the_lovely_voyage

This is HUGE! I'm really confused of the motivation behind these cancellations though. Like Fascination, is that because San Juan/PR is saying no cruises until 2022? Or Radiance on the long sailings because certain ports are also closed through 2022? Would love additional info/insight.
Also a little annoyed that they're still saying they'll begin other cruises in October.

Thanks kdr69- that seems to be what I was seeing, but then I would see another post about "let Carnival cancel first" so then I wasn't sure. Good to know about the full paid piece though; would be good to know if your result would be the same for me if not fully paid.

kdr69, did you fully book a brand new cruise, or did you transfer the funds to an already booked future sailing? I do have a future sailing for November 2021 and wouldn't mind transferring the current Panorama funds to that sailing.

15 minutes ago, Cruising_Addict said:

That doesn’t apply to you anyway, because your sailing is in October. So it’s moot. If you don’t want to sail, cancel. Otherwise, you are risking the sailing going on as planned, in which case you will lose a lot more than just the deposit when you eventually have to cancel. Probably 100% of the cruise fare if you wait right up until the sailing date to see if they end up cancelling. 

Thanks SO much for actually reading my post. 🙄 I clearly acknowledged the statement says September, but I asked about if the sailing advisory got pushed further out. They've done it before. That date used to not say September, so clearly it's changed. I'm aware of how the normal cancellation schedule works. I'm asking specifically about COVID cancellations and FCC/OBC support.

I can't speak to the deposit piece, but the website does say this:
 

Regardless of the option you select, your taxes, fees and port expenses, Carnival Vacation Protection, pre-paid gratuities, pre-purchased Carnival shore excursions, beverage and Wi-Fi packages, and Fun Shop purchases will be automatically refunded to the original form of payment.

We've stayed in the Havana once and we LOVED it. We had it booked for two upcoming Carnival cruises on the Panorama and Mardi Gras as well. It's definitely a great private space for lounging/swimming/drinking. It's just my husband and I, so I can't speak for the family harbor or traveling with kids, but my vote would still be for the Havana.

Hi All,
I'm feeling really dense about the whole cruise cancellation FCC and OBC scenario. I have read through Carnival's rules and forms multiple times as well as lots of board posts to try to understand everything. I feel like I'm seeing some conflicting info too. After all of that, I'm still confused and need your expert knowledge to help with my situation:
 

We're currently scheduled on the Panorama sailing out of Long Beach on October 3rd, with a final payment date of July 20th. My husband and I have decided that we don't feel safe flying or cruising and will not be on this cruise. 

If we cancel now before the 20th, we only lose $100. I've read the phrase "Let Carnival cancel" on here a lot, which makes me think that if we cancel on our own volition, we totally forfeit ANY potential Carnival offers. However, the wording from Carnival's advisory says: "Carnival will honor this offer for any guests who were previously booked on voyages departing September 30, 2020 or prior and canceled their booking on or after March 6, 2020."   This reads as: if YOU cancel your cruise, and then Carnival cancels the sailing, you CAN still get the FCC and $600 OBC offer. Of course it's currently through 9/30, so let's pretend that we cancel our cruise, then Carnival updates their sailing advisory to a later date and cancels my sailing; We are still eligible to receive the bonus offer, correct? 
 

Of course we do understand that if we cancel and the sailing actually occurs as planned, then we're just out our $100, and we are okay with that.  I currently have only paid $650 of the full bill, so if we cancel, and the sailing occurs, do I get the other $550 refunded to my original payment? If I cancel and then they cancel, does all $650 of what I've put in so far go to the future cruise credit?

Finally, do I need to have paid the full bill in order to be eligible for the FCC/OBC?

Clearly, I'm all sorts of confused about this. I really would appreciate the help in sorting out this mess. Thank you!

Hey all!

I’m sure that anything and everything Carnival Horizon has been answered by now, but just in case it hasn’t- what do you want to know??

I’m gearing up for my Havana experience on the Horizon leaving on Sunday and would love to be able to answer loads of questions from Cruise Critic members. It’s a 6 night to Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. 

Let me know and I’ll do my best to find out!

Thanks SO much Cooperjet!!

I'm not sure what happened but I definitely replied to this thread yesterday, and then Ourusualbeach replied to my post last night, and now somehow both of our posts are gone. Not really sure what that's about.

To answer ethanfite56's question (again), the drydock for the Freedom is apparently scheduled for January 20-February 22, 2020. It will be getting the Royal Amplified Upgrades, similar to the Independence's upgrades.

On 1/14/2019 at 11:31 AM, PrincessDuck said:

We just got off the January 6th cruise and I have all but one day of the fun times.  I can post them on Wednesday when we actually make it home.  We are spending a few days in Key West before heading home.

Hey PrincessDuck, just wondering if you had the chance to post the fun times yet? Super excited to see them to prepare for our March cruise!
 

I’m not sure if you saw it but I did a review from my Magic trip in June. 

https://thelovelyvoyage.blogspot.com/2018/06/carnival-magic-june-2018-intro-and-pre.html?m=1

According to Carnival's FAQ: A $15 USD corkage fee, per 750 ml bottle, will be charged should guests wish to consume their wine or champagne in the main dining room, specialty restaurant or bar.

A corkage fee is a charge assessed at time of service at a restaurant for every bottle served that is not bought on the premises.

That leads me to believe if you buy a bottle at the dining room, you're not charged the fee.

Here's a wine menu from the Magic in June 2018; includes bottle and glass prices.

Great report so far, looking forward to reading the rest.

 

 

 

Was there not an entrance to the fort where you marked with a yellow star? That is where we entered a couple of years ago.

Thanks so much for reading!!

No there wasn’t an entrance where we first tried at the yellow star. It definitely seemed like there should’ve been an entrance, but instead there was just a sign saying that visitors must enter down the road, where I have the blue arrow. Totally makes sense that you entered up there before, so I’m guessing that they’ve since closed it off.

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After dinner, we sat for more formal photos then headed to the Red Frog Pub for adult trivia. Spoiler: WE WON!! It was definitely for adults only and the staff member running the quiz was adamant about checking how old people were when they tried to walk in. She also often announced that it was adult trivia, so no worries about accidentally walking into something you're not prepared for. The questions were raunchy and of a sexual nature, so don't sign up if you're not willing to answer them. We chose a 101 oz beer tube for our prize, and shared it with other people that were playing trivia but couldn't pull out a win 😉 We sat at our table enjoying our winnings while playing cards, mostly rummy, for quite a while before polishing off the tube with a lot of help from new found friends.

Thanks again to my husband for sitting through photos!

Cheers!

All gone 😊

There were new formal pictures posted to our account, so we walked over to Pixels to check those out. We then sat in the Ocean Plaza and listen the the band again for a while. Yet again, they put on an amazing performance and we really enjoyed listening to their talent. We stopped in the piano bar for all of a minute before realizing that the pianist/singer was alright but definitely not great, and he seemed to get worse after he drinks. I'm not saying I could do better, but I also wouldn't audition to play on a ship.... With this, we headed to the cabin to rest up for our last day at sea.

UP NEXT: Friday, Day at Sea

We had a GREAT waitstaff tonight and would end up requesting them for tomorrow night's dinner as well. Bojan was our headwaiter and Krisztina and Bobby were assisting him. Much more speedy service than the first formal night, and they were very friendly and took time to talk with us. I had the shrimp cocktail for appetizer, which was a classic and tasty, and my husband had the four season salad which was fresh and good. For my entree, I ordered the spanikopita since I remembered how good it was when my husband had it on the honeymoon. It didn't disappoint and was actually so tasty that I found it to be a little small and I wanted more. My husband had the mushroom fusilli, which was "very mushroom-y but good and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would" -direct quote.

Dessert for both of us was the warm chocolate melting cake, or whatever they actually call it now. It's like how they want people to call the Sears Tower in Chicago the Willis Tower, but it'll always just be the Sears Tower. These WCMC were our first of the cruise and super amazing. I ordered a side of peanut butter, as I had seen many times on Cruise Critic, and it was an extra kick of delicious I never knew I was missing. My husband got butter pecan ice cream instead of vanilla and loved it.

Spanikopita

Mushroom Fusilli

Asked for peanut butter and loved it! Thanks CC for the recommendation!

My husband getting fancy with his dessert photo

Along with seeing Topher running on the beach, there was another dog, Calypso, who is a brown Labradoodle, and a mystery dog who enjoyed playing together. It was so much fun to watch them play and definitely made us miss our pup at home. The beach at Jack's Shack was well kept and was definitely a prime piece of real estate. When the hurricanes came through last year, we were very worried about how Jack's Shack would pull through and we were so glad to see that they were up and operating. Guests can rent an umbrella and two beach chairs for $10 and someone would set it up for you wherever you'd like. We stayed with our beach towels in the sand, but it's not a bad price if you're planning on being there for a long amount of time.

Calypso and Topher

Around lunch time, we moved back to a table and ordered some conch fritters for a little snack. There were 8 bites for $8 (well, actually $9 with tax) so not a super great deal but they were pretty delicious. They are a little spicy as a heads up. Our waitress never came back to our table to check on us or bring the bill after she dropped off the food, so after people watching and enjoying the scenery for about 20 minutes, my husband went up to the bar to pay. Of course then our waitress approached my husband and was annoyed that we were paying at the bar. Well, how long do we sit without even a check-in or bill before we need to do it ourselves? Jack's Shack has a few "showers" to rinse off in as well as bathrooms and a gift store (that has awesome A/C, which was a bonus).

After spending a handful of hours at Jack's Shack, a place I would highly recommend to anyone checking out GT, we walked back towards the ship and found our way into Margaritaville. It was definitely a happening place but it was pretty hot in the sun so we weren't too interested in just hanging out. We walked around and took some pictures and did some shopping as well. It was a nice area and parts seemed brand new, maybe they had to rebuild and/or repaint some of the port area after the hurricanes last year? We got back onto the ship and my husband headed to the water slides while I went to the Serenity. FYI, the decks are very hot without shoes; we both learned the hard way haha.

Inside Margaritaville looking at the ship

Food was calling our name so my husband had a Guys burger and I had a pina colada and some dessert in the Lido. We found that the cakes are often too dry/overcooked/hard and that's pretty unfortunate because the look super delicious. The chocolate chip cookies were always good though, so at least we had those to fill the void! Lounging on the beach is somehow very exhausting, so we took a nap in the room then watched some Netflix on the balcony. Our next-door neighbors were very noisy and we could hear them through the regular wall in our room as well as very clearly on their balcony. Why is it necessary to scream when you talk? I'm not so sure. We watched sailaway from our balcony at 3:50 pm, which was only 20 minutes after "all aboard," so people must've really had their stuff together. We continued lounging about before packing up some of our clothes and then getting dressed for the last formal night dinner. All in all, I would have no hesitation about putting Grand Turk in my top 5 cruise ports. Jack's Shack delivered as promised, and the water and beaches were beautiful. We have no current plans to cruise back to GT, but I'm very much ready to stop there again.

Appreciated our balcony a lot more this trip!

Our view when leaning right out of the balcony

That beautiful water color doesn't photograph as well as it looked

June 2018 menu:

June 2018 menu:

The ocean water was really warm for early in the morning and I enjoyed just wading in the water and taking photos of the beautiful surroundings. After hanging out in the ocean for a bit, we moved our belongings to the sand and laid out in the sun. We did a combination of swimming and tanning for about two hours before grabbing a local beer that was really good. Sitting on the beach looking at the ship and the water had an incredibly calming effect on me and I was already dreaming of the next time we could come back to GT!

Digging that view

That water color though....

For the past few years, I've wanted a photo with our ship in the background like this and I finally got it!

The travelling Hawkeye flag makes another appearance

Thursday, June 21- Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos

It was an early morning when we got up and ready for our beach day at 7:30 a.m. While getting ready, we opened our blinds and saw this gorgeous view of Grand Turk from our balcony and it made us that much more antsy to get off the ship. Breakfast consisted on Blue Iguana huevos rancheros and I was so relieved that my food tasted much better than the other day. We grabbed new towels from the stand on the Lido deck because our room steward took our dirty ones but didn't give us new ones, which seemed weird but maybe they don't do that anymore?

We made it!

Debarking off the ship was easy and we walked down the pier. Of course they built the duty free shop right at the end of the pier so passengers are forced to walk through the stores before getting to the beach. I got a little turned around about how to get to Jack's Shack (our plan for the day) but quickly remedied it once I found the shoreline again. While walking through the sand, there were A LOT of people yelling at us trying to sell things such as beach chair spots and horseback rides. Some people were trying to charge $4 for a beach chair right outside the pier (pictured above) and Margaritaville, but last time I checked, that area was free to use, so be careful about that. The walk to Jack's Shack was a little bit longer than I originally anticipated, but it wasn't too bad- only a handful of minutes. Once we saw Topher the Doodle playing in the sand up ahead of us, we knew we made it!! We watched him play for a little bit before grabbing a seat under an umbrella at a table.

Topher!

A magnificent sight

That water is absolutely amazing:

SO SORRY that I stopped updating! Hopefully people will still read along and find this helpful!!

Would you use GoPortCanaveral again? We need to find a hotel soon and it sounds like a good deal

I would absolutely use them again. We've definitely used them twice, but it might even be three times. It was a little frustrating that they didn't offer to make any sort of change or help us since the ship was delayed boarding, so that was a strike against them for us, but it won't stop us from considering them in the future. I don't know if it's the BEST deal on the internet, but I do think it does help a lot and it's nice that one company is managing all of your transportation and board for the night.

Wife & I are looking to do the couple massage with hot tub......

Is it better to book on a sea day or port day?

And with the hot tub was it extra?

Thanks

I think the hot tub is used in certain services, but I don't think we could've used it with the Swedish massage. Peruse the spa menu and/or your Cruise Manager to see what services include the hot tub on your ship. Price-wise, it is definitely cheaper to book on a port day. They offer discounts because less people are likely to use it those days.

This menu is now on the Vista and Breeze, per JH.

 

 

 

We've booked the CT for the Vista in October, so we're pretty stoked. We'd had the former menu on the Breeze 10/2016. :)

So does this mean it’s not on the Horizon as stated earlier?

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This is the newest exclusive to the Horizon .. which is not the same as what is current on the Vista ..

 

 

 

 

This just convinced me to book the CT for the Horizon in March. Thank you!

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We ate in the Lido for dinner before heading to the Red Frog Pub at 7 for trivia. It was a totally different set up than we had ever seen before, and we weren't a big fan of it. The quiz master gave 10 questions for everyone playing, then the top three teams who scored the highest went on to the next round. We tied for highest score with 8/10 questions correct, so we moved on to the next part of the quiz- rapid fire questions. One team would approach the quiz master, and we would ask each person to name three things belonging to a a category in give seconds. Either that person got three things named or they didn't. The number of categories answered by your team determined your score for that round. Confused? Yeah, us too. Basically the staff member would ask me to name three types of dogs in five seconds, and then he would ask my husband to name three types of spices, and so on. We tied with a team of five people, so we both went on to another round of rapid fire. I choked on my second category so my husband carried our team to victory!! He was a rockstar and the quiz master was definitely in awe that the two of us beat a team of five. We got a free fishbowl as our prize- wooo!

There was Caribbean music playing in the pub after the quiz game, so we stayed around to drink our fishbowl and play cards and Pass the Pigs. It was a great time just relaxing and enjoying the music. We did comment on the fat that we spent less time in the Red Frog Pub than we did on the Vista, which is where we spent a majority of our ship time. It was an early night because my husband was tired, so we retired to the room to watch some Netflix before going to sleep.

UP NEXT: Thursday, Grand Turk

There's our ship!

He sort of looks like he's selling the Carnival water bottle

Our massage therapists greeted us in the relaxation room and escorted us to our large room with a hot tub and beautiful views of the island and water. They got to know us a bit and left us to get ready. This was my 4th massage on a cruise ship (I think) so I was familiar with the whole process, but my husband hadn't ever had a cruise massage, so he was surprised by the dry brushing with the cactus bristles, but he said it was different and liked it. We both loved the warm oil they used, and he also liked the cooling oil at the end. The aromatherapy was also awesome and the rice eye mask was nice. The experience was very relaxing but it was a little weird hearing my husband make noises as the massage therapist worked through the knots in his shoulders, so that made it a little less relaxing. After the massages were done, we were left to relax for a few minutes before they came to ask us to change. They finished with the typical upsell of Elemis products, which was annoying and I had warned my husband in advance to not commit to anything.

We held hands for maybe one minute before my husband let go. So romantic...not.

My husband being artsy with his photography

Plumeria, I believe:

We left at 2pm and had a very bumpy and loud ride back, but there was amazing scenery to look at. I have no reservations about recommending the excursion we did, it was so much fun and definitely full of adventure and thrills. Upon returning to the Amber Cove port, we took some time to walk around and at least see the area before getting back on the ship. The pool and cabanas were fun to see and we wanted to stay out there a bit longer but the sun was pretty unbearable and we had to be back onboard for our massage, so we left after buying a few trinkets. We took quick showers then made our way up to the spa for our couples Swedish massage.

A confusing set of directions

Yes, this is indeed paradise

After all of the adventures were done, we were served lunch with water, Sprite, and Coke. My husband loved the baked chicken, and I though the pineapple was delicious. The scenery was beautiful and such a nice place to have lunch at. We were shown the gardens and vegetation in the area, but it seemed a little rushed and we would've liked to have a bit more time to wander around and see the area. We were also shown a demonstration of carving petrified wood and creating liquid chocolate and coffee, which were all a part of a sales pitch to sell local crafts. That was a little annoying but we do understand. I ended up buying a $40 USB of our photos from the day (forgot to mention there were two photographers that followed the group around all day) since I wanted photos of us ziplining and riding the horses instead of just the photos we took of the scenery. Our USB consisted of 140 photos which is awesome, but I feel like $40 is a little steep. They know people are going to buy them and it does give us more memories of the awesome day, so I was okay with it.

What an awesome lunch view!

The story of the traveling flag!

My internet sources tell me this is Heliconia, but please let me know if I'm wrong!

I spotted a hummingbird and it was super cool

Key Limes!

Cocoa pods: