cherbear4000

This is what we use. Locks to a chair, or tree. I love it.

http://kyssbags.com/

I live in South Florida and use my KYSS bag all the time at the beach. I wrap the chain around my chairs so if someone tries to run off with my bag, they have to take the chairs with them!

It is rare, but it happens. Carnival has to initiate it, so you can't just call them and ask for a free upgrade. We had our interior cabin switched from the 2nd deck to the 7th deck without our knowledge. We did not find out until we checked into the cruise on embarkation day. All of our luggage was delivered to the wrong cabin. We were not very happy about this since we specifically chose the first cabin to be near people we were traveling with. We also had our PVP call wanting to switch my sister's 3 person interior to a balcony at no charge because they needed her interior.

I doubt it because they are connecting cabins, but is possible if they need a 3 person cabin and you only have 2 people in the cabin. Most of the time, they won't even allow people to book 2 in a 3 person cabin unless you pay for the 3rd person. How did you book, a PVP, TA, online?

I was always told it was one appetizer, one salad, one entree, one side, one dessert. It does make sense to be allowed to switch out the salad for an appetizer, but I don't know that they will allow you 3 appetizers. Honestly, there is no way most people can eat 3 appetizers in addition to the rest of the food. The steakhouse is so much food.

You can switch the cabins around however you want, my family does it all the time. Keep in mind, some cabins only have 2 beds. You will need to look at how many people the cabins sleep to be sure you can all sleep comfortably.

My sister and her husband both had casino offers while my husband and I didn't. We booked me and my sister in a cabin and my husband and brother in law in a cabin. Once on board , we will go to guest services to switch 2 of us. Another example is that my nephew is currently booked with my dad, but he will sleep in the cabin with his parents. We did this to avoid my dad paying double occupancy for a solo cabin plus having to pay for a 3 cabin room for my sibling's family.

I had mentioned this topic on another thread about tipping, but I don't want to hijack that thread so I thought I would create a new one. I was curious if anyone has experienced the same issue or knows what Carnival's official policy is.

I had been on a cruise where my cabin steward would unplug any device I was charging when he was in the cabin. No one else in my group, who all had other stewards, had this problem. Also, when I would ask if he could please leave my devices charging, he would say okay and then unplug them anyways. I assume if it was policy for him to unplug them, he would have mentioned that to me. After the cruise, I was curious so I contacted John Heald. The person that responded (it wasn't John) said there was no policy to unplug charging cameras, but this was about 4 years ago. I have never had the issue since.

I would completely understand unplugging a curling iron or some other heat device, but a camera? Obviously, Carnival can not expect guests to sit in their cabins while their devices charge. I have 3 cameras (point & shoot, underwater, and DSLR) that I bring on my cruises, each one having a specific purpose. My husband also uses his cell as a camera plus he had to do some stuff for work and had his laptop. There is one outlet, so of course we had to leave devices plugged in when we weren't in the cabin. The first 2 nights it happened, I was upset since I didn't get back to my cabin until well after dinner. When I went to switch out the devices, I realized that the one never charged. I ended up not being able to bring one of my cameras on an excursion due to a barely charged battery. After that, I would just go to my cabin after dinner and plug whatever device I was charging back in.

I did leave my auto-gratuities in place, but I did not tip this cabin steward extra cash at the end like I normally would because I was so annoyed.

You can ask for extra keys or switch the guests in each cabin around. Just go to guest services.

Has anyone done the beginner scuba diving excursion through Carnival or other lines? How was it?

They are all the same menu and food, just the names are different.

I am traveling in a large group with ages from 1 yr to 78 yrs old. We were looking to do an excursion all together. I did not see anything through the ship, but came across one through Island Marketing. Has anyone used Island Marketing, would you recommend them? Also, has anyone done this specific tour? Also, if anyone has any other suggestions, please let me know.

I agree. I don't drink alcohol or soda, but I love coffee. Carnival's free coffee is pretty gross and since there are no flavored creamers to mask the taste, I have to purchase drinks from the coffee bar.

My sister and I were sitting at one of the bars having a drink. There was an extremely intoxicated woman trying to order a drink, but the bartender was refusing to serve her because of how drunk she was. She then asked my sister to order a drink for her. When my sister said no, the woman just grabbed my sister's drink and chugged it.

It's not like you have to use a certain PVP. Just contact a different one. There was a PVP assigned to me. I didn't like her so I asked people for PVP recommendations and contacted a different PVP when I wanted to book. Now every time I book a Carnival cruise, I just contact the PVP I like even though there is another one technically assigned to me.

I remember they used to have fried mozzarella as an appetizer. I really liked that.

The Carnival jet ski excursion at HMC is 16 and older. We have a lot of kids in our group, but the adults all want to jet ski. We were hoping to be able to have the adults jet ski at different times so we can take turns watching the kids. The issue is the times available for this excursion overlap by 15 minutes. So we can go 12:30-1:45 and 1:30 - 2:45. I have no idea how it is set-up. Can the second group of adults walk over to where the jet ski excursion is with the kids and be able to swap out with the adults that are coming back from the earlier time?

She should get a new passport. Otherwise, it is probably easiest to book in her maiden name. My sister has been married 6 years, hasn't bothered to get her passport changed (she is waiting for it to expire), so she still books cruises in her maiden name.

12 people should all be at the same table.

Back in the old days, we would line a duffel bag with two beach towels and include a case of water bottles. Tag it and the porter took it. No problems, it arrived in our cabin as expected. I imagine you could do a similar thing (without the beach towels) for diapers and at the end of your cruise, you can either collapse the duffel bag or use it for souvenirs!

A duffel bag is a good idea.

Rather than have them ship diapers to you, wouldn't it be easier and cheaper for you to go buy some locally?

They are going to buy them online, probably from Amazon, and have them shipped to me.

My siblings fly to port, while I live close and drive. They want to have diapers shipped to my house for me to take on-board for them so they don't have to fly with all the diapers. Am I able to just tape a luggage tag to the pack of diapers and give to the porter? Or give a box with a luggage tag? I don't want to put the diapers in a suitcase because then I will have to carry the empty suitcase off the ship at the end of cruise.

Also, we we have people sharing a cabin that will arrive at different times. Carnival says all the people in the cabin must arrive at the scheduled time. I am assuming it is ok for some to arrive at the scheduled time and some to arrive later.

This is the first time I have to choose a check-in time. I live a 2 hour drive from port and have no idea what time I will arrive. Even if I plan on leaving my house at a certain time, it doesn't mean I actually will. Plus you never know how south Florida traffic will be. I know I can't arrive earlier than the scheduled time, but I assume it is no problem if I arrive later. Should I just pick an early time just in case I am able to arrive early and then not worry about it if I am late? Can any of you confirm that I will have no problem if I arrive after my scheduled time?

It is best to carry them on. My sister has 5 kids and brings juice boxes on board. She usually puts them in her checked bags because between strollers, diapers bags, etc, it is just too much for them to carry at check in. It has never been a problem until last cruise. Carnival took the juice boxes out of her checked bags.

I have bought excursions online at later cancelled them. It was easy to do online and we received a refund back to the credit card used to purchase them. You just need to cancel at least 24 hours prior to sailing.

I started cruising with Carnival in 1999. I fully agree that the food quality has gone downhill. It used to be gourmet now it is mass produced cafeteria quality. I notice it especially with the cuts of meat. I think most people would agree with me that there is a huge difference currently between the pay food and the free food. When I started cruising, all the food was included and there were no pay options and all of the food was at the quality level of the current pay food. That is not to say that I think all the free food is crap. There is a lot of free food I like, especially Guy's. I think those like me that have been cruising for a long time can definitely notice the decline.