Branman

Now we know what Carnival was doing with the Victory's extended drydock time-- you can't really just cancel those things without losing money. It makes sense that the Pride is receiving the extended time instead of the Victory because the Pride will be on 7-day routes competing for customers with the nicest ships of competing fleets.

That's really interesting since they already went through the trouble of cancelling people's cruises who were originally booked on those dates.

Pure guesswork and speculation: I'm guessing that they saw how well the Triumph was doing with the standard 2.0 upgrades and figured that a extended Sunshine-like drydock would be unnecessary for a ship that is only scheduled to do the 5-day cruise run out of Miami.

I hope you have a great trip. It will be interesting to see how they handle the smaller Sunshine followed shortly by the larger Dream. If I am not mistaken the dream will be the largest cruise ship to visit the port of New Orleans. I wonder what preparation they will have to do there...

New Orleans has served the Voyager of the Seas. The Dream is a bit smaller than that ship.

We sailed to Calica on the Imagination a few years ago, and it is, without a doubt, the UGLIEST port we've ever seen. Hope that the improvements are vast.

 

It was a gravel pit with some temporary, run down stalls for vendors when we were there. The advantage of Calica though (and as mentioned above) was the ability to visit places that would normally take much longer from Cozumel. Tulum was one hour away and Xcaret was only a few minutes from the pier. Taxis were lined up waiting for passengers to take them to nearby Playa del Carmen, but there were only a very limited number of them. Literally, people had to stand in a queue and watch the handful of taxis make countless roundtrips to Playa del Carmen before it was their turn.

 

For passengers who like to walk around and not do any excursions, Calica was a nightmare. Besides the temporary stalls with vendors, there's NOTHING within walking distance. The entrance to the port opens to a deserted highway.

The press releases said that they are building a new terminal.The industrial area is probably being converted into the generic cruise terminal shops.

You'll see new itineraries once Carnival opens up its new ports in Puerto Plata and Calica. Though, Calica will likely just be a way to do the same excursions that you would do in Cozumel which required a ferry to the mainland.

EDIT:

The cruise terminal at Puerto Plata is called "Amber Cove"

http://northamerica.atkinsglobal.com/projects/amber-cove-cruise-terminal.aspx

I really don't get what the difference in safety between night and day would be. The ship is a very closed population. It's very unlikely that there are people who will come out at night who otherwise wouldn't be out during the day. The key to safety would be staying in populated areas whether or not it's the daytime or nighttime.

Fundamentally, ships are a very safe place. The other thread had 7 crimes reported between Carnival and RCI over 3 months. If we make some really conservative assumptions that it's just the Carnival fleet of 24 ships carrying 3000 people every week, you get a population of 936,000 cruisers over a 13 week quarter. 7 crimes spread over this population is negligible. Statistically, a child is more at risk from crime in their cabin with their parents than out and about in public areas.

It's unlikely that Carnival will return to Baltimore until they order new, small sized, fast ships. The Spirit and Legend aren't coming back to America since they are making money in Australia, and the Miracle is needed to do the Alaska/Hawaii/Mexico run on the west coast. It really comes down to the question, will the Pride be more profitable out of Baltimore or Tampa?

Of course, they could always put a Fantasy class in Baltimore, but that would be interesting since they all serve the 3,4, and 5 day cruises with an occasional 7 day out of Charleston or Jacksonville.

The Freedom may be one to look at. Carnival is about to announce the details of its ~40 day drydock in the Spring. Any sailings next summer will have some interesting upgrades.

On the "Breaking News: Victory 44 day drydock yada yada yada" thread. Around post 86: "Standard 2 week dry docks include updating of hotel items like carpeting and upholstery. 2.0 upgrades can be done in 2 weeks also.

 

But redundancy re-cabling of engine rooms, installation of new fire suppression systems and installation of 2 backup generators might explain the longer dry docks."

 

But this is all speculation. It does make sense, in a way. I can't imagine them "Sunshining" the Magic.

Other ships like the Imagination and Inspiration are both having 2 week drydocks. I'm pretty sure they are getting the added redundancies.

In the whole "which ship is going to be upgraded" episode, the 40+ day drydock for the Magic is the most mysterious.

The zoo and aquarium are world class. They also opened an insectarium a few years ago but I haven't been to that.

The Dream class ships are not suited for cold climates, that's why they all sail the Caribbean, The only current Carnival ships suitable for colder climates are the Sprit and Splendor classes. The verdict is still out about the Vista though it may be designed to handle cold climates.

Exactly. You'll be able to tell if it's not going to New York really easily once the initial design is revealed.

You'll know if it's not going to NYC once the basic design is revealed. If it doesn't have a retractable dome over a pool like a Conquest, Spirit, or Concordia class ship, then it won't be in NYC. If it looks more like a Dream class ship, then you can bet large sums of money that it won't be homeported in NYC.

Deck 5 aft on the model supports the deck 5 half outside, half under cover pool. There is clearly an overhang on deck 5 aft on that model.

Regardless of the accuracy of the model, I think there is a very strong likelihood that the new class of ship will have a lanai like the Dream class. Both the Red Frog Pub and the Ocean Plaza almost require a lanai to reach their full effect (though anyone who has been on both the Sunshine and a Dream class ship can correct me on that). Based on concepts from Breakaway, we can probably expect specialty restaurants on deck 5 to have some outdoor seating.

As far as the exposed upper decks, it does look like there are two wells in the structure for upper deck pools. I do hope the layout is just a concept and that they can move things around-- an aft pool like the Dream class or the Splendor would be a much nicer use of space compared to putting the waterworks aft; bonus points awarded if you just moved the entire serenity deck aft and made the aft lido pool adults only. Also, they have to fit a ropes course somewhere on those upper decks.

A pool on an extended deck 5 aft would be a very interesting addition. That alone would do a lot to decrease the impact of crowds on the ship because it will draw more people to the lanai.

The design has the potential to spread out crowds across the entire ship if the specialty restaurants offer lunch service like on the Sunshine. That would make deck 5 a deck you can hang out on for most of the day.

The deck parties will be red or blue. The white party is in the night club.

Probably the Sunshine--the largest serenity area with a pool and waterfall.

Districts in New Orleans where you might want to stay:

French Quarter: downriver from Canal St.

CBD: basically between the GNO Bridge (technically a little upriver of the GNO bridge) and Canal St.

Lower Garden district: the area around the GNO bridge and a bit upriver from that

Pro tip for parking: you can go park a Harrah's, gamble at penny/nickle slots for a half hour or something, and get free parking. Not sure if you need to sign up for the Harrah's rewards thing or not to get that though. Otherwise, parking in the French Quarter is kinda expensive. They have big pay parking lots on Decatur St. by Jax Brewery.