mz-s

Glad you had a good cruise and spent some time in Charleston, a very special city. What I am perhaps most amazed of is the Sunshine was the only ship in port the day you were in Nassau. How often does that happen these days? Incredible!

I remember some years ago, I think it was the Victory or maybe Valor, Carnival was taking down sections of staterooms to refresh them while the ship was in service. The process took some months but was cheaper I'm sure than drydock time.

They're supposed to be but Carnival is running their ships on a skeleton crew so who knows...

I think they messed with the document generation system to take off the priority notification on luggage, then people wigged out so they had to add it back, and ended up breaking it. And the people who designed the system have left (because Carnival offshored their IT some time ago) so nobody knows how to fix it.

Tender ports is really it - and that's assuming you're unable to go down and get an early tender ticket on your own for some reason, because if I had medical equipment to carry on I would personally just wait to board until cabins are ready anyway at 1:30. But it's everyone's decision to make for themselves. To me it's just a profit center for Carnival and provides very little actual benefit to the customer. But everyone sees these things differently I recognize.

I was on the Freedom in 2021 just as it was getting fired back up for cruising, back when we had to wear masks all the time - and the food was okay then. Carnival's food has declined severely in quality since then, and I think it's a fleetwide issue.

It's been explained to me before that call drinks (Patron Margarita in your example) is only one shot with Cheers, versus two shots of well liquor. So long as you're OK with that. I usually drink Old Fashioneds which have two shots no matter how they're made.

Yeah now that the lines aren't as bad and you don't even get your stateroom early anymore, I don't see why anybody would pay for it at today's prices.

Any time you are in Uncle Sam's waters, you're going to pay sales tax. It takes about 30, 45 minutes to get out at sea from Charleston. Other ports like Baltimore take substantially longer.

I do not know how to retrieve that information at this point. Probably not until you are onboard and can view your Folio? It's a poor change I agree.

Exception rather than the rule, but it is nice Carnival is back to removing lounges for more staterooms. It means we are back to some sort of normalcy I suppose.

Your boarding pass has the information necessary to charge things until you get your card. In case you were not aware you will pay sales tax on all purchases - including Cheers drinks - until you reach international waters. Typically 50 cents or so per drink.

If you go to booking and order details page, then view invoice details, you will see your invoice there - you can print that if you want. On board credits show on this page.

I don't think they provide that anymore, as of a few months ago. Not sure why not.

Par for the course for Carnival post-restart.

Seems like something Carnival should take a look at, if they cared about customer service.

Well first of all plastic straws are not banned by the government or anything, an inspector isn't going to say anything if they see straws. It's just that Carnival wasn't sorting them out of their food waste properly, and so they were making their way into the food slurry that they discharge into the sea. If Carnival does actually ban plastic straws, easy solution. Just sneak the straws in with your marijuana and you'll have no problems on a Carnival cruise.

https://www.carnival.com/onboard/library

You pay gratuity on the package when you purchase it, which is then paid out to the bartenders when you order a drink.

ESPECIALLY true if this is a family reunion type of thing...find a good TA or group guide or something, and give everyone that person's number. You are thinking you'll need 10 rooms, well that's before it comes down to brass tacks and people have to bust out their billfold. You might end up having 4 rooms booked. Everyone is all gung-ho to go until it's time to pay. Definitely don't book rooms on your dime.

just google "carnival stock form" it's the first result...

You really need an agent or somebody who has a lot of experience coordinating group cruises. It's a different skillset than just being a TA or what have you. If you don't know of one, then I agree with Blerk - start by calling Carnival's group sales department.

Is there a pool above you, chairs, a bar, the jumbotron, Guy's burgers? It makes a difference. In general I would want to be on a deck where there are staterooms all around me. There are some parts of Lido that have staterooms, so if you're going to be on the deck below Lido then I'd want to be under the staterooms (usually far forward).

My last cruise on her was September 2022. I am hopeful it's improved since then. It was fine (but not what I'd call good) earlier in February and May of 2022. But Carnival has been making tons of cutbacks on their food since the COVID restart and I think they may have cut too far. I read a lot of threads here and many people say the food on Carnival is now underwhelming on many ships - but few go so far as to say it's disgusting.

She is now the oldest ship in the fleet but went through a huge renovation about 10 years ago. Most public areas have been updated and maintained since and look fairly nice, but the staterooms were only lightly renovated back then and are rusty and old looking. By and large the food on the buffet was absolutely disgusting on my last cruise on her. The comedy club is poorly designed so you have to get there early if you want to be able to actually see the comedian and have a seat. The dining room food was mostly good. The casino is very smoky throughout, and everyone has to walk through it because Promenade goes right through the middle. The Serenity (adults only resort type area) is widely considered to be the best in the fleet - and I wholeheartedly agree. All this said - I'd go on Sunshine again in a heartbeat obviously. I'd just do most of my eating in the dining room, unless the buffet has improved since my last cruise.