seaturtle_808

You're likely to have multiple offers available on the ClubRoyaleOffers.com website. Just use your last name and C&A number. On the right is a link that says "View Itineraries" and it will show you which sailings you're eligible for. 

Even though we're barely prime we get offers for oceanview rooms all the time. We also just got an offer in February to do Wonder OTS for Easter, so the new ships aren't necessarily off limits. 

I was on Majestic Princess in September for 7 days and then again for a weekend in October. Masks required in the casino.

They've removed Let It Ride from the table games, we switched to 3-card poker. Slot machines were pretty good to us as well. 

Bingo was good but Expensive... basic package with the tablet is $59. No slot tournament, they blamed Covid regulations. 

Lots of servers for getting drinks. Bounce-back offer was okay, just OBC. Only gift from the casino was a pack of playing cards on the week long cruise, miss the days when they'd send champagne and chocolate covered strawberries and more goodies. 

I love this policy. I wish other lines would also have it. It's obviously temporary, but if it gets the ships back and the industry thriving again I'm all for it.

Plus Princess has never gone out of their way to be a family cruise line. I can kinda see why Royal Caribbean allows unvaccinated cruisers because their family ratio is so high. But a line like Princess can definitely fill their ships without those under 12. 

Makes me look forward to our Alaska sailing even more. 

The one we had listed an email that they asked you to message telling them of the transfer.

Check with your bank. We have Chase and opened a free investmest account online. It was easy to move money and use the account, we purchased 100 shares of Carnival and then some other stocks and there was no commission.

It's also nice because it uses the same online banking info as your regular accounts to access, so not another username and password to remember. 

I don't know for sure but I would guess all the major banks may have something similiar. 

I've taken advantage of two hot streak casino offers this week. One to rebook our weekend cruise in May (3 day for $460 cabin total for oceanview with $500 obc plus $300 obc for rebooking) and then one for Feb 2021 (3 day $650 cabin total for oceanview and $500obc).

So they do have good deals depending on the sailing you're interested in. 

Great deal!

I just booked a similar deal with the Carnival Imagination for May (the first one back as of now). Three nights in an oceanview for $465 cabin total with Drinks on Us, a $500 obc plus $300 obc since we had to rebook (we were originally booked for April). It's almost too much obc to spend on a 3-day lol. 

Glad to hear people are booking cruises 🙂 And I hope these casino offers continue, gosh only knows they make it back and more on the machines and tables!!!

I've used the Allstate gift cards for my next two cruises (thanks Gramma for having Allstate and a ton of points lol).

Saved $50 on our upcoming weekend Carnival Cruise, plus we purchased $300 in cards for onboard things to save an additional $30.

Saved $300 on our upcoming Princess Alaska cruise through gift cards. Will probably buy some more to cover shore excursions. The only bummer about Princess is they won't let you pay for the in-room balcony dinners with gift cards on the website. And I hate waiting on hold to speak with someone to ask if I can do it by phone. Oh well. 

I also like buying the $100 gift cards like once a month... then when the cruise comes around you can apply them to your onboard account and it's like you've prepaid for everything onboard. Nice budgeting tool.

If you buy the printed photo you can add a digital file. We did that on the Inspiration last month. I want to say the formal picture was between $20-25 and then to add the USB digital file it was like another $20 and we picked it up later that evening. They would not let us buy just the digital file.

The digital file came with a photo release form on the USB so we took the photo to Costco and printed the sizes we wanted.

I have a weekend cruise out of California in April and an Alaskan on Princess in May. My grandmother is already asking if I'm going to cancel them, but I currently have no plans to. 

I don't have a weakended immune system though and we're in our late 20s. If my husband or I did or if we were elderly then I might consider cancelling since those are the only deaths happening from the virus. 

My grandmother had a cruise booked during when either SARS or Bird Flu was a big thing (can't remember which one). They were booked into an inside cabin and got $100/upgrade offered to a suite because there were so many cancellations out of fear. She said the ship was pretty empty too. So we might see that again for the next couple months.

Looking for a New Home-

Received a Slot Tournament Entry for the $100k Slot Tournament on the Carnival Magic for June 6th, 2020. We already have an Alaskan cruise booked and not enough time off of work to do another week long cruise. Can be transferred once. Any offer considered, just don't want to see it go to waste. 

19 minutes ago, jdemps said:

Carnival Miracle Deck 4 Vista Aft Wrap - ugh!  That room vibrated all week long.  The room steward had to remove the glassware because it just clinked all night long.  Never again, it was so bad I may never book on the aft again.

We had this problem on the Royal Princess when we did the corner Aft Penthouse Suite for our wedding cruise. We were shoving towels around everything because of the noise it made vibrating. I'm sure our stateroom steward wondered why all our cans were wrapped in hand towels in the mini fridge and why we stuffed a towel behind the tv everyday even after he would remove it. 

We just did the aft-most oceanview cabin on the Carnival Inspiration and had no issue at all with vibrating items in the cabin. So I guess it varies from ship to ship.  

Ports are a large component of why people book cruises. And if it's a ship issue, such as the propulsion system, and not like a weather/Mother Nature issue then I do feel like the cruise line should do more. And I wouldn't put it past Carnival that they blamed the wind when it was really a combination of wind and propulsion issue for Grand Turk. They're probably especially on edge about wind after the recent Carnival Glory mishap. 

I especially think this way with the older Carnival ships, like the Elation, which aren't necessarily a destination ship in themselves that you'd want sea day after sea day on. I'd be bored out of my mind if I was on the Elation for two additional sea days and only got one port. 

I hope you get your 50% future cruise credit. I personally don't think that's asking a lot (though I see others may disagree and everyone's welcome to their opinion) and I've heard of a lot of people getting a similiar offer with propulsion issues. Best of luck.

Generally my cabin booking rules are that it must have cabins above and below it, must be at least 3 cabins away from the elevator, can't be connecting, and can't be near any empty space (generally turns out to be a housekeeping closet or a laundry room). I've been pretty happy as long as those rules are satisfied. 

The worst cabin I had was on an 11-night Hawaii cruise, Oceanview right above the tender dock. Wasn't a problem for most of the cruise, but on the overnight in Maui the tenders ran overnight, and every half hour we got woken up by the "Ding Ding! Ding Ding!" of the passenger cruise cards being scanned into the ship. 

5 hours ago, Qchell said:

I've never had a 'bad' cabin on any of our cruises.  However, I nearly made a mistake our first cruise.  I started booking online and then decided to call a travel agent as I had never cruised before and wanted to be sure I was booking what I thought I was booking.  Thankfully I did.  I nearly booked an interior cabin with bunk beds for my honeymoon.  

So if you are uncertain as to the type of cabin you are booking, talk to a travel agent or Carnival.  

Qchell you'd be surprised how often that happens. I used to be a cruise sales agent for Expedia back in the day, and I've been cussed out by honeymooners who book the bunk bed cabin (known as a 1A, so as long as you avoid that you're good) online and the ship is full or the only upgrade is hundreds of dollars more and it's too late to cancel. So I completely agree that it's always best to call if you're not sure lol. 

As an update, emailed again, this time for our upcoming Princess Alaska cruise after we played a bunch on our weekend Carnival cruise last week, and they gave us $75 FreePlay. So it never hurts to ask, even if you're on a different cruise line (as long as it's all under the same casino program).

1 hour ago, On-the-Go said:

If you still have the slot tournament certificate, I would love to take it if it's for the Magic out of Miami May 9, 2020. Please & thank you!

 

It's for June 6th, 2020. It's still available for a small rehoming donation.

18 hours ago, runner2013 said:

Seaturtle-808 Your photos are Beautiful...:)

 We are leaning towards a wedding at sea and were wondering about the pictures. Were you able to pick your locations or do they tell you where you have to go? Also how long did you have for the pictures?. We were hoping for at least an hour but preferable two so we wouldn't be rushed.

We took pictures for about 45 minutes. They wanted to take more but we were done. So I'm sure they'd be happy to do over an hour with you.

I knew I wanted Skywalk pictures, so I pushed for them. I'd recommend going on Pinterest and getting an idea of some cruise wedding photos and locations you want. 

The first place they took us to was next to Wheelhouse Bar and they pulled over an ugly chair and tried to take photos in the middle of the hallway. I was like "What are we doing here... there's nothing nice about this are" and I had to push them to go take photos in the Atrium and the Skywalk. Probably 20 minutes of our time was in the wheelhouse bar area and none of the pictures looked remotely good with that background. So just be ready to push to the places you want to go. 

Just disembarked the Carnival Inspiration from a 3-day cruise to Ensenada. Went on this cruise as a weekend getaway and mostly just wanted to drink and gamble. 

I like the layout of the casino, I think it was called Monte Carlo. Feels spacious and it was easy to walk around everywhere even when it was busy. We did the Royal Princess back in September and felt like you couldn't walk through to get to any of the machines. 

I saw at least 3-4 servers in the casino most of the night, though it felt a lot easier to order drinks when we were playing slots than when we were at the tables. There is not a dedicated casino bar, just the piano bar outside which is always packed during the weekend cruise.

I had emailed Global Casino Services before our cruise to ask if they could offer anything to us, with no real prior play on Carnival but low amounts on Princess they gave us a $25 Free Play credit. Cage gave that to me in cash. 

Enjoyed playing Let It Ride. They only had 1 table of it, $5 minimum. Then $5 min 3-card bonus bet and $1 min jackpot bet. All the dealers were great at the game, no complaints. 

Slots were friendly to me, not so much to my husband. Except he did get into the final round of the slot tournament and then received an invitaiton to the $100k slot tournament on the Carnival Magic (which unfortunately due to time off from work we will not be using, will need to find a new home for that). 

Casino host, Teresa, seemed cold to us. I tried to ask her questions about how the points worked, wasn't interested. Her"If you get 1000 points you get drinks" Me: I have 1000 points. Her "Well you have Cheers so you get nothing". Tried to ask her questions about how the Slot Tournament invitation worked, she just told us to read it.

The last night of the cruise the host sent us cookies. This morning we had the 50% off a return cruise within 6 months plus Drinks on Us offer. I ended up with about 1400 points at the end of the cruise. I was on the tables probably 6-7 hours, received almost no points for that. My husband also received the offer, he had 450 points and just less than me on table play. 

We'll definately do another weekend cruise with the offer since we live 30 minutes from the port and we will be gambling onboard. Only complaints were the unfriendly host and then the heavy smoke in the casino. Otherwise I can't wait to be back and play!

I did an embarkation day wedding with 60 guests on the Royal Princess 9/29/19. It was a disaster lol. So many delays, not enough chairs set up at the ceremony site, the violinist for our ceremony music got stuck in customs and we had to wait for them, and other issues. Also a bunch of problems with the officiant and her coordinators. Royal Wedding planners appologized and gave us a large refund, but your can never get your special day back.

I wouldn't recommend an embarkation wedding unless it's a super small group and you're keeping things really casual. It's very stressful and there are a lot of variables that can go wrong. I hear weddings during the cruise on sea days go wonderfully, however half of our guests couldn't sail with us so that's why we went with an embarkation day ceremony instead. 

Photography was okay. We got some beautiful shots on the skywalk and in the atrium after the ceremony. Our photography during the ceremony was so-so. The pre-ceremony shots were rushed and the flowers weren't there for them.

It was wonderful to marry my best friend, and we're still cruisers (leaving this Friday on a weekend cruise and hopefully doing Alaska in May) but if I got to do the day over again I wouldn't have done an embarkation day ceremony.

I emailed Global Casino Services when I booked my weekend getaway on the Carnival Inspiration. They gave me $25 fun play and said the casino host onboard would reach out. I haven't played a lot on Carnival prior so that was a nice offer in my opinion. Hoping to qualify for more after next weekend as I'm planning on spending some time in the casino (and hopefully win! lol).

I recently got married on embarkation day on a cruise. We did a Princess cruise out of Los Angeles (San Pedro). I really do not recommend embarkation day weddings. There are so many moving parts that can get delayed which super rushes your day and you can't get the time back.

Our ship didn't get cleared to start boarding till 12pm (we were supposed to board around 10:30am), the florals were sent to the ceremony site not the room so none of our pre-wedding photos have flowers. The flowers were the wrong color but there was no time to fix it. Our string duo got stuck in customs which further delayed our ceremony, and when they arrived they weren't properly briefed so they played the wrong music. And our ceremony had to be cut super short (one poem, vows, announced husband and wife, done) because of time. 

We had some nice pictures after the ship sailed when we did a walk-around with a photographer. But the photography was very expensive and we were only with the photographer maybe 2 hours for the ceremony and cocktail reception and then an hour for the walk-around photography. We also didn't get many photos with our family and friends who didn't sail as we were so rushed.

I've heard the weddings at sea are lovely and are not as rushed, but after my embarkation day experience I would not recommend it. 

I would talk to them about cruises to begin with. 

I sold cruises for four years for the largest online travel agency in the world. And it was really hit or miss with the agents, sometimes you'd get someone who had never been on a cruise and struggled to answer basic questions and sometimes you'd get someone like me who has been on a ton, loves reading about every ship, and could give you actual first-hand information.

If you're going to Alaska try to find a TA that's been on an Alaskan cruise. Ask them about their favorite Alaskan shore excursion, and if they say something like "Oh we saw a glacier!" move on, and if they're detailed like "The best thing we did was in Ketchikan when we visited the Native American village and you got to see a traditional dance and the totem poles.... etc etc" where you can tell they know what they're talking about then that's who I'd look for information from. 

Personally I think any TA that sells Alaska really needs to go on an Alaskan cruise because they're very different from other cruises in my opinion. 

And I wouldn't count out online travel agencies that allow you to talk to a real person, because usually for cruises they keep their call centers US side and they offer a lot of incentives to those agents to go on cruises. 

But good luck! I'm sure you'll find a great TA, there's lots of them out there 🙂

I've taken advantage of "Black Friday" specials booking cruises before. Usually the biggest draw is a reduced deposit. 

Although the two times that I booked on Black Friday I found lower prices months later and was able to reprice, so never stop checking!

On 9/2/2019 at 2:27 PM, karabear15 said:

Anyone here who is planning or was married on a Princess cruise?  Looking for any ideas of what you wished you did or didn't do.

 

Everyone else has been extremely helpful, very happy about the budget excel sheet, it will be so helpful!

-Kara

Getting married on the Royal Princess in 20 days. Our coordinator from Royal Ocean Events, Sarah, has been amazing. We're doing a harborside ceremony out of San Pedro (LA) so that family that didn't want to sail could attend the ceremony.

The most amazing thing is that Sarah doesn't say no, she says let me check. And sometimes it takes a while but a lot of the time the cruise line has been happy to accomodate our requests and changes. I'm sure it'd be easier for her to say no but she goes the extra mile and that's made this process so easy. 

Hello Everyone,

Does anyone know about places near the pier that offer wheelchair/scooter rental? We've been told we can't bring my grandmother's scooter off the ship at a tender point, so we wanted to look at rental options. We really want her to get to see Cabo San Lucas!

Thanks in advance!