trummy

I am a night owl too. There is one bar open all night. It is usually near the lido buffet. The club, piano bar etc will go until one or two. 

4 minutes ago, Butterbean1000 said:

That may be, but always use ours for a bloody mary for brunch.

We do the same.

1 hour ago, CruiseHealing said:

I remember buying FCC (Future Cruise Certificates) on board during a cruise. They were $200 certificates that lasted 2 years, but would expire if not used during that time frame. You would receive a $50 OBC.  Overall a great deal, a 25% return on your money if used within the first year. I wish they would bring that program back. I wonder how many times people did not use their certificates and Carnival got to pocket the money?

For a 7 day cruise it was $100 OBC. We bought the certificate every cruise.

I miss the future cruise certificates. I think they lost some of our business when they suspended this program. Since we are no longer locked in, we explore other lines.

On 10/16/2019 at 5:55 PM, GlamorousGirl said:

I found what appears to be the exact same excursion the cruise line is offering for $99 on another (reputable) site for $16. I really want to take it, but am nervous that the excursion time is "estimated" at 5 hours, and if they returned us right on schedule it would only give us a one hour "buffer" to make the time to board deadline. I have always booked excursions through the cruise ship in the past because I"m nervous about missing the ship, but this has turned into a really expensive cruise (21 days Rome to Dubai) and I need to save every penny I can.

 

To those who've taken third party tours (not through the cruise line), in your experience is a one-hour buffer for the tour to get back late enough? Or is it risky and we should cancel? The port is at Safaga, Egypt. Thanks for your help!

We will be leaving for out 9th cruise in 20 days. All of our excursions are booked by us instead of Carnival. We have always taken excursions, but have never taken a Carnival excursion. From what I read, Carnival excursions are overpriced and over crowded.

Every excursion we have taken, the operator has been very careful about getting us back on time. Doing otherwise would ruin their reputation.

2 minutes ago, cincicruisers said:

I agree with all of the above.

 

I really enjoy being around happy people.  On a cruise people say hello and smile.  At this time and age people are too busy to be friendly with strangers.  On a cruise everyone is on vacation and in good spirits.

This is one of the best things. We have made several lasting friendships while on cruises.

We usually go about 6:30. On one cruise we didn't go until about 8:00. We still had the same wait staff as before. Our waiter told us that our son had been in about 2 hours earlier. All of a sudden our son showed up and joined us. His YTD turned into 2 times dining.

3 hours ago, jbethel11 said:

No, that was also part of the FunShip 2.0 upgrades.

As I said. If you are going to quote me, please quote my whole sentence. I said "The omelet place and Guys burgers are where existing food venues were." And yes Guys burgers were part of 2.0. I didn;t say otherwise.

3 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

What do bars have to do with a thread about restaurants?  Just an FYI, the 2.0 upgrades started in 2011 on Liberty. 

The point, which I said earlier is that if you put in new restaurants (or anything) on EXISTING ships,  you have to take away other things and spaces.

I also told a person on this thread I respected their opinion that they were for more pay restaurants. Everyone has the right to their opinion.  So do I.

3 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

 
Guys and Blue Iguana do not take up much needed deck space. They have simply replaced “restaurants” that were previously in the same locations like Off the Grill. 

The omelet place and Guys burgers are where existing food venues were. The Blue Iguana and the Red Frog were part of the Carnival 2.0 project that began in 2015. The first time I was on the Glory was 2011. The spaces where these 2 bars are was deck space.  

Just now, jbethel11 said:

I disagree. I think the specialty restaurants are great for those who want to pay extra for arguably better food.

I respect your opinion. I simply have my own.

I get there are enough free options. But won't these additional pay restaurants take up space that is being used for other things? 

I like the Blue Iguana, Guy's Burgers, etc etc. But they did take up much needed deck space. 

These pay options may be fine for the larger newer ships. But ie. on the Conquest ships, added restaurants take away from something else. 

15 minutes ago, helene109 said:

My daughter just moved to Baltimore and we wanted to cruise with her next August. Opinions please as the Pride is 15 minutes from her or drive a little but more for a totally different ship. Opinions please! They also have a 6 year old and my son will be coming that is in college. Thanks!

To me, it would depend on which had the itinerary I prefered,

Besides the steak house, this is all new to me. Is Carnival now pushing pay extra dining on some of it's ships? One of the reasons I cruise Carnival is the inclusiveness. How long before this goes fleetwide?

18 hours ago, M2LR said:

Make sure you bring stuff to entertain them if you are doing the MDR. I made the mistake last cruise and our dinner took forever. By dinner #2 we'd adjusted and brought their kindles to dinner and skipped appetizers to bring dinner down to a normal amount of time and it went much smoother. Our youngest didn't like Camp Ocean (granted he was 4 and promptly took a nap when he got there so I don't know what he didn't like about it). This cruise he'll be 6 so I am hoping he gets more into it, especially being into an older age group.   

One of my favorite things about sit down dinners is the conversations. This is a great way to bond with children. I would never bring devices to dinner. We never allowed coloring at the table at restaurants. We wanted our children present. Unfortunately, conversation is becoming a lost art.

Unplugging. It is wonderful to just live in the moment. We turn on airplane mode the moment we step on the ship and don't turn it off until we deboard.

It makes me sad that cruise ships are now offering wifi packages. We  have enjoyed having an entire week in an environment where people were interacting with people who were actually present.

2 hours ago, stellarose said:

 

I see there is a charge to ride the ski lift. do you need to prepay or do it there? do they can American cash?

Yes there is a charge of $15. You pay when you get there and they do take cash.

The Dream. It was a horrible experience. Though we wiped down our cabin and used hand sanitizer constantly, my husband and I still caught the Norovirus. It was a living hell. I like that class of ship, but the Dream has such bad memories, I don't want to step on it again.

26 days until we board the Glory in New Orleans. The Glory is our favorite ship and we love cruising down the Mississippi. It is beautiful after dark and we have dinner outside in order to enjoy it.

My husband and I have taken land vacations to Roatan. We considered retiring there. We cruise in 3 weeks. Our plan for Roatan is to take a taxi to town. Eat at a local restaurant we have come to love, then take a water taxi to the beach. Hint...In Roatan all beaches are free. It is not necessary to go through a hotel to get beach access.

On 10/13/2019 at 9:55 PM, groundloop said:

Do y'all realize you're responding to a zombie thread that was started over 4 1/2 years ago?  🙄

Who cares? The topic is still relevant.

Please don't do this.

We can no longer carry on bottled water or soda because of this very same thing,

Don't people realize that the cruise lines read these boards? Please don't post this crap. I don't want to loose my bottled wine priviledge because some people don't want to follow rules.

On 9/16/2019 at 10:28 AM, Essiesmom said:

Ten or so years ago, they had a production show called Extreme Country.  I saw it on Fascination, and they expanded it on Dream.  On Fascination, the singer/violinist on The Devil Came Down from GA was the CD.  EM

His name is Steve Cassel. He loves country music. Everywhere you went, it was country music, country music, country music. There was one jazz band. I made sure never to sail with him again.

P.S. In country it is called a fiddle.

We are taking our third Glory cruise in 28 days.

Our first cruise was on the Glory. I don't know if it is because this was our first ship or not, but it is our favorite.

Smuggling alcohol, and talking about it on Cruise Critic is not a good idea and hurts everyone.

Because of people smuggling booze, we can no longer take on bottled water or bottled soda. Some of us do not like aluminum canned soda.

The bottled water on the ship has a higher amount of saline than regular water. Some of us already struggle with swollen ankles on cruises because of too much salt in the food. This will not help.