RoadTravelled

@Haljo1935 We arrived in NYC on- Wednesday and the weather has been just exceptional - sunny and mild temperatures. Tomorrow for boarding the ship it looks like good weather as well. As mentioned above, it looks like the storm will be past us by time of sailing and we will be following behind it. So, fingers crossed, I think we should be fine. Watch your emails from CCL for any possible updates. The website and text alerts we've been advised now will be down this weekend for routine scheduled maintenance. The ship is currently on her way back from Grand Turk and now off the coast of Virginia. She is still scheduled to arrive in NYC port at 8am tomorrow (about 22 hours from now) - a good sign so far.

@Haljo1935 Your booking may not be setup for text alerts. Call CCL Customer Service at 888-227-6482 and have them add it to your booking. That will send an automatic message to you to reply back to finalize the setup. Sorry for the confusion.

@skywalkr2 Current conditions do seem to suggest a really nice day on Saturday for boarding (assuming the ship has no problem getting back into NYC terminal that morning from Grand Turk due to the storm's impacts). The forecast right now appears that the storm will be on a track just ahead of our scheduled route. But, who knows. Stay tuned. Make sure, if you haven't already done so, to opt-in to the CCL text messaging alert system. Text your booking number to 278473 and respond accordingly. I find that is somewhat faster notice usually than the emails that will follow. Also, if you follow on [that other site] John Heald's page, he is good about keeping up with changes and letting us know also. We are headed out tomorrow from DFW to spend a few days enjoying NYC. So, at least we'll get that far. 😉 Good luck to everyone and hope to see you on board on Saturday sailing out of the beautiful harbor by Lady Liberty!

@Haljo1935 We are actually arriving on the 13th to spend some time in NYC, a city we love to explore. We have opted to stay in West New York, New Jersey, on the other side of the Hudson River. It's an easy bus ride across the river that stops at the Port Authority Bus stop (one block from Times Square). Or, you can hop the ferry over which is fun as well. And, of course, the cruise terminal is on the Hudson, not too far from there. I would not personally recommend you stay near JFK on your arrival. It's a long ride (taxi, ride-share, etc.) to get to the cruise terminal. And, if you want to see a bit of NYC before then, that would just eat up time and add complexity. I would highly recommend something closer to the cruise terminal. We looked at hotels nearby but due to the season, the rates are extremely high. That's why we opted for an apartment which was cheaper and of course much more space. Of course while in NYC, the best way to get around is by subway or just hail a taxi. A car is a real disadvantage to have. The subway is really easy to use and you can now just use your credit card or smartphone to tap and go to get in the turnstiles. Hope that helps. Really looking forward to this cruise and exploring this new Carnival ship.

If you go back to my December post on this thread, I have a screen shot of the 6 specialty restaurants that were open at the time. It included JiJi's asian restaurant. As you have noted, now I only see 4 restaurants in my booking, with Cucina del Capitano being replaced with the newly announced Il Viagio (see above). And, JiJi's is not listed. I'm guessing that as plans evolved for the transformation of this ship from Costa to Carnival and they tried to figure out where all of the venues would be, this restaurant got dropped. Or, it was just simply an IT error that was finally caught that this restaurant didn't exist on this ship. Maybe someone on the inaugural cruise coming up in a couple of weeks can help us confirm what is and isn't on the ship?

And, here is the full menu that John Heald just posted on his page.

Here is the full menu just posted by John Heald on his page. Yummy!

@randy1965 Cruise Critic has paused the online sign-up for these at this point. See below details.

Il Viaggio Announced — Carnival has just announced the addition of a new specialty dining concept that will be added to the Venezia sailings. It is called Il Viaggio and will showcase Italy's finest cuisine. Reservations are now open. Having just spent 3 weeks exploring Italy, I'm very excited about trying this out. It is not currently showing on the official deck plan. But, an educated guess would be that it will be located aft of the steakhouse on deck 5 in the space currently marked as "Fun to be Revealed."

Carnival has just announced the addition of a new specialty dining concept that will be added to the Venezia sailings. It is called Il Viaggio and will showcase Italy's finest cuisine. Reservations are now open. Having just spent 3 weeks exploring Italy, I'm very excited about trying this out. It is not currently showing on the official deck plan. But, an educated guess would be that it will be located aft of the steakhouse on deck 5 in the space currently marked as "Fun to be Revealed."

@butterfly55 this is really great information! We are arriving 3 days prior as well before the cruise and have been searching for places to stay. We were in NYC in February and stayed a block from Times Square near Bryant Park. It was a great location, wonderful room with views, and reasonably priced. We never felt unsafe in the neighborhood although very crowded area of course. We tried booking for this upcoming trip and the price is almost 3 times what we paid. Looking around it seems all of the hotels are that way. It must be "high season" with the fall leaf tours, conventions, etc. Anyway, this idea of Weehawken, NJ looks like a great possibility. Looking at short-term rental apartments, the prices are much more reasonable and the access to Manhattan is very easy it seems. And, it seems like a great place to explore. Thanks for the tip!

These are great tips. I would also add that you should always charge everything you possibly can to a credit card. And, always charge it in the LOCAL currency, not US dollars. That will save you all sorts of conversion fees and poor exchange rates. Otherwise, I've always just gotten small amounts of cash at local ATM's of large national banks. Check with your bank to see if they have any foreign arrangements. DO NOT use the Euronet ATM machines that are notorious for charging high fees. They are just one step above the Currency Exchange Bureaus. Also, check with your bank to see if they have a "senior" program. Many do for those over 50 or so that will highly reduce your fees.

The steakhouse dinner is always a really great meal with excellent food and service. You will enjoy it I'm sure. This will be a wonderful trip on a really unique boat for Carnival.

Since you will be flying domestic you will be going out of La Guardia, which is the closet airport anyway. Really the best way is just to take a taxi. The other options involve a lot more time and walking. There's no express service that I'm aware of. This information provided by the port might help you. Go to the tab marked "By Taxi" for more details. It should be about a 30 min. ride, subject to traffic.

Mary, this looks like a great small-group tour at a reasonable price. Do keep us abreast of your experience. We are actually on this ship on the Sep. 16th sailing that stops here as well. Thanks for your feedback!