DukeASUGirl

Is this just for Miracle? Or do passengers on Radiance or Panorama sometimes have to park there as well?

Quick question since I've never sailed Carnival with a group of cabins before, but can one representative do the online check-in for the entire group if you link the reservations in the cruise planner on website or app? I know you can do it this way for Royal, but that's the only line I've cruised with multiple rooms before.

Late June/early July will probably be the worst, because that's the stretch of time that pretty much all kids will be out of school. As for the rest of your suggested months, there will be kids on summer vacation during all of that, but other kids back/still in school. School calendars vary widely, but pretty much everyone will be out late June/early July. For example, my kids get out of school the third week of May, and go back the third week of July. But when we lived in Virginia, they got out the third week of June and went back the first week of September. So I think you'll see large amounts of kids anytime from late May to early September, with less kids in May/early June and August/early Sept. And the most amount of kids in late June and early July.

A big difference between the two clubs was that the 9-11-yr-olds had structured activities and you could only do a certain activity if it was on the schedule, whereas the older ones could join in the scheduled activity or just sort of hang out (either in the club or on the ship) and make their own activities. Also, the older group could play video games at any time that the club was open, whereas the younger ones were only allowed to play video games if that was on the schedule - and typically was only 30 minutes per day.

When we sailed last year, we had an 11.5 yr old and a 13.5 yr old, so they would have been two different age groups. However, when we went the first day to sign the younger one up for the kids club, they said they were allowing 11 1/2 yr olds the choice between staying in Sharks or moving to Circle C. If Sharks, then we would have the choice whether he could sign himself out or not, but if Circle C, then he would be able to sign himself out. He was allowed to check out both spaces before making the decision, and he decided that the 12-14 group was way cooler. He didn't actually end up doing any of their activities, but he loved the video games and met some kids there he hung out with. They don't always let the older 11-yr-olds make this choice - they said it was because there was an abundance of younger kids on that cruise, bringing down the ages of each of the clubs. The older 11-yr-olds would be going into middle school that fall anyway, so age-wise it just made a lot more sense to allow them to be with the older group rather than the younger group, which apparently was skewing very heavily towards the 9 yr old end of that range.

During working hours, which also happen to be school hours. Both parents have to take off from work, and sometimes it might necessitate two different appointments in order to get the entire family handled, if you don't want them to miss important classes. For example, my husband and I will both be going to the post office twice next Friday in order to get my kids their passports - the first appointment will be during the younger child's lunch period, then we take him back to the school and sign out the older child during her lunch period. And the older one is still a year away from being eligible for the 10-yr passport, which means hers will only be valid for 5 years. Inconvenient, but it is what it is. But that's why we haven't gotten passports for the kids previously, when the only international travel we've done with them could be done with a birth certificate. Wasn't worth the hassle. Now that we'll be flying to Canada later this summer, we do need a passport. Didn't make sense to get passports 6 years ago for the one 3-day cruise they took in 2018, because we would have had to get another for their 2023 cruise - it would have been a one-and-done.

Sounds like how debarkation worked on Royal last summer. Simply pick a time in the app while you're on the ship, and they'll deliver any necessary luggage tags to your room.

It always depends on the number of teens or kids in each group who are on the ship. Last year they let my 11-yr-old son go to the 12-14 yr old club without us even asking - when we went to register him for the kids club they said they were allowing 11 1/2 -yr-olds to choose whichever they preferred because they there so many younger kids on the ship that the kids clubs were skewing younger and there were less preteens/younger teens onboard, so they allowed the 11 1/2 yr olds to make the choice for themselves. Since his sister was 13 at the time, he decided he'd rather be in the older group, since the younger group would barely get any video game time. My point is that they can be flexible based on the situation, but don't expect it. Maybe they'll allow it, maybe they won't. If there are tons of older teens on the ship, then they might not be as flexible as they would be in that age group had very few. None of us can say what will happen. Only the youth staff can make that call based on the current facts.

In Juneau, we walked through town to get to the trailhead for the trail that goes up Mt. Roberts. Hiked that for free, then bought something in the gift shop up at the top and got the tram ride for free with our receipt (not sure if that still works - this was over a decade ago). Then we took a city bus ride to Mendenhall Glacier and toured that on our own and came back on our own time. In Skagway, we bought tickets for the White Pass Railway and got off at a stop about halfway along the route (didn't have to buy tickets to the terminus because we got off in the middle of the wilderness at a trailhead). Hiked to a waterfall, then turned around and hiked back, meeting the train as it returned along the route. Cruiseline charged like $80/person for this excursion, but we did it for about $20/person because we did it on our own.

Well, that isn't hard to do. Sorrentos is terrible pizza. And yes, please continue! I enjoy the comparisons.

Bingo! Will you even make a 1 pm Carnival shuttle if you land at 12:45? Maybe, maybe not. If you are seated right at the front of the plane, aren't checking luggage, and you don't stop to use the restroom in the airport, then maybe. But that assumes you actually land at 12:45 and are allowed to immediately deplane.

My parents have never used an accessible cabin, but my mom rents a scooter for cruises. As long as it fits, it's fine. Accessible cabins have more space, though.

We have eaten at Big Chicken on land before, so we were super excited that it will be on the ship we're cruising on this summer! Love Shaq's chicken!

This is a great review!

I keep hearing about how Carnival's customer base are the booze cruisers, especially on the short cruises. But I saw way more and way rowdier drunks on my one Royal cruise (which was a 7-day) than on either of my Carnival short cruises (a 3-day and a 4-day). Obviously anecdotal, but hey. For us, we found that we prefer the food on Carnival and prefer the pricing on Carnival. Royal does beat Carnival when it comes to entertainment, but my kids already live at the ice rink at home (figure skater and hockey player), so the idea of skating on a cruise ship holds no appeal at all. (And if anything is a drawback because you're required to wear a helmet and can only skate in a predetermined path)