Are.we.there.yet?

Beautiful pictures!  Thank you so much for sharing so much detail.  We'll be sailing on her tomorrow so I'm getting ready.  So sorry we'll have to kick you off!  LOL!!!  🙂

4K were even better when they had doors that opened.  🙂

Thanks again for posting all of this.  Glad your Elite sailing went well.  Bummer about the excursion.  We've never been on the Rythums of the Night excursion but we will on this trip.  I'm not really a "show" person but our friends are excited and I feel like I should try it once.

We have sailed on the Firenze and will be on her again in 10 days.  We really liked the ship but we are not pool people.  The Lido area doesn't have the same vibe since it's cramped and pool people will hate it.  I will say, that we have never seen so much seating in the Lido area.

We didn't care for the Pistachio drink so I'll try the Lemoncello next time.  We never made it to Big Chicken and we were disappointed.  Next time for sure!  We did try the Italian Guys Burgers and they were fine but hubby said the one tasted just like pizza.  We didn't care for La Strada Grill. We spent a lot of time in the Moda Bar and the bar staff was awesome and they had interesting drinks!  The Steakhouse was good and drunk sushi is the best!  LOL!!!

Ensenada is nothing special, although its WAY BETTER than it used to be.  Lots of little store front shops with trinkets and lots of bars.  Not much for kids, although ours went with us often.  We never feel unsafe but could take it or leave it.

I'll definitely be reading along as we prepare for our upcoming cruise.  Have fun!

weezal,

Thank you so much for posting all of this.  I'm about to get my reading on!

We've been on the Firenze before but just for 5 days.  We are sailing with the Elite group in 10 days so I'm really curious about your experience with that.  I have found your other postings on this topic helpful.

How was your overall experience on the Firenze?  We had a good time and didn't encounter the cranky crew I have read about.  We had a good trip and excited to be back on soon.

I heard yesterday that they will also refund my charges for the water bottles.  🙂

How did it go?

We've recently sailed on the Firenze and I found that casino team to be a little more stingy with comps compared to other ships.  Hubby and I both lost quite a bit of money and I had over 19K in points during a 5 day cruise.  I was offered 2 for the steakhouse and when I mentioned another person in our party, they reluctantly came back and offered for 3 but we did not receive wine.

I am very grateful for any comps so I don't want to seem ungrateful but this ship seemed a bit tighter.  Our family sailed on the Panorama in May and they comped us 8 people in the steakhouse, without hesitation, and gave us 3 bottles of wine.

We'll be on the Firenze again in September so hopefully it goes well.  🙂

Hi,

I am currently dealing with something similar.  Our room steward charged us for the 2 large bottles of water that we 100% left in the room.  It's only $10.62 but it's the principle.  I always check our bills on the regular and double checked our statement that was waiting for us at debarkation.  

I asked for an updated statement through the Post cruise link and I just submitted my request for a refund.  This is not the first time this has happened to us and it probably won't be the last.

GOOD LUCK!

Mailed our son's passport on June 22nd, by Priority Mail but not expedited.  He received it today.

Hi Ak4n3,

I am SERIOUSLY IMPRESSED with your sorcery!!!  We just got off of a 5 day sailing on the Firenze with 5 people and we had 4 large bags, a large garment bag, 4 carry-on suitcases and a backpack and arrived in a Surburban!  LOL!!!!

Admitedly, we over packed and we also brought a case of soda in one of the carry-on bags for our DD.  The rest of us had the drink package but she just wanted soda so we brought it on.

I hope you had a great family trip.  We really enjoyed the Firenze.

Tina  🙂

We just tried this on the Firenze.  Ours did not have much artichoke in it.  It tasted like a crab cake without the crab.  It was good but plain and we said it really should be an appetizer.

Thanks so much for all of the responses. 

Luckily, we are also on this sailing so we can just send her bags to our room to be safe.  We were really hoping to find out before we reach the pier but we also know what we signed up for.  I guess I'll just keep stalking her reservation for my own amusement, especially now that I know emails may not be coming.  Hopefully they will surprise us soon with something not located under the kitchen.  🙂

Hi,

Our daughter booked a last minute deal about 14 days before sailing.  She also booked the upper and lower guarantee and her room is still TBA 6 days out. 

I know we need to be patient but I'm wondering how you found out your room assignment?  I know we can check her account constantly (cuz I'm not real patient!  LOL!) or do they send you an email or a reservation update document when the room has been assigned?  That would make it much easier and I wouldn't have to be "as" neurotic.  🙂

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Pack light?  All 8 people?  Hahahaha!!!!!  🙂

I definitely wish you luck!  Have a great family cruise!!!!!

Yep!  We had your exact situation in May when we sailed on the Panorama.  We were a party of 8 and most of us live 30-40 miles from the port.  We pondered Uber but we figured it would still be cheaper to just take 2 cars.  Parking off-site was a pain in the ---.  I've heard getting an Uber on the back-end can also be challenging so that contributed to our decision.  If all of your travel mates are able bodied, (ours weren't) I heard you can walk to the Queen Mary to request your Uber to get better results.

I've been following along on this topic because we sail on the Firenze on July 30th so I'm also curious how the parking situation might impact us.  It was never good there, even with the smaller ships.  I've also heard that sometimes the Firenze and the Panorama are in Cabo together so if you're there as your last stop, I'll wave to you!  🙂

The Panorama is parking at the terminal again?  I thought they were still being directed off-site.

OMG!!!!  My first Carnival cruise was also on the Tropicale in 1986!!!  🙂

Those were the days!

As an observation, it can vary by your age.  They sweat the younger passengers more.  Hubby and I could walk in with the Costco store and no bother.  Our kids get checked sometimes.

Hi,

I've also read the interesting list of food and drink items that people have ordered from room service with the Elite offer. I had asked on a different thread about how we would go about ordering steaks, guys burgers and such.  Please come back and share your experience.  I'm not someone that normally orders room service but with all of the alcohol that will already be sitting in my room, I might want/need to!  🙂

Thanks!

Please keep us posted on how it went.  I'll be on the Elite on the Firenze in September.

Have a great trip! 🙂

Right!  It does ask that. This is not the issue nor the question.  The issue is:  Why does it then give passenger #2 the balance that is above and beyond their half of the OBC?  My point is that it's not always half.  If we don't use ANY OBC pre-cruise, why does it still assign the entire amount to passenger #2?  This has happened to us multiple times and on different ships.

Look... I'm not looking to debate this forever.  I'm trying to be nice and explain my situation to other casino offer participants who may not have experience with this.  I never said I had a problem or I didn't read the rules.  It just doesn't make sense to me and it's something for others to double check on their on-board account before they lose their portion of OBC to their friend.

It's clear that passenger #2 gets all of the OBC because we used SOME of it in advance?  

I'm only sharing my experience so that other people here will understand it's not cut and dry.

I can understand both people are equal occupants but passenger #2 often gets the entire $200 OBC. Example:  Passenger #2 buys Wi-Fi for $97, using OBC. Then passenger #2 also gets the remaining $103 OBC.  This has happened to us at least 10 times.  One time and only one time, we had a second passenger not make it at the last minute.  All $200 of OBC disappeared with #2, as well as being billed the $100 penalty.  I understand the rules but sometimes things don't make sense.  Guest Services has told us it's a glitch in their system.

We have experienced some funky bookkeeping with the OBC.  For some reason, they often give the companion the OBC and not the primary.  I find that very weird when the primary is the person that received the casino offer.  It's not a big deal when sailing with a spouse and you can make sure it's been used together.  Our son often brings a friend so he needs to make sure his friend charges something and pays him back or it's lost.