silvercrikhix

We were on the Dream in November.  The temperatures indoors were fine. Also turned down our AC, as it was running too cold!  We liked the Dream so much, we booked her again for this November. And are adding 2 adult kids and a Granddaughter (5) for her 1st cruise.  She’s a great ship. 

Sometimes, It can also make your teeth ache. Not a fun way to cruise. The over the counter type with trays, like Rembrandt, work well for us at considerably less $.  Do it before your cruise. 

This would have been an interesting poll topic. 
‘Another vote for we don’t care who the CD is because it doesn’t impact our cruise in the least. 
‘We’ve never seen a show onboard yet.  Comedy yes. We’ve watched the CD TV show in cabin for a few minutes here and there. Meh……

Gifts, new purse, make-up, perfume, jewelry, a new watch, duty free liquor, bingo, casino, specialty dining! 
Have Fun! 

Hubs bought me a special edition watch on our last cruise that I love. $650++

We brought biodegradable paper straws with us last cruise. They lasted long enough to finish a drink but then begin to break down soon after.  Works well enough for us.  They were also individually wrapped in biodegradable thin white tissue type paper, so stayed clean until use. They’re very affordable and I get my  fruity/slushy/tropical drinks the way they belong. Sucked through a straw.  🍹 Cheers! 

We’ve brought the Brita filtering water bottles with us before. They work great, however, dragging a water bottle around stinks. And you can’t beat bringing bottled water with you off the ship in ports. 

Hands down, the 2 room Vista Suites on the Spirit Class, except deck 5 one roomers. 
The Steakhouse and Guys Burgers. 
The staff. Many kind hearted souls there. 

We’ll be boarding our dog in Galveston during cruise. Any 1st hand experience/recommendations for Galveston Dog Boarding?

Thank you for the lovely review!

Understruck indeed. Much ado about not much.
Yes, please…Guys should never close!!!  

‘How about some killer breakfast Sammo’s?! 

The limited night options are pitiful at best on Carnival. 

May end up with less passengers soon, if they don’t get with it on the night eats. 

Non-smokers now have the entire rest of the ship, albeit 2 small dedicated smoking areas & some casino area. (Casino only indoor place left for them)  Smokers are left out in the bad weather … nobody complains about that. But yet you still harp and drone on & on. Bring it up over & over. Enjoy what you have already and quit trying to ram your opinion down everyone else’s throat. Take a.different route.  

Most recently on the Dream, and for example, there is a separate annex NS casino and also, half (which is often empty) of the larger casino…. still not enough to end the complaining. The smoke was hardly noticeable, it seems they have upgraded the air exchangers in the casino. 

And yes, some bars closed in my state when smoking was axed indoors. More importantly, what it really hurt was many establishments losing their lawful gambling areas…pull-tabs for example. This was due  to not enough business. The many charities who received the profits from lawful gambling lost a lot of income.  That is a fact. 
 

Don’t get me wrong here, I’m very sad that I’m probably too old to be on the planet when everyone quits smoking. I wish they would. The harping and drone will quickly and immediately turn to constant complaining about how extremely high your taxes go up. Smokers pay ALOT of taxes.
Be careful what you wish for. 

Some of you seem to keep saying, despise children, etc…

We love all the little ones, but would jump at the chance for kids free cruising…sometimes. 
‘Last cruise was just DH & I, we’d have booked adults only for that one. 
‘Next cruise is 2 adult kids and a granddaughter, so not that cruise. 

2023 cruise is adults only it looks like, so…kid free ship would be most excellent. 
We consider ourselves quite versible and would enjoy either cruise. 
‘The Costa ships do afford them a chance to try something new. 
We hope they do!  

We’d welcome an adults only option. A bit more elevated would be great too. 
We love the littles but a cruise without them would be more relaxing. 
Hopefully, it’d skip the hokey activities with a more adult focus! 

Card in my pocket on a carabiner clipped to belt loop or small purse, backpack, string pack or whatnot. Nothing goes around my neck, ever!  Don’t like stuff around my neck. Wrist would be ok, but not if they spend a fortune doing it, to pass on to passengers. 

1 hour ago, Itried4498 said:

Wild speculation IMO.  The Costa Magica’s renovation will likely be minimalist (changing the ship’s branding to Carnival standards), as it’s more upscale than the Carnival fleet.  IMO, it’d be a major upgrade over the Miracle.  But I don’t see the point in replacing the Miracle – it’s a larger ship, and it isn’t like the Miracle’s itineraries need more capacity.  The Miracle spends 9-months based out of Los Angeles, and there’s more capacity than ever in the market, leading to heavy discounts.   Why not just move the Magica to Australia to begin with?

Yes, move along down under Ms Magica!

For those of you who go to the spa/gym showers, it’s great you enjoy doing that.  If we’re paying for a cabin with a private bathroom, it better be usable without requiring contortions to use it. That’s absolutely greedy & entirely disrespectful to the passengers.  Haven’t tried MG yet, but if that’s really the case when we do, we’ll be making some inquiries to several people.  How would these tight quarters fair during an emergency?  Take, take & take some more in unison with charging more, more and more.  Good heavens! 

38 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Where do you see that?  According to Marinetraffic, she is sitting at the wet berth alongside drydock #3, which currently has the Paradero, a small container ship in that dock.  Dock #2 is the damaged one, and Dock #1 is too small.

On 5/27/2022 at 1:04 PM, JMKreno said:

The West Coast seems to be getting more and more attention lately, which is good!

 

Panorama is about as new as it gets, Radiance looks great after the refurb and the Miracle has most of what people like on it. Now, personally, I wish they would take the Spirit class and do a full remodel akin to the Sunshine/Sunrise/Radiance. While I enjoy the "Farcus" uniqueness, the ship is really showing its age. I think refreshing the class would be a massive win as the layout is fantastic and size is just right. 

A Spirit class full remodel would be welcome, however, my concern would be they’d mess with the Vista Suites and that would be catastrophic. Those 4th floor VS’s are the best suites we’ve sailed in. Not the fanciest, not the most Perk laden, not the largest….but still THE best. We’ve never been in a Captains Suite on Carnival or a Garden Villa on NCL so we haven’t tried them all yet, but have had large 2 bdrm, 2 bath suites and we’ll take the Vista Suite hands down, any time we can snag one!! 

On 5/26/2022 at 11:07 AM, kbnovak said:

We’re on the Mardi Gras, docked right next to the Freedom.  This was our view of the fire this morning.

All efforts were taken to keep passengers and crew on each ship safe.

Mardi Gras sent a contingent of firefighters over to help, as well as clearing all of our public decks and the balconies on the starboard side, and deployed our firefighters to our open decks, complete with charged hoses.

It was scary to see, but reassuring to see the quick response and expertise in keeping everyone safe.

Wowee…Am I imaging things, or is there a man in the middle of the funnel in your 3rd picture?! 

Sure looks like it to me!  If so, he’s my new spirit hero!  Lol  if not, I need an eye exam, pronto! 

They best leave Miracle in LA.
We just booked a Nov 2023 B2B in a 4th deck Vista Suite & connected Extended Aft Balcony. 
‘Hope they don’t muck that up. I’ll be quite PO’d if that happens. 

Another vote for diet/sugar free beverages. NCL would discover what a big market there is.

We don’t buy sugar soda at all. Our refrigerator currently has:

Lipton Diet Green Tea Mixed Berry - Starbucks Triple Shot Zero Sugar (hard to find) - A&W Root Beer Zero Sugar - Diet Mountain Dew - Diet 7-Up - Dr Pepper Zero Sugar  

~We had a party this past wknd, so lots of options rt now ~

And Sugar Free French Vanilla Coffee Creamer.  We’d really appreciate the creamer, ah, we can Dream….

Thank you so much for taking time to share your cruise!  

It’s awesome to see all the current menus you’re posting! 

5 hours ago, silvercrikhix said:

While you may pay $12.68 USD in Germany, it cost $30.00 USD in the USA. 
Granted Carnival doesn’t pay near that of course with bulk buying, but that only increases their profits even more.  

Ummmm, that should read NCL. oops…

4 hours ago, steamboats said:

 

12 Euro (= 12.68 USD) in Germany... for the 750 ml bottle.

 

steamboats

While you may pay $12.68 USD in Germany, it cost $30.00 USD in the USA. 
Granted Carnival doesn’t pay near that of course with bulk buying, but that only increases their profits even more.  

Just for facts sake, a 750 ml bottle of Baileys is $30 in the USA. 
A 750 ml bottle divided by 45 ml shots (1.5oz) = 16.66 shots per bottle. 
$16 per shot X 16.66 shots = $266.56 per bottle. 

And the guest pays the staffs gratuity on top of that. 
 

1 hour ago, SNJCruisers said:

How?  Carnival doesn't carry Molson and Labatts on board.

That’s exactly what starts all the Trouble & Shenanigans to begin with. 
 

I’m assuming a lot of SW snowbirds from the North USA, since they’re so close in the winter.
We’re about out of Galveston new ports, so we’re looking to CA itineraries next year for 1 week + cruises. Closer to AZ anyway.