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Was there a surcharge for dining in Sushi at 5 for lunch on the first embarkment day?

In August we are going on the Celebrity Solistice and one of our port is Skagway.  Does anyone know what the difference is between the below 4 Celebrity excursions for dog sledding & mushing camp?  The description is very general.  Have anyone taken any of these excursion and tell me how it is? Does it include dog sled ride or just playing with the dogs?  Do you know which company is used for each of these?  Thanks in advance.

1. Dog Sled & Musher's Camp Experience
2. Gold Panning, Sled Dogs And 40 Below
3. Musher's Camp And Gem Mining
4. Klondike Summit And Gold Rush Sled Dogs

In August we are going on the Celebrity Solistice and stopping in Skagway on one of the ports.  Does anyone know what the difference is between the below 4 Celebrity excursions for dog sledding & mushing camp?  The description is very general.  My kids want to ride on the dog sled (even though it is not on snow). Do you get to ride on the cart pulled dog sled or just playing with the dogs?  Do you know which company is used for each of these?  Thanks in advance.

1. Dog Sled & Musher's Camp Experience
2. Gold Panning, Sled Dogs And 40 Below
3. Musher's Camp And Gem Mining
4. Klondike Summit And Gold Rush Sled Dogs

Thanks to all for your advice. We just came back from the Carnival Dream and had open seating. Originally I was nervous but we showed up early when the restaurant open and didn't wait more than 5 mins to be seated. Even as the night went on I didn't notice that long of a wait. Lastly the only negative is that on the Dream they assign you in the Crimson restaurant for those who have open seating. This is the smaller of the 2 restaurant (the other one is the Scarlet). So we couldn't eat and experience the Scarlet restaurant even if we wanted to.

We have open time seating in the MDR on the Carnival Dream. I thought we had Early time. Can we eat in either Scarlet or Crimon MDR? How long have you wait for those who had open seating?

just thinking the other ones are better than Playa Mia...needed some confirmation

I am still debating between Playa Mia vs Mr Sanchos vs Paradise Beach. We are family of 4 with 2 girls aged 0 & 8. The girls like waterslides and the inflatables. We don't need AI or meals included. Initially we were going to Playa Mia for $30 flat rate but now having second thoughts. Can someone ease my mind?

thank you... just wanted to make sure it didn't taste weird... we drink the water on NCL ships

thank you very much

Can you drink the water from the tap/faucet on the Carnival Dream? What about the water at the dining areas like Lido or MDR? Do we need to drink hot water instead? I see several post where people purchase bottled water from the Fun Shop. Our family drink a lot of water.

We are starting to pack for our first Carnival Dream cruise. We sailed on NCL before and we usually dress casual for MDR. What is dress attire in the MDR on Carnival Dream? Do the men have to wear button-down or polo shirt with khaki pants? Do the ladies have to wear dresses? Do they allow regular t-shirts and sneakers?

By any chance anyone done this w/o going through Carnival? Can this be done on our own when we arrive in port?

I understand what their website says. I just want to make sure those who already went with Acquarius also did the same which is fax them this form. Just need to know others had to do the same.

I need some assistance or confirmation. I am in the process of booking the Stingray Tour with Acquarius Sea Tours when we arrive in Cayman Island on our Carnival cruise. They asked me to sign and fax them back a form for 50% cancellation fee. If Carnival doesn't detour or not go there, we have every intention on going on the tour. However I was wondering if anyone sign and fax them back this form? It just sounds unusual.

You should be able to book it online now as long as you have the Ultimate Dining package. It is under entertainment (not dining) and it will come up $0. in your cart as long as you reserve it for the first night. We loved the show!

When I select the first night, Cirque dream doesn't appear on the list. Nothing under Entertainment but some appear under Dining (none is Cirque Dream).

Thanks Gambee. Your trip report was excellent with so many details and pictures. I had a quick question.

I have the Ultimate Dining Package and I understand the Cirque Dream dinner/show is free on the first evening. However I can't make the reservation online but I am able to book the other specialty restaurants. I was planning to go reserve it once I board the ship. Where is the closest location to reserve the Cirque Dream?

Do you think 2 kids (5 & 4 yrs old) can do this walk?

It's very walkable once you get off the ferry. We asked for directions at the visitor's center. I just posted a photo review (from my cruise 2 weeks ago) with pictures along the walk. See link in my signature below for details.

Where in Hamilton did you buy the tickets?

Tickets and tokens are the same for both bus and ferry. Bus gives out transfer, but ferry doesn't, nor will it accept transfer from bus. Like the bus transfer in US, it only works if you are going to the same direction and within a limited time window. In other words, if you are taking a bus from dock yard to Hamilton, you can get a free transfer to use on a bus from Hamilton to St. George, assuming you get on the 2nd bus within 30 minutes of getting off the 1st bus, but you won't be able to use the transfer for a bus trip back from Hamilton to dock yard.

 

The main idea is that the paper tickets are so much cheaper than token. For adult, it's $2 per ride vs. $4 for token; for child, it's 50cents per ride vs. $2.50 for token. So the goal is to get yourself to Hamilton ASAP and buy the tickets to use for the rest of your stay.

Thanks ShellDil for the review so far. I got the UDP plan as part of the promotin and I want to make reservation for the Cirque Dream the first night. However when I try to reserve it online prior to my cruise, it is asking me for my credit card. Do I have to pay for it first for my family of 4 and then they reimburse me or is there some other way to make the reservation? Thanks in advance.

Once we were moving we got ready for dinner. I'll mention now that based on our past experience on Norwegian we knew going in that we would want to eat most of our dinners at the specialty restaurants. We knew that the main dining rooms weren't going to have the variety that appealed to us. Their menu doesn't change during the week and they only offer one or maybe two changing menu items each night. Taste, Savor and the Manhattan Room all have the same menu, so even though they are in three different spaces, there's no variety in the food.

 

Knowing we'd want to eat at the specialty restaurants we decided to purchase the Ultimate Dining Plan. For us, this definitely worked in our favor. If you plan to mainly eat in the main dining rooms, it may not benefit you.

 

So, with the UDP, the Cirque Dreams and Dinner Jungle Fantasy is free the first night. Now, Megan is 12, so she was not on the UDP. We had to pay for her. No big deal. At the specialty restaurants she is 1/2 price, so less expensive than the UDP anyway.

 

The other thing we learned from our past NCL cruise was that the specialty restaurants fill up quickly, so plan ahead. Even if you change your reservations later - make a plan! So we pre-booked dinners Sun - Thursday before we sailed. We left Friday and Saturday open to decide where we'd go once on board.

 

In a way, I think this sort of defeats the entire Freestyle concept, but this was one of the things I really disliked about our cruise on the Epic. We only pre-booked one meal and no shows. But every night when we'd try to see a show it was sold out and every night where we wanted to go for dinner was booked until 9:30 or 10:00 at night. Waits for the main dining rooms were nearly an hour. So, in order to avoid feeling a scramble to find where to go, we planned ahead and it worked like a charm for us.

 

Our dinner at Cirque....we found the food to be fine. I'm not sure what the complaint is with filet and shrimp, but there was plenty to eat. My son doesn't like shrimp, so we asked for no shrimp and double meat and he was accommodated. There was a caprese salad to start and a dessert trio to finish. The show was good. However sometime after dessert was served there was a technical difficulty and they had to cut the performance short. I'd guess it had to be towards the end of the show since they were already onto coffee. They refunded all paid tickets, so my daughter received a refund and we were told we could make a reservation for another night. We decided what we saw was fine, and we didn't need to come back. We were all glad we went, we enjoyed the meal and the show. I'd recommend going for sure!

 

You can't take pictures during the show, so I don't have any, other than the kids in the crazy mirrors outside the theater!

 

 

One other comment regarding meal plans and such - the drink plans.

 

I would have liked to have gotten the beverage package since there were quite a few sea days. I probably would have lost money on it, but it would have been nice to not have to think about the money spent on each drink I did get. I also do like a lot of coffee drinks from the cafe, so they would have been included. I understand the concept that each adult in the cabin has to get the package, but I was the only adult. I have a problem with forcing my kids to get a soda package if I choose to get a beverage package. Neither of my kids drinks soda. I feel that I shouldn't have to pay for a package they won't touch if I want to get a package for myself. Obviously I am not sharing alcoholic drinks with them, so why do they have to get a soda package? Their packages don't include coffee drinks, bottled water or sparkling water - so I think this is a bit ridiculous. Well, actually, maybe the teen package does include extras, but my son doesn't drink any of that - my daughter would, but her package wouldn't include the extras since hers would be the basic soda package. That honestly is my only real complaint about the cruise - I think. But I think it's pretty valid. ;)