ccartman2

Been a long while since I cruised, but my wife will always make us dress up for elegant night. It's ok with me. Outside of wedding and funerals I don't have a use for a suit very often, but she loves it. It's your vacation, so if every other person on the boat is in shorts and a pull over shirt, you shouldn't be uncomfortable dressed how you want. With that being said, there will be plenty of people dressed up for the occasion.

Why do people on CC say to not do ships tours? Seems to me that they get priority over people going on their DIY's.

We'll be in St Kitts in November and are going on a ships tour just so we don't have all the hassles of setting up our

own. Prices? We're on vacation. We expect to spend money. I think the cost of the ships tour is reasonable being

that I don't have to do any 'leg work' myself, just show up and go. I've met many great people from our cruises on ships tours and big or small buses don't bother me. To each his own I suppose.

 

Usually it is price. You can usually get the same tour for a much lower price on your own. The downside is they may not hold the boat for you if you are on your own. My own personal opinion is do what makes you comfortable. Like if I'm in Cozumel, I'm perfectly comfortable catching a taxi to one of the beaches. Another location, I may not be as comfortable until I've been there before.

Easily the Legeng for me. Loved the lay out and it never seemed overly crowded. Of course I've liked the all but will put the liberty second. Of course having a lido balcony helped there

No clue but can tell you one of the best parts of my 1st two cruises was sharing dinner with strangers and meeting these new people. I'm sure they will accommodate the two top but interaction with your fellow cruisers is awesome as well and you may meet some fabulous people

My daughter loved it @ 3 & 6. No hesitation at all, and I don't think she would have cared if we didn't have to pick her up at all. Our Son, @ 5, was hesitant to go at first, but once he spent a day there, he was already to go as well.

Gosh....Didn't realize it was this was such a hot topic. The truth is simple....carnival will continue to raise the price until they can just barely sell it out, maximizing their profits. Where that price point is, I could never guess, but it'll be more then $60. It's smart business.

 

As for me, I did it last time, and I will likely do it next time. Now, if it is just me and my wife sailing, maybe not, or if we wind up with 2 cabins (doubling the price), I doubt I'd do it then. But sailing with kids, definately makes it worth it for me. Plus, when it comes to sitting around and waiting on something, I'm not a real happy camper, so by paying a small fee (relative to the cost of a cruise), it was well worth the money.

 

Priority embarkation - If this is all it was, I wouldn't do it. I would just get there early and wait online. It is nice, but the early arrivers are boarding right after you, so in reality, maybe you are saving 30 minutes, if that. As for those to say wait until 100 or 130 and just walk on: I would be very opposed to waiting in the port city, so I didn't have to wait at the port. When I get up a cruise day, i want to get on the boat, not sit at McDonald's drinking coffee. Plus waiting would have cost me about 3 drinks on the cruise program. :)

 

Room early - This why we did it, because we had a young child, and wanted to be sure there was a place we could take her if she got tired or overwhelmed. Plus we had a Lido balcony, so bathroom access was another nice plus. My kids comfort is well worth $50 (or $60). It was nice, but a perk I could live without with no kids.

 

Guest Services - First 6 cruises, I don't believe I ever used it and didn't plan on it this time either. This cruise, I used it multiple times. Glad I had it, but hope I don't have to bother guest services so much in the future.

 

Tenders - Zero Tender ports.

 

Priority disembarkation - Liked this a lot (more so then getting on early). We have a long drive back to home from any port, so hitting the road as soon as possible was pretty sweet and the lack of crowd by doing so, made it a fairly peaceful process.

Spoke with the travel agency and they did not even know anything was happening yet! They put me on hold, called Carnival and found out that yes, we are now on the Sensation and yes, we will still get a balcony like we have booked. But apparently, as of now, it's a guarantee and we don't have anything assigned yet. The cruise is still not available on the website. Price will be the same though.

 

I'm not sure how I feel about the whole thing. The Sensation is an older ship, I'm sure the room will be smaller and what are the balconies like?? I know they stick out from the side of the ship.

 

As far as I remember, the balconies on the fantasy class ship seemed no different then a regular balcony on the bigger ships. We had no problem with room size either. We had one on the sensation when doing the our back-to-back. No complaints at all. It has been quite awhile, so I could be remembering poorly and things could have changed though.

THe kids in camp carnival would have the opportunity to go to kids dinner if they wanted and you wanted to let them. This is regular dress and done at the lido in a separate area. Our kids did it 3 or 4 times out of the 7 and loved it. The food is pretty standard (nuggets, hot dogs, etc.) and nothing fancy. For the Main dining room, I would say have them dress nice but nothing extreme. they should follow the adult dress code, and dress them up real good for formal night just because you can. :)

Mine is the Legend. I loved everything about it, including the layout. WHen I booked my last cruise, I even looked for it again, as I wanted to sail it again.

The Liberty's was pretty awesome.

On our last two Carnival cruises, most every evening Camp will feed the kids. You drop the kids off at the buffet at 6PM and the counselors take them and feed them, they even rope off a special area of the Buffett and have a special line set up with kid friendly items. They then take them back to the club area. you then get them normally.

 

At least that's how its been.

 

That's how it was in March on the Liberty. We didn't let our kids do Kids Dinner every night, as we wanted them on Formal nights and we had them on the 1st night as well. Also, the menu is nothing fancy, and didn't see much on the healthy side of things (for those that worry about those things). My kids loved going to it though.

 

The gaps are when they are closed to set up for something else, like kids dinner or to sell build-a-bears. They will have a fun times for the whole week, so you can look at the schedule with our child (if they are old enough) to make sure they do the things they want. Also, I don't know the age cut off, but for the real young ones, they give you a cell phone so they can reach you. For those of you who get that cell phone, though it's not an intended use, you can call other rooms on the ship, and if you can figure out the number of the phone, people can call you as well. :)

My wife did it twice. No real issues for her. The one trip she found Nassau to be uncomfortable being that warm. Just make sure you follow everything. I think for Carnival it is 24 weeks, and the cruise has to be over before you cross that threshold if I remember right. You will need a letter from your doctor before sailing. My wife also wore a big hat, and did avoid the sun a little (mostly the hottest part of the day). She also didn't snorkel the whole time when we did that excursion, but I would think that would be an individual thing, so you may not have any problems. We still had a good time, and I won't try to deter anyone from trying it. I do agree with the trip insurance though.

LOL, the first thing that came to mind was, Call him from the boat!

 

 

LOL. I was thinking, go with out him.

Considering how over priced Carnival's liquor is, I am not sure I would. It would depend on the price of each item. Problem is, I, like many others, eat different on a cruise then I do any place else. I don't typically get Escargot in my normal life. Lobster tail? If I make it to Lobsterfest. I still miss the baked Alaska and Chateaubriand.

 

I like the idea of having different and "fancy" foods, I don't typically get to eat. If they want to charge me like a resturant would, I'm not sure I would be very happy for a 7 day cruise. A guys burger on Land would cost you $10 plus (considering the price of a red robin or 5 guys burger). Is that what they would charge?

 

The other downside is it would cause the price of the cruise to be a lot more variable, which could make me shy away from it. That is what I liked most about Cheers, was, as expesnive as it was, I know what I was paying for the cruise, Tips, drinks, & the Chef's table. The only unplanned charges were port activities (which were minimal), Dr. Suess breakfast (only cause I forgot), and pictures. Pretty nice having the big ticket stuff paid for (or at least the cash sitting there) before the cruise. It will just make that planning more difficult and the process less fun.

Same thing happened to me on my last cruise. I took the risk of booking my cruise when I did, thinking that the price I paid was going to be it's lowest point before Sailing. I found the price had dropped 3 days after booking. I called, but of course nothing in my case either. I could have chose to wait, and risk the price going up, but I was happy with the price I paid, or I wouldn't have booked. In fact, the price was why I chose to book so close to the cruise date to begin with, instead of the September-November time frame I was looking at.

 

The one thing the call to carnival did do was my PVP offered me an upsell from an oceanview to balcony (same was offered to others I knew on the cruise, so it wasn't special treatment). Who knows if I would have recieved the same upsell if I hadn't called.

No food comes to mind for me, but the chef's table really elevated my expectations for fine dining. :) Simply amazing.

You will know your child best and limitation. I'm not a clocker watcher on vacation, so I just go with what the child can handle. My oldest was pretty strict on her schedule, so we kept her close to her bed time (She sailed @ 18 months and 3 on her 1st two). My 5 year old (1st Cruise around 18 months and this past one he had just turned five) is terrible about going to sleep, so we just let him run til he dropped. My current 20 month old is pretty adaptable as well, so we allowed her to stay up some too.

 

I have allowed both my older ones to stay at Camp Carnival until the 10 PM several times on the last cruise, and they did night owls (Stayed from 10 to 12 for a fee) on the last night. We had a long drive the next day, so I figured being tired would allow them to nap better in the car.

 

As for the parents fun....The kids are why we prefer balconies. We have also been known to take turns on the child care and let the other do what they want (Spa or casino or whatever).

I loved my aft balcony when I had it on the Glory, but there are those that don't like them as well. Last Balcony was on the Lido, I that has spoiled me for life. It is a perfect location.

I used it on my last cruise. Given the opportunity I will certainly use it again. Well worth the $50 in my book, but not a deal breaker if I can't snag one.

 

Priority Embarkation - We are always there early, so this one really doesn't matter that much. It was nice to get on as quick as possible with 3 kids waiting in the waiting room, especially since we wound up on the shuttle a half hour early (Not sure how that one happened).

 

Room ready Early - We only had one carry on that fit in the bottom of the stroller. I didn't have to have it, but it was good to be able to get the kids in the room earlier, especially for the littlest one's nap. I will never look at gettting the room early as a bad thing.

 

Luggage - This was a plus and a minus. We were able to unpack early, but it would have worked just as well in the evening. The downside was having to deal with the luggage until you got it unpacked and put away, as they take up a lot of room in there.

 

Guest services - I'm one of those who never use guest services. Then came this cruise and I was there more times then my other 6 cruises combined. It was a huge plus when the lined up 1/2 way to the theater on the last night, and you are 1st in line.

 

Priority disembarkation - Was also nice. Seems to me when we used to get off late, there were huge lines and it is generally an unplesant experience. Ours was lightening quick and we were driving by the boat before they were probably done unloading our cruise.

When I did it I originally emailed Eventplanning@carnival.com

 

Or you can email the steakhouse as you did, if you can find that address.

 

When I emailed event planning, i was contacted by the steakhouse. You need to include:

 

Names of the guests

how many attending

The ship

Booking #

Cabin #

Sail date

I know on the back to back we did the liquor we bought the first trip was delivered on the last night of the first leg and since we were keeping the same cabin for the next leg we just went down to the main lounge the next morning handed over the customs forms and then one of the girls from guest services handed us our new sail and sign. So we had 3 bottles for the next leg saved a ton :)

 

How long ago was your back to back? Word on the street is they no longer deliver your alcohol on the last day if you are on a back to back. It is possible to get around this by buying the liquor on the last day, after the time they allow you take it with you.

[quote name='Sweet Dutch Girl']Personally I would LIKE "formal night" to disappear...I think the custom is old and outdated and is little more than a photo-op for both cruisers and the cruiseline. I'm sorry that you feel [U]how I dress[/U] ruins your experience, that isn't my intention or really my concern.

I spent years "dressing up" for work...guys had to wear suits and ties, gals heels and nylons and business suits because we were in a "need to impress" field. Funny thing, when Friday casual became the norm productivity didn't dimension...in fact the business flourished and customers were more comfortable interacting with us.

I just want people to dress with an emphasis on clean and neat and to have options that fit into a world where a carry-on suitcase is the norm. And if women can wear dressy flip flops (and I would suspect that many many do) then men should be able to do the same. Their carry-on bag is no bigger than mine.[/quote]

I get your point....but love formal night. Perhaps it's a throw back to the past or just the idea of dressing up for dinner. DW and I seldom get to a place that one should dress up for, so it's pretty cool in our book. Carnival's rules on formal night certainly aren't that restrictive. If you don't want to dress for it, then don't but why take it away from others? Still< I thinkk the young man should wear shoes. A couple nights out of his life with out flip flops isn't going to hurt him. Still, in truth I pay no mind to what others wear on formal night. All I know is it is fun for our family and even my father junks his harley shirts for the event. Shot, one of these day's I might even rent the tux for it, just to tick people off that don't like the formal night. :)

Shoot. If I'd won the Powerball tonight, I could bought my own ship. Guess the staff isn't included. :)

Obviously a couple people may not think it is cool, but it is your birthday and Vacation. I say go all out. Most people on the boat will think it cool and say happy birthday. I sure would. Enjoy yourself.

Tough part would be gathering the players. You start advertising or even asking about a game, it could get difficult and possibly get in some trouble. Playing with chips should be fine, but keep the money away from the table and probably agree to give payouts in another location (buy-ins too). If they are raking 15%, that is pretty much robbery. 10% up to a fixed amount is pretty much the norm at the places I used to play. A loose game like a cruise ship and the rake should be irrelevant.