lazydayz

Safe travels to Miami and have a great cruise.

Great live report. Thanks for doing it. And safe travels home.

Glad the D and P party went well! We had a similar dining experience on the Celebration. On New Year’s Day, we waited s long time for a table at Cuchina. Finally got a table at 9:15 or so. We were ignored for 30 minutes. Finally just got up and left. Our phone rang at 9:30 the next morning, wanted to know what happened. I explained and he apologized and had the same table reserved for us that night at 7. Great service that night, and the manager called again the next day to make sure we were happy. I hope they follow up with you and make this right.

it could be I am tired of paying the daily rate and tipping extra. My choice whether I continue to do both or opt out of one or the other. There is no right answer, other than the cruise lines making tips mandatory or adding them to the base rate. If Carnival won’t make the hard choice, that leaves it up to me.

How do you like the cabana, as opposed to a balcony?

That is different. As part of your job, you tipped them out. Your customers were not expected to tip them. The cruise lines are asking us to tip the servers, the bussers, the dishwashers, the laundry crew, etc.

This is difficult for me as well. In almost all cases, the cabin stewards we have had have gone above and beyond, and earn an extra tip from us. When I dine in a paid restaurant and the service is exceptional, I leave a tip, even if it is already included. When someone brings me a drink, I tip them even though our package includes gratuities. Heck, we have even tipped the omelet and pizza makers. I don’t want to tip back of the house workers I never see. When I dine at a land restaurant, I am not expected to tip the host, the cook and the dishwasher. At a hotel, I am not expected to tip the laundry or maintenance team. Yet on a cruise, they are allocating a large percentage of tips to people I never see. I know their jobs are important, but it is the employer’s job to pay them. So next cruise, I might try an experiment and tip as I go, which would include the people serving me at Guys, the deli and the pizza place. It will be interesting to see if I then feel obligated to leave some or all of the auto gratuities in place. My feeling is if Carnival wants to raise gratuities, then they better deliver excellent service. And unfortunately, there has been a definite decline in service post-pandemic. I was understanding of it for a while, but now the pandemic excuses are just that, excuses.

Enjoy and take care of yourself. We will look forward to the rest of your review whenever you are up to it.

The dishes are tiny. Collectively, they fill you up. So if I didn't like one, it would not be a big deal.

How's it going? Casino treating you well?

Agree with 80sGal. We always try for cabins above and below. But on the Horizon, I would go for a Habana cabin. That is such a nice and relaxing area on the Horizon.

I love this game and my name was finally called on our recent Pride cruise. I rolled a four, and after three picks, was at $300. My final pick was $200, so I walked away with $500 and a very large t-shirt. So exciting! Hope you get picked to play one of the games.

We were very apprehensive about the Pride but ended up loving it. The staff is fantastic and food everywhere is good. And who doesn’t love NYE cruise?

You can combine them on a future cruise. Congratulations for hitting 25.

Me, too

Unless you are in a formal group, pretty sure you need to link all of the reservations for this to happen. Are you working with a travel agent or PVP? If so, they can help you. If not, everyone could do my time dining and then check into to dinner together. Good luck.

Can't wait to hear what you won! Hopefully the Mac Pro.

Hope you feel better soon. I think the OP's live will help all of us feel a little bit better!

We had a brief, funny exchange with Chloe on the Miracle. Never told her our names. She looked us up and sent champagne and strawberries to our cabin. It was such a pleasant surprise, and led to many interesting conversations with her throughout the cruise.

How was the cocktail party? Did they give away free play? If so, hope you won. And good luck with your draw. On mine, I won the big screen tv, which is currently showing football in our living room.

Also following. Love your reviews.

The port of Miami on Sunday is crazy. On our last cruise from there, it took us over two hours to get from downtown to the port. That day, there was an overturned tanker in the tunnel, and for whatever reason, they only had one lane open going over the bridge to the port. It took so long we didn’t even bother with the parking garage. Just found an open lot and walked over to the terminal. This is an issue that should be addressed by Miami-Dade, the City of Miami, DOT and the cruise lines. Complimentary shuttles from the airports and downtown would cut down on the traffic, but I know the Port doesn’t want to lose the parking charges, the cruise lines want to charge for shuttles, and taxi companies, Uber and Lyft would lose revenue. Or they could move some of these ships to Saturday or to Fort Lauderdale.

Since the in-laws haven’t cruised before, I would pick a smaller ship. Given the prices, I would pick the Magic. While I love the MG, it is a lot of walking and requires more planning.

Celebration up next (second time on her), then back on the Pride for the repositioning from Tampa to Baltimore, then Venezia repositioning from NYC to Florida. I really don’t book for the ship, but rather where I want to go and for how long.

Sorry for the loss of your dad.