tensixmom

4 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

If you want to throw your money away, you should be able to cancel online, assuming you have an account on carnival.com.

I don't want to, but I would feel weird going alone!

Is it possible to reach Carnival online or by email to cancel, or must one call them?  

My husband is not happy with the change in the mask requirements so it seems our quick getaway cruise mid-January will not be happening.

Don't know how common they are but I was given a chocolate straw (very heavy!) for my iced coffee on the Miracle last weekend.  I was able to drink the entire drink without it getting soggy but I didn't hang onto it long enough to actually taste it.

Hi all,

I just wanted to post some thoughts on the Miracle.  We sailed her on a short 3-day out of San Diego, leaving last Friday and returning yesterday morning.

This is technically my 4th cruise overall- the first was on Royal Carribean so many years ago I can't remember it, then the Carnival Imagination (or Inspiration... I get them confused) almost 4 years ago, Ruby Princess in March 2019, and then this one.  We tried an inside cabin for the first time to see if I could stand it (prior cruises all had at least a window) and we knew it would be a "booze cruise" type experience but we just wanted to get away for the weekend.

We flew from PHX to SAN and walked the 2.2 miles from the airport to the cruise terminal (we were carrying only regular sized backpacks so no luggage to speak of).

Overall, I do prefer the decor of the Ruby Princess to either of the Carnival ships I've seen.  I thought the Princess atrium/piazza was more elegant and so was the Princess theater.  I did not care for the Phantom theater or the Mad Hatter area on Miracle at all.

The entertainment on Miracle was, IMO, far and away better than what we saw on the Ruby.  Those 8 young people sang and danced their hearts out and they were really very good- no off key notes or half-hearted performances.  We saw an 80's rock and roll type show, a "piano" (keyboard) heavy show, and a 60's beach party type show.  All three were very very good.

The Alchemy Bar (recommended by several on a Carnival social media group I visit) was not decorated in a very exciting manner but it had unique drinks that my husband appreciated (well, he appreciated being able to get one with Absinthe, which I despise), and we enjoyed the bar staff very much.  That was the one lounge we kept going back to.

The interior room was fine and I didn't get claustrophobic.  We were in 6201 which was a middle-ish deck in the middle-ish of the ship.  The only downside (and this surprised me as I thought we were high up enough to avoid any such thing) was that there was a constant, yet intermittent (if that makes sense) vibration that I could feel when I was trying to sleep.  It actually felt like my husband's leg was twitching... about 3 times in a row, pause for a couple seconds, and then it did it again.  I have trouble falling asleep with that type of movement, so that was a minor annoyance.

Out of three nights, we had dinner in Nick and Nora's Steakhouse the first night (that was unplanned... the first night comes with a bottle of wine.  We don't drink wine so we had planned to take it with us and give it away to some young couple but we weren't allowed to remove it from the restaurant so that was a bust).  Our steaks (cowboy something for my husband and the filet for me) were VERY good.  The sides (mac and cheese, fries with smoked paprika, and garlic rapini) were just OK.  We got the "art" dessert and had an enjoyable time with that although flavor wise, I would not get it again.

Second night we had the Chef's Table dinner.  We aren't sure if they were a bit disorganized or perhaps inexperienced- but we had a good time.  I was not expecting to eat in Frankenstein's Night Club but that's where we were!  I might do it again on a different ship. 

We never got around to eating in the MDR which was OK with me because we went to visit it and I found the decor to be a bit over the top, which was an ongoing theme with me.  Still, most of the decor was better than the black ceilings and neon on my last Carnival cruise!

Overall we had a really good time and we would do that cruise on that ship again.

Shoot, I never got a confirmation email and I closed the browser window when I made the reservation.  That's probably not good.

ETA:  Just was able to call them (thankfully they're open on Sundays) and while they saw it on my account, they had to resend the email.

Thanks all for letting me know I needed the email!

Ok then it seems this is a normal occurrence. Thank you!

Hi, I'm not all that familiar with the Carnival Website, so I am looking to see if others have had a similar experience.

I have just a short 3 day cruise booked for January and I thought it would be fun to add the Chef's Table, at $75/pp (this is the Miracle).  I added it through the website, and I've had the charge show as "Pending" on my credit card for the last three days (which seems like a long time).

The Chef's Table is not showing on my cruise planner, or anywhere I can find it on my reservation info.  I have no confirmation letter/number (and I didn't screen shot the page where it showed I booked it... shame on me).

Can anyone with experience booking this tell me if this is normal?  I did notice the Chef's Table is now $95/pp so I am not sure if the price goes up the closer to departure we get?

There is no online help available and I work nights so calling them during business hours is difficult, so I thought I would check with the experts here.

Thank you!

Thanks for this review... we are just doing a quick three day at the beginning of the year and don't have a ton of experience cruising so we are looking forward to it!  The only other ships we've been on are the Inspiration and the Ruby Princess.

12 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

are you tied to doing award flights

  AA fly to FLL  nonstop  .. FLL  return has a connection

i just put in random dates  so check out the dates you need

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/#search:research=PHXFLL-FLLPHX

 

That's a really neat tool!  Thanks!  I didn't even know such a thing existed!

I'd say I would ONLY fly out there if I could do award travel, or pay an inexpensive fare without having to take roughly 20 hours each way.  I'm on limited vacation time as it is so flying to Florida was going to be a long shot, regardless.  It just occurred to me once I looked up the departure port that I had no idea what I was doing!

Thanks again!

@LHT28 and @Ashland thank you.  Specifically I was looking at award travel on American (from PHX) which was limiting me (all of those flights were only flying into MIA).

Flights seem very expensive!  (Looking at early January).  Will keep your information in mind; thanks very much!

Hi all,

I'm not super new to cruising but I've only done west coast departures.  I am looking at a cruise that leaves from Fort Lauderdale but I cannot find any flights into that airport (perhaps it is small?)  All the flights I found go into Miami (MIA).  Is this the norm for those of you who fly into Florida and depart from Fort Lauderdale?  It looks like it's only supposed to be a 30-ish minute drive from MIA to the Ft Lauderdale cruise terminal.  How do you get there?  Taxi/uber?

Thanks for any info you can provide.

There was still a round glass topped table in our room on this cruise. 

Thank you Bob! It was so nice to meet you and Holli and so good to run into you a couple of times on board!

We made our future cruise deposits and will be looking to Hawaii for our next one.  (Not any time soon, unfortunately). I’ll be keeping up with you here on CC!

Just wanted to add a couple photos we took today in SD

10 minutes ago, Kartgv said:

Just guessing - never thought about it, as in over 30 cruises we've never had luggage delivered inside the cabin.   The luggage is delivered by staff that would not have access to the cabins.   Since delivery is random depending on how they load thousands of items, requiring a cabin steward or other category of employee who would have access would be difficult.    There's never been a problem as far as we know.   Maybe suites might get their luggage placed inside if there's a butler available nearby at the time of delivery.

Ah, that makes sense to me!

Thank you!

On 3/2/2019 at 9:57 PM, Kartgv said:

Cruise just completed (Ruby out of San Pedro) we boarded around 11:30, rooms ready at 1:00, luggage was already waiting in the hall when we got to the room.   

Here is a perhaps silly question.

Why is the luggage left outside instead of them taking it in?  Clearly the ship has access to all the cabins...  Is it just a time thing? 

1 hour ago, Scottygirl1 said:

 

Also the Australian one includes tips whereas the US one has them added on.

Thank you!

7 minutes ago, Geoffa30 said:

 

One is in Australian Dollars (higher) and the other US Dollars (lower).

OH!  Thank you so much *blushing from embarrassment*

I"m sorry to be dumb, but the first set from the Sea Princess seem MUCH higher ... are the drinks that drastically different from ship to ship, or am I looking at two completely different things here?  (newbie)

Thank you all for the very helpful information!

I am getting ready to book this for our cruise next month.

What do you all recommend as to what day/night of a 7 day California Coastal to do it?  Would it be best to do it on an at sea day (night) or a port day (night) or does it matter?  It's an aft balcony if that makes any difference with regard to wind (or lack thereof)... I'd love to hear your opinions!

Thank you!

Does anyone know, if neither of us drinks wine or champagne, what (if any) substitutes we might get?

Thank you!

On 2/12/2019 at 12:02 AM, MsSoCalCruiser said:

🙌🏻 Which Ruby cruise will you be on?  My cruise is 3/10/19 😊

Mine too!  I am on the Roll Call!

Haven't been on Princess yet but I will be for the first time in less than a month!  Ruby Princess. Really looking forward to it.

On 12/26/2018 at 10:33 AM, Thrak said:

 

If you only drink "punch" drinks and your husband is the one who will be getting the fresh brewed coffee I would get the package in his name. That way there is no issue if he orders fresh brewed and foo foo coffee. If the card is in your name then only you are supposed to be able to get fresh brewed without using a "punch".

Thank you!