xbatt8

Spirit class ships have a very nice two story nightclub. The reason two stories is so nice is because the smokers have to stay upstairs (smoke rises),  leaving the downstairs seating and dance floor relatively smokeless. 

Bob

You, or all of you can do self assist and carry your luggage with you as you debark. With or without luggage, you still have to go through customs. And you are still bound by the rules of debarkation. So you can debark with no luggage if you want, but you will still only get to exit when your deck is called and then you’ll have to go through customs like all the other self assist folks. After that, yes, you will be able to come back into port to pick up the family. Lots of people on the cruise will be getting picked up by friends and family.

So you won’t really save any time on the debarkation process by going alone with no luggage... unless you will have so much luggage that you can’t do self assist as a family. 

Bob

The Hub app has the menus for the entire cruise. You can access them within minutes of being on the ship. 

The menu for elegant night is the American Feast, and will include lobster on your 6 night cruise. That is usually the 1st sea day (normally the second night). The MDR menu for the first  night should be the same on either itinerary. So if you decide not to do it first night or second night, then you have plenty of time to check the Hub app when you first get on board, and then make your reservations. If the first night MDR menu doesn’t hit your hot button, then that might be a good night to go to the steakhouse, as first nighters get a free bottle of wine.

Bob

10 hours ago, Athankfulheart said:

We're on Feb 10th as well ! Last times on the Dream were March 2012 and Jan 2014(such bad weather that we got 25% fcc). Looking fwd to a great one this time.

We are on that cruise as well. First time on the Dream, but not first time on Dream class. Was hoping to finally sail with Chris, but understand that family comes first.

hope to see you all at the meet and greet.

Bob

4 hours ago, ffmikey said:

Thanks for your time. Have fun in Coz. We are doing this itinerary in February. Safe travels...… Mike

We are doing Feb 10th. It’s nice seeing the Fun Times in advance...  😁

Bob

12 hours ago, Tssweety said:

We just booked this yesterday!  Hoping it is great. My son and dil have been to Mr. Sanchos and loved it so we are all trying nachi in a few weeks. Fingers crossed for a great day!!  Any tips?

Nachi is not as much “fun” as Mr Sancho’s. No blow up toys to play on and no loud music playing. But the food is great (we love the guacamole) and the drinks are free flowing. I’ve been known to sit at the swim up bar and just keep trying different shots...  😉. One trip I was not feeling too great the next morning and pretty much skipped Belize. I wasn’t too bummed by that tho.

The beach is pretty, but not worth snorkeling in if that’s your thing. They offer a boat ride to a reef for that tho. No, Nachi is a place to relax on the beach under a palapa and just eat and drink.  Makes me sound like a drunk doesn’t it...  😆

One item of note. They do not offer unlimited food, only unlimited drinks. I think it’s basically 3 items per person plus desert. However, we feed at least 2 of us with one order of guacamole. Same for the nachos. And the fish main dish is big. So we actually split 6 items between the two of us. The more I think about it, I don’t think we’ve ever actually used all 6 of our items, and we’ve always left satisfied. You can find their menu with a simple google search. Ignore the prices on the menu. That must be to satisfy some regulations or what they pay in taxes.

Enjoy your day. We are going there when we sail the Dream in February.

Bob

We are booked on this cruise as well. As I do not ever get in airplanes, I cannot answer your first question. However, we went to Funchal and Malaga last spring and both were more than capable of handling all the passengers easily.

The Toboggans in Funchal got a little crowded when all the tour busses showed up, but the lines went quickly. We toured a lot of the touristy things, and nothing seemed overly crowded. We were in Malaga twice, and both times seemed “uncrowded”. We did the Hop on Hop off bus once, and it was very easy to get on and off at each stop. The second time we just walked in to the area we wanted to spend the day at. 

Bob

We were on the Vista last February and when showing up at Java Blue the first night, were told to go directly to deck 3 check in from then on. So each night we were welcomed directly at the desk and given an empty table for our party of 6. 

Bob

The Hotel Current has parking and a shuttle.

Bob

12 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

 

 

Cozumel

 

This is going to be my 8th time in Cozumel. I don't have anything booked right now. That could change but as of now I'm just going to do my own thing that day.

 

Well, you’ve likely been there, but Nachi Cocom is our go-to place in Cozumel. It’s a $55 all inclusive with great food, plentiful drinks, and a pool with a swim up bar. Plenty of palapas on the beach. It’s a $17 taxi taxi each way, but that’s for 1-4 people. There will undoubtedly be others on the roll call going, so hooking up with others brings the price down.

Bob

On 11/24/2018 at 3:33 PM, BENHANDEL said:

 

I have no "edit" next to bedding...although I see it next to dining...

Hmmmmm, bummer. Mine has edit next to both. Sorry, that was all I had for ya.

Bob

On 11/21/2018 at 7:28 PM, BENHANDEL said:

 

BUT...our bed configuration has been wrong and were never given a choice at online checkin and there is not an edit option. I have been dreading another call to carnival to get this corrected...

Bed configuration and dining times can be changed by going to My Cruise Manager. Select the cruise you want to make changes to by making sure that tab is highlighted (if you only have one cruise booked, then that one will automatically be highlighted). It will have your names, the ship name, sail date, etc, close to the top of the page. To the right of that info, click on the link that says, “cruise details”. Another page will open up with the heading, My Cruise Details. Below that is all the info for your cruise. Next to “Bedding” will be your bed choice and a link that says, “edit”. This is where you can change your bed type. Below Bedding is the line for dining. It will show what you currently have as your dining choice. However, it also has an “edit” link. If you click on that, it will give you the option of dining times or ATD. If a time is waitlisted, it will also say that.

Bob

We are also big time Carnival cruisers. Last April we did the Epic TA from Port Canaveral to Barcelona. It was our first cruise on NCL. We liked the cruise/ship enough that we bought several Cruisenext certificates (their version of the old Future Cruise Certificates). And since we have to cruise at least 4 times to use them, I also bought 100 shares of stock so I could get the OBC that they also offer. 

Food was very close to the same. Entertainment was excellent. Broadway quality play, Cirque du soleil dinner show, Burn the Floor dance show, etc. They also had a dueling piano bar (as opposed to a single piano bar). I really like Playlist Productions, but the shows we saw on NCL were awesome.

We had a mini suite (not the same as a suite), and it was nice, but not really much nicer than any typical balcony cabin. The only thing we didn’t like is unique to the Epic, so we aren’t worried about it. The curved cabin and the weird bathroom setup took a lot of time to get used to, but again, unique to the Epic.

The cruises themselves (for the 3 we have booked so far) are pretty close in price, but the free at sea goodies make them a better price than similar Carnival cruises. On our Breakaway cruise coming up in January, we got all 5 Free at Sea, plus OBC, free calling, etc. Made it a very good deal.

So the short answer to your question... We are Diamond Carnival cruisers who - so far - really like NCL’s deals, itineraries, and entertainment. We haven’t sailed the Breakaway, YET, but it is similar to the Epic, which we liked.

Bob

Our favorite place closed down a few months ago.

Not tacos but we’ll go to Potrero Viejo for Gorditas and Guadalajara for Birria.

Hi Sho...

Martin moved across the street. I think the name of the place is Terazza (or something like that). Food was still very good. Much bigger place. Has an upstairs eating area as well as the downstairs.

I was there last winter and had to see for myself that he had closed down. As I was standing near P&B talking to Manuel about the closure, Martin came running across the street. Mr Bob, Mr Bob, over here.

I will be going back to see him in November. 😁

Bob

And I hate to be Darren Downer, but there is also a possibility of getting redirected to Spotts Terminal... which is about a 20-25 minute shuttle ride to get back in to Georgetown.

Sometimes the wind and rough seas prevent tenders from using the Georgetown terminals. When this happens, ships can cancel the port, or they can sometimes use the alternate terminal on the leeward side of the island.

If all of the excursion’s people are coming from cruise ships, then the company might go to Spotts terminal to get them. But this could also mean an hour of the excursion used up on going the opposite way to do this. However, in places like this, excursioners can come from the ships OR from the many hotels on the island. Not sure what they would do if their excursion were mixed.

So, I’m not trying to put a gray cloud on your plans, just to give a heads up that things can sometimes get tricky. We have been detoured to Spotts Terminal on 2 of our last 3 trips to GC.

Bob

We are also doing an 11 day Breakaway. Ours is January 27th, 2019. Same one for you???

We had the package on the Epic in April. To be honest, we weren’t wowed with Cagney’s or Le Bistro. They were very good, but they weren’t great. If I were spending my money, rather than going as a free package... it would be a coin flip whether or not I’d do it. As a guy who doesn’t eat steak, I was very disappointed that to get lobster, I would have had to pay an additional $12. If they are going to offer you a Filet Mignon, they should also be able to offer a lobster tail.

We did like La Cucina, and Shanghai. Both were quite good.

This time we plan to try Moderno and Ocean Blue. Both look very good.

One other thing. I asked about using one of our specialty dining nights on the Cirque dinner show and was told that we could not. The ability to do so or not may be ship by ship (or more likely Maitre d’ by Maitre d’).

Bob

I've been on the Imagination and the Inspiration a lot. Can't remember if I ever saw a movie on them. Certainly not in recent memory. Sorry.

Bob

There is a land based Restaurant in California's Central Coast that does Dover Sole for their fish and chips. Best I ever had, it was mind blowing.

Where where where??? 😁

Bob

I've never seen the menus on the hub app. Maybe it's on some ships and not others.

Bob

Do they have a "stay and park" agreement? We will have our car with us.

Thanks,

Bob

First cruise was a 7 nighter in 1992 on Jubilee. We had an ocean view cabin and we paid $750 each.

In 2015, we did a 7 nighter on the Magic. We had a balcony cabin and we paid $850 each.

I'd say that in 23 years, the prices were kept down pretty well. There were a lot of cutbacks to keep them down, but cruising was still affordable for the masses.

There are a lot of factors which drive prices up. Newer, bigger, and fancier ships. Sail on one of them and you will pay a premium. Seldom visited areas. Go to Alaska or thru the Canal and you will pay a premium. Ports with few ships. Sail out of New York or Baltimore and you will pay a premium. Reposition cruises used to be a lot cheaper, but now they are all the rage. Now you pay a premium to sail one.

Lots of factors making cruising more expensive in some areas, but still affordable in others. I can still do a 4 night cruise to Catalina and Ensenada for $250 per person... and I think that's pretty cool.

Bob

We just got the Carnival credit card ad in the mail because we are approaching final payment soon (I'm assuming). I did a search, but came up with old threads.

 

Does anyone love the card, or do you find that other credit cards give you the same or better benefits?

Other cards give better benefits for most things, but the Carnival card gives you double points on all things Carnival. So if you cruise a lot, it's a pretty handy card. Plus, when you go to redeem points, if you look around a bit, you can get some better than 100-1 payback. I've gotten a couple of 66-1 so far.

It works for us, but YMMV...

Bob

 

From what I've been reading here on CC, the boarding process has changed and S&S cards are no longer issued land-side but are distributed to your cabin.

We were on the Inspiration a few weeks ago and the cards were still being issued land side.

Boarding in LB is a crap shoot. Sharon is right that boarding usually starts around 11:30. However, I've also seen boarding start as late as 1:30 and as early as 11:00. We usually arrive around 11. We get our cards and hang out for 30 minutes or so. Lately there have been wedding parties on all our cruises, so we don't get to board first. But, still soon enough. :)

Bob

And just an FYI... I've done the Inspiration 4 times in the past year (the most recent being 2 weeks ago), and none of them had the sea day as the second day. All 4 of those cruises had Catalina as day two and the sea day as day four. That said, I am doing this itinerary in May, and the email says that the sea day is day two. No idea why.

Bob

True. But then passenger 1 would also have to be refunded the advanced purchase price and would then have to re-purchase on the ship at the $5 per day higher price.

Why? You purchased cheers. Your roommate cancelled. Regardless whether or not they get a refund, you paid for yours. Even if it was paid for on the same credit card, it's a pretty simple transaction to refund 1/2 of a purchase.

Bob