Hi, I am booking my airline tickets for my cruise on May 4th Carnival Victory Cruise by the end of this week. We decided to go through expedia. My question is, what time can we get on the ship? I know that we leave port at 4:00pm, but what time do we need to get there to start standing in line?

Thanks for your help!
Megen

Most times Carnival will start letting you board by 11:30 - 12:00 noon. You can actually start the process around 11:00 am, that way you can get on, go to the Lido deck and enjoy the lunch buffet, and go to your cabin around 12:00 or later.

Hope this helps!

Carol
Cruise Specialist

My friend if you have these kinds of questions which are in fact important. Why in the world are you using an online website that will not help you? Go to your local travel agent or find one that not only has a website booking process but one that has a phone number that you can call with questions. On such agency which has been in business for over 20 years is The Cruise Brothers. They are recognized all over the country and in the cruise industry as a top notch agency. Plus their rates are the same as online or lower. Its unfathomable that people are tricked into believing that they can get a cheaper fair online....is it really less expensive? What happens if that online agency disappears? What happens to your money? You ought to think about. I would never ever give my CC or money to an online agency that did not have a valid phone number with a live person on the other side.

Cruisenboy2

I agree with the last post 100%. We do a lot of traveling, and only when we're flying SW, do we do reservations online, but that's directly through the airline, not through an online discount broker. Travel agents have all the rates at their disposal, and can get wonderful discounts. It's better to be safe than sorry.

Cruisenboy2 -- I am working with a travel agent. I am very much a researcher & I found the cheapest price. I talked to 2 different travel agents went to 6 different cruise Web sites, looked at expedia, travelocity, orbitz, etc. I booked through Mann Travel. My travel agent told me himself that it would be cheaper to book the plane tickets on-line. Guess what!!! They were. Our tickets cost $500 total for both of us to fly -- the cruise line / travel agent was going to charge $500 each person. The reason for this post -- which I don't feel was a waste of time, was to get others opinions on flights. Because I like having information from different resources. In the end I took what I was told from the post above -- that actually answered my question, picked a flight, called my travel agent and he confirmed that it was a good idea for the same reason as the post above. I don't think it was a bad idea to ask on these boards, It definately didn't hurt.

Thanks

Hi Megen!
Thanks for your comments. Glad I could offer some advice. We went to Newark from Tampa 2 months ago. You should see the variation in price that I was able to search out. Prices literally change by the minute. Right now, we're looking in South America next year, and between our friend that is coming with us, we have a file that is about a foot thick. Have fun on your cruise. It's fun knowing that you saved $500 before you started.

I have used Expedia three times now to book a cruise and not once have had a problem. If you do have a problem, all you do is call a 1 800 number and speak to a representative. We are taking a Western Carribean cruise on June 8th out of Tampa. My total bill for the four of us including taxes and port fees was $2600. I felt this was a very good price.

Have other posters had problems with Expedia or feel they aren't competitively priced? I might be in the minority, but I feel Expedia does a very nice job at a reasonable price.

Happy cruising, Pat Walsh

Hi Pat: What ship and type cabin? Bobby