lesters

We are rebooked!!! French Daze & Ibiza nights in May!!! So excited. Not only were we able to move our casino booking to this sailing, we are getting back over $200 due to the changes in port fees/taxes AND I was able to scoop up a Splash of Romance, which was sold out on our original sailing. I am so excited. Its a longer wait but will be so worth it!!!! It was 7 days from our submission last Monday as well.

Monday is 7 days for our rebooking request .... will post when we hear anything. We are on a casino rate and the new sailing is actually around $250 less with the reduction in port fees & taxes. Will those be provided as a refund or more loot? I am happy with more loot - just a mind game with the $ doesnt really make a difference but as its spent already it feels like extra "free" OBC LOL

Im really hoping @MeganGC1983 does come back for the final wrap up. im on the Celebration next month and until the incident was very excited for the sailing and her review helped! well I still am excited. I just feel sad bad that this happened to her. And the likely numerous others who aren’t here on CC. After this October sailing we are trying Virgin. Looking forward to the fully adult experience.

The sailing we wanted didn’t show up on the form until Monday. We tried calling over the weekend but were told to submit on Monday 🤦🏼 So trying to trust the process. We submitted for a French Daze & Ibiza nights in May. The short Caribbean sailings are useless to us, like others not flying for that short of a sailing. Our extra challenge (potentially) is that we were booked under a casino rate. Waiting not so patiently for our confirmation. i do wish you could see on the website what cabins are still available in any given category. If anyone has guidance on how to do that would be appreciated.

Those border agents do not always understand things correctly. On our last trip home clearing customs in Canada the border agent told us we (myself, DH and DD) were over our allowed duty free alcohol but since we declared she wouldn’t charge us. Ummmm I said we are not over we each have 1 bottle (DD is of age). The agent proceeded to state that the duty free amounts were by group not individual… after it had my cleared documents in hand I told her to speak with someone higher up as she was wrong. This was at a Nexus clearing side too. So lesson is don’t rely on one person’s statement

We download playlists ahead of time so no need for the streaming on board. Please be mindful of your fellow passengers and use headphones. I’m going to assume you are planning on that… our last couple of cruises we encountered people playing their own music by the pool on the serenity deck loudly AND another cruise they were blasting their own music right behind our clamshells at HMC. I get it I love music too but not in those situations be respectful of your neighbours.

It’s good to see to clarified and expanded but like many I’m going to miss the bottle of Dom to kick thing off in the Steakhouse, or as we have planned for our next cruise Rudi’s. Glad we indulged when we had the opportunity this past February!

We've played twice - each cruise that offers it we will play. Its a fun game, something to do and we do it for the entertainment value. Both times we have won both bingo cards and casino cash. Close to breaking even which is nice but again we play for the fun, not to try to win anything specifically.

Just off the Luminosa - failed miserably on a live lol but will do a proper detailed review soon - bur on this 6 day sailing there were 3 MDR lunch menus offered: -Asian - Mexican - Spanish I only made it to the Asian lunch. They were posted as availability 12-1 on the days offered.

Before I start my morning catch up of yesterday - Welcome to Tracy’s Arm Fjord wow!!!

Well I’ve always appreciated the work involved in a live review but wow I really in awe of the time and effort that goes in when you are truly capturing the events throughout the day. Currently waiting to debark in Juneau. We gave to tender in as the docks are full. Lol. We will then move into a slot once other ships leave. Last night was rough. So much movement and rough seas. The family all needed proper anti nausea meds to get through the night. Woke up to calm and beautiful scenery. Other than the seas it’s been great. Food has been good. As others mentioned nothing comes our hot. Except for DDs celiac items. Those have been fantastic. But the food has been good. our time has been spent with in lounges playing cards and in the casino. Really enjoying things. Here are some random shots lol the scooter by the elevator has been driving me crazy. It’s been left here almost the entire cruise so far!

Looking ahead to our day and DD was hoping to do sea day brunch but that’s not happening today. the breakfast menu is the typical one posted all over here so not bothering to get all the pages. But I did get the lunch menu - Asian. That’s a new one for us. It’s breakfast in MDR and the. An hour of lunch. That seems like a very short lunch window. Will see how that works. If we decide to try it. Here’s some screen shots of the options for today

A couple more items I meant to add - last time in February I was able to get the wine pairing with my steakhouse meal on cheers it was $20. It’s now $22 so was not able so just ordered by the glass. That was ok but I did enjoy the pairings on other cruises. Oh well. Also we asked about the free bottle of wine. They didn’t mention it was it was problem to take it unopened back to the room.

Sorry. I’m not very good at this lol Day one was really great! Upon boarding we wandered over to serenity and found a clam shell to relax and hang out in for the couple hours until our room was ready. The fam was able to confirm with MDR how things will work for the celiac DD - she orders the night before. They have a separate kitchen for allergy food prep. Amazing!! After that chat they found the pizza spot and brought back pizzas including a a GF one for her. They were fantastic. Rooms were ready for 1:30. We got our carry ons settled and checked out the balcony for a bit then decided it was time for a nap before sail away at 4. Woke up at 3 and went down to grab bevs for our balcony to enjoy our own private sail away party. Our cabin is on 7 at the start of the forward section so it’s a quick walk down the stairs to the Ocean Pllaza bar. Before dinner we went for drinks at the Alchemy which has a good amount of seating. The bartenders made great drinks. - DH loved the rum based Old Fashioned. We had the steakhouse for our first meal as is our cruising tradition and the meal was great. But the restaurant itself is odd. It’s located on 10 essentially “open air” and you hear the music and noise from the atrium. It’s not a dark quiet steakhouse that we are used to on other ships. But it was good. It felt very slow at first but attributing that to them needing to get DDs GF bread and amouse bouche sorted. She said the bread was very good. I wasn’t very good at getting lots of food pics will do better today lol and will add some of hers once she wakes up lol. She had the Tuna Tartar and I had major food regret. It was delicious!! Stoke a few bites. I had the shrimp cocktail and bisque to start The girls had surf & turf and DH the cowboy steak. Everyone really enjoyed the meals. The rest of the evening. we checked out the casino which is small and smoky. A bit disappointing but hopefully it won’t continue to be as super busy as it was last night. But I know it will be. Craps was a minimum $10 which is a bump from our last cruise in February on the Magic where it was $5. There is also no Let It Ride which is also disappointing as I really enjoy playing that game. Initial impressions - the ship felt quiet everywhere we went yesterday except the casino. Lol. We didn’t explore a whole lot. That will be on today’s agenda and will try to post more along the way. There is a fair amount of movement this morning as we sail so we shall see how that impacts things. DD and DH will be popping the ginger gravol today.

There were lots of porters. No issues finding one to take out bags as soon as we got out of our taxi

Well we are on board! As promised I’m going to try to do a somewhat live report as we sail to Alaska on the minimally reported on Luminosa! Sailing this almost week are myself (48), DH (49) & DD (20). It’s our 8th Carnival cruise. We love to travel and I’m beyond excited for the coming days! I will do my best to post sone pics and observations along the way. And a comprehensive summary post trip! We arrived last night from Saskatoon via Calgary to Seattle. No flight issues other than turbulence on the flights meant no traditional celebration wine to start the trip lol. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn - it was just what we needed. Decent location, room and a quick cab to the pier. We arrived at 11:15 and by 11:30 we were on board! Straight up muster and I am currently relaxing in the sun in a clamshell on the Serenity deck!! Wow smoothest boarding ever!!!! Makes me want to cruise out of Seattle again already!! DD is celiac so currently is talking with the MDR to plan her meals.

This is exactly our perspective on this one. We have the Celebration coming up in October. This cruise is going to be all about watching the world go by, relaxing and the ports. The ship is not as important. October's journey I am not planning on getting off in Amber Cove as we've been there twice - well maybe for one or two in the sky bar - but for this cruise I am focused more on the ship and what it has to offer. I really believe its all about managing expectations, doing appropriate planning and reading ahead of time so so there are no (bad) surprises and at the end of the day I am on a cruise ship with my fav people so how bad can it be?? 7 days and counting.... will start a new thread to report back on.. who knows may even try my hand at a somewhat live 🙂

Ohhh now I need to find an itinerary that has Curacao with a late BOB. We had a very rainy - very very rainy flooding the town kind of day here. Still had a wonderful time but would love to go back and this picture at night is incredible!!!

In Aruba on our ABC cruise last year we had a late departure as well. We took full advantage - full morning by the beach, lunch, checked out a local casino - SOOO NICE. Then back back on board for a snack and a nap, then the sunset catamaran excursion and then we ate a late supper. It was one of my favorite port days ever.

Are you being sarcastic? Not sure Jay Leno and younger guests align.... I'm doubtful many in the 20-30 age group really get much out of Jay Leno being linked to Carnival... my 2 cents...

Thanks!!! Yeah I plan on packing a little bit of everything! The sailing is totally sold out - called Carnival last night with a cabin question - so wild that there was still such an early slot available so late. Make me wonder about the demographics of the cruise... Alaskan have a bit of a rep for older crowds, wonder how many are aware of the need to do the check in or ability to do check in now and select the arrival time. I don't recall seeing a "Time to Check In" email from Carnival.. Cannot wait!!!!

We leave out of Seattle - excited to visit a new city as well! First time there!

Our last cruise on the Magic iMessages worked between my hubby and I even though only 1 of us that the wifi package working at any given time. Somehow it worked. Didn't question just enjoyed being able to connect when we needed to.

BTW for those interested, I completed my check in at 8:00 am MT and could have still selected 11:00 - 11:30 for an arrival time. I chose 11:30 - 12:00 and we have Boarding Zone C02, which hasn't meant much on the last two cruises we've been on.... one out of Miami and one out of PC. I didn't want the 11:00 arrival as I didn't want to feel too rushed that morning going from the hotel to the port.

Checking is is such a big milestone for the lead up to a cruise for me! It is when things feel super official and the countdown to our next adventure begins!! I typically post a summary of our cruise after the fact and will try to do a more detailed one with pictures etc this next time around as there is so little on the Luminosa other than the great Longest Review ever from @EngIceDave It will be myself, DH and DD (48, 49 & 20) respectively on this one. It is our 8th or 9th - cant recall this morning , Carnival cruise and first one with DD since pre-covid, we did 2 since the restart without her. Looking forward to a lower key, relaxed atmosphere with the Alaskan sailing. I'm envisioning days curled up with warm beverages, cozy bunnyhugs (look it up I'm from Saskatchewan 🙂 ) books and some quality family time. Have a great day everyone!