bitofun

Is the sea day brunch in one of the MDRs? Thanks!

I thought some things were better and some not. They had a few items that were listed every night in addition to new items earn night. There is always a dish considered rare find. One night it was rabbit. These items were a little out of the norm. Two folks in my party thought the quality was not as good but I didn't necessarily think so. The first formal night was the best meal I had on the ship. It was a filet, lobster, really good broccoli and a really good rice. I believe the second night was filet again but no lobster. Some entrees came with sides and some did not. We had made reservations in the steakhouse one night however we did not make it due to our schedule. We did order the surf & turf steakhouse upgrade for $20 and I honestly did not think it was ant better than I had eaten on elegant night. If I had a do-over I would definitely do the steakhouse just for the experience .

Which nights of the itinerary were elegant nights? And does anyone know if they are the same two nights on the Western itinerary? Thanks for all the info about the Glory!

We are going on the Glory on 12/6 on the western route. We are 55, 53, 26, 24 and 21 (last three being all girls). We have something planned at each port. What did you enjoy on your sea days? We will certainly visit the comedy club, the night clubs, the piano bar and the casino. It's the girls first cruise so what shouldn't we miss doing during the day on the sea days?

 

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My sister and I are going on the Glory 4/25/15, also on the western route. We have also planned excursions at each port. Hope you'll be writing a review of your cruise! Anxious to hear all about it...

I didn't know they had these, I just bought 4 $500.00 ones. Haven't broke it to the wife yet.

 

She will either go :eek: or :D or :mad:

I just want to say I love your signature banner! Congratulations on quitting such a behavior controlling addiction. I too quit about 4 1/2 years ago and went to the banner site and discovered I have saved well over $10,000.00. I have to say, that is a few cruises, not to mention how many more years of quality life I have gained. Kudos to you, I know first hand how very, very tough it is to do what you have done.

We are taking the Dream in October and I am looking for shore excursions. I was looking at the Carnival sponsored ones to hopefully get the tender right from the ship. There is one called Starfish Island Getaway with Lunch. It says it is an island created exclusively for Carnival guests. I can't find any reviews for it on any of the websites. There is still an "Island Beach Break with Lunch" that has a lot of reviews (but is listed as New) so I think they must be different. Has anyone done this excursion or heard of Starfish Island?

Please come back and post a review if you do take this excursion. I just booked it for me and my sister on our April 2015 cruise. Very good recent reviews on TripAdvisor which also do indicate that Starfish Island was Banister Island in the past.

When I read this thread a few or 30 pages ago, there wasn't a definitive or even a more to one side than the other on if the bartender will let you put the amount of each plan on two different accounts.

 

We are already going to have to exchange cash for the Cloud 9 spa "couples package" (we are just friends cruising together, but its cheaper) as I remember they won't split that. I don't want to and neither of us is bringing that much cash to do so with the Cheers program.

 

Any consistent answers on this lately?

I can tell you that when I cruised with my sister in April 2013 we were able to each have our cheers charge on our own account, but we had to go to the table set up next to the bar on the Lido deck to accomplish this. No problems! Enjoy!

Stay downtown/Brickell with your sisters. You'll have everything you need for a one nite stay.

I too, advise cabs to hotel and port. Shuttles will take time and convenience from you.

Thanks for the recommendation. We do plan to use a taxi since it's just 2 of us. Also leaning towards the holiday Inn POM.

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We do Super Shuttle from the Airport to the hotel so we don't have to worry about the luggage not fitting in a cab. Then if I have to I can hold a piece or two in the cab on the way to the port.

 

 

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Thanks, I hadn't heard of Super Shuttle before, so I Googled it :)

Would be another transportation option.

Thanks everyone! Great list to choose from. Nice to find out ahead of time about the lack of shuttle availability from airport to downtown hotels, also hotels to port. We'll plan on taxi. Down to 188 days now. Can't wait!

Next cruise late April. My sister and I will meet up for our 3rd sisters cruise! She is flying out of Denver into Miami and I am flying out of Wichita into Miami. Need recommendation for one night stay. Things to consider are ease of transfer and best way to transfer from Miami airport to hotel. Also good location to CVS or similar store to purchase last minute items, and ease of transfer and best way to transfer to Port of Miami.

Thanks in advance for replies!!!

Great review, anxious to read more. I've read your reviews before and you do an awesome job. I am doing the Western Caribbean itinerary on the Glory next April, so this is definitely of special interest to me. It will be a our "3rd Sisters Cruise"! Looks like you had the best of both worlds for those two weeks. My last cruise was a 5 night to the Eastern Caribbean and I have to agree with you about the private cabana at Half Moon Cay was definitely awesome. My sister and I truly felt we had died and gone to heaven for the day!

We were actually booked on the Conquest for this next cruise, going to the Eastern Caribbean again since we truly did love Half Moon Cay and Grand Turk and thought the addition of St. Thomas and San Juan would be wonderful. Sadly though Carnival cancelled that cruise when the announcement to relocate the Conquest to Fort Lauderdale came out. We were scheduled for April 26 and needed to stick as close to the same week as possible, thus we rebooked April 25 on the Glory going to the Western Caribbean. Can't wait to read your review about those ports since we have never been to any of them except Cozumel during land vacation several years ago.

Also loved the video of the cabin and balcony!

My first cruise my sister and I both flew into FLL the day of a cruise leaving POM! Just have to say we were extremely lucky it all worked out... My sister flew from Denver (yup, two time zones) and I flew from Wichita (1 time zone). She had a direct flight into FLL. Both of our flights were on time (I arrived at 11:45 AM and my sister about 20 minutes later) and we had earlier booked transfer with a private car service company (now remember, it was our first cruise so didn't know about shuttle services like SAS. Didn't even know about CC back then :rolleyes:).

So... luckily everything went well with that travel/cruise. For our second cruise we decided to fly in the day before and now feel we would never fly in the day of the cruise again. The only thing we will change for the next cruise is regardless of if we fly in to FLL or MIA, we will stay in MIA the night before the cruise. Last cruise we flew into and stayed in FLL, then used SAS shuttle service to go from FLL hotel to POM. That too worked out OK, but think it will be better to spend the night in MIA since our cruise is out of POM.

One last item, I would like to thank everyone here on CC for their vast array of information they share! :)

Just got off the phone with Carnival. Originally on the Freedom 6 day 4/26/15. Got switched over to 7 day on the Dream out of NOLA. I did have to pay the new cruise price but they said they were giving everyone $50 OBC whether or not you changed cruises or stayed on the Conquest. She told me they won't apply the credit until the day of sailing though.

Any of you that are staying on the Conquest it might be worth a call to Carnival for $50.

Thank you for posting this information. Last week on the 24th I hadn't yet received an e-mail about my Conquest cruise being cancelled for April 26, 2015, BUT I tried to access my cruise manager and my booking had disappeared :eek: Only discovered why my booking was gone after reading here on CC about the Freedom and Conquest ships being moved.

Long story short, I called Carnival. They told me our Conquest cruise had been cancelled and a refund of what we had paid so far would be applied to the credit card used for payments. Before I even called Carnival though I had talked with my sister and she and I decided on a different itinerary and ship. So when I called Carnival they were able to just transfer the money we had already paid on the Conquest cruise to the Glory cruise which actually ended up being a little less money total cost. BUT, there was never any mention of $50 obc.

My point is that after reading about Carnival giving $50 obc I thought "why not, what have I got to lose?" Called Carnival and told my story and woohoo, Carnival says we will each have $50 obc on our sail and sign accounts on day of sailing! Just hope it ends up being there :D

we love the glory and we almost always cruise in a balcony.We always book close to the action on the lido deck category 8E.The best location on the ship ,close to food,the pools ,your own bathroom ,morning coffee :)

 

Did you pick your cabin ?

Glad to hear you are among those that love the Glory! We have picked our cabin and we are thrilled about it. We splurged on one of the better balcony cabins ;)

Hands down my favorite excursion for Cozumel is the Cozumel Bar Hop (google it) so much fun and so beautiful!!!

 

Belize- cave tubing (private excursion) check out the ones available on the port of call threads) It as awesome!!!! There is NOTHING to see right at the Port in Belize (dirty and ugly).

 

Hope this helps! Have Fun!

Thanks for this information. I will definitely check them out.

We loved Jacks shack too :)

 

We did cave tubing in Belize and it was good to try once :) A pretty long walk through the jungle ,not really that bad but its a bit of a hike.

 

We have been on the Glory a few times and this is my favorite class of ship .What would you like to know maybe I can answer your questions

In regards to the Glory, what did you think of the ship? We are in a balcony :D I've read good and not so good reviews of the Glory. I'm sure like all others, it just depends on what one's expectations are. My sister and I are like two peas in a pod when it comes to cruising and activities. I know we'll love the cruise, activities and ship.

Thanks again for replies!

This is our favorite itinerary by far we have done it I think 6 times

 

In Cozumel we do all inclusives $50 per person all you can eat and drink from open until close with great service at mr sanchos (our favorite ) or Nachi Cocum (very quiet)

 

In Grand Cayman we take a cheap taxi to Calico Jacks beach bar and rent chairs and sit on the beach.The location is good and always taxis to take you back to the ship and clean restrooms.If your first time you may like stingray city (youtube it) .We used moby dicks and he was cheaper than the ships prices.

 

This is what we do and who we use in Roatan

 

http://boddentours.com/bestofroatan.htm#HMB

 

We have used Victor a few times and always a great time.they do what you want and like ALL DAY while on the island for $100 a couple including a tip.Our last time we toured the island again ,hit the beach and had some fresh lobster tacos and did some shopping.This is your best bet you will love Roatan especially if you leave the Carnival owned man made beach area

Thank you for the wonderful recommendations! Mr Sanchos sounds fabulous and so does touring with Victor Bodden while at Roatan. Calico Jacks reminds me of our stop at Jack's Shack in Grand Turk a year ago, where we had a wonderful time and great food and drink. :D

What about Belize? Thinking about doing the cave tubing, but looking for others to reply with experiences.

Also would love to hear from anyone regarding the Glory! :)

are you dedicated to shopping?

are you dedicated to snorkeling/scuba?

are you bus tour folks?

as you beach folks?

 

the answers will be all over the place until you add some specifics

Thanks, should have included some specifics ;)

We both like to shop and do more beach days. Neither one of us has ever done the scuba and not that big into snorkeling either.

We live in different states and unable to be together more than about once a year with the cruise being one of those times. Much of our time is spent absorbing each other. We both love to cruise. Love the sun, sand and water. Love to eat and drink as well :)

Just last week our Conquest cruise for April 2015 was cancelled due to relocating the ship to Fort Lauderdale. We've now totally changed itinerary and booked a cruise on the Glory which will cruise from Miami to Cozumel, Belize, Mahogany Bay and Grand Cayman.

I'm looking for excursion suggestions/experiences for each port and also any input about the Glory.

Will be me and my sister going on our 3rd Sisters cruise :D.

Thanks in advance to replies!

Looking at upgrading to a Premium Vista Wrap Balcony. Cruise is still quite a ways out and we could pretty much have our pick of any of the Premium Vista Wrap Balcony cabins. Any opinions of which deck/cabin? Upper, Empress, or Veranda? Thanks in advance for your replies.

You would be charged that tax anyway on the individual drinks, Cheers program or not.

So true and excellent point! Thanks!

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Classy1,

Just for an example I had 3 margaritas before the ship hit international waters so in addition to the cheers cost my sail and sign card had $0.70 charge x 3 (to cover the tax) on it. In my opinion, not enough to sway me from purchasing day one. That tax was while at Port of Miami. Hope this helps :)

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Can anyone tell me what your sail & sign bill shows for the Cheers charge in the 1st place?? Like Cheers Package 57.48 x 7 days or what??

My sail & sign statement just shows Date 4/29/13, time 3:16 PM, location Pool Tritons, receipt number, folio number, and amount $287.21 (5 night cruise on Victory 49.95 x 5 + 15% gratuity. There were also 3 separate 70 cent charges for taxes on 3 drinks purchased prior to entering international waters. Hope this helps.

We just returned from the Splendor, and purchased Cheers on day 2. We were not charged for the first day, and our drinks from day 1 were not retro-active - we paid individually for those drinks.

 

We were happy with Cheers, and knew what we were getting into, but we would not purchase it again. I was all boozed out by the end of the trip and barely drank my last 2-3 days. DH did not drink much the last 2 days either, but he definitely got his money's worth from it. I was a loss. Oh well. We would not choose to purchase it again.

 

Here's my beef with Cheers: It is not available on HMC. We knew this when we purchased it. It was available for a while, then when they changed it, I posted to JH on FB asking about it, and he said it was too hard to account for drinks on HMC against Cheers, or some malarky like that. This is absolute horsecrap. They carry point of sale terminals off the ship and set them up in the bars, and carry them right back on to the ship on the last tender of the day. There is absolutely no reason they cannot accept Cheers on HMC other than that they don't want to. Which is fine, their company, their rules, but don't say that it's an accounting problem, when it's not.

I totally agree with you about the HMC issue. I was on the Victory late April/early May, cruising with my sister. We did the cheers program simply for the convenience. Right before our cruise, the cost had gone up on the Victory to $49.95 + 15% gratuity. Since it was a 5 night cruise we didn't get "boozed out". For us, we absolutely made out well with it ;)

But now about HMC. We were very fortunate Carnival was still allowing the cheers program on HMC :D. And my sail and sign statement lists every drink I got on HMC. For location it shows "Captain on the Rocks". The times listed are after return to ship, but they are what I ordered while on HMC.

Our next "sisters cruise" will be 7 nights. HMC is one of the ports. Because most people (including myself) do tend to get "boozed out" by the end of a full week and because Carnival stopped allowing cheers on HMC, I'm not too sure yet if we'll purchase cheers next time. Might consider it if Carnival were to reinstate the use on HMC :cool:.

Just booked the Conquest for a B2B in April 2015. Any comment on porthole? we are in room 2220. Thanks .

I'm just curious if one of the B2B dates is April 26. My sister and I have booked April 26, 2015. It will be our 3rd Sisters Cruise.

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