Eli_6

As an aside, Oceania will handle the visas for you. My guess is some of the guests on this cruise are used to cruise lines that do that. I am surprised that Viking doesn't. I am not surprised that Carnival doesn't.

Gah. The link on the Viking page is the website I already used and that works so poorly. I guess I will try it again and pay another $35.

Thanks everyone for the responses! I booked it. We have quite a few sea days so I will get to enjoy.

Has anyone cruised on a cruise where one of the port stops requires a visa to enter? How did Carnival handle that? I am in a group on a different forum and there is no consensus. The country is Indonesia FWIW. Some say Carnival gets the visas/ETA for us because Indonesia handles cruise ship passengers differently than regular travelers. Others say you have to get the visa yourself. I asked John Heald (twice) and he didn't respond. I already got my ETAs for Australia since we are leaving from there and Singapore doesn't require a visa for US citizens. I actually out of an abundance of caution went ahead and applied for an Indonesia visa. The website was a nightmare and it took 2.5 hours due to horrible processing speeds and the website not reading my passport. Finally, it went through only my "visa" has my DOB as DD/MM/0080 instead of DD/MM/1980. It had originally read my passport as stating I was born in the year 0080, but I corrected it before submitting to 1980. Nonetheless, when I received the visa it still said I was born in 0080 EVEN THOUGH I had noticed the mistake and changed it! It was like system corrected my correction to what it thought my passport said. So, now my only option is to reapply (which will probably take another 2+ hours) and pay another $35. And I have concerns it may still come out again saying I was born in the year 0080. (I have to say that I look darn good for being 1,944 years old!) I googled and apparently lots of other people online have this same problem (i.e. it misreading their scanned in passport and giving them screwy names, incorrect DOBs, wrong passport numbers, etc.) and them being unable to correct it. One guy after redoing his visa app three times and paying three times and having all of them screwed up, finally gave up and just applied in person when he got there. So, long story short, if Carnival will do this for us, I would like to let them.

I agree with what others have said. It depends on the ship and how many kids are on board. An Alaskan or Europe cruise is totally different than a carribean cruise on one of the giant ships where there are 500+ kids on board. However, I will say that in all my cruising I don't think I have seen the youngest child group (2-5) ever combined with the 6-8 or 9-11 age groups. When my kids were 7/9 and 8/10, their groups were combined all-the-time when we were in Europe cruising, but the 2-5 were in a completely different room and never combined with the older kids. Your best bet might be to ask if the 6 year-old can be in with the 2-5 (Penguins). [2-5 are Penguins, 6-8 are Stingrays, and 9-11 are Sharks.] Only time I saw the youngest combined with older kids in all my cruising was on an Alaskan cruise where there was only one 4 or 5-years-old and all the kids were combined in the same room because there was only about 8-10 kids on the entire cruise.

I know different ships have different things that the thermal suites covers--as in they cover more than just the thermal suites but also sometimes a hydrotherapy pool, etc. The pass is $209 AUD which is about $140 USD for 15 days. That seems pretty affordable to me. However, I am not sure exactly what the pass covers on the Splendor. Anyone know? Can anyone help me out on this?

I got notifications last night that 3 of my 4 were approved. Guessing that 4th one is going to be denied for some reason or another.

I am taking a cruise from Sydney to Singapore that stops in Indonesia. On a separate board, people were saying we had to apply for an Indonesian visa as a US citizen. So, I applied for one. It was granted, but my Visa says my date of birth is 09/09/0081 instead of 09/09/1981. My application undoubtedly said 1981 when I submitted it. Is this something specific to Indonesia with the 0081? Do they not use "19"? Or is this something I need to be concerned about such that I need to re-apply for the visa?

I am not sure when they introduced this, but I had to apply for my CCL stock holder OBC through the stock perks App. I downloaded app, uploaded documents and waited for statements to be approved. Once they were approved, I applied on 05/03 for 4 bookings for Carnival (2 different rooms on 2 different cruises). I applied yesterday for a Princess cruise and my OBC application was approved and posted within 1-2 hours. For anyone else who has successfully done this, how long does it take the Carnival stock holder perk to be approved and post?

Thanks for the info. There were hardly any tours left still available for four people but I did find one for four people at 1 pm (13:00) that goes to the Sistine Chapel. I remember getting a feeling (spiritual) when we visited Pope John Paul's remains in the crypt in 2007. However, if we don't go again, I can live with it. My children (10 and 11) are probably a little young to really understand it anyway.

@marazul Thank you for your response. The booking portion (at least on my computer) is in Italian even when I select English. Do you know what I book to see the main cathedral, underneath where St. Peter is buried, and to see the Sistine Chapel?

Hello, I am taking a tour with Rome in Limo. The link they provided me to buy tickets to The Vatican does not work. I asked for another and it still doesn't work. Does anyone know of the official vatican website where I can buy tickets? When I google, it takes me to a bunch of third-party websites. Alternatively, can I buy them on the day of? I did that when we were there before, but it was in 2007 so things have obviously changed.

When I have been on the Pride, all decks were quiet. However, I have only sailed her in Europe.

So, as an update to anyone searching this forum in the future, an Auzzie on one my Splendor facebook pages who has recently cruised on her said that Splendor has starlink now.

So, no one knows if the Splendor has starlink? I guess I will ask John Heald.