CruznisMagic

Hi !!

I am planing a cruise with Carnaval Vista.  Need help for with Havana Room to get or. Havana Extended Balcony

The only thing i heard it people can look in the window of the Havana Cabana.

Thanks for your help.

Hi,   We are a family of 6.   Looking for a nice beach with a pool.Thanks for your help..

On 5/13/2019 at 8:30 AM, Kate P.C said:

There is hardly any beach at the port of Costa Maya but there are a lot of things to do with your kids in the port. There is a huge swimming pool, there are dolphins, there is zip line ( yes, they are all in the port), there are flamingos....If you end up deciding to go to any of the beaches, they are very close and just $8 pp taxi ride, each way.

Sounds great !! Were is this . Thanks

On 1/8/2019 at 5:38 PM, bbtbear said:

FYI, you can also order some of the steakhouse entrees in the main dining room for $20. You don't get the bells and whistles available in the steakhouse with their appetizers, etc., but it also costs half as much as going to the steakhouse. Here are the options: 

1-1/2 pound Maine lobster, 9 ounce filet mignon, 14 ounce New York strip steak, and surf and turf (broiled Maine lobster tail and filet mignon).

Sounds great !!! Do we order this in the  main dining room ??? 

We are going on an 8 day eastern cruise on the Magic.

Does anyone know which are elegant nights.?

Thanks for your help :)

At 2:20 AM i purchased 2 fttf $59.95 each cabin..

Now it is $69.95.. Ouch :(

At 2:20 AM i purchased 2 fttf $59.95 each cabin..

Now it is $69.95.. Ouch :(

At 2:20 AM i purchased 2 fttf $59.95 each cabin..

Now it is $69.95.. Ouch :(

I felt dizzy, to high up :eek:

I am on the roll call, we will learn info there :)

..http://www.cruisecritic.com/rollcalls/

Already?:eek::eek:

 

We are definitely flying in early, normally one day before.

 

Trying to convince DH to do 2 days at Disney prior to the cruise.

 

What hotel did you book?

I know the Radisson is popular, but the reviews on Trip Advisor are SO mixed.

Country Suites seems to get great reviews!!!

 

Thanks for the tip.......:D

I have both Radisson and Country Suites booked. Just in case...:D

Awesome!!!!!:D:D

 

Did you join the roll call?

I just joined today........

It's going to be a loooooooong wait.......

 

We normally book about 2-3 months before, but for some reason, next summers' cruises are booking up FAST!

 

Hoping for price drops!!:D

I know its early, but start looking at hotels ( if needed) they are booking fast.

We have cruised on the Breeze, twice, and we LOVE this class of ship.

Got hooked on Magic watching Wheel of Fortune month, in which the Magic was featured every night.:D:D

 

Also, the reviews seem to be raving about this ship as of lately, and we LOVE the fact they have the new Guy's BBQ.

 

Now, just to wait out the 311 days..........

 

Sigh......:D

We are also booked for Magic in 311 days !!! Looking forward to an 8 day cruise . :D

We will be flying SW Airlines into Orlando.

If we use Express Bag Drop Off , did it it help you move faster at the airport?

Thanks for you help !!:)

Is anyone else having problems? Never a fan of their website

I'm in the central zone, the sites been down since 10 PM :eek:

I am travelling on the Carnival Miracle August 13-20. We have two staterooms, one is a suite so it automatically gets VIP privileges. I planned to buy FTTF for the other stateroom so that we can all get VIP treatment together. I just went online to buy it and I see that it is sold out for my cruise! I am soooo bummed. Does anyone know if they ever made additional FTTF passes available? For my future planning, how far in advance does this usually sell out?

Here is what I got back---- FttFinfo@carnival.com

Greetings Funseeker!

Interested in getting the FUN started early? We can’t blame you. Your email has been received and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. We will usually respond within 7 to 10 days to general questions. If you are looking to purchase FTTF for a sold out sailing, we’ll keep your information on hand in the order it is received. In the event of a cancellation, you will be notified. Due to the popularity of this program, we will only notify you if space becomes available.

Thanks for your interest in our Faster to the Fun program. Most importantly, we look forward to welcoming you onboard soon!

We got off the Breeze yesterday (Eastern Caribbean itinerary) and I wanted to share some thoughts that might be helpful to others. We had a great time overall. However, there were some things that were lacking. We are not frequent cruisers but we have been on a Carnival cruise before; it was my husband, our eight-year-old-daughter, and me.

 

First, the good/great stuff. We had FTTF and I thought it was well-worth the cost, especially when our daughter promptly lost her Sign and Sail card on the first day at sea. FTTF saved us hours of waiting in line at Guest Services for a new card. Embarkation and debarkation were very easy.

 

We packed a LOT but I think we used everything we packed and there wasn't anything I would omit on our next cruise. We took a small desktop fan which helped immensely. We carried two 12 packs of Pepsi and 2 bottles of wine onboard and it was perfect; just enough for us. We decorated our door with Nemo and Dory door clings that I got from Amazon and it was easy and cute. The way that we carried on our beverages was in an old suitcase, and then after we unloaded our drinks we had an empty suitcase for souvenirs, dirty clothes, etc. That was very handy. We also were glad we'd brought plastic clothes pins, aloe vera gel for sunburn, baby powder for sand/rashes, and our own shampoo, conditioner, and body wash (the ship provides shampoo but not conditioner, and body wash but none of it is very good quality). We brought a four prong extension cord and did have an over-the-door organizer, which we hung on the inside of one of the closet doors. Worked great.

 

We used the chat feature on the Carnival app to keep in touch and it was very handy. It did go down often, especially toward the end of the cruise, which was annoying, but I do recommend it. And I loved the ability to check show times or food options on the app on my phone. So much easier than lugging around a highlighted copy of the Fun Times.

 

Our balcony cabin was on the Lido deck mid, #10270. Location was perfect, close to everything and an easy elevator ride down to dining and events. We loved having a balcony. There was a lot of motion during our cruise but I understand that that's because there's a lot of distance covered with that itinerary in a short time, so we were going at a higher speed than our previous cruises.

 

The additional food options were great. We loved Guy's burgers and the Southwestern/Mexican restaurant, our daughter loved Pizza Pirate, and we dined at Farenheit 555 one night and all loved it (with one hiccup which I'll mention below). We loved sea day brunches in the MDR. I did not notice this until another guest mentioned it, but there is tea served at 3 pm on sea days. That was a nice experience for my daughter and me. My favorite was the captain's pasta bar in Cucina Capitano for lunch. At dinnertime it's a fee restaurant, but at lunchtime they have pasta and lasagne with caesar salad and it's free. You should also check out the Tasting Bar everyday; they had samplings of fare from some of the fee restaurants, and you could get actual meals there sometimes. I never quite figured out their rotation schedule; I just know that I noticed several times that they had breakfast and lunch options. We did not eat at Bonsai Sushi.

 

The shows were really good. We saw one PG comedy show (Kelly something) and he was pretty funny. We enjoyed the Motown show. The 88 Keys show was a bit cheesy but enjoyable. We got a kick out of the towel animal demo and show. The new show, Flick, was really amazing. Highly recommend it. They are still working out some kinks and bugs, and the performers haven't quite hit their groove yet, but that's understandable as it was only the third cruise for this particular show. We did not catch the Country show (none of us like C&W music) and I think there was one more that we didn't make. Music all over the ship was great, especially the Latin band that played in the atrium often.

 

My husband played in a soccer tournament and a dodgeball tournament and that was a lot of fun. We really enjoyed playing putt-putt golf, too. We are not late night people but my husband did go to the nightclub for a drink one night and he said it was great people-watching. We tried to do a dive-in movie but there were not enough deck chairs for us all to sit together so we scrapped that.

 

We tried to get our daughter to do some activities with Camp Ocean, just because we thought she'd enjoy being with other kids (she' an only child, obviously) but she just wasn't into it. However, a big kudos to the ladies at Camp Ocean who stopped what they were doing to show her around and try to make her feel more comfortable about it. They were great.

 

Now for some of the more critical points. We booked all of our excursions through Carnival. We did a trolley tour in Key West, a Jeep tour in Freeport, and a day at Blue Lagoon Island with the sea lion encounter at Nassau. Key West was fine; it was Old Town Trolley and we got off the ship very quickly so we were one of the first on the trolley. Other people from the ship had to wait in line for a very long time so I would highly recommend getting off the ship as quickly as you can and if you are not among the first for a trolley, just walk around by yourself in the area around the pier until the crowd dies down, then hop on a later trolley.

 

The people with the Jeep tour were lovely, but Freeport is just not a great port and the stop at Junkanoo Beach was a waste for us. It was packed so the water was really warm and cloudy (we wanted to snorkel), and the wake/noise from the jet ski rentals was really annoying. Since we got there a little later in the day, all of the umbrellas were gone. We had stopped at another beach (not a resort) that was nearly empty earlier in the Jeep tour and that would have been so much nicer to stay at than Junkanoo.

 

Nassau is lovely and we enjoyed the ferry to Blue Lagoon Island. The sea lion encounter was overpriced, but I knew that going in; if my eight-year-old had not been interested, we'd have never done that. There was another cruise ship that was late getting into port, so even though our encounter was scheduled to start at 10:30 am, they made us wait almost an hour for the passengers from that ship to arrive. The next encounter was 11:30 am so I don't know why they didn't go ahead with ours and try to fit the other passengers into the 11:30 am (there were only four people from the other ship when they finally arrived). I think they really just wanted to condense us from 2 encounters into one.

 

The lagoon is very shallow and has no waves, which is great for kids. Our daughter loved swimming and looking for shells. My husband checked out the snorkel area but said it had a few small fish, nothing worthwhile. We were told on the way over that there would be tenders back to the port at 1, 2, and 4 pm, but later in the day there was an announcement that the 2 pm tender would be the last for Breeze passengers so we had to cut our day short, and we didn't have time to buy the photos from our encounter as the line for the tender was much too long. All in all, it's a nice resort, but we felt cheated on our time there and we never got any photos of our encounter which was over $300 for the three of us.

 

One thing we did not like about the ship was the pools. They are much too small for the number of people that use them, and they are always packed and super warm. The middle pool deck area is very hot; no breezes come through due to the design of the ship. We tried the slides but they weren't really our thing; I felt really claustrophobic, and kids were cutting in line. I think Carnival relies on that Waterworks area to divert people away from the pools but there's really not that much to do aside from the slides. We do have a pool at home and enjoying swimming but there's no way to really swim at all on the ship.

 

We also felt that the food in the MDR had declined since our last cruise in 2006. The elegant nights were not very good, at all. There definitely seems to be a shift toward the other food options. The dessert options were not great; we ended up having melting chocolate cake most of the time. We always found something to eat, of course, but we were disappointed. Appetizers were more reliable than the entrees. Farenheit 555 was really good with excellent service but my NY strip was not a good cut of meat and it was cooked medium, not medium rare as requested. I enjoyed everything else so much that I didn't mention it, but our waiter noticed that I didn't eat it and probed me for feedback so I did let him know what I felt was wrong with it. Overall, the Farenheit 555 experience was worth the extra $$ to me, even with that one blip.

 

I also wish they had timed the comedy shows better to be able to see a comedy show AND a show. the PG-rated comedy shows were all at times that conflicted with the first musical or "big" show of the night. We could have stayed up for the second, later show, of course, but that's a little late for our daughter. She really enjoyed the comedy show we got to see. A slight change of a half hour in either direction would have been great.

 

Service was hit-or-miss. When it was good, it was great; when it wasn't good, it wasn't terrible necessarily, but there were definitely some not good parts. It just seemed like a lot of the staff were DONE and ready for it to be over. I heard several mentions of contracts and end of contracts so perhaps they were coming to the end of their contract. They just seemed burned out. Mostly it seemed to come in the main dining room (we had YTD and ate in Sapphire, but had breakfast in the Blush dining room several mornings). We had some really long waits to order, and for food to arrive. Dinner routinely took 1.5 to two hours. And I had an incident in which a woman at Guest Services snapped at me because I asked if I was in the right place, because she was preparing to help someone who was walking up to the desk. It was a very simple question and I wasn't trying to cut the line; I just wanted to be sure I was using the right resource before I waited. Again, I think they're probably overworked and burned out. There were other situations like that, although less dramatic (she was EXTREMELY rude).

 

There were also things that were supposed to be open but were not. For example, one reason we chose the location we did was because of its proximity to the laundry on the 10th deck. It's supposed to be a 24 hour laundry. We always do laundry midway through our trip to cut down on the clothing we have to bring. However, that laundry was always locked with an "out of order" sign, and the laundry on the 7th deck was only open during certain hours and of course it was always packed. We ended up using the ship's laundry service instead. My husband did complain about the lack of facilities to Guest Services and they comped our laundry bill, which was very much appreciated, but we really weren't looking to get something for free. We just wanted to do our laundry. There were other situations like that, like Pizza Pirate is supposed to be 24/7 but no one was ever there in the morning or responded to the bell, and the breakfast buffet seemed to open at odd times other than what was showing in the app. Just random things like that.

 

This might just be a personal thing, but I got so tired of being hit up for photos from the ship photographers. They are EVERYWHERE. ALL THE TIME. We bought one picture, a photo of our daughter with the cast from Flick, and I thought it was worth the price. It's a great souvenir. I know people like the photos but the pressure was just constant.

 

Overall, we loved our trip and will cruise with Carnival again, just a different itinerary (we'd done Jamaica, Cayman, and Cozumel on our honeymoon in 2006 so we wanted to do something different this time). But we will have some lowered expectations on food and service next time.

 

I have to hand it to the cruise ship staff; they work so freaking hard, and their jobs have to be challenging. It just seems like Carnival has cut back in many areas and I'm sure that's affected the employees so much, and it's trickling down to passengers through a lessened experience. Still a great way to travel, and highly recommended!

Thank you ,I thought I was the only one that had a semi bad review. we had FTTF I loved it, Except we didn't get our bags til late afternoon.However the front desk was wonderful, we had a private phone # to reach them.

We have 4 kiddos under 18, they loved to cruise. But I think I'll have to twist their arm to go again. This is bad when your kids beg not to go back to the MDR. Didn't like the food and felt there was no attention. Back in the day the the waiters would play little games, etc. Now I don't think they new our name. Ok _ I'll stop didn't mean to take over your review : )

We usually buy wine onboard , Cherry on Top, to take to room...

I just read this , does it mean no more buying there , but can order thru room service?

The Fun Shops (onboard)

All alcohol purchased in The Fun Shops onboard will be stored for safekeeping until the end of the voyage. The retained items will be available for collection in a designated lounge on the morning of debarkation.

:confused:

Which cabin on Valor , on Lido deck or Aft ?

We usually get a cabin mid ship. Looking for a change :)

Thanks

You're welcome.

Your right they should be thankful

I got a giggle out of that :)

I booked a cruise for July 2016 on the Breeze leaving from Galveston.

We try to take a cruise every summer, its the only way I can get the cell phones shut off :)

We have four kiddos ages 17 to 10.

I was so proud of myself booking thinking the kids would love the new ship, But to my surprise they were very disappointed because we have did this iteniary several times on the Magic.

I think I should change the cruise , maybe an 8 day eastern . Valor or Splendor.

Does 8 days make a big difference. ? Would you change to satisfy your kids?

Thanks in advance for your help ..

How do we know when our room is ready? I know that we have to wait to drop off our carry ons until the room is ready but I have no idea how we would know that. Thanks!

Keep checking :)

We just rebooked a cruise having to cancel one in April 15.

The money owed to be was used to reduce our final payment..

Just got off the phone with Carnival and a rep told me that now they dont "bill" your Sign and Sail card until day 2, but you still get to use the program from the time you "register" for it on the ship.

 

Can anyone verify this?

 

So basically they are saying that Carnival now allows you to use CHEERS! from the moment you get on the boat, but have finagled the rules so they dont *bill* you until Day 2.

 

Anyone?

In my experience we signed up the day after departure. :)

We are staying at the Embassy Suites for the third time.

 

Our TA priced it with linking it to our cruise and it was more than we ever paid.

 

Then we booked on our own using our rewards Number (not Points) and we got a better deal.

 

Plus we found out had we booked thru RCI we would not be able to claim our loyalty points for a reason we do not know since the price was higher.

 

So we are staying at the Embassy Suites again for a decent price.

 

We like it there it meets our needs, and we like the evening managers special, and the full breakfast.

 

Also we walk to Publix to get our last minute supplies.

 

Sea Ya

I am looking at Embassy Suites , we are a family of 6. The hotel info states they pay for 2 to shuttle from airport. We can pay for kids at desk ,Anyone know the cost for the shuttle per person? Thank for your help :)