pyropoodle

55 minutes ago, phoneman69 said:

If you where Mid Ship on the Magic cruise i would be calling. I have never done that far forward on any cruise. Have done slightly aft on 2. Always concerned about noise. Good Luck with your choice   

as far as noise goes, the one good thing is that there are rooms both above and below, so no open spaces.   i'm so torn.  maybe i'll just leave it as is and see if i can find something redeeming about the front of the ship!  what if i find that it is some hidden secret and secretly everyone says 'stay away from the front' so they can steal alll of the good rooms?  lol. i'll prolly just leave it. i'm just glad to have a balcony on this one. 

45 minutes ago, Jamericannn said:

Funny thing is I was forward and now they moved me to aft. Never done forward before so Magic would have been my first time.

so so nervous about it

got my room assignment as well.  they moved me allll the way to the front of the ship.  now, i have no idea why i have never booked forward cabins before, but i've always done midship or aft.   please tell me that i'm going to LOVE forward.  i am literally the 4th or 5th balcony from the bridge (or the grayed out bridge looking thing on deck 8 😎 at the front).  should i keep this or beg to be moved back?

we were moved over from the magic for an august sailing.  i'm just excited to be getting back on a ship!

8 hours ago, edrussell said:

 

We have only sailed out of Bayonne and Baltimore.  Always on RCCL.  3 times.  We've had no issues whatsoever with the people.  The Baltimore sailing had a slightly higher percentage of blue collar type people but that suited us just fine.  Port workers we've encountered were fantastic to deal with, parking at both was a breeze (I drive a F-350 so I always opt for outside parking) and port access was no issue whatsoever.  Now we do live between Toronto and Hamilton Ontario which are populated with some of the most 'challenging' people out there.  Extremely rude, pushy etc, in general downright awful.  Despite what many think about Canadians in general I'd not wish a visit to Toronto on my worst enemy.  So that definitely isn't an issue for us.  

i actually have never met a rude port worker and i would imagine they would only be rude if someone were mistreating them.   i'm thinking bayone/ nyc would have similar population for sailings but what i'm hearing from you is that alll the rude people on the nyc ship are probably Canadian!!! 

i'm kidding, i'm kidding.  maybe it was just a one off. i've only done it once, and in August, i'll try my luck again. it's prob a combination of nyc and that time of year when there are sooo many kids of all ages that are sailing, especially teens that run amok. there were many parentless teens on that sailing from 2019.   
i'm a parent of young kiddos, but i'd like to think that when they are teenagers, if they are being absolute jerks, that someone would tell me-- rat them out or otherwise i'd just not let them sail with me.  

as far as blue collar people, i grew up in a blue collar household. i'm a little soft nowadays with my office job, but i never forgot where I come from and how hard my parents had to work to help me get where i am today. 

1 hour ago, shof515 said:

as a native new yorker and this is also my homeport, unfortunately this is correct with the people in our not so amazing city

i'm gonna give it one more try .  i can suffer if i can just get on the ship  🙂 

We were originally booked on the Magic and changed to Venezia, which I am ok with.  I have booked the Magic 4 times since pandemic started and all were cancelled or changed to other ships, so i'm taking this as a sign to just let that ship gooooo. 

We are a family of 4,  (me, hubs, will have a 9 year old boy/ 6 year old girl at time of sailing) NYC is our home port so i'm personally excited that we won't have to deal with flights and we can take on as much luggage as we want 😛

10 hours ago, Jamericannn said:

Someone previously stated that there are less suites on this ship. 

i am clinging to the hope that many people will be up in arms and angry as people can be EXTRA..but with that anger, they cancel their suites and i can snag one!!!  fingers crossed for your adjoining rooms as well.  

8 hours ago, edrussell said:

  Oddly enough with this being our intro cruise on Carnival we were looking forward to a typical Carnival type vibe onboard to compare it against our experience on RCCL. 

i'm not sure if you have sailed out of NYC before, but if not, I wouldn't judge this as being a typical carnival type of vibe.  i have only sailed out of NYC once, 2019, pre pandemic and i swore i'd never sail out of NYC again because the people were just...the worst (and this is my home port).  the typcial carnival vibe i'd say can be found out of miami/ tampa sailing, but nyc sailing, the people just felt extra rude.  i'm going to try this out of NYC again because 1.  i haven't cruised since 2019 and i just really want to be on any ship  2.  flights for the 4 of us were ridiculous so i'll give it another shot out of NYC. maybe we were just on a particularly bad sailing.   just tossing it out that even though not really related to the topic at all, i don't think any carnival ship sailing out of nyc is the best comparison to other lines

I got the email as well that they changed my August 2023 cruise to this ship.   i was initially stoked, then I found this thread, then I had a mild panic attack when someone said there were no waterslides for the kids and no camp ocean, then I was  relieved when 10 people posted pics of the waterslides and said "heck yeah there are waterslides and camp ocean for the kiddies"  so now my panic attack is done and I have nothing further to add to the convo, but the fact that i booked a balcony on the old ship and was hoping to upgrade to a suite.  the Suites have been sold out for months on the old ship, so no dice...do we think there are more suites on this ship?   carnival.com still saying sold out, but i suspect that is due to the shuffling of everyone as well.  

no matter, i'mma cruise and have a great time and the kids are going to enjoy some waterslidesssss.  

i have only ever done stingrays in cayman , which was just an amazing experience. this time, i'll have my kids with me (5 &8) and wondering if the stingrays of blue lagoon are worth it.   we could just do a beach day and save sting rays for a cruise that goes to CG but just trying to figure out what to do with our day in Nassau (port change at 100 days out, so i thought i was done with all the research for this particular cruise) . I'm happy to pay for the Sting Ray experience, but it if it just one or two rays,...ehhhhhhhh....

TIA for any comments/ suggestions. 

11 minutes ago, dcipjr said:

 

We never do either...

 

My wife and I are going on the Breakaway next week, and I see from the dailies that Splash Academy is open 7 PM - 11 PM each night, 5-12 years only. 

 

Our daughter just turned 5, and we're planning to do the buffet for her, then drop her off at the club.

 

We'll have more date nights in the span of a week than we have in the past 5 years.

this is making me feel so much better.  we have some dinner res at 7:30 on a couple of nights and i really didn't want to fight with my kids at the table to tell them to please not throw food at each other!  
7-11 is puurrrrfect thank you so much

we don't have family where we live, so we literally do not get a break of any kind so this is amazing

5 hours ago, mjkacmom said:

Even during regular times, the clubs closed during main meal times, probably so kids could eat. Kids of every age are welcome in every restaurant.

hijacking this thread to ask a question, i'm normally a carnival cruiser, so i'm used to dropping kids off at the club so i can have a nice dinner with my family. are you saying the clubs are closed during that time?  DANG.  i was hoping to have my kidds go to dinner at the buffet, then drop them off, then go to dinner with my hubs since we never get any alone time.   if this is true, carnival does it better

8 hours ago, Nanajands said:

I agree! I am leaving for the Panama Canal trip next month and just bought 2 high quality well made bathing suits from TJMaxx. One was a Ellen Tracy suit and the other a Tommy Hilfiger for $24.99 each. Full price ran $98. 

Haha, my post is a little old but I still stand by it-  I bought my swimsuits for my trip back in August there as well as swimsuits for my kiddos (whom I didn’t have back in 2012 when I posted).   Love me some TJmaxx 

I'm trying not to spend much time on all the negative because people tend to complain about things that I would literally never consider complaining about. i'm pretty easy going that way.  At any rate, i will find out tomorrow if i like it or not because we sail away TOMORROW. i've been waiting quite a while, and no matter what happens, i'm on a ship and not at my work doing drudgery.   will report back when the depression of being back on land semi-passes. 

my very first drink onboard is ALWAYS the DOD- Funship special.   26 more days until I can have another one :)

26 days, which while super exciting, also means summer is coming to an end.

I sail out of NYC as well, and I'm on Sunrise this year and Radiance next year.   I have to try them both!

9 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

I enjoy researching our vacations, cruises & otherwise. That's part of my whole process and it's fun for me.

 

 

oh yes, and also because for me, big vacations are usually a year or more away, it helps me pass the time and find things to look forward to.  

eh, to each their own.  I like surprises, but I also like to be prepared. I research anywhere I go ahead of time, not just cruises.  I want to see places in Paris that I want to visit ahead of time, not just show up and be surprised.  but, I am a planner.   my husband is a 'just go along with it' person.  I plan and tell him what to do and he just goes along with it.   He usually says "I'm glad you planned all this, I would have no clue what to do here".   

We are headed out on August 19th, and maybe it's crowded or maybe it smells, but it is not me sitting at my desk, slogging my 9-10 hour work day, so anything I do that week will be amazing.

it will be what you make of it as well. I feel like some people are just looking for things to be negative about, and I'm not that kind of person, so I will find the positive in it and i'll have a great time no matter what.

That isn't the end of the random stuff people complain about.  you should read some of the messages/ requests that John Heald gets:

"John, you didn't mention there was a tornado in Ohio last week, I want $50.00 OBC"

"John, the room steward didn't give me a chocolate, what can you do for me????"

"John, the CD made too many announcements, I need a refund!"

people are really ludicrous  

2 minutes ago, RandomUser123 said:

If this is true then someone from Carnival gave me bad info. I booked a cruise in October when my son will be 2 at the time of embarkation because they told me if I booked a week earlier I would not be able to drop him off at kids club since he would still be under 2 when the cruise started. Not really a big deal for me since there was no real price difference from one week to the next in this instance but if there was then oh boy...

i feel like whoever you get on the phone will say whatever they want to say at the moment :P      We didn't have a problem when my son was turning 2 and this go around we are actually sailing on my daughter's 2nd birthday- departing the day she turns 2, so it's not an issue.   it could also be up to the counselors on the ship.   better to wait until they are actually 2 than to chance it

4 minutes ago, RandomUser123 said:

If they are 1 and turn 2 during the cruise then you cannot drop them off at kids club once they are 2. 

they may let him attend if his is 17 at embark but it is not true that a kid as to be 2 years old on date of embark to be in the kids club. they have to at least turn 2 on the sailing.

August 2020 to Cuba!