Pellaz

Do NOT pack your travel documents -- passport, boarding pass, birth certificate if used -- in your checked luggage (if you're checking luggage at the pier); make SURE they stay with you during the embarkation process. Otherwise your vacation will come to an abrupt, sad end. 😮 Have fun! We are sailing on the Horizon, Panorama's sister ship, in about 11 hours. 🙂

Lol, we're embarking on Horizon in about 12 hours. She will be docked at Terminal F. See below for the official PortMiami ship schedule for Oct. 14th. Note that under "Ships Due In Port" she is listed for Terminal Foxtrot, "F." Enter Oct. 14th as the date: https://wwwx.miamidade.gov/Apps/Seaport/dailydock/Default.aspx We will be joined by Marella Discovery at Terminal "E"cho and Oceania Vista at Terminal "J"iuliet. Horizon will be docked portside (facing Miami) and will have to rotate in the turn basin before heading out through Government Cut, which is always fun to experience.

"Arrival time," not boarding time. And IMHO, it's a chance worth taking based on our prior experiences at PortMiami.

And don't bring a cellphone or camera with you; they are verboten and Security will check. A Security officer will accompany the tour, since some of the areas (Bridge, Engineering Control) are restricted.

Now that the children have had their say, the actual answer would be to arrive at the pier by around 10 or 10:30 am. With FTTF, you'll be directed to the Priority Line and there should be a separate FTTF waiting area inside the terminal. In my experience at Florida ports, typically boarding will begin between 11 and 12, sometimes a bit earlier and occasionally after 12, after the ship has been cleared.

During one Behind the Fun tour the Laundry Manager asked us what we thought was the biggest reason for replacing towels. Several group members said "Theft"...but he said no, actually the biggest reason for loss was towels wearing out, getting frayed, etc. Of course, towels that aren't returned are more likely to get dragged around, abandoned, damaged or frayed, so I don't have a problem with Carnival monitoring their usage.

Which port was this?

You say this as if it was a BAD thing. And it's not a huge money-maker, either; they sell at most about 45 FTTF slots for a cruise, depending on number of Ds and Ps onboard. At around $100 per slot, it's a drop in the bucket.

Well, it wasn't for a while post-COVID, but happily it looks like SOME sort of late-night food shenanigans are taking place fleetwide now, judging from the posts I've seen.

Lol, at "free." 😄

Pet peeves: Lack of dining options late-night, particularly on the Mardi Gras. It's always puzzled me as to why Carnival, which has by FAR the best lineup of complimentary dining offerings for lunch, couldn't arrange something besides pizza after 11 pm (10 pm on Mardi Gras). I'm hoping the reintroduction of "late night snacks" will change my mind on this one. Lack of a soda program as good as Royal's. And don't get me started on Freestyle Coke Machines; I really wish Carnival had them, too. Also, I really wish Carnival had Coke products back. Lack of an in-between tier on Cheers! Guest discourtesy, loud kids and adults in the hallways, lack of elevator etiquette...not exclusively a Carnival problem, of course.

In fairness, other cruise lines also make you sign out towels...and do not provide pool towels in your stateroom. Hear, hear! When I got a call from home while walking through the Windjammer buffet on a recent Royal cruise at around midnight (music charter; crazy dining hours), I felt like absolute royalty. Carnival seems to port-block wi-fi calling. I've initiated a call home and it connected for a second, then got cut off. As the chef de cuisine on the Imagination (r.i.p.) told us, "All of our desserts are made from scratch; we do not buy them from Costco or Sam's. Now, we might buy the CAKE MIX at Costco or Sam's..." 🙂

That's good to hear. We've been picked up more than once while "hitchhiking" back from our cabana (almost always #9, 10 or 11, past the buffet pavilion) toward the tender pier, but it's a question of catching a returning tram, and if they have room for more folks onboard.

Sorry, I should have specified that I've never seen a paid-service "shuttle" tram, as opposed to an excursion tour. The trams that run, or used to run, along the service road behind the beach and the cabanas were free. People like us, who rented cabanas and villas farther from the tender pier, were instructed to go to the tram station by the pier and we would be given a ride out to our cabanas, and as I mentioned, the trams ranged further out as well. It would be a shame if this free service has been discontinued.

If so, that must be a new thing. I've never seen a paid-service tram at HMC.

Royal's individual drink prices are higher than Carnival's, too.

Oh, good. Assuming Jiji's isn't open, this will be our embark-day go-to in one week.

The tram also goes out farther than the picnic pavilion area, out past the water sports center. We caught an outbound ride on one from our cabana (#11) years ago and got to see a lot more of the island than we dreamed we would see. It was pretty nifty.

So cool! I haven't cruised on HAL since I'm not 60 yet. 😉 HAL is part of Carnival, so it shouldn't have surprised me.

I finally make Platinum next weekend. <applause> I take it these have to be picked up at Pixels and they are no longer placed in your stateroom, right?

Almost without exception we've gotten a towel animal every evening in our room on our Carnival cruises. That's kinda fun. On my Royal cruises -- and granted, they have lately been full-boat metal music charters -- the average has been about 30% of the time. Fewer towel critters = less fun. On the morning of the last full day, weather permitting, Carnival room-stewards will descend en masse on the main pool-deck and place towel animals on every lounger by the main Lido pool. It's not required; they just DO it. It's fun. Show me ANY other cruise line where they do this.

Interestingly, that promo promises early access to your stateroom. 😮

Sailing on the Horizon on the 14th!

Bingo. I'm not a big drinker but my cabinmates are, so of course I have to get Cheers. I will have a few daiquiris and pina coladas, maybe a milkshake and plenty of sodas. I subtract the price of Bottomless Bubbles from the Cheers price, since I would have bought the former anyway, and it starts looking a little better. Will I "break even" or "make money"? Probably not. But I won't be too far off, either, when all is said and done.

Some Carnival ships DID have infrared sensors installed before COVID. During one BtF Tour on either Conquest or Freedom, we were shown the alarm annunciator on one side of the bridge wing, and there were sensor pods marked FLIR ("forward-looking infrared") at the back of the ship. It's been a while, but as I recall they were mounted at the corners, so they could cover the ship's sides looking forward. This certainly does not mean that ALL Carnival ship-classes have them, but that ship certainly did.