scottsgal

It was our favorite meal on the Mardi Gras, the scallop appetizer was amazing and the stuffed lobster as well.  Food is subjective but we would definitely return there.

We just did the May Hawaii to Vancouver on the Ovation of the Seas.  We had cloudy days the last few days but the seas were surprisingly calm.  The Ovation is a much bigger ship than Carnival has so I'm sure that helped but I was expecting rougher seas. 

We loved this cruise - Hawaii's weather was amazing and there was so much to do on the Ovation we were never bored.

1 hour ago, Jamman54 said:

We are entering the Honolulu harbor. The Ovation of the Seas has the prime docking spot. She spends most of the year in Australia, but comes north for the Alaska cruise season…..

 

 

Thanks for posting the Ovation pics... we were on the Ovation and watched you sail in.  We absolutely loved the Ovation and our cruise to Vancouver - she's really a spectacular ship.  We loved Hawaii and can't wait to go back.

22 hours ago, Hoopster95 said:

Thank God I have not had hardly any MDR/MTD the last several years... it has really become even a worse issue (can it possibly get any worse?) if last night’s offering was any indication. 

 

I am sorry to say that Windjammer fully outperformed MTD/MDR ... as was my expectation on this sailing from my MTD experiences  the last few years. Sigh 😕

Totally agree with this.  We were on the repo cruise from Hawaii before yours and the MDR food was awful,  probably the worst of 30+ cruises. Had 3 nights in specialty which were good.  Windjammer definitely better than MDR in our opinion as well, so many options to choose from and layed-out well, we ate several dinners there.

Great review and pictures - Ovation is an excellent ship for that area, great crew as well. 

Looking forward to your review - especially the Hawaii portion.  We watched the Splendor dock in Honolulu from our ship balcony.  We were on the Ovation of the Seas transpacific from Honolulu to Vancouver.  It was nice seeing the familiar smokestack.

We were on this cruise as well - fantastic itinerary and aside from 2 overcast days with rain, 12 days of beautiful sunshine.

We've sailed this ship a few times before and like the updates - the World Marketplace looks good - much better lay out than before. We found the food in the dining room to be good. We ate at Steamers and Planks and enjoyed both. Also ate at Crown Grill and while our entrees were good we didn't care for the rest of the menu so we cancelled our 2nd night there, of course food is very subjective.

Our biggest complaint was the entertainment - it was the worst we've experienced on 26 cruises. We spent several nights on deck watching MUTS because a pianist, trumpet player, soloist weren't our cup of tea. We felt the entertainment was definitely geared towards an older demographic. The comedian and magician were both really good as were the 2 production shows we saw. Again, this is subjective and based on what we like.

Overall it was a wonderful, relaxing cruise and we would sail the CB again.

We really enjoy the Glory as well. Do you happen to have any pics of the new waterworks area?

Enjoying your review.

Buffet carves whole turkeys, only place onboard to get dark meat. The buffet meal has been very good.

We go to the buffet too for turkey dinner on Thanksgiving cruises. We've done 6 Thanksgiving cruises and haven't liked the MDR Thanksgiving turkey dinner. The buffet carves fresh turkey and they have all the fixings - that's our go to Thanksgiving meal now which we've found to be much better than the MDR.

Yes, the ships are crowded and sail at capacity over Thanksgiving. We were on the Glory last Thanksgiving and had an awesome cruise. It was the first holiday cruise we took that didn't seem overwhelmingly crowded everywhere.

This was a big disappointment to us as we like the Conquest class ships and always use the adult only pool. Now that the kids are grown, our next cruise is a 14 day on Princess and we will definitely be enjoying the 2 adult only pools.

Seems so ridiculous that Disney can have a really nice adult only area but Carnival can't anymore.

We were on this cruise also and agree with what you posted. The Liquid Lounge theater is horrible, huge design flaw there. We missed the tall atrium with the elevators. The 3 level atrium made it very crowded every time we went down there. The Promenade and Ocean Plaza at night never seemed very crowded which was nice. We really liked the America Rocks show and saw all the comedians, Jason Blanchard was our favorite. We did all the specialty dining, steak house was excellent as usual and we really enjoyed JiJi's Asian Kitchen.

We enjoyed the cruise as you did - there are some things we really liked that are unique, Imax, Thrill Theater, Sky Ride, and Matt Mitcham best CD we've ever sailed with. Things we didn't care for - lobby, Liquid Lounge, ridiculously slow and crowded elevators, Lido deck was way too crowded and 2 pools for that amount of people is not enough, especially if you're not in the Havana area. We booked this cruise a couple weeks before sailing and for less than $500 per person for an 8 night won't complain - it was a great itinerary and glad we tried the Vista.

1978 RCCL Nordic Prince, I was a freshman in HS and it was a 2 week cruise with 3 of the 8 ports being Guadaloupe, Caracas Venezuela and Port au Prince Haiti - don't see ships going these places anymore.

Sailed the Mardi Gras in 1986 and NCL Sunward in 1987. Ships seemed so big back then :)

We just sailed the Glory over Thanksgiving. My family commented how the ship never felt really crowded for a holiday sailing. It was nice to see so many generational families sailing together over the holiday. There were a lot of kids but we didn't see any running crazy throughout the ship. Lido buffet does get crowded but it's fine if you eat at off-peak times.

As for dress code - this is from Carnival's web site directly so the poster above is incorrect - shorts are allowed in the MDR on casual evenings - they can't be athletic style shorts though.

"Main Dining Room(s)

Following is the dress code in the Main Dining Room(s) for both men and women and pertains to children as well:

Cruise Casual Dress Code

Men: sport slacks, khakis, Jeans (no cut-offs), dress shorts (long) and collared polo shirts"

We really enjoyed the Glory - after 25+ cruises it was one of our favorites as both my adult sons and my sister's family were with us - we had a great family cruise.

We were on the Glory on the Thanksgiving cruise and the decorations were up. The lobby looks nice - big decorated tree and garland all around. Wasn't over the top decorated though.

Enjoy the warm weather - we're -14 below tomorrow night without the wind chill in Chicago

We were on the Glory last week and liked the casino bar, the aft lido bar and the bartenders at the lobby bar were great.

We thought the rock band they had playing in the lobby was the best cruise band we've seen in 25+ cruises - they were called The Rocking Dead and we just loved listening to them

We were on that cruise with you last week. We didn't find it too rocky - we had an aft balcony cabin. I know the seas were a bit choppy a couple nights but we didn't find it any rougher on the Glory than other ships we were on but then we also aren't affected by ship movement at all. We actually felt more motion on the Dream last January.

We were on the Glory last week and used the HUB app frequently to stay in touch with family. We didn't have any issues of texts not going through and found it a good way to keep in touch and meet up with family.

We went through this with my sons as well. Both in sports, the youngest now pitching in college. If we cruised, he chose to stay at home if he was training or in season and we respected that. His goal was to pitch in college and that was his priority vs a family cruise and we respected that.

On a good note, my boys are now 21 and 26 and we invited them both on a Thanksgiving cruise with my sister and her family and they are both going. My kids are both really excited to be cruising as a family again and so are we. Don't think your family vacations are over, even as they get older, they can surprise you and want to join you again.

I made a reservation yesterday for the Glory steakhouse for our November cruise and got a confirmation back within 2 hours - quickest I've heard back yet.

My first cruise when I was in high school a long time ago on Royal Caribbean's Nordic Prince was a 14 day and besides San Juan, St Thomas, Aruba, and Curacao we stopped in Guadaloupe, Caracas, Port Antonio Jamaica and Port Au Prince Haiti, before all the unrest. Quite the itinerary and very different than today's itineraries.

Another vote for Radical Catamaran Adventures - we had a great day with them. There were only us and 3 other couples and we had a great time sailing and snorkeling.

We will be on our 6th Thanksgiving cruise this November. The previous 5 we only had 1 night of really rough seas coming back to Florida and it was unavoidable. Otherwise we have had really nice weather that week in November.

We had the L shaped cabin on deck 6 for the 10 day Dream journey cruise and LOVED it. It's not noisy, we never heard noise from the burgundy lounge. The promenade deck 5 narrows towards the back of the ship so you have more of an ocean view then cabins further forward. The balcony is great - it's nice and long plus you can see around the aft of the ship to the back and there's a nice lounge chair to use. We loved the room layout - not having a couch was no big deal and loved the bed looking out the large picture windows to outside.

We would book that cabin again in a heartbeat - we had no negatives with it at all.

Free Radical is not as rustic as your last adventure but the people are amazing, the snorkeling is good, and the food is fantastic.

I second Free Radical - we went with them last year - there were 6 of us on their catamaran. Hit a snorkeling spot while Ed, the owner grilled shrimp and chicken kebobs. We had a wonderful day with Ed and Julie on the water!

The Jewel is a beautiful ship - love that class of ship. Lots of glass and sea views. I'm not a Fantasy class of ship fan at all so I'd personally pick the Jewel, loved the adult sanctuary pool area. It's a great itinerary so I'm sure you will enjoy either ship.

We are interested in just visiting Screws Spa this trip as we've seen the sights before with Levi. Has anyone recently taken a cab from the port to the spa and what was the round trip cost?

thanks!