Eli_6

There is a video on John Heald's page from corporate about the Venezia and Frienze (sp?) and I thought they said it would have a minibar.

Anyone hear when she will be ready to sail for Carnival? And if there will be a transatlantic?

John Heald told me Europe 2021 was definitely sailing less than two weeks before it was canceled. The only thing that makes me think it may not cancel is that they did recently add additional excursions about 2-3 weeks ago that were not on there before and I don't know why they would do that if they were just going to turn around and cancel them. I am on that same sailing and already have decided that I will switch to Venezia TA if it cancels.

Paint! Bigger TV's, please! And update the cabins! Paint the balconies or do something so they don't look so dirty and in disrepair. The common areas didn't bother me, but some of the cabins are in rough shape. The shower in our Vista suite didn't work the entire time even after three visits by maintenance. We gave up after that. And my son's cabin next to our suite was in terrible shape.

That sounds cool! I am wondering how the spritz bar will work, though...

100 percent agree!

When I went on a Christmas cruise in December 2019, I said that I would absolutely NEVER do another Christmas cruise. I went back on my word and cruised right before Christmas last year and it was fun...BUT the boat was still sailing at partial capacity.

The one in Belfast, Northern Ireland was not tender and in one of the stops in the Orkney Islands (the islands far north of Scotland)...either the Isle of Lewis or Isle of Sky. I can't recall which one, though. One was a tender port and one had a dock. Edinburgh, Wales, Dublin, and the other port in the Orkney Islands were all tender. I think most of the ports in Iceland are tender as well. From what I heard from people on the ship, the Iceland cruise had even more problems with tender waits than our cruise. The med cruises apparently don't have this problem, though, as most of them are not tender ports. The problem was that ALL Carnival had to transport passengers from the ship to shore were a couple of the life boats off the ship that were not very big. And, in a couple of instances, it was a 20 minutes or so boat ride into the port. Plus, a lot of the passengers on the Europe cruises are older or mobility impaired and take a long time to load and unload...and they have to deal with their chairs, scooters, walkers, etc. Not bashing anyone for that because my mother is the same way, but just explaining that is why it sometimes takes awhile to load and unload the tenders.

Also, you might need to consider how entering/leaving a foreign country works with debarking a ship early. Doing it in Mexico probably isn't that big of a deal because people got back and forth all the time since we share a border (I used to live in Laredo), but it may be a totally different situation in an Asian country.

When I had my inaugural Mardi Gras cancelled, we got FCC on the entire cost of our sailing even though we had only paid the deposit.

I went on that cruise this summer. Lots of problems with the tenders and all but two of the ports are tender ports. Make sure you are either Platinum/Diamond or have a suite...and get to the lounge EARLY to get your tender ticket...as in, if you are supposed to be at the lounge from 7 am to 8 am, be lined up at 6 am. Make sure you get on one of the first tenders. Otherwise, you may not get off the boat until noon.

I got this letter in my email along with my 25% FCC and I am not even booked on this cruise...very strange. Very strange indeed. I was "thinking" about booking it, but when I checked it was sold out.

People debarked early on my carnival cruise this summer on the Pride. A whole slew of them got off in Ireland because they were loading on the tenders with their luggage. I asked how they were able to do this and the reply was that there flight out of London Heathrow (ship debarked in Dover) was canceled and they could only get a flight out of Ireland. I found that explanation a little suspicious because I doubt it would be "easier" to get a flight out of Ireland than out of London which has three airports. Also, my husband and I debarked early in Mexico once about 15 years ago to fly back to Texas because of illness. As others have suggested, worst case scenario--I suspect that you could say there was a family illness or death and you needed to debark early. Now the only problem I could see with this is if they asked to see your airline tickets and then noticed they were for a week later...

Costa is owned by Carnival Corp. She has the same layout/design as the Carnival "Vista" class so I would expect her internet would be the same. We have been on Vista class three times and generally had good internet (except for on one Christmas cruise right after reopen where I think maybe there was something else going on) so I expect your internet would be decent except for in the middle of the ocean because I don't know if there will be many satellites that are aimed at that region. I also know we have satellite internet at my lake house and whenever it is raining or overcast, we often have trouble with it. With that said, I am no "techy" and I don't exactly know how satellite internet works other than very vaguely. Also, when we have been on cruises in the far North, our internet seemed to be slow so that might be somewhat comparable to being in the middle of the North Atlantic. One to Alaska and another to the far northern Scottish Isles which I think is even further north than Southern Alaska...actually, I don't even recall having a problem in Alaska but I do when we were up in the Orkney Islands which are really quite far towards the top of the world. However, we were also on the Pride which is a 20+ year old ship.

In my experience, they allowed my husband and my minor son to board with me when they were in an adjoining balcony room to me and my other minor son who were in a Vista Suite. However, this was probably at the discretion of the port authorities and husband/wife with two little kids in adjoining rooms is a little different than friends.

She is not brand new, but is in the Vista class. In my experience (not on a TA), internet is pretty decent on Vista class and Mardi Gras...but pretty poor on anything older. However, I have never done a TA. I doubt it would be great when you are in the middle of the Atlantic.

Good to know!

For me, I don't find it is worth it because my husband doesn't drink much and then I find myself trying to drink enough to make it worth it for both of us...which means I drink more than I usually would. It depends on what you drink, but in general I think you have to average 6-7 drinks per person per day to make it worth it. When I have not purchased the Cheers package, I have never drank enough where I would have been better off having purchased it. I also have found that at time I felt like the drinks were watered down or had a hard time getting a drink. This isn't specific to the Cheers package and it isn't on all cruises. I just know specifically I was on a Christmas cruise one time (pre-Covid) where we were at or above capacity on the Vista and I felt like the only way I could get a buzz was to drink Champagne or wine because anything that was a mixed drink seemed like it had very little alcohol in it. Also, there were so many people and not enough staff that it was hard to even get a drink. I had that same feeling one time on a 4 day cruise to Mexico from Galveston. With that said, I never felt that way on, for example, my Europe cruise or my Alaskan cruise. I think it probably depends heavily on the crowd you are cruising with.

I am seriously contemplating this because this ship looks awesome and the Pride is "meh." I am going to call British Airways on Monday and see if they would let me keep my flight out there and refund my trip back or let me have a future flight credit for my trip back.

Hmmm.....now that I am looking at the Venezia TA, I almost think I like it better.

It isn't just the airfare. My husband is a physician who owns his own practice. He has already arranged alternative coverage for those two weeks. This is not an easy thing to do. And I am working on my dissertation and have to stop by the Cambridge library because a document relevant to my research is there (medieval) so I combined this trip with that since I will already be in England...although, I technically could also stop by Cambridge before the cruise since we fly through London no matter what. The Venezia takes off the next day so we will be changing our ship if they cancel the Pride. Or, alternatively, I found an MSC ship that has an opening in their yacht club out of Barcelona on May 30th. Still, I wish they would let us know NOW if they already know they are going to cancel so I could either switch to the Venezia before she books up or book that cruise on MSC. Part of me thinks maybe I should just go ahead and book one or the other and risk losing the deposit because having had so many cruises canceled with Carnival before, this is the same exact scenario they typically follow before the cancel. I had a 7 day on the Vista canceled by Carnival pre-Covid and a T/A on the Mardi Gras pre-Covid canceled before...and two years of Europe sailings canceled for Covid. They actually did this to me before where John Heald was saying "Europe 2021 is definitely going forward" and I booked airfare...and they they canceled like 2 weeks later. Fortunately, British Airways gave me a refund.

On no!!!!! I already have 4 business class roundtrip airfare tickets (and 4 from London to Barcelona) booked for that cruise. I am going to not be happy if they cancel at this late date because I have a lot of money in airfare already tied up.

Probably because those of us who like to cruise there are doing it for the ports. But I am with you...I really wish they would send a better ship than Pride over there. I have not been on Legend so it may be better. When I was on Splendor this past summer, I thought she was in much better shape than the Pride...albeit, she is about 8 years younger, I think.

I noticed the Pride is now in Baltimore for summer 2024 so I am wondering if: 1) Will Carnival do Euorpe 2024 at all? and 2) If they do, what boat will be sailing there? If anyone has the scoop, please share.

Just read the article...maybe he wasn't drunk. Maybe he was high.