TravelBluebird

My memory is that they fully intended to charge for Cucina and Chibang and were only going to have them included in fare for the “inaugural season” and then changed their minds after seeing how dining overall was working out

I think you have me mixed up with another cruiser! Although I have gotten COVID on a ship, I wasn’t on the TA last year. Plus I’m a gal. Although we did miss each other on the Equinox in 2021 and I was disappointed and thought you were avoiding me (just kidding about that last part).

True, I think we are leaning towards set time dining because we have 2 generations on this cruise, and if we don’t all have a designated dinner time all together, we may never see the “kids”

Definitely a good resource! I’ll look for that.

I know…I still can’t figure out how they got those calculations so wrong on his class of ship. On the Jubilee next year I’m on with a large group (about 12) so I think we’ll want//need set MDR dining, but that will mean Chibang and Cucina probably won’t happen.

Ooh…ouch. Yep, probably the pre-dinner Internet rush. I’m especially curious to see how the internet will be on the TransAtlantic part of your journey.

Honestly, it’s very easy to confuse the two! I had one vacation (land based) where we went to both, and I do have to stop and think when i see a photo from that trip “hmm…Cancun or Cozumel?” Looks like you got a beautiful day for just wandering around the port!

That sounds amazing! Just sitting here living vicariously on your thread after a long day of work!

I would completely join you in that! 🤣

I do think is is my favorite paragraph ever written on Cruise Critic. 😂 But then, I’m a giant theater nerd too.

I’m sure it feels just great to wake up in your hotel at the port!! And we resemble this remark…I’m the late riser and my husband is the early riser…he is also very skilled at “not waking me up”. 😂

We faced this earlier this year when we wanted to plan a last minute cruise on Celebration or Mardi Gras in February or early March. Was impossible, unless we wanted to spend a huge amount of money. We ended up finding availability in later March. We were being stubborn about an Excel class ship because our friends were new to Carnival and we were all cancelled on the Jubilee TA, and we wanted to introduce them to one of these ships. Keep checking, as others have said. We actually had to wait for a cancellation to get the 2 rooms we wanted.

That’s great for solo cruisers! And fair, since you are paying 16 fares for those 8 cruise.

It’s the darn YouTube algorithm. More people click on the “clickbait” thumbnails, so YouTube shows them to more people, so more people see them and click on them…rinse and repeat. But just because the video has a click bait look to the thumbnail doesn’t mean the video doesn’t have good information. You just learn which creators have information vs entertainment, and depending what you want, you follow those creators.

Wow, quite the start to your voyage! Jumping on the other flight in coach was smart…arriving at 2:30am would have made for a much rougher day tomorrow, not to mention leaving very little leeway for anything else to go wrong.

I’m not a big “fast” food eater, but on Mardi Gras last month, I was passing Big Chicken to find some friends and HAD to have it. OMG it was so good.

So glad you are confirmed into Miami! Even if FLL opens tomorrow, it is going to be a mess, with one runway open. And as mentioned, more rain tonight. Can’t wait to follow along on the rest of your trip!

Also late at night for interior shots of the ship!

If worse comes to worse (more rain) and they don’t open FLL airport and you get notice your flight is cancelled later today or early tomorrow, that is a good option. If that books up, try some of the other smaller airports in the South—for instance, SAV (Savannah) on SW would be a 7 hour drive. Fingers crossed that all goes well—no. more rain today, they open FLL on schedule, and your flight tomorrow night is as scheduled.

At least you got a flight! And in this situation, coming in later will give time for the floods to recede, and also for authorities to get stalled cars off the roads and re-opened. Some main roads in the FLL (and Miami) area are still impassable due to flood waters and abandoned//stalled cars.

Good luck! According to FLL on Twitter just now the airport is going to remain closed until 5am on Friday due to flooding and debris:

That’s awesome! Which cruise is putting you over the top?

Thanks for the info! I wish it were 6 because then the older adults could all be together…it’s like 2 couples and an extra otherwise. But we can work it out if we can vary who’s in the cabana.

I am seriously considering booking a Loft 19 cabana next year on the Jubilee for a week because we have a big group, 10 people, but I can’t seem to find a definitive answer as to whether you can bring different members of your party to the cabana on different days, as long as you don’t go over 5 people at a time. If it has to be the same 5 people each time, it won’t make any sense, and we don ‘t want//need 2 cabanas. If anyone has had actual experience with this, either yea or nay, I’d love to hear about it!

I understand inflation, supply & demand. It’s still disappointing to see these villas and cabanas increase by such a large % so quickly. I’ve had trying one on my cruise wish list, but at those prices it’s unlikely.