FredZiffle

We did self-debarkation today on the Sunshine.  We signed up for a specific time since they said if you didn't, you'd be assigned the last time slot, and we knew we wanted to get off a bit earlier than that.  Turns out, it did not matter at all.  No one checked, no one cared.  You get in line and walk off just like every other cruise line, so don't stress about it.

3 hours ago, Petey-Me said:

We just disembarked on the Valor out of New Orleans (May 9, 2024) and everything went really quick. We choose to carry off our own luggage and choose a time slot of 8:40-9:00am. We went down to eat breakfast and returned back to our cabin around 8am to wait it out. Make sure you stay on airplane mode and on the carnival hub app to get any notifications! My husband didn't; he was checking his emails, and around 8:15am I got a notification to make our way down to the lobby/gangway. My husband didn't believe me until his connected back to the app and read the notification. We exited the room with our luggage to the middle set of elevators to the 3rd floor, which put us at the LIncoln Dining Room and not the lobby. When we noticed this, a kind women informed us that we can just go thru the dining room to the lobby, which we did. We exited the dining room and were about 8 cruisers from the exit door/check out podium. The line moved really quick and we were on our way to the gangway into the terminal. Once in the terminal the line never stopped and we breezed thru custom, even with our birth certificates. After customs, we proceeded to the parking garage. We exited the parking garage around 8:45am. So I took around 30mins from exiting the room to exiting the garage. 

Well, we're now two days away from our cruise, and I still haven't heard from anyone who DIDN"T select a debarkation time and just walked off with their luggage when they happened to be ready.  On every ship we've been on in the past, this was no problem.  I'm hoping the same holds true with Carnival.

lf you really want to experience the native food, avoid Jack's and Margaritaville and eat at the Island Jerk, Bar and Restaurant.  It's nothing but a yellow shack on the beach between Margaritaville and Jack's.  You'll find a lot of the crew from the ship there.

Has anybody ever brough a large beach umbrella with them to Half Moon Cay.  One of our friends is planning on bring a Shibumi beach shade, but I've never seen (or at least noticed) anything like that on the beach there.  I'd hate for him to lug it along, only to be denied using it.

16 hours ago, mfs2k said:

 

What do you do when you go to a new city for a day?  Do you take a tour or explore on your own?  I understand why one would want to use a cruise ship tour when you're travelling far from the ship, but for nearby tours, I suggest TripAdvisor for guidance, or google. There's a lot of scare tactics employed by cruiselines to get your to book through them, but if you plan to return to the ship 2 hours or more before departure, you'll likely be fine unless you fall off a cliff or into a ravine. 

And, if you fall off a cliff, you've got more important things to worry about than missing the ship.

We've been cruising for 36 years, and the only time we take a ship excursion is if we have OBC to burn.  We've taken trains all across Italy; hopped on a train in Germany and just rode west for several hours, getting off when we saw something interesting; rented a car in Argentina and drove 3 hours each way to see penguins; rented a car in Iceland and drove the Golden Circle; and many times booked excursions/tours directly with locals.  Often, I'll research public transportation options at a port, and we'll spend the day on buses, trams, or trains getting to all the sites.  

I have to wonder if anyone would notice or care if an ordinary Joe with no status dropped their carryon in their cabin.

I thought Creek Street was overhyped for what's there.  Took us maybe 15 minutes to walk around.  Of more interest to us was walking up the trail (Married Man's Trail?) and watching the salmon spawning.

14 hours ago, Moonarino said:

 

You can do it. But (see my above warning) your bags might not be in the terminal when you get there. They unload bags by zone, earliest zones (time slots) first, etc.

 

(This was on Mardi Gras just last week.)

 

 

Well, they won't be unloading our bags because we carry them with us.

18 minutes ago, AtlDave W said:

Did I get this correct?  The $100 NCLH stock OBC is NON-refundable, and the $50 shore excursion credit is refundable.  Thus if you book on board a $100 excursion it will be taken from the non-refundable account. Thus at end of cruise you would have refundable $50 shore excursion which would be money refunded to you.  Sounds confusing, but neat trick if true!

Two different animals.  The excursion credit is only good for excursions, and you use it or lose it.  In your example, the $50 excursion credit would be applied first, and the remainder would be covered by your non-refundable OBC from the stockholder's benefit.

17 hours ago, Sred123 said:

HAL is a great cruise for the money.  Staff is excellent and the food is great.  The Pinnacle class ships are the only ones I would go on though - best facilities.  HAL is not good for entertainment though.  

 

If you can afford it, Regent is really the best overall.  But if you are on a reasonable budget, HAL is perfect.

We haven't tried Regent yet, but have cruises booked at the end of the year on the Explorer and the Splendor.  I still want to give HAL a try, but maybe a bit shorter test drive than the 28 days we were considering.

If you're flying into Haneda rather than Narita, I'd suggest the Hyatt Regency Yokohama or the Intercontinental Yokohama Grand.  Both are convenient to the train to Tokyo (maybe 30-45 minutes) from Yokohama; they're also close to the airport and just a few minutes away from the port.

29 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

If you know you're getting off late, pick a late group. You can then stay onboard until "last call"

 

You can pick any group you want and actually don't even need to pick a group since you're carrying your own luggage. But if you're going to pick a group, pick a late one so folks who want to get off earlier can grab the early groups.

That's my point.  We've always been able to walk off when we were ready and not be tied to a set time slot.  It might be 8:00; it might be 8:30.  Can we still do this under the new system?

23 hours ago, Drazil65 said:

If you use express do you still pick a time slot and just don’t check your luggage for debark? Or is it a leave when you want type thing for express?

 

We choose the option on the hub when it popped up and the instructions gave us the time to be at the meeting venue.  I believe it was 7:00 am but we were there by 6:45 and the grp left the venue right after we arrived.  We were loading the car in the parking garage at 7:00 and on road heading to I-95 north by 7:10.  

But, what if you simply want to carry off your own luggage and are not necessarily interested in getting off early?  Do you now have to get off at the earliest point, or can you just walk off when you want to?

4 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

If I might ask, was the two-week cruise one unique itinerary or was it two seven-day itineraries sold as a combined 14-day cruise along with being sold as two separate 7-day bookings? We have found in the past that makes a big difference regarding what educational/port talks might be provided.

B2B 14 day cruises.  The 2nd part is a TA.

5 minutes ago, Mehroswitha said:

Have you considered Viking?

Actually, we've been looking at the higher end cruise lines for just the reasons you mention.  We have cruises booked on Regent and Oceania in 2025, but we like the itinerary on this HAL sailing coming up in November.  It's good to know that you have sailed on Viking and still enjoy HAL.

We're long-time NCL cruisers (with an occasional Princess or Celebrity thrown in), but we're considering a 28 day B2B on the Nieuw Statendam.  My wife is especially concerned about trying a new line for the first time on such a long voyage.  We're in our late 60's and have just gotten tired of NCL with the lack of entertainment (seems like it's 90% game shows now), the bad food, and the lack of daytime activities that interest us.  Is HAL any different?  My wife is looking for more, for lack of a better word, educational presentations on ports and culture during the day instead of all trivia and sales presentations like on NCL.  Decent food is also a priority.  It obviously doesn't have to be Michelin quality, but we'd like it to be edible (unlike NCL).  

How does Holland America compare?

We've been cruising with NCL for many years.  Their itineraries are still some of the best, but, frankly, virtually every other aspect of the experience has gone way down.  Entertainment now consists mostly of game shows.  The few production numbers are mediocre at best.  There is limited music around the ship except in the small venues where you have to line up early to get a seat. We used to enjoy having a drink in the atrium before dinner and listening to live music.  Now it is a game show or a trivia contest or one of the endless presentations about NCL ships and itineraries which are pure marketing posing as entertainment.

I know food is subjective, but I still find it amazing that anyone could find the offerings to even be at the quality of a Chili's or Appleby's.  It's not a supply chain issue as many claim.  That excuse ended a couple of years ago, and besides, NCL apparently has no issue sourcing quality ingredients for the Haven restaurants.  We found the food there to be quite good on the Bliss in December.  Even the specialty restaurants have become hit-or-miss.  Mt wife had the toughest, most tasteless, filet in Cagneys a few months ago.  I'm convinced it wasn't a tenderloin at all.  I had a fried seafood platter in Ocean Blue last month that contained a breaded and fried salmon filet as the fried fish component.  Nobody uses anything but a white fish to fry.  It was horrible.  I've also started ordering double appetizers and entrees in the MDR to combat the small portions and hoping to find at least something halfway decent.  We still have a couple of CruiseNext certificates to use up, but we've decided to move on after that.

On 3/10/2024 at 11:26 PM, ColetoBuzz said:

As a native of the Texas Gulf Coast / Central Texas area, I urge you to stop at a Buc-ee's. Get a bag of Beaver nuggets and don't forget to visit the restrooms.

I had been in small Buc-ee's in the area before. like in Gonzales, but never in a store like the Luling Buc-ee's store once it opened.

My first time there I hit the restroom and thought, "Dayum! How many janitors do they have here"?, as one long wall was nothing but "closets".

I soon realized those were toilet stalls . . . with thick, heavy doors . . . in a men's room. We men usually don't need much, but this was crazy.

Don't attempt a gas up if you're there on a weekend. It'll take too long. Stop for the restrooms . . . and the nuggets.

 

After reading all these posts about Buc-ee's, we decided to stop on our way from Atlanta to NO.  Impressive place, and I agree that the bathrooms are second to none.  But, gas at their 50 or so pumps was higher than neighboring stations, so I wondered why they were doing so much business.  No breaks on food prices either, although the options did look interesting.  I just wasn't willing to spend $8 on a BBQ sandwich that had been sitting under a warmer for God knows how long.  Given that there had to be at least a hundred of those sandwiches out at 10 in the morning, I guess someone is buying them.

11 hours ago, itsnotjustme said:

I had the NY Strip three times on our recent sailing on the Spirit. It was quite good all three nights.  Cooked a nice medium rare, it was brown on the outside and pink to red inside.  It was tender, juicy, and flavorful.

 

I will admit on a prior sailing the quality was lower.  Perhaps not quite as bad as "sad, disgusting, tough, gray morass" but far from my pleasant description above.

 

Did you have the strip steak on this sailing?  Or is teh description from a prior sailing?

 

 

Yes, I foolishly ordered the strip in desperation on this sailing even though I had gotten it once on a past sailing.  I will say that this one did have a few (very few) grill marks, unlike the previous one which looked like it had come straight out of the sous vide bath.  Didn't taste any better though.

I also noticed that there was never any beef at the carving station in the buffet.  Plenty of pork and some poultry.

Did I miss something here?  We cruised on the Bliss in December, and while the food was still pretty poor in the MDRs, they at least had a beef dish on the regular menu every night.  We just got off the Breakaway today, and there were no beef dishes on the MDR menu any of the five days I checked.  The only options were to pay the extra charge for a Cagney's steak or eat that sad, disgusting, tough, gray morass on the everyday menu that they call a strip steak.  Is this something new, and I've just missed any discussion of it, or did we catch an aberration?

I'd disagree with the OP as far as the Waterfront being a good place if you want solitude.  Unless you want to sit in one of the specialty restaurant's outdoor seating areas (which few people use because the seating isn't very comfortable), you'll find no place where you can be alone since seating is in groups of 4 or 5 chairs.  Yes, you might find a spare seat, but you're intruding on another group which them may feel obligated to include you in their conversation.

4 hours ago, D_And_K_gocruising said:

Exclusive Club Balcony Suite Amenities

• Distinctive Purple Keycard
• Pre-book onboard dining as early as 125 days prior to sailing
• Pre-book entertainment as early as 21 days prior to sailing
• 1 complimentary valet laundry
• 1 bottle of sparkling wine upon embarkation
• Treats delivered to your stateroom twice per week.

 

Well their site says one of the perks of a club balcony is an exclusive purple card.. so, there's that.. 🙂

 

They don't even mention the main reason we often opt for a club balcony - the larger shower. 

We usually book much closer to sailing than 125 days, so dining is usually already filled for any reasonable time.

We have seen every show that you make reservations for, and most were so forgettable that I'd never want to see them again (can anybody say "Burn The Floor"?)

I have no use for the complimentary laundry since we already get two bags free as Latitudes perks.  

Since most people have FAS, that bottle of wine is worthless (and undrinkable anyway).

The treats are sometimes okay, but often don't get eaten.

So, that leaves the exclusive purple card, which I know I'll cherish for years to come.

Can anyone who has sailed on the Sunshine recently confirm that these laundry rooms are still present?  They are not showing up on any deck plans.

Does Carnival enforce arrival times for embarkation?  I'm used to NCL where they don't even look at your boarding pass when you arrive.