What are the best tips for first time Carnival cruisers? — featuring LifeWithUsTV (Carnival)

0:00 welcome back to life with us TV it's your girl Lynette and it's your boy Stanley all right in today's video we're going to give you the 26 Carnival Cruise tip that's going to be essential for the first time Cruiser listen if you're on this video I already know you either one booked your cruise already now you're

0:19 working in Reverse trying to figure out what it is I need to do and know before I get on this Cruise yeah or you're in the research process where you're really trying to figure out if it's something that you can pull off but listen these 26 tips that we're going to give you is almost gonna guarantee you that you're

0:36 gonna get on there with smooth sailing and that you're not going to have the hiccups that most first-time Cruisers encounter on their group yeah and we know y'all excited and you and you're overwhelmed and nervous all at the same time and that's a natural reaction yes indeed but you ready to get into it

0:51 let's get into it tip number one number one for the first time Carnival cruiser listen to me good please do not double tip at the bar know that when you go to any bar on Carnival and you purchase a drink the gratuities are included in the drink us the only time we recommend giving anything extra

1:13 other than what's on that receipt if the bartender is going above and beyond they are hooking you up and you want to be a blessing so that's the only time that you should be giving actual if not do not give any extra because already already included tip number two make sure that you have the documentation

1:32 needed to board said Cruise yeah I am a stickler for telling people before you even book your cruise make sure that you have these essential pieces of documentation because it could be a make or break in the long run first of all make sure that you have at least your birth certificate and I'm not talking

1:52 about the birth certificate that's from the hospital they got your your mama thumbprint your daddy thumbprint and your feet print on it that is you're going to need something from like the vital statistics the health department something like that that is a valid birth certificate and along with

2:09 the birth certificate you will also need an ID government issued or State issue you just need an ID also you can also go a little further if you're one of those Advanced people in the world you ready to take traveling real serious uh-huh go ahead and get your passport you can travel with your passport and

2:28 you will also need an ID to go along with that as well but the other boarding documents that you're going to need to get on the ship is a boarding pass your boarding pass does not populate until two weeks prior to you being able to get on a cruise in your check-in process so don't worry about it until two weeks

2:49 before you'll be able to go ahead and get that make sure that your luggage tags are printed off as well so that they could be ahead and put on your luggage so that you can get on there and your luggage can meet you yeah hello tip number three we highly recommend this for first time Cruisers is to book

3:09 a pre-cruise hotel so what that mean is that you're not going to the ship the day of the cruise you're going to the ship the day before the cruise because so much can happen when we was on one of our cruises last year and the first time or they was driving in their brand new truck and brand new truck I can't

3:28 remember exactly what happened but they broke down and they had to end up fixing that and they still end up getting to the cruise but I'm so glad that it came in a day before because if not they would have most likely missed the cruise yeah so yes please book you a proof pre-cruise Hotel you're gonna thank me

3:45 later yep so that you can be in the city yes the night before yes listen it's a game changer tip number four listen to me good book the cabin that you want straight out and what I mean by that is you'll get into different places or you'll hear different things oh Carnival will probably offer you an upgrade offer

4:11 later on they are few and far in between and the way that they work is they'll give that same upgrade offer to 50 people the first people that bite on it then that offer is off the table because the cabinet they're trying to upgrade to is now secured if you want a balcony book a balcony yes

4:32 don't go to an ocean view and hope that you'll get a great upgrade offer for that balcony because it may not happen get what you want don't worry about it but I do want to give you a little lesson especially being a first time Cruiser I know a lot of people because I am a first-time Cruiser specialist

4:49 they'll get on and they'll be like oh I want an Ocean View cabin but I want it higher up the design of most ships are on decks one and two are there Ocean View Cabins which are closer down to the water line so that's going to freak you out we can go ahead and X you out of Ocean View right then and there the only

5:08 way to be higher up is then you're going to have to start getting into your balcony cabin categories and your Insider cabin categories an Insider cabin is exactly what it sounds like it's more in the middle of the ship and it has no windows so once you're in there it's it is what it is you have no

5:26 sense of direction to be able to look out your window or see anything Ocean View Window balcony balcony get the cabin that you want that you'll feel secure in for the duration of your cruise all right tip number or five check in we highly recommend you pay attention to that because Carnival

5:46 usually sends the check-in email about two weeks before your cruise this is where you're gonna answer a boatload of questions this is where you're going to be able to print your boarding pass and this is where you're going to be able to print your luggage tags but we highly recommend that you get up at 12 a.m or

6:04 stay up until 12 a.m when that that when that email is get ready to come out so you can pick your boarding times especially if you want a boarding time that's a little bit earlier because I'm telling you they book a group or they book up quick and y'all want everybody to be together exactly yeah so everybody

6:21 that wants to be together better be up at 12 a.m yes because everybody has to do their individuals so for instance if me and my husband booked in the same cabin I can do it for the both of us yeah but if you have other people that's traveling with you they have to do their own as well because like my husband said

6:38 you have to attest to different things you have and then you also are setting up your onboard spending in this process so when people start talking about their sale and sign card and how do you get money on it this is where this process is handled at yes they're going to ask you do you want to do it with cash and

6:57 of course when you do it with cash you can't do that until you arrive at the Port bless you thank you and then or do you want to secure it with a card that is done during the check-in process yes so let's go ahead and hit on tip number six as a first time Cruiser listen do not feel bad if You Buck this up

7:21 right because it's going to take practice and I'm gonna be honest with you as many times as I do it I still am a work in progress pack enough clothing yes pack enough and I know that's the first timer you're probably gonna pack more than what you need yeah but have a mental inventory of

7:40 the stuff that you did not use on your first cruise and then on your second you'll be able to be like I don't need that I don't need that but my husband always has a rule of thumb for him is one outfit per day until it's time to go to dinner I'm two outfits per day so if I'm on a five day sale and I'm gonna

7:57 have at least 10 outfits it's probably more like 20 but anyway yeah um yeah fix it make it right make it right yeah so you want to make sure um that you have enough clothing and also we always tell people it doesn't matter that you're most of the time your first time Cruiser we're going to a

8:14 tropical climate that's just that's the right of passage right but there are nights where it gets really cool you're on the water that ship is in Full Speed Ahead and you will get that win or if you're on your balcony make sure that you're packing some kind of jacket it could be a jean

8:32 jacket please hoodie windbreaker do they even make those anymore um I don't even know um and something like some long pants like you can do some leggings some joggers or whatever something that would be able to make you feel more comfortable when you get those cooler days and nights

8:49 tip number seven for the first time Carnival cruiser we highly recommend that you get your tumbler this is great for when you get drinks from the bar whether it's soda alcohol juice or anything you got to put ice in you don't have to worry about your drinks getting watered down because these Jones keep

9:09 them Jones cold and keep the ice from melting yeah and covered so that way you want to get in the pool and stuff like that you don't have to have their cups because I hate their cups yeah and they're short yes also you want to make sure that you have your lanyard man this is going to hold your sign and sale card

9:28 yep uh and we're gonna be talking more about the sign and sale card in the minute yeah and then also you don't want to forget your luggage tags yes you are going to definitely definitely need this you do not want to staple the luggage tag paper to your luggage that's a sure way let me let me let me hear Subway for

9:51 your stuff to get lost on the ship because that paper is going to be ripped off we just got off the celebration uh about two weeks ago yeah and that ship holds over 6 000 people so imagine your luck is going up underneath that ship with all that luggage and your stuff is is staple your paper is staple to your

10:07 luggage sure way for it to get ripped off exactly then you got to go and find it in the sea of everybody else's they got ripped off yeah and if you're anything like most people our luggage is what color so all these things will be in our cruise essential store it's going to be linked down in the description all right

10:26 tip number eight for the first time Carnival cruiser Wi-Fi listen if this is not the question I get every day I eat my hat do I need the Wi-Fi package in my immediate um answer to your question is a question do you want to get on the internet yes because once you get on that cruise ship

10:50 you are at the mercy of having to use their Wi-Fi yeah your Wi-Fi from your phone is not going to work your data all of that because we'll talk about that later but once you get out and see the devices that we have here where we can go from computer to phone to iPad and all of that

11:10 you have to have a Wi-Fi package to do that and they do charge you for for it and they do not give you a certain amount of minutes for per day for free no no so do you need a Wi-Fi package do you want to get on their internet and each person in the cabin that wants it has to purchase it as well yeah yeah

11:32 it can't be that you sharing it with your with your husband your wife your kids and all them everybody has to purchase it let me tell you don't even try that game because we tried it one time frustrating because you have to log out of the person that's in and then re-log in and it's a it's not a long a

11:50 process but it's it's much easier just to have your own watch and then you need their credentials as well because once you log in you need the phone number that's attached to their sign and sell card so he's gonna be like what's your folio number so I can log in just get the Wi-Fi package yes and and then for

12:09 people that want to communicate with people like if you want to call your kids or something like that family back at home then you'll be able to do that well with certain packages you'll be able to do that through like Facebook Messenger WhatsApp or things like that because once you get on board that phone

12:24 has to go in airplane mode we'll talk about that a little later too yeah tip number nine for the first time Carnival cruiser we get this question a lot how much cash should I bring um we're gonna have one figure until we just got off the celebration so now our new figure is still the um minimum is

12:44 500 so we say 500 to a thousand because y'all know right now we in inflation everything the cost of everything is a gas groceries you name it costs way more yeah and the thing about it on the ship you're not gonna really be spending much cash on the ship anyway because the ship is a Cashman system with the sign and

13:01 sale card but that's for if you want to be able to tip like we was just talking about and then also when you get in Port you'll be able to pay for stuff because we don't recommend that you pay for stuff and put with your debit card which we're going to talk about that's some more in a minute as well all right well

13:17 but but in part is the destinations that the cruise ship is going to so we just got back from Cozumel Costa Maya and Honduras yeah so those places which you consider in Port yes and your destinations tip number 10 yeah this is golden yeah everyone that learns about us like why didn't I know about this

13:39 earlier join the Facebook groups for the sailing that you're going to be on so for instance if you're going to go on a Carnival celebration October 5th 2023 go ahead and go to Facebook and type exactly what I just said Carnival celebration October 5th 2023 more than likely there is a group already set up and it's

14:05 going to be exclusively well it should be exclusively um for the people that's going to be on that selling what that does is it starts to build a sense of community around that particular sailing you'll start to learn people that's in the group personalities I've seen where people be

14:23 like oh are you flying in the day before all right bet when you fly in let's all meet up for drinks or let's go to this Rooftop in Miami and just so it all it just me brings the whole vacation experience together right then they'll do things like okay let's do a bar crawl let's go ahead and do shot glass

14:42 exchange gift exchange we've done that it's oh it's fun that was so fun it's fun we got a lot of good gifts too yeah and then you'll start to learn people and especially if you're a solo Cruiser yeah you start to meet people that are also solos and I've seen people you know form a tribe out of meeting

15:00 people in Facebook groups because they have the same combination they become travel buddies yup that is dope yeah tip number 11 for the first time Carnival cruiser now I'm sad to say this but I'm also glad that they did it in the dining room after the uh you can only get two entrees for free at the third one is

15:23 going to actually cost you five bucks right they used to have it where all the food was unlimited but let me tell you wasted so much food you would just order skit just to try it you put you get a bite and you send it back yeah that's that was so much weight so I'm so glad that Carnival did do that you know I

15:42 know they're gonna be making some more profit from it but yeah I I don't like waste yeah I don't either it's not a good look yeah it's not a good look to be at the end of dinner and it's just a table full of plates with food still on it look your table looked like a sugar word but at the end of the day with the

15:59 two entrees we feel like that you will your belly ain't gonna be full with those two entrees man yeah yeah definitely tip number two listen this is something that gets people a little confused so I want to go ahead and bring as much Clarity to it as possible a carry-on bag for a cruise is different

16:19 than a carry-on bag for like a flight or anything like that yes so when we tell people make sure that you pack a carry-on bag to go on with you when you get on your cruise it simply means whatever type of piece of luggage it can be a trash bag as far as I care please don't do that

16:39 but there are certain things that you are required to bring on the ship with you and just having them in a bag is actually makes it easier so I have what I this is my work bag so this is what I bring as my carry-on what will be in my carry-on I'm glad you asked very important your boarding pass needs to be in that

17:05 carry-on please do not make the mistake of putting that in your check luggage that you're going to give to the porters because once they send that luggage and put it on those carts and send it for screening it's gone it's hardly any chance that you're going to get your luggage back out of probably eight to

17:23 ten thousand pieces of luggage right to get your documentation back also with documentation your boarding documents so if you're boarding with your passport your birth certificate your ID it needs to be in your carry on yes you hear me you hear me also in your carry-on like we said if you want to go ahead and get

17:45 get the party started or get the water in before the party started make sure your cup is in there make sure medication so if y'all have seen this I make my own pill box this is one that I get from Amazon I actually have a bigger one now I need to show y'all that but and the reason for that being is there's

18:06 always a chance that your medication could get lost in your check luggage or your check luggage could rather could get lost or delayed if you're a person that takes medicine on a routine on a schedule if that happens that could be very very bad for you make sure that that's on you as well make sure that if

18:27 you're a person that wants to swim before like at sail away yeah pack your stuff in your carry-on you gonna need it yeah but that's what we're in there them trunks in their bathing suit yes so also probably the most important thing to most people is Carnival does allow each adult to bring

18:45 a 750 milliliter bottle of wine or a shampoo no bigger now no Bizzle and don't go to the store and get that leader yeah and don't try to say well I'm gonna bring a 750 of liquor no they gonna take that yeah wine or sham pain if you don't drink the alcohol you can also do the non-alcoholic version of

19:07 your wine and champagne as well but that has to be in your carry-on because they need to see it yes and they need to inspect it to make sure that you ain't put the blow dry to it I'm not telling you how to do it I'm just telling you what other people do I just tell you what I do with it but anyway so and then

19:26 also they do allow each person to bring 24 cans of soda so if you want to go ahead and cut some calls that way when I'm not saying soda so 24 cans or cartons yes it could be juice Minute Maid makes a good juice that you can do in the cans also cartons now is that 24 per person or 24 for a company 24 per

19:50 person all right but you're gonna have to carry it yeah so you you do with that what you will also like I said with the cartons they do not allow you to bring bottled water on board but if you find a cans water that you like you can definitely bring that it's just the bottles they have a

20:09 problem with yeah if you want to bring some cartons of water on board you can definitely do that if you want to make it the coconut water they found on with that too just as long as it's not those bottles yeah and if you need water bottled water you can actually pre-order that in the gift shop on Carnival's

20:25 website and you can pre-purchase that and they're about what 10 11 now yeah they're about eleven dollars for 12 bottles of water like the this size so yeah so we get that question all the time so please don't show up with your 24 pack of waters or you're up there like this and they're gonna take them

20:42 right they're gonna take them you're gonna waste your good little money all right tip number 13 for the first time Carnival cruiser now come close and listen to me real good download the carnival Hub app right now yo boy yeah you see where she's looking at me your boy have been a victim of not

21:04 downloading that comical Hub app get on the ship because I tell myself I'm gonna do it when I get on the ship get caught up and and get sail away sail away and talking to people having a good time and we out at Sea and if uh if you don't have the Wi-Fi package you're not going to be able to download the carnival Hub

21:23 app so I did have the Wi-Fi package but it was just a nightmare still to be able to do it but if you don't have it you have to go to guest services to get them to help you put it on and if you know anything about guest service we don't like it because those lines is too long and you're gonna be wasting all that

21:42 time that you could be enjoying yourself on the cruise to fix something that you could have did right now so take your phone out and go to the Android store or the App Store on your iPhone and download it load the app yes what is the app for the app is your lifeline to everything thing on board everything so

21:59 until you get on board that app is is pretty useless it's literally just a countdown clock to your cruise date but once you get on board and you put your phone in airplane mode that's when the app comes alive yes so you'll be able to do every night check-in for your dining you'll be able to do like your picture

22:18 purchases through the show apps go to like it'll blow with the itinerary for the day it'll let you basically it's your Lifeline to everything but it also is your lifeline to the chat feature yeah man if you want to chat with anybody on board that chat feature Comes Alive once you get on board but here's

22:39 the thing the chat feature costs five dollars for the duration of the cruise but here's the thing per person so if you wanna chat with Jack and Jack didn't pay the five dollars you just won't be talking so everyone that you want to converse with definitely has to also pay the five dollar to do so duration of the

23:01 cruise it is it 100 percent no but it's better than not having any means of communication to those you need and then also um we're saying it has a schedule of all the activities on it but recently Carnival started introducing the paper itinerary again back on the ship I kind of like really don't need it

23:23 but just in case you if you don't have a cell phone you will be able to have the itinerary on paper when you get on the ship I like the idea of having to ask for the paper copy if you need it I feel like it's just wasteful yeah so tip number 14. yeah we talked about this a little bit once you get on board

23:43 we're gonna need you to put that phone in airplane mode there's no immediately it's nothing different than being on a flight and the flight attendants and the captain comes on and they're like hey it's time to put your phone in airplane mode and what that does it it shuts down the data on your

23:59 phone why do we need to shut down the data on your phone you need to shut that down because guess what the phone is going to do what the phone is designed to do that phone is going to start roaming more than a crackhead at the first of the month looking for for a hit and what's going to happen when that

24:17 phone is roaming out there SC trying to find a signal that's not going to connect you're going to pay for that yup some people have gotten off their cruise and had bills of five six hundred dollars yeah a couple thousand dollars enrollment fees because they didn't put that phone to airplane mode so I know

24:34 that y'all like well hold on how we gonna use the app and that Wi-Fi and all of that and and airplane mode it works yes you will be able to use the carnival Hub app in airplane mode you don't have to have an internet package to use the actual Carnival Hub app but that is the only thing that you'll be able to use

24:53 without the internet but your Wi-Fi package if you purchase that will work perfectly fine with that with your phone being in airplane mode yup tip number 15 for the first time Carnival cruising and she said uh oh because we didn't had some arguments with people with this in our comments here on YouTube because

25:14 different people have difference of opinions now we highly recommend that you pre-pay your gratuities all right the reason being is because well some people say this they don't like doing pre-bake gratuities because they want to um give tips to people that they see that's actually helping them right but

25:32 we're not thinking about the people that's in the background that's helping those people that you see to be able to do their job like people doing the laundry people that's cooking the food and stuff like that to make sure that on the Fun Ship you actually have fun so that's why we highly recommend that you

25:48 do that um also if you do not prepay your gratuities when you book your true Cruise hello the night before when it's time to set her up on the sign of sale card which we're going to talk about some more in a minute is they're going to charge that to your signing sale and I'm telling you know when it happens

26:05 because it'd be so many people over at Guest Services to get that removed in that long line for God knows how long to get that removed so we highly recommend you do that so we can take care of the people that's taking care of us the entire time we're on there and I like the idea you use the conditions

26:24 when we was in Corporate America that the execs at the top will get the bonuses and all we got was just our paychecks and we were the ones that's doing the work to make sure we just wanted to make them look good but the people that's the face yeah are the ones that get the ones against the rewards so

26:39 that's why we highly recommend you do that to take care of those people in the background yeah because they do an excellent job they do an amazing job yes way more than I would put up with yeah tip number 16 yeah we've been preaching this to the choir and and I think we're so passionate about it because both of

26:57 us have Banking and brokerage backgrounds as we used to work in Corporate America late yeah we know the detriment of this happening do not use your debit card while you're in destination and also do not try to link your debit card to your sign and sale card yeah are we saying that things are

27:18 not secure no we're not saying that they're not secure but what we are saying is if you link your card to your um your debit card to your sign a sale card you open yourself up for a lot of holds on your account so not only will you have the money you're spending not be available because that's gone it's

27:36 spent but you also have holds that lets them know that you have enough money to settle up for the next wave of purchases that you're going to make right I have seen just recently yeah recent recently that someone had eight hundred dollars and holds a card when they got back home and you just have to wait for that to go

27:58 ahead and fall off because as you begin to spend the more the holes will be because like I said they want to make sure that you can that they can settle up at the end because what you ain't gonna do is Spin and charge up a thousand dollar worth of stuff but you only got only got 200 in

28:15 your account also we also say don't use your debit card and destination yeah it's because you're using your card in places that they're not not name brand you know their vendors they're set up and we're not saying that no one is not trustworthy but we are saying that you open yourself up for people to skim your

28:36 card or be able to use your debit card number after you don't got back on the ship yeah and guess what happens you're on the ship not able to take care of business right away right and by the time you get home from your five seven ten day cruise your money is so much easier to you know dispute

28:57 charges when it comes to credit cards yes and things that don't much easier yes and then also um people access this do they put the hose on the credit cards too yes they do on the credit cards too but you ain't worried about that you don't feel that because you don't most time use your credit card to pay your

29:12 bills right but if you're enjoying these tips please go ahead and smash that like button so the algorithm can send this video out to more first-time Cruisers so they can get these tips just like you tip number 17 for the first time Carnival cruiser and we get this question all the time what's not

29:31 included in my cruise Fair first of all I want to let you know that there is a lot it is a lot that is included in your cruise fair but here's just a few things that are not yo of course we're just talking about gratuities gratuities is not included we just were talking about the Wi-Fi package that's not included

29:48 the cheers package is not included all your especially done is like the steakhouse the chef table all those type of restaurants are not included in your cruise um Fair the excursions are not included in your cruise fair so be prepared to pay extra for these things so yeah the money makers yes

30:09 they are the money makers and then also um we're gonna have a link down in the description where um I'm gonna have a link where you can see what is and what's not including your Clues there because it's a long list yeah yeah all right tip number 18. this is something that we do which also AIDS Us in being

30:27 able to yes really take one as least amount of money as possible onto our cruise is we pre-purchase everything yes so we try to take this cruise and make it like an all-inclusive experience for us so for instance once we pay for our cruise before we get on board we have bought our Wi-Fi package we have ordered

30:47 water for the room if we want to participate in any other specialty dining which sometimes we do sometimes we don't depending on if we're getting on a ship that has something different than the other ships we've been on then we'll partake in that because of course you want to try something different if

31:03 you a person that like to flick it up and take the pictures and you don't want to fall into the picture trap on being able ahead of time so anything that you know that you're going to need just go ahead and do it ahead of time so once you're on board for the most part you might be doing something in a casino

31:26 or you may just buy you know up charge something in the restaurant like oh I want the steak tonight so I'll up charge and get a you know a stake in the dining room or something like that but other than that you should be good to go if yeah if you go ahead and take care of most things

31:41 ahead of time and it's a great way to budget too yes yeah it yes a certain amount of money that you only want to spend pre-buying it actually sets you up for that all right tip number 19 and this is kind of controversial too because everybody has difference of opinion we highly recommend that you buy

32:00 Travelers Insurance because you are a first time Cruiser you getting ready to go out there and probably do some stuff that you don't normally do in your everyday life examples 2021 we went to Ultras Ridge Jamaica on our cruise for her birthday and she fell on Dunn's River and end up tearing the ligament in

32:21 her thumb now regretfully she thought it was just spraying and hurt and but she did not go to the medic but at the same time if we did not have travel insurance and she did have to go to the medic we would pay it out the butt yeah to be able to get that but no blue yes so yeah we holler at them also you just never

32:45 know what's going to happen never know if you may have to cancel move your dates so the travel insurance cover so much I can't go into it all right yeah it's right it's on accountable's website please read it to see everything that's covered but we yeah we do not travel without it because absolutely don't even

33:01 play with your life you just spent all that money for the cruise yes yes yes yes all right tip number 20. Reserve what you need to reserve as soon as you board and you're probably like well hold on what can we reserve I'm talking about things that can only be done once you get on board for instance

33:22 we were just on the celebration so we knew immediately that we wanted to get on bolt which is the first roller coaster SC don't ask me why we decided to do this we did I will never do it again I loved it I'm gonna do it again but what happens is everybody gets on that ship and has the same idea

33:43 is oh let me go ahead and get my stuff reserved so what happens is if you're one of the people say I'ma wait see how I feel by the time you think about that then the slots are already filled up so what happened to us was we had to wait until the last the next to the last day of the cruise to get on boat because it

34:02 was all booked up then also you have to think about it like this it's been running uh just consistently running the whole Cruise so now they're going to have to start maintenancing and doing and greasing up that thing so yeah because it broke down like two times yeah and it broke down right at the time

34:22 that we was getting ready to get on I was like please man come on Lord yeah but I've been good yeah but also if you get on board and you see some things that you didn't think that you were going to be interested in but now you actually visibly see oh that restaurant looks like it'll be a good time in there

34:38 oh I see them at the Hibachi you know the Teppanyaki that look cool yeah go ahead and reserve that as soon as you think about it because you may not have an opportunity later tip number number 21 for one for the first time Carnival cruiser now listen to me good one as well if you are doing an Excursion

34:57 please get back to the ship at least one hour early or at least start making your way back one hour early because you do not want to get left now the blessing is if you're on a Carnival's Excursion they can't leave you they're gonna have to wait for you so we've been there we was on a dolphin

35:17 Excursion last year yeah it kept raining so the people was like hey we y'all y'all getting this experience so we're gonna we're gonna go in this little Hut wise rain and when the when the rain stopped we're going back to the Dolphins even the Dolphins didn't like the rain yeah the Dolphins

35:32 was like uh we ain't doing this so but if we had decided to book the Excursion on a third party because we get a lot of first-timers accidents be like you know ain't it cheaper to go with the third party but it's it's so risky though because if that third party don't get you back in time if Connor will say we

35:49 leaving at 5 30 and they get you back there at 6 30. uh you left yeah and the thing about it my wife was just telling me a story before we got on that happened to a gentleman I'm gonna let her share this that he actually but the concept of what you have to do is the same whether you get left an

36:10 Excursion or get put off the ship yeah so for instance most first-time Cruisers do not have passports I mean it's just what it is um you haven't invested in it yet because you don't know if this is something you want to continue to do so what happened is the guy got put off with his son his son did something on a

36:25 cruise so they got put off in a destination and they did not have passports so what happens is you have to go to the Embassy and you have to get an emergency passport then you have to book emergency flights up out of there hotel rooms all of that but then you have to do a couple of trips to the Embassy if

36:46 something goes wrong because the embassy will only stamp your temporary passport your emergency passport once you have secured flights so if you go to the Embassy and be like I need to work out and get my money right so I can get these flights you got to go back to them when you get or confirmations because

37:04 the premise of you being able to get this emergency passport is for you just to leave and get back to the United States it will cost you more yeah because that guy said it costed more than the eight day cruise it cost them more than an eight-day cruise that he was on to be able to figure out how to get back you

37:23 do not want to get left right and my husband said make sure that you're back in time we also have to remember when we're traveling into destinations sometimes there's what we call Ship time yes and there's Island time yes and whatever time zone you might go into those times might be an hour or

37:43 different or more yes from each other for instance we went to Cozumel it's an hour behind us so we went on Cozumel Tom we would have been late for the ship yup so make sure you may want to just go like to Dollar General somewhere and just get you a cheap cheap watch and just make it the ship time so that

38:03 you'll make sure that you're always on the right time because sometimes our phones will flip even if we tell it not to flip yeah and you'll be like what time is it for real like we literally did that the entire time we was in Cosmo what time is it for real what time is it for real because it will mess you up

38:19 yeah so that's why that's why we always um talk about the rules on accountable because we know you going out there with your family to have some fun and I want to plug this right here because these things can do the same thing about getting you kicked off the ship or cost you a lot of money you cannot bring no

38:35 weed yeah you cannot bring no CBD yeah you can bring your nicotine Vape you can bring your cigarettes and they have designated areas on the ship that you can actually smoke your um cigarettes and stuff but you cannot do it on a balcony right and when you break these rules Carnival can charge you up to five

38:52 hundred dollars and or kick you off the ship for that selling and like my wife said they kick you off and you got to go through all that end up paying for all that could cost you more than a cruise when you could have just left your extracurriculars at home or you got on the ship and you didn't follow the rules

39:09 and smoked on your balcony so yeah we we don't want that to happen to you because it happens to so many people and I feel like at this point the carnival is just looking to make examples they are out of people they are they are they are making statements when we was in Miami the drug dogs let me tell you they were

39:28 deep they were everywhere I have never seen the drug dog sniff the bags going underneath the ship I have not seen I've never seen it no use it you see the dog sometime when you're going through um TSA and Customs but under the ship that was like yeah yeah before before they could roll them into security the dogs

39:47 young dogs were so deep I was like do I got any on me I looked up one time and the handler was taking the dog and just going down the line so as we were standing in line to check into the ship yeah they brought the dogs down so and so that he could sniff everybody in line scared the mess

40:05 out of me you know I literally looked up and the dog was like right there yup I was like what the heck and then before we could go and go to a another section of the terminal we had to pass by the dog again and if you had a bag you had to lower the bag absolutely sniff it so yeah they're not playing with that yeah

40:22 but I will say it cut down on the weed smell that you smell on most ships and I'm not even saying this is just a carnival thing this was a less I smell weed on any ship yeah yeah I think we've made it smelled it like twice and I said y'all Breeze yeah y'all braving y'all good because I wouldn't even tried it

40:42 yeah man so we don't want you to get kicked off the ship and be charged any more money than what you done paid for your cruise because we know it costs a lot you done saved all year yeah excited and then you let your extracurriculars get you kicked off yeah yeah it ain't working themselves but if

41:02 you decide to do it it's on you feel free yeah um tip number 22. yeah let Carnival or your travel agent know about any of the things that could be considered like an 88 issue or you have allergies or things like that for instance I have a pine nut allergy so as soon as I do all all of my

41:23 bookings I go in and I I notate that that's what it is um so let's like we said let Carnival know or your travel agent know so if you have like things like low vision or you have sensory issues or you're traveling with someone that has autism or any of those things that you feel like needs to

41:43 be known or you're traveling with a CPAP does the person have like asthma or anything like that let your people know and it's not that we're trying to violate or know and I say we because if you're not if you don't know this I'm a travel agent a travel advisor so if you need someone that's going to do your

42:00 stuff and do it right I'm your girl codefuntravel.com Shameless plug and listen then you don't have to sit on videos like this and learn it because a travel agent will walk you through it your own personal concierge but anyway let us know and we can notate it so that things like this do not go unnoticed

42:19 what happened to me and I'm so glad that they're starting to take your allergies way way more seriously they are yeah because usually I tell them and you quite don't quite know if they really like got it but this time they actually had a note in my room that was like hey Lynette we know that you have a pine nut

42:37 allergy you know the chefs know that you know blah blah blah but if you go to the buffets or any place like that that's not catered to you in the dining rooms then basically you need to you need to know what's in that before you consume it because it's on your you're on your own at that right so let them know all

42:56 right tip number 23 now this one right here even people who Cruise a lot get this wrong sometime because you can get caught up into what's happening on this ship don't forget to do your mustard drill yes what is a mustard drill this is the safety briefing this is where they're gonna show you what you need to

43:16 do just in case we have to abandon the ship so they're going to show you the lifeboats you're gonna get on they're gonna show you the life right uh jacket the best that you have to put on and we recommend that you do this as soon as you board the ship that's what we do we go straight

43:34 and how you know where you need to go it's gonna be on your boarding pass and it's going to be on your sign and sale card so please don't miss that because every trip we be on the they come across the intercom telling people that they have to do the E muster and the thing about it we cannot leave until you do it

43:55 and they'll start calling your name yes your government and and here's the thing people don't know the repercussions of it that they will kick you off for not doing that especially now yes they'll kick you off so cat at the Forefront of your mind we already told you about the uh putting

44:14 your phone on airplane mode as soon as you get on the ship follow all that the muscle drill yep so let's see tip number 24. yeah I know this is controversial as well some people be like I don't like to do I don't like to get dressed up and that's really on you but for every sailing at

44:34 least two days to five days it's gonna be one elegant night yeah six days and or more you're gonna have at least two of those elegant nights and what it means basically is they want you to Spruce it up a little bit Yeah they want you to get a little bit more Jazzy than you were walking around in your

44:51 basketball shorts walking around with your swim shorts yeah yeah your tank top you know your jean your jean booty shorts all that they want you just to get a little bit more fancy with it doesn't mean that you need to do ball gown and no no I mean you can do a nice little sundress Romper whatever you can

45:09 do it look you can do at least meeting that threshold or as or just doing the most all right sometimes we be right in the middle sometimes I feel like we just be doing the most but be aware that they do have Elegant night what happens if you don't want to participate in elegant night they're a

45:28 little bit more relaxed than they should be in my opinion but sometimes they will not seat you in the dining room or the specialty dining if you're not dressed appropriately for that night does it mean that you're not going to eat that night no it just means that you're gonna have to eat somewhere else so you may

45:44 have to go to the buffet or something like that or eat at one of the quick eats like Guys burger or yeah because it happened to me on a celebration on the second elegant night I went to the restaurant I had on my polo shirt and I had on pair of cargo uh dress shorts dress shorts and it was like nah no

46:02 shorts yeah gotta go back and put it I went back and put on my slacks man so yeah they do take that seriously they do yes all right tip number 25. we get this question all the time it's the cheers package worth it and our answer is always yes and no because it depends on who you are that's true so we

46:24 say if you are a heavy drinker and you already know if you are a heavy drinker the cheers package is for you if you are not if you know you are more of a social Drinker you kind of drink a few drinks on the weekends or drink a few drinks when you go out to the bar on the weekends but you ain't there throwing

46:42 them back and you know what I mean by throwing them back the cheers package is not worth it we got the cheers package for the first time back in 2021 for her birthday and we felt like we were just drinking just to be drinking to get our money's worth it's the same trip so yeah so it and and I love it that

47:05 Colin will do give you up until the second day to purchase it so you don't actually have to purchase it right in the beginning before you get on the ship but it is cheaper if you do yeah but at least you can get on and start spending and seeing how much you want to spend on alcohol before you start doing that

47:21 because a lot of people don't consider the pork days so if you got two Port days you're getting off in the morning and not getting back on the ship to the evening so that's drinks that you don't have so you get back on the ship try to get your 15 in there oh man and the thing about it if you drink too much and

47:36 I know if I drink too much I'm gonna miss some days because I'm gonna be hungover like a mug so uh so we so on our last trip when we was on on a celebration the cheers Packers were gonna be like almost like 900 bucks that's what we spent for everything yeah as far as the spending yeah and I'm like

47:55 and that was including buying alcohol yeah so yeah so we know it's not worth it for us and if you need a number of drinks I was like if you ain't leash doing at least five to eight I say five to eight um a day more more up further up towards the eight in my opinion I don't think yeah because it's gonna fluctuate right

48:13 but there are some people that love the cheers package because it does also include the bubbles package which means basically any other drink that you can put in your mouth and swallow down your throat yeah is included in the cheers package as an unlimited add-on so right specialty coffees

48:32 Monster drinks milkshakes all of that you don't have to worry your bottled water you don't have to worry about any of that when you have the chairs package because it's also an added on bonus as well and for those of you who don't know what the cheers package is that's um Carnival's unlimited drink package so

48:50 unlimited alcohol call like the queen just explained all the other stuff as well but it allows you to get 15 drinks per person per day also if you're in the cabin with another illegal adult each of those people have to purchase a cheers package I know we don't think it's fair that if you don't drink you shouldn't

49:08 have to purchase it it should be cut in half the person that wants to drink has to buy it but unfortunately not you both will have to buy it sorry about that okay not my room yeah that's their roof so yeah keep that in in mind and also we get this question a lot too if I buy the cheers package do my kids need to buy

49:29 the bubbly package for the sodas the bubbles the bubbles package so uh or can I just share my sodas with them unfortunately not I mean you can do what you want you can't share it with them but the rules is that you're supposed to buy the bubbly Packers for them so they can have the unlimited sodas yeah so you

49:47 ain't supposed to so each child you have to buy for them just like you do cheers package for the adults yeah exactly yep all right tip number 26 and this may be one of the biggest ones that will affect you in the greatest way yes um and it is one of those things that now Carnival is not playing any games

50:06 because from a business perspective you have to think about it like this we had a major shutdown for the pandemic yeah and these cruise lines were not I mean they were losing money so now that we're up and running this is the tip make sure that you can avoid any changes and cancellations to your cruise after

50:27 you have booked it what I mean by that is before you secure a booking make sure that you're 99.99 sure that you're going to go because what is happening now is Carnival is they were a little lacks before the pandemic but now they're not playing they will charge you change fees they

50:51 will charge you Administration fees and if you have to make any kind of change after the final payment date it comes at a well at right now a 250 dollar per person penalty so if you're one of those people say I'm just gonna keep booking stuff to have it on the books and I'll just wait and see what my PTO do and

51:12 then you don't get approved for the PTO for the week that you got your cruise book oh I need to move it for a couple of weeks down 250 per person if you have paid that cruise off after final payment date and the reason that Carnival said that they're doing that is because now they

51:28 have to remarket and sell that cabin to somebody else when you already had it secured so that's going to come out of penalty to you so basically I ain't tell you to book it that's basically what they're saying at this point so make sure that every and I'm gonna get in trouble for this but I

51:48 think this is Auntie and Uncle advice yeah also choose whoever your cabin mating with carefully carefully when I say choose them carefully what do you mean by that you are basically going in a contract with someone else to do their part so that you all can both be in that cabin together and go on that ceiling what I

52:15 mean by that is if person a is committed to going and they know that oh the cabin is sixteen hundred dollars oh I got eight hundred dollars on my half you got eight on yours you put on Pedro 800 but they don't they only don't put their deposit down so guess what happens at the final

52:33 payment date if they have not made a payment that's going to cancel and guess who's gonna start getting penalized you you you you yup the only way to rectify this is one person a has to pay the remaining of the cruise and go or you have to find somebody to replace them yup and guess what that also comes

52:57 with some penalties as well because now we have change fees going on with that and then the other person has to pay there there's a lot that goes into it so pick your people care for Lee yeah because we had somebody that's actually close to us that happens to them somebody promised them that they were

53:14 going to cruise with them yes and um put the deposit down they didn't come through they were flaky and the um the person had to end up paying for the whole cruise by themselves because it was either cancel or pay a hundred percent and and the bad part about it the person didn't even tell the person

53:34 they found out from the Grapevine it is yeah they did that was a bad part so we say if you inviting somebody to travel with you and if they give you any kind of hesitation maybe I I think I'm like oh that look like I don't know if I had the money 8 don't even try to convince them I'm gonna do it on my yeah cause

53:55 you are most likely setting yourself up for disappointment to lose our cousin uh our Auntie a best friend because they stuck you on a Carnival Cruise and you had to spend more money than you were able or you lost it and you couldn't go but here's a bonus tip we kept on telling you guys we're gonna tell you

54:14 about to sign a sale car because we did that so much so your sign and sale card is your access on and off the ship it show access to purchase everything on the ship you cannot spend cash on the ship other than in the casino they do have slots for that and then also we talked about tipping people yo sign and

54:34 sell car is your lifeline you want to put that on your lanyard man just like so do not oh it's already do not do not put your sign and sell card in your pocket because if somebody find your sign and sell card they're gonna have so much fun with your money yeah and that is your assets yes your money keep that

54:55 around your neck on your lanyard just like this to protect your money yes so that's where the sign and sell car is also you got to know that there's uh several ways that you can fund it we kind of talked about a little bit throughout the video but you can fund it with cash you can fund it with credit

55:13 cards and you can fund it with your debit card which we highly recommend you don't do it and also you can uh fund it with prepaid cards as well as long as they have a Visa or a master logo and you also can fund it with carnivals gift cards you can also fund it with carnivals cash uh

55:33 and cruise cash the cruise cash or their bar cash so we say the most easiest thing to fund it with is with a credit card or cash and then selling it up the credit card when you get back home that is the easiest way so that's that's your sign and sale card in a nutshell but another question always get thought this

55:53 bonus is going on and on is if I put money on it um cash on it can I get the money back yeah they're not gonna yeah they're not gonna keep your money but what happens is you have to go and cash that money out yes so make sure that you do that um at you know they will if it's a certain amount of money they will mail

56:11 you a check but that's that's a whole process that you just don't want to go through yeah so yes and since you brought that up if you decide to fund it with um Cruise cash or bar cash and you purchase that on Donald's website as well if you don't lose use it you lose it so that's why we recommend just doing

56:29 it with cash or with the credit card so that way you can get your money back that part that part right there all right if you have enjoyed this video we want you to check out this video Nick's 13 mistakes to avoid on your first Carnival Cruise and we're gonna catch you in the next video peace