Banditswife

You have already gotten great advice. I just wanted to add: I have sailed Carnival many times & HAL several times. Galveston can be a bit hectic, I agree. But doing as others have said- leave your bigger luggage outside your door the night before & let the crew handle it. I keep anything of value in my smaller carry on, have never had a problem with theft or someone mistakenly taking my bag(s.) Don't try to rush off the ship since you don't need to. Waiting until after 8:30 AM or so will have the crowd off the ship. Taking post cruise tour is a good idea, but keep in mind these depart fairly early on disembark day. But the bus stores your luggage while on the tour. FLL airport & Port Everglades are very close together, making it easy to embark & disembark. I have used hotel shuttles many times with no major issues. Enjoy your 2nd cruise.

They did pour a bit of champagne on New year's eve, I don't remember any free alcohol for Christmas, but I may have just missed it. I am a Protestant, so didn't attend the Catholic service, but have heard they do a wonderful job. They do have a non denominational service, which is either led by the Priest on board or a volunteer pastor on board.

We were on the Zaandam over Christmas & New Year this past year. I was only able to attend 1 watercolor class due to them filling up very fast, to attend the watercolor class, I had to stand outside the door for about 1/2 hr before class time. But that 1 class was a parrot, not Christmas themed. Just beware that they fill up fast. I wish they would have a "take a number" type of set up. I have also done the acrylic class on a different, non holiday cruise-FYI-those are for a fee. They also had origami classes & coloring for adults which were complimentary. The ship was decorated beautifully for our 16 day holiday cruise, plus tea time was Christmas themed.

It would be nice if HAL would do as Carnival does with OBC. Carnival allows use of OBC pre cruise.

Their website is a bit wonky. Or maybe your reservation hasn't hit their system yet. Try shutting down your PC & restarting, sometimes this works for me. But I am no expert, hopefully someone with more tech knowledge can help you. Good luck

yikes. hope all are safe

I am such a klutz, I even lost my key card that was in a lanyard. I like the lanyards that allow you to unclip the end with your card, much more convenient than taking the whole lanyard off while using it for drinks or in the casino.

I took a duck to Tamarind to surprise my DIL, asked the hostess to hide it in her chair before we sat down. The hostess told me she collected the ducks... so we took her one the next day. It is fun to find a duck, but we don't really hide them- 90 ducks as reported here is just way too many.

We have done the canal 3x, 2 from Seattle to FLL & 1 from FLL to Seattle. We enjoyed each one. We have also sailed Zaandam, not through the canal though. We liked the ship for it's smaller size & less passengers. Service was good throughout our 16 days aboard, stateroom size was bigger than on the newer ships. Zaandam has an indoor movie theatre as well as the main stage for shows. The ship is smaller, so yes there are less bells & whistles. Zdam's casino was pretty small if you are into that. We've done Hawaii from Long Beach on a Carnival ship. Like someone else said. it is a lot cooler the 1st & last few days & a bit rougher seas than we expected. For us it was 4 sea days to & 4 sea days back from Hawaii. Our ship did have extra things going on for us to do on those sea days (lectures, dance classes, art classes.) We have sailed the Kdam too, just not to Hawaii. We enjoyed the newer, larger ship for her extra specialty restaurants, music venues & larger casino. We had an inside cabin, which I considered pretty small but efficient for our needs.

No arguing from me- but any beverage served by a bar staff waiter already has a tip attached to it. 18% is added to beverages. even soda. The only exception is if you have a drink pkg through HIA or other beverage pkg. I believe these pks have the tip figured into the cost. We do add an additional tip when getting exceptional service. This can be done in cash or on the slip you sign. Extra tipping is a matter of personal choice- but the waiters do appreciate it.

We saw the Origin Story 1x, & thought it was interesting. But we chose to skip it on subsequent cruises- 1 & done for us. I agree it should not be the main stage entertainment in the evening. No biggie on longer cruises. We also enjoyed "City on the Sea," but that too was a 1 & done.

I drink tap water while on any ships. I pack a reusable mug, fill it on Lido. On ships w/o the mini fridge, I also drink the melted ice from our in cabin ice bucket.

Not the Zuiderdam, but I saw a specialty coffee place on the Zaandam. I think there would be specialty coffee on all the ships, since it a revenue item.

In Lido Buffet area, we have rarely ever had anyone refuse to share their table, nor have we ever refused to share our table. The only exception to this has been when they/we are expecting others to join us & need the chair/table for their/our own group.

We are also booked, cya onboard. I hope it does go into dry dock at some point before our cruise. We were on her last Dec for 16 days-enjoyed the ship, but there was some minor wear & tear apparent.

We were on Zaandam last Dec for 16 days over the holidays w/open seating. We were asked each night if we wanted to share a table & usually had wonderful tablemates. We met many interesting people that way. Admittedly we usually eat a bit earlier-6 to 6:30.

Waitlisted tours have been weird lately too. We have HIA for the Amazon Explorer next Feb, several tours were waitlist only. Within 24 hrs I got emails stating our waitlisted tours were available. This happened on 4-5 different tours & at different days/times. Since we are 8 months out, I didn't think shore x would be available yet. As far as buying HIA w/ a waitlisted cruise- I doubt we would go for that, since we are very light drinkers & don't really need the pkg.

From photos shared here on CC, a few bathrooms truly needed to be redone. So that might be the pattern-- when tiles are cracked, broken, missing- those get redone in order of worst to not so bad. While on the Zaandam in Dec of 2024, our inside cabin was fine. Off hand, I can't remember our cabin # though.

To each his own... In my humble opinion, there are good & bad things about all the cruise lines. It comes down to what is important to you or me personally. As far as deposits go- A lower deposit doesn't really entice me, I will still need to make a full payment eventually, no matter how much I paid up front. I'd rather pay a larger deposit & a lower final payment, but that's just me.

The GDC does open in the mornings for coffee & pastries- 7 Am if I remember correctly. I loved the yogurt parfaits from GDC. I would go early for a parfait, pastry & a specialty coffee- yum. And the last time we were on a ship with GDC, the cookies changed periodically-not always the chocolate chip. But anything we tried, was delicious. Darn-our next HAL cruise doesn't have a GDC on the ship. Guess we'll have to book another soon...

It will be a welcome change, no surprises. I also wish they would include gratuities. I would imagine that could possibly lower the cost of gratuities if everyone had to pay them up front.

This stock perk app is new to me. Did I read this thread correctly? That this app works for all Carnival Brands. We frequently sail Holland & Carnival, it would be nice to have our requests go to the same place.

When you are figuring 8 or 10%, is that a % of the total cruise cost? Example: if I have the HIA or other add ons, would I figure 8/10 % of the total or 8/10 % of the base fare? Just trying to get a rough estimate for a longer cruise w/the early booking bonus added. Everyone I have talked to has said not to get the cruise protection until final payment, because up until final payment, at least for us, the original deposit is fully refundable.

sometimes we have a question that we know we need to contact the specific cruise line to get definite answers, but it helps to get a rough idea of what to expect from experienced cruisers before we make that necessary call. My husband has a port... that is why I clicked on this thread. For him, I know we will need to contact our cruise's special needs dept, but it helps to get a rough idea of what to expect before making that call.

My husband doesn't use the oxygen at night & probably only 60% of his awake hours. We tested his POC for how long his batteries will go w/o a charge & we were surprised that it lasted almost 6 hours. He keeps his set at 2. He has 3 of the same batteries, so I think we might be able to get by w/o a room concentrator. But I will check into the companies suggested here. And am checking with the special needs depts for each of the cruises we have booked, we usually fly Southwest & I have looked at their requirements. It helps to be informed.