webzila

Am I insane? We tried for 15 years to have this little angel of ours my wife and I aren't sure we can handle a week without her but we REALLY need a vacation.

 

Guess we want to know if it is even relaxing to take an 18 month old baby on a cruise? She's a really chilled out, happy baby for the most part - active, curious and good with people in general.

 

I don't think she's old enough for the Carnival Club so we understand it's going to be a different kind of cruise..no nightlife, shows, etc. That's totally cool with us - everything is different now! It just seems like a long time to be without her.

 

lol...I posted this almost two years ago. still trying to reschedule!!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1767137

I would say you should go and bring the baby but just not on Carnival simply because they do not have a nursery. I speak from experience. Camp Carnival starts at 2 yrs.

Our toddler is older than 2 now but before he turned 2 we already took him on 3 cruises. The first one was Disney which was awesome! The nursery there is great and the whole experience was wonderful. Then after that we went on Carnival. There was no nursery, no activities for babies, barely any room for them to play or do anything. Our last cruise before he turned 2 was on Royal Caribbean. Similarly to Disney they have a wonderful nursery and we were able to leave our son there, have dinner alone and even go on excursions.

One more question - Is it possible to apply more than one gift card to a purchase?

Yup, I've used them for both excursions well before the cruise and stocking my cabin with "goodies" to drink on the balcony! The option to use them is right above where you put in your credit card information I believe. No worries, shop away like me! :D

Thanks. I just tried going through the purchase process for a shore excursion and I see the gift card option now. I guess you can only use the gift card for certain purchases.

It didn't have that option when I had the Cruise Cash in the cart.

(The reason why I was even considering purchasing cruise cash is because I can get the eGift card at 10% off and I know we will use all OBC. So if I got $200 cruise cash I would only pay $180 if I could use the eGift card to pay for it)

You want to use an eCard to purchase cruise cash? Why would you do that? Cruise cash is non-refundable. The eCard doesn't expire and if you don't use it, you get a new card for the balance.

 

If it's a gift for someone, just give them the eCard. There's no name on it, just a card number.

 

I'm confused. :confused:

 

I've purchased several under different promotions over the past couple of months. I received them as emails. I then applied them to my current bookings and paid off both the November cruises. It was very simple. When paying off a cruise, there's a separate little line to click that says something like "pay using a Carnival Gift Card."

That was just an example.

How about this --> I want to pre-purchase an excursion. I want to do it online before I board. Can I pay using the eGift card?

I guess to simplify - can the eGift card be used to purchase anything (excursions, gifts, activities, etc...) on Carnival.com or can it only be redeemed at Guest Services after you are on-board?

Can someone please clarify how the Carnival eGift cards are used?

I tried looking at the FAQ and can't tell whether the gift card you receive is MC/Visa or something else...

If I want to purchase cruise cash / OBC on Carnival.com - at the checkout it only gives me the option to pay with a credit card but not an eGift Card.

Would I just enter the eGift card number into the credit card number field?

Thanks

Verizon has an international data package that is 100 Mb of data for 25$ . I I used that on the cruise I took earlier this year, & I had plenty of data left over when I enabled and disabled the data function on my phone over the course of the cruise . I did not leave data on all the time, because you could possibly receive an update from Verizon for any number of things for your phone, and you would be charged against the 100 MB limit.

^ This

I have Verizon and always add this before I leave.

If you have your phone on for texting then it will probably be trying to send/receive data at the same time. This is a cheap way to cover any crazy roaming charges and allows you to get some data as well for checking email, etc...

Just be sure to leave this feature on your account until your next billing cycle.

I had issues in the past where I removed this too soon before the billing cycle closed but there were some delayed data roaming charges that came in afterwards and got charged per MB.

I was looking at a cruise on Oct 25 2014 out of Houston.

On NCL.com the initial search result which shows all available cruises for the selected month says that balcony is $639. When I click on that, on the next page the price changes to $799. I can't figure out why.

Just wanted to see if anyone here knows why or has seen this before I call NCL and spend hours on hold..

Attached is the screenshots of what I see...

Thanks

Yeah. On embarkation day you go and register at the nursery and you can meet them. They only do registrations on the 1st day, no babysitting.

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Ours was 10 months old and it was on Disney but now NOS has nursery as well. You don't have to go back every hour. You just drop them off with diapers and anything else they need and they change them and even feed them for you. For emergencies they give you a pager.

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We just did an express disembark with a 2 year old, stroller, 2 suitcases and 2 backpacks. Only 2 adults. It was the Navigator in Galveston. We were off the ship by 7:30 AM. If we could manage this, anyone can :D

You really could wear anything. We saw people in shorts on formal nights.

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They have open play on sea days only from 12:15 to 1:45 (I think). During this time the staff leaves and you are free to play with your baby and all the toys they have there.

Also at 11:15 on sea days they have maritime music scheduled but if nobody shows up within 15 minutes they cancel that and start open play early. We went both times and nobody else showed up.

Also, it said that every night at 7 pm they had bed time story sessions but I think the location was the library. We never went to that.

They also offer a toy lending program. So you can take some toys back to your stateroom.

As far as the pool, there is not really any areas for toddlers or babies. There is a very small area next to the pools (separated by a gate) where the water overflow goes and we saw some toddlers there at times. The water goes up to their ankles.There were signs saying that kids who are not potty trained are not allowed in the pools.

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We just did a 2 hour walking tour of Falmouth last week. No safety issues at all other than cars speeding so use sidewalks whenever possible. There is plenty to see if you know where to go.

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I have Verizon and always get their 100MB international data plan which includes cruise ships. It costs $25 and is prorated. This works great in ports but on ships the results vary. For example on the most recent cruise (Navigator) I would get a 1X connection but it was slower than dial up when it first came out. Last 2 trips before this one (Carnival Triumph) I had the same phone, same 1X connection on the ship but it was much faster and actually usable. So just because you add the plan doesn't mean that you will be to actually use it on the ship anyways.

On the first day (embarkation) I think they were available 1 - 3 and then 5-7 for registrations only but they did not offer any day care services that day.

On sea days they are available 9 AM to 11:00 AM

Then at 11:15 AM on first and last sea day they have maritime music for all but if nobody shows up within 15 minutes they cancel that and then its free play until 1:45 PM. After that they are available from 2 until midnight.

On port days they are available 9 to midnight but if you have an excursion booked with RCL then as long as you tell them they will open 30 minutes before your excursion.

Its $6 per hour until 6 PM and after that its $8 per hour.

They charge by 15 minutes

In the evenings they will offer your child some food. Usually chicken, fries and pizza. They also will give them juice, milk, or water.

Just returned from the 6/22 cruise on the Navigator.

We went with our 2 year old and this was his 3rd cruise.

Overall the cruise was great, service was great and the ship looks very good.

The embarkation and debarkation were extremely fast!

On embarkation day we walked into the terminal at 12:30 PM and were on the ship at 1:05 PM.

On debarkation day we left our stateroom at 6:45 AM and were in our car at 7:30 AM and home at 8:15.

Something we noticed (which I actually happened to read in another post here before leaving) was employees arguing with each other in public areas. We saw this happen on what seemed like a daily basis. Some arguments were minor but some were pretty heated and between higher ranking staff and it was mostly the food / bar staff too. My wife and I thought that was kind of strange. We have not seen so much arguing between employees before.

One other thing that we found out which I did not know is that if you order room service then you will receive a phone call either to confirm or say that they are on their way. If you don't pick up then you may not get your order. It does not say anywhere that you will get a call or that you have to answer the phone. On the first day we ordered room service the night before but 1 hour after the scheduled delivery nobody showed up. We tried again later on in the cruise and this time it did arrive but the guy who brought it mentioned that he tried calling but got no answer (our son was playing with the phone so we unplugged it). Then on subsequent orders we plugged the phone in and they always called and always delivered on time.

Regarding the Royal Babies and Tots. We really enjoyed their services and the facility is very nice. There are a lot of toys, a big screen TV and very friendly staff. In some other posts I was reading someone mentioned that they give you a ship phone when you drop off your child. There were no phones on the Navigator, instead they give you a pager. We dropped off our child daily in the morning and evening and never had any issues. We also dropped him off for 4 hours on 2 out of 3 stops and no problems there as well. One thing that we were not aware before the cruise is that you can only book up to 20 hours from the beginning then later on any further reservations depend upon availability. On Navigator the max kids they can handle is 8.

Our room attendant (Thangela) was wonderful. She also has a 3 year old back home so she knows what we are dealing with. She was extremely nice to our toddler and on the first day offered him some Oreos which he gladly accepted. Then every night after that he would run to her for cookies which was pretty funny.

Cruising with a toddler is OK and we had fun but definitely not the same as going without him. One thing we were constantly in fear of is him disturbing others. He always wakes up early around 5-6 AM and immediately asks for water which is fine but at his age he does not know how to control his voice yet and lower the volume. Hopefully our neighbors were not disturbed.

If anyone has any questions I ll be happy to answer if I can...

I redeemed points for OBC about 3 months before the cruise. Sailing tomorrow. Should the OBC appear without any issues?

Thanks all for the info regarding the coolers

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1. Are the coolers in the rooms still just that -- "coolers" or have they been upgraded to actually keep things cold?

2. Weird question about the toilet. My wife wanted to ask because we are bringing our toddler, he is a little over 2 and potty training so she wants to bring the little training seat that goes on the toilet but asking for dimensions because not sure if it will stay on there. I told her that I am not sure if anyone brings measuring tape on the cruise to take the dimensions of the toilet seat but I will try asking :D

The 6 night Disney cruise that we have been on has been the best one hands down compared to others that we have been on Carnival, NCL, and RCL

Having said that, I would never go on a 3 day cruise on any line. By the time you get settled in and comfortable it will be time for you to pack up and leave...

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A lot of people are saying what if you leave your child but miss the ship...if you go on an excursion purchased through the cruise line doesn't that pretty much guarantee the fact that the ship won't leave if there is an issue with the excursion?

On DCL we left our baby in day care twice to go on ship sponsored excursions and did not have a single issue.

I'm sorry for not having the luxury of leaving my kid with a sitter for a week or better yet bring a sitter with me. Please...

Both my wife and I work and our son started day care at 3 months and has not had a single problem. In fact he loves going to daycare.

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Opening too many credit cards is bad for your credit rating.

 

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That doesn't seem like an accurate statement. The number of credit should not affect your score, it's how you use and handle them that does...

http://www.freescore.com/too-many-credit-cards-and-credit-score.aspx

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We got a passport for our baby when he was 3 months old so that we would not have to worry about documentation down the line. He has been on 2 cruises now.

Funny thing is that he is now 2 and obviously doesn't really look like the picture in the passport anymore :)

Seems like Royal caribbean is following in the footsteps of Norwegian cruise line with their "dynamic dining" aka freestyle cruising with no set seatings and different waiters every night. This is the approach for the new quantum class ships.A lot of the places on their restaurant list are for fee. This is ashame because most loyal royals prefer to have the same waiters every night and the same table. With this,you will not be able to meet new people as tablemates. This is a bad direction for royal to follow the footsteps of NCL. They will lose many of their loyal customers if they turn the entire fleet this way. I feel like RCCL has been copying NCL for the past few years and losing its image in the process.

My guess is that IF they do loose customers as you predict, they will gain more in return.

Why are they waiting until tomorrow when 3 other ships left today?

Where are they gonna go?