StephPS79

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?

We're booked on the Pride to Bermuda for September 2025, will be the first time on the Pride. I'm actually pretty excited after reading some of these comments (I was excited before, but more so now)! First time to Bermuda too, with 2 overnights, so really looking forward to this cruise. Too bad I've gotta ride this excitement out for another 549 days lol.

There are several 2025 dates available.

Good thing there are several options available, such as: Pass on late night snacks and eat other options on the ship that you enjoy. Skip food that doesn’t appeal to you. Choose another cruise line with higher prices and “better” food options that might fit your preferences better. …just to name a few.

A very generalized opinion from one person.

In my case, I was charged a $100 cancellation penalty, which was subtracted from the refund of taxes and fees. I received taxes and port fees minus $100.

Casino bookings have the same T&C as any sailing.

I second what most others have said. Celebration is a new, bigger, brighter ship. If that appeals to you more than ports, Celebration. If you don't mind an older, smaller ship, and ports are important, I would hands-down take the itinerary on the Magic over that Celebration itinerary. Just to note, we'll all have different expectations and opinions. I've sailed both ships and found the food quality to be similar between the two where they overlap, with no complaints on either. The Celebration definitely has more food options, which was nice. But overall quality, in my opinion, was the same. I don't feel the food on the Magic "has gotten better," I don't think it was that bad to begin with, and is very comparable to the food on the Celebration. While the Magic does show signs of age and wear, I can't say that impacts my experience in the least. To be fair, the couch in our cabin on the Celebration showed quite a bit of...usage...and that is relatively young ship. My own personal opinion, I wouldn't hesitate to go on either ship again, but the bells and whistles on the Celebration aren't enough to sell me on that itinerary and given the option, I'd choose the Magic sailing.

Did anyone go without cookies? From the OPs original post, there was a half bowl of cookies there while they waited, up for grabs.

There was a refund of port fees and taxes. There was also a cancellation fee assessed, which is deducted from the refund of port fees and taxes. The agreement is cancellation fees will be assessed. We can use whatever semantics we want, a no-show is technically a cancellation.

To be fair, there is at least one thing that you could think of, and just did. Someone else mentioned a medical reason for taking cookies to the room. I could think of a few "reasonable" reasons on my own. In reality, it could even be what you mentioned, we don't know. Who knows. It's just cookies.

I do think this is a policy that has always been there that is now being more heavily enforced. The last time I no-showed a guest I was charged a fee, which was deducted from the refund of port fees and taxes.

We're talking about chicken tenders, right? The thing that's usually on most kids menus? I'm not sure what one expects from "chicken tenders" but I got some greasy breaded and fried chicken, perfect for dunking in that actually pretty tasty honey mustard that was there (although I'll fully admit to mistaking it as cheese sauce and dumping all over my hotdog - actually worked out well) just as expected. I really think some expectations need to be evaluated to determine is Carnival is the right cruise line for individual preference. If not, it is fine to move on.

I was on the Celebration this month. I found the food on the midnight buffet to be perfectly acceptable, and would go so far as to say I enjoyed the chicken tenders. I wouldn't say it was the best food on the ship, but it definitely hit the midnight spot. We all have different opinions.

Is there any source of confirmation for this? There have been many mentions of "how long" you spend in the casino as a tick-mark on the ideal player. Vegas certainly does everything they can to keep you in the casino, as it is a well-regarded theory that the longer you sit, the more you lose.

Nah, no jackpots - kind of unfortunate the way it worked out! On the first night, I played $300 on Double Diamond High limit, but spinning $5 denom 2 credits. ($200 Funplay, put $100 charge in). Lost that in about 2 minutes lol! I switched over to play a Pinball machine, Double Gold or whatever it was, still on the first night. I charged $100, I was betting max at $1 denom, so $10/spin, and honest truth kept hitting Pinball and a few good hits, twice $800. But the Pinballs just kept hitting! Like every 3rd or 4th spin! I went up to $2 denom for a little while while it was hitting well. That first night, I was up around $5000! I finished the first night with around 11,000 points. And here the story takes a tragic turn. I wish I never stopped playing that first night lol! The Pinball machine died on me. I kept leaving, but couldn't help coming back to it, with the hopes it would be nice and pump out the luck like it did the first night. But nope. Put all $5000 back, tried to find some luck on a few different machines with a few hundred more, but no such luck to be found. I really regret playing out of my bank, instead of just charging it to the room, and then paying off the balance after the cruise. Not a rookie, but definite rookie mistake on my part. Actually, I should have took that money and ran after the first night, but that's gambling for ya.

This, really. Both the loyalty and casino perks are completely different programs between cruise lines. They follow the same principles, but cost vs. reward is very hard to compare across cruise lines.

Unfortunately, there's no confirmed answer to this questions. Play what you can afford and hope for the best.