hi All-

Anyone in the Houston/Galveston area able to tell me if there is any flooding issues on I-45 down to Galveston?

Have a cruise this weekend and if we need to take a different route it would be good to know now.

Thanks in advance.

So first time on RCI with MTD and I am wondering if you HAVE to make reservations? Seems to kill the whole purpose of it if you have to make reservations 3 months ahead of time. Why not just take traditional dinning?

If we don't make reservations (because I really don't like planning a vacation down to the minute 3 months out) will we be waiting in line to eat every night?

Hobbsey-

The cigar bar USED to be just that and what you are looking for. But when they changed the smoking rules 4 or so years ago, all the cigar bars suddenly became non smoking. (yes someone was not thinking) On several of the Conquest class ships and the destiny class ships, the jazz club/bar next to the comedy club on deck 5 became an indoor smoking venue and a cigar bar. They even have humidors and a cigar and whiskey flight special. From the above post it would indicate that the Valor does not have this. Maybe it got re purposed for something else on the last drydock. I would check into it once on board just in case...

Well, all of the RCI cheerleaders need to be prepared for what comes next... every little issue with any Royal cruise in the next year or 2 will hit the news cycle. I am MOSTLY a Carnival cruiser. I have sailed on RCi (and will be again this summer) and Celebrity and NCL and enjoy them all so I am not saying this to be anti Royal.... Having been on the CCL Triumph fire cruise I can see absolute parallels in the stories and news reports. They find the passengers that are willing to throw things out of proportion just to get their 15 minutes... And it always angered me a little when a Carnival ship had engine trouble or was delayed getting back to port or whatever the issue was and the news reports would always reference the Cruise line that "allowed" a fire to happen on a ship, having troubles again.

Not saying this to slam on Royal, just a warning to brace yourselves... in the end, ships are mechanical things run by imperfect humans. Accidents can happen and do. But news reporters are only looking for the story that sells...

Of THAT cabin on Liberty? no. but we have stay in the same type of 4J on the Freedom and Conquest. We like them. They are no smaller than any other oceanview room and the obstructed view just means that your window looks out on the deck/walkway. But that is the beauty of these cabins.. you pay an interior price and get an oceanview window. And you get a near private balcony (although you have to go out of your cabin to use it.

I wouldn't be so concerned with the noise from the elevator area as since you are on the midship elevator bank, that does not get as much traffic as the lobby or aft elevators would. HOWEVER I WOULD be concerned with the noise and smoke coming up the stairs from the casino. The casino bar is one deck down and underneath your cabin. That is where all the smokers hang out so they can smoke inside. I know from my previous cruises that when heading down the stairs from deck 7 to the casino, you can start smelling the smoke at deck 6... depending on how sensitive you are to smoke, you may want to take that into consideration. IF you happen to be a smoker, this is perhaps the perfect room for you. Walk out the door and one flight of stairs down and you can enjoy a cigarette...

If you hate smoke.. I would rather a forward or aft cabin and risk the movement over being forced there to have a midship cabin

It used to be they only knew when you won enough that they asked for your Sign and Sail card to track your winnings. But a couple of years ago they have started asking to see your card each time you play. Once they swipe it they track your play like any casino...

As the above post said .. those are the same payouts as in vegas or in the more local casinos that I have been in. What is the pay table where you are (and where is that?)

And just how do you propose to affect the dice with a crack in the table? A long as this crack doesn't open a hole in the table for the chips or dice to fall through it would make no difference.

Just search for John Heald on FB. He has a page and anyone can like it and then post on it. So you post a question to him on his FB page and he will typically respond (or one of his helpers will respond if they know the answer)

I don't doubt the 4.5 million number,.. quick math of 23 ships with about 2500 passengers (avg and maybe a bit low) each and sailing each week (again some sail more often than that with 3 and 4 day cruises) times 52 weeks a year is almost 3 million... so 4.5 million is not out of whack....

But again, point is that 80,000 Plat cruisers is not a huge issue across that many sailing passengers. BUT it does show that with what it takes to make it to platinum or Diamond that many cruisers keep coming back to Carnival. I think it shows good loyalty. I would love to see the same numbers for the other cruise lines just for comparison.

Currently the Breeze is the only ship that has a working Hubb app. It is $5 for the whole cruise if you want to use the texting portion of the HUB app.

The social media packages are available on most ships at this point (there still are a few that don't have it but that list is shrinking fast). For the social package you pay $5 per day or a discounted price based on the length of the cruise (4 day cruise was $15 and a 7 day was $25) We just did the social package and used Facebook messaging for texting each other)