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Please come back and update after your cruise. Our Journeys cruise is in late September and I was wondering the same.

We will be in HMC in about 2 weeks and all the cabanas/villas sold out a while ago. I just noticed even the private oasis at $2,000 is sold out, so people don't seem to mind paying the price.

We were on Panorama last September. We started priority debarkation (platinum carrying or own luggage) at 7:25 am, we were in an Uber headed to the airport by 7:54 am. (Debarkation went quickly - had to wait a bit for for Uber).

Yes unfortunately supply...demand...inflation. I just wish my salary would catch up. But it's not just Carnival. We recently spent a weekend at Disneyland and I was just amazed at the price of everything. People complain like crazy about the price of park tickets/hotels/food & water, yet there are hoards of people there spending money like crazy, so I can't really blame the business.

I was going to say the same thing. We have done Alaska a few times, and there is so much to see on both sides of the ship, I prefer to be up on one of the top decks going back and forth to each side. Or sometimes you can get a good view from one of the back decks. When I choose our cabin, I always base it on the price difference between the various options. For us, it was always practically double the price to get a balcony for Alaska, and I just didn't feel like it was worth that much more. Miracle is a great ship (after you get past her gaudy décor). 🙂 There is a lot of common space that doesn't feel too crowded (both inside and out). It has a retractable roof over one of the pools if you have bad weather. We sailed Miracle out of SFO not too long - and we also stayed at RUI. I loved it - great location. We walked down to the pier the afternoon we arrived and it was so easy, we decided we'd just walk to the ship the next morning (but I'm sure we had less luggage than you will have for a 10-day). 🙂 I had heard not such good things about the area, but I thought it was fine (I felt safe enough to go for a run by myself down to the warf area and back the morning before debarkation). Bring binoculars and have a great trip!

Carnival has a cool feature where you can compare up to 3 of their ships. Although the two ships are extremely similar, it looks like Pride offers more activities (cooking demonstrations, martini tasting, and art games were mentioned specifically). But it says Spirit has a beer station and Pride does not (of course that could change in dry dock (not sure what they have planned for her). Spirit also lists karaoke and Pride does not. Spirit does not offer Groove for St Jude (and Pride does), but Pride does not have the 80s deck party (Spirit does). And if spa services matter to you, Spirit has no medi-spa services, but Pride has no acupuncture. Personally we have a fondness for Spirit (just great memories of prior cruises). Either way, they are both great and I absolutely love the way Spirit class ships do not feel crowded. Have a great trip! https://www.carnival.com/cruise-ships/compare-cruise-ships

I see bought the special edition Monopoly game - I really want it (I actually put in my cart earlier today when I did my online check-in), but I'm trying to decide if I could get it in my carry-on for the flight home. Now that I see it on the table, the box seems kind of big.

I wondered abut that - this is spring break for the younger kids here locally, so we put off our cruise on Dream until the last week of April hoping most of the spring break crowd would be done. 🙂 Thanks for posting (I will be following along as I can't wait to get to Galveston in a couple weeks)!

Cruising the Hawaiian islands (on Spirit) and seeing lava flowing into the ocean at dusk (as it got dark the lava was glowing bright red until it hit the water). It was such a unique experience, I have never seen so many crew members up on deck taking in the view with us.😄

This is what I did recently when I booked our Venezia cabin, and I did get some results by using Costa instead of Carnival. I also searched youtube and found some videos of the cabin I was looking for on a Costa ship that seemed to be a sister ship to Venezia.

On the Excel class ships, I think Havana interior rooms are the best value. We have done an extended balcony, a Havana cabana, and a regular balcony. On these ships we just don't get much use out of balcony (we are always busy around the ship). Many people here don't care for the Havana area on Mardi Gras/Celebration because the pool is small and there is no hot tub. I don't use the pools/hot tubs on the ships anyway, so it's perfect for me (very quiet and not crowded at all). Even the bar rarely gets even 2 or 3 people at a time. We absolutely loved the Havana Cabana, but I can't justify the huge price difference again, next time I'll do a Havana interior. In my opinion it's the best of both worlds - we spend very little time in our room on the Excel class ships (there is just so much to do all the time) but I do love having access to the Havana deck during crowded sea days.

This is so true - and on Celebration also. The track is too narrow before all the activities open up, but once the lines start to form for the ropes course etc it's nearly impossible to run on the track.

If they were the same price, and the cove was located under the dining room (not the kitchen) I'd definitely choose the cove (but I don't really care for the higher decks). Sometimes the rooms on the top decks can be a long walk to everything. Depending on location, it can also be a long wait for the elevators (of course the specific ship makes a difference). But I'm cheap so I probably wouldn't be willing to pay the extra $400. And I'm a light sleeper so definitely wouldn't book a cove under the galley.

This is exactly what we experienced on Celebration in January (I thought it was a very quick and efficient boarding process, especially compared to Mardi Gras). Someone else posted about this recently and I believe the consensus was that the late embarkation time is unusual and nobody knows why for sure, but there were some guesses (link below). https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2924495-new-boarding-time/#comment-65027416

I was really excited to try one of these rooms - I agree they seem larger. We booked one similar on Jubilee, but unfortunately (without explanation) Carnival moved us to a typical interior room. Sorry, I know that doesn't answer your question but wanted to mention that it is possible to book one of these rooms and still not end up in it. 🙂

I hope you will come back and reply again after your cruise on Celebration. In our recent experience, we have found the individual ship to be just as important as the cruise line. There are some Carnival ships we will not sail on again, but others we really like. If you haven't been on an Excel class ship yet, it will be unlike anything you've experienced on Carnival before.

I would be so happy if they would go back to delivering this (and water) to the cabin. I always feel like I'm annoying the very busy pixels staff when I go to pick up.

I would just get it all done now so you don't have to worry about it. In case anyone needs the path - In your cruise manager, click Booking & Order Details, scroll all the way down to the bottom right, there is a red button for Pre-pay Gratuities, then click pay now.

This is a great point, and ultimately it comes down to what you personally are comfortable with. I hate sitting around the airport after my cruise when I just want to get home, so I always book early flights, 10:00 am being the earliest (and I don't recommend that as it's not doable at all ports). We have done a total of 26 cruises and have not missed a flight yet, but I know it could happen, and we are willing to deal with the consequences. But we do everything we can to get off the ship and to the airport quickly. We always carry our own luggage, I check both Uber and Lyft well before we get off the ship, so I can grab the earliest option as soon as we exit the terminal, we also have TSA Precheck (and don't check luggage).

Since you are platinum you will receive a letter in your cabin telling you where to meet for priority debarkation (and a specific time). I have seen people go about 30 minutes early (just in case they are ahead of schedule) and Carnival is fine with that. Some ships even put out juice and pastries. Suites/Diamonds debark first, but you will be right behind them (a matter of minutes). Sorry, I also meant to specify, in regard to the times I mentioned in my prior post, we travel with only carry-ons and carry our luggage off.

We were on Celebration in January. According to my Uber receipt, we were off the ship and in the Uber by 7:45 am (and arrived at MIA at 8:03 am). We are platinum and were instructed to meet at 7:30 am for priority debarkation. We arrived at the location at approximately 7:25 am and everybody was already gone. so they were apparently ahead of schedule on our cruise. If you have an early flight (and are not suites/platinum/diamond) you can go to guest services with your flight info and they will include you in the priority debarkation process.

Wow, sounds like you made the best of the situation. Covid is still creating havoc and not just on the ships, it's everywhere. My daughter (about the same age as your son) and I went to Disney the first week of March and my daughter had nearly the exact same experience as your son. We had to change her flight back to college because she was so sick. Based on the timing, we think she probably caught it on one of our flights, but it's so hard to know.

This does not appear to be a Journeys cruise, so you can ignore my comments 😃 Have a great trip - that ship looks beautiful!

I haven't experienced it myself yet (our Journeys cruise is coming this fall) but from what I have read here (with reference to an email from Carnival) is that the priority benefits (like boarding/tenders) are not available on Journeys cruises because of the high number of Diamond/Platinum passengers.

You have a great response already, but one thing to add (and not sure if it applies) ... if your 11 day cruise this fall is a "Journeys" cruise, the platinum/priority benefits are a little different on a those cruises.