kwokpot

The reduced offerings at Celebrity's buffet for dinner, which has since been reversed fleetwide, was STILL better than what Carnival offers at its buffet during dinner time. I Have been on both the Beyond and Celebration, the flagships of both cruiselines, so I speak from experience.

Subsidiary of Carnival Corporation. They are independent brands , just like Royal Caribbean and Celebrity, which are both owned by Royal Caribbean. Carnival Corporation also Cunard and Seaborn but obviously those brands have no influence on the Carnival brand. Same with Carnival and Costa.

Besides being built for Costa for the Chinese market, Costa no longer has ANYTHING TO DO with the Venezia. It is now A CARNIVAL SHIP. Carnival cruiseline owns and operates the ship. Costa, isn't staffing it, catering it, programming it. What CARNIVAL is claiming to do is change up some of the programming and food offerings to pay homage and take advantage of the ship's origins. But CARNIVAL will be creating the new restaurant concepts and entertainment concepts not COSTA. I've seen this misconception in various social media sites regarding the Venezia and I'm not quite sure where this misinformation came from. It's not and never was a joint venture with the Carnival and Costa brands.

You're looking on both ends of the spectrum. What types of cabins are you looking at on Carnival vs Yacht Club? MSC's ships are beautiful and are worlds above anything Carnival offers, even besting their Excel class ships (MardiGras, Celebration) I haven't done Yacht Club but that will give you the better dining experience and some more exclusive areas. MSC has great spas and gyms.

Are you saying you've heard Carnival has recently stepped up their game as compared when you last sailed them five years ago? Where did you heard that? DEFINITELY NOT THE CASE. If anything,it's the opposite. It's gotten WORSE as compared to five years ago. Cutbacks galore. Food quality down. Food venue hours shorten. Carnival's buffet so below anything Celebrity offers. Cabin service only 1x/day. I enjoy both Celebrity and Carnival, but they are two totally different lines with totally different experiences. BTW, I'm Elite+ with 24 cruises and Diamond with 26 cruises so I cruise both lines. Just go in with an open mind. It's a BASIC cruise experience. Carnival excels in the variety of complementary lunchtime food venues and the casino experience and Comedy Club offerings. Celebrity is for everything else.

I did just that and it's the same cost as 2 insides.

So it seems compared to your Freedom cruise on your Mardi Gras cruise it was very apparent the additional amount of guests on the ship which caused more queuing and waiting to do various things. Fair enough assessment. Thank you for the clarification.

I'm curious what personalized feeling you felt on the Freedom? You didn't mention any issues with your cabin attendant, so the only other area where you would get to know the staff is in the MDR. Since on the Mardi Gras you never had dinner there that would account for the difference. If that's not what you meant, then please explain so others can understand what you're trying to say.

It's a Carnival ship, it has NOTHING to do with Costa anymore.

You don't need Black tie, or any necktie, or any suit. Slacks and a nice shirt will do, which is what more that 60% of the men will be wearing.

$420 difference for two insides vs four in one inside. That's because a cabin that hold four costs more for the first two guests than the lowest inside cabin for two.

Have you priced out two insides (1 adult, 1 teen in each cabin, then just switch up when on the ship)? It's only slightly more than four in one inside and a MUCH BETTER use of extra funds than upgrading to a family harbor cabin.

Totally OT but I know you have kids so I just wanted to share these photos. Just to recap we were on the Pride last May & June in Europe for 3 B2Bs. The first and Last cruises were Casino Elite cruises where we get lots of benefits and free stuff. My husband doesn't drink alcohol so on our last week we had too much complimentary bottles of wine from the casino so I decided to give them away. I had joined a Fb group for our cruises so I posted on our Fb group that I have wine to giveaway if anyone wants. A woman named Emma claimed a bottle, so when she came by to pick it up her son Kenny came along. He was such a personable young man, outgoing and polite. The next day this is what I found in my mailbox (Pictures below). It brought tears to my eyes. (BTW the photos of Kenny were from his moms Fb post)

That's no longer how it's being done. There's no fixed early or late dining on any E-Class ship. This started last Fall. Having said that the MD's can assist in TRYING to get you the same time and staff in a particular Dining Room, but that's not guaranteed.

There are NO Elite or Elite+ Discounts for thermal suite passes, so you're better off buying it precruise.

Some photos of one of our meals last June at David's steakhouse. It will be interesting what they do to the place.

Probably NL bank debit cards only. I noticed in Europe there were many ATMs that were actually banking machines that you had to have a certain bank's debit card.

What types of dishes are they serving that's not appealing to you?

Agreed. I think for us we will take the tram embarkation day since our Rotterdam hotel is a couple of blocks from Central Station in the direction of the pier, so it makes more sense to take the street tram. At disembarkation looks like the Metro is a better option, especially if you need to go to Central station. Edit: There's a Metro stop right at our Rotterdam hotel (Holiday Inn Express) so we might just take the Metro both ways to/from the pier! 2nd Edit: Looks like streetcar is closer to hotel,lol

Thanks. Our cruise in July ends on a Weds so the tram should be in service early morning

BTW, you have your CC # exposed. You really should have that photo deleted.

Did you consider using a street tram from the terminal to Rotterdam Central? I didn't realize there was also an underground metro. Is using the Metro better?

I refrained from commenting on this thread but I have to agree with you the Pride isn't my favorite Carnival ship. I spent 31 days on it last May/June in Europe and also a week several years earlier. Currently the ship has many areas that need refurbishment, the most dire being the buffet area. I didn't care for the overall design since it creates a dark and foreboding atmosphere. The current drydock will fix some issues but unfortunately it won't be a Sunshine-type of major overhaul which it needs. There are areas that look fine;the MDR looks nice and I wish the rest of the ship looked more like the Alchemy Bar area which when installed got rid of alot doodads of the excessive and dated decor and the Bar and surrounding area still retains the browntones of the overall ship design without it feeling dated and tacky. The casino was upgraded last year with all new machines, tables, chairs and looks good. The Piazza Cafe area where they hold trivia needs an update badly;the lighting and seating looks like something from a stage set of Phantom of the Opera. The Fitness Center is on track for an update and it sorely needs it. The equipment looks to be the original stuff when the ship was launched in 2002.

The cabins doors have to be updated with the RFID seapass card in order for a mobile phone to work using the same tech. If you have to insert the seapass card into a slot in your cabin door then that's the OLD mag stripe tech and NOT compatible with RFID tech.

You mean SOME AMERICANS