Miller_KC

That is Superbowl weekend but that will happen in California. Some of it could be Superbowl parities.

The travel/hotel web sites still show a lot of rooms available but the price does seem a little higher than normal.

I was on her in October and saw nothing wrong. A lot of people want the 2.0 upgrades, Guys Burger and the Blue Iguana, but she does not look shabby or have noticeable mechanical problems.

The same way we did it before cell phones. We told each other where we would be and set up meeting places.

This summer 9 of us with various levels of cruise experienced all cruised together. Many people had different interests so we set up a few excursions together but often members of the group split off. We had a set dining time so we all knew we would get together then. After dinner we would set a time and place for breakfast and everyone did their on thing for the rest of the evening. It also helped to have a row of balcony cabins with the dividers open. We would often meet outside to talk about what we were doing next.

I don't need instant access to people when I'm on vacation. Good old planning and conversation works fine.

I like "Red Gravy" for breakfast. South/West of Canal St on Camp St. It's not too far from the cruise ship terminal and the Italian Sausage Omelette is great. Red Gravy is named for a spicy Marinara style sauce popular in New Orleans.

There are several nice hotels on or near Canal street that are near the port and in a great spot for walking to the French Quarter or catching a trolley car (but call them Street Cars or everyone will know you are a tourist).

We tried staying in Houston near the airport then taking the Carnival shuttle to Galveston. I tried to find a rental car I could pick up at the airport and drop in Galveston but no one I checked has a Galveston drop off site.

We had a rental car for the day in Houston, but never really found anything we wanted to do. There is definitely nothing to do near the airport and we ended up driving downtown. Wife wasn't interested in NASA since we just went to Canaveral in May.

Next morning took the car back to the airport and caught the Carnival shuttle.

If I do it again I would try harder for a rental car drop off, but would definitely go to Galveston then stay and sight see there instead of Houston.

We were off in time to meet our 10:30am shuttle when we went a few years ago. We were docked and unloading shortly after 9:00am. I believe the have the times scheduled to allow for fog or bad weather in the area.

I haven't been in the Caribbean a day where rain wasn't in the forecast. It usually comes and goes without much impact to your day. The Bay opens to the South West so you should have no problems with winds from the North or the East.

You can look at it on Google Maps. Search for Half Moon Cay, Cat Island, The Bahamas. The ship doesn't actually enter the bay so is susceptible to rough water.

i beg your pardon? am i missing something here? is every request for info expected to be preceded by please? and, for what it's worth, i would have said thank you without the prompting.

I took it that they also wanted to know the same information.

Aft Dining room (Washington)

8:00am - 1:00pm

You're Welcome :)

There is a sign at the Taxi stand that shows the price to and from most places in American Dollars. We once had a taxi take us around the entire island and stop and several interesting places. I think we paid $30 for the two of us and we added a $20 tip since he was a good tour guide.

I set mine up with a credit card then apply gift cards at GS or the Kiosk before the end of the cruise.

I don't think the L-Shaped room she is talking about is aft facing or a suite, but I have stayed in them several times and I think they are great. They are not as good on the Dream to me because you look down on the outside promenade of deck 5 but I still like them better than the average balcony.

If you do get a Cove balcony with a gty it would likely be under the galley since the others sell out first. I would go with the $180 upgrade. I would try to get one on deck 7 or 8 so you are not right above the Burgundy Lounge. If smoking makes a difference try to get Starboard instead of port, or you will be right above the outside smoking area on deck 5.

The new pizza is designed to be cooked to order really fast so it is very thin and there are very few topping options. I like both styles but for the old style you had to wait a few minutes for them to cook what you want if they didn't have what you want made already. The new pizza cooks in just a couple of minutes but I noticed I could see the shadow of the pepperonis through the crust.

Selection includes pepperoni, mushroom, cheese, or cheese with leafy veggies added after it's cooked.

How many days and are you in an OV or Interior now? Not bad for a 7-day interior to a balcony. A little high for a OV to balcony. Be careful about moving into a cabin under the Lido deck. Make sure you are forward under other cabins go make sure your room has a chance to be as quiet as possible.

Has anyone actually seen the crew do this?

 

Am curious--how many people work on this? How long does it take?

 

Would be fun to watch them.:)

Yes, I was checking the forward Camera channel at 6:00am on our Dream Journeys cruise. I turned to the Lido channel and saw they were setting up the towel animals. We went up about 7:00 and got pictures.

On the Dream I was on the second leg of the Journeys cruise. They had a number of '80s/'90s games on deck and in the show room on that sea day. They did have a deck party and a captains party including a picture with the captain. Dinner that night was the old fashion Formal attire, not the Cruise Elegant. I did see a lot more Tuxes than on other cruises. There were a lot of photo backgrounds set up for 70's/80's with costumes and props available. There was even a "Richards Simmons" workout in the morning on the Lido Deck.

The Island Entertainment was local bands and singers brought on board during the port days that debarked before the ship left port. There was a steel drum band on board debarkation day but I didn't see if they were around much beyond that. One pleasant addition is that there was live music all over the ship the entire cruise. I didn't see any DJ music. It may have been there, I just didn't see it.

I didn't see to much of the local cooking on board either, but there were more excursions that included touring with a local chief in the port.

For us overall disembarkation took the same amount of time, but 1/3 of the ship were Diamond and Platinum so it took almost 90 minutes to get through them. We waited with friends who were not priority and got off with them. It was much easier for us than if we had tried to go out with zone 1. It was easy to find our bags in the terminal too! :D

It is a little faster and more reliable but it is still slower than any land based connections I've used. We paid about the same price as before, but now got unlimited access so we didn't need to save minutes then try to use them all up the last day. Facebook, email, and most other sites worked fine. The Weather Channel and any games were hard to use and slow, especially flash based games on Facebook. Over all I'm not on board to play on the internet so it worked just fine for keeping in touch and looking things up.

Yes, you can use GCs for the deposits when booking on board. I have done it twice and the computer screen has space to add up to 5 gift cards.

I cannot find a way to buy from the Fun Shops online with a GC, but I have booked shore excursions online with them.

Sorry no. I asked them about that on our Alaska cruise earlier this year. I was able to get Shareholder OBC though.

Carnival requires a dress up night to try and sell you expensive portrait photos. It's in your cruise contract :eek: ....just kidding.

According to my wife, the hair dryers provided are a low wattage so take longer to dry.

Also be aware that there is only one outlet in the cabin, plus an outlet in the bathroom for shavers. You may need a short power strip with multiple outlets to charge camera batteries and such. Don't bring one with a surge protector though. The simpler the better.

All of the upcoming itineraries that include Progresso, also includes Cozumel. It is just a quick boat ride from Cozumel to Playa Del Carmen. You wouldn't have any time if you travelled there from Progresso. The rep was probably talking about the stop at Cozumel.

That would be a long bus ride from Progresso. If you want to see Playa Del Carmen it would be a lot less time to take the mainland ferry from a stop in Cozumel. While there is not a lot around Progresso I would choose to do something closer to that port rather than going somewhere that is much closer to another common port.

We had deck 11 on the Dream. It was really quite where we were at under the therapy rooms and away from the gym. The Magic has a little different layout but looks like if you get rooms aft of 11216 and 11217 you would be in good shape.

On deck 12 the interiors look to be in good locations. I would probably try to avoid 12008 just in case the motors on the thalassotherapy pool nearby above might be noisy, or to avoid any noise that might come in from the gym next door.