BlerkOne

If you have ever modified a booking, the booking gets repriced, including changes in port taxes, etc. Per the ticket contract, the same one everybody agrees to whether they read it or not, Carnival could pass any increased costs along, even if no other change was made.

They are cutting unnecessary fat. There is no reason for the majority to subsidize the entitled minority. Beyond that, it is a competitive disadvantage for mass market cruise lines to offer more than competitors. Too many consumers don't care about anything but price. The same reason a service charge isn't mandatory and included, to the detriment of the employees. If the industry adopted, then all would. Niche players need not apply.

You can always cancel an excursion before the cruise, so if remotely interested, why not book? I also book cancel-able hotels if I'm even thinking about a specific cruise. Shop around later.

Years ago (2008) I did a Paris On Your Own excursion through Carnival and the bus left me in Paris. They drop you off at a location in Paris and then tell you the area to meet the bus, but didn't say there would be 100s of buses in the same area. Luckily many of the buses will be for Carnival and I just rode back to the ship on one of them

I would prefer law enforcement to randomly change their routines so as not to be predictable. It also increases the paranoid factor for the guilty.

These are the same einsteins who will turn around an sue Carnival (or their heirs will) for overserving them, when they do something stupid. After the fact is too late for enforcement.

When you tell them no, it seems to.

As I understand it, dogs with some extra training can sniff out edibles

You for sure aren't going to be picking up US satellites.

Carnival only has a limited presence in Europe and prefers not to poach customers from itself. Carnival customers are typically from the US and incredibly fickle.

The domestic airport is a lot closer to downtown than the International airport.

We met at 5:30am in Tuscan Grill where they had a breakfast of sorts set up for us, and around 6am or maybe later we were escorted off of the ship to a private shuttle to the terminal and to our bus to the airport. All we had for luggage was a small carry-on with whatever we needed for overnight at Iguazu. No customs, no immigration, no nothing. We flew from EZE to Iguazu on an A330 and returned to a different airport on a ERJ90 and were taken to our various hotels where we reunited with our larger pieces of luggage. We put our large luggage outside of our cabins with special luggage tags and didn't have to deal with it until we checked into our Buenos Aires hotels the following day. The tour company dealt with all of that. The carry on we took to Iguazu (most took a backpack) could be safely stored while on the buses while touring the falls or you could catty any or all of it. What was sadly lacking was information from Celebrity about the tour other than a brief description, which wasn't that accurate to begin with. Not having to fool with any of the planning or execution was well worth the price to me. I did see a number of others from the cruise at the falls so it is certainly possible, but I don't know about their journey. Perhaps they will post here or on other social media.

Celebrity. This is the basic itinerary

We started on the Brazil side. First real glimpse

We had good sized plane going to Iguazu from the main airport

Carnival Pride may not offer specialty restaurants dedicated for suite guests, but Guy's burgers beat any burger I've eaten on Celebrity. Fresh off of a Celebrity cruise, I continue to be disappointed in the lack of venues open when I'm hungry. Celebrity does offer tablecloths in the MDR and the every night available choices in a Celebrity MDR are better, IMO. Specifically escargot and French Onion soup. The steak is better than what Carnival offers, although I have found the quality of the steak in the MDR has steadily declined. Celebrity adding a charge for room service outside of continental breakfast narrows the gap. I rarely do buffets, but was forced to a few times on Infinity. While there are a number of stations crammed into the buffet area, many offered nothing I was interested in. I also couldn't find chocolate deserts like chocolate cake. Celebrity does have something I would describe as chocolate mousse with a little cake. If Carnival offers an itinerary you like at an acceptable price, there really is no need to look farther.

Beautiful day in Iguazu yesterday. Started that way today but then the skies opened up. Now hunkered down at the rail station. Had to break out my snorkel cam

There is but I don't know how much.

None of the above am I saying.

I hear coughing and sneezing going on.. Hopefully it won’t find me.

I met my excursion at 5:30 am . Zzzzz. We’ll see if I finally make it to Iguazu. Laptop is going to the BA hotel so probably not going to post too many pictures until after the excursion.

Okay. I thought you just wanted a tender ride to shore. You can probably hire a taxi to pick you up at the tender area, take you to the yacht, and return you to the tender area.

The cruise line tours also have a higher passenger load since the local operator benefits from the free Carnival advertising. Some tour operators manage to negotiate out of a exclusive contract with Carnival and have the best of both worlds. The Alaska Crab tour was one - maybe still is.

Who, AFAIK, never worked for Carnival. The cabin ventilation system on the newer Carnival ships is different from that on the older ships.

I'm not sure what the excursion return time has to do with anything since you aren't going to be taking the excursion anyway. If I remember correctly, Edinburgh port was under construction last year which messed everything up. Not sure how long the construction is going to take. Or maybe that was a different port.