robear14

Just happened to check at lunch, and our cabin has been assigned!:)

Did you go to the Alchemy Bar and if so how was the staff?

Not yet - I've been checking everyday. We have a guaranteed interior, so I'm not expecting much. We plan on spending as little time in the cabin as possible.

We didn't book through Carnival the first time we went - we did a tour with Spencer Ambrose. The one who did was called West Coast Island Delight. We stopped at a lot of places and had time to snorkel between the Pitons. The lunch was really good especially if you like spicy food.

The only difference from the description on the website was that we took a boat back from Jalousie beach all the way to the port. There has been a bad storm system that hit the island a few weeks before we got there and I think we took more time driving south due to roads being closed from downed trees and mudslides.

That looks like a good tour to see the most popular spots in St. Kitts.

We figured out Antigua - we'll be doing an eco tour with Adventure Antigua.

I think all we have to figure out now is St. Thomas. We're thinking of just finding a beach to go to since it's the last port day and we'll need some rest.

St. Lucia and St. Kitts are beautiful islands. We did island tours that included a beach stop on both of them. If you're interested in that sort of thing, I'd recommend it so that you can see a majority of the popular places on the islands.

The bus tour on St. Lucia went from the port and made its way south, stopping at various sites along the way: a banana plantation, an active volcano, a waterfall, and quite a few overlooks with amazing views of the sea. It ended at a beach between the Pitons; the snorkelling was amazing there. After the beach time was done, we took a speedboat from the Pitons to the port, again stopping for a few minutes at a few spots to take pictures.

For this cruise, we booked a hiking excursion on Gros Piton. I know it's not a normal relaxing thing to do on vacation, but we figured we might as well do it while we're still young and able!

The tour we did of St. Kitts had two major stops (that I can remember) besides the beach at the end: Brimstone Hill Fortress and Romney Manor. The fortress is a UNESCO World Heritage site with great panoramic views of the island. Romney Manor is where batik tapestries and clothing are made. I thought it was really interesting because I had to do batik in art class in high school. Before getting to the beach, there was a short stop at the top of a hill where the island is very narrow and you can see the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Caribbean on the other. The beach was OK; there was a bar that offered drinks and some food. It was a little crowded for me, but it was still a beach in the Caribbean, so I couldn't complain too much.

We're going to do a catamaran snorkeling tour that stops at Nevis for this cruise.

For Half Moon Cay and Grand Turk, we're just going to a beach. In Antigua, we're planning on an eco-adventure type of tour. We booked the St. Pierre tour through Carnival for Martinique; we figured it would be the easiest thing to do since we're not fluent in French. St. Thomas is a question mark for us. We've only been there once and did a tour with a beach stop at Magen's Bay. Initially we were thinking about just going back to Magen's Bay, but the price to do only that didn't seem to make sense.

We'll be on this cruise as well.

We haven't been to Half-Moon Cay, Grand Turk, Antigua, or Martinique yet, so it'll be nice to explore some new places. We've already booked some excursions, but I don't think we've figured out what to do in St. Thomas yet.

Having only been on Carnival cruises, I can say that Bostonjetset's comments are actually really accurate.

Although I can't compare the food to other lines, I can say that I've never sent a meal in the MDR back. There's a good variety of choices and the portion size of the main course is usually rather large.

The decor of their three newer ships (Dream, Magic, and Breeze) is much more toned down compared to the older ones.

My husband and I prefer the smaller ships because they feel less crowded. The Dream-class ships have a much larger guest capacity, but the public area sizes are not proportionally larger compared to the smaller ships.

We've also never had an issue with crew members or other guests as far as being gay. The other guests on a Carnival cruise are quite diverse, so to me that's saying a lot.

One thing we've noticed is that the 7-day cruises in January have a much smaller number of kids on them. The ships do have activities for all age groups and do a pretty good job of keeping them occupied.

With all that being said, we go on cruises for the ports and being able to visit a number of places in one trip by the most economical way possible and Carnival certainly fits that criteria.

On my last cruise on the Paradise, it only opened at 5:30pm. It was only open on sea days and embarkation day.

What's kinda funny is that the appetizers are featured from places the ship doesn't actually have (such as Blue Iguana Cantina, Cucina del Capitano), but they're still yummy and a nice appetizer before dinner starts.

We've never had issues with tablemates. We've been seated with older couples, younger couples, and twice with single women traveling together - always had interesting conversations and enjoyed meeting people from different parts of the country with different backgrounds.

We've only cruised on Carnival and have never had an issue with other cruisers or the crew.

What ship/itinerary are you doing?

Yes, I've actually stayed in that room - it's very quiet because the bridge is above you. The access to the front public area is great. On our cruise out of San Juan, it was really used by anyone except us and our friends who were staying in the cabin next to us. There are a few benches, but sadly no extra chairs or loungers. Just don't go out there too early in the morning; the bridge washes its windows and you can get a little wet. The officers must've had a good laugh when I was out there taking pictures...

John did post about this earlier this morning:

Please remember I said we would release more dancing of the ships news the "week of April 6th"..........not April 6th...........sometime this week many more of you will be smiling. cheers

In January on the Pride, the LGBT meetings were always at the Alchemy Bar, but the times weren't the same every night. Regardless, it's a great bar and location on the ship. If you're into martinis or really good mixed drinks, that's the place to go. They have a menu of cocktails, but the bartenders are also really good at making custom drinks based on what you like and will ask you a bunch of questions to find out what your perfect drink will be.

Food: If you like burritos, you have to go to the Blue Iguana Cantina - it's open for breakfast and lunch, and they'll make the burritos right in front of you. Also, the burgers and fries at Guy's Burger Joint are outstanding. When you eat in the Main Dining Room for dinner, you'll have to try the Warm Chocolate Melting Cake at least once - it's available every night, and don't be afraid to ask for two sides of vanilla ice cream.

I haven't been to any of the ports you're going to, but I've read lots of great reviews about Half Moon Cay. It's a private island, and the beach is supposed to be wonderful.

Are you staying in the same cabin as your friends?

If you have any ship-specific questions, I'd be happy to try my best to answer them.

On the Pride two weeks ago, there were no slips for breakfast... it looked like the person who brought it had the form that was filled out, but we never checked or signed it. When I tipped them they seemed surprised by it.

From my experiences - less crowded, more deck chairs available, easier to navigate around the ship. The main dining room food is the same as on other ships, so there's no loss there.

Congratulations! And thank you for the review! It was great to relive the cruise through someone else's point of view.

I will have to say that we spent a little bit of time at the Alchemy Bar and it was usually packed and the bartenders were fantastic. There was Raymond from Alabama who really got into shaking the drinks; I can't remember the name of the other bartender, but he knew how to work the crowd especially when there was a bunch of ladies at the bar. The drinks were really good - the bartenders asked what flavors you like and a few other questions and concocted custom drinks. There was also a menu of drinks to choose from and those sounded really good too.

On my last cruise out of Tampa, my husband and I both had a bottle of wine in our backpacks; as we put it through the scanner, we simply told the security people that there was a bottle in each bag before it went through. They didn't open the bags at all. They did however inspect our 12 packs of sodas. I think they examined the glue on the cardboard boxes to make sure it wasn't opened before. I really was surprised they didn't ask to look at the bottles, but maybe it was because we were up front and truthful about it.

Oh, and the sodas were for the bottle of Bacardi Oakheart that we had delivered to our room. We played by the rules and didn't have any issues. Yes the bottle that we ordered was probably 4x the price at a normal liquor store, but for the amount of mixed drinks we got out of it, it was still a good deal.:)

I was on this cruise as well - we really did have the best weather I've had for a western Caribbean cruise in January. I can't wait to hear your thoughts on everything. :)

I also found the Serenity area to be usually full during sea days and it actually seemed loud. The other pools usually didn't have many people in them, but the water temperature seemed to be kinda cool.

From the goccl.com website:

Name: Carnival’s WaterWorks

Location: Sports Deck 11 – aft

Hours: 11:00am-5:00pm, weather conditions permitting / hours subject to change

Function: WaterWorks Aqua Park

Green Thunder Thrill Slide features a 187’ long slide with a 34’ long drop

Carnival’s Twister Waterslide features a 214' long spiraling water tube slide

Slide Policy: Kids must be 42" or taller to use the Twister Waterslide and 48” or taller for the Green Thunder Slide.

Function: SplashZone

expansive spray park with varied water spray apparatus including a 150-gallon PowerDrencher tipping bucket and dual mini-racing Kiddie slides

surrounding areas with lounge chairs for sun and relaxing

They will close the slides when it's really windy. I'd recommend just going to the top of Green Thunder when it's open to get some good pictures as it's the highest point you can get to on the ship. The best time to go is around lunch time while the ship is in port since there's usually not a line. It's a great slide - the feeling you get when the floor drops never got old, even after the 5th ride!

I'd say we got back a little early today... In fact, it seemed like we also arrived at and left all the ports ealry this past week.

Going to sail on Feb 8th. Robear14 can you let me know when the formal is? Anything else you think I should know about. thanks.. born2cruz

The formal nights were the first sea day (Monday) and the last port day (Friday).

Have a great cruise!

On the Pride now - just had my first Guy's Burger! That was tasty!!

My PVP stated 22 Jan but I don't know if that is accurate or not. Usually it's been about March or April. Just have to wait and see.

That makes sense; it would coincide with the Vista announcements.

We purchased the wine package at the first dinner. Yes, it is kinda pricey, but the convenience is really worth it. Plus they'll have your bottles waiting for you before you get to the table. :)

Not yet...and I wouldn't be surprised as the Carnival Miracle will always be welcome here at Port Tampa Bay!

I'd more than welcome it too since flights to Tampa are cheap and I have relatives nearby - makes cruising a whole lot cheaper for us northerners.

Plus if they were to move the Miracle, that would mean a Panama Canal transit :-)