mike_ga

Currently on Mardi Gras... Not thrilled with the size of the cabins, or the bathrooms therein.  The showers are an improvement.

The public spaces are nice. It feels like an adaptation of the Royal Promenade on Freedom Class ships. Though the placement of some venues is inexplicable on upper decks.

Overall, I think I prefer Vista or Dream Class ships.

I had a similarly disappointing cruise on Magic in 2016. Seriously understaffed. Lido and Panorama decks were dirty.  MDR service was so bad that we finally just stopped going, opting for the Lido Buffet. 

The next Cruise I went with RCCL. Afterwards I went straight back to Carnival. Beautiful ships, but terrible food, Went to a bar one night and met a group of fun people. Attila, the bartender decided to very seriously tell us that he didn't like us. We got up and went to the nightclub leaving his bar empty and had a blast with better bar staff.   Good lord Everything on the Pool Deck, Bars included were closed by 8:30 every night and the worst offense was that over 300 people got food poisoning and RCL reported it as a norovirus outbreak...  Everyone on the ship was randomly discussing with other PAX that the only people that had gotten sick had eaten either the hotdog in Labadee or a fish dish served in the Windjammer that day.  No one else got sick. including my cousin I was traveling with, despite the fact that her son slept with her, facing her, breathing on her the night he was sick...

So, I went back to Carnival.  There will always be cruises that are better than others, that's not necessarily indicative of the overall Cruise line, or even the crew currently on that ship.  Will I book with RCCL again?  Yes, if the itinerary is right and the price is good.  The best overall service and experience that I've ever had was with Holland America.  I've had great staff crew on some cruises, some that were lacking in one area or the other.  I had a Steward on Victory named Putra who was without a doubt the worst steward that I've ever had... And I even a steward who I somehow never laid eyes on. 

I've had terrible bartenders like Attila on Independence of the Seas and I've had amazing bartenders like Zsolt on Carnival Breeze..

I'll keep rambling if I don't stop myself. But, my point is that I'm not going to stop cruising or dismiss the enjoyably of a line based on one cruise. 

Also debarked Breeze this morning.   Humberto and Jerry gave all of us the roughest cruises of our careers. Outer Promenade was closed a few days as well and Waterworks,  Sports Square Thelassotherapy Pool, Etc.  My cabin was on deck 11 in Cloud 9 but I was only able to get into the thermal suite once without it being too crowded.  88 Keys was played concert style one night because the motion was too much for the performers to do the choreography.  We were late arriving at both Bermuda and Grand Turk.  The latter wasn't all that disappointing as I've visited Grand Turk a few times and had no other plans but Jack's Shack.  The late arrival in Bermuda however caused more of us to feel robbed. 

My poor Cabin Steward, Dehvi, was sick a couple of days from the motion, as was a lot of the staff. My Dining was in Sapphire and I was quite glad after Sea Day Brunch and "Tea" in Blush.  Too much  movement in the aft section.  Water glasses were sliding off of empty tables and Several people slipped and fell on the tiles near the Cafe in Ocean Plaza due to the warm humid air coming in from the Outer Promenade doors causing condensation on the cold tiles.  One of my dinner companions also fell on the walking track up on the Sports deck that second morning.  Several of the activities never took place as well.

That said it was still an enjoyable cruise and Marq has established himself as my favorite Cruise Director that I've experienced with Carnival.   The Fun Squad.  Especially Roy, James, Lou Lou, and Josh were also nice. The Entertainers, Especially Josh (a different Josh), who had a great voice, and Garret for his performance in Flick, were fascinating.

I also have to mention that Zsolt, Shemika, Vera, and Iurii, were fantastic at Alchemy,  Actually I saw Zsolt tending bar all over from the Atrium to the Casino. I normally wouldn't comment on that, but I didn't see the others working nearly as much, the bar in Sports Square and the one on the Serenity Deck were closed most of the cruise, so perhaps the other's had more time off due to this.

I can't say I was thrilled with the dining room staff.  Our Head Waiter, Prayuda, was worse with English than any other crew member I've experienced, and one of the assistants, (I will not say if it was Rivaldy or Edi,) was constantly forgetting things when he picked up orders, causing a few of us to end up a course behind the rest of the table on a couple of occasions.  That said our dinner companions (the three that also showed up every night were a great group of retired people who were very educated and socially aware people whom I enjoyed getting to know.

Overall, it was a cruise with insanely rough seas, but still was a great time for those of us who chose to not waste our time on board with complains.

P.S. This turned into a review somehow...

I know towards the end everyone was stressed about the noro. It wasn't a pleasant experience. I do think that my room steward left much to be desired. He was a bit dismissive when asked about certain things, but then with other issues he was great and right on it. He did quickly bring the robes that evening at turndown.

Between Thursday and Friday I had so much Purell on my hands that I thought they were going to crack open from dryness. No self service drinks in Sorrento's Cafe Promenade had run out of Vitamin Water. Everyone on the ship was so paranoid about Norovirus and the staff was wiping everything down constantly so that any rail or banister touched was cold and wet 90% of the time. That said there were still salt and pepper shakers on the table in the MDR.

On the bright side I did love my cabin steward, Johann. He only did two towel animals, a Bulldog and an elephant. the latter of which sat in the corner of my settee until I disembarked this morning.

Do feel for you though.

Luckily I didn't catch anything. :)

Okay, I'm back down in my cabin now.

The issues started a couple of hours after lunch at Labadee yesterday. We talked with several people, word first started getting around at Dinner last night. Adults and children who opted for the hot dog at lunch yesterday the majority were ill within a few hours, this included many who had the dogs on the ship. Those who had the hot dog were mostly fine mid afternoon today whether they'd been down to medical or not. These people did not infect any cabin mates. (I personally know a family of five staying in two joined cabins down from me, one had the hot dog and got sick. Two stayed with him all night last night and never experienced any symptoms. He was fine by 2pm today. same story from others that I've talked to in elevators and bars across the ship. Others have reported illness in those who did not eat the apparently tainted dogs who have infected their companions.

I think we have a small Norovirus outbreak. and a large case of food poisoning.

I also think some staff has gotten ill as well. My steward was fine earlier today and from previous conversations I know that he does not have a day off during this cruise, but whoever serviced my room this evening was not him. In fact I've not seen him since before I disembarked in Falmouth today.

Also on Independence right now. I think we had two separate incidents 1 involving the hotdog served yesterday. Will type it all out when I get down to my laptop.

Sorry but isn't going to happen...

Nope, It's going to be impossible to re-book for the same price. The price of all the cruises i'm watching have gone up $20 to $50 Per person since Hurricane Harvey and the Issues with the pipeline and refineries in the Houston area. The lines are having to recover from the loss of the canceled cruises, the price of feeding those who got an extra week free, not to mention the rising cost of fuel. It'll be months before fares start to come back down.

Heck after Irma (and possibly Jose) fares may not recover for a year or more.

Erm.....looks like the Pride is pulling into Charleston, SC this morning instead of Bahamas......

I'm confused, as her itinerary shows she's supposed to be on a 14 Day Panama Canal cruise beginning and ending at Tampa. Charleston is no where near Tampa. Her POCs are supposed to be Cozumel, Limon, Aruba, Bonaire, St. Maarten, and back at Tampa.

I think Carnival's tracking/webcam site is having issues.

Marine Traffic shows she was on her way to Grand Turk...

 

I still don't understand how RCI can have so many website and IT problems.

Neither do I. Both Holland America and Carnival's sites have always worked flawlessly for me. I'm guessing with 9 cruise lines CCL&PLC has more money for IT people.

My reservation and both of my cousins' are also gone. I tried to add mine back in but It can't complete the request. I'm going to check again tomorrow.

EBFURR I have to ask. What made you book a cruise out of Galviston?

I always think of the Gulf Cruise ports as being for local people who can't be bothered to travel to Florida, Maryland or NY/NJ. The itineraries are far more limited that those of ships leaving from Canaveral, Everglades, and Miami. At least those from Maryland, and NY/NJ often have Bermuda cruises. I'll look at Seattle for Alaska cruises, but not L.A. because there are really only Baja Mexico cruises.

After the first few cruises hitting the more popular ports it just seems like the gulf cruises would be repetitive with ports. Then again, I'm 30 miles from I-95, Five hours from Port Canaveral, 7 hours from Port Everglades and 8 hours from Port Miami, and 10 from the Maryland port so Maybe I'm spoiled by being within a reasonable driving distance. In a pinch I'll cruise out of Jacksonville, which is two hours away, but I've never actually wanted to go back to Freeport after the first trip there, and Nassau after maybe the second.

Early video and stream feed from Galveston show power still on. The streets shown on streaming feeds show no indication of flooding.

Centerpoint is showing most of the island without power:

http://gis.centerpointenergy.com/outagetracker/

The Nationwide power outage tracking site is showing 193,479 American Electric Customers without power and 60,596 of Centerpont Customers without power.

https://poweroutage.us/State?id=Texas

Ugh!!! I live in Sugar Land TX which is a subburb southwest of Houston, we already lost power. Only day damn one dammit. I didn't think power outage would be that fast here. :loudcry: I'm sure Galveston already has some outages too.

I felt that way last year with Matthew. I live 45 miles inland and 196 miles from the landfall point yet I lost power at ~1:30 am on the night of landfall. Thankfully Georgia Power got my electric service back on after only 33 hours. Comcast took 10 days to restore TV/Internet. The local EMC customer were without power for up to 8 days. The company I work for has it's own substations and lost power for less than an hour and never lost the backup internet connection from AT&T Fiber Services.

I never realized just how far away the damage could get so severe until the morning after when every Leland cypress on my property was partially uprooted then drove through town to discover pine trees on roofs, commercial signposts bent and broken, debris blocking roads etc.

Luckily, the city sewage drained well enough without the pumps working for those 33 hours and the water tower that feeds my house never fully emptied. so I had toliet facilities and warm enough water to shower for the first day.

117...

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I walked through the Piano bar the first couple of nights at 10 for the FOD meeting. I saw mostly straight couples the first night and the place was full of people waiting for the next comedy show the second night.

Suzette, the bartender in Play it Again was awesome. But I have to admit that it never felt much like a meet and greet. I spotted some other gay men in there, but the atmosphere was never really one for introductions. I discovered a gay couple I've been acquainted with for years was on the cruise and spent a little time hanging out with them.

Saw groups of three and four gay men sitting together chatting on the Panorama Deck a few times. But the level of awkwardness in walking up and trying to introduce myself as a fellow homosexual was prohibitive.

For some reason gay men either see me as being straight (which my body language and walk should totally clue them in) or as a closet case who is with whatever woman I'm with at the time.

Hell, I even wore pink from the knees up in Cozumel (tackiest outfit I've ever worn) just to "look gay".

I was on the same cruise, I posted a video for the first day on Cape C. The weather was the worst enemy of this cruise that sailed on Oct 22.

I was okay with the rain. Costa Maya isn't developed enough to really enjoy, and to be honest I don't care if I ever dock there or at Roatan again. I did get into the water at Roatan, so when the rain started I wasn't bothered much.

I was at the Ruins of Altun Ha when it rained for about 20 minutes in Belize. Still enjoyed it, and as a bonus my cousin who was considering buying land there changed her mind after seeing the city and countryside.

Cozumel was nice as always. I'm always amazed at how much I like it there.

The last sea day was okay. I got up at dawn and the wind was blowing so hard from the direction of the bow that the Lido deck was covered in water from waterworks alone. I sat there and smoked on the panorama deck while those poor crew members shop vac'd up water from the lido deck until someone cut most of the water off up there. The rough seas and wind didn't bother me but I cruise more than my travel companions on this trip do.

I will say that after I got home Saturday afternoon I definitely didn't have my land legs yet. Luckily I was good by Sunday morning.

How did you like Dr. E? Most enjoyed him but I found him a bit annoying except for the 2 sing a longs he did which were very entertaining. Got the large crowd going.

I was looking forward to Dr. E after reading so much about how great he was. During muster I found his constant voice changes entertaining, but as one of my travel companions, who was on her first cruise noted. You paid more attention to the voices than anything he said in them.

I used to work with someone who constantly sang for no reason and annoyed pretty much everyone around him. I found his constant singing at the beginning of the announcements incredibly annoying and ended up tuning him out. That said, his performances in the lobby and at the 80s Rock and Glow Party were great. Though he actually got in my face with a mic during the 80s party and I'm no singer. I continued to lip-sync...:cool:

I was also on this cruise and was unimpressed by the MDR food and especially the MDR service. I was also unimpressed by the dishes served at Cucina. Also felt that the whole ship was understaffed and service was suffering. Had a great cabin steward though. I avoided the steakhouse. I don't think anything can surpass The Pinnacle Grill on HAL.

I think I've become spoiled by HAL and will only cruise Carnival for short 4-5 day cruises.

9 days. Magic out of PC.

After working 21 straight days while also dealing with the damage caused by Hurricane Matthew. No power for 33 hours, still no Cable (Bless Verizon for giving us unlimited data after this) and still needing to cut down tress on my property (Pro Tip: Don't plant cypress trees on your property if you're in a hurricane zone, the foliage is too dense and they partially uproot, yes I mean out of several trees only the Cypresses did this, and yes ALL of the cypresses did this). I'll be looking forward to not having to worry about anything.

Still I was lucky. House surrounded by old Pecan trees, no damage to any structure on the property and I have friends who were without power for 5 days.

FLL Airport is closed until further notice.

I'm watching Port Nassau webcam, It just came back up after a couple hours offline. Can't see the trees from the current angle, but the rain is finally starting to come in.

Yep, we were on RCCL's Mariner back when she was home ported in Port Canaveral. Ivan closed the port and dredging was required. We were told it be round trip from Miami. Flew in to Miami, did a Western instead of an Eastern and found out on day 5 that we'd be debarking at PC after all.

How long after the hurricane was your departure? I'm on Magic two weeks from Friday. Really wishing I'd booked a room closer than Ormond Beach the night before.

I booked back in March, I have a cabin then I have a cousin and a friend of ours down the hall and my cousin's 22 year old son and his roommate down next to them.

Hoping the LGBT population on this cruise is friendlier than on my last. My only complaint was that the of at least six couples on board they avoided other gay people and were generally rude.

PH1 and PH2 are both on the spa deck and are fantastic, if a bit tackily decorated.

Usually they try to upsell this for $4,000. I'm not really sure it's worth that.

I'm kind of surprised that your TA gives you sparkling wine??? Mine always gives me a $75 OBC.

I've never heard of a ship being in the 20s, and that number for Westerdam seemed awfully high. I looked and the numbers I found are:

 

Magic = 30.2

Fascination = 34.2

Westerdam = 36

 

Either way, the CCL ships you mentioned do still have very low numbers, especially Magic. CCL ships are the most crowded in the mass market industry.

 

Edit...I take back what I said. I looked up Sunshine and found a ratio between 27 and 29.9, depending on the site. That's ridiculous.

I didn't realize that there were sites that listed this ratio. I took the GRT and Max Capacities from each ships Wikipedia Page and divided.

Good to know someone's already done this somewhere, Wikipedia can be a bit of on info. Though the Westerdam info matches what on the mug I bought onboard last fall.

I agree about Sunshine, everyone I know who cruised her as Destiny has said that she was ruined in 2013.

EDIT: Ah, I just looked up how these ratios are calculated. They use the number of passenger berths (permanent beds) instead of full passenger capacity, Pull down beds and sofa beds are not included. So my number may be closer to correct than those listed on your websites.

This apparently makes the ratio on Disney look good, until you realize that on that line in particular, most cabins have at least 3-4 people due to the number of families traveling in the same cabin, only two of which would be counted in the passenger to space ratio.