Long time cruiser sails Carnival for the 1st time--my thoughts.

[nybumpkin]

Hi KKB - I'm in the opposite place from you. We've done many Carnival cruises (I think we're up to #28 this summer) with a smattering of others. In two months I'm sailing on Norwegian Prima with my daughter-in-law; never sailed NCL before, and never sailed without DH. This is a retirement present from DH - I never could cruise in the early spring before retiring, and Carnival isn't an option from NY this time of year. Yeah, I'm a bit nervous....

 

As for Miracle - we sailed her twice, and DH nicknamed the dining room "bubonic plague afloat." 😉 However, we really enjoyed sailing on her. Like your review!

[KKB]

On 1/27/2023 at 6:05 PM, LaRue1975 said:

Thank you so much for the wonderful review! We just booked this Hawaii cruise with our BFFs for early February  2025, glad to see the weather and rough seas didn’t ruin your cruise. I am a bit concerned because ours is in the winter also. We have never been sea sick but will be equipped with meds just in case and we will be on the Radiance, not sure what difference that will make.

 

What I am super excited about is we are doing the 14 day round trip to Alaska with our friends on the Miracle September 10th. Universally the Miracle crew gets rave reviews. I can’t wait to meet them, we’ll be back on Miracle in early November for a Mexico cruise. Isn’t retirement the best thing ever invented? We are freshly retired and loving every minute, especially our return to cruising. Thanks again for taking the time to write such a detailed review, lots of great info and tips. Happy Retirement and Happy Sailing! 

Thank you for your kind words.

You will have such fun on both cruises!

 

OMG, retirement IS the best. We were blessed to be able to retire before 60...

I HATE cold weather...but hey, I DON'T have to leave the house if I don't want to! (for the most part...)

 

I declared this year "retirement year" with the goal of a cruise/month. Also not a deliberate attempt initially...but for one reason or another (COVID credits to use, friends/family wanted to cruise, some free cruise offerings, some great deals...)...well, I decided that while it isn't sustainable for the long term (not sure I even want it to be), but fun for a year! And I am BOOKED thru May (since last July...June we have an annual golf tournament out of town). Most w/ DH, one w/ BFF & several solo (he had conflicts, mostly golf league...). Even tried/trying 2 new lines (Carnival & MSC), and hit/hitting some new locations (AK, Europe, several new Caribbean locales) as well as new ships (LOVE me a NEW ship...)

 

We DID determine that sailing monthly Nov-Feb or Mar DOES sound good. We love living near all our wonderful family & friends but HATE winter...cruises help ease the pain!

Edited January 29, 2023 by KKB

[jerseygirlinAZ]

On 1/27/2023 at 10:31 AM, KKB said:

Crew

 

I CANNOT say enough about this crew! After getting of the NCL Encore where we really did not connect with one crew member (they seemed very short staffed shipwide), we connected with so many. Bartenders, servers, CD & his crew. I realize being on 2 weeks that is easier–but we did EARLY in the cruise. Most of the crew seemed to enjoy being there, enjoyed each other & their interactions with the passengers. They MADE the cruise. 

 

Ary at the sports bar & Yoga at the Red Frog Pub were “our” bartenders. Don’t miss them!

 We LOVED Ary!  One of the best!

[jerseygirlinAZ]

And I love your positive attitude, KKB!  Enjoy your retirement!  

[firefly333]

Rcl now also has you sign for free drinks. Cant remember when it changed. Its obviously a way to get you to tip. 

[CruizinSusan70]

On 1/27/2023 at 2:09 PM, UPNYGuy said:

The victory had far more boobs than the miracle. 

Are you talking about the decor or the Lido deck?

[jsglow]

Glad you had a great time KKB

[monykalyn]

On 1/27/2023 at 12:35 PM, justafem said:

If you have to sell your children, do the helicopter in Hawaii!  Any of the islands, all of the islands.  After our first couple flights, we started booking private.  Half the cost and no other pax.  Try the seaplanes too.

Totally agree! We spent a week on Maui last summer (not a cruise :)) and did a private Road to Hana tour with driver on way up and helicopter on way back. Highly highly recommend!

 

What a great, detailed review!!! It's that time of year where the sleet/snow comes down and I start booking vacations-mmaaayy have just booked Horizon for Jan 2025 (leftover credit on a gift card from panorama last spring).  Would do sooner but have big trip planned for son's senior year next spring. 

 

Retirement sounds heavenly and hop you are feeling much better

[KmomChicago]

On 1/27/2023 at 1:09 PM, UPNYGuy said:

 

The victory had far more boobs than the miracle. The ship had an aquatic theme, and the main dining rooms had TONS of topless mermaid statues in them.

 

Alas the Radiance has been fully beige-ified and looks like any modern decent cruise vessel now, nothing particularly boobish or grapish. 

 

And I doubt the Miracle looks any wackier or less cohesive than any other Farcus-designed older Carnival ship. 

[jamscckmc]

Thanks for the review. After twice postponing, we are doing this cruise in October. I get many free offers from the casino but never Hawaii. Our cruise sold out pretty quickly. Hoping we get to all the ports!

[VictorWI]

On 1/27/2023 at 5:17 PM, KKB said:

OMG, YES, we were on the Miracle--sorry I neglected to put that up front!!

 

Madhatter and Frankenstein were dead giveaways! 😃

[sunkey1]

On 1/27/2023 at 2:09 PM, UPNYGuy said:

 

The victory had far more boobs than the miracle. The ship had an aquatic theme, and the main dining rooms had TONS of topless mermaid statues in them.

Have to say the decor is one of my favorite things about the new Carnival ships. FINALLY getting away from the gaudy style and getting a little more theme oriented and classy.

[UPNYGuy]

On 2/2/2023 at 9:58 AM, sunkey1 said:

Have to say the decor is one of my favorite things about the new Carnival ships. FINALLY getting away from the gaudy style and getting a little more theme oriented and classy.

I’m 50/50 on that one. One day I love the decor on the older ships, one day I find it tacky. I will say that it will be an end of an era when the Farcus ships are gone. 

[sunkey1]

1 hour ago, UPNYGuy said:

I’m 50/50 on that one. One day I love the decor on the older ships, one day I find it tacky. I will say that it will be an end of an era when the Farcus ships are gone. 

It really depends on the older ship too. I loved the Legend and even a lot of the Victory, found a lot of the others to lean more towards the "tacky" side, jmho. Not sure if Farcus was the designer on those or not. He definitely left his mark on the design of so many ships, love them or hate them.

[UPNYGuy]

2 hours ago, sunkey1 said:

It really depends on the older ship too. I loved the Legend and even a lot of the Victory, found a lot of the others to lean more towards the "tacky" side, jmho. Not sure if Farcus was the designer on those or not. He definitely left his mark on the design of so many ships, love them or hate them.

yes. Farcus was the designer of all of them up to the Breeze. The dream class ships Dream and Magic were the last ships he worked on for carnival.

[Caribensun]

Thanks, going on Carnival after many years, hoping Havana is nice.  

[cementhands]

On 1/27/2023 at 12:32 PM, KKB said:

Entertainment

Production shows–went to a couple. Meh, didn’t blow me away. Talent was decent; I prefer a live band or better quality background music. 

Comedians–WOW! THREE SHOWS/night??!! And I will say, overall I have seen just a couple comedians over the years that I thought were very good & most were “meh”. These were good to excellent. B. T. was our fav

Trivia–HOLY COW! There were like 8-10 trivia games/ day of every subject known to man. But boy o’ boy, you better show up early…I mean EARLY IN THE DAY. I think some of those people camp out at 8AM & stay for the day. Seats were a PREMIUM. EVERY day. ALL day. Amin & Pedro were our favs (no slight to the other staff running trivia–we just seemed to hit theirs the most often!) We did NOT win a ship on a stick, DARNIT.

“Game shows”--we are spoiled with Princess & Celebrity on these, but they were still fun. DH won a couple “participation” 50th anniversary medals for these. Marriage game was as hilarious as it always is on most any ship.

The musical groups around the ship were quite good (tho one band was LOUD…if I cannot converse when I am on the other side of the bar, prolly too loud). If we sat near the doorways of Alchemy & the Atrium it was distracting as th 2 bands were loud enough to compete with each other.

There was ALWAYS something to do around the ship. For a smaller ship, there was no lacking of things to do. Tho after 14 days (with 9 sea days) it did feel a little “same ‘ol, same ‘ol–not blaming activities staff, more just adjusting to many sea days in a row.

That being said, we spent many mornings reading in the quiet tranquility of Serenity. AHHHH. (BTW Serenity is not always so “serene”; one afternoon a few couples obviously had been imbibing for some time got QUITE loud. Hey, I’m all for having a good time, but I’m thinking SERENITY pool ain’t the spot…just me?)
 

Zumba class? Live bands with dancing opportunities? We haven’t been on carnival in years. Over 45 cruises on Ncl RCL celebrity Holland too, Princess too. But haven’t done carnival since our kids were little and I recall enjoying them on at least 5 different cruises. Recently on Ncl we enjoyed over 20,000 steps dancing a day from morning until late at night the live band and dancing was great!

Any information would be great about carnival cruises dancing and live bands we’ve been on RCL which seems to have karaoke and silent disco sooooo boring!

[KKB]

2 hours ago, cementhands said:

Zumba class? Live bands with dancing opportunities? We haven’t been on carnival in years. Over 45 cruises on Ncl RCL celebrity Holland too, Princess too. But haven’t done carnival since our kids were little and I recall enjoying them on at least 5 different cruises. Recently on Ncl we enjoyed over 20,000 steps dancing a day from morning until late at night the live band and dancing was great!

Any information would be great about carnival cruises dancing and live bands we’ve been on RCL which seems to have karaoke and silent disco sooooo boring!

OMG We LOVE LOVE LOVE silent disco!!!

 

We were on 14 nights to Hawaii. MUCH to do.

There were many dance classes on lido & in the atrium--a few zumba-like, lots of specific dance types.

There were numerous musicians around the ship (5 different I think) with dancing opportunities for each many times/day.

There were themed parties on the lido deck numerous times on the trip (Luau, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s)

More trivia in a day than I've ever seen! 

A few group games.

A few game shows.

Daily theatre show (vocalists, production show, jugggling, magic)

THREE comedian shows/nt

Arts & crafts on sea days (some cool, like a scrapbook, some cheesy)

Daily lectures on Hawaii, etc.

Since we were going to Hawaii, there were hulu, ukelele (several days) & lei making lessons.

Apparently there was a passenger choir that rehearsed numerous times & performed in the theatere!

St. Judes auction.

I know there were more...those are just off the top of my head!

 

Now, I've been on enough cruises to know that the cruise &/or activities director  makes or breaks a cruise (if you are into activities). Luckily in all our cruises we have only had 1 bad CD. We still had a good time but 1st time I've ever been bored numerous times over the cruise. (Mariner of the Seas about 15 yrs ago)