injian

INTRODUCTION

Hey everyone,



For everyone's sanity, I've created acronyms for some family members.

Mrs = wife
MIL = mother in law
FIL = father in law
Older and Younger Brothers in Law = OBIL, YBIL


Here's the backstory to my 2nd trip report of the year. This was a low key family trip compared to the 1st trip report since we are prepping for the arrival of baby #1 early next year. We figured that this would probably be the last trip for a while after Junior arrives.

As mentioned above, this turned out to be a family trip (wife's side of the family) and after much arguing on what to do, where to go and duration, we 'settled' on a Carnival Western Caribbean cruise out of Port Canaveral. When I say 'settled', I mean that MIL decided to make a last minute decision on behalf of everyone without even consulting us because we had previously agreed to go on the Carnival Freedom out of FLL. Why the change? Because OBIL and his family planned a trip to Disney World 1 week ahead of the cruise and MIL didn't want her precious first born to drive 3 hours to FLL ...





Since MIL works for Air Canada and YBIL is a pilot for an airline in Winnipeg, we managed to get good interline discounts for the cruise. Once that was done, we then looked at flights and decided to try our luck and fly standby on AC. MIL was checking daily to see how many seats were open for standby. The number of seats were looking good until the day before departure when that number went down to zero. At this point, I said something along of the lines of "screw this standby crap!" and booked two one-way Aeroplan award tickets for myself and the Mrs.

Fifty thousand points later (and approx $240 in scam charges), we slept soundly knowing we would get on the flight. We decided not to book return and instead see if we would get back home on standby as there were 3 flights leaving from MCO to come back home. This decision and other decisions would later come to bite me back in the rear ...

injian

Fast forward to the day of departure, we arrived approx 2.5 hours early. Priority check-in was a breeze as we were first in line and only have to wait for a minute before being called up. Before we entered the line, a lady guarding the entrance asked "Priority?", to which I replied "Yes" and she waved us through .... er, I guess she was really trusting to not check our tickets and see if I was lying.

The check-in lady was friendly and efficient and once the bags were tagged, we were on our way to immigration and security. One thing I do not like about US bound flights is that everyone has to drag their luggage through customs and then drop it off on the belt right before security. I'm sure there is some logical reason here which still evades me but would greatly appreciate it if someone enlightens me on this.






Once we passed through security, we turned right and took the elevator up to the Maple Leaf lounge. We've been to this lounge and to be honest, its meh. The international MLL lounge is a heck of a lot better and even the Plaza Premium lounge seemed better. I will let the pictures do the talking. We had some soup which was dreadful and after 45 minutes, we left.



























We walked over our gate and I decided to take some random pics.



When we got to the gate, we saw this and I thought "Woot, plane swap". Then I checked seat guru and noticed that the J class seats were no different than the A319. We had some time to kill and then we decided to go over to the PP lounge to see what it had to offer.




Jet Airways 777. I think its back to an A330 flying to YYZ.






Next stop, the Plaza Premium lounge. In my opinion, I felt that this lounge was more comfortable than the MLL.










Mmmmm, reheated chicken nuggets ... ><











Was playing around with the settings on my camera and took this shots in miniature mode. Turned out decent IMO.







I think I left the setting in miniature mode because that what this next shower shots look like ... lol ... also, not impressed with the shower facilities.







After this, we walked back to the gate and saw that the B767 was gone and was replaced by a A319. So we were in fact taking the same plane as originally scheduled. Meh, nothing to cry about.

Noticed that a Lufthansa B747-400 just landed and was taxiing to the gate. Hope to get a chance one day to fly in its much lauded First Class.



We waited around for another 5 minutes and then boarding started.

Down the tube we go ....



... and our seats were first on the left ... or right ... depending on which direction you are facing.

Typical intra-Europe LH style seats.



Menus were handed out and we had a choice of either water or OJ for PDB. Due to horrible line ups at US customs, a family of 3 was delayed and this delayed departure by a good 30 minutes. Once they were on board, push back began.



Passing by an AC787. After watching the Al-Jazeera report on Boeing, it made me wonder if this plane was made in Everett or South Carolina lol.





Passing by AC heavies.



AC A330



Austrian B767 which I took earlier this year and Jet Airways B777 which was towed to a gate.



Lufthansa



Due to the delay at the gate, we were giving clearance to take off first.









Look Ma, its the Square One Mall!



Once we were above the clouds, we were treated to sunny and clear skies.





The purser took our orders for lunch and asked if we wanted iPads to which we said yes. I ended up watching Draft Day and the Mrs watched Million Dollar Arm. One point to note - I did not notice any place to hang the iPad but you can do this on rows 2 and 3 as the backs of each seats has a slot to hang them. We ended up just propping them on the tray table of the middle seat.



Homage to SFO777. Shot of the osi .. oshiboo .. oshiburi ... er, hot towel.



Ended up going with the chicken with black bean sauce which was meh. On the other hand, the Mrs went with the Ravioli which was decent.





Two and a half hours later, we were on our descent into MCO. We came in right after a thunderstorm and it was still drizzling when we landed.









Ooooo, shiny rainbow.





Shot of a Virgin Atlantic B747 after we exited the tube.

injian

I used my Marriott Rewards points plus 1 night free e-certificate for a 2 night stay at the Springhill Suites Orlando Airport. Decent place to stay at; rooms were clean and the daily breakfast was ok. First time having Biscuits and Gravy which was fantastic IMO. I will let the pictures do the talking.

injian

After 2 nights in Orlando, we all packed our stuff into the rental van and drove to Port Canaveral. The 45 minute drive was very uneventful and after topping off the gas and dropping off the van, the shuttle dropped us off at the port. There was a line up of cars but we got to the curb after 15 minutes in line and then we had another 30 minutes lining up to get through security and check-in. We had a bit of a delay at check-in because the "wonderful" agent was a bit slow at doing things. He would check in one person at a time, walk to the back, get the sail card printed and then process the next person. Rinse and repeat twice more. The Mrs was processed last and he had to go back twice - once to get the card printed, second time to get his manager to remove the block on the account because we notified the cruise line that she was pregnant ... le sigh. After that was done, we were on the ship and enjoyed the next 7 days. The pictures below are a selection of the ship itself from the outside, room pics and ship facilities.

Overall, the ship was satisfactory. Here are some of my pros and cons:

PROS:
1. Room was at the back of the ship and designed to be fitted wide instead of deep. This made for a longer balcony as you can see in the pics. A regular balcony was half the size of our balcony. Funny note - when the ship used to be the Destiny, my parents were in the same room ha.
2. Re-design on commons areas like buffet areas and restaurants made it look brighter and roomier overall.
3. The ship had many of the version 2.0 stuff like Guys Burgers, Taco joint, obstacles courses, water slides etc.
4. Food in the dining room was great as always.
5. Staff were friendly overall and we did not have any negative experiences. Room steward was very friendly and took care of us the entire trip.

CONS:
1. Dining room service was slow because the staff had to handle more tables than normal. I know .. first world problems ...
2. Some areas of the ship were reduced in ship to accomodate new features. For example - the theatre was reduced in half and was not enough for the amount of people on the ship who wanted to see the different shows every night.





Disney Fantasy that was docked opposite us. We only saw it at the first port on the 3rd day of our cruise.





































































































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injian

So, the 'fun' really began when we were going home. On the day we were scheduled to disembark from the ship, I had a bit of a panic 'moment'. I had a sneaky feeling that we would not get on the flights home to YYZ. I called the Aeroplan call centre and the lady informed me that there was one seat left on the 12:30pm flight and another on the 8:30pm flight ... to which I said no. In hindsight, I should have jumped on that because I initially thought that I didnt want to seperate from the Mrs.

Fast track to arriving at MCO, we got our standby tickets and waited at the boarding gate area. Pics of the plane arriving at the gate below.






Boarding was called about 30 minutes after the planed was cleaned out. MIL did her best to get us on the plane but we found out that the plane was oversold and there were a few op ups from Y to J. Sucks to be stuck sitting at the gate and watch the plane leave. There was another family of 3 who did not get on the flight as well and we found out the mother was also an employee of Air Canada and they had been waiting on standby since the previous day! After hearing this, I whipped out the iPad and checked what was available on Aeroplan. The one seat for the 8:30pm flight was still available, so I booked this for the Mrs. Now we had to figure out how to get the rest of us back home. There were two seats on the 9:45pm flight to YUL with a six hour layover and then a 7am flight to YYZ. I booked myself and my cousin on these flights. Who's left ... MIL, FIL and YBIL. At this point, we just played the waiting game and decided to see if the three of them would get seats on the 8:30pm flight. Fast forward a few hours, MIL decides to check again on Aeroplan and guess what ... another seat miraculously opens on the 8:30pm flight to YYZ. So BIL gets the seat immediately ... 4 down, 2 to go. Fast forward to boarding time for the 8:30pm flight ... good news, FIL gets a standby seat but nothing available for MIL. We think she might get a seat on the 9:45pm YUL flight. The 8:30pm flight is ready to leave BUT ... one passenger is missing ... after multi pages over the PA system, the passenger did not come. Guess who gets that open seat ... MIL gets her golden ticket in hand and gives me and my cousin the two finger salute ... le sigh. Doors close, plane is pushed back and I can see the Mrs and MIL wave from their seat window ... really ... lol. If that was not bad enough, I saw the same family sitting at the gate and they did not get on either. At this point, they decided to drive out to Atlanta as there were alot of seats on the United flight back to YYZ .. at least, thats what they told me.


Come to 9:15pm, we board the flight to YUL. Same menu as the flight to MCO (sheesh), so this time I went with the beef and surprise, it was overcooked. I finished watching the rest of Draft Day and even managed to finish/forward through Captain America 2. The flight landed a little before 1am local time and we deplaned. My cousin and I were some of the first through customs. Like YYZ, there are automated kiosks for Canadian citizens at YUL. Quickly processed that and gave my print out to the customs agent. Here is converstaion:

Agent: Where are you coming?
Me: Orlando, went on a cruise.
Agent: Who did you go with?
Me: My wife.
Agent: Er .. where is she?
Me: I put her on the earlier flight back to Toronto.
Agent: Why did she go on that flight and not you?
Me: <deep long breath> WeTriedToFlyStandbyButWeDidNotGetOnSoIBookedLastMi nuteTicketsForHerAndMeOnSeperateFlightsAndMyMother InLawScrewedMeOverAndThatIsHowILandedUpHere.
Agent: <rolls eyes and waves me through>

Down past the baggage claim area, we came to the last agent collecting the print outs.

Agent: Er .. no bags?
Me: No, they are in Toronto.
Agent: Ok, Thanks.

We killed 4 hours by trying to sleeping on the benches in the check-in area. Around 4:30am, we went through security and ended up at the World Mastercard Lounge which is a Priority Pass partner. When I checked the app on my phone, it said that PP members were not allowed but the lounge dragon let us through. Overall, the lounge was decent and just ended having a sandwich and a cup of tea. The 7am flight back to YYZ was smooth and before I knew it, I was back home.

Redwood

I thoroughly enjoyed looking at every picture. They really do tell the story. Nice one

flyingstudent

Interesting report.

How did the rest of the family make it down to Orlando? Were they successful in going non-rev?

The whole non-rev thing is chaotic. It might be worth it to buy cheap tango ticket way ahead and save the stress.

steveman518

Carnival seems to have upped their offering since I last cruised them 6 years ago-do they still have a 24-hr food thing (not including room service) or is that a thing of the past?

Mrtrash757

quite an interesting tr... not a cruise ship fan but its always cool to see pictures of one

DiscoPapa

Great report, especially from a fellow standby-er! No offense, but some of those older Carnival ships look horrible. Not too bad on the inside, but the exterior just screams "blah". Especially when compared to the ships of Disney, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, etc.

injian

Thank you.

So the older brother in law, his wife and kid had paid AC tickets, so no issues for them. On the day of departure to Orlando, younger brother in law and cousin got the last 2 seats on the 6:30am flight. The next flight was our flight and my in-laws did not want to wait that long. So they managed to get on the 8:30am flight to FLL. From there, they hopped on a 3.5 hr bus ride to MCO. They still came in earlier than when we landed at 8pm.

Agreed, flying standby is chaotic but apparently the Mrs and her family have been doing that for years without any issues. Only after I married into the family, did they run into an issue.

It is not a complete 24 hour food service. They stop offering the dinner buffet around 10pm but then have a late night junk food buffet (hot dogs, sandwiches etc) until 11pm. The pizza joint is 24 hours though.

Thank you.

Thanks for reading. The Sunshine was a refurbished ship but based on the number of complaints on the cruisecritic.com site, the consensus was akin to "lipstick on a pig". With some of the innovations that RC is putting out, Carnival really has to up their game.