ray985

2 hours ago, roddy good boy said:

Folks on my Getaway sailing have expressed concern that NCL has yet to offer excursions for Kusadasi on 9/2. It already is an abbreviated stop, between the hours of 6:30 am- 1:30 pm. I saw from the cruisetimetables app that a Crystal ship will arrive at 1:30 pm and there will be 4 ships at the port at all given times. I guess that accounts for Getaways 1:30 pm departure.

I guess we’ll know when we know (if NCL will keep the port)!  

We're on the Viva on 5/25 and the Kusadasi excursions have never showed up, and now in the app, our Santorini excursions show up on that day. We booked a third party excursions since NCL offered none, but now I'm very suspicious that we'll be going there.

As early as February, when people called NCL, they were saying that our itinerary was changing but haven't released it yet. Now, the changed their story and the official stance is "it's an app glitch" and the Senior VP of Guest Services says "We encourage you to read any correspondence that comes from us rather than rely on social media platforms for information." They say that even though NCL reps have told me the itinerary will be changing over the phone, and that some of the local port's official websites have revised dates and times which changed in February when the problem happened. 

It won't ruin my vacation or anything, but don't think I'll ever book an NCL cruise again for a sailing that's about the destinations; they're too shady with their itinerary changes and I don't trust them. 

Glad they're looking how they can further improve the Prima-class. It was such a huge mistake making these ships so kid unfriendly. (I always wondered why they didn't turn Prima and Viva to adult-only ships and take on Virgin Voyages). 

I'm surprised they went with the Speedway Bar instead of the almost unused observation deck of the raceway. 

1 hour ago, CruiseAdict218 said:

Oh wow, I wonder why it wasn’t ordered jointly with #4, regardless that’s pretty exciting. 

Most likely to increase stock prices. The press release is all about revenue optimization and operational aspects, not a marketing release really. 

I guess now we see why they announced that Celebration Key will be getting an additional dock to house up to 4 Excel-class ships at once. 

The press release says Carnival Corporation will add one to two ships per year starting in 2027, so if demand for Carnival keeps up (compared to Princess, Aida, etc), we might see even more in the future.  

There are two foosball tables and one tabletop shuffle board in Guys Pig and Anchor. There are two corn hole and at least one ping ping setup up on Summer Landing. Think there was some more corn hole down on Summer Landing outside. There's no pool tables on Celebration. 

The Celebration was my first cruise in 2004. Got me hooked! Was so great to get to go on the new Celebration 19 years later, completely different, but still the same amazing vacation experience that got me hooked. 

4 hours ago, ZsaZsa2019 said:

I just booked Beetlejuice for our March 17th sailing.  I had the option of Thurs or Fri at 7pm or (I believe) 9pm.  Maybe 9:30pm.  I hear it gets cancelled or rescheduled quite a bit.

Are you in the Haven? I though you couldn't prebook entertainment on Prima and Viva and had to go to the theater when you arrive onboard.

On 2/19/2024 at 6:03 PM, david_sobe said:

That's true.  But with only 2 users at a time the line is going to be HUGE.  We remember things like Margaritaville being free until it was overwhelmed and a fee was then added.  NCL charges to play darts so it would not be surprising to me to have a fee for the roller coaster slide.  The Go Kart tracks kept getting bigger and bigger with each ship.  Its a huge revenue maker for NCL.  How will the Aqua make up for that shortfall?

I agree that if NCL charges for a waterslide they will get flamed.  

2 users at a time shouldn't be a problem. The Ultimate Abyss on Oasis-class ships only allows 2 people at a time; the ship holds double the people and the line is usually less than 15 minutes at most. Same thing for SkyRide on Carnival Vista-class ships. It's manageable, it's just a gloried water slide in this case. 

As for making money on Aqua, they're making more money by packing more people on the ship compared to the Prima/Viva. 
 

On 1/25/2024 at 2:40 PM, cruiseny4life said:

I don't think they understand most people can't just jet off to Europe. Well, maybe now they do! Just give us 10 hours in a port, instead of cutting port time to five or six hours and most folks will be happy...oh wait. That'll damage the environment. 

Seriously! The airfare is insane as well. I'm taking a cruise on the Viva in May, and the airfare is the same as the cost of my cruise! As much as I'd love to sail Europe more, it's just not affordable, especially when they're running 10-14 day cruises. How do people get this much time off?

16 hours ago, erby2283 said:

I’m actually not so sure about that. Here’s a comparison of the Hideaway to Cloud 17. I couldn’t even fit all of Cloud 17 in the screen shot. Look at the number of loungers compared to what’s in the Hideaway. Plus, (and I’m a non-smoker), the smoking section is adjacent to Cloud 17. There’s only one way into Cloud 17 (I think) from either end so it shouldn’t be that hard to limit access to children. 
 

As I said in an earlier post, as a woman sailing with 2 of her best friends, we really were looking forward to having the Cloud 17 area. We understand this ship is marketed to families but having this nice-sized adult only area was a nice selling point for us and I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t disappointing. But we’ll still make the best of it. 

While the deck plans are likely not to scale, based on what Royal Caribbean has provided, the Hideaway is roughly 33% smaller than Cloud 17 with 33% fewer loungers and 50% fewer bar stools. The pool is also likely smaller, but it's hard to tell because the hideaway pool has a large area with shallow water for loungers. 

Here's the current parties as of a week ago:
https://cruisespotlight.com/what-theme-parties-are-on-a-carnival-ship/

On 12/31/2022 at 3:32 AM, Cherries Jubilee said:

I really hope they have a restaurant that is similar to JiJi’s.

Unfortunately, there won't be. They'll have Bonsai Teppanyaki and Sushi, but no JiJi's or Asian restaurant. The only restaurant they haven't officially announced is the new Italian concept. 

7 minutes ago, JOHN 57 said:

I have heard, that there will be comedians on Celebration in more than 1 place not just the Punchliner club.  Plus I heard there will be more than one comedian.  Is that true?  How does it work?  Thank you.

Most ships have two comedians, so that's not new, but the scheduling is new. For the Trans Atlantic, they said they'd have two comedy shows at the same time; one in the Punchliner and one in the Limelight Lounge. That's a really great idea, as it forces people to choose one of the other. Normally, they'd have an 8pm show and a 9:30 show both being a different comedian so people would go to both, really limiting how many people could see it. This way, people have to choose one of the other. They said the comics alternated times/venues so we'd be able to see both during the course of the cruise. 

I really like those profile types of ship diagram as well. I don't know why they don't have it available on the website, so much easier to use if you're actually on the ship. 

Here's all the current drink menus:

https://cruisespotlight.com/carnival-cruise-line-drink-menus-and-pricing/

On 9/8/2022 at 10:39 PM, CDaze71 said:

From watching all of John H's videos of his walkies of the Carnival Luminosa in Palermo, this is what I discovered:
Deck Plan mentions Limelight Lounge fwd-ish Deck 3. John said it will be the Punchliner Comedy Club.
Piano Bar 88 will be located starboard side Deck 2 aft across from Altair nightclub.
The Grill will have "available" a delicious burger (not Guy's branded), an addition of Meat Pies. Does available mean included or an upcharge?
Pizzaria Del Capitano and Deli will be there.

No mention of the future of waterslides or waterworks.
With one less pool than the Spirit and no waterslides or waterworks, can you imagine a Queensland Hot Summer School Holidays heading to the tropics?
 

https://www.carnival.com.au/-/media/4f1f5be57837446a82fd902eeb2aade2.ashx

Yeah, the lack of an extra pool, like the rest of the Spirit-class, and the missing water slides is definitely going to make it rough for Australian warm-weather cruises, although I doubt they'll be missed on Alaska sailings. 

For the Limelight and Punchliner, that's just a naming thing. On the Vista-class ships, the Punchliner Comedy Club takes place in the Limelight. I think only the Mardi Grass / Excel Class Ships have a dedicated Punchliner venue. 

Here you'll see a breakdown the prices people are seeing broken down by ship. The prices go up and down every 3 or 4 weeks. 

https://cruisespotlight.com/rcl-deluxe-beverage-package-analysis/

Overall, the average price has been much higher since May. 

It completely varies for each sailing. You have to pay attention to the actual dollar amount they're charging, not the percentage off. Last year, they raised the prices of almost everything the week before Black Friday to offer "amazing deals of up to 40% off" during the sale. For many things, the prices were not much different than other sale prices (ie. Labor Day, Memorial Day, Arbor Day?)

For my 3 sailings I was monitoring, no prices were better on Black Friday than other times during the year. That includes internet, drink packages, and excursions. For some others, they were seeing good deals on excursions (mostly Perfect Day). For the past 2 years, the Drink Packages prices have NOT been the lowest on Black Friday. 

Rule of thumb though is to constantly watch prices. If you see a price you're willing to pay, book it. You can always cancel and rebook it later if you see better pricing. 

Yesh, I know they're in a rush, but it's so weird to be missing so many Carnival staples. No Guys Burgers on a Carnival Ship? It might be fine for Australian sailings since they don't have much to compare it to in terms of Carnival ships, but Seattle / Alaska cruises have a lot more competition from other cruise ships. 

1 hour ago, Lee Cruiser said:

Guests craving a late night snack will no longer be able to enjoy Late Night Snacks in the Lido Restaurant, which had often been light fare from a single buffet line, but will be able to get Pizza Plus options instead. This includes the late night pizza as well as pasta, Caesar salad, and sandwich options from the pizzeria.

 

I'm wondering what is considered late night.  The pizza line on Mardi Gras was horrible around 9-10 on our cruise in April.  Can't imagine what it would be like with adding additional items.  Hopefully they will had additional help as well, though that would probably defeat the purpose of why they are doing it to start with.

It's going to be awful. Have people working at Carnival never seen the line at pizza place between 10 PM and Midnight. On the older ships, it's easily a half hour wait (on the newer ships it's closer to 15 minutes because they can really crank out those pizzas). Now, we're going to give those poor guys working that place at that hour the responsibility to make sandwiches and salads to? Insane! They used to do Caesar salads and Pizza Pirate years ago but I heard they stopped it so the guys could just focus on getting the pizzas done. As a temporary setback, I get it, but not as an ongoing thing.

I was on an RCL ship this May and was so disappointed in their late-night selection (just pizza pretty much). I was telling everyone how Carnival at least has selections at the Lido Buffet for some munchies and now they get rid of it. 

On 8/2/2022 at 7:23 AM, artvlay said:

Is there a printed menu of frozen drinks on RC?

Here's the drink menu for most of the general bars and some of the specialty bars. 

https://cruisespotlight.com/royal-caribbean-drink-menus-for-2022/

When I went in the first week of June, you could book the free or paid iFly appointments as soon as you were on the ship. For the North Star, you could book the paid ones for the whole week, but the free rides opened at 8 am each day. There were plenty of free rides of both later in the cruise.

Just a note, you don't have to be on the ship, just connected to the ship's wifi. I booked the iFly and my show reservations while I was still waiting to get on the ship (in the walkway before boarding the ship). And it's SO much better to use the app. There are crazy lines on embarkation day of people not realizing they can book electronically. 

Has anyone had any experience using Remote Desktop (any version is fine, but I use Chrome Remote Desktop) with the Unlimited Wifi (no streaming) plan. I know VPN's are blocked on that package, but I'm trying to figure out some way to access work systems if something come up while I'm on a cruise. The Unlimited Premium Wifi plan is not an option on my sailing. 

Definitely not a price drop across the board. I have 3 sailings booked, one price one went (although not the cheapest price I have seen) and two actually went up. But with Royal, it can vary for each sailing, so it's always good to double check. 

1 hour ago, Steff79 said:

Now at Cruisecritic article with pics

 

https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/7049/

Surprised how shoddy this reporting is. A waterslide going through the balconies? No, it's the dry thrill slide. And a multipurpose theater, that wasn't debuted by Virgin Voyages. Carnival has been doing it since the Vista