Carnival Edges Royal Caribbean, Norwegian in Customer Vote

[IntrepidFromDC]

Carnival Edges Royal Caribbean, Norwegian in Key Customer Vote (msn.com)

[BlerkOne]

Not unexpected.

[IntrepidFromDC]

8 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

Not unexpected.

 

Great!  One of my lifelong dreams has been to meet Blerk's expectations.  😁 🏴‍☠️

[ninjacat123]

Now I wish I would have taken a ride on Bolt when I was on MG!  Thanks for posting!

[jsglow]

So the interesting comment to me is how the Big 3 have sought to make the cruise ship itself the main attraction. Obviously that makes sense from a revenue generating perspective.  Just look at RCCL's ads. Those people may as well anchor a mile off the Florida coast.

 

I suppose I'm from a bygone era. That's okay.

[cruiseny4life]

5 minutes ago, jsglow said:

So the interesting comment to me is how the Big 3 have sought to make the cruise ship itself the main attraction. Obviously that makes sense from a revenue generating perspective.  Just look at RCCL's ads. Those people may as well anchor a mile off the Florida coast.

 

I suppose I'm from a bygone era. That's okay.

Sea days are the best days!..for me.

[Theosprey247]

8 minutes ago, jsglow said:

So the interesting comment to me is how the Big 3 have sought to make the cruise ship itself the main attraction. Obviously that makes sense from a revenue generating perspective.  Just look at RCCL's ads. Those people may as well anchor a mile off the Florida coast.

 

I suppose I'm from a bygone era. That's okay.

I’m with you. 

[BlerkOne]

Traditional cruiser here. Not someone who needs glitter, gimmicks and sensory overload to enjoy a cruise.

[pe4all]

11 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

Traditional cruiser here. Not someone who needs glitter, gimmicks and sensory overload to enjoy a cruise.

I totally agree with you.  In fact, I kinda go out of my way to "avoid" the newer mega-ships.  Went on Horizon during covid.  Enjoyed it but  we were in Havana and ship was only 60% full, and Lido still felt crowded to me when we ventured there.   Don't need roller coasters- have 6 Flags for that!

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

1 hour ago, jsglow said:

...Those people may as well anchor a mile off the Florida coast.

 

..

 

Perhaps 3 miles would be better, for the sake of casino revenue. Heck, I'd be ok if they just found smooth seas and did big circle-8's !

 

Tom

[jsglow]

5 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

Traditional cruiser here. Not someone who needs glitter, gimmicks and sensory overload to enjoy a cruise.

@BlerkOne, the Mrs. and I sincerely hope to try our first HAL cruise in the next year or two.  We love the size of their ships and have read that their live music scene (something that's truly our evening 'go to') is excellent.  Their itineraries certainly whet our whistle.  Any number of VLoggers have spoken highly of their product after hearing for years that they were 'only for old people'.  Well, guess what? We ain't 30 somethings ourselves! 

[MsOne]

Whoa, I didn't know there was a charge for Bolt. Does this mean Carnival is going the way of Norwegian and adding costs to these magnificent attractions?

[BlerkOne]

14 minutes ago, MsOne said:

Whoa, I didn't know there was a charge for Bolt. Does this mean Carnival is going the way of Norwegian and adding costs to these magnificent attractions?

Where have you been?

[notscb]

8 hours ago, jsglow said:

Those people may as well anchor a mile off the Florida coast.

And I've heard that the newer Oasis class ships go even harder at the inner-facing spaces vs having the outward facing spaces like the new Mardi Gras, Celebration and Jubilee have.

 

I personally hate the cruise line private island experience. I know i'm in the minority with this one (and others want different things out of their vacations), but it's another way the lines force us inward (especially in our spending) vs expanding our horizons or opportunities to engage with other cultures or activities.

Edited December 29, 2022 by notscb

[Pellaz]

6 hours ago, MsOne said:

Whoa, I didn't know there was a charge for Bolt. Does this mean Carnival is going the way of Norwegian and adding costs to these magnificent attractions?

 

lol, nowhere near as much as Norwegian.    

 

The $15 price for Bolt (two laps) has been a Known Thing for several years.  Some hate the thought, some don't mind.  I rode it, enjoyed it, and thought it was a fine use of OBC.  

[WhaleTailFlCruiser]

I have tried Royal once felt nickeled and dimed, After this Magic cruise I have a MSC and then an NCL Cruises booked. Carnival just feels like home though. 

 

Although I really wish Carnival would give us the freestyle machines like on Royal. I hate having to take up a bar tenders time to get some Soda. 

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

5 hours ago, Pellaz said:

 

lol, nowhere near as much as Norwegian.    

 

The $15 price for Bolt (two laps) has been a Known Thing for several years.  Some hate the thought, some don't mind.  I rode it, enjoyed it, and thought it was a fine use of OBC.  

 

Well, perhaps for a almost a couple years. 🙂 

 

I didn't ride it on either of our two sailings. Perhaps third time will be the charm (I know for sure that Cheryl won't have any part of it!).

 

Tom

[groundloop]

On 12/28/2022 at 2:26 PM, BlerkOne said:

Traditional cruiser here. Not someone who needs glitter, gimmicks and sensory overload to enjoy a cruise.

 

EXACTLY.  Nothing beats spending a sea day relaxing on my balcony with a good book.  

[Pellaz]

19 hours ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

Well, perhaps for a almost a couple years. 🙂 

 

I didn't ride it on either of our two sailings. Perhaps third time will be the charm (I know for sure that Cheryl won't have any part of it!).

lol, this might not be a good time to mention that I got stuck on it.   OTOH, I got an extra free ride on it.  🙂  

 

On the Mardi Gras and probably the Celebration, if you look at the left side railing for the stairs going up to the Bolt boarding area, you'll notice something kinda unique...  😉  

[bucfan2]

On 12/29/2022 at 2:19 AM, Pellaz said:

The $15 price for Bolt (two laps) has been a Known Thing for several years.  Some hate the thought, some don't mind.  I rode it, enjoyed it, and thought it was a fine use of OBC.  

We look fwd to riding it once.  It’s quite an accomplishment, despite it looking like it belongs in the kiddie area of an amusement park.  

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

5 hours ago, Pellaz said:

lol, this might not be a good time to mention that I got stuck on it.   OTOH, I got an extra free ride on it.  🙂  

 

On the Mardi Gras and probably the Celebration, if you look at the left side railing for the stairs going up to the Bolt boarding area, you'll notice something kinda unique...  😉  

 

Ah - you must have purchased the extended ride ticket !

 

I'll take a look on the stairs 🙂

 

Tom

[steveknj]

We like the combination of ship and destination usually but there are times when we didn't care about the destination and just wanted to cruise (that was true this year when we did our first post-covid cruise in March).   We often like going on "newer" ships because it's an experience to do something "different" and yet still cruise.   We have cruised mostly NCL, but have done 2 RCCL and our upcoming July cruise will be our 3rd Carnival.   We are lucky that we have a port 45 minutes from home, so that makes it easy and with flying the way it has been recently, we would prefer not to have to fly.   So that's why we did two NCL cruises on two ships we had never been on in 2022, and we'll be trying the Venezia this summer.  It's nice that we will be going to two ports we've never been to, Grand Turk (which we were supposed to go to on the Horizon but due to a medical emergency on board, we never made it) and St. Thomas, so that will make it more interesting as well.    We had considered a European cruise on NCL, but with the flying tumult, we decided not to bother.  This will work well for us. 

 

Ultimately a cruise is what you make of it.  I've had great times on every cruise I've been on and usually we go on whatever cruise line gives us the best combination of "bang for the buck", location we are interested in, convenience and possible "newness to us" factor.   This year that's Carnival, last year it was NCL, before the pandemic, we did a RCCL (mostly because we were cruising with a group).   And we had a great time on ALL of them.  We love cruising and are not that picky. 

[Theosprey247]

You have the right attitude. Happy sailing.

[MsOne]

On 12/28/2022 at 7:24 PM, BlerkOne said:

Where have you been?

Earth

On 12/29/2022 at 1:19 AM, Pellaz said:

 

lol, nowhere near as much as Norwegian.    

 

The $15 price for Bolt (two laps) has been a Known Thing for several years.  Some hate the thought, some don't mind.  I rode it, enjoyed it, and thought it was a fine use of OBC.  

LOL, I know the cruise cost isn't even close to Norwegian, just didn't realize there was a charge for Bolt. Would've been a disaster to have our son head up there to ride and wait in line all that time to be turned away (we don't give him charging privileges on his card). And yes, it seems fine with the OBC but still something I'm glad I know ahead of time. I like to be aware of all costs before making a decision but it didn't dawn on me to check for this since the ropes course, waterslide, etc. are free. Guess I need to go check to see if there's a cost for SkyRide (I thought I remember it actually saying free when we looked at the ship attractions...but who knows what's changed since I booked it 2 years ago).

[BlerkOne]

5 minutes ago, MsOne said:

Earth

LOL, I know the cruise cost isn't even close to Norwegian, just didn't realize there was a charge for Bolt. Would've been a disaster to have our son head up there to ride and wait in line all that time to be turned away (we don't give him charging privileges on his card). And yes, it seems fine with the OBC but still something I'm glad I know ahead of time. I like to be aware of all costs before making a decision but it didn't dawn on me to check for this since the ropes course, waterslide, etc. are free. Guess I need to go check to see if there's a cost for SkyRide (I thought I remember it actually saying free when we looked at the ship attractions...but who knows what's changed since I booked it 2 years ago).

No worries. Prepaid reservations are needed or you don't go up the steps. There is no line (currently).

 

The Skyride is free.