Victorious8

I’ve sailed in two studios (Escape and Epic), and inside on Bliss (shared) and an inside solo on Dawn. As well as a balcony as a solo (randomly got a free upgrade on the Encore TA) and a balcony with my partner on Breakaway. 
I am currently booked on Bliss and decided to take the studio even though there would have been no price difference. I feel like the insides just feel so bleak when I’m in them. I did not feel that way when I stayed in either studio. 
on Escape I picked a cabin right next to the lounge and loved being able to easily crawl my hungover self over to get some fluids in the morning. 
For my upcoming Bliss cruise I similarly booked the closest cabin to the lounge that was available. 
I’ve had a great time meeting other solos on my adventures. All of my prior solo cruises I was single. I now have a wonderful partner but on the holiday family cruise I was just on I realized how I missed cruising solo. I don’t think I’d ever do a 7 day+ solo again, but since my weekends are often wild and go go go, I’m excited for the nice and quiet 5 day trip I have planned in two months! 
 

Thank you everyone! You are correct I was looking at the Bliss repo! Just want some quiet time to myself but wanted to save PTO if possible/I love a direct flight. 
 

After considering things I will plan to take the 10am direct flight the next day (it’s the only direct flight for me). Since I am a fully remote worker I will just plan to leave the boat by 8am and then walk to my hotel. I’ll make sure to select one with a cozy lobby that I can use to catch up on work before exploring the city! Any recommendations are appreciated! I am an able bodied woman in her mid 30’s, definitely somewhat athletic so no fear in rolling hand luggage a mile or two. 
 

I’m from Northern California and it’s always been a dream of mine to sail in and out under the Golden Gate Bridge so that’s one of the things I am looking forward to most. My name is also Victoria and visiting Victoria has been on my bucket list since I first learned about the city as a child! Can’t wait!! 

I am looking at booking an NCL cruise that ends in Vancouver. The cruise arrives in Vancouver at 11pm on Thursday, the schedule says 6:00am Disembark. Are people normally allowed off that evening? If I wanted to take a 10am flight on Friday could I make that happen? 

This makes me so happy! I love your reviews, I’m headed on the Breakaway Sunday and was randomly reading your Joy review to get some ideas from ports

I’m dying to know, is Sakari’s new bf the “Mr. potential” from last cruise???

I did the inaugural Encore cruise as the lone solo in her early 30’s and it was such an amazing experience. I was given a free upgrade to a balcony because they said there was issues with my room (I had booked a studio). I made tons of friends and all of your venue pictures brought back so many happy memories. 
 

This cruise will be my first going with a partner! I’m so excited to experience a cruise with someone. Can’t wait to read the rest of this when I’m home! 

On 11/22/2023 at 7:32 AM, mitsugirly said:

We are beach/water people so have been to a lot of the places there (both by cruise ships and land vacation). 

 

HERE's my list of places we've been with tons of pictures if you are interested. 

I am so glad you commented here, I haven't been on these boards in years and I have always loved your review and watching Sakari grow up over the last 10 years!  I am on your cruise day 1 of the Joy trip and furious about the relationship that ended in cheating 😞

Wait  - I guess I paid a 25% penalty of what my airfare costs was.  That is how the amount was figured. Interesting, still worth it to me to be home a few hours earlier. It also wasn't that much more than what I would have had to pay to get home from the airport. 

Alright - so it looks like I am being charged a fee because of the change in airport. When initially booking, the new airport was about twice as much as the one my family decided to go with (I was not privy to these decisions) so it looks that by switching one leg of the trip to the new airport I incurred a fee that seems close to the original increase in cost (though not exact).  I paid that fee and now I am hoping everything is okay!  I probably won't update unless something bad happens! 

I am in a group for my flight and many people have posted they have received their flights.  In the group I am going with almost everyone has received flight info (and almost everyone has a unique deviation date). Maybe because it is the holidays and things are booking up they are getting them out fast.  

I spoke with my travel agent after the fact and they reached out to NCL who gave a non-answer and said something about someone may be penalized for doing this.  I am hoping nothing happens. I will try to remember to come back to update as things happen, or hopefully, don't happen. 

I was surprisingly sent my air confirmation for a cruise that is over 100 days out.  I was able to use the booking reference number from the email to add the flight to my rewards account for that airline.

I wasn't super stoked about my flight home so I decided to call the airline to request a different flight route home.  They said I could and that it would be allowing them to take over the reservation.  There was a charge about $25 each to make the change, I paid it and was sent an email with the updated reservation. 

I didn't really think about how it could impact the overall reservation for the cruise, but now I am a little concerned.  Anyone else have experience with this?  It is the flight home, not that I think the cruise would help me much if things went wrong, I would absolutely not expect their help (I have a day extra on the way and on the way home so I am not worried) - I just don't want to somehow screw up the cruise fare itself. 

Thanks! 

On 5/11/2022 at 7:26 PM, shadowmeboy said:

 

 

After lunch, we still had almost 2 hours to kill before we could park the car and head to the airport. So what does a good railfan do? Go Railfanning! 

 

I thought you enjoy knowing that I am reading this review as I sit on the NB Amtrak Coast Starlight headed from SLO to Sacramento! 

I should really finish this thread. This last few months I made some big life decisions and I really feel like my trip on the Encore helped get me to where I am now. 

As I mentioned when I had that last dinner I really did reflect on things. Not long after I posted that I accepted a job at a private firm in a city I was more excited to live in. After commuting a few months I decided to risk it all and sell my house and get an apartment by myself (plus my dogs). 

I already feel much happier and content and feel as though I am finally leaning into my adult life. 

I'm back in cruise mode now that the first Leonardo details are coming out (I will definitely be booking the inaugural) and my family just booked a New England cruise for next fall. 

Yasssss I am ready for another inaugural! Hopefully studio prices aren't INSANE like they were for Encore until just a few months out. This reminds me that maybe I should finish my thread about the Encore Inaugural...

Have a great night! Thanks for taking us along! 

7 hours ago, Kelownacruiser said:

On board now. Looks like new carpet in cabin and a lot of the public areas. No other changes in the cabin. Most public areas have either new or reupholstered furniture. New Waterworks, Guys Burgers , Blue Iguana Cantina, Blue Iguana Tequila Bar and Red Frog Rum Bar.

Haven't seen any other changes yet but only been on board for a couple hours  

OMG thank you SO much for these pictures!!!

Wow the towel animal thing is so cute! Do they do that on short (4 day) cruises? 

On 3/1/2020 at 1:44 PM, Saint Greg said:

Are these cocktails the same in all Serenity's? 

Same question about the brunch menu. I am going on the Miracle post dry dock.

Loving this review! I am going on my first Carnival ship next month and this review is entertaining and totally informative. I am also a regular solo cruiser but this time I have one of my best friends going since we are embarking out of SF and it's a short drive for us! Seems like you may have called it an early night tonight. 

Any suggestions for two younger women who want to just have some drinks and use WiFi for a few hours? 

On 2/21/2020 at 9:20 PM, amcankid said:

Wow!!!

what a surprise.

we are booked on the May 1 selling out of San Francisco. Not the greatest itinerary but I always dreamed of sailing out of San Francisco. This will be our first cruise in three years but our 10th cruise altogether on Carnival. And because it is our first cruise in a couple of years I really haven’t been paying attention to cruise critic which used to be almost like a Bible to me.

So lo and behold, here I am just perusing through different threads and come to find out that the Miracle is in drydock even as we speak.

Totally unexpected!!!

And I’ve had three price drops where I now actually have over $500 in cabin credit.

So this is now the icing on the cake. Again, not a great itinerary, but I love cruising and everything is falling into place for us.
Hello Guy’s burgers. We’re going to become very good friends! 

I’m also sailing out of SF (but in April), it’s always been a bucket list thing for me and I don’t need to pay for airfare! 
 

I’ve never cruise Carnival so I’ve also been looking for any input! Can’t wait until the first post dry dock so we can see the updates! I haven’t been able to find anything too exciting online yet!

On 2/17/2020 at 5:08 PM, AKR2011 said:

I think I know who you are talking about! @lara_lox is this you? I haven't read a review in awhile, but always enjoyed them as well 🙂

YES!!! YOU'RE THE BEST THANKS!

10 hours ago, Keys2Heaven said:

Is there a site to see work in progress?

If you go to Instagram and follow the user quoted above you will see her pictures. I used that and some of the hashtags and geo tag to find a few more pictures but nothing worth while to post. I know that all may have sounded confusing to some so just know if I find anything worthy of posting I will do it here 😄 

Super excited! I am thinking of booking an April sailing out of SF. It's my closest port and I have always wanted to sail in and out of SF so it seems like the perfect trip. Not super excited about paying double occupancy so I am hoping for a bit more of a price drop! 

Hoping to get some solid posts once she is out of dry dock. I am new to CCL so I have been trying to read other reviews of sister ships to get a feel for what she may look like when she is back in service! 

17 minutes ago, mitsugirly said:

 

 

Thanks so much. It actually took 3 years to create (working on it here and there) before I was finally able to get caught up and just add to it each time I cruise. (Although I was looking at it last week for something and noticed an "error" on one of the ports because I forgot to finish it lol). 

Yeah it's great, I am currently reading your Pride review since it is closest to the Carnival ship I may book (Miracle). But I am going to also read your most recent Carnival one so I can get a feel for what it's like on CCL vs. NCL. It's so crazy how tiny Sakari is in the Pride review! Like how has it only been about five years - makes me feel old!

Mitsu - I was going to send you a message but it looks like I can't for some reason. I LOVE your reviews and I have been reading your Carnival ones to help me research a potential cruise I may book in April. I was also trying to find the profile for that young solo cruiser who also cruised NCL and CCL a lot. She ended up meeting her wife on one of her CCL cruises. I cannot for the life of me remember what her account was, I think it had fashion in the name? Anyone remember her? 

Thanks for the review! How much does it cost to eat in the steakhouse? Do you get the free bottle of wine if you dine solo?