Eli_6

That little blurb under the woman holding the frozen drink is misleading. The actual "1 bottle" policy appears to not have changed.

From the above article: “State law and TABC rules prohibit any practice which could reasonably be interpreted to allow or encourage overconsumption of alcohol. This includes “all you can drink” packages or other promotions which allow unlimited alcohol for a buy-in price. These standards would apply to any alcoholic beverages served or sold within Texas territory, including any waters over which Texas claims jurisdiction. Once a vessel is outside of Texas territory, the state’s laws no longer apply.” I have lived in Texas my entire life. I am a Texas attorney (but I am not your attorney). I was the social chair and later President of my sorority in college and planned many parties. Even back then some 20 years ago, we could not charge a flat fee for "all you can drink." As long as I have lived in Texas, that has been the law. Maybe NCL skirts the law in some manner or another or simply hasn't gotten busted, but that is the law and I don't blame Carnival for following it. Maybe NCL starts the drink package on the first day after they are in international waters. Maybe they don't allow drinks until sail away and it doesn't take that long to get to international waters. Maybe they simply risk getting fined if caught.

Someone posted on a relatively recent thread they were late getting back in to port in galveston because of these issues so...I am thinking not.

Oh man, if they could actually get this up and working where my husband could depend on reliable internet, this would be a complete game changer for our ability to travel!

Following this thread as also likely booking this cruise. Just waiting to get spring break dates finalized.

Or maybe Carnival attracts a crowd more likely to over-indulge from a psuedo "All you can drink" package so Carnival management has decided to not risk this occurring in Texas water where they might lose their ability to serve alcohol completely should something go wrong.

I have no idea how NCL gets around the law then, but the law in Texas is that you can't have "all you can drink" packages. Technically, neither package is truly all you can drink. Maybe NCL is simply more comfortable with pushing the limits than Carnival or less concerned about being sued or getting fined by TABC. Or maybe they don't worry as much about it since they don't sail as much out of Texas. Carnival has three ships going all the time out of Galveston.

NCL probably doesn't market it as an all you can drink package and therefore somehow gets around it.

The laws in those states do not allow "all you can drink" packages to be sold purportedly because it encourages excessive alcohol consumption. You can still buy alcohol by the drink. The alcohol doesn't have to be Texas alcohol. It just has to be sold from a distributor licensed in Texas. All types of alcoholare sold in Texas. I suspect all the alcohol they have on the Galveston boats is from a Texas distributor because that is where they get their provisions...i.e. the port of Galveston.

Hold the front door-- people actually thought the corkage fee was for removing the cork??? 🤯

OP might also consider Princess, Cunard or HAL. Those "Carnival" brands are probably more on the level of Celebrity while Carnival is more comparable to Royal Carribean or NCL. I have really been wanting to try Cunard, but I think they only have three or four ships so haven't even found a sailing/itinerary that works for us.

The pics of your stateroom look much better than the balcony room that my son had on Pride this past summer. Yours appear to have the same "updated" carpet that our suite had. My son's room had older carpet and there were holes in the couch. I thought maybe it was just the suites that had been updated, but maybe other rooms had been, too. We are supposed to be in adjoining mid ship balconies on deck 6 this upcoming summer. Do you know if other balconies on deck 6 had been updated like yours?

Breeze Deck 2 Mid-ship - Purple Breeze Deck 10 Forward - Army Green Pride Deck 6 Mid-ship - Green Vista Deck 6 Aft - Orange Splendor Deck 6 Aft - Orange Splendor Deck 9 Forward - Army Green

I feel your pain. We had a similar experience this summer on the Pride with a terrible room steward. Our sheets were obviously not changed between us and the last guest...as in they were visibly dirty and REAKED of smoke and body odor. There was mascara and blood stains on them. For THREE days he didn't change them despite multiple phone calls. When I politely asked him on the third day to just give me the sheets and I would change them myself (because I could NOT sleep on dirty sheets someone else had slept on for a 4th night because I was so grossed out that it was affecting my ability to relax and sleep), he screamed at me that he was busy. We ended up going to guest services and the head of house keeping came and personally change the sheets. Fortunately, this was the only time I have ever had an experience like that. I think the problem is that they have some new crew who aren't as trained/good and they have more rooms to clean.

Yes. It is a Costa ship that was converted to Carnival ship. Costa is a brand owned by Carnival. However, this particular lay out was in the same class on Costa as the "Vista" class is on Carnival if that makes sense. (Same ship layout/time period.) The only difference is that the Venezia doesn't have a pool in the area, but it does have two hot tubs. I also think the Venezia is a little bit nicer ship than the Vista class Carnival ships and I think they are doing some sort of specialty brunch and a sail away party. Costa also sold Carnival the Firenze (same layout as the Venezia) so that ship will be out of Long Beach.

I am jealous. This itinerary looks amazing!

As an aside, if you like a little bit nicer experience, I highly recommend the Havana area on the Vista Class Carnival ships. It is (IMO) one of the best experiences for the $ on a ship. If you want to go a little more expensive, get an aft corner excel balcony (with your own hot tub on your own huge deck) on the Excel class ships and get free access to Loft 19.

I have been lurking on the Celebrity board lately, too, as I am considering booking a cruise on a sailing itinerary that Carnival doesn't offer. I agree that however much unhappiness is here due to cutbacks, it seems to be ten-fold over there. I have been surprised at how all of the "extras" on Celebrity are almost double (or more) on Celebrity vs what they cost on Carnival. There are no self-service laundry rooms. Laundry on Carnival is $15 a bag vs $35-50 on Celebrity. $9.95 delivery fee for room service per order on top of the price of the food and a 20 percent gratuity. Carnival has a small charge for room service(other than breakfast which is free), but it isn't much by comparison. It appears that drink packages are $90-120 per day per person versus $59.95 on Carnival. Wifi is $35 per day on Celebrity vs $16-18 on Carnival. It makes me reconsider my views on Carnival in a good way. Especially since the price of an inside room is a balcony on Carnival...and a balcony on Celebrity is the price of a suite on Carnival...and the price of The Retreat on Celebrity (at least what is on the website) is really high.

Weather in New Orleans can vary dramatically in January/February anywhere from below freezing to in the 80s. Roatan and Cozumel will be plenty of warm to swim. It will actually be nice weather (70s to low 80s) there instead of intolerably hot.

Cool! I think they were still operating under reduced hours the last time I cruised

Are these the current drink prices: https://profcruise.com/carnival-bar-menus-and-drink-prices-2022/ With everything else going up, I just wanted to double-check since we are leaving in a couple of weeks for another cruise. On my last two, we didn't do much drinking so I wasn't paying attention...but this is an adult's only cruise so I plan to hit up the bar. Still, probably not enough to justify Cheers.

Do you always have future cruises booked? I seem to only get offers when I either have zero or only 1 cruise booked.

Yeah, the 2023-24 school calendar isn't out yet. I was hoping the principal could give me a better idea. Glad to hear this deal *hopefully* won't expire soon.

I grew up part of my childhood in Laredo. Our youth director at my church (Jim Smiley) was killed by youths supposedly with possible cartel links...but one of them was also living in his house or had lived in his house at one point. My family later moved away, but my friends and I would still go to South Padre as teenagers and go over to Matamoros many times with no incidences. This was the late 90s and about a decade after the Adolfo Costanzo killings of the 80s so there was a history there. Despite all of these terrifying incidents, I have traveled to Mexico many times and never felt any concern. My understanding is that *most* of the cartel retaliation is usually targeted at people or their families who are believed to have helped authorities...or are authorities themselves. I.e. In Laredo, either one of the DA's or the police chief was killed once, I believe. I would have no fear of going there so long as you went with a large tour group and stayed in the tourist zones. I doubt they are going to kidnap tourists in a large tour group in the middle of the day.

I am interested in this, too, as I am considering booking a cruise on Celebrity to go to Egypt.