1st cruise PLZ HELP!!!?

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phantom_of_valkyrie

Make sure you bring your marriage license. Without it, you guys are too young for a Carnival ship so this needs to be afterwards and I recommend waiting the 10 days (at least in my state) so that you can get a certified copy of your marriage license. In my state it needs to be filed by the officiant and you can get a certified copy in 10 days.

1- Carnival is a great line for people your age. It is a party ship so it is not quite as many couples or romantic honeymooners. However I went on Carnival for my honeymoon on the Destiny. It was enjoyable but I wish we had done Royal Caribbean instead. I was a bit older than you though and when I was 21-26 I adored Carnival. Now though, the party ships turn me off a bit. There are always kids running around, there are always drinking games going on by the pool, and often time the club was closed for Teen night or a Singles event. That was not the case on Royal and we've decided we've had 3 enjoyable Carnival cruises and our next 3 will be with Royal Caribbean.

2 and 3. Tips are included. Yes as the other person suggested you could be an @ss and bash the steward who made your bed twice a day and gave you fresh towels, along with making towel creatures from his tip of a couple bucks a day. But the tips are not $300, more like $70-90 per person. Remember to divide that out per day and it does not include the Maitre D. You also have a 15% tip included on every drink, regardless if you get it from a waiter or walk up to the bar. Just factor an extra $150 for the 2 of you for prepaid tips. If you are concerned about cost, don't do a shore excursion or drink a little less. The prepaid tips do not include the Maitre D but if I were you I wouldn't worry about that unless you use the Maitre D's services. For me, I've only asked to be reassigned to a different table once so I tipped him that time but if you don't use his services, don't bother.

4. You cannot get a prepaid card. When you put your Sail and Sign card (either by putting cash or a credit card on file) into the system, it will automatically be placed first thing. I didn't know this on my first cruise and only put $100 down. I was shocked when only after a couple drinks, I was cut off.

It really depends on how much you drink and your shore excursions as to how much money you will spend. For my husband and I, we only drink about $300 on a 7 day cruise and that includes wine at dinner. I have a couple drinks a day but I get the drink of the day. You can get the drink of the day for the discount price any day. For example, the first day the drink is the Fun Ship which is my favorite. You can order that Mon, Tues, or Wed for the same price. Carry that souvenir glass around. You get refills for about $1 cheaper. That hurricane glass is refilled for about $6 and if it gets dirty they give you a free glass since you turned in the old glass. If you just buy the drink without the souvenir glass, it's a good deal smaller portion.

Shore excursions are around $100 per person per excursion. Search cruise critic and this forum for questions about the ports of call you will visit. Some stops have a local excursion highly recommended like Belize's www.cave-tubing.com which is half the price and twice the caves as the Carnival shore excursion. When money was tight my husband and I only did one shore excursion per cruise, the one that seemed the most impressive. Depending on your island you may not need to do one. Western caribbean like Honduras and Belize I do not recommend wandering around but many places like St Thomas and Cozumel you can easily just wander around for an enjoyable day without doing a shore excursion at all.

Feel free to email me with any questions. Hope I helped.

Time travler

First make sure you can cruise without being older. On Carnival, one of you must be 25 to cruise without a parent. But being that you are going after your married may be different. So check with Carnival about this. If you go with Princess, then being 21 is just fine. Prepaid tips are when they charge your credit card for all your tips. Usually it is $10 a day per person. But you can just tip on your own too. Do remember that service people that work on a cruise ship really need tips to help them just to get by. The other thing you need money for is alcohol, sodas, and shore excursions. Of course you can do all of your port calls on your own and just walk around. But since this is going to be your honeymoon, you want it to be as special as possible. Oh, one more thing, be sure to tell the cruise company that it is for your honeymoon . You will then get a little something extra because of this.

MapleTaffy

1. im not sure cuz i've never been on that one before
2. tips....if you want to give those waiters, room services,...etc. extra money for doing an awesome job and stuff you can. at the end of the trip the last day or second last day they give you an envelope with names like "waiter", "assistant waiter", "room service", then you put the money in it and give it to them personally, you can give as much as you want, any amount
3. and for the prepaid tips, they are automatically charged on your credit card. and yes it does pay everyone who has helped you. and no you only pay once for the whole week on the last day
4. it should been charged on your credit card already

-edit-
http://www.carnival.com/CMS/FAQs/Gratuities_Tips.aspx

this site should be able to give you more information on the tips

for your first question: http://www.carnival.com/cms/fun/ships/carnival_victory/default.aspx?shipCode=VI
2-11 year olds, Camp Carnival
12-14, Circle "C"
15-17, Club O2
18+, can go into casinos
21+, casinos and bars

--edit--
you give the tips at the end of the cruise. the 70$ should be the "pre-paid" tip.

Unique

I've been on 4 Carnival Cruises, and 1 was Victory.
It is good for people of all ages.

For tips, you have to tip the person who cleans your room $20-30.
If you've booked the dinning room, you should tip your waiter $25-35.

I know you want to save money. So let me let you into a little secret of mine, there is a service charge of $70 for each person. You can go to the information desk to take that off. Meaning you don't have to pay the $70 per person.

I have never heard of prepaid cards for tips. You should ask your travel agent about that.

But to save moreee money, you should get a interior room. Because the window, balcony, and suite are more money. I always stay in a balcony room though because I like to step out. But if you want to save money interior is the cheapest. The interior is the room with no windows or anything. I would recommend balcony rather then interior but the price is higher.

Umm... that's pretty much it.

cruise junkie

tips are optional all you have to do is go to the pursers desk and have them removed from your bill. but if you do wait until the last night of your cruise if you want good service from your room stewart

girly cruiser

Why do people ask so many questions sooo early? I do the same this and basically you get really impatient and irritataed when it seems like you have a year ( basically for you) left to wait... youy really dont need to ask until 6 weeks later.

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