asalligo

Just prints you could buy on amazon for a quarter of the price in very overpriced frames and insane high mandatory shipping costs. If you like it and think that the final price is reasonable, get it. Just do not fall for their line of this being an investment.

Sorry, no, not on a Carnival ship. I am sure some people do it on the sly.

Yes, that should be legit. Price is about right.

This was the reason I booked my recent balcony. With the price of cruising now, I am looking at probably just one or two a year and I wanted to cruise more often, but the interior room just hampered the experience too much for me.

I would not book another interior, just not for me. Feels like I am not on a cruise at all.

My daughters take full advantage of Bottomless bubbles and use it well. There is the problem of getting the attention at the bar. I get them to pick a bar they think they will be most close to and always use the same one. Then I give them ten ones each and tell them to tip a dollar on the first drink and then like every 5th drink. That usually gets them the attention at the bar, but still sometimes I have to go help them get a drink and when I do I am often pretty ticked at that point. There is no fountain on the Paradise, but kids can also order cokes from the waiter in the main dining room and with any of the roaming waiters like in the main lounge.

Be careful of any advice you get on this subject as Sanford airport is not MCO and many people may assume you mean MCO like the first respondent. Sanford airport is near nothing and there are no hotels nearby and no regular shuttle services. You will need to schedule a shuttle. On the bright side, I love Sanford airport compared to MCO. It is nice and small and only ten minutes from my house. Unfortunately, it is also 60 miles from Port Canaveral and 45 miles from Disney.

I was on the Pride 1 month ago and they were certainly selling the shots in the MDR in the souvenir glasses every night.

MSC could do this if they seriously review their handling of people onboard ships and adopt the same procedures that other cruise lines are already using to manage 5000 people on a ship. After cruising with them, I have no worries that they are going to put Carnival in jeopardy any time soon. Thier ship was beautiful but felt like a week on a cattle car being fed from a bucket.

When I was in Port Canaveral three weeks ago, they were holding people in lines marked with their boarding time and it appeared that they were not letting them through even though there was no one in the earlier queue lines. In my past cruises they seem to be letting even the early arrivals in when there was no one in the current or earlier timed queues. Maybe they are getting more serious about check in time. I hope so because this process does not work if everyone just shows up when they like.

Yes, I noticed this on the Pride two weeks ago. They did not list it as an activity, but it was buried in the food section. Same in the app.

When we boarded Meraviglia last week there was a couple being very vocal about their bad B2B experience. I do not know the details, but they were sitting with us in general population waiting to reboard at 1pm. They were clearly not YC, but why were they stuck out there with us in the terminal?

They were using pen and paper on MSC Meraviglia.

Yes, that got a bit annoying.

I am less critical of Carnival now, but still not loving the current cruise experience. I think I am going to take a break from cruising for a while. Try some land based vacationing again.

I took my first cruise on MSC on the Meraviglia and I really wanted this to be a great cruise because I have not been happy with the reduction in service on Carnival lines, but sadly this was our worst cruise in our 30 years of cruising. Boarding took four hours. I had a 10am check in time and arrived at 9:45. A line had already formed outside to get into the terminal several hundred yards long. It took us 1.5 hours to get through security and check in. They had none of my data at check in that I had submitted prior to the cruise, so I gave all that again and then we were seated. The check in line was stopped at around noon as the terminal seating was full. Boarding finally began at 1:15 and we boarded around 1:45. Several employees told me this was not the norm, but in reviewing recent YouTube videos this does not appear to be true. Compared to the Carnival Pride three weeks ago in which I stepped out of my Uber at 9:35 and was through security by 9:40 and on the ship at 10:37. MSC's last meeting time for debark was 10:30 on our debarkation day, so they will never be an 11am boarding. MSC also appears to ignore check in times. So now we are onboard, the ship is beautiful, I have to give them that, but there are just too many people on it, so every venue is a giant mob. We head to the Buffet which is also a mob of course. As soon as we step on the ship, many things do not work like items at the drink station which is also often out of cups. Food was not up to the standards of Carnival on the Buffet, but also not terrible. I would describe the menu as "Well catered BBQ" A large slab of carved beef, Hamburgers, hotdogs, grilled chicken and many sides, a decent salad bar, pizza, lots of cheese and bread and desserts. The buffet did not appear to change much over the course of the cruise. Muster Drill was watching a video in your cabin, calling a number to verify you watched it and then checking in at your muster station. MSC did not have life jackets in the room. Apparently, they are handed out if an emergency occurs. Not a fan of that. MSC does not have the activity schedule that Carnival has, although they did have lots to do, all of these venues were an extra fee. Racing simulators, a 4D theater, Video games. Lots of specialty restaurants to choose from at rather high prices compared to Carnival although Carnival is raising prices lately. The only included food on MSC Meraviglia was the MDR and the Buffet. They do have a small casino on deck 7. Sail away was lack luster and happened not during sail away as the MSC did not leave port until 8pm. Hard to match Carnival in this arena though as few ships have a sail away like them. We were assigned a middle seating of 7:30 at the Waves restaurant. MSC appears to have three seatings and Bella does not get to choose a seating time and they appear to have no YTD or any check in process in their app. We arrived at our scheduled time of 7:30 to a long line and were not seated until 8pm. This was strange to me as we have an assigned table and since they never spoke to us or checked us in, how would they even know if our table was ready. Once seated our appetizer arrived at 37 minutes, our entree at 1 hour and dessert at the 1:30 mark. Coffee we ordered was never delivered. MSC did have a few one ups on Carnival in the dining experience though. MSC is still providing tablecloths and the level of service that once existed on Carnival. Closer to a five-star formal restaurant and the New York strip which is still on their standard menu was maybe the best cut of meat I have ever had at sea and the first time a steak has been cooked rare as I asked at sea. To avoid the wait we tried to book one of the many specialty restaurants onboard on the second night, but they had no openings. Shows were about on par with Carnival, although it also started late by about ten minutes and only lasted 35. No drinks are allowed in the main lounge which was very strange to me. I always have a cocktail while watching the show. MSC also has a paid show that this is $18 per person and does allow drinks. People who saw this show reported it was great. After the main show there were no activities scheduled except the Silent disco which was held right next to a very loud live band. They appear to have missed the idea of a silent disco. Each night of the cruise there was nothing to do on the activities list after 10pm except the last stage show. They are sorely lacking in activities coordination. This is also the first cruise ever in which I never saw the cruise director in person. Ocean Cay was amazing! Absolutely nothing but praise for that island and that experience. They have a gem there. We checked our bags for debarkation left the room by 7:15, but joined another line for the dining room which closes at 8am. They pressed us hard to join a group table and made us what longer due to our desire to have a table for two, but we did get one after another 30 minute wait. Breakfast is a much smaller menu than Carnival, but was decent. Another really long line to exit the ship when our number was called. Then we get to our luggage area to find one suitcase missing. They told me all suitcases were off the ship, so just look around. My luggage tag was 55 and I found my suitcase in section 36. It was still clearly marked 55, so go figure. Out to the parking lot for a three hour wait to exit the parking area. Three Hours! No clue what caused this, but finally made it to the front of the line to pay and leave. I found the crew to be very polite and professional, I had no problem with service when you make it to the front of the inevitable line at every venue. No more MSC cruises for me, that was just run too poorly for me to give them another shot. If they are smart, they will steal a Carnival cruise director and put them in charge of all coordination on the ship. Everything they were bad at, other lines are already doing better. It was just a very frustrating cruise in which we stood in line for everything we did. Yacht club guests were guided by us several times during the cruise to the front of a line, so I am sure that is a better experience, but for that price I can be on a much better line. I am sure I left something out, but this is the first cruise ever that I would have rather stayed home. I always say, it was still a cruise after commenting on something I did not like. Not this one.

I received my boarding pass on December 10th for my January 6th cruise. So about 25 days.

Yes, MSC just assigns you a check in time. You do not get to pick it at check in like Carnival. This check in time also changed several times for my last cruise and was 2pm when my boarding documents were first sent and changed to 10:30am three days before my cruise. MSC also unlike Carnival pretty much ignores your check in time and you can show up whenever you like.

Exactly. You can search and add any adult on the cruise you know the name of in the Hub app and select them in your reservation for dinner.

Thank you, I had third party contacts turned off.

I hope we can get a table for two on our upcoming cruise. I have become spoiled being able to just check that I want a table for two in the app on Carnival.

Not even worth having the hub app for chat last week on the Pride. Messages sometimes would show on my phone as not going, but then when they did show up as going, they would be delivered to my cruise companions hours after I sent the messages. I asked my brother if they wanted to join us for breakfast and assumed they did not want to. He got the message while sitting right next to me in the main lounge six hours later.

In Tampa they had all the way back to section E and they called each by section.

Yes, the first group usually has to just hang out in the terminal seating area for about an hour. December 18th on the Carnival Pride I had a 10am check in time, but the Uber showed up early so we headed to the terminal. They let me in line at 9:37 am. I was through security and the check in process and seated in the terminal to wait for boarding at 9:50. Boarding started at 10:35 and I was on the ship at 10:37.

Yes, passengers too! Don't fall for the I don't speak English bit. This is 2023, they speak English. They just don't want to. I am totally kidding by the way.