SERK

They can be together with a doctor’s recommendation.  Our friends have two kids that are in different kid club age groups and Carnival allows them together because one is special needs and doctor recommends them together. 

Travelers who don’t need a passport on a closed loop cruise would think differently if they had some sort of emergency that caused them to stay outside U.S. and miss the ship. Then they will need one to fly back. Think of it as added insurance. Without one while stranded complicates everything. 

1 hour ago, scuba_ninja said:

Last sea day is the worst. It means I have to go back to real life soon. But. I did do the behind the fun tour at it was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  With some extra !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Sadly, no pictures, so I'll just write about it. You have to sign up right away when you first board. It sells out quickly. It cost us $95 a person and was well worth it. You get an amazing 4 hour tour and you also get a few pics. One of the group at the very bow of the ship and one on the ship with the captain. And a hat, lanyard bag thing and a soap carving. 

 

We saw behind the scenes in the theater, A galley, the bridge, the engine control room, the storage areas, garbage areas, the office of the HR director on the ship (he was the one who led our tour), crew dining/cabins/bar, the laundry areas and i'm sure i"m forgetting something else. Really amazing what you learn. I feel like in order to make diamond level, you should be required to take one of these tours so you can see how the staff really live before you get all cranky and entitled. 

 

It's amazing how much of a floating city even an older, smaller ship is. The crew, other than the captain were all so happy to answer questions and were clearly passionate about their jobs. The captain was as huggable as a cactus and was completely disinterested in us. Sad really. Even in his announcements though every morning this guy sounded as happy and energetic as a mortician. Maybe it was just our sailings because he's probably under a lot of pressure since the uhhhhh.... incident. 

 

You learn amazing things like the fact that they make 500 pounds of bacon a day on the ship. And that the crew bar rates are 25¢ for a bottle of wine! I was really happy that the people we met with were so open about their lives and about any question we asked. What a great experience. There is so much that happens behind the scenes on these ships to make sure we all have a great vacation. The tour is fairly active and NOT handicapped accessible. But man, if you can do it, DO IT! No part of the tour was boring and I gained a real appreciation for what happens every day. If anything, I feel like this makes me want to give a lot more in tips. And I did. I gave my room steward a little extra and I gave some to a few fun squad folks who rocked. 

 

I used to work on big science vessels so seeing how this one operated was cool for me. I loved seeing the engine control room and talking to the engineers about the water makers and some other neat stuff on the ship. The folks who work in these positions are no dummies. 

Totally agree about the behind the fun tour.  We did it on the Dream last year for first time and yes...it was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!  Fortunately for us, our ships (boats 😜) Captain was very friendly and took a bunch of pictures both groups and individually with us.  We definitely feel the same way about tipping.  These people work their butts off so we can have a great vacation while they are half a world away from family.  We tip our waiters in MDR, room steward, bar tenders etc. Tipping is the main reason we bring actual cash on board.  What we have leftover goes towards port of call T-Shirts, etc.  

Great review of your vacation and we are looking forward to our Glory trip next month.  I wish we were making a stop in Grand Cayman because I would totally get your better half the shirt she missed out. 

Just use a passport.  They good for 10 years for a cost of about $15 a year.

Our best CD was Jase Apps on the Dream a few years ago.  He was all over the ship everyday and interacting with everyone.  He even came by our table in the MDR one night.  We will have Cookie as our CD in a few weeks on the Glory and hear he is awesome too.

16 hours ago, Cherries Jubilee said:

We tried several of the menu items. The crab legs were pretty good. I enjoyed the lobster roll but my family thought it was just ok. It definitely had more mayonnaise in it than the ones around here do but it had plenty of meat and good flavor. I would eat it again. The fried seafood platter was too oily and not very flavorful. In our case the shrimp were almost all puffed breading and nearly identical to the free ones that they serve in the buffet. I’ve seen vlogs/reviews  where the breading on the shrimp looked completely different from what we had so I’m not sure what you’d get. The crab cakes had too much dill and maybe even too much of something else. The free one in the main dining room was significantly better. It was our least favorite of everything we tried. The fries were also a little oily but they weren’t terrible. I’m including some pictures for you as well. Enjoy!

I gotta admit the crab legs in this picture look like they are well seasoned.  I might have to try them on next cruise.

I've had the Seafood Shack on the Dream and can definitely recommend the Lobster Roll.  Haven't had anything else.  I was tempted to try the crab legs and shrimp but thought they probably don't boil them in the good spicy seasonings we do in Louisiana. 

58 minutes ago, mexicobob said:

Waiting…………….

Looking to book a cruise on the Glory and value your opinion. Many negative reviews out there that basically say the ship is a garbage dump with sewage running everywhere. Your pictures sure do not portray that. 

Look forward to the rest of your review. Hope you have not forgot about us.

Yes! I know scuba ninja was gonna tell us later about the Glory.  We are leaving on Glory for 2 weeks next month and curious.  I watched a full video review on youtube that was made on the ship earlier last year and it looked pretty good. Our last 3 cruises were on the Dream.

We may have to go over some rules if we give her permission to sign out such as only for the scavenger hunts.  Thanks for the info.

Our daughter will be entering the CO Sharks on our cruise next month as she is now 9 years old.  I've read where they go on Scavenger Hunts in this age group and they can also sign in/out themselves with parent permission.  Do they NEED this permission in order to participate in the Scavenger Hunts?

We booked a cruise for Nov. 2020 last month and the FTTF was already sold out.

2 hours ago, coevan said:

love the Cays of Belize, Belize City not so much

We loved the Cays too and Roatan has always put a smile on our faces when we visit. 

I wish the teens on our Christmas cruise a couple years ago were as well behaved as ya'lls kids.  They were running around like animals knocking into people, hitting all the elevator buttons, throwing objects from the top floor down into the main lobby  and one night there was a group by the elevators near the lobby were cussing up a storm.  That will be the first and last Christmas cruise for us.  Think there were around 900 kids on board the Dream then.  The Thanksgiving cruises were pretty good with most kids well behaving.  

I'll stick with Blue Iguana Cantina for breakfast/lunch with the occasional Lobster Roll at seafood shack.  With the exception of Steak and Eggs, most of that doesn't sound appetizing and the pictures are gross. 

I noticed Aruba and Bonaire are still available on the Journeys out of NOLA for the 2020-2021.  Strange they are deleting some others for these locations.

Everyone should get the proper credit for the cruises they have done.  I didn't start cruising until I was 35 yrs old and I didn't even pay attention to the colors of sail and sign cards or even knew there was such a color ranking thing at the time.  I simply just enjoyed the heck out of it and introduced my fiancee to cruising 2 years later and she was 32 on her first.  I consider our daughter, who is 9, very lucky to be doing and seeing more than her parents did at her age.

I just made a reservation for our upcoming cruise in February for the first night.  It said it would send a confirmation email but it never did.  A few days went by and still nothing hit my CC and the booking planner on website had everything we paid for but the steakhouse reservation.  I called Carnival Corp. to find out there wasn't some crazy website glitch that screwed me and they said they saw it on their end but said it should have showed up on our planner.  The guy was friendly and admitted they have been having trouble with the website and would email me the confirmation and stayed on the line to be sure I received it which I did.

We love FTTF but the next 2 cruise bookings we have its already sold out.  Even the one we booked almost a year out.  They used to not sell out as fast a few years ago.  I guess the good word is out on it.  Oh well, a couple more cruises after this year and will be Platinum anyway. 

An extra day is always better!

Still enjoying the review!  I read where you didn't care much for the breakfast at the buffet.  Have you tried Blue Iguana Cantina? They open for breakfast and make an excellent breakfast burrito to your liking and they don't try to sell you pot. 🙂 

1 hour ago, kids1stcruise said:

It’s sad they can’t get it together in the Piano bar!

it can be So Much Fun with the person singing along at the piano

we always have/had a good time at night before the adult comedy show.

i love going in and having a drink but the last cruise the guy was Bad...and 

actually wasn’t even open on a few nights

I know what you mean. We’ve had subpar pianists on most of our cruises. I keep comparing them to the ones that work at Pat O’Briens piano bar in NOLA. Maybe Carnival should hire them. They would rock the ship! 

2 hours ago, BigEasyCC said:

Noticed in your pictures of the theater that the old 1st floor layout remains. Great! Once the ship goes into dry dock it will probably be ripped out and those awful moveable chairs will be put in their place. I like the bench seating and cocktail tables! I really enjoy seeing my 6'5" husband be comfortable and not crammed into tiny rows. Oh well, we'll appreciate the old set up when we cruise in May.

 

I couldn't agree more.  I hate what they did to the former Triumph theater.  They made it smaller and took out the cocktail tables. Horrible design choice.

3 minutes ago, heffy2 said:

I went on a Journeys cruise on Fantasy a few years ago to the Panama Canal. It was my best cruise ever due to the canal and the wonderful people I sailed with. The throwback sea day was cool, but the 6 total sea says in the 10 night cruise is what made it really wonderful. I'm off on the Glory in 24 days with a few of my favorite people from the Fantasy cruise. This will be my longest cruise ever at 14 nights. 

We are leaving on the same cruise on the Glory! We are so looking forward to it we keep counting the days.

We are not going on our Journey cruise for anything other than to be at sea longer and go to new places.  Any extras they throw at us will just be a bonus.

1 hour ago, hockeyluver said:

You can't unfortunately s once you went with a TA.  Call them and make sure your booking are linked.  We travel with a couple couples and we make sure when we book we have each other's booking numbers so we can get them linked.

Well crap...ok.  Will call tomorrow to be sure they didn't screw it up AGAIN.  I'm thinking about booking these myself in future.