mattcj89

Ok here's what I think...

Vista to Galveston

Magic to Port Canaveral

Sunshine or Valor to Charleston

There's also been speculation about Elation and Paradise leaving the fleet before Fantasy due to upgrades, which I hope isn't the case. The only Fantasy class ship I've been on is Elation and what I've seen in pictures it's much more elegant than the older ships in that class.

I had an older box model in 6258 back in July. I do believe that some cabins have flat screens, but they're probably just replacing as needed.

Which 2.0 enhancements? What's your source?

Carnival might not be getting rid of cold soups, but cold rooms seem to be going the way of the dinosaur. 😒

I was able to "downgrade" from a lido balcony to an empress balcony but it wasn't easy. I was told they normally won't do it, but I was able to plead with a supervisor who was able to make the change. I was surprised they don't normally do that, especially since each cabin was the same price.

I have a cruise booked for the Bahamas in June on the Liberty for my DH and myself. When I was checking for price drops tonight, I did a mock booking of the cruise and discovered that an aft wrap was available. I decided that it was worth the $560 extra and called Carnival to change my rooms. They would not make the change. The reason was that they were saving it for a 3 person booking. Not sure why the online booking let me do this with 2 people selected if this is true. Is this only strange to me? Not complaining about saving money but very confused!

Call back and speak to someone else. There is absolutely no consistency among PVPs. I had the same thing happen to me while try to upgrade to a balcony from a deluxe oceanview. She said that I couldn't upgrade (roughly worth $500) and I even asked her what sense it made to not accept a loyal cruiser's money. I tried back and had a different PVP do the upgrade with no issues. I've had really positive experiences calling Carnival but I've also had really bad experiences.

Is Royal really cheaper than Carnival out of Galveston? If so, you should definitely give them a try! I've been reading about the upgrades to the Navigator of the Seas and they sound fantastic. What's holding you back? :)

 

 

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We're sailing out of Galveston on Navigator because the price was about the same for a balcony. We've been wanting to do RCI for awhile but didn't because they were just seasonal out of Galveston and the timing or never really worked out right.

All this chatter about bringing a third ship to Galveston makes me wonder how severe Carnival would have to discount their cruises so I don't see them doing that. I'm definitely looking forward to sailing RCI in September, a change will be nice.

What is the name of this app?? I want it lol

 

 

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Marine Traffic

Hopefully everyone is ok

Any word on why Magic is going the wrong direction? It docks in Galveston tomorrow morning. I wonder what's going on?

Day 1: Embarkation

We decided to purchase the FTTF when more spots opened up a week before sailing. I will tell you it was the best $50 we ever spent. We were able to bring water and pop on board, which we never would have done if we had to carry it around until our room was ready. We drove into the city and parked at the terminal. We arrived right around 10:15 and pulled into the parking garage. FYI, the porter said they allow people to start parking around 8am at the terminal. They took our $80 and we proceeded to level 3. The porters checked our boarding passes and IDs while everyone piled out of the mini-van and unloaded the luggage. I then parked the car on the next level up while the rest of my group went through security and waited for me. The porters told me my party would wait for me there but were ushered into the elevator. My wife had our boarding documents and they forced them through the first wave of security. After parking the car, I had trouble locating them and had to go through that security without my documentation. Luckily my wife told them I was parking the car and showed my ID. It was a little bit of a hassle. Just make sure the driver has his own documentation before your car is parked to avoid any issues.

 

 

Security checked our drinks we brought very carefully. They shook my in-laws water and they actually opened up our 12 packs to check for illicit items. Luckily they taped it back up when they were done searching.

 

I should say at this point that we only purchased one FTTF for our room. We told my in-laws they could put their carry-ons in our room. We also put our luggage tags on their bags so they would have them earlier.

 

We then proceeded to the FTTF check-in and my in-laws went to the normal check-in. There was no wait in either line and we were done around the same time. Once we received our sale and sign card, we had a seat and waited.

 

 

 

The terminal is set up a little bit different than other ones I have been to. Once you go through security, you have to go past the seating to the back of the building to check-in. There were people who thought they were done once they got through security and did not check in.

 

The staff at the terminal was fantastic and made announcements routinely. They began boarding around 11:30 and we were on very quickly. Once we made it on board, we went straight to our room and to our amazement, our bags were already there and the room was done. We dropped our stuff and went back up to the atrium to wait on my in-laws. Literally as soon as we got back up to deck 7, the in-laws boarded. We took another trip to our room to drop off their stuff. Even though the rooms were supposed to be ready around 12:30, I still think the FTTF was well worth it. We would have had a lot of stuff to carry around for over an hour.

 

We then went up to the Lido deck, had lunch and then went to look around the ship. My son Zach decided to play basketball and was there almost the entire week. The safety briefing was performed around 3:30 and seemed to go a little faster than some of our previous experiences. My in-laws were in a different location and they said there were several people not paying attention which caused a delay. After the safety drill, we went up on deck to await sail-away. I did not check the time but we set sail late, sometime after 4:30. For those who have not sailed from New Orleans you sail down the Mississippi for 7-8 hours to get into the gulf. We hung out on deck looking at the sights and taking a few pictures for about an hour. We went to our 6pm set dining time and met our waiter, Jason. He was fantastic!

 

After dinner, we just walked around and hung out. We did not go to the Welcome Aboard show as we were still really tired from the long drive.

 

Here are some random general thoughts of the ship:

 

1 The décor was glitzy and gaudy, but it was a lot nicer than I anticipated and much more pleasing to the eye than the Fascination.

2 Our room steward was Nino and while he wasn’t the best cleaner, he always friendly and addressed us by name as he saw us in the hallway. He was always there and available when needed.

3 The ship is showing its age in certain spots. I noticed paint that was chipping in several areas. They were making an attempt to fix this as I saw several people painting during the cruise.

4 The Taste Bar has replaced the Sushi Bar and I think it was open on three nights. All of the items offered were fantastic. I would consider booking a night at one of the premium restaurants on our next cruise if they are available.

5 The pictures we took and others that I have seen do not do the ship justice. It is much better looking than what comes across in print.

6 For those interested in the basketball court, the rim is much higher than regulation. It’s more like 12 feet high rather than 10. It takes a little time to get used to it.

7 The volleyball court was not used much and was probably due to both balls being flat.

8 There were several elevators that were out the entire week including one in the atrium and one whole set at the rear of the ship. The rear elevators being out helped cause an issue that made me livid. More on that later.

 

Pictures of the ship to come later tonight

Thanks for the Elation review. We were on the ship in October and had a blast although the ship was a bit older and needed some TLC. The right atrium elevator (looking from the atrium bar) was down the entire cruise too.

Favorite ship atrium I've seen in person:

Close tie between Conquest and Elation

Favorite ship atrium I've seen in pics:

Triumph

The two times I've sailed from NOLA I've used the Fulton Street Parking Garage. They have a shuttle that will transport you from the garage to the cruise terminal quickly and the shuttle is also there after your cruise. I went to airport parking reservations . com and chose the option for rooftop parking. I think it comes out to $8/day.

1) Gary Brierley

2) Mark Price (no longer with Carnival)

3) James Charleton

4) Hennie Van Heerdan

Miami Vice and Lemon Drop Martini

Yes, I just edited lol. Which terminal will each ship be using?

On April 14th, both Elation and Dream will be in New Orleans. Which ship is going to which terminal? I'm trying to make parking arrangements coming off of Dream...

Makes sense… so many Carnival ships in the USA, I mean truly how many can Carnival support? Not only support but the ports also, I mean Nassau and Freeport can only hold so many ships.

 

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=38496162- Thread you where talking about?

That's not what I was looking at but thanks for the link. At least I know I'm not completely crazy now.

I really don't see Carnival doing away with Splendor, they just need to get away from concentrating the entire fleet on Florida ports.

Where does it say that? on the Carnival Splendor page it only says that the ship was made for Costa but transferred to Carnival.

 

 

Like I said, I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened just don’t think it will happen that soon. Carnival and Princess to me are like totally different cruise lines. Carnival is focused on low coast cruising and I don’t know if that will be big in Asia.

I just saw it last night and I can't find it anymore. It basically said that due to Costa losing two ships that they were going to put Splendor through a 3-4 month drydock in 2016 and rename the ship Costa Hermosa. After the refit it said that the ship would go to Asia.

I'm still looking to see if I can find it.

Wikipedia also says that Splendor is going back to Costa in 2016. I take anything on Wikipedia with a grain of salt - anyone can add info.

On Elation we stayed in U49. We always like to be in a stateroom with cabins above and below us so there are no noise surprises during the cruise.

Also, I might add that this room stayed cold the entire time. :)

Hi Matt :)

 

Depending on you itinerary of course, but typically the 1st elegant/formal

evening would be night 2.

 

The 2nd elegant/formal evening would take place second to the last night.

 

Night 2 and night 8 for a 9-day cruise. Day 10 is your debarkation day.

 

Look at your itinerary, is day 8 of your voyage a sea day??

 

:)

Thanks for the helpful response! Day 8 is the final port day of the trip and is Cozumel.

I'm trying to coordinate nights to dine in the steakhouse, we're really wanting to do three nights in the steakhouse - two formal nights and then a night halfway through the cruise. We've found ourselves getting bored with the same MDR food after our last cruise and we've always enjoyed our experiences and food in the steakhouse.

Does anyone know which nights are formal nights on a 9-day cruise (Carnival Dream reposition)? I would assume the first day at sea would be a given but what about the rest?