notscb

22 hours ago, rudeney said:

Surf is fine for social media, wifi calling and texting and email

I have to disagree. I had surf+stream on Freedom (pre-Starlink) and I could barely load social media, let alone make a photo post. There were times I could be in just the right area of the ship and make a duo call, but often would only be able to do (choppy) audio. Emails would load in (apps running in the background at all times) but would take a long time to send.

YMMV, but if Surf+Stream had trouble on a good day, Surf is not going to cut it.

On 7/8/2022 at 10:44 AM, logan25 said:

scanned for attachments

A lot of corporate systems will automatically trash any attachments as a security precaution to a first email, and will allow subsequent attachments once contact with the customer has been established. It's possible that your initial request was denied because the system worked as designed.

10 hours ago, twangster said:

We will probably never know or perhaps the aft air gap space between port and starboard is the natural conclusion when going wider.  

Thank you for bringing this up. I was going to post that I was watching a YouTube video that was explaining how Carnival's ship designers had a design that looks eerily similar to what we now know as the Oasis class of ships. There are sources out there claiming that this design was happening as early as 2004 by the designer Joe Farcus.

I imagine that there are some engineering limits that might require this kind of design, combined with wanting passenger experience not to feel claustrophobic or overcrowded (imagine how many interior staterooms cold fit in that gap!).

I was on freedom a month ago and could very easily access the spare HDMI port in both the oceanview and balcony staterooms. I once heard that if you unplug the ships ethernet cable from the TV, it becomes easier to switch inputs (so long as the TV is off when you do that). FWIW, never tried this, so YMMV.

On 3/17/2022 at 9:33 PM, mz-s said:

My guess is once the TSA or whoever is in charge lifts the mask mandates in the terminals.

Guess again.

RCL has their key program with is similar to FTTF. Their program has been in place since covid.

Ultimately, everything on cruises is driven by economic impact. If FTTF is profitable for CCL and they have the staffing capacity to do it, they'll bring it back.

5 hours ago, thunderingherd11 said:

 So bringing it up just to rattle the easily rattled makes no sense.

 

I feel like this is unnecessarily harsh and dismissive. I know OP was in their room at the time, but if it was really 1am I'm sure a lot of folks were also up partying around the ship and would have found a power outage concerning. There's nothing wrong with trying to get more information if it's available.

Found it- looks like a minor fight on the lido deck, small group of people, others chilling watching the drive in movie still

Youtube Video

With your criteria, I feel like either ship would be a good fit. I'm wondering what additional preferences you might have that would "make" or "break" your vacation/experience (i.e. noise levels, amount of children present, availability of adult only activities or areas, nightlife, cost, etc..). Without a better picture of who you are as a cruiser, I don't know that this forum will be of much help.

Without any of that, I'd personally go with whichever ship had the newest retrofit and most options- which would probably be the Dream. But again, with your limited criteria, either would probably do.

3 minutes ago, jsn55 said:

but I would never trust a cruise line to take care of me if I'm ill or hurt

This is a great point- I maybe wasn't clear in that I already have travel insurance, but it seems odd that RCL is offering additional (company funded) support whereas Carnival is not offering any sort of passenger assistance and are basically saying "if you get Covid on our ship, good luck." I know RCL cruises offers a different experience from Carnival, but in this case, my quesiton is really more around would it be smarter to go with RCL with their offering of assistance vs carnival's none.

Hi Everyone!

I'm looking at booking my next cruise, but am a bit torn. RCL is $200 more expensive for the same category room for the same itinerary cruise, but they also offer that guarantee where they'll "get you home" if you test positive onboard. I've been reading around different people's experiences with this program, but ultimately it seems better than Carnivals "good luck fam" policy for what to do if you get covid onboard.

If everything else is equal (ish), would that guarantee from RCL be enough to convince you to cruise with them?

On 5/13/2022 at 12:01 PM, Rocky Mountain Cruisers said:

 we cannot make them until we are on the ship

This is true, although many of their ships don't require reservations for show and there (in my experience) was always seating available at shows. I just got off Freedom and they had disabled the reservations for shows/entertainment in the app.

On 5/7/2022 at 10:59 PM, tink1112 said:

We are considering the refreshment package. Does anyone know the current prices for bottled water, juices, “specialty” coffees & teas and “mocktails”?
trying to decide if it’s worth the cost to us. TIA

I bought this package at $23/person/day. It's usually listed at around $34/person/day

2 hours ago, broadwaybaby123 said:

You can get orders from your doctor to have it done at the hospital. That will be accepted, as that's what did last month when I cruised.

Isn't the hospital a bit overkill when pharmacies, urgent cares and medlabs are still doing it?

OP, you can always go on flightaware and put in the origin city/destination city. From there, find the airline/flight you are taking and you can see the history of that flight. It's not 100%, of course, as weather and other delays happen, but chances are if the flight operates regularly with a low cancellation/delay rate you'll likely be okay day of.

Again, it's not a 100% guarantee, but might help alleviate some stress about the time crunch.

The Key gets you on early (between 11am-11:30am)

My first cruise was on the Carnival Triumph out of NYC in the early 2000's. While we all know the issues that plagued the Triumph in her later years, I remember it being a great time and a small enough ship that I could sit alone in any area and feel like I was the only one on the ship. I'll never forget waking up early on debarkation day coming into NY Harbor by the Statue of Liberty and all of the lights of the city.

I was looking online at the cruise planner (RCL) and they have an excursion on the last day. It's a $30 air boat tour with airport drop-off to FLL on de-embarkation day. For that rate, you get a 3 hour tour plus the transfer to the airport which is less than the cost of an uber/lyft or any of the shuttles (well, most of them).

I'm seriously considering going this route, especially to kill some time before my departing flight. You might look for

Most reviews of The Key are so-so about its usefulness, but I decided to get it as it was only $3/day more than the surf+stream internet package and includes surf+stream as a part of its benefits. I figured it'd be nice to get a special lunch day of boarding and breakfast day of departure, plus an easier time at the cruise terminal day of boarding as well made it worth it for the extra (very small) bit.