xitappers2bx

I think it depends where you are.  Our spring break next year is early--the week that you are going away, and then a long weekend around Easter.  I think most schools outside of the northeast have spring break in March though... we are in school until June, so ours is later than the rest of the country that seems to get out in May.

On 11/3/2019 at 9:16 AM, Countrygurl said:

After cruising RCI last year, we went back to Carnival with a cruise on the Magic to St Maarten, St Kitts, San Juan and Grand Turk.  After having cruised Spirit, Conquest, Glory, Vista and RCI Adventure, I think the Magic is my new favorite ship.

My parents are HUGE RCI people... they also really love the Magic; they were trying to hop onto our trip this winter, but I nixed it, this is a do nothing kid and mom trip.  

On 11/3/2019 at 9:16 AM, Countrygurl said:

 

While I won’t write a full review, I will say we enjoyed the size and layout of the ship.  Guys burgers and bar-be-que did not disappoint.  The other food was just ok.  Not real good, not bad.

I love the size, it's like just big enough to not feel crowded, but not so big like you get lost (which I've experienced on NCL and RCI).

On 11/3/2019 at 9:16 AM, Countrygurl said:

 

We noticed that personal service has slacked a bit in the 2 years since we’d sailed Carnival.  While it did not in any way negatively affect our enjoyment of the cruise, basically if you wanted a drink you were going to stand at the bar for it.  Wait service in Ocean Plaza, Red Frog Pub, and atrium was non existent.  Also a noticeable lack of personal service with our room attendant.  Poor Patrick just seemed to have so many cabins to take care of, we just left him to his duties and tried not to put anything additional on him.  He gets an A+ for keeping us clean and stocked with ice.  
 

Overall a great cruise.  We enjoyed the ship and the itinerary.  Happy to be back to Carnival but will sail RCI on occasion depending on itinerary.

Interesting about the service, but I wonder if they aren't as fully staffed during the slower seasons.  I'm interested to see how it is in a few weeks when we are on the Magic.  

On 11/5/2019 at 11:33 PM, JohnMich said:

If I purchased cruise cash is it good to use for drinks and pictures? Or would I need to purchase cruise cash bar and cruise cash pixels?

I always buy cruise cash (NOT the bar or the pixels one) and it is basically like buying a gift card for all your shipboard expenses. 

1 hour ago, azvacationgirl said:

Yesterday I purchased social media, water and chef’s table for our cruise next week.  My card was charged, but I never received a confirmation email.  Is this normal or should I call them to confirm.

I did this yesterday too, I did eventually get a confirmation e-mail (like 2 hours later).  I just checked, and its' still not showing up under my planner, BUT it is showing up under "Booking and Order Details."  I always print that all out (I buy a ton of cruise cash and water and stuff) and bring it with me, so if there's ever a question I have proof.  I would print out that page of your CC statement so that if there's an issue they can rectify it.

38 minutes ago, bakersdozen12 said:

I’ve never heard of the Chef’s Table being something you can purchase ahead of time. It’s always been that you email your request and then you receive an email confirmation if it’s confirmed. They charge the cost to you S&S account the night of the dinner. 

You can do it all through the cruise manager now; I was able to book Chef's Table, the Steakhouse, and the Italian spot on the Magic and pay for it.  It's great to not have to worry about payment later. The only thing NOT charged is gratuities.  

If you didn't buy trip insurance, which you don't state that you did, then when you bought your cruise fare, you agreed to their terms, which are, if you don't cruise and cancel after a certain point in time, you don't get any refund.  

You can't call them soulless for you not reading the contract you agreed to.  I am 150% certain you never thought you would need cruise insurance.  Unfortunately, without it, there's no reason they should give you anything.  

So I was writing out a whole step by step thing, and it turns out, you can't actually use a gift card to prepay gratuities online.  You can use them to buy cruise cash though, which can be used to pay all onboard expenses.  So that might be an easier way? 

You can have the exact same experience with YTD as with early dining.  When we get stuck with YTD we always go down to the dining room at the same time as the early seating, and we request the same server each night; usually after the first night of telling them you want the same table and server you do get them without having to ask.  

I booked my Christmas/Hanukkah cruise around the same time you did, and neither YTD or early dining were available.  We booked really late for the holiday season.  

My travel agent has always been able to obtain OBC after final payment, before final payment I am often offered either OBC or to have it refunded to my card.  You should always take a screenshot of the information being sent so then you have it after the fact if need be.  It's odd that they wouldn't give you the currency that benefits them (OBC).  

I like to live debt-free and credit card-free, but as a single mom traveling with my (with a now teenaged) daughter, I always buy cruise cash before boarding and then give them my credit card and never worry about a huge bill, and don't have to worry about carrying a large sum of cash on my person.  I figure out how much cruise cash is needed for gratuities, bingo, about how much for drinks, specialty dinners, and then some extra for whatever the teenager wants, and then at most I'm charging 100 or so on my credit card.  It's a seriously less stressful way to vacation, I never have a huge bill at the end to worry about, and I'm not basically taking out a loan to pay for my vacation by using a credit card.  

It's been a while since I've been on the Miracle, but it's a pretty basic globo style gym... but KBs are easy enough to replace with DBs; I use that all the time as a scaled option at the box I coach at.  

You'll get on the ship either way, and I get the sense most people don't follow those times anyway... at least it seems that way.

52 minutes ago, stellarose said:

OMG. we are Jewish traveling on Carnival during Hanukkah. I am hoping they have stuff on board to light the candles. I am bering my Mench on the bench. 

I've cruised a few times during Hanukkah; there's no candles allowed--they will take your menorah and your candles.  I just got a nice battery operated menorah on Zion Judaica's website for like $40 that i'll toss into my front window next year.  They do have a giant menorah in the atrium they light each night.

I also found some amazing ugly Hanukkah sweaters ('lets get lit" and "oy to the world") and some stupid cute hannucats shirts to wear with my teenager on Etsy.  

What Carnival ship are you on?  We're doing the Magic out of FLL.

We've sailed on ships during Christmas time but being Jewish, haven't actually ever decorated for Christmas.  I'm feeling the holiday-ish spirit this year though and wanted to surprise my kiddo with some decorations.  Their website is pretty ambiguous on what is and isn't allowed, "fire retardant materials," and "no string lights," what does that leave?

If you've decorated for the holidays while on board, can you offer up some ideas and maybe even a photo?  

For the Panama Canal partial transit, it doesn't matter what side you are on, because it turns around, so you see what you missed going in on the way out.  As for location, I prefer mid-ship, mid-level; on the Miracle and the Pride (sisters to the Legend) I have been on Deck 6... once I was aft though, and that size of ship does rock a lot and I found that I spent a huge amount of time being lulled to sleep, and when seas got rough, quite an upset tum.  Generally speaking, balcony's are small, I think in a regular balcony room there are just two chairs, so it's not like a place you'll be lounging, although I spend most of my time on my balcony, even if there are no lounge chairs and just the more uncomfortable smaller ones.  Even when we've had 4 people in a room (in a suite) we have only had seating for 2, and when we asked for extra chairs we were told it's a no go.  My kid and my friend's kid spent a lot of time laying on beach towels on the balcony and were just fun with it.

On 10/31/2019 at 4:44 PM, reeinaz said:

I read the FAQ on B2B cruises on Carnival's site. It says I can bring on my total entitlement of wine (2 bottles for 2 cruises) but the extra bottle will be held until the beginning of the next cruise. It also says that any alcohol I purchase while onboard will be held until the end of the final leg of my cruise. They won't be delivering the bottles to my room the last night of the first leg. Are these rules generally followed? I've read postings that said otherwise but don't know if those were the exceptions or just as likely to happen as not. 

They're going to do everything possible to make sure you don't get cheap liquor while on board.  

On 11/3/2019 at 10:35 AM, lmb84 said:

My question is this....We booked under "Hot Streak" offer which came with a $500.00 OBC FOR THE CABIN....I noticed this morning that our room category that we booked has come down quite a bit in price.  If I apply for the difference....do I lose the $500.00 offer that I initially booked under.  (I don't have that offer anymore)....it's just the room category has dropped...Thanks for any help

The answer is probably no, BUT if you have a great TA they may be able to make it happen; I was able to hold onto a better rate with perks and the such on another line by having my TA call them and just ask for the reduced rate; saved me over $800 so far... 

On 10/30/2019 at 6:54 PM, Tabatha1988 said:

I’m having issues with family and my cruise is the first week of December, and I’m getting stressed. I’m wondering if anyone here had purchased the Value or Premium plan and it worked with the Ring security cameras

Can you just upgrade your Ring service to the monitoring one for the month? It's like $10?  No clue how much the sensors are but if you are having problems, I imagine you already have them and can easily set up with the cameras and then set the parameters for there to be professional intervention. 

2 hours ago, Chicity Traveler said:

Cruising on the Breeze on the 30th of November. Just got a message about an upgrade that will send me from an interior cabin on the Lido deck to an ocean front cabin on deck 1 for $78. I am seriously thinking of declining that offer. 

They really are under-valuing the value they place on cabin deck; Lido is obviously more desirable, and deck 1 forward is very not desirable... They should be offering some big OBC for that downgrade... 

I would say that across all the Carnival ships I have been on, I would say the level of service and quality of food has been pretty standard.  I also would say it is similar to HAL as well... 

We experienced something similar to this on another line out of NYC... it was really weird, but I wonder if this is CBPs way of cracking down on smuggling or some other nonsense.  

This is a topic that has been beaten to death about 10,000 times... but I feel like people haven't had both experiences so I'll throw in my two cents...

First though, if you book through a TA you absolutely can order stuff through the Fun Shops... I now only book through a TA and I have never had any trouble logging into my account and buying whatever the heck I want in their Fun Shop.  If anyone gave you that info, they are wrong.  If you want internet, you book it and pay for it yourself; they don't do any of that if you don't want them to--and I don't want my TA to do any of that.

If you book on the website, you don't have a human being to really deal with, you can call the 800 number and get a person, but they're not really super invested because they're not making sales off of you.  If you end up booking online and then getting a PVP,  you now have a person who works for Carnival, and their duty is to their employer, not to you.  If you book through a TA you have someone who is making commission and getting paid ONLY when you are happy and they are serving you.  This gives them an incentive to do whatever you need for you to be happy.  

Now.  With that said, a few caveats for both.  There are some GREAT PVPs... they do exist, but I have never had one that would even quality as mediocre.  If you find one you love, hold on for life, because they are beholden to their employer, not to you.  There are also some TERRIBLE TAs.  People ask me all the time for my TAs information and I always tell them to find their own local person; most travel agencies are small, local, women-owned businesses so find someone local to your community.  I also can say, from my current personal experience, booking through one of the giant TAs, avoid that like the damn plague.  It has been one nightmare after another, and for the 14 days before final payment date (several weeks before final payment was due I had made final payment) they were having a computer error that left me unsure if I would even have a reservation because it refused to recognize my cruise as paid; and you have to fight with a computer voice to get a person.  

I've done the aft wrap, and really don't think it's all that "better" or "worse".  The benefit is, you get a lounge chair, which you don't get if you have a regular balcony.  I also don't think it's worth the sometimes 1000$ more price tag.  I also have a strong bias against being in the back of the ship; we were in the aft wrap suite a handful of years ago and I found that to be really too soothing and anytime we were in the room I either felt the movement too much and didn't love it, or I would find myself not being able to stay awake.  If you've never had a balcony, then you're in for a treat either way.  I know some people swear by aft rooms; I prefer mid ship.  

On 10/28/2019 at 2:27 PM, soonernstlouis said:

Hi All.

 

I‘ve been going back & forth on booking our next Carnival Cruise and am now considering Valor out of NOLA.  Since the pricing out of season on this ship is normally reasonable, I want to choose a balcony.  But I’ve heard so many good things about booking an aft wrap balcony I was really wanting to go for one of those.  Unfortunately there are only about 6 such rooms on the Valor and even selecting cruises well into 2021 finds nothing available.  So my questions are:

 

•What is the typical upcharge from per day from balcony to aft wrap?

•Is “aft extended balcony” really any better than balcony if aft wrap is not available?

•How far out did you have to book to get the aft wrap or did you have to use a PVP/TA to actually locate one?

 

Thanks

It sounds like the rate you booked was nonrefundable; but if you found a better cruise or a cheaper one, I would take the loss of the $99 and book what you really want to do.  I do know that flying into Galveston from where I live is really really expensive, so I'd be more than saving that in airfare alone.