staceyglow

nm

I can see why some people might risk a day-of flight to a U.S. embarkation port, but IMO it is absolutely INSANE to do that for a European cruise. My personal experience has been that a significant number of my transcontinental flights have had some sort of significant delay. I would never fly the same day as my cruise to save $150 on a hotel room - even if I did have trip insurance.

This. All of the steaks are going to be prepared in basically the same way, likely by the same chef. Once you are past that, it depends on the quality of that particular steak, and there is always going to be a chance that you don't get the most ideal one. A lot of that is just luck of the draw. My advice is to choose a cut (filet, ribeye, strip, etc.) that you already know you like.

Of course the casino department has flexibility to give you gifts. Just like onland casino hosts. They are schmoozing you. If you have a really great PVP (like we do), his or her excellent service should be enough.

Exactly. If you are really set on a particular type of champagne, your best bet is to bring it onboard with you.

But I bet you didn't miss your cruise! 😃

I think they landed in Miami, but missed the cruise. They wound up just doing a land-based vacation in Florida. And no, they did not have trip insurance. They will going forward.

Yes, if you are flying, always go the day before. My brother and his GF missed a cruise out of Miami on Virgin because of flight delays.

No. Princess does, but not Carnival.

Carnival does not have a terminal in LA.

They had this on a couple of nights on a Journeys cruise I was on a couple of weeks ago. I don't know how people got invited. If it was based on loyalty, I certainly wouldn't qualify. I am platinum, and the their were hundreds of diamonds on this cruise. It did look really nice.

There are healthy options both in the MDR and the Lido buffet.

Brick and mortar travel agent?

I don't disagree. I was simply responding to the person who basically said that no one can drive to the San Juan port.

I am pretty sure the TV-based entertainment selections are the same on every ship - or at least it has been on the ships I have been on recently. And the last several cruises I have been on had bowls or plates of cookies at the dessert stand. It seems like the pastry chefs have a little leeway from ship to ship. For example, on some ships, they still will slice you a piece from a fancy, decorated cake. On others, they have a decorated round cake for show, but they serve pieces of sheet cake.

People who live in Puerto Rico can. And there are quite a number of those who like to cruise.

I think this has more to do with your health (and bravery) than your age . I am close to that age and I was on a Carnival slide last week. I plan to slide on the slides until I literally can't!

If I were your friend, I would tell you to not let this overly concerned parent ruin what sounds like a wonderful trip for these girls. If he he is that worried, his daughter doesn't have to go.

It makes sense that the Maitre'D allowed you to have a set table and time if you needed to pre-order your food for medical reasons. But to let everyone have a standing time and table for YTD would be defeat its entire purpose.

It's not. Unless this person found some sort of exception that I haven't heard about in 20+ YTD cruises, you have to check in every night. Now once you check in and told your table is ready, you can go to the hostess stand and request the same service team. But you can't just walk to "your" table and sit down every night like you do with set time dining.

Why exactly is this dad not recommending Cabo or Ensenada? Both places seem perfectly safe in my experience if you take the most basic precautions you would in any other city, especially if the group is well chaperoned. It sounds to me like an overabundance of caution on this dad's part. I hope it doesn't ruin the trip for everyone else.

And it's perfectly reasonable for a loyalty program to require you to be, you know, loyal.

There is another way, and that is to make credited days expire if you don't cruise for certain time period. Lots of airline royalty programs work that way.

You can drop and go. Not a problem.

That doesn't mean they can't change it.