talkorpi

I would jump on that ASAP if that's the case

According to the article, they sent out notices this morning. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news 😞

Was not particularly impressed on Vista in May. The food was good but not worth the price imo. The free wine was a nice touch. However, despite paying a premium for service, our MDR service was somehow ten times better than in the steakhouse. Our steakhouse host was extremely rude and the service was very lackluster across the board - very slow, very inattentive, wouldn't discuss food allergies (we basically had to guess and thought that was BIZARRE as our MDR waiter was super accommodating). I guess we just hit them on an off night? We probably won't do steakhouse out of pocket anymore but to each their own. Hoping you have a nice experience.

NOLA deserves a better ship. TBH should send Magic or Breeze over there.

https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2022/12/new-carnival-jubilee-delivery-delayed/ Well this stinks. Delivery delayed to Dec. 2023. First six cruises cancelled (TA + first 5 Western Caribbean), will now sail directly from Germany to Galveston w/o PAX, maiden voyage will be a regular 7-day Caribbean from Galveston departing Dec. 23.

Oh, sorry. I work full time (not even close to retirement) and typically only cruise once every couple of years so that is the most recent update I had. Hopefully someone with more recent experience can respond to the OP.

Another fan of JiJi here. We ate there for the first time on our Vista cruise in May and it is the best meal I have ever had on Carnival. My mom, who strongly dislikes Asian food and was skeptical of paying for specialty dining when MDR is included, even loved it and said it is the only Asian food she would ever eat! So if it can convert those who dislike the entire cuisine, that speaks for itself! It really is that good and well worth the cost in my opinion. We loved the duck appetizer, pepper steak, short ribs, and all the sides are also delicious, especially the Chinese broccoli and Hakka noodles. Seriously so good and worth every penny! Have not had the chance to cruise on an E-class ship yet so cannot compare to Chibang. Chibang menu looks more pedestrian and it makes sense that the quality would be lower since it's basically just another MDR and has no upcharge.

They had it in May on the Vista. I think ours was barefoot and I'm pretty sure the only wine they offered was Rose, as we didn't get a choice. Also, my dining partner didn't drink, so I may or may not have had the whole bottle... oops!

Our cruise on Vista in May gave us the chance to try out most of the dining options, specialty included. We were onboard during the closure of Cucina so didn't get to try that, but I don't think we would've gone there anyways since we aren't huge Italian food fans. The steakhouse was really good food, but would I pay $48 a person for it? No. Maybe it was just an off night, but the service was not very good - the host at check-in was honestly extremely rude and while our waitress was polite the service was far from personable. I really don't think our experience was worth $38, much less the new $48 price since our cruise. I probably won't eat at the Steakhouse again unless I'm really trying to burn through OBC. Doesn't provide a great value in my opinion (especially with bad service) when I can make a great NY Strip at home for around $40 less. Jiji's was FANTASTIC. This was probably some of the best food I have ever had and it's a shame that Carnival doesn't seem to be continuing this concept. I think that this is totally worth the extra cost. My mom can't stand Asian food but even she really enjoyed our dinner at Jiji. Definitely go, and deifnitely order the duck appetizer when you do. You won't be disappointed. Unfortunately, our experience at Bonsai Sushi was not good at all. The service here was even worse than the Steakhouse. They never brought us water or soy sauce - they literally handed us our menu cards when seating us, picked them up about 15 minutes later without saying a word, and broguht us our food and walked off before we even had the chance to ask. The sushi was just ok but honestly I prefer the sushi from HEB which is also less expensive, lol. The ramen was terrible - overcooked mushy noodles, flavorless broth, and literally one cube of chicken. We will not be eating at Bonsai on any future cruises. Vista did not have Rudi's, Emeril's, Pig & Anchor Smokehouse. We did not go to the Chef's Table. Ultimately, I'm one of those that thinks Carnival provides more than enough free dining to be content not spending at specialty restaurants. I love the MDR and will eat there every night of the cruise, unless we get the chance to go to Jiji. It's really just a matter of personal preference, but in my view, unless I am going to be completely blown away by an upcharge restaurant, I don't see the point in spending even more when I have already spent thousand(s) of dollars just to be onboard and there is already pretty decent included food in the MDR.

Always book starboard for whatever reason. I guess it's because my brain usually defaults to the right when looking at things for the first time? Not really sure. Don't have a particular reason for picking starboard but we just always have.

I like the current number. I enjoy getting dressed up and making dinner into more of an "experience." That being said, even though I'm in my early twenties, I have much older taste for my age. I prefer a lot of "old-style" cruise experiences and habits that I realize are probably on their way out. I'm honestly more a Princess type of person but alas I am bound to Carnival for budgetary reasons 😆

I guess I will be the first dissenter. We recently did a 7 day western Caribbean in May on the Vista that included a stop in Belize. As we had already been to the port before and were traveling with a group of cruisers that had some health issues that ruled out nearly all of the excursion options in the port, we opted to stay on the ship. It was our first time on the Vista class so we assumed that we would be able to do things like activities, ropes course, skyride, mini golf, etc. while staying onboard... Unfortunately, there were literally NO ACTIVITIES UNTIL 2:00 PM. No trivias, no games, no movies, literally nothing on the fun times until 2:00 PM. We docked at 8 AM so it was six hours of nothing. Even worse, all of the activities like skyride, the ropes course, waterslides, sports square, etc. wouldn't be opening until 2:30. What?!? We aren't pool people so we played one round of mini golf and that was literally all there was to do. I was shocked by the lack of activities - I completely understand that port days usually aren't as busy as sea days, but Belize is a pretty common stay-on-the-ship port and there was literally nothing planned until well in the afternoon. While I expected less activity, I didn't expect nearly none of it. Needless to say, we felt disappointed. I am never one to get bored on a ship as I get amused by sitting and staring at the ocean, but everyone else in my traveling party was quite the opposite and we honestly wished we had gotten off the ship if nothing else but for a little excitement. Not sure if this was just due to the staffing shortages from earlier in the year, but I would recommend checking your funtimes as soon as possible. If it's still anything like this and if you aren't one to just sit in the pool and drink all day then you'll likely get bored very quickly and it might be worth just trying to go ashore anyways.

Yes.

Seems like she has arrived in Aliaga today. Farewell old friend...

Here we go again...

Following! Not booked but looking forward to seeing the new ship.

Are you by any chance talking about Izumi Sushi in San Antonio... I know it's off topic but I was just there and it is a similar thing

So maybe I am just remembering wrong but I used to think ships would change homeports every other year or so. However, I feel like we haven't seen much change aside from the seasonal ports lately. Feels like Galveston / New Orleans / Long Beach / Miami deployments haven't really changed in a while. How much longer until we see a switch up in some of these ports? Of course I know Jubilee is replacing Vista in Galveston and Celebration is taking over Horizon's itineraries soon in Miami but I swear ships used to rotate all the time. Am I crazy or is Carnival tending to keep ships based in the same place for longer? And why?

Wait, WHAT!??!?!?! I had that in May on Vista and it is the best dessert I have ever had. If it's discontinued I will be heartbroken

The term "class leader" here means the first ship in a new class. Since the first Excel-class ship was MG, she is the "class leader" while Celebration and Jubilee are just other ships in the class.

Not yet. I wish they would bring it back. We did this on Breeze in 2017 and it was easily the highlight of my cruise.

So I was looking around at the Carnival store to see price increases at the Fun Shops when I noticed "Faster to the Fun" as an option. When I click on it it says you can purchase it for $49.95 per cabin. I don't have a booking so I can't test this out but it looks to me like FTTF might be back. Can someone with a booking verify? https://www.carnival.com/faster-to-the-fun/MIA/faster-to-the-fun-101031

I have been hoping for this for years. We don't get off the ship in Belize anymore and honestly I don't get the hype of Cozumel - kind of tired of it. I know this is personal preference but if we could get an itinerary like Mahogany Bay - Costa Maya - Grand Cayman I would be soooo happy with that - if not just for some variety!

More than doubling the price of water? Nice, Carnival! Ugh. Just when I was thinking I had enough saved up to book a future cruise, they come with another (and perhaps most severe yet) price hike wave. Ay caramba...