asalligo

Exactly, that is what is in print, but the reality at the ports I have been to this year is that all Priority guests are allowed to ignore check in time.

Does no one have video? I cannot find it.

Go to the nightclub after 11pm, you will not have to wait long.

Yes, this also gets you priority boarding and debarkation.

This still stands true for me. Every other line I have cruised still feels more nickel and dime than Carnival to me. RCCL felt like everything was a fee and MSC even worse.

Yes, I am afraid that if it has been more than five years since you cruised, that you will find it a much more nickel and diming experience. The Quality of the food in the MDR and Buffet has dropped considerably and some items that once were free are an upcharge now. Room service is almost completely a for fee menu now. Depending on the ship, there will be two or maybe three paid restaurants. You can still enjoy cruising, but it is not what it once was.

Always scared to let Carnival choose my cabin. Please come back and let us know where they placed you.

Wow, such a complete and accurate answer from Groudloop. Covered everything.

Unfortunately, it really was almost everything and I had such high hopes for MSC. MSC Meraviglia. We had a 10am check in time and we show up at 9:45 to a line stretching out the door and across the parking lot, MSC does not appear to care about check in times, so why provide them. After an hour to get through security and check in we get seated, and boarding does not start until 1:30. Our friends who showed up outside at 1:30 found a line three hours long just to get into the terminal. They entered the line at 1:30 and did not get on the ship until after 5:30. The ship did not sail until after 8pm. Sail away party was such a joke compared to Carnival and I knew at that point that this was probably not going to be a replacement for Carnival. Almost every activity onboard is an upcharge. There is one free stage show, but it lasted under 30 minutes while they plugged the paid show. There was plenty to do. Bowling, racing simulators, a 4d movie, shows, but they all cost extra. Then the service and food onboard. We had come off the Carnival Pride only two weeks earlier and I was critical of Carnival food post covid, but MSC was so much worse. Everything was just so bad and nothing tasted like you expected it to. I am sure the specialty restaurants would be a step up, but we could not get into any of them, all booked. I had heard service was different, not so much hands on and that would be fine, but it was much worse than that. Thier employees were just plain apathetic, not helpful, and in a few cases just downright rude. Everything on the ship started late, Dinner a 45 minute wait to seat, shows starting 15 minutes late and I thought, ok, they just had a bad embarkation day and maybe they will get their act together tomorrow. That just never happened. This theme continued the entire cruise. Giant uncontrolled lines for everything we did on the ship all the way to debarkation which was another complete mess and our luggage was in a completely different group than our luggage tags. Get to the parking lot and find a three hour wait to exit the parking garage. This one is probably not on MSC, something was wrong with the terminals to pay, but it topped this cruise off nicely. The ship was beautiful and I cannot fault it there. New and so nice. Their Island Ocean Cay is a true gem and I can find no fault in it. I hope that one day they hire someone to fix everything else and become a nice cruise line.

Carnival is king for picky eaters. Chicken nuggets, burgers and pizza available for almost every meal. You would be surprised how many adult Carnival cruisers eat that way these days.

Yes, you can, they are running around $21 each now.

No, suites are no longer ready upon boarding and they let you know about that at check in. Ours was available at 1:30 on the Pride. You are allowed to stop in and drop off your luggage though.

I agree with this. Our Carnival Cruises that were longer than seven days never had any of these issues. Itinerary has a lot to do with clientele and I wish I could do the longer cruises more often.

Not for me, I do not want to hear anyone's music at the beach. I want to hear the ocean.

Crispy and crunchy is the only way to serve bacon.

If you are referring to the forward facing balcony rooms, yes, it is the view that people love and want so much. Shame they put up that wall though, it prevented me from opening both doors and cleaning out the ship like taco bell.

Oh, and thank you so much for coming back and updating us. So many people never do. Please try to ignore all the cheerleaders who are going to think you a bad person for not loving their preferred cruise line.

Yes, that is exactly what I expected if you loved Celebrity. Your description is very accurate of most Carnival Cruises. I am really hoping that the measures that Carnival is trying to implement now curb the kind of guest that has been attracted to Carnival lately. People who appear to be intent on making their fellow cruisers angry and pushing every boundary. I feel it has gotten much worse post covid. I was in the nightclub last month on the Pride and left because it was very clear that fights in this location were just a matter of time.

Yes, we have done exactly this, but to get a leg up we purchased Faster to the Fun when it appeared a week before our cruise. This includes priority choice in dining time although technically it is not supposed to count for YTD. As soon as we were onboard we went right to the MDR and asked to be switched to YTD and we were assigned YTD before dinner. We cannot know if FTTF made a difference, but the person taking our request clearly noted it.

I am buying the Premium package for my wife for the same reason. She does not want to lose her streak on Duolingo. The basic package will not do it, the middle package looks like it will, but it was only 1.50 more a day to move up to Premium.

LOL, we got a pair of free socks with our cruise in the Pride also.

It really has been bad on our two cruises so far this year. Smelling it on our balcony and in the hallways often. It's worse on the shorter cruises I think. I am hoping very much that they are reducing this with the new policies though.

This was my worry also. All bark and no bite. On the Pride in December there was someone in an interior room on Deck 8 playing their music at 3am so loud that you could hear it many cabins away in the hallway. Thier interior neighbor asked them to turn it down which he just responded with an eff off, so he called security. They came out three times and the music would stop for two minutes until they left and then just restart. After the third time, he just played his music and they never came back.

Wow, that Mattress issue would be hard to live with. We were on the Pride in December and I was honestly ready to trash it in a review, but then we came off the Pride and went directly onto the MSC Meraviglia and I was initiated into how bad a cruise really can be. MSC was our worst cruise ever. To us, the Pride was about par for the new Carnival standard now post covid. Food was not great, but so much better than MSC. Room Steward was way overworked or just bad and did not do anything I asked of him. We were missing a chair on the balcony and he never brought that or ice even though I asked twice. Of course the ship is old, but I still love that Spirit space per person that no other class has.

Oh dang, steel supports in your back, nevermind.