slim501

I just got an email today for our cruise that departs in 20 days.

We had ours confiscated last week on the Summit and it was similar to that. We had taken it on prior cruises, but last week they took it. 

We have done this several times.  With my husband's work schedule, it is often necessary.  We just booked a cruise on the Summit and we leave in less than 60 days.  We once booked one the week before and got a killer deal. 

Thank you for a most comprehensive and thoughtful review. You had many excellent observations and points of interest.

 

We sailed Summit with Kapt. Kate last fall and thought she did a very good job then. We'll be on Summit in a couple of months but she'll be on vacation when we are.

 

I do have a question though. If you were offered a 30 or 50% discount at the specialty restaurant, would it have been worth it? We've never done one but were expecting to try it on our upcoming Summit cruise.

 

When we boarded the Constellation in February as an AQ passenger, we were offered a 50% specialty dining reservation the first night. We didn't take advantage of it because we had never been in Blu before. So if they offer it on this embarkation, would you feel it would be worth it to try?

 

Our cabin will be on Deck 11. Is the movie on deck 11 or on deck 12? Oceanview cafe & sunset bar/oceanview bar are on 10 right?

We were just on the Summit 2 weeks ago and had a cabin on deck 11. We rarely heard any noise from the movie above or the bar below. You could sometimes hear the music from the Sunset Bar below, but it wasn't loud and it didn't go late at night.

I have asked Carnival this question. They give one per cabin. How they choose that person, I don't know. We have cruised 6 times with Carnival in the past 2 years and the booking has always been in my name, but my husband always gets the survey.

We were on the Pride in September and will be on your sailing as well. Our 4 year old did the camp several times each day. He loved going and we loved having time away from him.

My son isn't big on the stroller except for when we cruise. We would use it in port. It gets to be too much walking for him when it is hot and carrying him isn't an option.

We have taken our 4 year old on 6 cruises and his card is always in our cabin unless we are getting off the ship. They don't need them for any reason at that age.

We have done several B2B and our cabin steward recommended that we didn't do laundry on the transition day. He told us that the last full day of the first cruise is a good day to do it and he was right. We have never had to wait for a washer or dryer that last day since everyone is packing to go home.

You can ask your cabin steward for a bucket of ice for your wine. That is what we usually do.

If you give them the booking number, they are good. I just did this for my parents.

I just booked a handicapped cabin for my mom today, so I am pretty well schooled on them. Aside from the handicapped cabins, they also have cabins that only have wider doors to get scooters in. Give Carnival a call and they can help. I spent an hour on the phone with them today and got me all squared away.

Everyone always posts about a PVP, but after 7 cruises on Carnival, I have never had one contact me. If I have one, it is news to me.

We just got back from the Dream a little over a week ago and there was no problem with soda in NOLA. We had a extra wheeled suitcase in which we put 2 12pack cans of soda in. Sent it thru the scanners and we were on our way to the check in desk. No one asked us to open the suitcase or sent us anywhere other than to tell us to head over to the check in line/desk. We did see the table where there was a carnival employee checking some other persons bag. She had a pretty good stack of water bottles, Gatorade, Beer cans and other no no items.

 

All in all it took dh longer to get his belt and his change and other pocket items out of his pockets and into the container that gets sent thru the scanner then it did for me to lay the suitcase down on the belt and walk thru the scanner thing myself. It was very easy.

In Baltimore, they checked at security. There was no separate table. It would have been much better if there was a separate table.

I have never seen it on Carnival, but my parents told me about a woman on their last Celebrity cruise that was kicked off for attacking a bartender. She apparently went over the bar and was swinging at him.

I agree with most of everything. But its funny how food was subjective. I found the food in the MDR on that cruise was slightly better than usual. But then again, I've been on enough cruises to know what to eat and what to avoid. I usually avoid fish as it tends to be dry and flavorless.

 

However, I should add that Bonasi Sushi was great, better than Royal Caribbean's Izumi's which i found to be only mediocre.

I think one of the issues is that the Pride has the old menus and we prefer the American Table menus. Our last 3 cruises have been with the American Table and we find we like them better. It seems to have better variety.

If he's okay with a pack-n-play, then ask for a crib. That is what Carnival uses for cribs. Your steward will set it up at night and take it down in the morning, freeing up space in your cabin during the day, should you need it.

We were just on the Pride and I saw one of the cribs and it was an actual crib, it was not a pack and play.

Also, you need to factor in different events in the area. We got off a ship once in Miami the day of a marathon and everything was backed up. Taxis and other transportation couldn't get there in a timely manner and it took forever to get to the airport.

I bet the security lines were really backed up if they inspected every bottle of wine!:eek:

They also checked every can of soda, opening the 12 packs and taking out the cans. It was at least a 30 minute wait to get through security.

We just got off the Pride on Sunday and there were three levels of the photo package. The first one was $150. I forget how many photos it was, but we thought it was reasonable and a deal. The most expensive was $400 and included all prints and digital images. There was one in between, but I don't recall the price or what it included.

My husband and I thought it was a pretty good deal, but we just had family photos done.

Also, if you can only get pictures that have at least one of the people in your cabin in it. There was some exclusions for kids in adjacent cabins and you can't have more than 10 people in the picture. There were a few other exclusions, but nothing crazy.

We just cruised out of Baltimore and they were inspecting every bottle that went through the scanners. The person in front of us had a bottle of some liquor that was in a bottle that was shaped like a wine bottle, but it wasn't wine. I wasn't paying that close of attention as to what it actually was, but it was confiscated because it wasn't wine. The person didn't argue, so he must have known he was taking a risk.

This won't help you now, but we typically get ocean view rooms because most of them have a sofa bed. You can get an ocean view with a sofa bed and a pullman. We have a little one and have found this to be the best solution.

We got off the Pride on Sunday. Last Wednesday, a crew got on Wednesday and started stripping the midship pool of tile. They were working on it and it looked close to being finished when we saw it last. It seemed to be a lot of waiting for things to dry. It is no longer tiled.

The previous poster mentioned the aft pool being worked on. The aft pool is the Serenity pool. That wasn't being worked on.

I highly doubt it will still be under construction in October. The workers were not Carnival employees, but an outside company that specialized in ship pools.

We just got off the Pride today as well and I agree with most of what you said. I definitely agree with you about the food in the MDR. This was our 7th cruise on Carnival and was by far the worst food in the MDR. Even the warm melting cake wasn't great some nights. One night mine was like soup.

It was also kind of annoying, (not to mention noisy) that the closed the midship pool on Wednesday to refurb it. The rest of the cruise I had to take my 3 year old in a pool that was way too crowded.

We just got off the Pride today and have taken our 3 year old on 4 other Carnival Cruises and Camp Carnival is very secure. They have three different locks on the door, not all of them on the inside and there is also a buzzer that sounds when they open the door. Staff is the only one that opens the door. On the 5 ships, I never felt the kids were are risk of getting out.