Cyn874

Looking forward to more!

I'm really excited to follow along on this one, because I am boarding her the day you get back! I'm on the Sept 17-24th sailing. 🙂

I frequently take solo trips and vacations, and I find that the hardest part of solo travel is actually being SOLO. 

I've only done one solo cruise before, back in 2019. I ended up meeting people/making friends everywhere I went, but it really spoiled my whole solo experience. I found that I had little to no time to just be by myself. Everywhere I went- the buffet, the hot tub, just walking around the ship- I had people either joining me or inviting me to join them. I didn't decline, but I found myself kind of disappointed that I never got my alone time. 

I'll be taking my second solo cruise in a few months. I'm lurking on the roll call and FB group for my cruise, but being careful not to engage much. I won't be going to the solo mixers in the studio lounge or any of the meet ups, because I don't want a repeat of my first experience. It's kind of a shame, I'd actually like to go to some of the meetups, but my alone time is very important to me as well, and I don't feel comfortable declining because I don't want to seem rude. So for solo travel, I find it easier to just keep my head down and not strike up any conversations with anyone I don't think I'll want to end up spending my entire vacation with. 

Another option to the tea lights are to get those dome 'touch' lights that you can put anywhere. They're batter operated and don't put out much light. I think I'm going to start adding this to my cruise packing list, especially for interior cabins. 

An example- https://www.amazon.com/GE-Operated-Convenient-Nightstand-54807/dp/B0018QDJ8K/ref=sr_1_6?crid=2V5CQPDBZLAJU&keywords=dome+push+light&qid=1687275448&sprefix=dome+push+light%2Caps%2C102&sr=8-6

Is the thermal spa open 24/7? I'm an early riser and sometimes I might get up at 6-7am. It would be nice to go to the spa with my coffee and a book in the early mornings. 

Thanks! I'm coming from North Carolina and right now, it looks like all three are direct flights and exactly the same price, so I guess I will fly into LGA.

I'm not familiar with the NY area at all. It looks like all three airports are in close proximity going by the map, but I have no idea the logistics of taking a cab. I will likely be staying the night before in NYC. I haven't settled on a hotel just yet because I want to figure out which is the most logical airport to fly into. 

20 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

If it's anything like what they offered previously (before the shutdown), it's a mediocre meal served before the show.

 

 

Aww, you don't eat dinner during the show? I thought that was the whole point.

11 minutes ago, All-ready2cruise said:

Yes, of course or you can join the group of solos  who generally get together each evening. 

No worries if you want to be alone, Main Dining rooms are still good. 

What about the specialty dining? To clarify, I do NOT want to join the group of solos. I want a table by myself, but I'm not sure if specialty dining allows that.

20 hours ago, Travelgrrl said:

As far as specialty dining, I believe you can reserve that 90 days out (someone correct me if I'm wrong) for many restaurants. I had one dining chit and I made a reservation for Cagneys ahead of time.

Wait, I have a big question regarding dining solo! I've only solo cruised once and I ate at the buffet the whole time, where getting a table alone isn't a problem. Will the restaurants and main dining room seat you by yourself if requested? (I know that I can meet up with people through the solo lounge and activities to share dinner with but honestly the whole point for me of going on a solo cruise is for my alone time.) I avoided the restaurants and dining room on my solo Carnival cruise because I was not sure if it was ok to take up a table, especially if they do not have any two-tops, just for myself. 

Really excited about the timing of this review. I'm researching my 2nd solo cruise and have pretty much settled on Norwegian Escape, so I came here to read up on it. I've never sailed on NCL before so I'm excited to see what all it has to offer and how the solo experience and cabin is.

14 hours ago, Greyhoundcat said:

Exactly this. Cyn874's account is how she lived it. She didn't sensationalize it IMHO. Sounds like she is still processing it, and that people were very, very afraid. No one is mentioning that she did not hear ANY communication between the Captain and passengers, during or after. He/she should have known there were frightened passengers and that damage was happening all around them. I don't know why they stayed within this storm system either, but if the bottom line to stay was monetary, shame on the suits.

Thank you. My issue isn't that we got caught in a storm. It was the absolute lack of communication or reassurance from the Captain or any of the staff/crew. People were scared and felt completely alone and in an 'every man for himself' scenario.

I've encountered a bad storm before on a Princess cruise back in 2019. That one wasn't nearly as bad- there was a lot of pitching and rolling, but everyone could move around the ship as normal, as long as they were careful. The Captain made multiple announcements throughout the evening, updating us on the storm, as well as what steps he was taking to get around or through it, and an approximate guess as to when he thought it might get better. I think we heard from him at least every couple of hours (minus the middle of the night when people were sleeping.) over the course of two days. This allowed everyone to feel well informed and alleviate any fears they might have. 

In this situation with Carnival, the Captain told us in the early evening (sometime around 5:30 pm, I believe), that we were expecting bad weather and a delay into Charleston, and that they would do everything they could to make us as comfortable as possible. That was around 5:30pm. The seas were rough, but nothing I haven't experienced before. 

By around 10pm, the ship started to pitch and roll enough that it was difficult to walk around without having to pause and wait for the swell to pass.  Silence from the bridge. 

Around 11:00-11:30 pm, the ship was rocking so hard that it was difficult to remain in a prone position on the bed without physically hanging on. In some cases, I heard people were sliding off the bed with their entire mattress onto the floor. The pitch/leaning of the ship was so steep that you had to climb your way to the bathroom by hanging onto the shelf in the cabin, and hang onto the edge of the sink to stay on the toilet. When I tried to call guest services and housekeeping about the broken glass in my room, the phone system was down. Silence from the bridge. 

Sometime after that (it's kind of a blur, but I think between maybe midnight and 2:00am) was when my ears started popping and things in my cabin started to fly off shelves and shatter, followed by the loudest boom/crash I've ever heard, that I thought was a life boat being torn loose and falling onto the decks below. I believe that was the sound of the wave hitting the side of the ship that caused balcony rooms all the way up to the 11th deck to blow open and flood, and the crew quarters below were destroyed. Silence from the bridge. 

It wasn't until around 5:00am that the seas calmed down enough that I could stay on my bed without hanging on, and I was able to sleep in between the rocking and vibrations. Silence from the bridge. 

Silence from the bridge, all the way up until sometime around 7:00-8:00am, I believe. The Captain finally came on to let us know that we were about 20 nautical miles outside of Charleston and waiting for conditions to improve enough to dock. 

Not a word about what we went through the night before. THAT is what I have issue with. 

During those hours between 10:00pm and 5:00am, I've heard stories of how people on the side of the ship that got hit by the wave were forced to abandon their rooms that were soaked with water and covered with glass having to seek refuge in hallways, staircases, the Liquid Lounge, the Library, etc, and spend the night there. People all over the ship with their life jackets, terrified. SILENCE FROM THE BRIDGE. 

Why were there no announcements? Literally anything from the Captain would have been comforting. Yes, we all understand that storms happen and can't be helped. But just to hear from him now and then when things were getting really scary would have made us feel less helpless and ALONE.

When people were having to gather in public areas of the ship, staircases, etc, because their rooms are uninhabitable and they're scared to death, there absolutely should have been ship Officers, crew members, Fun Staff, someone, ANYONE making themselves visible in those areas to keep people calm so that they, like myself, didn't feel like they were completely alone. 

I'm getting really frustrated by people who weren't there, cheerleading for Carnival and dismissing what we went through as "oh, it's a storm, it happens all the time, it should be expected, you were fine." 

I'm sorry, but if Princess and Royal Caribbean are capable of keeping their passengers updated during bad weather so that we feel safe and informed, in conditions 1/4 as bad as what we went through on the Sunshine, then there is no reason why the Captain of this ship couldn't have made an effort to contact us at ANY point within that 14 hour period. Inexcusable. 

5 minutes ago, mets123 said:

What if any compensation was given to the passengers onboard the cruise?

I haven't heard anything about compensation, personally. I suppose they might offer some onboard credit if pushed, but I'm still learning how serious it was. I'm starting to see some news reports and articles now from more mainstream media sources, apparently the captain knew how bad it was going to be and decided to sail directly into the eye of the storm. For me, the ramifications of everything is just now sinking in, so I'm not sure if something will be issued by Carnival in the coming days as it's starting to get media attention. 

I was on this cruise. We could barely stay in our beds from the violence of the rocking. It threw our wine glasses across the room and they shattered and we had shards of glass everywhere. This was followed by a crash so massive I thought a life boat was torn free. People were in the hallways frightened and confused, some with life jackets on. Guest services and housekeeping calls would not go through, phones weren’t working. That’s when I realized we were on our own.

I stayed on my hands and knees and picked up as much glass as I could, then we spread out those plastic covers they put on the beds to put your luggage on, onto the floor, and spread our towels over that to hopefully cover up the glass slivers. We kept our shoes on at all times in the cabin the rest of the time, even in bed. In the hallways, people were leaning out their doors or standing in the halls hanging onto the railing, no one knew what to do.

I saw a video of a group of maybe 20-25 passengers that lost their rooms to the flooding and were sleeping in the elevator bank/stairwell on deck 4. 

I saw a post in our sailing Facebook page from two people that one passenger spent the night in medical because his cabin door slammed on his finger and they had to sew it back on. (I have no idea if it was true that it was actually severed but two people said they talked to him.) 

Another person posted that they had to spend the night in the library because they lost their room. 

When we disembarked around 7pm, they were welding something up on the forward hull of the ship. It was one of those doors or hatches up high on the hull, I don't know what it goes to, but the door/hatch was open and you could see the shower of sparks as they were welding something there. I had the impression that it was probably a hinge or latch that broke during the storm. I didn't realize it was unusual for them to be welding things on the hull at the moment or I would have taken video! I thought it was normal ship maintenance but I heard welding isn't normally involved in between sailings.

I actually had NO idea how bad things were on the ship when I was in it. My room was on deck 8 but my side of the ship did not experience any flooding, thank god. There was no internet until we docked in Charleston so I had no clue of the extent of what actually happened.

I think what upset everyone the most is that there was zero communication from the captain during or after the storm. As mentioned in a few articles, he made an announcement in the late afternoon that we'd be late and that the ship would be rocky so to be sure to use the hand railings. That was when things were still normal and hardly any movement from the ship at that time. After that final announcement, it was radio silence until the next day. 

When he finally did make an announcement the next day, he never acknowledged anything about what we went through the night before. Not one time.

It's a bit unnerving to me because I'm sailing on the Sunshine in May.

I just saw this article on Facebook- can't believe it's not mentioned here. It looks like it happened on Saturday.

https://wcti12.com/news/nation-world/suspicious-death-cruise-ship-carnival-sunshine-charleston-fbi-investigating

36 minutes ago, KmomChicago said:

Would that be the newer Princess ships? Sky, Enchanted and Discovery Princess?

I don't know- maybe! I've only been on one Princess ship- Ruby Princess, back in 2019. There were some things I loved about it and some things I didn't like so much: 

I would have liked to have seen a few more fun attractions like a flow rider or iFly, just for people watching. I myself would never use one, but I think they're really cool and I love to just sit and watch other people on it. I would also love to see something like the Solarium similar to Ovation or Anthem of the Seas. 

What I DID love most about it were the fun, silly games, like elevator roulette and some game they played in the atrium where they would call out a random item (like a blue wallet, or socks with stripes) and people in the audience would win that round if they had it. I thought things like that were a blast, and I went to every single one of them. Royal didn't have anything like that, and during the day I found myself missing those games. 

I'd love to see a happy medium. Icon had a lot of things that I thought were great, but it leaned too heavily towards kids. I don't know anything about the Princess ships you mentioned, but I am going to look into them now. 

I have to admit, I was excited about Icon at first, and I LOVE a lot of the new features. But it is very much geared towards children and young families. Not that there is anything wrong with that- but I hope one day they put a lot of the features like the unusual pools and cabin options on some of the other ships that have an older demographic. I am 46 and don't have kids- I'd rather sail with an older crowd.

8 minutes ago, Badatz2 said:

When I was on the Anthem it was very popular with both kids and adults.  We walked WITH the current and it pushed you along as an oncoming wave would. If you picked up your feet, there was a great feeling as you were forced forward. 

Enjoy

Was it only at the outside pool or did they have one at the indoor pool as well? Also, was it heated? 

Whoa! What is this? Is this what I think it is? It looks like a circular pool where you walk against the current, like for physical therapy or exercise. Is that correct?? And if so, do they also have one at the indoor pool area? I was on Ovation of the Seas in 2019, which I understand is the sister ship to Anthem, but I didn't see anything like this.

@publicpersona I would urge you to call them. Because it's possible that although the cruise itself might not be canceled (as indicated by other posts here), there might be a problem with YOUR specific booking. In which case, you should have time to rectify it now, rather than get turned away at the port due to some internal error that could have been fixed with a phonecall.

Are they doing the Pixels show in 270?

Could you take some photos of 270, Music Hall and the Solarium? 🙂

Can't wait to see more! Going on Anthem next month.

43 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

We cruised last week. We went through the effort of making reservations. They were never checked at the theater/Studio B cuz most of the shows were pretty empty. 

Who performed in the Music Hall?

I have a cruise booked for Sept 2022. It's just barely under the 1 year mark now, I think it's something like 356 days to sail or something close to that. I am anxious to book the onboard activities like North Star, Pixels, etc, but right now there is nothing listed yet. When do they release that? I assumed it gets listed at the 1 year mark but we've passed that by a few days now, and it says to keep checking back. Is there a time frame of when they release those activities? I'm also dying to know who will be playing the Music Hall. I went on this same cruise (Ovation of the Seas to Alaska) in 2019 and Pandora's Box was playing. They were an Aerosmith tribute band and it was one of the highlights of my trip. I'm REALLY hoping they'll still be there but I imagine it'll be a different band by the time I go. Hoping that someone might have some insight.