psupa

Beautiful pics of those 2 beauties. Thanks for sharing and I'm glad the weather cooperated

I will no longer purchase these next cruise certificates. They have changed over the years and are no longer worth the aggravation. I still have one of these certificates to use and it is with my TA who gets a group rate. When I tried to use it I was told I can't get their group rate which is much lower than cruise line rate. I know I used one before and was able to take advantage of the TA rate, but I had to give them the additional deposit, so the $200 down didn't work for me. I'll keep checking prices and when I feel it's a good rate and itinerary I will book using it. The last gimmick was if you purchased one onboard you would get the OBC to use on the current cruise, similar to what NCL does.

Not sure when you are looking to cruise or length of cruise, but check out Carnival Pride out of Baltimore for Jan 17th (end in San Juan) 11 nights and Jan 28th from San Juan to Baltimore (10 nights) both with nice itineraries.

Theresa

I'm looking into my next cruise leaving out of San Juan. My question is to take Carnival or RCCL. I have sailed Carnival 12 or 13 times now and never with RCCL. The itineraries are both appealing to us and prices are about the same or within about $10. The difference is Carnival would be a balcony and RCCL would be an inside. I have sailed in both Balconies and inside rooms so I'm familiar with the ins and outs of the cabins. I'm curious what everyone's opinions are. Below are the itineraries:

 

Carnival Liberty

San Juan, Puerto Rico Dock

St. Thomas, Usvi Dock

Sea

Barbados Dock

St. Lucia Dock

St Kitts, Wi Dock

St. Maarten, Na Dock

San Juan, Puerto Rico Dock

 

Adventure of the seas

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

St. Croix, U.s.v.i.

St. Johns, Antigua

Castries, St. Lucia

St. George''s, Grenada

Sea

San Juan, Puerto Rico

 

I will also post in Carnival as an experiment.

thanks

You may want to check the Carnival Pride out of Baltimore for Jan 17th. There's an 11 night cruise which ends in San Juan with a nice itinerary to Grand Turk, Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao and St. Croix.

There's also the 10 day from San Juan to Baltimore on Jan 28th with stops in St. Thomas, Antigua, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and St. Marteen.

Sorry folks I know this is the Royal board and we usually cruise with them except when I see a great itinerary.

Theresa

Do you have any of the sea pass cards which have date and ship listed. I would look through photo albums from their trips.

Theresa

If I were in charge :eek: Just like suite guests, I'd make all Handicap-Accessible Rooms no charge for room service.

Now that makes sense

I've always said if it ain't broke, don't fix it. They fixed it:rolleyes:

Watch what you wish for you just might get it. This started when people wanted more options to dine because they didn't like the dining hours or choices, etc., so now we have up-charge restaurants (no I don't use them) and the food in the MDR is just fine for us. We've used room service from time to time for morning coffee and danish and tipped. If they start charging for room service we will no longer use it. You can only be nickel and dimed if you let them do it. Having cruised for 30 years now we've been there, done that so we just go to relax and will eat at any of the included venues, MDR, buffet, Park Cafe, etc. Prices for photos have skyrocketed over the years to an average of $25 per photo, but we no longer need to purchase them. We rather cruise on the smaller ships due to a medical condition and easier to get around and I don't want to have to make reservations for dinner and for entertainment. Just my 2 cents opinion so no bashing please.

We sailed the Summit to Bermuda on 5/24/15. It was a very pleasant surprise to find the MDR open for lunch on embarkation day.

I'm hoping that is true. We will be there tomorrow:D

The thing that irks me is adults w/ out kids would come to the kid pool then bitch & complain about the kids splashing...its like hello then get out of the kids pool!!! DUH!

Yep, I saw that happen on another cruise line. It was a port day and the pool wasn't that crowded with some kids splashing and having fun. A miserable lady comes pointing her finger and saying something to the Father (I couldn't hear it all), but he told her there's an adults only area in the back. He handled it well and once the crabby lady got out of the pool he did a couple of nice cannonballs with applause and the kids could finally have some fun. By afternoon the pool was crowded with lots of young people having fun and she sat in her lounger the rest of the day. This is the kind of people watching I enjoy:D

Based on our trip last year, these might have been the Beef Cheeks. Some of the other ladies at the table were like, "Ewww, beef checks, who would ever order beef checks, gross." (and yes, these were adults - senior adults). So I being the rebel that I am, ordered them. They were very good, tender and not fatty and a great flavour.

Great review and I remember having Beef Cheeks and it was absolutely delicious. I'll have to order on our cruise next week.

Theresa

Before I get any cheerleaders having a go I will say that as a whole we choose the best price for our cruises on lines that appeal to us as a young married couple. We are Carnival fans yet were into trying another line and the opportunity arose.Celebrity offered up a 13 day on the Equinox for less than our 12 day Vista cruise next year with different ports so we went for it as Celebrity was in our minds as being a foodies line and were do go a bit Gourmet/Gourmand on the seas so there we go.

 

Disclaimer: I do realise that with 2 Carnival cruises done (both sides of the pond on a mid sized ship) and 1 Celebrity done (on a big ship) this may affect our view but here it goes:

Velvetwater, I enjoyed reading your review and comparison. We've cruised RCI, Celebrity, Princess and NCL and recently cruised with Carnival for the first time for the itinerary and we had a great time. We like all the cruise lines and there are similarities and differences. After cruising for 30 years we've been there done that so we cruise to get away and relax. On one of our cruises we asked someone what their favorite ship was and they replied the one I'm on now. Doesn't get any better than that. If we find the itinerary and price we like we will cruise with any cruise line. Some of the things we liked on Carnival was the breakfast brunch on sea days in the dining room where you ordered from a menu and not self serve (very nice) and the dive-in movies up on deck.

Theresa

Thank you for the nice review. We'll be cruising the last Bermuda run for this year. One questions, my husband uses a walker and has limited mobility. Is it a long walk once off the elevator to the ship. I may ask for wheelchair assistance at the pier.

Theresa

I've been watching the Summit on the cam and I would think by now she should have been heading toward the bridge. I think there's more going on with this ship. We sail on her Aug 30.

I like the way Celebrity has the added paperwork. I bring my own power wheelchair' date=' but like the option to barrow a manual wheelchair from Celebrity to use on shore excursions.

 

Now I am full time and like Celebrity the best for cruising disabled. Princess didn't require any extra paperwork and I couldn't pre-order the toilet seat riser (at least what I could find) and we had also had to bring a manual chair for excursions, which was a pain to have to fly and carry it to and from airports and hotels and cruise ports.

 

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Thank you for the info that you can borrow a manual wheelchair on Celebrity if needed. There are 2 companies that I know of that you can rent chairs, scooters, walkers, etc. from and this may make it easier for you instead of taking your chair when you fly. They deliver to the ship and you just leave it when the cruise is over. Believe me I never thought we would need a HC cabin, but at age 59 my DH became disabled and has a mobility issue and cannot stand for long periods of time and cannot walk without the aide of a walker.

 

Theresa

RCI D+ member here and we just cruised Carnival for the first time on a b2b (16 days) and were very pleased with the ship, entertainment and service, and they are very good with disabled passengers. We also enjoyed on sea days the breakfast brunch in the DR, which was a sit down not serve yourself brunch and the choices were excellent. We chose these cruises because we elect not to fly and the first leg left NY and ended in San Juan and then we returned to NY on the 2nd leg. The cruise director was excellent and involved in everything and we also liked the dive-in movies at night up on deck. There was always something going on and something to do. Just sayin

We eat all our meals in the MDR and find the food to be very good and just can't justify spending extra $$ for specialty dining. The only exception was the breakfast brunch we had on the Grandeur in Chops which was excellent.

Theresa

I have found that the cruise lines I use only ask for verification once and then I am in their system as requiring a HC cabin. Hope this helps the concerns of meatloafan for his mom

Just booked an accessible cabin on Carnival and we were sent forms to fill out and return. As a matter of fact they gave my TA a hard time when we were booking. It was the weekend and they said the special needs department was closed and to call back on Monday (I think not). Anyway my TA went to bat for us and we have an accessible on a b2b. It is a shame that people book these cabins that don't need them.

Today at Labadee, I purchased my first alcohol drink while at the beach. I received a 6" plastic cup of Labadoozie in it . Total cost was $14.25. This was not with the souvenir cup. I asked the bartender if the amount was correct as I was dumbfounded. He replied; yes it's the same as on the ship. I nicely informed him I had not purchased any alcohol onboard. My hubby and I plan to buy no more this week. We will only be drinking the wine we brought onboard. I am completely flabbergasted. We spoke to some other cruisers that just did an NCL and they said they were blown away by drink prices. They said they paid half to sail on the Getaway as they did the Allure. I have heard many complaints from other passengers about the alcohol prices.

That price is outrageous and only a small plastic cup. Even if it was in a souvenir cup I wouldn't pay that price. It looks like Royal is trying to get people to buy the drink package with the increase in drink prices

Well, like all good things, this trip is coming to an end. Had a light meal in the windjammer, and now time to pack the cases.

 

Picked up our one photo from our first trip to Cococay. This will end our live reporting and I will try and provide some thoughts good and not so good once home and settled back in:

 

Thanks for following along and may you always have following seas:

 

Seadog67 over and out..

Thank you for taking us along on your cruise. I really enjoyed reading the daily posts

Just returned home from 10 days on Grandeur, don't know what all the complaints are about, we had a "GRAND" time. Any questions please ask and we will try to answer.

Good for you. We were on the Grandeur in March and felt the same way. Now have 4 future cruises booked on her. She is a great ship.

Theresa

Thanks we will try!

 

Goofy!

 

I love Goofy:D Great pics

$12 bloody mary

 

 

 

That is a bit ridiculous Royal Caribbean

 

 

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That's crazy for 2 drinks and then 18% tip on top.....I don't know if that's what they mean by WOW. BTW I am enjoying your live posts

Great photo!! The man and the ocean!

Bugsy, you have once again given us a wonderful day by day blog of your cruise. With all your great photos it is almost like we have taken the cruise ourselves!!! Thank you so much for taking the time to do this, it is much appreciated by those of us on land.

Ditto

I am a fairly new cruiser, with a fist full of vacation money and vacation days to use... I am also not retired, so I need to watch how/where/when I choose to cruise...

I was on Carnival website last night, and I must say, they have some very good cruise prices! I noticed the 8 night has only 3 stops (the ones I was looking at) but it was also less than the Royal 8 night cruises... they didn't seem to jack up the prices and give less there-- you got less stops for less money.. and for trying another line, its not a bad deal.. at all! and plus they have their schedules out already;)

Chris, some folks may not be happy to hear this, but we are doing a b2b leaving NY to San Juan and returning to NY on Carnival. This will be our first time trying Carnival. Most of our cruises have been with Royal and we have cruised Celebrity, Princess, and NCL. I like the perks we get with Royal, but sometimes the itinerary and price make you look elsewhere. The only thing about leaving from NY is parking is $40 per day, so we use a van service.

Theresa