jcearth

This is what I have done in the past at the buffet for breakfast (I have 3 little boys and even with my wife helping it was chaos when we cruised at 2, 3 and 6):

Grab a few milks from the start of the line

Find a table

Setup the kids with their drinks and get them seated

Grab two plates and go through the line as quickly as possible for the kids

Return and get them setup with their food

Run and grab your juice or coffee

If you weren't able to get your food earlier, do so now.

Return to table and entertain your kids as they are either now done eating or uninterested in breakfast and are looking to cause trouble.

Eat your breakfast as quickly as possible and get out of there before a food fight breaks out.

Check to see what time Camp Carnival opens

Find an open bar and get yourself a drink -- you deserve it.

Repeat for lunch (ignore the looks people give you when you are sprinting through the buffet with a plate loaded with 4 hot dogs, 2 hamburgers, and a massive amount of fries).

Drop the kids off at Camp for dinner.

My kids couldn't handle the MDR for breakfast -- way too quiet for my little noisemakers - I felt like we were disrupting everyone's breakfast. If yours can, it would be a good alternative.

Relax, have a good time, and make the best of it!!

Last cruise was my best timing ever - we had FTTF, arrived at the port at 11:30, and were having lunch at 11:45. My wife and kids hate waiting for boarding to start, so we stopped getting there really early.

My daughter and her fiance have booked their honeymoon cruise in May 2016 on Carnival Splendor. My recent cruises have been on Royal Caribbean, so I feel ill-informed about "what to know" as it pertains to Carnival. Can you provide a little help?

 

• They chose AnyTime Dining. Does it work the same way MyTime Dining works on Royal? Is there an option to make reservations, or is it a first come/first served only system?
  
• What time do cabins open for cruises departing from Miami at 4PM?
  
• For what meals is the MDR open? Breakfasts? Lunches on Sea Days?
  
• How are the shows scheduled? How should they plan their dinner time to make sure it accommodates show times?
  
• Is it accurate that the gratuities are added to the Sail & Sign account? (On Royal, if you choose the MyTime Dining option, you must pre-pay your gratuities.)
  
• I have heard that a 6-night cruise includes 2 elegant nights. Are those predictable? (Like Day 2 and Day 4, or always on sea days?)
  
• Are all cruise documents printed by the passenger now, including luggage tags? (No more cruise docs in the mail, right?)
  

Thanks!

Anytime dining is first come, first served usually from 5:45-9PM - no reservations. You do get the choice of a private or shared table. On the Splendor, the only restaurant you would make reservations for is the Steakhouse (currently $35pp)

Rooms should be ready at 1:30pm. However, if your purchase Faster to the Fun ($59), your room is ready upon boarding.

On port days, the MDR is open for breakfast. On Sea Days, Brunch is seated from 8:30am to 1pm. The brunch menu is pretty good, and can be found online.

The shows are scheduled around the fixed dining times. A good rule of thumb is to plan on an hour and a half for dinner.

I believe that you must prepay with Anytime dining, but not sure (I always prepay, so I can't help you out there)

Elegant nights tend to vary by ship and itinerary. Plan on the first sea day for the 1st elegant night, but the 2nd elegant night is always a wild card (probably 4th or 5th for a 6 night cruise).

I believe that Carnival is all print your own cruise docs (that's how I do it, at least).

The $100 cards are still available! Just got 5 of them for next month!!!

Thought all OV rooms on Carnival were the same standard size. How can this one be smaller?

I have been in a few different OV rooms on Carnival ships.

Fantasy class OV rooms are only 185 sq ft., and do not have a couch, only a chair.

Conquest Class OV rooms are 220 sq ft, and do have a couch.

Dream class Deluxe OV rooms are 230 sq ft, have a couch, and an extra sink, plus a bathtub and shower.

Not sure about the other two classes, as I have not been on the Triumph class, and when I was on Spirit class, I had a balcony.

For what it is worth, the Conquest class felt the roomiest (bathrooms on the Dream class took up too much room).

It is not that much more expensive to get connecting rooms, which is what I usually do -- double the space and bathrooms, and your little ones are still close.

Paul asks:

Good day, Mr. Heald! I have a question that concerns something somewhat trivial. One of the friends I cruise with is rather addicted to Diet Mountain Dew. A 12-pack of Diet Dew is a mandatory carry-on item for him and his wife. Still, it’s not unusual for him to run out.

John says:

Hello Paul

I know this is a very popular drink but, unfortunately, it is not made by Coca Cola who we have an exclusive contract with. I am sorry but hopefully you can continue to bring this (cans not bottles) on the ship and maybe replenish in port. Please let me know if there is anything I can do for you. Best wishes.

John

This is from his blog from yesterday -- there is a maybe about replenishing in port. Sounds like a clarification is needed.

Go to the shore excursion desk when you board. There is a chance someone may cancel. Let them know you would like a cabana if one opens up. Also, if there are any of the villas available, they are amazing. You can check roll calls or facebook groups to see if anyone wants to split one with you.

Is camp carnival open during port days? What Iam asking is, can I get off the boat and leave my children at camp carnival while we explore the ports?

Yes you can -- if you are doing a Carnival excursion, bring your tour tickets to camp so that they can record which tour you are on -- in case they need to contact you. Otherwise, you can give them your cell number, or your itinerary. Not sure why some people are up in arms about this topic, as it is a very common occurrence on cruises, so much so that the brand ambassador has mentioned it a few times.

If you like the beach, take the tender in. Half Moon Cay is the most beautiful beach I have ever been to. Sugar white sand, clear blue water - the place is amazing!

I saw on the CD schedule that the Breeze was scheduled to have a show change and cast change last month. Does anyone know if that happened? From my recollection, the shows on the Breeze were: The Brits, Divas, Latin Nights, and Motor City. Have there been any changes?

My son was in the exact situation last year (he was 19 days shy of his 6th birthday on embarkation day). We made a request for him to be moved up to the 6-8 group (he had a younger brother in the 2-5 and an older brother in the 6-8, so it wasn't based on being with his siblings, but more on what was more appropriate for his maturity level - spending time with 2 year olds was less appropriate than playing video games with 8 year olds). We requested a move up at orientation, and the camp granted the request on a trial basis. He did great and stayed in the 6-8 group all week and had no problems. (We had heard of another 5 year old on our cruise who was moved up but had to be sent back down).

One caveat, our sailing was in September and there were not a lot of kids on our cruise (maybe a few hundred at most from 0-17).

You will be fine. The Dream has a double occupancy capacity of over 3600 guests, and Carnival's passenger mixture is truly across the scope of all ages. Also, this particular voyage will skew a bit older due to the one way nature of the cruise, and the time of year. My mother-in-law (she's in her 60s) was on the Dream with us in 2013, and she found people to play cards with every afternoon without any trouble.

I concur with Skymaster -- the escargot are fantastic. I will eat just about anything with butter and garlic on it, even slimy snails.

There is a possibility that you could move your 8 year old up to the 9-11 age group. However, the decision is made by the Camp director - that person alone has the power to allow such a move. You would only be able to move a child up to an older age group -- they never allow children to move down, unless the child has special needs, and it is more appropriate for the child to be in the younger age group. At Camp Orientation, make a request with a counselor or the director to move your child up an age group. I have been able to move one of my children up before -- they agreed to the move on a trial basis, and he did fine the entire cruise (there was another child on the cruise who asked to be moved up, but the child did not do as well and ended up being sent down to his original age group).

Whether your request is successful or not is dependent on a few different factors, such as the amount of counselors, time of year, amount of children on the ship, which way the wind is blowing, etc. Be nice, respectful, and also prepared to accept whatever decision the camp director makes.

Also note, as a previous poster stated, that a lot of times these 2 age groups will be combined, especially if there are not a lot of children on board.

One final note - you may get some responses from people on here that will accuse you of being an entitled, me-first person to whom the rules do not apply. If this happens, just disregard what these people say. There is a contingent of folks on the various message boards that believe that children do not belong on a cruise ship, even though Carnival markets itself heavily to families.

OP - that stinks. If you cannot get resolution before you leave, definitely dispute the charge.

FYI, I ordered $600 worth of gift cards last month (6 $100 cards), and received them via USPS snail mail, so I don't believe there is a rhyme or reason to the delivery method. I definitely preferred over the winter when they did the e-cards.

We have been on Conquest twice and two great cruises.

 

Only complaint is the party band plays accross from Casino so rather noisy and smoky and not a good place to listen to music.

We were on the Conquest last September and they did limit the smoking to the back part of the casino bar and smoke wasn't much of an issue for the performances. Maybe we didn't have much in the way of smokers on that particular cruise, but I felt that the casino bar area was handled much better in terms of smoke than our previous cruise on the Dream (the casino bar was a complete ashtray on that one).

If Mike Pack is still on the ship next April, prepare to be entertained. I don't follow the individual cruise directors much, but that guy did an amazing job, and made sure everyone was having a good time.

I was not a fan of the Lido deck on the Conquest -- for families with kids, there were no good areas of shade (the aft pool is adults only and provides the best opportunities for shade. Also, the water slide was weak and slow - we are going to stick with ships with Waterworks going forward. I did enjoy Guy's and Blue Iguana, however.

If you like the beach, do the 1st itinerary. Anytime you can go to Half Moon Cay, especially on a 7 day cruise, is reason enough to book alone. That place is amazing!

I have done 3, 4, 5, and 7 day cruises. The 3 days were nowhere near long enough, 4 days ended too soon, 5 was just about right, but the 7 days dragged just a little (especially the last day). This year we will be doing a 6 day on the Breeze. We are hoping that it will be just about the perfect amount of time for a vacation.

The Glory does have a few venues that the Breeze does not, including the Alchemy Bar, the artist formerly known as the EA Sports Bar, and Fish n' Chips lunch restaurant.

The Breeze has many venues that the Gory does not, including Thrill Theater, Waterworks, ropes course, Ocean Plaza, Red Frog Pub, a spa with the T-pool, Indian Tandoor, Cucina del Capitano, Bonsai Sushi, Sea Dogs, Fat Jimmy's C-side BBQ.

As you have stated, the Glory offers the Captain's Suites, Grand Scenic Oceanview, and Scenic Oceanview rooms on the Lido deck which are not on the Breeze, and the Breeze have the cove balconies only available on Dream class ships.

The Breeze is the best ship in the fleet right now (until the Vista arrives), so you would never be wrong in taking her, but the Glory is a great ship as well.

Here are a few helpful tips for the comedy clubs on Carnival:

1) Know thyself -- meaning, if you have an issue with the language or subject matter the comedians are using in an adult show, please, please don't complain -- just go to the family friendly shows. I know that you may not feel like you are easily offended, but guess what --- you are! There's nothing wrong with it - but you need to put yourself in a situation to be entertained on an appropriate level.

2) If you are at the 1st performance for a comedian on a sailing, and you do not think this particular show is very good, do yourself a favor and do not go to the 2nd, or 3rd, or 4th, etc. Comedians tend to front load their material, so what you are seeing is most likely their best stuff. Subsequent performances will have diminishing returns. One exception is a comedian who does a family friendly show, but seems to struggle using PG material -- sometimes their R rated shows are better (sometimes).

3) The comedy clubs are very popular on most sailings. Get their early, get a drink, and relax until showtime.

4) If a particular show is not your to your taste, it is okay to walk out and try another show. 7 day sailings have up to 20 different shows and 4 different comedians. Comedy is so subjective and if you are not having a good time, don't suffer -- there will be another show that you will probably enjoy much better.

5) If your cruise is fortunate enough to have an open mike night, by all means attend. Whether you witness a train wreck, or a passenger that is way funnier than all of the professionals on the ship, the entertainment value of these shows is through the roof.

I went with the Escape for next year. The Kids Sail Free and Free Ultimate Beverage Package was enough for me.

No. Just no. I think Disney offers a family steakhouse, though.

Disney has two upcharge restaurants on their new ships -- Palo and Remy, and both are adults only.

I have 3 boys ages 8, 6, and 5. Usually I am all about including the kids in most aspects of our cruise vacation. However, the Steakhouse is one place that I would agree, should be adults only. My wife and I really enjoyed our dinner there on our last cruise, while our kids enjoyed their time eating and then playing with Camp Carnival.

The best advice I can give to deal with a couple with a crying baby is to offer your assistance in calming the baby down. "It looks like the little guy is having a tough time. Do you mind if I hold him? I'm great with babies." At this point, the couple can do one of 3 things:

1) Politely decline your help, and get the hint that they should deal with the baby on their own.

2) Graciously accept your help -- although not likely, these parents are probably at their wits' end and could use a night away from their child, and should have sailed a line with a nursery (Disney, RCCL, NCL on its new ship).

3) Decline your help with a snark and look at you like you have 3 heads. I believe to go boxes are in order at this point, because the situation will not get better.

None. Due to the configuration of the beds in each room, it would be next to impossible to have a door on each side of the room. I have heard of people getting 3 balcony cabins in a row, but even then I am not sure if they would open up the dividers between each of them.

NCL made me an offer that I couldn't refuse for next year on the Escape. Kids sail free and free drink package (approx value of the 2 combined was about $1950, while the room was only slightly more). Final score was about half of what I paid for the Breeze this year.

The question is concerning because most of us have traveled a long way to get on board and here's another parent seemingly unable to manage their own children for 30 minutes.

The attention span of a normal child is 3 to 4 minutes per year of age. Asking a 3 year old to pay attention for more than 9 minutes and a 5 year old to pay attention for more than 15 minutes is "asking" for trouble, and is unreasonable age appropriateness. Also, I heard OP ask for helpful strategies from other cruisers who have been in the same situation. I didn't read anywhere that said she couldn't handle her own children. I understand that you have traveled a long way to get on board. Imagine the young child who has traveled just as much. Do you think that this will increase or decrease their relative attention span or ability to sit still?

I saw a commercial for Carnival on TV last night (beautiful video of the Breeze - I can't wait). The focus of the commercial was families with children having fun. This is the market that Carnival is trying to attract.