Our cruise on November 2nd, 2013 sets sail in...
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October 23rd, 2013 The weather this evening in Thompson is light snow, a temperature of 0C and feels like -2C. Let's check the forecast for days we are in port on our cruise shall we?
November 2nd, Port Canaveral, Florida, 29C, Feels like 42C As you can see it's supposed to be a little chilly in Port Canaveral next Saturday LOL! Can you believe we have been planning this vacation for over two years, and now it's less than 10 days away! This MIGHT be our last email until we see you all, but it looks like it's turning into another long one. The only things we can think of that we have to discuss with you all is about your online check-in with Carnival, and list of reminders of potential things to bring on your cruise. These are items we usually bring. Maybe you have forgotten something? Maybe WE have forgotten something. If so, let us know! We have already completed Carnival's online check-in for ourselves, Dave, Bev, Joe, Barb, and Darcy. If you haven't already checked in, you can now do so at anytime. It would be wise to do this sooner than later, in case you hit some sort of snag, or something that could delay your online check-in. Carnival's online check-in is mandatory, everyone must do it. I don't think it's even possible to show up at the cruise terminal and complete all this information. Carnival likely just does not allow it anyway as there is no time to do it on boarding day. So, before you jump on the Carnival website and check-in, grab yourself the following items that you will need information from:
1.) An emergency contact name and number of someone at home in case Carnival needs to contact them. One thing that we encountered during our check-in that you may encounter was there seems to be a glitch on the website that we couldn't put in November 2nd as the check out date at our hotel before our cruise. We called Carnival, they told us to put in November 1st instead. They are mostly concerned about the hotel information of where you are staying. (We're all staying at the La Quinta on 1 Hendry Ave. the night before our cruise). Between now, and before you fly, you will also need a printer. Once you complete your online check-in, you MUST print your boarding pass, AND your luggage tags, and take these with you when you leave home. You can print other documents if you wish, that also might be useful. If you don't have a printer at home, you can still complete your check-in, get the documents you need, and save them (as a *.PDF) and bring them somewhere that has a printer. The very last page of your cruise documents is a custom luggage tag. Print the last page as many times as you have pieces of luggage. If you're checking 5 suitcases for example, print the LAST page 5 times, or make 5 copies of it. There are instructions on the tag to “Fold Here” and “Do Not Cut”. Years ago it used to say “Do Not Laminate”. We cut the paper, write our names on it, and then we laminate it too. The instructions say to staple it or tape it to your luggage. Who wants to take packing tape or a stapler with them to Florida? Exactly! We write our names on the tags, we fold it, and cut the sides off. Next we laminate it (or use packing tape), then use a hole punch in the top middle of the tag. Pack your luggage tags inside your suitcase and pull them out and attach them to your suitcase before you leave the hotel the morning of the cruise. We use those tiny tie wraps, or cable ties and attach the tags to the handles on our luggage. These are cheap and easily gotten at stores like Canadian Tire. Another use for these is to zip tie the zippers closed on your luggage even when flying. Whenever you pickup your luggage you can tell in an instant if anyone MAY have been in your suitcase, whether they are security or not, so this is a good safety feature, and is a lot cheaper than a lock if security cuts it off your suitcase! One thing to remember is to pack a set of wire cutters, or nail cutters in an outside pocket of your luggage so YOU have something to cut the zip ties off with later. Don't try to carry wire cutters onto a plane in your carry on, security will take them from you! Dave, Bev, Joe, Barb, and Darcy, we will have your luggage tags and cruise documents with us, you do NOT need to print anything! Take some small tie wraps if you have them though for your trip down and back if you want them. Before you leave: In case of an emergency at home, give a friend or family member at home Carnival's phone number (1-800-764-7419), and tell them you are going on the “Carnival Dream”. Call your bank / credit card company. Tell them you will be traveling, give them the dates, explain your are going on a cruise and the ports you are going to. On our first cruise we did not do this and our credit card company put a freeze on our card as they seen multiple charges, from multiple countries, over a few days. To them, it looks like fraud / identity theft. Pick yourself up some US cash, and some US traveler's checks. You can easily cash a traveler's check right on the ship if you need some more cash for the next stop. The less cash you travel with, the safer it is. In addition, keep a bunch of $1 bills on hand. Tipping in the US and the Caribbean is customary. Typically a $1 per bag for people who handle your luggage. You might also want to throw an extra $1 or 2 at a tour guide I you're on an excursion. Many people do this. Most of these people do a great job and deserve it. You don't HAVE to tip any cash on the ship, except maybe if you order room service, but the food you order will be free. Consider modifying your luggage somehow so you can easily identify it. It's bad enough on an airport carousel, but after your cruise, your luggage will be sitting in a room with luggage belonging to over 3,000 passengers! It is organized, but it's amazing how so much luggage looks alike. What we have done is added colored electrical tape to the handles on our suitcases. Blue suitcases with red handles are not very common LOL! Here are a few things that we usually take with us on our cruises: Camera, MP3 Player, Headphones, Alarm Clock, Cell Phone, Laptop, Chargers Most of these things are already in your cell phone but keep in mind that your phone could be subject to roaming charges as you will be in other countries besides Canada, and the United States. Be prepared, or be careful about roaming charges. We usually take our laptop as well. Mostly to download the pictures from our camera. You stateroom on the ship will have NO clock in it. If you are the type of person that likes to roll over in the middle of the night and see a clock, you should bring one. Small Power Bar You only have one outlet in the main part of your state room (there is another outlet in the bathroom). If you have a lot of stuff to plug in, consider bringing a small power bar. Rope, Bungee Cord, Laundry Soap If you think you will need to do some laundry, the ship has coin operated washers and dryers. If you want to setup a clothes line in your room, a bungee cord and 15 to 20 feet of some smooth rope will easily create one right across the ceiling of your room. Bring a few laundry “Pods” from home. Much cheaper, and they travel well. Duct Tape A great tool with many uses we haven't figured out yet! With the exception of patching up a suitcase that an airline beat the crap out of! Small Sewing Kit Oops, tore the crotch out of my favorite pants, nuff said. Empty, large neck water bottle This is a good way to save a few bucks when going to shore and you WILL want water! Usually a couple bucks per bottle, it adds up quickly. There's lots of ice and great water on the cruise ship…FOR FREE! A bottle with a large neck is easy to get ice into. Small Cooler Great for any “beverages” you bring on-board. Throw a $10 bill on it with a note the first day and the room steward will likely keep it filled with ice for the entire week! I don't think you are allowed to empty the fridge in your room and use it, and you can't put any medications in it if you have any that require refrigeration. Backpack Sometimes taking a purse, wallet, camera, passports, and water to shore consumes a fair bit of space. Throw it all in a backpack and throw it over your shoulder. Get a combination lock for your backpack for added security if you want. Hair Dryer Your stateroom will have a hair dryer, so you won't need to bring one, unless you prefer your own. Empty Suitcase Pack one inside one of your other suitcases if you think you need the extra space to bring back souvenirs, duty free items, and items you plan to pick up in Florida before your sail. Hand Sanitizer If you can get some it's convenient, fast, and great for when you just can't wash your hands. Travel Mugs A great way to get your morning coffee back to your balcony in the morning wih less chance of spillage. They conceals other beverages as well :) Lanyard One of those thingies that you can wear around your neck. A lot of people get the casino to punch a hole in their Sign & Sail card, and then you can just wear it around your neck, never loose it, and always have easy access to it. If you have one you like and use, bring it from home. You should be able to get a free one from the casino too if you don't care what it looks like. Passports The one thing you do not want to forget! That's it for now, and that might be it until we meet the Saskatchewan group in Minneapolis, and the Newfoundland group in Port Canaveral! It's an unbelievably exciting time for us. We're getting married, going on vacation with our family, and going on a Carnival funship, AGAIN! We hope you are all about to have your minds blown, see first hand what we have been talking about for YEARS, and why we love cruising so much! See you all soon!
October 9th, 2013 Sorry everyone, but this email is a BIT loooong! All our plans have been made, and all countdowns on our website, with the exception of our sail date, have expired. Hopefully everyone who needed it, has gotten their last Twinrix shot by now. There's nothing left to do now except wait a little more than 3 weeks before our wedding date, and the beginning of our cruise vacation! Speaking of our wedding, here are some additional details we just had Carnival finalize this evening. Our wedding will take place at 12:30 in the afternoon in "Chambers 2" which is located on Deck 4 (Atlantic), mid ship. It's directly across from the "Fun Hub" on that deck. Our reception will take place at 1:00 in the "Song Lounge" which is located on Deck 5 (Promenade), aft. We're not sure what plans Carnival has for the bride and groom prior to this, so you now have your times and directions in case we get separated. In addition, we have attached a Carnival document to the bottom of this email with more information about our wedding and boarding procedures. We had originally planned to not mention anything about wedding gifts. Your presence alone is gift enough to us. However, since we have heard through the grapevine that at least one person has gotten us something, we have to now mention this. Depending on what your gift may be, we ask that you consider 2 things: 1.) The value of the gift, as we may have to declare it to US and / or Canadian customs upon re-entering both countries. This means that we MAY have to pay duty on it's value, or it's value is deducted from our duty free allowance. 2.) Consider the physical size of the gift, as we are limited on luggage space, especially after we buy a few souvenirs and our duty free allowance. If you plan on giving us a gift and either of these two reasons applies to your gift, we ask that you please leave it home, and send it to us after the cruise. It will be a fairly busy day on November 2nd. Just to run through the times of what's going on when, here it all is:
8:50 am - Limo picking us up at our hotel. In the early days of building our website we mentioned about bringing liquor on board. If you haven't read it yet, here is Carnival's liquor policy from their website.
-------------------- Liquor and Beverage Policy Bringing Alcohol On Board - Embarkation Day: Guests are prohibited from bringing alcoholic beverages on board. However, at the beginning of the cruise during embarkation day, guests (21 years of age and older) may bring on board one bottle (750ml) of wine or champagne, per person, only in their carry-on luggage. A $10 corkage fee per bottle will be charged should you wish to consume this wine in the main dining room; $14 corkage fee per bottle in the steakhouse. (A corkage fee is a charge exacted at a restaurant for every bottle of liquor served that was not bought on the premises) On embarkation day, each guest may bring a small quantity of non-alcoholic beverages on board and only in their carry-on luggage. A small quantity is considered a maximum of 12 bottles and/or cans, 20 ounces each or less. All alcohol/hard liquor/beer (sealed, unopened bottles/cans), wine/champagne over the allowable 1-bottle per guest (sealed, unopened bottles) or excessive quantities of non-alcoholic beverages (over 12 per person, sealed, unopened bottles/cans) will be confiscated and stored for safekeeping until the end of the voyage. The retained item(s) will be available for collection onboard in a designated location on the morning of debarkation. Unsealed liquids that are prohibited will be discarded, as well as any unclaimed items left after the voyage, and no compensation will be given in either case. Large cooler restrictions: Carnival Cruise Lines does not allow guests to bring large coolers on board its ships. However small, personal-sized coolers, no larger than 12”H x 12”L x 12”W for the purpose of housing small quantities of non-alcoholic beverages and/or medications are permitted as carry-on luggage. Screening and movement of large coolers through embarkation is an impediment to the boarding and security screening process. Therefore, large coolers are not permitted as carry-on or checked luggage. Ports-of-Call: Alcoholic beverages of any kind purchased in any Port-of-Call will be retained at the gangway, stored on board and held by Carnival until the end of the voyage. Gift Shops On Board: Alcoholic beverages of any kind purchased in the ship's gift shop will be stored on board and be retained by Carnival until the end of the voyage. The Fun Shops or Room Service: Alcohol orders made through The Fun Shops or Room Service are not permitted to be taken to any location outside of the approved delivery locations specified for those products at the time of purchase. These programs are designed for in-cabin entertaining or in-dining consumption only. Consumption in public areas is strictly prohibited. Drinking Alcohol On Board: The minimum age for the purchase and/or consumption of alcoholic beverages in the bars, lounges and gift shops is 21 years of age. In the event that Bar/Restaurant/Gift Shop staff are in question that a guest is less than 21 years old, they shall request picture identification, prior to serving the drink or selling the bottle of liquor.
Carnival reserves the right to refuse the sale of alcoholic beverages to anyone. Our joint patio! We have mentioned this before, but we will do it again. We have 6 balcony rooms in a row. Each one has a divider that can be opened to extend our deck for us all to share. No need to worry about your room privacy as your room has curtains that can be closed, and a lock on it to keep whoever is on the balcony, out of your room if you are not on the balcony. We hope no one has a problem with doing this as this extended balcony doubles as our personal, private space to spend time with family. To open a divider between rooms, the person on each side of the divider must consent, and one person from EACH room must go to customer service TOGETHER to request this. We are hoping that there will be time, maybe after supper on the first evening of the cruise, to request this. This should mean that the dividers will be opened the next day while we are in Nassau. The crew always closes these dividers on the last day of cruising as well. So technically, the balcony will only be joint for 5 of our 7 days. The first and last nights of your cruise staff will have the dividers closed. We are assuming no one has a problem with this, if you do, please let us know as soon as possible. We have one more file attached if you would like to look at it, but we are essentially done now for this email. If you're not already excited, hopefully this will help. We have attached a copy of the "Carnival Funtimes" to this email! You will find a copy of this every evening in your stateroom, on your bed for the next day. Unless something has changed, you will also find a couple of pillow chocolates, and a towel animal! We have NOT attached the chocolates or the towel animal to this email lol! This is from a Carnival Dream cruise back in July of this year, but MOST things stay the same. Usually later in the week there are trivia contests mentioned. Some are about 80's music and TV shows for example. This has my, and Jim's name written ALL over it! What do you say Jim? Are you up for trying to win a 24 carrot, solid gold, plated, plastic piece of ship on a stick! That's it for now. All we can think of left to email you all is a checklist of things we usually take on our cruises. You may see some items on this you have never though of. These are items we have picked up from online cruise forums, most of which we have used. Hopefully we will send out another email in about a week or so. Don't forget to have a look at the files attached to this email.
September 9th, 2013 Most of you should be starting to get excited by now, I know we are! I'm Listening to Jimmy Buffett as I write this and I'm sure we will be bringing some with us to listen to on our balcony too! While we all likely still have some nice weather left before November arrives, unfortunately summer is winding down for another year. We've been pretty busy again lately, so much so that most of the information in this email I was planning to send out the limo arrangements in, has already found you all. My sister Teri has already gathered up all the money for the limo from the Newfoundland group and is probably sending it to us later this week LOL! Just for clarification, here it is, and all prices are in Canadian Dollars. First, the Saskatchewan group... We have a 16 passenger Cadillac Escalade reserved from the Orlando Airport to our hotel in Port Canaveral on the day we arrive. Total cost equates to $27.50 per person, including tax and gratuity. For the Saskatchewan group AND the Newfoundland group, we have a 26 passenger limo reserved to pick us ALL up, a LITTLE before 9:00 am on the day we sail. Tracey will be getting her hair done at a salon just a couple blocks down the street and we will be picking her up right after we depart the hotel. Because the distance is so short from the hotel to the cruise port, the limo company has offered to take us for a drive for about an hour before we head to the port, prior to 10:30. This limo is $12.50 per person, with the exception of the "Kids" (Katie & Keenan) who are $5.00 each. So the TOTAL cost for everyone from Saskatchewan is $40 per person. This does not get charged to our credit card until we actually get the service, but, if everyone wouldn't mind getting the money to us before we go, it would make things simpler as we can just slide our MasterCard for it and we don't like having large amounts of cash on hand. Plus we don't need useless Canadian cash that we can't spend in the United States and in the Caribbean anyway. For that matter, no one really needs a pocket full of cash as the ship is PRETTY much cashless, including the bar. Now that the transportation is all looked after, and taking a final look at the countdowns on our cruise website, we are essentially DONE! A few people have to get their final Twinrix shot in about 3 weeks. But essentially there's nothing left to do now only wait. We will mention one final time, just in case you have forgotten, there is a "Vacation Protection" option you can add to your cruise, if you haven't already. Some people are insurance type people, some are not. If you don't have this, you may want to check into it. Full details can be found from within your Carnival account with your booking information. Continue to play around with your Carnival account. You might be able to put in some information now like passport information, etc. You probably can't (and maybe shouldn't) complete your full check in yet. Dave, Bev, Joe, Barb, & Darcy, will be looked after by Tracey and I so don't worry about it. We will call you when we need passport info, etc. We will have a couple more emails coming. Mostly we plan on compiling one with notes like, "Things to remember" and "Things to bring". These are mostly things we have learned ourselves from cruising that may help you. That's about it this time around. We will leave you a bit of music to help get you in the mood. (Please note, my tolerance to Country music is little to none.... Unless Jimmy Buffett is involved in it LOL!) Enjoy!
August 5th, 2013 A few things to note this time, first, if you haven't heard, Carnival lowered the rates again and this was a BIG discount! Depending on the number of people in your room, and if you booked a balcony room, your room has been discounted an additional $190 to $250!!! So your balance owing is likely MUCH less now than what you have been anticipating! To check your balance owing, and make payments, log into the Carnival account that we told you to make on last month's email. Have you deleted the email that was sent last month? No problem, that email along with every other email we ever sent is in the "Latest News" section of our website if you need to go back and re-read something. You need this account anyway, there is a LOT more things to do in the account before you sail as we have mentioned before. You might as well create this account now, if you already haven't done so. It appears that there is already a waitlist for the dining room for "Early Dining" at 6PM, so no one from this point forward is guaranteed that option if you wanted it. Only "Late Dining" at 8:15 or "Your Time" (5:45 to 9:15) is still available. Shore excursions, which are also booked in this account, also fill up. So if you were looking at a specific shore excursion, you should snatch it up while you still can! Tracey and I have selected our shore excursions and "Your Time" dining for ourselves, Dave and Bev, and Joe, Barb, and Darcy. Tracey and I would like to have a nice dinner on at least one evening with just our parents. Honestly, we rarely eat in the dining room at all, but you must still select a time regardless if you go or not. If you choose "Late Dining" you are guaranteed the same table every night if you arrive at 8:15. If you choose "Your Time" you may have to wait a few minutes. If you choose "Your Time", and are planning a meal for a group, the larger the group, the longer the wait time. For those that need it, we recommend you add the Airport Transfer to your booking SOON, or at the same time you pay your cruise in full as we are not sure if this service fills up or not. To the best of our knowledge, the only people that require this service, and have currently not booked it is Craig, Allison, Ross, Roxanne, Regan, Ashley, and Madison. Myself, Tracey, Joe, Barb, and Darcy already have ours booked and paid for as this service MUST me paid when you book it. Everyone else needs to find a way out of the Port on Saturday, November 9th when you get off the ship, and to your hotel of choice. You also need to choose and book the hotel you are staying at before your flight home if you haven't yet. Finally, you need to figure out how to get from THAT hotel, back to the Orlando airport for your flight home. Some other things you may have to book are: A.) Your hotel stays prior to your one night stay at the La Quinta Inn & Suites in Port Canaveral. Everyone is staying here for at LEAST the night before the cruise. Please choose the location, and hotel you wish to stay at if you are flying in before November 1st. As mentioned before, Myself, Tracey, and everyone from Saskatchewan is staying at the La Quinta for the 2 nights before the cruise. Tracey and I are currently working on transportation options for our group of 10 from the Orlando airport to La Quinta Inn & Suites. But we are also working on transportation for the ENTIRE group from the La Quinta, to the cruise port on November 2nd. We will keep you posted on this. B.) You may also have to figure out your transportation from the Orlando airport, when you arrive in Florida, to a hotel, You may also still have to book this hotel as well. Then you need to figure out transportation from that hotel, to the La Quinta Inn & Suites on November 1st. Essentially, everyone from Newfoundland has to do this. Remember, if you could ALL be at the La Quinta by the early evening of November 1st at the LATEST, Tracey and I would appreciate it as we are hoping to have an opportunity to introduce everyone in the group. This might be in the lobby of the hotel, the pool area, or somewhere else. We haven't figured this out yet. Finally, here are the three BIG items everyone should get out of this email... 1.) Full payment of your cruise is due 11 DAYS FROM NOW!!!! 2.) If you haven't created your account yet on Carnival's website, and added your booking number to it, you need to do this ASAP! 3.) If you are flying home on the same day you get off the cruise, it is recommended you add the "POST Cruise Transfer to Orlando Airport", this is $35 per person and virtually guarantees you will NOT miss your flight out of Orlando that day. Dave & Bev do not need to worry about 1 and 2 AT ALL! Joe, Barb, & Darcy, do not need to worry about 1, 2, and 3 AT ALL! Hopefully in the next email update we will have some pricing for the transportation from La Quinta to Port Canaveral on the day of our cruise.
July 7th, 2013 A few things to report this time. The first being related to the countdowns on our cruise website. If you have noticed, the countdown for booking shore excursions has now expired. As of today, Tracey and I have chosen, and BOOKED our shore excursions as follows for ourselves, Tracey's parents and brother (Joe, Barb, and Darcy), and my parents, Dave and Bev. The shore excursions, and times we have booked are as follows:
Nassau - Ardastra Gardens & City Tour - 9:45 AM - 12:15 PM If anyone else in the group would like to join us, feel free to book these same excursions. Keep in mind, that the shore excursions do fill up as time goes on, so if you want to join us, you should book them sooner rather than later. Otherwise, choose different excursions that suit your interests, or, choose none at all and just stroll around the port (it is recommended to not wander too far from the ship on your own) or, stay onboard and lounge around the ship. After all, this is YOUR vacation, so do as you please. The next thing to report is changes in our cruise rates! As you have heard in the past, we have spotted a couple discounts that lowered everyone's rates. We even found one discount that gave every room a $50 shipboard credit! Since then, a few more price reductions have come to light, but unfortunately, every room's $50 shipboard credit has disappeared, UNLESS you have had your cruise paid off already. Only a couple people do, most don't. The good news is you didn't really loose the $50 per room, it just got reapplied as an additional discount when the rates went even LOWER! So! As of right now, everyone should be pleased to know that all the rate reductions since initially booking your cruise last fall, has translated into OVER $350 coming off everyone's room! Sorry we couldn't keep updating everyone as these discounts were happening but sometimes they were happening WEEKLY! Also, there's STILL a chance everyone's rate could drop even further! We check the rates quite frequently, but to be honest, I don't think they will drop little, to any more as they are the lowest we have seen them in a long time. BUT, you never know! If your cruise is paid in full and a rate reduction happens, the difference is guaranteed to become shipboard credit and everyone can use a little shipboard credit anyway as $11.50 per person, per day will be added to your bill in the first day or so of your cruise. (This has been mentioned on our website since it was started, and is for the tips of all the staff on the ship that tend to your room, work the kitchen, and the staff in the dining room. Tips for bar staff are included at the rate of 15% of your drink price). Seeing as we mentioned paying off your cruise, that's the NEXT countdown that will expire! As of right now, FULL payment is due BEFORE our recommended date of August 17th, which is only 40 days from now! The ACTUAL payment deadline is August 19th, but we said the 17th just to give a couple days buffer in the event that there is some unforeseen problem. As we have said previously, we are not sure if there is a penalty for paying late, or if your risk LOOSING the deposit you have already paid, AND YOUR ROOM! Don't take any chances! Get your cruise paid off as soon as you can, and preferably BEFORE August 17th! Speaking of countdowns, we are almost done spending money before we go! Other than full payment of your cruise, the only items that are left at this point are your hotels (only if you are from Newfoundland as everyone in Saskatchewan has theirs paid, however, Dave and Bev's hotel IS paid at the La Quinta Inn for the one night in Port Canaveral before the cruise.) Everything else, depending on your flight times and other plans in Florida, you're all on your own! About 61 days from now we plan on making shuttle arrangements for Tracey, myself, and the Saskatchewan group. These shuttle plans will get us from the Orlando airport, to the hotel in Port Canaveral. In addition, we will be arranging a shuttle from the hotel to the cruise port on the Saturday morning of the cruise for EVERYONE. We expect this will be less than $20 per person, but we haven't checked into it yet. Cabs might be easier, or cheaper. We will soon begin this homework. However, if we reserve a shuttle, this is a fee that everyone will likely have to pay us as I'm sure it will require a credit card to book it! As we get this information, we will let you all know. If you were not previously inoculated, you have ONE Twinrix shot left to receive in about 85 days. There is no time limit on the following item, but you should have at least created an account on Carnival's website by now so you can manage your vacation. Joe, Barb, Darcy, Dave & Bev, do not worry about this, we are looking after yours! Everyone else, get cracking! You create a user account on the Carnival website, then add your booking number to it. You will then be able to select your dining times, your bed configuration, complete the pre-cruise check-in documents, add shore excursions, add transportation from the cruise, back to the Orlando Airport, and print your luggage tags for the cruise! You MUST do this, as there is a contract you need to accept before you cruise. You ALSO must do this to make payments on your cruise, so please don't wait until the day your final payment is due to create this account! If so, you're asking for trouble! If you need help doing this, call us SOON!!! As a side note, you may encounter a problem creating this account if you use the "Microsoft Internet Explorer" web browser. Once you have your account created, there appears to be no problems. But if you have a problem creating your account, try using a different browser, and / or a MAC computer. I know Safari works fine. Once the account is actually created, Internet Explorer also works fine. Finally, and this relates to your cruise payment. EVERYONE needs to book transportation from the cruise port, to the airport, for the day you get off the ship, IF you are flying out of Orlando on the day you return! If so, we recommend you use the "Post Cruise Transfer to Orlando Airport" option for $35 per person listed under "Activities & Excursions" by clicking the link for "Ground Transportation" when you are logged into your Carnival account. This is the safest option so you do not miss your flight out of Orlando! If you are staying in Orlando for additional nights after the cruise, feel free to choose any type of transportation from the cruise port to the hotel you are staying at.
May 29th, 2013 Once again, it's been a while since our last update. We've been very busy with work and wedding plans, not to mention working on our house! Anyway, a few quick points... 1.) We hope that those people that have never been to the Caribbean before have been getting their Twinrix shots! As of now, you should have 2 of the 3 shots completed. As we have said before, this is a small investment for a BIG piece of mind to remove the complications of getting Hepatitis A & B. If you get sick on a vacation, it will ruin your vacation. If you think that you will just, "Not drink the water" and you will be fine? Guess again. Do not eat salad, fruit, or any other food items washed with local water, do not use the cutlery or dishes that have been washed in the local water either. Keep you hands away from your face and mouth and don't chew your nails if you've washed your hands in local water. Seems like a lot to worry about to us when you should only be worried about enjoying yourselves. Anyway, your choice. 2.) While we are a couple days early, we now have booked our pre-cruise hotel. Tracey & I and the Saskatchewan group are checking in at:
La Quinta Inn & Suites We check in Thursday, October 31st, and check out Saturday, November 2nd and head for the cruise ship. We would like everyone to stay at this hotel at least for the one night before the cruise so we can all travel together to the cruise port. This will make it much more easy for us all to check in as a group, and we will all arrive at the same time. Please look this hotel up and book it as soon as you can for the night(s) you need. If this hotel fills up, you could have BIG problems. Keep in mind Port Canaveral is a pretty small town, and 4,000 extra other people could be staying there the night before our cruise to get on the same ship we are. Not to mention, there's a Disney and a Royal Caribbean ship in that same port. PLEASE book this hotel as soon as possible Newfoundland people! This hotel is about 2-3 miles from the cruise port, and should be an inexpensive cab or shuttle ride to the port. This hotel does not have a shuttle, but it doesn't matter anyway as all the hotels we checked, their shuttle doesn't start running in the morning until AFTER we have to be at the port (We have early boarding due to our wedding). There is a Publix in a mini mall and a couple restaurants only 2 blocks away. Great for picking up those last few travel items before your cruise (In a future email, we will officially tell you what those important items are LOL) Call this hotel and / or check it out online at "http://www.lq.com" Be sure you book the La Quinta at "One Hendry Ave" as there are TWO La Quinta Hotels in Cocoa Beach, make sure you DON'T book the other one! 3.) Back to looking at our countdowns on our website, the next countdown that will expire is the booking of our shore excursions. That will be booked 37 days from now. After that, your cruise must be paid in full 79 days from now. After that we only need to book an airport shuttle and get your last Twinrix shot before we sail. As of right now, we sail in 156 days, or a little more than 5 months! 4.) Finally, you may have gotten wind of a few discounts we have received on our cruise due to price cuts on the Carnival website. For those of you that have already paid your cruise in full, you got shipboard credit to spend anyway you want on the ship for the value of the price difference. For those that have not paid your cruise in full, you people got the discount applied to your balance owing. If I recall correctly, every room has gotten the same discounts and they are now between $50 and $100 per room. In addition, I recently spotted a sale that had the same rate, BUT had a free $50 shipboard credit so everyone on the cruise now has a MINIMUM of $50 shipboard credit as well! I think that about sums it all up for now, in about a month from now, we should have our shore excursions figured out if you would like to join us, or, select your own shore excursions that you prefer.
April 18th, 2013 We were hoping to send out an update a couple weeks ago but we have just been too busy. With that being said, a couple weeks ago the Website Countdown for your first Twinrix shot EXPIRED! In fact, your second shot is supposed to be due in about 12 days. I hope everyone who needs this, has gotten your first shot because in a couple weeks, there won't be enough time for you to get the remaining shots before our cruise. It has been mentioned to us recently that, "If you don't drink the water in any port of call, you don't need the shots." It's not that simple and we disagree with that statement. What if you want to eat something in a port of call that accidently ends up being undercooked, or washed with local water? The glasses, dishware, and cutlery are also all washed in local water. What if you want to go for a swim? Have a fruity cocktail at the beach? Are you extremely careful when it comes to your own hand hygiene? If not, you could pick up something on your hands and if they end up in your mouth you are at increased risk. Small children have their hands in their mouth all the time. Hepatitis A can survive on surfaces for 30 days. This is only the Hepatitis A component of the Twinrix vaccine. Then, there is the Hepatitis B component of the Twinrix vaccine. Can you guarantee that you won't cut yourself in a port of call? Accidents happen. Hepatitis B can survive on surfaces for up to 7 days. The bottom line is the risks are just not worth it. Why worry about it constantly on your vacation, or risk contracting it on your vacation, getting sick, and ruining your vacation. Next up, everyone in our group now has their flights booked. The remainder of the people from Newfoundland are actually planning on flying down an extra day earlier than the rest of us and taking in some extra Florida time. Tracey & I, as well as everyone from Saskatchewan, are flying into Florida on Thursday, October 31st, and are heading directly to Port Canaveral for the 2 nights before our cruise. From what we are hearing, everyone from Newfoundland will join us at the hotel we choose for the last night before the cruise. Hopefully everyone arrives mid afternoon and we can all get together out by the pool or something for a few drinks. Another reminder about paying your cruise in full, you have about 4 months to do so, if you haven't already. If it is not paid in full by the date Carnival has set, you could loose the money you have paid thus far, and your cruise itself. In about 43 days, Tracey and I will book our hotel in Port Canaveral, and likely for the group from Saskatchewan. As everyone from Newfoundland is coming to Port Canaveral on different dates, we will let you know what hotel we chose and you will need to make your hotel reservation yourself as you will be staying for a different length of time, and hence different dates. The booking of shore excursions is about 78 days away. Might be a good idea to start looking at these online and see what you would like to do. If you haven't created an account online yet with Carnival, it is highly recommend you do so now. This will allow you to look at, and book excursions, make payments, choose your bed configuration, select your dining time, print your luggage tags, and accept Carnival's travel agreement. Everyone MUST do this at some point, there is no way around it. Create an account and add your booking number to setup the various options of your cruise. Finally, more free money! We follow the Carnival rates from time to time and yesterday we hit on another cruise discount of $100 per room! We submitted the forms to Carnival, you don't have to do anything. $100 has been deducted from your balance owing to Carnival. If you added the trip insurance to your booking, you will also receive an additional discount of $28 per room. If your cruise was paid in full, these ammounts have been credited to your Sign & Sail account and you have free money to spend onboard! (Keep in mind if you currently have an onboard credit, this amount will be offset by the gratuities charge of $11.50 per person, per day, on the first day of sailing. Either way, you're paying less than what you all originally had planned for).
February 24th, 2013 1.) As of now, Allison, Craig, Cathy, & Steve have their flights booked for our cruise from Newfoundland! Congrats! They have chosen to fly down yet another day earlier than what was recommended and fly into Orlando on October 30th. Right now, I believe their plans are to stay a couple nights in, or around Orlando, and travel to Port Canaveral and stay there with the group sometime on Friday. If you guys need any suggestions for hotels, or travel, to Port Canaveral on Friday, by all means contact us for some input.You guys can essentially book your hotel for the one or two nights in, or around Orlando, and figure out your transportation to Port Canaveral at any time now. Our plan is to hopefully get the entire group at the same hotel in Port Canaveral on Friday, the day before our cruise. The planning for this will come later (about 96 days from now). We hope to have a little meet and greet at the Port Canaveral hotel on Friday, to introduce everyone as our families have never met. That hotel will be decided upon later once we know who arrives when, and what plans, if any, they have before Friday. 2.) Early last week, Roxanne from Saskatchewan contacted us to let us know she received a flyer in the mail from Expedia where Carnival cruise pricing appeared to be slightly less than what we had already paid. While I have never seen this happen, everyone in our group purchased the "Early Saver" rate, which comes with PRICE PROTECTION in the event that Carnival, or any other company publishes a rate LOWER than what we have already paid. I inquired with Expedia and found out that the rate PER ROOM had indeed been lowered by $40! I checked the current rates available on Carnival.com and Carnival had already lowered it's rate to match the pricing that was found on Expedia! I then completed the forms on everyone's behalf (another reason why we originally asked everyone to share their booking numbers with us) to make Carnival aware that the rate for our cruise had dropped by $40 per room. Today I received an email for each of the 8 rooms we have booked showing a cruise credit! Here's how the credit works: The basic cruise rate PER ROOM went down $40, but the per person, taxes and fees incresed by $0.75 per person. So if you have two people in your room, you will see on your Carnival account that your cruise TOTAL went down by $38.50. If you have three people in your room, your cruise TOTAL went down by $37.75, and if you have four people in your room, your cruise TOTAL went down $37.00. If by chance you already had your cruise paid in full, you now have a CREDIT showing on your account based on the number of people in your room listed above. No one in our group had gratuties or shore excursions on their account yet so this money will discount one of those two things if you now have a credit. It's not a large amount of money, but every little bit helps, Feel free to buy myself and Roxanne a drink onboard to say thanx for doing this! This price protection does not expire with Carnival so it pays to check the pricing from time to time to see if it happens to decrease yet again. As I said above, this is the first time we have ever seen this happen. But it's also not impossible that it COULD happen again! So if we, or YOU, happen to see a lower price on our exact cruise in the future, let us know and we will submit for the price difference for everyone again! 3.) Referring to the "Countdowns" page on our website, you will see that the recommended time to apply for your passport (if you don't already have one) is only 5 days away! So its almost time to get that application in the mail! As we have said before, we divided up all the things that everyone needs to get done before the cruise, and spaced them out so everyone can do a little here and there, and not get stressed out about trying to do everything in a hurry at a later point. If you DON'T do some of these things at the recommended times, and wait too long, EXPECT to run into problems later if there isn't sufficient time left to get certain things done. Expect another email from us in about a month to remind you that it's time to visit a doctor, and discuss / begin your vacinations for your Caribbean cruise!
February 1st, 2013 Time, and our website countdowns keep ticking down to our cruise in November! As of today, there are only 273 days til we set sail! Well, basically everything that could go wrong with our previous flight plans, happened. The Air Miles flights that Tracey & I were originally considering, to meet up with Dave & Bev in Ottawa didn't work out. Now there is a completely new plan! Tracey and I are NOW BOOKED on a flight out of Minot, North Dakota! We fly into Minneapolis, Minnesota, and meet up with the entire group from Saskatchewan. From there, all 10 of us will make our way to Florida and arrive in Orlando at 4:36 PM on Thursday, October 31st. It is recommended that you book your flights as soon as possible and if you are interested in utilizing the information above, here are a few KEY ITEMS OF INTEREST: 1.) Essentially, everyone currently in the Newfoundland group still has to book their flights. Our recommendation is that you contact Teri or Bev to discuss their flight plans, to potentially plan sharing a shuttle with them, if you're interested in reducing your transportation costs from the Orlando airport to Port Canaveral. If you happen to be a single couple getting a cab for example, this could be more costly. The more people that arrive together at (or around) the same time, the cheaper the transportation cost will be for you. Keep in mind, the drive from Orlando airport to Port Canaveral is about 45 minutes to an hour, so consider the arrival times of your flights as well. 2.) As many are aware, typically the flight times out of Newfoundland SUCK! If you are trying to use Air Miles, you have fewer options, and the flight times SUCK EVEN MORE! 3.) If you ARE using Air Miles, Air Miles has limited flights, and limited seats on each flight. The sooner you book, the better. 4.) By booking your flights as soon as possible, your costs are being spread out and are not stacking up closer to the sail date. 5.) Your flight options MAY be better now than if you wait. 6.) Waiting for a "Seat Sale" is not a guarantee. Your flights may cost less if you wait, or MORE, or not be available at all. Is it worth the gamble and potential risks and headaches? As a final reminder, whenever you book your flights, you MUST remember the following: 1.) Do NOT book a flight departing Orlando on Saturday November 9th, BEFORE 1pm. If there are ANY U.S. Customs, or airport transportation delays from the cruise ship, you COULD miss your flight! Being 3 or 4 hours early at the airport is WAY better than being 5 minutes late. 2.) At an absolute MINIMUM, Carnival strongly advises to fly in at least ONE DAY prior to the cruise as there is NO CHANCE you can fly into Orlando ON the sail date, and make it to our wedding. 3.) While we are not booking hotels yet, we recommend staying at a hotel in Port Canaveral the night before our cruise, as our guests MUST be at the port early the next morning for priority boarding, in preparation for our wedding. In Carnival's email to us regarding our wedding they said, "We can not emphasize enough how important it is for you and your guests to arrive promptly at the port on your wedding day." 4.) The recommended day to fly into Orlando is Thursday, October 31st or earlier.
January 4th, 2013 Tracey and I are currently enjoying the last few days of our vacation in Newfoundland. Ya know Newfoundland and cruise ships are highly similar. Both are full of great food and they both float! It's been over 2 months since our last update and there have been quite a few things going on in that time. First, in a couple days, we will dip below the 300 day mark of our cruise countdown. There is still lots of time before we leave, but there's still a lot to do. Remember to check the "Countdowns" section of our website for reminders of what to do, and when, in the upcoming months. Leaving everything for the last minute will only cause headaches. Do a little here and there and it will be "Smooth Sailing" when we are all ready to leave this fall. Second, we have 3 new guests on our cruise! Welcome aboard Regan, Ashley, and Madison (Maddy) Pearson, TEENAGE (Uh-Oh, LOL!) daughters of Ross and Roxanne Pearson in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan! Ross & Roxanne had to change rooms to get a room closer to their daughters as per Carnival rules about guests under the age of 21. That's ok because we popped Steve & Kathy into their old room to be able to keep our long, shared balcony! Ross said to us that they didn't mind changing rooms because they were afraid all the Newfies would be partying all night long and they wouldn't get any sleep LOL! Have you thought of this Ross? Carnival has a policy about guests under the age of 21, but no policy about Newfies? Hmmmm. LOL! Ross, Roxanne, and the girls are only 10 rooms or so down the hall so I think they will still make regular visits to our six room long balcony! Third, the next thing we need to do in our vacation planning is secure flights. Originally we were planning to book flights in early February. We may still do this, we may wait a month or so for a couple reasons. 1.) So far, the flights and times for some guests seem to be relatively crappy! We suspect this is because not all the available flights are even published online yet. By waiting a little bit, more attractive flights may pop up. HOWEVER, what we have noticed is that right now, there seems to be better flight time options if we fly down 2 days early and fly down on THURSDAY, October 31st (Halloween). This might be a better way to do it and would make things less rushed once we get to Florida. 2.) By waiting a little bit longer (one month max we figure) seat sales MAY pop up for those guests who plan to buy their flights. Start looking at flight options now for Friday, November 1st (recomended 1 day minimum prior to sailing) that Return on November 9th or later. One VERY important thing here. If you book a flight out of Orlando on November 9th, you MUST select a flight that leaves at 1:00PM or later! If you select a flight earlier than this there is NO guarantee you will get off the ship and make it to the airport on time! This is a recomendation directly from Carnival and we have always done this on previos cruises! That's enough to absorb for now. Start considering your flight options and as always, if you have any questions, email us, or pick up the phone and call us.
November 2nd, 2012 It's probably looooong overdue for an update on our upcoming cruise and wedding, so here it is! As it is past midnight here in Manitoba now...Did you know that EXACTLY 1 year from TODAY is "DAY 1" of our cruise which departs Port Canaveral, Florida? As many of you know, we have been planning this cruise since July of 2011, over a year ago. Where did the time go? As we said before, November 2013 will be here before you know it! It's -2 degrees here in Brandon right now, going down to -5 and they say 5 to 10 cm of snow tomorrow. While Port Canaveral and all our ports of call will be sunny and 26 to 30 degrees ALL NEXT WEEK! As you know, we were 1 room short of becoming a group for this cruise. However, the 7 rooms we did book are all in a row and that 7 room wide balcony on deck 9 we can all share is a "Perk" in itself! More details on how we do this in the months to come. As of right now, our wedding is officially booked. We have a lot of information to go through from Carnival and a lot of decisions to make on the details. As we know more, we will let you all know. We figured now was the perfect time to let everyone know that we haven't dropped the ball, and are still working on all the details of the remaining parts of the vacation left to plan. The majority of items left to plan are flights, transportation from the Orlando airport to a hotel in Port Canaveral, a hotel for one night in Port Canaveral, and pay for the balance of our cruise fare. The next item we are planning to book is our flights. We have made some changes to the "Countdowns" section of our website. That way, people can visit our website at anytime to see how much time they have left to do certain things. Most of the items are in there, but a couple more may need to be added. The next big thing we would like to do is book our flights on February 2nd, for several reasons.
1.) To help spread the costs out between now and our cruise date. In a nutshell, if possible, our plan is to see everyone on flights that get into Toronto on Friday, November 1st (Preferably morning / afternoon). This is where "East" meets "West" for the first time ever, and the parents of the Bride will meet the parents of the Groom! Hopefully we can all arrive in Florida in the late afternoon, or early evening. The reason we are shooting for this time line is to get settled away at the hotel at a sensible time, and give everyone an opportunity to pick up a few odds and ends they may need before the cruise. Maybe even a few drinks, and get everyone a little more acquainted.
August 14th, 2012 It's been a very busy couple of weeks moving into our new house and we're still not done yet. Many boxes left to unpack, some going to storage until we finish our basement. We still have a few issues to get solved in the new house, and some exterior work left to be done as well. It never ends! We only got our phone and internet back this Saturday past. So, we might as well continue with the craziness, push forward, and book a cruise this weekend I guess! Yes, if you have lost track, we are less than 4 DAYS away from our booking date which starts THIS Saturday at 11:00 AM Eastern Time! As mentioned before, there will be approximately a 2 week window starting on this date in which you have to call Carnival (or give us your number to pass on to them, and they will call you) and pay your $250 deposit, per person for your room. We have added another person to our group, Tracey's brother Darcy is now also going on our cruise. He has decided to bunk with his parrents so we still have a problem. We are still officially at 7 rooms and we need 8 for our group! We have been talking to a few couples on our list again lately and there are still a few STRONG maybes that haven't fully committed yet. We need confirmation of everyone who going no later than August 16th, this Thursday night. Please, get back to us as SOON as you can. We need the official 8 couples before we can request the actual group pricing (with perks) which we will do on Friday morning. Then, the two week actual booking window begins. With the 7 we have now, there is no "Group". If there is no group, there IS still a cruise (and wedding), it's just that the people we have now would pay the "Early Saver" rate that Carnival posts on their website, and there wouldn't be any perks (except for our wedding of course). I contacted Carnival today and they we able to provide rough pricing that would be approximately be $15 higher than the "Early Saver" rate BUT the "Perks" look like they will be a MINIMUM of a $100 credit per room! Again, please email or call us as soon as possible, but Thursday night is the absolute latest to let us know if you want to be part of the group.
July 23nd, 2012 PS - Happy Birthday to my brother back home in Newfoundland today who is already out on the ocean somewhere working his new job! Have a good one Craig!
July 22nd, 2012 One last thing, here's Tracey's wedding proposal and her ring. It's kinda obvious at this point what her answer was. Enjoy.
July 12th, 2012
June 10th, 2012 The time keeps ticking away, but if you check our website frequently, you'll notice that the countdown timer to our booking date just went backwards by two weeks! The reason being, as I mentioned last month, to meet a deadline set by my brother and his wife. We really want the immediate family to come with us, and Craig and Allison were the only ones that needed a little more time to be able to make the decisison. So, the booking date is now carved in stone. To be eligible for our Group Cruise, and the potential "Perks" that come with it, you MUST contact Carnival and pay your deposit ($250 per person) between August 18th, and August 31st, 2012. The Group Department opens at 11:00 AM Eastern time on August 18th (Saturday). Details and pricing will be posted on the "Latest News" page as information becomes available, closer to our booking date.
May 6, 2012 Well, actually booking might be a bit longer. My brother Craig and his wife Allison have both recently finished university and both are currently seeking full-time jobs. They really want to come on the cruise, but won't know if they can until mid to late August. They say they will let us know as soon as they know, so there is a CHANCE the booking date will be pushed out to mid to late August. We will let everyone know if we are pushing out the booking date, no later than the end of June. If that happens, we will update the countdown page at that time and we will be about 7 weeks from booking. Our confirmed guest list at this point hasn't changed, but recent conversations with some of our "Considering Guests" leads us to believe that the odds are REALLY good that we should have NO trouble meeting the required groups size of 8 and potentially receive the group "Perks". Are YOU one of the people that is still thinking about it? Time to think harder LOL!
March 28, 2012
March 26, 2012
March 25, 2012
November 27, 2011
Check out even MORE FunShip 2.0 videos on YouTube
November 24, 2011 In case you didn't know, we just got back a couple weeks ago from cruise #5! We were on the Carnival Spirit for 9 days which departed from Los Angeles, California. We did the Mexican Riviera which consisted of 4 stops, Manzanillo, Puerto Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas, and Ensenada. Another FANTASTIC vacation! All our pictures are on facebook if you want to check them out. Even if you are not a facebook member, you can still see our pictures by clicking here. You haven't heard from us in almost 4 months! Did you think we forgot about our "Family & Friends Cruise"? Not likely! We have been a bit busy with work and everything else, and we were meaning to do an update sooner than now, but better late than never. So here are some key points! Booking is approximately 8 months away! Remember when we said 2013 would be here before you know it? Well, as mentioned before, we plan on booking the cruise in mid to late summer of 2012, well, count em' up! 8 months til then give or take. An exact booking date should be chosen in the spring of 2012. The cruise ship and destination have not yet been chosen. We still have no update on this yet, but our plan remains the same. We are likley going to be booking Carnival Dream out of Port Canaveral, Florida. This cruise should visit the Eastern Caribbean, and we are STRONGLY leaning towards the first or second week of November at this point. None of this is confirmed yet as Carnival has not posted any cruise information past April 2013. We expected this information to be available by now, and is one of the reasons we were waiting to update you all. As soon as the schedule is up, we expect to make a decision shortly after. Fun Ship 2.0! In a nutshell Carnival has begun to evolve itself! For those of you that have been on a Carnival Ship before, a whole bunch of new stuff to do is in the works! For those of you that have never been on a cruise before, congratulations, you now have twice as much stuff to look forward to on our "Family & Friends Cruise"! Check out all the new things that are coming to Carnival with the introduction of "Fun Ship 2.0" by clicking here. That's it for now! We are planning that the next update will take place early in the New Year. So, with winter now upon us, keep yourselves warm with this little tidbit of information. "The AVERAGE temperature in the Caribbean in November is 86 F, or 30 C!" Our cruise is officially LESS than 2 years away! Have a Very, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!
July 27, 2011
July 26, 2011 Cruise - Approximately $250 deposit per person, balance must be paid in full, 75 days before the sail date. We plan to book the cruise in July or August 2012. Oh look at that! That's LESS than a year away! Flights - Flights become available approximately one year before your fly date. Therefore, it is wise to start checking, and book your flights between October & November of 2012. Hotel - Best guess right now is maybe book a hotel in the early summer of 2013. Transportation - Explore options, and if feasible, consider booking in late summer of 2013. Vaccines - Get them as soon as you have commited to this vacation. Passport - The sooner the better, they are good for 5 years.
July 24, 2011
June 9, 2011
June 4, 2011
May 11, 2011
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