stobe1

Some people cruise just to cruise and don't care about the ports/itinerary (yours truly included). West coast cruise options are very limited. I 100% understand the need to just book a cruise to get away for a weekend

As far as "best locations", that depends on what you consider to be "best" and what you are looking for. Grand suites are typically centrally located for central access to all parts of the ship. Havana suites are in the Havana area. Both have 100% access to the Havana area, priority boarding and a dedicated priority line at guest services. I believe the Grand suites may have the edge over Havana suites on the size of the room.

The interior part of Havana bar is always open to everyone. The exterior part of Havana bar is for the exclusive use of those staying in the Havana area.

It was a passenger that was sick after a fight that was started because the ship was out of fresh water.

I didn't realize my ex brother-in-law would be there to put it on for you.

So it was a sick passenger, a fight or they were out of fresh water. Got it.

As the great philosopher Ray Stevens once mused, "Happy hour is the saddest time of the day".

Just like the cold, flu or syphilis, it isn't going away.

Yeah. That doesn't seem accurate does it? But more importantly, why would they not be pleased with their cabin assignments? Just don't get a GTY cabin if you aren't willing to play roulette with the cabin assignments.

Hopefully the linen closet next to the crew stairwell will be available.

Royal Caribbean has said that their next class of ships will be about the size of Voyager or Liberty Class. So they are going back to the drawing board with medium-sized ships now. Carnival seems to be about a decade behind Royal as of late in trying to compete with ship size so maybe the trend will shift more toward smaller ships rather than continuing to continually attempting to one up their previous builds.

I knew it was some sort of swill.

I think its the Layer Cake Cab or Chardonnay. You can also get any bottle for 1/2 off. Our favorite is Caymus so we end up getting at least 2 bottles., sometimes 3. They are usually pretty good about letting us get a bottle to go to take with us back to the room. Pretty good deal to get a $100 bottle of wine for $50. Just remember that this free bottle or discounted bottle is only available on the 1st and 2nd night of the cruise.

Thanks. It has been a crazy couple of weeks. My schedule has been very unpredictable to say the least. And have fun on your trip! I am hoping our merger with Hawaiian means better things to come! Cant wait to nonrev down to visit the South Pacific!

Like I said, I only non rev about half the time and typically travel in off peak season. I work for Alaska and our company gives us positive space vacation passes and other non-bumpable positive space passes here and there throughout the year (like when we win JD Powers awards or meet our annual on-time, completion and customer satisfaction performance targets). We live in Chicago so flying to port is a must. If I don't have any positive space passes, I will typically book a regular full fare ticket on whichever airline. For instance, last year we did 4 cruises. 2 west coast departures and 2 east coast. For the west coast I used our positive space vacation passes. For the east coast cruises I booked a full fare ticket, partly because of loads but mostly going from ORD-SEA/LAX/SFO/PDX back to the east coast makes no sense, even if it is free. We have a spring break cruise coming up in March out of Galveston -- I also booked full fare for those tickets. And if all else fails, there is always the jumpseat for me, but I have yet to resort to that for vacations and just use that for my commutes to and from work lol.

I will be honest, I don't know. I don't ever use F2F so I cannot answer that question. I always book flights on my own, and since I work for an airline, half the time I am non-reving to the ports. I only actually book positive space, confirmed seats if I don't have enough flexibility with my schedule to work around it, and then I am always booking directly with whatever airline I am flying on. Maybe try calling Carnival and ask them if you are wanting to use F2F instead of booking on your own. Good luck!

We, also, have written off sailing from NYC ever again. We sailed Sunrise out of NY in 2019 and swore never again. But then we gave it another chance this past summer on Venezia since we had a sweetheart deal that was basically a free cruise that we couldn't refuse and really swore never, ever again. No matter how good the deal is. The port chaos, the city madness and the rudeness of the fellow passengers made us decide never again.

If using your phone, log in to your account. Select the cruise from the drop down menu. Then in the upper left hand corner you should see "Categories". Click on that and scroll down towards the bottom and you should see the Fly2Fun option. Not sure if different phones will make the website look different (ie. Apple vs Samsung). I have a Galaxy S23. So your mileage may vary

No.

It's just a preference. Not all of us are in the "bigger is better" camp. If that's your cup of tea, I say go for it. Whatever blows your hair back.

I have often been accused of being a Carnival cheerleader here on CC. It is a rare day that I say anything negative about them. But saying that we prefer smaller ships and not sailing with 7,000 people isnt being a hater or complaining. It is just stating a preference, at least in my case it was. But why keep complaints to yourself? You have never once complained about anything ever? Do you internalize and keep all your comments to yourself? Of course you don't. You complained about the "complainers".

Exactly. Nassau, Ocho Rios, Montego Bay, San Juan, and Cozumel (although sometimes we may go to Nachi Cocum) are just a few ports that we generally don't even bother getting off the ship and are able to enjoy a crowd-less ship.

Are All inclusive resorts are better where there is no time limit or drink limit? Maybe going to Mormon Summer camp is better where the worst thing they serve is Ovaltine.

You have to wait 5 minutes in between orders. Not a half hour. And 15 can go by quickly when you factor in a couple of micheladas, mimosas or bloody marys with breakfast, a few beers by the pool, a pre dinner cocktail at alchemy, wine with dinner then a few at the night club or piano bar late at night. Im glad you arent in charge of the drink policy. Just worry about yourself and not how other people spend their vacation. As long as you keep to yourself, dont insult other passengers, make comments about someone's bad weave or have a 3some with swingers then regret it the next day and decide to get mad about it, you won't have any issues.