deelightfull

And even for a 17 year old, you as a guardian have to sign some one time paperwork. You can do it online before you get on the boat or in person on that first day. During first day check in the staff makes sure the paperwork has been signed and adds a small sticker to his sign and sail card that shows he's allowed in the club when it's open. (Basically, the paperwork goes over basic rules and gives them permission to evict a kid who's acting a fool. It's never been an issue for me, and I'm glad staff has some authority in the space.)

We sail Carnival because it's the cheapest we can drive to, on the west coast, and have done a couple NCL cruises that we've flown to and we picked for the ports. For us, the particular Carnival cruises we take are mostly about the ship and the NCL cruises are more about the ports. Carnival has a much more energetic sail away party than either of the NCL cruises I've been on. In my experience the cruise director is higher energy on Carnival, classier on NCL. Carnival does have a exclusive area on its newer ships, similar to the Haven on NCL, but it's only an exclusive pool, no exclusive restaurant. Oh, and a big one for me, almost all the Carnival ships have guest laundry, where you can do your own laundry for like $7/ wash and dry. (But not on the newest ships) On Norwegian I have to do laundry in my sink 😁. Oh, and NCL doesn't have anything that compares to a Carnival chocolate melting cake😆. (But Carnival doesn't have a gelato station. 🤷‍♀️)

JGB's experience was basically mine back in February, except we were notified ahead of time, and the bus driver didn't get lost on the way back to the garage. 🤷‍♀️

"The public bathrooms on the Malecon are 10-20 pesos per person. If there are free ones we never saw them. " I'm weird, but paid public toilets are actually something I really like about Mexico (and other places). Paying an attendant keeps the restrooms cleaner and more likely to be stocked. Don't get me wrong happy to use the restroom at the restaurant I'm patronizing. But I'd much rather use the public restroom on the beach in Mexico and pay a small fee than the free gross one on the beach at home in California.

They don't care what empty containers you bring on board, they just don't want you to smuggle on vodka 😆. Bring on whatever empty container you want!

In February we were sent elsewhere as well. We arrived at noon, so who knows what happened to the first people. Anyway, when we got there, the entrance to the garage was blocked off, and we were sent around to a spot where we could drop off passengers and luggage. At the same time we were given directions to the off site parking. I'm the driver, so I dropped off my hubby and son, and almost all our luggage, then put the address into the phone gps. Took me a little less than 10 minutes to get to the new parking. Once I got there, I learned the first garage was full and they sent me to a second garage around the block. Second garage was sketchy looking, but my car was there when we got back. 🤷‍♀️ I had to pay for parking in full when pulling in to park. (It was $20/night x4=$100) (As it turns out, no one was staffing the garage when we got back, which is why we had to pay on entering.) Anyway, I ended up parking on the top floor, and in this second garage, no elevators, just stairs. (I believe the first garage had an elevator) The directions weren't real great, but a couple of minutes later I found the shuttle (a mini bus) and got myself back to the parking garage, to meet my hubby and son and carry on luggage. At the end of our cruise, no mini busses, but full size busses. We all went together, with our luggage, back to the garage. As I stated above, our garage wasn't staffed when we got back. I left the luggage with hubby on the ground floor. I climbed up the stairs and drove the car down. We loaded up and drove out the open gate. Not the worst, but certainly less convenient than being able to park right there.

Oh well 🤷‍♀️

Our West Coast ships right now (Feb 2024) are the Panorama, Radiance, and Miracle. Of those three, only the Panorama has a Havana area. The Radiance and The Miracle are too old for such fancy areas. In a couple of months we're going to lose the Miracle (😭) and gain the Firenze. (🤞 It will also be awesome.) On the Firenze, the specialty area with the Private pool is called Terrazza instead of Havana. I haven't seen pictures, but hopefully it will be as cool as the Havana on the Panorama. On either the Panorama or the Firenze, once you click on interior or balcony you can see Havana or Terrazza as an option for type of interior or type of balcony room. I just looked for random dates this summer and this fall. For most of them they have both balcony and interior rooms of all classes available. I saw Terrazza/Havana balcony rooms for all the dates I happened to search. One of the days had Terrazza interiors sold out, but for the rest, Havana/Terrazza interiors were available too. Good luck!

Nice!

Sounds like we need to figure out how to get a cruise on the Splendor 😁!

We're on the Miracle right now, and are really enjoying the interior decorations in the public spaces. The individual "grapes" on the ceiling in the dining room, (not to mention the grape chandeliers!), the art glass in the stairwells, the Alice in Wonderland roses theming of Mad Hatter's, and on and on. Anyway, here's my questions. First, which ship has your favorite interior style? Second, we're West Coast cruisers so besides the Miracle, we've only ever been on the Radiance and the Panorama, both of which are much more sedate. So, I want to know, are there other ships in the fleet that are as wild as the Miracle? Do they get wilder? (Please tell me they get wilder!) Thanks!

🤦‍♀️ the aft or the PROW of the boat. Our rooms are in the PROW. Thanks

That, we're used to. But we've never been quite this low before. It'll be interesting to see how much lowder it is on the first floor vs the fourth. When we were on the fourth it woke me once or twice, but then I rolled over and went back to sleep. I much prefer the "thrum" to the time on the Radiance when we were right under the gym. All the early morning pounding! 😆. Even that wasn't the worst. We're apartment dwellers in a medium sized city. Even at home we have plenty of noise outside our bedroom window and from upstairs and downstairs neighbors! At least this way I'm still on a cruise ship! 😁

We board the Miracle tomorrow. I know we're in an ocean view room near the bottom of the guest area, and I honestly couldn't remember if we were in the aft or the stern. 🤔 I just double checked. We're all the way forward, (on the lowest passenger floor). ☺️ Crises averted. 😆

Glad to hear that!