CheapieD

We did the CT on the Glory in November. For the price it is well worth the it. Was it the best CT's, no, not even the best dining experience at sea but for the price I wouldn't hesitate to book it again.

Some of the issues: In the galley it was very hard to hear the chef even standing one person away (busy hustling kitchen).

Some of the actual dishes were overcooked, missing some basic components. ie salmon with no acid. However seeing how the kitchen is limited in what it can do by equipment (for instance no open flames- so no grilling, hot searing etc) it was impressive. Imagine trying to cook a 4 star meal using a salamander and a flat top. The chef also took great pride in his work and was very proud of the job he does and it showed.

Do they advertise this match play when you are on the ship? I never knew about it, but I usually order the classic cocktails.

When we were on the Glory in November they did have advertisements and bartenders went out of their way to tell us about it the first couple of days. The only exception was the theater where we had to ask the servers for the duplicate receipt so we could get a match play.

For those that want to max out the 15 drinks by getting the match play coupon remember the 5 minute rule between drinks so you might wind up wasting time going from bar to bar (and the bars seemed to close early meaning fewer bars to hit up.) You also get really tired of Mojitos, the margaritas were over ice, the mai tai, cruiser and sex on the beach were to sweet for my tastes, and you have to watch the long island because they catch up to you :) But a nice way to recoup some costs of cheers and we got to try tons of different drinks (Surprisingly I LOVED the mango daiquiris and found a new wine for home drinking)

The breakfast burritos from Blue Iguana are great if your ship has it. :)

We really enjoyed these as well. One of the few things we really looked forward to. So simple but yet so yummy.

We tried the buffet one morning and it was not very good. We also did the MDR the first sea day and it was ok but nothing worth the wait. Most mornings we ordered room service for coffee and ran down to the BI for the breakfast burritos and brought them back to the room.

The only complaints I heard and this can be debated for ever was on elegant night there were people with jeans and shorts in the dinning room. The Fun Times said no jeans or shorts would be allowed. As somebody said if they print that lets enforce the rules and not let them in the dinning room.

Overall it was an excellent cruise and ready to start planning the next one. Any questions just ask and I will try to answer.

Did you have anytime dining or scheduled dining? We just got off the western Carib leg the week before. We had anytime dining and on the 2nd elegant night we were behind a couple who were denied seating due to wearing shorts (and they were nice dress shorts not gym shorts).

We are going on the Breeze in 5 weeks. We are traveling with a friend who likes to drink A LOT. While he was over yesterday I explained the cheers program (DH & I did it last year) & told them there is a 15 drink limit per day. DH & I never came close to 15 drinks so I couldn't answer some of his questions.

 

Is this enforced? How likely are they to stop you after 15 drinks? Thanks.

It was enforced with a wink on the Glory. When we ordered at a bar and were over 15 they told us we were over the limit but not to worry about it since they can't charge us for any drinks. This happened at both the Ea Bar and the Red Frog bar.

This is an old thread, so I'm just wondering if the flat rate for a taxi from POM to MIA is still the same cost? and are there still plenty of taxis waiting at the port?

Just took a taxi Sunday from POM to MIA airport and it was still $24. We had to wait about 5 minutes for a taxi once we got to the front of the line since I guess the queue was used up. (Had 4 ships in port with us) This was about 830 am.

Stu - I see you have asked in a few threads about the Playlist production shows and you haven't gotten much feedback yet. I'll be on the Glory in two weeks. Not sure how many shows I'll check out, but I'll make sure I let you know what I think of the ones that I see.

 

 

Send from device_name using Cruise Critic your_app_name App

Overall I was disappointed with the scope and glitz of the shows this time. Given what they have to work with though they are ok. We went to Motor City (Motown) and Latin nights. They are ok esp if you like that genre of music. I missed Divas but went to the Hasbro shows as well. They seemed like a commercial for Hasbro more than anything. I also went to the Love and marriage show in the main theater and that was pretty funny but I guess I would depend on the couples selected.

Carnival now only has 3 male and 3 female entertainers for the main shows so it would be really hard to have more extravagant shows. They also removed the space for the orchestra and moved the stage into that area so live bands won't be an option anymore.

As far as the other singers throughout the ship most of them were covers and not original music. They were talented but again doing things like acoustic covers of popular 60's through 90's music. There was a reggae/Latin band (3 members) as well but I didn't stay to listen so I am not if they played original or cover music.

We had Suki on the Glory, he was great, he had our granddaughter's dinner at the table every night before he took everyone else's order so she didn't have to wait, and sang to her every night.

 

Debbie & Harry

Here is another vote for Suki. (His actual name is sukinamen or something close to it ). He was pared with I Kerut, and Aubrey. We sat with him the whole cruise, as did the majority of his section.

Brief update. The Monday after my post my wife received a call at home from OPC. They wanted the 2nd page of the agreement signed and returned. I wasn't home so they sent it via email. Scanned the form, signed and sent in. The email said they would call me when things were set but I haven't heard back. I guess I will call today but we leave today so it would be nice to know before I head to the bank.

Not really a superstition but when I'm playing poker I will not make change for other players from my stack and I don't let the dealer "color me up". I don't care if I have to have my chips racked and stacked, the only way higher denomination chips get in my stack is if I win them.

I never color up at the poker table in the casino either but during my monthly poker game with friends it seems like every time I make change for somebody or color up I end of having to make change for myself within a couple of hands :)

No superstitions, but I do have a rule: keep my eyes open and my mouth shut.

That's what I have been doing wrong/ Closing my eyes and opening my mouth :D

I would call them. The are very bad at communication. It could be approved or not. You hate to find out there were problems when you get on the ship. They use a service to check the credit, they don't do it themselves.

 

I had a line last year and I asked them to renew it for my November cruise. They told me they'd check and to call them back 2 wks prior to leaving. When I called they told me the service they use couldn't get approval without doing a 3 way conversation with me and my bank. There was really no way to do that. I called my bank who said it was due to new regulations. I had the same issue in Vegas, but approve it in house so were able to do the 3 way call. Worked fine. If all banks are under the same regulations, this service they use is going to cost them lots of good casino customers.

 

What I found amusing is they told me the best solution is to wire the money to the ship and I could use what I needed and get refunded the rest. Sounded like a reasonable solution, so I asked if they would write me a check for the balance on the last night. She put me on hold to check. No, she said, they would have to send the paperwork to the home office and I would receive a check a few weeks after I return. Are you kidding me? Yes, Carnival, her is a few thousand dollars, you hang on to it for a while and give it back when you feel like it.

 

After some discussion I decided that if I want a bit extra I will put my S&S card into a slot, take money on the card and then cash out. I think you can do 1K a day. Not sure if it's true, but I hear there are no cash advance fees, etc, it just goes on your bill. Heck, I'll even get bonus points on my credit card.

 

Good luck to you.

Thanks for the input. I'll try calling in a day or two. If not maybe I will try the S/S card in the slots. Seems silly to not make the process of establishing a credit line easy but it is the casinos loss (Or my loss to the casino ;) ) Just don't like carrying alot of cash since I don't need it except for the casino.

Going on a Carnival cruise next week and don't want to carry a lot of cash, nor do I wish to pay a 3% fee to get chips from my s/s card so I applied for a credit line. With a week until I sail I have yet to hear anything. How long does it take and do they email, snail mail or just tell you on the ship the details of your credit line?

Do you have to own shares before you book your cruise? Or can you buy them after booking, and still get the OBC? :confused:

Don't even have to own them when you cruise. Buy 100 shares, wait for settlement date, sell. On a 100 shares you only need for the shares to go up about $.25 to cover the buy/sell commissions. Another $.07 should cover the short term capital gains. Reinvest the money in a good stock or mutual fund until the next time you cruise. Rinse and repeat as needed.

Anyone been here lately? Website is down, Roatan tourist website didn't list them anymore. I have a family member that collects Cameos and was thinking about stopping by on the way back to the ship. Tripadvisor seems to have a recent review.

I just finished a breeze cruise and did the cheers program and it was almost free, well if you are a casino patron. Any of the 6 classic cocktails give you a $5.00 match play, even when using cheers. So 6 or 7 Long Islands and 3 or 4 cruisers equaled out to 50-60 in match play every day. So I think between winning and losing on the match plays cheers cost me about 20 a day. I'm fine with that price

So you were able to use your Cheers receipt for a classic cocktail to get a match play. Another thread running currently had a cruiser being told that since the receipt was zero'd out it didn't qualify for the match play coupon.

Is munzee still around? It uses qrs codes at cache sites and is less restrictive than geocaching.com. Maybe open caching as well since I think they still allow virtual and " moving caches".

You are the parent and if you want to pull them out of school than that is your prerogative. The school can't prevent this (unless they miss more days than the minimal requirement for attendance, and they still can't prevent but could force a child to attend summer school or repeat a grade)

I think a day or two would be ok but multiple weeks sends the wrong message to the child about the importance of school. And yes I know all the parents are making it an educational experience while they drink their piña coladas and lie on a beach...

I am using Sea Sports Belize on my Sept 7 cruise on the Carnival Liberty (we'll be in Belize on Sept 10).

 

http://seasportsbelize.com/

 

They are a little on the expensive side, and are a small operation. For example, on our trip, they are taking a total of 5 people out that day. I'm sure that's why they have to charge more, because they aren't making up for it on volume.

 

Other people on here have said they really like them, but there are not as many reviews as other services like Eco Tours Belize or whatnot. I will try to post a review when I get back in this forum.

I am looking at a snorkeling tour as well. From seasportbelize website it isn't clear how you get from their office to the site. In talking with them do you take a boat or do you fly?

Haiti

Regarding PayPal there is an option to send the payment as a gift so the host doesn't have to pay the Paypal free. It is instead charged to the sender. ( on $22 it would be $.96). So you could send $22.96 with credit card or send it as a gift so the host doesn't have to eat the fees.

I wasn't planning to buy the Cheers package and just paying as I go but if they offer the $5 match play coupons when my wife and I go it is almost a non-brainer. Two even money bets opposite each other on the pass line/dont pass and/or come/dont come lines would cancel each out netting $5 each roll of the dice. Example I place $5 and a $5 match play coupon on the pass line. My wife places the same bet on the don't pass line. One bet would win netting $10 and one bet would lose $5 (except if 12 is rolled than you lose money $5 and push the other bet) 15 X$5 profit or $75 per day making the drink packages nearly free (as long you are only drinking classic cocktails. ) Additional you might be earning comps while playing each day (Not sure how liberal the comps are) Roulette might work the same way but you would lose both bets if 0/00 came up so it is not as good (I assume they don't have en prison rules) House edge on pass line 1.41% and roulette wheel is 5.2 so I would stick with craps.

Is my logic off? I believe the match play coupons are good for even money bets.