notscb

It really comes down to how much value the program is bringing to RCL's bottom line. If it's not profitable, it's going away. As someone who used it while solo cruising, I found the Key to really help set a positive start and tone to my vacation (I was #2 on the ship, and was able to easily meet new people at lunch right away) and would strongly consider getting it again.

I like that you've improved on the traditional mustering by mandating checks throughout the process and for people to visit the actual locations. I'm sure as a FA, you know there are better ways that airlines should do safety briefings and the routine way of doing it has become mundane, even though it's literally life or death if the practices ever need to be enacted. As another poster pointed out, when people are called to muster it's supposed to be long before the actual emergency has risen to the level of risk of life. Of course, there are unplanned other emergencies that come up, but to have people more familiar with the process is really beneficial to everyone. Kudos to you for suggesting an actual improvement when most on this board would rather just do away with the entire thing.

I'm looking at and very interested in doing a solo TA in March on Symphony, but the prices are a bit much for solo. Wondering if anyone has seen prices for these longer cruises with RCL drop in the week or two before, or if that's a thing of the past. Not too worried about flight costs- if I use miles the cost pretty much stays the same for flights.

Hopefully. People were really up in arms about the second increase in less than a year, but if it's for starlink service i'd say the price is still more reasonable than their competition.

Maybe- but on ours the CD came on over the loudpseaker several times over the course of about 45 minutes, shipwide (in cabins and everything) reminding the remaining X number of folks to do it. It was super annoying and he directly said that he'd close down all food and beverage and entertainment until it was done. I was actually impressed with how seriously they were taking it.

Same. I wish everyone felt and acted that way- when we were on the Dream in December they had to close the bars and buffet temporarily because people hadn't yet.

I think you're right that these other more established cruise giants wouldn't want this to happen. Unfortunately, as others have pointed out, MSC is flush with cash from their cargo operations and don't rely on IPO's or publicly traded funding sources to operate, giving them a massive competitive advantage over Carnival Corp, RCL and Norwegian. I think they're taking the "uber" approach and trying to undercut their competition by offering low all-inclusive fares (by which i mean drinks and wifi included). I priced out a 3 day on Carnival for next weekend and found that they were earily $300 more than MSC was for what was essentially the same itinerary, and Carnival didn't include drinks or basic wifi. Once MSC has their base of customers and brand recognition, they'll slowly decrease the subsidy from their cargo operation to the passenger operation and increase prices (thus, the uber model- get trust by any means- even if it means years and years of losses- then adjust accordingly once you have a loyal base).

How does pulling in next to the Mardi Gras feel? I want to try that ship out next!!

That's really interesting, and I imagine that a lot of folks would actually prefer this for privacy sake alone. Ships would look a lot different with this design, though.

Thanks for the tip! So there's only a few of them on these ships, or is it most of the balconies on those decks? This is what they look like- they are built into the hull.

That's where they are on the Celebration and Mardi Gras as well. Sounds like the Coves are a Carnival, Corp. exclusive type design (for now). I wonder why others haven't borrowed the idea.

I think they basically had to since they were affiliated with the Love Boat Australia TV show and probably had to go through some hoops with production to get the rights to that music. Once they paid for it, they're gonna use it.

Others have made great points, but my thought is that if you love the Disney experience you might want to consider branching out to try the other Disney parks around the world before doing a Disney Cruise. To me, other cruise lines offer much more competitive experiences than Disney for a fraction of what you'd pay for a Disney cruise. You'd get more bang for your buck (and spend about the same or less) traveling to the other parks around the country and world as you would for a 4 night cruise on their line.

On my last cruise (Carnival) we had a Cove Balcony and really loved the experience of being so close to the water, plus the additional privacy that the setup of it allowed for. On searching around (briefly), I noticed most of the threads about the Cove Balcony were about Carnival ships. Are there other lines that have Cove Balconies? I figured that the design of the Carnival ships that have them wouldn't be exclusive to Carnival, but it's harder to figure out than I imagined.

I don't think this is the pro tip. On debarkation morning, they've got most of the pool areas pretty locked down from my experience and memory- they even had a staff member shooing people away from the aft pool when we docked in December. They'll leave you instructions, but usually they'll have you gather somewhere common (most lines use the theater for this) and wait until everyone is off the ship, at which point you'll be escorted off (in some cases), through customs and back onboard. Sometimes you'll get lucky and you'll be able to stay on, but it really depends on the decision customs makes. edit: they want people off the ship, so they don't usually leave anything open they don't have to.

If they can only use the HUB app, it sounds like they haven't logged in yet. Wifi speeds are really dependent on ship and region you're sailing in, and Carnival is known to give partial or full refunds if you let them try to help you but nothing improves (need to request this while onboard, though). I was on the Dream in December and used my ipad and android phone- both had reliable connection, but my android definitely did better in terms of speed.

That's quite the losing job, I feel for those crew members who were actively trying to work against what is really just a bad design.

That's good to know! I don't know if cruise lines have taken steps to avoid this problem somehow, but it seems like maybe they have.

After reading another article about rear-facing balcony cruise soot, I was wondering if the new Carnival Ships experienced this problem at all or if anyone had experienced this issue on ships with newer designs? I had also wondered if the Carnival Freedom might have this issue given the temporary stack design. Anyone have the inside scoop?

I'm not. Their website isn't all that savvy. On our last cruise, I was able to add it to my cart and get through most of the checkout before noticing that it "isn't available to NY residents." They don't have a fail safe for this built into their coding.

Good on you for reading the fine print and not just taking their word at it. It also doesn't cover folks in NY (and other states), which I only saw a disclaimer for after I had booked my reservation and went to see how much it would be to add it later. FWIW, I think many insurance policies sold by cruise lines barely meet the definition when it comes to actual customer experience. There's also much better coverage available for usually the same or less cost through a third party. I know the cruise lines make a commission on the number of policies sold, but by god I wish someone in corporate would at least make a good faith effort to ensure they are selling something worthwhile.

There was another poster who frequents this board and often contributes insider engineering type knowledge (sorry, I can't remember the username or I'd just tag them) who pointed out that while LNG might burn cleaner, it's also not yet available at an industrial scale in terms of logistics and may take more to transport to different ports for ships to use. In terms of "environmentally friendly," there is definitely two (or more) sides to this discussion.

Yay! I'm excited to follow along on your next journey!

OH MY GOSH. That is nightmare fuel for me, especially when you were about to go on vacation out of the country and were going to be essentially out of reach. I hope you and yours were okay and still able to enjoy your trip!

Geesh. This response is definitely not the vibe. The window they give is generally like 6 hours long. Can you not give them a 15 minute window where they can clean (sometimes even less time) in 6 hours? I find your assessment of once per day servicing in relation to the increased gratuities absurd. Yes. We do leave cash at hotels for a tip. It's customary to tip many folks who work in hospitality. Further, on cruise lines, your tips aren't made "more absurd" by only having once per day room servicing with how many folks are "cut in" to the tip pool that you might not even be aware of. I'm genuinely confused when you say "they no longer have Stewards, just maids." Are you trying to talk down about them by this comment?