your bestest Carnival memories

[craig01020]

I've only been on two Carnival cruises so far, but it would have to be when we sailed to Half Moon Cay on Freedom. Rented a cabana, and it was awesome!

[Drazil65]

I could probably find something memorable for each and every cruise we have been on over the last 20 years for sure.  I can remember the first cruise we took DS on when he was barely a toddler and became hooked even at that very young age and still gets that look of excitement as we arrive in port for each cruise currently (going into his junior year of college and on to law school 😁).  Of course, a very memorable cruise was the first one we were able to take after restart when we finally felt a little bit back to normal just getting on a cruise ship again even under not so normal circumstances.   

[ChuckF]

One cruise they had brought in a Stevie Wonder impersonator for entertainment.  He did a show one night, with the theatre about half full.  The next day they made a big deal about Stevie Wonder performing in the Atrium.  The CD introduced him as "Carnival's own Stevie Wonder".  While all the other guests were going gaga saying "I can't believe Stevie Wonder's on my cruise", I made eye contact with the CD and pointed to him like "busted".  Had a great laugh over that one. 

 

But, I don't think I'll ever forget the first time I stepped into the atrium on embarkation of my very first cruise on the old Carnival Celebration. 

[MagnoliaBlossom]

I no longer recall the ship but we were doing a Mediterranean cruise with John Heald, this was around 2007 or so, maybe.   It was before the fundraiser was the Groove for St Jude and they did a walk for breast cancer.  It was $10 to enter and you got a tee shirt and pink bracelet.  We gathered on the top deck and walked laps.  We had signs that could be worn celebrating a cancer victim.  At the end there was a group photo of survivors and I remember there were about 100 or so.  They actually ran out of tee shirts because they had only brought 300 and they were gone in hours of sign up beginning.

 

john said he and the beards were worried it would be a downer and not the fun tone Carnival wanted to set, but was blown away with the joyous response.  Yes, lots of tears as we walked, but hugs and joy and sharing.  YeRs later I sailed with John again and was able to tell him how much that day meant to so many of us.  He said he remembered it as a wonderful, if not surprising, day.

[angelsfort]

spending time with my daughter on the ships - doing silly things together and making people look at us weird. 

 

on one cruise, she put on a bright pink mustache and wandered around the ship with it...  then we stopped at the atrium where they were doing karaoke - she wanted to do it too but we were too late to sign up - so she went to the deck above, at the top of the stairs behind the karaoke singers and began to dance...  at the end of the Karaoke session, the DJ said thank you to all that had participated and then did a special call out for the Karaoke DANCER - everyone cheered when he said it!!!!

 

she's 20 now and does most of her cruising with friends instead of her mama...  I miss those days!!  But I also do have to admit that it's nice to just be able to do "grown up" things when cruising now!!

[MagnoliaBlossom]

16 hours ago, icft said:

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.

 

I was raised in Metairie and I have. Few Airline Highway stays in mt memory too. 😉

[angelsfort]

here's another one from back in 2007!!   my daughter was only 4 years old at the time...

 

we had disembarked and as we were driving away from the port (and watching the ship fading in the rearveiw mirror) I suddenly got this sinking feeling in my tummy.

 

I asked my cabin-mate if she had by any chance picked up my daughters little bear from her bed and put it in one of our bags... her answer? NO!

 

OH CRAP!!! (please note that "crap" is NOT the word / language I was using) I didn't even think to pick it up out of her bed this morning to put it in our luggage.

 

Here's a little background info on "Baby Bear" it's a Ty Beanie Bear, he's Tan with a plaid ribbon around his neck... and she got him from her daddy when she was just a year old. When she was 18 months old, we lost her daddy in a tragic accident. This bear is VERY special to us... its one of only a few items that we've got to remember him by (that he gave to her personally, that is) she sleeps with Baby Bear (and one other stuffed animal, also from her daddy) every night.

 

Okay, after I realized that we had left Baby Bear in our cabin, I did a quick U-turn (probably illegally) and headed back to the ship... I told my friend that we weren't going to tell my daughter what had happened until we knew what the outcome was going to be...

 

I parked in the bus parking and left them in the car as I ran back to the terminal... I got stopped before I could go inside and I had to explain to the lady that my daughter had left her bear in the cabin (I said "my daughter" but I think it was just as much my fault!!) and we were quite upset about it. The lady got on the radio to the lost and found department... she told them that we were looking for a lost BROWN teddy bear that was left on the FLOOR of our cabin... OMG!!! I kept telling the lady "he's tan, not brown and he wasn't on the floor... he was in her bed... he'd be mixed in with the covers!" but that woman wouldn't call the lost and found person back...

 

so then she tells me that I can't wait there, that I have to walk across the road and wait on the other side... and she'll signal me when she finds something out. Okay, so I walk over there shaking my head, just knowing that they aren't going to find our precious little Baby Bear because she gave the wrong information.

 

15 minutes go by... I'm pacing... fretting...

 

FINALLY!! The lady waves me back over... I walk up to her and she says "They found the bear, they are bringing it down now" YIPPEE!! yAHOOO!!!! And what do I do?? I start crying like a baby! geez!!!! I'm sure the people around me were thinking I was some kind of mental person because I was crying about a silly bear...

 

They made me go back across the road to wait again... and after another 5 minutes she calls me over again and hands me our little Baby Bear.

 

I go back to the car and get in and then hand Baby Bear to my daughter... it takes a minute, but then her eyes get great big, and she takes a sudden intake of breath... and says "Momma, did we leave Baby Bear on the ship?" I told her we did and she just hugs him and hugs him.

 

"Momma, he was probably scared when he saw us leaving our room without him... he was probably saying to us "wait, wait, what about me?" but we didn't hear him and then when we didn't come back he probably got very sad thinking we were gone forever" (she's 4 by the way)

 

she got me tearing up again...

 

The rest of the cruise was AWESOME!

[ontheweb]

13 minutes ago, angelsfort said:

here's another one from back in 2007!!   my daughter was only 4 years old at the time...

 

we had disembarked and as we were driving away from the port (and watching the ship fading in the rearveiw mirror) I suddenly got this sinking feeling in my tummy.

 

I asked my cabin-mate if she had by any chance picked up my daughters little bear from her bed and put it in one of our bags... her answer? NO!

 

OH CRAP!!! (please note that "crap" is NOT the word / language I was using) I didn't even think to pick it up out of her bed this morning to put it in our luggage.

 

Here's a little background info on "Baby Bear" it's a Ty Beanie Bear, he's Tan with a plaid ribbon around his neck... and she got him from her daddy when she was just a year old. When she was 18 months old, we lost her daddy in a tragic accident. This bear is VERY special to us... its one of only a few items that we've got to remember him by (that he gave to her personally, that is) she sleeps with Baby Bear (and one other stuffed animal, also from her daddy) every night.

 

Okay, after I realized that we had left Baby Bear in our cabin, I did a quick U-turn (probably illegally) and headed back to the ship... I told my friend that we weren't going to tell my daughter what had happened until we knew what the outcome was going to be...

 

I parked in the bus parking and left them in the car as I ran back to the terminal... I got stopped before I could go inside and I had to explain to the lady that my daughter had left her bear in the cabin (I said "my daughter" but I think it was just as much my fault!!) and we were quite upset about it. The lady got on the radio to the lost and found department... she told them that we were looking for a lost BROWN teddy bear that was left on the FLOOR of our cabin... OMG!!! I kept telling the lady "he's tan, not brown and he wasn't on the floor... he was in her bed... he'd be mixed in with the covers!" but that woman wouldn't call the lost and found person back...

 

so then she tells me that I can't wait there, that I have to walk across the road and wait on the other side... and she'll signal me when she finds something out. Okay, so I walk over there shaking my head, just knowing that they aren't going to find our precious little Baby Bear because she gave the wrong information.

 

15 minutes go by... I'm pacing... fretting...

 

FINALLY!! The lady waves me back over... I walk up to her and she says "They found the bear, they are bringing it down now" YIPPEE!! yAHOOO!!!! And what do I do?? I start crying like a baby! geez!!!! I'm sure the people around me were thinking I was some kind of mental person because I was crying about a silly bear...

 

They made me go back across the road to wait again... and after another 5 minutes she calls me over again and hands me our little Baby Bear.

 

I go back to the car and get in and then hand Baby Bear to my daughter... it takes a minute, but then her eyes get great big, and she takes a sudden intake of breath... and says "Momma, did we leave Baby Bear on the ship?" I told her we did and she just hugs him and hugs him.

 

"Momma, he was probably scared when he saw us leaving our room without him... he was probably saying to us "wait, wait, what about me?" but we didn't hear him and then when we didn't come back he probably got very sad thinking we were gone forever" (she's 4 by the way)

 

she got me tearing up again...

 

The rest of the cruise was AWESOME!

What a great story! Thanks for sharing.

[thenexus2k]

I have several. Hawaii. A dolphin stampede going into Ensenada. Driving the Klondike. Aruba. Going under Goldengate. 

 

As I ponder the question, I recall the first time I cruised with my wife years ago. She had never been on a cruise, and was nervous about EVERYTHING. When we first got on the boat, we made a bee line straight for a bar on deck, where she promptly discovered a love for "fruity drinks". When we made it to the room some time later, she plopped on the bed and called a family member. She was definitely a few sheets to the wind when I heard her say on the phone: "Not bad at all! You can't even tell that the boat is moving!!"

It was then that I gestured towards the balcony window and pointed out that we hadn't left port yet....

[havanadaydreaming]

On 4/6/2023 at 10:21 AM, pe4all said:

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!

We are doing this in late October on the Venezia.  

 

might be a little chilly on lido that first night but imma be out there!  

 

 

[pe4all]

30 minutes ago, havanadaydreaming said:

We are doing this in late October on the Venezia.  

 

might be a little chilly on lido that first night but imma be out there!  

 

 

Enjoy - it is pretty amazing!

[icft]

7 hours ago, craig01020 said:

Oh my!  Which ship was this?

It was the Glory, but what followed was amazing.

 

The next day (first full day) I took pictures and went down to guest services. I told them the room was a dump and showed them the pictures. I said the two most important things were not a problem as the room was clean and had no bugs but I would be complaining on the post cruise survey and it always asks if you told anyone about a problem so I was telling them.

 

Well, next time we went by the room the "floor supervisor" come by to check things out. Later that day we again went by the room and a couple of guys were removing the most badly worn chair and replacing it with a chair in good shape. Later when we went by the room there were four guys there fixing things. Guys were there most of the day.

 

By the end of the day they had replaced the rusting soap dish, repaired the mirrors that had desilvering damage, fixed the wallpaper, cleaned the light diffusers to like new condition, cleaned smudges on the walls, repainted the dividing panels on the balcony (which had been a corroded mess), fixed the balcony door and door lock, and on and on. I was truly impressed. They had that room in very good condition.

 

The next day they left a card in the room asking me go go by guest services. I did. They were following up to make sure everything was OK. The guy that was there pulled up information on his computer, looked at it for a while then said, "You've made this a great room for the next guest."

 

It's a shame they don't maintain the rooms until a customer complains, but they made that room better than I could have hoped.

[WhiteOptima]

17 hours ago, Markmom18 said:

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. 🥰

I also started cruising when my son worked on Carnival.  Our first was Paradise April 2007.  He was a sound engineer and I was beside myself getting on the ship and then when they use to pass around the Fun Ship specials when you first walked in the atrium😄.  He stopped working after the hurricane that closed Galveston but we have kept going.

The most memorable was the Breeze November 2012.  We went with 2 other couples and had cove balconies.  My DH does not drink-never really liked it and when we were planning we kept saying he will need a rope for us to hold and lead us back to the ship.  It was Larry’s 50th Bday when we were in Grand Turk.  Off the boat @7am!  First very large margarita done by 7:45am and we were in the pool.  Bartender had Annette laying on the pool bar while Larry drank shots from her belly button area.  We made it out of the pool and if you have ever drank while in pool and get out you are way drunker than you thought.  (Full disclosure I drank water never finished the second margarita because he was making them way too strong.)  The DJ was playing the wobble and Larry who does not dance kept being opposite of the other  dancers and I had to keep turn him around.  My DH finally guided everyone back to ship because we were leaving at noon.  Well when we got home and we were all together my DH had videoed everything and we died laughing and our friends want a redo.  10 years later and we still talk about that day.

Edited April 7, 2023 by WhiteOptima

[sunshower9]

I have one moment that sticks out.  On the Vista in 2017, my husband and I were walking around the ship one morning.  My husband sees this random good-looking guy walking around the track and he jokingly calls out to him, "Hey you!  Come over here and take a picture with my wife!" I know it sounds weird for him to just call out to some random guy, but my husband is very outgoing and makes friends with everybody, so it's natural for him lol. Anyway, the guy stops and laughs, and agrees to take a pic with me.  We thank him and he goes on about his way.

 

Fast forward to the last day of the cruise.  We were doing the Behind the Fun tour.  They took us to the bridge and while my husband and I were looking out of the windows, the guide told us that the captain was here for us to take pictures with him.  I turned around and there was the guy that I had taken a picture with a few days earlier.  We had no idea that this "random" guy was actually the captain.  So I got 3 pictures with captain during that cruise.  Two from the Behind the Fun tour, and one because we both thought he was just some handsome dude who was nice enough to take a picture with a stranger. 😂

 

We saw him again later on that day and we thanked him again for the first picture and apologized for not knowing he was the captain.  He thought the whole thing was funny.  

[Momma1980]

9 hours ago, angelsfort said:

here's another one from back in 2007!!   my daughter was only 4 years old at the time...

 

we had disembarked and as we were driving away from the port (and watching the ship fading in the rearveiw mirror) I suddenly got this sinking feeling in my tummy.

 

I asked my cabin-mate if she had by any chance picked up my daughters little bear from her bed and put it in one of our bags... her answer? NO!

 

OH CRAP!!! (please note that "crap" is NOT the word / language I was using) I didn't even think to pick it up out of her bed this morning to put it in our luggage.

 

Here's a little background info on "Baby Bear" it's a Ty Beanie Bear, he's Tan with a plaid ribbon around his neck... and she got him from her daddy when she was just a year old. When she was 18 months old, we lost her daddy in a tragic accident. This bear is VERY special to us... its one of only a few items that we've got to remember him by (that he gave to her personally, that is) she sleeps with Baby Bear (and one other stuffed animal, also from her daddy) every night.

 

Okay, after I realized that we had left Baby Bear in our cabin, I did a quick U-turn (probably illegally) and headed back to the ship... I told my friend that we weren't going to tell my daughter what had happened until we knew what the outcome was going to be...

 

I parked in the bus parking and left them in the car as I ran back to the terminal... I got stopped before I could go inside and I had to explain to the lady that my daughter had left her bear in the cabin (I said "my daughter" but I think it was just as much my fault!!) and we were quite upset about it. The lady got on the radio to the lost and found department... she told them that we were looking for a lost BROWN teddy bear that was left on the FLOOR of our cabin... OMG!!! I kept telling the lady "he's tan, not brown and he wasn't on the floor... he was in her bed... he'd be mixed in with the covers!" but that woman wouldn't call the lost and found person back...

 

so then she tells me that I can't wait there, that I have to walk across the road and wait on the other side... and she'll signal me when she finds something out. Okay, so I walk over there shaking my head, just knowing that they aren't going to find our precious little Baby Bear because she gave the wrong information.

 

15 minutes go by... I'm pacing... fretting...

 

FINALLY!! The lady waves me back over... I walk up to her and she says "They found the bear, they are bringing it down now" YIPPEE!! yAHOOO!!!! And what do I do?? I start crying like a baby! geez!!!! I'm sure the people around me were thinking I was some kind of mental person because I was crying about a silly bear...

 

They made me go back across the road to wait again... and after another 5 minutes she calls me over again and hands me our little Baby Bear.

 

I go back to the car and get in and then hand Baby Bear to my daughter... it takes a minute, but then her eyes get great big, and she takes a sudden intake of breath... and says "Momma, did we leave Baby Bear on the ship?" I told her we did and she just hugs him and hugs him.

 

"Momma, he was probably scared when he saw us leaving our room without him... he was probably saying to us "wait, wait, what about me?" but we didn't hear him and then when we didn't come back he probably got very sad thinking we were gone forever" (she's 4 by the way)

 

she got me tearing up again...

 

The rest of the cruise was AWESOME!

This made me tear up!

[BallFour4]

 For high school graduation in 1976 my dad saved for a long time to take my family on the Mardi Gras for a seven-night trip from Miami. The dining room seating process required you to go and select a table, then pencil in your name on a chart they had on a wall. You were given a colored ticket with the table number.
 
We had ten in our group, and the tables seated eight. My fellow eighteen-year-old cousin and I signed up at a table with all girl’s names. Yes!
 
That night we had the disco era bell bottoms and Brut cologne working as we made our entrance. The eight "girls" were all older women, the youngest in her early forties. We had a blast with them.
 
Years later when the Celebration came here to Galveston I took my parents on a five-night trip to Cozumel and Calica. Calica must mean gravel pit in Spanish, and we took a bus to Xcaret. My parents were amazed. Now forty-one cruises later my wife and I still enjoy every one.

.

Edited April 8, 2023 by BallFour4

[dmet0225]

In 2011, we had 4 consecutive balcony rooms on the Conquest for our entire family of 14.   We were able to get all of the balcony dividers opened so that we could all congregate on the balcony(s).   It was my 2nd ever cruise, and the first for most of the other family members.  They couldn’t fit all 15 of us at the same table in the MDR, but we made do with 2 tables next to each other.   

[Linsuesue]

I have enjoyed reading the varied highlights of cruise memories! This was an easy one for me to answer. I am subscribed to the Carnival page on a popular social media page that starts with an “F”. Around the fall of 2020 Carnival said that Shaquille was thinking about Halloween and cruising. He is the Chief Fun Officer of Carnival after all. They asked people to post a photo of their favorite Halloween cruises. We had been to Cabo San Lucas in 2018 in October. While there we went on the best Camel Ride excursion ever. The photo I posted was of us by Hercules the camel.  Bear in mind that this wasn’t a contest; it was just a post that asked for favorite Halloween Carnival memories photos. Much to my surprise, weeks after that post, Carnival did turn it into a contest. 40 people who posted got their names put on a pumpkin and something very surprising happened! I have never been so surprised in my life! I used the win to book an 8 day Partial Panama Canal cruise and checked something off my bucket list. It was a very special cruise on the Pride out of Tampa. I loved every second of it and think of it whenever I see a pumpkin, a basket ball hoop, or Shaq!🥰 🎃 

 

[carrieluvsgreg]

That's tough.... Our first cruise with our kids was very special.  Our last cruise on the Horizon in the Mediterranean was amazing.  It was incredible to see so many things that we had only seen in pictures in person. 

[hard_eight]

9 hours ago, Linsuesue said:

 I used the win to book an 8 day Partial Panama Canal cruise and checked something off my bucket list. It was a very special cruise on the Pride out of Tampa. I loved every second of it and think of it whenever I see a pumpkin, a basket ball hoop, or Shaq!🥰 🎃 

 

This is amazing!