CruisingWalter

All I can add is that on Mardi Gras the only thing open past 11pm was the Pizza del Capitano which was the only 24 hour food location on the ship. The Panini shop closed at either 11 or 12. Other than a 24 hour eatery, I've honestly never seen a full restaurant on a ship stay open past 10:30pm for new seatings. Even with the late arrival back to port, there was no excuse for them clearing your room for arrival if it had not been cleaned yet. And as someone else noted, there are roaches onboard every ship and all those plates of food left out in the hallways don't help the situation. Usually we don't see them because the ships do a good job of extermination control, but on occassion you will see one. Hopefully things start to turn around for you and you're able to enjoy the rest of your cruise. It does sound like some things are getting better. Try to relax the rest of the week.

I believe there were a few pools that stayed open until 10pm or possibly midnight on the ship. A few closed earlier, but at least two were open late each night when we sailed in March.

Nope, not required at all, you can easily roll your luggage to the elevator and then across the ramp to the terminal.

As I shot video of my nephew's entire ride, I just clocked it in the video editing software, 46 seconds for him to complete both laps. I was off by 13 seconds. The fastest part of the ride is the launch, you're shot out like a cannon, but then it immediately slows down in the loop, you get more speed along the straight but the braking on the hill slows you down. It's 12-14 seconds to the halfway point of each lap depending on how quickly you go through the loop. So your $15 gets you a 45 second semi-thrill ride on a cruise ship. 🙂

Actually it's not bad at all, we were pleasantly surprised at how well it all worked last month. We had somewhere between 5500 and 5900 on our sailing (we heard both numbers announced during the cruise). We had a 10:30am arrival time and drove to Port Canaveral where there was a small traffic backup entering the parking garage. Inside the staff directed us to where I could drop off the luggage, parking fees were collected when I entered the main parking area. It was around $130 for the week. Inside the terminal there were dozens of check in stations. We were through check in and at the waiting area in about 10 minutes, getting to that area around 10:35am and we had boarding group B7 or B8. Yep, that area was crowded because boarding had not started yet, but we had plenty of seating and just relaxed while we waited for the expected 11am start of boarding. At 11am they called the first boarding group. At 11:22am we were walking onto the ship. It was that fast. We were pleasantly surprised by how well that went with that large of a ship and sailing over double occupancy. Don't worry about the big crowds you're seeing, it moves through quickly once the boarding starts.

Onboard the Mardi Gras all the cameras were working last month. I believe we had 7 or 9 of them to choose from. Not sure why they wouldn't bring back at least the bridge cam online. Easy enough to track the the ships via CruiseMapper to know where they are.

With only 5 states issuing "Enhanced Driver's Licenses" there's no possible way for all cruisers to have them. From Carnival's FAQ on the website: For cruises that begin and end in a U.S port, the following WHTI-Compliant Documents are acceptable for cruise travel. U.S. Passport Passport Card State Enhanced Driver's License Certificate of U.S. Naturalization Native American Indians Also acceptable for cruise travel (for cruises that begin and end in a U.S port), U.S. citizens can show proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate issued by a government agency and accompanied by government-issued photo identification. That last sentence is the most important for your mom. "accompanied by government issued photo identification" and that would be her driver's license that will have a photo on it. You should be good to go with the birth certificate and driver's license. Although if she is going to regularly cruise, I would suggest you go ahead and get her a passport to make things much easier moving forward.

Awesome, and in general, independent (third party) travel insurance is usually better than what the cruise lines offer. You generally get better coverage for less money going with a third party. We get our insurance through our travel agent for each booking as insurance is a MUST for any cruise. Glad you got it worked out!

Thanks for asking this as I was wondering the same thing. We've had both Princess and Celebrity hold bottles of wine for us and bring them to either the MDR or restaurant on another evening.

First off, welcome to cruising! We've been sailing since 2006 and are sailing Scarlet Lady in July. It will be our 16th cruise and 8th cruise line because we like to explore and see what everyone has to offer. We booked Scarlet Lady primarily because of the food experience. It does sound like the ship is a very quiet, chill place during the day which is fine by us, but what we will be missing is an indoor solarium style pool. That is our favorite place to chill on any cruise ship during the day. But of course we knew that going in to the booking. We have a Cheeky Corner Suite so we will have plenty of room to chill on our balcony or in Richard's Rooftop. Another line line you may consider is Celebrity. The Edge Class does have solo cabins and they are considered a 'luxury line' that now includes a drinks package and WiFi with all bookings. You will still need to pay for the specialty dining, but the main dining room and a few other spots will be included, but the cocktails, soft drinks and WiFi will be included. We've sailed Celebrity four times and it's a nice blend of super chill during the day, but with a lot of scheduled activities if you want to do stuff. And a full slate of entertainment in the evenings. They also have some of the best bars at sea if you enjoy your cocktails. While not 'adults-only' Celebrity does skew more adults because there are no major 'kid-friendly outdoor activities like the Royal ships, so you find far fewer children on board those ships. They're probably the closest to what Virgin has to offer in terms of the other 'mainstream' cruise lines if you want to compare. Again, welcome to the cruise family!

We looked at those cabanas when we first booked and laughed. They're not worth at all what they charging when you compare them to the Royal Caribbean, NCL and other cruise line cabanas at their private island/private resort locations. But then that entire space is not a Virgin exclusive resort, it's owned and operated by Resorts World, which uses that space when there are no Virgin ships in port. We're in a Cheeky Corner Suite onboard the ship, but definitely not shelling out money for those 'cabanas.' Very sorry you had a bad experience, if you want that 'cabana' experience in the Caribbean look at Royal Caribbean's Coco Cay and Labadee islands. You do pretty much get what you pay for and they have many levels of options, including new over water cabanas. They are quite lovely.

I'm wondering if those shortened cruises are having an impact on sales vs. a full 7 night sailing. Here in the states we can only get 4 and 5 night cruises, no 7 nights except special sailings around the holidays. Especially when they are competing in the Caribbean market where there are literally dozens of other options to sail for far less money, or pay the same money and take 10-14 day cruises instead. It'll be interesting to see how our July sailing sells and see how crowded, or light, the ship is.

According to my nephew and sister-in-law, they had no control of the speed. They both simply 'held it open' and the bike sped up and slowed down of its own accord. My sister-in-law went about 2/3 the speed of my nephew but we saw that bike was having issues prior to her riding. We timed the ride when the nephew r0de it. About 40 seconds total for both laps. It might feel longer when you're riding it, but it's a very fast two laps because the track is so short.

Hi all, I did a search for "Coffee" in this forum but only saw folks recommending where to buy coffee in San Juan. Has anyone ever taken an excursion, either private or via a ship, to one of the coffee plantations in Puerto Rico? I was watching an episode of Gordon Ramsay's Uncharted and he visited one during his visit to Puerto Rico. I found this website that lists a bunch of the plantations that are open to tours and visits, but didn't see any coffee excursions on my next cruise. So I'm curious if any of you have visited these plantations during your visits. Thanks! https://theculturetrip.com/caribbean/puerto-rico/articles/the-coolest-coffee-plantations-you-need-to-visit-in-puerto-rico/