KmomChicago

This is the problem with making friends. People are disgusting!!

Looks like this epic odyssey is a GO!

Welcome to a pre-cruise episode of As the Rug Turns, in which Sid is smugly satisfied all day long that he is mere hours from the most fascinating, interesting, enjoyable, unusual, special cruise of his entire life.

I have a feeling my job all week is going to probably be advising various people against various courses of action. 😬 I wonder why the need for this seems inevitable on a tribe cruise?? 🤔

I’m going to go ahead and advise against that course of action.

ALMONDS, STALLION! Greg grabbed his “almonds”! I mean, my dad used to call them his hickories, but whatever floats your cruise ship.

yeah me too. I am 99% sure I got top left instantly. Unless I am totally wrong but bottom right???????

It’s your party, you can cry (or whatever) if you want to!

Thank you. Yeah, so much for our tropical outing to Mineral Wells. More of an arctic outing but whatever, we will enjoy regardless. We are staying Sunday night for our Monday am flight home at one of the Hyatts on DFW property. I’ll be sure we allow plenty of time to get there in the afternoon and try to avoid freezing rain driving if possible.

That would have been me. IRL I’m the PITA, bossy, humorless, all business square trynna keep everyone on the straight and narrow. I’m glad I’m not going to be there to run around tut tutting. These pros know exactly what they’re doing and how to ride the edge without going, well, overboard, so to speak. Which reminds me, please, nobody overboard. This is an exhibition, not a competition!

All caught up and ready to sail with you @ninjacat123. I’m actually flying down to DFW tomorrow night with my teen for a short weekend with my brother over MLK, but unfortunately we have to return Monday to resume college classes rather than visiting exotic locales via luxury moving transport vessels. Enjoy and thanks for bringing us along.

Yeah I’m flying down to visit my brother in Ft. Worth Thursday night for the MLK weekend and “enjoy” the “southern” weather. I don’t even want to go and my alternative is suburban Chicago! I don’t think you should get off that ship, @TxTeach79!!

As part of your Diamond amenities we’d like to get your butt off this ship as fast as humanly possible and we particularly recommend doing all the heavy lifting yourself. Also we trust you enjoy receiving this reminder that tomorrow morning we want your butt off this ship as fast as humanly possible. Don’t give us that look. You always knew it would end this way. Thank you, come again soon!

I like the style of this place very much, looks great IMHO. Hopefully the sign maker is a second language issue rather than a literacy issue.

Hope all goes well this morning and that the travel adrenaline carries you today. Maybe get a great night’s sleep tonight once underway and able to de stress. I’m a bad sleeper and can’t ever get any rest before travel days.

Is the oh crap button up to date on scheduled maintenance ?

I mean, heck yeah I’m stowing away for this one!

Yeah I was kinda like “hey get up, it’s your last full day and you don’t wanna miss it!”

@jam19872016 it’s getting time to ask the obvious questions. As someone who likely will never be in a position to do 4 b2bs on a single ship I gotta know. 1. Are you getting bored? There’s plenty of big boats sailing weekends from Miami. You could have substituted another line or ship at some point or, probably each week. But all Carnival Magic. The only ships I ever really wished to stay on more days, after the planned 7 came to their tragic and inevitable ends, were Oasis of the Seas and new Mardi Gras. Never had a bad cruise, but I tend to cover all the ground in the duration provided and then after that, I am not a repeater by nature as variety is the spice, as they say. 2. Even so, it seems the vibe changed a bit week to week based on the passengers. Is that accurate? How much difference did that make? 3. Did you ever say, why am I still on this ship instead of doing something else like going home or a completely different kind of travel this week? 4. The weather and sea conditions have been bad; it’s been in the news and this week an MSC Bahamas cruise from NY went to New England / Canada - in December!! How bothersome has the weather been and would you do this again this time of year? 5. Are you tired of the food?

I’m not a very picky Carnival cruiser but yeah, it looks clearly imperfect and what’s the point of the fanciness if it’s all tired and beat up? I have not followed a review on Excel class lately but Rudi’s seagrill (which of course I would never pay for an upgrade meal like that) has or had these gorgeous dishes with starfish points and by about the 5th sailing of Mardi gras they all had points broken off already. Eminently impractical regardless of the elevated experience they’re trying to provide. I’d prefer to do simple very well rather than over promise and under deliver.

Ooh different menu options tonight. We await the mystery of the captain’s favorite meal.

We tried the table service Asian on Vista for lunch one day and it is not something we would repeat. No better than anything we would get on the buffet, and without the immediacy and all the choices of the buffet. The oddest thing was that there seemed to be no rhyme or reason as to when the food was cooked and the two of us got our food at completely different times, as did tables around us; people who came in later got their food sooner. It was a weird vibe overall for us. Still, it was fine, I can see why people would enjoy that as a lunch option but counter service I think just fits us better.

I agree with the comment about live reviews solo, my family does not like it much when I am live reviewing everything. It’s exactly the same to them as being on your phone the whole time, because you are. I am glad to be a “rare” live reviewer but I think semi live is the best I can promise going forward if I have companions on the ride.

@jam19872016 obviously potentially concerning and yet, I don't know how it can be avoided. These are mass market vacation products and Carnival is the massest of 'em all. Occasionally someone who doesn't know how to behave in public is going to buy a ticket. I can't afford Mustique and in fact didn't even know it existed until about 2 years ago, but I imagine that is the kind of Caribbean place you go if you need a riffraff-free money-back guarantee. Good to hear it was not anything seriously impacting other passengers. Another Carnival ship rescued 6 sailors from a capsized vessel this week as well. We need someone with insider experience probably to help explain what happens when non-US nationals are pulled out of international waters and set down on our border-controlled shores in emergency rescue situations, but here again I would imagine it throws a bit of a wrench into the works landside.

WOW.