porcupyn

We're a family of 5 looking to book a cruise. :) Our kids have never cruised before, but we've been on two cruises in the past 10 years.

 

My hubby wants a Mexican Riviera cruise out of Los Angeles this fall. The price is good and it would be driving distance, so that would save about $2,000 on airfare for the 5 of us. The ports aren't of any interest to us as we've been to Mexico many, many times.

 

After MUCH research ;) I've decided I'd rather wait a bit and save up for a cruise we REALLY want to go on. I'm looking at the "Dream class" ships. The ships and the itineray look SO much more appealing to me!! :D

 

However, it would be quite a bit more expensive. After adding on airfare, we're probably talking twice as much.:( I need help convincing my hubby that we should just wait a bit long (I'm thinking Spring 2015) and save up for this one!

 

The ship looks like a lot of fun and the Carribbean ports (Southern, probably) would be ports we would actually be interested in visiting.

 

Our kids will be 7, 8, and 10 years old.

 

HELP!!! :D HOW CAN I CONVINCE MY HUBBY WE NEED TO SAVE UP A LITTLE LONGER AND SPLURGE ON A BREEZE CRUISE?!?? :D

 

Post the above on http://www.bogleheads.com - folks there will do a quick takedown of your DH ;-)

 

PS: I am not kidding you!

Just wondering how many tip extra? like when I got a drink I rarely tipped extra, that might sound rude but I wasn't sure if I was the odd ball out or not. I like that they added the tip in.

 

Also, for room service my son ordered room service a lot. I left him with $1's the first time he gave the entire stack to the girl. haha it was like $20. I told him just give her $3. but you know how kids are.....

 

I bet she was ubber happy.

 

At the end of the cruise I went to the desk and told them I wanted to add extra tips for my dining room staff and the lady looked at me like I had 20 heads? and asked literally what do you mean? Is this not common.

 

The last time we went on a cruise they had envelopes in the room labeled for the dining staff..... this time there were not any.

 

Liberty had envelopes we could use to add extra tips to hand out if we wished to do so - at guest services on 3/28.

So, while I was reading through my travel documents I came across this:

 

"When traveling with a minor and both parents/legal guardians are not cruising, we strongly recommend bringing an original signed letter from the absent parent/guardian authorizing the minor to travel with you. This will expedite processing by the Department of Homeland Security."

 

As anyone had and experience or issues with not having a signed letter by the other parent? Our only ports for this cruise (11/02 Liberty) are in the Bahamas. Any feedback would be great!

The response to this is probably going to be different depending on who you ask.

 

Last year, DW and DD were flying out the country via Canada. Both had their passports with them; however, because I was not with them, the folks in the airport in Canada grilled them before letting them through - they almost missed their Europe-bound connecting flight!

 

The year before, they had been by themselves on a similar journey - no questions were asked then (probably because they did not go through Canada?).

My family and I did a Euro cruise last summer. It was supposed to be just me and the youngest DS. (what I could afford). Then Second oldest wanted to come ... couldn't exactly say no ... then one more wanted to come ... so the cruise went from what I could afford to once in a lifetime.

 

I am still paying a year later but have to say for us it was worth every cent. It really opened up my son's eyes to the great big world out there. Now one wants to teach in Europe, another wants to become a pilot and the one that "hates history" and is "bored looking at buildings" cannot wait to get back to Barcelona.

 

My point? Sometimes it's worth it to stretch the budget a bit and do something outside the box.

Sorry to hijack this thread, but would you mind sharing a few details about your Europe cruise - planning, expenses, etc.?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

PS: Also I am confused when you say you were going on a cruise with one kid which is all you could afford and are still paying for it, but you have two more cruises lined up for this year. How did you manage that?!! We just returned from a cruise and will probably not go on another for a year! :-(

My last Canival cruise was apparently during LSU's spring break and we took a cruise out of NOLA since it was incredibly cheap. $200pp something like that for the western caribbean.

 

It was a like a frat house party!! Never again.... I didnt mind one of the lovely college girls doing a CANNONBALL into the hottub on a dare and sitting on my g/f's lap, though :D

 

Wow! $200 pp is too good for a Western Caribbean itinerary - I would even stay in the room and venture out only for food and shore excursions! ;-)

Excuse me?

 

Lol = laugh out loud ... implies a joke.

 

Surely you have experienced a muster drill before?

Now that I have a school-age kiddo, I've sort of accepted that life runs by her school schedule now. Places will be more crowded, kids will be plentiful. Such is life.

... and I like it that way. It is fun watching them have fun, and do the things that you are probably too old and/or big to be able to do. I don't think I can execute a somersault when tossed off the shoulder of my friend; nor can I do a cannon-ball without displacing half the water in the pool (ok, I am exaggerating a bit here but you get the point) ;-)

Anyone recently cruise on the Liberty? Did you go to your lifeboats or stayed inside at your meeting place? Thanks.

We were in Liberty last week and we had to just go to the muster stations. I don't think anyone goes into the lifeboats for these drills. That said, Disney made us wear our life-jackets four years ago. Don't know the norm on that one - Liberty did not make us do that.

I have a couple of quick questions:

 

1. How much are the beverage deals, for both soda, and alcoholic beverages? You know, where you pay a certain price per day ? And are they unlimited?

 

2. When you get a drink at a bar on the cruise, are you supposed to give a tip to the bartender right away? Or is that all automatically added in? (So, do we need to have several dollar bills on hand during our time on the ship, or do you add it on to our sign and sail card?)

 

3. Is the $11.50 gratuities per day, or per night? We are doing a 4 night cruise, so would the total price be $11.50 times 4, or times 5?

 

4. Is there any one else we need to tip that is not included in the $11.50. And if so, how much??

 

I'm sure these questions have been asked before, or could be found on the carnival website, but I had trouble finding the info, so I hope someone could help me out! Thank so much!!

 

Stacey

I did not do #1 and #2 so cannot answer those.

 

Re: #3 it is per night so in your case it would be $46 (assuming I have done

the math right) :-)

 

Re: #4, other than the default gratuity, we gave a small token tip to the three folks at the dinner table, and to the three folks who took care of our room. Don't know where we stand in the totem pole - good, bad or (hopefully not) ugly :-)

I always thought what you say is Code Winnie was Code Baby Ruth. Oops! Just saw it earlier in the list. I'd like to say a Rosanna Dana Never Mind. :):):):)

I'm pretty sure I've encountered Code Winnie ... and I might have encountered Code Baby Ruth as well. Not bad for someone who's been only two cruises, eh? ;-)

We were loyal CCL Platinum cruisers who ventured over to RCI and NCL back in 2012. Since then we have sailed exclusively on NCL. We much prefer the "Freestlye Cruising," aspect that NCL offers. IMHO the food on NCL is better and you have a lot more to chose from.

I always like seeing people use pricing as the reason for cruising CCL over the others. We just booked a last minute NCL cruise on the Epic sailing on 4/13. Our Balcony was $499pp where as a 7 day western Caribbean cruise on CCL for a balcony was $600pp (that includes my discount for being an airline employee). Given the choice of going on the Glory, Legend, Conquest, or Epic for roughly the same price...I'm going with the Epic and NCL every time. Granted our July cruise on the Getaway was roughly $250-300 more pp than a similar itinerary on CCL but thats the price you pay when going on a brand new ship.

 

You are the first (real or "virtual") person who has said that NCL food is better than CCL food (granted, I have not been on the NCL boards).

 

We just returned from a CCL cruise and just loved the food. Before booking, we had the choice of CCL or NCL for virtually the same Western Caribbean itinerary. The pluses for NCL were a) nearly $300 lower for our family b) leaves from Tampa (much closer than CCL's Miami) c) supposedly higher rated cruiseline (based on *************). The minus was a) we could not find a waterslide for kids on either the Pearl or the Epic.

 

Besides, whoever we spoke to (at that time I was yet to discover these forums) said bad things about Norwegian a) they don't have good food b) kids won't have as much fun c) they are prone to upselling. All those comments turned the tide in favor of CCL. That said, if I get a better itinerary, I wouldn't mind switching just to see if they were all right :-)

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Hey porcupyn~This was an old review I found from 2013. I searched for a Sensation review and found this one. There probably won't be many more comments. :)

Thanks for the warning! I was not checking for recency - just wanted to annotate the thread so I could come back and read at my leisure :-).

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[quote name='TeresaJ']We are me (42), DH (44), DS (13), and DD (9). We are from Wisconsin and try and take a cruise during spring break each year and escape the cold weather for a week. This is mine and my husband’s 5th cruise overall (4 on Carnival) and our kids’ 4th cruise.

We started our adventure on Friday, March 14th after school and drove 4 hours to the Milwaukee airport area and stayed in a hotel since we had an early 7am flight on Saturday morning. All went smooth and we landed in Tampa at 10:45am. Woohoo! Warm sun and palm trees! We spent the day at one of my dearest friends' house who lives in Inverness, FL (about 1 ½ hours from Tampa area). We had a great time.

Left around 9:15am early Sunday morning to head to port! We had to return the rental car and boy was this a crazy adventure! We rented a car from Budget at the Tampa airport on Saturday and it was easy peasy..however I chose to return it to the Budget location in downtown Tampa at the Embassy Suites because it was 5 minutes from port. What was I thinking! Downtown area was crazy, of course and we finally found the hotel and there was no direction from the Budget staff and instead the Valet from the hotel directed us where to park. I went inside the hotel to find the Budget counter and there were probably 10 people in line to rent and return cars and only 1 desk person. WHAT! Another guy who was also returning his car decided to go up to the counter drop the keys and tell the 1 person on staff that he was returning the car. I proceeded to do the same. I was not going to wait an hour in line to return a car. Anyway, hard to believe they only have 1 person on staff and no one to greet you upon your return so you can be on your way. Lesson learned on that one. Then we needed to find a taxi – that seemed to not be easy either. The Embassy Suites was a madhouse of people and cars coming and going and a very small drive up space. A shuttle driver must have noticed us walking around aimlessly with all of our luggage and offered us a ride to port for $20 for our family of 4. I thanked him so much! He had one other couple going on the NCL ship. So thankful as it literally took 5 minutes or less and we were at the port. I was so glad that rental car mess was done with and we could start our cruise!

Boarding was easy…we were on the ship in 20 minutes or less. Got on board about 11:40am. Hard to believe a mere 30 minutes ago I was at the hotel wondering how in the heck to return the car!

I have to head off to work now :( so I will write and post pics this evening! Thanks![/QUOTE]
Thanks for your review. My review is coming up later this week. We came off the Liberty on Saturday. Our family is similar to yours - added up, our total age should match yours. Our DS and DD are the same age as yours. Would be nice to connect offline. Does cruise critic have a private message thing? Or you could leave your e-mail on [url=http://porcupyn.wordpress.com]my blog[/url].

Those towel creatures must be something new to Carnival. I have only seen them in the rooms not on the chairs outside. Cute idea.

They were there - I believe it was the second sea day - on our Carnival Liberty cruise last week as well.

 

OP: Nice write-up and photos. Thanks!

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I am going to try to write a fairly in depth account of our cruise aboard the dream. It might take a few days to finish, but let's get started....

 

We cruised on the Carnival Dream from Saturday, March 22nd to Saturday, March 29th. Here is a review of our cruise:

 

My family of 4 was part of a group of 44 people from just north of Cincinnati that decided to go on the Carnival Dream for our Spring Break cruise. We are a group of 11 families that consisted of 21 adults ranging from around 40 to early 50s. We also had 2 young ladies of age 20 and 24. In addition we had 4 16 year old girls, 1 15 year old boy, 3 15 year old girls, 6 14 year old girls, 1 13 year old girl, 2 12 year old boys, 2 11 year old boy, and 2 8 year old boys.

 

To give you a little background on me. This was my 7th 7 night cruise with Carnival. I have never cruised with any other cruise line. Two of those cruises have been with just my family. One was with one other couple and no kids. Another was 3 other couples and no kids. One was in a group of about 19. Another was last year in a group of 28. I have previously cruised aboard the Conquest, Glory, Splendor, Valor, Glory again, and the Magic.

 

Of the 11 families going on the trip, 3 families elected to fly to Orlando on Thursday prior to the cruise. Of those that drove, 7 of the families left on Thursday night to drive to Port Canaveral and the other family left on Friday. The night before the cruise 10 of our 11 families stayed at the Radisson Resort at the Port. They offered us a good deal due to the size of our group and we were able to park there for the week as well as get a shuttle to and from the airport.

Would you mind sharing the itinerary please?

 

Thanks!

Hello everyone! I am very happy that tomorrow morning I will be sailing from New York City on Carnival Splendor. This winter has been very cold, and it will be nice to get away for 8 nights for the Bahamas. We will be visiting Port Canaveral, Nassau, and Freeport. This is the same itinerary as I just sailed on Carnival Pride in January 2014. This cruise has an extra sea day, and I am very happy to be sailing for 8 nights.

[...]

Have fun!

 

I have a request - would you mind sharing a photo or two of the Tandoor area? Is that a sit-down kind of place or a fast food joint?

The breakfast burritos are outstanding! I ate one almost every morning last week, I am embarrased to report! My favorite was the jalapeno wrap with mexican eggs, sausage, crispy potatoes, pico de gallo, sour cream and guacamole. (It sounds spicier than it really is!)

 

I must've run into you then - I got the non-dessert portion of my breakfast there as well. Well, I need to qualify that statement. As I am a vegetarian, the first couple of days I would get only the burrito, and that too the smaller one, then head over to the salsa bar to make my own burrito. By then, I realized that I might as well do away with the burrito. I then used to make my own 'bowl burrito' by just mixing up the black beans, sour cream, various random condiments such as those you listed.

 

One other item everyone appears to have skipped is the cheesy bread sandwich (don't know its 'official' name). That was too good. Once I discovered them, I packed one for shore excursions - I think I did that twice.

 

I really couldn't very well have eaten all of that in one sitting for breakfast!!

Has anyone else been amused by the singsong recording that comes up when you press the button for Guest Services: "For housekeeping, please hang up and dial the housekeeping button on your phone." I wish I had recorded it so I could play it over and over! ;-)

 

PS: My apologies if this has been discussed before on a different thread.

I just returned from the Liberty. I found the food to be delicious. The staff was amazing(Waiters and room stewards) I was on deck 6 right above the night club. The music was super loud every night up until about 2:30 a.m. I didn't complain because I was afraid that they would call me an old lady(I'm 43) and tell me that I should be partying and not in bed at midnight.

 

I have been on 18 cruises, and Brittany Boyd has been the worst cruise director ever. I didn't attend many of the activities that she hosted because she was so annoying and loud. She doesn't have a funny bone in her. There are so many good cruise directors at Carnival.

 

I second all the positive comments above. Re: Brittany, I liked her. She and her team brought a lot of energy and they did get the crowd revved up night after night wherever they were. She's quite a glib talker and so it was fun listening to her - yes, she did have some quirks. She's Canadian so she pronounces some words differently than US folks - for example, house, about, out etc :-) BTW, this was just my second cruise - and I don't even remember the title 'cruise director' from our previous cruise (on Disney Wonder) so surely she did something right!

 

We were deep in the underbelly of the ship - 1st floor - so did not get rattled by the noses, though we did hear sounds from the engine(?). But those were much less than the sounds planes make and we've never asked for discounts there, so I never even thought of complaining.

 

The stateroom steward and his team; the head waiter and his team - all looked after us very well indeed. Each hello or good morning I said to the staff I met anywhere on the ship was reciprocated ... with a smile.

 

All in all, we had a wonderful time and I am glad we paid nearly $300 more plus drove an extra 3 hours each way to take the Liberty from Miami instead of the Norweigian Epic/Pearl (I forget which) from Tampa on a similar itinerary.

 

An FYI ... and I am a male in my mid 40s - we are a family of four.