Itried4498

The mask mandate ended in the Cancun area last month, but they are still required indoors in PV / Mazatlan / Cabo at this time. That's most likely why the Panorama has them, whereas the Breeze does not.

It usually docks before 7:30AM, and the first guests are cleared to leave around 8AM. If everything goes perfectly... I'd expect that if you're traveling without baggage assistance, you'll be cleared to leave between 8AM-9:30AM, and if you have Carnival handle your bags, 9:30AM-10:30AM.

Our our latest Panorama cruise, there was a box of five standard face masks (our earlier cruises had two N95 masks) in our stateroom. I'm sure we could've requested more if we would've liked. Mexico is (was?) still requiring face masks indoors, and it was being enforced, so that may have had something to do with it.

We've only cruised the Panorama this year (most recently 30APR), but there was no bacon shortage. At the breakfast buffet, it was served to you (but you could ask for as much as your want) until late.

I wasn't booked on it, but recently they cancelled a weeklong Riviera trip out of LA in October in favor of a charter.

If the OP truly booked long ago at regular prices, than she would've been eligible for price protection, and thus the deeply discounted rate. In recent weeks, we've seen a lot of negative reviews from veteran Carnival passengers who know every single trick & hack there is... except for price protection on the "full fare" they booked long ago.

RC isn’t Carnival. They operate a much larger ship from LA than Carnival, but they can turn it around much faster - in spite of Carnival spending tens of millions on its facilities whereas RC operates from what could be mistaken for a homeless encampment. Carnival’s megaships clearly weren’t designed for quick turnarounds. That RC commands a large premium probably helps them justify using such ship on short trips.

I acknowledged I was mistaken. Do you have a point, or are you just gloating?

Congrats! The Oct. 30th cruise was suppose to be operated by the Miracle. It was actually less than those operated by the Radiance (during the recent sale), so free isn’t always free :).

"Turd ships?" In the last twenty years, on the 7-night Mexican Riviera run we got the Elation brand new and Panorama brand new, and Spirit and Splendor when they were literally months old. We also got most of the Fantasy-class ships -- off the top of my head, in addition to the Elation, the Ectasy, Paradise, Inspiration and Imagination. And the Miracle has probably spent most of its time based out of LA/SD, although it comes and goes... sometimes filling in on the 7-day, sometimes providing supplemental capacity. And now we've got the Radiance; I haven't had a chance to enjoy her yet, but many reports are that it feels like a brand new ship. And I think people project dislike to certain ships so passionately because they have no business/ financial intelligence: in a few years, when a bigger & better ship replaces the Mardi Gras, they'll be complaining about that ship, too. I'm literally stunned by the number of posters on here who believe that (logistics aside) Carnival could put the Mardi Gras at even Jacksonville and make tons of money.

There was no shortage of bacon on my most recent cruise (30APR Panorama) -- it was at the breakfast buffet (but served to you), an option for your burger, etc. But with bacon pricing up 30% - 40% since the start of the pandemic, I wouldn't be surprised if Carnival is limiting its availability on some cruises.

One of the more known travel blogs tracked cruise pricing for years, and it's clear that Carnival will, at some, nearly always have the lowest price - by a wide margin. Secondly, it costs less (on average) to cruise in 2022 than in 2002... and that's not even adjusting for inflation. Thirdly, cutbacks aren't unique to Carnival -- they've been widespread throughout the travel industry, generally as a means to keep prices low (and sometimes as a means to generate more revenue). No different than shrinkflation at your local grocery store. There are a couple legitimate complaints, but most of the cutbacks cited on this forum are silly. E.g. how many chocolates (placed on pillows) were tossed? Few people wash their sheets more than once per week (the average is once 2-4 weeks), does it make sense to wash it every day on the ship? Is it really necessary to print tens of thousands of copies of Fun Times per day, when most will go straight into the trash? Sometimes... progress isn't cutbacks, even if you don't agree.

Take another look. Most of RCL’s cruises out of Pedro follow the same 3/4 schedule as the Radiance. Only a handful do 7. And while I haven’t looked at next year, most of NCL’s cruise were the same. Princess is also offering more cruises than usual, most of which are 3/4/5.

No, Spirit operated regularly from San Diego throughout the 2000s, and the Elation operated year-round from San Diego at one point. Most of the trips were to Mexico; I can’t recall exactly which ship, but one of the Holiday-class ships performed the San Diego/Ensenada - Hawaii runs in the early 2000s, while Spirit did Mexico. Here’s a news article discussing Carnival’s withdrawal from San Diego in the early 2010s - they made 27 calls the year before the withdrawal. https://www.courant.com/sdut-san-diego-to-lose-yet-another-cruise-ship-2011jan13-htmlstory.html Here’s a blog on the Elation’s year-round service: https://carnival-news.com/2008/08/20/carnival-elation-to-shift-to-three-and-four-day-cruises-from-san-diego-beginning-in-february-2009/ And yes, there were four ships based at Long Beach seasonally at one point (early 2010s IIRC). Two performed mostly 7-day runs to the Mexican Riviera, one performed the 3/4 day run to Ensenada currently operated by the Radiance and one performed a hodgepodge of itineraries as the Miracle does now (overnights at Cabo, some Hawaii, some extended Mexican Riviera, etc.).

The real world definition of direct flights = nonstop. If you're an airline geek, it has a different definition, but save that for airline geek websites....

Opps, it did briefly dip below $11 last year, but only for literally a few days.

IMO, San Juan is a legacy port; into the 2000s, Carnival would base multiple ships at San Juan seasonally (for reference, Port Canaveral only had one ship -- the Fantasy). Miami, Orlando, Houston, etc. have direct air service to most every medium and large community in the country, whereas San Juan lacks service to many large communities. The hassle of getting there, the cost (generally much more expensive to fly there then Miami or Orlando) and the growing number of 6/7/8-day itineraries that reach Southern Caribbean ports previously accessible only by San Juan hurt the chances of future cruise service there.

Carnival has had 3-4 ships (seasonally) based out of Los Angeles (sometimes including San Diego) for years. Granted, the Panorama and Radiance provide more capacity than probably all 4 of those ships combined, but Carnival would be relinquishing the Hawaii cruises, overnight Cabo, etc. that have been popular from LA.

The Carnival-branded Australia cruises are a budget option to P&O, targeted primarily at Australians, not Americans; the price of airfare is completely irrelevant (and subsidies to airlines ended awhile ago). This is no different than how Carnival Corp. has operated Costa-branded cruises from Florida in the past... sure, there's going to be Europeans on the ship, but the target market (when the ship was in Florida) is US point of sale.

JH indicated its a general drydock that has been pushed forward, and has nothing to do with stabilization or any other mechanical issues. I have absolutely no idea when the Miracle's scheduled dry dock was, but it's entirely feasible that bookings are projected to be slow this fall (as mentioned earlier, for last week's sale, cruises from Labor Day - mid-November were selling from less than $100 on the Radiance and Miracle) and Carnival opted to move the dry dock forward, thinking it could generate far more revenue during its scheduled dry drock.

I think anything can happen within the next two years. Yesterday, Carnival's stock was trading at its lowest since the 1990s. It could very well be that by 2024, Carnival Corp has merged the Princess & Holland America brands, brining a few more ships to the Carnival brand, and increasingly using Carnival on a global scale to backfill budget cruises to its primary brands.

I'm sure there's more to this story. I wouldn't be surprised if Charleston tried to negotiate a contract extension with Carnival, but at rate & terms Carnival wouldn't agree to, and thus it opted to proceed without Carnival.

I'm certain there will be numerous changes in scheduled itineraries, assigned ships, etc. by 2024, as we adjust to a post-pandemic era. That's especially true if the legacy cruise passengers don't return / don't return in the pre-pandemic frequency. But I wouldn't look for year-round NYC service... Carnival's fleet is optimized for sun destinations, and with the loss of numerous ships throughout the Carnival Corporation network, there's more money to be made elsewhere.

The Radiance is taking over only a few of the Miracle's itineraries - the rest are outright cancelled. Per JH, the motivation was to cover the (Miracle's) 14-day Hawaii cruise, which takes place the second half of October. I'm guessing poor bookings contributed to the timing -- October cruises were sub-$100 with the recent sale, and recent reviews have weekend Radiance sailings at 2/3 capacity (a few cruises were fuller, this holiday weekend is sold out) and weekday even less. The Miracle is doing San Francisco now, but when it met up with our Panorama cruise in February at Cabo, we were told there were maybe a couple hundred people onboard (in comparison, there were 3300 people on the Panorama). Ouch.

Topic also being discussed here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2854607-carnival-just-cancelled-our-cruise/