Baby_Bear

I think it really depends. If the price drop meant a certain cabin category that I was interested in but was previously too expensive had suddenly become affordable, then I think I would do the cabin upgrade. Hopefully, it would result in a better cruise experience. But if I was happy with what I had, I'd take the OBC. Good to get more spending money which cuts down your on-board final bill! In your case, it worked out perfectly for you as you like the coves.

I can not wrap my mind around how one can pack for an 8-day cruise in one carry-on:eek:

 

DH and I take two large pieces for clothes, shoes and toiletries. We each have a carry on for our snorkeling equipment, cameras and other electronics and meds. We also carry a garment bag for our dress clothes.

 

No way am I going to do laundry while I am on vacation:eek::eek:.

But why do you need to? Carnival has a 15/bag special, so you can send it out. We were on the Breeze in Aug 2012 sailing in the Med for 12 days. We did have one suitcase each as the total trip was 16 days. We sent out the laundry twice on the cruise. For a total of $30, we got back fresh clean clothes. And that really cut down on how much laundry we had to do when we got back to the US.

You are fortunate. So far, my lost luggage count is BA (twice), Air France (also twice - think that's why i stopped flying those two airlines!) and Delta (once). The Delta incident occurred at the start of a cruise last year, where the brain surgeons in baggage handling at JFK simply didn't load our bag onto the flight (dunno, maybe they didn't care for the color design) and we arrived in FLL minus the bag. Took them 2 days to locate it (so even arriving the day before was no good) and send to the first port of call, which was not a fun experience. BTW, Carnival was awesome, they constantly were in touch with Delta and kept me up to date, I had much more confidence in them than in Delta. I totally agree with ducklite - its much easier to manage with carry on if possible. Which I've done all the time for shorter (3-4 day) trips, but I'm glad that so many have had good experiences doing carry on for 1 week+ trips as well. You guys have encouraged me to give it a shot!

How early do you get in? Do you have time to hit a Walgreens or CVS before you have to be at the port? If you have time, pack an empty bag in your carry on and then hit if for toiletries.

Our flight lands around 11 am. I deliberately picked the early flight in case of any delays. I think I will plan to tell the cabbie to take us to a CVS that's en route. And he can leave the meter on while we run in to get what we need. Great idea about packing a bag! I have a nice beach tote I can bring and it packs totally flat.

You guys are great! Thanks for being so encouraging! Lisa - thanks for pointing out about the size of clothes, I didn't think about that. We are both fairly skinny (my mom even more than me) so I think we should be OK. And I'll avoid packing any jeans or anything that is bulky.

How about toiletries? Have you found that travel sized bottles were OK? Or did you buy stuff either on boarding day or in one of the ports?

Awesome! Good to hear the ladies saying yes! I kinda figured the guys would!:D

Of course it's possible to do an 8 day cruise or a b2b with just one carry on piece of luggage. I've done it many times. But then I'm a guy. 1 pr dockers, 4 polo shirts, 8 tees, 2 shorts, 2 bathing suits, hat, briefs, sox, water shoes, and snorkel go into carry on. Camera, binoculars, meds, passport, travel docs, and cell phone go into shoulder bag.

 

Is it cheating if I mention laundry perk for being platinum?

Guys have it so easy!:D But yes, we are planning to send out the laundry midway thru the cruise. I hope Carnival still has the $15/bag special? Its been over a year since I cruised with them. On our recent RCL cruise, I noticed that the price was $30/bag, ouch! We didn't need it as it was only a 4-dayer.

Wowsa, that's a lot! I don't think I've ever needed more than one bag to myself and usually am happy to share a checked bag! But I think that comes from having traveled a lot in Europe/Asia where you are often on the move every 3-4 days and find that it's easier to have one bag (or less) and preferably a light one for lugging off and on trains, airports, etc. We were planning to send out the laundry midway through the cruise. But the liquids thing does concern me slightly for the haircare products, lol! I figured I could just buy the sunscreen in Miami en route to the port!

We have an 8-day cruise on the Breeze coming up in August. We are seriously debating doing carry on for the trip and I was wondering what you guys think - has anyone done it? If so, how did it work out?

We'll be flying in to Miami the morning of the cruise and flying out the morning of debarkation. Last year, we had a really bad experience on Delta flying into Fort Lauderdale when our one bag (we were sharing a suitcase) went missing, and they could not deliver it till the third day of the cruise. I don't care about the $50 RT bag fee, I just don't want that to ever happen again. And flying in the night before is not an option with the hours I work...so hence the carry on idea. My cruise partner is my mom and being August, it'll be all summer dresses that don't take up a ton of space, two cocktail dresses for the formal nights, etc. My only concern is whether travel sized bottles (<100 ml) of my favorite shampoo and conditioner will be enough, lol!

Wonderful thread. I'm getting choked up as I type this. We had a very sad event in my family last year, its still hard to even think about it. We have all been trying to deal with it in different ways. My mom and I took a short cruise in May and found it to be very relaxing and soothing, so much so, we have another one booked in August. Now, the first anniversary is coming up in October. Normally, the rest of the family is not interested in cruising, but I think we've convinced them to at least think about it. And if we go, we'll pick a cruise that is over that day. It will be a very tough day for everyone, but hopefully being away and all being together will help. And also in a relatively anonymous environment where no one knows you and you don't have to deal with running into people while shopping, etc. or worse, run into someone you haven't seen in a while and they didn't know. I don't think I can deal with any more shocked faces for a while.

The one thing I will tell you - there's no right way or wrong way to deal with it. Just go with your gut and you'll know what's right for you. And remember that grief is not dealt with in a sequential manner - its not that the first day hurts most, second day a little less, etc. You'll have lots of ups and downs, some good days and some really bad ones. I hope you find peace and happiness.

Here's my take - my first cruise was on HAL in 2011, going to Alaska. They were running a great flash sale and we got a Deluxe Verandah Suite guarantee for an awesome price. We booked SC category and got upgraded to SA, which was even better. HAL has nice suite perks like free laundry, sparkling wine and fruit plate on embarkation, free pressing on formal nights, breakfast for suite pax at Pinnacle Grill, concierge lounge where the concierge will help you with everything from shore excursions, dining reservations, etc.

Now, our next cruise was on Carnival in 2012 in the Caribbean. I knew they had zero perks (aside from the priority embarkation) going in. We were in an Ocean Suite. And we discovered something odd - we didn't miss the suite perks! They were (in retrospect) nice to have, but not essential for us (you may feel differently). About the only thing we missed was the free laundry, but with the $15/bag special Carnival runs, it kind of evened out. And while we liked HAL, we had thought the atmosphere was a bit...not stuffy, but maybe more formal. And definitely class-conscious, depending on what category you were in. For some reason, Carnival's more egalitarian approach just worked better for us.

We've now done two more Carnival cruises and have a fourth booked for August, all in Ocean or Grand Suites. We just like having the extra room as there's enough space to chill out and enjoy. And there is no doubt that Carnival's suites are usually priced well. But for us, its also about itinerary and often, we find Carnival has more interesting Caribbean itineraries than RCL or Princess.

I do agree that $7,500 is a lot to pay. In 2012, we had paid $5,800 - but that was a 12-day Med cruise in a Grand Suite on the (then brand new) Carnival Breeze. And we were going to premium ports - we started in Venice (docked overnight), then went to Dubrovnik, Messina, Olbia, Rome, Florence, Monaco and ended in Barcelona. And European port charges are higher than in the Caribbean. So it was worth while for us. But to pay $7,500 for a 7 or 8 day Caribbean cruise is too rich for my blood. Carnival's suites are pretty nice though.

So, it has been almost 9 years since our last cruise with CCL and have some general questions about booking and ship selection. We are not "RC snobs" we just look for which ship/itinerary has what we are looking for and enjoy from there!

 

We are considering booking an Alaskan cruise for July 2015 and have narrowed it down to the Carnival Legend or RC Jewel of the Seas. Legend looks to have been refurbished more recently and has more "new" stuff. The Jewel does look like a beautiful ship but also recent reviews seem to lean toward it needing a dry dock to bring it up to date with some of the other ships in the Royal fleet. What is everyone's overall opinion of Legend?

 

Second, does CCL never offer any promos that give OBC or complimentary dining in one of the alternative dining venues? It seems plenty of travel agents give out perks for RC cruises but I can't find any OBC or other such offers for CCL. Does it just not happen? The prices of the cruise are pretty much the same aside from the perks we would get for going witn RC (pre-paid grats., OBC, free dining.)

We aren't allowed to give the names of individual TA's here, but the one I use offers an OBC equal to 10% of the base tariff, up to a max of $500 for CCL cruises. Obviously, you have complete flexibility in how you spend it. For RCCL, they were offering prepaid gratuities plus OBC of $100 (I think) plus one free dinner in a specialty restaurant. Seemed about equal to me in terms of what you got. I found this TA through Cruise Critic (they advertise on the site).

Never booked through the cruise line direct, but I've never heard of CCL giving you any perks to book with them. Not sure about RCCL, do they offer OBC and stuff if you book direct with them?

On my past three Carnival cruises, I emailed the respective maitre'd to ask for a table for 2. All three times, I got back a very nice email from the maitre'd saying they would take care of it. And all three times we had a fantastic table!

OP - I would email the maitre'd about 2 weeks before your cruise with your specific table request. I'm planning to do the same thing for my upcoming Breeze cruise.

8-day Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Breeze in August. List price was $3,581 (including all fees and taxes and port charges) for 2 people in an Ocean Suite. Based on our VIFP numbers, we got a $150 pp reduction at booking, so are paying $3,281 plus got a $275 OBC from our TA. Thrilled to be back on the Breeze!

Thanks everyone for the kind comments! I was away for a few days, when I was reading thru some of the recent threads this morning, I was surprised at so many negative comments on the Vision. To all future cruisers - I would say honestly don't worry, just go and you will have a good time. As noted in my review, except for some stuff mostly related to our not-so-great cabin attendant, we had a nice cruise and enjoyed our time on the Vision. Just go with a positive approach and I'm sure you will have a fun cruise!

I was just on the Vision last month for a 4-day cruise. I thought the ship was beautiful. Food and service were hit and miss, but overall, it was more positives than negatives. I don't think you should be concerned. I attached a link to my review below, with pics. Hope this helps.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2061687

And finally, they did a very nice event in the atrium the last night when all the crew's countries got a shout out. Think there were 50+ nationalities on board between passengers and crew, which made for a nice We are the World moment!

...And all the dining room staff including the head chef came out the last night to do a walk through!

Here are some pics of the Viking Crown Lounge. Great place to hang out and relax when the sun got too strong to sit outside by the pool!

They had something one night when these two ladies came down in the chandeliers. Little bit gimmicky, but still fun:

I loved the atrium all lit up at night!

The balcony was very nice and deep. We asked for a lounger to be added and there was plenty of space.

We had a JS on Deck 8, port side. Very nice and spacious

You can see the walk in closet on the left - very important when two women are traveling together!

Nice dressing table to get ready quickly

Very spacious sitting area

One of the nicest areas on the ship - the Solarium

Here are some pics of the pool

Some shots of the lobby and atrium by day...

I loved the crystal chandeliers!

Views of the lobby at night with the dancing:

This is the Aquarius Dining Room at night...

...And by day!