mvaughn11

19 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

I try to get into the muster last or close to last. I once got sandwiched between a couple of rotund strangers and ever since then I try to get in when those seats are full so I can hit the bar seats in the back. In this case they were filling some aisle singles so I was good.

 

 

Last In First Out

1 hour ago, Saint Greg said:

 

It was pretty quick. I got there at 11:18 and they sent me to the early arrivals line...but there was only like 5 people in front of me. They gave me zone 10 but when I got upstairs it was open boarding. I basically walked on the ship. The only delay was security going through my bag looking for alcohol. Let me check what time I filmed my boarding video. 11:32. So 14 minutes between getting in the early arrival line and walking on the ship.

Wow, not too bad!

21 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

I always gotta get harassed by security 

Hey Greg,

How long did it take you from the time you dropped off your bag until you got on the ship and what time did you arrive? 

They're taking stuff off and loading her up.

https://www.galveston.com/cruisevideocam/

7 minutes ago, singinalot said:

My favorite bbq place!

I second that!

Cruise cash is kind of like OBC but you buy it and then use it to pay for things while onboard like drinks or t-shirts etc. You can buy before cruise on website or onboard ship at customer service or I understand there are kiosks on some ships.

18 minutes ago, Essiesmom said:

It can be several hours long, and there is a LOT of standing.  We did it on Glory, it is one and done for us.  EM

And a lot of walking up and down stairs.

You can buy cruise cash and pay using gift card on the Carnival website.  Like when you pay with credit card, there is a tab to pay with git card.

20 minutes ago, QandL said:

Where can we sign up for this?   

I believe when you get on the ship you want to go straight to the guest services desk.

On 2/21/2019 at 6:57 PM, Buck Turgidson said:

We are on a wait list for anytime dining on the splendor. How well has this worked out for anyone that has experienced this.  

We were wait listed for Anytime dining on Slendor last year and we finally got it. Can’t remember how long but finally got it.

Our favorite is the beef fajitas. Tacos al Carbon. Too.

Our favorite Mexican restaurant in the area is Lupe Tortilla but the closest one to you is in Webster.

We're going on Vista out of Galveston in 2 weeks and our Zone is on the Boarding Pass.

If you get time, I highly recommend going to the Kema Boardwalk! You're not far. There are all kinds of great restaurants and entertainment there. Kind of pricey but we really enjoy it. When we lived in Houston, we always drove down there when relatives came to visit...

We did it last year on the Splendor. They took us to all kinds of places behind the scenes, as the previous folks described. I really enjoyed seeing all the kitchens and food prep areas! We found it very informational and got a greater appreciation of what all goes on to make our cruise possible. I highly recommend that everyone does this tour!

Looking at the new Virgin Voyager cruise line, they really seem to have taken change to the extreme. Their cruising model seems very different from what we are used to.

16 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

I’m not going to stay long. There was some nasty traffic due to construction on the loop that takes you to and from here. I bet it’s going to get really nasty in the next hour.

 

It seems like every time we drive I10 through Louisiana there is construction... 🙂

17 hours ago, CA_Cruzing said:

And pretty much, nothing good happens after 10PM either at home or while on vacation. Be in your home or hotel by then and you're likely going to be just fine.

Good thing our ship leaves the port at 5:00pm.  😉

20 hours ago, SRQbeachgirl said:

No, it doesn't expire. Go to the VIFP page and there's a place where you can report a missing cruise. They will ask for some information about it and get back to you when it's added. We were able to add one that was missing from way back in the 1990's.

I had to do this once and they got my problem straightened out  within a day or two.

So this is something I struggle with every cruise, should we or shouldn't we... So DW and I did the beverage package once on Royal. We enjoyed it but the whole cruise I felt like we had to drink and drink and drink and drink so we could get our money's worth.

Every cruise since then, we don't buy the beverage package, we drink what we want and when and we have never spent enough where we would have been better off with Cheers, we're not stress or feel like we're forcing ourselves to drink.

If I want a lot of beer, I buy a bucket. If I want a scotch or two I have them. She can have 2 or 3 rum drinks and then a couple of glasses of wine. We buy water before the cruise and it's in the room when we get there. We bring 2 bottles of wine on board at the beginning of the cruise. We don't drink soda but I do like to buy coffee in the morning and she likes her hot chocolate.

Another thing is port days. We always do excursions in every port so your off the ship several hours, which means when you get back on the ship you have to struggle even more to drink, drink, drink, to make up for lost time.

For us, Cheers is not a good buy.

Wonderful review! What kind of camera were you using?

One year we stayed at Embassy Suites near the airport. They had a Stay and Cruise rate which included shuttle service to the ship terminal.

7 hours ago, slinky221 said:

For meat, they have pulled pork, chicken, and brisket.  You can view their menu here https://www.carnival.com/~/media/Images/explore/dining/menus/ol-fashioned-bbq-menu.pdf

 

When I was on the Splendor in July, all the meats were enjoyable but my preference was to make a pulled pork sandwich (they have bread at the bbq place as well).  The mac n cheese wasn't very good, but the baked beans were ok.  

I too thought the Pork was pretty goo. I thought the brisket was kind of dry.

I recommend to go early... the line was out the door when we went...

Taking the surveys earns you reward points. After you get a lot of points, you can redeem them. There are all sorts of things, one of which is Carnival Gift Cards you can buy with a 10% discount.  

41 minutes ago, ElCrappyTan said:

Do you have to be an AARP member to take advantage of this? I thought I saw previously where people said it was open to anyone.

You don't have to be an AARP member. You just need to sign up in the Rewards program; then take a bunch of surveys to earn points.