Bandman

This is our first time on Princess. Booked 2 cabins. One for us, and one for my Mom. So far: They had my mom’s birthdate wrong on her booking! They added the princess plus package to my mom’s booking(We don’t drink. Never even discussed this package). Then noticed my wife’s age was wrong on the travel summary! Guess what? Her birthday was wrong too. Now… the app says I need to order our medallions, even though I already did this last week and it has shown so in the app… until today. Needless to say, I am NOT impressed and worried about my booking.

Thanks, I am indeed on the 27th. Have a great cruise!

I am booked on a 10 day Venezia cruise next May. I am hopeful a longer cruise will be better overall, but I will definitely be keeping my eye on things over the next several months.

Have we noticed an uptick in bad behavior since the return of the all-inclusive drink packages a few years ago? If so, is that just a coincidence? I have been cruising carnival as an adult since the mid 90’s. There have always been those that over indulge. It seems worse now. Although it could be the same ratio of passengers, but today the ships are huge and there is still only 1 main pool, 1 night club, etc. where people can congregate.

Equinox earlier this month with Premium Wifi. It worked great everywhere for me except for the bed in our cabin. Couldn’t be in bed and surf at all.

Called yesterday during lunch hour CDT to change our cabin location for an upcoming cruise. Two minute wait and cabin changed in under 3 mins by a very helpful employee.

What’s below/above the new cabin?

Just off our first Celebrity cruise and this is exactly what I thought about when looking for a new line to experience and that is exactly what we found. We had a great time.

I enjoy a good steak, while my wife isn’t a fan. I would appreciate the opportunity to purchase a higher quality steak in the dining room than the standard sirloin, but for goodness sakes, don’t remove options.

Currently on board as well. We left the casino one night earlier in the week due to vape smoke swirling around us. So glad they might have already reconsidered.

OMG! Forget all my complaints… They are bringing Beef Wellington back!

Both items might be great, but it would be nice to have a different sauce/treatment on consecutive nights. Maybe night 3 will be BBQ Tilapia.

Second night’s menu already has repeated items. A BBQ fish. A roasted chicken. Short ribs. It’s a trend I have noticed in the dining room. On celebration last week we could have had some version of chicken parm 3 times. Fried chicken twice. Etc. Also… filet w/ short rib = smaller filet. And the Grilled Jumbo ShrimpS item is now called Grilled Jumbo shrimP w/ fish cake…. Fewer shrimp? Only 1 shrimp?

Yep. For the first time in 22 cruises with Carnival, some of the food in the main dining room on Celebration 5/28 and 6/4 was indeed inedible.

Just off a B2B on the Celebration. Went to San Juan both weeks. First week no photo ID required. The next week it was required. You never know.

Thank goodness. Nothing could be worse than the dining room food I just had on my recent B2B on the Celebration. Now… let’s talk about the return of the 3-man service team.

Just off a Back to Back on the Celebration. On turn around day there was a dog with its handler sitting by luggage that had already been delivered outside a cabin down the hall from us. Those two and two ship security officers appeared to be waiting for the owners of said luggage to arrive at the cabin…

On Mardi Gras @11pm it took less than 10 mins both times we ordered.

That’s good to know! I hadn’t thought about the fact that the new muster would be on the new S & S card. We are actually switching rooms and getting new cards. Wife and I both had casino offers. We will head to guest services first! Thanks everyone.

We are sailing on the Celebration in a couple of weeks and have 2 cabins(all adults) and need to do the room switch at guest services on board. Normally I would head straight to guest services to try to beat the line and then complete our muster - BUT, the 2 cabins have different muster stations. I am a little concerned if we switch rooms first, muster might be a cluster if the switch doesn’t update on the iPads the staff have at the muster stations. So what are everyone’s thoughts, Get in line at guest services or complete muster first?

Was on Mardi Gras twice last summer. Typical areas are no more or less crowded to us than other ships: Buffet at embarkation, buffet during late breakfast or on a port day, lido pool, casino in the evenings between 7 and 10pm, Guest Services, Java Blue for morning coffee(bad on every ship) and as others have mentioned, shows at Center Stage(shows were great but the design of the space is just too small for 6,000 passengers to enjoy a show). The elevators are small. We didn’t have to wait longer, but when riding you are much closer to people than I prefer. Notable areas that were/seemed less crowded than usual: Serenity(tons of loungers here), Pizza(the line might look really long but it moves so much faster than other ships because it was actually staffed with enough workers), Same at Guys. There are so many casual spots for dining on the excel class ships. It really is fantastic. There were plenty of seating areas inside and out away from the crowds to chill. Tip for the buffet - the Mardi Gras has multiple areas with the same offerings. If you walk into the buffet and the first area you encounter seems slammed, walk around to another buffet station. We almost always found one station to be extremely busy and others less so. I understand what some folks are saying when they sing the praises of the smaller ships, but the most crowded cruises we have ever been on were in the 1990’s on Fantasy class ships. Wall to wall down the promenade like after the fireworks at Disney.

We have cruised Carnival exclusively since 1994. Over the years, in every decade we have witnessed the occasional fight, family brawl, seriously inebriated obnoxiousness, kids running, guests yelling at waiters, smelled pot, etc.. Most of these incidents involved middle-aged folks. We have also experienced all of the same at Disney World, Las Vegas, our local mall, and on and on. That said, it does feel different when you are “trapped on a ship” with these types. But the bad moments are usually fleeting. People seem more rude and agitated everywhere now days. This might be an accurate statement or I might just be turning into an old fuddy-duddy…

Last June in Cozumel the crew at paradise beach was removing it as fast as they could all day. It was coming onshore so fast that as soon as they almost had the beach clear it would start building up again. Huge amounts coming ashore. The water was full of it. No way to get in the water as it was thick with the stuff. This isn’t your stringy grasslike seaweed. It’s more like a bush. We are expecting it again this summer on our cruise so maybe we won’t be too disappointed.

Nice to see our $22 a day for parking being used so well.

Once they added behind the scenes employees to the tipping policy, we as customers were forced into a new bargain. If you decide to cruise, the expectation is to contribute to the tips of people you never see. I may not like that policy. But I see no way to combat it without hurting the employees. So, I leave the autotips on. The same way I don’t go to a sit down restaurant at home and not tip. It’s part of the unspoken contract between the diner and the staff. If I don’t like tipping, I can always eat at McDonalds. Likewise, if I don’t like tipping behind the scenes cruise employees, I can cruise another line.