Eli_6

I had a suite when I went on the MG. I never ordered lunch to the area, but I was not blown away with the area and would have been mad if I had paid the price for a cabana. (At the time I cruised, it was like $500 per day.) The pool was not really a pool but more like a 2.5 foot deep hot tub. However, we got an aft corner suite and the room was amazing and worth the price we paid.

Ok...I am experimenting. I changed my address to my lake house on my VIFP profile to see if I get better rates.

Yes! Geez....I am so tired of going to Cozumel and Belize. Please, please, please mix up the itineraries a bit.

Interesting! See, that is what I was wondering...since they have our address and one could assume we are more likely to cruise out of a port we can easily drive to, do they make our tickets more expensive for those of us with a nearby address knowing that we are more likely to pay a higher price to avoid getting on a plane??? My Mother gets much better deals to Galveston than I do and I sometimes wonder if it is because they have her old address where she used to live like 8 hours away. (Now she lives just down the road from me.)

When I went to my cruise, it appears Chef's Table has gone up to $99 as well...but maybe it had already gone up and I just had not noticed. It seems like it used to be $75 or $85. That seems steeper to me than even the Steakhouse price because while it is a neat experience, it's not like the Chef's Table is The French Laundry...

That's a good question regarding the Seaday Brunch because the menu is a little less clear on what is an entree and what is not...so can you order bacon, eggs, and their french toast or will that be three things?

The real question is: Can we still order three desserts?

As soon as I read this, I knew I would be used by either my husband or my son to order them a third entree.

As an aside, the only part of this that I have an issue with is I wish they would open the ice cream stations earlier because with kids we are often up at 6 or 7 am and wanting a snack by 9 or 10 am.

Well, that is what we did the two times she couldn't go, but in one instance she was third person booked in the cabin and in the other instance she had her own cabin but since I was wanting to book under her rate, I wasn't sure if her "no showing" would affect my rate.

Glad I saw this. Just went and purchased it at the $42 rate for my next cruise since it sounds like today is the last day to do that.

Totally. And unless you want to risk missing your entire cruise, you need to fly out the day before and stay in a hotel for a night. The cost of the flight, plus a hotel room, plus transportation from the airport to the hotel and then the hotel to the pier plus meals prior to getting on the boat.

I think people in suites and diamond/platinum get the tags to their cabin. Everyone else has to pick them up if they want to check luggage.

I was hoping to take my Mom on a cruise...probably in January. My Mother has much better rates than I do...like her rate will be substantially lower and she will have OBC and Drinks on Us. For whatever reason, she gets much better casino deals than I do. Problem is, the last two cruises I have booked (and paid) for her, she has not been able to go because of some issue with her health that arose at the last minute. In the most recent incident, she fell out of bed a week before the cruise and had to have back surgery so couldn't fly to Europe for the cruise. As of right now, her health is fine but that can change very quickly. So, if I book us in a room under my Mom's casino rate and then she has a genuine issue come up and can't go, will they still let me cruise under her original rate by myself? Or will I then not only have to pay double occupancy, but also have to pay a higher rate to go on the cruise if I show up for the cruise without her?

I am a lifelong Texan. I don't cruise out of Galveston because it is "Texas." I cruise out of Galveston because it is 90 minutes from my house in north Houston. New Orleans is 5-6 hours away from Houston and Mobile is 7-8 hours. In 2021 we went to NOLA (and we hit some bad traffic and road construction on the way) and it took us 9 hours to get there from Houston! I don't think Texans are *THAT* dedicated to Texas that they are choosing Galveston just because it is Texas. Pretty much everyone in the entire state of Texas (Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Dallas and all the small towns in between) are going to be substantially closer to Galveston than they are to New Orleans. New Orleans is on the far side of Louisiana from Texas...and it isn't exactly a "scenic" drive. My husband is from the Orange/Beaumont area and even for that area (which is right on the Louisiana/Texas border), it is still more than twice as far to NOLA than Galveston...under 2 hours to Galveston vs over 4 hours to New Orleans. And Astroworld isn't even in existence anymore...and hasn't been for 17 years. Texans ABSOLUTELY go to Disney World.

Given the state of affairs of flying and being packed on an airplane and likelihood of lost luggage or delay or getting Covid...I can't say that I blame them. That's honestly my reasoning as well. It is 90 minutes to Galveston. We park across the street and walk on. I can't even get through security at most airports in 90 minutes.

Platinum/diamond get to select check in times two days ahead so if they select the first time, I would think they would board right after suites. Since the restart, I have cruised from Galveston, Seattle, PC, and Dover. I don't think there was any priority at Seattle--but it was hard to say because we ended up getting there later than usual instead of at the first check-in time so it may be that we simply got there too late. (We had a suite and were not platinum.) I do not recall there being priority at Dover either...but boarding was a mess at Dover. However, I *thought* there was something at the other ports. In particular, I recall there was a priority waiting area at PC, but it may have been for suites. Not sure.

Have you flown recently? If not, you might feel differently if any of your vacations had involved air travel. We have not had any major problems with plane travel, but we know plenty of other people who have had flights delayed for days, luggage lost, etc. One of our friends is a professional golfer and the airlines lost his clubs TWICE in a week--going both to and from The Open. My SIL (with her three kids under 8 in tow) had a flight canceled once she was already in a "connecting" city this past summer and didn't get on another one for 3 days. And then there is the fact that many hotels have cut room cleaning altogether except at check in/check out. Or they only clean it once every 4 or 5 days. One time we stayed in a Hilton for a week and they never cleaned our room. When I called, they said their policy is now once a week.

When I search cruises, I notice that the price of cruises from Florida or Los Angeles are often considerably less than the prices it shows me for a cruise out of Galveston. For example, I can go on a 3, 4 or 5 day out of Miami or Jacksonville from $50-99 per person plus tax, fees, etc. Yet, the least expensive interior room I can find on a 4 day sailing out of Galveston is $285 per person and there is only 1 date for that rate in January. Same thing with sailings on the Vista vs Horizon or Panorama. Do cruises out of Galveston simply command a higher price? (Perhaps because there are more cruise lines, ships, and ports in Florida?) Or has the Carnival algorithm somehow identified Galveston as my home port and so makes the cruises more expensive?

The Celebration TA was exactly what I was looking at as we just got an amazing offer. I was trying to convince my husband to go on it, but I don't think I am going to succeed. We went on the Mardi Gras once she was in the US on her second sailing and it was one of my favorite cruises.

How was the internet between Europe and the US once you were out in the ocean?

That is cool! Thanks for sharing. I had counted the days of the cruise, though...so I still need to book a cruise. Actually, I only need 13 days (the 12 day cruise plus 1 day) to be platinum but the shortest cruise I can book out of Galveston is 4 days. Honestly, though, some of our best cruises have been the 4 day weekend cruises out of Galveston. We don't have to fly, leave out half-way through the day on Thursday and get back on Monday morning. Only have to miss two days of work. Only problem is everyone else likes these cruises, too...

Have fun, btw! I am sure it will be awesome!

My husband got a similar deal for this upcoming November on the Celebration, but no way we can take it. 😞

I like the Vista Class for the Havana area. My second favorite ship "class" was the Splendor.