BenjiRodney

We ventured out 3 times and are still waiting to be wowed by Royal. We will be sticking to CCL and I will more than likely cancel the RCL booking in 2018.

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We like to take an evening flight out, check the bags across the street and have lunch in Old San Juan before heading to the airport. If we are not spending the night before flying home. We have also taken the ferry over the bay and then a taxi to Bacardi.

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I feel your pain, just back from # 14, # 15 in December, # 16 in July and # 17 in October.

Tracy Arm Explorer in Alaska, we got to get off the boat and get close to the glaciers.

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How would you rate the overall quality of the food? If you don't mind me asking what was the cost of the behind the scenes tour? We have the same itinerary as you and I can hardly wait for Half Moon Cay. BTW were all the elevators working?

Food was fine, never had an issue finding something that I liked. Lines could get long for breakfast. The tour was 55$ and is done on the sea day on the way back to Charleston.

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I'm so glad to hear you had a great time. We leave next Thursday and I am very excited for this cruise. What did you like most about your cruise? How was the entertainment?

Benjamin, the Cruise Director was great, high energy, kept things upbeat and lively. Loved Half Moon Cay, not sure what your itinerary is. Did the Behind the Fun tour, great getting to see all of the crew areas and the things that go on below deck that you usually don't think about. Best dining room staff in 14 cruises, fast friendly and very efficient in their work. Only thing I did not like, cabin steward only offered once a day service, we had to choose AM or PM.

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We were on her August 20-25th. Had a great time.

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Does the ship always stay on home port time, or does it change from port to port ? Does it specifically say anywhere on CCL web site.

 

 

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Only once in 14 Carnival cruises did we ever change times, and that was last year in Alaska.

I just got one today and was told it needs distilled water. Does anyone know where on the ship I can get it? Tia

 

 

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They sell it on board for 3.99 a gallon, but we use regular water in the CPAP machine without any issues.

We've never purchased Bottomless Bubbles before but hubby has asked about it for our upcoming cruise. He normally drinks Coke Zero. Can anyone tell me if they offer this on board or is it just Diet Coke? Also, is it like Cheers where everyone in the cabin has to purchase it?

 

Thanks in advance!

You can also each carry on a 12 pack of cans of your favorite soda, I being a Pepsi person, bring Diet Pepsi with me since Carnival is a coke company.

If you see a price you ae comfortable with book it, they will not increase it on you and if it decreases you can apply for the difference back.

I gave up my lido balcony for an ocean suite on the Conquest and loved it.

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They are large tenders running back and forth waited longer for it to fill up then it took to get to shore.

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Great review and thanks for those videos. In the first one of HMC it looks like a Corona commercial with no one around. The other beach with the floates were very populated. Were both the same beach?

 

 

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They were separate areas, the one with no people we ride on a team around to see where various things were located. That beach is in front of the horse stables. It really wasn't that crowded until the tide came in and swallowed the first two rows of beach chairs.

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Excellent photos, thanks!

Thank you

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This is one "rule" needing change! Any bar, any time. Some people don't want to buy a drink for breakfast for crying out loud!

I know, in December I may just have a Pina Colada with my French Toast.

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First of all, thank you for posting all of this information! We cruise this ship this coming Saturday as well. We have never driven to a port so could you please describe the process in more detail?

 

 

 

For example, where do we park and are there signs? Where is this wait? Is it a line up of cars waiting to enter the parking?

 

 

 

We plan to walk from our car to the ship, but it sounds like there is some kind of wait surrounding the parking? Thanks for any clarification you can give me!

Signs everywhere along the route to get to the port, they route you outside of the main downtown areas and residential areas. You enter through a main gate if you are driving your personal vehicle, and another one on another street if you are being dropped off by a hotel or shuttle. You will first get into a line to drop off your bags, they place them into the airline style carts you seeing being driven around airports. You then move on up to get into another line to wait to have docs checked again, port security, and they will place you into one of three lines (at least they did our morning) once parking begins, you wind your way through the maze/lines to pay for the parking, given a color coded ticket that will help you when you return. We parked in n enclosed warehouse. We were given the option of waiting for a shuttle or walking to the terminal. From what I gather walking is a new thing they have just started allowing. Might be two blocks walking distance from parking to the entrance. They check your documents and id again before allowing you across the bridge . But once inside it was 10-15 minutes tops before we were walking on board the ship. Pretty sure we arrived before parking started or just as it was starting. The staggered embarkation was not being enforced on that cruise.

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Just did the behind the fun tour on the Ecstasy. Everything deck 2 and below are under the water line, we got to see the freezers, storage areas on 3, the main laundry on 2 the engine control room, down some very steep stairs. Many of the senior officers have cabins behind the bridge on deck 10, including the cruise director. So all of the staff is not down in the bowels of the ship.

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Thanks for the great review! I'll be on the Ecstasy this Saturday. :) If you did it again, would you park at the port? We are driving in from Atlanta on Saturday morning, but we plan to stay for a few days after the cruise to explore Charleston. We've been debating between parking at the port or doing a park/cruise at a hotel (not even sure if that's available when you're staying after the cruise?) Sounds like your wait in/out of parking wasn't TOO horrible.

I would do it again if I had hotel points to use and saved money like we did, otherwise the hotels and shuttles have a drop off and you don't wait in the hour long line like we did since we got there at 10 til 11. But the people watching from the parking lot was fun as well, we weren't really in a hurry since we could see the boat and the lines were all going to the same place, just like sitting in traffic going home or waiting for an accident to clear.

The thing with post cruise is that you will need to make arrangements with the hotel to come pick you up and take you back to your car. We were able to be off e ship, through Customs and in the car by 830 am we had zone 1 debarkation. Went and started exploring more of Charleston while waiting for the Hotel to be ready at 3 pm.

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Video's are great. The water looks so calm and peaceful.

Water was very calm and peaceful, no crashing waves etc. Can't wait to go back sometime.

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Try it at least once, I've tried RCL 3 times, prefer CCL getting ready for cruise 15 16 17 on Carnival, like the staff, service and price better on Carnival.

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Submit a claim and see what happens.

I got the 50 ibex when they had a sale. Doesn't hurt to call and ask.

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What is their reasoning for the platinum drink only in the dining room and gold can be anywhere? Seems backwards to me.

 

 

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The Platinum one can be used any day at Breakfast Lunch or Brunch in the dining room.

The Gold one can only be used the last night of the cruise after 530 pm.

So glad you got to go to HMC! On my cruise on the Ecstasy in May, we couldn't stop there due to weather.

 

Couldn't imagine driving from WV to SC. We drive from Raleigh and that's about the most I can stand sitting in a car, but we do it in one shot typically. A little over 4 hours.

 

We'll be back on her in February for another visit to Nassau (this will be visit #3 for me...on the second I stayed on the ship, probably will again this time), and another try at HMC. Hopefully we get to stop this time.

 

Did you attend the talent show?

I don't like to drive, we usually fly, but thought why not let's drive, probably wont do that again. Even stopped in Charlotte on the way home and spent the night.

Talent show only had 3 people, so they had a lot of the ship's entertainers perform as well. We will look for a cruise that does HMC in 2018 as next year will be the Paradise in July to Key West and Cozumel and the Vista at Halloween to Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman and Cozumel.