vamartha

I've not been lucky enough to try the oysters yet, both of the recent ships we tried didn't have them. (That has also been my luck with the clams at the Seafood Shack - sorry, seafood rant off)

The shrimp cocktail is wonderful and very eye catching! Served in a martini glass.

The French Onion Soup is good. The Lobster Bisque is fabulous!

For me, the Surf and Turf can go either way. I've had good and and I've had not so good.

The filet is usually wonderful! Both the New York Strip and the Ribeye are good. I'm just not a huge steak person. Colossal shrimp was good! 

The cheesecake is great! The Art of the Desert (or whatever it is called) looks wonderful but draws too much attention for DH to allow me to try it.  🤣

I have not done a 10 night but I have done an 11 night and a 14 night. On both of those we had two Elegant Nights plus one Captain's Night which was essentially the same thing.

I will say on the 14 night we did have Lobster on the Captain's Night as well as the first Elegant Night. (Good thing, because I missed it the first time around and would have skipped the Captain's night too until I just happened to take a look at the menu). 

Any of the three Dream class ships are wonderful! The Magic is roomy without being Mardi Gras roomy (and I'm still not so sure how roomy that ship is gonna be at 100% capacity, Magic is fine at 100% capacity!)

She is sparkly without being overly garish. Lido is the center of activity on Sea days but is easy to view without being in the center of all of it from the Panorama decks, both in and out of the sun.

Serenity is nice and adequate. Both side of the ship, up front and up high. I do

to tend to like it better at the aft of the ship instead, sort of cuts down on the wind.

Visit the Pasta restaurant for lunch. Free and sometimes easy to miss as it is upstairs from the Lido. And it is wonderful for dinner as well, with a very decent upcharge. (I think it is still $15 and I think it is worth it).

All of the Dream Class ships are fairly easy to navigate. They all make good use of space and handle passengers well. Lido might get a bit clogged right as it opens on Sea Days but it usually moves fairly well. And there are other options also, like Guys and Blue Iguana which are right outside. 

Even after sailing Mardi Gras twice I plan to move back to the Dream Class, its still my favorite. If you have never been on anything larger than Fantasy class, you are in for a treat!

I haven't sailed on her yet (11 days out) but she seems to have the bowling alley balconies that are so awesome on Spirit Class ships. We had one on Pride last fall for a Panama Canal partial crossing and it was invaluable. Look at 8232, 6232 and 7258 on the deck plans to get an idea of what I am talking about. They book fast, I'd been looking at them for years and just lucked upon one during Covid. And they aren't considered Premium either, although they certainly are!

I carry a Micra 2.5" Leatherman in my makeup bag along with a corkscrew that Carnival gave me years ago. The Leatherman has been on every single cruise I've taken over 18 years. Has scissors and a knife.

22 hours ago, nwcruiselover said:

Yes, you can add the insurance anytime before final payment date.

As a general rule, I don't buy from Carnival but you CAN buy later than final payment date if you want to. I bought from Carnival last fall the week before we sailed.

It is usually 7-10 days, but I have never used a Paypal debit card only my bank one several different times. And I've stopped doing that even. I just use a cash account. I almost always have OBC nowadays with my booking and they usually only need another couple of hundred and I just use cash. I don't have credit cards either and using cash just makes all the stress go away!

I don't drink or shop or blow more than $20 a day in the casino so I don't have to deal with a whole lot of cash either! I'm not really a revenue generator, I'm more just sort of along for the ride! 😁

We got offered close to the same offer last month on the Spa Deck. We already had a balcony in the inset and they offered an Ocean Suite right at $530. It was a good offer on any other ship but I don't like the balconies on the Ocean Suites on MG - you just do not have the privacy that you would expect for that cost. Since there were two of us, I turned it down.

But I am booked again Halloween and I'd love to upgrade on that one because we are going to be three adults in a regular balcony. I've sailed this ship twice already and those balcony cabins are darn skinny. I'm struggling with thinking of there being three of us in one cabin!

We've only been on Mardi Gras since turning Platinum. Trying Spirit week after next but on the MG, we just went to the cabin and stashed our two carry on bags in the closet, waved at our Steward and promptly left within 60 seconds. And I probably won't know on the Spirit either because all the cabins should be ready when we board as its the first cruise.

I was on in both August and January. For your first question, even though you turn Plat on the cruise (we did in Jan) only Suites have priority boarding as of today. That can change. You will get to check in two days earlier online to choose your boarding time.

I'm of no help with Soda. We are Coke drinkers and carry our own on. There are several dispensers though on multiple decks.

We were able to stash our carry on's in the closet when we boarded. Laundry is the best perk and it was about a day, day and a half turn around time.

The only other one I can help you with is masks. In August, Delta was just beginning and everybody felt that they didn't need them. January was a whole different ballgame and most everyone wore one where they are required (basically everywhere inside and where you can't social distance). 

Download the app and use it. It is your best source of information and it works well. Other than specialty (Teppanyaki, Rudi's, Steakhouse, Chef's Table) you can use it for your reservations. The aforementioned are for pay and tend to sell out and I'd make your reservations before you board for those unless you don't mind odd (very early or very late) dining times and that goes 10 fold for Rudi's.

Pack your walking legs. She's a huge ship for Carnival and its a massive amount of walking. I don't mind it but my knees are not generally happy with me at the end of a week. Have patience with the elevators. The best ships maps are a combination of the ones located at the elevators and the ones on your phone on the app.

You do mean the day BEFORE your cruise, right? 🤣

Once you're logged in to the particular cruise you're looking for, go to Booking and Order Details. It will show either the balance that is due or paid in full. Even if you are paid in full you can still click on view balance details and it will show you a breakdown by passenger.

The beds on Mardi Gras are hard. I mean rock hard. I slept on the sofa every night and I didn't ask the steward to convert it (sheets and extra comforter are usually in the closet or in the drawers under the sofa ships pre Mardi Gras). I slept on the sofa part and slept well. But they make sofa beds out of them, like if you have a sofa bed at your house that converts into a bed. 

I got one after my August cruise, didn't get one after my October cruise.

We have a very small spinner suitcase that we use. Holds two twelve packs easily.

I usually make an Uber trip to a grocery store in most ports.

I guess I'm a "younger senior" 😁  But I was also an Admin for an extremely technologically advanced construction contractor and I had to use my phone in business life far more than I expected so it isn't a foreign concept to me at all.

I actually enjoyed using the Hub and felt like I had more control instead of less. 

DH didn't adapt quite as fast and he did ask for paper menus when we were in the MDR and Steakhouse. He did better on our second post restart cruise and I think he'll deal with it much better when we go again in about 28 days. The Steakhouse menu on the Hub isn't easy to read at all and I resorted to pulling it on my tablet before we left the cabin.

I don't miss the paper Fun Times in the least, for me it is far easier to read on the Hub as I have the font set really large on my phone plus I like the fact that they aren't wasting so much paper with all the ads that they used to leave in your cabin. I dealt with it fine but I also use apps for most things in my life like banking, booking hotels, ordering food and planning everything/reminders using Calendar. I can imagine that if you weren't prepared for it that it would be a shock, but you can pick up a printed Fun Times at Guest Services and request a printed menu in the MDR. 

4 hours ago, crazy4themouse said:

 

Try this. Make sure you're logged into your Carnival account first, then go here:

https://www.carnival.com/booked/document?BookingNumber=XXXXXX&IsPrintLuggageTagsSelected=true&IsPrintPassFlightSelected=false&IsPrintCruiseInfoSelected=true

 

Replace the "X's" with your 6-character booking number and hit enter. I don't know if it works into 2023, but that should bring up your documents and tags. Credit and thanks go to another CC member who posted that trick a while back!

 

Amazing! Thank you! We've been confused if DH would be Platinum or not on this cruise as he is five days behind me and now we have the answer! That is an amazing link! I am most appreciative!

18 hours ago, sailingships said:

My cruises all the way through to Sept 2023 all have Diamond on the luggage tags and the boarding passes. I cruised in August and we waited to board amongst the new cruisers etc. Only the suites were treated special and separate regardless of their status. Carnival can change the documents at whim when the protocols are done away with but expect some of the new treatment of D/Ps to stay.

OK, maybe Diamond is different but I am confused. I have sailed twice since the restart and have several more booked. How do you have boarding passes and luggage tags through September 2023? My experience is that you don't have access to them until after you check in 14-16 days prior. I'm assuming that maybe Diamond access is different? Just curious, thanks!

I love the app for 98% of things but I am not fond of the chat feature. I simply cannot get DH to check his phone without a notification and that is really the only thing it lacks. So we fall back on Messenger because he can at least see that he has a message without having to physically open the Hub to check. It is way more expensive because even though I do a Premium package for myself and would no matter what (sorry, I'm a news junkie), now I purchase a Social package for him as well. For someone who is not a Senior and is capable of checking the app, it works well. 

I never got out of casual attire on two of the last three cruises I have been on. The MDR doesn't impress us anymore after 10 cruises.  We did gussy up a bit on the last one (twice) but the damn thing was 14 nights long and I had over $1000 OBC to burn, so Steakhouse it was.

Leaving again in 30 days, not packing a fancy dress, not packing DH a tie and not planning to dress up. I'm finally retired, finally turning Platinum and I don't give two cents about how anyone is dressed. I'm on permanent vacation and dress clothes don't exist in my world either. 😁

I've sailed twice using CVS for my testing. I did have to provide insurance information (their Covid 19/testing/MinuteClinic specific website says that the Federal Government pays if you are uninsured, insurance is billed if you are insured). But neither time did I have to pay. And it worked well for us. We don't have drive through, we have to go into a little shed type building they have in the parking lot and its in a little bitty college town. My biggest preference for CVS is that you can schedule 13 days out.

I'm booked on that cruise! Get your walking shoes ready, she is huge!

I watch about 7 channels on a regular basis, all of them put out multiple videos each week. I used it on the Pride with zero issue for two weeks in November. I had more of an issue with buffering on the Mardi Gras in August when it was only 65% capacity and finally gave up and resorted to my downloaded Netflix. But it worked great on the Pride!

Premium plan on both ships.

On a corporate level, I would like to see them allow you to sail on the other Carnival Corporation owned lines and still obtain your loyalty level. I can assure you that I would try this one feature on at least two other lines in a heartbeat.

On a cruise line level, I'd like to see little things. Robes in the cabins again without having to ask. A freaking Andes Mint on my pillow. Actual ice buckets as opposed to the plastic bucket we just had. Just the little things that they took away slowly over the years.