cruising_along

On the ship, I didn't feel like it was a big deal. You can be mask free in all the outdoor places. They are particular when you enter the lido restaurant or mdr. Once seated, nobody cares. Crowded shows, they remind you to remain masked, but if you have a drink, nobody cares. Casino is where they are quite insistent about masks. I mostly played in the non-smoking side, but on the smoking side, I did notice some tension between the dealers and smoking players about mask. Some dealers will remind you to sip and cover.

Outside excursions is a mixed bag. I did a very active and strenuous excursion and they made us mask for the first 10 mins before allowing to take it off when we were in the forest.  Even when walking outside, most of the ports expect masking, but not really enforced.

On 8/23/2021 at 12:18 PM, EngIceDave said:

OK, we cruise Sept 4

 

Was looking to make an appt to get tested, NO CVS NEAR PORT CANAVERAL is doing rapid testing.

 

Had to make appt in Orlando, good thing is that it's near the airport...like a couple miles away.

 

CVS - 8025 LEE VISTA BLVD, ORLANDO, FL 32829

 

Maybe 40 mins from the port, on way from airport. 

Orlando airport has rapid testing facility. Not sure if it's inside the terminal or outside. I saw it advertised inside the terminal 2 weeks back. 

15 hours ago, snowballs mom said:

I just bought my shares at the end of July, and made my request with the transaction record that I printed off from my brokerage account. It only took them a week to reject it  (they did not like the format, apparently because it did not show my name). I just received a mailed trade confirmation yesterday with my name on it, blacked out a lot of stuff they did not need, and sent it in. We shall see.

Same situation. Bought around 20th July and booked the cruise a few days later. Sent my obc request with trade confirmation on Jul 24. Got the incident number. Responded to the incident number on Aug 1 with July Statement. Got obc on Aug 4.

Aug 14 not Aug 4

4 hours ago, jperry2011 said:

The ship is awesome. The drinks are flowing. Almost time for dinner and to hit the casino tonight...  Can't believe it's been so long but we are beyond glad to be back.

I am interested in more details about the casino. Particularly table games - Black Jack and craps. 

On 11/24/2018 at 10:28 PM, runeatcruise said:

 

Thanks!

 

Any other recent reviews of Bernard’s Tours, or do you have a different tour operator to recommend? 

I was in St.Maarten recently and used Twin Island Excursions Island tour. No deposit and I paid the entire amount while there. 

Bernard tours is the big fish there. 90+% of Cruise customers were booked with Bernard's. Twin Island doesn't run the island tour by themselves. We went and joined another bus which already had some other people on board. I am not sure if it was Bernard's bus or the bus was a 3rd party which is shared by all the tour companies. Irrespective, it was a good tour.

I did this 3 weeks back at Carlisle bay. We were on an island tour and asked the driver to drop us off here (Taxi to Carlisle bay from the port is $5). Walked in and they offered $10 snorkel and turtle swim or $15 with a beach chair and umbrella). A short boat ride and a snorkel later, we were at the turtle spot. That day there were just 2 turtles and we snorkeled around them and one of them swam away. I have done Snorkeling tours where we can spot Turtles. The turtles will just speed off. These turtles are very friendly (similar to the sting rays in Cayman). They come up and the guides feed them, but ask the tourists not to touch them. According to our guide, there are more turtles earlier in the day.

Just back from St. Maarten(Journeys cruise - 18 islands)...best place to buy liquor, particularly brand name liquor to stock up your bar. Booze it up has a great selection (apparently so does prime cash and carry according to my trusted St.Maarten local), but like another poster mentioned, it is somewhat out of the way from the cruise port. Their catalog is available on their web site and I marked down the prices of what I was interested to form a baseline. Front street has the best prices(even lower than booze it up). The selection can vary from shop to shop, but popular Scotch and Canadian whiskeys are easily available and you can expect 20 - 40% cheaper than in the U.S depending on where you live.  Just allocate enough time to shop. I didnt. Plus I had already bought 2 in my list elsewhere. 

I don't remember being allowed to cross Harborside on 25th St on the morning of the cruise. As you exit the terminal on the 25th, due to debarkation traffic, you will be directed along and just north of the railway lines and need to make a U on to Harborside just a little east of the 28th.

IMO, The advantage of Park n Cruise is you can just walk to the Terminal with the luggage. I stopped doing the routine you are trying to follow several cruises back. Now I just come on 25th from Broadway and left on to the alleyway aka New Strand and let the Park n Cruise ppl guide me to parking, park, pick up luggage and a short walk to the terminal. The entrance to the Carnival passenger terminal is just to the left as u walk into the terminal on the 25th.

Thank You everyone for the replies.

I will contact Ameritrade to send me the documents needed

And I will use that fax/email pattern to notify Carnival.

Thanks again

Cheers

Dont you have online access to Ameritrade? All you need is a print out/pdf of the monthly statement with only the pages that indicates your name and CCL shares.

Barring your last statement which I've highlighted in red, I agree with you 100%. For anyone who has cruised with Carnival since, at least, the year 2000, I cannot see how they could believe that the food quality has not deteriorated significantly.

My first cruise was in 2001 when Carnival had just one ship out of Galveston(One more in 2002 on RCL). Took a long break from cruising and have been cruising once a year since 2013 mostly on Dream and Conquest class ships.

I wouldn't say the food quality has deteriorated, but the menu variety in MDR has shrunk while others have expanded significantly. Like a lot of other posters have mentioned, Pizza, Guy burgers, Blue Iguana, Tandoor, Asian Wok, Sea day brunch, Sea day bbq, vegetarian options in MDR daily are all either vastly improved or excellent additions which caters to the clientele and tastes of today. I somewhat fondly remember the desserts in the MDR as some how fantastic in the 2000's, but don't have the same sense of awe with the recent desserts (although I totally dig some of the offerings in the coffee bar and afternoon tea !!!!!)

I live in a major metro which has some of the best steak houses in the nation and I would put the Carnival Steak house experience against most of them at barely a fraction of the price. The sushi place is pretty damn good.

I also believe (like a lot of others) that there is a menu fatigue due to our frequent cruising and familiarity with the offerings. All said, I would take today's offerings than what was available as a whole in the 2000's. I would rather the cruise prices stay at the levels they are and additional premium offerings are on a pay per use basis.

There are only a few stores selling liquor and they're fairly close to each other: Milano, Caribana, AH Rouse which may have a new name, and Dynasty Dazzlers. There probably isn't a huge price difference between stores.

 

Hennessey White is a very popular liquor item because not sold in US. Botany Bay rum is another but is not as well known.

Thanks for the Info and love the Botany Bay Rum Suggestion.

Going to St.Thomas this November and am planning to do some Liquor shopping. Carnival docks at Havensight and we are planning to go to Magen's bay on our own for a few hours and do liquor shopping on the way back. Selection and Price are the key factors. Looking for a current list of store recommendations. Thanks

Awesome news! I wasn't expecting this til possibly after dry dock next month! This will be SO much more convenient!

On Breeze, this feature and facial recognition(really cool!!!) is available only on iPhone. Also in Breeze you can buy the digital copy of the pics from the app and it will download and add to your gallery on iPhone. Also you can book shore excursions from the App. But none of the above features work on Android App( Samsung s7 edge).

Another cool feature in the app if you are travelling with friends or family with combined dining reservation, they will automatically show up as friends in the hub. So you can favorite an event and it will show up on your friends app.

HUB app makes a lot of these tips related to fun times, highlighting events, S&S acct review kinda outdated.

I have done 2 staggered checkins at Galveston. One with FTTF and one without. If you have FTTF, check in time in the boarding pass doesn't matter. You go through a separate line and can check in as soon as they open. The earliest I have seen the lines open these last few years in Galveston is around 11:30 for boarding and FTTF will called in around 11:45.

I was on Magic in 2013 and knew about Tandoor, but was surprised at how good the food was. With all the 2.0 upgrades, I thought Tandoor was gone and was pleasantly surprised to see it in Breeze last week. IIRC, in 2013, tandoor was open only on sea days, but in Breeze, it was open every day. They have fish on most days at tandoor, but no Indian seafood options at Dinner.

Just got off Breeze. If you are diamond or Platinum or FTTF, you can easily make that time even with checked luggage (I was out and off the parking lot at 9:15). Otherwise, the only sure way of making that time would be deck 10 or above and all carry on luggage.

To some extent Yes. The previous 2 cruises I had FTTF and enjoyed some of the benefits (early boarding, early luggage arrival and easy tender). The last cruise I was on this month, I couldn't get FTTF as it was a last minute trip. And this cruise was the first time with Staggered check in at Galveston. Staggered check in works really well if you can plan your arrival to the port. I got the 10:30 - 11:00 check in and we were in the waiting area in less than 15 mins from the time i entered the port. No more long queues or general crowding around the port entry like our earlier experiences (at least in Galveston). Boarding is still Marriage/priority/FTTF and by Zone. So we boarded probably about 30 mins later than we have done using FTTF. The room was ready about an hour after we normally have it ready. I rarely use guest services and so I didnt miss that. We had a tender port, so I had to remember to go and get the tender tickets and wait there. I will still buy it if its available, but I really didn't miss it much. But $60 is really not much in the big scheme of things for a lot of ppl who cruise or vacation many times a year. Let's see how the dialogue changes if Carnival charges $90/person for FTTF and offers staggered check in

 

A question I have, can you hold the stock in an IRA and still get the benefit? I would think so.

Yes. IRA, 401(k) ..doesnt matter. You will get the OBC (Based on personal experience).

The magic has guys burgers and some of the "pay extra" options the dream doesn't.

Magic doesnt have Guy's burgers.

I was on Freedom out of Galveston very recently and did that exact itinerary. Our balcony was on the starboard side. In Galveston, we were facing port while being docked and again while docking during the return(so the ship docked by starboard in Galveston). In Montego Bay, we were facing the dock again (so the ship docked by the starboard side). Cayman is tender. Cozumel, we were facing Breeze docked in the next pier (so the ship docked by starboard in Cozumel). Now that I think about it, looks like Freedom docks by Starboard when possible.

My husband is an avid Cigar Smoker. On past cruises he has smoked on the smoking deck. The Fun Times I've seen posted indicate cigars are only allowed in Vincent's Bar, but Carnival's smoking policy indicates they are allowed on the smoking deck.

 

We haven't cruised since 2011 on the Fantasy, and the experience with the cigar bar or lack of has him dreading the cigar bar on the Conquest. Any body with info that will help me allay his concerns? Hoping Vincent's is a far better experience and that he'll be able to smoke somewhere outside with other smokers.

 

TIA!

Another avid Cigar smoker here and was on Freedom a couple of weeks back. Cigar smoking is definitely allowed on the smoking decks. It is a misinterpretation to think that Cigar smoking is ONLY allowed in Vincent's Bar. Among the indoor smoking areas, it IS only allowed in Vincent's Bar (for example cigars are not allowed in the casino, but cigarettes are).

https://www.goccl.com/~/media/Files/Irman/bookccl/shipboard_knowledge/SmokingPolicy.htm

Does anyone have an experience with them that can answer the following. Do you have to pay for each individual device or can you share the access through multiple devices on one account. Also can you use Facebook messenger or iMessage without upgrading to the higher cost package.

I used it couple of weeks backs on Freedom.

You CAN share access through multiple devices, BUT only one device can be on at any point in time.

One of our devices was on the basic $5/day package and iMessage and snapchat was used extensively.

I also had another set of devices on the Value package ($60 / week) and it was not bad. I wasn't particularly pleased with the signal strength inside the room or balcony, but outside in the open areas was pretty decent.

I was in Jamaica last week and had lunch at Ocho Rios Jerk Centre. Had Jerk chicken and some sides. Chicken was excellent. Very casual place, price is ok.

I'm a big proponent of buying photos at places, but not when they create rules that paying customers can't shoot pictures solely to coerce them to buy. Especially when they charge insane prices.

 

I'm not interested in the dolphin encounter but I do want to do the SNUBA tour and maybe the manatee encounter, but not if I can't take photos and video. And of course I want to shoot in the park itself.

 

All I'm trying to do is determine what types of photography are allowed where at the park, but it's been difficult getting the points of contact at the park to answer any questions.

Snuba tour, you can bring your own (obviously underwater!!!) camera and shoot to your heart's content. Unless someone else is with you on the snuba tour, you wont have any pictures of yourself or your family members enjoying the activity. So you might end up buying their DVD's anyway.

I was there in 2013 and AFAIK, there were no restrictions on photography/vidoegraphy anywhere inside the park, during scuba, snuba or during snorkeling. I didnt do Dolphin encounter there, so cant speak of it.