klepton

Although Carnival has a reputation for its affordable prices, many times they are beat by other cruise lines that frequently offer 3rd and 4th passenger free promotions (like MSC, NCL and even HAL). Have your son expand his search to other cruise lines. He may be surprised to find that they may be more affordable.

 

That's how we ended selecting Holland for our family cruise to Alaska. Not only did our kids sail for free, but we received a complimentary upgrade to a balcony plus onboard credit. We sailed for considerably less than any other cruise line, including Carnival.

 

Another thing that your son may want to consider is the age groups for the kids programs. Unfortunately Carnival's program starts at the age of 2, so very little will be provided for his 1 year old. Other cruise lines like Royal Caribbean and Disney do offer kids programs for children as young as 8 months of age, and believe me, from personal experience, it makes a HUGE difference to have these options.

 

Much of this was unsolicited in that you didn't about it, but I second all of it. :D It's great advice about cruising with young kids. My 3yo will be on his 7th cruise next month. All but one of the 6 cruises we took before he turned three were on RCL or Disney because of the nursery.

 

Something else I'll add, and this is true on any line, but the 3rd and 4th guest is usually a percentage of 1st and 2nd passengers. As a result, it can be cheaper to get a whole different room than adding 3rd and fourth passengers to your cabin. Our Carnival cruise just before my son's first birthday was like that, we booked a GS. The 3rd and 4th passenger rate was about $200 higher than the double occupancy rate of an oceanview. We ended up saving money by getting a GS and connecting OV, rather than putting all of us in the same GS.

Oh what is the wine package??? I haven't seen anything about that??

 

http://www.carnival.com/onboard/cruise-the-vineyards

 

You can look online at Bon Voyage, some packages might be available there. But basically when you board they'll have a number of wine packages available. I forget the exact levels, but you can choose between different numbers of bottles (on a 7 day cruise there might be options for 3, 5, and 7 bottle packages) and then you also select the "level" of wine you want. Each level has a list of wines you can choose from, so the more expensive packages have wines that are traditionally more desirable. So when you buy the package you get a number of little cards, and you trade in these cards when you want to redeem for a bottle. At least that's the way it used to be, I'm sure someone will correct me if it's changed recently. :D

 

I like red wine, and the bottom package has always sufficed for me. My wife likes white wine, and in our experience the white wine is significantly better if you move one level up from the bottom. But that's pretty subjective. YMMV

LOL! Yes how rude of me! Sorry to doubt the answers of someone who said they weren't sure about something! I just wanted to see if anyone else had any input.

 

And I have gotten two different answers for the question if it counted towards your 15 drink maximum. So my question still does not have a definite answer.

 

I was surprised by ellenw's answer as well, I had not heard that it started counting, but her experience definitely indicates that it did count towards the limit in her situation.

 

If that's true, maybe consider buying a wine package (or two) instead of buying by the bottle.

I think at times they raise the price to scare those who have been waiting to book to jump in and make the reservation before the prices go even higher. Many times they come back down. Airlines seem to pull this all the time.

 

While I haven't figure out exactly what they do, I think there's some truth to this statement. It's also possible the price fluctuations are driven by other factors (bookings, cancellations, TA releases, etc) and it's purely coincidental. But there have been numerous times I've researched cruises, and then when I've gone back to book the price has increased by hundreds of dollars. I usually wait a few days and the price returns back to what it was. Last time I deleted my cookies, tried a different browser, and even tried a different computer in my house; the higher price was always shown. Then I connected via mobile broadband access (made my phone a wifi hotspot) and was mysteriously seeing the lower price I had seen a few days ago. I refreshed both my home computer and my laptop at the same time and was seeing different pricing. Odd...

 

That said, this would mean RCCL would be tracking visits by IP address and adjusting prices based on behavior. Given they can't get even basic IT functions working correctly recently, I seriously doubt they're trying to play psychological games with pricing. :D

 

Sure seems that way though...

Hi I am 21 years old and my parents are considering taking me on a 9 day cruise aboard the Vision of the seas on January 2nd to the southern Caribbean. I know on the bigger ships like Allure or Oasis there would be a lot of people my age but I am wondering if there would be any people my age on the Vision or if I would be bored like crazy on the ship. Please let me know your opinions thanks.

 

When would you be going and what would the itinerary be? That's probably more a factor than the ship itself. A 9-day Southern Caribbean cruise from Miami at Christmas time will be much different than a 9-day NE/Canada cruise in late Sept, for example.

 

That said, Vision class ships generally attract an older crowd. If you like gambling the Casino can be lively at night, but most of the entertainment isn't something that I would necessarily have liked when I was 21. It also depends what you are looking for and what you like. If you're happy curling up on a lounge chair and reading a book, a more laid back cruise might be better. If you want to meet a lot of other young adults, have a night club for dancing, etc. Then a Vision class ship might not be your first choice.

For the record I agree with the others in that I think this is a bad idea...

 

However, to answer your question, when we were in Belize in 2009 there were two stores right in the port area sell Rx meds. They made a big show about it, big signs with price lists, etc. Not sure if it's still that way, but back then you couldn't have missed it if you were walking around the port area.

you ask a question, get an answer and then do not believe the answer, really?

 

Maybe OP mistook the "I think" in the response for the question about it counting towards the cheers limit.

 

OP - Purchasing a bottle of wine, even with the Cheers discount, does not add to your Cheers drink count for the day.

Until you get a porter that transposes the cabin number and you have to go searching for your bags .... unless you happen it see it sitting out in the hall by a cabin that isn't yours.

 

Exactly... this happens.

 

We have a travel stapler that we use to staple our printed luggage tags at the hotel morning of. DW and I can do it quickly, she folds and I staple. Though I've never used them the luggage tag holders do look promising.

The non-dock side does not look directly at open ocean. You can look at google maps/earth to see the layout, but you'll be docked in Great Sound. Bermuda makes a 3/4 (probably more like 7/8) circle around Great Sound. The dock is at the very point on the west side. If you look out the non-dock side you'll look across the sound and see land (most of the north shore), see ship/boat traffic, and if you look left you can see out to the ocean. Not a bad view at all....

I can think of a few rational reasons. Perhaps the OP was thinking one, or more, of the following:

 

1. The "coughing mess" doesn't appear on the same exact day each year, but may appear say, sometime between August and November, which would mean booking a cruise during that time would be a calculated risk, but not guaranteed to coincide with the illness.

 

2. He/She is a child. Perhaps he/she has outgrown this.

 

3. It's the only time of year I have to book, so I'll take a chance.

 

4. It's the only time of year cruises are cheap enough to be affordable for me.

 

5. This coughing only shows up once a year, so I forgot about it.

 

I'm not saying any of these reasons were what the OP was thinking, when he/she booked. But I have little doubt there WAS a reason that made sense, at least to the OP. We know far too little about the OP's circumstances to assume they were acting irrationally when they booked their cruise.

 

You beat me to it. People on this thread are acting as if this boy gets the same virus on Sept 28th of each year, and parent's booked a cruise for Oct 1 knowing their son would get sick...

 

I usually get sick during season changes too (I'm sick now actually), but the seasons don't change at the same time year-to-year. I wouldn't ever not book a cruise thinking I might be sick.

I know this is an old thread, but I had this today as well and wanted to share my experience. In my case I was applying a gift card and paying off the entire amount.

I could add vacation protection and it showed as $0 for all four of us, and didn't change the total at all. I then applied the gift card successfully. When I went back to look at the reservation it had increased by about $500 ($159 for two adults, $99 for two kids). Prices were showing correctly and the total due was adjusted accordingly. I just removed vacation protection from everyone and we're back to normal.

What room were you in for June? I would love a balcony that connects to an inside, and we are sailing Liberty next year...

 

Already answered by others, but we were in the 9396 & 9401 combination on the Liberty. This was an awesome configuration! DW and the kids slept in the inside (DS had a travel cot). I slept in the balcony room because I was the last to bed and the first one up in the morning. I like the sun shining in the morning, everyone else liked it dark (which the inside was). DS could take his naps and we had another room + balcony to hang out in.

 

Another cool feature was our balcony "extended" over to where the balcony would have been for the inside cabin. There was a rail there, which you just crawled under, and there was a sloped wall that made for low headroom, but it was a nice little cove that DD liked. She'd put a blanket down and then crawl back there to read. Our balcony itself was a very decent size, very deep. My only complaint was the chairs were very uncomfortable. All in all though, I love the configuration and would book again for sure on Freedom/Voyager class.

 

We booked over a year in advance and one of the pairs was already booked, they go fast!

Does it have to be the Vision? The newer ships DO have some better configurations.

 

In this case, yes. 16 day Suez Canal cruise, I can't be too picky about the ship. :D

 

The Liberty was great in June! We got a balcony that connected to an inside.

The kids can be across the hall if the cabin is DIRECTLY across the hall. You can't book this on the website; you will need to call RC (or use a TA).

 

I always call C&A and get excellent customer service. 800-526-9723

 

You and your wife will get the double points in your GS, plus Concierge Lounge privileges.

 

You didn't ask, but if I were traveling with a 4 & a 12 year old, I would put them into a cabin which had a door connecting to my cabin. No way would I put a child that young across the hall.

 

YMMV

 

;)

 

Thanks Merion_Mom, I appreciate the tips.

 

Kids wouldn't sleep by themselves over there, I'm not sure how we'd do the sleeping arrangements but we definitely wouldn't put the kids by themselves. This is just for booking to get DW the gold card benefits and double points. Might be DW and the kids use that as just a bedroom (DS will have a travel cot). That's how we did it a few months ago. But I agree with you, no way would we let them sleep alone in a room that didn't connect. :-) I wish the vision had a GS that connected to an inside.

 

I'll call RCCL to book and see what I can do. Thanks again!

I'm looking at booking two rooms, a GS and a J (Inside cabin) across the hall. However, since these staterooms are not connecting I'm under the impression that I can't book my two kids (12 and 4 at the time of cruising) in that room by themselves. The rub is that I would like my wife and myself to get the double C&A points and gold card privileges for the suite, not my kids. Is there any way to accomplish this?

 

I could book all 4 of us in the GS, but believe it or not that would be $1400 more than getting two rooms. I figure the kids don't need double points or gold card privileges.

We cruised on the Spirit in '09, first week of march. I think NCL (or a TA) must have done a recruiting session at Vanderbilt because hundreds of Vandy students were on our cruise (including most of the football team). For the most part they were very nice and respectful. The pool deck and hot tubs were packed all day with college kids. As others have said, the drinking and rowdiness had greatly subsided by the 5th/6th/7th day. :D

We've used Budget as well. We were staying at the Radisson just down the street, so I was able to drop the car off and walk back to the hotel, then take the hotel shuttle to the port. That location does also offer a shuttle to the port if you drop off the morning of your cruise.

Where do you find all these rules for Luggage Valet? We used it with Southwest last time we cruised and we had no special considerations on our tickets. This time, I am on a companion pass so I wonder if we will be denied. I hope not as it is so convenient!

 

FWIW we used it last December and my wife was flying as my companion for the CP. We had no issues at all, though we did everything through the concierge so that may have made a difference.

Well then I guess you sort of agree that she will need to know before the morning of embark then?

 

I said that before... twice. I can tell her the day before we leave so she can pack. Doesn't mean I need to tell her everything. She just needs to know we're going on a cruise, she doesn't need to know it's the Breakaway. That reveal can wait until we see the ship.

Still a silly idea to surprise his wife this way. Sorry just logic talking here. Lol.

 

Thanks luvtheships! I'm glad I found someone on here who knows my wife better than me to steer me in the right direction! :D That probably sounded snarkier than I meant it to... :cool:

 

My wife loves surprises and is the spontaneous type, as long as I can cover all the basics without her knowing (telling her employer, stopping mail, etc.) she'll be ecstatic. Packing is the only challenge, as I wouldn't attempt to pack for her (or DD for that matter). That's why I'll probably have to spill the beans a day or so before so they can pack themselves. I've whisked her away on surprise weekend getaways before, she likes it.

 

I have a feeling the surprise might be broken before that know... the more people who know about it the more likely someone is to let something slip. We'll see...

How to access the rock climbing? Is there stairs to rock climbing area?

 

I don't remember exactly, it's been a few years, but I don't remember it being difficult to find. I want to say we walked in a hallway on a certain deck, probably 7 or 8, and walked all the way aft to a door out to a deck. The rock wall desk and queue were back there. I think there are also stairs from the boardwalk level, but don't quote me on that.

 

There are two rock walls on the Allure (and Oasis), both in the same place but on opposite sides of the ship (starboard and port aft).

Do one of the longer helo tours that fly up the Hudson and pass over the BA (i.e. the embarkation day before yours and shop for summer clothing on 5th all week long :D ).

 

Your view will be this:

 

 

You will wear headsets so you can communicate with each other and the pilot.

 

Thank you for the picture! I had considered a helo tour for this actually. it's nice to get a visual. I don't think we'll get to NYC an entire week before though.

Not sure which ship you're sailing on but we had an OS on the Legend that worked very well for us. It's quite a bit bigger than the GS, which worked very well having two kids as well as us. The curtain around the bed provided a dark area for naps (both our son and DW :D) and the dining room table was great for getting breakfast in the room. The balcony was a lot larger too. It also worked well because we were travelling with others and our room was definitely big enough for the group to hang out in.

 

All that said, if it was just DW and I $80/night sounds pretty steep. The GS is a very nice suite, and all the perks are the same.

I'm considering getting Vibe passes even though we're in a haven suite. It'll be nice to have an adults-only place to go, but also have the haven if our kids want to come. Plus we'll be travelling with other family who aren't in a haven suite, so we can hang out with them at VIBE. And having an outdoor bar at Vibe sounds appealing to me as well.

 

But I think most would probably call it overkill...

Slamming of the balcony doors has always been a pet peeve of mine as well. I'm wondering if they slam their front door at home. I don't get it.

 

I would guess most people don't have the same type of door at home. My front door doesn't shut unless I pull it shut. Balcony doors on the ships will slam if you just let them go, no pushing required.