jasong38501

Thanks for this tread, makes me glad we booked the GLORY! Oh and lemansz20, LIBERTY's sister ship is the VALOR.

The Glory, Valor, Liberty, Conquest, and Freedom are all sister ships. All 5 are Conquest class ships.

Keep in mind that for every bad review there are hundreds of people who had a great time and just didn't post about it.

My thoughts exactly! You and your friends will have a great time! Congratulations on your wedding and enjoy your time with you friends on your trip!

Freedom a much better ship .

Agreed. That and the airfare cost to San Juan is why I haven't even really considered Fascination.

I would say Magic as well. I think the ports it goes to makes it a simple choice to spend the extra money and drive the extra distance. By the way you asked about weather, just from my experience cruising from Canaveral last November on the Valor to the Bahamas, it was chilly at night and warm but not really warm enough to think about getting in the water in the Bahamas. No way I would think about cruising from Baltimore that time of year unless I was content spending my sea days indoors.

They did scan our cards on the Magic in December.

They did ours as well on the Valor in November. Yet they still made us stand still quietly for a hand count of passengers. Not sure if they were working out the kinks of a new system of scanning everyone or if they want the redundancy of two counts.

I just chose the Dream on the same trip you are looking at. But for me a lot of that was because of cost and the fact New Orleans is closer for me. So in your shoes I would probably choose the Breeze to get to more new ports for you! Plus Breeze will be very similar to Magic which you said you enjoyed!

If I was going to bet on what was going to happen I would say Horizon will do her TA in May, summer in New York with a few sailings possibly from Boston, then come down to Miami to take up the 6/8 run probably in October.

Well no Boston and she is moving to Miami in Sept. But I will still toot my own horn a bit. Closer than I have been before in my guessing.

Carnival really seems to be doubling down on Miami if Miami is getting Magic and Horizon to replace Vista - unless if Magic will be making the trip through the Panama Canal sometime in 2019 to replace Splendor in Long Beach. Right now Magic is scheduled to sail from Miami through late April 2019.

Not a lot more capacity than right now. Currently they have Vista, Splendor, Glory, Victory and Sensation. Loosing two gaining two. Will be two larger ships and looks like Magic will be year around instead of sharing with Ft Lauderdale though.

I just saw that Wikipedia had the Fantasy listed as for sale as well, and was wondering if it was true. I live in Charleston, and the Ecstasy has already replaced her here. The Sunshine is set to start doing periodic cruises from Charleston beginning in October, I believe. It's kinda sad about the Fantasy. I know she's out of date and quickly becoming obsolete, but the she was the first ship I sailed on.

They are selling cruises on her out of Mobile through at least Apr 2019 so I can't imagine they would be getting rid of her before then. And as far as old and out of date, I think she is in better shape and more updated than either Elation or Paradise which are both 8 years newer.

And I have said before I disagree with the post above. I think she is going to do a couple of months in the spring in the Med then do her TA in May and probably summer in New York before moving to Miami in October. She will be in Gibraltar on May 18, 2018 according to the website of Gibraltar's port authority.

Something about this doesn't sound right to me. What ship and cabin type are you looking for?

Not the normal pattern.

 

Carnival ships spend the first 6 or so months in Europe and than do TA in fall.

Well a Vista class ship is scheduled to be in Gibraltar in May and is not on the port schedule at all in the fall. So I am going to stick with my prediction.

Yeah don't skip muster. On my November Valor cruise they paged everyone who missed muster by cabin number to the theater to go through it separately. They missed sail away because they couldn't do what they were supposed to do.

If I was going to bet on what was going to happen I would say Horizon will do her TA in May, summer in New York with a few sailings possibly from Boston, then come down to Miami to take up the 6/8 run probably in October.

Everyone seems to be answering your questions but I wanted to throw in one good tip! If you are eating in the Lido buffet and are looking for a good table go out the back of the buffet to the aft pool and there are some tables at the very back of the ship that never seemed too crowded and have a great view of the wake out behind you! You are going to have a great time! I absolutely loved Valor, she is a great ship!

I like Seascape for the other Vista class ship and Mardi Gras for the 2022 ship since it will be 50 years since Carnival was started with the original Mardi Gras.

It looks like Carnival has 7 dry-docks planned for 2017 and 4 planned so far for 2018. Most of the dry-docks are about 2 weeks long, with the exception of the Carnival Elation and Carnival Paradise (which are about 1 month long).

2017 Dry-Docks: Carnival Ecstasy(Jan.) , Carnival Dream(Jan.-Feb.), Carnival Sensation(Feb.), Carnival Glory(Feb.-Mar.), Carnival Breeze(April), Carnival Elation(Aug.-Sept.), and Carnival Conquest(Sept.-Oct.)

2018 Dry-Docks (So Far): Carnival Fascination(Jan.-Feb.), Carnival Paradise(Feb.-Mar), Carnival Legend(May), and Carnival Inspiration(Nov.)

 

I am ready to find out what these ships will be getting, but I know it will be a while! Keep in mind this info is subject to change!

I have been doing an unofficial dry-dock schedule/information compilation on my personal cruise blog for the past 4 years and only shareinformation when it is officially released or confirmed by Carnival. If you are interested in viewing my unofficial version of the dry-dock schedule here is a link:

http://www.embarkandaway.com/carnival-drydock-schedule.html

Love your website and had to say thank you for all the work you put into it! It is an excellent resource for deciding on a cruise! I am strongly considering a cruise on Dream in the fall so I am eager to see the results of her dry-dock later this month!

DH loves a martini bar and we spend time there nightly before dinner.

 

I know Dream has Master the Martini and Glory has Alchemy Bar/Martini tastings.

 

Input re: one vs. the other appreciated.

Dream is going into drydock in a few weeks. Carnival hasn't announced what she will get yet but I would imagine Alchemy will be added.

Sailed on her late August/early September. The staff was amazing. As far as the ship itself, she's showing her age. She desperately needs the 2.0 upgrades. We never had a problem getting a barstool or a table anywhere. The CD was Jase, he was "meh." The DJ in the nightclub was horrible, the dance floor was empty most of the time. We had a great time, but wouldn't necessarily go out of our way to sail on her again.

She will be in drydock the end of January into the beginning of February. I would imagine she will get the 2.0 upgrades then. That should be about the time I get my vacation time approved for next year so I will be following the drydock news because Dream is the top of my list for next fall's cruise!

I am hoping this means Carnival has finally decided to leave the China market to Costa. With their cancelled plans of first Miracle and then Spirit, I thought they might.

So a mixture of boredom and nosiness has led me to find Grand Cayman's cruise ship schedule. A few interesting notes about it....

- Sunshine begins showing up every Tuesday in Grand Cayman beginning Oct 2018 and running through all of 2019. While she could make stops there while cruising from port Canaveral, she certainly wouldn't be doing it from her other home ports including New York.

- Vista makes stop in Grand Cayman basically every other Wed as part of her current 6/8 day schedule. This continues to be scheduled through May 2019. But beginning in the end of Sept 2018 Vista is also scheduled on the Thursday of the week she isn't scheduled on a Wed. So to me it looks like either she is going to sail a very predictable schedule with lots of western itineraries or they are using that as a placeholder for Horizon once she makes it over to the US which could be around that same time. Coincidentally a week before Sunshine starts showing up.

Maybe some hints about where Horizon will home port and what other ships will shuffle? Not that I have been able to make sense of it. I am still thinking there will be some increase in sailings from Ft Lauderdale but that is just my opinion.

For what its worth, I am bored tonight and have found Grand Cayman's cruise schedule and it has a few interesting bits on it.

---Carnival hasn't released the Breeze schedule for 2018 yet but she continues to call on the port every other Thursday for the most part through the year but she isn't on the schedule anywhere I see starting in January 2019.

---Vista is on the schedule for every other Wed calls through Oct 2018 which is consistent with her current 6 day runs but the she is listed as alternating Wed and Thur calls every week from October 2018 until April 2019 which makes me wonder if the Thur calls under her name are actually just a place holder for Horizon???

---Sunshine starts making every other Tuesday calls beginning Oct 2018 through all of 2019 so if that sticks she definitely won't be continuing her east coast shuffling of home ports

After Splendor goes to China in 2019, Carnival will move a ship to Long Beach. I think they will base which ship on how well the Splendor sells. If it consistently sells out, I think they will move a Dream Class ship to Long Beach, if not, they will send a Conquest class.

I would be very surprised if they don't end up cancelling those plans just like they did with the plans to move Miracle there and later to sail Spirit there for a season.

Was it the new BBQ that they are doing on the newer ships?

It was a generic BBQ not Guy's BBQ. I was on the 11/17 sailing. I tried the BBQ chicken and did not like it, my friend absolutely loved the pork. Never busy, most people didn't seem aware it was there so it's easy to stop by and give it a try.

Thank you so much for posting this review! I sail on Thursday on the Valor and I'm so so so ready for it to get here!