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I think that is a "worst case scenario" time. According to my Uber receipt, we were off Panorama and in the car headed to the airport by 7:54 am. We are platinum and were told to meet at 7:30 for priority debarkation - when we arrived at the meeting location (about 7:25) everybody was already gone and they quickly redirected us to a short line of people getting off the ship.

This exactly. We tried a spa room one time and found it to not be worth it. We used the spa one time for about 45 minutes but found it to be way too crowded (not relaxing at all) and never went back. Since the restart to cruising I think Carnival is selling way too many spa passes (but admit, I hate crowds).

Which airport is closest/most convenient for a Venezia cruise?

We were on Celebration in January. Our arrival appointment was 10 - 10:30 (A02 boarding group) and from what I recall they started the boarding process very close to 11 (or that's when the announcements started - they may have boarded wedding parties and guests in suites before that and I might not have noticed). I was pretty impressed with their embarkation process, way better than Mardi Gras at PC.

Seattle is our closest port, so we've done several Alaska cruises (both NCL and Carnival). It's a very tame crowd (similar to the Hawaii itenerary). You are not likely to see bachelor/bachelorette parties and things like that. We have found it to be a crowd who is interested in seeing Alaska and not so much looking for a partying vacation. Also in our experience, it's an older crowd than Caribbean/Mexico. Even though we had a day or two where the weather was warm enough for hot tubs/water slides, just a few people used them. And even when they closed the retractable roof over the pool, not a lot of people swam either. Honestly, I really didn't notice much of a difference between NCL and Carnival when going to Alaska, pretty much the same experience. I would choose the one with the best itenerary (in our case Carnival didn't do Glacier Bay and we wanted to see it at least once).

Good point, I was just curious how often it happens. At first I had planned to call first thing in the morning, but then I realized that the ship is pretty much sold out - I couldn't find any better options than what we ended up with (went from one interior room to another - I just liked the first location much better). It's the Jubilee's New Year's Eve cruise, and only its second sailing (if all goes as planned) so it got extremely popular after Carnival cancelled several of its sailings (due to supply chain issues during construction).

Disclaimer, I'm really OCD about researching and picking out my stateroom locations. 😄 So I was surprised to hear we'd been bumped from the one I had booked. We have been on over 20 Carnival cruises and have never had this happen - I received a very brief email stating that our stateroom has been changed on our upcoming Jubilee reservation (and gave us the new cabin number) with no explanation or anything. Although I'm disappointed, there is nothing we can do (there are very few options). Just wondering if this is normal? Or maybe it's because the ship is still under construction? Anyone else experience this?

Once again, I find this totally inconsistent among their ships. I was on Celebration in January and I agree they were severely understaffed in casino servers (as several of their ships are right now) so I'm glad they are making concessions. But as already mentioned, many of the ships are very strict with those rules - I don't drink much alcohol, but I tried to get a water bottle at the bar and was told I had to be at a machine or table, (even though I'd been playing for at least an hour prior to going up to the bar).

We are platinum and have arrived later than our arrival appointment window multiple times (due to delayed flights). We've never been sent to the early/late arrival line (they've always just ushered us right into the terminal).

I was going to say the same thing. You can purchase them online in advance at a slightly lower cost and it was a great experience for us (not in Cartagena though). They sell a limited quantity (we did ours over 4th of July weekend and they sold out so I was glad we got them ahead of time).

The interior rooms in the Havana area have slightly different décor, but the size/layout of the cabin is just like any other interior. Although I loved our Havana Cabana (I could sit in that swing chair and read all day long), I think Havana interior cabins are the best deal overall.

Thanks for a great comparison - very interesting! I would love to try Princess, but we are so close to being Diamond on Carnival, it's tough to start over again. Carnival Corporation, if you are listening, if you'd provide some loyalty program reciprocity among your lines, I'd book a Princess cruise right now! I totally agree on the in-room announcements on Carnival. After our cruise last month, I made a note to bring earplugs next time. Not that I sleep in that much in the morning, but we usually have a rough travel day getting to our port, and I try to rest in afternoon of embarkation, but Carnival makes it nearly impossible. It was as if they were yelling their announcements into PA system every 15 minutes.

We had the exact same experience on Panorama. The way people rave about the spa cabins, I thought maybe it was just us (who found the spa to be an overcrowded nightmare). We will never book a spa cabin again. In our case, we had to skip one of our ports and with that additional day at sea, they were selling spa passes like crazy.

I can't even log in. I first got an error msg. saying my password was incorrect (the one I've used for many years, and I know is right). But I figured I'd reset it anyway, but when I tried to do that, I got an "internal server error" so I guess I will give up for now.

Totally agree - we've been on Miracle multiple times and once you get past the gaudy décor, it's a great ship. The common areas are not near as crowded as some of Carnival's other ships.

I agree, the cruise I mentioned (one way, about 12 days) looks like it's only done as a repositioning and Celebrity is the only one I see doing it now (Vancouver BC to Honolulu in the fall and vice versa in the spring). So not many dates to choose from. We absolutely loved the itenerary (more than enough time at all the islands, and not too many sea days).

We have done the Hawaii cruise twice (only on Carnival) but are currently looking at other lines now because I'm not finding that Carnival does the 1-way itenerary anymore. It was perfect for us, 5 days at sea initially, then 7 days around the islands, ending in Honolulu where we spent another day or two, and then we flew back home. For us it was the perfect balance of sea and port days.

There were 4 dogs working (2 outside the terminal and 2 inside) when we were there just over a week ago. Have a great cruise - I hope the weather improves for you!

I'm totally in the minority here - we absolutely oved our Havana Cabana on Mardi Gras during a fully packed spring break cruise. It was always extremely quiet on the Havana deck, with lots of available lounge chairs. Yes, the pool is small but you'll likely have it all to yourself (we only saw 1 family using it 1 time out of the entire cruise). I don't use the pool/hot tubs on ships, so the size of the pool is not a factor for me (it's bonus to me if it's hardly used and very quiet). You can sit out on deck on either side of the ship in the Havana area, so if you want sun vs. shade, you just go to the other side (granted, only one side has a bar). We would book a Havana room (cabana or inside) every time on the Excel class ships if the price difference weren't so significant.

I was wondering the same thing - we really love sailing out of Vancouver (going past Stanley Park and under the Lions Gate Bridge). We really like Vancouver in general - I hope Carnival starts using that port again.

We absolutely love the salads at Fresh Creations on the serenity (their coconut pineapple vinaigrette dressing is amazing). When we were on Panorama it was really windy so we ran up, got the salads and brought them down to the buffet dining area. I'm not exaggerating, like 8 people stopped to ask us where we got them (they look that good). I agree, it's tough with kids, but if one person from your party can go pick up the salads, you can take them anywhere the kids want to go.

We are not spa people, but due to a weird turn of events, ended up in a spa cabin on Panorama, and figured we might as well try it out. The cabin itself was great (very quiet area) but we would never pay extra for it because we really didn't use the spa (so then it was just like any other cabin). We tried the spa for about 30 minutes one day, but it was just too crowded for us (except on port days). On our cruise, we missed a port, so there were only 2 days when the spa was kind of quiet. Otherwise it was pretty chaotic, but I'm sure that varies from cruise to cruise.

I know I'm REALLY in the minority here, but I don't go in the pools/hot tubs at all on the ships, so I absolutely love this (along with the Havana area on Mardi Gras/Celebration) as it is usually a sparsely populated, quiet area to read or relax.

I think the Monday - Friday itenerary is better for a variety of reasons (I have done it also). It's unfortunate the weather will be cold because this ship has a lot of deck space. The staff person who told me we had 3,600 passengers also told me 4-day cruise previous to ours was 3,100.

This was over the Presidents Day weekend (2/17 - 2/20) and I should have known better than to book a short cruise over the holiday weekend, but it was great the previous year (now I realize it was probably because it was still capacity controlled at that time). If I remember correctly we had right around 2,200 people on this cruise last February. Also, from what I've read, Carnival Victory (before she became Radiance) had a capacity of 2,764. So they reduced common space to accommodate more cabins during the refurbishment. Unfortunately the weather was not as good this year, and there just isn't enough inside common space inside for that many people. Which reminds me, I should give credit where credit is due - the crew was amazing. They were cleaning constantly (they had to in order to keep up with that many people). They were definitely working hard. And one last clarification 🙂 this is not a deal breaker for us as far as other Carnival ships (we still have several future cruises booked and look forward to them). We will just avoid this particular ship that specializes in the shorter voyages. Maybe we have just aged out of the booze cruises. 😄 I'm not looking for sympathy, it was still better than being at home working. Anytime I can get aware from the ice and snow at home and see sunshine is a good day. 🙂 I just wanted to share in case it was helpful to anyone. I honestly didn't realize they could put that many people on a ship that size.