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Despite my angst at the small lido deck design, after watching some vids from vloggers on the inaugural, I am now somewhat excited for my Firenze cruise next week.

The dining options look good. I appreciate that the spot where seafood shack is, is now "Breakfast Shack" in the AM, then "Chicken Shack" in the afternoon which is just Shaqs chicken, which is my fav on Radiance.

Il Mercato looks interesting. The new fangled Blue Iguana, Tomodoro looks okay and I appreciate Java Blue being on the lido. Will make getting a milkshake much easier! La Strada grill looks interesting as well.

Wife wants to try the empanadas and I am sure to try the salad bar in Serenity as we enjoy it on Panorama.

Overall, I am optimistic.

That would be surprising. MDR breakfast is something that we will occasionally partake in.

I think we would be hearing much more from people if that is\was the case. Seaday brunch is usually pretty packed as well.

I am on it next week so I guess I'll find out then!

19 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

LOL same here, my heavy drinking days are behind me and was never a heavyweight (drinker….)😅

At 48 I can still hit 15 well before midnight. Not even really drunk as I simply pace myself, eat and drink plenty of water and electrolytes.

I understand and respect the effort to control drunkenness but the limit should apply to blue and red cards.

Gold and higher should have no limit ala NCL.

Purchased a Quicksilver straw hat on Radiance. Was $14. On land it would have been $30 or more just for the "name".

Still have it after a year. Held up great.

We're on the second week of May cruise. Entirely meh. Glad to be cruising but not a fan of the lido design.

You'll be fine. They are only making Firenze folks go to the LB convention center.

We've never had problems parking there.

Yeah, had some trepidation about the app originally but after two cruises, I like it SOOOO much better than faxing.

Our perk approval comes in in about 48 hours now.

4 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

Or it could be a few unhappy customers.  Check out the thread on the “The Points guy” and their rating of Carnival food.  All that said, people vote with their wallets, not super critical posts.  

Wife and I were very happy with the new MDR items on Carnival. The crayfish fettuccini  was so good, I could have had two plates of it.

8 minutes ago, RCLcruiser2012 said:

That is so disappointing to hear.  I've cruised other cruise lines but this is our first cruise since Covid.  Hopefully they make changes.  These cost cutting measures....

I think Carnival's problem with their food is that a great number of their ships have been configured for the old school, Hometown Buffet style of buffet and lots of people now want "food court" style options.

You ask, do people who rave about Carnival food, eat real food, is a pretty classless statement. PLENTY of people enjoy Guys burgers, the mexican food and for me, I love Shaqs chicken.

But yeah, the buffet is lacking. I even think the deli is lacking. I find the carvery options to be generally good. They've always had good salad bar options and desserts have always been do-able to me.

Do the main entree sections fail sometimes....YES. But sometimes I have good options. Some asian noodles were good. The jerk chicken is good.

Sorry to see you go but I am sure the other lines will suit your needs in the future.

6 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

Life is full of choices and selecting cruise lines and ships to sail on is one of them.  That said, the way you feel about Carnival is an overstated version of how I feel about NCL.  No right or wrong, just choice.  Good luck with getting an NCL ship (on any) in San Diego.  The itin options are just so limited…speaking of meh.

 

Cruising continues to change and evolve, more mega ships doing shorter cruises, going to fewer places.  Just the cruise lines following the dollar.  Does that make me happy?  Nope, but have not been asked.  Bigger monstrosity of the Seas bigger and uglier every 10 months reaches a saturation point (at 2 billion per), has to bust….sooner rather later.  Icon is possibly the weirdest, ugliest of the bunch, but the lemmings are paying stupid rates…so 

Agreed. I have no desire for any of the Icon or large RC ships.

Yeah, the Port of San Diego couldn't manage a hot dog stand so I doubt they believe there is a need (or desire) for a cruise ship. We get about four of them in the Alaska off-season and that's about it.

My biggest issue with Carnival as of late is really just the clientele. On Panorama earlier this year, I told the pool steward about a group of people with a bluetooth speaker playing hardcore rap at the aft pool deck. Now, I am child of the 80's and I have nooooo problem with rap, but I don't want to hear it when I am relaxing with my wife and even more so when there are kids around. But the pool attendant called sec and they told them to turn off the item.

My wife was later called a "white bit--" when a person from the group asked what happened to the music lol.

Meh, wife said we can start cruising on Holland when we turn 50 so I guess I have that too look forward too. And in the winter, Holland has a ship in San Diego.

On 4/10/2024 at 7:31 AM, mz-s said:

 

The fact that they compete on price is simply a fact. I know that many people love Carnival and would cruise on them even if they're more expensive, but Carnival's chosen niche is to offer the best product they can at the lowest price.

 

That is not a slight against Carnival. Walmart competes on price whereas Target competes on experience. Walmart is the biggest B&M retailer the world has ever known. Last I checked Carnival is the biggest cruise line in the world, but that might be changing as Royal has built a ton of huge ships.

 

This is Cruise Critic, if you want Carnival cheerleading might I recommend a page on social media that is run by a certain overweight brit.

Agreed, and plus 1 for the "certain overweight brit" line. That was great. OT, but not sure why Carnival doesn't have a TEAM of brand ambassadors.

But the wife and I are pretty firmly imbedded in the Carnival brand since we are in San Diego and they have three ships in Long Beach. If NCL had a permanent ship in San Pedro (or god forbid), San Diego, we'd probably be more in the NCL ecosystem.

Do I love Carnival, meh, I could go either way. But I do enjoy NCL ships, I just wish they were more readily available in socal. If I lived in FL, I might feel different. 

Well, we generally avoid cruising at spring break time due to the crowds.

2 hours ago, mz-s said:

Carnival is slowly ratcheting up the add-ons and slowly ratcheting down the level of service on their ships. Each step is small and can be shrugged off as just how it is. They all do it. Try getting service like this in Vegas, folks! Bottled water is even more expensive at the airport, after all! I don't need to eat bacon every day! I don't want room service so if you want it, you should pay! I don't even need my stateroom to be ready at embarkation, matter of fact if it means my cruise is cheap I can just sleep in the hallway! 

 

Carnival cruisers are like frogs slowly being boiled alive.

Well, going to push back a little bit. Since the covid return, I have had zero instances of bad service on about six cruises, 5 ccl and 1 ncl. Now on CCL, the service in the MDR has always been a crapshoot. But it's more often good that it is bad. And it's never really been bad per se, just usually slow. *In my experience

We still routinely compare the cost of a four day cruise to what it would cost to stay 4 days at a hotel in Palm Springs and cruising is still the better value for us. 

Could it get to a point where we say, meh, lets do a land vacation? Perhaps, but with how we like to spend our vacations, which is just relaxing, I think we have a couple years to go before I am boiled alive.

We all make decision on what's important to us and I don't think we are that naïve you make people out to be.

San Diego native and still living here. I cannot fathom why SD is not a "home" port to more cruise ships or why a cruise line would rather go to Catalina (ugh) vs San Diego. But I get it, the Port could not manage a hot dog stand. I interviewed once for a position there and said thanks but no thanks. What a mess of an agency.

Never the less, as far as Jade is concerned, I think (sadly) I'd rather go to San Pedro to take Bliss for five nights. I love that ship.

On 3/18/2024 at 6:50 PM, singleflyer said:

The officer in the blue is unprofessional.   

He was GREAT. Try dealing with the dregs of society on a daily basis. He offered her multiple chances but kept stating..." i dindu nufin". He was as professional as he needed to be.

On 3/19/2024 at 2:58 PM, Tralfaz1138 said:

I wasn't certain how that worked either.  I can only guess that maybe they booked the excursions with the fraudulent card, then swapped the card on file with a different one (debit card perhaps) so the excursions went back to that?  I don't know if that's even possible since, by default, it should go back to the original card but maybe there is a loophole in Virgins process there?

I cannot attest to Virgin's excursion cancellation policy but from some research, they will purchase the excursions with the stolen credit card, then attempt to cancel onboard and try to get cash refund. Evidently it's a pretty big scam.

On 3/27/2024 at 8:16 AM, angelsfort said:

- still others are all about the free drinks available at the party... 

(In Austin Powers voice) Yeahhh baby yeah.

Yeah, late night snacks are kinda weak but after 15 long islands....a hot dog with lots of mustard tastes gooooooooooddddddd.

But really, this is one area I wish Carnival would match NCL and their Osheehans\The Local.

OT but wife and I found it hilarious when Radiance was showing Oppenheimer on deck with a 11pm start time. That's a late night for sure!

4 hours ago, surfone said:

not bad but sure not as good. 

My feeling as well. The buns seem to be about the size of a slider bun.

I much prefer Shaq's chicken. Probably why I greatly enjoy Radiance over Panorama.

On 1/25/2024 at 7:43 AM, MsTabbyKats said:

That theatre was the most poorly designed theatre I've ever been in. 

Someone correct me if I am wrong but this is the design for the Vista class...no? Panorama has it as well. I hate that theater. I get why they do it...shows can come out into the audience, turns it into a multi-purpose style room. But not a fan. One (of many) of the reasons I am not excited for our Firenze cruise in May. But perhaps I am making more out of it than I should. 

Long Island Iced Tea.

But I did drink alot of "The Cruiser" on my last trip.

3 hours ago, Jeafl said:

Can't wait to sail on the Firenze in September!

We're a couple weeks after the inaugural. Gotta say, not that excited from what I've read.

2 hours ago, hurricane0226 said:

serenity hot tubs are usually empty

Thanks. We don't like the serenity area though.

In about twenty cruises we've only walked out on one piano bar player. He was talented but he would just talk and talk and talk.

The best we've had was on Splendor. He was a young kid and put on an amazing show. The sad thing was that the venue was a shoebox. People were spilled out into the hallway to listen.

Then I think it was Panorama or maybe Radiance last year, the comedian also played the guitar and later in the night he came by the piano bar and played a number of songs with the piano player. Was a great time.

The feel the venues are often just waaaaayyyyyy to small. Word gets out by the second night and it's standing room only and clearly not big enough for the crowd.

Loved the piano bar on the NCL Bliss. It was in their brewery, the District Brew House, with dozens of taps. I don't think I've ever drank so much beer in my life!