tidecat

I would not be surprised if Celebration Key offers some of the same excursions as Freeport, namely the ones at UNEXSO.

Not to mention the Terazza area would be prime real estate for open-air viewing.

The barbecue salmon was good. It appeared to be quite popular the night it was offered on my sailing.

As of right now, it is only on the Elation. Hr will have to go to Seaday Brunch if he wants steak for breakfast, but Steak and Fries would have him covered for lunch and dinner. Just remember it will be at least $23 + 18%.

I still think Carnival dropped the ball by not putting Firenze in Seattle for the Alaska season.

Agreed. Most of the menu is available in the dining room. One of the salads, the brownie, and the pork chop are the only exclusive items. Right now this isn't in the Hub App or printed Fun Times, but there are signs at both dining rooms and on the Lido deck.

I ordered the Caesar Salad (identical to the MDR version), the Filet Mignon, Steak Cut Fries, and the brownie. Placed my order at 8:31, had my salad at 8:44, my steak at 8:55, and dessert was brought out about 9:07. The steak was cooked properly to order and quite tender. The fries came out very hot. The brownie was outstanding and it is a big portion. There is no beverage service with this, which is a miss IMO. Even if the one cook working this goes to the Red Frog or Lido bar and places the order for you, I think it would be a good upsell opportunity and a better experience. The charge actually shows up as "Seafood Shack" in the HUB app.

I have placed my order. You actually place your order at the counter at Blue Iguana Cantina. You are then given a pager and can sit either inside Tiffany's (Lido restaurant) or on deck.

If we take a very simplistic approach, each ship's public decks are 137 ft (beam) x 1130 ft (max length) or 41,810 square feet. An acre is 43,560 square feet. Of course each ship basically has four full public decks (6, 7, 8, Lido), so one ship represents four acres.

I doubt all four of them will be there on the same day, even if two of them are on 3/4 day cruises. Even if two of them are both doing 3-day cruises departing on the same day, I would expect one of them to go homeport, at sea, Celebration Key, homeport; and the other to go homeport, Celebration Key, at Sea, homeport. The Galveston sailings can't do that We might get two of them at once if it becomes the first (or last) stop on a 6, 7, or 8, day sailing since it is so close to the US. What would be curious to see is if P&O, Costa, and AIDA start including this in their Caribbean deployments.

Not to mention if the Fincantieri order happens, Carnival Cruise Line will probably get one to two of those as well. This should have two LNG-capable ships in all of Miami, Port Canaveral, and Galveston.

MSC does a light show at Ocean Cay.

I booked it fairly close to my sailing (about 4 weeks out), but it was because a slot had opened for that final sea day - every other day was sold out and had been for at least a month prior.

No tender ports on this sailing (Bimini, Nassau). If the pier ever gets built at Half Moon Cay that would make even more itineraries tender less.

The February 19 Carnival Elation 5-day Bahamas sailing still has Faster to the Fun available as of 7:50 PM EST on February 18. At $99.95/cabin, has Carnival pushed their hand too far?

Found a menu on Facebook:

Unless if something unforseen takes places, the 2025 drydock will happen, Carnival has cruises out of Norfolk that depend on it. The 2028 drydock likely won't happen if Carnival takes delivery of a ship in 2027. We may or may not have a period with both Sunshine and Excel 4 in service. If Sunshine gets 24-27 months of sailings after the 2025 drydock I think Carnival would be OK with that.

They aren't. The river is a half-mile wide at New Orleans. The Dreams used to sail from New Orleans.

Isn't one of the two ships doing 7-day itineraries? If so, the other ship would have departures every OTHER Saturday, Thursday, and Monday. A third ship could then do the same, just staggered by one week.

It comes down to which port makes Carnival the most money. Most consumers won't care if Galveston gets consecutive newbuilds, especially four years apart. Port Canaveral is a viable option for this as well. PC currently has one Vista-class year round and one seasonally (Venezia) so those would be the leading candidates for redeployment.

No. The market won't support it. It will be either Galveston or Port Canaveral, and I'd actually give a slight edge to Galveston. New build to Galveston Dream from Galveston to Norfolk Sunshine from Norfolk to retired If Sunshine isn't retired, I could see a fourth ship in Galveston year-round, with the seasonal Spirit-class ship headed elsewhere - that would be the best chance for New Orleans, although I think Miami may be more likely (which was supposed to happen before Spirit wound up being redeployed to Mobile). That would allow New Orleans to have a 4 or 5 day cruise departing every Saturday, Thursday, and Monday.

Yes, all Icon-class ships are being built by Meyer Turku. The 2027 Excel ship will be from Meyer Werft.

I think the big question for 2027 is will there be any retirements? Sunshine is scheduled for an early 2025 drydock - if that still happens Carnival could have 28 ships in the fleet instead of 27 for the second half of 2027. That might allow for summer service out of Mobile, additional summer service out of Tampa, etc. If Sunshine is retired when the new ship comes on board, I would expect a Dream-class ship in Norfolk, a Vista-class replacing a Dream-class in Galveston, and the new ship replacing a Vista-class in Port Canaveral or Galveston.

Conquest Class will be with us for a while. Sunshine class and Fantasy class take up the oldest five ships (1996-2000). California isn't fond of LNG, so I doubt the Excel class will ever be based there. I also don't see New Orleans getting an upgrade yet. If they do, it will be the Dream class.

It may still happen, but we are looking at a 2028 or later delivery. If anything, that should allow all of the European mainstream brands to get a newbuild. Either that or Carnival Cruise Line needs three ships between now and 2031 - that likely means curtains for Sunshine, Sunrise, and Radiance.