kids-in-2-centuries

On 2/21/2023 at 8:41 AM, Markanddonna said:

Could it have been related to the overcrowding situation seen recently on the Divina?  Something really weird is going on with the Divina. I just read the most recent review and it was even worse than ours from Jan 27- Feb 6. We noted the pool attendant in the aft pool enforcing the chair hog situation. I was there at 7 AM one morning, and he confronted a man who was trying to "reserve" five loungers. There was a verbal argument and the attendant won the day. This attendant did the same to anyone who dared to monopolize chairs with their towel and no person.

I was on 1/16/23-1/20/23 and it was not crowded at all; I heard one crew person say we were at 60% capacity.  SO, it seems more likely we were allowed up there because there wasn't as many guests onboard.  They did have an attendant up there checking cards though.  The pool attendant at the Aft pool when I was there was named Abraham and he was on top of it! Didn't let anyone get away with holding chairs, etc.  Even told people that they couldn't have their beverages by the pool.  He was a nice guy and I enjoyed talking to him, and he sort of looked out for me because I was solo.

5 minutes ago, sidari said:

The Aurea sundeck is for those guests, having Gold level in the Voyagers club does not give you access to it nor does any other level. Yacht club guests are allowed there.

Why do you suppose they let me use it on the Divina? I was solo, and the people I hung around with were all gold and black and also allowed up there. I never tried to go up there on other ships because I didn’t think it had anything to do with Voyager level. 

I was on the Divina recently sitting in the aft pool and talking to the pool attendant.  He informed me that I could use the Top Solarium if I wanted.  I was surprised so I asked him if he was sure, and he pointed to my gold card and said that was all I needed.  I used the solarium several times after that, and they would check my card and let me in without issue.

I was not aware that Gold card holders had access to the Top Solarium area, and it is not listed as a "perk" on the Voyagers Club level descriptions.  I was not Aurea and did not have any sort of Wellness package.

I have an upcoming cruise on the Seascape and I am wondering if they will let me use the Solarium area, or if that gold card access was only on the Divina.  Can anyone tell me if the Top Solarium area is a gold card perk?

On 9/22/2022 at 10:00 PM, CruisingAgain said:

Thanks everyone!!   Erin - you do exactly what I want to do - pack the small plastic wine bottles in my suitcase for the plane and then carry them on to the ship.  Based on the responses here I am going to try it in October. If they won't let me take the 4 bottles I should be able to take 1 of them (less than 750ml). Even one bottle will be less expensive than a glass of wine on the ship so I break even.

I carried 8 bottles (two 4-packs) through Port Canaveral and on to the Mardi Gras on 9/24/22 zipped up in my carry- on bag and not a single word was said, nobody even opened my bag.  This has been my experience every time I do it.  I will be carrying the little bottles on again on 10/15 through Miami and onto the Horizon.  I usually sail with my husband but occasionally go solo.  I've decided that the next time I go solo I'm still going to carry on wine for 2 because they never, ever open my bag or question why I have quantity for two in one bag.

I started carrying on the 4 pack of small bottles last year.  I have taken them through Miami, Mobile, and Port Canaveral.  I plan to take them through Port Canaveral again on Saturday.  I do that because we fly to port and they are just easy to pack, and I don't have to make any pre-cruise stops.  I posted about it so I am going to link you to that post so you can see the pic I added of the wine.  It is not my favorite wine, for sure, but it is convenient, and nobody has questioned it.  I flatten the box in my suitcase but put it all together again in my carry on when we go through the port check-in.

I’m going on a girls cruise in a few weeks. My cabin mate lives near the port and needs to work a few hours on the morning of embarkation. Can I board without her? Our cabin will have an early arrival time and I want to board with the rest of the group instead of waiting on her. Will they ask me about her?

On 2/12/2022 at 4:22 AM, mondello said:

The FCC for the kids cabin, are they going on the Oct. cruise? We were able to use the FCC from our two cabins, see Post #5. Also, I don't understand why you called? My email from Carnival said use this link to submit your request to apply the FCC. The FCC for your kids cabin is good for 1 year if they're not on your Oct. cruise.

I called my PVP with a number of questions. I like to talk to him, he’s usually very helpful. I just booked another cruise that includes my kids and used the FCC for it. 

I was on the Sunshine Christmas cruise. There is no BBQ restaurant on the ship and no servings of it in the Ocean Plaza. The do serve a nice breakfast and lunch buffet in the Ocean Plaza that few people use, which is nice. The Red Frog pub did have an embarkation day special, half price Caribbean cocktails and beers, any size. You can get the big huge fishbowl size for $10. It's a great deal. Hours were noon to 2:00pm. 

I was on the 12/19 sailing of the Horizon turned Sunshine. I called my PVP last week to see what he knew about the FCC and if I could have the FCC for both cabins that I paid for (us in 1, kids in 2) and if I could apply the FCC to my already paid for October Horizon cruise. He had no idea what FCC I was referring to so he put me on hold to ask his admin team. They apparently also had no idea what I was asking for so I emailed him the letter I got from Carnival. After a few more minutes on hold he came back and told me that I could apply the FCC to my October booking and since it was paid for I could get a refund or have it applied as OBC. They would not let me use the FCC generated from the cabin my kids were in, even though I paid for the cabin. So, in my experience, YES, you can apply the FCC to an already booked and paid for cruise. 

On the Horizon in September they had no problem with us dropping our stuff off at the cabin.  It was already cleaned and ready (at 11:30 am) but we didn't stay there.  On the Freedom in October they absolutely would not let you go anywhere near your cabin.  They had crew at all the staircases guarding the cabin access doors.  It was a little after 1:00 when they finally let people go to cabins.  This was their second cruise since restart, and their first turn around day so maybe they just needed the extra time because of that.

Just wanted to give an update and share my experience. I boarded the Horizon on 9/4/21 through the port of Miami. I put two 4-packs of wine in my carry on bag and sent it through security to be scanned and checked. There was absolutely no questions asked about my wine. I was able to carry it on with no problem. So, it is either completely ok or the screener just missed it. I will try to carry it on again thru POM in December. These little bottles are super easy to travel with in checked luggage when flying. (just FYI, the liquor bottles in my pic were pre-purchased through the fun shops, NOT smuggled on.)

41 minutes ago, CruisingFromLA said:

I have done it with 3 mini bottles of Stella Rosa at the Port of Long Beach. The security person looked at me and I said that the 3 small bottles equal 1 regular size wine bottle and he let me through. I think it is at their discretion if they will let you through or not.

I figured that would be the case. I’ve decided i’m just going to try it and see. This wine is inexpensive and not my favorite so if they make me toss it I’ll probably argue a bit 🙂 then do what they say. 

I’m not going to have time to stop in Miami pre-cruise to buy wine. The mini bottle 4-pack of Sutter Home Merlot is a total of 748 ml...compared to single large bottles which are  750 ml. The mini bottles will be easy for me to pack in my checked luggage for the flight. Anyone tried with success to carry on a 4-pack mini bottle wine through POM?

12 minutes ago, BoozinCroozin said:

This is simply false. Cruise line shave no shortage at all of cruisers. They are solidly booked to the capacity they want to sail with. The issue is the constant changing and modifying rules to an ever changing dynamic of this pandemic. Sorry, they lost their exemption, but the ports are making the rules now. I am glad they are and glad Carnival is getting stuck with what they should have been doing all along. The need to get to 100% vaccinated and nothing else. No exemptions, no excuses. Get your shots and cruise or choose not to cruise.

It is not false...Children have a paid spot on the ship.  Cruise lines need paying customers, be that adult or children.  I never gave my opinion on whether or not they should cruise, only that, in my opinion, there will be more approved now than there would have been before this change.  My children are adults now, both fully vaccinated.  If anything, it is time for me to update my profile picture. 🙂

This update to protocols does not change the number of exemptions Carnival is giving...just makes almost all of them children.  Children are paying customers and Carnival needs all of those they can get right now.  The incentive will be there to approve as many kids under 12 as possible.

Related, a family on my 9/4 cruise group had two children approved for exemptions...one is 10 and the other will turn 12 during the cruise.  That child's exemption was revoked...which really stinks to get such late notice of a cruise cancellation.

On 7/27/2021 at 5:51 PM, Cruise Related said:

I’ll do my best to answer any questions you have! Sorry, failed at taking pics! But I was really truly there! Mainly hung around the Havana areas. Louis and Wendy (Havana bartenders) were amazing! Did every specialty restaurant. Ask away!

I'm seeing a lot of posts indicating that the crew can not leave the ship while in port, and anything they need they have to buy from Carnival, like personal hygiene products, etc. I saw a blurb of a post from JH that seemed to confirm this, but he said something like "We have things available for the crew" which doesn't mean it is free....Can you confirm that crew are stuck onboard and have to buy basic necessities?  If so I will load up my suitcase with some goodies...

Just now, EdmundXXIII said:

 

That's helpful! I'll ask my travel agent to ask about it if he's on the phone with Carnival sometime this week. Definitely don't want to make a call (or ask him to) only for this, though. I've heard wait times are 2+ hours on the phone!

I was on the phone with Carnival today for 3 hours and 45 minutes, 2 1/2 hours were just waiting for someone to answer...I called around 9:30 last night and only waited a few minutes...BUT I got my issue mostly resolved 🙂

1 minute ago, AtSeaWithChris said:

Why would they do that?

Ugg, I said it backwards...sorry.  I will correct.

Someone in my 9/4/21 Horizon FB roll call said that they were turning Platinum during the cruise, but had the 14 day check-in instead of the 16 day.  This person said they were able to call their PVP and get it adjusted to 16 days.  I don't know this for a fact, just what I read.  Good Luck and welcome to the Platinum club!

Second Update: I called this morning to speak to someone in resolutions.  It took 1 hour and 13 minutes for a rep to answer and transfer me to resolutions.  I then waited another 1 hour and 7 minutes to speak to someone in resolutions.  I was on the phone with Elizabeth in resolutions for 1 hour and 25 minutes trying to sort everything out, get my address and phone number corrected in my account and find out where the gift cards are.  That is a total of 3 hours and 45 minutes I have spent on this today 😞  The resolution ended up being an email from Elizabeth to the Gift Card processor and copied to my PVP about the mistake.  She said if the cards have been issued, they will be cancelled and re-issued.  If they have not been mailed yet then they will be sent directly to me.  Elizabeth said that my PVP will follow up with me and she thought that would likely be before the end of next week.  We shall see.

Thanks for the advice and the info, I really appreciate it!

Update: I called Carnival this evening, spoke with a very helpful lady named Tina.  She went through my account with me and tracked the $900 down.  She didn't make any accusations against my PVP but the gist of it is that he applied the FCC but must have got distracted or something and didn't apply the remaining funds, so after 24 hours their system automatically processed a refund.  She also helped me work out the address issue.  I have to call the resolutions department tomorrow to find out if the cards have been issued and what the next step will be, as she didn't have access to that information.  She did make a bunch of notes on my account though that should make the next conversation with resolutions easier.

These have been such helpful responses! I’m glad to hear that it comes Fed-Ex, at least it doesn’t look like junk that way. The problem with that is Fed Ex couldn’t deliver something to the correct address around here if we covered the house in neon lights 🙄 I’m also thankful to hear that they can track and cancel the cards. 

48 minutes ago, ColeThornton said:

 

I don't think we can do that on this forum.    "Bear".    lol  🙂

Oops 😳

Bare with me, this will be a long post.  On 6/14/21 I called my PVP to rebook a cancelled cruise with my FCC and some additional money I had paid (this was a rebook of a rebook.)  My PVP reviewed everything with me, dollar for dollar would apply to the new booking and I still owed $60, which I paid.  My PVP told me that he had to turn everything over to the admin team to apply the FCC and that I will get a new confirmation when it is done showing my zero balance.  On 6/15/21 I received the new confirmation, showing that my FCC was applied, but not the extra money I paid on the cancelled cruise...$900.00.  I wondered about it, emailed my PVP, and he said he was "on it."  Yesterday 7/20/21 I called my PVP again to rebook another cruise, and I asked him to look at the 6/14 booking and tell me why it still shows I owe $900.00.  He traced it all back through to figure out what was going on, and discovered that Carnival had refunded the $900 to me on a gift card, because that is how I paid.  I NEVER REQUESTED a refund, and I thought everything was square when I booked on 6/14.  The real problem though is that Carnival mailed the card to an address I haven't lived at for 5 years.  I know the people that live there now so I called and asked them if they had seen it...they said no (and I believe them) but also that if it looked anything like junk mail they would have thrown it away.  Now, my address and my husbands address is current and correct in our online profile with Carnival, and all 4/5 of my cruises that are booked have the correct address on the confirmation.  The one cruise that has the wrong address is this one.  Where, how, or why that address is still connected to me in their system I do not know.  SO...MY QUESTIONS: How long is it currently taking for gift card refunds to come?  If it was authorized on 6/15/21 is it possible that it just hasn't arrived yet?  Does Carnival require someone to sign for receipt of $900 in gift cards?  Does Carnival keep track of the gift card number they sent me so that it can be cancelled and re-issued?  Does anyone know who I should call at Carnival to try and work this out myself? I feel like my PVP is not as interested in resolving this as I am. Anyone have any experience with gift cards being issued but not received?  Thank you for your time 🙂

We are on a b2b in December on the Freedom. Wondering what happens if you DO test positive? Do they just let you leave on your own? Do they turn you over to the government? (that last bit is slightly tongue-in-cheek) Curious minds want to know.