crazy4themouse

Totally agree. On our last two Breeze cruises we had the peeling-card issue, and had to make multiple trips to GS to get new cards. *Definitely* missed having FTTF!! Glad to have it for our upcoming cruise.

That's exactly what I was wondering... We always choose the very earliest boarding time and get to the terminal early. There is usually already a line of folks outside who felt the check-in times didn't apply to them, but we just show our boarding passes to one of the agents and get waved on through. Inside, the only slowdown sometimes is if someone has packed something questionable and slows down the security scan. But once past that it's straight upstairs to quickly check in there, maybe have time to run to the restroom, then they're usually calling to board by 11. Super fast and easy every time, and that was all before FTTF returned. Even disembarkation has become shockingly fast (as long as you have a passport) thanks to the facial recognition implementation. It's disconcerting how quickly you go from beautiful ship to somehow sitting in your car firmly grounded back in reality, lol.

My husband would be TOTALLY into sailing on the Paranormal, lol. 👽

This is what the nice folks at Paradise Beach told me: And when I asked for clarification just to make sure, he said: "Yes our beach is a private beach! IF changes need to be made, we will likely just have to create designated smoking areas."

We sail on 2/25. All I know is that we don't arrive at Cozumel until 10am, with a scheduled ashore time of 11 -- Hours later than any other ship in port that day, but we leave at the same time. I can only assume that it is due to propulsion issues and it taking longer to reach Cozumel (our first port stop.) It is definitely wreaking havoc with our usual Cozumel-day plans. =/

https://www.cruzely.com/answered-first-day-drink-packages-and-alcohol-on-galveston-cruises/

I have tried to find patterns within everything you all have said above, and there just are none. Like the OP, it has me baffled - to put it mildly. It irks me to the point of distraction on some days, lol. I love the casino but am not a "high roller" by any means. I'll drop maybe $300-400 depending. That part stays consistent. But I have had several cruises booked, I have had no cruises booked, right now I have 1 next month and the next Carnival cruise booked after that is more than a year away. Like the OP, I get offers -- but not even CLOSE to what so many seem to get. Carnival is absolutely determined to get me to sail from Australia for some unknown reason, and those are the only real "offers" I get aside from the "hot streak" offers that are so lame. Definitely no free cabins of any kind. It makes me absolutely nuts when everyone and their grandmother keep posting about free balconies and whatnot, especially all the recent offers. 😕

That's exactly what I was about to say. No matter what else is going on, make sure they go to the club that first night! Kids form cliques fast, and my son always made fast-friends that first night whom he hung out with all cruise.

Those are exactly what I use from Dollar Tree, and they work incredibly well! So convenient.

Good grief... the social plan just back in October cost me $34 for a 5-night cruise (purchased back in April)... for our upcoming 7-night next month it had jumped to $71.40... and now for next year's 7-night it'll be nearly $90?? No wonder they haven't fixed the chat in the HUB app -- They're making a killing on the internet packages!

Never been on Glory, but after trying the chat feature on a number of cruises on Breeze and Vista for a number of years, we gave up and either pay for the social package and use Messenger or go old-school and leave post-its in the stateroom. Even with leaving the app open and not closing out of it, unless you had your phone unlocked and in front of your face you would never know when you got a message, on the rare occasions you did get the message. Just pretty useless.

One step closer? https://www.portofgalveston.com/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=245

I'm sure that you, like me, aren't at all concerned with how Europeans - or anyone else - views us as Texans. 😊 It's (kind of) surprising that there are still a lot of people who view Galveston as some sort of afterthought when it comes to cruising, but it's the 4th busiest embarkation port in the U.S. and there's a reason Carnival and Royal keep putting bigger and newer ships down here. If I'm understanding what sort of line MSC is, I think they could do very, very well down here.

On the topic of MSC, there are also a lot of whispers down here about MSC possibly wanting in on the action at Galveston, as the port talks about their planned 4th cruise terminal: https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/ports-destinations/msc-cruises-ncl-flagged-maybes-fourth-galveston-cruise-terminal https://portofgalveston.com/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=243 I know this MSC discussion seems off-topic, but it's really not. Carnival has a huge stake here, but I think that's only because they're currently the best "value" among our choices from Galveston. Royal is not terribly much more, but I think there's definitely room for a line such as MSC to make a bold impact here. We would absolutely try them if they sailed from Galveston.

Our check-in date for February is still 14 days out, not 16. Did they announce that FTTF would be able to check in earlier? That would be awesome if true.

Just booked Voyager for 9 nights (4/5 B2B) for mine and my husband's birthdays next October. We haven't been on RC since 2015 and love the Voyager class, and we just needed a change from all the Carnival sailings we've been doing. Really looking forward to being back on Voyager!

Bravo! Thank you for taking us along with you, @willdra! If I had the $$, I'd fund more trips for you and W, just so that we could read about them. 😊

That sailing is fully $900 more than what we were booked at for the inaugural, so not doing that one. I don't care what the cheerleaders all say -- I call BS on the whole thing. Even if they think there might be some supply issue between now and then, a YEAR is long enough to either come up with a work-around or make the time up some other way. I get that booked customers need lead time to make changes to their own plans, but a year? C'mon.

We were booked on the inaugural... Had my PVP on the phone within moments of the dates being announced, specifically to be on that sailing. I get that things happen and stuff gets delayed, but the ship is sold out for months -- and now we can't get on the inaugural, which is apparently going to be December 23rd. That is so wrong... They should be bumping people in order of who booked last, to reschedule people who booked to be on that first sailing. 🙁

Well. I'm not sure where you and your trip reports have been all my life, but I'm sure glad I finally found you! 😁 I don't usually read many trip reports unless it's a ship we've never been on, but I'm just itching to be back on Vista in a couple of months and figured reading a trip report might temporarily scratch my itch. I started reading yours and then spent a good chunk of my work day snort-laughing my way through your cruise journey. 😂 You and W are adorable. Please keep up the good work, dear lady, and thank you for being you. 😊

Yes, the price is per stateroom.

I think I was on that sailing with you! February 21-28?

People keep saying that, but I was able to jump on and grab it for our Jubilee inaugural sailing as soon as FTTF came back. I think Carnival has thrown that previous scenario out the window in an attempt to pull in as much $$ as possible, because I've also never seen FTTF offered so far ahead of cruises before. Fine with me, we love having it!

I agree with @CruizinSusan70 - Ebay! I have found many a tux there for my son over the years for our cruise formal nights, usually for less than $40-50. Sometimes you might have to ferret out the jacket and the pants separately, but it's worth it. Funny side-story... He would sometimes balk at having to dress up for formal night until one cruise when he was about 11 or 12, when two pretty little girls about his age told him he looked like James Bond. 😘 He wanted to wear his tux to school after that, lol.

I saw that as well, and they showed it was in the FunTimes as "Quest". Hallelujah! Quest seriously puts the "fun" in funship. 😁 It has always depended on the CD for the most part, but I'm hoping that Louis Clare is going to have it on Vista in February!