omarchs

We felt it was nice to be treated as adults and not told to dress up on a particular night.

 

People have the option to book or not book in the Grande. Granted, there are not a ton of other options if you decide you don't want to get dressed up.

 

We felt that people on our cruise followed the code and actually enjoyed getting dressed up with the fact that probably at least 30% were dressed up on the last night of the cruise to go into the Grande when usually people just wear their travelling clothes into the main dining room.

 

The ship had a different vibe when you had people getting dressed up any given night while others were not. We liked the change of pace after all these regimented formal nights. You just said, they are going to the Grande tonight and no big deal that they are dressed up and we are not. It was actually kind of refreshing environment instead of the stale everyone dress up on the 2nd and 6th night of the cruise.

 

As you can see, we actually liked the dyanmic dining concept and happy to hear there is a little more flexibility lately in changing dining assignments if needed and hopefully it will continue when we are on the Anthem later in the year. No classic option for us!

A bottle of wine doesn't fit with the mini bar filled. We didn't ask to have it removed, but always had a bucket of ice provided for our bottles.

$800 total deposit for the 11 day cruise 21 months in advance. I don't think so! Would love to book the repositioning cruise, but they need to cut this in half before I am booking.

You may also want to have them on the ship validate for you that the photos that you paid for are actually unlocked on the disk. We and others on these boards have complained to the print company and Royal that we received fewer photos unlocked than we paid for. There hasn't been any quick resolution to the issue.

 

You don't get any little proof sheet with the cd so it is the honor system that they provide you with a cd with all your photos you paid for unlocked.

 

You can also buy additional credits as an earlier posted indicated, but I believe it is 25.95 per photo and who knows how secure it is through this downloaded app from the cd that is put on your computer. I have been tempted to just go this route for the few additional photos that should be unlocked, but now it is the principle that we want what we paid for.

Once again, food taste/selection is so subjective, but I agree that AI was the most disliked restaurant in discussions with any other passengers on our NYE cruise. Everyone seemed to like different restaurants, but never this one.

 

Did the Mac and Cheese (barely edible) and turkey (so overcooked and inedible). Didn't even wait around for their strange deserts (American Icon and no apple pie there!) and went upstairs to the WJ. Just booked the Anthem and we are going to every restaurant except this horrible spot.

We just booked the New Years voyage while on the Quantum's New Years cruise and it has already gone up $100 pp. it was already $300 pp higher than this year's NYE cruise.

There seemed to be many promos with Moët on our last cruise so it seems like they have some promo tie-in with them now. Royal was even giving a bottle of Moët in the stateroom with the ultimate package from last November through this month.

Just off the ship this past Saturday, but have no kids so someone else can help you on the Kids facilities.

 

1. Smoking is allowed on the Port (left hand) side of the outdoor pool area along the side. We did sit there right under the big TV screen one day and the smell was overwhelming since the wind blows it around. We moved out of this area. This is really the only other area besides the casino where you will deal with it since it isn't allowed in public rooms. You do smell some smoke coming up the atrium stairs from the casino, but we never felt it was too bad.

 

2. The Grande is a formal (Men - Jacket only required) restaurant every night and they did enforce it. The other free/speciality restaurants are all casual every night, but shorts were supposedly not allowed. We did see a few people get in, but others told us they were turned away. Jeans are fine in any casual restaurant.

 

I wouldn't call any of the free restaurants a must. American Icon should be skipped since the menu and food are horrible and most on the ship agreed. Many people liked the Grande even though you had to get dressed up. In fact, on our cruise many people seemed to like getting dressed up and there was usually a large number of suits/dresses every night of the cruise including the last night. This may be due to our's being a New Year's cruise and people felt like dressing up all week, but it was quite interesting. Silk and Chic were both mediocre. Jamie's was well worth the extra $25 pp since it was the best food on the ship. We enjoyed Chops, but we did talk to people who didn't like it. The Windjammer wasn't too bad for dinner after we went up there after the American Icon disaster.

 

3. We didn't do any excursions since we had been to each stop before. There isn't enough time in Port Canaveral to justify the price for Disney/Universal. You can take the shuttle to Cocoa Beach which is close. Not the greatest beach but at least a resonably priced day for the family. Coco Cay had plenty of water sports for an extra fee, but the island iteslf is nice enough.

 

4. Tips - like many have said before, pre-book restaurants and shows. There was no flexibility on our trip if you didn't pre-book. No available times and no chance to reschedule. Pool areas. Chair hogs were out very early 7-8am. Only saw 1 day, when staff was taking towels off chairs at the main outside pool early in the day and then they stopped. Never saw it again there or at any of the indoor pools. Go up to the Seaplex complex to see the whole schedule on the monitors for the week. Bumpers cars not done often and it allows you to find a day/time that you can do it. Also pre-book IFly since there were no available slots once on the ship. 270 room has very difficult sightlines for shows. We found the best location was the first row center in the balcony even though you have to look through glass. 270 Cafe is great for breakfast and lunch, but is a small place. If you get digital pictures, ask the staff to ensure the correct pictures are on the disk since our's weren't and they don't give you a proof sheet. Tribute band in the Music Hall was only the first two nights. We figured they would be all week so we missed them so try to do things besides the main shows when you see them since they may not be repeated. You need to request ice/shampoo/body wash from your stateroom steward since they don't automatically provide it in the rooms.

 

5. No slides. Your 4 year old might like the smallish kids play area by the main pool, but the older kids won't like it. There is a nice small sun deck off in the back by the Flowrider if you want to avoid the main pool area, but no pool is there. As i said, you have to be out at the pools fairly early to get prime spots and probably no later than 10 to find any seat.

 

It is a fantastic ship, that is just getting a lot of negative feedback for the food/reservations that hopefully can be corrected. Have a great trip!

I will further qualify. we don't feel that we are overly picky about food. We didn't think that any of the free restaurants had decent food for what we selected. We didn't seem to complain as much about the food in Silk as the others. Most we spoke to enjoyed the Grande the most for the free restaurants so we must have just caught it on a bad night. American Icon everyone seem to agree was horrible.

 

We are still very jealous that you are on this week. We still had a great trip despite the food quality since food doesn't make or break our trip. Hope you have a great time!

Just off yesterday and we liked DD although you do need to book everything in advance and have no changes. There is no flexibility built in if you want to change things since we and others tried. Whether this is due to restaurant size or staffing is open to debate. All our reservations were correct onboard.

 

Some people without reservations that we spoke to had difficulty getting any at all.

 

The bigger issue was the food and service. Food quality is subjective and people did have different experiences, but overall we and others thought the food quality was subpar. We felt that American Icon and Chic were the worst. Grande was slightly better and Silk was the best of the free restaurants. We felt that Jamie's was the best and only heard one negative comment. We also enjoyed Chops, but others hated it. Many people enjoyed the Grande and people also seemed to enjoy dressing up for it any given night including the last night. The formal any night was a hit at least on our cruise.

 

We loved the variety, but would love to not preplan everything up front, but that doesn't work on this ship so you just need to book all your dining and shows up front and go with it. Everyone we spoke to were more upset about the food quality rather than having to plan everything in advance.

We just got off today also and we felt DD worked fine if you were able to make all your reservations in advance. We tried to make a few changes and there is no flexibility to change since everything is always fully booked. Everything we had booked was correct on the ship.

 

We did speak to a few people who winged it and they were having trouble getting into any restaurants so pre-planing is essential. Dining times widely varied from 45 minutes to a max of 2 hours but mostly in the 1 hour 15 minutes timeframe.

 

We actually thought the Grand provided an interesting dynamic to the ship. People might have been into dressing up more since it was a holiday cruise, but there were a pretty decent number of people dressed up in the new "formal" to go to the Grande each night including a fairly large number on the last night of the cruise when everyone is usually in their traveling clothes. It just gave a different vibe to the ship that was kind of different and kind of shook things up in a good way. People seemed to embrace dressing up more when it was their choice rather than being dictated to with designated nights.

We just got off today. We heard some gripping about the wifi speed, but not free for everyone during our cruise. Thought we heard about it not working well one day. Most everyone was at the Solarium or the other indoor pool the first day and warm enough to be at the outdoor pool the second day. We had to be at the indoor pools on the last day on the return.

Thanks everyone for the feedback! Certainly appreciated and we will now pack accordingly. Don't mind doing it, but didn't want to drag along extra clothes if nobody was listening.

Hi recent Quantum cruises. Haven't seen much feedback on whether people are actually dressing up for dinner in the Grande or are people ignoring the suggested code?

 

Thanks in advance for the feedback!

Uncluttered main pool area. It seems that every new ship across all the lines are shrinking the main pool areas and there is limited sunning areas directly by the pools. My favorite part of a cruise is lying by the pool and it is getting increasingly more difficult due to pool area space being used for other gimmicky features to sell the ships.

First timer in NO going on the Carnival Dream. Is there any advantage to staying in one of the hotels directly at the convention center since the pier is right behind it?

 

I thought I read somewhere that you can't necessarily cut through the convention center to get to the pier.

 

We don't mind having a longer walk to the bourbon st area if we stay in this location if we can just walk to the ship from one of the convention hotels. Just like the flexibility of walking over when we feel like it rather than getting a cab.

 

We would just choose a hotel closer to bourbon st if you still need to grab a cab from the convention area hotels if the don't have easy pass through access to the pier.

 

Thanks in advance for any info you can provide.

We were on the 4 day in late September and I hope you got a cheap deal since we thought it was horrible. Been on a few Carnival cruises along with cruises on other lines and just wanted a quick getaway before Vegas and didn't have high expectations.

 

Ports were great but the ship should be scrapped. Food was universally bad selection wise and quality. The service was uneven and the ship is very dated and smelly in places. Show lounge had pillars right in the orchestra and you couldn't really see well anywhere upstairs.

 

The cafeteria was the strangest cafe I have been on any ship. It was like they converted a 70's disco that was so dark. We felt like asking the pizza guy if they ever heard of putting any tomato sauce on a pizza they were all so dry.

 

Pool area once again a little dated but the nicest area on the ship. Very spacious compared to newer ships.

 

It just felt like being on a ship out to pasture. Nice to be away, but have had much better Carnival experiences. As is always stated, people have different perspectives so hopefully you will have a better time than us.

The one menu I saw posted was a little different than those posted on the Royal website. The American Icon grill has turkey instead of surf and turf as shown on the website. Someone else mentioned that the Grande had lobster Thermidor which isn't on the website.

 

Royal wants us to pre-book restaurants, but they are making it difficult if their menus posted are not accurate. I did notice they say they are sample menus so the have an out.

 

Thanks to all the info everyone has provided and in advance for any other menus. Hopefully the weather will improve for everyone!

I agree this is an awful sale. I was eyeing the Liberty in May and it has gone up $1000-1300 total since the last sale. Certainly will be looking elsewhere unless they come up with a better sale!

Will be curious how this works, but at least our trip is easy since it is over New Year's. Figure that many people will dress up for the holiday so will have a jacket anyway if needed for other nights.

I had always cruised on Royal and Celebrity until the past several years after their product had changed in some negative ways in our mind (i.e. food, overall vibe).

 

I personally feel all lines are now very similar and you just pick the time/route/price that best suits you at the time and go with it. I have found the Royal prices extremely high lately like others and haven't traveled on them in a few years. I will be curious how Quantum stacks up when we are on it in a few months with it's high price tag.

Thanks for all the photos!! It does show nicely how small the main pool area is! Can they actually even get many lounge chairs around the pool area? It looks very tight.

 

It will be interesting to see how the area with the retractable roof over the pool since they will need desparately need that open space on warm weather days.

I was on the Splendor for last New Year's Eve and we expected at least it would be an elegant night in the dining room for NYE and packed as such. It was not a scheduled elegant night and the cruise director indicated that he wasn't going to change the dress code just due to the fact is was NYE and left it up to people to decide on their own.

 

The Splendor had maybe 30% of the crowd dressed up (suits/dresses) throughout the night. Mostly those in their 20s/30s were dressed up while the majority of people were very casual at dinner and the deck party. We commented that us older folks must just have grown tired of dressing up for NYE, but it was still new to the younger folks who appeared to enjoy it.

 

It just struck us as a very odd wedding crasher vibe at the party having two wildly different groups mixing at the party. We just commented about this last week when we were in Vegas saying it was just like last year's NYE when we saw all the 20s/30s somethings were dressed to the 9's on their way to the clubs in Vegas while the typical tourists (ourselves included) were in tees/shorts roaming the same casino floors.

 

I don't mind dressing up for a big night like NYE, but we did feel overdressed in the MDR and we changed before going up to the pool party.

 

We just got off a 4 day on the Imagination and very few made an attempt to even meet the elegant night code. Many have commented that Carnival passengers have been getting even more casual so I don't see that you would be out of place on NYE going the casual route. A few may dress up, but wear what makes you comfortable since it is your vacation.

 

Enjoy your trip!

I didn't see any place to order luggage tags. I just assumed that they were no longer needed with the new tracking tags they attach at the pier, but sounds like some people have ordered them. Maybe only those flying need to order tags?.

 

We also have different boarding zones.

We left on the imagination on a Sunday a few weeks ago and there was no check in on the Queen Mary where we stayed. There was a small little building that we were directed to by the staff when I showed our priority docs. I believe we got there around 11:30 (my memory is a little hazy after the QM champagne brunch) and we were on the ship very quickly.

 

I had read in other posting about check in on the QM, but it definitely doesn't happen on Sunday if you are leaving then.

 

We were in a suite so we didn't have the supposed priority tendering Privs from fttf. It may help if you want to get off the ship early, but they were practically begging people to get off early. I did not notice a separate priority line to get back on the ship so you may want to ask the staff if it actually exists.

 

Have a great trip!