Eli_6

I watched some Youtube videos and San Sebastian seemed more up our alley. I don't think my children will find the art museum particularly interesting, and Bilbao seemed more like a big, crowded city versus San Sebastian seemed smaller and to have more medieval architecture...and the beach looked amazing. The row of tapas restaurants/wine bars is right up my alley, too...and the "food" is up my younger son's alley. He loves to eat.

Following. I am also hoping to just get off the boat and do our own thing. The main thing we are wanting to see is the monkeys.

I canceled an excursion I had booked last September for my upcoming May cruise because an excursion I liked better came out. I had originally booked both my husband and I on the excursion...however, we are in different rooms because we are each booked in a room with one of our children. My "canceled" excursion immediately showed up on my account as on board credit. Nothing has shown up yet for my husband's excursion on his room yet. I do not recall how I paid for them, but I would have thought I would have paid for them the same way unless maybe my husband didn't have OBC... Should I just assume that I booked it with a gift card or a credit card and wait a couple of weeks to see if anything shows up before I call? If it was with a gift card, how long before I will receive a replacement in the mail? For those that have canceled an excursion before, do you get any sort of email showing the excursion?

I don't want to go through customs, security, etc. PERIOD regardless of time at Heathrow unless I have absolutely have to. Traveling with young children presents an entirely different set of circumstances than traveling as a solo, couple, or even with teens. Plus, it will be easier transversing the airport, boarding, etc. Additionally, I can't get us all seats together on the later flight in business, and it would put us getting in to Barcelona really late in the evening when we are already arriving in the evening. I then would also have to rebook transportation from BCN to our Air BNB, make new arrangement with the AirBNB host for check in/key pick up time, etc. It isn't worth it to me just to have 1 extra piece of luggage when I know (having taken a similar trip last year) we can swing just carry on and back pack since we have wash services on the ship and at our air bnb.

All of the tickets are business class on British Airways so we each get 2 checked bags up to 70 lbs each with for free on both the flights...so I suppose we could bring 8 checked bags. The issue isn't paying for the baggage, but that I don't want to have to keep up with a bunch of large bags and also keep up with my children while going through the airport. (And I also don't want to have to do the whole go through customs/security thing. I like getting off the plane, going to the lounge, getting on the next plane.) Since there are four of us, each one of us had 1 carry on and 1 back pack. And then we had 1 checked bag for all of us. However, half of my checked bag was filled with gifts for the daughters of a UK friend...American girl doll, books, etc. I am not meeting her this year so won't have to bring those gifts and I think it will be easy to skip that bag. Last year, there was an issue at the port of Dover (this is info on it: https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2022-07-22/critical-incident-declared-at-port-of-dover-amid-summer-getaway ) and we had to walk to the ship from our hotel because our pre-arranged taxi could not get to us. It was over a mile with all over our luggage. If we had had more luggage than each of us could carry, it would have been BAD. Last year, we spent maybe 4-5 days at Edinburgh/St. Andrews at The Open. Then we went back to London and spent a night at Hever Castle, a night at Leeds Castle (in Maidstone, not Leeds the city), a night in Dover before the cruise and then was on the cruise for 9 nights and then flew back to Houston. It was easier not having a lot of luggage going from place to place like that...especially when the places we were staying often didn't have elevators. We aren't hopping around as much this year, but it still seems easier to pack light and use my free wash/dry/fold service on the ship.

Oh, yes...it is definitely Heathrow. Houston also has three airports...the two major airports IAH and Hobby are an hour or more apart. We have had to catch a train between the terminals before at Heathrow.

Thanks for the reply. I won't have any problem lifting the bags...although, I vacuum pack any puffy clothes so I can fit a lot of weight in a carry on and a personal item. After talking it over with my husband, I think we are going the carry-on route. Going through customs, rechecking baggage and back through security was not fun and Heathrow was insane last summer. I am spoiled in the US because I have TSA pre-check and we can fly through security here, but that doesn't apply in Europe. Plus, there was a lot of lost baggage last summer at Heathrow. We flew to Edinburgh through LHR for The Open and our friend who was playing in it had his clubs lost which was bad because that is his livelihood. It apparently happened to several of the golfers there and some even had to play with borrowed clubs. We only checked one bag last summer which was half-filled with gifts for a friend and her child who lives in the UK and we were there for over 3 weeks. We also brought our formal wear with us last year which we didn't end up using. My sons' and husband's giant shoes alone take up a ton of space so if I don't bring our "formal" wear for the cruise, then that alone will save quite a bit of room. (I have no problem skipping the formal nights considering we have 10 ports in 12 days on this cruise and will be exhausted. Most nights last year, we ended up just eating at the buffet or doing room service rather than the MDR.) We did Alaska with just carry-ons which and we needed coats so I think I can do this. The cruise ship laundry service has always worked well for us and they also have laundry rooms on the ship as well.

Our cruise ship is stopping in Bilbao. We are a family of four with children who at the time of the cruise will be 9 and 10. Originally, my husband and I had planned on doing an excursion to Laguardia that appears to involve wine tasting on our own and leaving the kids in the kid's club on the ship. (We left the kids on the ship a couple of times last year on a UK cruise. It did not present any problems.) However, upon looking online at various YouTube videos, etc. I thought San Sebastian looked really interesting, too. If we went to San Sebastian, we would bring my children. The beach looked beautiful as well as the chapel and I liked the idea of the tapa restaurants. Any thoughts? I enjoy beautiful scenery, history, and eating/drinking. I think my kids would enjoy the beach at San Sebastian...although, my husband dislikes large crowds so that might rule out the beach. We are cruising in late May/early June. Any thoughts or suggestions or recommendations? Both of the excursions would be through the cruise ship.

Also, for a second I confused the sunshine with the sunrise (i.e. old Triumph) and I thought, "This ship is cursed."

I saw on a Celebrity facebook page where people were complaining about a couple in their robes in the dining room...so I don't think this is specific to Carnival. 🤣 I will not be bringing formal clothes this year for our Europe cruise so SNS if some of yall will have to look at us in casual clothes on formal night. My boys have gotten too big and their shoes (along with my husband's formal shoes) require a bag just by themselves.

Thank you for your response! I actually finally got in touch with someone at BA, though, and you are completely right on my BCN issue and booking it on two tickets will require me to collect my luggage. Our cruise is going from Barcelona to England so we only needed a one-way flight from Heathrow to Barcelona. Because I was using companion fares along with avios, there was no way to book IAH-BCN LHR-IAH online. You can do this over the phone with avios, but not online. And the companion fares have to be booked online. So, I opted to use my two companion fares and avios for our family of four on the roundtrip IAH-LHR and book LHR-BCN separate. (I also booked them at different times because for a brief period of time we were considering going to Malaga first and then going to BCN to catch the cruise ship.) It wasn't just an issue of being cheap and saving a few dollars, though...it was a significant savings. I am glad to learn this now, though, as I will just be sure to have us fly with "carry on" only. So thank you very much for responding to my post! We have a washer/dryer at our condo before the cruise and on the cruise we have free wash/dry so hopefully this will not be a problem. I don't relish trying to pack us all in 4 carry ons, but I will make it work. Frankly, with all the issues with lost luggage, it isn't a bad idea anyway...

Last year, I had a layover at London-Heathrow on the way to Edinburgh. They made me pick up my checked bag, go through customs, re-check it and go back through security. It was a nightmare. Thank goodness I had a 3 hours layover because it took that entire time. I was one of the last to board my flight to Edinburgh. The thought occurred to me that they may have made me do this because my final destination was also in the UK. This year, I once again have a layover at London-Heathrow on my way to Barcelona. Will I have to do this again? Unfortunately, my international ticket is booked separate but with the same airlines (British Airways) and in the same class (both are business) because it was substantially cheaper to book the airfare that way than to book 1 ticket straight from Houston to Barcelona. My concern is that unlike last year, I don't have a 3 hours lay over. I originally had a 2.5 hours lay over, but BA changed my flight time on the incoming flight from Houston to Heathrow such that now I only have 1 hours 45 minutes. That may seem like enough, but given what I experienced last time...it isn't. I absolutely would have missed my LHR to Edinburgh flight last year had it only been 1 hours 45 minutes apart because it took longer than that to get through the situation I described above. I have tried to call British Airways to ask, but was transferred 3 times, was on hold 40 minutes total, and eventually someone hung up on me without answering...and I got charged for an international phone call! I then tried messaging with them. I sent them this question. 4 days later, the only response I got back was that I couldn't change my flight time because the flight was only moved by 45 minutes and they wouldn't allow a free reschedule unless the flight was changed by 2 hours. So...they were not helpful at all and didn't answer my question. If I have to go through the pick up, back through security, etc. process, I am going to have to pretty much relegate myself to just flying with carry on...and my kids and husband. Which isn't easy considering we will be in Europe with a family of 4 for 3 weeks.

I totally agree. I was happy to even get the deposit back minus the 50 pp fee. Some people haven't even gotten that. It just seems to be luck of the draw on how helpful your phone rep wants to be.

So, I am departing a cruise (with my family) on June 9th to Dover. I went on another cruise last year on this same boat and we had to be off the boat super early...like 6 in the morning. I have an appointment that afternoon to look at a manuscript at the Parker Library at Corpus Christi College at Cambridge for my dissertation. (I am studying medieval history.) My plan was to take the train from Dover Priory to St. Pancras and then take another from there to Cambridge. It appears the Parker Library is only about a mile from the train station so I figured I could either take a taxi or walk and my husband and kids could either check into a hotel (I thought the Clayton hotel looked nice) or go check out the Botanical Gardens while I did my research. I have sailed into/out of Dover before, but I have never been to Cambridge before. So, is my plan a good plan of action for getting from Dover to Cambridge? Is there anything else that my husband and children might do in the city to entertain themselves for a few hours? Any must see sites in Cambridge? My children will be 9 and 10. Alternatively, would we be better off renting a car? My only concern with this is that often if you don't return the car to the same place you got it from (i.e. Dover), they charge a huge fee. My husband has driven all over England and Scotland (including in London) so I don't worry about his driving ability. I have some concerns because every time we have been in the UK, there have been issues with the trains. Once there was a strike. Last year, they shut them down due to the heat when we were there. And another time (in 2018) we were on a train and a man jumped in front of it and they stopped the train and we had to get off in the middle of nowhere. I am told that train interruptions are not normal and we have just been the victims of extremely bad luck...but I don't want to plan on taking the train and then it turn out the trains aren't running.

Yay! They refunded me the deposit minus the $50 per person fee to my credit card for the cruise I booked directly with them. I have to go through my (unhelpful) TA for the other booking they said. (For some reason, I booked one through the website and one through the TA.) Honestly, though, I know if I get her to transfer over that deposit that means I will have to use her for my new bookings and it isn't really worth it to me to do that for the $130 I will get back because I have not liked using a TA. It makes everything more difficult. I much prefer being able to call and talk directly to Carnival.

So, still on the phone and they said they could transfer it minus the $50 per person fee...however, now the system is giving her a hard time because it is in Australian dollars. So it may not let her, but at least she is trying.

My money is on that the TA didn't book you when you paid her the deposit and by the time she got around to it, the price went up.

I am on the phone with them right now. Their first response was they couldn't do it, but then I pointed out that: 1) I have done it before, 2) this is a more expensive cruise, and 3) Carnival changed the itinerary and now is no longer going to a place I wanted to go. I am not flying across the world to Australia and not getting to see the main place I wanted to see...that was originally on the itinerary and Carnival changed. She put me on hold to ask a supervisor.

That sandwich went from WOW to womp, womp.

I am not diamond yet, unfortunately. 😞

Yes.

Did you call the diamond line, the regular line, or do you have a PVP/TA? Asking because I am trying to get deposits moved over to a different, more expensive sailing but the dates are the same.

A lot of school districts where I live now have a break in February. My kids are in private school, but our local school district has a week long break in February. Our school does a different version where they give the kids a Friday and Monday off...we also get the same over Easter weekend and once in October as well. School districts seem to be starting earlier (like early August) and giving more breaks.

So, I have two Australian cruise rooms deposited for summer 2024 but now that I have seen the Europe 2024 sailings, I would like to do a Europe sailing instead. They did change itinerary for one of the Australia sailings, but the real reason has more to do with airfare and ease/expense of getting to Europe vs Australia. The Australia cruises were booked over a year ago on a casino deal, the Europe itineraries weren't out, and airfare was less back then. I want to transfer the deposit to a Europe cruise for 2024 for the same time period. Obviously, I can't be in two places at once. The two Europe rooms are a lot more (more than double) so it seems like it would benefit Carnival. In the past, Carnival would transfer deposits for a more expensive room. I brought this up to my TA, but she just said that they don't do that anymore. However, I was considering either calling myself or emailing guest care and saying "Hey, look- you guys changed the itinerary on this cruise and this port I really wanted to go to is now not on the itinerary....so will you move my deposits over for this more expensive cruise at the same time?" Is it worth a try or not? I did get them to do this twice before--even before Covid--but I know things have changed now. It isn't a huge deal as I will just eat the deposits even if they say no. But the deposits were about $420 so I feel like it is at least worth an email.

A couple of the 9-day Friday departures would have you only having to take 5.5 days off of work because they cruise Friday-Sunday. I think the problem is that out of Galveston, the ships can't reach much else other than the same old ports in 7 days.