mz-s

By and large those few places are the only places they want. Exotic ports of call for a Carnival ship like the Windwards, a thing of the past. The biggest problem (not necessarily for Carnival because they can't afford any more big ships) is the new megaships can't tender, so that really limits the future for places like HMC and Grand Cayman (and of course many other places as well).

Worth mentioning the carrier international plans generally only work when in port, not on the ship. In case that was not clear.

"I just ate an everything bagel this morning, I swear!"

It was important during the restart before priority boarding came back. At this point though there's no real reason for it that I can tell.

careful some know it alls here will tell you the crew have no choice but to burn those $2 bills because somehow the people at the grocery store have never seen them before.

Charleston rule. Lots of old money near the cruise port that aren’t used to being told no

You can buy value and premium for 24 hours once onboard.

last cruise I was staying deck 1 far aft, so the thrusters shook me awake as the ship came alongside in Charleston!

Definitely going to try that one day. So far I haven't been on a ship so equipped.

I don't think you'll find many who will decline a cash tip, certainly nobody on a ship

I have been on several cruises that were that full and it is positively miserable. You get so sick and tired of standing in lines and waiting for a crowd to pass so you can walk down the aisle etc.

They do their best to keep people out of the atrium unless it's time for their floor but yes it kind of does. I do enjoy platinum priority debarkation at Charleston, my wife and I are usually on I-26 on the way home by 7AM.

You are given instructions on the final day of the cruise. Basically they tell you, based upon your cabin location, when to head to the lobby for disembarkation. If you are platinum/diamond/FTTF then you get separate instructions if you wish to take advantage of priority disembarkation. Once you get through customs, they have shuttles that carry you to the parking lot. You can walk if you wish, but given the fences in the way it's a longer walk than it appears. And there are plenty of shuttles so generally it's not a bad wait. The shuttles have trailers to handle luggage.

Not far, like walking from the front of the ship to the back probably.

I am not sure if things have changed recently but in the past, taxi/uber guests were expected to carry their luggage to the end of the pier to Concord St. to get picked up near the customs house.

I will also mention that if you leave your luggage outside your room on the last night and plan to stay on until last call, be nice and pick a later zone number for your bags. The terminal is small and cannot accommodate everyone's luggage so they have to shuffle it around a lot, especially for the longer voyages.

The steakhouse does seem to still be enforcing dress code at least occasionally. As well as Chef's Table requiring closed-toe shoes due to the galley tour. But the MDR does not enforce a dress code anymore, no matter what is listed on the HUB app.

She will probably want the Value plan if not the Premium plan. If all you're interested in is talking to her on the ship then you each could buy the $5 chat option and chat in the Hub app with each other, and you would not need a WiFi plan of your own. Just make sure she keeps her phone in airplane mode, and there won't be any cell charges. The wifi is not going to be great. She's not going to be able to go to sleep watching a netflix movie or whatever. There will probably be lots of times when things just won't work despite how much you paid for the wifi plan. It is what it is on Carnival.

It's all time based and they put up the zones on the TVs around the ship. It's not hard. People act like it's hard and so they crowd the stairways etc, but the crew on Sunshine are good about keeping people out until it's their zone. You've got a good plan to camp out on Lido until last call. Then it will be easy to find your car in the lot etc.

If you booked a rate that allows rate reductions, yes. If not, then no.

You are correct thank you. Oasis was ordered in 2006, not built in 2006. I did get my numbers wrong. Oasis vs Dream is a better comparison and more fair to Carnival for sure.

I mentioned this in another thread some time ago, but if you look at Carnival's fleet and RCCL's fleet - which looks more modern? In 2006, Carnival debuted the Liberty - a very nice ship, but it looks ancient compared to RCCL's 2006 entry the Oasis of the Seas. Nothing CCL can do will make the Liberty have anywhere near the amenities of the Oasis. Carnival's debt load means they do not have the resources to turn over their entire fleet, so they're doing the next best thing - taking over ships from other lines they own. The only way the Liberty can compete with the Oasis is on price. But the Venezia or Celebration have plenty of amenities to keep most cruisers happy, so Carnival can compete less on price and more on amenities with these better ships. That allows them to pay down debt.

They have to offer a competitive product or they'll be in a death spiral. They can't just keep cutting and cutting unless they want to truly be the Frontier Airlines of the industry.

goes without saying but to me the most important part of the story is Carnival is kicking off the fighters.

On all Carnival ships, yes. They are $30Bn+ in debt and still not profitable. So they're cutting food as far as they can without mutiny, they've cut as many crew as possible without mutiny, cut hours at food venues, cut activities, while still trying to charge as much as they can for the cruise. But they're still not profitable. So they're in for a very dark decade ahead.