your bestest Carnival memories

[havanadaydreaming]

What are a couple of your bestest Carnival memories?   

 

My first cruise was on the Breeze and not all that long ago, really.  Every time i see it in a port of call i get a little nostalgic.  Yeah, baby! 

 

A few cruises ago we were going out of Tampa on the Paradise, i think, with our three adult kiddos.   I had never sailed out of Tampa and was looking forward to cruising under the Sunshine Skyway bridge (i think that's what its called).  Well sailaway party came and went and bridge was still a ways away.  My wife thought i was nutso for waiting. 

 

When the bridge came it was a pretty cool experience.  kids loved it and even the wife admitted it was worth the wait.  YES! 

 

[pe4all]

Sailing out of NY and passing the Statue of Liberty and seeing the NYC skyline. Also sailing under the Verazzano Bridge and feeling like the ship was not going to fit under!

[skrufy]

Two come to mind, first going through the Panama Canal locks. Amazing technology for its time. The second was a whale watch out of Icy Strait point Alaska. 

[MistyRo76]

One of my best memories was when we cruised for my brother and his wife's 15th anniversary. We had a group of about 25 including family and friends. I had arranged a surprise anniversary celebration for them on the night of their anniversary. I worked with Carnival to book a private a space for our group for 2 hours to include free drinks, snacks and a cake. This was pre-Cheers - so the free drinks for highly welcomed! LOL They booked us in one of the conference rooms that was located behind the cigar bar. One of my accomplices was able to hold up my bro and sis-in-law after our dinner and then lure them through the cigar bar and to the conference room. They truly had no idea and were blown away when they walked in and we all yelled Surprise! It was so much fun! 

 

Another special memory was when my sister and I took our mom on a cruise the year after my dad passed away. My parents were married on Valentine's Day so we cruised that week. We figured it may help with her grief at her first Valentine's Day without my dad to be with us on a wonderful vacation. Early in the cruise, we met a wonderful group of guys (who happened to only live 2 hours from me) and they just immediately bonded with our mom. They were calling her "Mama" all week and we were so sweet to her. Two of the group even sent roses to our cabins on Valentine's Day. They made us all laugh so much that week and it really helped her get through a very tough time. And 14 years later, we are all still friends. We stay in touch and visit each other regularly and have taken many cruises together over the years! Two of the group even surprised my sister and I by booking our last cruise without telling us. We were so shocked when we saw them in the boarding area. That's one of the things I love most about cruising - the wonderful friends we've made along the way! 

[pirate4me2]

I have quite a few....

 

*Sailing out of NYC at dusk, and seeing the lights. It was beautiful.

 

*Sailing Breeze in 2013 and meeting some people onboard that we have sailed with again, and they introduced us to another couple that we have sailed with quite a few times....we have cruising family now! 

 

*Sailing on Vista during Hurricane Irma in 2017. This is a bittersweet memory, but I think it may be one of my favorites even tho it's painful. It was my mother's first cruise, a 6 day turned into 10. We overnighted in Cozumel, and seeing Glory and Vista all lit up at night from the port was beautiful. It was a fantastic cruise, and my mom fell in love with cruise vacations. As we finally sailed back into Miami, there were cheers for the ship as it came into port from people on land waiting for the return. The only damper on the experience was getting the call at 2 a.m. as I was driving home that my soul dog had passed away suddenly, unexpectedly. Every time I see Vista now I smile and tear up from the memories. It will be a bit emotionally overwhelming when I sail her again next year.

 

*And of course....this one may actually take first place...the Dysfunctional Family Vacation aboard Dream from NOLA in 2019. Taking my father and 2 newly single uncles on their first cruise was a blast, and we all bonded and learned so much about each other. Plus, on the way home we picked up 2 rotten Rotties for mom and dad and a fluffy little brother for Divya. What a trip! 

[hard_eight]

The first time I ate Bitter & Blanc. Addicted.

 

First Cruise with an Alchemy bar! Game Changer!

 

Sail away, from any port, on any ship.

[csm5986142]

Cruising the Hawaiian islands (on Spirit) and seeing lava flowing into the ocean at dusk (as it got dark the lava was glowing bright red until it hit the water).  

It was such a unique experience, I have never seen so many crew members up on deck taking in the view with us.😄

[dallasdan]

Went on a cruise several years ago with our grandson when he was about 8 years old.  I showed him how to order room service and he would call for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a cookie.  It was so cute.  He thought that was the greatest thing ever.

[Sabalon]

Watching our daughters make friends onboard on the first cruise.

The oldest LOVED the Circle C.  Going to pick her up for dinner, and from the door of the Circle C room, watching her win a cup stacking tournament they were doing.  There were three of them that would hang out constantly.

(The best part is the person she beat was from the next town over from us, her friends in Girl Scouts picked up on her talking about him too much, began making fun, and then at one cookie booth, seeing him going into the grocery store and about panicked.  Then turns out, his mom plays bunco with her mom.)

 

The other daughter did not like the younger kids club (it's babies up to 5th grade) but at Freeport she met someone from the ship and they became inseparable after.  We had to leave a note on their door because they wanted to get each others numbers and they talked on the phone for a few months after.

[Sabalon]

Also, maybe not funny for those involved....

 

There was a couple on the Conquest or Glory.    I don't know if they were newlyweds or what.  Early 20s.   She was obviously enjoying herself.  Saw this a couple days, but one of them down in the atrium bar, she had had a number of drinks I guess.  I think he was trying to cut her off and she was getting mad.  She would be sitting at the bar talking, then she'd get up and dance on the small dance area (sometimes the only one up there).  She'd fall quite a bit - she had a short dress on and one of the other things bothering him was uhmmm...we'll leave it at in the dress there was no modest way to fall down, and get back up.

She went back up to the bar to get something, then couldn't find him, started to get mad and loud about how she was just trying to have some fun, and he just goes off and leaves her, and on and on and then finally decides to storm off (back to the room?) in anger.   The whole time the guy is sitting there in a chair right by the end of the dance floor in plain sight, staring into infinity, replaying events leading to this point in his mind I'm sure.   After she left, he waited a minute or two before going after.

 

Again - not at all funny for them, and I hope that they were able to reconcile and are still together but from the outside, they were the talk of the lobby.

[IntrepidFromDC]

Great thread, thanks for starting it.

 

The sailaway experiences from Manhattan and NOLA are wonderful.

 

Discovering that Alaska is such an amazing place, thanks to Carnival's deeply discounted cruise offer there, was amazing (been back twice)!

 

Cruise out of Rome to Pompeii, Sicily, Turkey, Santorini, Mykonos, Athens, Olympia has to be the best cruise.

 

But best experience hands-down is seeing the joyful look on my daughter's face when she returned from the kid's clubs over the years.

[BrotherCraig]

Best memory was my very first cruise in 2009 on the Carnival Ecstasy.  Why?  Because that is the cruise where I met my wife - the love of my life.  It was a 5 day cruise to Cozumel and I took my father on his very first vacation.  We were sitting in the theater on day 2 of the cruise where a group sat down and joined our seating area.  A couple of women from the group showed up a several minutes later and sat behind us.   I introduced myself to them and that is when I met my wife.  Her eyes met and it was love at first sight.  We hung out that night around the ship and got to know each other.  Had our first day in Cozumel at Nachi Cocom.  We got married in 2011 and we have three amazing children together.  So that was the fondest and greatest memory I have had on a cruise.  

[staceyglow]

My favorite memory has to do with a crew member.

 

Our head waiter, Robert, was from the Philippines.  When our young son saw the country on his name tag, he said, "That's where Manny ***** [the boxer] is from!  I love him!"

 

Robert was a great server and over the cruise, we heard many stories about his family. It was his last cruise before going home, where he had a son who was born during his current contract that he had not yet seen.  "I am so excited I can't sleep!"

 

On our last port day, he handed our son a DVD and said, "I was in port today and there was a guy on the street selling these Manny ***** DVDs.  I got one for you."  I was so touched.

 

15 years later, my son still talks about it.

[ontheweb]

Let's see winning my first ship on a stick for a trivia. And then there was another cruise where they had the men against the women for trivia, and we guys won all 4 contests (which seemed to freak out the assistant cruise director who was running the trivia contests).

 

And also taking the Bob Marley bus excursion in Ochos Rios, Jamaica.

[lazydayz]

Favorite cruise was, hands down, the Panama Canal.  And the bonus was we met our cruising friends, Randy and Jackie, at one of the ports and have been great friends since. 

 

I also love all of the family cruises, and the cast of characters.  Our three granddaughters and one of our two daughters are now cruise fanatics.  

[Florings]

Cruise on the Conquest in 2015, when we introduced my brother and sister in law to cruising.   They loved it and we had the best time.  So many good memories of that cruise.  One night it was raining and blustery.  SIL wasn't doing well with the ship's motion and went to bed.  Brother, husband, and I sat out on the deck under cover, near the Red Frog.  It was just us, the bartender, and some crew members trying to sweep the water streaming onto the deck from the squalls.   We talked and shared growing up memories well into the night.  The company, the mist blowing in on us occasionally, the whole experience - to this day, that is my very best cruise memory.

 

On all of our cruises, DH and I have gotten into a routine of having a "happy hour" each day at 5pm.  We get a cocktail at Blue Iguana Tequila Bar, sit on deck and people watch and talk over the day.   I love that hour before dinner and having the "just us" time.

Edited April 6, 2023 by Florings

[audcc77]

I’m not sure which Carnival ship it was on but I wanted to see what this “tea time” was all about.  
 

Nobody wanted go with me so I made our 13 yr old son  go.  
 

We had lovely little cucumber sandwiches and pastries.  
 

He held his tea cup with his pinky sticking out and kept saying “how glorious!” and fluttering his eyelashes.  
 

We laughed and had a fun time, and it remains one of my fond Carnival memories.  

[LatinaInTexas]

Have only been sailing about 6 years so I'm still making memories each trip.

I'm kinda obsessed with sloths so going on an excursion and getting to hold one was my first favorite memory. Getting to visit so many new ports and taking excursions at all of them has been so much fun.

Last year we were sailing on my birthday and went to my favorite dinner spot JiJis, ended up being twice this trip lol. Out of the blue the whole restaurant staff including chef came to our table with a bday dessert and sang happy birthday in their languages to me. This will always be a very special memory for me.

[icft]

Oh! That's an easy one - it was just a month ago.

 

We arrived to our aft balcony room to find it a complete dump - peeling wallpaper, rusting soap dish in the shower, yellow stains on the light diffusers in the bathroom, holes worn through the fabric of the chairs and on and on.

 

It was so bad my wife said she hadn't been in a room like that since Airline highway. (We started dating when she was a sophomore and I was a junior in high school. By the time I went to LSU, when I came in on weekends we may, on occasion, have made use of cheap motels on Airline Highway like those favored by Jimmy Swaggart.)

 

Later that night I was at the casino bar and my wife came up and in substance said she had a cheap room with a few hours left on it and did I have enough cash to pay for a good time. Well, YES!

 

It was about our bestest Carnival experience.

 

But a couple of tips for you guys:

 

1. à la carte pricing is a trap unless you can really resist the up sell,

2. you have no negotiating leverage. I have no idea what going rates are but thank God I quickly realized that saying she was charging WAY above going rates would exact a huge price for years to come.

 

[john91498]

been on 30ish cruises and they're all pretty special 😎

[Procruizer]

In 2017 my wife and I renewed our wedding vows. It was our 25th wedding anniversary. We were lucky enough to actually have the Captain do our ceremony. We were on the Miracle doing the 7 day Mexican riveria. We had 20 family and friends join us. It was an amazing week. We have 1 daughter and she was her mom's maid of honor.

[Colorado Beach Bum]

Wow.  Impossible to pick just one.  But as I sit here thinking about it, all of the most memorable moments center around the amazing crew.  Was it one of our dinners with our favorite waiter (who we had on multiple cruises and sadly passed away during Covid), experiences in the casino with amazing servers, great times with incredible bartenders, friendly room stewards, or maybe even a great cruise director.  Every cruise is so different and memorable and its usually because of the crew. 

[Markmom18]

All the memories of going on “Mark’s Cruises” ❤️😂🛳️!!   My favorite was the 2019 Carnival Dream out of NOLA.  My 1st Solo cruise, flight, hotel & New Orleans vacation. Wow!! Loved it all. 🥰

Edited April 7, 2023 by Markmom18

[Honolulu Blue]

So many memories!  I'll start with my January 2019 sailing on the Horizon.  This is the only time I've sailed on a ship that was less than a year old.  Some of you may recognize the guy in the photo; he had a substantial fan club back in the day:

 

The next one is the last SOAS I won on my last sailing on Carnival in January 2020.  The CD served up an easy trivia question and I knocked it out of the park.  It was during another Morning Show.

 

I could serve up memories, some with photos, all day, but I have other things I need to do.  But I do like reading everyone else's.  Thanks for sharing. 

[craig01020]

13 hours ago, icft said:

We arrived to our aft balcony room to find it a complete dump - peeling wallpaper, rusting soap dish in the shower, yellow stains on the light diffusers in the bathroom, holes worn through the fabric of the chairs and on and on.

Oh my!  Which ship was this?