KmomChicago

All caught up @sid_9169. Thanks and what a great new ship and experience NCL has put together. Always nice to see you so happy. Waiting now for the next on VV.

No and it is why a couple of us overreacted to her disappearance. Brew up a little drama and disappear! Yikes. Obviously she is fine and will tell us more when she can.

You’re right but she had just posted about both losing a ship card and “a whole thing” about phone being picked up at a bar? Easy to get paranoid and wonder if a bad situation snowballed.

@PistolPete13 gave a good overview of it in his review as well. . . it is so completely right up my alley, should I ever make it to this esteemed vessel.

she has shared her full name in her reviews before.

I feel like if nothing else she would visit the internet cafe on board and at least give a general quick "sorry be back soon" message.

This sounds awful. . . the hazards of virtual friends who none of us know in real life, whose families don't know about their alter-identities in the social media world to come and tell us the rest of the story.

I feel like I am on a cheesy ride at Universal Studios about a famous movie called "Megan's Cruise Adventure" and we are at the part where something has suddenly. . . dun dun dun . . . gone terribly wrong!

O'Hare is hugamongous for sure. But I find it easier to navigate than some other hugies like Atlanta. and lately Orlando seems to be quite a drag too. BTW @MeganGC1983 I'm trynna catch up here. I have only done one Celebrity and the same ship as you, but when it was actually brand new for the first time. I realize it's been significantly renovated and upgraded since then. Nice cruise line but usually a bit out of budget for me at the moment.

I don't think Carnival has gotten worse overall for us. . . that's not the issue and really there is no issue per se. I'm just interested in trying something else but don't want to waste a fortune doing so, for no reason, LOL. I do read all the "everything has gone to h-e-double hockey sticks" comments on various threads. I am usually the one who doesn't miss whatever changed and often likes the new way better anyhow.

Sounds very nice, thank you for the comments.

Great information, thank you!

I cruised Celebrity Millennium in 2001, just a few weeks after 9/11, actually, that October. It was a nice cruise on a brand new stunning ship but my personal life and tastes were moving away from cruising so some of the value was lost on me. For our Alaska tentative cruise, the price is actually not higher than Carnival, it's a bit lower, which we all know is sometimes due to the bizarre economic alchemy of dates and high / low seasons and other factors. Anyone who's read about my frugality knows I am ALL ABOUT getting better stuff for cheaper.

This is all good information! We enjoyed the food on Royal Caribbean Oasis but that was in 2018 and I am sure things have changed in 5 years. We do like the large ships and don't really mind the numbers; at least so far it has not been an issue. I don't think we are at a point to blackball Carnival or anything, just feeling itchy I guess. What changed about Celebrity to push you away? We do have them on the short list for Alaska next year, on the Summit, admittedly one of their older ships.

Our only NCL ship in the running for this Alaska deal is Jewel, which was completely renovated right before the pandemic. It is definitely still on the short list as I have never tried NCL and our friends might enjoy getting their deal with all the free at sea stuff - and yes I know you have to pay grats and stuff and that nothing is really free anyway.

I get all this and since I had my only child at age 39, I was in fact beginning to enjoy a few of the finer things before my life totally changed course along with priorities and preferences. About 20 years ago for instance, I stayed at the Pulitzer Hotel in Amsterdam, a 5* joint built out of several old canal houses on the Prinsengracht just a short walk from the Anne Frank House. I actually chose it myself and paid for it with my own money and it was a very special experience. It's not the only time I treated myself to nice things, though, but even then, I still often chose a more frugal route and rarely suffered for it. I have always liked a broad range of stuff from a bit shabby/gritty up to nice and occasionally very nice. Then all kinds of life changes happened, I ended up where I am now, 56 years old with a 17 year-old, having spent most of middle age in both mom and grandma mode (I doubt I will get any real grandchildren and I think I have approached parenthood with a somewhat more grandparentlike outlook). So yeah, to your point, you're spot on. I would no way, no how, have gone on probably ANY of my Carnival cruises without this kiddo. I had lost interest in cruises during my 30s and I just never brought it up during their single digit years. It was said kid who requested a cruise 6.5 years ago, and then they and DH were both hooked, and here we are. I really don't mind all the screaming rugrats being around, but I certainly wouldn't miss them, either. On our last cruise we were in the Cloud 9 rooms and our hallway was noticeably silent compared to all our prior locations as it was almost entirely child- and riffraff-free.

I get that. . . for Alaska in May, we can actually do Celebrity Summit one way (they do have another ship doing the shorter route as well) cheaper than Carnival. There have been several conversations on these threads about Carnival only doing the Seattle round trip route in summer to please their loyal customers, not because it's the usual great value or a better option than the competitors. Of course it's Carnival's own Princess brand that is sort of the gold standard for Alaska, outside of the super luxury options, and time and again Princess is equal or better in cost for this one destination.

Iffy! It is pretty low quality stuff.

Alas the Radiance has been fully beige-ified and looks like any modern decent cruise vessel now, nothing particularly boobish or grapish. And I doubt the Miracle looks any wackier or less cohesive than any other Farcus-designed older Carnival ship.

I am sorry for your injury and that you will not have completed your recovery before the trip. I hope you can still very much enjoy it and that you will be strong and comfortable. We prefer larger ships as well, all things equal (which they often are not) so Radiance OTS doesn't just scream out to me but at the same time I really think we would not suffer on any of the 7 ships we have available; since we are traveling with another couple their opinions will be the deciding factor and I am sharing all pertinent opinions from this discussion with them. I can see something to like already about each one of the potential vessels. I have an inkling we will end up on Royal Princess because it's the largest and newest and because of Princess having the best routes and long history with the Alaskan one-way run. It's going to be a pricey bucket lister for us, no doubt the most we've ever spent on a cruise, and we are scaling down the number of trips next year to balance that out.

I think there is a good chance my husband and I will do Virgin once our kiddo is out of high school and we start taking occasional trips on our own. It looks like the value I want is there and a good fit. I just feel a bit "been there done that" about Carnival, though we have enjoyed it so much over a total of six cruises since 2017. Having been on Carnival Mardi Gras, Vista, and Radiance in the past 2 years, all of which looked great, I don't think the crazy decor and sometimes shabby look of the older ships is a big draw for us anymore. And my husband and I really enjoy good evening entertainment, where neither Playlist or Punchliner are wowing us at this point.

This is good to hear. . . I just cut and pasted this and sent it to my group to consider. One of the six in our party has only taken 2 cruises, Carnival Elation years ago and Carnival Legend with us just over a year ago, and they specifically said they would really like to try a larger and newer ship, and to your point Royal Princess is the biggest of the 7 on the Alaska list.

I did not work in the parks but rather at office and technical jobs, first for the 407-W-DISNEY central reservation office and then (mostly) for Disney Vacation Club, the timeshare, which is how I got my first cruise on Disney Magic. We did a telemarketing campaign during the first months as they were off to a slow start with bookings. People were having a hard time understanding why Disney was 3 or 4x the cost of the main competitor, Big Red Boat, but of course that all fell apart soon after and Disney took over. However, when I first started I was 30 and looked about 20 at 5' 2" and was told that I could probably have gotten cast as Alice if I had really wanted to be a face character. I wasn't svelte enough to be a fairy and I didn't really look like any of the princesses.

Have a great time and send my regards to the cruising contingent as this is something I would love to join but alas can not. On our only Oasis class cruise, Oasis itself as it happened (the best cruise we ever took overall), Central Park was our favorite area and we envy your position. I shall be with you in spirit and will look for the live threads. This Alaska 2024 I'm starting to look at is the only pending cruise on my radar though I have two Las Vegas trips this spring. There is one RCI ship in the running for it, Radiance of the Seas, which might win since it has the cheapest balcony rooms. However Royal Princess is the largest and newest of the ships we are considering. There are only 7 doing the run we want, when we want, the other 5 being Celebrity Summit, Norwegian Jewel, HAL Noordam, Sapphire and Grand Princess.

It is the Summit and it does look like one of the better overall values for our upcoming plans. My only other Celebrity cruise was Millennium when she was in her first or second year of service, a stunning ship. Thanks for the input, much appreciated.