Joanne G.

I had this offer, but I didn't read the fine print, which stated that the offer was good for one time use only. So, even though the offer hadn't expired, I was not able to use it for additional purchases after an initial use. Details matter! I will plan accordingly if I see it again.

Thank you! I also didn't know how to claim the FCC and missed that link. I am still unclear on whether it can only be used on a new booking or if it can be applied to an existing booking. How do you interpret it?

Keep checking regularly. The offers come and go, and people get them at different times.

There may not be a stated incentive to pre-book, but I have found on two previous cruises this summer and one more coming up in September that most excursion prices increased closer to sailing date, sometimes significantly, such as over 20%. My cruises were/are all in Europe this year. I don't know if the same pricing issues happen with Caribbean itineraries. I would assume so. Also, some excursions sold out while I was still deciding. My advice is to book when you see something that appeals to you and keep checking to see if other alternatives become available. I found it easy to cancel when I changed my mind. The refund was posted to my credit card account within a few days. Some people have reported issues with refunds if they booked with a gift card. I have no personal experience with that. As for Aruba, on my stops there, the ship docked close to town, and it was an easy walk to explore on my own. Assuming your ship docks in the same location, you don't need an excursion if you are fine with walking around the town. I don't remember anything particular about the town - typical Caribbean town with shops and restaurants. You could get more detailed information on the Aruba port of call board. My sister and I did a catamaran ride with snorkeling as an excursion in Aruba, even though we don't snorkel. The tour guide said when we told her we didn't snorkel, "We aren't going throw you overboard if you want to stay on the boat." We found it a great deal of fun and would do it again.

I recently returned from a cruise with port stops in the UK and Ireland. I know that tipping is more common and more expected in the U.S. than in most parts of Europe. But I did still tip tour guides and drivers on my ship-sponsored excursions. I figure the entire tourism industry suffered so much during covid, and the tips were certainly accepted graciously it. It is, of course, your choice. Some people tipped; some people didn't. I didn't consider the cost of the excursion as a factor in the amount to tip but went more by how long the excursion was and how good the guide was. Typically, I gave £10 or €10 to be split between driver and guide for a half-day tour and double that for a full day tour. (Yes, I know £'s and €'s are not equivalent in value, but I wasn't up to the mental math LOL, and I didn't want to deal with the coins.) On my tours, currency was the only way to tip. No cashless option.

I just returned from a cruise with port stops in the UK and Ireland. I agree with the responses that cash is rarely needed as contactless cards are accepted nearly everywhere. But since the OP mentioned tipping, I'll add that I did use cash to tip tour guides and drivers on my ship-sponsored excursions. Whether or not you tip is your choice, but if you want to, cash was the only way to do so on my excursions. As @Cotswold Eaglesays above, I am one of those who feels comfortable having a certain amount of currency. I have other overseas trips planned to GBP and euro countries, so I just keep what I don't spend for future use. If I have a lot left over, I use some for the taxi from my post cruise hotel to the airport.

I received a paper Fun Times every evening in my mailbox on my Pride cruises last month. But it was definitely slimmed down.

I was in aft facing 5268 on the Pride for my recent B2B adventure. I loved it. Watching and hearing the wake is so relaxing. And it can be particularly interesting when an aziopod fails and you see unusual patterns in the wake LOL. We aft dwellers knew pretty early on that something was wrong as we left Kiel. I enjoyed watching sail aways from my balcony. I never had a problem with soot. I felt vibrations at time, but not enough to bother me, other than immediately after the azipod failed, which hopefully will never happen again! There isn't much foot traffic past your door being at the end of the corridor. Maybe a downside - I don't know about deck 4, but there was a laundry room opposite my cabin on deck 5. It was a mixed blessing - convenient for me to use, which I did a couple times over my 21 days aboard. But sometimes people congregated outside the laundry room, causing unwelcome hallway noise. I hope you enjoy your aft cabin as much as I did mine.

My solo B2B adventure ended with a United Airlines computer system breakdown upon my arrival at Heathrow this morning. I stood in the line to drop off my bag for over 2 hours, most of the time moving at the speed of the Pride after our first departure from Kiel - meaning not moving at all. Eventually their computers came back up, I got thru that line, then the security line, then the loooooong hike to the United gates and arrived at my gate exactly 3 hours after the taxi dropped me off - and exactly when boarding was supposed to start. But the plane was delayed, for once a good thing. I had a whole 40 minutes to use the restroom and buy a bottle of water. But I made my flight; I expect some United passengers didn’t this morning. One agent told us the problem was across Europe. So it was kind of a fitting ending to my B2B cruises. While “dead in the water” in the bag check line, I did get to chatting with a few people nearby, and I shared my cruise story. None of them had been on a cruise, and I don’t think my story convinced them to try one! Oh well, their loss. I am on a bus now from O’Hare, the final leg of my journey home. It was a memorable vacation. 😃

Wow, that is quite a story. The language barrier was worrisome to me, too, when I thought I was going to be put off the ship in Germany. But I’m not going to quit traveling overseas solo. I am glad you made it onto your ship, and I hope it was a great cruise. Thanks for sharing.

Hillsborough Castle and the gardens in the rain. No photos allowed inside the residence. It was much smaller and less ostentatious for a royal residence as, say, Buckingham Palace. It was formerly a private estate, with a long history. Benjamin Franklin stayed here when the owner was the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and it played a role in the Good Friday Peace Agreement of 1998.

On the way to Kinsale - black and white Holstein cows, the best milk producers. I live in southern Wisconsin and see a lot of these 🤣

The village of Caernarfon, Wales. Castle in background

The long pier in Holyhead, Wales. Walkers not allowed; shuttle bus provided for those not on excursions

Sailing away from Cobh yesterday

It poured most of the day in Belfast, but that didn’t matter for the main event of my excursion, a tour of Hillsborough Castle, not actually a castle but the official royal residence in Northern Ireland. The rain wasn’t great for the city tour from the bus, but I have been to Belfast before and taken a tour in good weather. It was overcast and chilly in Wales, but mostly the rain held off. I took an excursion to Caernarfon Castle, and we had time to explore the village on our own. Lastly, yesterday was Cobh, my favorite port of my entire 21-day adventure because we docked within walking distance of town. I explored on my own in the morning, visited the little Titanic Exhibit, and walked up a considerable hill to visit a cathedral, did some shopping. In the afternoon, I had an excursion through the lovely Irish countryside to the picturesque village of Kinsale, where we had about an hour on our own. Ship-sponsored excursions aren’t for everyone, but I like them for convenience. To each his own! I will say that every single guide I’ve had on this trip was good to excellent; I learned from all of them. I plan on writing reviews on Carnival’s site of the excursions when I get home, as there weren’t any when I was making my choices. They aren’t cheap, and if I can help someone else make a decision, I’d like to do that. We were rocking and rolling last night leaving after Ireland. It is calmer this morning, and I see bits of blue sky after days of overcast and rainy weather.

Sept 10, Dover to Rome.

That caught my attention, too, as a fellow passenger. Yikes! But I agree that Carnival had a huge undertaking dealing with the specific needs people on that cruise, people on the next cruise, and people like myself on both. Despite not everything going perfectly for everyone, I commend Carnival - corporate and onboard - for the efforts made under difficult circumstances and without much time. I hold nothing against them, and I’ll be back on the Pride in Sept.

My suggestion would be balcony for fresh air. I believe window would be next best, as it is my understanding motion sickness comes from your body (inner ear) sensing movement that your eyes don’t see. I’ve read suggestions for people feeling motion sickness to resist the urge to lie on a dark room and instead get out on deck so that the body sees and feels the movement together, if that makes sense. Good move to avoid tenders. They can bounce around a lot. I admire her courage in wanting to try cruising. One of my sons, who as a child would get car sick pretty much before we hit the end of the driveway, has no interest whatsoever in getting on a cruise ship, even though he outgrew the worst of his motion sickness.

I am so sorry for your experience. I wonder if I was the B2B cruiser who was assigned to a charter flight before you. But I didn’t change my mind; on the initial document we had to turn in, I stated that I would be staying aboard. Even after I returned the surprising letter about an assigned charter flight and reiterated that I was staying onboard, I got one more letter telling me my (unwanted) flight was being changed. I can understand it was a huge undertaking for Carnival to arrange for people to get home, but I know that is small comfort to those who had difficulties in their travels. I sincerely hope your next vacation, whatever it may be, is joyous and uneventful.

@pjhootch Thank you for sharing your experience. Throughout the uncertainties those of us B2B passengers onboard have experienced, I felt those waiting to board for the June 21 cruise had a much tougher time deciding what to do. I particularly noticed your comment that London is full and expensive now, in the height of summer travel time. Several people (not directly involved) have said to me, “I would have just stayed in London”, but that might not have been easy to arrange last minute. It’s good Carnival offered generous compensation to those who canceled their July 21 cruise. I hope you and I and everyone else affected gets to visit those Scotland ports on another cruise. Or on a land vacation!

Report from onboard - We were told there are about 1700 onboard, of which about 300 of us were on the prior cruise. (An aside - the comedian during his act on one of the empty days joked about owing German income taxes due to our residency in Kiel.) The cruise director commented about the super-easy debarkation yesterday with only about 100 getting off. It’s a very different crowd. Many more families with kids, many more younger couples. The previous cruise had a lot of seniors like myself. I’m thinking the planned 9-day cruise all in the UK and Ireland was more appealing to families and younger people than the previous 12-day Baltic. Whatever the reason, a lot of kids makes for a different vibe. It’s too early to tell what this cruise will be like. There was a huge line last night at Guest Services, for whatever problems people had. The Lido was fairly empty at dinner, but maybe some people hadn’t yet realized it’s an option. It was not crowded at lunch time, as people were boarding over several hours so the crowds were spread out. But on a full cruise, the Lido is always jammed for embarkation day lunch, so that’s one place having fewer passengers was noticeable. Sail away was festive, and the Fun Times for yesterday and today show the usual activities. We were told in a letter that the pro-rated refund of our cruise fare and pre-purchased WiFi would be credited back to our original form of payment. Refunds for port charges, pre-purchased excursions on missed ports and port charges for missed ports would be credited to our onboard account, along with the $500 goodwill credit. Mine are already showing, and to my surprise, the $500 is called refundable. I currently have over $700 in credits. I pre-purchased 2 bottles of wine for my cabin, and I won’t drink much more than that over 6 days. I don’t do spa services. I am solo and don’t need fancy photos of myself. My luggage was stuffed as I packed for 3 weeks, and I can’t fit more stuff in it. Well, maybe something from the jewelry store, but I’ve always been skeptical about buying good jewelry on a cruise ship. A fellow B2B passenger suggested buying Carnival gift cards. I’ve never used them, but that seems like a good idea. It’s Tuesday morning now, a week since our ill-fated initial departure from Kiel. I got off for a couple hours to explore Kiel on foot, but otherwise, I haven’t been off the ship. I considered getting off in Dover yesterday, but the town didn’t look within walking distance, and I didn’t feel like depending on taxis. Anyway, I love cruising, but I will confess to some boredom over the last week, maybe made more so by being solo. The weather hasn’t been cooperative for much walking on outside decks, one of my favorite shipboard activities. That’s very disappointing as this ship has plenty of space to do so. It’s mostly been too chilly and/or rainy to sit on my balcony. That’s not a surprise for Northern Europe, but I miss it more than usual with all this time between port visits. I attended some of the activities during the sail between Kiel and Dover, but still sometimes the days dragged. I’ve been reading a lot, moving around the ship to sit in different places to read for variety. I think I have been eating too much, as mealtime becomes a highlight of the day LOL. I don’t mean to sound like I’m complaining, but this experience has made me re-think someday doing a trans-Atlantic crossing with all its sea time. It may not be for me. Finally a port tomorrow (Belfast) and an excursion. The ports we are visiting are on the days originally scheduled, so with everything else Carnival had to juggle, at least the excursions in the 3 ports we’ll get do can go on as planned. I’m looking forward to all of them.

Thank you to all who shared your thoughts. With the perspective of a little time, and now with the status of the next cruise settled, I can appreciate that the decision to stay onboard or to bail on the next cruise was mine alone without consultation with anyone, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. As my sister carol louise said in her post above, it was first hearing that I could choose to stay on board; then no, everyone has to get off in Germany while repairs are being made; then oh, of course you can stay onboard; then “here is your charter flight information from Hamburg to London”; oh, sorry, ignore that; then, “your charter flight has changed to this new time”; and lastly, ignore that 2nd message about the flight that you don’t need to be on. That was the source of my stress during which I felt particularly alone. The people I had become friendly with onboard were not B2B passengers - most passengers of course were not - so they were in a different situation and readily accepted the charter flight to London so they could go home on schedule. But all’s well that ends well. We departed Germany early Saturday afternoon and arrived back in Dover this morning. Our 9 night cruise has become a 6 night one, with fair compensation for the change. I’ll still see 3 of our original ports, and I’ve spent the last few days in the unique situation of being on a ship with only about 400 passengers. We were told about 100 will be disembarking today and about 1000 will be boarding. Clearly many on this next cruise cancelled. The ship should not feel crowded at all. This has been an unforgettable experience. I have other solo cruises planned, including one in September on this very ship. I’ll hope for an uneventful cruise, and I wish the same for ever else in their upcoming cruises.

I stand corrected - we have bananas at breakfast this morning. And they are not overripe, as you would expect if they had been onboard since July 9 LOL. Maybe we picked them up in Kiel??

It is definitely weird. I’ve been on other B2B cruises which meant an empty ship for a few hours. This is a for few days. No lines anywhere. Not at the omelette station and not at the pizza place, where I usually give up rather than wait. I had both yesterday, though they were out of mushrooms LOL. No lines at the Lido anywhere at any time. No lines at guest services. Pick an empty table anywhere you want in the Lido. I haven’t been to the MDR. I’m traveling solo and prefer the Lido. But the daily program still lists early and late seatings. So far, the Lido hours have not changed; I thought they might be shortened. Besides mushrooms, we appear to be out of bananas, too. No other shortages noticed. There are still shows, musicians are playing in the evenings at various venues, and activities are being arranged. Bars are open, and now that we are at sea, the casino is open - and very busy, given how few of us there are. But it’s strange to see maybe 2 people sitting at atrium bar, maybe half a dozen in Serenity, 4 people watching the movie last night. It’s odd to rarely encounter anyone in the cabin hallways or elevators. I can’t help thinking about the crew that depends on tips. We are limbo between 2 cruises, and we aren’t being charged the daily service charge. But my room steward is still cleaning my room, so I gave him cash. I don’t usually add an extra tip to drink orders, but I am now as they have so few customers. Hopefully Carnival is taking care of them in some way, but I figure I can help a bit, too. I haven’t paid attention to the pools, as this isn’t swimming weather for me. I happened to notice yesterday that one was closed, but I didn’t check the others. I’ve had a lot of time to think, and at times I’ve wondered if I should have taken the generous offer to cancel the July 21 cruise, change my flight, and head home. But, despite the awful uncertainty of those couple days before we knew what was going on, I’m glad I stayed on board. I’m relaxing, my bed is getting made, my bathroom is getting cleaned, and I am enjoying food I didn’t have to shop for, cook, or clean up after. I expect he next cruise to be less than totally full, as some people probably canceled. I’m waiting to see how the various credits for the next cruise will be handled - canceled excursions, port charges for canceled ports, pro-rated refund of cruise fare and purchased Wi-Fi, and the $500 goodwill credit. I am expecting the $500 to be nonrefundable, and the rest to be refundable. I would consider that fair. I’ll know soon. We are on what is considered an extension of the July 9 cruise, and our new onboard account will be opened on Monday.