delacruz

If any of you for the DR excursion have Internet, Paul and I found seats against the wall to the side of the casino. I have a CC sign on the table.

Hi Jim and Cathy! Looking forward to meeting everyone at the DR excursion meetup Tuesday afternoon. It's our 18th anniversary (2nd marriage for both). I hear you for a work week from hell. We had an unusual situation where the 3 longtime staff (I'm the 'newest' at 25 years) had overlapping vacations, and the 'new guy' would make it do-able, except he quit on Monday. His being there and being 'trainable' was also the key to me being able to retire within the next few months. I was SO stressed, and Monday is the one day with nobody in the office, but it's NOT my problem. (and for self-preservation they don't need to know I have the premium wifi package). Hope you had an easy trip in. And to everyone else here - safe travels! We head to the Amtrak station in a few hours. We had a text this morning from Amtrak, and I had a momentary sinking feeling before I read it that it was about a delay, but it was to give us the track number for our train. I better get off here and finish my last minute 'stuff'!

I did not book the cruise through AARP (although I think you still can - I did it once but wasn't happy that I didn't have a specific agent to work with and got conflicting info times I had to call). These are Carnival gift cards, and although available elsewhere (with varying discounts), I buy them on AARP's website. As I said, you don't need to be any specific age to join AARP, and the cards are at a 10% discount. They're available with $100 or $500 gift value, so they cost $90 and $450. They can be purchased under the 'REDEEM' section of the website. Once purchased, you receive an email with the card number and the PIN. When purchasing anything on Carnival's website, the default tab is 'Credit Card' but there's also a 'Gift Card' (or something to that effect) tab. That's what I have used to pay for almost every single aspect of this cruise. I believe you can also print them out and enter the info into a Kiosk on the ship, and probably Guest Services, to apply to your onboard account. A caveat that it seems Carnival is the only cruiseline that allows you to use the card for EVERYTHING. I just booked a short Celebrity cruise for the fall, and although I haven't tested it yet, it appears I can use the discounted cards to pay for the balance of the cruise - but not the down payment, taxes and port charges, gratuities, or purchases.

YAY! Well, the only one who ever called me Judith was my mother when I did something wrong...lol! 2 weeks from now we'll be on our last sea day before our first port in St Thomas. For those joining us for the Dominican Culture excursion and meeting up at the informal get together at the Atrium Bar on Tues 4/16 @ 3:30pm (or anyone who wants to come say hi!), do you want to share your room numbers in case anyone can't make it or wants to touch base before that? Or names, whether you're celebrating anything, etc? Paul and I are in cabin 7501. As we mentioned, we splurged on a Terrazza Premium Vista Balcony since we are celebrating so many milestones - Paul's retirement, his 70th bday, and our 18th anniversary. If you aren't comfortable posting it here but want to share info, if you'd like you can send me a message from my cruise website (I'm not selling or promoting anything on it, so I think it's OK to post it). contact delacruzzer

The next 2 weeks at work are going to be the hardest! Especially since we just had a 3 day weekend, and the last day of work for me will be crazy busy since I'll be covering for a co-worker who's off that day. When you said maybe we'll meet in line I thought about doing something like wearing beads, but it will probably be a zoo in the terminal, so the chances of that might be slim. Although hubby is not a t-shirt wearing kind of guy, for his retirement I got him some t-shirts, and I think he'll wear the royal blue one with a white anchor saying 'Cruising through life one port at a time'. I decided that even though we also aren't 'matchy' kind of people that I needed the same. So that's what we'll be wearing, and if you can see our avatar pic, that's us 'old folks'...lol - so come say hi!

For all you seasoned and loyal Carnival cruisers, you probably already knew to check in a couple of days ago. For the rest of us Carnival 'newbies', the time is today! (Sorry I forgot to come here yesterday to post the heads up). Being late for everything (unless it's cruise related), I still managed to stay up to midnight and complete the check-in process. I got the time I wanted - 11-11:30am. It took longer than I expected - the page hung up a couple of times, but 1/2 hr later I saw some were already seeing the earliest time offered as 12:30. So, 2 weeks from today, we will have plenty of time for a leisurely breakfast (at the Tick Tock Diner in the New Yorker Hotel that we're staying at), check out, and grab a taxi.

I'm not a Carnival regular, but I found this on Carnival's website. For myself, I'm not concerned that I'll overdo any regulations, but I want to be able to handle my own luggage during our travels. A reminder to keep all your documents, medications, important stuff, maybe a change of clothing, etc, in your carry-on. And if you're bringing on water, soda, or wine, that goes in carry-on.

I started my packing process about a month ago - just pulling things from my closet that I knew I'd be taking. Although we're not worrying about the limitations of luggage while flying, we want to be able to handle everything on our own when coming in on the Amtrak, so I've been trying to lighten the load a bit to be realistic that I can wear the same outfit multiple times (and putting laundry/dry cleaning in the budget) and I always seem to have at least a couple of things that come home unworn. But I have my priorities - like room for our masks for the first elegant night, purple temp hair color for 80's night....lol! I even found WHITE water shoe sneakers, so that covers me for White Night AND the pool/beaches! Like some of you - work always seems to get crazy busy before a vacation - for me, trying to get as many work- related loose ends finished so I can relax. So, I will try to pack everything but the clothes that will wrinkle until the last minute. With all the horror stories we hear about luggage not making it to the ship Paul and I have started splitting our clothes between our 2 suitcases. It takes some organizing to make sure that we pack 'equally', so one dressy outfit in each bag - to where we could make do if a bag went missing, but I guess it's like taking an umbrella - insurance that it won't rain...lol!

All 3 pages are on one website, FB. CC frowns on mentioning it, but it is the largest social media platform. Once there, if you search for ' Carnival Venezia April 15' you should see the 3 pages that were created by different fellow cruisers. It bothers me that there are 3 groups, mostly with the same Members, which is much harder to keep up with. I like how on Cruise Critic if multiple boards are created for the same cruise they get merged. I still prefer chatting here. We've had excellent luck meeting people pre-cruise that have turned into lifetime friends.

Hi Donnamarieisme! We're almost at a month out! I haven't seen anything about a meet & greet, although I also am new to Carnival (except for one in 2009). The vast majority of my 25+ cruises have been on Royal Caribbean, and they stopped the official Meet & Mingles after Covid, and I don't think they've reinstated them. In the past I had organized some M&M, especially on cruises under 7 days where RC didn't do them, but being so new to Carnival, and especially wanting to spend time exploring a brand new (to me) ship, and the Terrazza area (we splurged on a premium cabin since we're celebrating my hubby's retirement, birthday, and our anniversary all in one). There are 3 different pages for our sailing on another major social media platform. Don't ask me why - I've never seen that before where at least they didn't try to merge to make just one. Too confusing. Between the 3, there are about a dozen events planned, one being a Meet & Greet on Monday 4/15 3pm at the Rococo Bar on deck 10. From there they plan to head to the sailaway party. I would like to do that but am keeping my schedule fluid depending on what we're feeling like at the time. I DO plan to be at the sailaway party though I might have to fight hubby on that. The sailaway at the Terrazza deck looks like it will be lovely, but I think I have to dance for sailaway, so I'll be wherever that is. I sometimes think of myself as a little old white-haired lady, but I take soul line dancing classes, and when I pretend I don't have 2 left feet I think I'm pretty good at it...lol! We're doing a small informal M&G (previously mentioned) for the handful of us that booked the Dominican Culture (cooking, coffee & casa typica) from Amber Cove so we'll start that excursion out feeling part of a group.

That works for us! Somewhere in my pile of cruise 'stuff' I have a little table placard that I made for a Royal Caribbean cruise pre-'Meet & Mingle' get together. It has the Cruise Critic logo on it, and I can edit it to 'Dominican Culture - Cooking, Coffee & Casa Typica' get together. As if I'm not already overpacking...lol! I'll post a pic of it when I get done so you all can look for it, and we can get a head count so whoever gets there first can try to set aside some space at the bar or tables. (oooh, we can join the ranks of chair hogs, although I figure mid-afternoon on the first sea day won't find the bar to be too crowded). Oh, and everyone else ( @tweety33, @KaiBlue, @FineArtsMama) pipe in to make sure that day and time works for the majority. I think our avatar makes it easy to see what Paul and I look like - except we won't be in our formal wear until later!

Paul and I are 68 and about to be 70 respectively. We think of ourselves as 'young' but maybe others think we're old farts?...lol! Glancing over the Roll Call it looks like we have the following booked on the Dominican Culture - Cooking, Coffee & Casa Typica tour in Amber Cove. We're on the 9:30 one, and I think so far it sounds like most others are that time slot also? @FineArtsMama, @tweety33, @ETski and @KaiBlue. If anyone has changed there mind, or someone else here also booked, let us know. Yes, we should try to get together! I'm not terribly good at planning stuff, but we are doing Anytime Dining, so are somewhat flexible. Maybe a pre-sailaway meet-up, or probably easier to just pick a time on one of our first 3 sea days as we're settling into relax mode. Any suggestions are welcome - I'm still a Carnival Newbie - I know all the good places to meet on Royal Caribbean ships! to the point that I even have a table sign for a Cruise Critic Meet & Greet.

I am no expert on all the ports, and have only been to St Thomas and San Juan, but this is what I know: - St Thomas has available cabs. As I recall, they are standardized, and there should be a board at the stand with the rates to the popular destination. I'm not sure which pier Carnival docks at - either Crown Bay or Havensight...I 'think' the latter. I'm used to Crown Bay because RCCL and Celebrity dock there and that's been most of our cruises. - San Juan - we dock in Old San Juan. There is so much to do within walking distance. Getting to the 2 forts are very doable (uphill getting there, coming back is easier!). We love the cobblestone streets, colorful architecture, the walk down Paseo de la Princesa to Paseo del Morro, the shops, restaurants, etc. This is one of the few Caribbean ports where it easy to find handmade local arts and crafts rather than the same old 'made in china' stuff. Taxis are also available here to go elsewhere. I think they are normally a set rate between Zones (at least that's been our experience from the airport and Pan American cruise port). Also Ubers are easy to get here. - Amber Cove, I know that taxis are available. I've heard warnings about going outside the port area, which is why we're doing an excursion, but also heard people say there were no problems. - Grand Turk - we are just doing the beach at the port. I think people also rent golf carts, and I assume taxis are available. - Half Moon Cay - my understanding is that this is a private island, and our only tender port. It's mostly undeveloped so I think short of just using the beach or taking a Carnival Excursion, that is it. -

Hi FineArtsMama (love the name, I guess I was a CommercialArtsMama till I mysteriously made a crazy career switch to ITMama...lol). Paul and I are booked on the 9:30am excursion. I'm a late riser, but we figured with the earlier start we'd have time to check out Amber Cove since this is our first time at this port. We've done similar type excursions, and yes, it's nice to start our with 'familiar faces'. We're celebrating our 18th anniversary (2nd marriage), Paul's 70th birthday, and his retirement.

No problem! This is my first Carnival cruise since 2009, and I don't even remember how I found out about paying by the AARP gift cards, but I took advantage of it starting with the deposit, and it is wonderful to save 10%. When I first started cruising, I had never heard of Cruise Critic, and in hindsight wonder how on earth we managed without it (and now all the additional pages on other social media platforms). When I find something that helped me, I try to pay it forward by passing it along. Oh, and thanks @tweety33for reminding me - I fell behind in greeting new fellow passengers...WELCOME!