Buckimion

You will be hear the doors to the "secret" decks slam shut constantly.

How much are they on board these days?

Depending on the itinerary, they may be sold out. I looked extensively for cruises longer than 8 days (window and balcony) and came up short repeatedly going deep into 2025. 

7 hours ago, Old Fart Cruisers said:

I don't feel bad about posting early now. 😅

Yes, both U237 & U224 are listed as fully accessible on both ships, but the bedding on Paradise is set to only be a "king" in both rooms. Most images that I had searched only show Elation and I had assumed they were both the same. Not all that important, but my wife and I try to avoid waking each other up due to bathroom trips or late night walks.

So I called...glitch was noted. Was told bedding is fixed at "king" and can't be changed, unlike the same cabin on Elation. 🫤 Not my preferred, but can make do. The agent I spoke with did link my reservations as a B2B, something that wasn't in the system yet.

Looks alright to me otherwise. 

Not freaked out and assuming its simply a glitch, but I'm booked for a B2B on the Paradise, same cabin, but leg 1 has split beds (our preferred) while the 2nd says upper/lower. Is this common?

Would you describe the embarkation / debarkation as smooth or a royal cluster?

3 hours ago, princeton123211 said:

New Orleans taxis are notoriously bad-- old, beat up cars etc. I have to think that whatever Uber is doing here with accessibility will be better than that. The only other option is to make a booking with a service that specializes in this locally. But I would not roll the dice with taxis there. 

I may not disagree over the taxis, although I saw ONE WAV once, but I was addressing the  van claim, which I've not encountered with Uber.

2 hours ago, princeton123211 said:

Uber offers an "Uber Assist" option in New Orleans with accessible vans. 

I tried that once and was sent an elderly lady in an SUV. My wife had to put my scooter in the back and I had a devil of a time getting into the back seat.

2 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

Handicap accessible doesn't necessarily mean scooter accessible. As you discovered HMC requires wheelchairs, they recommend sand wheelchairs which you can rent from Carnival for the day because the sand on HMC is very soft and a regular wheelchair or scooter can't drive through it.

Funny thing was, my wife and I had reserved a cabana, and I had requested #1 from the excursions desk immediately on boarding specifically because it has a wheelchair ramp. I was told by the desk right then that I couldn't take the scooter on board, but luckily, I was still able to walk at the time. (Very painful and no longer possible. I'd also been told I could get wheelchair assist and none was made when we gathered to board the tender.) I had no intention of going "off-road" that day, but I've been in sand with my scooters before.

Does anyone know if the Belize or Grand tenders (aka water shuttles) are handicap accessible? Carnival says a definite 'maybe' here, but I also heard the same thing about Half Moon Cay and I was told on boarding that they would not allow my scooter on the tender.

I've used airportshuttle in the past, but they no longer accept individual riders and only book groups of 10 or more. RTA, the transit authority for the area, also transports me as I hold an ADA paratransit card for my own local agency. Allow yourself about 3-4 weeks before your trip to notify them if trying that as they tried, without luck, to verify my info beyond my card. They were still quite helpful and allowed me access to their shared ride services when my agency failed to respond promptly.

In New Orleans proper, the RTA busses and most streetcars are wheelchair assessable, with the exception of the St. Charles streetcar line as they only have historical equipment.

That was my last resort, but the last time I used a PVP, he booked me into a mobility accessible room instead of a fully handicapped room and I was still green enough not to know the difference until it was too late. Not a pleasant trip.  😠

A follow up...after being locked out for about 48 hours, the messages last night changed to "Call us" for booking and was completely clear this morning. 🚢

Looking at fall of 2025 and no less than 2 different ships. 😧 (Paradise, Liberty, plus other cabins on Dream, Firenze -  both legs on all ships. Could be more, but those are the ones I keep coming back to.) I'm certain I'm locked out of any cabin I seriously considered because I stopped just short of holding the cruise but was on the final 'total' pages. But I've cleared cache and used other devices without luck. (Could be following my VIFP number, but 😕.)

I've been running mock bookings to prepare for putting deposits on B2B cruises after the 1st, but I'm finding that those that I previously looked at are now listed as sold out, even though they are still shown as available in higher categories*. Is there a 'lock' on cabins at my original price and does it clear after 'X' amount of time? I did not put any hold on the cabins right now. Do I need to try a PVP?

*Example: Booking certain ships for a "window" bumps me to a balcony. Window cabins are now showing as "sold out" but switching to a higher balcony price gets the same cabin as originally listed.

I'm considering a (Carnival) cruise out of Galveston but am having difficulty in finding wheelchair/scooter transit. I'm primarily looking at Hobby, but IAH isn't being ruled out yet. I prefer to fly in and out a day before and after my cruise but this all but eliminates the cruise ship shuttle, although I have considered claiming a flight time that leaves on the day of the cruise departure/arrival just to get to and from the airport and then using a hotel shuttle from there. Has anyone ever tried this, or are there better options? FWIW, I'm eligible to use municipal (bus) ADA paratransit, but I think the distance blocks me from going all the way from one point to another unless a transfer between system areas is possible.

Any updates on the dock damage?

5 hours ago, Moviela said:

Now if we could just ban scooters...except for people who truly need them.

 

It's not like a local grocery store where you simply hop on and go. I'm not sure if you're going to find someone who shelled out a couple hundred bucks on a rental or flew halfway across the country with their own simply because it was 'fun'. 🤬

That said, keep the drones, bring back skeet shooting. 

2 hours ago, mz-s said:

Embarkation day is come as you are all around the ship.

My wife nearly freaked out at our first steakhouse experience on Valor, but relaxed when she saw someone else wearing a Skynyrd t-shirt and a rebel hat.

The poster in John's message noted that they were handicapped. Quite a few of the handicap rooms on the old Triumph/Conquest class ships (and I assume others) are forward by the hidden balconies. We had an accessible balcony cabin on Valor and a 4J on Triumph that was right by the door the outside and that thing slammed day and night, not by the same person, but by different visitors.

1 hour ago, chadci said:

What kind of music is played in Alaska on the ship? I can’t quite imagine the usual Caribbean calypso. 

"Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow" by Frank Zappa.  🦮

9 hours ago, jmu82 said:

And for those of you that want to do laundry without the free perk, there are washers and dryers on the ships (although not sure about the newer ships...may want to verify that with any ship you are going on).  It's pricey to have them do your laundry if you aren't Platinum or Diamond!

Unfortunately, I'm in a wheelchair and none of the laundry rooms I have found yet are wheelchair accessible. I've usually gotten away with hand washing on a 5-day cruise, but we have a 10 day to Alaska coming up and I see us doing laundry a couple of times.