ricew001

We sailed Valor in November. This video is wonderful. Thanks for sharing!

22 hours ago, PaulieG13 said:

I bought 100 shares of CUK 12 days ago at $9.  I had a limit order in to buy again at $10 but looking at it drop this morning, I pushed that limit order down to $8.

 

For the OBC alone, it is worth it at that price to me. It may take a while, but i feel the shares will get back to at least $30 at some point. Then I could sell off excess and still keep 100 shares for OBC. 

 

Hoping that Carnival doesn't stop offering that benefit!

We tried to buy when it hit $8 but my bank messed up the paperwork.🤬  So we bought about 63 shares at $13. Then I bought about 8 shares at 12. And then 30 more yesterday at 9.99. But it closed at 8.80 for the day. However we wanted the credit and feel sure the cruise industry will rise again.

Some colleges are already canceling summer school.

 When we were sent home from work earlier this month we were told it would be May 7 at the earliest we would come back to campus. In the last few days the nation has gone on a 30-day "lock down". When I came home in early March and told people we were out at least through early May, they thought I was crazy. Now most places are looking at being out through all of April. So crazy.....maybe....But correct! I'd agree that the earliest sailings would be Aug or Sept. And I don't think that is absolute. 

i don't want to talk about where I work but let me just say ------ they know.

On 3/20/2020 at 4:11 PM, nhraformula00 said:

$8.00  midday on Wednesday and as high as $ 13.80 today.

I was trying to buy on Wednesday but my bank dropped the ball!!! I am so mad right now that I missed that low!

We live 4 hours from the North Carolina coast. We try to go once a month. We love it there and plan to retire there. We are supposed to go next weekend. Probably not happening now.

We were looking to go to Disney and Sea World in May for hubby's birthday but hope to now go for mine in November.

We will probably do our next Carnival cruise in 2021. Been looking at our options while we are home.

Fascination was my first Carnival ship. It was way too small and I stayed seasick the whole cruise. However that cruise out of San Juan was one of our best vacations ever! See my review in my tag line. Someone mentioned the St Kitts train ride. That was the whole reasone we went because hubby loves trains. It was well worth it!!! We loved that cruise and always talk about doing it again. If ship is important - Vista. If ports are important - then the San Juan itin.

i think short cruises will continue. It's an appealing concept and something that works for the Carnival market. As business owners with pets and elderly parents, we can't escape for long periods so Carnival fits us - and others - just right. And they know it.

Thanks for your review. We love Anytime Dining and we do get Cheers but with onboard credit, you have a point!

Welcome home. And good luck to what is now life on the outside of a cruise ship. LOL!

Thanks for your review. I hope you feel better.

I work in a major medical center. We are preparing, as I hope all are.

This was similar to our experience on Valor - except I NEVER got anyone back to clean our room after the toilet flooded. It flooded because of the steward, not us. It was not sanitary and a huge inconvenience. I didn't get any type of acknolwedgmenet so I am glad you did.

Just checked - at about $17 today.

On 3/10/2020 at 10:57 AM, estillcrew said:

My husband and I are trying to decide whether or not we need to cancel our cruise that departs on March 22nd, and would like the facts about how much the cruise industry is being affected by the Coronavirus. We are not worried at all about getting sick, but we are concerned about missing our ports of call or being quarantined for 14 days. It seems as though the media is exaggerating the situation. So, does anyone have hard facts to help me make an educated decision about cruising next week? How many ships have been quarantined? How many ports have not allowed cruises to dock? Are their any ports that have temporarily closed to cruises out of America? If our itinerary is changed, when will we be notified? For those who are cruising now or who cruised last week, was your trip impacted? If so,  how? Thank you so much for any help you can provide. I really don’t want to cancel our trip!

@estillcrew I don't know your specific circumstances. My workplace as of last night is not allowing anyone to return to work from a cruise for 14 days. Now if you have vacation time or can work from home that's not a huge problem but for some it is and it's been part of their deciding factor. As someone else said this is a developing situation and things are changing hourly really.

Best of luck to you. 

Once we saw the prices we were like nah - we will stick to the other options. That said we did eat at the steakhouse and I didn't realize tip was included so I left a 20% tip. But if there were other options on the menu I may be apt to try it. As much as my hubby loves lobster he passed on it.

@Joebucks mentioned the Saints game. I found the Valor to be full of serious sports fans. If that is your thing you will enjoy the Valor. 

We had a very nice balcony on the Valor and yes there are lot of things to do. I prefer the Victory although I'm not sure if that's a different class. Like someone else said as long as you're cruising that's what matters! 

I try not to eat a lot of burgers. In fact, after an e coli outbreak in the 90s I quit them completely for years.

That said, I had one every single day on the Valor on our cruise in November!! I thought they were "juicy" and I am picky about toppings, but loved adding the bacon and the onions to them. 

And they were accomdating to special requests all around me. Enjoy your cruise. Half the fun to me is planning and getting excited about it and I love that you are doing that!
 

Agree with @grandmarnnurse. I do an incredible amount of research. Actually my favorite class in graduate school was my PhD level research course - and I have worked in clinical research for 30 years....so when I say research I mean research: I dig deep. I'm the one that looks at peer-reviewed research for the most effective sea sickness meds. 😁

I was pleased with the hotel - which I found while doing research. 

We expereienced NOLA once - that was enough for me. It's ok. As we say that's the great thing about cruising - it's not one size fits all. It wasn't the worst trip ever - it's just places I'd rather spend my money at instead of New Orleans. We bar hop in our North Carolina beach towns and love it - and never worry about pick pockets. Again to each their own.

9 hours ago, clmsntgers said:

We are staying at the Hilton Garden Inn French Quarter/CBD - my men are big meat eaters (beef, pork, etc) and like traditional American food 😞  .  My daughter and I will eat anything. Thanks so much for your help!

 

Edited to add - we are driving to NOLA, so transportation won't be an issue.

 

We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn in November and were very pleased with the hotel. They have food there but limited hours we found. We walked over to a breakfast place that is in my review I did here. It was just ok in my opinion. My hubby has aplha gal so he can't eat red meat or pork (and has always been a meat and potatoes man) and I have many food sensitivities so I understand the struggle. We had appetizers at a place on Bourbon Street that was fabulous but we walked out of a place for bad service. Overall I was not impressed with the food choices we found either - and you are right. It's a DIRTY city. I'm glad we went because now I know what everyone is talking about. We are partiers - hubby is a musician - but it was still more "crazy" than I'd like personally. For me once was enough.

Speaking of crazy - we are drinkers and that is it. Nothing else. But as we were walking down Bourbon street in the broad daylight on a Monday a dude approached my husband and asked him if wanted to score some good um not sure if I can say that here but insert the drug from a famous Eric Clapton song. LOL!

We flew from RDU to San Juan in 2011 for $350 each. The cruise was $350 for interior rooms then so I felt like we got a major deal. We've done 5 cruises and that is our favorite Carribean one. You'll love it!

Enjoying your review and your sense of humor - from a fellow North Carolinian!

@beshears please do go and enjoy yourself! While I haven't cruised solo I have traveled a lot for business by myself. I always make new friends. Also it's great to be on my own schedule. I can just imagine a cruise - room service and sleep would be my first two days. LOL! There is so much to do and most people are in a good mood and therefore friendlier. Go and enjoy every single second.

As far as your friend - I see a lot of cold comments. Frankly no one knows what she may be going through - may not even be the reason she stated. You seem to have the attitude of it is what it is and are not bitter. Money comes, money goes. but people, love and acceptance are what are important. Go with your family and spread the love and just accept whatever it up with your friend and let it go. Enjoy!!!

We just had the first cruise with my husband who has alpha gal - the tick allergy where he can't eat beef or pork. We read the menus diligently each night and the crew answered our questions and helped us with any concerns. I hope your experience will be excellent.

I'm so glad you were able to go. Both my huband (age 62) and I (age 51) have lost a parent and worry abuot our remaining parents when we travel. In fact our last land trip on New Year's Day we got a call that they were removing his mom from life support so we threw everything in the car and raced home. She's still with us but no quality of life sadly.

We always try to make the best of everything and say when things are calm for even a few days we try to do something fun - whether we drive to the beach 4 hours away for the weekend or take a short cruise. It helps to rejuvenate you too both mentally and physically just like that pedicure you got!

Here are two more recent spreadsheets.

Carnival Vista Cheers Evaluator 2018-08-02.xls Carnival Beverage Package Evaluator (2).xls

In November we did a post-excursion through Carnival. It was the on your own exploriation of New Orleans and then they'd transfer us to the airport. Well we were told to be back at exactly 3:15. We were and I got the front seat on the bus. I had wanted to take a bathroom break but I discovered in New Orleans you have to buy something and be given a code in order to use a restroom. I was scared I'd be late. Well when we got on we waited and waited. The operator told us two of our fellow cruisers had taken a tour of their own and the vehicle giving them the tour had broken down. So we were late leaving and then had to drive across town to pick them up. I still had to PEE!! I was none too happy because I had followed the rules and been back on time. Those folks should have caught an uber or whatever back to where the bus was picking us up.I'm sure they were glad they had the safety net. My bladder - not so much. LOL!!!!!

1 minute ago, lindsay0526 said:

@ricew001 Thanks! And I’m from NC originally- the piedmont triad area. 🙂

I'm in the Triangle - and we were originally planning to move to Florida from Southern VA when I was 6 but stopped in this area and loved it!