going2cruz

Just off Solstice last week and wife and I are in bed sick, I tested positive for covid for the first time, the aches are worse than a cold so its not just mild cold even being doubled boostered. My brother-in-law was on Carnival the same week and hes sick with it too.

I just read Vicking dropping pre cruise test requirement, hope Celiberity doesnt do that or Ill be canceling my Beyond trip this fall.

:loudcry:We sailed NCL one time, The cruise from HELL enough said.

You’re not alone!!

A lot of our past cruise acquaintances love NCL and they keep asking us todo it, I keep telling myself I can't waste good vacation time.

Great deal. 23 Cruises on CCL and still waiting for that call!:mad:

Me three....... but you have me by one :D

Cruised Celebrity once after dry dock. We had some unfinished areas but it was not really a big deal. I won’t sail Celebrity again out of dry dock Carnival on the other hand I wouldn’t worry about it at all, they've done it way too many times.

We were look at that cruise too but decided Halloween would be a little more fun, we'll be cruising the Conquest a couple weeks after you.

With them doubling thier profits last quarter and when the other cruise lines are giving away an unlimited drink packages, I dont think an increase will happen any time soon.

I just purchased it for the first time and we sail this weekend so if I dont ask I wont know. So what are the improvements?

Looking at booking 2 cruises right now.......Carnivals no longer on my radar as there are way too many better deals out there.

Here a recent post of mine....they should be raking it in.........

I posted this last month on another thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showt...2#post49215262

Here go's....looking at booking eastern Caribbean April 2017 in next few days...we've been doing April for years so I'm not just picking a specific month to make a point.

Celebrity Grand Slam offer that the travel agent is offering, so we pick three perks get them all, Alcohol package no drink limit free ( Add $402 to Carnival 15 drink limit ) perk 2 is pre-paid gratuities ( add $192.00 to carnival ) perk 3 on board credit ( add $50 to carnival ) so for one person grand slam deal saves me $644.

Eastern Caribbean Cruise Prices April 2017 leaving off port fees they equal out on both sides

Carnival Inside Room $739

Onboard Expense $644

Total Per Person $1383.

Celebrity Ocean View $949.00

on board Expense $0.00 ( Grand Slam Deal )

Total per person $949.00

Saving Per Person $434

Saving per cabin X2 = $868

Even with my investor credit no way I'll be booking Carnival.

OP we feel the same way....there's no value in Carnival anymore. I feel ripped off evertime I book Carnival now. I guess some of that is now knowing what other cruise lines are about and the quality of the cruise compared to Carnival.

I posted this last month on another thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=49215262#post49215262

Here go's....looking at booking eastern Caribbean April 2017 in next few days...we've been doing April for years so I'm not just picking a specific month to make a point.

Celebrity Grand Slam offer that the travel agent is offering, so we pick three perks get them all, Alcohol package no drink limit free ( Add $402 to Carnival 15 drink limit ) perk 2 is pre-paid gratuities ( add $192.00 to carnival ) perk 3 on board credit ( add $50 to carnival ) so for one person grand slam deal saves me $644.

Eastern Caribbean Cruise Prices April 2017 leaving off port fees they equal out on both sides

Carnival Inside Room $739

Onboard Expense $644

Total Per Person $1383.

Celebrity Ocean View $949.00

on board Expense $0.00 ( Grand Slam Deal )

Total per person $949.00

Saving Per Person $434

Saving per cabin X2 = $868

Even with my investor credit no way I'll be booking Carnival.

When is it being dry docked? I was jut informed they replaced our 2017 September Conquest cruise with the Splendor so they can dry dock the Conquest. I trying to cancel because we booked Conquest for 2.0 upgrades.

Anyone:

Whens it being dry docked?

Know if their receiving 2.0 upgrades?

Trying to understand your over paying comment (Celebrity has been a price leader lately and their bookings are down significantly - have no idea why). Is your feeling based on everything or specifically the drink package (comparison)?

Here go's....looking at booking eastern Caribbean April 2017 in next few days...we've been doing April for years so I'm not just picking a specific month to make a point.

Celebrity Grand Slam offer that the travel agent is offering, so we pick three perks get them all, Alcohol package no drink limit free ( Add $402 to Carnival 15 drink limit ) perk 2 is pre-paid gratuities ( add $192.00 to carnival ) perk 3 on board credit ( add $50 to carnival ) so for one person grand slam deal saves me $644.

Eastern Caribbean Cruise Prices April 2017 leaving off port fees they equal out on both sides

Carnival Inside Room $739

Onboard Expense $644

Total Per Person $1383.

Celebrity Ocean View $949.00

on board Expense $0.00 ( Grand Slam Deal )

Total per person $949.00

Saving Per Person $434

Saving per cabin X2 = $868

Even with my investor credit no way I'll be booking Carnival.

We've cruised most of the major cruiselines and decided to try Carnival this year mainly due to the Dream leaving from New Orleans since we haven't been there. The cost and looking for fun onboard also helped make our decision. We've been to most of the Caribbean ports so this year they aren't as important to us as they were on past cruises.

 

Our last 2 cruises on Celebrity Equinox were surely elegant with delicious food and great service. However, the fun factor onboard was missing, no piano bar, entertainment pretty poor, etc. It was surely a ship to relax on. However, since we are retired and live in FL, we didn't feel a great need to relax. Didn't appreciate the harp/violin type music.

 

Sailaway was a joke with 2 couples on the dance floor on deck and no ambiance...Really missed the excitement of sailing away with other "excited" cruisers!

We’re doing the same not sure why but you’ve been away a lot longer. We liked Carnival for some of the same reasons but I have to say the last few Carnival cruises you could really feel it changing.

I have to say we found Celebrity much much more economical when you get the unlimited drink package and pre-paid gratuities thrown in. We really feel were way over paying for our coming April trip on Carnival.

Celebrity has won us .......they brought back our love of cruising when we about done with it.............

What is up with the prices of the cruise from Baltimore on the Carnival pride. For instance, for the past several years, the prices for the cruise on the first week of March have been from 379$ to about 399$. Now the price is 769$! All the prices have increased dramatically. I know the ship was renovated, but the price increase is ridiculous. :confused: :mad: :eek:

Its a non legislative tax imposed by the EPA when Maryland failed to clean up the bay after years of EPA warnings. The air scrubbers that Carnival had to install are very expensive and are expensive to maintain and operate.

Hated this concept the reason we will never sail on Princess or any other ship that has this stupid big screen blaring all day

As a CCL investor I forgave the shareholder discount and came over to Celebrity and didn’t do Princess because of the loud screens. It does appear it’s been tastefully done by Celebrity with a dedicated area.

Movie Under The Stars?

 

 

 

Sailed many a ship with these, and I've never watched one; nor has it ever impacted my cruise enjoyment in any way.

 

If it's after dark, I'm usually in the casino

I see you never sail carnival ship that has them. They have stuff on them it seems all day and when they do they play it so loud you cant talk to the person next to you.

I started cruising with them because they had no MUTS.

I just found out were the first sailing out of dry dock and there will be MUTS on the deck.

I'm new here maybe other Celebrity ship have them, anyone as heartbroken as me to probably see them go fleet wide?

Carnival does a lot of things right that the other two don't. I have been steering away from Carnival for other reasons and I do miss some aspects of their product. With that said a Hawaiian cruise with Carnival would be a no brainer for us.

If you decide to do Carnival, I have one recommendation for those who never cruised Carnival. Be careful when you select your room because of the late night / all hours of the morning activity. Don't select rooms above or below public areas and never get room above or below the casino.

Keep us posted on what you decide.

Nothing there for us in the spring, congrats op!

No reason to upgrade. We get everything we want on the Classic. I drink beer (miller lite) and hubby can get whatever drinks he wants on the classic, Beam, Jack Daniels, Makers Mark, rum, etc. So we never upgrade. We have had no issues at all getting whatever we want on the Classic pkg.

Ok I hear all ya's saying no upgrade really needed but I like to hear of your classic experience at the martini bar?

Looks Great!! Thanks for the info.....I think this is our new home for the next few cruises......I'll keep this in mind when making future booking selections....

There was plenty to drink on the classic package just 6 months ago. I wonder if it has changed much. We were able to get cocktails and smaller size martinis with Absolut, Ketel One, Tanqueray, Bombay Saphire, Bacardi, Milagro Silver, Cuervo Gold, Patron. We had cordials like B&B, Drambuie, Sambuca. We were offered a selection of red and white wines. There was no cocktail "menu" or list to choose from. There was a list of the brands of liquors included in classic (a bar manager gave us a copy), and we just ordered drinks and chose the brand and never were charged. At the martini bar we would say "I'd like the cosmo on the classic package", or "I'd like the Bombay Saphire gin dry martini on the classic package".

This is what we did last year, so we cant get the smaller Martini's anymore??

I don't know why this is all of a sudden a concern, it's not like the cruises go anywhere. As I recall we just disembarked the ship on our last one and didn't even go through customs.

Apparently, this is not something new. The Bimini Superfast filing mentions a 1993 bill in Congress to limit CTN's to US flag vessels. No way of knowing if there was a request for comment back then, and whether CBP made a rule change then, and it was not common knowledge, so that the Bimini case (20 years later) was the first denied under this rule. Though it does appear that CBP was selectively applying the rule, if it was created back then. The letter to RWB from CBP appears to cite current law, so there would appear to be some rule out there. I think that what triggered the CBP reaction was that the Bimini ship was going to be doing this regularly, not just occasionally like the major cruise lines do.

Exactly, it appears Carnivals has decided to interpret the law differently now in order to support there recent company decisions, I suspect NCL and the others have no idea about this.

Doesn't it seem odd this new policy interpretation of old law comes out at a time that their obviously attempting an image adjustment. All the recent news about rowdy crowds and brawls that have caused the alcohol policy enforcement where no water carry on is allowed anymore.

The CTN's have been called the "BOOZE CRUISE" for years now:confused:

Buy it now......Carnival will Quadruple this price within a year.......

Another alcohol crackdown............this is probably the 5th one in the past ten years........so it appears its targeted to water sales profits declining :)

July 2011 - 7 days booked at $3,882 (4 people).

July 2013 - same ship same week, booked at $4,230 (better itinerary), ended up paying only $3,220 with price drops before final payment.

July 2015 - same ship, same week, same better itinerary, booked at $4,110 - no price drops at all before final payment.

And then I would have to add air and drinks 600-1k per person.........just say-n