CruisinCrow

Very wise. We used to be in a flood/evacuation zone but we moved to higher ground. I'm really glad not to be evacuating right now!

Good luck Homosassa! Looks like the storm surge is going to be bad.

We've been on 3 cruises post-covid (Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Carnival). They all did muster station the way you described. You could go to your muster station to check in at your leisure. It wasn't a set time. The last time we were on MSC was 2020, pre-covid and we still had to take our life jackets to the drill, although all the other cruise lines had dropped the life jacket requirement. Sounds like MSC has evolved but is still a step behind. Muster is just one of those things you have to get through.

Did you do the home tests? I don't think they are very accurate. I know several people who tested negative with home tests but positive when they tested with a lab.

I'm seeing reports like this on my Seaside groups. And my aunt and uncle also recently came back from a cruise with COVID, which turned into pneumonia. Seems like it's on the increase. 😞 I hope you get well soon!

Thank you for posting the menus! I hope we will have ATD on our cruise. I think having to pay for Aurea to get flexible dining is one of the drawbacks of MSC.

Following along! We'll be on the August 31 3-day sailing - first cruise on Seaside, second cruise on MSC. Old Stumpy - ha! 😄 Our last cruise was on Freedom, shortly after the fire. I thought they would have fixed the funnel by now. Our embarkation time isn't until 3, so we're planning on having lunch at Fish Lips before boarding. Maybe I'll try that spicy drink. The Lip Sync Battle sounds fun. What did that involve?

Were you assigned a specific dining room? What time did you usually go to dinner and was there a wait?

We'll be on the 3-day sailing in 10 days. I hope we get My Choice Dining!

In that case, onboard credit would have been nicer. But money back is still money back. I'll take it. 😀

I just did this. We booked a last minute cruise and I found out about the status match afterwards. I applied for the match and got Gold so then I called and asked them to apply the match to the booking. The woman I talked to said we would get a 5% discount and I received a new invoice showing a credit. I asked if we would get the credit as onboard credit and she said no, the refund would be applied to our credit card. No credit yet. I wonder how long it will take to show up?

There is no downside for us. On our most recent cruise, we had the same wait team every night (although not the same table) and never had to wait longer than it took to check in using the app and then walk to the restaurant. If you're in a large group, traditional dining would probably work better.

While we were waiting for them to call our muster station, they made an announcement that if people tried to leave before their station was called, they would be sent back. So we waited it out for 2 hours but then later some people in my Facebook cruise group said they just got in the line anyway and no one stopped them. YMMV

It took 2 hours on our Freedom cruise last month. They called the self-assist groups by muster station and we were station H. They made us leave our cabin at 8:30, so we were sitting in the hallway for an hour and a half. It was a complete mess.

We really enjoyed the wine blending. It would be a blast to do with a group of friends but it was nice having the class to ourselves too. You can try as many blends as you want and the instructor even offered to bring some more wines to taste and blend, but we were happy with our two attempts. The only disadvantage is that when you get back on the ship, they confiscate your wine and you have to pick it up on the last morning.

Right? I thought maybe there was a TSA agent shortage but Port Canaveral has facial recognition kiosks. I have no idea why it took 2 hours to get us off the ship.

Our last cruise on Carnival was in 2018 so I'm sure some things have changed. Post-pandemic, we've been on Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. There were supply chain issues and staff issues on the other cruises too. On Celebrity, they had to keep shutting down the casino because all the dealers got quarantined. 🙂 But this was the only cruise where debarkation was such a fiasco and we only had one cabin service a day. It was our first full ship though (the other two were about 60% full) so I'm sure that affected things. Hopefully Carnival will work on these problems and get more staff back. I'll check guest services for the schedules next time.

I did not see any at guest services and didn't want to stand in line to ask. But next time I will ask the cabin steward. I really missed the printed schedules. I always scan and post them. I'm sure it saves a ton a paper waste though.

I only saw it walking by. We didn't go in but some of the people in my cruise Facebook group looked like they had fun there.

Have a great time! There were lots of kids of all ages on our cruise.

Yes, it's hard to find. We were doing a "drink around the ship" challenge (having a drink at every bar) so when we accidentally found it, we went in and got our drink right away. 🙂 They have karaoke there and it's just opposite the Posh Restaurant entrance, which is also hard to find. We ended up having to go up to go down on that ship a lot.

Two Royal Caribbean ships anchored at Coco Cay

Freedom Restaurant (buffet) Scott's Piano Bar Tiramisu martini at the Millennium Bar Posh Restaurant

Here are a few more pictures that I didn't include in the original review. our oceanview cabin on Deck 2 Swingtime Jazz Club - I never saw it open but it looked nice Habana Bar

We were on the June 16 cruise, the second cruise after the funnel fire. Here is a link to my review: http://susancrow.blogspot.com/2022/07/carnival-freedom.html There isn't much information about Freedom, so I hope it will be helpful/enjoyable for someone. It took me a while to write it because we had just gotten back to Port Canaveral when we found out that my mother-in-law had a stroke. We've been really busy, stressed and preoccupied since then, but we did have a good cruise and I wanted to share it. A few additional comments: Cutbacks were evident, especially in cabin service and food. We only had one cabin service a day, which was fine because our cabin steward was very good so we always had ice, towels and even towel animals. All the other cruise lines still have two services a day though, so I don't know why Carnival can't do it. The food was really inconsistent. My husband and I sometimes ordered the same thing and they weren't cooked the same way. Several times the plates came out with food splashed all over them. I don't think I've ever seen that on any cruise. It doesn't seem like anyone was checking the plates before they came out of the galley. It didn't ruin our cruise or anything, but it was noticeable. The Hub app is used for everything now. I liked it for some things but not for others. The new muster process is much better and I hope they keep doing it that way. Using the app to check in at the restaurants was also a good change. However, I did not like using the app for the dinner menus and I missed having a daily printed activities schedule. I found I missed a lot of activities because it was hard to read everything scrolling down the phone. I wish there was still a printed option for the menus and schedules. I heard people complaining about lines but I didn't find them any worse than they were pre-pandemic. I think people just haven't gotten used to crowds and full ships yet. Yes, the lines were long at the breakfast buffet and at Guy's Burgers and at Blue Iguana and at the Pizza Pirate. We managed to avoid the worst of the lines by going during quieter times and eating breakfast in the dining room. All the bars and bartenders were great. Zora and Zoran at the Alchemy Bar were awesome. Elegant night was the third night of the cruise (after the day in Princess Cays). You can't use the drink package at Princess Cays and drinks are very expensive ($10 for a beer). I think they add on the Bahamas VAT. Save your drinking for when you get back on the ship. Debarkation was probably the worst we've ever experienced on any ship. We did the "express" walk-off and we stood in the hallway for an hour and a half after we got kicked out of the cabin. We didn't get off the ship until 10:30. Carnival needs to work on this! I loved the wine blending class we took at Bahama Barrels in Nassau. We booked it directly through their website. Highly recommended! If anyone has any questions, I'll try to answer them. Unfortunately, I don't have the daily schedules to refer to since they did away with them, but I'll do my best from memory. 🙂