dolphinsfan246

My aunt did this exact thing at Port Canaveral with Freedom and Liberty. It worked out perfectly for her. She waited to be one of the last off the first cruise and by that time it was time to head to the other terminal. In Port Canaveral these two ships do dock in 2 different places not accessible by walking. This isn’t a problem at all if you are bringing your own vehicle though.

The Pride did have a pretty intensive dry dock where she also had two new Azipods completely replace the old ones. (Which ironically malfunctioned a couple months later) She had her balconies taken off and replaced as well. There are pictures of her in the dry dock without the balconies, looked strange to say the least. But obviously I don’t expect Vista to get any intensive care as she’s not 20+ years old.

This 100%. Which is why it’s hard to believe the 1.6 billion price tag right now. Seems awfully high for Carnival, however given the current rate of inflation I guess it’s possible it would cost that by 2028/29. Carnival makes their living beating everyone on price. There’s a huge demographic that will do without the quirky new features of Icon if it means it will save them a couple grand.

Personally i wouldn’t worry about limiting your options just to achieve gold status. You’re only getting a pin and a free drink (but only after 5 PM on the final night, so they hope you forget about it) I think you would be more satisfied with your vacation if you stay on the Excel class even if it’s only 7 days.

Carnival will always stay the cheapest option. It’s how they have made their niche in the cruise industry since their inception. As long as they can fill the ship at any cost, they can make their fortune from on board revenue. It’s why they prioritize casino guests above all others. Their next priority after that is blue cards, as long as they can get them on cheap, they can impress them because they have nothing else to compare it to. It’s a solid business model that has worked for 50 years. Just fill the ship no matter what, then extract all the on board revenue you can out of them.

My thoughts exactly , the most crowded ships I have been on were Dream and Sunshine. And those are so called smaller ships in today’s world. Mardi Gras was NOT crowded with 6500 people on our sailing. I don’t know why people won’t give them a chance.

What is your point? I’m saying a ship doesn’t have to have a tonnage of 250,000 to accommodate 7,000 passengers when you use your available square footage the way Carnival does.

The ratio is roughly the same when comparing Carnival’s Excel class to RCI’s Oasis class. They both carry around the same while Excel class is around 40,000 tons less. I never felt like the Mardi Gras was overly crowded, and they announced there was 6,500 pax on our sailing. It felt about the same as any other Carnival ship. Remember the Oasis/Icon class ships sacrifice a lot of revenue producing space to have those open air split superstructure features. Don’t expect Carnival to do that. They will put cabins in any nook and cranny, that’s how they keep the fares so low. If the Oasis/Icon ships had those open areas filled in, they would easily be 9,000+ capacity, Royal simply chooses to have those impressive architectural features over higher capacity. Like I said, Carnival would not do that, therefore getting the same amount on a smaller/cheaper ship. It’s been their business model since day 1.

I originally thought that after they waited so long after the Sunshine to do the Sunrise then Radiance. It’s an easy relatively cheap way for them to market a “new” ship to new cruisers who don’t know any better. For example you take a Sunshined Conquest class ship and put it in Mobile, Alabama and call it a new ship and the locals will go ecstatic that they got a new ship. The Sunrise and Radiance remodels were a much more subdued version than the original Sunshine monstrosity. I didn’t even think those renovations warranted a new name. I’d expect something similar for the Conquest class soon, they are showing their age.

They seem pretty adamant about having no new build orders until 2026. With that I wouldn’t expect a “new” ship until 2029 or 2030. What I do expect is a “sunshining” of the Conquest or Spirit class to fill the gap years. I really hope they don’t rename the Conquest class though. Those names have special meaning to many. This would be a long shot but if the “Costa by Carnival” concept is selling as well as the claim it is, they could bring an Excel class ship over to it, in the form of Costa Smeralda or Toscana. Carnival Smeralda doesn’t sound too bad. And put it in Miami to compete with Icon. But since Costa is on the rebound I don’t see that happening. I do believe the only reason Carnival got Venezia and Firenze is because the Asian market collapsed.

No luck on them in 12 cruises. We actually decided to do the math on them last cruise and found our return on investment was NEVER higher than 30% of what we put in. For example we would spend $60-$75 on various cards and win $20 back. Spend $20 and get back $5. It was never a real win though, and never more than we put in. We decided we are done with them for good LOL. The Ohio lottery scratch offs payout a lot more.

Well yes, all 6 of them were actually beached prematurely. But it was an unfortunate circumstance where Carnival needed that instant revenue more than anything. Thankfully they had those disposable assets or else they might not be here today.

Carnival and Mobile just recently signed an extension to 2030. They will be there in some capacity for the next 7 years.

Cruise is ending in NOLA because of the Airport. Many more options from New Orleans than Mobile. Dropping over 2,000 people to find their way home from Mobile’s airport would be terrible.

Did you try adding them manually through the ship mate app? Using “add cruise” then going to “other ships” then clicking on Fantasy/Holiday and typing in the date and days. My shipmate app has my 2006 cruise from the Holiday logged in it and I can view the ports and days.

It will definitely get the new blue hull livery. It’s not a very long dry dock so I wouldn’t expect much.

We love sailing from Mobile so I’m glad to see this. Coming from Ohio it’s one of our easiest drives down. I was very excited to see the longer itineraries from Mobile and we booked the Spirit as soon as that was announced and actually got a really good deal on it ($349 PP, balcony , 8 days) those prices are long gone and the same cruise is going for over double that now. One of the reasons we didn’t cruise from Mobile that often was because the 4&5 day itineraries were so boring. I’m definitely hoping they release even more exciting itineraries in the next 5 years.

Sounds a lot like a medical emergency. Most likely the case.

I’ve been doing my double digit dance all day ! 💃 🕺

Interesting that she’s having pod trouble when she just had extensive pod work done in May. It was even rumored that she got 2 brand new pods, which it looks like in this photo. Hopefully it’s just a quick fix ! Thanks for all the updates.

I read somewhere that MSC will match your loyalty status with other cruise lines. Does anybody know if that’s true? I definitely wouldn’t mind trying them after I turn platinum on Carnival this year.

I hate how the media scares the general public into thinking that you can just “fall” off the ship through no fault of your own. If you fall off you either did something to deserve it, or you were murdered.

Unfortunately I don’t think Carnival will build any ships in the 90k ton range probably ever again. For the height restricted ports I know Carnival and other lines were pushing them to build terminals on the other side of their bridges, this would ultimately force those ports hands into having to do it to stay in the industry. With the new Panama Canal locks that can accommodate ships of almost any size, the need for smaller ships just isn’t there, and the larger ships are way more profitable. I think you hit it right that their next new class would be around 150k-160k, I could definitely see that. They are going to have to be creative to offer “new” ships in the coming years. Like you said I think they will do a few “sunshine” type renovations probably on the Conquest or even Spirit class ships possibly with new names to market them as new. I thought if the Costa concept went well we could definitely see more transfers from Costa (Diadema or dare I say Smeralda or Toscana) because honestly I don’t think the Costa brand is gonna last another 15 years. However once it was announced Venezia already got sent to Florida , it’s obvious those must not be selling well. It’s definitely gonna be interesting to see how they stay competitive in a vastly evolving market over the next 5-10 years.

You would probably enjoy the “behind the fun” tour. You get to see a lot of these areas for yourself. Check it out on your next cruise! You typically have to book it on embarkation day because it sells out very fast and spots are very limited.