crazycatlady82

No. I'd say Carnival 7 day cruises are more of a booze cruise than our 5 day NCL cruise. Yes, there was drinking, but it didn't feel like a booze cruise at all. Maybe the weather stopped some of it? We had poor weather in January on the Sky.

On 5/1/2024 at 10:03 AM, DCGuy64 said:

I'd love to see NCL actually enforce the boarding times people are given, since so many people have complained about the long lines. NCL could say something like "we listened to you, our guests. In order to ensure an orderly boarding process and minimize waiting in lines, guests who show up in advance of their printed boarding times will be asked to wait in a separate area of the terminal until their assigned time has arrived." And I 100% guarantee people will find a reason to complain about that, too! 🤣

Kind of a delayed response, but I've actually seen Carnival do this! They had specific lines set up for the different boarding times at the port in Tampa. I was super impressed. 

23 hours ago, MajSteve said:

This is the OP of the thread. I find it amazing that people are so mundanely satisfied with poor service. Horrible embarkation, passengers passing out from heat in the 2.5 hours in the sun with no water stations provided: no problem. Slow and lackluster service; no problem. Long lines for supposed reservation times: no problem. Poor NCL takes my money and pretends they are doing everything they can to improve the situation but don't, no problem. If you ain't Haven class, you ain't nobody; no problem. If you spent a couple of thousand dollars on anything else that had so many problems, you would be raising hell about it. But folks seem all too ready to forgive a cruise line for a shoddy product. And I am getting tired of being, "classed". From airlines and their "preferred" classes of boarding the plane to seats on the transfer busses. If you do not prefer Salsa dancing and rap music, don't bother to sit out by the pool.  And please: Will passengers begin to show some courtesy and consideration? From the electric scooter drivers who seem to think that the corridors and table seatings were created just for them and their beeping little horns to the pushy people cutting into the buffet lines to the drunks in the hot tubs and the 80 year old men trying to look like Hulk Hogan in their Speedos and muscle shirts to the elderly women wearing thong bathing suits to the "studs" wearing cowboy hats who have never set foot on a farm or ranch. No, you don't look cute; you look silly and out of place. Somewhat like Walmart on Friday night. From now on I am going to rent a nice cabin in a remote state park and relax on my own terms and my own schedule. Goodbye cruising.

I was on this cruise..however, I really think we were on a different cruise. 

I experienced very little of what you experienced. It appears that you were a solo traveler from the photos you shared of your food. I was also a solo traveler on this cruise. 

I also had the drink package. The only line I experienced for drinks was abut 4pm in the afternoon at O'Sheehan's. The longest time I spent in line was 10 minutes, which I had a great conversation with the person behind me. Otherwise, I had no problems with getting drinks. Raymond, the studio lounge bartender, was awesome. (Also, with the drink package, you had get 2 drinks at once.) 

Regarding other lines, there were long lines for when the dining room opened for supper...but waiting 30-45 minutes, the line was non-existent. I'm not platinum nor did I notice a huge amount of platinum and above surpassing me for seating. 

The food was delicious on this cruise--I do agree about the dining room steak! I do also agree that the embarkation process was not the greatest. I waited for about an hour, showing up to port at my embarkation time. Rooms were ready at 2:30pm--I remember this as I specifically looked at my watch during the announcement. My two pieces of luggage were delivered by 5pm, as I moved them into my room before heading to the solo lounge for drinks. 

And what people wear on a cruise does not bother me. I don't care if somebody wears a speedo--you do you. I can turn my head and I dont have to look at them. Nobody is forcing you to look at them. 

Regarding the gift shop--have you never been on a repositioning cruise? I laugh at the wrong cruise merchandise in the gift shops...and look for deals lol. What shops have in a gift shop does not make or break a cruise. (It's all made in china and will probably eventually end up in a thrift store anyway!) 

Also, Im a big reader on cruises. On this cruise, yes, the weather was not the greatest. I routinely found comfortable seating by the martini or whiskey bars. 

Only issue I had on this cruise was the premium internet kicking me off when I tried to work in the afternoons. That's it. Otherwise, it was immensely enjoyable and relaxing. 

On 4/20/2024 at 8:17 AM, Timo_Berlin said:

I will cruise end of May with the Epic, I know it is different to TA but could u tell me if there were also solo traveller between 40 and 60 or were most older 

A lot! I'm 41 myself, and for this sailing, I think I was on the younger end. 

Hello! I was also a solo cruiser on this TA. I don’t disagree with anything you said but figured just threw out some of my random observations…

the solo meetup in headliners was not beneficial due to the way it was set up. It was set up with rows of chairs which makes it hard to mingle. Most of the time, we just stuck around in the studio lounge with the bartender, Raymond. (Because you also couldn’t get a drink at headliners!)

I had a wonderful time. Only a couple of criticisms: evening meal service in Manhattan took about 2 hrs, and even going past that one night. Also, I had the premium internet package and had significant issues with it the second week. I was working some and it would just cut me off and wouldn’t let me connect. The internet manager was unhelpful and it was my newer Apple products causing the issue.

It was difficult losing that hour! Felt like I was going to bed earlier and earlier, but some of us solos met everyday for breakfast. 
 

disembarkation was easy and using the shuttle, I was at the airport by 8:15am for my 12:10pm flight.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I’m sure we ran into each at some point 🙂

1 hour ago, surfclam2003 said:

 

On the same cruise. Think it's sold out. Hoping a ton of solos so occupancy is low.

I just talked to my PCC and she confirms it is sold out!

I’m on the Epic TA next month and it is either sold out or almost sold out. Hoping that it’s mostly solos-occupancy wikk

be lower than 🙂

We picked up a car for a day at York car rental which is off site. DO NOT RENT A CAR THERE. It was absolutely ridiculous all the fees, and I had to buy their insurance, otherwise it was a $2000 deposit. For a day. Also, they gave me the wrong size of a car, which I had prepaid for…but nothing they could do. They were rude and I will never do off site again. 

It really depends on the ship and cruise. For instance, when we were pricing out a Christmas 2024 cruise, the 7 day inside room with drink package on NCL Escape rolled into the fare was cheaper than the 5 day carnival freedom cruise with no drink package. My transatlantic on the Epic next month was $699 for 12 days in a solo cabin. However, I’ve gotten some good carnival deals but at this point, they’re hard to find due to the popularity of cruising.

If location didn't matter, I'd say solo inside for the bigger room. However, I echo others saying look at the location. If you are a night owl, being under the theater or other space like that may not matter. I do like the studios--but it depends on what is important to you.

We sailed the Miracle in August to Alaska. We had the premium package, as I do telehealth. For the most part, it worked well for video calls. There were times that I knew I would have no signal, like going through the Fjord, so I made sure to schedule around that. I had one client remark that it was better than my home internet, ha! 
 

I’d encourage you to check out the ports/route to see if there would be any dead spots though! 

I don’t know if you’re set on carnival, but I agree, that is high, especially if you’re a solo cruiser. I’d encourage you to check out Norwegian’s TA’s. I recently paid $499 a person for my upcoming TA in April (plus, several perks like a specialty dining meal included). 

The NCL Aqua will be doing a TA and their inaugural sailing in March 2025. Not much is known about the ship at this point but should have a lot of the bells and whistles. 

I was on the Epic April 2023 and the food was pretty good. I don't think I had one issue with a meal throughout the 8 day cruise. 

However, we were recently on the Sky, and yes, while it is a smaller ship, the food wasn't that great. The meals in the dining room were frequently lukewarm, the buffet was awful, and Cagneys was again, a disappointment. Both on the Star and the Sky, Cagneys was disappointing. Like OP, I didn't gain any weight on the Sky (but that might have been due to the stomach bug or food poisoning that I ended up having).

We cruised last August on the Miracle out of SF. We had a great time! We didn't travel with kids so we can't speak to that...We really enjoyed the Steakhouse and the Sky Box bar. One thing we noticed was that during the day, only one bar seemed to be open on the Lido deck. The buffet was just meh, but the dining room was good. The coffee shop was always busy but a great spot for indoor sight seeing was next to the coffee shop. The game room/library was always full! 

I’ve been wondering the rhyme and reason behind them! We didn’t receive luggage tags for our July 2022 cruise (club balcony suite), but I received them in April 2023 for a solo cruise on the Epic (studio). Cruising next week on the Sky, and we have not received them either. 

56 minutes ago, bluesea777 said:

Sky IS in drydock now in Freeport but it’s for 2 weeks plus a couple days. First cruise post drydock is Jan 21.

 

@crazycatlady82 good luck 👍🏻 but try to have a great cruise …. 😉😎🤓

 

 

Haha, thanks! We had no idea it was going to be in dry dock..I try to avoid the first sailing afterwards but here we are lol. The ship is also sold out, so let's see how this goes...either way, we will have a good time! Away from work and have the drink package 🙂

I’ve been wondering the same! We’re cruising on her this Sunday, January 21.

Prices have definitely risen on all cruise lines. We decided to take a Christmas cruise in 2024 due to how Christmas 2023 went and compared prices across NCL, Carnival, Princess and Celebrity. NCL was the cheapest 7 day, and some of Carnival’s 5 days were more expensive than the 7 day. 
 

There are deals to be had out there though, but it takes monitoring and flexibility. 

Yes, we really enjoyed that restaurant on the Star! There is something similar (same menu but might be different name) on the Epic. 

3 hours ago, Tbcrane14 said:

@crazycatlady82 We are going on the Greenland cruise in May 2024. We have our 14 year old son going with us. I see that you said the pools were closed. Were the hot tubs open and would you happen to know if the basketball court was open? He loves his basketball so I thought I'd ask for him.

Hello! I can’t remember if the hot tubs of the basketball court were open. I’m sorry! We usually do a lot of walking on the top decks but due to the weather, we did not. 
 

I hope all of you have a great time! It’s definitely a bucket list cruise for sure. 

The library was packed on our Alaskan cruise in August on the Miracle with people reading and playing games. We tried to go in there but there weren't open tables. I love reading on cruises, bringing books and then donating them to the library. 

On the Radiance, which did not have a library but had a shelf for books in the coffee shop, it was very difficult to find a quiet place inside to read. The one that I found was shortly taken over by bingo sales.

38 minutes ago, crazycatlady82 said:

Husband plans to call today to upgrade…it’s been down since Friday morning. 

He just called and we were able to upgrade. It’s a website glitch. 

Husband plans to call today to upgrade…it’s been down since Friday morning. 

I'll be platinum before my husband...for the WATW and BTS, is it just me or can my husband also participate?