MadManOfBethesda

Exactly. It is one thing to blame the late eight for missing the ship, it is quite another to exonerate NCL's actions with regard to the 80-year-old stroke victim. After all, what is the purpose of the cruise line requesting that passengers provide emergency contact information that includes the name, relationship, and telephone number of a person to be contacted in case of emergency if the cruise line isn't going to bother to actually make that phone call? And that doesn't even address the issue of whether the stroke victim would have been better served by remaining on the ship until she could be debarked at a larger mainland facility rather than what São Tomé could provide. And the ship's doctor didn't even make that determination. According to an article linked earlier in this thread, it was the ship's nurse who made the decision. I have no problem at all with NCL leaving the late eight behind, but in my opinion, they really dropped the ball with regard to the stroke patient.

Interesting because I've only sailed out of NY one time (12/23) and my experience was similar to that of the OP's. I was in two exceedingly-long lines before reaching CCL's check-in area. (The first was out on the sidewalk just to hand over our luggage, and the second was the security line.) Once I got to the Venezia check-in line, I was directed to the exceedingly-long late check-in line since we were now outside of our 30-minute window. And no, contrary to your alternative theory, the regular check-in line had not closed as people were still being directed to enter that line if they were within their window.

Yes, probably close to 10, including two last year: Carnival Pride from Tampa to Barcelona in April & Celebrity Reflection from Barcelona to Ft. Lauderdale in October. And now this year in addition to the transatlantic on Glory in April, we're also doing a 25-night transpacific cruise on Panorama in October from Singapore to L.A.

Well, I can't address what "usually" happens, but in November, I booked a last-minute "free" 10-night cruise over Christmas (Dec 18-28) in an interior cabin on Venezia, and on the Friday before the Monday departure, I received an upgrade offer to a Terrazza category cabin at the rear of Deck 6 with an enormous wrap-around balcony. It was only $250/pp and I leapt at the opportunity.

We were in cabin 6501 with a wrap-around balcony this past Christmas and had no issues with noise whatsoever.

About 6 weeks ago. December 18th-28th on Venezia out of Manhattan.

That wasn't my experience at all on my 10-night Christmas cruise on Venezia. While I occasionally ordered the night before because my wife needed to oder her gluten-free items in advance, I normally just waited until the same evening to order off of the vegan menu. The only pushback I received (if you can call it that) was that I sometimes was told that it would take longer to receive my entree'. But I was never outright refused the option of ordering from the vegan menu for that same night.

That's not true. While institutions are not required to provide you with a 1099 form if the annual amount paid is under $10, the income itself is still taxable to the individual and required to be included as income on your 1040. In fact, everything from $1 and above (technically, all the way down to 50 cents and then rounded up) is required to be reported as income when filing your taxes.

Well, I don't know about "most" offers, but I'm certainly not going to complain about the one I received last month. We were booked in a standard inside cabin for our 10-night Christmas cruise on Venezia, and 3 days before the trip I received a phone call with an upgrade offer to a "terrazza" cabin on deck 6 with an absolutely enormous wrap-around balcony at the rear of the ship. And we enjoyed the terrazza benefits even more than the upgraded cabin and balcony itself. In fact, being able to relax and enjoy a relatively private continental breakfast each morning far from the madding crowd in the cordoned-off area of the Carnevale Bar & Lounge area at the rear of deck 5 was almost worth the $250pp upgrade charge itself.

Do you consider John Heald to be an official source? Because according to an article in TheStreet,com, he answered that specific question on his Facebook page. Here's a link to that article, which includes John's verbatim response that the limit does in fact apply to all passengers, whether on a Cheers package or not. Carnival Cruise Line Explains Controversial Beverage Policy - TheStreet

That just goes to show how everyone's tastes and experiences are different. We were on Venezia over Christmas and my wife and I both agreed that he was our least favorite CD in over 40 years of sailing. I found him to be extremely irritating and dreaded anytime he began making an announcement.

Fwiw, that's not the first voyage. I'll actually be on the first voyage, which is a transatlantic out of Barcelona on April 18th, and I'm not worried at all. If it will ease your concerns, I can report back during the cruise.

You're mistaken.

I never said that they didn't. But you've been whining incessantly that they cancelled your shore excursion on Xmas Eve and I'm just pointing out to you that in actuality it was the tour operator who cancelled your excursion, not Celebrity.

Well, as long as you want to argue semantics, Celebrity didn't cancel your excursion, the tour operator did.

I'm sure this was an anomaly, but my wife and I were walking through the Venezia casino the other day, and two separate $10,000 jackpots were hit within what seemed like 30 seconds of each other. And the two lucky winners weren't even playing the max amount on the winning spin. One individual was playing $1.60 on an 80-cent minimum machine and the other was playing the 88-cents minimum on that particular machine. I've seen many people hit jackpots on a variety of cruises over the years, but this is the first time I've seen one right after another one has hit, and with both people playing the minimum or close to the minimum. In fact, on many machines, you're not even eligible for the jackpot unless you're playing the max amount or several multiples of the minimum.

After reading your post, I decided to go down and count the number of slot machines. FWIW, there are 38 slot machines, 4 table games, plus a full-size roulette station. While the smoke hasn't really been an issue for me on this cruise, if I had my druthers, I'd have Carnival banish the smokers to the smaller casino annex and let the nonsmokers have access to the full array of slot machines and table games in the larger main casino.

I can't speak to what it was like in September, but I'm on the Venezia right now and it is not freezing (no one is wearing a jacket) and it is not crowded. I was in there not 15 minutes ago.

I was wondering about that myself. I'm currently on Venezia and my wife and I have been spending time in the separate nonsmoking casino annex ourselves without incident. As a matter of fact, even the regular casino has a separate section of slot machines one the other side of the thru walkway where smoking is prohibited, albeit not as free from the smell of cigarette smoke as the completely separate casino annex.

I'm in my mid-60s and have been cruising on Carnival and various other lines for 40+ years. I took a Carnival transatlantic cruise from Tampa to Barcelona this past April, took a Celebrity transatlantic cruise from Barcelona to Ft. Lauderdale last month, and have another Carnival transatlantic cruise from Barcelona to Port Canaveral booked for next April. I've also taken transatlantic cruises to/from Europe on other lines as well. They're all basically the same with similar clientele. Passenger ages skew older than a typical 7-day or shorter cruise, and there usually are few children on board. There is no similarity between a Carnival Caribbean "party ship" 3,4,or 7-day cruise with a Carnival 14+ day transatlantic or repositioning cruise.

At what time(s) were you requesting a table? On embarkation day, we were tired and hungry having not eaten all day, so we requested a table at ~5:45pm and like you, had only a 2-3 minute wait. However, last night, we didn't request a table until 7:10pm and the app came back with a 50-60 minute wait, which eventually actually turned into a 45 minute wait as we got seated a few minutes prior to 8:00pm. I'm not complaining about the wait, just relaying our experience so far on this cruise. I must say that the food has been delicious both nights so far in the MDR. I'm really enjoying the variety of choices on the new Vegan menu. Much better than what I had to choose from on my two cruises earlier this year on Carnival, and even in the MDR on my Celebrity cruise last month. (Curiously, on that Celebrity cruise, there was an entire section of the Lido Buffet dedicated to just Vegan items with multiple entrees and side dishes, but the MDR didn't even offer one standard Vegan dish each night, only a vegetarian menu with dishes that could be altered if you pre-ordered the night before.)

The only part of your reply with which I'd quibble would be your implication that secondary coverage in necessarily inferior to primary. Depending upon one's circumstances, and the coverage of one's normal everyday health insurance coverage, sometimes seeking a travel insurance policy with secondary medical coverage is better. This is especially true if the cost of the medical emergency exceeds the dollar limits of the travel insurance policy.

Thank you for the good wishes. We didn't know about the brunch, but we went to the Terraza bar area right after the safety briefing yesterday and the bartender told us about it and had a staff member come over to us and take our reservation. The choices were 12/20 or 12/25 and we went for the Xmas morning brunch.

Sorry to hear about your travails, but I appreciate the heads up. My wife and I were getting ready to board the next cruise as you were ending yours. The embarkation process was the most ridiculous, convoluted mess I've ever experienced in over 40 years of cruising on multiple cruise lines out of multiple ports around the world. Our boarding time was 1pm and we arrived at the terminal shortly thereafter. To make a very long story short, after standing in multiple looong, loooong winding lines, we made it onto the ship at 3:45pm. And as we were opening the door to our cabin, the whiny cruise director with the most annoying voice I've ever heard, was complaining that the ship wasn't going to be able to leave on time because well over a thousand passengers hadn't checked in for their safety drill yet. Well, no poop, Sherlock! That's because they're still stuck in the terminal. Haven't encountered any difficulties once on board, but then again, we haven't done much yet, either. After running around NYC all weekend, we spent most of the first day of the cruise relaxing in our cabin. (We accepted an upgrade offer a few days ago for a larger cabin at the rear of the ship with a wrap-around balcony.) It is a beautiful ship, and we will definitely do more as the cruise progresses. Hopefully, we won't run into the difficulties that you experienced on the last cruise. But I am already dreading the disembarkation process on 12/28.

Many hotels, especially in resort areas, include a daily amenity fee of up to $50/day on top of the room charge that they justify by saying it is for WiFi, fitness center, etc. And unlike Carnival, it is not optional. You have to pay it whether you plan to use the WiFi or any other hotel or resort "amenity."