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Yes, but in early photography the brag was "I can afford a picture just like the rich and famous." So they mimicked the rich and famous. It is pretty pathetic these days for "I can afford a picture" to be your brag. Before photography even existed the brag was "I can afford a portrait." These days it might not be so pathetic to have a good oil portrait as your brag and if you are going to shell out the money for that you are darn sure going to look your best.

I'm not generally for folks wearing bath robes outside their cabin but years ago (back when your bath robes were waiting for you in your clean cabin and 11am) I gave a thumbs up to the couple who came to the old (outside) muster drill wearing bath robes, slippers and life jackets.

I think I'll pass in favor of the "Keelhauling Experience" activity.

I take it you have never been to Fashion Week. 😉

You're living dangerously 😁 The most common response around here is "it's my vacation; I'll scratch my butt, spit on the floor and kick the cat if I want to."

I think a TA or PVP is the way to go for new cruisers but once you get the lay of the land booking through the Carnival web site is just fine. We prefer booking ourselves on the Carnival site mainly because it is usually in the evening that we get around to thinking about things like cruises. We'd rather get it done while we are thinking about it than wait till the next day.

The difference is they are longer cruises that go to ports further away that are therefore less frequented by ships sailing from whichever departure port you are using. For example the Glory out of New Orleans does a 14 day journey cruise that does a partial transit of the Panama Canal. Usually the Glory goes no further south than Roatan, Honduras.

That's how much they care. Good chance you never hear back.

LOL! I, at this moment, have on a pair of those socks in a box (wife is a bit behind on laundry).

I once found it a bit touching. These days though I'm more excited about the next days stop at the Waffle House in LaPlace on the way home and having my first real breakfast in a week. Real bacon cooked as it should be. Real hashbrowns cooked as they should be; real eggs fried over easy as they should be; real toasted bread still hot as it should be; etc.....

We were on the Glory last month. Apparently while we were cruising they did the video announcing more security. That had already occurred on the Glory. Pairs of security personnel were always wandering around. It didn't feel like a prison ship. The security folks were at ease, chatting with each other, smiling and responding in good cheer if you said "good morning" or whatever. Not at all like the militarized, always be in control showing who is the boss U.S. police. We liked having them around.

Even at my age I learn something new every day. I never dreamed that suitcases would become as contentious as tipping on CC.

The cruise lines are not the first to make the transition the cruise lines are now making. Until the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 airlines were heavily regulated. Among other things the government set the ticket prices. The prices were set quite high as the airlines were regulated in the first place in in the 1930s to protect and make strong the new industry. One of the goals of regulation was a financially strong industry. The result was that airlines could only compete against each other by providing better service. Being old enough to have flown in those days I can tell you flying was a true pleasure. You were given personal attention and great service. The smallest seat would now be called first class. Not that many flew so airports were not zoos. There was no overbooking. If your flight was delayed or cancelled there was no question the airline would take care of you. Then, in 1978, (I had been in college studying regulatory economics until shortly before so I followed it closely - the first industry in the U.S. to ever be deregulated) the game changed and the airlines began competing on price. It was about the only thing they could compete on. While the industry was deregulated as much as it could be there are still effective restrictions. Airports have only so many gates and there is a process for getting those that puts all airlines mostly on level footing. There has always only been so many aircraft manufacturers making only so many designs. Now a lot more folks can afford to fly, but flying is a bad experience. Competing on price ONLY always and everywhere results in a diminished product. Cruise lines have a bit more they can compete on though. Ship designs, service, entertainment, ports of call etc. are all areas where competition can exist. Unfortunately service and food quality are areas all cruise lines have picked as cost savings areas while rock climbing walls, surfing rides, roller coaster rides and premium dining are areas they have picked for competition all while pushing larger ships that are cheaper to operate. Carnival in particular has chosen to compete mostly on price and seems to be more closely following the experience of the airlines - a lot more can cruise, but at some point they run the risk the service will be so bad nobody wants to.

Years ago a CD said something that I have always found to be true: Make your plans, then take half the clothes and twice the money.

I love the ease of disembarking these days with the facial recognition. I at first hated, but now love, using the app to make brunch and dinner reservations and being able to see our account summary at any time.

Lanyards?

I just found it unusual for one to be wearing the same shirt in a profile pic as in a random pic from a cruise. Kind of a "what are the chances?" thing. I bet the profile pic was from about the same time at the posted pic but I still find it mildly amusing. Then again I have been told my sense of humor can be strange and your reaction leads me to believe I will be the only one to get a chuckle out of the rare actually occuring.

@kwokpot I looked at your profile pic and your pic in post #9 above. Favorite shirt? 😁 I like it though.

Change is a constant. The problem is that in the cruise industry the vast majority of changes mean the passenger gets less and is treated worse. Some folks are happy with that, some not so much. Debate won't change the feelings of either.

Did they only put the "No Jogging" signs in the topless area?

Thank you for the comparison. I like the "Overhead announcements are fairly rare on Princess and in-room announcements practically non-existent..." part. Carnival makes it very hard to sleep past 9am with their announcements. Waking up earlier than I do at home because of Carnival's enforced nursing home hours is a price I pay sailing Carnival that I wish I could avoid. But I'll take the early reveille for a larger casino.

The Blue Iguana was its usual good and one of the places that kept us fed. The Old Fashioned BBQ is doing better with having hot beans (for a while they tended to be cold) and the meat is OK, but reflects the lower quality meat Carnival is buying these days and the smaller portions these days. We always asked for more meat as the portions were small and it was not unusual for a good percentage of the beef to be fat.

Sunday we got back from our most recent cruise on the Glory out of New Orleans. In past months I have commented on our September 2022, December 2022 and January 2023 cruises on the Glory so I thought I would make some observations about our latest cruise. We really enjoyed this cruise. Things are looking up. The bottom line is everything was great except the food. Embarkation was as smooth as glass. While there is the rare glitch, the Carnival terminal in New Orleans usually has one of the easiest embarkation experiences you will find. While not relevant for another year, I will mention that on the two Sundays before Mardi Gras there are parades in the terminal area. The parade routes are some distance away but those parades assemble their floats in a big open lot right by the turn into the terminal. We drove to the port and allowed an extra hour for traffic and that was about right. Almost all the traffic problems were in the short stretch from the main highway to the turn into the terminal so even if you stay at a hotel you need to plan on additional time if you are arriving on one of those two Sundays. The ship's condition continues to be great. For the past year it has been quite obvious they are putting a lot of effort into upkeep. The entertainment was good for us. The production shows are the usual but the musical performers around the ship (atrium, casino, etc.) seemed a step up from the usual and the comedians were all very good (though that is largely a matter of personal taste). We especially liked that they did a back-to-back show of the two comedians on the first half the cruise in the main theater and did the same with the two new comedians on the second half of the cruise. We prefer the less cramped location and the longer stretch of entertainment. The crew on Carnival ships is always outstanding; friendly, helpful and in good cheer. On this cruise they were even better. I don't know if they are now up to full staff and the reduction in stress is showing or what, but everywhere we went (except the main dining room) they seemed to be happier, more solicitous and proud of doing a great job than in the past. I think the main dining room guys feel guilty serving the slop they serve and it shows in their subdued and lackadaisical demeanor. Two things on this cruise were especially welcome. One was that our fellow cruisers were all happy, polite and courteous. It is amazing how much more fun it is when those around you don't take every situation, word or look as a threat to their manhood and actually understand how to behave in public and have fun. This is the second Glory cruise in the last two months where we noticed this. Perhaps things are looking up. We were having second thought about cruising due to the numbers of boorish cruisers we had been encountering. The second was that security people were constantly strolling about the ship. I saw after we returned that Carnival said they were beefing up the security presence and on Glory it has already happened. The security guys don't seem in the least oppressive, as if they are looking for you to do something wrong. They just casually walk around and seem in good humor. It made us comfortable. The only fly in the soup on this cruise was the food. It is now, in our opinion, seriously bad. I could go on and on, but in essence Carnival is running a feed lot. For those not familiar, a feed lot is where ranchers send cattle to be fattened up for sale. They feed the cattle a high carbohydrate diet (corn is popular since it is high in starch) at minimum possible cost. Carnival is doing everything possible to reduce costly protein and replace it with cheap carbohydrates like pasta. For example, I have always been a fan of Carnival's chicken noodle soup. This time the MDR chicken soup did not have a speck of chicken. It may have had chicken broth, but if so it was so diluted as to impart no chicken taste. I think it was just pasta and carrot served in the water it was boiled in. I couldn't eat it. One night the buffet had jambalaya. For those not familiar jambalaya is a south Louisiana dish that has rice, meat (usually pork, chicken and sausage) and lots of spices. I really spooned through that serving tray and could not find any meat of any kind. I tried some anyhow and it appears to have been just rice with some kind of tomato sauce dried on it. Like I said, I could go on and on. If you think I have you haven't heard a tenth of it. Disembarkation was well organized and went smoothly. With the CBP using facial recognition I really don't know how they can make it any faster or easier. You can only unload a few thousand folks so fast. All in all this was a great cruise. We are especially heartened that passengers who are not housebroken seem to have moved on to greener pastures and that Carnival has beefed up the security presence. It is really nice to see the crew appearing to enjoy themselves and that the ship is being well maintained.

I don't think anyone has the answer as to how Carnival determines what offers to send to whom. The first thing is to make sure you are signed up to receive mail and email offers. To check, sign in to your carnival account, click on your name at the top to get to your profile, click on "contact settings" toward the bottom and make sure you have the boxes checked to receive news and offers. Other than that there is not much you can do other than play in the casino to hopefully get casino offers. Some say you don't have to play in the casino or can only play a small amount and get offers. That may well be true. The casino operation has its own way of identifying and enticing those who it believes can be enticed to gamble. It may be because you once gambled at a land casino, it may be because they have some other outside data about you that often correlates with those willing to gamble. But a sure way to get a steady stream of offers is to actually gamble in their casino and the more you gamble the better the offers. My wife gambles a fairly small amount each day on a cruise while I spend hours each day in the casino. She gets occasional offers for a free interior room (actually, pay a deposit and port fees and taxes and get an onboard credit for the deposit) while I always have offers for free balcony or suite cabins (same deposit, port fees, taxes and onboard credit part) plus a thousand casino cash and free drinks everywhere. So, once you are on the gamble to get perks path the amount you gamble correlates with the size of perks. But there seem to be other paths they take to entice new gamblers that can result in a non-gambler getting an offer. But be aware, if you gamble to get perks, ultimately in the long run you pay more than the perks are worth. You will pay if it be in cash or in casino losses unless you don't gamble and happen to get one of their offers fishing for new gamblers. If you take a couple of those fishing offers and don't take the bait to gamble they will stop fishing.

Now that mystery is gone. In its place is a new mystery; why did he keep his face a mystery?