cooncat_mom

I’ve had both hips replaced and been through the airport scanners (I was told the new ones are fine with hips - and they didn’t beep for me) and I’ve beeped at cruise ports. Just said both hips are replaced with titanium, a quick wand and they waved me through. Some ships beeped when I came back on after port stops and some didn’t. I just pointed at my hips and it was fine. I do have an ID card from my Ortho, but I’ve never had to produce it. I think the cruise ships are pretty used to hip and knee replacements! One quick suggestion though - you may want to bring a foldable cane if your replacements are still new. Because your muscles are still recovering from the replacements AND from the fact that we walked funny while our hips were deteriorating and you’ll be walking in a vessel that is moving (even though you may not notice) you may find that your hips get tired and a cane for a bit might help. Have a great time and enjoy the ability to walk! It’s been a couple of years for me and I’m still thankful I can pop up and scoot around!

Ahhh cruisinqt - so it sounds like if you use the tablet you’re locked into the dishes they think that you’re allowed to have. It’s too bad they include fish and shellfish under the same umbrella since they’re different allergies. I may try it anyway since there are other venues I can use if I don’t like what they decide I can have!

Abbydoo - feel free to jump in! It can get tricky to handle food restrictions when you travel so sharing information is really helpful. Even just hearing others’ stories is good. It’s kind of too bad we don’t have an official thread for this like the folks with disabilities or traveling with children have. After I cruise in October I’ll post about the allergy tablet and if it’s helpful or not.

Hi Nichole11! We actually didn’t stay in that cabin. After thinking more about it we stayed in a Boardwalk balcony cabin, #10329 which we very much enjoyed. It isn’t quieter than Central Park (which was lovely) but we enjoyed the scenery and activity more and we had a great view of the Aqua Theatre. One of our best cruises (but it was at half capacity so that helped too!)

Hi Nicole! I can understand their position which is why I don’t disclose either. Since I also have lifelong medication allergies and now, environmental allergies, I’m very aware of the difference between allergies and intolerance. Allergies can be life threatening - my intolerance is simply inconvenient. That’s why I was asking about the tablet and wondering if perhaps it would just list ingredients and not alert anyone. I’m aware of the resources on cruise ships, but this tablet is one I haven’t come across and so far haven’t had luck on the website learning about it. I’m totally comfortable “making good choices”.

Thanks d-train…This was why I asked. In my times of cruising I haven’t often shared the information with servers because they tend to jump to the conclusion there’s an allergy involved - and I can understand why they would do that! Because there’s not much information about the tablet, I thought I would ask here to find out from people who have used it and see if I could just look to see what the ingredients in the dish were without putting in any of my information. For those of you who are concerned, I have NEVER asked for special treatment or chosen special meals ahead of time. If I have any doubts, I can always find places to get plain burgers, chicken, hot dogs or salads (yeahhhh, I’m not a foodie!). I don’t ask the cruise line (or land restaurants either) to manage this - I do it myself. If I can eat their food, that’s great (and RCL had some good dishes on their vegan menu when we sailed with them) and if I can’t, I carry dairy-free protein bars as a back-up and powdered coconut milk packets for my coffee if nut milk isn’t readily available.

Thank you for the information - and it sounds helpful. I had read that someone used the tablet and the staff didn’t want them to eat something from the MDR that they thought would be a problem. Since an intolerance isn’t life threatening like an allergy is, I do have some leeway. If I look at the tablet and decide that a dish will not be a problem for me, I was wondering will I have the staff refuse to serve me that dish or will they be ok with my decision. If they’re going to go by what the tablet says, then I may be better off not checking it.

We're cruising Carnival for the first time in years this fall, and I've read on here about the Allergy Tablet they now use. I have a Lactose Intolerance (it's hours of abdominal pain and other stuff. Not fun!) and I control it with LactAid and wise choices. I don't have to be concerned about some cross contamination. I'd like to be able to check the MDR choices but was wondering if this will limit me to eating what the staff thinks is ok. For example, on NCL I've had the French Onion soup with no cheese or croutons (it was fine) but from the sounds of a post on here, I might be treated as if I have an true allergy and not have that choice todo that if they know. Has anyone had experience with this?

@PortSideCruzan Thank you for you answer to this topic. I don’t have the need of a service animal (and I am thankful. I have other challenges!) although I have had patients in the hospital I work at as well as a friend who had need of them. Your post was interesting and very informative.

I have to admit, I’ve been cruising for years and I’ve found a good cup of coffee to be rare! Our last NCL we had a Lavazza in the cabin and that was at least drinkable. My daughter mixes a packet of hot chocolate into the coffee to make it drinkable. I, too, will resort to tea…sad, really…😉😆

Thank you! I did see HMC when they came up and got a cabana. I also tried to book the Calypso Tolley Tour but it wouldn’t let me. Evidently the website thought that I wasn’t allowed to leave the cabana….A call to Carnival fixed that. Now waiting for Miami to come up and hopefully, Faster to the Fun.

Definitely Uber or Lyft to/from pier. Our experiences with the NJ cabs has not been good (unlike the NYC cabs which for us have been fine.) AmTrak is our preferred way to travel as well, although we arrive the day before just to be on the safe side,

To be honest, most of my other cruises have had excursions up fairly early, and the Venezia sailing has a whole bunch up for the the Bahamas also. I kind of thought maybe Miami isn’t locked in as a port stop for us…honestly, Port Canaveral or sea day would be fine too…I just want my body to be on the balcony! (Key West would be even better, but I think we’re too big….)

I’m glad you found your bag! On our last cruise (Royal) our bags were very late in coming to us - way after the other bags had been delivered and pulled into rooms. We do pack extra underwear in our carry on, but we’ve decided from then on, we’ll only pack a 22” carry on and our backpacks. We don’t mind repeating clothes and we don’t do formal nights (although my daughter had a very nice formal dress that could be rolled into a little ball and pop out ready to wear!) so we’ll be easy carry on/carry off!

Well, it's April and we have HMC excursions for our 10/14 Venezia sailing but still nothing at all for Miami. I had to call Carnival for something else awhile back and mentioned it to the rep. They didn't see any up either. Weird...!

We’re sailing the Venezia in October and had the same problem for Half Moon Cay - booked a cabana and then we wanted to do an excursion as well. The website wouldn’t let me book both of us even if I did it in my cruise companion’s name. I called Carnival and the rep transferred me to the Website person. She was quite familiar with the problem and said they can’t actually book the excursion (since their department isn’t set up to take payments) but she will send the information to the Carnival Venezia and when we get on the ship we should head to Shore Excursions and pay for/pick up our excursion tickets. Good luck!

I’m so sorry to hear that. It’s great the way housekeeping stepped up - and afterwards you probably had the cleanest cabin on the ship! I learned from my very first cruise that I need to always buy and pack hospital style emesis bags. On our first night my daughter had a horrendous migraine and made it to the bathroom. I made it to the gift shop and bought a $14 plastic beach bag for her to use for the rest of the night. Since then, barf bags come with us on cruises and are in our cars at all times. Naturally, we haven’t ever needed them since. I’m not upset about that 😉

True in my area too. Before I retired from EMS we made the call as well. Only a few of ours involved the police - otherwise, we called the funeral home and notified the patient’s doctor.

I apologize to those who asked me about my Boardwalk Balcony on RCI Oasis. I was absent for awhile. The Oasis size ships have “neighborhoods” and the Boardwalk is a replica of Boardwalk with shops, a carousel and the AquaTheatre. There are cabins on either side of the Boardwalk and that’s what we had. The cabin windows facing each other don’t bother me since there are curtains you can pull to shut the view. We had Cabin 10329 and this is the view from it.

Have you gone back to the hospital to see if they can fix this or give you something official -looking while you wait for paperwork? They will have documentation in their records that she was born a girl and should be able to give you something proving that they delivered a girl. Hopefully, it will embarrass them some as well and also give you some peace about this so you can enjoy your vacation.

Thanks Kelkel2 and ShakyBeef. I’ll keep looking!

Just wondering - when you look to purchase FTTF, does it show up up in its own category in the Cruise Manager or is it under one of the other categories? We’ll probably purchase it if it opens up on our sailing (although I’m more impressed with Royal’s The Key which includes WiFi and an embarkation lunch in the MDR).

I have to say though, I'm not a NY'er (not for almost 50 years!) and we haven't stayed there since pre-Covid, so I haven't seen the area in a few years. I do know they haven't moved Times Square or Pier 88/90 though!

It was about a mile from Times Square and about 2 blocks (5-10 minutes depending how far you walk and how cooperative your luggage is!) to Pier 88.

Several for the 10/14 sailing? When I go through our excursions for our sailing they have Freeport, Nassau and NYC. If we try to go through Half Moon Cay on the website it says not available on our sailing. Hmmm….maybe it’s me….maybe they’re mad at me that it’s been so long since we sailed them! 😆