Celebration! / Live! / Solo? Jan-14-21-2024 The Tribe Cruise!

[jbhcw]

Way behind....but here for the cruise....Sid...know this one will be better than the last....everyone have a super great time!!

[Putter23]

Original Tribe lurker here….rarely post.  But I’m looking forward to both yours and Megan’s reviews!  Hope you have a blast and safe travels!

[goofy2010]

I am generally lurking in the shadows, but hope that you have a great cruise and can find some relaxation in it.

[sid_9169]

I ended up advancing the alarm forward three different times before I finally dragged myself out of bed... Between Bill the bartender's heavy handed pours and the additional tequila I had when I got home, I think I might have over done it slightly. Anyhoo, I've gotta try to make it through another long day at the 'ol salt mine today, and I certainly hope it's not nearly as busy as yesterday. We'll see...

 

Thanks to each and every one of you who are following along on this great adventure, and even though I might not respond to every comment (or, hardly any) that I do read and appreciate every single word... We're now only 48 hours from getting this show on the road for real!...

 

In other news: it looks like my traditional thank you list is going to be a long one! Keep the love coming!...

 

 

Edited January 11 by sid_9169

[sid_9169]

[sid_9169]

[KmomChicago]

Welcome to a pre-cruise episode of As the Rug Turns, in which Sid is smugly satisfied all day long that he is mere hours from the most fascinating, interesting, enjoyable, unusual, special cruise of his entire life. 

[sid_9169]

I guess for "seasoned cruisers" like us, we take for granted our vast knowledge of the subject, however John Heald recently had some comments for those "not in the know" about general cruise line policies, such as their cancellation rules... Here's what he had to say on the subject:

 

 

 

 

[sid_9169]

[sid_9169]

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming:

 

I had been stalking the airlines for three or four months trying to find a decent price for my flights, but everything that suited my needs were outrageously priced… My last trip to Miami ran me around $450 round trip, which I consider highway robbery, and the ones I had my eye on were running six hundred and even up to eight hundred! Finally on Saturday December 2nd, I was able to secure my desired times, and even better, I was able to completely cover it with Skymiles. My persistence had finally paid off.

 

 

[sid_9169]

[aztekpm]

Can't wait for this show to get on the road ... have fun!

[sid_9169]

I was about to continue with some of the pre written parts of the review, which I've typed into Google docs, but instead of copy and pasting I accidentally copied and "cut"... I just spent the past half hour trying to recover the text that I accidentally erased, but I was unsuccessful. I even tried googling how to do it, but still couldn't figure it out. Finally, I remembered that it was saved on my other phone which is in airplane mode, so hopefully I could find it there. Luckily it WAS still there, and I was able to copy and paste it into a new document, so crisis averted...

 

Getting ready now for hopefully a nice smooth day at work...

[cruiseny4life]

I'm here to argue for retaining the pinky finger! How else will you hoist your drink to show you're amongst the Carnival hoity-toity royalty??

 

Source: https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/enjoying-a-drink-at-christmas-gm1152646243-312790810

[az4ship]

Enjoy your trip.  I always look forward to your reviews. 

[sid_9169]

I always purchase Cheers when sailing with Carnival, and sometimes I purchase way ahead of time, and other times I wait until right before my sailing date comes up. Early on a Saturday morning back on August 26th 2023, I came across some chatter that people were able to purchase Cheers for the entire cruise for only the one day price. Of course it was some kind of website glitch, but who knows, maybe they would end up honoring it. I added it to my shopping cart and sure enough the total price ended up being around seventy bucks. This same thing happened with Royal Caribbean months earlier, and they did in fact end up letting all those who purchased it get away with their significant discount. Would the same thing happen with Carnival? 

 

Well, it wasn't long before John Heald came out with an announcement that they were working on it, but in the meantime, everyone who purchased it at the absurdly discounted rate would be refunded automatically. A day or two later, Carnival sent out an email offering a 10% discount to everyone affected by the glitch. 

 

I ended up re-ordering Cheers with the discount code a couple of days later, and I was also able to throw some obc towards the price, so I still wound up paying much less than full price...

 

***This is the paragraphs I was trying to copy and paste when I lost them. Thankfully I was able to recover them somehow, even if I wasn't able to follow seemingly simple instructions to do so...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 11 by sid_9169

[MamaToMany]

Following along, Sid! Love your lives. Always follow, but usually lurk. My cruise doesn’t leave until next Friday, so you and Megan are getting me through until then. Nothing like morning tea and cruise chat! 

[pcvtmom]

I'm having so much fun following the Tribe cruise "lives" and you aren't even on a plane, yet!! Loving the memes, too 😁!

[sid_9169]

1 hour ago, ColeThornton said:

Hmmmm.    Another really weird and odd thread full of stuff that doesn't belong in a cruise review and despite that I'll follow along for what will most assuredly be at least 80 pages long (and that's before the actual cruise even starts)     LOL   😉

I never claimed to be an actual cruise reviewer, just blowing smoke in the wind... 

 

 

 

Edited January 11 by sid_9169

[sid_9169]

***Before we get too far into the weeds, I always like to add a disclaimer in case there are any new readers out there: This “review” probably won't be like most of the others out there. The tale you're about to endure will merely be the narrative beginning here at my home in Atlanta, and documenting in words and pictures, my travels down to Miami, and eventually boarding the Carnival Celebration for what will be round number two for me. (First time was back in late November / early December 2022) 

 

I'm not going to be providing pictures of menus or the Fun Times nor any other pertinent information that would help you out if you decided to cruise on the Carnival Celebration. You can find all of that via other reviews here on Cruise Critic or elsewhere. It'll mostly revolve around whatever I decide to eat or drink or the things I run across in my daily walkabouts… Sometimes I’ll “zig” and sometimes I’ll “zag”, and sometimes I may not have the slightest idea what I'm going to do next… You just never know. 

 

We'll just say that my take on things is probably a bit more “rough around the edges” than most. More similar in attitude to Archie Bunker than say Ward Cleaver, if you know what I mean. I'll try to at least keep it clean enough for the Cruise Critic brand, although sometimes I may get very close to the boundaries. So pour yourself a drink and pack your sense of humor and most of all, just try to take everything with a grain of salt. (*especially my gross misuse of punctuation, grammar, and excessive use of “quote” signs)

 

Now, with those bits out of the way: Please buckle your seatbelt, and let's get this show on the road!!!...

[sid_9169]

[sid_9169]

[sid_9169]

Starting out incredibly slow this morning at work, which is a huge break from the insanity yesterday. I'm hoping this continues all the way till quitting time this afternoon. The weather is nice today so I want to get out for one more afternoon walk before heading out out of town. Supposed to be nasty here tomorrow with rain and storms, so today's my last chance...

[sid_9169]

[ninjacat123]

What type of rug does your company sell? We bought this runner in Turkey on our cruise last October.

Edited January 11 by ninjacat123