CnCsMom

Getting ready to book my trip insurance and I was just wondering if I have to cancel the trip are my prepaid gratuities refunded or do I need to include them in my trip cost if something happens?

Thanks in Advance!

Cyndi

So I've bought Cheers for the first time for our upcoming cruise.

 

What's the community opinion if I stumble down at 7am to get specialty coffee for myself and my wife.. and take both of our cards. Will they give me 2 for me to take back to the cabin???

Not coffee but I was able to take mine and my husbands card to the bar and get a drink for him and one for me multiple times on the cruise we were on mid-March. I think it's probably a YMMV situation depending on the bartender.

That seems like a simpler option. So I'd just go and ask for an extra key to my room? And she would do the same? I didn't realize you could ask for extra room keys on the ship. That way we wouldn't have to fool with accounts, especially since I set mine up ahead of time.

We just had extra keys made this past week on our cruise. I would recommend when you do it that you ask them to do it on different colored cards as there's nothing on the cards to identify which room they are for. The person at guest services did one of ours on a blue card and one on a red card.

Just back home from the Victory today. Our experience with the new cabin service policy. Our room steward met us outside the room and asked us the first day if we wanted morning or evening service. He said exactly that once a day service was a new thing Carnival was trying. When I had read this debate on here I didn't realize how much this would affect our enjoyment of our cruise.

I was in a three person room with a trundle bed. Room service once a day meant that they did not put the trundle bed away at all. It was out in the middle of the inside room we were sharing all day.

Not having service more than once a day many that we (three girls one a teenager) were reusing towels which sometimes were not dry after returning from Port and wanting to get ready for dinner.

We did have towel animals in the mornings with our service.

Hi, will be on the Victory soon. Can anyone tell me about dining in the Italian restaurant? Is it worthwhile, how's the food, do they serve steak, do you receive free wine as you do in the specialty steak restaurants (which I understand the Victory does not have)? Where can I find the menu offered ahead of embarkation? Thanks in advance.

I don't believe the Victory has any specialty restaurants. We have sailed on her before and are getting ready to go again - 16 days, not that I'm counting.

paypal-gifts dot com

I have purchased a lot of Carnival and other gift cards this way using Paypal. I like it better than ebay b/c it's Paypal.

Cyndi

I will be on the Victory next week sailing to the Bahamas! I will take photos and post a review.

 

Here's my previous review of the Sunshine:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2199111

Thank you very much. Looking forward to reading it. We sail 3/13.

With the recent announcement that John Heald made regarding the new Cheers changes and it costing more to purchase the Cheers program once on the ship I was wondering has anyone pre-purchased Cheers and then ended up having to cancel your cruise? My husband's dad isn't in the best of health and having to cancel has become a possibility. We have trip insurance for the cruise but I didn't purchase it for tips or Cheers because I was planning on buying it on the ship.

Does anyone know what the deadline is for when it has to be pre-purchased by? The night before the cruise?

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer.

My only disappointment with this change is that we cruise March 13th and I had been buying gift cards to cover tips, Cheers and other on board spending either through AARP or from the grocery store to get the gas points. Now I'll have to buy it ahead of time or it's going to cost an additional $46 since they don't accept gift cards for purchase ahead of time.

Also, if you wanted to use your OBC for the program it's going to cost you more.

On the Victory March 13 out of Port Canaveral. As I understand it, I am allowed 12, 12 ounce cans (or cartons) of non-alcoholic beverage per person to bring on board. That means I can't bring on typical bottled water, right? (it's not a can or carton and usually greater than 12 ounces). Am I correct?

 

Is there anywhere nearby that one can purchase cartons of soda to bring on board (like in San Juan where there is a CVS in walking distance)? We'll be coming in to MCO that morning, not sure what we'll be using for transportation yet but I assume stopping along the way won't be an option for us.

We are going to be on this sailing as well :-)

There is no where near the port to buy soda. Also, the port is about 45 miles from the airport. Not sure how many people you have in your party and what time you are flying in that morning but I did a mock booking on Expedia for a picking up a rental car and dropping it off near the port (they have shuttles to take you to the ship) and it came up at $63 for an SUV.

My husband was planning on buying liquor on our cruise like we normally do until I told him about this new policy. We also drive to port so that's not an issue. The hassle of waiting in the lines early in the morning just doesn't seem worth the savings. I guess everyone just has to figure out of it's worth it for them.

THEY're on there now!! Wake up everybody. Good luck!

 

 

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Thank you! Got a couple!

Thank you very much for this post as it prompted me to go check my offers! There was a new offer in my account for Early Saver - Exclusive VIP Offer which was $24.75 less than the rate I had booked and also will give me an additional $25 in OBC. It looks like the offer just started today.

Cyndi

You have a beautiful family! You are doing a great job with your review as well. I just randomly clicked on your review and my kids have the same names as two of yours and the third one was almost the littlest ones name instead.

How do you see how many tickets are available? I have done it in the past and I tried to Google it to no avail. Google never fails me :-)

Thanks!

Thanks everyone for posting! FTTF was sold out when I booked our March 13th Fascination cruise two days ago so I thought I was out of luck. Went and checked on it when I read this thread and it was available again!

Thanks again!!

Cyndi

As usual.....YMMV. There have been numerous reports from people on many different ships that have been cut off after hitting the limit of 15.

 

Personally, I don't care either way because my next 2 cruises are on a cruise line that does not cut you off at 15 drinks and occasionally runs promotions that include their Classic drinks package for FREE. I can upgrade to their Premium package for 80 bucks over the course of a 7 day cruise and I can drink all I want for the drinks that go up to 12.00 each. And I get bottled high end water and coffee drinks as well. Or, I can go back to Carnival and pay 400 bucks for 7 days of a lesser quantity and quality drinking program.

My husband and I were "those people." We were cut off at 15 drinks on the one sea day of our cruise. We had just sat down at the first adult comedy show. Real buzz kill.

What a great review! We leave on the Paradise in 17 days. So excited!

Cyndi