got/give a cruise for Christmas what what the reaction?

[bubbles4me]

my fiancee decided on going on a cruise a couple months ago instead of giving presents (well at least that was the way it was supposed to work we both snuck in a few:p ) anyways we both knew so no big surprise but I read a post on here the other day about ideas on how to surprise someone with a cruise and now that it is over i would love to hear stories!!!! p.s Congrats you lucky thing you!!! Merry Christmas to All!!

[mrdood]

...the floataway lounge is the place for these type of "let me hear your story" posts, that are not specific to cruising on Carnival...

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=209

[Dr. Jack Daniels]

...the floataway lounge is the place for these type of "let me hear your story" posts, that are not specific to cruising on Carnival...

 

 

Merry Christmas from the Posting Police!

[AnnieB925]

LOL!

In February we're going on our third cruise within the last year. In lieu of gifts I told my DH to just wrap up a pic of a carnival ship. He took me literally and found a pic of the Elation from an August cruise and changed the name on the side of the ship from Elation to Celebration! He got a good reaction! Whoo Hoo!

[bthorn1108]

We are taking my 8 yo grandson on his first cruise on 1/13, this was his major Christmas gift from us. We took one of our generic plastic ships on a stick, made up a Certificate saying something like "this is presented to William in recognition of his first cruise on the Carnival Celebration and the date", framed it, and packaged them in a box with a Carnival brochure. Initially, he thought the ship was his present, till he saw the certificate. The first time he read it, he didn't comprehend what he was reading, so we told him to re-read it. He went totally nuts, once he understood.

 

As a side note, later in the day he asked what time we were leaving for the ship, so the "driver" wouldn't leave without us. I explained that the "driver" was called the Captain and he wouldn't leave without us, as he knew we were coming. He exclaimed "He knows I'M coming?" Gotta love the beauty of the innocent.

[mgasaway]

We gave my DS & DDIL a cruise for Christmas - airfare, airport transportation, cruise, pre-paid the tips and have purchased one shore excursion and 12 drink coupons for each. We made all the arrangements with their employers before hand and on Christmas gave them each photo albums into which I put a story line (that we made them read aloud) from the bus ticket to the airport right up to getting on the ship. Thanks to some wonderful posters on this board I was able to include pics of some of the things they would really be interested in on the ship, pics of their cabin type, etc. Only catch is DH and I are going too as the cruise is over my 50th b-day! :eek: My DS started doing one of those endzone type dances and DDIL just kind of sat there with her mouth open. It's their first cruise so I'm really looking forward to having them with us on board. We cruised the Elation last year out of Galveston and loved her so much when we saw the itinery change to Bahamas we jumped on it.

 

38 days! Elation 2/3/07

[needinsomesun]

We surprised our kids on Christmas Eve. They each got a bag with sunglasses, swimsuit, flip flops and Carnival dollars....then we told them we were leaving in four days. They were thrilled! This will be our first Carnival cruise after many RCCL and Disney cruises. We are leaving tomorrow on the Elation and really excited to try Carnival. Happy New Year!

[Trotkim]

Of our group of 35, some of the kids and 1 adult got surprised on Christmas. Every one is very excited!!! When our three boys opened the suitcases filled with new clothes and an invitation to cruise there were mixed reactions. (they all have cruised at least 3 other times) The oldest admitted that he had been snooping on the computer and found out before Christmas we had booked. The middle didn't have a clue and wished we were leaving that day!!! The youngest got mad, almost started to cry, said he didn't want to go and we could give his ticket to his cousin and ran to his room. Didn't expect that response!!!!! Later he said he just didn't want to go to Mexico again, then yesterday he said he still didn't know if he wanted to go or not. Hopefully we can get him excited about it in the next few days. I think he thought he was going to get some big wonderful toy and instead he got a suitcase. We just chuckle and go on. The oldest two boys were so excited they talked to their cousins who had not booked yet and then my brother booked his family on the same cruise the day after Christmas.

The adult that was surprised, wanted to suprise his wife this past summer with a cruise and didn't get it put to together and so he got surprised instead at Christmas!!! (she had fun turning the tables on him). We invited them on the trip and she told him they couldn't go because he just bought a new truck and they still needed to pay the taxes on it. That was a great surprise!!!! CARNIVAL HOLIDAY HERE WE COME!!

FYI--- I tried finding a decent hotel in Alabama to book the night before, the recommended ones on this site were full, so I did an extensive search on the internet and all options had bad reviews.(Hesitant to stay at a hotel with bad reviews, let SIL book hotel on cruise out of Florida 2 yrs ago and hotel was extremely nasty!! It had bad reivews.) Sooo we decided we would stay in New Orleans instead and drive two hours to Mobile the day of the cruise. We are staying at the Royal St Charles, with parking and breakfast included it's about $100.00 through two different websites (one of which is the hotels direct website), when I called to book directly through the hotel over the phone it was going to cost about $300.00. Looks like a great deal and it in the French Quarter area.