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ale4692

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Posts posted by ale4692

    Embark / NOLA

    in Carnival Cruise Lines

    Posted

    I'm sure this has been answered before somewhere in another thread; but haven't come across it yet.

    Does anyone know what time the port allows passengers to enter the parking garage?

    Also...I've heard that they have made some changes as far as how you enter the Terminal as far as lines, priority / FTTF, etc. Since I purchased the FTTF I want to make sure we get in the correct lines. The last time I cruised out of NOLA was 1/2013.

    Progreso - What are some good beaches?

    in Progreso/Merida (Mexico)

    Posted

    We just got off the Elation which stopped in Progreso on Wednesday, 3/19/2014.

     

    The pier is about 4 miles long. You cannot walk to shore, but there is a free Autoprogreso shuttle to the town of Progreso. Once we arrived, we were given a sales pitch for other tours from Autoprogreso that sounded fun and were more reasonable than shore excursions. We opted to just get off the bus.

     

    It drops you off in a little open air market/flea market with all kinds of stuff. You just walk a short distance to get to the free beach.

     

    Once we were there, we walked down the beach and was approached by Arturo. (I'll try to post a picture below). He works for a restaurant named Le Saint Bonnet and was on the beach in front of this restaurant. The restaurant has a surf board in front of it. He set us up on 4 lawn chairs and a table with umbrella and chairs. ALL FOR FREE. There is an expectation that you will buy drinks and/or food from him (I assume. He never said it, or implied it, nor pressured us) but that is well worth it. Mixed drinks were delicious and were 5 dollars in a large glass. Buckets of beer were 12 dollars for 5 beers. (Sol or XXX). We bought chicken nachos to share for 9 dollars and they gave us free chips and salsa.

     

    They also have an outdoor bar at their restaurant and restrooms.

     

    Yes, there are alot of vendors selling everything from cigars to baskets to kites. But, they were not insistent. They accepted a "no thank you" with a smile and it did not create an undue burden.

     

    It was a great, reasonably priced day on the beach and allowed us to have our own schedule. We meandered back past shops and through the market again on the way to the bus, which runs every 20 minutes until the time you are supposed to be back on the ship.

     

    As others have said, this isn't as nice of a beach as Cozumel. But I'll take 5 beers for 12 bucks over the 4 beers for 18 and paying for lawn chairs, etc. like we did at Cozumel the next day.

     

    I'll pay attention to this thread in case there are any questions for me while the memory is still fresh. . . . So, not very long. . :)

     

    But, I highly recommend you find Arturo. He will take care of you. A super nice guy. Look for the yellow shirts. He and the waiter had those on.

     

    Thanks.

     

     

    (my post was blocked. I assume due to pasting the picture in here. I'll have to figure out another way later if this works.)

     

    Thanks for the info! This is exactly the kind of thing we would like to do in progreso. Hope you are able to post pics!!! Thanks again.

    When do you do online check-in?

    in Carnival Cruise Lines

    Posted

    I too print everything ahead of time just in case there is some sort of problem. I print luggage tags and documents at the time of booking. You can't print the boarding pass until you are paid in full.

    I print the luggage tags early because I usually laminate them. This time I ordered the Cruise Critic luggage tag holders. They are nice.

    Elation

    in Carnival Cruise Lines

    Posted

    I agree with lhaddon and terryinal. Great ship. Staterooms need a little updating but nothing that would keep me from sailing on her. We have her booked on 4/28/14 and can't wait!

     

    There are 3 pools. The main pool is on the Lido deck and has one slide. Also 2 hot tubs there. There is a children's pool and another pool on the Verandah deck (all the way to the back of the ship) along with another hot tub. These pools are fine for us and I see kids enjoying them; but if I were a kid and had a choice, I'm would prefer the waterworks on the other ships.

     

    Elation also offers Circle C, Club O2, Video Arcade, Mini Golf, Sports activities, Karaoke for kids and adult Karaoke, Live Music etc.

     

    Elation already has the Serenity Deck upgrade.....my favorite place!!

     

    For an inexpensive 5 day cruise, I think its a great choice.

     

    Hope this helps! :)

    Just snagged FTTF!!

    in Carnival Cruise Lines

    Posted

    A piece of advise for everyone with FTTF: when you get to the port and are handing you bags over to the porter, BE SURE to TELL them that you have FTTF so they put your bags in the right carts. Last year when we arrived at the port, they were picking up our bags and stacking them into the large transport carts. I went over and asked the guy "you do see that we have FTTF, right?" He said, no I didn't, checked one of the bags and saw the FTTF printed on the luggage tag, apologized, and proceeded to take all of our bags off that cart and move them to another cart marked for priority.

    We checked in (quickly!) got to board almost as soon as we walked into the terminal (yes, walking past hundreds of passengers looking at us with envy!), went straight to our cabins and dropped off our carry-ons. Had lunch and came back to find all our luggage waiting for us. We unpacked and were up on the Lido deck enjoying our first DOD before everyone else was even allowed access to their cabins. Worth it? to me - ABSOLUTELY!!!!

    I've got it again for this Sunday!

     

    Thanks so much for this advice. I will definitely make sure they see my FTTF tags. Enjoy your cruise!!!

    Just snagged FTTF!!

    in Carnival Cruise Lines

    Posted

    Our cruise is in less than two weeks and FTTF became available. It's my mom and sister's first cruise, so they really don't understand how lucky we are to snap this up! My sister's response was, and I quote "okie dokie". LOL

     

    Ha Ha! Enjoy your cruise and your FTTF!

    Carnival Elation - Fun Times

    in Carnival Cruise Lines

    Posted · Edited by ale4692

    Thanks so much.! Works fine. :) Happy you had a good cruise.

    Elation Review-marshhawk and friends

    in Carnival Cruise Lines

    Posted

    Now, about getting back to Atlanta, we knew the weather was not going to be that good, the closer we got to NOLA, the more we understood how not so good it was going to be. There had been sleet over NOLA , Texas, LA, and MS, and southern Alabama. Shari got on her phone and checked messages and went on the site for Megabus. She and Barb had opted not to do the ruins, but to put that money towards flying home. Turns out that the Megabus had been cancelled for the last two days due to icing on the roads. And we didn't have a ride home. NOLA was socked in with early morning fog, and we talked over our options, all of them included spending more money than we figured, but punkyh from roll call suggested we rent a car, what a God send to have someone think outside the box for us.! So we rented a car, left NOLA at 11 a.m., got the car to the airport in Atlanta, took the train to where I work, got my car, ate dinner at McDonalds, took Harley and Theresa home, and got home at 11:30 p.m..

     

    As we were leaving McDonalds, Shari called Harley and let him know that Barb got home to broken water pipes, and a flooded town house. So that's how the adventure ended.

     

    Enjoyed the review! Will you be posting the Funtimes?

    cruising out of New orleans

    in Carnival Cruise Lines

    Posted

    That light tower has some history to it as well. It is one of the the that stood at the various passes and it has been in at least 3 different locations. The last location is the beacon at the end of the river with the audible alarm and was placed there after Katrina destroyed the bigger concrete one that also acted as a house for pilots. The pilots now have a separate house near the end of Southwest pass before the jetties. The big concrete one was a replacement for the metal one in the picture above which started sinking into the sandy soil shortly after it was installed.

     

    Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

     

    Great Pic

    Faster. Faster!

    in Carnival Cruise Lines

    Posted · Edited by ale4692

    How do I message you I dont see anwyhere for messages?:o

     

    Do you have a Facebook account. You could send me a friend request and message me there. CC says the private message option is not enabled right now.

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