StephPS79

We've stayed on deck 2 on the Horizon, it was an OV, pretty sure it was relatively aft. Didn't have any issues with noise that I can recall, and loved the convenience of being able to walk a flight of stairs up or down when getting on and off the ship.

I like to think of it more as adapting to an ever-changing world. Because, the world has and continues to change. Not just post-pandemic, although that is magnifying everything. But as the saying goes, things aren't made like they used to be. Sure, I get frustrated, but at the end of the day, I'd rather adapt and shed negativity than allow the negativity to consume me.

Royal Caribbean drink packages are dynamic pricing. Very few will be $66 dollars, maybe a few 5 day or less sailings on old ships. Which is annoying enough in itself. Who knows how much you'll be charged at any given time?? I don't. Most are AT LEAST $90 (I'd say almost all 7+ day sailings are at least this much). If you catch a "sale" you might get it for $72-$74 dollars per day, before gratuities. Currently, the drink package price on Icon is $115 per day before gratuities. Again, you might catch a "sale" to purchase this at around $90-$100. Most people will purchase their CCL drink package for $59.95 (6 days or more) or $69.95 (5 days or less) day, before gratuities.

Considering Royal Caribbean's drink package price is usually anywhere from $70 (on a good day) to $100 per day (who can say, because they use that super annoying dynamic pricing), I think it's easy to figure out how they do it.

So it is about the law... Most businesses aren't going to say "We're doing this because it's cheaper for us. Sure, we could do it, but it will cost us more money, so we won't." But the bottom line is the decision is based on the law and the impacts of the law. This isn't deception. It's business.

Good tip - thanks!

I have the Hilton card and don't see it, so they must be targeted offers in some way.

A little back on track, I would vote ABC, yes, because they are some of the most beautiful beaches and water, in my opinion. Pretty much every port is going to have the same type of excursions. There will almost always been a selection of catamaran, snorkel, beach day, swim with such and such animal, ATV, zipline, off-road type stuff. With that said, we do really like Grand Turk, but we usually do a particular excursion called Home Sweet Home or something like that, but that's basically a beach day. That beach wasn't too rocky, but the surf can be a bit rough sometimes. I could give or take Amber Cove. A plus is the port is really nice, so you can have a pool day without really having to buy an excursion. Otherwise, they have a mix of the stuff mentioned above. And Nassau is Nassau.

MacArthur is generally pretty safe, it is MacArthur Mall parking, it's generally well lit with security.

I don't think Carnival lies about it, they simply say it's unavailable. That itself is not a lie. Texas and the TABC most certainly have laws regarding alcohol sales and consumption, but I won't claim to fully understand them. I do believe it has something to do with the Texas permit to sell alcohol, which does have some weird regulations. For whatever reason, Carnival feels it is better to just not purchase the permit for Texas.

This hasn’t been the case normally, but the local chatter is that since there were no plans for cruises leaving Norfolk this year, Carnival did not pay whatever tax or permit is needed to the state for 2024.

My brother is a die-hard RCI fan, but when looking at Alaska, went with Princess. RCI doesn't do Alaska very well. Price, ship, and itinerary wise, I don't think RCI does Alaska very well.

We got married in port in February last year, we stayed here for our wedding weekend! We loved it, definitely a bit unique and the location was great! We had a great time.

March 31st out of Norfolk DOES populate on the booking search, but can't process if you try to book. That is all that is showing though.

That area is the worst! I hate the world every time I have to drive that stretch, or really, most of I-95 in general lol.

RCI has been hinting at a new "smaller" ship class in the works. Of course, based on recent ships, there is speculation to what their idea of "smaller" is these days. They haven't given much detail.

They aren't saying that though. They are saying "We will help you get back to Baltimore." See above.

For my experience, we booked Pride to Bermuda out of Baltimore for September 2025. For reference, we live about 15 minutes from Norfolk. A few reasons we picked Baltimore, we definitely wanted to go to Bermuda, the ship didn't matter much, and the it seemed to be the only port with an itinerary with 2 overnights in Bermuda, which was important to us. We figured we'd drive or possibly take the train to Baltimore and avoid airfare. There are cruises out of Norfolk with only 1 overnight, but we really wanted two and it was worth the 4-5 hour driver for us. However, if any of the NYC to Bermuda 2025 cruises were 2 overnights, we probably would have picked that one over Baltimore, but I didn't see any.

I booked a GYT interior and was assigned a Cloud 9 Spa cabin. While I did take a snoozer on the heated chairs which was dreamy, I didn't end up using the spa much. While I wish I would have taken advantage of it a bit more, I might have if I had paid extra for it, but TBH, after that, I probably wouldn't decide to pay extra, just wasn't worth it for me. That's just me though.

Unless there is a safety issue, there's not much security is going to do. They aren't there to babysit badly behaved kids, that's a parenting issue.

You keep saying that. I think it is time to accept that things have changed from years ago. Edited to add: I think the food on Carnival is actually about 3 steps above the food on Royal Caribbean. Food is subjective. I found the chicken tenders to be on par with things I've gotten at many other places, and I'll say again, I thought they were actually pretty good. If food snobs want to think think that is low-class, then by all means, they can do so. I've never been served a cold sandwich that tasted like cat food, but maybe you had a bad experience. I would tend to think the good experience outnumber the bad (this is my own personal experience), but possibly your subjective scale is different than mine, and that is okay. However, if my subjective scale tipped as negative as yours, on Carnival, I wouldn't continue to select Carnival as my cruise line.

Pretty much this.

This brings me back to the main point. Reviewing expectations vs. product is a good idea. My expectation from Carnival's bargain-priced product is not top of the line food, especially at something called "Late Night Snacks."

Great - I'll look forward to following along!

I agree, I have better offers and don't think we'll be booking one of these - but it does look like the screenshot posted above includes a Baltimore sailing in November 2025, is that not showing an option for you?