42rob22

Did you ever have an opportunity to see if there was a long line at Tandoor?

Even during the embarkation day madness, the line at Tandoor was nonexistent. I know because I was on line for pizza with my kids. My children loved the pizza and the Mongolian Wok, as if they could choose any longer lines.

A-HA! I knew it was the health inspection that was slowing up the food on the first day! My family and I were mulling around Lido by 11:30 am and nothing was open. I spotted the inspector wandering around the buffet lines and going in and out of the galley. He was wearing blue coveralls like the Coast Guard, but his name tag said Public Health Service.

Sorry about FTTF not working out. Our bags were outside our cabins after the muster drill, but we were way down on deck 2. Maybe that's an unwritten advantage to riding in steerage.

Are the zip line passes marked somehow?

Yes. When you check in, everyone in your party gets a plastic snap-on bracelet (just like Camp Ocean) that serves as your zip line pass. They would be pretty hard to share with other people. Just remember that you can have up to seven people check in with your party.

Are there 4 cabanas as I see on the map?

Yes, there are four poolside cabanas.

Is there any shade on the cabana deck area?

Not really. There's a trellis above the deck are that does not offer much shade. The trellis does have the misters on them, which help a bit stay cool, but do nothing to keep you out of the sun.

It looks like it would either be in the building itself, or under the deck in the hammock?

Yes, the building and the hammock beneath are fully shaded.

Or could we pull loungers back under the deck and into the shade if desired?

The loungers wouldn't fit under the deck. Also the ground underneath is very rocky. Best to have flip flops handy if you want to use the hammock. Now, looking through my pictures, I do see some closed umbrellas near the loungers by the cabanas. I'd like to think that if you asked them to open the umbrellas in the VIP area, they wouldn't charge you extra, but I can't know for sure.

It is set up such that the 'staff' will expect a gratuity?

Only if you order food really. You do need to pay a $5 deposit for the cabana and safe keys so definitely keep that handy. The food is very good. Its still overpriced, but not as much as Margaritaville in Grand Turk. We ordered a salad, some chicken nuggets and some chicken and shrimp fried rice.

Any problematic rules on the waterslides?

Nope. There were two slides, one had an open top, the other was a closed tube and was quite dark. My kids loved both.

There's always a few tables with just adults. It's basically a character breakfast where you get to ham it up with Thing 1, Thing 2, the Cat in the Hat and Sam I Am (pun intended).

Yes, you can set limits on the sail and sign cards at the Guest Services desk. It also says you can set limits on accounts using the self service kiosks, but I never tried it.

Hi. I just got off the Magic today and we had rented a poolside cabana. I'm glad to see the question about the zip line requirements because we had no clue what they were until we got there ourselves. In order to use the zip line you must be at least 8 years old and MUST WEIGHT AT LEAST 80 POUNDS. There's also a maximum weight allowance of 260 pounds and yes, they do have a scale there to check. I have twin eight year old DDs. One weighed in at 76 pounds and the guy there seemed to willing to let the four pounds slide, but my other daughter came in at 62 pounds and it was clear there would be no zip lining for her. To keep jealousy from reigning supreme, neither daughter got to use the zip line. The second disappointment we had with the poolside cabana was the WiFi, which worked fairly well in the main square, but NOT in the actual cabana.

Now that all the bad news is out of the way, let's talk about the good news. The poolside cabanas are very nice. They include four noodles and two adult sized pool floats. The fridge had six bottles of water, four bottles of Regular Coke, two bottles of "Coke Light," one Sprite and one Orange Fanta. There were some bags of local snacks there too. There was one bag that had some sort of corn chips that my kids seemed to like. The rest of the snacks were a bust. Also, all of the pool cabanas are located in a roped off VIP area and there are poolside loungers that are reserved for your cabana. they're not shaded, but would be better suited if you want to keep a close eye on your kids in the pool.

Let me know if you or anyone else has any other questions about the poolside cabanas and I'll try to answer them.

My wife and I both have passport books, but we got passport cards for our three kids. $105x3 is a hefty chunk of change for a passport that's only good for five years.

I'm taking advantage of Cheers with the two room option. My son and I are assigned to one cabin, my wife and two daughters are in the adjoining cabin. When I ordered Cheers for my cabin, I was charged for only one person.

Although it may seem like it sometimes, but most people don't plan on spending a significant portion of their vacation complaining to guest services. Its comforting to know that if I do have an issue, I don't have to spend 45 minutes in a queue waiting to speak to someone.

Just a friendly reminder, if you book two cabins, one adult per cabin, you can buy the Cheers program for one adult, but not the other.

Ok, I realized something after reading this thread. I have a family cruise coming up in July. Three kids and two adults. Rather than being cramped in one cabin, we booked adjoining cabins. Since we were told we MUST have one adult per cabin, I am in one cabin with my son and my wife and two daughters in the other. Two cabins, two booking numbers, one adult in each cabin. What is stopping me from getting the cheers program just for me and not my wife? Did I just crack the code?

Thank you for your positive review. Have two questions. Does the serenity have a pool and is there also an adult pool. Thank you again for great review.

 

Mickie

Serenity has two hot tubs, but no pool. However, the aft pool IS adults only.

Mulligan review notwithstanding, I was on the Valor the week prior. I have to agree about the fish at the fish and chips. Much too greasy and way too much batter. It was like eating a piece of fish wrapped in grease soaked corn bread. I didn't try the fried oysters, but did have the ceviche, which was very tasty. Last weekend I was forced to order the fish and chips at Appleby's and thought it was much better than what I had on the Valor.

On the other hand, I thought the pizza was very good, but the poor guys working there were terribly overworked. Right before and right after the lido buffet closed, you were guaranteed a 20+ minute wait per every two slices. The more overwhelmed the pizza guys were, the more likely the pizza you were getting was under cooked. One evening when things were slow, DW and I were able to get some four cheese slices that were excellent. I still miss the goat cheese pizza though.:(

I don't think either have 2.0 yet.

I don't know about the Splendor, but the Valor goes into dry dock this spring for the FunShip 2.0 upgrades.

Being able to use the priority line at guest services can be a godsend. I don't think people plan on visiting the guest services desk every day of their cruise (although some people here sure love complaining about everything), but it's nice to know you don't have to spend 20+ minutes waiting in line to do so.

I can personally confirm that Jeanne's Wine Bar serves the Absolut mini martini tasting menu pictured above. Happy drinking.

Truly sad

 

This may cause Carnival to reevaluate their age policy in the gym.

More likely, Carnival will make crew access to the gym facilities more restrictive. It's a shame, since good crew members may wind up getting punished for the actions of one individual. I just got off the Valor and the service from the waiters and stewards was excellent.

I tried googling Cruise the Vineyards, but didn't see an option to purchase before cruising. It looks like you can only purchase on board, correct?

That's right. They will probably have a table set up on the Lido Deck on embarkation day selling the wine package. Also know that the prices listed above include the gratuity. When they sell you the package onboard, they'll give you the price without the gratuity, which was about $166 for the premium package.

Can you tell me about Jeanne's bar on Promenade Aft? What kind of drinks do they serve? I will really miss our Alchemy bar on our sailing.

I just got off the Valor today and Jeanne's is the closest you will find onboard to the Alchemy Bar. They are fully stocked on liquor and have a more extensive list of wine by the glass than anywhere else on the ship. No beer though. :(

Also similar to Alchemy Bar, they offer a "Master The Martini" flight of four mini martinis for $18. They were all made using Absolut and the flavors include the spicy chipotle, sea blue and Caribbean sunset. They even have the Carnival wine charms.

Also from personal experience I can tell you they make a mean mojito.

Way back in 2003, I decided to go on a cruise by myself on the Imagination. Being single at the time, I was hoping I could meet up with some ladies around my age. Little did I know that it was some sort of 50s doo wop band themed cruise. The vast majority of people on the cruise had a good 30-40 years on me. The disco was pretty dead so I usually found myself at the blackjack tables almost every night, where my luck didn't fare much better.

Not bad from Fantasy Class to Dream Class. Maybe your TA IS worth keeping.

About four months out from your cruise date, Carnival will offer an Early Saver Last Call rate, which might be cheaper than your current rate or include OBC or both. I was able to snag about $170 of OBC with that one, which should pay off all the gratuities nicely. After that, I was never able to find a cheaper rate for my specific cabin category.

What about your bottle of wine and canned beverages?

I got an up-sell call about two and a half weeks out from my cruise. It was funny because just earlier that day I was checking to see how many cabins were available. I saw five GS and fove OS unassigned. They offered to bump me from an 8C balcony to an Ocean Suite for $600. I replied no thank you.

The suite comes with priority embarkation, so you can cancel FTTF if you purchased it to help defray the cost a bit. You already have a pretty good balcony, so i guess it depends on how much the larger room and whirlpool tub are worth to you.