lizjoemom

Just off Paradise, 17 of us, here are some of the favorites:

Hands down across the board for all ages: Bacon Mac and Cheese!

Close runner up: Chocolate Melting cake

Personal favorites:

Thai Marinated chicken fingers (son loved them!)

Short Ribs

Pork Chop

Fried Chicken from the everyday menu

Onion soup

Beef Barley

Veal Parmigiana

Pasta with seafood

Bitter and Blanc

Carrot Cake

Cheesecake.

On the buffet: Mongolian Wok, (but the lines were soooooo long)

Cheeseburgers

Reubens

Thanks, I better just bring one just in case!

I'm sure the answer is somewhere here, but I cant find it. Leaving on the Paradise tomorrow and my MIL said that when she went last time there was no hair dryer. All the other Carnival ships I've been on have had them in the room. Does anyone know if there are hairdryers in the room on the Paradise?:confused:

There are 17 of us leaving on Saturday on the Paradise! Any suggestions on how to stay in touch with each other while on board (for the kids especially). We have ages ranging from 11 years old to 78 years old. As far as I know no one will be using their cell phones while on board to avoid roaming charges.

I always have to turn off my pop up blocker when I view the excursions. My computer asks if I want to view all content. You could have a security setting keeping you from viewing.

I guess we all have reasons to book with a cruise lines. For me its itinerary and price.

 

 

Since I never book tours with the cruiseline shore talks arent something I would ever attend. There is so much information, available to do you own research well in advance of getting on a ship.

 

Europe is so easy to get around and book tours.

So true. We booked all of our tours on our own. With the internet, it is so easy to research tours. I booked all of our tours and tickets online and everything went smoothly. I also booked our own airfare, which was smart because the group that was sitting at our table had Carnival book it and there was 1 stop and half the group lost their luggage!

The only thing that we did book through Carnival was the extra two days in Rome. With the transfers and the hotel prices, it was worth it. :)

Thanks for the responses. We went on our first Carnival Cruise in Europe a few years back, and we thought it was great. We had always heard mixed reviews regarding Carnival, but that cruise hooked us for Carnival.

RC has a limited sailing itinerary in Europe next year too, and the prices seem pretty high, we will probably just wait until 016 or even 017 unless something changes.

Hi, I was just looking up European cruises for next summer and went to Carnival website. Under "where do you want to go?" there is no Europe option. Does Carnival still cruise in Europe? Am I missing something?:confused:

My family was on the June 1 sailing on Freedom. Carnival had hand washing stations near the pools. Also tissue dispensers inside the bathroom exit doors so that you could cover the door handle upon exit of public restrooms. There was hand sanitizer virtually everywhere. There was constant cleaning going on and reminders everywhere to wash your hands. I don't know what else could be done to prevent virus by carnival. I brought wet wipes and hand sanitizer for my family. I sanitized my whole cabin before we "lived" in it for 8 nights. My husband and boys have a cold upon return but that could have been from port or plane.

 

 

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I was impressed that Carnival had tissues available at the bathroom doors for the handles, I don't recall seeing this on other ships that I have been on. Plenty of hand sanitizer stations, DH and I were on the Pride in May and it was all good!

We sailed on the Dawn to Bermuda a few years back and I agree with everything you said.

The things that really annoyed me on that ship was the odd layout, the, "you cant get there from here" having to go up or down to get across and the other thing that I really didn't like was the "freestyle" dining. We found the food in the main dining rooms to be awful so we ate in the pay restaurants probably 5 out of 7 nights, of course our party of 8 couldn't always eat together because we weren't always able to make reservations for when we wanted, where we wanted and for how many, so "freestyle" is really a misnomer! I too, found the cabin cramped. NCL definitely wins on the entertainment, it was excellent.

We had sailed NCL in the past before freestyle and loved it, so we were extremely disappointed when we went on the Dawn, and we were pleasantly surprised when we first booked Carnival, so Carnival is a better choice for us by far.

Thanks for posting the review, very fair and balanced and glad to see that others see it the same way.

Yes, it probably takes a good 8 hours, we were just on her in May. Enjoy! It's a great ship.

We were on the Pride on May 18th, there was no bread basket on the table, the waitstaff came around with the bread, which was fine since it was just the two of us. Some of our favorites:

Bread is always good on Carnival

Caesar salad

Tomato and buffalo mozzarella

Corn chowder

crab cake

linguini with pancetta

Short ribs with mashed potatoes

Herb roasted chicken

Grilled salmon (everyday menu)- This was excellent and I ordered it when I had enough of beef dishes!

Cheescakes were very good.

Prime rib was just ok first night, second night it was served it was better.

Of course the lobster tails were good, small, but tasty and the shrimp that they served with it was good too.

Everything in the steak house was excellent.

I didn't like the stuffed mushrooms or the tomato soup.

I am so sorry to hear about your father's diagnosis, I hope that all goes well and that he will be ok AND you get to go on your vacation.

I don't know what Carnival will do, I have never had this situation come up with Carnival, but I did have it happen when we were booked on RCI a long time ago.

We had booked and paid for a 7 night southern Caribbean cruise (this was in 1996). About a week before we were scheduled to leave my father wound up in the hospital with what we thought was congestive heart failure. When I went to see him in the hospital he seemed alright and we had planned to go, however, within a couple of days he was on a respirator (turned out to be much worse than CHF). So of course we didn't go on vacation, and of course, we hadn't purchased insurance, we were young and never thought it was necessary. We contacted the cruise line and the travel agent who booked our trip (we were supposed to be travelling with my brother in law and sister in law and they still went on the cruise), they advised us to write a letter and get a letter from my father's doctor, the travel agent also wrote a letter. The cruise line gave us a full credit for a future cruise and we were very grateful. As I said I don't know what Carnival will do for you but hopefully they will be understanding and they take these things on a case by case basis as RCI did in our case. By the way, because of the way RCI handled this, I am forever a Royal customer, I enjoy other cruise lines too, but am a RCI fan first and foremost.

I hope it all works out for you and I pray for you and your family.

Of course, I can't speak for Lizjoemom, who I hope will offer a personal response, but when the phrase "first world problem" comes up, I think of the idea that many of us (myself included, to my shame) are not thankful enough for our ability to enjoy activities and a lifestyle that most in the world could never dream of. We therefore have cavalier attitudes due to our elitism, and differences in financial status notwithstanding, become obsessed about having our expectations met, making ourselves and often others around us unhappy because of our ingratitude and complaining. In my mind, it's related to the adage "money can't buy happiness," because what happens is, "the more you have, the more you want." Even folks sailing in a cheap cabin on a cheap cruiseline can have this problem. JMHO

 

(BTW, I had a great Fascination cruise a few years back and have nothing bad to say about Carnival)

I'm not really sure what TPFKAH means by their post, I mean is there any such thing as a "third world vacation"? First World Problems means just exactly what it says a problem that we only have here in the First World. Things like my internet wont work, or the cables out and I cant watch my favorite tv show, my soups cold etc... :D

We (meaning us here in the US) have a lot, we have freedom, opportunity, education, not to mention clean running water and electricity. I do enjoy the finer things in my life (including first world vacations) but there has definitely been times in my life that I have taken what I have for granted and that doesn't just include material things.

I just think that if you go on Youtube and gripe about ridiculous things like the price of Atlantis or some noise from the next cabin or, my favorite, the "WALMART" crowd onboard, well then you leave yourself open to criticism. I guess it all comes down to perspective.

Gosh! This poor girl has a horrible experience on this cruise and it seems no one has any sympathy for the poor thing!!!:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

3 words-First World Problems.

And the references to Walmart are more than a little annoying. Walmart, whether people like it or not, provides a much needed lifeline to a lot of remote areas in this country where there are no strip malls and chain stores and where the economy is struggling and people don't have enough money to go on a weekend camping trip let alone a cruise ship. This girl should probably take a serious look at her priorities.

Life is too short to worry about silly things. Those who will cut in line don’t care if you get upset and those who care don’t cut. The only people you are affecting by getting upset are you and your group. I say have fun and don’t worry about the small stuff.

Yes Yes Yes!!!!! Pick your battles, that's what I always say. Life (and your cruise vacation for that matter) is way too short to worry about people cutting in line! I feel the same way about "chair hogging" if all the chairs are taken, I go find another chair. Don't sweat it, just have a good time!

Thanks all:)

We are taking a family cruise on the Pride in August and there will be 17 of us. We want to have a portrait taken on board and I was wondering if I would be able to schedule an appointment before we cruised or if I have to do it after we get onboard? If I can schedule it before, do I call the cruise line?

Any information anyone has would be helpful!:)

lizjoemom & phoenixdawgcruising

 

its called carnival.com.....its $195.00/pp and we are going march 13-16 let me do the math for you $195.00x5=$935.00 we have to pay the additional in taxes, fees and insurance

 

let me know if there is anything else I can assist you with.

Nope, that's all I wanted to know. Makes sense for a 3 day cruise however, I don't know that I would go through all the trouble of driving just for a 3 dayer. I'm out. Still a good price tho. Have fun!

Sorry, I call shenanigans! I sail with 5 people all the time, we have never fit in one room, nor would we care to (there are a few that can hold 5, but not many) and they are certainly more than $1600 total. Are we talking a 7 night cruise here??:confused:

 

I also notice that when asked what ship this was on, OP has yet to respond. If they do, I plan to try to book it just to see.

 

They have no money, they have plenty of money?? If they have plenty, why ask for Help???:p

 

SHENANIGANS I say!!:eek:

I agree PhoenixDawg. 1600.00 for 5 people sounds a little too good to be true. I'm still curious as to the what, when and where is. I wish the OP would respond, cause I would love to get in on it!

I am getting $1600.00 going out of Miami and they quoted me $5500.00 going out of Baltimore

1600.00 for 5 people is a fantastic price! Do you mind me asking what ship and what the itinerary is? What month is it sailing? I might consider booking this myself if it's that cheap!

As for airfare, Jet blue is pretty cheap into Ft. Lauderdale, I would definitely recommend flying in at least a day before, especially if you use jet blue, they don't have that many flights and they don't reschedule you if your flight gets cancelled so beware! Also, if you are considering coming into port on the same day I would seriously consider purchasing the cruise trip insurance (prices vary) because if you miss the ship, you will lose your money.

I just got back from the Pride and changed my breakfast up a little this time. Most days I ordered 2 over easy eggs(really don't like the scrambled eggs on the buffet), some sausage or bacon and toast. The one day that we ate in the MDR I ordered my fav. poached eggs and corned beef hash, Carnival now has a sea day brunch and there are a ton of things to choose from.

The pictures are beautiful, thanks for sharing. I have a couple of questions if anyone can answer I would appreciate it.

We are going on the Paradise in August with my husbands whole family, there are 17 of us and I wanted to arrange to have pictures taken for a family portrait that we could all buy for ourselves and for my in laws.

So my question is, can we make an appointment to have the portraits taken and if so, is it something we do before we get onboard or should I go schedule it once we are on the ship?

We are not going to need multiple copies for each family, but rather one large print for each family like say 17 x 11 or a little larger. Do you need to buy a large package or can we just buy individual large prints?

Do they charge a sitting fee?

Thanks for any info anyone can offer!

My husband and I were on the same cruise! Thanks for posting your review. We had a wonderful time as well. I agree with your comment about Freeport, Carnival should pick a better port. We only got off the boat for about an hour and got back on and hung out in the Serenity area too! It was one of the only times we could get a seat there. I also agree with you about the scheduling of the comedy shows. We tried to get in to see a couple of them, even going so far as to line up before one and by the time we got into the room it was standing room only! Frustrating. Otherwise everything was great, we also really enjoyed Josh and his crew, they really got the party started! Glad that you all had a great time too.