Welcome to all the new Roll Call check-ins!! 

I am new to this forum. Just what exactly is Monkey Heads ?

I have seen this on several of the comments but I have no idea what it is. Do you mnd sharing as to what Monkey Heads are?

 Hi, Gina!

Welcome to the roll call! On one day of the cruise the drink of the day will be served in a Coconut Monkey Head drink holder. They go quickly. In the mean time, visit the user group Monkey Head Wasters Club on this Carnival site and you can take the pledge and get info for the banners, etc. It's just a group of people who enjoy cruising and having fun. I haven't had my first Monkey Head drink yet but, i'm looking forward to it!

Pam

Wow happy birthday.  My husband and I are celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary on Dec. 2.  Would love to meet you guys and celebrate together.  I've never been on a cruise and am trying to read all I can and prepare myself.  Any help is appreciated.  Have a home in Galveston that wasn't affected by Hurricane Ike luckily and have been doing construction on homes and building our own in Colorado over the past 8 years so looking forward to some R&R and fun!

We also look forward to meeting people while there!

Happy Birthday!

 We too are cruising without kids.   I look forward to meeting those on this cruise so can't wait to get to know you guys before we depart on the cruise.

 We have only cruised twice before. The best advice I can give you is to read through as many boards as you can. You'll find out about bringing things like a power strip, purchasing a soda card and advice on shore excursions. Cruisecritic dot com also has a lot of info about Carnival on their message boards. The best news is that we will be sailing out of Galveston! We were on the Bolivar Peninsula today. We lost two homes there to Ike. I am really looking forward to spending a few hours in Galveston again! This is our first time to cruise without family or friends so, we are looking forward to meeting some new friends.

See ya'll in a few weeks!!!

Pam

Do you know anything aboout the EZ Cruise parking area over behind the old trains?  That is where we always park, just wondered

My daughter and I cruised in September and we parked in the EZ cruise lot. I tried to call the phone number that I had for them today and it was not a working number. I am going to see if I can get on their web sight in a little bit and try to register.I 'll let ya'll know what I find out.

 Lady at the Post Office was on the cruise when IKE hit and she said that her car was washed away and that they have never found their car. I hope at we all have better luck than she did.

 Lets pick a time and place for us all to meet. Any suggestions? I'm up for just about anything.

On December the 2nd we must meet for a toast to your anniversary and my 47th birthday. We celebrated our 25th in 2006 on the Ecstasy. We have found that cruises are the  biggest bang for the buck and are great for relaxing. 

I would be glad to help you with information about cruising. I have only been on 3 cruises so far, so I am by no means an expert. But we have really had a great time on all of them. We have only cruised on Carnival so that is as far as My experience goes.

Is there anything particular that I can help answer? Just let me know, I 'll share all that I know.

Well I guess I'm nervous about the formal night + very excited to finally have somewhere to go dressed up as living in Colorado and the rural area there are no gala celebrations to speak of.  Everyone is in jeans all the time.  It will be fun but how dressed up to people really get?

 Also I am reading that there are 2 nights Tues and Thursday for those nights?

The rest of the time do we just wear like dockers, polos and sundresses or skirts?

 If you have some photos as I've looked at some and they are really dressed up so I can't wait but am trying to loose some long overdue inches before I leave.  Only 33 days left. Gotta get serious now! :)

 Anything else that you can let me know about is great.  I've gone to CC and other websites looking for info as I was on most of the day researching yesterday instead of my school work that is due on Thursday and other papers due while I'm cruising.

  I really look forward to meeting everyone.  Do we just say we will be at the lounge or something or give our room numbers or names?  I would love to know and meet face to face to those I'm chatting with but have never done this before.  Crazy I know!  Please excuse my jitters.

Can't wait, I'm so excited it just all I can think about.  Been doing my college work to keep my mind off of it but it's not going very well since I've booked:)

Till later

Girl.......anything goes!!!! On the first couple of cruises we took the suit and tie and my evening wear. It was ok, I enjoyed getting dressed up but since I have to wear business attire at work now.....getting all dressed up isnt what it use to be, LOL.

I have seen women dressed in dresses to die for and I have seen some come in simple sun dresses. This time I am taking slacks and a dress(sort of) blouse. My husband is all Texan and so are my grown boys and I am sure that they will just be wearing Riata's.They will have someone taking pictures EVERY NIGHT. There are probably 20 or 30 different areas with different scenes. Thats kind of fun. Remember that you are not obligated to buy any of the pictures.

So long story short....if you want to dress like you are going to Cinderella's ball , then go for it. Go as beautiful or as comfortable as you want. I have seen ball gowns, prom gowns and wedding gowns so what ever you chose, it will be fine. Most of the men wear suits some have Tuxes. Like I said we are from Texas and the 4 men with us will be in boots and dress jeans.

I know that you are excited and you should be, we all are. The thought of getting away for 8 days is very appealing. My daughter is also in College and she is playing catch up because finals start Dec. 4th. She has spoke with all of her professors and they know what is going on,.......so  study hard now so the you can enjoy your cruise. Cant wait to meet all of you. How about the first night on one of the decks. I will research so we can pick a place. You can also reach me at eidegk at yahoo.com

We rarely get to dress up either so, I did buy a long dress for one formal night. On the other formal night I will probably wear a short dressy dress or possibly a suit. My husband will probably wear a suit or sports coat, tie and slacks. The rest of the time shorts, jeans, etc. are fine, especially during the day. We actually have reservations for the Supper Club one of the formal nights. It costs $30.00 per person extra but, I have heard nothing but great things about it. I just can't remember which night!   I also found a message board a few months ago that gave an entire list of things you should remember to bring (like the power strip) but, I'll have to try to find it again... Sorry! We are traveling to the beach every day trying to get the remains of our beach home removed and more sand brought in to replace what Ike delivered to Hwy. 87 and I am sooo distracted. I'm also trying to finish our contents list for insurance.  I'm giving it another week and then I am FULL STEAM AHEAD in cruise preparation!!!!! Scott and I will celebrate our 28th wedding anniversary Dec. 20th so, I am happy to know there are some others with similar interests (and age, Haha). 

The ONLY thing you have to think about on your cruise is relaxing and/or shopping. I plan on spending a lot of time just watching the water go by... 

Pam

Pam,

I am glad that there are also others with similar ages and anniversays. This is the first cruise that we have ever taken that others were going with us. We have alway went alone so this is different for us. This is also the first time that I have ever been on Carnivals message boards. I really hope that we all can atleast meet to exchange greeting. I really enjoy meeting new people.

Pam,

Do you have any suggestions on a time or place to meet? That is if you are interested in meeting us.I am so sorry that you are having to go through so much, I am sure that your stress levels have been tested in the last few months. I hope that you and your husband have a great cruise and that it proves to be very relaxing for both of you.

until next time ,

Gina

I just called EZ Cruise and their phones are in order.  Their website is up and running and they are ready for business.

I also called Lighthouse and got an answering machine.  I don't know what that means.  They don't make any indication in their outgoing message whether they are back in business or not.  Just the standard blah, blah about "we're located here and go online to reserve a parking spot."  I had been planning to park at Lighthouse this time around, but without human confirmation, I'm unwilling to risk reserving a spot without knowing it will be there.  EZ Cruise it is...

 Gina,

Thanks for your good thoughts! We are soo much better off than others who lost their full time home or worse, their life. It's just a new normal right now. I must say, the water has been absolutely BEAUTIFUL lately!!! Gosh, I hope it looks the same when we sail!!!

I would love to meet everyone! I just don't know where to suggest. I'll check on the other board and see if there is a meeting place suggested. I need to research the ship a little bit.

I think you will have fun cruising with friends/family. Scott and I cruised with his two brothers and their families in 1996 and we had a great time. There were 6 adults and 9 kids.We all did our own thing during the day. Sometimes we ended up doing the same thing and others we didn't. We ALWAYS ended up together at dinner, though, and it was wonderful!

I am finally beginning to get excited but, I need to lose a few pounds!!! It's kind of hard to do when I am eating so much fast food. If I get an idea for a meeting place, I'll let you know and ya'll do the same. Hopefully some of us will be doing the same shore excursions, too!

Pam