lylabelle1

On 1/11/2018 at 1:43 PM, jdvmd said:

Here is a post I did several years ago that you might find interesting. Not sure if the pictures will come across as I just cut and pasted.

 

jdvmd

10,000+ Club

 

 

#19

Kentucky

13,676 Posts

Joined Feb 2004

 

 

Posted September 24th, 2013, 04:16 PM

 

Here is a little info from the past cabin crawls I have participated in.

 

I've done several cabin crawls but the ones on the Oasis of the Seas, NCL Epic, Celebrity Summit and Holland America Westerdam stand out the most. We have always just gone in and gone out of each cabin in five minutes or less (unless alcohol is involved). Have two door stops so the first person can prop the door open with one of the stoppers. The last person out the door removes the door stopper, so on and so on. You don't want to be the person stuck holding the door for everyone so having a door stop is crucial.

 

Plan the route logically so you don't go back and forth from one end of the ship to the other or up and down floors. Print up the route and distribute at your meet and greet etc. or post the route on the roll call and have participants print themselves. This is important as you will invariably lose people during the crawl and they need to know where to go. For example, if some cannot do stairs, they will take the elevator and become separated from the group. It happens.

 

You always want to get a variety of cabins -- you don't need four balconies or three insides unless they are vastly different like an obstructed view or an aft balcony.

 

Be prepared for those that say they are going to host and then they don't. Have had this happen on the Summit, the Epic and the Westerdam. We all stood there in the hallway while someone knocked and knocked on the door. We finally left.

 

I have even had people who were not part of Cruise Critic or our roll call join in on the crawl. They saw the big group of people moving along the hallways and decided to see what was going on.

 

The Summit and Westerdam cabin crawls were very memorable and different from the others. On the Summit, each cabin host provided a drink/food item from their home state. I did "Big Blue Margaritas" in honor of my beloved University of Kentucky Wildcats. Another Kentuckian served mint juleps.

 

Some provided souveniers including engraved pencils with "Summit Cabin Crawl, April 2011." We used the pencils to write down our answers for the "Name the Island Where this Sand Came From" contest. The winner received a bottle of wine.

 

It was a very port intensive beachy cruise with only one sea day and that was the last day of the cruise. It was a lot of fun. We also played poker getting one card as you exited the cabin. Great way to see a lot of cabins in a short amount of time.

 

On our Westerdam cruise, we did the same thing with serving drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. I had cabernet sauvignon as well as some Kentucky bourbon candy and chocolates and held a raffle for some personalized cruise items that I had ordered from Vistaprint.com like a T-shirt, tote bag etc. Had our younger participants draw the names out of a cup.

 

We had some nice smoked jerky from Montana and salmon from British Columbia.

 

Several of us changed our dinner plans that evening as we had so much fun and just kept talking and drinking!

 

Cabin crawls/Poker crawls are great fun!

 

Linda

 

Here are some photos from the Summit poker/cabin crawl.

 

Attached Images

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/images/attach/jpg.gifbig blue margaritas.jpg (19.6 KB, 65 views)cabin crawl stop.jpg (6.7 KB, 68 views)name the sand.jpg (15.4 KB, 59 views)tim-mint julep.jpg (21.7 KB, 56 views)

It’s been a long time since you posted. I was hoping to take a look at your pictures and was reading what you were saying. I am hosting the cabin crawl at an upcoming cruise and was wondering how people were able to provide cocktails since you can’t bring liquor on the ship.  I want it to be a super fun trip and I think one of the suites really wants to provide cocktails. I’m just not sure how to suggest doing that.

Following

Currently at 90 min waiting.  I'm glad I charged my phone!   Hoping I get a nice rep and not one tired and over worked.  

Our cruise was a 2020 so we were canceled and able to get 125% FCC to rebook.  So in order not to lose that I'd think saving FCC instead of just refunding our original payment is a better option.   I dont want to book it this far out because the same cruise next year will cost us $900 more at the moment.  We can wait and book it later.  We still want to take it, just can't this year.

We stayed in Croatia for a few weeks (got dental work done there, super nice and soooooo much cheaper) and we LOVED Split!  We went all over Croatia and really enjoyed our walk through Diocletian's Palace and learning about it.     If you are a Game of Thrones fan there are a few walking tours that also take you to do different places that you might not usually visit (Diocletian's Palace is the dragons lair).

Make sure you taste their Olive oil!   I know it sounds strange, but we went to an Olive Oil tasting and discovered Olive Oil in america is total crap.  Real olive oil has a peppery taste and adds flavor to food.  The tasting was one of our favorite last minute excursions  - but it was in Pula, which isn't where you will be.  But you can get the oil all over.  

Plitvice is a great hiking location with beautiful waterfalls. TIP - take the tram to the TOP and hike down.  We didn't know this so we got our tickets and just started hiking from there and hiked uphill all day only to discover the bus at the top when we finished our hike takes you back to the base - and that we should have started that way. 

Krka was pretty spectacular with some really expansive beautiful falls (I'll attach one of my pics of where we swam).  Much smaller than Plitvice and we were able to spend a few hours at the big falls swimming, which was amazing.  Sometimes I see stuff where they started banning swimming but I still see pics of people swimming, so I'm not 100% sure you will get to or not.  But it is a lovely place to relax no matter what - this area of Krka also has some food stalls and places to stop for lunch and relax. 

We loved Croatia and look forward to Greece, but I think it will be next year.  If NCL will ever pick up their phone (on hold 57 minutes now).

I don't know how they could make you get back on.  Can't you just grab your things and go?  We disembarked early on a Med cruise (not NCL) and just walked off with our stuff. 

Well maybe I'm getting closer then.  LOL. 🙂

Nearing 35min.... wish I had booked this with a TA, but I dont have one with NCL.  I plan to just get FCC, and will certainly use a TA when I rebook!

We need to bump our September cruise to next year (it was originally a 2020 cruise, and covid has been pushing it).  I've been on hold about 20 min waiting for a person.  Does anyone ever answer their phone?????

  We usually sail Royal and this was to be our first NCL cruise.  So far not impressed 😞

We booked in the last few days for the maiden cruise of the Belissima Mar 4.  It was tough to get booked actually and took days, most places online were sold out!  We finally got in with one online travel agency though and booked so I was excited, this is our first MSC cruise.

Status match problem - The website says 14 business days, we are 17 days out.  The reason I even waited a few days is because when I went to login to my Royal Crown and Anchor I realized it went to Gold!  I was platinum according to my emails.  And they were missing a 10 day cruise I just did in september.  After much searching, I figured out they had created me a NEW card, with just 10 points on it for that one cruise. I couldn't think why they would do that except I realized this was my first Royal cruise after I got married, and while I submitted my crown and anchor number upon booking, they never told me there was a problem with it, to submit a name change or that they had just issued me a new number!  

So I've emailed Royal about this problem and they didn't respond.  I can't login and see my old "status" but I still get emails with it so I submitted my card info to MSC from 3 days ago that I got on an email (though its missing 10 points).  Of course it has my maiden name too so I wet ahead and created 1 image for MSC that has an explanation, my card with status AND my marriage license (since I could only send one image, I combined them, I know time is of the essence!)

When I was looking at the MSC statu's it shows that 43,000 points is Gold.  Thats 43 nights right?   My missing 10 nights would put me at 48,000 so I would get to be gold.  But I need them to contact Royal I guess and confirm this?   I have an email out to my local travel agent hoping she can call and get it fixed before MSC calls so its easy but its the weekend.  

What a pain.  Anyone had any problems like this getting it all figured out?  Does MSC really take that long to do status matches?  Are we out of luck for this cruise??  Thanks for any responses!

Hey there I've enjoyed reading your reviews! I have cruised Royal a bunch of times, Carnival and even Holland America. I'm debating trying out the gem out of NYC the beginning of April. My new husband has never cruised but my daughter (8) has done 3 or 4 :-)

I see you are planning to do April also. How do you think it ranks over royal? Any tips or tricks for this one/ I was hoping to grab the 3rd passenger free deal but it doesn't seem to be available for this departure :-/

Yea it's just me showing up with a 6yr old looking clueless. :-) I typically get to cruise ships around 11, though they all seem to give everyone a board time, Im at a hotel I need to check out of, a car I have to return by a certain time. I'll be there by 11 whether they like it or not. Hopefully it won't take more than an hour or so.

People said go to first services right away to sign up for some special events that get booked. Any other things I should do that first few hours?

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No, Alamo has a free shuttle

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Yes I know they send a million emails to do that. This is just a part of a busy trip and I just forgot in the process of booking flights, hotels and excursions. I filled out the papers attached to the cute mickey book with the luggage tags, but to save my life, the morning we left I couldn't find any of it! Disaster.

So in the am we need to do luggage tags then I have to fill out all the freakin paperwork. I am already in the port area and was planning to get there before 11. I know Disney does a while "pick a time" thing which was why I didn't end up checking online, all our flights ended up being booked separate and when I did get the flight figured out I want sure where we were staying etc etc. So without a "boarding time" will things be fine with me getting there at 11 to fill all the stuff out to get on? I have to turn in the rental car at 10 ish then we are taking the airport shuttle to the port, so we expect to be there by 11.

I'm a seasoned cruiser but this is the first Disney cruise. So not quite sure what to expect with the rotation dining and all that. But hoping it's a good cruise. Any advice???

Looking forward to some daquairs!!

That room looks heavenly!! Kicks the big time butt out of my sad little interior room. But alas as a single mom you do what you can :) I'll peek in some big ones for fun. LOL