Grimix

Have to take the kids Trick-or-Treating, and since we almost got to the ship part I feel it's a good cliff-hanger! I'll continue tomorrow. I still have a page or 2 typed up for the first day, but then have to write the rest...

We started with one. I bought a catgenie (add .com for their website.) The thing is LIFE CHANGING with a single cat. It hooks up to the water line in your laundry room (with a supplied T-valve) and a drain goes into the laundry drain (You can do it in a bathroom by T'ing off the toilet supply, and hook the drain over toilet and under the seat, but laundry is a much better install. You literally never scoop the litter. When it senses a cat has entered it it starts it's cleaning cycle. The litter is sprayed with cleaning solution. It scoops the solid waste into a hamper where enzymes liquify and and it is sent down the drain. You aren't changing bags or anything. It's literally like a cat toilet. It then blow dries the litter until it's dry and ready to be used again. (Cycle takes about 15 minutes...) This works great with 1 cat, but once my wife moved to 4 (She decided to get a bonded pair, and then we ended up with grandpa's cat when he moved into the assisted living center) cats are impatient and they started going when the genie was running because they couldn't bother to wait. So when we travel we put in a traditional cat-box, and make sure the furniture isn't appealing! As to your other question, I believe I heard there were about 3k passengers so not that full. I never thought it felt very full, and definitely not empty!

(Editors note, this one is short because I believe cruise day should start with it's own post and I didn't realize we were almost there in the story!) We get to the curb and order 2 Ubers. An XL and an X. I told you about the 10 bags right? Not fitting in one Uber. Luckily they both arrive within a minute of each other. Now we have 2 Uber drivers and me playing a cooperative game of Tetris to load up all of the suitcases between the 2 cars. Ends up with me driving in the X all by myself with a bunch of suitcases as passengers… We get to the Hotel and I find a luggage cart to haul all the suitcases up to the room. (This is a residence inn, not a normal Marriott so no bell-hop.) Their carts are the worst! They have pneumatic wheels (Most luggage carts have hard wheels) that weren’t properly inflated for the 2-tons of luggage I was moving…. I finally to get everything to our 2-bedroom suite (smaller than our suite on the ship) which ran us about $350 for the night. Grandpa had his own room though; one of the wife’s requirements! Our room overlooked the Queen Mary so that was kind of cool! Members from a cruise group I had joined that were staying at the Crowne mentioned the ship hadn’t arrived yet. It had just finished its Alaskan season, and was sailing down to San Pedro without passengers to pick us up the next morning. Thought I had taken pictures of the room (believe me it wasn't much to write home about) but here's a picture of the Queen Mary from our hotel window. We ate at Islands about a mile from our Hotel. The wife grew up in Orange County and went there all the time growing up. When lived in Upstate New York (Syracuse) for about 12 years before moving back 6 years ago (Both originally born & raised in California, all kids born in Syracuse) When I was looking for a job to move back to, and company in Roseville offered me a job. Both of us had no idea where Roseville was (20 minutes east of Sacramento right near the foothills of the Sierra Nevada). My wife did the research this time and learned the schools were all 10s, and it was a great location. Not only that, they had an Islands! Unfortunately, they didn't survive COVID closed down so we try and hit Islands where they are available (The last one was when we went to Monterey. That Islands kind of sucks by the way...)

My wife does the packing, and I do the loading. I told her we would have to pack light because we have to drive to the airport, and while our car seats 7, I need to put the bags in there, and we also have to take Ubers to the hotel and port. 10 bags later she’s decided she’s as light as she can get… Luckily I was good at Tetris and able to fit everything in the car. Had to have the youngest sit on the wife’s lap for the 35 minute ride to the airport, and a couple bags had to be held on laps because we also had to stuff in a wheelchair and walker for grandpa! We make it to the airport. Unload everything. Wife and I pretty much man-handle all the bags over (the kids are mostly useless at helping, and grandpa even more so.) We get an airport wheelchair for Grandpa so we don’t have worry about him until we get to the gate. I get back in the car an head to long-term parking. Park the car and walk back to the terminal to join my family who had just gotten to the trams to the real terminal (This is Sacramento) I had just gotten the platinum amex partially to take advantage of future cruise benefits I learned about here. One of the other benefits is that it will pay for Clear membership (and your wife if you have a Delta account, $129 for discount with delta, and another $60 for a family member to the $189 yearly credit with Clear. It is normally $189 per person, so you need to use one of the discounted prices from an airline to get both.) I had pre-registered online, but once at the airport they take your biometric info which takes about 5-10 minutes. Future visits you just need to do the scan, and then they escort you to security line right after the people that check your boarding passes. Since we do TSA-precheck we were escorted to the pre-check security gate. Depending on how long the pre-check line is it can save a lot of time waiting for the guy to check your id and passes. Didn’t save us any this time because the line wasn’t long, and we had to finish the registration. We get everyone to the gate and board our little over an hour flight to Long Beach. Having a wheelchair bound individual did allow us to pre-board, so the only controversy on board was that they had sat in bulkhead front row which didn’t have tray tables. For some unknown reason (to me) this caused great annoyance to my kids… Southwest had inexplicably sent me 4 drink coupons the month before (And my wife received none, so she wasn’t happy about that!) I don’t know what I did to deserve them, but we each used one to pre-lubricate our vacation (Saving the other 2 for the return trip.) We landed; managed to get Grandpa off the plane. A supplied wheelchair person took him to baggage claim without our intervention where we able to get him and our bags too! We waited for our luggage to be offloaded and retrieved all 10 bags, and 2 medical devices (wheelchair and walker for those forgetful ones) Luckily Southwest still allows 2 bags/person so we didn’t have to have the kids carry on their carry-ons (Because you know I would somehow have been left to schlep those bags around the airport and put them in the overhead bins… I told you how helpful my kids are right? When they finish something they immediately hand the trash to my wife…even if there is a trash can right there!) Cat proofing the furniture while we're gone! For those counting that 10 bags, 2 medical devices, and 6 people... We did it very light... Flying over the coast. I saw this sign and knew my wife would love it. Now I need to get one and not just a picture of it! Welcome to Long Beach! Remember baguette. It plays a big part of the story!

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DANGER! DANGER! 3 weeks before our vacation my wife and son get sick. Son has a fever. Government ‘free’ test shows him positive for COVID. Wife is negative… Crap! We’re going to lose another vacation! (Had a 5 day Maui canceled in early 2021 that the hotel had upgraded us to a suite for all 5 days, after paying for a normal room, because we tested positive on the test to board the plane… kids, but mostly wife were devastated. This was pre-vaccination time.) I get a fever the next week, but test negative. It was mostly a head cold for me. I was really stuffy, not much coughing, but hammered my nose with Afrin which killed my sense of smell (hence most taste) (I know COVID can do that as it did when I had the real COVID, but I was testing negative so thought I'd be ok.) I stay down in the guest bedroom to avoid going near anyone else just to be very safe. Week before the cruise we’re all testing negative (but that pre-board check would have had us on pins and needles no matter how much I pre-tested!.) Tested once more the night before and all negative so we’re a go, but darn that was close! (My son was out of school. For a little more than a week. They requires 24-hours no fever, and a negative test) I had insurance, but after doing all the research for months I might have been more disappointed than the others! About 4 weeks before the cruise one of the other haven guests in the sailings group posted the arrival of his luggage tags. Being days from the cruise, and anticipating it for months, the arrival of luggage tags is a big issue! Days pass, but no tags for me! A couple days later I get an email from the on-shore concierge telling me I should get ready to be pampered. Ok. I guess I can do that. It includes a list of things you can request like pillows and if in a high enough suite liquor selections. Being a 5-day sailing our suite is entitled to a single bottle of alcohol (not 3 like on 7+ day sailings) I requested Titos with cranberry, grapefruit, and diet coke mixers. (Diet Coke wasn’t a mixer, but they give you soda’s and water in the owners suite. Let me tell you, it was a happy day when we heard the Bliss changed to Coke a couple sailings before ours! I know some of you prefer Pepsi, but like my identical twin brother you are wrong.) In addition to the mixers I also requested a roll-away bed. The plan was to put grandpa in the second bedroom with it’s own bathroom, and have the kids stay in the living room. 2 on the couch conversion which I believe is a queen, and the other on the roll-away. (They all fought for the roll-away and they rotated through it each night) The concierge said they had forwarded the request to the ship and asked if I needed anything else. My wife told me I needed to also request diet sprite. So I added that. And in a couple hours they let me know that the ship had confirmed my request for a roll-away, and did I need anything else? I figured I’d either have to keep adding requests or stop it right now. So I thanked them and said I think we’re good for now! About a week after this exchange I finally received my beloved purple luggage tags from my TA! The excitement lasted about 10 minutes, and then I went to catch up on cruise-critic to see if I could learn something new.

// You prefer single line comments? /* Multiline? */ % Or Matlab? CPlease don't tell me you want Fortran 77 comments because unfortunately I can do those too...

Now that we’ve met everyone we’ll go back to the beginning a little over a year ago. My wife decided she want to do an Alaskan cruise. She’s the planner, but I’m the researcher. So I was given the task to find the cruise-line and best itinerary. My wife is a physician, and she actually rarely gets multiple days off in a row. The fact that she was able to get the 9 days for this 5-day trip, was a miracle, I can’t remember her having more than 4-5 in a row in the last several years! Needless to say, when we get the time to do a vacation we do tend to spend more to make it special. While researching I found this thing called Haven (which most of you on this forum knew much more about than me at the time (and probably still do!)). It sounded just like what my wife would love. Get the big boat experience the kids would love, and the luxury that my wife desired (and deserved!) I priced an early October sailing (about 2 weeks before the one we ended up on, I told you we weren’t going to Alaska!) and I believe I found a 2-bedroom with the large balcony around $14-16k. It’s a lot, but as a family of 5 we either needed 2 bedrooms, or 2 staterooms. And at haven prices it seemed better to do a 2-bedroom. I booked the cruise, and we were all excited. I annoyed my wife with all the things I found out by reading these forums and reviews. I kept up watching prices almost daily and had got us down another $2k in about 4-5 jumps. (I’m sure our TA loved us. :)) I even bought the insurance because of this whole COVID thing; something I had never done before. At this point my wife was feeling a little guilty. Grandpa’s backstory! He was living about an hour north of us (he’s followed her around the country.) He had just destroyed his ‘new-to-him’ car by running it without any oil. Luckily for him his brother decided he would buy him a newer one (we were done buying him cars after he destroyed the last one) He then got lost several times driving home (ended up in Reading CA once 2 hours from his home before he realized he was lost.) So in the span of a couple weeks we sold his home, sold his car, and moved him into an assisted living facility about a mile from our house. (He wasn’t able to take care of his home, and had a hard time walking.) So he had lost all his freedom, and had to start using a walker. So in addition to all this he was turning 80 while were on the cruise, so my wife felt guilty not taking him. (Backstory too that is that she and him do like to argue, and he drives her crazy, but family right?) The nail in the coffin to our Alaska trip was when our close neighbors invited us to their wedding. Sure enough it also fell on a date during our cruise! Signs were pointing to no Alaska. Doing more research we found a 5-day to Mexico (less time to argue with dad) leaving a little later in the month so we could go to the wedding. Research further showed that both Deluxe Owners Suites (DOS hence forth as most here know) were available, and only about 2k more than what we owed on the Alaska cruise, granted you could get the 2 bedroom for about 10k on this cruise…) While we thought the 2-bedroom would be enough for our family, the wife didn’t want anyone sharing grandpas room or bathroom (he’s not that clean.) So we were thinking about getting another cabin for him. Didn’t want a non-haven because the wife wanted to spend SOME time with him. When we priced another smaller haven and the 2 bedroom and it came around the same price as the DOS. After hemming/hawing about it for a couple weeks we pulled the trigger on the DOS. I chose the port side one (18100) because when we had been to Cabo a year earlier I saw a princess ship anchored with the port side facing the arches. Kept checking prices on the off chance they would drop, and only a couple days later the other DOS was gone. Probably someone thinking about it and after one disappeared they figured they need to pull the trigger. The plus side to this is I was no longer required to check for price drops because if they aren’t available they aren’t going to get cheaper! I bought 100 shares of NCL stock when it hit just below $11, and that netted me an extra $50 OBC for a 5 day sailing! Plus another $250 for a cruise first and this thing was practically free! (or not...) So now we still had months left to go (I promise we will someday get to the ship, but I had to wait so you’ll have to wait a bit longer too!), and I kept up reading all the threads on cruise-critic and continued annoying my wife with all the ‘new’ facts I uncovered. I moved our insurance over which cost me another $200, and then decided I needed to add some for Grandpa in case he needed to be airlifted off the boat, and that came to $160. I had to buy him his own policy because he couldn’t be added to our old one. Being Marriott people, we chose the Residence Inn Downtown Long Beach for our stay before the cruise, and booked a room for the night.

So it’s been about 12-13 years since my last cruise review so it’s time to do another! I’ll tell you the tale of what I think we (my family) would universally agree was one of our best vacations, but not it was not without it’s bumps! Please apologize as I’m not doing this off of an outline, and it’s from a pretty much stream-of-conciousness point of view so I may jump around a bit (and I may have a love of parenthetical statements (because I’m of a software engineer?) So you may see many nested ()’s that I will attempt to close properly!) This might be a little lengthy, as I already have several pages written before we even get onto the boat! (Or ship if any captains are reading....) I’ll give a little bit about the backstories of the players in this drama. I’m the dad. As I said before I’m in software. I’ve been on 3 prior cruises all with Carnival. The first one was a 3-day booze-cruise in my younger years. Shared an inside 4-bunk cabin with some friends. Obviously don’t remember much of that one because it was probably 30 years ago (I’m on the low side of the mid-50’s so…) We can just attribute it to age, and not the booze part right? The two I took with my wife where about 12 & 14 years ago on Carnival in a suite. I believe one was a western Caribbean and the other an Eastern. My wife (who is MUCH younger than me! (In case she’s reading!)) has two more Carnival cruises she took with her mother before she met me (plus the 2 we took together.) We have a 15 year old son (Who did make an appearance on our second cruise, but was only 2 so didn’t really remember anything about it), a 12 year old daughter, and a 10 year old son (some would say accident, including him, but it is what it is. :)) My oldest is diagnosed with Autism. Some don’t realize it when they meet him, but he has a flat tone, has a very short attention span, and will script movies and stuff out loud and very inappropriate times. He does love to be the funny man of the group as he likes to make people smile. (I mention this here just for background on our experiences.) The final participant is Grandpa (my wife’s dad) He is a surely individual that went on the last of our cruises. I’m sure there will be more to say about grandpa as this develops! Ooo! Stream-of-concious thought, I wanted to say the 13 year absence from cruising wasn’t because we didn’t enjoy our cruises. Just life, and other choices. We did love our cruises on Carnival! This is the family sans wife. I do not post any pictures of her without her explicit permission as she hates 90% of every picture taken of her. Grandpa wears a monster energy hat because his son is a profession BMX jumper sponsored by Monster.

Too Long; Didn't Read (Internet shorthand for summary.)

Wanted to thank everyone for their input, and add a resolution to the question. A little less than 2 weeks to sailing, after receiving the concierge email a couple days ago I reached out to them to request a rollaway. They said they would contact the ship to see if they could accommodate the request (So probably depends on the ship; we're sailing on the Bliss) The concierge replied the next day saying that they were able to accommodate the rollaway. If it does indeed show up my kids will probably be fighting to be the one to sleep on it as they are apparently too spoiled to like to share a bed. TL;DR - Depending on a ship they do have rollaways!

I got mine 2 weeks out from our cruise. A week or so later than someone else on the cruise. Ours came in an envelope from our TA, whereas the other booked direct with NCL. I assume that is why I received mine so much later. Perhaps some TAs don't even bother forwarding luggage tags since they can be printed?

It's at midnight EDT (or EST I suspect depending on time of year). Just checked in last Monday (10/3) at 9pm PDT for a cruise that departs Tuesday (10/25)

So if I book a cruise in advance and put down $1000+ deposit, if I need to cancel the cruise 6 months later before final payment is due will they chase me down for the $350? Not trying to game their system (although it seems gameable) but we're thinking of doing Alaska next year, and plans sometimes change. We were originally booked to do Alaska this year, but changed it to a Mexican Riviera since we needed to reschedule the Alaskan one due to a wedding.

Thanks. Would normal Time be around 10:30, or 11?

We're doing a 5-day on the Bliss which is the first Mexican Riviera (Oct 25) cruise after the Alaska season in the Haven. It looks like the ship is deadheading from Seattle. Do they normally board earlier since they don't have to clear the ship of passengers? Arrival times offered start at 9am so that is normal. It's been a long time since our last cruise so we're looking to maximize shipboard time! (Didn't find anything about this with a search, but figured it's probably been asked before...)

This might solve your drinking issue, but if you put him on as the second passenger then he is the one who will get the specialty dining offer.

Looks like the TV has at least 2 USB ports which you could probably use to charge devices if short on plugs!

Questions on the upgrades from ocean view to balcony: Are they guaranteed if the balcony available? Do you get to select the balcony? Can you price reduce if the OV goes down in price prior to final payment? Do you get the perks of the balcony? (i.e. the extra specialty dining night) Can you upgrade 2 cabins on the same cruise if you have the 60k points? (Second cabin for kids) Thanks!

Thanks for the tips! I'll definitely ask the concierge, and keep my fingers crossed one of the sofa beds are broken! Also, I was under the impression that the almond croissants are much better than the rolls. By I try not to judge my carbohydrates too harshly! (And my wife thinks I usually tip too much, which means I hope I will tip the right amount.)

After reading the thread where a sofa bed was broken, and the haven guest was offered a separate balcony cabin for the extra guests several people mentioned roll away beds. We have six of us on an upcoming cruise in a Bliss DOS (Me, my wife, our 3 kids and my wife's father.) We were going to place my FIL in the second bedroom (wife wanted him to have his own room, it's his 80th birthday) and put the 3 kids (10, 13, and 15) in the living room. My wife would stay in the master, and assuming I don't do anything wrong I would be allowed to sleep there as well. We planned on putting the 3 kids in the family room. 2 on the sleeper sofa, and 1 on a mattress topper I hoped to request from the butler and have made into a bed on the floor (They often fight over who gets to use the couch cushions on sofa beds as their own bed since they prefer sleeping alone.) If there are sofa beds available that would probably be an even better solution! I just didn't think they'd have them on board since I don't think most cabins would have enough space for them. I know, first world problems...

Thanks, that's what concerned me. I might just send it in again. I suspect they've gotten a bunch of requests with the stock tanking...

Do you receive a confirmation that they received your email, or is the notification the credit shows up in your account? I sent mine in almost a week ago (tomorrow) and have heard nothing. Didn't know if I should have expected a 'we received your email' soon after submittal. Still over a hundred days before the cruise so not panicking!

Now they need to extend this to soft-drinks if you have the premium plus. My wife would easily pay the difference to upgrade if we could bring on a couple of 6 packs of diet-coke for her morning ritual!

Are you sure you have the right ship? The Bliss looks to be up in Alaska that week, and headed down to Mexico the week after... (My family is on that one.) Nowhere near NYC...