Moonarino

Oooh yeah that's true. Wonder if anybody here is a Tar Heels fan... and maybe cried with RJ when he went 0-for-9 (or 10?) on 3's maybe for the first time ever.

I vote ABC, Southern Caribbean, which we did several years ago on Breeze. Still my favorite Carnival ship, unless age has caught up.

First time I bought Carnival water it was like $4.95 or around there. Yeah, everything always goes up. Still cheaper on CCL than any other cruise line on our short list.

Yep... can't remember which ports we called from, but there are several islands where free wifi can be found. Cafes and such. I believe at one port we actually connected to a carrier that was friendly to our mobile service. Our mobile service also offers international plans, on a monthly basis I think it is... something like $15-25, which also includes a certain amount of data,

Carnival does, but we've used Wifi calling at a couple of different ports.

They're doing 5G a different way than T-Mobile or AT&T, kinda typical for VZW and why we finally dumped them after more than 25 years. (Not that I need 5G but who knows when it will be the only thing out there.) I don't like T-Mobile either (horrible experience the first time I tried to sign up), but I use an mvno that is a LOT cheaper than anything else out there, and it offers a choice of VZW or Tmo SIM cards. When we cruise we actually take at least one of each.

Yep. The risks vary somewhat depending on carrier and cruise itinerary. I prefer not to take the risk, especially because I'm on vacation, on a cruise where (a) I want the rude interruptions to be as few as possible, and (b) I'm already spending a ton of money and I'm not rich. Emailing loved ones is always enough for us. We do turn off airplane mode at some ports and maybe make a check-in call or two. Or a few texts, they're cheap. Some islands actually have Verizon or T-Mobile service. AND there's always Wifi calling if we really want or need to do that. But bottom line, to each his or her own.

Yes you can certainly do that. But what I was getting at is that one has to be careful about roaming charges. I'll just quote Carnival's help page on this: Carnival Cruise Line, through agreement with Wireless Maritime Services, offers an advanced roaming network on board Carnival Cruise Line ships, allowing you to make and receive calls while at sea using your own mobile phone and telephone number. International roaming charges will be conveniently billed to you by your home mobile carrier. Please contact your mobile carrier for specific rate information. https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1129/~/cellular-phone-service

Caution with this. Data is just data, not calling. Cellular calling is "always on" unless airplane mode is enabled, which means that roaming charges are likely unless airplane mode is turned on.

We've sailed both Magic and Dream twice over the years. Both cruises on Dream (although not our favorites) were hands-down better than Magic. FYI @cacruisin, if departure port isn't an issue, sister ship Breeze is our favorite in this class. But I'd say Dream is definitely worth a try.

Handy little "compare" page: https://www.carnival.com/cruise-ships Scroll down the list and check the box on the right for up to 3 ships you want to compare. Celebration and Mard Gras are near the top. Click "Compare" at the top, and then the "Dining" arrow to expand the list dining venues.

We sailed Oasis (for the third time) this past November and were both more disappointed than ever about the food. Yes, despite having so many venue choices. The one exception was the ribs place Llido deck aft, if I remember correctly). Four years ago we gave up on Johnny Rockets after paying $10 each for two very cheap milkshakes. This past cruise the MDR was as bland as ever, same with Windjammer. I ended up just getting a free hot dog (or two) on the boardwalk 3-4 times, instead of wondering whether one of the main venues would be worth the wait or fighting the crowds. The majority of our cruises have been on Carnival (4 on Royal, 2 on Celebrity) and we keep going back to Carnival because of the food. Just my own humble opinion. We're currently booked on Mardi Gras in April. One other thing is that a couple of our relatives are loyal to Carnival because they've always taken such great care of their kids.

Airplane mode doesn't affect WiFi at all. Cellular and WiFi are different radios in your cell phone.

Same here, actually for medical reasons. And the rest of it for me is I will absolutely never pay 70 bucks a day for drinks or anything close to that. So I'll take a few knocks about buying bottled water and keep cruisin' on. Everybody's got their thing.

We had a "deluxe" OV on Dream about 8 years ago, Deck 2 forward portside, and had no issues at all with noise, even when docking. Don't know what might be different between Dream and Magic (same class) but I wonder, were you on the starboard side? Even with that, I have no idea what it would be any different. Maybe they just got cheap (or experimental) with Magic in some weird way. As for "LOUD", FYI, we just finished our 3rd cruise on RC Oasis of the Seas, and not only was the PA system LOUD , it was also thoroughly UNINTELLIGIBLE. Several times I asked several people if they could understand any part of a particular announcement, and every time the answer was pretty much "not a word." Just sayin'. RC vs Carnival and Carnival wins? That's just too funny. Room service: By comparison to your experiences, both Celebrity and Royal failed us immensely on our last two cruises. Skimpy menu and long waits for lousy food served cold was pretty typical. Adding a host of other issues, we have sworn off both of those cruise lines -- not just for our most recent disappointments but because of less-than-stellar experience overall. WiFi was good to great on Silhouette and Oasis but that's about the end of it. Mardi Gras (one of your posts) is our next Carnival outing and we're looking forward to it. Been sailing Carnival since 2008.