bjd2

I always book really far in advance so I really appreciate that double digit dance. Time seems to go much faster once you reach this point. My next cruise was booked 23 months in advance and now I can say we're going "next month"!!!

Congrats!

I think you might have to call. You should have received a receipt with each purchase. Keep in mind CC is capped at $500 per cabin.

It's actually 500 per person. The website won't let you buy more than 500 but if you call they will work it out. I always put 1000 on but have to call for the second half.

The Sunshine is our favorite out of 8 great Carnival cruises. We are thrilled to be booked again for next March partly for the amazing Serenity area (yes I get up really early for great seats by the pool), and dinner at Cucina and JiJi's. There are many other things that we loved about our last cruise on her, but these surely stand out.

We got FTTF on our first cruise last April and it was well worth the extra $50 just to sail through check-in in 10 minutes and be one of the first on the ship by 11:00am. Just booked another 7 day cruise last week for April 2018 but its too early and none of the shore excursions, like FTTF, are even showing up yet. It still says "we are still scheduling shore excursions for this port." Were still 1 year and 2 months out before our cruise. Anyone know how many months before FTTF usually shows up for sale on cruises?

My experience has been usually 10-12 months out. I am going to be checking at least once a day for our March 2018 sailing to hopefully get one for my sister again :).

I've managed to stalk the excursions and get FTTF for every cruise since it was launched. We'll be using it for our upcoming Vista cruise, but will be turning platinum on the cruise after that so will have to stalk for it for someone else, lol.

Right before final payment for our Vista cruise, my sister had to cancel her booking. I had purchased FTTF for her. Right as the booking was canceled I announced the FTTF to our roll call and I would say less than 5 minutes later someone commented with thanks that they had gotten it. Many were bummed that they missed it.

Some might feel it isn't worth it, but we have truly enjoyed boarding early and dropping our bags off in our cabin, unpacking our suitcases early, and waiting less at Guest Services due to being able to use the priority line.

Our cruise on the Sunshine was our favorite out of 8 great cruises. This is the first ship that we're going to repeat. I'm enjoying this review as it reminds me of many of the things that we loved about this ship. Thanks!

I agree with most everything but this "and a very formal service experience" We were really disappointed to be eating in the middle of the kitchen. We thought it was extremely tacky. The food, service and presentation were amazing.

 

 

As to kids, a 14 year old with a very good palate might enjoy the eclectic offerings. The 8 year old will not enjoy or have the patience for this dining and wine pairing experience.

Our experience was on the Conquest in a very beautiful private dining room off of the main dining room. It was a very formal experience and each dish was set down simultaneously by several wait staff. We haven't done one that was in the galley and I know the Vista is, but in a glass room. It will be different I'm sure.

It's hard to explain how wonderful the Chef's Table is in words. We will do it any chance we can get in. Looking forward to it on the Vista in April. If you appreciate food that becomes art in presentation and creativity, and a very formal service experience, give it a try.

The Conquest Chef's Table is in a beautifully decorated private room off of a dining room. We were very impressed with the entire experience and are booked again for our upcoming Vista cruise. Excited to see the new menu and glass room in the galley.

Be comfortable, you spend a few minutes in the kitchen and it gets pretty warm in there. If I remember correctly they do require that you wear close toed shoes for safety purposes.

Our Chef's Table invite "suggested" closed toed shoes. I followed the suggestion but several of the other ladies did not.

I hope our experience was a fluke. We had FTTF but it took nearly an hour to get through customs (only 2 agents) and then nearly 2 hours in line at the airport. We got to our gate only about 10 minutes before boarding for our noon flight. This was on a Sunday and at least 5 ships had come in that morning.

We got close one night in the casino and asked the bartender if we could buy one. He nodded his head and said, "so you want to buy one for a friend?", and kept nodding until we looked at each other and said, "yes, we'd like to buy one for a friend".

All good after that.

All bars might not work like that, but if you want to buy one, they don't need to know who it's for (IMHO).

I can't wait to not have to go get chairs by the pool at 6am!

We are in a Havana cabana and so are some of our best friends made on cruises. We have 3 in a row. We're very excited. We also booked so early that you now can't get a balcony guarantee for what we got our cabana for.

:D

The Pride was our last ship, and Vista is our next. I know that I missed JiJi and Cucina as I had them on the Sunshine. We are in a Havana cabin so looking very forward to some of the great new things that the Vista has to offer.

Thanks for the comparison!

I booked on 5/9/15 for 4/8/17 and at the time was the last Havana Cabana.

People: 2

Cruise status: gold (9th cruise, all with Carnival)

Cruise details: 8 night Eastern

Cabin: HE Havana Cabana

Cruise rate: 2,978

Taxes, fees, gratuities: 434.04

Total: 3,412.04

My sister is booked alone in a 1A and her rate is 1718!

Our rate is less than a balcony guarantee now so I feel like our rate is great especially for a Havana Cabana.

We ordered a case on our last cruise and had Cheers so had plenty of water with that. I'm not ordering the case for our next cruise.

We didn't have any kids with us though. I probably would if we did.

We've done both ships and itineraries. Southern is my favorite, and Sunshine may be our favorite ship.

We did this for our 25th anniversary cruise. Our canvas is beautiful but we paid almost $300 to professionally frame it back at home. It was ready to go and rolled up in a tube to take home. I love it but didn't realize how much really good framing costs :D

Thanks so much for sharing your story. It's so great to hear how caring the medical staff are. Glad to hear that you're recovery is going well too. :)

We were always front row by the pool and found the waterfall was quite loud and drowned out much of the Lido noise.

haha, yes, the "egg yolk" did scare a lot of people! Especially since it was the very first course so no one knew what to expect.

 

Ooo, have fun with it on the Vista, I would love to hear about that one too!

I know! I'm really excited for that. I'm not good at taking food pictures so hopefully there will be someone who does a nice review like yours. :)

Great review and fun to see it again as it's been a year and a half since we had this menu. I'll never forget the look on hubby's face when the Mango Sphere tray came a jigglin' out. It was horror! He whispered to me that he can't do egg yolk. It turned out great and fun and I had told him that I highly doubted they were going to make a group of people all eat raw egg yolk :D

Looking forward to the Chef's Table on the Vista. I hear the menu is new. I have our confirmation and can't wait!

At least you hope it is your last cruise before becoming platinum. A change in the Loyalty Program might change that. I hope not. I am supposed to become platinum on my next cruise. Will just have to wait and see.

Yikes, I hope not. We do 8 night cruises as we live in the midwest and can only go once a year. It's taken us 8 years to get this far, lol. If they change it, I guess I'll just have to obsess to get my FTTF a little longer :D

On our next cruise (8 nights), they opened up 15-20 (can't remember now) FTTF on May 31st. They were gone in 40 minutes and I got 2 of them for ours and our sister's cabins.

This is our last cruise before becoming platinum, so I won't need it for our cabin anymore. My sister is new to cruising and loves it so will likely still stalk and pay the bit higher price to have it. To us, it is worth it.