mdin

Thanks for sharing, will definitely purchase one.

We took the free wine offer once. It was a bottle of red Santa Helena. It was not very good imo. We barely drank a glass combined, and left the bottle behind. Not sure what the white wine brand was, but if it's Santa Helena, I'd pass.

Rather take the 50% off deal instead. 

In Aruba, we took a taxi to Eagle Beach and rented an umbrella and loungers. Beautiful beach. We also did the Sunset Sail through Carnival and that was great.

In Bonaire, we took a taxi to Ocean Oasis. Really nice beach club. Great way to relax.

We are going to Curaçao for the first time in March. We booked the Swimming with Turtles with Curaçao Dreams. Hopefully it's good. 

I recommend Maya Chan. Beautiful place with great service. Local cuisine is served at lunch and it's delicious.

A warning though. We were there in March 2023, and the sargassum was immense. The employees warned us before departing however. We were given the choice to cancel for a full refund. We opted to go, and despite not being really able to go in the water (and dealing with the occasional smell of rotting sargassum), it was still worth it. The owners are very friendly and the staff provided the best service we've probably experienced anywhere.

Hopefully the sargassum issue has cleared up since. 

It would nice if they can add Teppanyaki.

The Serenity pool on Mardi Gras was very busy when I sailed on it in March. Late afternoon/early evening it was less busy however. 

I didn't stay in Havana on Mardi Gras, but on Horizon it was never really busy. Small crowd, quiet. My favorite area on the Vista Class.

On 11/8/2023 at 12:22 PM, BroadwayGirl said:

They just wrote me back saying there's an issue with the 10% back as well getting credited.  They tell me they are working on it to resolve it.  I'm owed a 10% credit, double points on my cruise pay off and the excursion and I still need to book 2 more excursions. 

 

 

Exact same situation here.

I still haven't received credit or 2x bonus points, so reached out to Barclay's again and they now opened up a case to help resolve the issue.

Following along. My wife and I booked Havana on Horizon in March and on Vista for our family New Years sailing. Both Southern Caribbean itineraries. Looking forward to your posts. Have a great time!

Same here. I purchased a shore excursion on 10/10 and still haven't received the 10% back. In the past, the discount would usually post about 2 days after purchase. I contacted customer support, and they claim it will post after 11/10 when the new cycle starts. I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

We ordered Fun Ships on Mardi Gras in March. They were $1 off at sailaway I believe. Just ask for the Fun Ship at most bars and they will know what it is. 

Nice review, thanks for sharing!

The Havana area is great! My wife and I booked it on our two cruises next year (Horizon and Vista).

I haven't been able to find anything on the internet, but I wonder what upgrades (if any) Vista will get during the dry dock? Hoping they add Teppanyaki like they have on Horizon 😃. 

Got HAL and NCL, but no Carnival. 

My wife and I noticed this the other day as well, very cool.

BTW, for those who don't know, the Roku screen saver has tons of references to movies and TV shows. Fun to try to identify them.

Yes. We booked an interior Havana cabin on our Horizon 2022 cruise. Loved everything about it. Have it booked again for Horizon and Vista next year.

We didn't book it for our Mardi Gras cruise this year though. After seeing the renderings, we opted not to get it. That said, we ended up regretting not doing it. We figured Serenity could substitute it, but it didn't even come close. Next time we go on that class of ship, we will book Havana. 

I much prefer the Eastern Caribbean itinerary. Western is nice, but St. Maarten is beautiful and pushes the Eastern to the top. 

Thanks for sharing. Nothing on my Amex this time, but I do have the 10% offer on my Chase. 

My wife and I average 4-6 drinks on sea days and 2-4 on ports. We added up our bar tab the last 2 cruises and in both cases the drink package would not have been worth it. That said, we don't drink coffees or sodas and we purchased a couple of 12 packs of bottled water.

None here, Amex Blue

On 6/25/2023 at 12:16 PM, Knights on the Beach said:

According to Carnival, Vista will be in dry dock 1/7/24 - 2/14/24.

 

Maybe they'll add Teppanyaki during the dry dock.

I was considering doing a 12 day from NYC in 2025 or 2026 if it was offered. Hopefully it comes back and does some late fall sailings.

On 5/13/2023 at 5:21 PM, klfrodo said:

If it wasn’t a big enough problem then, why is it a problem now?

Anonymity maybe?

The rules were being broken and I mentioned it to an employee. That employee didn't seem to care and instructed me to take it to guest services. I could have done that, maybe security would've been sent and the person or persons playing music would have to stop. Then the next day I'd have to do it again because it wasn't just an incident involving the same person. It was multiple people doing it throughout the sailing.

Sometimes it's just not worth the extra effort dealing with inconsiderate people, especially on vacation. Doesn't make it any less annoying though.

44 minutes ago, 1025cruise said:

What did security say when you brought it to their attention?

We only brought it up to an attendant in Serenity and they said we needed to contact guest services. We ended up not contacting services about it.

It was was annoying having the speakers going, but by no means did it ruin our vacation. 

Loved Havana. The pool area was never crowded. 

I cruised this past March, and Carnival sent out some rule reminders which included Bluetooth use prior to our sailing. Unfortunately a few people didn't get the memo or didn't care. Everyday someone was playing their personal playlist (probably a f@$#king masterpiece to their ears) by the pool or loungers in Serenity. Defeats the whole vibe of that space. 

I have no problem with them being used within their own cabin.