gabbygal99

If you are going to cruise to Antarctica, do a real Antarctica cruise on an expedition ship! Only 100 people are allowed on Antarctica at a time (by international treaty), so large cruise ships (like Celebrity, NCL, etc) do not allow you to disembark in Antarctica. Waste of time, if you ask me 🤷🏼‍♀️ You will literally just do scenic cruising and never step foot on Antarctica! I did Albatros Expeditions on Ocean Victory in December 2021 - it was awesome!!!

I booked via Fly2Fun and they never scheduled us a charter. I got a last minute call saying if we could be at the bus in 10 minutes, then we could fly out today - they gave us seats on a flight from a B2B cruiser who had changed their mind and decided to stay on board. Yes, you read that correctly. They assigned a chartered flight to someone who had planned to be on the ship until the 30th before they assigned a chartered flight to me and my husband. And we HAD booked Fly2Fun! When we arrived to the airport (***8*** hours before our scheduled flight) we received no vouchers for food, in a tiny airport with one café in it, and then we discovered a few hours later that we were actually NOT on the flight manifest. Carnival then asked us to pay for a taxi with our own money and drive to Hamburg for a different flight? When we finally landed at the airport, Carnival was supposed to drive us all to our hotels - but the Carnival rep informed everyone the bus would only be driving to Heathrow. Everyone had to get their own taxis. There are literally hundreds of people who encountered the same types of screw ups. The OP in this post is probably one of a dozen people who had their accommodations work out fine.

That itinerary looks great! Unfortunately my kids are still in school, so a month long vacation during the school year isn’t in the cards for us 😞

What?! They have Lychee flavor too?! Now I’m even more excited! I’m such a dork - I’m more excited about the soup than any of the ports we are going to! Hahaha

I definitely say that it’s just melted ice cream/sorbet - I don’t know what’s it’s actually made of, I just know I love it! 🤣

🤣 We have only been on one RCCL cruise and they didn’t have cold soup. But NCL, Costa, Albatross, and Princess don’t have it!

The last time I sailed on Carnival was in 2013. I absolutely *loved* their cold soups that were served in the MDR. I have sailed on multiple other cruise lines since then, and have never seen cold soup on the menus. We are finally returning to Carnival, sailing in July 2023 on Pride, 12-night Northern Europe. I have seen sample menus posted in these forums, and know the soups are still being served. Is it possible to know the menus for our specific sailing in advance (so that I do not make Steakhouse reservations on a night I could have the soup)? Thanks!

I think we are on the same sailing! 12-night Pride on July 9, 2023 out of Dover? We booked a Vista on deck 4, I can’t wait!!!

We still have to pay gratuities, when we are mixing our own drinks?! 🤣

That bottle is going to set you back $135 now! I checked the prices - every option was $135+ 🙄

I have two Carnival suites booked in the next 18 months. They DO come with perks - expedited boarding, special lounge during check in, priority disembarkation at ports, free water, free on-demand movies, free room service, free soda package, guaranteed restaurant reservations, etc…

We have a Vista Suite booked on Pride in July 2023 for 2 people. We also have an Excel Corner Suite booked on Mardi Gras in February 2024 for 3 people. The suite on Mardi Gras was $2k LESS than the suite on Pride, despite being a better room and having an additional guest. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Norwegian is one of the few cruise lines that does NOT refund port taxes and fees when a port is cancelled. I was on Escape in August and they cancelled Corfu AND Mykonos, replaced with extra sea days, and we didn’t get a dime back.

Carnival is one of the only cruise lines that serves chilled soups! I *love* them and I always am so disappointed on other cruise lines when they don’t offer any!

How do you buy gift cards through Allstate? I do not have insurance through them… I purchased a couple $500 e-gift cards through Rakuten’s App, which redirects you to SuperShop, who is offering Carnival GCs for ~5% off currently ($473.75 for $500 GC) with additional 2% cash back from Rakuten, but then discovered GCs are excluded from the 2% promotion hahaha, so it’s really hardly any savings at all…

They are honoring the price for all cruises, as long as the package is purchased before October 1 🙂 I have cruises booked for July 2023 and February 2024, I took advantage of the notice and prepaid for our internet packages yesterday!

We sailed from Rome in August and paid $1099 pp USD from Boston (so really $550/pp) which was a GREAT deal when we booked it 2+ years ago!!! Now they want $1149/person for Boston to London. That’s NOT a promotion. That’s full price airfare where I don’t get to choose my flights and will get stuck on a red eye with 2 inexplicable layovers, despite one ocean separating these two cities. So…yeah, I booked direct. If their “free” airfare becomes a deal for the customer again in the future, I’ll certainly use it but I’m not gonna hold my breath for that to happen.

Where are you flying from?! I have priced out cruises from NYC where they priced airfare from BOSTON at $449+ (and NO, it was not during any special travel weeks!) 🙄

The 15th floor was quiet despite being below the pool deck?! Our travel agent originally offered us the 15th floor but we figured we would get woken up by lounge chairs sliding across the deck at 0500 every morning 🤣 Ultimately it didn’t matter anyways, since we decided to bring our youngest son on this trip and the corner suite on deck 15 only sleeps 2 people, so we couldn’t book it. We booked on deck 10.

Exactly! We are ALL about the balcony! We don’t go to any of the parties on the ship, occasionally we will go to the shows. We cruise for the ports of call, to relax in a hot tub, and enjoy our balcony! I very excited about the daybed! 🤣

I will definitely do that! We went ahead and booked it since the price was so right and there were only 2 left! We are getting this awesome suite on an amazing ship for $2k LESS than we are spending on a Vista Suite on the considerably less impressive Pride next year!

I am interested in booking an Excel Aft Suite on the Mardi Gras, because of the private hot tub on your balcony. Looking at the deck plans though, do the balconies overlook deck 8? It looks like the aft balconies on deck 9 and 10 have a clear view of whatever is going on on deck 8? Is that true?

It was given to us by the TA. We decided to book a suite and he said, “in that case, I can give you $500 OBC and X, Y, Z”. I didn’t realize we wouldn’t be able to pre-book things with it…

I haven’t sailed Carnival in almost 10 years. We booked through a TA and they gave us $500 OBC. When I sign into the “Carnival Hub” I don’t see anywhere to view your OBC? Where is it? I would like to be able to keep track of it when I start booking things. Thanks!

Well I went back and sorted them to only include the items that were bundle and save eligible. It still doesn’t give you the discount. Perhaps the website is having a glitch tonight???