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We will be on the Anthem of the Seas soon. We are supposed to dock at terminal 1. We have an afternoon arrival so we don't want to go the parks. It looks like there is a dining complex named the Cove that is close to this terminal.

Not sure if you can walk there from the terminal since heard the terminal area is pretty industrial. Has anyone docked at this terminal and gone to the Cove? If so, is there any special way you have to go to get there and any restaurant recommendations? Thanks!

Wear what makes you happy since there is no way of telling how a particular crowd will dress on a given cruise. We were on the Splendor for NYE a few years back. The younger crowd dressed up, while the older crowd was in tees/shorts at the big party at the pool. We were joking that the older crowd felt that they had dressed up for too many NY Eve's and we're tired of it.

It also wasn't a scheduled elegant night. They made an announcement that morning that it would remain a casual night, but feel free to dress up if you like.

Correct, it was Friday and it was Cozumel on our route. FYI, the were were quite a few people in jeans and a surprising number in shorts that weren't turned away so I wouldn't stress over the elegant night if the same staff is there since late September

Done just one NYE sailing. Gave balloons in each room to put in the atrium net with you room number and Carnival picked 1 balloon to give a bottle of champagne. Not much of a NYE budget I guess.

We had the same experiences for parties. Our NYE didn't fall on an elegant night and the y didn't make it one. We found that the younger 20's, 30 somethings dressed up much more than us 50+ crowd. Suits and dresses mixed with shorts and tees at the lido party.

You have Jamie's restaurant below you and passenger cabins above your floor. We have found more noise issues when having a restaurant/buffet/pool deck above you rather than below you (chair moving/cart moving). I would expect your location will be fine.

As for the ship, I would expect that the kids would still enjoy Seaplex with the bumper cars/other activities, plus the kids would be old enough to enjoy the sky diving simulator (just make sure you pre-book before sailing). Also the flow rider and North Star they will also enjoy.

Bottom line, many have debated going out of the cold weather versus flying to Florida. It is still winter so you can have weather issues with flights. Anthem has the seaplex and a nice indoor pool for the cooler weather compared to other ships going out of NJ.

You can only make the call whether it is better to fly to get a full week in the warm weather or get the 5 1/2 days of warm weather going out of the northeast at this time. The kids are not going to get all the bells and whistles on the same ship. Royal doesn't have water slides (until the Harmony) while Nowegian and Carnival do, but they don't have ice rinks or surfing simulators either.

We were just off the Dream also and there were plenty of people in shorts on formal night where we saw none of that in June on the Splendor. I don't care one way or another, but I try to follow their guidance and it annoys me when they don't bother enforcing. Basically the bar is pretty low by just asking for no shorts, tees and flip flops for 2 nights and anything goes on other nights.

We saw this sale too, but as stated it doesn't include the NYE voyage which we have booked. We have final payment in a few days, but there still seem to be a large number of rooms left in our category so I have been hoping the price would drop before final payment.

They had dropped prices substantially recently, but they are still a few hundred more than our rate. They will annoy a lot of people who paid a premium for this voyage when they eventually discount it to fill up the ship like the other dates in November and December. That is unless they follow their no last minute discounting policy on this particular cruise.

Our embarkation on Quantum wasn't too bad, but disembarking was a disaster. Timing was delayed and there was complete chaos after picking up your luggage getting into the customs line. The customs line was backed up and the wall that separated the baggage area and the customs area was pulled back. There was no staff stopping new people from merging into the customs line whever they pleased instead of joining the back of the line.

I am hoping they now have staff regulating the area and have the wall between the two sections closed so new people picking up luggage can only join the line at the true end of the line instead of having direct access to the customs.

I think there has to be more than a few hundred people in the group since there are 5 different bands and the website indicates there are more than 15 private events in addition to the daily concerts/events in the rear lounge.

Many of the concerts are planned late at night, but who knows when the other private events are planned. Sounds like a lot of events for 200 people. The rest of us passengers probably don't get 5 different bands from Carnival!

Can't imagine these amount of events impacting not impacting the rest of our available spaces during the week. This is where I feel Carnival has an obligation if a group has a certain amount of events booked as private parties.

It was also interesting to see on their website that smoking is acceptable on balconies despite the Carnival policy of none.

We are also booked on this cruise and didn't even think to goggle the date to see if anything was going on that week. I did look at the website and it did indicate shows in the back lounge in the afternoon and from 1-4am. They also talk about a deck party and that they can be dressed up for dinner.

They usually have the comedy club in the back lounge at night so I would expect that they can't have too many late comedy shows since they need to set up for the bands so there will be some impact on our entertainment. Who knows when their deck party would be.

This is where I have a problem with no notification when large groups take up public spaces. They have indicated in the past that there were only a few hundred people, but I haven't seen a number indicated this year. Many have mentioned that they were surprised this ship is sold out during this time of year so I think the group is larger than 200. They indicated that they wanted a cheaper cruise to attract more people than previous cruises so I think they will be a larger crowd.

We are also in the back of the ship so I would have preferred another location since my days of staying up to 4am are long gone.

Carnival can at least notify us that all nights are casual since I am wearing shorts on formal night if Goth attire is acceptable in the dining room. I will just state I am part of the Parrothead group onboard and this is my costume.

I was actually going to just search the forum for this same question, but my scenario is a little different.

Booking online directly with Celebrity for Europe you can get both free drinks/tips, yet the tip amount is added to your invoice amount if you choose select dining.

I know that in the past it takes a few weeks for them to actually add your perks to your invoice so I am expecting that you would eventually receive an updated invoice from Celebrity removing them before final payment.

I will call to confirm when I have more time tonight.

Did the Quantum for New Year's and booked the Anthem again for this year. This class of ship is perfect for going out of cold weather. The amount of indoor lounging space is great for the first and last day. Have taken other ships out of New York over New Year's and this was far and away the best due to having the best indoor spaces, solarium, indoor pool, seaplex. Wouldn't book another ship out of NY in the winter. We never want to risk flying out at this time of year, so yes the route isn't great, but it is a great week with quite a few warm days.

Thanks for the great review! Glad you had a good time. We will be on the Dream in about a month and hope we have a great time too.

Have sailed many times out of nyc in the winter for the convenience. Even sailed out through a blizzard where getting out of an airport would be impossible.

I don't want to deal with expensive flights and possible flight cancellations/delays during the winter so I will continue taking cruises out of nyc during the winter to get any warm days I can. I have taken Carnival, Royal and Ncl during the winter and enjoyed them all.

The Royal Quantum class were built for the cold weather and had a very well insulated pool with a retractable roof and a huge indoor solarium so there was plenty of indoor lounging space in the cold weather. The Splendor covered pool was not well insulated and not really usable during the cold weather days so there is something to be said for a newer ship.

I love sailing on Carnival, but they lose my business during the winter by avoiding the New York market, but obviously financially it works for them sailing elsewhere.

Thanks for all the info!

Just curious, did more people dress up for dinner in the dining room going out of New Orleans compared to other ports? We are staying a few days in NO and noticed that some of the nicer restaurants have dress codes. Wondering if the local passengers/other passengers tend to dress up more since they're used to dressing up in the city.

We usually now bring the bare minimum for Carnival elegant nights since many times in the past we felt very overdressed.

We will just skip the fancy restaurants in NO if jackets/dresses aren't seen much in the dining room on the ship and save on the luggage weight.

Thanks!

Long time Royal cruiser who now goes more on Carnival since I enjoy the more relaxed vibe.

I have enjoyed all my Carnival cruises with the exception of a 4 day Imagination cruise. This ship should have been put out to pasture many years ago. You should only go for a very very cheap fare and with an extremely open mind.

You will most certainly get more of a party crowd on the voyages that span the weekend rather than during the week, but people will always look to squeeze in as much fun as possible on a short cruise on any line.

I think they had 1 elegant night, but don't stress about dressing up much since the crowds dress was very relaxed which I very much like compared to Royal.

We were curious about this too since check in at the hotel isn't until 3. We figured worst case we would take a cab to the hotel, drop bags and wander the town. Any idea on the platinum departure time from the ship?

We used it the last night after 5. You had to give them your sign/sail card and sign a 0 receipt I guess for their tracking purpose. We didn't ask if you could pay the additional amount if you wanted a drink over $9.

I thought I remember seeing something about portable music on the Carnival FAQ section.

"Radios/Boom Boxes: For the comfort of all our guests, radios and boom boxes can be used with headphones or earpieces when used in public areas."

The next question would be is a balcony a public area or not.

Personally I think it is fine if it is at a low level not louder than speaking voices and I agree that I would still shut it off if I heard other people and I think in general most people would be considerate.

That said, our neighbors on our last cruise were not considerate at all and played theirs at a loud volume. They didn't play it 24/7, but they weren't quick to shut it off until we would try speaking over it for a while. We don't like to complain about neighbors since it is their vacation too, but their will always be issues like this if Carnival isn't very specific in their do's and dont's.

Anyone have a recommendation for a Sunday Brunch in New Orleans? We are staying in the French Quarter before getting on the Carnival Dream,but don't mind grabbing a cab for a nice brunch and making a quick trip back to the hotel to pick up our bags.

I feel it really depends upon the ship/time of year/passenger feelings on what you see on elegant nights.

I have had times where I felt underdressed and other times extremely overdressed in the dining room. There is really no way to estimate. I figured that people would dress up for a New Year's cruise and not many people did.

Lately, i have found not as many people were dressed up, so I am not bothering bringing a suit when we leave in a few weeks. More than likely most men will be wearing them since I won't be bringing one along!

You just have to go with what you would like to wear and don't worry about other people just like if you felt like dressing up some random night for a dinner at home. You can always dress more comforably for the second elegant night if not many people dress up on the 1st night.

I still don't understand why you can't buy it in advance like every other major cruise line. Nobody would have to worry about when they could actually purchase onboard if you could buy in advance.

It must be that it inflates their onboard revenue by forcing people to buy it on the ship rather than in advance.

Some people may prefer to buy onboard if they have OBC, but I am sure many like myself would prefer to pay in advance and have it paid for already.

Royal is making it very hard to keep cruising with them with all these changes. I had booked two nights pre-price increase after two great meals on quantum. You would think that they wouldn't be looking to further break things off on the Anthem after all the issues with the Quantum, but obviously they don't care.

Tobacco Road has already been announced for the Norwegian Escape which launches later in the year.

The problem in the US is that Quantum/Anthem/Harmony and Ovation are all excluded from the recent promos for free beverage packages and other discounts regardless of how far out in advance you book the trip (at least from what i have seen). Maybe travel agencies will add the perks, but Royal seems to be excluding all the new ships.