Honolulu Blue

My notes on the Conquest class, which may or may not answer your questons: I've sailed on all the Conquest class ships except the Glory The Valor was my first cruise (and second) I haven't been on one since the Freedom in 2019 I've been on the Valor and Conquest twice each. I haven't sailed on any Carnival ship more than twice. I generally like the layout of all the Conquest class ships. I find them comfy and easy to get around. As you can probably guess, I like the Conquest and her sisters. I'd prefer sailing on any of them to any of the current XL class. 😮

It took me more than 20 cruises to get to the Bahamas - and then I only visited Princess Cays. This wasn't on Carnival. PC was exactly what I expected it to be - a good place for beaches and watersports, and not much else. I should note that I have been to Grand Turk a couple of times, which is kind of near the Bahamas. I found it similar to PC - nice blue water but not much else - but it has a dock and there are some places to explore other than the beach. The Bahamas stretches for many miles and has many, many different experiences. I had a cruise that was scheduled to stop in Nassau earlier this year, but we skipped it due to high winds. I have another cruise that goes there in April. Neither cruise was or will be on Carnival. One curiosity is one charter cruise I saw is actually doing FOUR Bahamas stops on a 7-day cruise - Bimini, Freeport, Nassau, and Perfect Day at CocoCay (Royal's private island experience). That would be a good one to explore the region, if you can stand the theme.

I hope it goes well for you too. 🙏

I've never had much trouble getting enough overhead bin space in my travel experience. Some airlines enforce their rules more than others. Some commuter jets have bins that barely fit a paper bag, in which case my carry on gets gate checked, which is all right with me. To summarize my feelings on this topic, I don't feel in any way superior because I pack less or more than any way else. It's just what I find works for me. I don't care how anyone else packs. I'm glad the cruise lines are generally good at handling their passengers no matter how much they bring with them. And that's the lesson I have for the OP, assuming they haven't headed for the hills by now - bring what you want and think you need, then adjust if desired on your future travels.

Thank you for your kind words! I'll do my best to live up to your expectations. 😎 I liked the smoke free casino on the Magic, though I didn't spend much time there. I hope the one on the Dream is just as good, if not better. 🙏

You PROBABLY won't get anything back by just being a no show, but here's a story for you. A couple of years ago, I had a cruise (not on Celebrity) where, due to some very poor planning by yours truly, I was going to be too late to make it to my cruise that was sailing that day. I called their customer service department and they relayed me to a resolutions department rep. To make a long story short, I got a FCC for the amount I had paid for that cruise. That was nice of them, and I never would have gotten anything if I hadn't called.

Awesome! Thanks for sharing these details. I hope I make it to 80 someday. Have fun with the extra time in Miami!

This is what I saw at the party I attended on the Magic last month.

I got E01 and selected a noon arrival time. I checked in just after midnight Eastern Time. I honestly don't know how boarding groups work and paid no attention to them in the past.

Congratulations on becoming Platinum!! As for the perks, it's kind of a scavenger hunt to get them, but as I'm Platinum and was just on the Magic last month, perhaps I can help. The pin and the gift (a fanny pack in my case; yours might be different as they change up every so often) can be picked up at the same time in Pixels. You can grab the 1.5L water bottle from the cabin. I suggest letting your cabin steward know what you're doing and why so you don't get charged for it. Go to the casino cashier to pick up the $25 in free play (chips or slot - your choice). You can combine the "chocolate delight" with another room service delivery if you like. The bags of laundry are very nice and the best Platinum perk, IMHO. Ask your steward for more bags if you need them. I think the ship does good work, but I suggest not trusting them with anything that's TOO delicate or fragile or would cause you incredibly heartache if they lost or ruined it.

I checked in early this morning and didn't have any issues. Now I can relax and get ready for this cruise. Thanks, everyone, for your kind words and support. I'll try to have something interesting, relevant, and/or entertaining when I start posting about this cruise again.

Thank you for the details in your posts above. And thank you for following along. I plan on relaxing and enjoying myself also. I assure you that I won't stand in the way of your enjoyment, whatever you decide to do.

Thanks for sharing. Yes, we are on the same ship. And perhaps we'll meet up sometime, somehow. I did the ostrich farm in Curacao on a past cruise (Freedom, October 2019). I've heard the two farms here and in Aruba are owned by the same group and are similar. I had fun there and assume you will too: Here's part of the aviary in Cartagena's port area. This picture is from the same cruise on the Freedom:

It sounds like you're going to have some fun the next few days. I wish we had a local music scene worth commenting on. BTW,our county has the same 70+ exemption from jury duty. Alas, I am not quite that experienced yet. 😎

Thanks for coming along for the ride. 😃 I'm coming through Texas to get to the Dream, so I'll feel your hugs a little more. 😍

Alternate title - "It's So Close I Can Almost See It: The Pseudo-Panama Canal Cruise" I decided to do a live report for my upcoming cruise on the Dream. I'll have Internet access and with Starlink it will probably good enough to post most of the time. Since there's a couple of weeks to go until the cruise, here's the backstory... I booked this one a very long time ago - August 2021, back in the early days of the restart. I needed a cruise to put my FCC from the cruise I was canceling that had protocols that I didn't want to deal with. That FCC came from a cruise that was canceled due to the ship shutdown. I liked this one best of my options, so I booked this one and put my FCC and OBC here. I also have $250 in OBC as a CCL shareholder. I've done 6 Journeys cruises before on Carnival, and this will be #7. I always enjoy the Journeys experience. My last cruise was on the Carnival Magic in November. I did a thread about it; I'm too modest to call it a trip report or review. I'm too lazy to link to it, sorry. I'm looking forward to checking in for this cruise tomorrow. Have I mentioned that I'm Platinum yet? (flashes Platinum card) Most of the details for this cruise are taken care of. I'm still undecided about the excursions. This cruise has had a couple of minor itinerary modifications since I booked. We were supposed to dock in Ocho Rios, but we're going to Falmouth instead. Falmouth is normally Royal territory, but I have been there once on a Carnival ship. I'm looking forward to going back. The second change was a slight change to the hours we'll be in Panama. About that Panama stop. Despite this being listed as a "Panama Canal cruise", it really isn't. We're docking in Colon, Panama and not going through the Canal at all. Two respected posters here who post on other forums I frequent have warned me about the awfulness of this stop. I'm intrigued enough to see for myself - from a safe distance. I'm not sure what format these posts will take. There will probably be multiple short posts each day as things happen and I find time to post, but I could go with a single longer post per day. We'll see. That's enough of an intro. More posts as conditions warrant.

I currently have 207 total cruise days, but I've got about 30 on cruises coming up in the next four months. I'll do a similar list to yours, again eliminating the COVID cancellations/delays: One was completely canceled due to the ship being chartered by the government for temporary housing for hurricane relief workers. I put this one under "weather". Only one port entirely missed, which was due to high winds/rough seas One port was canceled a year before the sailing due to some silly disagreement between the port and Carnival One cruise had 7 of 8 ports shuffled around, either changing dates or times due to high winds and related refueling issues Other than those specific issues, I think I've hit every port that I signed up for. I count myself as very lucky. I hope my luck continues. 🙏 I've been to Aruba 4 times and never missed it. They have a dock that's plenty big to handle multiples of the biggest ships that the cruise lines can throw at it. And as mentioned elsewhere, the weather there is usually favorable for safe docking. I wouldn't worry too much about missing it.

Thanks for sharing. The notice was for a "service dog" and not a "seeing eye dog" like I said. I apologize for any confusion. Your explanation is helpful. I wonder how long Princess has allowed ESAs and if their tolerance will spread to other cruise lines.

Today I found out my county wants me for JURY DUTY in a few weeks. I'm not going to go, because I'm going to be out of the country that week on another cruise (not one of the music ones). They asked me to submit a deferral date, so I did. This was surprisingly hard as the new dates were just as I would be starting another string of cruises. The new date is in about three months. This, BTW, is the third time I've been called in 3 years. I'm beginning to think that they're running out of trackable people for JD. I was called in mid '21 but didn't have to serve then due to COVID restrictions. I was then called in mid-'22 and called day after day as my instructions told me to. They never drew my number and I never got to serve. This was a similar result to what happened when I was asked to serve about 20 years ago. This shouldn't be a big deal, but I'll keep you posted anyway. Let me close this out with a quote that I thought of as I went through my paperwork: "If a man is guilty for what goes on in his mind, then give me the electric chair for all my future crimes" - Prince, "Electric Chair" NOT performed by these guys, BTW:

I've done some of this. I also sometimes send my clothes out to be cleaned by the ship. I'm more likely to do this on the cruise lines that give me free laundry bags. I have done multiple cruises of 14 days, with the rest being less.

On my last cruise on the Magic in November, a 6-day cruise, we had four different comedians - Kim Harrison, Billy D. Washington, Dan Mengini, and Vince Morris. The first two performed the first three days, and they apparently switched while we were in Belize. They might settle for just two on the milk runs to the Bahamas and back, but I've never had a cruise on Carnival that was less than 6 days. P.S. The sailing on the Dream mentioned by the OP is 14 days.

As someone who goes carry on only while cruising, I have two related comments: 1) The more I travel this way, the more I realize I don't need to carry too much stuff while traveling, and 2) The only thing this distresses me more than the thought of doing laundry onboard is the thought of doing laundry in the sink. I don't do things that distress me on vacation. 😛

My opinion is that I don't need a CD to sing, juggle, and/or do bird shows because that's what the entertainers - both crew and walk-on - are for. And I consider yelling into a microphone, dancing, and/or wearing trendy clothes (and looking good while doing so) a set of underrated skills.

"Comedian" indeed. I've never had a Carnival cruise with fewer than FOUR comedians onboard (not all at the same time). The Dream should have far more than that, but for some reason the site linked above only lists one or maybe two. We'll find out the story soon, since I'll be on that ship then.

I know what you mean. I've sailed with over a dozen different cruise directors through the years and only four are currently active as CDs. That includes the one I sailed with in November. I think it's a combination of factors - burnout, the pandemic, rising stars - that are specific to each departure.