SO MANY Carnival Questions, please Help!

[meganelise]

Hello-

we arent cruising until Feb 2018, but I homeschool my kids and summer is the only time I will be able to plan for this. any and all help is SO appreciated. we are sailing on the Vista with 4 kids (20,18,12,10).

1. Can we bring bottled water (and soda) on board, like 24 packs? If not, will the price go down online for it through the ship? Right now its showing $4.50 for 12.

2. Formal night, how formal is it on Carnival? Is it formal night in the $$ restaurants?

3. How do I book the Dr Suess breakfast?

4. There are only a handful of excursions on my Carnival page, will there be more?

5. Where can I look for outside vendors also? We are going to Gr Turk, St Kitts, San Juan and St Martin

6. What is the typical dress in the MDR's for dinner? Ive heard its gotten more casual. . . Can my kids come in in shorts and a t shirt?

Sorry for all the questions, I thoroughly searched the Carnival cruise dashboard for our cruise, but didnt find answers.

Thank you!

Megan

[DanusLight]

Hello-

we arent cruising until Feb 2018, but I homeschool my kids and summer is the only time I will be able to plan for this. any and all help is SO appreciated. we are sailing on the Vista with 4 kids (20,18,12,10).

1. Can we bring bottled water (and soda) on board, like 24 packs? If not, will the price go down online for it through the ship? Right now its showing $4.50 for 12. Bottled water, no. 12 packs of cans, yes. The prices listed generally do not change.

2. Formal night, how formal is it on Carnival? Is it formal night in the $$ restaurants? Formal night, aka, Cruise Elegant night has taken on a personality of it's own. You will see people dressed in everything from tuxes and evening gowns, to Dockers and a buttoned down shirt. Formal night is ship wide.

3. How do I book the Dr Suess breakfast? I believe this can booked once on board.

4. There are only a handful of excursions on my Carnival page, will there be more? More than likely.

5. Where can I look for outside vendors also? We are going to Gr Turk, St Kitts, San Juan and St Martin You can simple google the port name and the words shore excursions. Lots of options will pop up!

6. What is the typical dress in the MDR's for dinner? Ive heard its gotten more casual. . . Can my kids come in in shorts and a t shirt? Shorts and a t-shirt are fine for during the day. I would at lease try to wear a collared shirt for dinner. If your younger children are enjoying camp carnival, you may not see them for dinner!

Sorry for all the questions, I thoroughly searched the Carnival cruise dashboard for our cruise, but didnt find answers.

Thank you!

Megan

Megan, you are welcome, and have fun!!

[atj1971]

This is a great source for all questions. I will answer what I can for you.

1. You can not bring bottled water. The price is 4.50 for a 12 pack it does not go down in price. You may bring soda/pop or other beverages as long as they are in cans. No bottles. Each person can bring a 12 pack in their carry ons.

2. Formal night or as they call it now, Elegant night... Dress code level varies widely. No shorts. I've seen for women anywhere from a nice sundress to a formal gown. Men: Slacks shirt and tie to tuxedo.

3. The Dr Suess breakfast is booked once on board. People who really want this to be part of their cruise usually do that when they board the ship in order to secure a reservation.

4. Most likely you are seeing everything they have to offer for the ports you are sailing to.

5. Again, these boards are great for finding outside excursions. Check the port sections you are visiting. I have seen many people do that. I, myself did that in Nassau in May. The benefit of doing it through Carnival is...If the excursion gets back late, the ship will wait for you. If you book an outside vendor excursion and something happens that causes you to arrive late you might see everyone waving as they sail away without you. Yikes!!!

6. Typical dress for the MDR again, varies. Nice shorts are acceptable. No bathing suits. No flip flops. Now that being said, there were a lot of people in flip flops. Especially us women who have the cute sandal looking flops that are blingy. I did not see any of the men in tank tops. Usually something like a polo shirt with shorts etc but there were a few I saw in t-shirts.

[hapytobehr]

Hello-

we arent cruising until Feb 2018, but I homeschool my kids and summer is the only time I will be able to plan for this. any and all help is SO appreciated. we are sailing on the Vista with 4 kids (20,18,12,10).

1. Can we bring bottled water (and soda) on board, like 24 packs? If not, will the price go down online for it through the ship? Right now its showing $4.50 for 12. No bottles of any kind allowed but you can bring cans. No the price will not go down for the water.

2. Formal night, how formal is it on Carnival? Is it formal night in the $$ restaurants? Formal night is now called "elegant" night but not everyone dresses up. They will not allow shorts in the MDR or $$ restaurants on elegant nights (if it's enforced)

3. How do I book the Dr Suess breakfast? Have no kids so I can't answer

4. There are only a handful of excursions on my Carnival page, will there be more? Yes

5. Where can I look for outside vendors also? We are going to Gr Turk, St Kitts, San Juan and St Martin You can search the boards on here where it breaks down each port and there are many posts about outside vendors.

6. What is the typical dress in the MDR's for dinner? Ive heard its gotten more casual. . . Can my kids come in in shorts and a t shirt? It is casual and they can come in shorts & t-shirts but not on elegant nights. (if it's enforced)

Sorry for all the questions, I thoroughly searched the Carnival cruise dashboard for our cruise, but didnt find answers.

Thank you!

Megan

 

Have a great Cruise!

[Doggielover68]

You can't bring bottled water anymore. You can bring 1 12 pack of cans of soda, juice, etc per person (no bottles). The price online will most likely stay the same or increase. There is ice and cold water available on lido free of charge.

 

Formal night isn't very strict. Plan on a nice pair of pants (not jeans) and a nice blouse, button down shirt, etc. Some where a tie, some don't. Jackets aren't necessary.

 

Dr. Seuss breakfast can be booked online or on the ship.

 

Excursions sometimes take a while to show up on the website since it depends on the vendors. More will show up eventually.

 

You can look at the ports of call pages on here for suggestions in each port for private excursions. Or you can do a web search for tours in each port and then look up your findings here in the forums to see what people say about them.

 

MDR dress is pretty casual now. Shorts and t shirts will be fine, but avoid athletic type shorts (although most likely no one will say anything).

 

 

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[HLNFan]

In San Juan our last stop there we walked off the ship and there was a line of smaller tour buses that cost $10 per person. It was a great tour and we really enjoyed seeing different parts of San Juan.

[pghsteelerfan]

I know your questions have been answered, but as a couple of others have recommended for information on outside vendors, I also highly recommend the "Port of Call" boards right here on Cruise Critic. Once in the "Ports of Call" boards, look under "Caribbean" where you'll find a listing of all the islands you'll be stopping at. I have utilized this section since 2013 and have gotten great information and details about outside vendors. Since Cruise Critic is mainly other cruisers, first hand experience from fellow cruisers was exactly what I was looking for. It was very important for us to be sure we went with a reputable outside vendor who is timely when it comes to getting cruise ship passengers back to the ship on time. Cruise ships will wait for tours running late if the tours are booked through the cruise line, but they will not wait on outside vendors who are late. Many outside vendors also charge a deposit. Some will refund the deposit if the port is missed due to weather/other circumstances while others will not. The Ports of Call section are also great in getting ideas of things to see and do that you may not have thought of otherwise. This has been the BIGGEST help to us in being able to get the most out of our cruises.

[kendracruises]

A good place to look for excursions and info about your port of calls is TripAdvisor. Lots of info there and reviews

[grandmarnnurse]

I found that more shore excursions will be listed as it is closer to the time you are sailing. For my January 2018 cruise, I have very few listed right now.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[kimma11]

Hello-

we arent cruising until Feb 2018, but I homeschool my kids and summer is the only time I will be able to plan for this. any and all help is SO appreciated. we are sailing on the Vista with 4 kids (20,18,12,10).

1. Can we bring bottled water (and soda) on board, like 24 packs? If not, will the price go down online for it through the ship? Right now its showing $4.50 for 12.

2. Formal night, how formal is it on Carnival? Is it formal night in the $$ restaurants?

3. How do I book the Dr Suess breakfast?

4. There are only a handful of excursions on my Carnival page, will there be more?

5. Where can I look for outside vendors also? We are going to Gr Turk, St Kitts, San Juan and St Martin

6. What is the typical dress in the MDR's for dinner? Ive heard its gotten more casual. . . Can my kids come in in shorts and a t shirt?

Sorry for all the questions, I thoroughly searched the Carnival cruise dashboard for our cruise, but didnt find answers.

Thank you!

Megan

 

1) For 3 of us with drink packages we went through a pack of water on a 5 day cruise. I recommend buying a couple packs. There is water on the lido deck, so you could always refill you own water bottles.

2) Steakhouse is dress up and worth the money!!! Dining room was pretty casual every day except the elegant day.

3) So worth the little price. Book as soon as you get on board.

4) I think more will be added as our cruise didn't show very many until the end of fall, and we sailed in May.

 

Good luck!!!

[CoW mAn]

Formal night, how formal is it on Carnival?

 

Not very.

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[Keys2Heaven]

6. What is the typical dress in the MDR's for dinner? Ive heard its gotten more casual. . . Can my kids come in in shorts and a t shirt?Megan

 

I typed "Carnival Dress Code" into Google and the link to Carnival's dress code was the first result.

 

 

https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1093/~/what-to-wear---evenings

[meremarflorida]

Fyi there is a great social network site on a different platform starting with F. There are 30000 ppl in the group and so much wonderful info about the ship and ports. Suggest you have a look there too. Vista is wonderful!

[maryred]

Here my answers

Hello-

we arent cruising until Feb 2018, but I homeschool my kids and summer is the only time I will be able to plan for this. any and all help is SO appreciated. we are sailing on the Vista with 4 kids (20,18,12,10).

1. Can we bring bottled water (and soda) on board, like 24 packs? If not, will the price go down online for it through the ship? Right now its showing $4.50 for 12.

Only 12 oz or smaller cans, pouches, or juice boxes can be brought aboard for non-alcoholic beverages, limit of 12 per passenger. For each repeat passenger a 1.5 liter bottle of purified water will be provided by the second day, you may want to bring an empty water bottle or travel cup to fill from the freebie one as 1.5L is a bit unmanageable if trying to travel light in ports. In the past 12 months there have been 2 price increases on the 12 pack of bottle water (this time LY it was only $2.99 went to $3.99 this past fall and again increased in spring to $4.50) so order now to lock in before they increase again. (If by chance it does decrease you will get OBC for the difference.)

2. Formal night, how formal is it on Carnival? Is it formal night in the $$ restaurants?

No formal nights just 2 Cruise Elegant Evenings on any 6-8 cruise. Business casual is the best to describe the dress code required in all full service restaurants on CEE nights. You may also wish to note that even on cruise casual nights the at fee restaurants, except Bonsai Sushi, require pants to be worn by males and at least capri lengths by females.

3. How do I book the Dr Suess breakfast?

Currently this may only be booked once on board, on embarkation day and the first full day aboard there will be a table set up in the atrium area to sign-up. After those days the specialty dining hostess or the MDR maitre'D can accept sign-ups. It will be held on the last full seaday, starting with 1 seating at around 8 am, if that fills up the restaurant management team may opt to hold a second seating at 9:30 am.

4. There are only a handful of excursions on my Carnival page, will there be more?

Usually excursion contracts are reviewed every 4-8 months, but some like FttF and on board special concerts may show up as far as a 18 months to a year ahead.

5. Where can I look for outside vendors also? We are going to Gr Turk, St Kitts, San Juan and St Martin

Usually the best place to start is with each island's official tourism page then search tripadvisor, loneyplanet, virtualtourist, and the such for first hand reviews. Pay special attention for word for word reviews, good or bad, as they may be being made to bump up or pull down a specific vendor's rating.

6. What is the typical dress in the MDR's for dinner? Ive heard its gotten more casual. . . Can my kids come in in shorts and a t shirt?

On our sailing on the Vista the Maitre'D was strict, no nylon shorts, no short-shorts, no intentionally torn jeans/pants, no cutoffs, no sleeveless shirts (for men), and no flip flops. Leather thong sandals with firm rubber or plastic soles, crocs sandals, Bermuda, golf and walking shorts with a graphic tee shirt were tolerated in the MDR and Bonsai on casual nights. Contracts rotate out every 6-8 months for senior restaurant personnel, so more recent experiences may show different results.

Sorry for all the questions, I thoroughly searched the Carnival cruise dashboard for our cruise, but didnt find answers.

Thank you!

Megan

[meganelise]

thank you!

[Barsnikel]

Megan :

Attached is a pdf file which you might find helpful

:D

Tips For New Cruisers.pdf