WindsorFred

Good answer. I never win the lottery either. LOL :)

Well keep playing, someone has to.

All I ever get when I check it is "There are no avaible specials at this time please check back often." It's been that way for the last 7 years.

Wow, I always have the free "2 Upgrade" offer.

ADA wouldn't apply in a foreign country, and self-assist means just that. I vote cranky.

Same vote for me.

How long is your cruise? I don't think you'll be able to take them off when you debark. I wouldn't do it if it's a short cruise.

I know you can't at any non US port and don't believe you can at a US port either.

Not till it's actually "taken", then it will show on the VIFP page. Till then it's only on your "Manage" page.

How to you get selected for this? My husband and I are both platinum and the best we have had is a lower casino rate. :mad:

From the last go around the thought is it's a "lottery" basically. Random selections.

i was sitting here reading the forums and thought "maybe i should order my wife some flowers and have them sent to the room the day we board".. so heres my question... i know i can order them straight through carnival gift shops, but if i order them now (we will cruise fantasy in september for like the 4th time) anyways will it show up on the statements and papers on the carnival website?.. she checks it often, also we use the same cc and it can be checked online so any purchase from carnival gift shops would be seen and prolly a dead giveaway that i was planning something.. any insight would be helpful.. thanks:D

If I remember correctly you pay by credit card when you order, so no there is no statement outside of your credit card monthly billing. If she doesn't see that when it comes you are home free.Nice touch to start the cruise.

Is it listed under the VIFP offers? If so, darn, all I have is an upgrade available. Congrats to everyone who gets one; and it gives me hope that someday it will be us!

Yes under the VIFP offers. Hang in there it's bound to happen.

Just checked mine=40% off early saver. Will have DW check hers when she get's home.

Just logged in 5 min ago, no problems.

On the Valor they had a Fish&Chips place over there, so my guess would be every Conquest class ship has some sort of restaurant/buffet over there, but I'm not sure for the Liberty.

Same for the Freedom, been on her twice so far. Great place to eat on embarkation day, no crowds.

Yes thankfully my documents are printed and waiting for me to finish packing! 10 days to go!

 

And congrats on quitting smoking yourself! It is not an easy thing to do.

Sweet, no worries then.

Yes it was used the ecig to quit, tried cold turkey but did not have the will power.

7 cruises so far and have always met our Steward on embarkation day. Some we see/interact with more than others, their choice. Have always had a balcony so probably spend more time that day on the balcony till sail away so more chance of seeing them?

It seems to be a glitch. The rep I spoke with can see my booking and attempted to transfer me to their ESolutions department for assistance with the website but ended up disconnecting me. They really need some assitance with learning how to transfer calls as this has happened before. I will keep an eye on the website to see if it reappears at some point today.

Good to hear. Have you printed your cruise docs yet? Congrats on quitting smoking, after almost 40 years I quit just over a year ago.

 

That's just great, Fred! It really helps to know you've accomplished that an hour earlier than we need to. Like cra-z-2cruise we enjoy Fort Lauderdale and even used to have a time share there. We are trying to keep enough leave days for DH to take the Fridays off after Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. After retiring from the military he contracts with the Defense Dept and has had his job cut three times in the past two years by Congress refusing to ratify a budget. That puts him back to low leave levels every time. We're very grateful he's back to work and are hoping he can have relaxing winter holiday weekends AND this cruise over Labor Day. All this info will help me facilitate those schedules! Don't you just love Cruise Critic boards for the terrific people you meet!

 

Welcome, also TSA security can back up there, it's a small airport and a lot of cruise passengers so once there I would go thru security and wait on the concourse/gate. Enjoy your cruise and have a great time.

Hopefully just a web site glitch. Let us know what you find out.

Just checked and our 2/2/2015 is listed?

Carnival Freedom

Ship with 2.0 upgrades

Grand Suite

FTTF

Port of Antigua

Separate cabin from ours for our now 16 year old son and his friend

3 sea days on a Caribbean cruise

 

Whoo hoo!

Enjoy. Let us all know what your impression of the 2.0 upgrades are. We board her 2/2/2015. We loved Antigua in 2012.

[quote name=cra-z-2cruise;"We were up early the next day for self assist disembarkation.

I have to say this was the absolute easiest disembark we have ever had.

Essentially no line at all to get off the ship and only a small one for customs.

 

We stayed on extra day in Fort Lauderdale and were at our hotel before 8:00."

 

Thanks for your great review' date=' it's so helpful and so much fun to read! What time did you actually get off the ship in Ft. Lauderdale? The airline cancelled our afternoon flight and put us on an 11:55am flight. We had already bought FTTF and transfers to the airport but the Carnival rep said we shouldn't count on getting off the ship in time to use their transfer to the airport for a noon flight even though it's within their time parameters. We've cruised out of Ft Lauderdale before and have driven to the airport many times but this is our first time on Freedom. I assume getting off with self assist and FTTF will get us off in plenty of time to get a cab but I was hoping to hear from someone like you who has done it recently. Thanks so much for all you great information. Lots of us are benefiting from your generosity.[/quote]

 

We've used self assist and gotten off around 8 AM twice now and made our flights, one was 10:45 and the other was a little later. It's only a 10 minute cab ride to the airport. For 4 of us it was around $15 total + tip.

We missed Kona on our Hawaii cruise due to rough sea's. it's a tender port. Only one we have missed on all our cruises do far (crosses fingers).

We had FTTF for our Miracle cruise to Hawaii in January of this year. We travelled with another couple, who also had FTTF. We both got to the check in counter at the same time, but they were done much sooner than we were. There is a "special line" for FTTF, so you'll want to look for that. As has been said in earlier posts, this port is very disorganized. We stood at the check in window for over 20 minutes because they couldn't find our sign and sail cards! They had to be re-printed! It was so frustrating because our friends had to wait for us to get done, and it took forever. When we went through the door into the second check in area, I told the Carnival rep that this definitely wasn't "faster" or "fun".

You're also supposed to get your luggage before anyone else. I had two bags and so did my husband. We got all of our bags, with the exception of my second bag. That one finally showed up around 8 p.m., and that was after I had called to inquire about its whereabouts.

If you're going on a Hawaii cruise, the only port you'll need FTTF is in Kona. Due to high seas, we missed that port, so we didn't need it for tender priority anyway.

Finally, you're supposed to get priority disembarkation, but that was disorganized, as well. We had an early flight, and we made it just in time.

All in all, I would say that FTTF is only advantageous if you have multiple tender ports, and you want to get to your cabin early. Weigh your options carefully. I don't think it was much of an advantage in Long Beach, or on the Hawaii cruise.

Guess we were onboard with you. Missing Kona due to high seas and getting in late to Maui because of rough seas.

Same for us!! We have been on 20 Carnival cruises and have never ran into this type of behavior. Maybe its the time of year we travel as we always go off season. Oct. is one of our favorite months to cruise- less people, cheaper rates!:)

Pat

Same here, we cruise in Jan/Feb and though there have been some "entertaining" fellow passengers we have never experienced problem's as stated by the OP and others.

Enjoy, still have 239 days till our next one.

Yes. Can will be a lot closer to other tables usually but we did get a booth for 4 a few times for just the 2 of us.

We arriver at port about 10:30 for our sailing. We were seated in Zone 2 about 10:45. They didn't start boarding until about noon. We were on board within 20 minutes after boarding started.

Same here, arrived around 10:30 and onboard about 1 hr later.