jessemon

I couldn't agree more!

 

We used to close down the piano bar every night but not anymore. We miss it a lot since it was our favorite nighttime venue.

 

Last year on the Freedom the piano singer was Martin Aucoin. We tried to give him a chance, but he couldn't sing. I have never heard someone who was actually being paid to sing sound so off key. After my sister and my friend left me at the piano bar, there were only 3 other patrons left besides me, and then I soon left.

 

As much as I hate cigarette smoke, I think maybe they should make the piano bar a smoking venue again. When people could smoke in there, it was always hopping--you could barely find a seat. Maybe if the bar generated more revenue they could pay for the better singers.

This past year we've taken a break from Carnival but are considering the Breeze for next year. I'm hoping the piano bar improves by then.

Couldn't agree more...Although I do smoke a piano bar/club has always been a smoking venue on all the lines. Since that has gone by the wayside the talent level has dropped and the piano bars are mostly empty...Very sad because it has always been in the top two of must do entertainment venues on cruises...

Never can tell with Carn-Evil, Jesse. Hope for the best.

Are you stealing my lines...lol :D

Just a quick question about Carnival's "To be assigned" status.

Will we get our cabin assignment before we get to the ship?

But the "shoot" was free. Right?

You got it right....The shoot is free...Don't have to buy a thing....;)

Do it I have and I don't care if the lady next door gets an eye full....If the Captain wants to look from a bridge cam then he wants me.....yuck....LOL....

Yes. The suites may be larger in some cases, and NCL has some amazing suites, but IMO that is not target market of Carnival.

 

Yes, on other cruise lines, you may get what you over pay for. :p

Same cruise out of Tampa same date for both lines on Dec 4...

NCL 405sf suite is $2418...

Carnival 360sf suite is $2420...

Seems to me NCL is giving me more for my money.....Carnival I guess is making us pick up the soap...;)

Sgt is correct. It's advisable to at least make a pseudo post so as to appear to be in compliance ;)

Agreed Tom on bumping a post properly...

And I guess we have a new "sheriff/moderator" on the boards...LOL....Even the real mods like Mach and Randy don't care about bumping up an informative thread such as this..... :rolleyes::

Disclaimer (for those who see everyone as having an agenda!): The following lists are only to serve for comparative purposes for anyone who is interested. It is NOT intended to be critical of Carnival, but rather to show what perks other lines treat their suite guests to. Note that some of the listed "perks" are standard in ALL cabins, thus are simply filler. Some of these are really impressive, others are just fluff. For example, I don't want the butler to unpack my luggage!! Please note that the extra perks are not without cost! In some cases a substantial premium (several hundred to thousands more) is required. Generally though, you get what you pay for. Whether that is of "value" to you, is your call.

 

 

CLICK on the cruise line name to link to their website:

 

CARNIVAL:

 

 

A spacious room, that includes VIP check-in during embarkation

 

Stateroom amenities:

 

• Whirlpool bath
  
• Vanity dressing table
  
• Television
  
• Soft, comfortable, and cozy linens
  
• Hairdryer/Bathrobes
  
• 24-hour stateroom service
  
• Ample closet and drawer space
  

================================================

 

NCL:

 

Special Services

> Distinctive Keycard

> Butler and concierge service

> Butler to unpack your luggage

> Access to Concierge Lounge

Eats, Treats & Libations

> Champagne, custom selection of liquor, fruit, bottled water and sodas (Owner’s suite and above)

> Sparkling wine, bottled water and fruit

> Mini-Bar and espresso/cappuccino machine

> 24-hour room service with special suite menu

> Full in-room breakfast menu

> Treats delivered right to your door each night

> Invitations to exclusive breakfast, lunch, and cocktail party

Thoughtful Touches

> Fresh flower arrangement

> Bliss collection by NCL pillow-top mattress

> Fine linens, feather duvet and pillow menu

> Plush bath robes, slippers and towels

> Access to exclusive Courtyard area with private pool, sundeck, hot tub and fitness area (on ships with Courtyard)

Arrival and Departure

> Priority embarkation and disembarkation

> Escort to suite

> Priority boarding of tenders to shore

> Priority Complimentary limousine service from pier to airport (Garden Villa only)

 

=====================================

 

PRINCESS:

 

Suite Amenities:

In-Room Amenities:

· Luxury mattresses

· Luxury ivory satin pinstripe bed linens

· Fluffy duvets in place of blankets

· Luggage protector on bed at embarkation

· Luxury bathrobes

· Luxury towels

· Pillow menu - option of feather or therapeutic pillows

· Massage shower heads

· Luxury bathroom amenities (shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, bath gel, plus new lip balm, gel eye mask, bath salts and loofah mitts)

· Facial mist (choice of scents)

· Complimentary slippers

· Fresh flower arrangement

· Complimentary corsage and boutonniere on first formal night

· Complimentary mini-bar - one-time set up

· Combined DVD/CD Players

· DVD Library - each vessel has a 100-title DVD library available to suite passengers

· Halo light magnifying vanity mirrors on vanity Upgraded room amenities, including ice bucket and tray, leather wallet for cruise card, high quality pen, combined clothes brush, lint remover and shoe horn, shoe cleaning mitt, sewing kit, white cloth laundry bag, black cloth shoe shining bag

· Complimentary Princess tote bag

· Umbrella for use during the cruise

Services:

· Expedited embarkation process

· Preferred Anytime DiningSM reservations

· Personal shore excursion reservations

· Complimentary laundry and dry cleaning service

· Complimentary shoe polishing service

Dining Services:

· Welcome glass of champagne at embarkation

· Extended room service menu (extended breakfast, lunch, dinner offering)

· In-suite afternoon tea service

· Passenger's choice of deluxe canapés, delivered daily

Onboard Activities:

· Complimentary internet access in onboard Internet Cafes (wireless internet connection not included).

· Private portrait sitting

· Complimentary use of the thermal suite in the Lotus Spa (Emerald Princess, Caribbean Princess, Crown Princess, Sapphire Princess, Diamond Princess, Star Princess, Coral Princess and Island Princess).

 

==============================================

 

CELEBRITY:

 

All Suites Include:

One complimentary (Specialty) dining reservation per suite for cruises of up to seven nights

Two complimentary dining reservations per suite for cruises of eight nights or longer

Butler at your service

Complimentary 24-hour room service

Priority check-in

Luggage delivery

Priority tender service

Welcome bottle of sparkling wine, fresh fruit & flowers

Assistance with packing and unpacking

Full in-suite breakfast, lunch & dinner service

In-suite afternoon tea service

Complimentary espresso & cappuccino (in suite)

Evening hors d'oeuvres, daily

Main & specialty restaurant seating preferences

100% Egyptian cotton oversized bath towels

Plush Frette® bathrobes

Complimentary shoeshine service

Celebrity tote bag

Delivery of requested board games

Dual voltage 110/220 AC

Bathroom accessories & hair dryer

Fresh cut flowers

Complimentary beach towel service

Plentiful storage space in your bathroom

Thermostat-controlled air-conditioning

Interactive television system to view & select shore excursions, order room service & watch movies*

Individual safe

Direct-dial telephone

Laundry service*

Mini-bar*

 

*Additional charges apply.

 

==============================================

 

I hope that some people will find this informative/helpful.

 

Tom

Tom I don't even have to look....

Carnival is giving the biggest yuck for the buck....:D:eek::p

PS: Been on all these lines for those that wanna flame....

https://www.goccl.com/irman/bookccl/shipboard_knowledge/EatingPleasure.htm

Dining venues for all ships listed...

Add some longer loop cruises from the East Coast... NY, Baltimore or even Florida, 12-14 day itineraries. 7 day cruises are just too short.

 

Turn off the loud music in the Serenity area...nice spa-type soothing music or nothing at all would be fine. I can't even read a book it is so obtrusive. Serenity = peace.

I have always thought a 9 day and 5 day schedule would be great but Carnival has tried longer schedules but on a very limited basis. Other lines though offer them and some are at very good rates...

Did a B2B on the Destiny for 9 nights eastern and western and loved it. Have done 10 and 11 nighters on Celebrity and HAL. They were great.....

The only thing that really jumps out at me is the reduction in both quality and quantity of live entertainment. I wish they would reverse that trend and hire more (and better) musicians.

Blame the new management for those.....;)

The mentality of the new management....:D

Simple google search shows this....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Celebration

We are docked on Pier 88 on the Jewel, having breakfast before we leave the ship. We are in the Italian restaurant which is used for overflow seating for the buffet and have a great view of the Port side of the ship. We are watching the ship bunker, take on fuel when I look over to Pier 90 with the Carnival ship on the opposite side of the pier.

So I'm basically looking at the pier and I'm watching the fork lifts on the mid level of the pier drive back and forth with metal baskets of baggage when a fairly large suitcase falls off or out of the basket .

Forklifts continue to drive by the bag, some avoid it, some clip it on the side for a good 10 minutes. Then a forklift without a basket comes by and pushes it along with it's front. Guy never stopped to pick the bag up while in my view.

Your friendly porters in action.

Not that this one example is how all bags are handled but I never put anything I can't be without in checked bags.

Forklift drivers are not porters...If I am not mistaking they are longshoreman....

I'm really confident at this point that getting the group together is going to be doable. As long as they don't have two different fence gates to exit the Glory passengers. That would suck for sure.

So here I am still chatting with the soon-to-be Spa crew member, when I hear "Don, Hey, Don!". I look up to see Linda & husband waving from the still moving ship. Ta-da!! :D Now I know this is going to happen. It still took a while for their ship to get tied, and with as many many CCL sailings as they've been on, they knew how to navigate their way to the front of the debarking passengers.

 

Original thought was to meet at the base of the hill and actually hike to the top (yes, we were all totally aware of the cable car ride available), we hailed a nearby cab driver and arrived at the top, barely breaking a sweat. Much better plan. Lots of catching up to do, and some snacks and beverages.

Linda and her family are what I dubbed my "Cruise Heros" early in our friendship. They know how to do it right, no matter what potential challenges.

 

<< cheese >>

 

 

Soon after, T-n-C arrived up top via their taxi so that we all could enjoy the time together. A true highlight of my cruise week. :)

 

<< cheese, again >>

 

 

I'm sure it's been done before, and probably with even greater numbers, and success, but this was totally cool to me.

Three separate households, from different States, arriving outside the continental US on different ships, and all having met through Cruise Critic, and all having sailed together previously.

 

A huge Thank You to my four wonderful friends for making this happen. (and you, to, DJ, for giving Mom & Dad 'permission') :D

Hey...I know them....It's the Karaoke Queen.....

Hiya, Jeffie!! :D

 

Mom & Dad took a beating in Lakeland as well. It was just plain nasty, and honestly frightening, for that period of time. I'm glad it's over.

 

Nothing yet booked for Nov '12, so I'll have to look at that.

Doing NCL Star out of Tampa in Feb '12 :)

Hey Don, in my siggy is an e-mail addy I use for here. Send me a note...;)

Great reveiw so far of what I have read.....

Hello, all!! Yes, I'm still alive. :) Sorry for the unplanned pause in posting. It's been a wild last two days fer sure.

 

If you recently observed the national weather for Florida, you probably saw some central areas having two days of very severe thunderstorms with extremely high winds (some gusts of 80-100 mph), several areas losing power, and some also experiencing property damage.

That would be me, me, and me. :(

 

Luckily, when it was over - it was over. Whew!

Beautiful weather today for the roof/shingle people to do their magic getting everything back to normal.

 

So now back to attempting some more of my recap of the wonderful EPIC sailing.

Hey Don...We got our butts kicked here in Tampa too...

As always your pix are great. Going to do the Dawn out of Tampa in Nov 2012...Got any plans?

I share my moment with most of the Saints and Sinners group which was on the Destiny B2B a couple of years ago. We were on the Lido Deck and saw a 6' 5" tranvestite in a stars and stripes bikini coming down the spiral stairs adjusting his "package". That visual is burned in our retinas forever. :eek:

I think Paulie got a pic of that...It was to say at the least, shocking...:eek:

Yea , they r a suite, sorry! I looked at the rooms & don't think I would happy with a window only. Have always had a bigger room & a balcony. Just wondering if anyone stayed in one? Thx!

I stayed in one of the ones that was non-obstructed view and I can tell you right now those were not worth the money so the obstrucred view would really not be worth it. As I said in my previous post My knees sitting in a plastic deck chair touched the railing. Also these cabins are not over the water but have decks extending out below them....

Don't waste your money. Get an OV and go up on deck for the view....

By the way, the cabin is the same size as an OV just a different layout....

Also Carn-evils wording on the cabin is very misleading...They are "not" a suite. They are a regular small balcony cabin on any other ship in the fleet....

The only obstructed view cabins on Fantasy Class are the Cat. 11 suites on Verandah deck. There are six with a lovely view of a lifeboat. EM

And you can't even sit on the balcony without your knees touching the rails...Never again, big time ripoff cabin for the price....Been there done that once....

I think they might be talking cat 11....

Which catagory please....

This is for our Cruise Critic group cruise Sept 18th out of Charleston on the Fantasy.

It's the Stowaway Freddy and Friends cruise. Stowaway Freddy is a flamingo that does pictorial reviews here.....

Front...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh135/smoofdaddy/c02e101d.jpg

Back...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh135/smoofdaddy/bfd60f05.jpg

We are booked on our first-ever Carnival cruise August 1st out of Baltimore. I signed up for the horseback riding excursion in Grand Turk for the three of us -- $300.

 

After reading a bit about the ride, I'm starting to think it's hugely expensive for the relatively short time you're on the horses in the water.

 

I'm thinking about cancelling the excursion -- my kids are lukewarm on the idea of riding the horses, anyway, and the only slot available for us was the 7:30AM one.

 

I dunno, maybe I'm just feeling grumpy and cheap. :mad:

 

Does anyone have any experience with the excursion, or maybe someone can talk some sense into me? ;)

 

TIA!

 

Nancy

You might get more answers if you post this on the Grand Turk forum since Grand Turk is not part of the Bahamas.....It is part of the Turks Caicos islands....;)

By the way...I love Grand Turk. I though have never done any horseback riding there....

All cabins are smoking per Carnival except "Spa" cabins on the Dream. Splendor and the new Magic.....This is per Carnival....

Staterooms onboard are not designated as smoking or non-smoking. Guests have the choice if they would like to smoke in the cabins or not (smoking is not allowed in Spa staterooms). All cabins are fully refreshed after each cruise to guarantee incoming guests’ comfort and enjoyment. If upon boarding you are not completely satisfied with the freshness of your stateroom, simply call housekeeping and they will refresh your room again for you.

Sounds like someone was pulling a fast one on the sign in the cabin....