tidecat

The port is reopening.

Celebration is scheduled to call at Amber Cove Tuesday at 7:00 AM. I wouldn't be surprised if that call gets canceled entirely. Even with the original itinerary Celebration would have to average close to 18 knots just to make it from Amber Cove to San Juan in 15.5 hours (4:30 PM Tuesday to 8:00 AM Wednesday).

Seaboard Blue wound up turning just past Fisher Island and is now south of Dodge Island. It looks like cruise ships still can't get in the main channel.

Conquest once had to dock in Mobile instead of New Orleans due to the Mississippi River being closed. Carnival had a little more notice with that than what they had this morning, though.

Theoretically every sailing could be different, but plan on around $149 for one person. There is a slight discount to purchasing a passes as a couple, which typically is $199. If you haven't booked yet, you may be better off booking a spa cabin which will include a spa pass for two adults in the cabin - typically the markup on these compared to a non-spa cabin in the same category is less than the cost of passes for a couple. One day passes start at $30/per person.

From your cabin walk towards the back (aft) of the ship and take the aft most elevators by rooms 6333 and 6335 down to Deck 3 or Deck 4. The galley is between the Sunrise (aft) and Sunset (forward) dining rooms, so you cannot walk between them on Deck 3. The elevators closest to you stateroom will take you to the back entrance of the Sunset (forward) dining room, but that is where the assigned time dining is held. If you are on Deck 3 and are forward of the Sunset dining room (i.e. the Atrium or the Liquid Lounge), note you can always go down to Deck 2 and walk to the back of the ship on that deck. I believe there may be a dead end in Deck 4 as well at the Limelight lounge, but there is no such dead end on Deck 5 where the main interior promenade is located. The casino is on Deck 5, so if cigarette smoke is an issue, I would recommend using Deck 6 or Deck 2 to the aft elevator bank, which will let you out right by the aft dining room.

Right now Star Princess is the last scheduled new build for all of Carnival Corporation's brands. In the last earnings call, CEO Josh Weinstein said there will not be any more new ships delivered until at least 2027, if not 2028. I would not be surprised if the next Princess newbuild isn't until 2030, presumably to replace what would be a 32-year old Grand Princess. It's also possible Princess may get one sooner if they hand a ship down to P&O Australia to replace the 1997-built Pacific Explorer (formerly Dawn Princess).

Nine years before Pitbull, Norwegian's Pride of America was christened by Senator Daniel K. Inouye, although he was not referred to as the ship's godfather, but as the ship's sponsor. Radio host Elvis Duran christened Norwegian Bliss. Margaritaville at Sea Paradise, originally the Costa Classica, was christened by former NFL player Shaquem Griffin when Bahamas Paradise became Margaritaville at Sea.

I'm wondering if Carnival should move Firenze to Seattle during the summer, and either let Luminosa sail out of Long Beach during the summer, or even let Spirit stay in Mobile year-round and keep alternating Luminosa between Brisbane and Seattle. Given what some of the Luminosa Alaska cruises are going for, that might make for better revenue yield overall.

We should get an earnings update soon, so we may get some clarity on whether or not there will be any 2027 orders. I'm still inclined to think no ships will be delivered before 2028. Carnival Sunshine will be the oldest ship in the company (not just Carnival Cruise Line), with Pacific Explorer (P&O Australia) close behind. I think Carnival gets a 1:1 replacement, while Costa Fortuna gets sent to P&O Australia and Costa gets the other 2028 newbuild. I think we'll see more ships pushed out towards the 32-33 year range. There needs to be some way to space out the replacements for all of the ships built between 1998-2010.

Street Eats is the collective name for Time Fries (not Timeless Fries); Mad Sizzle, which serves items like kebab and satay; and Steam Dream, which serves items like pot stickers, dumplings, bao buns, and wontons.

I finally got this offer for my debit card. Still haven't seen it for my Chase Freedom credit card. The wild part is I used this on a cruise I booked during Carnival's 50th anniversary sale. Between this and the AARP gift cards-which hopefully I can stack with 5% cash back on PayPal later on in the year-I should be able to save over $100 on a $632 cruise.

Venezia took on provisions at Ponta Delgada before beginning the transatlantic portion of the voyage.

The entire nation of The Bahamas actually is under Level 2 - the reports are typically only issued country-by-country, although the advisory specifically calls out Nassau and Freeport. France, Belize, Honduras, and The United Kingdom also have had Level 2 advisories. Mexico is one of the few with a detailed breakdown - the state where Mazatlan (Sinaloa) is located is Level 4 (Do Not Travel); Puerto Vallarta (Jalisco) and Ensenada (Baja California) are Level 3; and Cabo (Baja California Sur), Costa Maya (Quintana Roo) and Cozumel (Quintana Roo) are Level 2. Progreso (Yucatan) is Level 1 (use normal precaution) As a comparison, Mexico has a whole average 26.6 homicides in 2021. In 2021, Mobile, Alabama averaged 27.27 homicides per 100,000. There are some places in the world that are truly unsafe, maybe the State Department should start issuing advisories about the ones in the US.

The waterline is actually around Deck A - Deck 0 has to be above the waterline to support tendering operations.

Crew Bar is on Deck 3 forward if I remember correctly. From there you can access the bow.

Waves likely came in over the bow (Deck 3) and/or in the mooring area (aft of the ship, I believe on Deck 1). This would explain why areas like the Crew Bar (3 Forward) were flooded. If you've done Behind the Fun on Sunshine, you've visited the Crew Bar. I'm at a loss as to why Deck 4 would have any flooding, unless if the motion of the storm caused a pipe to burst, or if there was one or more very leaky windows. It may have been easier to evacuate the crew from Deck 4

Unless if Carnival quietly added those since February, there are not stairs going from the Baja shelf (the part with shallow water around the pool itself) to any pool on Mardi Gras. Every pool on Mardi Gras has steps between the deck and the Baja shelf. None of them have a staircase headed into the pool itself. Venezia is the only ship in the Carnival fleet that currently has that. Firenze will be the second when she begins her Carnival career in 2024. If you scroll down to "The Patio Aft Pool" in this article from Cruise Radio, you can see photos of the pool that show stairs going from the deck to the Baja shelf, but ladders from the Baja shelf to the pool: Carnival's Mardi Gras: Exploring Summer Landing (cruiseradio.net) This isn't the greatest photo of Venezia's pool area, but in this you can see two sets of stairs headed into the pool on the end opposite the fountain (and underneath two more sets of stairs that connect the deck above): DSC05974b-1280x853.jpg (1280×853) (shipsatsea.de)

Their are stairs from the deck to the Baja shelf on Mardi Gras but there is a deeper pool within the Baja shelf that just has a ladder. Venezia has stairs from the Baja shelf to the pool itself.

Luminosa isn't part of the "Costa by Canival" project. This was Carnival adding a ship from one of its sister brands.

As satisfying a successful launch of Venezia may be, remember that any cost associated with remodeling the ship, along with all of the unsold tickets in Europe while Venezia was deployed there, is ultimately the cost of exiting China. A Vista-class ship runs about $750 million. I have not seen a dollar amount quoted on the drydock, but given the length I think it would probably was at least $20 million. Whatever those costs are, ultimately they get doubled when you tack on Firenze in addition to Venezia. If you assume that Costa Magica and Costa Serena would not have been laid up as long as they were had Venezia and Firenze not been built, with a cost at least $1 million per month per ship, entering the Chinese market was ultimately a $1.6 billion mistake. It will take 10-15 years of Carnival Fun Italian StyleTM to make that back, assuming Carnival averages $230 in profit per passenger, which was the company average across all brands for fiscal year 2019.

I'm not really sure why the article chose 2029 as the reference point. Carnival (Corporation) hasn't even finalized what they intend to order for 2027. Royal will probably still have a sizable lead over Carnival Cruise Line, but I doubt it will be 1.1 milliona1 passengers.

Is it possible to use a gift card to make the initial deposit on a cruise? It looks like I have to book a cruise first using a different payment method and then load them to my princess.com account.

It looks like Venezia will not be sailing from New York year round: https://cruiseradio.net/carnival-venezia-port-canaveral-2024-2025/

You actually don't need to purchase a Internet package to use the chat feature in the Hub app.