FTTF and Cheers! (promotional sailing) thoughts!

[tweak89]

So, we just got home form a sailing on the Vista (this will not be a ship review) on the Vista on a 7-day itinerary.  We picked up FTTF and sailed under a Cheers!  RU1 VIFP promotion.  Just wanted to post some thoughts as a multi-FTTF uses and first time Cheers! user.

 

FTTF:  We've sailed with this on 3 of our pre-covid sailings.   Post-Covid we sailed on the Breeze before they re-instated it.  Personally, I'm so glad to have it back.  We walked right on. This was the Galveston terminal and the FTTF/Priority lanes were clearly marked.  We got to access our room with no issues so we dropped our carry on bag off.  Our luggage made it to our floor about 30 minutes after we boarded.  We ended up just grabbing it and taking it to our room.  If I had to guess it would have been delivered right around the 1:30pm general room availability time.  We used the priority guest service line about 3 times this trip and it really short or empty each time.  This itinerary had a tender port so we used that feature as well.  I would say we were on the 3rd tender (people with Carnival excursions that started early got off first).  To use priority tender there was a staging area in the lower level of the forward MDR.  The last "feature" we used was priority self disembark where we carried all out luggage off ourselves.  This was staged on the 4th level in the Liquid Lounge.  It appeared pretty chaotic, but it went smoothly.  From the moment we were told to line up with our luggage to waiting on the curb to be picked up was not more than 15 minutes.   We were big fans of FTTF already, and this trip only reinforced that.  I can see why it might not work for everyone, but it does for us.

 

Cheers!:  I will preface this by saying that my wife and I are not big drinkers, but the RU1 promotion was at a great price so we thought we'd try it out.  We did enjoy the convenience of it and the fact that it included coffee, soft drinks and water.  On sea days I came close or got to a break-even point with a combination of spiked coffees, waters and mixed drinks.  My wife, not so much lol.  But she did have several cocktails each day that she normally wouldn't have.  She also had several soft drinks and bottled waters.  I tipped every other drink and we never had any really long waits (and we got drinks at almost all the spots on the ship where you could order them).   Would we do Cheers! at full price?  No.  It just doesn't make sense for us now that we've had practical experience with it.  We had 2 long port days (where we had excursions) where we'd be plastered if we tried to reach break-even, lol.  Would we do it under another promotion, for sure.  

 

So, there you have it.  Two things that are not for everyone.  FTTF we will do everytime we can, Cheers!  only under a promotional fare.

[nhsails]

What is the current price for 5 day?

[marci4tony]

We grabbed a Cheers promo as well AND picked up FTTF.

I totally agree with you!

 

Great information

[lauriedun]

What is the cheers promo and FTTF?

[vandercapellen]

Does FTTF help you getting on the tender to get back to the ship or just to the island?

[Sue Goodreds]

2 hours ago, vandercapellen said:

Does FTTF help you getting on the tender to get back to the ship or just to the island?

Just to the island.  You have to wait in line like everyone else to get back to the ship.