consmarci

First trip to Alaska coming up in May. We are doing a land portion (on our own) and will be hiking a bit in the first 30 miles of Denali Park and around Mt. Aleyska, the hand tram hike. Friends have told us we need bearspray. We truly aren't sure if they are joking or not...We haven't really read a review mentioning bearspray and people do a lot crazier things than we're doing. Advice please. Thanks so much.

Kbm2, sounds like a great plan! Yes, small world...no one has heard of Dunedin! We love it here. 

Hope to meet you in Alaska! Less than 60 days! 

14 hours ago, kbm2 said:

Thanks everyone for the recommendations!  That really helps.  We missed out on Denali when we went on our honeymoon in Alaska 22 years ago and really wanted to add it on this time, but the time of year is not great to get that full park experience.  We are going to skip the Natural History Tour & go it on our own.  Thanks again for your help!

I think we may be on the same cruise. What did you decide to do in Denali? We'll be in that area Wednesday/Thurs before the cruise. 

I googled and found nice ones on icruise website.

14 minutes ago, fsuchick97 said:

I've never heard of crucon before, but would love to get the prepaid gratuities.  Did you just call them and ask for them to transfer your booking?  I booked on the Carnival website last night.  I'm not sure if the sailing we booked on is sold out or if there is a glitch as I looked at the Carnival website this morning and it doesn't show.  Any info you can share is much appreciated!

 

Yes, just call them and let them know you want to transfer the booking. It is done all the time, evidently, to get the perks that agencies offer. It does take away your ability to call Carnival with issues/ price reductions etc in the future, since you have to go with the agent, but in this case, since both of my categories are already sold out, I felt it was worth it. An agent will call you back, get all of your info and it was done within a half hour. Gotta say, they were terrific, efficient and a pleasure to work with. 

1 minute ago, E Heffa said:

Hmmm

Not sure what that means, but the agent I used asked a superior if he could "do anything" for us since we were transferring the Inaugural too, and they came back with 200.00 obc in addition to what Carnival gave us. I jumped on it. Plus, it is easier using 1 agency rather than 2. 

2 minutes ago, E Heffa said:

That's great. We already got $200 OBC when we booked. 

This 200.00 is in addition to the credit with Carnival. 

1 hour ago, E Heffa said:

The promotion excludes the transatlantic sailing, so no free gratuities for me. 

They can't do the free gratuities, but he did give us 200.00 obc, which helps...:)

It went great. We are booked on the Inaugural and Transatlantic. I transferred both over...got the free gratuities on the Inaugural and 200.00 extra onboard credit on the Transatlantic. He couldn't have been nicer. He says they are slammed today. 

Thank you to the original poster mentioning Crucon. We saved over 400.00 with this transfer and it is much appreciated! 

Thanks, waiting for a call back. 

If you transfer your booking, do you lose the Carnival onboard credit that came with the booking through Carnival? How does it work when you transfer a booking? Thanks for your help

We are booked in May and for 4 days, it is 294.00 from Anchorage and back to Anchorage with Hertz. Then we will take a shuttle down to Whittier to catch the ship. We booked 3 months ago...now, the price has almost doubled for an SUV. It still seems high, but what can you do? Try Auto slash and see if you can do better....they email me almost daily. 

Just booked it for our May cruise. Can't wait! 

Thx. Would early saver matter if havana always sells out so quickly?

There are cabins available on decks 5,6 and 7. Does it really matter which Havana interior to choose? Suggestions or advice please.

Has anyone used this company lately? Any reviews or comments would be most helpful. Thank you in advance.

Does anyone know where to find a list of movies for April? Thanks.

Had a spa interior on the Vista a few weeks ago. Great location and so nice and quiet. Loved it!

We used Pro Excursions and did the ’Pro Saona for Cruisers’ . It was definitely more of a booze cruise than a snorkel adventure though. We expected real snorkeling, but didn't see one fish...but the drinks were free flowing and the tour was fun overall. Beautiful day, beautiful catamaran...no complaints!

I just wanted to update...Carnival Guest Services rep actually called me today and apologized for the issues on our cruise. He issued us a future cruise credit for the value of 1 day of our cruise. Very nice...so happy that Carnival did not disappoint. Of course, I'm already thinking of our next one...:)

1. Cabin was cool (how we like it) and dark!

2. Food was great! I love the pumpkin soup, lobster bisque, french onion soup. My husband loved...everything! And the chocolate melting dessert...omg.

3. Missed the guy with the bath towel. Saw the guy with the cowboy hat, short shorts and a tshirt with a tie on it. And flipflops!

4. No neighbors had water issues at all. I just keep thinking how much more work it was for poor Budi, our room steward!

I don't know about the spaces...I just copied and pasted from a word document...sorry!

And yes, hindsight...of course we could have showered in the spa! But, we clearly were not thinking!

And quite frankly, it wasn't so much about dinner...it was about the fact that they weren't nice and also that we had dirty water all week! It never was resolved.

I just think guest services should have been more accommodating. I'm not budging on that opinion.

Just returned from the Vista 4/22-4/30 cruise. It was our 13th with Carnival and 19th overall (6 with Princess). We have had a really tough year (not going to get into that) and my husband and I needed this vacation to go smoothly. I was superstitious and convinced that 13 would be a curse and kept waiting for something bad to happen. I had heard really mixed reviews about Vista and read some really awful ones, but we are low key and also don’t get ruffled easily, so we just booked anyway and hoped our experience would be great…and it was (except for one thing which I’ll leave for last).

We arrived at the port at 10:15, got to the Platinum lounge by 10:40 after parking and checking our luggage in and were on the ship at 11:00. Our keys would be found in our mailbox outside our room and boarding just wasn’t the same without the “ding” getting onboard, but it was faster and easier overall.

The lobby is lovely, as is the rest of the ship. We were in a spa room. We like the quiet up there (inside cabin 11223) and we love inside cabins (yes, it’s true….we like sleeping late in a dark room and the lesser cost allows us to cruise more often). Our room steward, Budi, was amazing and knew our names and our preferences from day 1. We did not tip the first day…but we were generous the last day. His partner never said a word, but did an amazing job too. The spa was nice…not as nice as the Dream or Breeze and the thalassotherapy pool was so small that maybe 4 or 5 people could be in it at a time. We went twice and then not again. It was a busy cruise with 4 ports and not enough time to do everything. Serenity was lovely and we always found a shady place. Eventually we went to deck 5 and found some comfy chairs in total quiet and there was more of a breeze. It was a hot week. We just read…no tanning for us.

We love the art auctions…have purchased several pieces in the past and Daniel and his team were terrific, fun, knowledgeable and the free champagne each time was a nice treat. Roy was really sweet and they weren’t pushy…they just made it fun and this time I didn’t feel guilty for not purchasing more. Other ships we felt pushed and never went back. We also like learning about the artists and using our brains a bit on vacation.

We had 5:30 early dining and our wait staff was awesome.Amit, James and Gede did a fantastic job and we were always done by 7:00 so that we could make a show or a movie. We enjoyed the food and although the menus don’t change much from ship to ship, my favorite were still on the menu.There were quite a few maître d’s milling around…not sure what they were doing exactly, but if you needed one, they were there. Breakfast was usually in the dining room for us and we did the lunches on the lido. No complaints at all and the ice cream machines seemed always to be working which was new on this ship.

Movies on deck are my favorite, but the shows were good, the music around the ship was the best I’ve seen, and the comedians were great. The line to get in moved fast and there seemed to always be a seat even if you showed up late and just walked in.

The casino took none of our money. It was too smoky to even try to gamble…their loss! Usually we lose and we call it our donation to Carnival…but until they figure out that if the only place a smoker can smoke indoors is in the casino, then that is where every smoker will be…all day, all night. I don’t want to get into it about smoking…(my mother died from oral cancer having smoked for 50 years)..but there should be more than 1 non smoking table and more than a dozen nonsmoking slots. Shame…

We took a private tour in the D.R. and it was a blast. We did our own snorkeling in Curacao and Aruba and Grand Turk being there for such a short time seems a waste to me.

We had a great time at the Platinum/Diamond party and the drinks were flowing. Mike was a fun cruise director…to be honest, I never much cared about the CD, having never been a priority, but he was all over the ship and funny and energetic and clearly an asset to Carnival Corp.

The public restrooms were always immaculate. There were no room service dirty dishes in the hallways as in other ships. I was pleasantly surprised in a good way.

The only oops was that one day we went back to the cabin to shower at 4:00 for our early dinner. We had 5:30pm dinner seating so we wanted to shower after spending a nice relaxing afternoon in Serenity. We go back to the cabin and there is no water to take a shower or in the sink either. So, I call the desk and they say that they'll look into it. Half hour passes and no call back...so I call again...now the water is back, but it looks like CocaCola is coming out of the shower and in the sink. So, the guy at the desk makes a Coca Cola joke, and says he'll look into it. Then, 1/2 hour later (it is now 5:00pm) and my husband calls and he is told a plumber will come...15 minutes later, I call back and I'm told that "this is the 4th time you've called,we're handling it shortly". So, I tell them we have dinner reservations at 5:30 pm and we need to shower...any ideas? Rudely, we were told to eat at Lido...

Now, in all of our cruises, we have never not had dinner in a dining room. We dress up each night and it is our "thing". 5:30pm a plumber arrives, then leaves and says it is fixed...the water in the sink is still light brown and the floor of the shower and the bathroom looks like a crime scene...so, I mop it up, the shower looks clear and we both shower,however after our showers, I mop up the floor again and the towel is filthy brown, so we obviously showered in still disgusting water. Yuck!

Before we go to dinner, we find our room steward so we can apologize to him for the mess and the awful towel pile (brown and gross) and quite frankly it was embarrassing to think that he might think we were"sick" and irresponsible about it. He was kind, cleaned it up. (our towels were brown all week from the residue coming out of our shower and we drank bottled water and brushed our teeth with bottled water as well)

So we show up to dinner really late, but are seated with a"warning" not to be late again or we'll lose our table".(hostess said that) We tell her it wasn't our fault...she grunts and leads us to a table where we are rushed through dinner.

There was no apology...no bottle of wine or call to followup...nothing...every time we got mail, my husband joked that "this"would be the apology from guest services, but it never came. Really? 13 cruises and not even a bottle of wine? Not a future cruise credit for not making a huge scene at the counter? We did ask to be moved to a cabin with clean water, but were told the ship was sold out...I have never felt so dirty in my life. We couldn't wait to get home and shower in a clean shower.

This is not right...no apology...no offer to change our dinner sitting....and basically told that we were calling too often? Rude rude rude...Could a plumber not come out again? We are baffled that our many calls went unserviced.

To be honest, we could have made a scene…could have yelled and screamed, but we needed to relax and enjoy this much needed vacation. Life is too short to ruin our trip over something that couldn’t or wouldn’t be fixed. I did write a letter to guest services upon our arrival home. Have you heard from them? I haven’t.

Am I in a hurry to get back on a Carnival ship? Not sure about that after the shower incident, but I realize that things happen…I’d say sh…t happens, but that’s what our shower looked like!

And one other thing...please don't flame me. I just don't get why they talk about what the "dress" for dinner should be if no one cares and they are allowed in the dining room wearing what they like anyway. And we saw everything from flipflops, tanktops on men, cut offs, jeans, shorts, nasty tshirts, you name it...and on "formal" night. Now, whatever someone wears has no impact on my dining experience, but I question why a suggested dress code is mentioned. It seems it is merely a suggestion because no one at the front (hostesses or maitre d's ) cares anyway. On the flip side, there were some really lovely dressed people as well and when the little ones are dressed up, it is so impressive that the parents thought about it and the kids didn't fuss about it. It was nice to see that some people still do care about "suggested:" attire. Again, it doesn't affect my meal, but it still baffles us to see after so many years of cruising.

So, overall, if you are going on Vista…relax and enjoy her.She is mostly perfect. I’m happy to answer any questions.

yes..April 22...this time in 2 weeks we'll be strolling on the ship! Yay!

Does anyone have a link to see the Vista 8 day? Going in 2 weeks and hubby wants a preview! Thanks...