MattVegas

MDR is not open for lunch but it is open for dinner. Everything on Lido is open for lunch.

Another tip I forgot to mention.. WIFI. Do not purchase the 'value' plan. We got the social package for our kids; they were able to facetime with friends with ease from the lido deck. (package description indicates that video calls are not supported on the entry level)They were also able to get pretty good video calls from their rooms with minimal pixelation. My daughter's iPhone 11 was easily outperforming my 13 Pro Max, and I had the value package. So skip the midrange option! Can't speak to the higher end option... if it was a longer cruise I would have upgraded to that mid-trip. But you get good 5G/LTE on embark day and also you'll wake up with it in Catalina. When I woke up in Ensenada, incidentally, I had two emails indicating fraudulent password change attempts to my FB account, as well as a hack warning from my business website host. Not a disparagement of the cruise line in any way... I was not on airplane mode overnight, as my cellular carrier provides service through Telcel in Mexico.

LOL not exactly the pinnacle of my experience. I come at this from this angle: I forgot to pack a pair of pants for this trip - I didn't see the 'cruise elegant' night on the schedule before we left. So I spent an hour of my Catalina time trying to locate and purchase some, so I could fit in and meet what I believed to be expectations. To find out that the time and expense were completely unnecessary was frustrating. My point is not that I'm disgusted by t-shirts and ball caps... it's that if you have a stated policy, you should follow and enforce it. But it seems like there are stated policies and then the actual policies, which are difficult for a first timer to suss out.

The only time we used the 'kids club' was sending the 15-17 year olds up to 'Club O2' in the evenings when me, my wife, and college boy were 'adulting'... they made friends and had fun one night, but the next night was deadsville. I realized that cruising with *almost* adults in your party can be tough - they end up feeling pretty left out when a slightly older sibling can do a ton of things that they can't.

The cabin was fine. It felt quite small but this was only my second cruise and on the other one we had a mini-suite, so YMMV. The showers can get crazy hot and are also capable of massive water pressure. Like take a layer of skin off strong. It's all selectable, so if you don't want to flood your bathroom, turn down the water pressure! As many have noted, the lack of power/USB near the bed is a bummer. Never utilized the spa at all, but the robes were a nice touch. I was pretty surprised at how loud it was in the room - we could hear every word of conversations happening in the hallways... but again, we don't do this a lot, so this might be totally normal.😆 We lucked out with the port side rooms because we had advantageous views on sailaway and at both ports.

Hey BF we are back... will try to answer your questions. I didn't see Carnival employees pushing wheelchairs outside of the terminal on embarkation day, but definitely saw a few when we were leaving. In terms of the waiting time to get into the terminal, it was zero wait at all at 11am and if you have your boarding passes printed already you'll go straight in. There is a sign at the very end of the line of check-in stations for passengers who require special assistance. It's immediately next to the doorway that you go through once your group is called. If you arrive at 10:30 your biggest issue will be that the porters are still quite busy dealing with people that are exiting the prior cruise, I would think. There is not a designated handicap line for terminal entry; it's split into multiple lines based on your arrival appointment time. There were multiple people on the ship that were traveling with motorized scooters... you could probably rent those for the trip! Hope some of this helps.

First, to set a baseline: this was our second cruise ever... the first being a trip to Alaska with Princess. We had intended to book the exact same itinerary - and dates - with RCL, but because of our group's ages and cabin requirements we had to go with Carnival and their more lenient booking policies for the under-21 crowd. My wife and I were traveling with four teens (19, 17, 17, and 15). We booked three 'spa balcony' rooms close together on the port side of deck 10. Pre-Cruise: We opted for the at-home proctored Covid tests from eMed. Super simple, easy to use, and affordable. Highly recommended. And using the Verifly app to have everything sorted in advance made check-in at the terminal a breeze. One fail on my part: I did not print our boarding passes at home. This meant we had to stand in another line and delayed our entry to the terminal by about ten minutes. We also forgot to bring face masks - but there's an employee out front that will provide you with one. Embarkation Day: The whole process was very easy and well organized. We had requested an early boarding time, which I would suggest - it makes lunch a lot more enjoyable. This cruise was at capacity, so long lines were common for food. Embarkation day is a good time to try Big Chicken or the BBQ place, because they are located further aft than all the other food options and the crowd isn't familiar with the boat yet. We walked right up to Shaq's at noon, no line at all. By the time we were done and walking forward to explore the boat, the line for the burger place was about 100 people long. Food: As advertised. Chicken/Burgers/Blue Iguana were all quite good. MDR was variable in quality but most dishes were successful. Fahrenheit 555 was booked solid a couple of days before departure, so book that early if you want to eat there. We did order a couple of steaks from there as an add-on in the MDR and they were fantastic. The 'Indian vegetarian' option that is on the menu nightly was completely inedible. The ability to reserve your 'any time' table through the app was a welcome way to avoid standing around in line outside the restaurant. Staff callouts: Annalynn was our server on the first night. She remembered all six of our names throughout the cruise when we would see her in other areas of the ship, despite only having us that one time. She is incredible. Bambang is another MDR server who we loved. Our room steward, Ganda, and his assistant Andi are amazing. Zsolt, the Hungarian wizard behind the bar at Alchemy, was great as well. This is, by far, the best bar on the ship. Gabe, the cruise director, is a hoot. Also a hell of a dancer. MDR Dress Code: This is where things start to go sideways for me. Carnival needs to either enforce their dress code, or do away with it altogether. It is nothing more than a suggestion. On 'Cruise Elegant' night, we saw baseball hats, t-shirts, flip-flops, a muscle shirt, even a teen in pajama pants. The hands-off approach to this issue is a brand decision, and it dumbs down the experience for everyone. One of the comedians called this a 'section 8 cruise' in his act. It felt like it much of the time. There were a lot of times during this four days that I felt like I was in a Walmart. I f%$#ing hate Walmart. Catalina: The tender process is a total mess if you wait until the numbered group tickets are gone. We stood in a winding line through the hallways of deck one for 40 minutes. My advice is to go early. If you're going to rent a golf cart, make a reservation (one of the companies allows this on their website). They were all rented out when we finally got onto the island and there was a line of 30 groups waiting for carts to come back. Cute place, though. The brew pub is awesome and has a unique beer that is brewed with local wild black sage, picked on the hills above town. Highly recommended. Ensenada: well covered by others on these boards. It's what you make of it. Be prepared to stand in a shockingly long security line if you return to the ship at the end of the day. Photo below. That night, Gabe hosted a dance party on the deck. It was well attended and lots of fun. "Fun day at sea": It was pretty weird to be on a cruise ship that was just floating in the same place all day. This is clearly a three-day itinerary that they're stretching out to make a little more money. (lack of) Oversight: The hands off approach around the dress code is, unfortunately, seen in other areas of the ship's operations. Security seems non-existent. There was an altercation between passengers, screaming profanities at one another and spitting on one another in the center of the Lido deck one afternoon. It went on for several minutes with no intervention. It was appalling. Speaking of the Lido deck, see the attached photo of one of the hot tubs, which by my count had 23 people in it. Including two kids eating ice cream cones. And clearly a life guard above thinks this is all just dandy. Kids running up and down the halls yelling at 3AM on two of the four nights. Groups of kids blocking the stairs by using them as a seating area on multiple occasions. There was just a ton of behavior that was completely disrespectful and selfish. This behavior is tacitly accepted by Carnival - they are sending a message that they won't interfere with your FUN... and you get to decide what fun means to you. . Maybe we're not in Carnival's prime demographic. I don't know. But none of this felt refined to me in any way. If the ship wasn't booked so full, maybe it would have been better. I don't know. What I do know is that their current business model feels like a race to the bottom. And if you don't expect your guests to act with class... many of them will not. I don't see a scenario where I would sail with them again.

From one Southern Nevadan to another... MANY THANKS for this post, it's exactly the info I've been looking for. Taking the fam on the same cruise in July. Cheers!!