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My husband-to-be and I have booked a cruise to the Bahamas for our honeymoon. The cruise is as follows: Depart from Charleston, NC on 10/21/2014 Ports of call Nassau and Little Stirrup Cay Return to Charleston, NC Neither of us have ever been on a cruise and we are clueless as to what to expect, what to pack, should we book excursions through the cruise line or just fly solo? Just share whatever you know, like, hate, ect about cruises.
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Sep 4, 2014 03:22
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| # ? Apr 20, 2024 00:17 |
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Which cruise line? Whether excursions, booze smuggling, etc are worth it often depends on the line.
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Sep 5, 2014 16:19
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LogisticEarth posted:Which cruise line? Whether excursions, booze smuggling, etc are worth it often depends on the line. Carnival
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Sep 6, 2014 18:22
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With regard to drinking: http://www.rumrunnerflasks.com Excuse their lovely website and buy some of their stuff. On carnival the only booze you're allowed to bring in is two bottles (750ml each) of wine. You cannot bring one 1.5L bottle instead. You can bring one six-pack of soda (or mixer) per person. I brought a sixer of ginger ale. Any of these things you bring should be in your carry-on so they can inspect it. If you check it they'll hold that bag forever, plus will probably discover the booze you're smuggling in. So! Throw booze into plastic, x-Ray neutral bags, place in your big, checked luggage. Keep the caps lined up and place your toiletries bag on top of them, that way when they scan your bag they don't see the booze. They randomly open bags but if you don't give them a reason to then you're better off. Carry on any legal fluids. e: I should add that each departure city has differing securities staff and effectiveness. When I departed Ft. Lauderdale they were super on point and checked through all my carry-ons. Even inspected each glass bottle of ginger ale I had making sure the seal wasn't broken and then shook each bottle (I guess alcohol fizzes differently? Maybe to see if the bottle had ever been opened?). I also saw them opening every cardboard soda box and inspecting every can. They didn't gently caress around but maybe they'll be different in your town. tranten fucked around with this message at 06:35 on Sep 7, 2014 |
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Sep 7, 2014 06:30
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Carnival has cheap cabins but jacked up (moreso than other cruises) booze prices. Their excursions are often questionable when it comes to value so either research them well or forgo them and go local when it comes to doing stuff on shore. As for smuggling/bringing booze, it shouldn't be too hard as long as you're not doing it on the carry on. Buying specific Rum-Runner flasks is probably overkill as you can do something similar with other bottles and/or re purposed personal care items. If I recall, the bottles you can bring on board get charged an uncorking fee? Or is that only at dinner? Either way, take advantage of everything on the ship, be really nice to your service staff, and tip them well.
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Sep 9, 2014 00:18
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Do you have experience with the Cheers beverage service? For $45/day you can have unlimited sodas and 15 alcoholic beverages per day. I am just not sure that this is totally worth it. My fiancee is a beer drinker and no so much a hard liquor person. I prefer wine but since it will be tropical, I will probably get mixed drinks as well.
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Sep 9, 2014 06:21
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SuzieMcAwesome posted:Do you have experience with the Cheers beverage service? For $45/day you can have unlimited sodas and 15 alcoholic beverages per day. I am just not sure that this is totally worth it. My fiancee is a beer drinker and no so much a hard liquor person. I prefer wine but since it will be tropical, I will probably get mixed drinks as well. I don't know if there are restrictions on the booze selections, and 15/day seems like a lot, but my distant memory of Carnival is that if you both wanted two drinks/day it would probably brush up against $45 if you weren't being cheap. I'm assuming the Cheers thing is a shared service between people (or you can just order two "for yourself")? How long is the cruise? How many sea days? Excursions in my experiences were expensive and you could do things yourself for less... but those were in Alaska cruises and I don't know what the risk factors are in the Bahamas. Like, renting bikes or going for a hike might not be options (or maybe they are!).
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Sep 9, 2014 07:39
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Zachack posted:I don't know if there are restrictions on the booze selections, and 15/day seems like a lot, but my distant memory of Carnival is that if you both wanted two drinks/day it would probably brush up against $45 if you weren't being cheap. I'm assuming the Cheers thing is a shared service between people (or you can just order two "for yourself")? It is $45/day/person. If one person in your cabin gets it everyone of drinking age has to purchase also. Hubs to be can be a heavy drinker and I am not a lightweight myself so 2 drinks/day on our honeymoon sounds on the light side to me. The only restriction is that the drink must be less than $10 menu price and no bottles (25% off bottle service, bottled water, and drinks over $10) As far as excursions, we chose a Snuba trip (snorkeling but a bit deeper) in Nassau and that is listed as a 3.5 hour deal then we will just spend some time walking around, shopping, ect. We are not doing anything on little stirrup cay. There really was not a good option for us to do there.
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Sep 9, 2014 15:21
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$45/day/person would probably be good if you plan in having over 5 drinks a day. Also, again remember cost of tip on top of the card, cash usually being OK for this. As for Nassau, I was there in 2007 and it was kind of a shithole. Not worth walking around too much and boring/generic tourist bar and grills were the only stiff near the docks. Maybe it's changed.
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Sep 9, 2014 16:27
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Isn't Little Stirrup Cay Carnival's "Private Island"? If so, does your drink pass work there?
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Sep 11, 2014 04:34
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I just returned from a Carnival cruise it was our first one so we had a huge learning curve.Granted it was a last minuet thing but here are some tips You can bring one case of soda/ water per person. Bring walkie talkies and a magnetic white board if you are traveling with a group Most mixed drinks are around 8.50 beer is slightly less. There is a elegant night at least once. Which means you are supposed to dress up. While they say no jeans, i saw people wearing them. Bring body wash, shampoo and conditioner. While they do provide you with bodywash and shampoo its in a shower caddy and that freaked me out. The booze package was 35. per day per person. You both have to buy it they wont let just one person in a cabin do it. It is for basic liquors and you must wait 5 min between orders. Put your phone on airplane mode. If you need to check in at home with the family its 1.99 usd per min. Much cheaper then an international roaming plan as they have a monthly fee + per min fee. You can also receive calls as well. They no longer allow smoking on the balcony's. Almost everything has a 15% gratuity added in even things like Botox. (These people work hard and deserve it but I was caught off guard at this) Bring a wrist watch and set it to ship time so you wont be late for things you want to do. You don't have to book an excursion at all. Bring cash to ports if you intend to go shopping. They charge a large fee for credit cards. Your average Carnival excursion runs between 89-99 (or at least ours did) per person per event. There were quite a few that included food and drinks. While there are others I book with Carnival because that way I knew they would be done on time. The tour guides expect tips. I would back atleast three days worth of cloths, a nice out fit for each of you for elegant night and swim suits. Bring tennis shoes and sandals. joebuddah fucked around with this message at 19:52 on Oct 14, 2014 |
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Oct 14, 2014 19:32
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We are leaving here on Monday driving down and we will be leaving the port on Tuesday. Thanks for the tips! We have booked one excursion and we plan on doing the Cheers package as it is our honeymoon.
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Oct 15, 2014 07:01
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| # ? Apr 20, 2024 00:17 |
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If you guys drive all night be sure to take a rest once you get your cabin. My wife and I drove 11 hrs straight. We didn't and we ran round in circles and had a few spats bit until we realized that we were half asleep. A nap fixed that
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Oct 15, 2014 13:57
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