rdevine10

Hoping someone can point me in the right direction to make sure our reservations are linked with another family.  

A little info:

Carnival Magic 

2 families (total of 7 people) both booked with DIFFERENT travel agents. 

I know the easiest thing is to just switch to YTD but we are both booked for EARLY and I much prefer this as I have a food allergy and our worst experience was with Carnival with YTD. We have had many great cruises with a set dining and significantly prefer it. 

Is calling carnival still the best way to do this? Or will we each have to rely on our travel agents as we booked through them? 

thanks!

Take the upgrade? Magic cove to balcony 11 or spa 

got an offer for an upgrade to mid ship on deck 11 for $44 or a spa for $175. Incredibly torn. Motion has been an issue for myself and one of my daughters so I prefer mid ship. 

Pros or cons? How much noise do you hear on deck 11? Currently our room is deck 2 cove under the dining room, midship.

we had an extended balcony once forward on the legend and I swore never again forward, as the seas were rough and I felt sick. 

Help! 

Hi,

Just looking to see if anyone know what time self debarkation typically starts - we are on the Breeze. 

Thanks!

thanks!

I was just looking at the drink menus and I was wondering if anyone knows if Carnival offers Tito's as a option for drinks? I see that they use Sky Vodka in the martinis and Titos is certified gluten free. Our last cruise was on Royal and they offered Titos. Not doing the cheers package this time, was just curious is anyone knew? It wont be the end of the world if they dont- I will just choose another drink at dinner or nightly show. 

Thanks in advance! 

We love the western as its more adventurous with a mix of beach time. It suits our family well as we all get a little of what we want. 

That being said we are doing Eastern for our next cruise (Grand Turk, Amber Cove, St Thomas and San Juan). 

For western, our least favorite port is Belize- but I actually love having one port where we stay on the boat when most people get off! So its a win-win!

Just trying to figure out what we should do first. We arrive in St Thomas at 11:30 am (in port until 7 pm). We are thinking of doing magen's bay and paradise point on our own. What would you do first? At Paradise Point, we are probably just going to take a few pictures and briefly explore only. Thanks!

I have a gluten intolerance and I have never had issues taking sealed pre-packaged snacks off the ship (ie: protien bars, etc) and we have been to Cozumel several times.

When we went to Chankanaab - we bought american snacks in sealed packages (ie chips or ice cream etc) that I was 100% certain was gf. This was several years ago.

We have also gone to Paradise beach. Great place, but I could not be certain what we ordered was 100% gf.

Good luck!

Our last trip there we brought refillable water bottles and a few pre-packaged snacks. I have dietary restrictions so it is needed. We did order drinks and food too! Traveling with kids I rarely go anywhere without something as a snack/drink back up!

excellent. Thank you so much!

We have cruised several times but this is our first time booking with a Travel Agent. I couldnt pass up the OBC. I know the Travel Agent must do everything with the reservation- but do you know if I should be able to "see" the reservation on my "upcoming crusies" on the RCCL website? We have past guest numbers with them. (I currently do not see the reservation there- and I will call the TA and RCCL later when I am not at work if I need to).

Just looking to see if how I can watch if the beverage packages etc go on sale, look at excursions etc. Any insight would be appreciated and helpful.

Thanks!

We sailed the Sunshine last april for our spring break with our kids.

Biggest issues were: only 1 family pool and it was crowded ALL of the time. Even at night. I was very stressful watching my kids in that pool (reminded me of the Disney Dream pools which were super super overcrowded and IMO often dangerous).

2nd issue was the layout of our balcony cabin for 4. The bottom bunk was not the sofa - it folded out and took up a TON of floor space. Our 1st time with this set up and lets say it was just annoying. Not a deal breaker for sure.

The ship did feel more crowded to me, but not awful. The water slides were fun, the ropes course great.

The Sunshine was our least favorite cruise (pool issue for my kids) BUT we still had a great time! Port Canaveral is our favorite port to sail from (we have family near there) and have decided not to sail the Sunshine again- so we will pick other options until she gets moved from there!

I never reviewed our April Sunshine cruise. It was my least favorite cruise, but we still had a GREAT time!

Our biggest issues:

-quad cabin layout with the bottom "bunk" aka sofa taking up so much floor space.

-lack of pools on the ship. 2 with that many passengers (only 1 for families) was just so tight. Even night swimming was impossible (which we had never had an issue with on our other cruises).

Otherwise the ship was beautiful and clean. If we had been kidless the Serenity area was AMAZING. I loved it, but never spent more than 10 min walking around it one evening, taking pictures!!!! :rolleyes:

We loved all the food choices, did feel the food was better on our other cruises (especially at the Lido buffet- the chocolate buffet was awful - even according to kids!

But, fun is what you make- we had a GREAT time. Someday we might try her again (kidless!!!).

I live in Colorado and Elementary through High School and College all take their Spring break in March. Wife and I have our cruise planned April 17th and hope most of the spring break is done and over so were not over run by kids.

FYI- that week is spring break for most of new england (CT, MA & NH at least). We are currently getting ready to book (likely the Splendor for that week).

But, I promise my kids dont go running wild and I dont use the ship as a babysitter!

Hi all-

I know all the amenities the Breeze has over the Splendor but just looking for opinions on the following:

1. Which feels less crowded? (Lido and pools) - our kids like to swim some. It was IMPOSSIBLE on our Sunshine cruise to swim at all (even at night). Huge disappointment. Kids are willing to forgo waterworks, ropes course etc if the Splendor has a less crowded feel. My thoughts are the Splendor it will feel like a Conquest Class ship? But I cannot compare the Breeze to anything so... I need some help please!

2. Which offers decent shade seating around the Lido area?

Many thanks....

Thinking about our next cruise. We have been on the the following Carnival ships:

Legend, Freedom and Sunshine

Loved the Legend, Freedom was pretty good and although nice we were not fans of the Sunshine (crowds and only 1 family pool was a huge issue).

I know the Breeze has the most activities but what ship do you like best and why. Im removing itinerary and price as each is close enough in price and we like the places they all go.

Things we like: ability to find a table in the shade for a bit, pools my kids can swim in occasionally (not like sardines). All have at least 1 waterslide while the Breeze has the waterpark and thrill theater and ropes course.

How crowded are the pools on the Breeze- I see both are for kids? (My kids will be 13 and 10 for the trip).

Trip date: 3rd week April 2016

Thanks!!!

We sailed the Sunshine on April 11 (as a previous poster did). We never really had an issue finding any seating on deck- even on sea days.

We loved many things about this ship, however, only having one family pool was a real negative to us. Even in the evening hours the pool was still very busy (it had not been that way on our other cruises). Our lesson we learned is our kids want to swim (we knew going in that this could be an issue but they really wanted to go on a ship with a waterpark). In the end, as much as we had a GREAT vacation (it was my 40th bday), we are now taking a break from cruising, as the kids enjoy the pools the most and a land vacation seems a better fit.

Have fun on the Sunshine, she may be a refurb but she really was very pretty!!! (I would of loved to spend some time in serenity, it was HUGE!)

Edited to add: our other issue with the sunshine was the layout of the quad balcony room we were in. The sofa/aka bottom bunk was not as it had been on our other cruises. The bottom bed needed to be made into an L shape for the bottom person to have a full length bed. HUGE space waster!

We always travel with food either by car or plane since we have had kids. That being said I gluten free and we always bring something I can eat as it can be tough to travel and make sure I'm still eating safely! Protein bars will work in a pinch. Sometimes we do get food on shore too. I'm would just rather be prepared than hungry or listening to my kids (who never seem to stop eating- they are both growing like crazy) complain the are hungry!!!

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Thank you all for taking the time to help me. I wasn't worried about food at all, just the inconvenience of getting tickets. YTD is a must for us. Now I'm wondering about snorkeling in such windy conditions. Has anyone snorkeled there?

We have snorkeled in Aruba several times on land based vacations there. I believe we used someone called Jolly Pirates. We always had great snorkeling there. Aruba is always windy. There are parts of the island where the beaches do seem windier. The area by the Hyatt had less sandblasting wind than the area by what was the Westin (on Palm Beach). HTH

I have 3 kids and we cruised last spring break on NCL, this spring break on CCL. It was not horrible, but yes lots of kids. It was fine with us because my kids are not the problem

 

However, I totally understand the desire to cancel and rebook, I see you are moving out of the FL area, perhaps you could look into something out of Texas during the school year, maybe the beginning or second week in May?

 

I know it's your anniversary, but for us, we don't worry about the particular date if something else comes up. Our honeymoon 17 years ago was in August, but the wedding was the previous May due to business (his) and grad school (me) commitments. The date would mean less to me than having a better time, and if that means less kids than I would move the date. But obviously, jmho

We have cruised or been to Disney World the last 4 spring breaks. yes- there are lots of kids. But its been fine- granted we have kids. But I would also recommended picking another time of year if you think it will impede your enjoyment. Years ago for our 2nd anniversary (in July) we celebrated in September and even for our 15th (which was a cruise) we celebrated in August. To us its not about the date- its about when works for us to go and when is the best time to go. The 2nd anniversary we waited till September as we KNEW the kids would be back in school! Enjoy!

We also use the insuremytrip dot com site. I just bought a great policy the other day and it was 100 for our family of 4. I buy it mostly for medical and medivac. But it covers our flights and many other things too! I have used this site for many years and always gotten a good price.

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FWIW we saw more drunk people on our Disney cruise than any carnival one. We are not really drinkers or gamblers either and always enjoy Carnival!

thanks for a great start to a review! We are on the Sunshine in a few weeks- cant wait!

Conquest class? IMHO, not worth it even at a lower price. The room moves a lot even in calm seas. It takes forever to get anywhere, the walk isn't bad it's just a long way to everything through the most crowded part of the ship.

Sunshine. And before she started her sales pitch I told her I wasnt interested as I do not like to be that far forward (due to movement). She then told me I would not feel any movement there. While I didnt say anything not nice, I totally disagree. We have stayed forward before and NEVER again for us. We are too motion sensitive!

Presidential Suite? Is that what they called it?

Oops I meant captain's suite. I guess i was thinking for that price the president should be staying in it!