Frequently Asked Questions

1. Payments: Carnival Cruises will require a deposit of $250 for the April 25 cruise and $300.00 for the October 23 cruise to reserve you place. Final payment will be due 85 days prior to departure and will be automatically charged to your credit card unless you notify me to use a different form of payment. Any and all check payments should be made payable to Cruise Designs.

2. Documents: Each person must have a valid U.S. passport, a passport card or an enhanced driver’s license. Canadian and residents of other countries will need to check with their consulates to see if in addition to a passport a visa will be required.

3. Cabin Assignments: At the time of your deposit the best located cabin available will be assigned to you. Very often however, cruise lines stop assigning specific cabin numbers but will continue to sell the cabin category. What this means is you have what is called a “guarantee”. You are guaranteed to get the cabin category that you have selected but you may not know your cabin number until a few weeks or so before we sail. Often (but not always) clients who book a guarantee, will be upgraded at no extra cost.

4. Cashless Society: When checking at the pier you will need to leave a credit card imprint. Any thing you purchase on the ship will be charged to your cabin account. Cash is not accepted anywhere except the casino. Should you not have a credit card, you will need to leave cash deposit from which you may draw.

5. Ship Board Activities: The first night of every cruise we host a welcome cocktail party exclusively for our guests. This is the first time the entire group will have a chance to meet and mingle. We will make many useful announcements. Other private events are also planned for the week. Full details of our daily itinerary will be made available to you upon check in on the ship.

6. Dining: We have confirmed a block of tables together at 8:15PM each evening. Since the tables are ours, you may feel free to move from table to table each evening. We encourage this so that you get the chance to get to know as many people as possible. Dining the rest of the evenings is casual meaning slacks and shirt or polo type shirt. Breakfasts, lunches and all meals in the Mediterranean buffet are always casual. You may request other dining times if you wish but you will not be with the rest of the group. We find it a great bonding experience if the entire group dines together.

7. Room Mates: We offer those who are traveling alone the opportunity to be paired up with other solo travelers. We match people up based upon cabin type booked, age range, smoking preferences, etc. We guarantee to find you a room mate and do the best we try very hard to find compatible room mates. You will be given the opportunity to find a room mate on your own or through our private Yahoo group up until the final payment date. After that I must assign roommates. If we pair you up you will not meet your roommate until onboard the ship.

9. Shore Excursions: The ship will offer many excursions to purchase. We however, will offer at least two or three of our own including a chartered catamaran for swimming, snorkeling and fun. Our trips are usually lower priced and include more than what the ship will offer. Information regarding our excursions will be sent to you about 60 days prior to sailing.

10. Gratuities: A daily charge of $10.00 per person will be added to your cabin account to serve as tips to porters, waiters, cabins stewards, and pool boys.

11. Getting to the Ship: Most passengers will be flying into Ft Lauderdale airport for the Fall Cruise. You should take a taxi from the airport for about $10.00 as it is cheaper and quicker than the cruise line transfers.

The spring cruise will sail out of Galveston Texas.

12. Pre-cruise hotel. We will once again be using the beachfront Ocean Sky Hotel in the Galt Ocean Mile part of Ft Lauderdale. The rate we have confirmed is only $89.00 daily plus tax. To make reservations you will please call the hotel directly at 800 – 678 – 9022 and be sure to mention Cruise Retreat to get the discount. The web site for the hotel is www.oceanskyresort.com but do not book online.

Info on the Long Beach Hotel will be announced shortly.