pratzert

The enjoyment of food is such a personal thing that I wouldn't hesitate to at least try something once. (Unless it was an overwhelming number of bad reviews.)

I did a Journeys cruise last year and went on it with very, very low food quality expectations

All I can say is that I was pleasantly surprised by the VAST selection and the overall quality of the food.

If you order something and don't like it, you are free to order something else. Try out a variety of foods until you find something you like. In the buffet you can take just a little to sample it. An advantage of eating at the Buffet, is that you can see the food before you take it.

Geez, there are salads, pizza, burgers, sandwiches', soups, pasta, many hot and cold selections on the buffet..... it seems endless.

In the MDR you can order TWO appetizers if you like, just to see what you might enjoy. Same thing for the entres.

I really liked the pizza. The Caesar salad was great at the pizza bar too.

The salad buffet section was really good, although I seem to hear it's been scaled down a bit.

The "Chocolate Melting Cake" is "Don't Miss"! It's fantastic with a scoop of Ice Cream.

Cruising Monkey.

Thank you very much for those posts of the menus.

Makes me look forward to our cruise in November even more!

We sailed on the Mardi Gras out of Baltimore to Bermuda on 1978.

The crew and service were great!

funny, I thought it was a Steakhouse, creamed spinach seriously? They wont miss you

Ruths Chris, Shula's, and Morton's Steakhouses are some of the most widespread and successful Steakhouses in the US.

They are noted for their creamed spinach, with copycat recipes appearing on the web.

Given your apparent culinary expertise, which side dishes do you think "belong" in a Steakhouse?

And on what facts do you base the declaration that the steakhouse would, or would not, miss someone based on their desire to consume creamed spinach?

Do you have access to some sort of marketing study to justify such a statement?

Creamed spinach was on the steakhouse menu for years on their ships, so they obviously thought it a worthy side dish.

I had my first experience with Guy's last year on the Pride. I was a NewB and assumed if I just ordered a cheeseburger, I would get a "plain" cheesebruger. But I SHOULD have ordered it "Plain". It had lettuce and raw onions on it. I learned I needed to read the menu to know what, and how, to order.

You can't get an order of onion rings, but you can order the "Ringer" with the onion ring on the side!

I LOVED the mushrooms. I don't know what they cooked the in, but I sometimes went and got some 'shrooms all by themselves.

I enjoyed all the burgers I had and never got a dry one. They were a little greasy and messy, but hey, I like 'em that way.

I am mourning the loss of the Beef Carpaccio and the escargot.

Ditto on the escargot !

With the removal of the escargot, foccacia and creamed spinach, that's enough for me to NOT do the Steakhouse again.:(

You can order a "Steak House Lobster" to be served in the MDR as well. I think it is around $20 upcharge for an entre from the steakhouse.

We were on a 13 day Journey's cruise last year and only saw lobster on the menu once during the cruise. And yes, it was on one of the elegant nights

The "light hearted" questions directed to your son are a Child Protection thing.

Since Children traveling with adults are often not required to show identification, the check-in and security process may include a "fishing" type question to make sure your are not abducting the child.

Don't take offense, think of it as a good thing, it's for the childs protection. :p

The wine is Santa Carolina, a Chilean wine. The red is a merlot and the white is, I believe, a chardonnay. They are comparable to many $8-10 bottles you will find in stores. Some have found the quality lacking, while some are just fine with it. Pretty much the reviews you would expect from a wine in that price range.

We ate at the Steakhouse the first night of the cruise to take advantage of the "free" bottle of wine.

We asked our waitress which one she recommended, white or red, and she said very coldly and with a stone face "Neither!". Alrightythen......

We got the red and we thought it was fine......

We taking the Journeys cruise this November and my wife will be happy they have added Dover Sole to the menu.

But we're both disappointed they removed escargot from the appetizer list.

I carry my pills in a weekly divided pill box and take a picture of each of my Rx bottles so I have the Rx info on my phone.

But I have never been questioned at all.

Any word on the Soda Package?

I used the free CCL lanyard from the casino on my last cruise.

WARNING: The colors leach out of the lanyard and can stain your clothing.

I had the red lanyard and when it got a little wet, the red color stained my light colored shirt and I could not get it out no matter what detergent I used, even after washing it 4 times.

I finally gave up and accepted the fact I ruined the shirt. :mad:

So I will take my own lanyard on our next cruise.

I took a pretty large insulated mug and filled it with ice. I tried to always go to the same bar and bartender and made sure to tip a buck every time I got my soda.

I think the official policy is to give you a glass of soda.

On the second day, the bartender said to just give him the mug and he would fill it.

BTW... I still continued to tip him extra throughout the cruise.

A couple of bucks extra here and there goes a long way. They do work hard for their money.

We were on the Pride last January and the Karaoke sound system was pretty bad.

It was more like a public PA system than an entertainment sound system.

They did not have Karaoke every night either, just some nights.

Hmm, no snails for an appetizer. I'm sure I can cheer myself up with the beef tartare or pork belly! Looks delicious.

I will really miss the Escargot.

Our guide said it was a "Local" law.

This was our second trip to Tulum. We vacationed in Playa Del Carmen and did Tulum and Xel-Ha. It was about 6 years ago. There wasn't any extra "Tax/Charge" to take picures at that time.

I don't know when they started assessing the charge.

I recall on our most recent visit, that you could buy a permit, or "buy" one of their disposable cameras to use for a hefty price.

Xel-Ha was Fantastic !

I should have added it was a Carnival excursion, not private.

Don't go to eat or buy the things Angel will try to sell you. Buyer beware

EXACTLY! We did this tour during our Journeys cruise early in the year and it was a CONSTANT hard sell by Angel (tour guide) of so many things non-stop.

Angel will "give" you a free photo of you getting off the bus, and then want to sell you a $40 memory book to put it in. The book is about 6 pages of photos of Tulum that you an find anywhere. (try google).

Next, Angel will try to get yo to buy a "ride" on the cable skyway. It was something like $6-8 per person and total unnecessary.. The walk to the entrance was 2-3 minutes.

There were people in costumes walking around and they would stand next to you to take a picture and then harass you to give them $20 for them standing next to you.

Oh..... be forewarned hat you cannot take ANY photographs or videos while in Tulum unless you "buy" a permit. Angel then threatens that you may get arrested and fined if you are caught taking a photo with your cell phone.

No one will tell you that until you get there.

It was a complete turn-off. Why not just add the cost to the price of the ticket?

It's a shame, it seemed like a real "nickel and dime" thing to do.

BTW.. Tulum is interesting and beautiful, but the overall experience was extremely disappointing.

Thanks All.

I guess the best thing to do is constantly check to see if it's available.

It's a PIA... but that's seem the only solution.

Thanks.

Maybe it's whenever the staff get around to posting it on the web site?

Hi.

I have a question for all you very experienced Carnival Line Cruisers.

How far in advance does the "Arrival/Check-In" time open up prior to your cruise departure date?

I have heard 90 days in advance, 6 moths in advance and 7 months in advance.

I know I can fill out the passenger information sheets as soon as the booking is on the web site, but I wan to be sure to get as early of an arrival/boarding time as I can when it's open to choose it.

Thanks for the info.....

We received only ONE survey via email, even though we had 2 in the cabin. I guess that's SOP.

We got a couple of "Free" lanyards in the casino.

But.... be warned..... when mine got wet, it stained my shirt pretty badly.

When we got home, we tried Oxyclean & , Spray-n-Wash, and washed the shirt 4 times and the stain lightened up a little, but would not come out.

You may be better off taking along your own quality lanyard rather than risk messing up your clothing.

Steve was the CD on our Journey's cruise Jan. 2nd.

He was friendly enough, was nearly always on the go and seemed to be involved.

We followed him and the Fun Crew around on a bar crawl the first night of the cruise, and we had great time with him. :D

It's not an easy job, and I think he did fine.