Rudyard

Not sure how it is where you are, but here I can just go just online and request two postponements of up to two or three months each (can't remember exactly as I haven't had to do it in a few years).

Varies by length of cruise now. I think it starts at $79 or $89 and goes up to around $149. I may be mistaken but it's something like that.

Engine problems don't necessarily require being dry docked. I recall one ship out of Galveston a few years ago (ship's name eludes me now) that was having propulsion issues. During turnaround day they simply cut a hole in the side of the ship to get the parts they needed onboard, welded it shut, and set sail with little to no interruption to their schedule. Personally I'd rather miss a port than be one of the people getting an e-mail telling me that my cruise was cancelled because a bunch of armchair maritime experts kept screaming for the ship to be drydocked early. Short of another Triumph incident I doubt we'll see an early drydock.

100 Days seems to be my magic number for when the days speed up as well. Slows down again at about the two week mark.

As posted previously, it does happen to other cruise lines. It seem though that the people that cruise those lines have an unspoken agreement not to talk about it. When NCL of the Seas has a problem the posts are usually short and sweet and drop off page one quickly. They remind me of those families that know grandma has a "problem" involving fermented grape beverages and cousin Jimmy is a frequent resident of the county jail, but they want to make sure it's kept in the family lest those pesky carnies show up on their forum.

We started doing that on our last cruise. Picked up a small thermos that holds about three or four cups of coffee from Amazon. I'm nearly always up early and would make the run to the Lido to fill it.

I've always found the one in Luling to be just as crowded but I think it's because that was one of their first large stores and they built it too small. They're building a new Luling store that's going to be 75K sq ft.

The Buc-ee's in Madisonville gets to stupid levels of busy, especially on the weekends. Last time I stopped there on my way to Dallas there were six or seven bus loads of cheerleaders in there (they were parked around back so didn't see them until I was leaving) and they made sure to let you know they were there. The Texas City store on a cruise day isn't as bad as Madisonville.

I really want to do an Eastern itinerary out of Galveston again, but the above quote keeps me from booking Dream. I love the Cucina and will usually eat there at least twice on a five day cruise. On an eight day cruise I can see eating there three or four nights. I'm surprised that Carnival hasn't modified Dream to have these venues yet. Maybe one day I'll give in and do it because I know I'll have a great time regardless, but would like to have a great time with more food options.

They turned the conference rooms on Deck four into non smoking casinos on the Dream class ships right about the time they resumed cruising in 2021. The Main Casino is still smoking.

Any time we're on a ship with a Cucina we eat there two to three times depending on the length of the cruise. I've never even seen it half full and have never had a problem getting a reservation for the time we want. The price is reasonable and the food is good, so not sure why people shy away from it (in my experience at least).

Price was what got me to book with RC for my next cruise. I wanted an itinerary that included Roatan and Vista was $400 more for the same week. Prices were better on the next two I have booked, so I went back to Carnival. Booking with RC again after 11 years made me think more about trying other lines. With NCL and Princess sailing seasonally out of Galveston I may give them a look. I enjoyed the only NCL cruise I took a few years ago. If things work out we'll also have MSC here in a couple of years.

It took us a few times of saying we were going to do it before we finally did. The difference in our stress level was like night and day. I always hated being stressed on the last day of a cruise because of pushy people, crowds, people blocking stairs and elevators when our zone was called, etc. Having a leisurely breakfast and just sitting and enjoying a last cup of coffee made a huge difference. When they announced the last call we walked straight to an elevator, which was empty when it arrived, walked through the forward MDR to an almost empty atrium and right off the ship without having to wait in a line. Most of the luggage had been claimed so finding ours was easy as it was sitting all alone in our zone's area.

We finally started doing this after always trying to get off early and thinking "This time it'll be different". Now we wait until about 15 minutes before it's time to get kicked out of our cabin, head up to Lido to eat breakfast, sit and drink coffee and talk with the people around us who were smart enough to do the same thing, then walk right off the ship when last call is announced. So much less stressful than having to throw elbows to get through the crowds.

Never been up on stage, but have played a few times. Last cruise I won a bingo card and $30 casino cash. Of the two people on my last cruise that got called up on stage, one won $10 and the other won the $1000 jackpot. Guy that won big was on his first cruise too.

We started doing this on our last two cruises and it worked great. We were surprised howcold it kept our water bottles. We got lucky and our steward left ours alone.

Thanks for the tip. We'll see if they have a hole punch out. Luckily no drink package and 90% of the time when we're out it's together so she won't have to pull her card out that much to open the door. I keep mine in my pocket.

Carnival started doing that a few years ago. I'm guessing Guest Services got tired of punching holes. My wife uses a lanyard so I was just going to put her card in one of those small clear card pouches to hang from the lanyard on our upcoming Allure cruise.

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I was able to buy it in January for my Breeze cruise in December, so 11 months in my case. If it's not available yet for your cruise just check back regularly.

It's also worth it if you need to visit Guest Services. The normal line for non-priority guests can get long at times. The priority line on the other hand is usually much shorter or have no line at all.

I feel your pain. I was booked on the third sailing out of Galveston after the TA.

I also have to think it's down to cost more than anything else. Otherwise what could NCL be doing so much differently than Carnival that allows one to have coffee makers and one to not have them? It was nice to have a coffee maker when I cruised NCL a few years ago, but it's far from a deal breaker. Before my last cruise I bought a 20oz thermos which is good for about three Carnival size cups of coffee. When I woke up I'd head to the Lido and fill it. Not as convenient as a coffee maker, but quicker than room service.

I've used the app my last three cruises and had this problem on all of them. After each cruise I had to uninstall then reinstall it to get to where I could enter in the countdown for my next cruise.

We initially booked Allure for later this year because we wanted an itinerary with Roatan and it was actually cheaper than Vista. Granted, the onboard experience will be more expensive, but we knew that going in. Looking back on my decision I'm glad I did it as it's been almost a decade since we cruised with anyone else and it'll be nice to compare the two. From reading over on the Royal board, they seem to be complaining about a lot of the same things that Carnival cruisers are upset about.