StephPS79

We were on Glory, which is the same class as Liberty, to Montego Bay February 2023.  I love Conquest class ships, but of the ones you mentioned, I might like Horizon the best.  We stuck with an excursion and rode ATVs, decently fun, but not the best ATV excursion we've done.  It was at an excursion park though, so lots of people there for lots of different things, horseback riding, beach, etc.  The beach there was beautiful.

I agree that I wouldn't wonder out too much on my own.  My brother actually had to disembark in Montego Bay due to a medical emergency.  Carnival helped arrange transport to the airport.  Apparently it was quite an experience in the taxi to the airport, with the driver talking about wanting to shoot his boss who lived in the mansion on the hill.  He also kept offering to take them shopping, instead of the airport.

After that report, I don't think I'd taxi anywhere on my own.

14 hours ago, mz-s said:

 

Carnival competes on price, they cannot compete on experience.

Not trying to come at you, (or derail this thread), you often have good information and are quick to help answer questions, but I really don't understand why you struggle so much with accepting that people actually do enjoy cruising on Carnival. 

I get that it's not like the good ol' days, but dollar for dollar, I would book Carnival over Royal Caribbean everytime (I am using that here because RCI is currently the only other line I have experience with).  My experience on Carnival has always been better than my experience on RCI.  The fact that it is competitively priced is an added bonus.  RCI wins in ships, hands down, but the ship doesn't make the experience for me.  

I know this board is flooded with posts complaining about the cruise line which you feel might validate your opinion, but so is RCI, and I'd wager to say it's not much different on NCL boards, or even Princess or Celebrity.

You've mentioned Disney, and I really don't consider them a player in this game, but I'd be curious to know what other experience you have on other lines that are direct competitors that would backup such a broad statement.

6 hours ago, anastasia3939 said:

I've never been on a cruise ship with self serve laundry but I guess I will be when I go on the Pride. How much does a load of laundry cost, and do you scan your sea pass card, or should I bring quarters?

 

TIA

If you plan to do laundry, I would recommend bringing some detergent pods or such.  I actually find it very convenient to do laundry onboard, but the detergent dispensers are horrendous, and often empty.

7 minutes ago, ema773 said:

Virgin Voyages earliest embarkation time is 1:30-2:00.  If Carnival waited until then for embarkation the rooms would be ready as well, but people would be complaining that boarding is too late.  If you want your room to be ready and your cards waiting for you then board at a later time.

Just about to post this.  Not really an even comparison.  If you schedule boarding for Carnival for 2p or later, you can generally go right to you room.  VV just eliminates boarding before rooms are ready.

At this time, Carnival isn't using a bid system for upgrades.  As others have said, there is a possibility you'll receive an offer to "upgrade" for a cost.  Sometimes good value, sometimes not.

I don't mind interiors.  I'd say if you really want to get on a ship, grab the interior.  You might get better offers later.

Do you have any offers?  It looks like my "Play N' Chill" offers show as "Play My Way" in the description, but they are the same offer codes that I had before.  I don't really keep track of the name, but more the offer code and terms.

Great and thorough review - thank you for the time to share your experience!

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.  

1 hour ago, mz-s said:

Carnival is slowly ratcheting up the add-ons and slowly ratcheting down the level of service on their ships. Each step is small and can be shrugged off as just how it is. They all do it. Try getting service like this in Vegas, folks! Bottled water is even more expensive at the airport, after all! I don't need to eat bacon every day! I don't want room service so if you want it, you should pay! I don't even need my stateroom to be ready at embarkation, matter of fact if it means my cruise is cheap I can just sleep in the hallway! 

 

Carnival cruisers are like frogs slowly being boiled alive.

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. 

3 hours ago, aborgman said:

 

As far as I can tell (with service fees) -

 

RCL Drink package: $66-$124 per day

CCL Drink package: $70.75-$88.44 per day

 

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.

1 hour ago, PlanoTim said:

  Either that or go ask Royal Caribbean how that do it. 😋

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.

3 hours ago, aborgman said:

This isn't about the law, it's about the law 

So it is about the law...

3 hours ago, aborgman said:

The deception is pretending like the law prohibits it as opposed to just saying the law increases costs so it isn't profitable to provide.

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.

23 minutes ago, Elaine5715 said:

Yes, they are always targeted but while you can only see 100 offers at a time, there are many more.  Add some and then refresh, it will reset to 100 offers.  Keep adding random offers until less than 100 are listed

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.

4 hours ago, elsiedd said:

Lizard13

I’m leaving on Vision also on April 4. They are telling us we need to park at MacArthur Center South Garage. Since you live in the area, can you tell me if this is a secure place to park?  Do they have security guards?  I’m a little nervous about leaving my car for a week. 

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

On 3/29/2024 at 8:47 PM, Saint Greg said:

There is no Texas law preventing Carnival from selling Cheers on Day 1. Princess does it. It just starts after sail away. Carnival uses it as an excuse to make people pay for individual drinks the first day and lies to you about it.

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.

1 hour ago, mz-s said:

Carnival Corp has other brands that do Alaska very well for example.

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.

3 hours ago, Knights on the Beach said:

Our absolute favorite place to stay is Bourbon Orleans. They have some unique rooms and we love the attached Bourbon O bar. Twice we've lucked into staying in the Governor's Suite (now called DeLille Suite). The pictures on their website don't do it justice. The bathroom in that suite is bigger than most of our cruise ship cabins have been. 😂 The hotel is located on the corner of Bourbon & Orleans and we don't hang out on Bourbon at all. We usually walk along Royal Street instead of Bourbon to avoid all that mess.

 

https://www.bourbonorleans.com/ 

 

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.

1 hour ago, toad455 said:

Are the adjusted cruises out of Norfolk available to book? And how far out does Carnival have these sailings?

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.

9 minutes ago, OBX-Cruisers said:

DON'T go on I95.  We have done that trip often from the Outer Banks and NEVER go on I95 around Washington

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.

3 hours ago, elcuchio24 said:

The big lines aren't going to order any smaller ships anytime soon. 

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.

1 hour ago, SRF said:

How would it be if you booked a cruise out of Miami and they said, oh, your cruise is now leaving from LA, it is your problem?

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

33 minutes ago, SRF said:

Later it does say (Clause 8c) that they are liable to get you home or the port of embarkation.

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.