Tapi

Even after you transfer to a TA, you’ll still be able to log in and look at your booking, and book excursions and packages, but changes to the booking and cruise fare payments will go through your TA. The MSC website can get glitchy at times which is one of the reasons why having a TA is a good idea when booking MSC. They can help you navigate the glitches and get things rectified.

I started cruising when gratuities charged to your shipboard account wasn’t even an option. For years, there was a transition period between the old and the new system, and several cruise lines initially would allow you to choose between cash tips or charged to your account. That’s how I started asking what was preferred.

Yes. You may be right. You definitely know more about NCL than I do, and based on your conversations with your cabin stewards, NCL cruisers may be more generous with cash than on other cruise lines. A lot has changed since I took my first cruise 42 years ago (this month actually!). I remember the little envelopes left in the cabin that were then ceremoniously handed out on the last evening of the cruise. I wonder how many cruisers would like to go back to the way things used to be, but I’m personally thankful that those days are now in the past. 2 of my upcoming cruises are on cruise lines where the gratuities are already included in the cruise fare. Now, that’s what I wish could be the norm across the entire industry!

I’ve asked some of my cabin stewards across different cruise lines if they prefer cash or prepaid gratuities. Every single one has said that they prefer prepaid gratuities. The reason? Because most people who remove gratuities don’t leave anything, and those who do, leave a very small amount. Best tippers? Those who prepay gratuities AND leave extra cash on top. When all of them are saying the same thing, I believe that there may be some truth to it.

Hopefully, as new ships are launched and capacity is reinstated, we’ll see Carnival sailing from San Juan again. But while we wait, there are some great options: - Royal Caribbean recently announced expanded year-long service from San Juan aboard Rhapsody of the Seas. It’s been seasonal since pre-pandemic. - There at two newbuilds headed to San Juan this fall: NCL’s Norwegian Viva and Virgin’s Brilliant Lady. - New luxury cruise line Explora Journeys will also operate a series of departures from San Juan aboard its first newbuild, Explora 1. - Other luxury lines like Viking, Sea Dream, Regent, Silversea, Emerald, and Windstar will all be operating sailings from San Juan as well. - Disney Dream and Disney Magic will operate a limited number of departures. - Celebrity is returning to San Juan for its regular seasonal run in the fall of 2023. In other words, what’s Carnival waiting for?

True, it’s a longer flight. But for a lot of people, specially on the east side of the country, the difference isn’t a deal breaker. For me, it’s either a 2 hour flight to Florida, or a 3 hour flight to Puerto Rico. I cruise to explore new destinations, so I’ll gladly spend an extra hour in flight for a much better itinerary and to see new places. San Juan, over the last decade, has become a magnet for low cost carriers, making it more affordable than ever to fly there. Frontier, Spirit, JetBlue and Southwest all have a significant presence there, in addition to all the legacy airlines.

I’ll vote for Freeport. Besides the fact that the cruise dock is in an industrial and unattractive area, Freeport never recovered from Hurricane Dorian years ago. As you drive around, you still see many destroyed and abandoned buildings, closed and boarded up businesses, and vegetation that never returned. It just looks and feels sad and depressing. They are trying hard though to bring their tourism back. And in all fairness, there are some attractive beaches and points of interest in the island.

According to some recent reports, transatlantic sailings have been sailing at or near capacity. In fact, a record was broken by Royal Caribbean a few weeks ago: https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2023/03/royal-caribbean-sets-record-for-transatlantic-crossing-with-most-people-onboard/

That’s encouraging. I submitted my daughter’s on 3/24 with expedited service and overnight delivery. They received it on 3/24. Application showing “in progress”. We don’t sail until 6/23 so we still have some time before we start freaking out.

I count 6 people that could potentially break up a fight

An extra day to go to Astoria isn’t enough to sway me to sail aboard an older ship in an obstructed or inside cabin. I’d spend the entire cruise beating myself up. My vote would be for the nicer ship in a nicer cabin. Majestic Princess 5 night for me.

LOL, yes, it is blissfully calm and quiet. I couldn’t believe how quiet the pool deck is a lot of times. You could hear a pin drop. Fun loving people would jump overboard. 😂

They’re not. But there are very factual with the information that they provide. We had a park ranger onboard when we visited Glacier Bay. As we sailed in and passed different markers, she would point out how long ago the glaciers reached each one of those markers, accompanied by commentary about how the flora and fauna have adapted. It was sobering and to a certain point alarming to see with my own eyes how much the glaciers have retreated in a fairly short amount of time. She didn’t go on any “save the planet” speech about climate change. She didn’t have to. The facts spoke for themselves. We could all reach our own conclusions.

Not on Royal, but when we sailed on Celebrity last November, we had friends who decided to join us last minute. They wanted to go as cheaply as possible so they booked an inside cabin. They didn’t realize that balconies were cheaper until I pointed it out to them so they called and switched to a balcony. Sometimes it works like that.

Yup. We booked Wonder on a Boardwalk Balcony which is cheaper than inside and ocean view cabins.

I do agree with you that other mainstream cruise lines have experienced poorly behaved guests, but I believe that the key difference is that, on Carnival, it has become more prevalent; a byproduct of the “fun” atmosphere that they promote. To make things worse, it gets magnified by social media. I’m one of the “lucky ones” who did get to witness a fight during a Carnival cruise. It was a full on brawl in the middle of the atrium on the Sensation. It was BAD. 20-30 people got in it, with fists and glasses flying everywhere, We had to run for cover. Never have I ever witnessed something like that on a cruise before or after. I have a dear friend who, for years, was a die hard Carnival fan. He video messaged me from his last Carnival cruise a few months ago, showing the out of control behavior unfolding in real time. He concluded by saying that he can no longer in good conscience continue sailing on Carnival or recommend it to others. That to me was sobering. I’ve been sailing other cruise lines for the last few years and none of my upcoming cruises (in my signature) are on Carnival either. I’m getting older. I’ve been cruising on lines like Holland America and Celebrity 😱 . Not as lively as Carnival, but they have become more appealing to me. Carnival continues to have a very special place in my heart though. I think that they still provide a solid product, specially with their newest and latest ships. But they need to keep working on cleaning up their image and suppressing poor behavior.

November 2018, our ship stopped in Marseille, France. Little did we know that the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) protests had started erupting all over the country a few days prior with hundreds of thousands of people protesting and blocking roadways. No word from the cruise line except for a revised “all aboard” time that had been changed to 2 hours earlier than scheduled. We made it to Vieux Port without issues, but that’s when we noticed a big police presence who informed us about the ongoing protests and the potential for violence. We were encouraged to return to the ship at once since protesters were expected to swarm the area in the next few hours (which explained the earlier “all aboard” time). We cut our day short and hailed a taxi back to the ship. That’s when the fun began. Protesters had already started congregating and blocking major roads. We couldn’t make it back to the ship the same way we came. Our taxi driver started speeding down backroads and alleyways trying to evade the protesters, only to find another road block. He started flagging down other taxi drivers to ask which way to go. Our hearts were racing for a bit because it felt as if we were in a chase scene from a movie, trying to evade the protesters, not knowing if we’d make it back in time (or safely), but we breathed a sigh of relief when we finally made it back to the ship. Definitely a somewhat different day in port for sure.

I wanted to introduce my 6 and 8 yo kids to Europe, and a Mediterranean cruise was, without a doubt, the best decision. Super easy to do and affordable, It was an absolutely wonderful experience for the whole family. But as others have said, you will barely scratch the surface, like barely, BARELY 😂. You can sample, and then maybe one day return to the places you enjoyed the most.

I’d lean towards Mariner except for it being 2 short cruise B2B. Different vibe then on longer cruise, plus one day somewhat lost on turnaround day.

Odyssey hands down.

When we did Aurea a few years ago, it was great, specially if you got an Aurea suite. Obviously not quite YC but enough to make the cruise extra special. But the perks have been diluted. I wouldn’t do it now.

$12K on a Carnival cruise in an inside cabin?? Something doesn’t add up. I don’t think I’ve ever spent more than $3K on a 7 night Carnival cruise for our family of 4, even sailing during school breaks and in a balcony stateroom. Heck I’m taking my family to the Norwegian Fjords this summer for 1/3 of that! Not even when we did a 7 night Disney cruise over Thanksgiving did we pay that much. We faced a similar dilemma when my father turned 80 and the whole family got together to take him on a cruise. How did we figure out which one to take? - First and foremost, we asked HIM where he wanted to go. It was HIS cruise. - Second, we compared everybody’s summer schedule and pinpointed one week that would work for everybody. - Third, we asked what everybody’s budget was. Once we had all that information, we picked 3-4 choices, sat down, and then made our final decision from there. We actually ended on a 4 night cruise to Cuba aboard an older, smaller Royal Caribbean ship. It wasn’t anybody’s dream vacation, but it was what met everybody’s needs. We all had to compromise to make it happen. Nobody got exactly what they wanted, but we were so happy to be traveling together. At the end of the day, it was a wonderful cruise experience. Super memorable to have everybody there to celebrate my dad’s 80th birthday. Believe me, nobody must HAVE water slides and zip lines to have an amazing family cruise. Don’t want to fuel the fire, but if your SIL must have the cruise that meets all of her needs without taking into consideration other’s needs and budget, she’s not planning this trip to celebrate the in-law’s 50th birthday; she’s planning it for herself. Find a way to amicably meet somewhere in the middle.

That’s huge right there. We had zero breaks during the entire cruise because we didn’t have anybody with us. If we’d had an hour here and there to recharge, it would’ve been a different story. Good news is that we learned a lot from that first cruise experience with a baby. By the time our daughter was born, we had figured out a bunch of do’s and dont’s. For our daughter’s first cruise (at 15 months old), we had the whole extended family with us. For that cruise, we had grandma/grandpa, aunts/uncles and older cousins to help. 😀

It’s great as long as your kid is not younger than 2. Our son’s first cruise (13 months old) was on Carnival and it was pretty rough to the point that we were considering cutting the cruise short and going home. We underestimated how challenging it would be to sail on a cruise line that didn’t provide anything for kids that young. Our fault. His second cruise (18 months old) was on Royal’s Allure of the Seas (which has the Royal Babies and Tots program with dedicated facilities and toy lending program, as well as separate pools and splash zones for babies and toddlers still in diapers). The experience was like night and day. We didn’t want that cruise to end! We went back to Carnival (Dream) after he had turned 2 and that experience was a compete 180 from his first Carnival cruise. Very enjoyable.

All I can say is that the stress associated with booking an early flight is not worth it. We booked a 12:25pm flight about 11 months in advance. A few months before departure, the airline changed it to 11:25am. Then to 11:15am. Once on the ship, we learned that due to some technical issues at the port, we wouldn’t be docking until 8:00am. I wasted the last 24 hours of my cruise stressing and obsessing about getting off the ship in time and making it to the airport, and made my family’s life miserable in the process. Long story short, we did make the flight, but we didn’t make it to the gate area until 10:30am. In our case, there was only one flight home on that day, but if you’re flying somewhere that has more flights, pick a later one, even if it’s more expensive. A good bargain on a cheaper flight can quickly become very costly.