Holiday Past/Present Cruisers Post Here

[shecat]

We had no damage to our home. Just without power and phone. Our friends and fellow islanders were not so lucky. Has anyone heard from Cotton? She has been in my thoughts and prayers.

[susu1024]

My girlfriend and I are booked for the Sept.12 5 day cruise. Please tell me it will still leave from Mobile! Also just how far is Cancun from Calica? Would a driver be a good idea? Also we are just 2 women alone, but married. Will there be many extra men other than husbands that we might get to dance with? Really looking forward to this cruise. I have one booked with my husband for Sept.24 aboard the Glory, but my best friends daughter gave this Holiday cruise to her parents for a thank you for the beautiful wedding they gave her July 9 and Daddy won't go, so guess who does? Me Best Friend! We are going to have a ball! S. Williams/ North Alabama resident

[newcruiserdave]

Carnival has announced that Holiday will resume its normal schedule from Mobile beginnng today, Sept 3. Mom and Dad board in 6 hours.

[Jus10mom]

What are all future Holiday folks going to do in light of the cancellations for the next 6 months? Any going to reschedule on another ship?????? LEt's keep each other informed of good deals you see.....

[MS QUEEN]

Hey Y'all --- I just had to hop in here and give a thumbs up for the Holiday. I used to be obsessed with the board, but since I got married, my family is always so busy :( that I hardly ever get on here.

Cotton and I are both die hard Holiday fans. I have never been on a ship that has a more attentive crew than her. They do an outstanding job and seem to love what they do and that always makes a big difference.

I hope Cotton is ok and can check in with us soon.

If you haven't sailed the Holiday and are thinking about it for the future, go with that GUT folks...she's GREAT!!!!:D

[Doughboy77]

Well, yesterady morning didn't go as I'd planned. My wife and I were out of town visiting friends and I was totally out of the loop from the world. No internet (how do they survive?) and the tv stayed on football games that I didn't really care about. I was surprised to get a call from my TA, and even more surprised (and at the same time not, as I knew it could happen) when she told me that our 10/15 Holiday cruise was cancelled.

 

Within seconds I was shown exactly why I did the right thing going through a TA. She had already researched two options for us and was ready to get us re-booked immediately. We're going on the Inspiration out of Tampa for the same dates (10/15-20) and will still be hitting Cozumel, just subbing Grand Cayman for Costa Maya. It's costing about $70pp more between fare and port charges, but that's not a worry as Carnival is kindly providing the $100pp onboard credit.

 

The end result is that our double birthday and very late anniversary cruise is still on, which is good news to of both of us. It wasn't fun to interrupt my wife's formal night dress shopping with the news that our cruise was cancelled, but thanks to my TA I was able to follow that up with the good news. :)

 

I still hope to take a cruise on the Holiday after she's back in service, but for now I've got to start researching hotel deals in Tampa (haven't found one as good as the Raddison Semmes yet) and find some fun things to do in Grand Cayman.

 

Hopefully all of those affected by this will be able to have as positive a result as we have. It's not a fun situation to be dealing with, but I applaud Carnival for making an effort to help out in the wake of this awful disaster.

[biomedbob]

I want to do a collage of Holiday cruisers for a powerpoint Ha-ha.

 

I want boarding pictures (you know the ones with the Holliday in the background and you carrying all your luggage) in the 1980's.

 

Send to biomedbob59@yahoo.com.

 

Thanks

[Jus10mom]

After a weekend spent searching options on what to do....and concerned about not getting a refund before cruise date and rebooking. And coupled with the fact of more expensive cruises and not working with our timelines, we transferred our refund to the Triumph for NEXT Oct out of Miami . It's another year to wait but we'll be waiting for an ocean view this time for 7 nights! We'll have a year to save and plan again!

 

Thanks for all the sharing on this board. It was nice to meet you all! :) I'm sure our cruise paths will cross again! I'll be around! ;)

[Jus10mom]

After a weekend spent searching options on what to do....and concerned about not getting a refund before cruise date and rebooking. And coupled with the fact of more expensive cruises and not working with our timelines, we transferred our refund to the Triumph for NEXT Oct out of Miami . It's another year to wait but we'll be waiting for an ocean view this time for 7 nights! We'll have a year to save and plan again!

 

Thanks for all the sharing on this board. It was nice to meet you all! :) I'm sure our cruise paths will cross again! I'll be around! ;)

[Jus10mom]

After a weekend spent searching options on what to do....and concerned about not getting a refund before cruise date and rebooking. And coupled with the fact of more expensive cruises and not working with our timelines, we transferred our refund to the Triumph for NEXT Oct out of Miami . It's another year to wait but we'll be waiting for an ocean view this time for 7 nights! We'll have a year to save and plan again!

 

Thanks for all the sharing on this board. It was nice to meet you all! :) I'm sure our cruise paths will cross again! I'll be around! ;)

[Doughboy77]

Jus10mom,

 

I'm sorry that you had to cancel your cruise for this year. From what I understand, as long as you stay with Carnival you don't have to wait for your refund to book on another ship. Our TA had Carnival transfer the money we paid from the Holiday booking to our new one on the Inspiration. You might still be able to go this year. If not I'm sure you'll have a blast on the even longer cruise next year.

[Jus10mom]

I didn't say that exactly correct...yes, we did transfer our refund to the Triumph and could've for a cruise around this time, but it wouldn't work on our schedules and everything was going to cost lots more because of increased cruise price and flying to get there....

 

BTW, you should love Grand Cayman! Very beautiful. Would love to see the island and see how they have rebuilt after Ivan. We were there the day before Ivan hit! Swim with the Stingrays--fabulous adventure. Capt. Bryans was wonderful!!!!!

[Photomom22]

:confused: We were also scheduled on the Holiday Oct.15th, but our TA was able to get us on the Celebration out of Jacksonville for $49 pp more and a few more hours drive,Tampa was too-far for us to drive and Charleston too much more $$.We are also looking for another Hotel Park-n-Cruise special.Any Ideas??Hope to sail on the Holiday out of Mobile at a later date, because we were really looking forward to it.

[Jus10mom]

My official docs....I just wanted to cry!!!! :o

[Doughboy77]

Jus10mom, that's great! Hopefully that means I'll get mine soon as well. :cool: I'm excited about checking out Grand Cayman. More excited than I was about Costa Maya, actually. Gotta check out the stingrays, and I hear there's a rum factory there as well. Hehehe.

 

Photomom, I'm glad that you were able to get transfered to another cruise. I hope y'all have a great time! I'm also looking forward to eventually getting to check out the Holiday.

[Jus10mom]

great but not great when you have to basically stare at them and they are useless. HOWEVER, I am not so down anymore...I have another whole year to be excited about a 7 day cruise. And I don't have to crash diet to lose the 5-7 pounds I wanted to before Oct! teehee! :)

 

Let us know when you get them....that is always soooooo exciting!

[Doughboy77]

Gah, can you tell my brain was fuzzy last night? Sorry about that. It's good to see you're keeping a positive attitude. Just think of how much money you'll have saved up for foofoo drinks next years. :eek:

[futaba951]

On the news in Mobile tonight they are saying that the governor of AL has asked FEMA to move the Holiday somewhere else. He doesn't want it docked in Mobile if it is not going to be cruising. He is in the process of reactivating the housing at the former Navy homeport in Mobile for evacuees. It was only one year old when it was shut down so it should be in good shape after a thorough cleaning. I think with the ports of NO and Gulfport shut down the exploding cargo traffic into the port of Mobile may be one reason they want the Holiday out of the way. Maybe making room for RCI Grandeur. Who knows. I have a feeling that this may be the end of Carnival in Mobile.

[shecat]

The Mobile Press is reporting this morning that the Holiday will be moving to either Gulfport or New Orleans. I passed her this morning on my drive in and it was strange not to see passengers out on the deck. I hope Mobile can get a deal with another cruise line.

[richcrow]

On the news in Mobile tonight they are saying that the governor of AL has asked FEMA to move the Holiday somewhere else. He doesn't want it docked in Mobile if it is not going to be cruising. He is in the process of reactivating the housing at the former Navy homeport in Mobile for evacuees. It was only one year old when it was shut down so it should be in good shape after a thorough cleaning. I think with the ports of NO and Gulfport shut down the exploding cargo traffic into the port of Mobile may be one reason they want the Holiday out of the way. Maybe making room for RCI Grandeur. Who knows. I have a feeling that this may be the end of Carnival in Mobile.

 

As reported in this mornings Mobile Register:

 

"We have determined that it may be best if it will be closer to home (for evacuees)", James McIntyre, FEMA spokesman said of the recent decision to take Holiday out of Mobile.

 

I don't believe that this means that this end of Carnival in Mobile. Carnival had nothing to do with this decision.

[futaba951]

As reported in this mornings Mobile Register:

 

"We have determined that it may be best if it will be closer to home (for evacuees)", James McIntyre, FEMA spokesman said of the recent decision to take Holiday out of Mobile.

 

I don't believe that this means that this end of Carnival in Mobile. Carnival had nothing to do with this decision.

 

Yeah, I read that this morning too. Last night on TV the way they worded it sounded like they were kicking the ship out of town. The way it was worded in the paper this morning had an entirely different tone. Guess this is a good example of selective journalism spinning the news.

[gadawg1979]

Anyone heard or seen anything about her lately?

[richcrow]

Anyone heard or seen anything about her lately?

 

If by Ol' girl you mean the Holiday, she is now in Pascagoula, MS still housing people displaced by Katrina. As I understand, a lot of the people who are housed on the Holiday really didn't want the ship to move to Pascagoula. The number of businesses open there are few and far between and those that are open are so crowded that it a long wait just to get serviced. FEMA is also saying that they may not need the ship until March 2006. We in Mobile sure hope so. We would like to start crusing on her again.

 

Richard

[gadawg1979]

I would love to see her back. I would move the trip that has moved twice back to her in a heart beat.

 

Shane

[Mysticks1]

I called my TA yesterday and asked for rates on the Holiday for Thanksgiving week next year. He advised that he had heard rumors that there might be another ship here instead at that time. Anyone else heard any rumors? :confused: