jetta8300

I m a little confused about the so called "price drops" discussed often here. I'm cruising on the Pride this coming April, a long ways away! I booked under an Early Saver rate. We have an extended aft view balcony cabin booked, I've checked back a few times to see if any Premium Balcony cabins come available, (which they have not) and I noticed today that the extended aft cabin next to us would be about $100 cheaper now than the one we booked last week. Its under the past guest rate.

Is this a price drop? Can I call and get OBC for the difference or am I confused? any help is appreciated!:D

We cruised the Allure of the Seas with RCCL and the Carnival Freedom. The two ships weren't really comparable, but there were things we liked better about each I think that would apply to most cruises.

We thought Carnival MDR food was definitely better. More variety, better quality, bigger portions, something for everyone. However we thought RCCL buffet food was better (as well as more options). Carnival won hands down though with the amazing drinks. Much better, stronger drinks with Carnival and a great drink menu. The martini's, DOD's, everything drink wise was better on carnival.

We loved the movies under the stars with Carnival and really missed that with the Allure. The Allure had movie screens but they were never showing movies. They were used as a background for some shows and did show a major sporting event but that's it.

Carnival's rooms were bigger but also uglier. But we would take the bigger room any day.

We did not like the adult only area on the Allure. It was an indoor area (most adult sections on RCCL ships are indoors or have a retractable roof. ) either way the roof was closed the entire trip, and it was unbearably hot in there, and we couldn't spend any time in there the entire trip.) Carnival's Freedom's serenity area was outdoors with comfy chairs that we loved, and we spent almost the entire cruise out there. Fantastic.

We did like to be able to make reservations for "my time dining" on our TV with RCCL that day, so we wouldn't have to wait. In general I like the brighter, more sunny decor on the RCCL ships. The Freedom was a bit dark in comparison, and honestly I think a lot of the Carnival ships are kind of ugly...but that doesn't matter much to me. The sort of "overdone" decor on the Carnival ships is part of the character :)

In General we liked the cruise on the freedom better, mainly because of the food, serenity area, drinks, and night time movies!:D The entertainment on the Allure was fantasitc, but some of the production shows on the Freedom were quite good too, plus the movies under the stars. I'd definitely go on RCCL to see the shows, and then you can decide if that matters to you.

I know we will cruise both lines many more times in the future. Whoever has the better itinerary wins out with us. We actually were contemplating cruising the NCL Breakaway this coming spring, but I found all of the "pay for extras" very annoying. It seems like there are so many areas you can't even enter without paying a fee, and not just the restaurants. They have an adult area you have to pay to enter, bars that have a cover charge, etc. It's not even about the money, but it's just more annoying to us to have to worry about paying for everything once we board.

Curious ... why don't you like the big screen? I'm kind of excited about seeing how that works when I do the Glory cruise.

im curious about this too. we sailed the Freedom a few years ago, and our favorite thing about the entire cruise were the night time movies played outside on the big screen. It was so much fun to have my Bailey's and coffee outside in the amazing weather while watching a movie. We are sailing the Pride in April and very disappointed it doesn't have a big screen.

We loved being on the lido deck of the Freedom which is the same deck plan. We booked a guarantee balcony and got EXTREMELY lucky. We LOVED that cabin, so convenient to everything. There is no way I'd pay that much to upgrade.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I'm leaving on the Legend 6/29 and super excited.

 

Has anyone ever had this cabin? I'm curious because just 2 weeks from sailing and I have the only aft cabin booked on this deck (not including the wrap arounds - they are booked). Is this because they are undesirable? There is one aft cabin still available on deck 7 for another $20. Should I look to move?

 

Thanks for any advice!

Just a thought... We just booked room 5268 aft, one deck down from yours on the Pride, which is the same deckplan as the Legend. When booking, deck 6 was more expensive than any other deck. Not by a ton, but a little bit. That could be a possible reason?

price, rooms are bigger, MDR food was much better than the other line we went on, and so were all of the alcoholic drinks :D

the cheese plate :D

Our first cruise was an 8 night in October, and it was DEFINITELY an older crowd. Although I will say even most of the older folks had a drink in their hand all day. Haha. But the evenings were very quiet, Our waiter in the MDR said the younger crowd shows up usually in the summer, on the shorter cruises. 8 nights was too much for younger people to get off work/school. So you will probably have a bit of a younger, rowdier bunch.

Our June royal Caribbean cruise was 7 nights, was definitely a lot younger crowd, lots of parties, but also lots of families with kids out of school. A everyone kept it pretty classy though ;)

I am so very sorry for your loss. I'm sure your wonderful son would want you to continue on your cruise, and be there in spirit with you! After a loss in my family my husband and I were undecided about continuing on a vacation we had planned... We are very glad that we went ahead and spent this time together, it gave us a chance to relax and reflect.

Thanks so much everyone for your responses! I wasn't sure what the price of the drinks at the alchemy bar were like, especially the "make your own." I will definitely have to think about it being worth it or not. My husband and I are not really beer/wine drinkers, we tend to like the more expensive drinks on the menu, martinis, mojitos, etc. and I LOVE coffee, but $50 is definitely a lot... We would have to do about 5-6 of these a day to make it worth it. But it looks like most of these would be covered. Very interesting about the alchemy bar, it sounds like a lot of fun!!!

So sorry if this has already been answered! I've looked through many threads and can't seem to find any answers yet.

We will be cruising next year on the Carnival Pride after the Funship 2.0 upgrades, and just wondering if drinks are covered from the Alchemy Bar... It looks like there is a "make your own drink" option and wasn't sure if that's covered. Any experience with this?

Also I know specialty coffees are not covered, lattes, cappuccinos etc. Which is disappointing. However, what about the coffee items on the bar menu? After dinner coffee liqueur? Espresso martinis? We had some sort of amazing blended chocolate coffee/rum drink each night after dinner while watching the nighttime pool deck movies on the Freedom :)

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I have to agree, Jetta8300.

My 14yo DD was a little freaked out about how aggressive they were, right when you got off the ship.

It was like a SEA of orange shirts. Good Grief.

I had a really bad sunburn on my calves/legs.

This guy literally "chased" me around the block with his fresh "aloe" plant.

You need 'DIS. You need DIS, BADLY.

We laugh our butts off about it now, but it was a very uncomfortable situation at the time.

However, we found a great woman, and chose her. I want to say her name was Angela. WONDERFUL.

Yes we were chased around with the same aloe guy!!! Lol. I ended up buying jewelry because this woman was really aggressive and we were honestly afraid to say no. We had someone coming up to us every 10 minutes for about 6 hours. We went in the water just to get away from them. I personally would never go to any "secluded" beach there... But the drive to the beach was in like an open air trolly sort of thing, there was fighting in the very TIGHT space of the streets, people coming up to the busses when we stopped, etc. We probably would not go there again which is sad because the beach was AMAZING!!!!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Also The Atlantis was wonderful, well worth the money. Your kids will have a blast if you choose this. In St Thomas we took a taxi to Magen's Bay Beach and loved it!!! The most beautiful beach I have ever seen. And the shopping there is also great.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

We did a similar itinerary on the Freedom in 2011 and Antigua was one of the ports. We took the excursion to Dickinson Bay Beach which was beautiful.

I will say, out of all of the islands we went to, we felt the most "unsafe" in Antigua. I personally would not be taking any small children with me, unless it was an excursion booked through the ship, and even then I personally would still be a bit uncomfortable... One if the reasons we have chosen a Bahamas/St. Thomas itinerary when going with Children. Everyone is different with their comfort level, but you will, even with the ship excursions, drive through VERY CROWDED areas in Antigua that made us a a little uncomfortable. We had people coming up to us in the open air taxi trying to sell us things as we were driving, and the people there on the beaches were VERY AGGRESIVE.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Hi Jetta8300' date='[/color']

 

The excursion is described as 12:30-4:30 as you mentioned & the last shuttle does leave at 5:30 with shuttles running every 30 min back to the dock area beginning at 3:30. They will not kick you out of the park at 4:30 and you are able to stay as long as your time allows. If you had to be back on the ship at 6:30 and decided to take a taxi back, it is perfectly fine to stay until around 6:00. When we went out to catch our shuttle back, there were probably about 10 taxis for hire sitting there waiting to take people back. So, it's not like you would have to call one to come pick you up.

 

 

 

Did I have enough time? Hmmm well, we did have enough time for a half day excursion. At first, I constantly felt like we weren't going to be able to do everything, but then I realized that I was on vacation and I was just gonna roll with it. If I didn't get to do everything, we will just come back some other time. We did get to see The Dig and enjoyed a lot of the park in the time that we had. I would have loved to spend more time there for sure! I feel like it's 100% worth the experience of being at this place. I can't stress enough that you should take some kind of waterproof watch with you.

 

 

Enjoy your trip! :D

Thanks so much! I think we are going to book this then. As long as I get to ride the lazy river I will be extremely happy!!! :D

Thanks so much for your review! It has really helped me plan my trip in 12 days!

Question: We are thinking of going to Atlantis and doing the Aquaventure Half Day as you described. When I click on the departure time, it says the duration is 4 hours (12:30-4:30) . However when I look at the description of the excursion, it says you may take the complimentary bus on your own back to the ship which goes every half hour until 5:30, or even take a taxi after that. Did you find this to be true? I don't think I am going to book it if it is from 12:30-4:30! Did you feel like you had enough time? Thanks! :D:D

Thank you so much for the wonderful pictures of Valley Church Beach! My husband and I are deciding between this and Dickenson Bay beach. I was wondering:

How long did it take you to walk from the bus drop off point to the actual beach? And how long was the ride there?

I guess I am just a little worried about safety since it is a more deserted beach. But it doesn't seem like you had any concerns!?!? Thanks! :p

Great so far, and I am so excited to hear about Valley Church Beach! This is where we are planning on going in a few weeks!

So excited to hear about the destinations! We are on this itinerary in 17 days, and so excited! Hopefully you went to some beaches and took pics there :D

Crowne Plaza opened this year...it is almost a mile from 17th St. It is on the corner of US1 and State Rd 84 (the rd that leads to the south port entrance). It is very close to Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza (good) and Ernie's Barbeque (mediocre). I have read good reviews about the hotel.

Thank you so much for the information! We were wondering if there would be anything to eat then around there. There is a restaurant in the hotel but those are sometimes really expensive for not so great food. The rooms looks really nice and we are just basically going to be there to rest and sleep the night before the trip. (and now probably eat some pizza). :D

Hello! We are flying in the afternoon of Oct 7th (Friday) for our cruise on Oct. 8th! Does anyone have any opinions or experience with the Crowne Plaza Hotel Airport/Cruiseport? I can't seem to find anything about this hotel in this posting. There is a pretty good deal on Expedia right now, but it looks like it does not include a free breakfast. However they do provide free airport and cruiseport transfers! It looks like it is right by the 17th street hotels.