wxtrix

28 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

We just for an update an hour ago.  Corner Brook tomorrow, sea day, St Anthony, Sidney, sea day Halifax 2 sea days Baltimore.  I 🤔 think

i hope you sail into some clear skies and warm weather for those ports. thanks for the photos and updates and the reminder that it's always fun to be cruising.

so sorry you missed Greenland but i’m glad everyone is safe.

fwiw, cruisemapper.com has you are headed to Corner Brook. the site was pretty accurate during the August sailing.

7 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

Thois trip started over a year ago when we saw the first Greenland cruise and hesitated and missed the opportunity.  When we heard they were adding a second sailing, we jumped and booked.  We were able to snag our fav room on this class of ship, 4th floor Vista suite.  

that's our favorite cabin on that class, too.

thanks for doing this live thread--we're on the Pride next September to Greenland and I am so very curious about all of it.

2 hours ago, CentralNY1 said:

Carnival has done really well on this Journeys cruise by adding many activities, lectures and an extra comedian. There was plenty to do during the 5.5 sea days which was our biggest concern. We've also had the most remarkable sea conditions I've ever experienced.  The sea state was amazingly calm and ZERO wind. Food has been mostly good with extra variety in the menu.  If anyone has any specific questions, I'm more than happy to answer.

i’m on one of the 2024 sailings and am curious about the dailies for the sea days, if you write a review upon your return.

the photos i’ve seen from yesterday and today are gorgeous. so happy to hear that the seas have been calm.

9 hours ago, davencl said:

I've been fairly successful at upgrade bids(won 2 out of four times).  One key is the rooms have to be available.  If fully booked they aren't.  You'll be relying on someone cancelling.    I've never bid above fair on their scale.  On my latest cruise starting monday I did as you, upgraded directly to a 2 bdrm haven, as the cost was less than the minimum upgrade bid.  I also have bid to upgrade to the 3bdrm garden villa. Bid the minimum as that's what I'm willing to pay and don't really care if I get upgraded.  Also both are booked so my chance of an upgrade is near zero...

good to know—thanks. i was thinking about bidding the bottom of “fair”. 

the sailing is not selling well and you never know what might happen closer to the sail date. either way i have a great cabin. 😀

2 minutes ago, NJGeorge said:

As much as you can afford based on your desire to indulge. 

Wish I had your dilemma. 

we've had some rough seas recently and i'm thankful to have a puzzle like this for a change.

here's the info:

12 nights on the Sun

offer from our current forward-facing penthouse suite to an owners suite

we originally booked a forward-facing club balcony and the second pre-final payment price drop was so good I just went and upgraded our room to a suite. I did not expect to get an upgrade email, but I did, and of course both OS are already booked.

the minimum bid is $650/1300 and the max is $1800/3600.

even the top bid is less than what the cabin is currently priced at (there's another sailing which has mirrored our prices and that one shows an available OS so I can get an idea of the price from that).

we're 110 days from sailing so i don't expect to hear anything until the very end--but I would welcome some bidding strategy. thanks!

45 minutes ago, crzndeb said:

That’s a good thing. This cruise was way overpriced when it first came out. RCI Jewel of the Seas in Sept. was 1/2 the price, and maybe some jumped ship..LOL My friends did. 

t

our cruise goes out September 2024 so I am guessing there will be more price drops and open cabins over the next year.

tbh, i didn't even price shop once I saw that great cabin open--we love the Pride (prefer the older ships) and Baltimore is a 75 minute drive so it all seemed like something we had to do (especially as we had had to cancel a cruise in May and we were disappointed about that).

3 hours ago, wemjam said:

Just curious, if the cabin is sold out, how do you really know the price has dropped?  The only way to know if there is a price drop would be to do an actual mock booking and compare pricing.

 

As others have said to get a price match your cabin type must be available at the time you are trying to reprice.  If it is not, they will not price match (as there is nothing to price match too).

there has been a price drop across all categories on my sailing with the latest sale.

1 hour ago, iamsteph said:

You can't get the price drop, but you could upgrade! 

we're in a premium balcony on the Pride and all of the suites are sold out.😁i thought about it though, since that's what I did for our NCL cruise this fall.

and thanks everyone! oh well, but we're happy with our cabin and with the fare considering the length and itinerary (14 nights/Greenland and Canada).

i saw that my cruise fare has dropped with the current sale. my category is sold out (there are very few cabins in that category), so i can’t run a mock booking. how do i take advantage of the Early Saver price protection of i don’t know the new fare?

i called Carnival and the rep didn’t know how to help me.

thanks for any info.

3 minutes ago, SplashOfWater said:

The perks I listed are for a full Suite. The Club Balcony cabins do not receive the Suite benefits. I agree that the extra cost of the Club Balcony cabin is not worth it for the few additional perks over a Balcony cabin. 

i like the club balconies for their great bathrooms (especially on the Sun).

19 minutes ago, GCS2000 said:

 

Is this for Club Balcony Suite or something different?

 

We are on Prima next year and wouldn't mind a suite at all but the Club Balcony just didn't seem worth the extra cost based on what I am reading.

 

we were originally booked in a Club Balcony on the Sun for November and the fare dropped again last week to the point a direct upgrade made more sense than hoping for an invitation to bid.

Club Balcony suites don't have the perks of full suites, which is why I took advantage of the price drop to upgrade.

On 7/23/2023 at 6:54 AM, D_And_K_gocruising said:

Yup, pay attention to the dates.  Now if the price dropped after the 120 day timeframe, then that's a bummer, but before, you can 100% change,  My 120 is coming up and I'm gonna have them run the numbers 1 more time before then.   Already got 1 drop of about 400 bucks.. 

yep, our next NCL cruise has had 2 drops as of today (final payment day), totaling $1400. 

i took the first price drop on our mini-suite but rebooked us into a suite on the second one since the difference between our initial fare and the current suite fare was doable.

now to second guess myself if i should have instead kept the mini-suite and tried for an upgrade (the cruise is not selling well). ah well, at least this way there’s less anxiety involved.

13 minutes ago, SplashOfWater said:

With a winning bid you won't get the extra FAS benefits (maybe one more specialty dinner, extra Latitudes point per night), but you'll still get the other suite perks (breakfast/lunch for suite guests, concierge, butler). If the price is right, don't leave it to chance with an upgrade bid.

i booked it—about $1600 total over our original fare for a 12 night cruise. i’m pretty happy.

1 hour ago, SplashOfWater said:

Upgrade to the suite. We paid to upgrade from an Oceanview to a Suite on the Dawn last November and it was worth it. More space in the cabin plus breakfast and lunch for suite guests in one of the specialty restaurants. I think the menus were the same ones as the Haven on other ships. You also have a concierge who will escort you off the ship at ports and debarkation (skipping the long lines). If the price is right, do it.

ah yes, I had forgotten that if you bid on a suite you don't get the perks. thanks for the reminder of all of that--I just switched our cabin. can't wait to see what NCL suite life is like.

2 minutes ago, complawyer said:

if you keep track of cabin pricing, you will notice that regardless of how ncl labels it's "sales" the actual cabin price varies little

our cabin has come down $1400 in 2 price drops since we booked it last October, and with this sale, the suites on this sailing aren't much more than a club suite.i'm pretty pleased.

11 minutes ago, chillyw said:

 

Up to you, but there's nothing like a suiteeeeeeeee

i was going to try my luck at an upgrade chance later since almost all the suites are still open 10 days from final payment, but this may be a better bet.

so I just did a mock booking for the current "35% off" sale and I see our cabin has dropped by another $600 (a prior price drop dropped it $800). now I am wondering if I should just upgrade into a suite (we have one of the 2 forward-facing club balconies on the Sun) or take the price drop.

16 hours ago, naz022292 said:

We were on the Legend last week out of Baltimore. We were 8 people with four cabins. We all had FTTF. They didn't open up the parking lot until about 11:30am. People were just all circling around... trying the lot... getting sent out... repeat! Our appointment time was 12:30 but we told them we had FTTF and they let us in. We were only waiting in the terminal about 45 minutes and they started boarding. The rooms weren't ready until a few minutes after 2pm. We did drop off our bags. My Aunts bag disappeared from her room though! My best guess is that the room steward thought it was left by the prior guest. After a scary hour or so, they located her bag! What a relief that was because it was minutes before sail away and we were trying to determine if she could sail without her medication. We wouldn't leave luggage again. Getting off the boat is easier than ever! If you have a passport, No more filling out forms and stopping for customs! It's all facial recognition! Enjoy your cruise!

thanks! I was interested in knowing if we could arrive earlier than our appointment time and confirmation that we could drop our bags. glad your aunt's bag was found! and the facial recognition this is going to be new to us!

16 hours ago, RaisingJoy said:

I was on the Legend with FTTF last week. We arrived at the parking lot at 11AM and were told there was a wedding and we had to leave and come back after 12. When we came back at 12:15 the lot was packed with rows of cars to get in. It took about 45 minutes to hand off our luggage and park. At the terminal there was a separate line into the building for priority boarding including FTTF and they didn’t look at your check in time. They did look at check in times in the other line and made people wait. Once in the building it was all just one big line.

 

There was a drug sniffing dog that sniffed all carry on luggage. He seemed disinterested in his job lol. Every worker in the terminal was super nice, I loved the ladies who checked us in. I’ve never met funnier, friendlier staff at a cruise terminal. We didn’t get on the ship until after 1:30 and our room was ready. So for embarkation I’m not sure that FTTF was worth it. 
 

The priority tender for HMC and also priority debarkation were definitely worth the money. We had a villa so we had priority for that anyways, but last cruise getting off at HMC was a nightmare. We did self carry off for our luggage and we were in our car driving home by 9:45. So I would buy FTTF again just for those two perks.

 

I hope that helps! I’m happy to answer any other questions.

thanks! this sounds like our past embarkations when we had a suite (pre-FTTF). sorry about the wedding delaying your getting on the ship and thanks for the reminder about the priority debarkation--we live 90 minutes away so it's nice being home before noon.

2 hours ago, wemjam said:

I can not 100% confirm if Baltimore port will let you in with FTTF if you arrive prior to your boarding time or not.  Someone else will have to do that.

 

However your boarding time is based on a time you selected, or assigned if you didn't.  If you take advantage of selecting your boarding time as soon as you can, you get a much better option and "position" in line more suitable to your liking.  If you did not do this when the window opened up a couple weeks prior to departure, then you were just assigned your current time slot.

 

 

 

🙃

thanks for all the info in both of your posts!

and I'm happy to read stuff from recent Baltimore passengers too. 😁

i did a search for this info but I didn't see the info I am looking for.

we're sailing the Legend out of Baltimore next month and we have FTTF. there's an image on our luggage tags with "Faster to the Fun" on them, but the boarding passes give us a 1-1:30 pm arrival appointment and the "C" boarding zone. there's no indication that we have FTTF on them. the boarding passes also note that all rooms will be available at 1:30 pm.

we haven't sailed post-covid from Baltimore with the new (to us) appointment system and we have never used FTTF before and so I am confused. I don't know when the Legend usually boards these days I now am wondering if FTTF is worth it if we have to wait until 1 -1:30 pm to start the boarding process and all rooms will be accessible then.

Baltimore Carnival folks--please help me decide what to do. thanks!

we sailing the Legend out of Baltimore next month and we have FTTF, there's an image on our luggage tags with "Faster to the Fun" on them, but the boarding passes give us a 1-1:30 pm arrival appointment and the "C" boarding zone.

we haven't sailed post-covid from Baltimore with the new (to us) appointment system and we have never used FTTF before and I am confused. I don't know when the Legend usually boards and the boardng pass also says that all rooms will be available at 1:30 pm.  I now am wondering if FTTF is worth it if we have to wait until -1:30 pm to start the boarding process and all rooms will be accessible then.

Baltimore Carnival folks--please help me decide what to do. thanks!

17 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

It is actually the Sky and Sun doing a couple of cruises from Baltimore. Baltimore as a cruise port and destination is not very nice. Even the touristy areas are not places you want to be out after dark. Up until the pandemic, Royal only out its oldest, most run down ship there. 

we've sailed the Carnival Pride twice out of Baltimore, prior to the pandemic. the ship may have been older, but that's because of the height restrictions for the Key Bridge--that's the only reason older ships sail from there, and those ships also sail from other ports, including Europe, and have scheduled dry docks to bring them as current as possible. in addition, they were easily our favorite cruises, first because of the crews who were incredible, and second because our fellow passengers were--for the most part--the same friendly, genuine, diverse, and non-pretentious people we knew from daily life in the DC/Baltimore metro area.

after a long absence from cruising we're sailing from Baltimore in May on the Pride's sister ship, the Legend, and we can't wait. and we're also booked on the Norwegian Sun in November and really looking forward to sailing NCL again from Baltimore since we know our fellow passengers are going to be awesome people looking to relax and have fun.