Rinderoo

That's like comparing a fast food restaurant to fine dining.

Anthem will have many more features than the little old Fascination.

No guest laundry on Royal Caribbean.

Have you considered a newer Carnival ship such as the Magic?

Well, silly me didnt even think to check the Roll Call.

Will do that.

Not worried about the clientele; after all its not exactly "Monsters of Rock". I would like that music though. :)

Thanks!.

Anyone done one of these themed cruises? I'm booked on the ship for this sailing but not part of the cruise. Seems like they have about 1000 people participating. Ship holds just over 3000.

Wondering about evening activities and public spaces at nights. Have spent some time on the internet looking for schedules and can't find anything as to their activities.

Thanks in advance!

There are a couple of different options from ship back to FLL, and the vans and SUVs are quite a bit more expensive than a metered taxi.

I've done the pricier option as I wanted to pick up my rental car well before the cruise ship pax arrived as we do walk offs from ships, and just paid it--even though it was more than the taxi. However it was not what I considered a crazy price. Just a lot higher than a taxi.

I was 'pulled over' as a solo parent with my minor child on Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Princess and NCL. Here's what Carnival's site says:

Traveling with a Minor

When traveling with a minor where one parent or both parents (or legal guardians) are not cruising, we strongly recommend bringing an original signed letter from the absent parent(s) (or legal guardians) authorizing the minor to travel with you. This will expedite processing by the Department of Homeland Security.

That being said, if you have sole custody with no visitation by the other parent, its a different story.

Not saying you're going to have a problem: Just sharing my experiences, and the last time was in 2014 trying to board with DD, age 17. Hubby/her father was not with us, and I wanted to see what they would do. Sure enough, I was asked to provide notarized documentation by her other parent that I had permission to take her out of the country on a cruise. Royal Caribbean and NCL would not let us board without a notarized letter. I did not offer the letter but had one ready if they asked for it.

Cheng is the acronym for Chief Engineer, KP stands for Kings Point, the US Merchant Marine Academy, and 75 is my year of graduation.

This has been a fascinating read. I know far more about cruise ship propulsion than I ever thought possible, thanks to ChengKP75.

Thank you!

I think this depends on the ship. As a non-smoker (anti-smoker), I have not been too bothered by the smoking sections in the casino on the Breeze, Magic or Valor but I didn't like it, and moved around, and left, when it got too bad. I do not care to smell like smoke and end up showering and washing my hair before bed, and do laundry on board to remove the smell from my clothing.

Personally I would like to see NO SMOKING in all inside venues, but it is difficult for them to try to make everyone happy. What concerns me is the health risk to employees, because they don't have the opportunity to just leave and have to deal with it for 12 hours. Most smokers are accustomed to being kicked outside to indulge their habit and many smokers I know don't even smoke in their own homes.

Godfrey and Sonny are friends and work together. I have been with both and prefer Godfrey as he's a bit lower key than Sonny. But I would use either of them.

Because of contracts with the cruise lines, they can't sell their services independently to cruise ship pax. You are unlikely to find someone if you tell them you are on a ship.

The OSJ pier is by the Sheraton, and we stayed here for several days prior to a cruise a while back. We walked everywhere and did not think Barrachina's was too far at all.

Just be sure to familiarize yourself with the map of the city to you know where you're going.

Planning another cruise with OSJ as a stop, and you can bet we'll be heading that way. :)

Many cruise lines do not permit a US agent to book a passenger from abroad, and RCI is one of them. It can impact the agent's relationship with that cruise line.

Unfortunately you can't always let this slide because of passport data, and the agent may be impacted by trying to slide under the radar.

HTH.

I don't think FTTF is a waste. I buy it to get off the ship quicker in ports where we have to tender, to get ON the ship faster on embarkation day and OFF the ship when back from the trip, and the separate line at Guest Services.

Just off the Magic and I used FTTF to get on the ship fast and have my luggage delivered by the time I got back to the room for lunch, and I was at GS many times for things like change for the laundry, or posting cash to my account (I did pretty well in the casino, lol).

To me, FTTF is fifty bucks well spent. I look at it as a way to avoid long lines and aggravation.

That's what I thought too! The mahogany bay port site says the emerald princess and the regatta was to be docked there today. So I'm trying to understand how the magic too?? Reason being I'm to be there next week on splendor. If emerald princess is able to dock there I'm hope splendor can too!

Mahogany Bay has two spots for docking, but there are ships which are 'downtown' and tender in and bypass Mahogany's cruise ship village. So there can be more than two ships at Roatan. I think the issue with the Magic is her size, and the channel in to Roatan being narrow and more shallow.

No docking at Roatan but Captain just announced a replacement port: Costa Maya, tomorrow from 7am-2pm. We're even getting shore excursions.

Loved this place years ago and I'm excited to return.

I'm having a good time on the Magic but due to weather we couldn't dock in Roatan today. Many many disappointed passengers.

Captain just announced that today (4/2) is a Sea Day and tomorrow is an unplanned stop at Costa Maya, 7am-2pm.

Waiting for a movie at 2pm (Hobbit) which was "downloaded by Carnival at great expense" per the CD.

Got to give the cruise line credit for working on alternatives, and we're even supposed to get some shore excursions for CM later today.

I am on the Magic and not disappointed. Would rather they error on the side of caution. Roatan has always been iffy due to weather.

Plenty to do on board.

I always travel with laundry soap and prefer Tide Pods. Buy a new bag and don't worry about leaks (but put them in a plastic bag anyways.) They come in smaller sizes so you're not stuck with 60 of them.

Rather than Woolite, I use All Free & Clear, pods. Again, new package and no worries about them exploding.

Dryer sheets take up absolutely no space; put in a sandwich bag.

I have sailed Princess several times, as well as the Valor twice. Would go on both, which are quite different.

Carnival excels with entertainment and production shows. The Valor has an 80's show that I really like.

Princess ships are just gorgeous with that elegant Atrium; Carnival has an atrium but no Piazza. Carnival is much more casual and I (gasp!) wear SHORTS in the dining room!!! There will be an "Elegant Night" where you can get spiffy... or not so spiffy. On Elegant Night there are no shorts in the dining room.

Laundry is $3/wash & $3/dry (used to be $2). My last cruise actually needed quarters. Bring your own soap (Tide Pods work well) and dryer sheets and save some money and get cleaner clothes too. Check deck plan for locations. My last Valor cruise had us going down a deck to do laundry, which I did about every other day (I don't like dirty clothes or an overstuffed suitcase.)

Slots are done like every other ship I've been on. Insert card, create account, and charge off your room. When you're done you may cash out your card.

Enjoy!

I travel by myself and when I cruise I take a ship excursion.

Recently I was in St Lucia and wanted to do a tour to the north part of the island, not done by tour companies, and got off the ship to see what was available. Was approached by a driver who offered a tour "and many other things", mostly illegal. He also wanted to have some fun... I told him he was crazy and got back on the ship. (I had just been to St Lucia not too many months prior to this and did a long island tour as part of a group so I wanted to go somewhere else.)

So, stick with a tour and do your shopping in the public areas with a group. I do find Cozumel pretty safe as far as cruise ports go, but if you go downtown there are many 'shops' in vacant buildings off the beaten path, all offering you a better deal. It would be easy to be pulled into one of these buildings and I'm surprised we haven't read about this occurring. On a related note, I've been to downtown Cozumel and back then the prices in the port area were less for the same or similar things.

If the ship was rocking quite a bit and there were not high seas, chances are good that it was wind, and you do mention that you missed Grand Turk because of the weather. Unfortunately we don't have much control over the weather and individual perception is a big thing on a cruise. I was on the Breeze in January with my mom and thought it was rocky; I thought it was fine. We did have a headwind but until you've been in 20'+ seas or in a named storm, wind is nothing. ;)

As for the Cruise Directory, unfortunately they can't keep everyone happy!

Hope you find something that pleases you more in the future.

Done both and prefer Carnival, and here's why...

On Carnival, I can do my own laundry. On the RCI family of ships I must send it out. As silly as this sounds, for me, laundry is a dealbreaker. On Princess I am Elite and can send it out at no cost; on HAL they have a reasonably priced laundry package. There are no guest laundry areas on RCI (or NCL for that matter.)

The Carnival Breeze is awesome and not a lot of extra costs once you board as there is so much to do. Even Bonsai Sushi is really reasonable and its pretty tasty. The Breeze had to have been the best ship I've ever sailed. (No Oasis or Allure for me: just too big. Way too big.)

I find staff and crew on Carnival to be friendly and engaging; on RCI they did not seem to be as interactive with the passengers. This is likely ship-specific though as work atmosphere is a top-down thing.

Dress code: Carnival doesn't really have formal nights; they have "Elegant Night". I don't have to pack anything really fancy, and the dress code has relaxed enough to go with airline bag fees. I DO wear shorts in the dining room and am not ashamed to say it. Lately the staff in the dining rooms look better than the passengers, which is just fine with me.

Price: My present cruises are usually during school breaks and I have yet to find a RCI cruise that beats the balcony with Carnival.

Food: I have not had anything on Carnival which came out of the galley inedible. Wish I could have said that for RCI! But food is subjective and NO ONE starves on a cruise ship. Props to RCI for Johnny Rockets though-- Guy's Burgers come in second but is not available on all ships.

Ship activities: Love all the things they offer on Carnival, from the Chef's Table to trivia every day. RCI ships have some cool features though like ice rinks and flowriders and the rock wall.

Entertainment: the new ships of Carnival (Dream, Magic, Breeze) have very contemporary entertainment and I have yet to see a bad performance on Carnival. On RCI, I was not as thrilled with the production shows but they were fine. The new RCI ships has lots of entertainment options.

So... both are good. You have to decide what you want on a ship. Are you going to stay on board and use the ships activities, or are ports your main focus? My ship choices change when I look at itineraries. For longer cruises with more sea days, I want more things on the ship. For a short cruise where I'm off the ship every day and just eating and sleeping there, it becomes less of an issue. But I go back to whether or not I can do laundry or pay for it to be done at a reasonable price.

They do a lot of the work!

Swapping out soft goods (mattresses, draperies) does not require any specialized mechanical skills.

Some may be ending their contracts and moving on to other ships, or even going home.

I was on the Breeze recently and did the slides and had no complaints about the water in my eyes, and I wear contact lenses.

Disney Cruise Line has freshwater pools.

What you are seeing is the 'lead in' rate.

Just about all businesses do it. Car dealerships, restaurants... the list can go on and on.

Up to us as consumers to look at all of the info to see if its going to work.

It won't work for everyone which is why we end up with choices.

It is nice that Carnival has these super low prices which get people on their ships. Not everyone who wants to travel together wants to sleep together, so this is a good option for them.

Hope you find what you need for your cruise. There are lots of choices out there.

I'm happy with the change and will enjoy the large bottle of water in port. Since I travel with people under age 21 too, now they get something as a repeater.

Can't make everyone happy.