Eli_6

And no insurance doesn't help us so no need to suggest that.

So, some of us had concerns about the fact it disappeared from the website a month ago when there were still plenty of open rooms just days before and CCL now claims it is booked up. I asked on JH's page and no response. We are the first sailing after Pride goes in for an extensive dry dock. I emailed Carnival a week or so ago and finally got a response that, inter alia, said: Thanks for being a loyal customer and per your Cruise Contract we can cancel at any time. No "yes it is going forward " or "no it is canceled." An entire paragraph verbatim from the cruise Contract. I felt like the response was very evasive and it makes me all the more think something is up... I suspect they just don't know but have concerns the dry dock will run over. I am on my phone and at a playground with my kids so can't cut and paste the lengthy letter. Will try to do that in a couple of hours when I get home.

I have had anytime dining before when they allowed us to have the same table at the same time every night. And I wasn't diamond or platinum.

I would do the Havana inside hands down for a couple's cruise. Love the Havana area on the Vista class ships!

If the deal isn't sold out, you should be able to.

I am obviously partial to my home state, but I think it is a great place to live. With that said, if you are coming from Canada, you might be in a for a bit of a shock with the weather in the summer. It is very hot and humid in the summer. Actually, Houston is hot and humid. The entire state is hot, but Houston and the gulf coast are particularly miserable because of the humidity during the summer. I used to live in Austin and it was not as humid, but the temps would get higher so it was sort of a wash. Everywhere is air conditioned so you just pretty much live indoors for 2-3 months out of the year. In an ideal world where my husband didn't have a business he had to be at and my kids didn't have school, we would live somewhere cool like Colorado or Lake Tahoe or even Scotland for the summer months. The most popular city to live in for people who aren't tied to a particular location due to their job seems to be Austin. It has a big music scene, is liberal, eclectic, has The University of Texas, etc. The city slogan is "Keep Austin Weird." I went to law school there at UT. I loved living there; although, that was 15 years ago and I think it has grown a lot since then. I also really love the hill country. Fredericksburg, Kerrville, Marble Falls, Canyon Lake, Lake Travis, Boerne, etc. My Dad lives on some land out in the hill country near Boerne (north of San Antonio) and it is truly beautiful country.

We weren't concerned about the entire season--just the first sailing. The concern was that if they dry dock ran behind schedule, she wouldn't sail that first 12 day Barcelona to Dover scheduled for the end of May. That sailing disappeared from the website a month or so ago and, in the past, when sailings have disappeared that far in advance it has often meant a cancellation was coming. Carnival is saying that the sailing is sold out, but some of us find that a little difficult to believe given that there were plenty of rooms shortly before it disappeared. Then, when we went to some third party websites, it didn't show up on the port schedule. However, apparently these third party sites base their schedule on the Carnival website so they don't really tell us anything. I think only time will tell.

I would gladly switch if they cruised from Galveston...

Totally agree on it shouldn't just be based on days you cruise. I think some of the other lines give you 1.5 days or points for suites. Instead of changing the points, I would suggest do something beyond diamond...like you can become double diamond once you get to 400 days or triple diamond at 600 days. Maybe for each additional level, you could get extra OBC. I like the idea of once you go diamond, you should get free upgrades on rooms if they remain unsold once you are on board. Also, I wish they would give more drink rewards or free wifi.

The laundry is not a minor thing if you have a family of 4 and are cruising abroad.

The Texas Medical Center is the largest medical center/complex of hospitals in the world so it attracts a lot of international healthcare workers. We also have a lot of energy sector and tech companies headquartered here. I mean...three of the top seven most populous cities in the U.S. are in Texas. Our GDP is second only to California. I feel like the stereotype of Texans being obnoxious, backwards, unsophisticated, or "loud" is a stereotype from another era. People move here from all over because of jobs, the cost of living is reasonable, taxes are low, and our winters are mild. Middle income families can actually afford to own a home here...unlike in many other places in the US. So, the people who board the ship in Galveston really aren't going to be any different from anywhere else in the US. Any complaints against Galveston cruisers can probably be levied at American cruisers in general. Generally speaking, I don't think most people (regardless of their country of origin) pick cruise vacations in order to "immerse" themselves in the culture of the country or countries they are visiting. The stops in a given port are relatively brief so no one is going to be able to truly "experience" the culture and cuisine. If you want to do that, you need to take a land-based vacation and spend weeks or months in a given country. Unfortunately, due to the small amount of time most Americans get off from their jobs for vacation, most can't spend weeks at a time in another country. Also, with respect to Mexico, I suspect the reason some American cruisers choose chain restaurants over local ones is because of a fear of Montezuma's revenge. I grew up part of my childhood in Laredo/Nuevo Laredo so I am unaffected, but I once went to Mexico with a group of high school friends when we were all about 18-20. Everyone on the trip but me had issues after drinking frozen margaritas (the ice) from a "local" restaurant. I suspect the tourist areas have since improved their water lines in the 20+ years since this happened, but it is still a cautionary tale that I would guess most Americans are aware of.

Also, let me add that there are more people of Hispanic background in Texas than there are "Anglo" people: https://www.statista.com/statistics/306044/texas-population-ethnicity-race/. Texas was, in fact, a state in "New Spain" and, later, Mexico for longer than it has been a state in the U.S. I don't think Texans are going to shy away from cruising MSC because they view it as not "American" enough. Frankly, I have never even heard the trope that Texans like Starbucks and Hooters and only eat at chain eateries. That's a completely new one to me! Heck, the most "popular" restaurants where I live are Mexican food restaurants, Seafood Restaurants, and Steakhouses...and I would bet MSC serves at least the later two. The only "trope" that I think probably is true is that a lot of us who cruise out of Galveston do so because we prefer to drive to the port rather than fly. IAH and DFW are both really busy international airports. The last several times I have flown into or out of IAH, it has been not much fun (especially with construction around the airport) and not worth messing with unless you are flying a distance that is too far to reasonably drive. And that's not because we "love our big trucks" but because it simply isn't fun to deal with flight delays/cancellations or lost luggage when you are supposed to be on vacation.

As an aside, the assumptions on that other thread were that us Texans are basically all a bunch of uncultured, "loud" morons who only like chain restaurants like "Hooters" and shirk from experiencing any other culture...and specifically used the example of Mexico! That's just so wrong it is laughable. How many times have most lifelong Texans been to Mexico? Texas was part of Spain (and, later, Mexico) for longer than it has been a U.S. state. The Hispanic roots of Texas are evident and a large percentage of Texans are of Mexican or Tejano descent. I was a teenager before I went to Louisiana and in my 20s before I made it to Oklahoma or New Mexico...but I had been to Mexico by the time I was 4 and probably went two or three dozen times over the next two decades. No lifelong Texan is "shocked" by anything in a Mexican cruise port. If we are bitching about it, it is probably because we are have been there sooo many times we are sick of going to the same darn place and not because we are offended by it or "shocked" by the Mexican culture.

Your statements include a lot of misperceptions about Texans. I am a lifelong Texan and have traveled all over the world. I went to grad school in the United Kingdom even. Further, the city I live in (Houston--which happens to be closest to Galveston) is the most culturally, ethnically, AND religiously diverse city in the entire United States. We are also the second fastest growing city in the US. In fact: 24 percent of Houstonians are foreign born. In my son's class this year, he got new students who moved here from Italy, England, Canada, Trinidad, and South Africa....in addition to a slew of Californians.

If any of them actually came to Texas, they might not want to leave. Seems like that has what happened with Californians. Having traveled extensively in Europe and having gone to grad school in the UK, generally speaking our standard of living is better here than in much of Europe. There are a few places in Scotland I might prefer to Texas in the summer time, but in the winter I expect I would change my mind...

Oh, okay. I see what you are talking about. I was just talking about for priority since that is who the OP was asking about.

I think this may depend on who the cruise director is and how they decide to call debarkation because I can assure you that I have been on a sailing where I had priority zone 1 (for a suite) and all of the self-debark people were called before we were allowed to debark. I remember it clearly because it greatly annoyed me since I had paid extra for a suite and it made us run late for our flight because they let ALLLLLL the people who were in self-debark off (which was pretty much 2/3 of the ship) before we got to go...and then I got yelled at in line by one of the port people for being on the phone because I was trying to call our airline to see what would happen if we missed the flight. We made our flight, but it was by the skin of our teeth.

Wow! That is a good price!

I have heard really good things about the Yacht Club. It is in line with the Havana area and (in my experience) less than NCL's Haven. I recently priced a Haven room on the Prima out of Galveston and it was over 9k for 2 people...and it wasn't even a holiday week or anything. Hard pass on that.

I don't think you understand what I am saying. Maybe I am not wording it correctly. If you "carry off" your luggage and have priority, you go to the priority waiting area and debark first before everyone else. That is how I have personally gotten off the ship in my last several cruises. It has been that way for me every time we have been in a suite or had FTTF. If you do NOT carry off and put your luggage out the night before, they call you by zone AFTER the "carry off" people debark. Priority in that case is usually zone 1 or 2. They also usually have you meet somewhere and then let you go as soon as all the self debark people go. I have done it this way with priority debark before, too. Unfortunately, you get off much later that way.

The increase in the cost of groceries, gas, cars, and housing is hurting the people who might otherwise use their discretionary income to cruise with carnival and no longer have discretionary income. When property values go up, taxes go up and rent goes up for those people who don't own. Maybe the people who make 100k+ are still ok, but the people who make 25k-50k are being hurt by the aforementioned because those items are a much greater percentage of their household income.

Those of you who think the economy is doing so great are fooling yourselves. Just because you aren't PERSONALLY seeing it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Your own personal experiences are not reflective of the national and international economies that affect CCL and CUK and their pricing. See: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/household-wealth-suffers-biggest-loss-since-2008 https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/27/stock-market-losses-wipe-out-9-trillion-from-americans-wealth-.html https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/recession-threat-stock-market-crash-bank-of-america-2023-outlook-2022-11?op=1 https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/recession-outlook-2023-q1-forecast-inflation-stock-market-recommendations-bofa-2022-12?op=1

If you carry off your luggage you can. If you have them take your luggage down, you have to wait until after the carry off people go.

Good idea. I didn't realize any of the fares had refundable deposits...

Houston is one of the fastest growing cities in the US...and Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, and San Antonio are not far behind. All cities are within a 5 hours drive from Galveston. I don't know exactly how many people live in the metro area of those 4 cities combine, but 30 million people live in Texas and I would say probably 2/3 to 3/4 of the population of the state lives within a 5 hours drive of Galveston. I live in Northern Houston and I can be at the Galveston cruise terminal in under 90 minutes in traffic. Flying is a nightmare and we like to take long weekend cruises out of Galveston. We would love the chance to do the Yacht club since Carnival is now moving her only ship with a decent Havana area to another port.