MechE31

Several people got upgraded at the 60 day mark within a day of Royal up opening on our upcoming icon cruise. It seems they were all infinite balcony which seem to be selling slow.

I bid on an infinite family balcony and haven't heard back yet. 

It's been holding steady at $29.99 on all my cruises. I saw it drop to $27.99 on one of my sailings. 

Used to buy it on every sailing pre Covid when it was $18 a day on sale, but with the current prices and diamond vouchers, we haven't got it in a while. 

We booked an OS and crown loft yesterday on wonder (6 people between the rooms) and today they're up 50% and 40% respectively.

I agree with your review overall. There are a lot of aspects I prefer on carnival including the food and activities run by the cruise staff. Royal has the edge on large scale entertainment for Oasis class. 

The reason I'm holding off on booking more carnival is the crowd. On our last carnival cruise (Mardi gras spring break 2022), the teenagers took over the ship. They did a lot of very inappropriate things and their parents were nowhere you be found. As the parent of pre teens that cruise with us, this is not the crowd we want to associate with. We've done 8 carnival cruises and always had some issues with the crowds, but the teens on the last one were the breaking point. 

I also don't love the Mardi gras atrium for entertainment. Without the turnover of a main theater, people camp there for hours on end and we couldn't find seats at any of the atrium entertainment without skipping early dinner. This may change on less crowded sailings. 

If you have a VPN, you can bypass the browse restrictions. You'll need to whitelist the MSC app and pause it for menus since those go through the browser. 

14 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 Any recommendations as to waiters in Le Muse? 

 

I'm not in YC, so unfortunately can't help with that.

For reference, we sail March 23 on symphony and our entertainment opened for booking yesterday. 

As for what to expect, on our sailing, main theater show is hairspray and flight: dare to dream. Ice show is 1977. Aqua show is hiro. We were also able to book an adult comedy show. 

I'm on Divina now (charter cruise). Feel free to let me know if you have any questions.

30 minutes ago, westcoastBC said:

Could someone on board please clarify if The Hideaway In-Pool Daybed and Casitas are adult only.

When booked it said guest under 18 would be provided cocktails, now I am reading it is adult only.

Thank you.

The hideaway was swapped to adults only earlier this month. 

2 hours ago, Falckon said:

We will be in the Yacht Club this coming Sunday. My wife recently injured her knee. She can walk short distances with a cane. I called and arranged for wheelchair assistance for embarkation and disembarkation, and we rented a scooter that will be waiting in the cabin. How far will she have to walk before she gets a wheelchair at check-in? I read another post where the porters didn't want to be bothered with luggage for the Yacht Club. Will we have a problem getting our luggage to the white tent? We never had to worry about accessibility before.

My aunt did this for the seashore departure mentioned above. She will have to walk to the terminal, up the elevator and through check-in without a wheelchair. You can drop her off while parking but there is no seating before going through security, so she'll either need to clear security solo or wait for you standing up. With 

They will pick you up and take you on the ship.

It is not a long distance to walk but it's not short either. There will also be standing while getting through the lines. If you weren't in YC, they have a separate handicap check-in at the far end of the check-in lines. There is a seating area right next to it, so she could sit while you wait in line (which was very short compared to regular check-in). YC has a dedicated check in area with chairs. 

Now some bad notes, during the departure issues mentioned in the post above, she was standing outside the terminal for over an hour with no seating. YC was in the same boat as they stopped putting people through security. 

The scooter was not delivered until the next morning (but was obviously delivered to MSC before we left port).

1 minute ago, ATG said:

I’m booking this later today.  We’re on Mariner and I have an appointment at next cruise!  We’ve never been to any of the ports and it sounds great.

Be aware that group rates do exist for these sailings.

We booked our first ever B2B doing northern and fjords on Independence.

The prices were cheaper than a Caribbean sailing and I can normally get flights on points.

We just finished a European itinerary with my FIL who is mobility limited. He can walk short distances but not much else and is in a scooter. 

We did 10 nights round trip out of Rome going to Santorini, Athens, Olympia, Mykonos, Malta, Messina, Naples and Livorno. We also did London and Paris before the trip. 

Santorini was the only tender port and getting back to the cable car was significantly worse than the tender. If you go, get back 3 or 4 hours early to avoid the crowds. 

For the rest, be very careful in selecting excursions. We did private excursions every day we left the port. This allowed us to customize our adventure. The private drivers aren't very expensive compared to an NCL excursion but the prices go up if you want tour guides.

A lot of the older places like Pompeii and Acropolis are "handicap accessible", but you are very limited in what you can do and the paths you can take. People are also oblivious or just plain don't care. 

My biggest point of advice is invest in a portable scooter. He got a so lite s1 that folds very small and has good enough wheels to go over uneven pavement. It did quite well overall. If you get a rental on the boat, most will have a hard time folding small enough to load into a car/van to leave the boat. 

As an FYI, we just got off the breakaway and RCS messaging on Android works without using internet minutes as well. We were able to send texts and pictures. 

I was also able to use Google voice to send texts to anyone. 

Be warned, chat is not the most reliable. Messages often don't go through unless you manually refresh.

2 hours ago, Kevin79 said:

Link bookings in My Account / Check in process. If you have different cabin levels bella / aurea, you won't be able to link during check in. As long as you have the same drink package (or no drinks package), drop them an email, and they'll be able to sort it. I did this recently when friends had Bella and we had Aurea. We both have the same drink package so all way OK. We expected to be put in their dining room, but actually, they were able to get into the Aurea dining room with us.

What email did you use?

mscexistingreservations@msccruisesusa.com ?

I don't know how frequently it runs, but we got off at 9am and were on Columbus cove by 9:20. You shouldn't have any issues with a 10am excursion. 

18 hours ago, FLConnie said:

So is it easier to just park first and take our luggage rather than deal with a crowded drop off and then try to park? We are in a suite, so not worried about the line.  I know at some ports, it's hard to drive in, drop off and then get back to park.

It is very easy to loop back and park. 

On 7/5/2022 at 12:48 PM, S.A.M.J.R. said:

And how did boarding go yesterday?  Did they enforce boarding times?

 

We left Monday and our boarding time was never checked once. 

We got there at 11:25 for 11:30 boarding time and were on the ship by 11:40.

The other part of our group arrived at 12:40 and and they got on at 2. The lines were insane at that point. 

On Mariner currently and they had plenty of the normal double walled tumblers in multiple styles. 

I signed up for testing with an appointment Saturday, but didn't get anything to sign up for HealthTraxRX. Was this a separate email?

On 4/2/2022 at 4:10 PM, cruisemom2 said:

 

We couldn't hear all of the exchange but it sounded like he said someone had thrown the cell phone down from a higher deck and it hit him in the head.  Crazy.  

We were in line at Java blue when this gentlemen the got hit in the head with a cell phone came to get ice. This was the second time during the cruise we saw this happen.

It happened 2 people down from me on the benches earlier in the cruise. That was an accidental drop. The lady that dropped it came to get it. She did not seem visually intoxicated and apologized profusely. 

21 hours ago, Frankf3 said:

 

I'm getting this error now.

 

Were you able to resolve?   I get this on my laptop (with Firefox) and on my phone (Safari).   Web site is amazingly bad...

It resolved itself after a couple days. 

What is your definition of undercooked pork? The safe temperature for pork was changed in 2011 to 145 deg which is still pink. 

3 hours ago, groundloop said:

 

Out of curiosity I just looked and I can't edit dining time in any of the cruises I currently have booked.  I believe you'd have to contact Carnival or your travel agent to get that changed if you don't want to take a chance on getting it changed by the maitre d once you get on the ship (I've tried once before and was told they couldn't accommodate my request).

I believe booked direct with carnival can edit, if booked with TA, need them to do it. 

17 minutes ago, mondello said:

Early is usually booked up first, so I assume it is no longer available for them to switch. You might be able to switch the 4 to Early if that is what the group has decided on. Is YTD/ATD still available in your Cruise Planner under edit dining? One benefit of YTD is the upcharge venues that are inclusive on Mardi Gras are available from opening; those with assigned dining can request seating after 8:00pm.

The group of 6 can switch to YTD, but are hesitant to do so because they are worried about the availability of tables for 10. The group of 4 doesn't have early available.