My sister and I won a Carnival Cruise!

[BBigfoot613]

1 hour ago, MCazer said:

Yes, sadly. But I’ll still take it!

 

I surely would as well!!! Excuse me if I sound nosey but extremely curious. First thing...carnival does 4 day cruises from NYC to Bermuda?? I thought they were all 7 days. Also I'm curious (other than tax filing stuff) you ONLY have to pay $160 extra for the cruise? That sounds AWESOME! And yes I'm green with envy lol. Congrats

[MCazer]

24 minutes ago, BBigfoot613 said:

 

I surely would as well!!! Excuse me if I sound nosey but extremely curious. First thing...carnival does 4 day cruises from NYC to Bermuda?? I thought they were all 7 days. Also I'm curious (other than tax filing stuff) you ONLY have to pay $160 extra for the cruise? That sounds AWESOME! And yes I'm green with envy lol. Congrats

Yes, they have a few sailings for four nights from Manhattan, and next year there will be the Sunrise and I believe the Radiance doing 4 nights.

 

we will have to pay Gratuities, and if we settled for an inside, the cruise wouldn’t have cost the $160. They covered the cruise, the taxes and port fees, but not gratuity.

 

 

[SNJCruisers]

5 hours ago, MCazer said:

Yes, they have a few sailings for four nights from Manhattan, and next year there will be the Sunrise and I believe the Radiance doing 4 nights.

 

we will have to pay Gratuities, and if we settled for an inside, the cruise wouldn’t have cost the $160. They covered the cruise, the taxes and port fees, but not gratuity.

 

 

Just to educate you, there are are four different categories of OV cabins on the Sunrise.  6A, 6B, 6C, 6D.  They are located on decks 1, 2 & 5.  The ones on decks 1 & 2 are renovated cabins, while the ones on deck 5 are brand spanking new since the entire aft section of deck 5 was totally done over similar to when the Destiny became the Sunshine a few years ago.  I am mentioning this because if it is at all possible, get one of those 24 6D cabins on deck 5.  It is not at the bottom of the ship and is near the Alchemy Bar, Piano Bar and Red Frog Pub, which are three great places to hang at night and with your Cheers package, it'll be easy to crawl back to your cabin.  The Cucina del Capitano is a nice venue for an up charge of 15.00 for dinner.  Enjoy.

[KmomChicago]

18 hours ago, MCazer said:

Yes, we had our last trip interrupted by bad weather in Italy. Mud slides, torrential rains and extremely high winds.  We sought refuge in the nearest port, and ended up there for 3 days.  The rope lines that had us tied to the dock snapped and our ship floated out, and with the winds, we drifted into the Costa Magica and hit the front of their ship, leaving window washing machine on their deck.  

 

We we were lucky enough to be staying on Rome for a few nights after, but people were given the choice to get on buses for a 5 hour trip at 1am to that they could catch flights.  Some made it, some had their flights changed.  

 

With all the winds and rain, water poured into our cabin and down one wall, behind our couch and bed.  Celebrity came in and quickly mopped up, opened the ceiling, took our clothing and had it all washed.  

 

It is what it is.  We missed Florence, missed Pisa and Portofino. So we are booked on the same ship this year and will go straight to Florence from Rome for a few days.  We even have the same aft cabin! Loved the location. 

 

WOWSA.  If you're still cruising after all that, not much that's going to stop you.  You are a more intrepid and experienced traveler than many on the boards.  Shifting to Carnival from other lines will obviously be pretty seamless for you.

 

Is there anything else you wanted to know that we've missed?

[myjillian]

14 minutes ago, KmomChicago said:

 

WOWSA.  If you're still cruising after all that, not much that's going to stop you.  You are a more intrepid and experienced traveler than many on the boards.  Shifting to Carnival from other lines will obviously be pretty seamless for you.

 

Is there anything else you wanted to know that we've missed?

Love you, love you,love you😍 We have been cruising for decades and hate hearing people complain about ie...no towel animals etc...we have had a couple of experiences like yours and only feel that they make good cruising stories...you are true cruisers

[ontheweb]

11 hours ago, MCazer said:

Yes, they have a few sailings for four nights from Manhattan, and next year there will be the Sunrise and I believe the Radiance doing 4 nights.

 

we will have to pay Gratuities, and if we settled for an inside, the cruise wouldn’t have cost the $160. They covered the cruise, the taxes and port fees, but not gratuity.

 

 

I'm sure you can live with paying the gratuities. 

 

Enjoy everything about the cruise (except paying the feds and NY state taxes on it.)

[MCazer]

6 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

Just to educate you, there are are four different categories of OV cabins on the Sunrise.  6A, 6B, 6C, 6D.  They are located on decks 1, 2 & 5.  The ones on decks 1 & 2 are renovated cabins, while the ones on deck 5 are brand spanking new since the entire aft section of deck 5 was totally done over similar to when the Destiny became the Sunshine a few years ago.  I am mentioning this because if it is at all possible, get one of those 24 6D cabins on deck 5.  It is not at the bottom of the ship and is near the Alchemy Bar, Piano Bar and Red Frog Pub, which are three great places to hang at night and with your Cheers package, it'll be easy to crawl back to your cabin.  The Cucina del Capitano is a nice venue for an up charge of 15.00 for dinner.  Enjoy.

 Right now we’re on deck one because there really isn’t too much availability left with the sailing so close. Normally I would be in a much higher floor but I’ll take what I can get! 

[MCazer]

1 hour ago, KmomChicago said:

 

WOWSA.  If you're still cruising after all that, not much that's going to stop you.  You are a more intrepid and experienced traveler than many on the boards.  Shifting to Carnival from other lines will obviously be pretty seamless for you.

 

Is there anything else you wanted to know that we've missed?

 It should be seamless, except I’m a planner, and have a never sailed on carnival

I’m sure there are things that you guys would know, the insider tips, so to speak 

[MCazer]

51 minutes ago, myjillian said:

Love you, love you,love you😍 We have been cruising for decades and hate hearing people complain about ie...no towel animals etc...we have had a couple of experiences like yours and only feel that they make good cruising stories...you are true cruisers

Thank you.  We’ve made lots of  lemonade over the years of those lemons that we’ve gotten!  But it’s true.   And one of the best days that we were stuck in Port was just lounging out enjoying the downtime and watching the rain pour down.   Having a drink and knowing that there’s nowhere else to go.  And staying up late with the silent disco knowing that you’re not going to set an alarm for the next day !

[cruisequeen4ever]

So exciting; congratulations!!

[grandmarnnurse]

On 4/9/2019 at 5:39 AM, travelplus said:

Not to burst your.bubble but there have been scams gong around. Be very careful that it's legit. Congrats on winning. 

This was legit. Kathie Lee did give away these cruises, as John Heald had mentioned it on his page. 

[grandmarnnurse]

Welcome to Carnival. We returned to Carnival this past March for a cruise on the Breeze, after taking several years away and sailing RCCL and NCL. I have to say that returning to Carnival was the best move we ever made in relation to vacation choices. Carnival is way more fun! Entertainment, activities, and music happening all the time, everywhere! And the food was fabulous! I could go on and on, but you will see for your self. I hope you have a wonderful cruise! I’d be happy to see your review and comparisons once you return. 

[Sparky2]

Have a great time on your cruise.  What a great deal!

[ontheweb]

On 4/11/2019 at 8:29 PM, MCazer said:

Yes, they have a few sailings for four nights from Manhattan, and next year there will be the Sunrise and I believe the Radiance doing 4 nights.

 

we will have to pay Gratuities, and if we settled for an inside, the cruise wouldn’t have cost the $160. They covered the cruise, the taxes and port fees, but not gratuity.

 

 

I hope that the part about the gratuities was explained. You could imagine someone who never took a cruise and thought they were getting it at absolutely no cost freaking out when they saw they were billed their automatic gratuities.

[A2Mich]

That’s an awesome surprise!

[Cobrakev]

June = Bad time to cruise, unless you like LOTS of kids.

[SNJCruisers]

1 hour ago, Cobrakev said:

June = Bad time to cruise, unless you like LOTS of kids.

I am assuming that the free cruise had to be used within one year.  The OP wanted something out of NYC so they would not have to fly.  The options were limited to one sailing each month to Bermuda between May and Sept.  Obviously the May and Sept sailings would have less kids on them since they would be in school.   No reason to state the obvious regarding the higher amount of kids cruising during the summer on main stream cruise lines.

[MCazer]

4 hours ago, Cobrakev said:

June = Bad time to cruise, unless you like LOTS of kids.

Surprisingly, most schools in New York don’t let out until the week after we sail.  Of course, people could be coming from around the area, but the Northeast tends to let out much later than most other areas of the USA.

 

All that being said, I don’t mind children. And they probably won’t be around me in the adult areas anyway.

 

I remember when my kids were little, they were in the kids clubs most of the time. 

[MCazer]

3 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

I am assuming that the free cruise had to be used within one year.  The OP wanted something out of NYC so they would not have to fly.  The options were limited to one sailing each month to Bermuda between May and Sept.  Obviously the May and Sept sailings would have less kids on them since they would be in school.   No reason to state the obvious regarding the higher amount of kids cruising during the summer on main stream cruise lines.

We definitely wanted to do this as cheap as possible especially when it’s only 4 nights.  Hate to fly somewhere for such a short vacation.

 

We had until April of 2021 to use it, but like you say, we are limited with the dates leaving from NY for 4 nights. And we are taking a summer cruise next year with our children in Europe, so can’t do it then.  Can’t do May, as my husband is having surgery on Wednesday and it is too close to his 6 week recovery.  So June it is, and we are fine with that! 

[Babyfin]

On 4/12/2019 at 1:48 AM, SNJCruisers said:

Just to educate you, there are are four different categories of OV cabins on the Sunrise.  6A, 6B, 6C, 6D.  They are located on decks 1, 2 & 5.  The ones on decks 1 & 2 are renovated cabins, while the ones on deck 5 are brand spanking new since the entire aft section of deck 5 was totally done over similar to when the Destiny became the Sunshine a few years ago.  I am mentioning this because if it is at all possible, get one of those 24 6D cabins on deck 5.  It is not at the bottom of the ship and is near the Alchemy Bar, Piano Bar and Red Frog Pub, which are three great places to hang at night and with your Cheers package, it'll be easy to crawl back to your cabin.  The Cucina del Capitano is a nice venue for an up charge of 15.00 for dinner.  Enjoy.

Just wanted to give you a heads up The Cucina del Capitano is a $15 up charge at dinner, but at lunch time it is free. Not the same choices but you can see get in there and try some items before dinner time.

 

[MCazer]

1 hour ago, Babyfin said:

Just wanted to give you a heads up The Cucina del Capitano is a $15 up charge at dinner, but at lunch time it is free. Not the same choices but you can see get in there and try some items before dinner time.

 

Excellent Info! Will have to go at lunch and try it out! Thank you. 

[SNJCruisers]

3 hours ago, Babyfin said:

Just wanted to give you a heads up The Cucina del Capitano is a $15 up charge at dinner, but at lunch time it is free. Not the same choices but you can see get in there and try some items before dinner time.

 

I am inferring that you wanted to give the OP the heads up regarding the free lunch versus 15.00 dinner charge at Cucina del Capitano.  The lunch as you know is make your own pasta from a checklist or a piece of premade lasagna.

The best item at night, IMHO is the tomahawk pork chop. Have been to Cucina on the Breeze twice as well as the Horizon, enjoying each meal there.

 

Edited April 15, 2019 by SNJCruisers

[cynt]

Have a BLAST!!!!😀😁😀😁

[JaniceB]

Wishing your husband a speedy recovery and you both an awesome cruise experience on Carnival.

[mapman_2004]

On 4/9/2019 at 2:39 AM, travelplus said:

Not to burst your.bubble but there have been scams gong around. Be very careful that it's legit. Congrats on winning. 

 

Uh, I don't think you read the first post if you are stating this.  Yikes.