MauiWowie57

You didn't give us the cabin number, so I'll simply assume it's a higher cabin category, like "extended balcony."

So here's the dark side of Upsells: There are more expensive cabins that are simply less desirable due to location. Deck 9, aft, is right below the swimming pool/Lido deck. Lots of folks like to congregate on the rails, and back when smoking restrictions were less stringent, would flick their butts off the stern. I had a 7 Deck aft balcony once, and spent my cruise getting hit by flying butts. Not pleasant. Also, it'll be noisy above your head, up until the time everyone gives it up and goes below decks.

 

Sometime upsells are great; "Nobody ponied up for the Suite, so we'll give it to you at huge discount," and make a more marketable, less expensive cabin available.

 

I had a bad experience once with a Cove (rough Atlantic in winter) but if the weather's nice, it's a great intimate experience.

I’m wondering if it’s possible to transfer a booking on Carnival Breeze for next November, to someone else to get some free perks? What if it’s possible should I consider before doing so?

Not sure what you're trying to do, which aroused my curiosity. You mean something like:

"I, John Doe, want to pay for a cruise for Bill Smith. I'm not going, but Bill is." I'm certain if the cruise fare is paid up they won't mind if someone else is actually going on the trip....? That someone of course needs to set up a card or cash to charge incidentals to though.

I am wondering how that would result in "free perks" though - ? If Bill Smith is Platinum and John Doe isn't, then sure, Bill gets laundry, priority embarkation, etc., but that would happen regards, as the perks convey to the individual cruiser, not the booking.

Most assuredly this one:

5 Day Eastern Caribbean

Carnival Ecstasy from Miami

Going to: Nassau, Half Moon Cay, Grand Turk

Departure Date: June 11,2018

People will say that the Fantasy Class (of which the Ecstacy is one - and I've sailed on half of the Fantasy Class) ships are old, outdated, etc. True. Most of the cabins don't have balconies; they don't have rock-walls or super amazing public spaces; but they do have great areas to sunbathe, very nice theaters and main dining rooms, and are well designed ships. In all my conversations with crewmembers (and I've had a few over the years), they prefer working Fantasy class ships because they're so well built and laid out.

That being said. You can book a balcony.

Of all the ports listed, Half Moon Cay is the BEST by far, followed by Grand Turk. Nassau is, well, listen to the old Beach Boys song. It's a rough town, but you can have a good time there. Aside from ship excursions, you can buy a "day pass" at a resort hotel.

The Caymans are pretty. Cozumel is an acquired taste which I can't seem to acquire. I love Key West, but - as noted - it's a lot like New Orleans on Mardis Gras. It would be different if you were staying there in a hotel or B&B.

I like the Ecstacy, I'd happily do another (I think I've done her twice?) cruise on her. With a short cruise and three port calls, you're not going to have long sea days to lounge around on your private balcony anyway, right? An "ocean view" works just fine.

I've always stated that they can't possibly be as bad as we experienced as they'd be out of business so we must have had a perfect storm of a cruise.

True. I've found HAL's food to be quite delicious, interestingly prepared. Carnival, which used to use white tablecloths in the MDR, has slipped down to "casual" dining - and yes, Carnival fans do book specific ships based on the presence of Guy's burgers.

...which is why I mostly cruise on HAL now.....

Regarding the rust on the Oosterdam...I've been on her twice, and never seen anything quite that bad. Obviously there's internal plumbing leaking or some other issue - but to the OP's point, you can't necessarily reject your cabin on a full sailing without downgrading to an interior (as I've done), but HAL certainly ought to offer up some compensation. I'd be embarrassed were that my ship.

 

 

Nobody knows when, or why, the super high pressure toilets go out. Typically the passenger in that cabin BEFORE you tried flushing a whole set of linens and permanently damaged the mechanism, which takes the average tech about 4 hours to rebuild (yes, I've watched these proceedings). They like to do that when nobody's living there, but that's only about 4 hours every 7-21 days, so it gets pushed off. I don't take shipboard toilet failures as 'bad maintenance,' - what I take as 'bad,' is when they simply don't answer your call and get someone on it. On one particular Princess cruise they never DID come make the appropriate repairs. HAL always seemed to be the quickest to get someone down there.

 

Lots of discussion here about MSC. For anyone interested - if this hasn't already been mentioned - MSC will 'comp' you up to your highest loyalty level from another line. EG, move your 3, 4, 5 stars over to MSC (or your Platinum from Carnival, etc.). Check their website, fascinating way to build a customer base in a hurry.

That's not quite true, you can still purchase the 12 pack at the same price once you are on board. You have to order it through Room Service.

Good to know! Thanks for the update!

Half Moon Cay

I think this WOULD be quite convenient!

I'll do Carnival, Holland, or Princess depending on the iteniary and incentives. HAL was nice enough to award me one star for my first cruise based on Platinum with Carnival; however, Princess didn't offer any incentives. Nonetheless, it would be nice if they maintained their unique characteristics, yet simplified moving information between them.

I just read in some cruise-news feed that the Crown & Anchor folks are going to get one master profile for Royal C. & Celebrity lines. Essentially, the lines will share profile information, and I'm presuming, iteniaries. I'd mentioned to Carnival executives once that I thought it would make good marketing sense to let folks meander throughout the brands, in the same sense that car buyers used to upsell themselves from Chevy to Cadillac.

Has anyone heard about CCL doing anything like this?

I would definitely buy the water IN ADVANCE for stateroom delivery - Carnival will sell it to you at close to cost (eg, about COSTCO/Sam's Club prices or less) if you do this -

Why..? Carnival used to allow folks to bring coolers on board, and getting coolers full of water and soda through check-in was turning out to be very time consuming, as every bottle needed to be checked to make sure it wasn't full of grain alcohol, etc. So, as a consolation prize, Carnival sells bottled water cheap in advance. Figure out what your daily consumption might be and order up; after the ship sails, it's back to "bar prices."

I'm taking my first port call there in April - rented a hillside cabana. Anyone try one of those, and if so, are they worth it?

What is wrong with people who saunder down to the area at the last minute and think that they can stand in front of you and get off the ship before you??? We are all adults right? Well today I decided that I would make them famous by taking their pictures and telling them I was gonna post their pictures as line cutters.

 

Don't think they're getting "stupid," it's more like "rude." Sense of entitlement perhaps?

 

But honestly, the "worst" group of people I've ever cruised with was the inaugural trans-Atlantic crossing on the Vista. CCL had emailed every Platinum in their database and made us offers we couldn't refuse - so sadly - the passenger population was something like 60% Platinum. I don't know how we all squeezed into the Platinum party. But, it was TERRIBLE; line cutting, whining, overwhelming "sense of entitlement," by virtually everybody...like being surrounded by poor spoiled rich kids disguised as adults.

 

 

You have my sympathies!

I've done many cruises on various Fantasy class ships, and never ever had a problem. They were built in Helsinki, and are therefore a little 'narrower' across the beam than the Italian-built vessels (Conquest class onward); however, 'weather is the key.' As has been posted though, the larger the ship, the less likely you'll feel any ocean-motion.

I will say I did the inaugural trans-Atlantic on the Vista, and it was fairly rocky - because, well, it's the north Atlantic in winter...Again, it's the weather.

I've done the Pride out of Baltimore 4 times; the Victory three times, and several other ships twice. I suppose the thing is, once you find a port/iteniary that works well for you - and you can repeat it - do it as often as you can.

Good Old Oggy-Dog; Ogden even shows up in a Clancy novel. When I was the J-1 for CJTF HOA in Djibouti in 2004, the Ogden limped over and docked pursuant to some Marine training ashore - one of my Army CPT staff had never been on a ship, so I volunteered to take him on a tour..hadn't been on the ship since I left in 1985, and it did 'freak' the crew out that some old jarhead was running amok poking into all sorts of places, mysteriously knowing where everything was. She's already developed a fatal crack in the hull, and was non repairable. Last time I saw her was pier side in San Diego after decommissioning in 2007. Nobody was aboard except for two employees of the salvage company, and they didn't care if I roamed around by myself (I wasn't even in uniform).

 

 

Growing up on Ford Island was an experience, particularly then. I watched Otto Preminger's crew film "In Harms Way," - most of which was set there. It's really pretty cool you've got that flag that flew over the Arizona.

 

 

I searched for the USNS Gaffey (troop transport resembling an oceanliner) and USS Ogden (amphibious transport dock). I discovered that both were sunk as RIMPAC targets: Gaffey-2000; Ogden-2014.

 

Thankfully I can still visit the Midway in San Diego as a floating museum. The Oriskany couldn’t relieve us on Yankee Station in ‘72 after losing a screw & is now an artificial reef off Pensacola FL.

 

On the Midway in ‘71 en route to Yankee Station, our stop in PH was extended to 5 days for their dockworkers to repair the hole in a sponson deck...a result of poor Hunters Point work.

 

It must have been an interesting time growing up on Ford Island. I’ve studied the attack & got to see some things at PH & Hickam when visiting a USAF chaplain buddy stationed at Hickam AFB. My most recent Arizona Memorial visit was shortly after the 61st anniversary & I purchased a flag at the gift shop that briefly flew over the Arizona Memorial on the evening of 12/7/02.

My first time to Hawaii was arriving at dawn on the Midway in Pearl Harbor & circling Ford Island before docking...a memory that’s firmly etched into my memory.

That, I know, was special. My first time was on the USNS Gaffey (T-AP-121) which in the good old days was how you PCS'd to Hawaii from the west coast. Left on the Lurline after growing up on Ford Island. While we lived there (my father was with Fleet Intelligence Center, Pacific, which was on F.I. in the early /60s), my mother was part of a ladies' Hula Troupe that would be dancing on the pier at Ford Island - so I very clearly remember the Midway, Oriskany, Coral Sea, and several others rotating to and from Vietnam in the early years.

Although I was a jarhead, the CO ("the real Captain," as he would remind me) made me flight deck officer on the USS Ogden when I was the CCO from '83-85, so I had the pleasure of going to some of those super happy fun schools at NAS NI as well.

That's an agressive iteniary, but if you're on your own for the North Shore/Dole day, you can always cut things short. I got lost doing the Dole Pineapple maze several years ago, and that of course slowed me down (fortunately I had a 12 year old with a good sense of direction).

One thing lots of people don't realize you can do is hike up Diamond Head. It's actually a state park.

 

http://dlnr.hawaii.gov/dsp/hiking/oahu/diamond-head-summit-trail/

 

Up and back, depending on how quickly you want to walk and how crowded it is, won't take more than 2 hours. The view is, of course, incredible.

Stay off the flight deck unless you have a valid reason to be there...!

---

For the OP, who's been blown into the catwalk;

- The two major attractions at Pearl are the AZ Memorial itself and the USS Missouri.

- IF you're very aggressive and organized (or pay for a tour that specifically states they'll handle the logistics) you "can" do both of them on the same day. Oddly enough, they are in fact right next to each other; the issue is, the Memorial is only accessable by US Navy launch from the main base, but the 'Mo is tied up at Ford Island, and accessible only once you've taken that confounded bridge across the harbor to the Island.

(I grew up on Ford Island and took the ferry every day, so to me, the bridge is an unfortunate eyesore)

- If you could only do one, I'd head to Ford Island and take the 'Mo tour. I'd also get over to the Aviation Museum of the Pacific, which is on Ford Island - and as recently as last September, had Dick Girocco as a docent. Here's a quick pitch - I've met the man, and he's one of the sharpest individuals I've met in my life, period. He stopped working on the NY Times crossword puzzle to tell me his story:"On December 7, 1941, Dick Girocco was a 20-year-old sailor working on PBY seaplanes at Hangar 54 on Ford Island. "The first thing that got our attention was the noise, the dive bombers, that's how close they were, coming down on our seaplane ramp," Girocco said."

 

Just my $0.02

Good thread.

It all depends on what you like to do on vacation. If you'd otherwise rent a beach cottage and just enjoy the ambiance, then the sea days would be fantastic. I've sailed across the Pacific many times (as a passenger on the Lurline, in the US Marine Corps on Navy ships many times) as well as cruising off the west coast to Hawaii. I find the sea days relaxing and invigorating.

Some cruise lines (Princess makes a big deal out of this) have underway 'enrichment' lectures about the islands which are fun and interesting if you've never been to Hawaii.

The downsides of a trans-Pac are:

- Yep, the entertainers/comedians/ that boarded in the west coast will be telling the same jokes until they disembark in Hawaii. (Caribbean cruises tend to swap out entertainers ever few days)

- Yep, the food that was loaded aboard will start to run out. Now most folks wouldn't notice - it's a small thing, but bothers some people.

- Yep, if you're the type that gets nervous about not seeing land, that's a problem.

The one way/re-positioning cruises offered by Carnival, Holland American and others are a great way to do this. Linger in Honolulu for a few extra days prior to flying back; enjoy the time at sea enroute.

.. another idea if you have not done that yet, is the hike up to Diamond Head (it takes round-trip about 2 hours)

Which is a great thing to do (I've done it several times) but you'll definitely get hot & sweaty and want a shower before your long flight. As noted, many hotels let you check out, keep your bags with the porter, and if they have a gym/health club (like the Hale Koa does), you can still have "shower privileges" after you've checked out.

I've been trying to keep an eye out for some last minute deals for the Pride out of Baltimore but they never seem to come up. I guess it has to do with so little competition.

I think you're exactly right. The Pride almost never goes on sale; and they've modified the sailing schedule enough to reduce the undesirable cruises - eg, sailing out of B'More in February and freezing for the first two days.

I think they realize that that as you're not paying airfare (assuming you live within driving or AMTRAK distance - it's a $15 cab ride from B'More Penn Station) they can build that into the cruise price.

What is a passport card ?

Looks like a military "CAC" (Common Access Card) or driver's license. They're not really cheaper than a "real" passport, but they are convenient, scanable, and as they're about the same size as a credit card, easily fit into a wallet. I put mine in my little waterproof case with my Sign&Sail card that I wear around my neck when I go ashore.

 

WORD of CAUTION: They're ONLY good for SURFACE (train/car/ship) in CERTAIN countries (around the Caribbean, Canada). YOU CANNOT USE THEM TO FLY.

 

True story: Went to fly to Vancouver to take the Carnival Miracle to Hawaii. Flew from the east coast to Seattle, and during the layover, spouse said, "Hey, are you SURE we can fly to Canada with these passport cards?" I asked the nice folks at Alaska Airlines, who said, "Oh no, you can't. You need the passport BOOK to fly. Run home and get it, you have time." (No, we don't, we flew from Washington, DC). They were super helpful though - they rebooked us, flew us into Bellingham, WA, and I was able to hire a limo to drive us across the border to Vancouver. Otherwise, of course, we'd have missed the cruise.

 

 

I'm posting my own stupidity as a cautionary tale. Were you to be on cruise in say, Aruba, and have to fly back to the US on an emergency for whatever reason....you'll need your passport or suffer delays as noted. However, and if you're spending thousands on a cruise, when you're applying for the passport book, get the darn card at the same time. It's only another $55 when you're first applying.

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/apply-renew-passport/card.html

Everything else on the ship seemed to have shrunk too. They basically made a bigger ship with smaller venues, without an atrium, and added a movie theatre. What did they do with the extra space? They added more rooms to make more money.

I agree with every post here. I've done 20 Carnival cruises now, last one was on the Vista maiden voyage transatlantic.

 

- The MDR looks like "high school cafeteria," - but there wasn't even any artwork.

 

- Too many food venues, most out on the promenade which makes taking a stroll about deck impossible.

- The spa is ridiculously undersized. The angriest people on the ship were the Cloud 9 cabins that couldn't ever get in the bathtub sized hot tub.

- The "liquid lounge" has been mentioned as well. Again, high school auditorium, not stadium style seating like other ships.

Without belaboring the point....my personal favorites are:

- The Pride, Legend or Miracle. Mid sized design, appropriated sized venues (MDR, Comedy Clubs, bars, etc.)

- The good old Fantasy class. I love that design, despite the lack of balconies. Easy to get around. In my (many) conversations with crew members, they generally prefer the Fantasy class as well.

 

I'll stick with mid sized (2,200) on Carnival or HAL until they've all been cut up into razor blades or sunk as artificial reefs.

Cove balconies are the worst balconies on the ship. I’d avoid them at all costs.

I did the first Vista transatlantic in a Cove balcony. Sadly (it being the Atlantic in winter), they felt obliged to close the rough weather doors, which of course, took away the balcony - and - because they economized on ship construction, the doors only had two "dogs" - the big latches that secure them in place. (US Navy ships would have at a minimum 6, if not 8 "dogs" to "dog down the hatches and watertight doors.") The squeaking and groaning of the metal door was horrendous, after two nights we begged to move to an available interior cabin.

 

Sadly, I can't recommend a Cove cabin - I'd have to be absolutely positive the weather wasn't going to turn bad - and it's just not worth it to me.

If you want to maximize sun and port calls, look at Carnival's sailings out of Puerto Rico:

 

https://www.carnival.com/itinerary/7-day-southern-caribbean-cruise/san-juan/fascination/7-days/scy?Military=N&PastGuest=N&Senior=N&numGuests=2&rateCode=&roomType=IS&sailDate=09162018

 

I've taken this cruise (though not on the Fascination), and it's maximum sun and port. Essentially the ship's a floating hotel. Right now one of the major discount airlines is having a sale from east coast cities directly to San Juan, so the air fare wouldn't be all that bad.