BlancaNoir

We were in 438 last February. There was a clothes line that you could pull across the bath/shower. It was ok, but things never dried past damp. The better place to dry was in the window area. I did start sending some bathing suits and cover ups to the PG laundry by the middle of the week, just to get dry bathing suits and cover ups! I brought 4-5 suits, but it seemed like we were always in and out of the water and sometimes needed 2 suits per day. For example, we would spend the day snorkeling, come back and change into normal clothes, then want to swim in the PG pool (which is GREAT! Perfect for lazing around. Deep, even though not large, and never crowded.)

Enjoy your trip! We loved Tahiti in February. :D

We are on the PG right now and Polynesian Night was last night (Moorea). It was a blast. All of the restaurants are decorated Polynesian style and there is a set menu for all venues. Honestly, it wasn't our favorite menu of the week, but the food has been outstanding all week so not a complaint, just a comparison. There was Poisson Cru as an appetizer. Lobster tails was one entree choice and it was large. There was a lot of music and the Gaugines played in the piano bar. There were the mamas who brought so many beautiful flowers and helped us make leis. The Gaugines offered complimentary (temporary) tattoos. The show was silly and fun and we laughed all night. I recommend that you bring something fun to wear for that night (sundress?) or buy something on the trip. It was probably my favorite night of the cruise (we are on the 7 day tahiti and society islands).

Blanca

Thank you!! Appreciate the posts - very helpful. And thanks too, to those who have posted a lot on these boards (esp Edmee, Wendythewanderer and husband, flightmedic, and others!) . I've read many years of posts and found so much invaluable info!

Does anyone have any input on room 438? Our TA assigned us this room. We are in the Oceanview category (window), and there are 3 of us.

Is this above the engines? Is it loud? Vibrations? :confused:

It looks like it is at the end of the hall on deck 4 . . . anyone have any thoughts on location? Is is a far walk?

Would appreciate any advice on this room, or others in that category!!

The Radisson at Port Canaveral was very convenient and easy. Not fancy, but a nice pool. I thought about your question SO MUCH in planning our cruise on the Fantasy. :D I looked into WDW, Universal Studios, all the attractions and beaches and tours and . . . exhausting. We finally decided to fly in Thursday afternoon, and we spent Friday at NASA. Loved that and it wasn't as pricey as some other options. We weren't being cheap (also went concierge) but pricing Harry Potter World just about gave me a heart attack! In retrospect, if we had flown in on Friday, I would have spent the evening hanging at the hotel pool or a beach.

Really interesting topic! I'm one of those people who likes to sit in the same seat, park in the same parking spot, etc. Some PPs have had great ideas. If someone suggested we "switch it up" the next night I would think that was fun, but if someone sat in "my" seat and scowled at me I would be irritated. Guess it is all in the communication? My fav thing about carnival is how friendly everyone is and how easy it is to strike up a conversation. Love that part about traditional seating.

We didn't see a weight limit on the aquaduck. We sometimes would see a person stuck in the tube, and it was usually some skinny adult riding solo. I rode the aquaduck with my kids, and with my husband. Riding in the heavier raft (two adults) was so much more fun. The weight helped make the dips more extreme and the corners faster. Love the aquaduck! :D

We recently did a 7 day criuse on Fantasy with our 10 year old HFA son. It went very well from an autism point of view, but we did a lot of planning and had previously sailed on royal carribean. The one thing that turned out to be awesome for our son was the muppets mystery game. You walk around the ship looking for clues. He loved that! The aquaduck was also great. He loved the sensory experience of that. He would go on that all day long, again and again, if we let him. The line for the aquaduck was a little intense, so that took some prepping and reminding. The kids club was not all that autism friendly. I thought my son might be interested in the video games but the clubs are SO LOUD and chaotic. He looked at it and but never wanted to spend time there.(Our 8 year old daughter and her friend loved the kids club. It was hard to get them to leave!) There was also the TV - it had so many shows he loved that he would have been happy to just watch TV in the cabin all day. My son really enjoyed some of the family events, like the trivia games. They handed out these beepers or controllers that allowed the audience to partipate. I found the staff less understanding of autism than royal, but on the other hand, the ship was full of badly behaving children. Everyone seemed to have special requests or expect special treatment so the autism accomodations just seemed to be lumped into that.;)

It really depends on the person and family. Many people here will say that it is worth the magic, and that if it wasn't the ships wouldn't fill at such high rates.

For me, the answer is that it was not worth it. We had a fantastic cruise on Disney Fantasy in October 2014. It was a great time and we have some very special memories. We loved many of the unique features that Disney has like the Acquaduck waterslide and the family events. Remy was incredible. Maybe the bext meal I've had in my life! But overall, I didn't think it was worth the cost.

When I go to Disneyland I feel that it is a magical place. It is much better than other theme parks we visit. I know that a trip to Disnleyland is expensive but I've always felt it was a special experience and worth the money. The Disney fantasy was nicer than the Carnival and RCL ships we went on, but not magical to us and not worth the 2 or 3 time higher price (in my estimation.)

The rainforest on Fantasy was one of the best parts of the cruise for us!

We couldn't decide before boarding. We asked the concierge and they said there was no rush, plenty of passes woud be available. We toured the spa the first day, the sales pitch. It loked pretty good but i didn't bite until after the first port day for us, when I was exhausted and just needed a break. Can I even say how much I love it? DH got one the next day, and I purchased a day pass every day after.

The heated tile loungers were my sanctuary. There is so much to do on the fantasy that I was overwhelmed. But those heated tile loungers and the view of the ocean passing . . .

The disney boards on CC are less active than carnival or NCL.

My tips would be:

1. REMY. Eat at Remy. Do the wine pairing! It will be one of the most amazing meals of your life, anywhere!

2. Aquaduck! So much fun! I waited until the last day to try it and wish I had gie the first day, every day.

3. Try the family activities with your kids. The dance parties, the "game shows," the crafts.

For what it's worth, having a bit of extra weight can make the aquaduck kind of awesome. We were on the fantasy last week and we noticed that when a skinny person rode alone they someyime got stuck in the tube. The best ride for us was the two (not skinny!) adults on one raft. The water propelled us forward and the extra weight made the drops more extreme. My kids wanted to ride with mom or dad just for the weight boost! I LOVE the aquaduck!!! If you can, give it a try!!!

I really appreciate all your responses! Lots of really good insight and many things to think about. I think we are leaning towards taking a short 3-day cruise with just the two of us to use up the credit we have and then doing a land vacation with the little one. I felt like the walls were closing in on me in our cabin without a crib, etc. lol.

 

 

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Great plan! Parents deserve a break and a time to connect! But, it can just be stressful with the little kids. The little ones are more likely to need their routine. Personally, I wouldn't bring a child that age on a cruise. I see people do it but they seem . . . like they are watching everyone else have fun while they are tied to the stroller or nap schedule. We took our 15 month old to hawaii for a week (with my mother). That worked well except that he didn't like eating in restaurants for a week and he hated the flight. My kids loved cruising at 4 and 6, and now we are cruising (in 29 days!!) and the kids are 8 and 10. Now they are SO excited and fully able to understand things like manners in the MDR, not running down hallways, and trying new food. Hope you have great vacations no matter what you choose!

What kind of lugagge do you use for your cruises? Any reccomendations or tips? We will be flying to Orlando on Southwest so I need luggage that is checkable, convenient to use, but also large enough for all the cruise packing. We are a family of 4 (2 kids, 2 adults) doing a 7 night carribean cruise in october. I'm envisioning bathing suits, shorts, but maybe a pair of pants? A nice/formal outfit for each of us. Shoes - flip flops, tennis shoes, formal shoes. It just seems like a ton of stuff to pack. On our last cruise we bought two large duffel backs from costco. They were fine but we drove to port so checking bags wasn't an issue. Our kids were younger then (4 and 6) so their clothes were smaller and seemed to take up less space.

What to get?

Thanks . . .

Blanca

$1000 in a slot machine. We were just wandering around the ship the last full day of the cruise and I put a few quarters in a slot machine. It started flashing and froze up and I thought I broke the machine. (Like when you push an emergency exit??) Security came over and I stood back and put my hands up in the air and said something like "I didn't do anything!" and they escorted me to the front window where they started pulling out bills. I was shocked. It was very fun but a shock. I threw the bills over over the cabin and took pictures. :) We don't really gamble so it was probbaly all of my casino luck for a lifetime!

Please help! We are cruising on the Disney Fanatsy in October 2014. We have never been to Florida and probably won't anytime soon (we live on the west coast.) I'm overwhelmed. Where to stay, and what to do for a once in a life time visit?

I'ce been looking at the CC boards and advice and it looks like the Raddison is a nice place? We don't need anything too fancy. I prefer not to pay more than 250/night for my family of 4. My kids are 10 and 8 and they love pools and beaches. Advice?

We can't decide whether to spend a day or two in florida but I think that if we aren't coming back anytime soon, maybe we should add a few days? The kennedy space center looks good . . . what do you all think?

If you were looking at a once-in-a-lifetime cruise departure from Pt. Canaveral, where would you stay and what would you do (for a family of 4!).

(Btw, we live in a west coast beach town. We love the beach but can go any day. But maybe Florida beaches are different??)

Seriously, please help.

We've done 2 mexican riveria cruises in October. If you are cruising in the west coast (cabo, PV, etc) the weather should be outstanding that time of year. Cabo and Mazatlan seem to have similar weather seasons to SoCal. Here in San Diego, October is one of our warmest and hottest months. PV feels more humid and tropical to me but doesn't seem to have the same hurrucane concerns that yiu might get on the gulf of mexico side.

Enjoy your cruise!

On a side topic, I have been reading through the last year of the Cruise Critic Carnival Liberty reviews, to see how the American Table has impacted the Food Ratings...

(average Food Rating has gone from around 4.5 to 3.0)

 

... and I notice a LOT of VERY suspicious reviews in the last 12 months.

 

- There are repeated reviews from a people who have never posted anything else on Cruise Critic, never posted in the forums, that give every ship option a 5+ rating, and (often) the shore excursions a 4.0

 

- These 5+ reviews mostly use either a female ID (like "winegal" or "cruisegal#"), or a mishmash of random letters.

 

- The female posters frequently start with "my 8th cruise on Carnival", but have no posting history that I can find anywhere. Amazing how many 5+ female reviewers have done exactly 8 cruises on Carnival...

 

- The reviews always know and mention the FULL name, nickname (and often the history) of the cruise director, but do not mention any other crew names on the ship

 

- They almost ALL suggest the FTTF package, in glowing terms

 

- If they mention anything negative... its not about the ship, like "shore vendors were pushy"

 

- The reviews read like advertising brouchures, with phrases like "Cruise director and his team really know how to get the passengers motivated with fun activities", and "So many options of fun things to do"...

 

- The reviews sometimes include rebuttals to one month old complaints, like if a reviewer posts "lot of smoke on balconies" they post "there was no smoke on balconies like others have complained"

 

- They sometimes mention wrong facts that they should have known if they had actually gone on the ship (like cruisegal mentions cruise was first week of March 2014 out of Port Everglades (all cruises in Jan-May were from Miami, ship does not sail from Everglades again until 2015), and another mentioned beautiful beaches at Half Moon Cay when that cruise actually skipped HMC because of high winds)

 

I don't want to point fingers at Carnival or their employees, but I cannot logically see who else would benefit, and note that these (most likely) fake reviews pushed the Liberty's Rating so high on Cruise Critic that it was listed as tied for 4th place in Cruise Critics 'Best Large Ships of 2013'. This rating appears to have been unwarranted.

 

I have not (yet) browsed other Carnival ships, or other lines, so do not know if this trend of fake 5+ reviews is as common to cruise industry as it is to the restaurant industry (where owners and employees are often caught posting good reviews to draw customers).

WOW. This is sad. The thing that bothers me most is that there are so many great things about Carnival. No need to make CC sketchy with false reviews. Yeah, people have different experiences and opinions. Wish that we could get good, honest advice and experience but this is the reality of the internet I guess.

Anyone experienced the spa on Disney Fantasy? What did you think?

I've used the spa on Carival and while enjoyable, it was very pricey and not as good as the land-based spas I go to. The spa treatments menu on Fantasy seemed ok. Nothing stood out but the prices weren't crazy compared to resort spas.

I also read somewhere on CC that the rainforest room is good. Can you only access that with a spa treatment or how does that work?

Thoughts??

I'm finding the biggest (maybe only) downside to cruising out of San Diego is the price of hotels. We always arrive for every cruise the day before, in San Diego, we like two days ahead to look around a little.

 

We used to stay at the Holiday Inn on the Bay...which was right on the bay, straight across the street from the terminal. It is now a Wyndham, and the price per night is in the neighborhood of $300!! :eek:

 

There are other hotels, all similarly priced, not as close to everything.

 

And then there are some really crummy motels.

 

Decisions, decisions. If we drive over, we can stay further away, but then pay for parking, and also try to find (and pay for) parking while we tour around.

 

If we fly in, we have transportation costs also. More than we did before, when all we had to do was walk across the street with our bags, from the former Holiday Inn. :(

ITA. The hotels close to the port/downtown are not great and super expensive. I also would avoid the area called "hotel circle." Old town has some cute hotels and it is a fun place to stay but they are also pricey. But there are the hop on/hop off tour busses from old town so it is easy to stay there and get all over SD. I think the best value are the beach hotels in the north coastal san diego area. Carlsbad/encinitas, and maybe even oceanside (30 miles north of the port).

Ok, ok. I apologize for the tone of my comment. It came off way too strong and I'm sorry people thought I was smirking. It's not a "scam" - I was just expressing my thoughts on the structure of it. Enjoy your cruises.

Your insurance analogy is a bit off. This is not like weather or a medical emergency or something unforeseen.

Carnival is selling you a solution to a problem that they created. Could they let you stash your bags in the room? Could they maybe put an extra staff member at guest services during peak times? Could they have a better system for tendering and disembarking?

They could, or they could save money (less staff) and then charge you for the privilege of skipping lines. Win-win for carnival! And if you choose not to particiapte in this scam (oops, I mean FUN!) then you can save your money and plan your arriving/tendering/embarking/visiting guest services in a way that minimizes waiting. Cruise critic is all about sharing these strategies.

Have to agree that the kids clubs experience is very hard for an aspie. For our 10 year old aspie/HFA we have had to re-work expectations. We don't expect him to spend much time, if any, in the kids club. Once we make that mental adjustment things go much much better! There's a lot to do on a cruise ship! And, he is very happy to sit next to us with a book or iPad. He prefers that to the kids club. For our next cruise (disnet fantasy) much of our planning was how we could all have a great vacation, even if he doesn't go to the kids club. A balcony is important because it allows him and us to enjoy the ocean without the crowds or sensory overload. We chose concierge, even though it is crazy expensive, because of our son. They have iPads and nintendo rentals for free, and a library of board games. Also snacks and a happy hour. So even if we spend half the day in our cabin we can have a good time all together, and then brave the waterslides, activities, restaurants etc with our batteries fully charged.

What time do you eat at home?

We eat by 6pm so late seating was hard for me. By 7pm I was STARVING and eating everything in sight. Then I would go to MRD dinner and eat more, plus dessert, because I want to experience everything I can on a cruise! So I was eating 4 meals and that was not good for my weight! Early seating worked much better. I would choose the felxible dining option if I couldn't get early but I enjoy the traditional experience and getting to know table mates. No where else in life do I enjoy eating with strangers, but somehow on cruises it is just so eay to strike up conversations with people and 2 hours laters you can't believe the interesting people you have met.

Darn it!!!! I was so excited about the west coast cruises. Looked at them and was very ineterested but didn't book. Now they are MORE expensive. :( I think there are plenty of people on the west coast itching to cruise. The cruise ships we do get out here are usually some of the worst for any cruise line and they tend to be get the worst reviews on CC. When we see a good cruise on the west coast we jump on it!