csm5986142

On Jubilee all 3 are included and you can go as many times as you'd like. On sister ships Mardi Gras and Celebration, you pay $8 per person after more than one visit to Chibang and Cucina (I'm not sure about Pig and Anchor though). Having just got off Jubilee yesterday, we found these restaurants had incredibly slow service (for example it was one full hour between appetizer and main course in Cucina). But we were on the second sailing and the crew was not accustomed to working together yet, so that probably explains it. Hopefully it will be better soon.

Luminosa does not have Guys Burgers, but they have something similar (I think it's maybe just called "The Grill") and we thought it tasted just like Guys. Both Spirit and Luminosa have a retractable roof over the pool. The covered pool on Luminosa was popular (and definitely warm enough when we were in Alaska last August).

I posted this in a similar topic (link below if you'd like to take a look at other responses): We were on Luminosa in August and Spirit in September (both departing from Seattle) but different itineraries. We really enjoyed both ships and I think it comes down to personal preferences. Both are a nice size and layout, never really felt crowded. No long lines for anything. They are older ships but both were clean and well maintained. On Luminosa we enjoyed the on-demand movies in our room, but that was not an option on Spirit. Spirit seems to have a lot more for kids (water slides/water park, etc.). Luminosa doesn't have the slides/water park or even a mini golf course (well I guess they have a putting green or something but much smaller than Carnival's typical mini golf). Aside from the kids club and the pools, it didn't seem like there was much for kids to do on Luminosa. We liked the food a little better on Spirit, but that might have just been due to timing and that specific cruise. I've heard the spas are different on each, but I'm not a spa person, so I don't know for sure. According to the website Luminosa has Cloud 9 and Spirit has Spa Carnival (from what I've read Luminosa has Thermal Suite and Hydrotherapy pool but I did not see those listed on Spirit (but again, not personal experience, so I could be wrong). I liked the walking/running track better on Luminosa. I thought it was bigger/better located. Luminosa offered a Steakhouse Brunch for $25 per person, so we expected the same on Spirit but never saw it on the schedule (though I've heard others have experienced it so maybe just not on our itenerary). When booking our trips, I was a bit concerned about Luminosa because the reviews I had read were not good. Several mentioned plumbing issues, but we had none (aside form a slow draining shower). Fairly recent discussion on Spirit vs Luminosa link below: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2969967-luminosa-or-spirit

Debarkation was kind of a challenge this morning. With 50% of the passengers considered priority, it was a huge group. I heard a lot of people complaining but I thought the crew handled it well/the best they could. I do think Carnival needs to revamp their loyalty program though (this is the second time in 4 months that we have been on a ship where at least half of the passengers were platinum/diamond). We were off the ship by 8:00 to find that dense fog was creating havoc on the freeway. We saw multiple accidents and the freeway shut down in both directions at various points. We arrived at the airport to find our flight is delayed unfortunately (I guess it comes with the territory of traveling during the holidays/winter).

No, I didn't think it was bad at all compared to the smaller ships.

Our weather has changed significantly. Wind and rain - the water is splashing out of the pools. It's surprising how rocky these big ships can get!

We were recently on the Spirit for a 16 day Panama canal cruise, and I agree with everything you have to say about the ship. I was a little worried we would be bored with it being a smaller ship, but it was just so pleasant and relaxing, it was great. We have experienced all of the carnival classes and agree, Spirit is one of the best.

Ooops Sorry I got those out of order. That is filtered by shows (does not include comedians) - there are a bunch of those throughout afternoon/evening also.

Deli and pizza area

Lido

Serenity area

If possible we fly into HOU ( For a shorter drive) but this time, with the holidays and my work schedule, we had to fly into IAH. Either airport, we always take an Uber/lyft to port. This time from IAH it took approximately an hour and 15 minutes and was $108 for a vehicle large enough for 4 - 6 people. But Of course that can vary by day and time/demand. Other times when we have flown into HOU I believe it took about 35 - 40 minutes to get to port.

We were without internet for almost 24 hours. It went down New Year's Eve at about 11:45 pm and was down all day today. It was old-school cruising 😄- no internet, no hub app, etc. There were no announcements, but we stopped by guest services for updates, and they refunded 1 day of internet expense. All they could tell us is that it was impacting the entire ship and they were working on it. As you can imagine, the restaurants were crazy without the ability to reserve dining for dinner. Since we had the Diamond lunch earlier in the day (and weren't that hungry) we decided to just grab a quick dinner at the buffet and avoid the chaos. Now that the app is up and running again, I can see some inaccuracies on our account, but I'm going to give them some time to work through it. Anyway, the party was really fun, and we are ready to book next NYE on a ship.