LovesAllTravel

On 8/8/2023 at 12:58 PM, urbanhawk said:

Help me understand, why there would be a single supplement added, as the offer was in your name, if your DH canceled? The cabin is already paid for. I could see the supplement being added, if the offer was in his name, and he would not be going, and you would have been his guest. Not trying to give wrong information, but just trying to understand. 

I understand your question about why would a single supplement be added if I've paid for two passengers and only one goes. In theory, I've already paid the single supplement. What I'm most afraid of is if I call and say my husband can't go, they look at the reservation and say the fare code was for double occupancy only and we have to re-fare it to the current single rate. Which would make my $100 pp offer go up substantially. That's what I'm trying to avoid.

1 hour ago, Schoifmom said:

Don't, I repeat, don't (I can't stress this enough) say to anyone at any time that he is not coming.  If asked, simply state that he's coming later.  I have seen anecdotal evidence that doing so will cause them to cancel him at the port and you would then be subject to a single supplement added to your S&S.  Just keep the information to yourself.

Yeah, this is what I've read (and heard) too. Thanks!

22 minutes ago, sassy~one said:

Great question, sorry I do not know the answer. I will be following along. I gotta ask was the offer in His name or yours? That might help others, help you. Good luck.

 

The offer was in my name, I'm the first guest on the reservation.

Hi all, I'm sailing on a $100 pp casino offer in October. DH is the 2nd guest, he's now unable to go. Based on your experiences, should I: check him in as if he's going so the reservation doesn't get bumped? Or not check him in? Alert them at all that he's a no show until I show up at the port?

Excellent Live! I started reading the first few posts because I'm booked on the Pride TA in October and was interested in her upgrade after drydock. I sailed on her last summer to the British Isles which I absolutely loved. The Spirit class is my favorite! Then, I got caught up in your luggage debacle and couldn't stop reading. You're an excellent writer and have a great sense of humor! Thank you for taking us along!

We sailed on the Carnival Pride in July 2022, British Isles itinerary. I love the Spirit class ships, they are the perfect size IMO. Easy to get from one place to another without walking the length of a football field.

One word of caution though on European cruises. I guess it could apply to all cruiselines, not just Carnival. On our British Isles cruise, all but one port were tender ports. And the “tenders” were the lifeboats. If you book an excursion through the cruise line, you’ll get priority tender tickets. Next up for priority tickets are platinum and diamond members. Last ones to get tender tickets are the rest of the passengers, which could be 1,000 passengers standing in line to get tickets to get off the ship. If you book an independent excursion and you’re not platinum or diamond, you risk missing your tour. We witnessed many people who did not know “the drill” (meaning, get up at the crack of dawn to get in line for tender tickets) and didn’t get off the ship in time and missed their tour.

We loved the Pride so much that we booked the T/A from Rome to Tampa in October/November 2023. 
 

Is there a way to find out what cruises are premier, ultra or other casino specialty cruises? I like to spend time in the casinos but these events make them super crowded. I’ve participated in both premier and ultra, but would like the option of sailing on a non-casino event cruise if that helps keep the casino from being so crowded?

How's the weather in the ports? Chilly? Sunny and warm (hopefully)?

Back when I was a cruise newbie and before I found these boards with the wealth of good information, we leisurely drove from Houston to Galveston on embarkation day, stopped for lunch on the way, and made our way onto the ship around 2:30-3:00, thinking sailaway is at 4:00 or 5:00, what's the rush? Well, the majority of cruisers were like us and the lines were craaaazy, we didn't know that lunch was available, nor did we realize that we wasted most of Day 1 of our cruise.

Flash forward to the present, and 15 cruises later: we almost always arrive around 11:00-11:30, are usually on-board by noon, have lunch, and explore the ship and get settled in for our cruise. We follow this same schedule whether we fly in to the port the day before or sail from our home port of Galveston. Its definitely less stressful!

I also love embarkation day -- even after 18 cruises -- I still get a thrill from seeing the ship docked and ready for us, the friendly port staff, and that first ding when you insert your Sailaway card into the reader. The cruise staff makes you feel like they've been waiting for you and are ready to show you a great cruise.

If you follow the mid- to late-morning check-in, your cruise will get off to a great start and you will be in vacation mode without a lot of stress. Enjoy your cruise!

Your review was great! It brought back good memories from our Alaska cruise last September on the Spirit. We also had awesome weather in Seattle pre-cruise (Labor Day weekend) and I thought to myself, what's all the talk about rainy Seattle? LOL.

Being from South Texas, I had an extremely hard time packing for an Alaskan cruise. All of my cruises had been warm-weather, Caribbean cruises. So, I just winged it and packed a little of everything, including an all-weather lined jacket that I thought I would never use but ended up wearing it every day in port. I took jeans, long-sleeved t-shirts to wear under fleece jacket, sweatshirts/hoodies, lots of pairs of warm socks, tennis shoes, leggings, and light-weight tunic type sweaters to wear with the leggings. Also, gloves, scarves, and winter hat/beanies. I also took my boots (not Western) to wear with my skinny jeans and leggings. I threw in some capris and light-weight tops for the days at sea ... and never wore them. On board the ship, I wore leggings and the light-weight sweaters. Even with a short-sleeved sweater, I always had to wear a cardigan sweater. Let me say this: we drank our weight in hot chocolate on that cruise!

The Alaska cruise is one of our favorites ... we'd do it again and probably will!

Your pictures are spectacular! We did the same cruise, but in September. We were on the next to last cruise of the season. That had its pros and cons, but we planned the cruise around DH's convention in Seattle that began on the Wednesday we returned. We spent 2 days pre-cruise in Seattle over Labor Day weekend. I don't know what everyone complains about it raining in Seattle all the time, we had gorgeous sunny skies the whole weekend! We had somewhat rainy weather -- drizzly, cold rain -- in Skagway, which made the WP&Y train ride kind of a dud because it was foggy and misty most of the way up. However, my DH is a narrow gauge steam train enthusiast so he didn't care about the weather, he was in heaven. We ziplined in Juneau, which was a blast, but I kinda wished we'd gone whale watching! You know, when in Rome.

This cruise was my 16th cruise overall and my favorite. The scenery was just stunning, and I loved having the naturalist on board to give a blow-by-blow account of what we were looking at and spotting wildlife. Yes, the first day at sea heading into Alaska was ROUGH for us as well but overall we had smooth seas. We, too, didn't get to dock in Victoria due to high winds and we sat offshore for those few hours.

I don't know about you but I drank my weight in hot chocolate on this cruise and I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

Again, thanks for posting your pictures. They're awesome!

My very first cruise was on the Mardi Gras, in my teens, in the summer of 1976, 7-day to Nassau, San Juan, St. Thomas. Fond memories of her, but also that's how I realized I was prone to motion sickness. Spent/wasted the first two days in my bunk, my dad finally carried me to the infirmary, got a shot and all was good. I'm still prone to motion sickness -- its Bonine for me every trip, large ship or small.

A previous poster hit it spot on -- the Mardis Gras was so classy.

I also sailed the Carnivale in 1984 -- more fond memories.

Great review! Thank you for sharing your trip with the rest of us. We're 10 days away from our Liberty sailing -- the Eastern route -- and your review made the anticipation that much better.