All your questions answered in one short novel

Ok, let me see if I can give some information about this cruise for all you people who are already packing, for those of you who need the details. Please understand that I think we are all a bit baffled by each other. I am silently shaking my head because some of you are freaking out over the details, as I know you are all shaking your heads at me because I don’t need the details. Tim included. I have now called Carnival Cruise lines a total of 4 times today and Delta twice (the first time maybe didn’t count. I hung up and called back to try to get someone I could understand.)

Flight info: for everyone except Dan, Vanessa and Makayla:

OLD GROUP #407240

SubGroupA - Group Size: 22 | Record Locator(s): 3H4H9X

Itinerary / Fare Basis:

Carr/Flt# Date Departure Arrival

DL / 1586 19NOV2009 SLC 700A ATL 1241P

DL / 1993 19NOV2009 ATL 130P MIA 322P

DL / 1996 28NOV2009 MIA 412P ATL 619P

DL / 1835 28NOV2009 ATL 930P SLC 1156P

The outbound is for everyone except Dan, Vanessa and Makayla, who will be coming in on Friday and Saturday (good luck with that, Dan.)

The return flight: This was not the original flight Tim booked. They sent an email changing times so we apologize profusely at the ridiculously late return times.

Dan’s Flight:

DELTA CONFIRMATION #:  D45UZ7 TICKET #:  00623156536542                                  Bkng                          Meals/ Seat/ Day Date       Flight     Status Class       City        Time  Other  Cabin --- ----- --------------- ------ ----- ---------------- ------ ------ ------- Sat 21NOV DELTA 1720        OK     N   LV SALT LAKE CI  1250A    V M   24A                                           TY                          COACH                                        AR ATLANTA       622A          Sat 21NOV DELTA 1985        OK     N   LV ATLANTA       830A           24F                                        AR MIAMI         1033A         COACH  Sat 28NOV DELTA 1994        OK     N   LV MIAMI         300P           13A                                        AR ATLANTA       508P          COACH  Sat 28NOV DELTA 1333        OK     N   LV ATLANTA       614P     F M   32A                                        AR SALT LAKE CI  840P          COACH 

Vanessa and Makayla’s Flight:

DELTA CONFIRMATION #:  C4LNP5 TICKET #:  00623155347220                                  Bkng                          Meals/ Seat/ Day Date       Flight     Status Class       City        Time  Other  Cabin --- ----- --------------- ------ ----- ---------------- ------ ------ ------- Fri 20NOV DELTA 24          OK     N   LV LAS VEGAS     745A     F M   19A                                        AR ATLANTA       237P          COACH  Fri 20NOV DELTA 1997        OK     N   LV ATLANTA       400P           22F                                        AR MIAMI         556P          COACH  Sat 28NOV DELTA 1990        OK     N   LV MIAMI         1221P          13E                                        AR ATLANTA       227P          COACH  Sat 28NOV DELTA 25          OK     N   LV ATLANTA       335P     F M   22E                                        AR LAS VEGAS     511P          COACH

Onto the other concerns:

I tried to get them to move our rooms so that we were all on the floor, but it just ain’t happening. Apparently they only have 30 rooms left available. Right. Whatever. I tried.

We are confirmed for early seating dinner which is at 6PM. Just a reminder, one of the rules is that we all eat dinner together, so please plan to be there.

There are TWO formal nights for dinner. Formal will be pretty much from A-Z in dress code. I would imagine it means no shorts and probably collared shirts for men. I think we are planning one of those nights for Tim and Talon to rent Tuxedos and the rest of us to be decked out. If you would like to coordinate that for our families for pictures and such, let me know. I’m fairly easy going with the planning thing. J

Highchairs: No need for a reservation on this. It’s just like a restaurant. You walk into dining room and ask for one (or two, as the case is here) and they will bring it.

Cribs: Cribs have been reserved in both the hotel and onboard. There should be a crib in Dan and Cathy’s room and one in Kevin and Cindy’s room. If is not there when you board, please don’t panic. Just ask one of the guys you will see in the hallways or leave a note in your room.

There are NOT refrigerators in the inside cabins, which is what you all have. However, you WILL find sodas and bottled water in your rooms. If you open, you buy. :(

FEEDING YOUR YOUNG CHILD AT NIGHT: They WILL bring milk in the middle of the night for your babies-they will even heat it up if you ask! They have a 24 hour room service that is included. Please take advantage of it! Like Tim said, order your food, stick your finger in the middle of it, eat it, don’t eat it. Don’t worry about it though!

You CAN bring your own bottled water.

You CAN bring your own toilet paper.

You CAN bring your own soda. They didn’t confirm it, but I remember being very frustrated when I was a pepsi drinker and all they had was COKE.

FREE BEVERAGES include: water, coffee, hot tea, sweetened tea, and lemonade. All other beverages there is a charge for.

SODA CARDS: 17 years old and under: $32.25 for the week. 18 and older: $44.25

They DO NOT provide lanyards for your room key or sail & Sign cards. If you want/need one of these, purchase and bring with you.

TIPS: There is a MANDATORY $70.00 pp tip fee assessed. This will be assessed to each individual person’s Sail & Sign Card, with the EXCEPTION of children 2 and younger. THERE IS NOT A TIP FEE ASSESSED ON CHILDREN 2 and UNDER. You can register online and pre-pay this or it will be added to your account onboard.

SAIL & SIGN CARDS: Each person will get their own Sail & Sign Card. You will either need to provide a credit card for Carnival to keep on file, which they will authorize for $50.00 at a time or you can prepay with cash. You can set up these accounts to be a “member with charging privileges” or a “member WITHOUT charging privileges.” Just so you don’t have to worry that your 9 year old is actually purchasing the cruise ship itself, while you chill by the pool! J Your picture will be taken when you walk onto the ship and attached to your Sail & Sign account. Every time you purchase something onboard, your pic will come p and they verify that you are who you are. It is also your access on and off the boat. This is how they account for everyone. DON'T LOSE THIS CARD!!!

ROOM KEYS: The room keys are DIFFERENT than the Sail & Sign cards. Which means we can swap room keys around and Suzy can rest assured that when her and John get separated she can still get into her room where the GOOD toilet paper is!

The bad thing is that they told me they only give 2 room keys per cabin. We will figure out how many room keys we actually need for each room and see who this might affect. Someone might have to “lose” a room key and get a replacement.

BAGGAGE FEES: I don’t know how helpful this is. I called Delta. Yes, Tim is a medallion member. Yes, that means that him and everyone on his reservation will be waived baggage fees. When I told him there are 22 of us booked on that reservation, he paused and said, “Well, that is what it says, but I can’t make any promises.” Uh. Ok, then. If you check in online your first bag MAY or MAY NOT be $15.00. Second bag MAY or MAY NOT be $25.00. If you check in at the airport, your first bag MAY or MAY NOT be $20.00 and your second bag MAY or MAY NOT be $25.00. Helpful, right?

OK, now I am going to list out your FAKE room assignments. Please don’t freak out. I had to book these this way because there had to be an adult 25 or older in every room with minors. They do not consider 18 and 19 adults. The booking number is next to name along with cabin room assignment.

We will figure out what cabin everyone will REALLY be in later. I’m thinking later, as in the day we board the ship, but I know that isn’t going to fly with this group. So, I will bring the FAKE and REAL assigned rooms on Sunday and Kevin can figure it out. It isn't a matter of just switching room keys. Some rooms are only booked w 2 people, some with 3 and some with 4. We have to make sure we switch everyone around so that the right number of people are in the right rooms with the beds all made up for the correct amount of people. Happy Birthday, Kev!

PLEASE GO ONLINE!!!

*Go to www.Carnivalcruise.com

*Set up your profile (and your children’s profiles) using the booking numbers provided

*Set up your Sail & Sign Cards or FUN PASS accounts, this will make the boarding process much easier and faster.

*Please don’t freak out when you see other people assigned to your rooms. Remember these are fake assignments and for Carnival's benefit only.

*When it asks for what hotel you are staying at, use the Marriott. It worked when I set up my account.

NAME BOOKING NUMBER CABIN NUMBER

Aunt Nancy 19F4W4 7420

Melissa 19F4W4 7420

John 19F7W9 2329

Billy 19F7W9 2329

Ricky 19F7W9 2329

Andrew 19F7W9 2329

Suzy 20F3W5 6298

Shaelynn 20F3W5 6298

Rusty 20F3W5 6298

Tony 13FC57 2333

Diane 13FC57 2333

Skyler 13FC57 2333

Talon 13FC57 2333

Dan 14FC07 2337

Cathy 14FC07 2337

Danny 14FC07 2337

Cate 14FC07 2337

Marilyn 14FC31 7424

Stephanie 14FC31 7424

Rick 14FC69 7428

Gale 14FC69 7428

Vanessa 14FC88 7416

Makayla 14FC88 7416

Kevin 15FC67 9221

Cindy 15FC67 9221

I know some of you are really bummed about excursion issues. PLEASE don’t worry! There are going to be SO MANY things to see and do, both onboard and in each port. Things that don’t cost a lot of money or less than what is advertised on the ship. Each port we get off will have a million signs advertising different excursions. They are all safe, I promise! I have NEVER once booked an excursion thru the ship directly (well, I did book one and it got cancelled due to bad weather.) Tim and went on ONE excursion when we went and we had a BLAST and found all kinds of other things to do!

We are taking care of all hotel accommodations, cab fares to and from the airport and also to and from the pier for the cruise. Hopefully this medallion member thing will turn out to have some redeeming benefits and none of us will have to pay Delta's stupid baggage fee. Also, there will be a $100.00 per cabin on board ship credit that can be used towards the tips, onboard purchases such as pictures, souvenirs, books, gum, jewelry, alcohol, gambling, Tylenol, diapers, tampons, or whatever else.

Only 52 days left. Hope you are getting excited.

I hope I remembered all the questions everyone had! If I missed any please feel free to send them to...the blog, FB or my personal email. See you all Sunday! J MMMM…CAKE!!!

Kym