Bound4Bermuda

Thank you for sharing your trip with us!

Wow! Amazing harbor photos! Thanks for taking us on your birthday extravaganza!

Thanks! I was starting to think the “owns” business was going to be some social commentary that women couldn’t own anything at the time so it was really her father’s cat until the time of Mary’s marriage wherein it would become her husband’s cat! Lol

I think it’s one. But the usage of “owns” twice in the first sentence is making my brain go into a loop like when two mirrors face each other and you just see yourself infinite times. How does she own half of what she owns—plus more? I’ll just stick with one. 🤷‍♀️

I have a compromise for the pro-hamper/anti-hamper debate. I always throw a few unscented, white kitchen garbage bags in my suitcase. Takes up no room. Then I throw my wet/dirty clothes in it. When it’s time to pack, the whole bag goes in the suitcase, and my unworn clothes stay clean, dry, and separated from the dirty stuff. Easier unpacking, too, to just empty the bag right into the washing machine without needing to sort through the clean stuff and other incidentals.

Thank you for posting so many great pics! This might be a silly question, but Venezia will be my first Carnival cruise, so I don’t quite get the layout of their ships. Where are all of these lounge chairs that are facing out to the water, since there don’t seem to be many loungers by the pool.

There are not many chairs by the pool. I guess on this itinerary it doesn’t matter, but I can imagine the chair fights will be wild when we take her out of NY to the Caribbean.

We’ll be on the same sailing as you! As Serene said, I saw a video by the CEO that mentioned a Venetian masquerade ball. You can bring your own mask, or they will happily sell you one. 😉 I haven’t been on Carnival yet, but I saw something else that mentioned they generally have an 80s party and maybe a white party, but I’m not sure about that.

I’m from Jersey, so we usually do Royal Caribbean out of Bayonne. However, it’s RC’s standard itineraries that made me try Carnival Venezia. On RC you got your choice of an afternoon in Port Canaveral, an afternoon in Nassau, and a day in Coco Cay or spend 2-3 nights sitting at a dock in Bermuda. (There are other itineraries like up the coast to Canada, but these are the basic summer season options.) When I saw Carnival had a brand new ship with a more unique itinerary compared to RC, with full days in the Dominican Republic, Grand Turk, and Half Moon Cay—plus it was $2,000 total less than RC—it was worth a try. Sounds like I might soon “go through” the different itinerary options on Carnival, or maybe I’ll decide that the Royal ships are so much better that it’s worth dealing with a crappy itinerary. But I’m sure there are enough locals like me who would primarily rather make do with whatever options we have in the area than deal with adding on traveling to Florida. Granted, I was almost going to fly to Florida this year, before I found this Carnival option. So we’ll see whether Venezia wins me over to try another Carnival itinerary or go to Florida on RC next year.

Yeah, I’ll be on the 8 day eastern Caribbean on July 17.

Thanks! I was just trying to start up a general FAQs like they have pinned on the Royal Caribbean board—not even Venezia specific—as I presume a lot of the ships carry over similar venues, features, menus, and policies. Like, what beverages are for free (without a drink package)? What meals are not to be missed in the MDR? What are the fun shows? What are the tips and tricks? Like in RCI, go eat breakfast/lunch in the Solarium Bistro to avoid the crowds in Windjammer, and get the infamous roast beef sandwich in the Park Cafe. Don’t do My Time Dining or you’ll wait forever—-that kind of stuff. It seems like a similar general FAQs would apply in Carnival since everything about Venezia that has come out is pointing out the slight differences, like this Guy’s burgers is going to have fried mozzarella on it—but it still has a Guy’s Burgers. But is that free or extra?

I posted a tour video the other day, link below. However, it’s based entirely on photos, drawings, and the floor plan PDF. I’m sailing my first-ever Carnival cruise on Venezia in July, so I’ll take any tips I can get—even if it may differ on Venezia. (I realize this ship has some intentional differences, but surely there are a lot of standard features across the fleet.) I tried starting a FAQs, tips and tricks thread like there is on the Royal Caribbean board, but I didn’t really get much feedback. I feel a little lost since I went into the Royal Caribbean cruises telling my family all the things we shouldn’t miss, etc. And for this cruise, I got nothing other than hyping up that my daughter can have Guy Fiere burgers, as it’s been a silly joke that she’s a big fan and I don’t exactly see the charm. So I’d take ANY tips, please! https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2899543-carnival-venezia-new-food-bar-and-other-exciting-featuresconcepts-debuting/?do=findComment&comment=65007197

I came across this half-hour long Carnival Venezia first look video and thought I’d share. Mick the host also shows Vista class pictures for comparison. Since Venezia will be my first ever Carnival cruise, I thought it was interesting. The Venezia is definitely more posh looking! https://youtu.be/iRcdOnkxdrw

Thank you! I did contact them with a list of needs, like a sharps container for insulin needles and a fridge for extra insulin—plus asking about menus—and they just gave me a canned response to ask my steward and/or contact the medical center onboard. I saw the post about the night 1 calamari and figured I could get more info on the menus here. Are they posted somewhere?

Hello. My daughter has Type 1 diabetes. I believe the Menu Mate allows you to filter by ingredients for allergens, but I don’t think there is a way to get carb counts, correct? Is there a place that I can at least view standard MDR menus in advance so we can try to plan meals and guesstimate carb counts in preparation? We’ll be on Venezia 8-day Eastern Caribbean, if that matters.

I’m in North Jersey, so I’m just going to Uber/Lyft. Going in will be a snap. However, I’m not sure about coming home since I think the rideshares technically don’t work in NY, so I think I need to pay more for someone to come from Jersey to get me. Does anyone know about that or if they just have yellow cabs waiting at the pier for people to take? I’m guessing cab rates would be significantly higher than rideshare.

Curious whether the kids’ club is open on port days? That’s just the first scenario that came to mind if their young child[ren] were on board, they might not leave parents behind. Then again, that’s a pretty good reason why the kids’ club might NOT be open, as it isn’t safe to have the parents completely off site and unreachable from their kids.

Yeah, I was using the numbers you had in your post. Oh well, now that typo was an interesting coincidence! Lol. I thought we were on to something with solving the mystery. 🔍

Hmm. The percentage increase on both of those examples are the same, ~14%. So there might be a correlation there. Did they raise all excursions by 14%? Or was it some type of early booking savings initiative that was lowered by 14%? Or, conversely, do they raise by the 14% once they hit a certain inventory threshold? Again, I don’t have the experience with this cruiseline to know the pattern but the two examples here do seem to indicate there could be a pattern—or at least an interesting coincidence.

New to Carnival, but Royal Caribbean constantly changes the prices of their excursions based on demand. Not to mention they finagle the prices to prepare for “sales” that look like you’re getting a certain discount off but may end up being the same price. But other sales actually are sales—you never know! It’s not unusual for RCI cruisers to regularly check prices of everything (cruise, excursions, drink and dining packages, etc) just to see whether this week is a better deal than last week’s price. One thing I’ve noticed is that RCI’s excursions are never cheaper than what you paid if you already have it booked just so people won’t cancel them and rebook. But I have absolutely missed a deal, looking at a price, didn’t book yet, and then the next day is more. So based on my experience with RCI, I’m actually shocked to hear that people expect that Carnival has long-standing prices that don’t fluctuate, like pretty much everything else in the tourism industry (e.g., hotels, airfare) does.

So, I just canceled an excursion once I realized the beaches on Grand Turk are walkable and free. On the Carnival site, in the Activities & Services section, I clicked Edit Order and removed the excursion, and it deleted from the site. However, I didn’t get an email confirmation about the refund. When purchasing, it immediately charged my credit card and sent a confirmation email. Does canceling it just take longer? It’s been about an hour.

You saw all this walking around from the pier? We booked Carnival’s “Island Vibes and Beach Getaway” excursion. But now I’m thinking we can save the $175 and just walk around on our own.

Hello! I’m brand new to Carnival, sailing on Venezia this July. I don’t see a handy pinned FAQs thread like the Royal Caribbean board has. There posters have shared tons of general RCI tips and tricks that I brush up on before each sailing. I guess it doesn’t help that Venezia hasn’t sailed yet, so maybe I just need to be patient. But surely there are some general tips that cross many/most Carnival ships. Please help me out. I have a reputation to uphold in my family that I know all of the secret don’t-miss spots, dishes, activities, etc. before ever stepping onboard the ship—with full credit going to Cruise Critic as the ultimate source for must-know info.

Piggybacking on your question. My daughter is newly diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. Rather than needing a special meal, she would just need to know the total carbs in the food to cover with insulin. Do they offer carb counts or other dietary information?

We’re going on our first Carnival cruise this summer. We usually cruise Royal Caribbean out of NJ but getting a bit bored of the same few itineraries, and saw a unique itinerary (8-day eastern Caribbean) on the brand new Venezia for $2000 less than a similar RCI cruise. So I decided to put my pre-conceived, admittedly classist impressions of some Carnival patrons being rowdy, aggressive, party people aside and give it a chance. I probably should have read this board first to get up to speed on Carnival because it sounds like even the president is admitting they have a problem with guest behavior, so maybe there’s something to the negative reputation Carnival has. Did I make a mistake switching from RCI to Carnival?