HeidiHo

I don't know if this really works because I've never experienced it but I have hear that putting a rolled up towel at the bottom of the door helps cut down on noise

On my first cruise back in 1985 (the Festivale), supposedly, Judd Nelson (The Breakfast Club) was on board. I never saw him though so don't know if it was true. Even so, he's not exactly a huge celebrity. LOL

This was several years ago but my then 17 y/o son tried getting into the dance club on the miracle and was turned away. On the same cruise, I know another young lady who was over 18 but looked young, got carded when she went in. She had to carry her drivers license with her all week.

I can't speak for that particular cabin but being right by the atrium elevators, you may get noise from entertainment and activities being held in the atrium. We had a cabin on the Dream that was on deck 9 but right by the atrium elevators. The elevators didn't bother us but it was loud whenever there was entertainment in the atrium. That being said, it didn't bother us because we were up late most nights anyway and there normally wasn't anything going on in the atrium after about midnight.

Since I am semi retired I would probably choose to stay onboard but I can certainly understand why many people would prefer to get off early and head for home. There are a lot of good reasons for this.

I know with Travelguard you have to purchase it within 2 weeks of making your deposit in order to receive the pre existing conditions waiver but you can purchase it right up until a day or so before you travel, you just won't be covered for pre existing conditions. You also wouldn't be covered if you wait too long to purchase it after a certain event has already started. For example, if you were supposed to leave on the Carnival Breeze out of Galveston tomorrow and you bought insurance today, you wouldn't be covered for the hurricane because it's a known weather event that has already begun but you would have been covered if you purchased it 2 weeks ago. If say though, you purchased insurance the day before a cruise and then you fell on the trip and broke your leg, you would be covered because a broken leg is not a pre existing condition.

Keep in mind that your ship could reach maximum capacity even if you have room in your cabin. Once they reach the maximum number of passengers for a particular lifeboat station, they will not allow you to add another person. This could happen at any time. I am actually in this particular situation myself. Right now I am booked by myself in the cabin. My daughter is not sure if she can go. I don't want to add her yet because that means I would need to get insurance for her if I want her to have the pre existing conditions waiver. She is completely aware that I might not be able to add her if she decides too late. I am ok with going alone if that happens because I am with a group anyway.

So I was looking at a January sailing of the Breeze today and the first 5 categories of balcony cabins are sold out. I'm assuming a large corporate group has come in and booked them considering its still 6 months away and Galveston ships don't book out this far in advance. I googled the ship and sail date with no results showing a group booking. Any ideas how else I might find out?

Just curious what date you were looking at. I am booked on the Breeze 01/21/17 and I know that cat. 8D has been sold out for a while. I know because that is the category I booked and I check prices once in a while. I haven't checked any other categories.

How many people are you wanting to put in each cabin? Here's another possibility as to why so few are showing up. When we booked the Dream for Feb. 2017, for the longest time, there were very few cabins available for 2 people in the category I was looking at but if I changed the number of people to 3 or 4, then plenty showed up. Obviously, Carnival was not allowing 2 people to book into triples and quads. Eventually though, when the cruise got closer, Carnival suddenly released all of the triples and quads to be booked by singles and doubles. So if you are only putting in 2 passengers when checking, it's possible that you can't see the triples and quads and they could be released later. Of course, any time 2 people are booked into triples or quads, there is always a chance that they could get moved if Carnival needs the cabin for 3-4 people.

I have no idea why they stopped doing Cruise Critic group cruises but I do know that our CC group cruise on the Breeze in Feb. 2014 was the very last CC sponsored cruise. Because we had done a few of these group cruises with many of the same people we have continued doing them on our own.

You might not want to do this if you are getting the Bottomless Bubbles but you could also bring a 12 pack of canned soda on board with you to keep in your cabin refrigerator. I don't drink coffee either and like to have a Diet Pepsi 1st thing in the morning just for the caffeine. I don't get the bottomless Bubbles though because I don't drink much soda the rest of the day.

The Dream has them

I think what the OP is trying to say is, why do people book a connecting cabin when they don't need the other one. I think she is looking to book a set of connecting cabins but is finding that in most cases, only one of the cabins in the sets of connecting cabins are booked.

I always try to avoid booking a connecting cabin if I don't need the other connecting cabin but sometimes I think people do it because of location. I was recently booking a cruise and wanted a cabin on the Lido deck, close to the pool. I will either be traveling solo or with only one other person. All of the available cabins in the area I wanted to be were either for 3-4 people or were connecting cabins. I considered booking one of the connecting cabins rather than a 3-4 person cabin but in the end decided not to book on Lido deck at all. Instead I took a cabin for only 2 people and no connecting door on deck 8.

No pool but there are hot tubs

HeidiHo THANK YOU, were they more than a 2/3 piece band, did they have a drummer?

 

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I "think" so but to be honest, while we enjoyed their music, we were usually sitting at the Alchemy Bar with our backs to the band. I wasn't paying that much attention. The Alchemy Bar bartenders were very entertaining too. LOL

That was the one I was afraid was on the ship, thank you. Does she play in Ocean Plaza?

I don't know if we are talking about the same woman or not. I did just find out the name of the band is "Jacuzzi of Love" and yes, they played in the Ocean Plaza.

They are on the Dream right now. I sailed with them last month and thought they were very good. They played a variety of music and there were 4 or 5 band members.

Thank you was the lead singer a female, kind of tall and strong like?

Yes

Last April we had a big winter storm coming at us here in Denver. We were to fly out Friday night at 11:30 pm right about the time the storm was supposed to start moving in. Several airlines offered to those that were flying out of Denver Friday, Saturday or Sunday that they could change their flight and fly out earlier or later in anticipation that flights could be canceled. I called to see if I could change our flight to Thursday or earlier Friday and nothing was available. We just had to chance it that the storm wasnt going to be bad enough by the time our flight was to take off that we could get off the ground. We navigated how many hours of driving it would be from Denver to Miami and whether we could make it by Sunday afternoon to make our ship. it was a long shot but also dealing with weather along the way could have slowed us from making it on time. All we had was that the weather forecasters said this storm would start out as rain first then gradually change to snow over night Friday into Saturday. Friday morning came and skies were mostly clear but as the day went on it clouded up more and by afternoon it was starting to sprinkle. By 9 pm when we left for the airport it was a steady rain and getting colder. flight still said on-time. 11 pm came and we were on the plane and temps were 32 degrees and rain was changing to snow quickly. By now wife and I are getting nervous as we wanted to get off the ground and on our way before the airport or our airline decided to cancel. We pushed back from the jetway and the pilot came on and said we would need to de-ice the plane, a 30 minute process. During de-icing it really started snowing hard. finally we started taxiing out to the runway, ground was still just wet, snow was not sticking to pavement yet. I was get eager to get off the ground. (BTW this was our first ever cruise so we were very anxious to get there and start our much deserved vacation) after waiting for 3 planes ahead of us we finally made our way down the runway and off the ground. Everyone in the plane started clapping. 3-1/2 hours later we landed in Miami at 6am Miami time and saw on the news on TV's in the concourses that DIA airport in Denver was CLOSED. OMG we just got out by the skin of our teeth. Got to our hotel, checked in, check our luggage with hotel as our room wasnt ready yet. (8:30 am in the morning) went across the street to Bayside shopping center and had the best day wondering around the mall, Took the Thriller speed boat tour. rooms was ready by noon, took a nap, went to dinner then back to our room for the night. Next morning got up and took the shuttle to the cruise terminal and had THE BEST TIMES OF OUR LIVES ON SPLENDOR IN THE WESTERN CARIBBEAN. got back and spent an extra night at a hotel right on Miami beach before reluctantly going home. LOL.

 

If that plane didnt get off the ground, we might have lost everything we spent on that cruise. That ship is leaving on time whether your on it or not. Yes, have a plan B. unless you live by the cruise port then your just lucky to be close to it. LOL.

Sounds almost identical to one of our flights before a cruise a few years ago.

I was on the Dream first cruise out of dry dock. Too bad your carpet didn't get replaced. They must not have done all cabins because ours was brand new.

Didn't notice any banging noises (except from the balcony door slammers LOL) or rattling from the balcony door dividers but in the middle of the night on either the first or second night, our balcony door divider blew completely open and kept banging on our balcony furniture, keeping my daughter awake. I wear ear plugs and didn't hear a thing. Of course the cabin steward fixed it first thing the next morning. Since the ship just came out of dry dock I'm sure they were doing work out there and probably never properly locked it.

The wind wasn't so bad on the river the first night but immediately on entering the gulf from the river, we were completely surrounded by fog. It was very eerie and the fog horn was blown every few minutes for the rest of the night. By morning the fog had cleared.

I have been in an extended balcony. Looking down on another deck or life boats doesn't bother me as l am at least a couple of decks above them and I made sure to book more in the middle of the inset so then the cabins that jutted out didn't bother me either. I wouldn't be happy being right next to or real close to those cabins.

Just an FYI, I know this is an old post but the previous poster brought it back. Since people will be reading this, and know this is old news too but in case people reading this have been away from CC for a while and don't know, I thought I would add that while the Dream was in dry dock last month she got all the upgrades like Guys Burgers, Guys Pig and Anchor BBQ, Alchemy bar, Red frog Rum Bar Blue Iguana Cantina, Blue Iguana Tequila bar, the sushi restaurant (can't remember the name of it) and probably more. The one thing didn't get but some ships have was the Red Frog Pub.

I have also sailed the Breeze and loved. Booking for next January.

I may be sailing solo for some of my future cruises and am looking forward to trying the solo cabins offered on the Newer NCL ships.

I was on the dream last month. The band by the Alchemy bar was good but I don't remember their name. Our cruise was the first out of dry dock and I heard the band had just started their contract that week so would be on for 6 months. I have no idea if this is accurate but it was one of the bartenders in the Alchemy bar that told me this.

If you like piano bars and if Patrick is still there when you sail, he was great. He got really raunchy late at night though so if bad language and just general raunchiness offends you, go early when he is still doing the PG show.

I didn't notice when the casino opened or go to comedy shows.

Our cabin steward said we could have once a day or twice a day service. I told her we wanted AM full service but just ice at night. She insisted then that we would get full service twice a day, which we got most days. I think there were a couple of nights she didn't do everything but that was fine with us.

Also, when you leave for an extended period of time, place a frozen cup of water with a penny on it in your freezer. When you get back if the penny is on the bottom of the cup, you know your power went out long enough to cause issues with your food.

Great suggestion. I had read that once before but of course I forgot about it. Our power DID go out while we were on our cruise last month but nothing seemed spoiled and my neighbor was coming in once a day to feed that cats so I'm sure she would have noticed if it had been out for an extended time period. I just knew it went out because all of he digital clocks were flashing.