ajtaylor29

I'm struggling with Belize but I am leaning towards Shark/ray alley... Who did you book with?

Ecotours, hopefully. I say that because I signed up this weekend but haven't gotten a confirmation yet....hopefully i'll hear something today. I also sent an e-mail to Ivar Marchand - have seen a lot of people posting about how great he is - but I haven't heard back from him either. I've had the other 2 ports booked for weeks, I hate waiting until the last minute but I just couldn't decide!

Just back yesterday from a great trip to Roatan, Belize and Cozumel on the magic. We had great weather this trip. Any questions ,I will be happy to answer.

I'm heading out this Sunday on the Sunshine, same itinerary! Hope you had a great cruise!

What did you do in Belize? that's the one port that I've struggled back and forth with what to do, finally decided to book a shark ray alley/Caye Caulker excursion (not with Carnival) but I'm a little worried about the long boat rides (tender in, then 45 minute boat ride out to the reef).

I'm pretty sure it's 15 drinks on Sunday until midnight, then you start the count over for Monday....

On our last carnival cruise we had a suite and FTTF. When we checked in the suite people told us we got on just as quick as FTTF - and we did. They also said there was no benefit to us (except guest services which I rarely use) We didn't tender on the cruise. We asked for a refund for FTTF and got it.

when you got on, were you able to go right to your cabin? And did you luggage arrive early?

I rarely use guest services either, but we do have a tender port this trip

We are in a suite (in 9 days - yea!!!!) and decided to get FTTF also for all the reasons listed here. Getting to our rooms early, dropping off carry-ons and getting luggage early is well worth the $50 for us. Last year, we were already unpacked and enjoying Lido deck at 1:30 when everyone else was just getting access to their rooms!

Plus - priority tenders with FTTF but not a suite perk...

FINALLY CAN DO THE SINGLE DIGIT DANCE !!!!!

JUST NINE MORE DAYS !!!!

Just love crusing.... now I have to search for another one to keep the count down clock going.. lol

Cathy

Me too!!!! Cannot wait....... :)

Thanks, that's what i thought. I think i'll keep the FTTF for both cabins!

Can someone help clarify what the "perks" are with an ocean suite? Best i can tell, the main perk is a great cabin and balcony! And, priority boarding.

From posts i've read on here, my understanding is that the suite does NOT get us priority boarding on tenders, it does NOT get our cabin ready early, so based on that i decided to go ahead and book FTTF (to me, being able to go straight to our cabin and drop off our carry-ons is worth the $50 alone!!!)

In addition, we've got our teenagers in an inside cabin. I wanted to make sure they could board priority with us. My PVP said she was ALMOST positive that they would (since they're considered minors) but her answer didn't reassure me very much....

My PVP also assured me that we would get priority tenders, she couldn't understand why i wanted FTTF and kept talking me out of it. But, a few days ago when they became available again, i purchased for both cabins.

Now, i'm wondering if it was a mistake and a waste of $100. Thoughts?

Thanks!

Okay, I understand all the replies, and have done the suite thing before. But, even having the suite "perk", I still had to wait until 1:30 to get to my cabin.

If I understand correctly, the FTTF passengers are allowed to go to their cabins directly as soon as they board.

Is this correct?

I just want to know.....;)

fyi, for our upcoming Sunshine cruise, we have an ocean suite, but our kids are in an inside cabin.I decided to go ahead and pay for FTTF for both cabins. From everything i've read on here, the suite will get us priority boarding (and our guys, because even tho they're 18 they're still considered minors so they'll board with us). However, my PVP said they SHOULD get priority boarding with you, but she didn't sound very confident in that. Plus, i don't believe the suite passengers get their luggage delivered early AND suite passengers don't get priority tenders - at least i've seen differing answers on those....Those are things we really liked last year using FTTF, so i decided for $100 it was worth it to us to have it covered. Maybe i'll find out that it was a waste of money....I'll let you know when i get back in 3 weeks! :)

I guess they're still sending out these e-mails, i just got one about an hour ago, followed about 30 minutes later with the retraction e-mail?!?!

Came here first to check it out, now i see that everybody is getting them...

The crazy thing for me is that i WILL be boarding the Sunshine in 2 weeks - when i saw the first e-mail i panicked, thinking the dates for my cruise were screwed up and i was supposed to be there tomorrow!!! Oh my, i'm not at ALL ready.... but i will be in 2 weeks. :)

if you go to CCL website, I believe in shareholder information, you'll find the fax/phone # info of where to send. There isn't a form, you just have to send them a copy of an account statement showing the CCL shares owned (I marked out account #, etc. on the copy I sent). I faxed it, and about 1 week later I got an e-mail confirming receipt and the OBC had been applied.

hope that helps!

Thanks so much for the review! We'll be on the Sunshine in about 3 weeks, looking forward to it and I'm convinced that i'll love it too!!!

I tend to ignore the bad reviews and focus on the good ones, knowing that there will certainly be some things I don't like but overall I'm looking on the bright side - I'LL BE ON VACATION!!!! :)

Awesome!!! So glad to hear you're having a great time! I'll be on the Sunshine in a few weeks and can't wait!

Last year on our spring break cruise on the Freedom, my son and his friend were both 17. They couldn't get into the dance club, but nobody stopped them when they went to the adults only comedy show.

This year, he's 18 so we'll see how this goes!!! He's excited to be able to get into the casino, I've told him to take his own money and learn to BUDGET...or he'll lose all his spending money for the week. :)

Last year we also took our 27 year old. He lost all his spending money the first night, and moped about it the rest of the week. He obviously didn't listen to my "budget your money" speech. :)

I thought maybe if the ports of call were different, so was the staff, etc .. :) .. I am not going to be one of those people who complain about everything .. I am going to enjoy this time with my family .. :)

We did this cruise in March (spring break) if you have questions I can try and answer for you. We had a GREAT time - thought the crew was fabulous, the food was great, loved the ports, etc etc. - i'm sure there were people on my cruise who had a terrible time!!! Just like others have said, it's all about attitude. :)

Well thanks to everybody that has posted. I'm still none the wiser really but I suppose as earlmarie has said non-smokers can't really do a whole lot about it if the policy allows balcony smoking. Still, it'd be nice to avoid drama though!

 

Thanks again!

Loony - i'm also a smoker, and like to be as considerate as i can of non-smokers. We've been on 2 cruises, both on Carnival, primarily because i knew i could pay for a balcony room and be able to smoke on my balcony.

Last year our first cruise was on the Conquest, and we had a balcony on the Panarama deck (10) near the front, port side. We had a cigar smoker on one side and other smokers above and below, i'm pretty sure i didn't bother anyone nor did they bother me?!? I never thought the smoke was overwhelming - after all it IS outside with a nice breeze.

last month we were on the Freedom and had an aft-wrap balcony on deck 6 (LOVED this cabin!!! LOVED this balcony!!!) Anyway - again, i noticed a few other smokers back there, but i never got the impression that anybody was bothered by it - at least, no one ever said anything...

i try to be sensitive to non-smokers. I get that they don't like the smoke. I don't blow it in their faces and try to avoid smoking on the public decks if it's really crowded and i don't feel like i can keep it away from people. Having said that, my balcony was paid for so that i would have a place to smoke.

I've never had anyone say anything or cause drama on my 2 cruises; hopefully that will continue on my next one!

Hope this helps. Enjoy your cruise!

Wanted to share our recent experience at Atlantis. We were there 2 weeks ago (on Carnival Freedom). We were in port 1 pm - 7 pm. I really wanted to see Atlantis, but was concerned because a lot of the advise on here told me that it would be SO crowded that it wouldn't be worth the bother, especially since we weren't in port until later in the day, it was spring break, it was a Saturday, etc. I wasn't interested in trying to do the water parks (they close at 4:30 or something like that?) just walking around and seeing the Digs. So, before our cruise i had decided to skip it, and do something else that day.

However, once we got in that day, we all decided we wanted to give it a try. SO - we walked off the ship, got a taxi (there are LOTS of them right outside the terminal, they waited until they filled up the van/taxi), it was a set price of $4 per person. They dropped us off at the main entrance, people directed us to the ticket booth (located inside the casino), we walked right up and bought day passes for The Digs - $40 a person. That gave us wrist bands that allowed us to walk throughout the property (except the water park and beach). We did a self-guided tour through the Digs and some other exhibits (stingrays, shark tanks, etc.) did NOT have crowds AT ALL!!!! We wandered around for about 2 hours, saw what we wanted to see, then walked outside and got a taxi back to the shopping area (again, $4 a person, in a full taxi/van.)

We saw several tour groups while we were walking around, i'm sure those were the cruise ship guided tours. Personally, i was so glad we were not stuck with one of those groups! We were able to go see what we wanted in probably half the time of the tour.

I'm really glad we took the chance and went over there. I'm glad i saw it, probably wouldn't go again (unless i get lucky and figure out how to stay there some day!)

My 2 cents on the Cheers program: we just got off the Freedom on Sunday. I bought it for my DH and myself (in 1 cabin) and my 26-year-old son in other cabin (with 17 year old brother, so we only had to buy one).

Anyway - there is NO way that DH and i got our moneys worth, i guess we're just not big enough drinkers. I did enjoy the freedom to try different things (like martinis, DOD's, etc.) without worrying about the price. But since we took on our 2 bottles of wine and had those with dinner a couple of nights, and 4 days we were in ports, I'm sure we didn't drink enough to break even. Plus, it was a hassle trying to collect beers to take back to our room and enjoy on the balcony (buying 1 at a time, waiting 5 minutes buying another one). Then, on the third night the casino gave me the drink card?!?! So, that was basically a worthless perk - but there was nothing they could offer me instead, and of course i couldn't even try and cancel my cheers because my husband in the same room was still needing his. So, i felt like i paid a lot for the drink card and for me at least could have been drinking my few drinks a day for free in the casino.

For my stepson, we had the opposite problem: he definitely got his money's worth and it paid for itself. However, they were enforcing a strict 15-drink maximum, and when he hit that they cut him off. NO more drinks even if he paid for them. (I had heard that on other ships, they would continue to serve you but charge for them). For him, especially on sea days, he was drinking throughout the day and about 11 pm he would get cut off. He certainly wasn't drunk, but then he couldn't even buy a drink. A couple of times he was able to find us and we would buy him a drink on our cards but again - a hassle.

Anyway - overall i just felt like we paid too much, and the program was too restrictive. Also, they're going to have to figure out how to work the Cheers program in conjunction with the Casino drink card, since they basically cancel each other out as far as the freebies. (i was also told by a casino host that people getting free drinks in the casino are now also being cut off once they hit 15 drinks, because they still have to ring them into the system and because they're on cheers it will freeze them out after 15. NOT a good plan, imo).

we were on the Freedom last week with FTTF. We also got that e-mail but ignored it, got to the port about 11 and were on the ship at maybe 11:30! It was great being able to go straight to our rooms.

One tip: when the porters at the terminal are taking your luggage, be sure that they notice your baggage tags have "FTTF" on them. I was watching the porter putting our luggage in the big cages with all the other luggage, i just pointed out to him that we had FTTF, and he said "oh, sorry - i didn't notice that!" and, pulled our luggage out and put them in a special cage. That should insure that your luggage is delivered first. My son's bag didn't arrive until later in the afternoon, but the rest was in the room when we came back from lunch about 12:30. We were already unpacked before most everyone else had even been allowed access to their rooms!!!

Have a great cruise!

1st off.. Atlantis will be a zoo on your date. It's smack int he middle of spring break.. even the DIGS will be backed up.

2nd..you're kids will kill you if they can check out the water park.. and not use it. I wouldn't even tempt them..

 

There's plenty to do besides Atlantis.

Check sites like: www.majestictoursbahamas.com

www.flyingcloud.info

www.blueholewatersports.com

www.seahorsesailingadventures.com

www.stuartcove.com

Thanks, Scubagirrl, exactly what i was thinking. I'll check out these sites, thanks for the advise!

The best part....in about 5 weeks i'll be on a cruise ship!!!!!

We'll be in Nassua March 16th (Saturday) noon-7 pm. Is it even worth trying to do Atlantis....? we won't be able to get to site until at least 1 pm, seems like by then it may be impossible to get chairs, or ride a slide. Maybe i need to start thinking about another plan...

5 of us, 55, 53, 27, 17, 17. I'm sure the guys would love to do the water park, but if they have to stand in line an hour for one ride, it's definitely not going to be worth the $$$$.

Or - we just do the tour, see the Digs, etc. and forget the water parks.

thoughts?

we were on the Conquest in March, stayed in a balcony room on Panorama Deck ( i think 1064 - it was all the way at the front). I was also worried about movement up there, but we had absolutely no problems. Loved the cabin, loved the location. You'll be fine!