ProvoAggie

It doesn't include everyone but here is a list that's known: https://www.saintgregtravel.com/punchliner-comedy-schedule/

Does Carnival visit tender ports with their Excel class ships? I remember reading that Royal Caribbean wouldn't send their Oasis class ships to a port that required a tender because of the feasibility of doing it. I haven't seen an Excel itinerary with a tender port but I may just not be looking hard enough.

People have different preferences. We did the Mardi Gras in January and everyone in my group loved the variety of activities and dining choices. That being said, my mother-in-law hated the cruise. She didn't care about the rollercoaster and other offerings that were exclusive to an Excel class ship and also hated how big the ship was and how spread out everything was. She's been doing older smaller ships for years and likes having just a general itinerary of early dining and then off to the theater for a show. She frequently complained about how long it took to get to different venues because of the size of the ship and was often times overwhelmed with the number of activities on board. If the features of an Excel class ship and a variety of entertainment options appeals to you then the mega ships are great. If they don't then stick to the smaller ships.

I didn't think to check the rules about bottled drinks on Mardi Gras in January. I have always taken bottled soda on Royal cruises so I threw 6 20 oz bottles of Dew into my checked bag. We're getting ready for another cruise on Celebration now and first saw that rule talked about on here about a month ago.

I think it's just called Adult Game Night on the Excel Class ships. It's done in the Comedy Club.

Most tour groups are going to give you a refund if your ship doesn't make it into port. These companies run on good reviews and it wouldn't look good if they got a bunch of reviews for not allowing refunds to passengers that couldn't get there because of something outside of their control.

I had never done specialty dining before but we did this breakfast on the Mardi Gras in January. It's a lot of fun. I have 10 year old twins that loved it. We're booked for it again on Celebration in September. There is a good selection of wacky food with some normal stuff as well plus the decorations and characters.

I think it's only 1 day (2 sittings) during the sailing. It's confusing because the dropdown lists every day of the sailing but it's typically only available on the last sea day. The other days will just say it's unavailable if you try and select them.

I don't work for a large corporation. We just use the PPTP supported by our ASUS router in our office and use the Windows 11 VPN to connect to it...no special clients. It's pretty basic.

That is correct. When you go to the Carnival Page you'll see "Cash Back Gift Cards" and "Discount Gift Cards." The Discount ones are discounted on the front end and are from other users. The Cash Back ones provide the discount back as a credit and are new cards. You do buy them with a credit card and I don't see why a Visa Gift Card wouldn't work but I've always just used my AmEx.

So Raise has a couple of different ways that they sell cards. One of them is as a reseller. If I buy a card from another individual at a discount I just buy it right before I plan on using it and use it right away. I'd never hang on to a card from them. In addition to that though, they also have partnerships with some companies where they sell new gift cards and instead of giving a discount, they give you a credit back towards your next purchase. This allows you to buy a card for the exact amount you need and it's a new gift card. I still use them right away but it's also probably a bit safer. I just buy a $1000 card, copy and paste the number into Carnival and then use my $80 towards the next card until my amount is paid off. I've done it now for 2 cruises with zero problems.

Raise.com also allows you to get 8% back and you can purchase any exact amount you want up to $1000 at a time I think. So you can buy a $1000 one and get $80 back...and then you can immediately use the $80 towards another one. It's nice because when you have $293 left on your balance you can just buy a card for $293 and not have any extra.

Amber Cove is a private port owned by Carnival next to Puerto Plata.

I typically use Raise to get 8% back on Gift Cards and then use them to buy a bit of Cruise Cash. I don't do a ton but I do enough to cover what I know I'll spend on board. I don't think it's worth it unless you're getting some kind of discount though.

I've used my Robinhood shares twice just fine. You just need to get your most recent statement and redact anything they don't need to see on it and send it in.