Lee Cruiser

We've been on over 20 Carnival cruises and the longer ones are typically very good with very few issues. Our worst experience was on a four day cruise out of N.O. It was a weekend wrap around (Thursday-Monday) and many just treated it as one big weekend party. Loud music, screaming, and partying on balconies until the early morning hours. We said then that we would never take another cruise shorter than five days.

Same. We went a couple of times and it was certainly a waste of time for us. We don't drink, so we actually like getting the free drink added to our accounts so we can get milkshakes or other non-alcoholic drinks with it. Plus, it's usually held around 5 pm, which is usually when we are getting ready to go to dinner. We always choose YTD and go as soon as the dining room opens at 5:30.

Yes, a large part of it is interest on $30 billion of debt. You are probably talking in terms of more than $100 million a month.

I didn't read it again either, but I'm thinking it was $1 billion in debt that was retired

They did grandfather people into the platinum level. They also gave people who were close to reaching the 10 cruise level under the old program several months to reach that level and be grandfathered in. I have a relative that had eight cruises and took two shorter cruises (three and four day) to reach platinum. They were able to reach platinum in under 50 days.

This has been discussed for years, yet it still hasn't been revamped. Several years ago, before we became platinum, we had a cruise booked on one of the newer RC ships that was being built at the time. We booked that cruise two years before because it was "rumored" that the program was about to receive major changes, including raising the number of days to reach platinum. We were thinking that if they raised the number of days, then it really wouldn't matter if we tried another line and we had a super rate. In the meantime, the months go by and nothing changed. We then had enough days that if we took a cruise on Carnival instead, we would reach platinum on that cruise. So we cancelled the RC cruise and booked another cruise on Breeze. At the time we were so excited to reach platinum. Fast forward several years later and now there are 10's of thousands more platinums and they are still talking about changing the program. One of the perks we looked forward to the most was having our room ready when we boarded. That perk is now gone away and most likely won't return with any new changes, so for us being platinum doesn't mean near as much anymore.

I would say more like 99% of the time or more. This is an extremely extraordinary event. No one can plan for something like this. In over 20 cruises we’ve never had anything like this and the latest we’ve started debarkation is about 30 minutes. Many folks will be impacted by this, even those that booked evening flights.

Wow! That's saying a lot. There was a period of time on a few cruises where we rarely ate in the dinning room because the service had gotten to where it was taking two hours or more. We like the family friendly comedy and it was hard to make it to the shows then. Now that it has improved, we rarely eat dinner on the Lido.

Our first two cruises were on Fantasy class ships and they were ocean view. We did a balcony on our third cruise (Sunshine) and have always booked them since. However, we book mid-ship balconies.

While we've been on 13 different Carnival ships, we've also done several of them more than once. Since N.O. is the only port we drive to, we did Triumph four times out of there and have now done Valor three times and two of our next three cruises are also on Valor (Nov and Jan). We did Triumph the four times and then did it again after it transformed to Sunshine. Outside of the upcoming repeat cruises on Valor, we have three upcoming cruises on ships we've never been on: Celebration (Sept), Jubilee (April) and Horizon (next Sept).

Since the final payment deadline has passed, it may be difficult to find a cabin now if it is sold out, especially one for three people. The best thing would be to call Carnival.

I'm guessing those rooms will be north of $400 a night

It can be done. We've only done Carnival out of there, so we're not familiar with the debarkation on other lines. Last time we cruised from there was in September 2019. We were platinum and did checked luggage with zone 1, so we were the first group of checked luggage off the ship. Our notes show we were off the ship around 8. We could have been off 30 minutes or so earlier had we done self-assist luggage. Again, we were platinum on Carnival, so not sure how other lines work. We did a taxi to the airport. We were through security and sitting at the gate for our 10:30 Jet Blue flight at 8:37. *As a note, we did have a backup plan just in case. We had a Southwest flight booked later that afternoon that we were able to cancel for future credit. We are doing a similar thing this September. This time we are cruising out of Miami and have an 11 am Southwest flight out of FLL. However, we do have another flight booked later in the afternoon just in case. We paid the extra $52 each to make it refundable. Both flights are refundable and it takes away the worry of missing a flight and having to scurry to find something else at much higher rates. We've done early flights on numerous occasions (often without a backup plan) and have never had a problem making them. In 20+ cruises, we've never been more than 20-30 minutes late debarking and that was once. However, there's always that one time where things could go wrong, so if there's a way, we try to do a backup plan when doing early flights.

We used Cruise Control as well and had a good experience. However, next time we may just use Uber or Lift as the price is probably a little better than Cruise Control.

That's a bummer. Thanks

Does the port in Miami have a ramp for debarkation like Port Canaveral does for Mardi Gras or do you have to use escalators? That certainly makes things go much smoother in PC, especially for self-assit.

That looks really good as well. Thanks for the information.

Thanks for the information. I will check these out online.

Thanks. We've eaten at another Landshark and liked it, so that sounds like a good option.

I doubt 24 would fit in a 12x12 inch cooler

We've cruised out of Port Canaveral several times and really like to eat at Grills Seafood Deck & Tiki Bar. We've only been out of Miami a few times and this is the first time that we are staying near the port in Miami and arriving early enough to enjoy a good meal that evening. Are there any restaurants near the port in Miami similar to Grills?

When we cancelled a cruise earlier this year, we received our credit card refund amount in about a week and our gift card amount (final payment was gift card) in about two weeks. If I remember correctly it took a day or so to actually get the cancellation email.

Yes, it was a port of call. We did see someone taking some back to their vehicle at a home port. I’m assuming they were told along the way and didn’t actually go in with them.

Yes, we've seen them confiscate bottles

A few reasons for us: One, it's not always practical when we are flying in. Second, we don't like the same kinds of soft drinks, so it would involve buying different kinds. Third, we don't drink enough to even bother with it. We rarely drink sodas at home, but we will occasionally get sodas on the ship when we are having pizza in the evening because we prefer that over the other options available and Carnival's tea is horrible to us.