geoffrywillhardt

I would check now, when I looked the early saver option had half off deposits all the way through December of 2021. Dealers choice offer that I have is $99/pp deposit (not sure if your a past gambler or not) through April of 2021. That dealers choice is a non refundable deposit though so read the fine print. How low are you looking for? 

One thing I would keep in mind if the ages of the kids range from 5-9 that they will be split up at Camp Ocean based on age. Penguins (2 to 5 years), Stingrays (6 to 8 years) and Sharks (9 to 11 years). Night owls is a different story and they will all be together. Personally I think that 5 is a little old for Penguins and am glad our son is moving on to the Stingrays I think he will enjoy it a little more with activities geared more towards his age and other kids more on his level than 2 and 3 yr olds. 

As Ray said they do allow the kids to eat dinner with camp at times just check the activities list but the main thing to remember is that on sea days camp is closed from 5-7pm and you must feed your kids before taking them at 7 or take them to the Kids Only Dinner from 6-6:50. 

Check this link out for all the details about camp --- https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1063

Our son has loved camp ocean and always asks to go. Take time to check the fun times for family activities like Build-A-Bear and green eggs and ham breakfast. There are many more! 

After our first cruise we bring a few extra sets of clothes more than we think we will need. Unfortunately on two of our cruises our kid has ended up with diarrhea and needed extra undies to change into. It never seems to last long but with that many kids its easy for them to catch something. Be diligent about hand washing and encourage the younger ones not to put anything in there mouths. 

Also we always hit up the Ice Cream machine after we pick our kid up from Night Owls for a late night snack. This gives us some family time before bed to talk to him about how camp was and what they all did. Hope you enjoy!  

On 10/12/2019 at 11:04 AM, DramaQueen22 said:

There weren't many "inside" viewing areas with windows.  However, there is a fantastic area that pretty much runs the length of the ship on Deck 5, called the Lanai.  There were some seating sections that were more covered there, but you are on an open deck.  I really enjoyed sitting out there. 

Yeah the Lanai is great, my family spent plenty of time out here, they have chairs and also the beds? that they have on the serenity minus the top where you can lay and relax. The only place I can think of that is covered is the seating areas on the Lido deck. On the aft of the ship by the Pizzeria Del Capitano and the seafood shack there are some good covered seating areas they are before you get to the tides pool on either side. Unfortunately the Library bar and Piano bar where you might get some peace and quiet during the middle of the day are on deck 5 with the Lanai. You could try and find a spot on the Lanai near one of them and if the weather turns then come inside one of the bars. The glass wall around the Lanai on deck 5 is probably 6-7 ft tall so I didn't feel like wind was much of a problem and there is plenty of foot traffic for people watching. If I remember correctly some of the out croppings also have tables with umbrellas. Hope this helps. Sorry if its scatterbrained and all over the place lol.  

Yeah they must have updated this in the last week or two. When I booked our reservations it was the old way, and we got a confirmation email a few days later. Now when I go look you have to add it to the cart and pay for it. Not sure I like this system but I imagine it will cut down on the number of people that reserve and cancel. Honestly it took Carnival a week or so for one of our reservations and I was worried we didn't get it so I put in for an alternate date so now I have two reservations. While it was not my original intent to book multiple nights I'm now thinking about holding on to both reservations until we get on the ship and I can check out the menu for each night and then decide which night I would like to keep and which I would like to cancel. Who knows maybe its things like this that lead to Carnival changing the system to pay upfront. To many people booking specialty for every night then canceling if they find that the MDR menu is to their liking. I also wonder what the refund policy is like. Im gonna shoot John a message on Facebook and maybe he will clear things up a bit.  

I would love to use the app but we always ask for a table next to the window and usually get it considering we go right away at 5:30. Any idea where they start to seat people with the app. When we go it seems like they start by the windows and fill in.

Yep no way my 6yr old is carrying his own S&S Card. He doesn't have charging privileges. His card stays on my wifes lanyard right behind hers. When we get on or off the ship she fans the cards out to be scanned, takes no time at all. At camp they have name badges and as far as I know they don't have any opportunity to spend money so there should be nothing they are missing out on by not having the card. 9-11 yr olds can sign themselves out from camp if given permission from their parents up until 10pm, when our son gets to that age we will discuss and decide if we were going to allow this and therefore allow him to have his own card.     

We just throw the 12pks in one of our wheeled carryons. They have ripped them open once and left them alone twice. 

Yeah not gonna lie I came to the Disney section to see how people afford it and justify the price but after reading it all I don't know if I can. My next Carnival cruise cost $193 pp/pn and thats a balcony room on the Lido deck. The 15 day Carnival one we have booked after that is $110 pp/pn for a balcony room two decks below the Lido. Talk about sticker shock when looking at Disney... As much as my 6 yr old would love a Disney cruise I think he would love to do 15 days on Carnival vs 4 or 5 on Disney. If anyone has some secret about getting better rates than what I'm finding please share lol. 

Sorry I just realized I didn't specify what sailing. It's for the Mardi Gras 15 day from New York to the southern Caribbean on Sept 30th 2020

I just wanted to share the email I received from Carnival today. We were offered an Up Sell from a cove balcony on deck 5 to a choice of balcony rooms on decks 11, 12, 14, and 15. We chose a balcony room on deck 14 so we wouldn't be directly below the Lido Marketplace on deck 15. It cost $64 which in our opinion was a very good deal, just over $20 each for the three of us booked into the cabin. 

Also if I read correctly your spouse or SO could get a free membership when you sign up, so you can in theory between two people get two cards per month. So if you get the $500 (448) cards that saves you $608 over the course of a year with the cost of one membership included. So if a spouse is included you could save $1232.. It might not be as good as it once was but it is good enough for me. We don't spend enough on cruises every year to max that out yet. $12,000 a year is a lot for some. Not judging those that spend more just jealous lol. 

Followed the link provided and was able to sign up. Started out with 4500 pts, then joined for $12 for the first year with auto renew for second and got up to 12,000 pts. It does kinda suck that you can only get one Carnival card per month but its good that you don't need points to buy them as far as I can tell. 

7 hours ago, skiorcruise said:

The Salt Lake City area has several travel shows once or twice a year.  I have picked up these brochures at those shows.  Often they are a year old (show in July, last cruse listed is Nov of same year), but they are nice for dreaming, advance planning, etc.

I come to SLC all the time, I'll have to keep an eye out for the shows and stop in. 

13 hours ago, CHATTACRUISER said:

Wow! I never even considered that they could possibly change it. This is our first experience with a Guaranteed room. I suppose anything is possible!

Sorry I hope I didn't ruin your day lol. I'm really not sure how it works, Ive always been to scared to book a guarantee because my wife wants to stay as close to the middle of the ship as possible to avoid motion sickness. I wish you could do guarantee middle, forward, or aft so you had a say in that but didn't care what deck you were on, but even as I say that I don't think I would actually book it. I think I would still just book the room that I wanted so I'm not going in blind. 

I cant seem to find much info about the early/late line. Is it worth it to arrive early?

Looking for personal experiences with arriving early. Do you typically get on sooner than your appointment time or just end up waiting around. I'm sure there is gonna be plenty of don't arrive before your arrival time but what If you don't have much of a choice such as a friend has to drop you off earlier because they need to be somewhere else at a certain time.     

Guess this must be one benefit to having a TA, anyone know where else you can get them? Id pay for some lol. 

Never booked a guarantee and I'm sure if I looked I could find the answer but I'm curious. Once they assign you a cabin can they change it or does that mean you are locked in to that cabin for sure.

15 hours ago, Joebucks said:

Seeing that Royal just ordered a ship smaller than Oasis class, and Oasis can't go to many ports, it looks at the moment that there is somewhat of a cap on how big and how many big ships you can have.

Royal also has two more Oasis on order each will when completed be the "Largest Cruise ship ever"

12 hours ago, LandlockedCruiser01 said:

I'm suprised how much hate Fantasy class ships get.

Pretty sure for everyone there is no in between, its either love or hate. 

11 hours ago, twodaywonder said:

Wish they would build some newer Fantasy class ships. We like the smaller ships. 

This is one thing I was thinking. Eventually the Fantasy will get so expensive to maintain they will have to get rid of them, why not have a smaller class to replace them that has the great things but fixes the things that are not great, such as the number of balcony rooms. 

10 hours ago, vicky3vicky said:

I would also, quietly, behind the scenes, be making plans for a 420 friendly ship. Most  likely, sometime in the not so distant future, marijuana will be legal on the federal level.

I don't know what the laws are for most ports and also what the laws are for where the ships are registered, these are all things that must be taken into consideration when considering this. And as much as its becoming "main stream" there are a lot of families and older people that would absolutely refuse to sail on these ships. I think they are more likely to get rid of smoking and vaping all together.   

So knowing that the Panorama is arriving in Long Beach in December, Mardi Gras is coming to Port Canaveral in October of next year, and an unnamed XL class ship will be coming to Miami in 2022; my question is if you were Carnival what class of ships would you order next and where would you position them? If you have an idea for a class of ship they don't have Id be interested in that also.

I would order:

XL class for Galveston

Vista class for Port Canaveral 

Another Vista class to change ports and do specialty cruises. Such as Alaskan, Hawaiian, etc. And to take over for Vista, Horizon, etc when they go to dry dock.  

Also considering how it seems that RCI loves to have the Largest Cruise ship in the world with every new ship upping the last by a few thousand GT I would try to beat them. I would order a new class at say 250,000 GT.

When I was in Walmart the other day I was checking decorations for giggles thinking about this very thing and noticed that some said right on the packaging that they were fire resistant, flame resistant, etc. You could check your favorite big box store in the morning, or drop by the dollar store and roll the dice on if they take them away or not. 

https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1996/cruise-ship--2054-passenger-3466280/?refSource=browse listing

https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1998/cruise-ship-2052-2632--stock-no-s2158-3024019/?refSource=browse listing

$155m-$250m if anyone is inturested. 

While I have not been to any of these places 20+ times as others have I feel and hope that even when I have I will still enjoy them as I do today. For one thing I swear there is always something new to do. For another thing if there is something I enjoy doing I'll probably enjoy doing it again a time or two or ten. I still enjoy going to the same museums and zoos, Vegas hasn't changed much in my time going there but I still enjoy it. So I would say the "less glorious" are to me still very glorious. I enjoy getting away from the Montana winter to go to the beach and enjoy traveling and seeking out those new adventures even in old places.   

We have stayed on the lido once and loved it. As others have said it is so close and convenient. I love wandering down in the morning to get a breakfast burrito from the Blue Iguana and taking it back to my room to eat on the balcony. Its easy for us change quickly into our swimming suits and be in the pool in seconds and back in our room changed and dry equally as quickly instead of dripping down the halls to an elevator, dripping down the elevator and dripping some more before finally arriving at our room. Late night pizza and ice cream is a breeze. Our room on the Horizon was 10 rooms forward of the pool area close to the elevators. We never noticed any noise. Our upcoming room on the Panorama is the first room forward from the pool area. We are slightly worried about noise with it sharing a wall with the Red Frog Rum Bar. If anyone has stayed in 10297 or 10298 on the Vista or Horizon Id love to hear if they had noise issues. 

Im surprised they would give you the option at all. We were booked in a cabin for 4 with 4 people when one person backed out. I called to see about getting the taxes and port fees back for the 4th person and told them I was willing to pay the full fare for the 4th person because we wanted to stay in the same room and the told us no. They said we had to move to a room for 3. We were on the lido deck and had to pay for an upgrade to stay on the lido deck. At the time I had not spent much time on the boards here and did not realize no-showing was a thing.  

The shows sound fun, excited to see them. Do they do any Christmas themed shows during the holiday other than what the kids from Camp Carnival put on?