Kellyccz

My friend and I have just booked the MSC Armonia Eastern Mediterranean Cruise (Italy and Greece) for August 6, 2006. Having only sailed Carnival before, we are anxious to hear from those of you who have sailed MSC. Any input is appreciated. :smiley:

Thanks everyone for the good wishes! I know I will love the cruise - I have loved everyone of my cruises - I can't think of anything that would cause me to not have a good time - it is simply NOT possible. I'm excited to see what my BF thinks as this will be his first cruise. Since no one seems to know much about the beaches I mentioned, I will be sure and take good notes to post a good review about them when I get back. I've done a ton of research - habit from being a Paralegal - that I am, of course, taking in my file folder with an insert for each port (as well as inserts for airline info, pre- and post- cruise hotel, ship info :rolleyes: ) and from what I've seen these are all gorgeous beaches that not everyone goes to. We don't want to be somewhere where there a tons of people and you are constantly stepping over someone, so hopefully I've found the right spots. Either way, I'm sure I'll still love everyplace I go. Thanks again everyone for all the good wishes. Anything anyone wants me to take note of specifically during my cruise, just let me know by Friday at noon and I'll write it down so I don't forget to find out for you.

Hopefully someone has been to these ports. If not, no big deal, I'll plan on hitting the places I mentioned unless we hear something horrible between now and then, which I doubt. I will be sure to post a detailed review of our cruise when I return. JoeyandDavid - I will do my best on the not getting burnt part - I love the sun though, although I have a friend who has been to Aruba and warned me of the sun's intensity there due to it being only 200 miles from the equator - so I bought some 45 sunblock for that day.

I can't believe the time is finally almost here. We leave Saturday morning for San Juan and will be boarding the Destiny on Sunday. Has anyone here been to Accra Beach in Barbados? How about Emerald Beach in St. Thomas? And, lastly, Eagle Beach in Aruba? We want a nice, beautiful beach in the ports without tons of people, but still having availability for drinks and food on the beach.

December 4, 2005 - Carnival Destiny - Southern Caribbean. We are flying in a day early and staying at the Sheraton Old San Juan. We fly home a day after the cruise too, to avoid the thousands of passengers flying home at the same time - we will be staying at the Radisson Ambassador post-cruise! Only 172 more days till we leave!

Dominica?

I am in cabin 8337 (aft balcony cabin on verandah deck) for our 12/4/05 Destiny Cruise. I know usually you get assigned to the dining room closer to your cabin (depending on if you are in the front half of the ship or back half). Did those of you who have cruised the Destiny find this to be true? Anyone who has had an aft balcony cabin near mine - can you tell me what dining room you got assigned to? We have confirmed late dining.

Gina - Thanks for the info. I want to make sure to get a good hotel - How far of a walk was it (since we'll be pulling luggage and all) from this hotel to the pier?

Hi everyone. I am sooooo excited. I was on the Miracle just a couple months ago and today, after getting TONS of quotes, I got a tremendous deal from an agent that I had to take. So, as of a few minutes ago, I am officially booked on the Destiny December 4, 2005. This will be my 5th cruise, but my boyfriend's first - he wants to know what all the fuss was about. And we had to have a balcony because he has heard me go on and on about how much I loved my balconies that I've had. So, this time, rather than doing a guarantee cabin, with the deal we got, I took an Aft Balcony on the Verandah deck - Cabin 8337. I'm so excited, and just wanted to share. Has anyone had an aft balcony on the Verandah Deck of the Destiny? I am wondering about the Lido Deck and a pool being right above us. Also, has anyone used Priceline for their pre or post cruise stay in San Juan - we are going down a day early and staying a day after. I'm trying to decide what area we should stay in - I'm leaning towards Old San Juan, as I really like that area, plus the ship is right there. Anyone have any opinions about that or other areas?

Thank you - I am soooo excited. Last cruise, we were upgraded to a 9A Aft wraparound balcony and I fell in love with it. So, it's nice to know I can wake up in the morning and step outside my room onto the balcony and enjoy the ocean air while the sun rises.

zima - what you do is go to Carnival's website and log in. Then you go to the gifts and services page and choose an item (any item) as if you are going to order it for your cruise. You have to put in your booking number and stateroom number. So you will need the deck plans of your ship. Then you just start putting in random cabin numbers (I always start a category or 2 higher than the guarantee I booked, especially this time since I booked 14 months in advance of the cruise) - when you click submit, if you do NOT have the right cabin number, it will say "Invalid Booking and/or Stateroom Number". You just keep putting in cabin numbers until it pops up with the message that tells you they are sorry, you can not order online with a guarantee booking and you need to call the toll free number that they give you to place an order. I have heard that others, when finding their stateroom sometimes still get to see their actual names of the people in the cabin pop up, so that is a possibility too. This is more for people that book a guarantee, as they are the ones that usualyy get upgraded. When you book a specific cabin, Carnival usuallly won't upgrade you as they figure you booked a specific cabin for a reason. They will usually contact you or your TA to see if you want an upgrade before they give it to you. But, it has happened before where you just get upgraded without knowing when booking a specific cabin, so anything is possible. If you book a specific cabin, I would recommend doing the Kelly Method, but starting with the cabin you booked, and just see what it tells you. If it tells you invalid Booking and/or Stateroom number, you have probably been upgraded.

Well, with 54 days until we leave for our trip, I found our cabins. I have been using the BookModify Method everyday for awhile now, but it still says OV Guarantee. So, I had some time on my hands tonight and decided to go back to my old Kelly Method. It only took me 30 minutes to find my cabin which I will be sailing in with my stepbrother. We booked an Oceanview Guarantee on the Miracle back in September of last year (did this purposely knowing there was only 1 deck of oceanview cabins, after that it's on to balconies). We have been upgraded 3 categories and are now in Cabin 5242 - an 8B Balcony! :grin: I am so happy! I'm happy to just be on the ship, no matter where my cabin is, but having the Upgrade Fairy visit is a nice bonus. I also was able to find my Dad & Stepmom's cabin (he booked the cruise for us). They booked an inside guarantee, and although they were only upgraded one category to a 4B (which we kinda figured they would still end up with an inside cabin due to the fact that insides go all the way up to 4E), the people at Carnival were nice enough to put them across the hall and down 5 cabins from us in Cabin 5271. So, they can just walk across the hall and come share our balcony with us! __________________

We are getting ready to book our pre-cruise hotel stay for our Thanksgiving Miracle Cruise. We will be staying 3 days before the cruise and want to stay in either Clearwater Beach or St. Pete Beach. We are passing on Priceline, due to the fact that we want to do 4 people in a room (on the cruise, it will only be 2 per room - so we are doing all in one room in the hotel to have more spending money for the cruise). We are avoiding Priceline due to the fact that they only allow 2 per room, and the cost for 2 rooms would be higher than the hotels we are looking at. Anyway, we are looking at the following hotels: St. Pete Beach: Dolphin Beach Resort, Sabal Palms Inn Clearwater Beach: Clearwater Beach Travelodge, Red Roof Inn, Howard Johnsons Has anyone stayed at any of these or does anyone have any suggestions for a like hotel? We would like to be ON the beach, but directly across is fine too. We would like restaurants (at least a few since we will be here 3 full days), shopping and other activities within walking distance. Any advice, comments, suggestions will be GREATLY appreciated. Thank you!

John G - That's not a bad price, and I hear wonderful things about Carnival. I'm not sure if that's the itinerary my daycare lady is on or not, but I know she is leaving on the 12th on a 10 day cruise on Princess. I'll have to ask her which ship she is on. They only sail Princess, and go the same time every year. My interest in Princess had definitely been piqued. Dan - The Grand is one of the ships my daycare lady has been on at least a couple of times and she and her husband love it too. I am also interested in the Mariner. As I said, I am open to other lines & ships, if we can find a good deal. From looking at prices on different ships, it seems as if going right before Christmas gets you a lot better deal than going over Christmas, so we will be keeping our eyes open for just the right deal. Let me know if you come across anything, and I will post when I have any more info.

GottaCruz - Totally understandable. I normally don't plan that far in advance either, for the same reasons. Luckily, our school district has a website which has next year's schedule already. Anyway, when it gets closer, I can always check back with you then.