Anung Un Rama

One thing they don't tell you is that for some reason Cheers doesn't apply while at Half Moon Cay which I always found annoying.

This is so encouraging.  I'm beyond desperate for a vacation right now.  Even if it's spending 7 days at the Alchemy Bar, it'll be great just to get away from work for a week.

19 hours ago, Cruise Related said:

Clemson! My man! My main squeeze! If you happen to go by the Alchemy Bar, mind finding out who the head alchemist and his/her assistants? Thank you so very much! 

I didn't see this answered but I know Anna Marie is the main Alchemy Bartender on the Horizon.  I've sailed with her a few times and she's one of my favorites.  I did not recognize any of the other staff from her posts.

I'm kind of in the same boat as I booked rooms for my wife and I (both Platinum) and my parents who are not.  We have different check in days but I hope I can check them in 2 days early since I booked the room and they are in our party.

On 5/19/2021 at 3:18 PM, BoozinCroozin said:

$2 bill tips go a LONG way with the bartenders. Because no one ever has them, they remember who tips them. They can remember the face very well that way. Or do like my dad did on every cruise. He found the 2-3 bartenders he liked the first day, handed them each $100 and they took care of him the rest of the week.

We always tip extra when on Cheers.  Our first rule of cruising is make friends with the bartenders. Before covid hit I think we were friends with almost half of the Alchemy bartenders.  Horizon out of Barcelona was amazing because we knew 6 of the bar staff.  We were taken very good care of those 10 days.

1 minute ago, babygrljaz said:

The did yesterday

https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/cruise/covid19-operations-manual-cso.html

LOL, yeah just finished reading.   Stopped in this thread first because I saw Baltimore 😀

Encouraging for our 9/26 Pride cruise.  Now just waiting on CDC guidelines.  I don't want to have to wear a mask while sitting at Alchemy. 

16 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

Good excuse to plant my butt at the Alchemy Bar and do damage to the Cheers program.

I'm very curious about how bars will be handled.  If there isn't a good Piano Bar player, we spend A LOT of time just chilling at Alchemy.  If I have to have a mask on while sitting at a bar in between sips, I do not see myself cruising. We have a nice aft balcony booked but I do not want to feel confined to it.

21 hours ago, pogoism9 said:

 

Nah, I like my gals a little bit older 😄

I'm also booked on the 9/26 Pride.  I can see my cabin from this pic (aft balcony) 😊

1 hour ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

It's been years since I took advantage of this - is it still proper procedure to mail supporting info to interline@carnival.com ?

 

Tom

I'm curious as to how to do this as well.  This'll be my first cruise as a shareholder.  Yes, I'm one of those that bought in at $8 last year 😊

Great!  Thank you so much for the reply.

Thanks for the review.  Quick question for anyone who's sailed on the Pride in Hawaii.  There's a note saying that all guests must be on board 2 hours before sailing (this'll be our first NCL and Hawaii cruise but every other one has been 30 minutes).  Also says disembarking is 2 hours after docking.  Do you really lose 4 hours in each port due to these 2 hour windows?

Did not love the Vista so I doubt we'll love the Horizon. Just not a fan of the 4000+ guest ships. We booked Horizon for the itinerary as we're looking forward to our first trip to Europe next week :D

I went all out during The Quest. If you've participated or attended, you have a good idea of what that means :o:o:o:o:0

Several options. The previously mentioned snacks at Alchemy Bar (free but not much more than a snack). You can order apps at the Red Frog and they are not always advertised but the wings are really good. You can also order at the Sports Bar. We had wings delivered via room service while watching a game.

YTD has become very popular the last 10 years. Our first few cruises we never had a wait. Then it was usually only on Formal night when dinners took longer. Now it is almost every night except embarkation that there is a wait.

Like any other restaurant you essentially walk up to the desk and give your room number and will either be seated or have to wait (with a pager). There are no, and to my knowledge never has been, a way to reserve a time for YTD on Carnival.

I do this every so often, usually when the wife is getting ready for dinner and have never had an issue.

We usually make friends with bartenders rather quick. Our last cruise the Alchemy bartenders had our folio numbers memorized the first night. If you're friendly early on (and extra tips never hurt), you'd be surprised how good the staff will treat you. Our #1 cruise tip, take care of your bartenders and they will take care of you.

Any extra late night food options are a welcomed addition. Pizza lines can be horribly long and good luck getting room service after midnight.

I will never sail the Sunshine again. It is by far the worst designed layout of any ship we've been on. Much like the newer Vista/Horizon, too many people for the space. Everything always felt crowded and the live music from the RFP competing with live music from Ocean Plaza (literally right next to each other) is a horrible design flaw. It does have 2.0 which is about the only positive thing but then again so does almost every ship now.

I have herniated discs for years now (no surgery). I was worried about this too. I exercise all of the time but every now in then i will just get random bolts of pain that leave me frozen for a second or two. I did the trip no problem. Most of the jumps aren't bad. The slides were all fine. There are stairs to climb down if you don't want to do any of the big jumps. I ended up doing all of them. They show you the correct way to jump. Make sure you jump like pencil on the tall jumps. So you hit feet first.

Thank you! We really want to do this excursion but I'd hate for our trip to be ruined because of a bumpy slide (this is our first stop). Hopefully this can put her at ease and we can get back to fun excursions :D

My wife and I are very interested in doing this excursion. We are both very active but she did have back surgery a couple years ago and still has some sciatic discomfort. My fear is that she will jolt something in her back on the slides or jumps. I've seen notes of stairs or ladders and wanted to know if there was an option of getting down without sliding or jumping if (after going first I think it might not be good for her back)? TYIA

Hi. What makes you say that ship arrivals at Grand Turk may be delayed? Is that information posted anywhere?

 

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Someone in another thread mentioned they were scheduled to go to GT next week (the first week they were supposed to open up) but it got changed. Now it could be that GT is only letting one ship dock per day while they get back up to speed or they could just not be ready yet. I have heard nothing official.

We missed GT due to weather on the Vista last December (first port ever missed due to weather) so we'd love to get back there as it's a nice beach day.

Sailing on the Conquest in a few weeks and can't wait. Grand Turk is on our itin and I know they were supposed to start getting ships back next week but it sounds like that may be delayed :(.

If anyone who's recently sailed on her knows who's at the Alchemy Bar, that info would be greatly appreciated.

I would absolutely choose any ship over the Sunshine. The only good thing about it is the Serenity area (which for some reason faces the Sea Side theater and is not that relaxing). I may have a small review linked in my sig (don't rememember :confused:)

Was not a huge fan of the Vista but I would sail on her again (have Horizon booked) under the right circumstances. Both ships felt over-crowded. Same amount of food options for about 25% more people, do the math. It's new and has some nice features but some of the lay out leaves a lot to be desired.

I actually just messaged him hoping he'll be on the Conquest over Thanksgiving. We've been lucky to have him on our last 2 cruises. I'll try to respond once he gets back to me.