kwokpot

The Thermal suite on Edge Class ships are not called Persian Gardens but SEA Thermal suite and it was excluded from loyalty benefits from day one on the Edge and all subsequent ships. The exclusion is noted in the description of Captions Club benefits. How were you notified that you had a free visit based on your CC tier? It's literally listed as an exception on all E-class ships.

Yes, whatsmore there's not even a loyalty discount given for the thermal suite passes. Treatments yes, but not the thermal suite passes.

I never claimed it to be a big deal. I was just quoting the statistics that Carnival is putting out to support the view that Chibang and Cucina on E-Class ships are being used as MDRs. If Carnival ever decides to implement cover charges in those restaurants on that class of ships it would behoove everyone to skip YTD and go with Set Dining times. YTD in that scenario would be a fiasco. I suspect that will never be the case and Carnival, with this class of ship and probably any future new builds, will feature multiple smaller dining rooms which seems to be the new ship design with Celebrity, Virgin, NCL, MSC (The last three are using the same basic ship design ).

The 1 free visit is not valid on E-class ships. The morning continental breakfast was in Tuscan but I think it's been moved to the Bistro.

If you look at the deck plans there's actually more cabins on the 2 newer ships.

Carnival's own website.

Depends on the ship. The newer ships it's definitely slot credit or promotional table gaming chips. Some of the older ships they give actual cash.

Your assigned dining room is Blu and there are no reservations for Blu.

OP here. as a thread follow-up we had my parent's put back on Early Set Dining so they wouldn't have to contend with the possibility of getting a buzzer every night and not knowing exactly what time they would be having dinner. 6:00pm isn't too early for them. Based on postings here about current staff shortages on the Beyond and wait times with Select Anytime Dining we definitely made the prudent choice for my parents. Thanks for everyone's input on this. We'll see how it goes in less than two weeks!

We're on the February 18th Solstice cruise along with my sister and husband (She works for a Public School system so the cruise is perfectly timed) and agree the airfares from the East Coast are ridiculous. Luckily the four of us already booked our airfare with a mixture of paid and points. But RT fares from NYC are $5,6,700 and up for Economy! that's craziness!

If your cruise is a 7 day that's dirt cheap for the thermal suite pass and I would buy it in a flash and stay in the regular IV cabin. Onboard a daily pass on the E-class is around $70-$80 for 1 day!

What you're not understanding is on Excel class ships Cucina and Chibang are defacto main dining rooms for Your Time Dining passengers. Set early or late dining customers have a guaranteed table, unlike Your Time Dining passengers which have to 'find' a table every night. The official main dining room for YTD doesn't have the capacity to seat every passenger when they want to have dinner, which is not the case for set early or late dining. That is why Cantina and Chibang are utilized as defacto MDRs and YTD passengers are given 1st preference to dine there.

Correct. If you have fixed early or late dining you can't reserve Cucina or Chibang until later.

What exactly do you want to know? There should be a paper bag in the cabin closet or the desk/vanity drawer along with the Laundry List form which has an area that specifies the Platinum/Diamond free laundry benefit. Fill in the proper folio number, fill the bag, and put the slip in it, and hand it to the cabin attendant. That's it!

Not a problem at all, don't worry about it. No activation or stickers are needed.

I was on a Suez Canal cruise in 2019 that ended in Dubai and there was all this pre-cruise worry about the UAE looking for drugs that were supposedly banned substances. Turns out the worry was all for naught. The luggage came off the ship, past through your typical airport/cruise port scanner, and that was it. No one cared one bit.

I'll checkout the rolecall. For reference here's a photo from our cruise in July on the Scarlett Lady. Edit: Yes, that's currently my favorite shirt, lol!

While technically it could be an issue, realistically it's not and not something you need to concern yourself. Just carry your medications the way you always have and don't worry about. 99 cruises under my belt and never an issue,furthermore, in forty years of flying it's never been an issue at the airport.

Having read your previous review I was looking forward to see this particular character but he was already missing on the Seashore's 9/24 sailing.

Shorts are fine in the MDR on US based departures. On my Seashore cruise there were large percentages of men wearing shorts, Americans and non Americans alike.

Attached is the Info sheet for disembarkation at Port Everglades back in March. It will take between 35-45 mins car ride from Port Everglades to MIA. We always use Lyft and it's never a problem, usually only a 5-10 minute wait for a car.

I'll be on the 10/26th sailing of the Beyond in Aquaclass and my parents. 84 & 93, joined us only two months ago but in an inside cabin. They know we have a separate dining room and they're fine with their set Early Dining. We plan on meeting up for breakfast and lunch. Don't ever let others cause stress with of all things your vacation plans. As others of suggested be honest with them and discuss that being in a suite you want to enjoy some of the benefits that come with it. Discuss with them your plans for specialty restaurants and invite them to join you;however, if they don't want to spend the extra money, DO NOT shame them for their decision.

I sailed the Meraviglia five years ago from Genoa, Italy during Christmas and was just on the Seashore from Miami Sept.24-October 1st. For me the two cruises were indistinguishable from each other in terms of food, service, entertainment and general vibe. The only major difference besides the Ports was on the Meraviglia there were multiple embarkacation and disembarkation Ports, so the rhythm of the cruise is different since not all the passengers get on and off the ship at the same time.

Self walk off starts at 7:30am so you'll have no problems making a 12:00 flight. Don't worry about it.

The majority of the passengers are non Americans, so the vibe on the ship is completely different. As others have said the employees aren't there cheering you on to have fun, they're in the background taking care of the ship and serving the customers. The ships are beautiful and glitzy but in a tasteful way that Carnival could never match,even on their newest ships. Buffet is definitely much better than Carnival and MDR food is a small step up compared to Carnival. The pool decks do get busy with sun seekers and for some reason the buffet is always a madhouse, crazy busy. Because the buffet is pretty extensive there's way fewer complementary alternatives for meals. You'll have an enjoyable experience but just remember less than 25% of the passengers will be American and many can't speak a word of English despite the ship leaving from the US. You can compare it with a Carnival ship leaving from Italy where the majority of passengers are American and everything about the cruise is geared towards Americans yet it's sailing in Europe. This is the reverse.