GalvestonCruiser

https://www.carnival.com/wedding-cruises/wedding-planning/~/media/CCLUS/Images/pdf/renewalofvowinfo.pdf

Looking into this as well - for wedding's you have the option of on an island or the ship, I would assume the same is true for vow renewals but I haven't verified this yet as I am just starting my planning 

On 1/17/2019 at 8:45 PM, George C said:

Love nyc, but really perfer weather in Dallas . 

Agree! The good thing about this area is if you don't like the weather don't worry - It will probably change drastically within a few hours. 

9 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

Here's that thread with the theatre discussion mentioned above; I agree, it was a great discussion.  Probably no need to repeat it all here again (maybe continue over there to keep that topic in one place and searchable ).  But since both "Lion King" and "Come From Away" have just been mentioned, I'll add that they are terrific shows, both among the best I've ever seen.  

 

 

Thank you both! I will definitely read through that post. 

4 hours ago, George C said:

Our favorite hotel is Michelangelo  great location and very large rooms but not that cheap

I really doubt  you can get Lion King tkts and half price but there are many great plays that are on the list

 

https://www.tdf.org/nyc/7/TKTS-ticket-booths

 

Above is site and locations and hours for the half price tkts , we get 90 percent of our tickets there I would recommend

Beautiful

Come from away

School of Rock

 

You can get app on your phone showing whats available that day Wednesday , Saturday and Sunday have matinee also, weather should be mostly in 70's 

Thank you for the information! Come from away sounds awesome! 

I am on the 6/10 Sunrise cruise and we have several excursions listed. Just booked this past weekend and I have not seen FFTF listed yet. 

42 minutes ago, George C said:

I was born in nyc but now have been in Dallas for over 30 years we do visit every year , would want to stay in midtown close to Times Square area many things are walkable , many great restaurants, Rockefeller center, broadway plays . I would spend a little more for a good hotel, do not rent a car, her Uber app it is very handy for traveling around , while we spend most of our time in midtown, I think 9/11 museum and memorial is a must do . Half price broadway tickets at tkts booth ar great. Beginning of June is a good time to visit we normally are there Memorial Day weekend. 

Thank you! I have lived in Texas all my life and it's hard for me to grasp not needing a car. What's the weather like in NYC that time of year?  Are they any specific hotels you would recommend? Also - is it common to be able to get cheaper tickets for the Broadway shows? I would love to see Lion King and don't mind waiting to get the tickets if there is a good chance they will be available. 

32 minutes ago, mskaufman said:

To echo Markeb's advice I would stay in Manhattan, even if it is a little more expensive (especially when you consider the time you will spend getting back and forth from NJ).  I like the Times Square South area.  Walking to ESB, Rock Ctr, Times Square and B'way.  It is also a short subway ride to lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty.

Thank you! 

20 minutes ago, markeb said:

As an example of just how much there is to see and do in Midtown Manhattan, I wrote this up a few years ago. Most of the guide books are organized by neighborhood, but in some cases (Empire State versus Flat Iron District, for instance) you're so close that you'll miss something nearby following that model. This starts at or near Penn Station. Detour into things that interest you as you see fit. With enough detours, this is a day. Without, it's probably 3-4 hours...

 

From Penn Station (or the surrounding area), head to 34th.  Macy’s sits between Broadway and 7th Avenue.  Continue down 34th through Herald Square, and you'll pass the Empire State Building. You can elect to go up the ESB, or save this for the Top of the Rock. Either way, turn right on Fifth Avenue through Murray Hill to the Flatiron Building, generally considered the first skyscraper. Do an about face and head up Fifth Avenue. Along the way, you'll pass the New York Public Library between 40th & 42nd; well worth a detour!  If you want to see Grand Central Station, hang a right towards Lexington and check it out; return to Fifth Avenue and continue north.  You'll run into Rockefeller Center and Saks. In or near Rockefeller Center, you have the Top of the Rock, Radio City Music Hall, etc. We've been to both the observation deck at the ESB and the Top of the Rock, and frankly the Top of the Rock is better. Do one or the other as you see fit. Go back to Fifth Avenue, and directly across the street is Saks Fifth Avenue, and across the street from it is St Patrick’s.  Continue up Fifth Avenue, and pick a shop or two that interests you. Amongst others, you'll pass Tiffany, which is worth a stop (and has clean bathrooms on the second floor!).  (Note, without political comment. There will be a sudden security presence, and possibly demonstrations, around 56th Street.) At about 59th, you’ll see the Apple megastore (under construction last time I was in town), and across Fifth Avenue is the Plaza.  You're now at the corner of Central Park. I'd cross into the park, and check out a map to get to the Mall and the Bethesda Terrace.  That’s an easy walk and you’ll see a nice bit of the park.

 

At this point in time, check your time and your legs. The Met is right there, but it will eat the rest of your day.  Across the park (and a fairly easy walk) is Strawberry Fields and the “Imagine” memorial.  Not really much to see, but it is there.  I'd probably backtrack to 59th and make a right to 7th Avenue, and head down 7th into Times Square.  You’ll pass Carnegie Hall on the way.  My personal detour at this point would be to turn right on 44th and have a late meal at John's Pizzeria for some amazing New York pizza in an incredible setting. It's supposedly the largest pizzeria in the world, in a decommissioned church.

Assuming you've done some shopping along the way, you should be pretty much exhausted at this point, and coming close to your time. Check out a NYC map; there were optional turns along that route to the UN, for instance. MOMA is on 53rd between Fifth and Sixth.
 
From the Times Square area, continue down 7th or Broadway to Penn Station.

 

That’s probably 3 ½ to 4 miles or so, depending on how far you go into the park, and will take a good chunk of the day, especially if you make stops and side trips.

 

Do keep in mind that places to eat, and most importantly, bathrooms, get scarce north of about 52nd on Fifth Avenue.  The department stores and Tiffany have bathrooms.  Eateries will generally speaking be on the side streets.  There is a food court in the lower level of the Plaza.
 

Thank you so much!!! I am printing this off and we will follow it pre-cruise. It is exactly what I was looking for. Loose plans of things to see/do in an order that makes sense. You are also correct about the room, I don't mind spending more to get the NY experience. Now that I have some ideas on areas I will look at specific properties and come back for feedback. Thanks again! 

2 minutes ago, markeb said:

 

Based on a quick search given your second set of dates, $300 plus tax is what you should expect to pay at that time, at least in Midtown. Since you're coming in on a Thursday, Downtown/Financial District may not be much better. The third adult in the room probably isn't helping the rate...

 

What are you wanting to do? If you want to walk to the sites in Midtown/Times Square, you're probably going to have to pay for it. Even the classic chains (Fairfield Inn, Holiday Inn Express, La Quinta) are expensive in Manhattan. Some of the local hotels are great; others aren't. 

 

Keep in mind that it's not entirely uncommon for rates in Manhattan to drop closer to your actual travel. I'd personally start looking either between Central Park (60th) and Penn Station (~30th), and also check out the Downtown/Financial District and see what comes up. There are some nice hotels in Midtown East (Lexington), near Grand Central, and Penn Station. Each area has pros and cons. Since you're cruising out of Manhattan, unless you're flying into EWR for an absolutely great price, I'd hesitate to stay in New Jersey, although it will almost certainly be less expensive. You have to figure total cost, and there will be a cost to travel from Jersey to the cruise terminal.

 

Once and hopefully future Texan here: Rooms aren't what they are in Texas! Smaller and more expensive. Do you have any hotel affiliation? AAA?  AARP? Government/military? Any of those might help (government/military tends to not be very helpful in Manhattan; AAA more so and I've so far refused to join AARP...).

Thank you so much for the response! It's very helpful as I have no idea what areas of NYC to even check into or avoid. I don't mind paying more for a room since this may be my one and only time to visit NYC and I don't want to spend all my time in a taxi. We don't mind walking and I know we would like to see Broadway (would love to see Lion King), Times Square, the 9/11 museum, and beyond that, I really don't know. I am good with seeing the Empire State building and Statue of Liberty as we sail out, don't have to physically go to those places. Are there any must-see places? 

4 hours ago, Noxequifans said:

If you stay in Manhattan you will be a short taxi ride away from the cruise terminal.  Manhattan hotels are not inexpensive but with some work on the booking sites you can find one that may be affordable. But in honesty you get what you pay for. In any case, welcome and enjoy.

 

If you stay in Manhattan LGA is a good choice.

Yes - I agree you get what you pay for. Being unfamiliar with the area I am not sure how to define that. In downtown Dallas I can get a very nice room on Hotwire for about $100, however, I am sure I couldn't find a Motel 6 in NYC for that. It's all relative I guess. I guess I should ask what should I expect to pay for a room. It doesn't have to be fancy but it does have to be clean and safe, within walking distance to food and sightseeing and not extremely far from the port would be nice too. 

1 hour ago, Ashland said:

We loved the Radisson Martinique...great location !!!

I looked this up and it's showing as permanently closed. I assume maybe it was bought out and has a new name. Does anyone have any idea? 

Edit: Just found it - It's a Hilton property now. 

Not a big difference - is there one airport you suggest over the other? 

Thank you! That was my thoughts on the car but I wanted to make sure. Sometimes we have these stereotypical thoughts of places and they aren't true - as an example, I live in Texas but I don't always ride my horse to work :-) 

We just booked the June 10th Sunrise cruise going out of the Port of Manhattan. It will be myself, my husband, and our son who will turn 18 on the trip. We have never been to NYC and I am already overwhelmed. The cruise itself is Monday 10th - Thursday 20th. We will fly into LGA or EWR either Saturday or Sunday before the cruise and fly home the Sunday after. That will give us 1-2 days before and 3 days after the cruise to explore NYC. Here are my questions: 

1. We live in Texas so we are used to needing a car wherever we go - In NYC should we look at a car rental or just use subway/walk/taxi? 

2. Where do you recommend we stay? We can stay at different places pre and post cruise. We would like to stay somewhere near the top places to visit if we will be relying on public transportation and walking. 

3. I know NYC is really expensive but I would like to keep the room in the $150-$200 range if possible but I will pay more if needed to be somewhere safe and close to activities. I also use Hotwire to book rooms often - any con's to using this here? 

5. I have seen several discount passes like City Pass etc that gets you into multiple attractions - are any worthwhile? 

I believe this is a good start - I am sure I will have many more questions as I look into planning more. 

Transferred $ 750 as obc earlier this year and figured we would get a chck for whatever was not spent.

 

To be on safe side checked with guest services to make sure it is refundable and as it turned out was not.

 

Lucky we did and took out cash via casino but this is wrong on ccl to do it this way

Thanks for the info! I will have to make sure I check that at the end.

I haven't done it this way so I'm not sure. I think you get a better return if you charge Carnival purchases on it (such as your S&S account) and then have Barclay's "erase" the purchase. Something to consider for the future.

Thanks for the info - I did discover the extra value in this after I had already used $200 OBC - but I did use that option when I paid off the cruise instead of getting more OBC

I have redeemed Carnival credit card points for OBC on a few cruises now. It does show up on your account when you board, but I am always paranoid and I print the little email saying that points were redeemed. If I remember correctly, you get a little slip that says how much you cashed in just as if someone bought you onboard credit. I think it says from Barclay or Mastercard or something.

Thank you! I did print out the info showing redeemed and how much from the Barclay website.

I'm curious about this myself. I redeemed points a few months ago for this cruise and I don't remember receiving much in the way of a confirmation, and it doesn't show up on my cruise documents.

Exactly - I wouldn't be concerned had I received more of a confirmation. All I got was an email saying the points were redeemed. Nothing relating to my actual cruise.

I used the points on my Carnival CC for onboard credit. Will this show up on my account as soon as I board the ship? I have never done this before so I am worried about the credit not showing up and I want to make sure I can call while still in Galveston if need be.

Thanks!

Have you elevated to Resolutions yet? If not, that would be the next step. When Resolutions couldn't resolve our issue we went right to the CEO's office. He has people that handle these things. Royal has some communications issues between their front line, Resolutions, and Revenue. In our case, they literally lost our deposit in their system and every time I called, they charged me another $500 deposit. My cruise was almost paid off before they found the original deposit. The Resolutions agents were exasperated and couldn't apologize enough. Cynthia Lembo from Adam Goldstein's office finally resolved the issue when he was still CEO of RCI. Michael Bayley is now CEO and I don't know if she is still there or not. It took 48 days for them to finally start refunding me money but it all didn't come at once.

Thanks I will see if I can get to the resolutions department.

Long story somewhat short, I cancelled my cruise back in early July. I advised the rep at the time that my account I used to make the payment was now closed, however she stated that all refunds must be made to the original payment method. Crazy but whatever. So several weeks pass and of course no refund. I call my previous bank and they tell me exact amounts and dates that they received the refunds and then sent them back to RCCL. I call RCCL to see what's going on and I am finally told that they did receive the money and it takes 6 weeks to process so I should have my money by Sept 3rd. Another crazy but whatever moment. I call back on Sept 7th because still no money. After going around in circles and supposedly dealing with a supervisor I am told a workaround has been submitted and 2 more weeks. Lo and behold 2 weeks pass and nothing. I call Sept 21st and I'm told it's been completed and the check will go out Sept 23rd. Yay finally. But of course it's Oct 3rd and still no check. I am :mad: at this point. Any ideas on what I can do to get my refund? This is insane.

This is why I would never answer a call on a Ship until we are at sea. What are they going to do then? Throw you overboard?

:D:D:D:D so funny but true

I had a friend who went on a cruise out of Galveston with her girlfriends. The last morning of the cruise her girlfriend was escorted off the ship in handcuffs (she did at least get to finish her cruise). Turns out she had a hot check for like 11.00 to a grocery store she swears she knew nothing about. She was embarrassed and scared to say the least. Now every time I hear the loudspeaker on the last day I just hope I don't hear my name :eek: That was the first I had heard of anything like that ever happening. I wonder why it doesn't happen at embarkation?

maddog 20/20.

ha ha ha ha ha

You would pay for 6 days on a 7nt cruise. Say your cruise is Sunday to Sunday. You are paying for - M, T, W, Th, F, S