Scootercruise

No, it doesn't include bottled water. You can order water for a reasonable price BEFORE your cruise. It was about $7 for 12 bottles. Onboard it's about $2 per bottle. Look in your personalizer to order. You can also bring your own (water/soda) when you board if you prefer. I always bring my hubby a few cans of soda for variety. He usually just drinks the lemonade or iced tea.

Thanks, we'll probably get the water package along with the soda package..

Can anyone tell me if the unlimited soda package includes bottled water? I know on RCCL it does.

Just curious,

Thanks

Thank you for a great review.

I really enjoyed it, we will be doing the same ship and itinerary in March. A couple questions if you don't mind. How long were the waits for anytime dining? We have a group of 10. Are the $79 drink cards available from day 1 and available throughout the cruise?

Glad you had a great cruise.:)

The sound of the waves off the ship.

Eggs benedict is my favorite.

But you can't beat the Seuss at Sea for the breakfast entertainment. It's just fun, even for adults. :D

We did the Dr Seuss breakfast last month on the Miracle and enjoyed it very much. The food was normal DR with the addition of the green eggs and ham and a few other "seuss" twists. It was all very good, they took pictures with the ship photographers and allowed us to take our own with our own cameras. We were four adults having a great time, and able to be a little silly for a while. The costumes are good and we all felt it was well worth the $5 pp charge. :)

We were informed in the past, that you can usually only apply inside the 60 day window prior to your cruise. So that;'s what we usually wait for. I will wait until mid July to apply for our September 12 cruise.

We don't spend much in the casino, so we don't get any offers for that. However, on our upcoming cruise, our friends that we are going with booked our cabin for a rate that was $200 pp less than my cost. So I guess I'm gonna owe them a few drinks. :)

Love Lido deck cabins, whether they are balcony or interior. We prefer being forward on the ship anyway, as it makes it convenient to go down to the main showroom plus you can just walk out to all the fun without changing decks.

On one of the first times we went to St Thomas, my wife decided she wanted to bring some flavored rum home to her friends at work. We bought and took through 36 of the small bottles such as the OP is asking about. They were in boxes of 18, but they didn't question it. When we asked later about it, we were told by a staff member onboard that they will allow the small bottles bought in a port of call, as they are considered "souvenirs" So we tend to buy a few at each stop if needed and it helps cut down on the cost of strengthening a drink. At the port of embarkation, they may try to catch it, but as stated earlier here, as long as the bottle and cap are plastic and in your pocket, you can probably go right through.

Tervis tumbler is great for keeping drinks cold (or hot) if you are a slow drinker :o

 

We purchased ours from the Red Frog rum bar, purchased our drink of choice, poured into the cup with lid and straw, then wandered through the ship to other places/bars/theatre without spills ;)

 

This cup will be going with me on all future cruises :D

Do you remember how much the Tervis cups were at the Red Frog, we would like to get them for our collection and make them our new official cruise cups.

I just checked our rates, it is now about $500 higher than it was with the BOGO sale. It was the sale that got us to try RC for the first time, I'm sure it won't be the last :D

We will be going on our 8th Carnival cruise in September, we cruise Carnival because we like Carnival, period. Does price make a difference? Yes, at times. That being said, we just booked our first RC cruise for March 2015. Why? because we want to try the ports that they offer that Carnival does not. Plus right now they have a buy one, get one half price going. So what better time to try them? We have sailed Princess twice, and NCL once. Like Princess, dislike NCL. We also own CCL stock, but that doesn't mean we have to be loyal only to their cruise lines, and my feelings aren't hurt because I didn't get a free cruise. The way we see it is life is an adventure, you have to try and mix it up once and a while. :D

Southern from San Juan is our favorite, just because you see so much in such a short time and all the islands are great.

We are much the same as most people here, we try to watch our money as best we can. We have a separate savings account just for travel. Both of our sons are grown and very self sufficient. I am a mechanic by trade, so I am able to maintain and keep our cars going for many miles and years. We are fortunate to have paid off our home about 5 years early and that just frees up more travel money. We also have started booking inside cabins on our last 5 cruises, we also agree that you never know what the future holds, so we intend to enjoy life the best we can.

Congratulations on your 25th, it's great to spend an anniversary on a ship. We spent our 25th on an Alaskan cruise. We were just on the Valor last September and we love this itinerary. We preferred Sapphire Beach over Megans Bay, but they are both nice. We try to tell anyone who is looking for something to do in St Thomas to not overlook the Magic Ice ice bar, http://www.magicice.vi/ Near the shopping area and a lot of fun. Probably the most fun we had on that cruise. Yes it is cold 24-30 degrees inside, and it's $20pp I believe and they will put it on your S&S card right there. It also includes a shot of rum in a collectible shot glass. We were in there somewhere between 45-50 minutes. Word to the wise, maybe go before the beach or in dry clothes. Our wet sandals were trying to freeze to our feet.:rolleyes:

Have fun no matter what.

When we were on Catalina, we walked to one of the stands that rents golf carts and just drove around and did some sightseeing at our own leisure. Sorry, don't remember the cost, but it wasn't much. They will give you a map that highlights where you can and can't go. We really enjoyed doing that while there.

There is a review on the Carnival Dream on the first page, and the wife of the OP is also GF, and his review has info on the meals and how she liked them.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1986982

No one has said Speed 2 yet, it is not a great movie, but it does have my favorite piece of eye candy, Sandra Bullock.:D It's one of those movies that every time I see it on while channel surfing, I have to watch for a while.

As far as TV, there is an episode of the Simpsons when the whole family went on a cruise and Bart liked the family time so much, he sabotaged the ship to stay on longer, I think we all may have thought about doing that more than once.

Thanks for the quick replies, I will check out some of your ideas.

Scott

The different trolleys and shuttles sound good, we were discussing what to do in Santa Barbara in October. We are not much for wine tasting tours, but if a tour of some kind goes to a winery it's not a real issue. On the hop on hop off trolleys, how long is the loop that it takes? Is it feasable to do the loop and then return to something that looked interesting? Also we were thinking about renting a bike for the two of us, does anyone know if those tours are nice? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Scott

We go on cruises to enjoy ourselves and try new food that we may not try otherwise. We are not there only for the food, as much as the experience, chatting with the wait staff, meeting new tablemates, etc. Did I try the volcano?, yes it was good and shared by three other people that would not have gotten it otherwise. If we decide to try the spaghetti and meatballs from the kids menu, maybe it's because it was the best option to us. Plus there is nothing wrong with acting like a kid at times.:) Just because you get older doesn't mean you have to grow up.

As far as dressing for dinner, I am easy going and don't get too fired up about it, I do agree people should dress nicely, no cutoffs, t-shirts swimsuits and the like. My wife and I don't care much for the whole formal night deal, I don't wear suits or tuxes on any kind of regular basis, and I don't want to do it on vacation. That being said, I will bring nice pants, a dress shirt and a tie for the formal nights. I do wish they would have the formal night dinner in one of the dining rooms for the people that don't wish to dress up.

Scott

I ordered a volcano while on our Alaskan cruise a few years ago after reading about them on CC. One of our friends kind of dared me to order it, when the waiter asked about dessert, I replied, "do you have the volcano"? to which he replied with a smile, "yes, on the children's menu", I asked if that meant that I could not have one and he smiled and said no it would be right out. My wife and I shared it with another couple, and enjoyed every bite, I'm planning on getting one in 40 days when we sail again :).

Scott

We enjoy cruising because it is so much easier than a land based vacation. We just did a land vacation in March, and while we have a great time, we were constantly on the go. I get a little grief from some of the guys I work with as does my wife. I just tell them, I don't owe anything on my cars, my home is almost paid off, and we had our kids young, they are now grown and on their own and our time is just that, OUR TIME. I have too many friends that say they can't afford to cruise, but these are also the same people that have to have a new car, or need all the newest fashions. I have one sister in law that travels a lot and can fully understand why we go as often as we do. Then there is the other sister in law that sees vacationing as a waste of money. We just don't wanna be those peolle that said we always wanted to do_____. I can't believe that anybody ever died saying " I had too much fun in my life"

Scott

We always have to have peanut M&Ms for any trip we take, and then there is always the anticipation of the warm chocolate melting cake on the Carnival ships at dinner. :D