italianfemmy

6 hours ago, teacher34 said:

So very glad you are back on cc ! When and how are you going to Iceland? I am going on the Carnival Legend TA that will stop in Greenland, Iceland, the Shetland Islands, Belfast, cCork, and finally ending in Dover. I wish you would be on that cruise to take pictures! You have such a gift with photography ! 

How exciting for you!!! And thank you so much for your kind words!!  We are leaving on Oct 14 (my bday)!! And driving to the Orlando airport where we will be catching a flight via IcelandAir.  We have rented a car for the full 21 days and we will be navigating the entire island with the exception of the inaccessible highlands. Sadly the roads to the highlands close in late September / early October for the winter season for safety reasons which of course is totally understandable.  And just gives me an excuse to return there one day!!  Haha. 

We will be taking tons of photos and we are adding video on this trip as well. We just purchased a drone so I’m super excited to add cinematic movie to the still images and Latanya will most likely be doing most of the flying of the drone while I’m taking stills with the DSLR!  Can’t wait!!! 

Oh and we’ve also aged a lot!!  Lol. Rowena is in the middle.  

On 9/24/2018 at 4:27 PM, steven93921 said:

The photos are back 🙂

Oh nice! They have a huge photobucket watermark on them but I reckon that’s better than nothing.  You’ll be happy to know I’ve officially started a travel page which is what made me log on here today so that I could copy some of my text that I wrote to use on posts.   We also just booked a 21 day land based trip to Iceland which we leave for mid October.  I’m so dang excited !!!! 

How has everyone been?  

Latanya and I are great. Still together. My health has been on again off again but I’ve been out of the wheelchair for the past 10 months.  And back to adventuring!  About a year or so ago, we took a young lady named Rowena in to live with us to help her out and she’s also helped take care of me when I have health flare ups.  She’s traveled with us last year when we went on the Glory and she’s traveled with us to North Carolina, New York and will be joining us in Iceland. 

I know this is an old thread but myself and three other grown adults (all plus size) shared one small interior stateroom on a cruise and we had zero problems. Peace of mind is what you make it. If you go into it knowing what to expect and you get along with the people you are traveling with and have respect for each other, it works well. We saved over $1,000 on our cruise and we were able to enjoy that money. These are some things we did to make the situation manageable.

My wife showered in the mornings. She needs to shower in the mornings to wake up. She would wake up in the morning, go to the gym to work out and use the bathroom there and then shower there as well. While she was taking her morning shower in the gym area, our male friend showered in our stateroom and used the bathroom while myself and his wife slept in because we are not morning people :D

During the day, we would use the bathroom wherever was convenient on the ship in a restroom.

Dinner - Since it took our male friend no time at all to get ready, he would hang out by the pool or wherever while us ladies went and got dressed. I headed down to the spa area and showered and got nearly fully ready there while his wife showered in our stateroom bathroom. Meanwhile my wife would be in the stateroom getting dressed for dinner. So none of us were ever cramped on each other. When I returned to the stateroom, I would just need to put on my attire and do my hair/makeup sitting at the vanity. My wife has dreadlocks and doesn't wear makeup so she never needed that space and my friends wife would stand behind me and share the mirror if we needed the space at the same time. About 10 minutes before time to walk out the door, her husband would come throw on his clothes and we would all roll out.

At night before retiring to our stateroom, we'd stop off at a public access restroom with multiple stalls and handle our business.

We never used our room except to shower, sleep and use the bathroom and get dressed. I don't know about y'all but if I am booking an interior, the whole point is to save money and spend as little time in the room as possible.

We never had an issue with this plan. We had a well thought out plan and we never got in each others way. We stowed suitcases under the beds with our tank tops, swimsuits, extra shoes, shorts, t-shirts. And we each hung or folded our nicer things into the provided space.

Hope this helps someone.

It is so confusing to me that there aren't news stories about this (since the families of the 800 passengers plus crew members would certainly want to know what is going on). You would think this would have hit all mainstream news by now and not just Youtube. Something feels so off with this.

Her question was aimed at this, not pre cruise action.

 

If Carnival goes to earlier adult shows that require pre-check in, that process can eliminate underage kids from entering a 9PM adult only show.

 

Yes! Shows that require pre-check in or something would be amazing. Something that allows me to laugh my behind off at my fellow cruise mates winding up in the opposite genders clothing but also allows me to wake up and feel rested.

To the person who mentioned all of the shows being crammed into those couple of days.. I am not talking about every main event show. I am not talking about the broadway style production shows which run twice per night and give people a chance to go earlier or later.

I am talking about the adult oriented shows like Adult Game Night which doesn't start until 11:15pm the night before a 7/8am excursion time. This has been one of the most popular events I have ever seen on the cruises I have taken.

Love and Marriage, Lip Sync Battle, Battle of the sexes are all scheduled very late as well

Comedians at least have an earlier and later performance time although the later one usually has more adult content.

I'll go a step further and say I wish the ports were later, at least 9-6. I agree, it can be exhausting. You may want to stay up late, but then you want to maximize the time of the ports.

Exactly!

5/7 Grand Cayman - 7:30am - 3pm. Seriously... 7:30am while on vacation? LOL ...

5/8 Mahogany Bay - 10am - 6pm. (Okay not terrible)

5/9 Belize - 8am - 5pm - (This is the day after late night adult fun stuff on the ship so not thrilled here especially cause what I want to do ... I need to get off the ship right away)

5/10 Cozumel - 8am-5pm - (Again.. late night adult fun stuff on the ship the night before this and I want to go to Playa Del Carmen so I need to get off the ship at 8am in order to enjoy my time there

I would MUCH rather have fun stuff the night of the 5th(the night we board) and the night of the 10th (Sea day on the 11th). Or have later port arrival times and actually get to see sunset in the beautiful destinations. :)

I see what you mean. The only issue that I can see is that on the first night many don't stay up late because it has been a long day getting to the ship.

True. But I'd rather stay up late and sleep in than be completely sleep deprived. Plus they could always do it that 5th night. Or even move the times up a little earlier for the adult events. I don't know what the perfect solution is but I'd love to enjoy all the night time events without being super exhausted the next day. :D

I really wish that the late night adult fun activities that Carnival schedules such as Love & Marriage, Adult Game Night, Battle of the Sexes, etc would be scheduled the nights prior to a sea day instead of the nights prior to an 8am excursion. With a 7 day cruise and 4 port days back to back that leave at like 8am, having a fun adult event at 11:15pm the night prior is rough. If they did this on Night 1 before the Sea Day or on Night 5 before the last Sea Day, it would make so much more sense.

I remember last time not being able to fall asleep until like 2am and then having to be up at 6:30/7am to get ready to be off the boat to make it to the excursions on time.

Thank you for the extra day TripleC!! :)

I've noticed this and have it on my long shot maybe list. There's a weight restriction and need to lose a bit. If closer to the cruise I'm at that range view it again

The weight restriction is because you cannot fit into a wetsuit that they provide. But they allow you to go in your own wetsuit or your own bathing suit. I am just at the weight limit but due to my body proportions I already know I will not fit into their wetsuits so I plan to go and suck up the cold in my bathing suit with some leggings on :D

Have you joined the May 5th roll call ?? I’m on that sailing as well !

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Yes I have :D

Thanks!!

I think that only tells how many times people click on it, rather than how many unique people view it. I was trying to determine how many different people view a thread but cannot see a way to do that. Thanks for the answer.

Oh yes, I think there's no way to see unique views vs total clicks. But it does let you know how popular a thread is if people go back to it over and over. When I first joined CC, I sorted everything by views so I could find the more popular threads to read and I learned a lot that way. :D

How do you determine how many read and interact with your thread?

Kenevenpar, if you go to the main Carnival board and click on the word Views at the top of the forum list, it sorts it by most viewed to least viewed. After you look at all the admin posts, my Dream review is the 10th most viewed with nearly 1/4 a million views. That is how I check them :D

My 2 cents. Peace of mind is worth whatever you are willing to pay for it. I don't like obsessing over how much I've accumulated in sodas so I buy the bubbles package on RCL. Will be bringing my own on Carnival bc they don't have Freestyle machines and I don't like Coke. But whatever someone decides is worth it for them.... why do I care? :) Peace of mind is quite priceless if it makes you feel more at ease.

Anyone know what Carnival Challenge or Celebrity Heads are?

Carnival Challenge

 

Carnival Tower - a huge version of Jenga.. lots of fun

 

Celebrity Heads

 

Gender Showdown - Is this battle of the sexes essentially?

Reds vs. Blues challenge

 

Creativity at Sea - you go to specified lounge and they give out creativity sets - free

you can do them there or take them with you. Our cruise in Jan they had seashell picture frames ( so in the kit was a wooden frame, two bags of various shells, other beads, glue etc) They had door hangers, luggage tag kits, scrapbook kits, greeting card sets ( blank cardstock with all kinds of peel and stick images generally nautical, verses, colored pens etc)

 

 

Adult Game Night (Is this the one with teams and each team has a number and people may wind up wearing different clothes than when they came into the game? :D) Yes!

Thank you so much for answering what you could :D <3 Appreciate it. Sounds fun :D

Hello everyone... there are several new things that have been added to the fun times since our last sailing and I am hoping y'all can help me figure out what some of them are!

Carnival Challenge

Carnival Tower

Celebrity Heads

Gender Showdown - Is this battle of the sexes essentially?

Reds vs. Blues challenge

Creativity at Sea

Adult Game Night (Is this the one with teams and each team has a number and people may wind up wearing different clothes than when they came into the game? :D)

Thank you in advance!!

MikeyA53...sorry for the "hi-jack", but just commenting to let italianfemmy know there is away around the locked pictures. :) There was a discussion on another CC board about this and someone posted information on a way to see the pictures that had been "locked"/blocked. Attaching link to that thread (under Photo and Camera Discussions). The solution is on Page 4, Post #76 (link hopefully opening to page 4). Here's the link to that CC thread: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=53948442#post53948442 I did this and wink, wink...I can now see the pictures in my reviews and others again, and italianfemmy...I can see your pictures too. :)

 

I think Photobucket blocked links to pictures to anyone that had the basic, free account last July. I had upgraded my account from the free to the least expensive in order to do my last CC review, but there is no way that I was going to pay $400 a year just to keep the pictures in the reviews, so the links to mine were locked in Nov. 2017 when my subscription renewal was due. I think that's how Photobucket was doing it, so MikeyA53, your subscription renewal may not yet be due (before July), thus your pictures are still showing. I have received emails recently where Photobucket is offering a new plan for $100 a year (forget how much storage space that includes) that also includes 3rd party photo hosting for blogs and personal use, like CC.

Sorry to keep hijacking back (Really wish CC had a PM a member feature) - but does this allow EVERYONE to see my images again or only myself and people who have done the hi-jack? Thanks!

I should note that I am more picky than most. I am a professional photographer and cruise line photos are not professional. Are they better than we can take on our smart phones and point and shoot cameras in regards to quality? Yes. Are the backdrops and props nice? Sure. But, when I edit my client photos, I hand edit them. Every single portrait is treated different based on the lighting of the subject, based on their skin pigmentation, based on the color saturations and based on the skin texture of my subjects. The cruise lines run a contrast, smoothing, etc filter over the images and pop them out like biscuits by the thousands every day. They don't individually hand edit the photos.

They have expenses and should get paid fairly for that. The staff to set up and shoot the images, the staff required to run the photo sales as well as the space to do the photo business and overhead expenses such as paper, ink, machinery, backdrops, lights, cameras, memory cards, props, etc.

However, I do believe that $25 for an 8x10 of a NON hand retouched image is too high. And I personally do not want prints that are not properly edited and just have a basic skin smoothing filter ran all over the image. With that said, I do enjoy the memories. On RCC in 2014, we were able to purchase our digital images and I was quite thrilled with that. They even said they didn't mind me editing them to make them more the way I wanted them. They even gave me the original files without the over plastic smoothing so that I could hand edit them myself.

Would I ever ask a professional photographer that I hire locally to let me edit my own photos? No. Because I'd be hiring them based on their work, their website, their finished product and entrusting them to make my images beautiful with their hand edits.

But on a cruise ship, I don't get a choice. I do take my own professional photos and even bring a tripod and remote but there are locations you're not allowed to take your own photos. If they would hand edit and tailor the editing to customer preferences like any regular pro photography studio, I'd be willing to purchase the prints. But as it is, I have over 100 prints from past cruises that I am not keen on and have zero on display.

Here's a link to a new pre-purchase option. https://cruiseradio.net/carnival-cruise-line-adds-photo-packages/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cruiseandblog%2FhXuX+%28Cruise+Radio%29

I saw this before I posted here but it does not include a digitals only option without getting the prints. :( :loudcry:

Hello. Do they have a package for digitals only? If so, what is the current going rate for this to get all of your photos or some of your photos digitally with no prints?

I would be very curious about this tour on a small plane to see nurse sharks and sea turtles - I've not heard of anything like that available on the island - do you have some details? Thanks!

Don't mind me .... that experience is actually in Belize. I got them confused/crossed over. I am going to Belize also on my cruise and mixed stuff up.

No and I won't, I don't know when my membership is due.

Interesting. I had a paid membership and they broke all of my photo links including billions of others in July with only a couple days warning. Upgrade or lose all your linked photos in your blogs/etc .. all hotlinks. So my dream review which has a quarter of a million views is sitting without photos in it. Super annoying. But I was happy to see your photos are still here.