mz-s

No, not unless you want to eat at the steakhouse at a specific night and time you can book that before. But everything else you pretty much request a table that night. It's more relaxed than NCL for sure. The Sunshine is now the oldest ship in the Carnival fleet but it is updated, has a good crew, and the food in the MDR and speciality restaurants was very good last year when I was on her.

The thread was opened a week ago so it's very likely the thread was posted before special needs gave their reply.

To be clear I was quoting someone else when I used the term jacked up. That would not necessarily be my term.

The Bahamas are still fairly warm in February, but the water might be chilly.

I agree, I like the lower decks. Only issue is if you're close to the engines or thrusters it can be quite noisy and shaky during docking operations.

Tampa is limited to smaller/older ships due to the bridge, if that is Okay with you then enjoy - but if you are people who would like the newer larger ships with more to do like roller coasters etc, then you might want to look at going out of Canaveral or Miami maybe.

You can bring on one bottle per adult per cruise, doesn't matter how long the cruise.

Right but as you point out, it works for the vast majority of the sailings every year.

Why is it a problem? I get that things like priority embarkation are challenging when everyone has priority (and having your room ready but Carnival fixed that by just not doing it anymore), but scheduling the P&D parties doesn't seem like a huge issue.

yes that’s how they do it on excel class ships because they don’t serve drinks during the party, just a glass of wine.

Upper floor probably means something above the Promenade deck. I like staying on Empress on this class of ship - Promenade is just 2 floors down, Lido 2 floors up. But you don't get to guarantee it like you said. They could stick you in a room right above the night club, and sell you another upgrade to get out of it... The spa upgrade was the better deal in my book so that was a good move.

I do hope they've allowed us to call in to schedule delivery of breakfast again. When the hang tags first went away they allowed it. Then they stopped, you had to call in the morning. At least that was my experience when I tried on a few cruises - they told me to call back in the morning. If they've allowed scheduling it again that would be good.

They have a lot of tables for 2 in the anytime dining room, but they're usually mere inches from your neighbor's table.

Further evidence that nobody knows how to act in public anymore. The lockdown was the worst possible thing that could have happened to our society. Either people actually think loud cursing is okay on the serenity deck, or they're so blinded by allegiance to Carnival they have to act like they do. Either way it is shocking how little they expect out of their Carnival cruise.

The reason Gold gets the free drink on the last night is because originally they were invited to the P&D party. It was called the past guest party at the time. The parties got too large, hard to find a seat sometimes, too many people fighting for too few drinks. When that changed, I guess about 8 or 9 years ago at this point, they gave Gold a free drink on the last night to make up for it. P&D kept the party.

There's an old song that Mick Jagger sings you might like.

I don't know about you but when I hear the word "serenity" the first thing that comes to my mind is loud cursing.

I wouldn't take any upgrades until your room is assigned. They might assign you to an upper room for free, you never know.

Yes, they will always have it. They generally hold them in the main lounge so plenty of room. They usually do a quick video of Carnival's history, the CD gives a brief speech, often some entertainment like the onboard band comes on for a few songs, the captain used to come but not sure if they've brought that back yet (during COVID the captain remained in a bubble). You will receive an invitation onboard to the party. Have fun!

My understanding is on the Excel class ships that is what they do, they give you a glass of wine during the party and put another drink on your account.

yeah that's fair dallas.

I have personally never seen or heard of Carnival proactively defusing a situation, as would help in cases like OP pointed out here. They always seem to wait until the issue is FUBAR, like the fights we've all seen on YouTube, to intervene.

No. You get the party and a drink during sea day brunch as Platinum. The drink on the last day is only offered to Gold.

I doubt that still works. I was told I would have to call in the morning, and this was on a few different cruises.

It depends on the individual sailing but generally the number of priority guests isn't that big of a deal except right at the start in the morning, when everyone is standing there acting like they've never seen a cruise ship before. If the number of priority guests gets to be anywhere near that number (like the Journeys sailings), Carnival suspends the benefit for that sailing.