rsaladin

It is common knowledge that dining in the Steakhouse on the 1st/2nd night grants you 50% off or a free bottle of wine.

I have read somewhere that this deal may also apply to other specialty dining venues. Does anyone have any experience with this such as at Rudi's, Teppanyaki, etc?

Does anyone know if the sun beds around the main pool are able to be reserved or first come first served? I’m specifically looking at the ones on the Meraviglia.

I'm fairly certain the website is glitching right now. I just tried to do a mock booking for my Jan 2020 Horizon cruise that was no where near sold out yesterday. I can't see anything for it either.

On 12/31/2018 at 7:33 PM, BENHANDEL said:

I have screen shots of the menus. I do not know how to add them here. I posted them on another social media forum, specific to the ship. Others had previously posted the fun times there so I did not bother taking photos. 

Hmm any hints on how I can see them on the other social media forum?

And the menus would be fantastic!

Great comparison! My cruise history is about the same as yours, but opposite. I've been on 5 RCCL and 1 Carnival. I prefer Carnival due to the reasons you've stated. I would also add that Carnival has more included food options, especially for lunch. RCCL also has more "active" things to do, rock climbing wall, flowrider, ice skating, etc. I do not utilize these so they do not hold value for me. I went on RCCL because that was what my parents went on, but I am planning my next 3 Carnivals now!

$150 through Carnival is great! Usually they only offer $50. Which sailing are you going on?

Not sure how leaving in the middle of the night at 2am qualifies as an overnight stay? That seems confusing to me as well.

I’m so excited about this! Everything sounds delicious to me. I’m sailing on Horizon in Jan 2020, so I hope they still have this available then!

There is a YouTube video of this cabin on cruisedeckplans, and you have two closets instead of the usual three. The space for the larger bathroom and turnaround space for HC contraptions had to come from somewhere. I believe the pictures you saw were of the Magic, and that cabin is arranged a little differently, with one closet by the bed and a second by the door. If you go to www.cruisedeckplans.com and click on Carnival, and then Dream, go to the bottom left to Inside cabins, click on Handicap, and it will show you a list of the cabins and there will be pictures of some, all contributed by members. It is a pay/member site to see other pictures, but he makes the HC pictures visible to all. EM

The cabin in this video is not 11207, because it is a bunk bed cabin, with one twin bed and a bunk above it. 11207 is a normal interior cabin with two twin beds that can be together or separate. Google Carnival Dream 11208 for pictures of the identical cabin. I can only see two closets, one to the left of the beds and one between the doors.

I would start checking flights for March in November, and have them booked no later than January.

On the 5 day I went on in January, I was in the pool the first sea day! It was a little chilly but warmed up a lot the next couple days at port when we were further south. The only day that was too cold for the pool was the last sea day on the way back.

I’ve never had trouble bringing back onboard a bottle of half empty water. I think maybe I’ve seen the crew smell it once to make sure it wasn’t liquor. Or maybe they made my BF take the lid off his yeti? It’s possible that vodka/rum has been put in a water bottle and carried back onboard in a backpack as well.

Your best bet for that is going to be at the steakhouse bar. Hopefully the ship you’re going on has one.

I think I finally figured it out!! Thank you all for bearing with me! Photobucket is like the public bathroom of the photo hosting world. You don’t wanna use it, but you have to, so you just hold your nose and flush with your foot. I have no idea what that analogy even means, so let’s just move on and get this party started. I do want to preface this review by saying that my humor may not be for everybody. If you are prude, easily offended, or the kind of person who writes to John Heald complaining that your napkins weren't properly folded in the MDR, this review probably isn't for you. With that being said, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you my review of the Carnival Freedom:

 

Friday, February 24th, 2017

Finally, the day had arrived that we were heading to Houston! It had been 6 LONG months since we’d cruised (insert dramatic fainting here), and we were more than ready! We woke up, got our kids off to school (but not before gloating a little bit about how we'd be lying on a beach while they were sitting in class, and yes, we have an account set up for their future therapy sessions) and did some last minute packing. Luckily, I’m a light packer*, as evidenced by this pic of the shoes I brought along:

 

 

*Disclaimer: That's a complete and total lie.

 

We had some lunch, did a quick Walmart run, and then, since my eyebrows were starting to give Bert from Sesame Street a run for his money, I popped into my salon for a quick wax. I knew I made the right decision when the sweet girl working looked at them and said, and I quote, “oh, honey, they so long!” I mumbled something along the lines of "that's what's she said" and made a mental note to never go 3 weeks (inner self: b***h, it's been more like 3 months) between waxes again. We met up with my mom to go over some last minute stuff, and then finally, around 12:30, we were headed to the airport.

 

Let me sidetrack here for a moment if I may. We live in a Tulsa suburb. When we cruise out of Galveston, and it comes up that we're from Oklahoma, staff and other passengers on the ship almost always automatically assume that we drove to the port. Inevitably, someone will ask how our drive was. I then proceed to give them the same face that Steve Harvey gives contestants on Family Feud when they give him a dumb answer:

 

 

Yes, we live in Oklahoma, and yes, we neighbor Texas. However, Texas is a very LARGE state, and from our house to the port of Galveston is a 9 hour drive. Homie don’t play that. We live 15 minutes from Tulsa International Airport, and the flight to Houston is a little over an hour. I don’t like long road trips. I get cranky and uncomfortable and bored and suffer from a near-fatal condition called “Numbus Gluteus Maximus. It’s a very serious, very real disease that you can look up on the AMA website.*

 

*Disclaimer: No it's not, and no you can't.

 

So that’s why we fly, even though we “live close.” :rolleyes: Anyway, we get to the airport, and there's no line at check-in. We check our (96% full of my stuff) 4 bags, all of which weigh in right at 50 lbs thanks to C's mad packing/weighing skills. He has learned to adapt and overcome after 7 cruises with a wife who insists on bringing everything she owns on a cruise. But I digress. We sail right through and head to security. The line there is short as well. We empty our pockets, and take off our shoes and place them, along with our dignity, into the bins and step into the x-ray machine. Apparently something around my shoulders “lit up,” so I had to be patted down by a female TSA agent who had the warmth of Maleficent. After I was done getting intimately acquainted with that agent, I got pulled aside because my bag had been flagged in the x-ray machine. So another TSA agent, who was also warm and friendly (not at all) started digging through my bag, looking for weapons, bombs, stowaways, I don’t know. Finally she found what she was looking for. An unopened can of Diet Coke that I forgot was in there. She then proceeded to swipe the inside of my Minnie Mouse/Disney World bag for explosives residue. She did the same to my hands. Rest easy when you board an airplane, people. The fine folks at TSA are making sure that hardened, Diet Coke-smuggling, basically-a-terrorist people like me are being thwarted.

 

So my bag and I are finally cleared, and I look back to see C is in a similar situation. He’s spread eagle, hands behind head, getting a full pat down, groin included. They made him unbutton his pants, remove his belt, and they tested it for explosives as well. I mean, I know we’re sexy, but we really don’t have time to be fondled and groped by every TSA agent in the airport. At least not for free. We finally get through security and get our shoes back on and head to our gate. We were happy to see that our flight, Southwest Airlines Flight 1878 nonstop to Houston was right on time:

 

 

 

We had “A” boarding passes, so I got my window seat. In no time, we were in the air and on our way to Houston:

 

 

 

There was no Wi-Fi on this plane, so people were forced to interact with each other. You could see the look of horror on their faces as they turned to face their travel companions and tried to remember how to engage another living, breathing human. Most of them gave up after a couple minutes and just took a nap. The flight was quite bumpy, so the captain had the FA’s remain in their seats for the quick flight to Houston. In what seemed like no time, the captain was announcing that we were making our final approach into Houston Hobby. In just a little over an hour after taking off in Tulsa, we were on the ground in Houston.

 

We gathered our stuff and made our way off the plane. I have naturally curly hair, so as soon as I stepped onto the jetway, I felt that warm, moist embrace that is south Texas humidity. I could tell without even looking in a mirror that despite flat ironing my hair that morning, I was going to look like this by the end of the day, only not nearly as chic and put-together:

 

 

To be continued.....

I know it’s been awhile, but are most of those shoes the same brand? I’m shopping for some lower heeled shoes that would be more practical for cruises! You have some cute ones, where do you shop??

Allstate has not shown them for several days either. I really hope they will restock!

Last year they did one of their upgrade sales. I think it was like $10-$15 for best available upgrade within category. It's actually not a bad deal depending on what cabin categories are still available.

I prefer Carnival over Princess for the food, better quality and variety. Carnival has more fun atmosphere, but I expect would be toned down on an Alaskan. I do enjoy Princess for the elegant atmosphere and decor. They also have better drink prices than Carnival. I’ve been on more Princess than Carnival, but lately am booking Carnival since I was very disappointed with Princess dining on my last. Princess has a large variety of fish options every night in MDR. I am not a fish person so that didn’t leave many options.

I think that is very fair! Have a wonderful cruise and may there be many towel animals in your future

Their job is to clean your stateroom, not cater to your every whim. If you want them to go above and beyond and fulfill your every desire then yes, you should tip extra to ensure you get the service you want. These people work hours that would not be legal in the US with an insane workload, and you should not take advantage of them. If it was their job to clean every stateroom twice daily, Carnival would not be giving them the option of cleaning once. Logistically, it doesn’t work out. If you’re going to insist on twice daily then I would tip at least $20 in addition to prepaid grats. I tip this and tell the steward to clean whenever is most convenient for him. I’ve always gotten excellent service. First world problems.

We always fly in day before, especially during Dec-Feb when snow storms are definitely possible. We have flown in day of, but that was in Sep/Oct when bad weather was not as likely to cancel flights at least here in KC. It's way more stressful to fly in day of, plus you have to get up very early to catch the earliest flights. Then you will be tired the whole first day of the cruise and be a day behind on your vacation. My family has missed early flights by 10 minutes due to just being rushed in the morning and running late. Had to be put on next flights that got us there later in afternoon. Luckily that was not a cruise vacation!

If you're booked with an Early Saver rate, you could call and get $100 OBC, or pay the difference and upgrade... If you are not booked at an Early Saver rate, you may still be able to pay to upgrade, but likely no OBC for the price drop...

If both the rooms are cheaper than what was booked then what would you be paying to upgrade??

Sounds interesting...what is a Tokyo Tea?

Tokyo Tea is same thing as Long Island except sprite instead of coke and Midori instead of triple sec. Makes it green.

Long Beach is same as Long Island except sprite and cranberry instead of coke and triple sec. Also lime instead of lemon. Makes it pink. My personal favorite version.

There’s also an adios motherf**ker which had blue Curacao instead of triple sec and with sprite. Makes it blue.

Also, an Irish trash can. Which I believe has Red Bull? And comes out green. Not sure what else is in this one.

All these drinks taste good and have a lot of alcohol. Beware and enjoy!

Or just get a Tokyo Tea.

Or just get a Long Beach Iced Tea.

Something similar happened to me on my last cruise. BF and I had $600 OBC at start of cruise. Even though we were technically on same “account”, we had separate folios. The OBC was applied to my folio, so as I was checking my account, it showed there was still available credit. BF never checked his folio, so I had no idea that the OBC was not being applied to his charges. At end of cruise we owed another $600 just from his charges. I probably would not have spent so much had I known we were long out of OBC. I believe they do it this way in case people in the room are wanting to pay their accounts separately.

I still blame him for not figuring out how to check his account through the app. Apparently it is difficult to type numbers in🤔