PC 462

It was on the HAL site. I just checked again and the deposit dropped while the fare went up! It’s getting to be like booking airfare.

I had just gotten an email talking about 50% off deposits, so was I ever surprised. Since my cruise would leave on April 1, I thought at first it was a bad April Fool’s joke! I get the good deal aspect, for sure. I’m uneasy about what could happen to cruising between now and then.

I started booking a 14 day cruise leaving on April 1, 2023. The booking required a deposit of $1200 for a fare of $1964. That's 61%! Am I missing something? Is this the new normal? It seems like a big commitment in financially uncertain times. Maybe it's because of financially uncertain times?

This is my first review after my 9th Carnival cruise. Well, really less of a review and more some observations and opinions. The Havana area is well worth the money. There is no way I would go on a crowded ship like Horizon without being in Havana. The pool and hot tubs were great and seldom crowded. The air conditioning definitely needs work. Many areas were warm and humid. Even when my cabin was cool, it was often humid. The Chef's Table was the best I've experienced. It was really in a class by itself. The music from the theater forward to the Havana Bar aft was painfully loud everywhere. This includes the dining room, which certainly spoils the dining experience. The internet was down for a day. Even the casino machines stopped working! The cabin phones went down for almost the entire cruise. Food was uniformly good wherever we ate. Most of the crew was warm and friendly as usual, but many seemed overworked. I can't say enough how unpleasant the boarding experience was in Miami. It was a chaotic bedlam! We were on time for our 12-12:30 time. It was hot and humid inside the terminal, as we waited in the back and forth, long snaking line, elbow to elbow with everyone. The noise and shouting was incredible. What a start! Then, we got on board and found our cabin would not be ready for an hour and a half. So we schlepped our carry-ons around for lunch. Lunch at the Pig and Anchor buffet was great on embarkation day. Our Chef's Table and Steakhouse reservations did not show in the Carnival Hub app and the staff had trouble finding them. The joys of nonfunctioning tech! A word about Horizon. The ship seems designed to focus inward and cut off the passenger from the sea. Most of the outside areas are bounded by 6-8 feet of plexiglass. I missed having a balcony. While our Havana Cabana was spacious, it could have been a patio just about anywhere because of the plexiglass wall. The experience of being close to the sea was just not there. I love cruising on Carnival. This latest experience was a little hit or miss. I'm not sure I will like the future of very large Carnival ships. Thanks for reading!

Actually, no one made me open the bag. They just took the extension cord from the CPAP carry bag and I got it back at the end of the cruise. This actually went against their written policy at the time. However, Carnival did provide an extension cord. My point is that the policy should be clear and consistent. After all, CPAP has been around for years.

Relying on the cruise lines for CPAP supplies is a crap shoot. I was promised the same when I sailed on Anthem of the Seas and neither was in the cabin when I boarded. It was late evening before I was able to obtain what I needed. On Carnival, a call to Room Service has resulted in delivery of distilled water within 5 minutes. Of course, Carnival has confiscated my extension cord once, so you never know! I bring my own cord and order the water from Room Service and haven't had a problem for years. I do wonder why the lines have so much trouble establishing and following one procedure for CPAPs.

My Verifly app today still shows I need to submit a negative test, even though a test is not needed for the cruise I am going on later this month. I would have thought the app would update and be taking the new requirements into account. It didn't. I can't find an update function and the App Store does not show an update. I could go the paper route (and will certainly have that as a back-up), but I wanted to try the new way this time. Does anyone know how to update the app? Thanks!