Straitlover

It does have the heated tile chairs, the fancy steam rooms (lanconium, etc), just not the pool, which to me is the best part LOL. I'm hoping all the full spa passes don't sell out on my Oct cruise so I can buy a one-day pass onboard to go relax on the time chairs, though.

If it matters, the Cloud 9 on Sunshine does not have the thasallotherapy (sp?) pool. I had been looking to book a spa room on Sunshine until I found that out.

Are the bottles at the bars already cold? If so, I'll get mine there. Haven't cruised since they changed it up.

The pdf worked for me. It says unavailable here in the thread, but I clicked on it, and it opened is a separate window on my laptop.

Do they offer samples of those jelly beans? I love key lime pie. I hate jelly beans normally, but I would give key lime ones a go if I could try before buying.

EDIT: whoops, I didn't notice the date on the funtimes pdf. Guess it's not exactly correct. 🙂

Could be the big increase in demand w/ the COVID testing changes. I saw a story earlier this week saying demand triples when that was announced.

I know Sunshine and Freedom don;t have aft suites. I believe it's only the newest ships (Mardi Gras, Celebration, Jubilee?) that have them. Panorama has Havana, Family Harbor, etc that have suites, but I can't get the deck plan to open on my laptop to see if any are aft.

Hopefully doing an Oct trip out of CHS. Sister has a casino offer, and we originally going to do Port Canaveral, but if we do CHS, no need to drive down the day before and pay for a hotel. Freedom cruise is a tiny bit cheaper (around $50?), but we picked CHS. Drive to our condo in Little River, SC Sat AM then head to CHS early Monday morning (2.5 hr or so drive). Never been to CHS before, so we can do a little sightseeing when we get back Sat AM then head back to Little River late afternoon.

First cruise since Alaska in June 2018. First Carnival cruise since Feb 2016!

1 hour ago, PC 462 said:

When we cruised in March there was a long line outside the terminal building.  A worker was going around asking if anyone had VeriFly, so I assume that would allow faster check-in.  We used paper and it worked.  Will be trying VeriFly in September.

Thanks. I'll give it a look-see to see if I can figure it out,  not tech savvy :).

Haven't cruised since pre-covid, so not sure how this all works. If we're driving to port (Charleston), do we use this Verifly app for our vaccination cards? Since we won;t need to deal with testing, if we can jsut show the cards when we check in, I'm thinking that might be the easiest?

On 5/8/2022 at 8:48 PM, don't-use-real-name said:

 

The four ships scheduled for July 4 2022 -

Princess - Crown Princess

Holland-America - MS Koningsdam

Holland-America - MS Eurodam

Celebrity - Solstice

 

 

Here's the current dock schedule for 7/4:

Princess - Crown Princess FKL Dock

Holland-America - MS Koningsdam   AS Dock

Holland-America - MS Eurodam   CT Dock

Celebrity - Solstice   AJ Dock

I received the offer , mine expired 4/15. Yes, rate started at $30 for interior, add on about $175 for port fees and taxes, still a great price. However, airfare was $600 - $850 (depending on date) per person, so I passed. No way am I paying that price for RDU-SEA. Might have splurged if it was the one way cruise I did in 2018 (Seward to Vancouver on HAL), but not a Seattle RT on Carnival. Besides, I need to sue that $$ on extensive yard work. 🙂

Sounds like a nice place. That's definitely not the place I stopped at.

We got two great views of Denali on the drive up. There a mile marker where you're ascending and then you hit the crest, and if it's clear, the mountain is right smack in front of you! It's listed in the milepost if anyone wants to get the mile marker. I was driving, so i couldn't get pictures, but my sister got some OK ones. The other one was where you turn off to head to the Princess Cruiseline's Lodge. There's a gravel lot you can park in right at the turn off and get some great pics if it's clear.

No, that's not it. It was an old cabin looking place w/ old road signs and such. It was by itself, not part of anything  else. I wish I had kept my Milepost, as it was listed on that route. Known for the burgers and pies. Headed to Denali, it was on the right side of the road, and it had a little open field nest to it. There was someone w/ a tiny airplane w/ a tent attached to it, plane camping I guess!

I will have to dig through my pictures and see if I took one of it. Thanks though!

On our 2018 trip, we stopped at a restaurant on the parks Highway that is well known for it's pies. For the lifk of me I can't recall the name. It was about halfway there? Think it had Roadhouse in the name (not Talkeetna Roadhouse, it was on the main road, not a turn off) and maybe the mile marker??? Help! 🙂

If your budget allows, I recommend doing a one-way cruise Anchorage-Vancouver. W did the southbound one in 2018 (HAL Noordam) and took the train from Anchorage to Seward to get to the ship. That was one of my favorite parts of the whole cruise, beautiful views of coastlines and even small glaciers. We splurged and got the car w/ the glass top so we didn't have to deal with trying to get a little time in the viewing area that everyone else shared. You also get a meal and priority service in the dining car.

I also recommend Glacier Bay. Love how the spun the ship around for everyone to see.

We went to Haines,  and we just rented a car and drove up to Canada (stopped to see eagles and such in one area). Next time, i hope to do Skagway and do the train/bus combo.

Was hoping to go back this year w/ a deal I got from Carnival (Seattle round trip), but flight were too outrageous. Maybe another time - enjoy your trip!

27 minutes ago, jsglow said:

Whidbey Island is outstanding. We've done a day trip out there with our son.  

We were hoping to stop there for awhile, but we had gotten held up at the border crossing longer than  we hoped, so we only got to drive through. Maybe next time!

1 hour ago, Straitlover said:

If you have enough time, you could rent a vehicle and drive to Vancouver. Someone on here posted a great scenic route between Vancouver and Seattle. We did it back in 2018. Got to ride on the car ferry and everything! I will hunt around and see if I can find it.

 

EDIT: couldn't find the post, but I did have the route in Google bookmarked: SeaTac Car Rental to Canada Place Route . Going over Deception Pass was cool, too! Steveson is where they filmed exteriors of the tv show Once Upon a Time. Bought a map that showed you which stores were what in the show. Cute little place.

Martincath is the person I got the route from! I'm sure he could provide better info than I gave.

Another option would be to do two one-way car rentals if you don't want to worry about car security. I know in 2021 car rental rates were high, not sure if they have started coming down or not.

On 3/18/2022 at 5:14 PM, ctkathchick said:

We are hoping to fly into Seattle 4 days early and then take the Cascades train up to Vancouver B.C. but it appears that the train is not running at least so far on or about May 19th. I'm hoping that someone has their crystal ball polished and maybe heard that the trains will start running again sometime in April otherwise we will postpone Seattle for another time. We are ready to book flights and are so disappointed we hear the bus trip is not very scenic.

If you have enough time, you could rent a vehicle and drive to Vancouver. Someone on here posted a great scenic route between Vancouver and Seattle. We did it back in 2018. Got to ride on the car ferry and everything! I will hunt around and see if I can find it.

EDIT: couldn't find the post, but I did have the route in Google bookmarked: SeaTac Car Rental to Canada Place Route . Going over Deception Pass was cool, too! Steveson is where they filmed exteriors of the tv show Once Upon a Time. Bought a map that showed you which stores were what in the show. Cute little place.

We took the public bus to Totem Bight. One thing I thought was amazing is the bus stopped at an elementary school, and two kids (couldn't been more than 10 YO) hopped on all on their own to head home. No way would the parents around here would let them do that, LOL. Got off the bus near Creek Street and did some sightseeing before heading back to the ship. Cheap day!!!

Anyone know if the 5 bags for $25 is all at once or can you spread that out over several days? I loved the unlimited laundry for $49 on my HAL Alaska cruise!

On 8/30/2021 at 5:49 PM, ALWAYS CRUZIN said:

I doubt it. His wife got sick. He was lucky. For those who think that Carnival is hiding anything. Right now every cruise has a CDC representative on board watching everything. Want a free cruise. Become a CDC spy.

Not too lucky; he tested positive a few days later.

As far as Vancouver goes, I'd just do a cab. We took a cab from the cruise port to the Auberge Vancouver Hotel, and it was really cheap and I was able to use my CC to pay fare plus tip so no need to Canadian dollars. The train station is not that much more far, so it shouldn't cost too much.

Check any Sleep Inns in the area. Most of the ones I have stayed in have been showers only. I know there is one near the airport, as it was down the street from where I stayed in 2018.

18 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

I guess I’ll probably bring a $7 bottle of water then.

A lot of airports now have the filtered water fountains, so you could bring an empty bottle/mug and fill it up after security.