originalgeek

We are 57 and 65 and have loved every Carnival cruise we've been on (5 so far with 6 and 7 booked for next year).  We only discovered how much we liked cruising about 7 years ago after our son and DIL convinced us to try one and now it's our favorite way to vacation.  

Then again, I still regularly go see underground death metal bands at little clubs so maybe I'm  not the best indicator.

On 9/14/2021 at 9:02 AM, AstoriaPreppy said:

I can say, definitively, the best/most unique shore excursion in Cozumel is Tabasco Chef Maestro. 

 

...

https://www.tabascochefmaestro.com/home/

Man you got me looking for cruises to Cozumel now.  (Not a hard thing to find lol).  We went to the Mayan ruins in Tulum the first time we were in Cozumel and that was fantastic but this sounds like my kinda fun.

OP - If you go cave-tubing in Belize I highly Recommend Butts-Up cave tubing.  It's not a carnival excursion but there are similar ones available through carnival but Butts-Up is just all around better in my opinion.  Cheaper than Carnival's version and a longer ride on the river and an included lunch (though not included booze - they had beer and frozen cocktails when we were there for purchase and very reasonable) and they did all the heavy lifting.  It was a pretty long walk through the forest up to the entry point into the river but their guys carried the tubes and, even though we were dead last, my wife and I who were in our 50s and out of shape at the time managed to do it.  The pay-off of getting in that sweet, cool water and floating back down through caves and jungle was well worth the hike.

When we did it those rubber wristbands were popular and we found a place online to get customized ones so we got them with the sail date and ship name and they even lit up.  

There are a TON of websites that will sell you bulk custom gifts for well within your price point and they have all kinds of stuff that you can make even more fun with the customization.

But my personal favorite thing was not part of the gift exchange - one of the roll-call members had a bunch of cruise coins made up with the ship and dates and our group name and sold them for like 7 or 8 bucks each.  He made a little money for his trouble (carrying them added many pounds to his luggage weight and he put up all the money up front to get them made) and we all got a pretty nifty souvenir.

On 9/9/2021 at 11:29 AM, davy jones said:

Thanks.  We'll check that out.

oh and I forgot - when you make an appointment see if they have any around sunset - they can take you up top and get some really cool sunset pics.  When we did it, sunset was right about the end of dinner time so we had to eat fast and run lol.  

You can make an appointment with the onboard photography studio and they have a lot more options than the guys out and about on the ship or set up along the walkways.  We did that and I am looking at a nice B/W photo of us with no background on my desk at work.  They take time to take a bunch of different poses and ideas and do a great job and you ar not obligated to buy any of them but you can buy as much or little as you want.  We opted for a USB stick (shaped like a carnival ship!) with all our photos and got a photo release from the photographer so we could have them printed when we got back home.

I THINK it was called the Dreams Studio but it might be different on different ships so check onboard or in your cruise manager.  It's level of service above what you get from the roving photogs and set pieces on the ship.

OK new sign up day is tomorrow, Wednesday September 8th at 9:30 am

at 10am

John Heald says he will post more details on his page Thursday morning.

Now I just gotta show my wife how to log on to the cruise manager and go to the excursions page and buy it. I usually take care of all that but I will be unconscious at the dentist at 10am.

They claim they will be much more strict with the number of sign-ups this year than they were last year.  Hard cap at 500.

You can link your bookings and that _should_ take care of it but it would be easiest to get a PVP and tell them what you want.  You can reserve the steakhouse from your cruise manager at Carnival's website. Linking your bookings will also make it easier for you all to be seated together in the Main Dining Room (if you want to - you don't have to all eat together).

Call Carnival customer service, ask for a PVP and then tell the PVP what all yo want to do.  It just makes life easier (unless you booked through a travel agent and then they should be able to do all that too).

8 minutes ago, Joe817 said:

I wish they would bring back a "now" version of the old TV series "Loveboat".  

I keep thinking they must since they are already airing the new Fantasy Island.  How can they not have a night of Love Boat and Fantasy Island?

We have been on 5 cruises now and never bought it. We live in central Florida and drive to port and so far there have been no issues.

But we have our 6th and 7th cruises booked for next year.  One is a 6 day from Miami and we didn't get insurance for that one but our big cruise next year is our 36th anniversary cruise - 10-day to Alaska from San Francisco.  It will be our first time flying to a cruise and it seemed like the right time to get insurance so we did.  

I will be perfectly happy if we spent that money for nothing.

Never had an inside and never bought Cheers.  I prefer balcony rooms but we have done rooms with windows on lower floors.  Our next 2 (next year) are both balconies but we got good deals on them last year when they were throwing offers at me every other day and before anyone knew when there would be sailing again.

Our first cruise we went on excursions at every port and found out you can wear your self right out doing that so the rest have all been more relaxed.  We were also too scared to go on non-carnival excursions then so they all cost us about twice what we could have done outside of Carnival.  I'm much more amenable to 3rd party excursions now but I don't know what the rules will be next year.

Never been but that menu looks fantastic so I'd definitely go and if my wife didn't want to (she's kinda iffy on Asian food in general but likes a very few things) i'd go without her. 

On 5/9/2021 at 6:48 AM, HillBilly Bob said:

Fun Times will be the "plastic" straws of the future.  So much waste for so little value with every passenger having a phone.  Otherwise, they wouldn't be pushing the "wifi" programs in excess.  

Just a side note to add, you don't have to buy any wifi package in order to use the HUB app for the digital version of the Fun Times.

Conquest, July 2016 - 30th anniversary

I almost always pick a cabin near the aft elevators - sometimes within 2 or 3 cabins of it - and I have never had an issue.  I don't recall ever noticing noise from passengers or the elevator itself. 

I like being a few steps from heading up for late night pizza or heading down to dinner in the MDR.

I've never been above a common area however I was below the Lido once and I will never do that again.  People tromping all over it all night and dragging loungers and who knows what else.  The least restful cruise I've ever had. (and yet, still better than being not on a cruise!)

we're booked on the July 25th 2022 10-day from San Francisco on the Miracle.  Neither of us have ever been farther west than Denver so we 're very excited for our first Alaska cruise and plan to see some sights in San Francisco too.  And yes, sea days on a ship are way better than any days at work.

Our first cruise was about 10 years ago on the Bahama Celebration line. A 3-day to Freeport our son and DIL talked us into to see if we would enjoy cruising.  We loved it but our next cruise wasn't until 2016 when we did a 7-day  on the Conquest for our 30th anniversary. As much as we loved that first little 3-day, the Conquest was a whole 'nother world of cruising.  It was a western route and we did all the dumb touristy first-timer things like going on excursions at every single port. Wore us out! But it was so worth it.  We now have our 6th and 7th cruises booked for next year including our 36th anniversary cruise heading to Alaska on the Miracle for 10  days and we just can't hardly stand the waiting.  That one was supposed to be our 35th anniversary this year but we all know what happened.  We also have our second cruise with John Heald booked in April for FFS#4.  Our last cruise before covid was FFS#3 and it was a real fun time.  

All but the very first one have been on Carnival.  We'll probably eventually try a different line but so far we have found the best deal at the time we wanted to go was Carnival.  And we are SUPER pumped to live in Orlando and soon to have the Mardi Gras just a quick drive away.  I plan to make good use of that ship! 

Speaking of which, for the first time, we have an extended balcony in the middle of the ship.  We've had regular balconies before but never an extended.  It doesn't look much different (from pics online) but I figured some extra whale watching room might be nice.  

We will be on the one right before you.  I'll try to leave you some beer but I can't guarantee it. 🙂

We didn't for our first actual cruise - it was just a 3 day to Freeport on the Bahamas Celebration cruise line.  It was a groupon we got for about 200 bucks total almost 10 years ago lol.  Our son and DIL talked us into going as they love cruising and we had never been and we figured it would be a nice trial run to see how much we enjoyed.  

Well we did have a blast.  Our son a granddaughters were with us and we had no idea what we were missing from newer, bigger ships lol.  It was funny overhearing all the experienced cruisers complaining about every little thing on that boat and even our kids said it was not the full cruise experience but enjoyable for such a cheap long weekend.

All the rest of our cruises have been on Carnival and we have our 6th and 7th cruises booked for next year and we got our passports for our first Carnival cruise and have used them ever since.  

We also recently won a cruise for some dumb thing my wife entered and I didn't think would be worth anything but I guess it was.  I know we will have some choices to make when we book that one but we have almost 2 years to figure it out.  There are a few different lines to choose from and we are considering seeing how other lines do stuff. 

But we'll use our passports regardless.

14 hours ago, groundloop said:

 

I was kind of bummed to find out that photo taking is prohibited, I'd love to get photos of some of the ships inner workings (propulsion, electrical generation, steam, etc.).  I've heard (don't know for sure though) that Holland America allows photos on their tour.

They do send a photographer around with the tour who takes a lot of pictures (including one with the captain on the bridge and other places not normally accessible by guests) and they give them to you (included in the price of the tour).  I can't remember if you get a free copy of all the pics taken but I know you at least get 1.  There are some other goodies they give you at the end too.

We did it on the Conquest 6 years ago and will almost certainly do it again some day when we finally get to cruise on the Mardi Gras.

I live in Florida so if I'm not at work I'm in shorts, flip flops and and death metal band shirt.

Same holds true on a cruise UNTIL Dinner time.  My wife makes me put on shoes and a collared shirt.  Oh, and pants.  

But on elegant night, since I'm already so casual the rest of the year, I love to get dressed up - in my Buchanan Clan kilt and Prince Charlie jacket.  I leave the sgian dbhu at home though.

There's a guy in my St Andrew's Society group who comes to most functions in his kilt and flip flops.  He's fun to drink with.  He brings the single malt. (I'm cheap and bring blends although the Buchanan's scotch is a pretty good blend).

I think* the kids don't mind wearing socks with sandals if they are the slip-on shower type sandals.  I mean, I see it at Wal-Mart all the time...not yet in the MDR though.

*I can only depend on what my granddaughters tell me as far as what the kids like these days.  

3 hours ago, Earthworm Jim said:

 

I disagree about it being random. I'm sure there is some data Carnival is using to decide who gets what offer. It's just that we have no idea what that is so it appears random to us.

 

(I wonder if it might be that big drinkers get the worse offer, because Carnival knows they'll lose a lot of revenue if those people drink for cheap. While they aren't losing much revenue by giving the better Cheers offer to cruisers with a history of being light drinkers. We're in the latter category and got the RU2 offer, but one data point does not a conclusion make.)

lol, well we can make it 2 data points if that helps.  A week after we booked a cruise for next April my wife got an RU2 offer in the mail.  I didn't think it would apply to our then current booking and and we have never gotten Cheers anyway so we ignored it but now I think it's too late to even bother checking if I can rebook with a discount Cheers.  

On a weird related note - we also recently booked an Alaska cruise and got OBC that is only for bar tab.  Not much (I think a hundred bucks) but I was gonna drink a couple beers anyway so might as well have them free.

8 hours ago, sparks1093 said:

Unfortunately I can't use the "we can cruise more often if we sail in an inside cabin" argument because we can't cruise more often than we do due to her business. We can typically get 2 weeks away during any given year, one is for cruising, one is for a trip to Germany to see her family (I did offer to go to Germany twice, which I really wouldn't mind because I love it there so much, but she still wants to cruise).

Germany, Scotland and Ireland are on our bucket list.  We'll have to give up a cruise one year to make that happen lol.  I don't know any of my Grandma's people in Germany but I have her old German Family bible from the 1800's that lists a lot of genealogy (if we weren't too afraid to thumb through it).  

On 2/28/2021 at 5:46 AM, sparks1093 said:

Works great unless you are married to Ms. SpendALot, then Mr. Frugal gets overruled. Repeatedly. I might someday convince her to try an Oceanview on a very short cruise, but even then I doubt it. She has made it quite clear that interiors are well in our past.🙂 

lol, it's the opposite here - I'm always pushing for a balcony and she's happy enough with an OV. (we have never had an inside although she's willing to consider it way more than I am) Fortunately for me the balconies fell in my favor on our next 2 booked.  

I suspect as we climb the ranks and get more cruises under our belts we might just opt for more cruises in cheaper cabins rather than cruising less in balconies.

But I gotta get the balconies out of my system first.  Or win the lottery.