ChrisCJR

The thing is that these expenses are optional.  If you don’t like it, say no.  If enough people do Carnival will either lower the price or stop offering it entirely. 

At some point, it'd cost them more to stock it.  Probably not anywhere close yet.

This company sure does operate in interesting ways.  Seems like Princess is a step a head of Carnival each time even though Princess has the longer itineraries on average.

No doubt, it's coming to most lines soon.  Norwegian already did it.  RCI and Carnival are probably just a couple weeks away, if not sooner.

Awesome!  Hope you have a lot of fun!

Freedom and the other Conquest class ships are nice too, but Magic is just a touch more modern in its design.  Two electrical outlets in the room, more activities (ropes course, thermal suites, lanai, etc). 

I think Conquest class ships are perfect for shorter cruises, but something like the Magic will be appreciated for anything longer than four days.  

Can anyone comment on the pizza line recently after 11pm?  It was pretty bad earlier this year, curious if they're doing a better job moving the line. 

It was probably about an hour earlier this year if you went at the wrong time.  They'd make a few pizzas, a few people would take them all, and then it'd be another 10-20 minutes before they'd get to the next few groups since there was a maximum of two people working, often just one.

We have T-Mobile and get free data in port.  It's pretty easy to go a day or two without no internet on a cruise, only have used ship internet a couple of times and wasn't overly impressed. 

Heck one time, we passed by Freeport on a Sea Day I got a 4G LTE signal from the ship.  Probably got better service than the ship's own internet too.  I've never had roaming charges and have been very satisfied so far.  More and more places keep upgrading their towers too, which makes it easier to use.  Then there's also places providing wifi in port, sometimes for free.

On 8/24/2022 at 11:30 AM, Seadweller001 said:

100% easier and convenient than Miami.

We actually moved a cruise from Miami to Port Canaveral for that exact reason.  From Orlando, Canaveral is significantly closer, but so much less stressful driving around. 

An added bonus is that it's also way cheaper per day, especially if you were cruising on RCI, which Miami charges extra for.  Offsite options are better (and safer) too, although the deals are quite as good as they used to be.  For that reason, we started parking onsite, just because we felt the convenience was worth the small difference in price. 

Offsite used to be a quarter of the cost, now it's about 75%ish, which just isn't worth it to us.  Although Park Port Canaveral has a special right now if your cruise is seven nights, our next one is six, so it's not happening for us.  Will say, they're our favorite of the offsite places though (because it's paved lot vs grass or gravel).

I also got a quick conversation from Disney Castaway Club Platinum to Diamond.  Very quick and easy today.

1 hour ago, Saint Greg said:

 

I just got off of Magic yesterday and I would say there were two movies most days. Let me make sure.

Day 1: The lost city and Dune

Day 2: The Batman

Day 3: Fantastic Beasts and The unbearable weight of massive talent (with a deck party in between)

Day 4: Vivo and Jurassic World

Day 5: Elvis

 

We had two movies every day except for the Batman and Elvis days. Those are 3 hour movies.

 

Great to hear that they're back!  Thank you for sharing, I know a few people will be really happy to hear this, we'll be on Carnival Magic this November.

Our last one - when this joke was made-  was on Carnival Liberty, hopefully they brought them back on her as well.  That one is definitely a theater too, with its stadium seating.  She's definitely a favorite for that reason.  That and the enclosable aft pool, which is great when the weather's colder or rainy.

37 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

 

It was a silly statement that deck parties should be held in the night club.

 

I mean, in context, it was a joke.  I even said, "A member of our party joked".  So - it was supposed to be a silly statement, that was the intention.

They weren't actually saying though, that Carnival shouldn't do deck parties, but that they should do a second movie, like they used to.  Move the deck party later, or in between the movies, and let people use the night clubs during the movie.  That's what they were saying, in context.

They don't care if Carnival has deck parties, pretty much all cruise lines do.  However, the reason we were given that night as to why they weren't doing a second film, was because there was a deck party.  They could have had both.  Was never an issue pre-2020.  

Just now, Saint Greg said:

 

It's also called the lido deck. For deck parties. If you think you can fit all of the people who go to deck parties in the night club you've never been to a deck party.

Not wanting to argue, it's coming across that way from you.  It's not necessary.

The point is - before the pandemic - they used to do two movies a night.  They no longer are.  We wish they would return.

My family would be completely happy if they did a movie inside the theater, where kids aren't playing Marco Polo.  Unfortunately, that's not an option at the moment.  However, the night clubs are, for people who want to dance. 

If Carnival wants to make it an option, we'd be OK with that over nothing.  Although, we'd much rather it go to the way it was pre-pandemic.

On 9/4/2022 at 6:15 PM, Saint Greg said:

or a place for movies..like a theater.

 

That area is called The Seaside Theater, so it is a place for movies.

The form is back up online.

Although it's not letting me put in my state.  When I click "Get It" after entering my zip code it does nothing.

Makes you wonder what they were updating, it certainly wasn't tested well for how long the form was down.

A member of our party joked, "It would be great if Carnival created a venue for parties.  Like a nightclub or something." 

Couldn't be more true.  Deck parties are nice, and they were probably pushed a bit more due to covid, but there are plenty of places in the ship designed for partying.  The Seaside Theater is definitely appreciated at night by so many guests.  Hopefully Carnival takes notice of the feedback.  

Especially since they keep saying that they want a family atmosphere.  It doesn't get better than the Seaside Theater for that image.  Deck parties can get a bit rowdy.

3 hours ago, sfaaa said:

Good business model. Carnival has the bottom tier market pretty much cornered.

I'd argue that MSC is right there too, any line that lets you do three or four nights for under $500 is pretty darn low.  Value on both is still pretty amazing, all things considered.

Just a footnote. 

Airline demand is high, but they also slashed the number of flights pretty heavily, which only added to the demand for certain flights, IMHO.  They need to staff up and offer the availability that meets the demand. 

A trip I looked at used to have six flights a day, and JetBlue slashed it down to just one, for example.  Naturally, that one flight is usually sold out well in advance.  They keep saying they're going to revert back to normal flight schedules, but they have yet to do so. Not holding my breath.

Works for me though, living in Florida, I just keep on cruising.  Hoping to take a land based trip next year, if all goes well.

We tend to do maybe one or two drinks a day, so we never buy the package. 

Also worth mentioning is that we save money by waiting to buy drinks in port,, where they can be significantly lower cost if you look around. 

The only drink I bought on the ship during my last cruise was on our last day, which was a sea day.  It was also one they had a special on.  

Spent well under $60 on drinks for the the three night cruise. 

Will happily pay more in gratuities to the hard working crew.  Fifty cents a day more is nothing to make a fuss over.

The rest of the stuff, it's simple, you don't have to have it.  Carnival's biggest on board competition is itself.  For wifi, I'd say it's islands since I get service at pretty much any island, or sometimes when I'm near an island.  

It's kind of like Netflix in a way.  You can increase the price $1, but if someone drops the idea of purchasing, you could lose $12 you would have had with no increase.  It's a risk to increase, for that reason.  On Carnival, they probably feel confident that people will pay more rather than decide not to buy at all.  I'm sure they did their research, they have to, you'd think. 

For me - I don't usually eat at specialty restaurants anyway.  Tried one out (Pig and Anchor) and found it to be just OK for the added cost, so I'll be more picky in the future.  I can see why some people like them, and if they find the value, good for them.  Options are great, even if you ultimately opt not to take them up.

Something I noticed about Carnival Sensation is that she was already very stripped down.  It may have just been the camera, but the flooring on the upper decks looked black and we could not identify the mini-golf area, it looked like it was already removed.  It seems they have long prepared for this time. 

Speaking of which, she's probably about to exit The Bahamas.   She was over by Norwegian Pearl, Scarlet Lady, Wonder of the Seas, and Celebrity Silhouette, north of Eleuthera, about 5 and a half hours ago.

Sensation is in Miami today, so if anyone's around, swing by and grab yourself a photo.  It could very well be your last chance.  If anyone's on Conquest today, the Sensation will docked right next to it.

It looks scheduled to leave around 6pm and might be heading to Aliaga.  I as heard it's supposed to arrive there on 4/4.

EDIT: Checked Marine Traffic and it is scheduled to head straight there from Miami, arriving April 4th.

I noticed that the OBC disappeared from one of my deals (casino rate).  The price to cruise was still the same, but it used to include a $100 OBC and it's no longer showing a credit at all.  The offer was good through the end of the month too, so that's worth noting.  It could be a sneaky way of them modifying the cost of a trip, without actually lowering the cost to cruise. 

With the offer before, it was a crazy amazing deal, something like $600 for a balcony on an 8 day cruise with $100 per person OBC.  The inside rooms were practically free.

7 minutes ago, shof515 said:

most likely carnival is still working offload any equipment and supplies before the vessel transfer ownership. last week or so the Dream was in freeport and now the Paradise is in freeport too. make sense to do any last minute transfers now

Very possible, I want to say Ecstasy was also Freeport recently, right before moving to Mobile. 

I believe Sensation has been the quarantine ship - it could still be moving crew around.  It has moved to Miami a few times too.  It goes from Miami, floats off Freeport for a few days, docks at Freeport and returns to Miami before repeating.  That's my observation, at least.

It seems possible to me that Carnival could have possibly not closed a deal yet.  I don't remember Fantasy and Inspiration taking all that long in Curacao before moving to Aliaga.  They just put the stuff in storage and sent them on their way. 

That said, this is very different from those situations.  Aliaga probably is in no rush for another ship.  The last I saw, one of the Fantasy class ships from 2020 (Imagination, I believe) still has yet to be broken down/scrapped.  This leads me to believe another company could still swoop in and save Carnival Sensation, especially with it hanging out so much around Freeport.

Funny question, is it possible that Tradwinds got the news of the sale wrong?  It's been half a month and the Sensation is still being operated by Carnival transporting between Freeport and Miami.

I'd say it might be a tad longer.  During our recent trip, we walked out from the white tent you see towards the left.

While you should bring your vaccination card with you, I should note that they did not ask for it when we went.  They had us put on our wrist bands and we walked into the water park.

You don't need to enter the actual hotel, but go to the water park entrance to the right of the hotel.  We stood in a line at the front desk, when we could have walked right up to the water park's ticket booth.  Staff was super friendly.

I think it might come down to how things impact other guests. 

I don't personally understand how someone wearing jeans would negatively impact your cruise.  On the other hand, if a lot of guests are chair saving or smoking, that can negatively impact your cruise.  Nevermind, smoking is proven to impact the very health of those around you. 

Outside of "setting the mood" a dress code doesn't really do much to impact the satisfaction of a cruise.  Most people are in the dining room for the food and not much else.  There are exceptions, but that is why there are premium restaurants on the ships.