Geargoesdown

There is nothing in the documentation supporting this. Perhaps they were having doubles?

Or maybe they were acting like drunk fools and got cutoff! Last cruise in sept I ordered top shelf and never had an issue.

Great! Can’t wait for my complimentary drink on the last day with my cheers package! Lol

Well, just booked our next 7 day cruise! I noticed we need just 5 more days to become gold. Will we still be red on the next cruise or gold? Not that it really matters because there are no real benefits, just curious.

About us – Late 40s, cohabitating couple of nearly 20 years, no children. I really never do reviews because I am not disciplined enough to take notes or pictures. So just some general overall impressions.

 

Embarkation – Super, super easy. We used Lyft and had one of our very best drivers ever, and that is saying a lot. He took us to the exact spot we needed. We had no priority boarding or FTTF and were on board, I believe, within about a half hour. I am very much liking the staggered check-in times. Only glitch was a couple who walked up in front of us. We had an 11:30 check-in time and it was 11:40. They had a 12:30 time and were told they would have to wait until 12:30 to enter the terminal. This is something we knew about ahead of time, so we had a leisurely breakfast, checked out of our hotel at 11:00, stopped for a coffee, and then opened the app for a Lyft at 11:15. Could not have been easier. But this couple who did it wrong were not having it. Even after the employee patiently explained about three or four times. They were stopping the line from moving. We were next but could not enter until they moved, so I confirmed exactly what the port employee said. The man looked at me and said, “What – you work for the cruise line, do you?” It was rude but I was too excited about getting to the ship to care much. Eventually they did have to give up and go stand somewhere else.

 

Cabin – Typical regular balcony cabin. Deck 8 (Verandah). Worked just fine for us. Plenty of shelving in the cabin and the bathroom. TVs are still pretty small, but at least they are flat screens now! :D

 

Muster – In the Scarlett dining room for us (all were inside in various locations). The usual stragglers made it take longer than needed. Not very informative actually, but once it started it was over quickly.

 

Steward – He was new and very overwhelmed. He was really nice and all things considered did a decent job. He told us he had 36 cabins. Sheesh. He would sometimes accidentally leave random items behind, like one day a package of sheets on the couch, and a glove and cleaning rags on the counter another day. One night we came back after 9 pm too tired to leave again and he had not been there yet. Put “Snoozin” on the door and dealt with it. He did bring us two towel animals the next day. One early in the day and one in the evening (I guess because we missed out). Or maybe he forgot he did one. I could see it being either way. Tipped extra at the end, mostly just because we felt so sorry for the poor guy.

 

Drinks – Bars were very crowded most of the time, making it often tough to get a drink. And I don’t just mean from servers walking around, but when ordering at the actual bars. Noticed an issue with staff cutbacks here, too, like the stewards. Drinks were often weak. I watched several times as in the rush, alcohol would sort of go half in and half out of glasses but they kept right on going without remedying the fact that it was not a full pour. One bartender at Red Frog Rum Bar did not know what I was ordering even though it was on their limited drink menu. I pointed at it for him and he still made the wrong thing and therefore the price was wrong. Even though the original drink he made was cheaper than what I ordered, I had him remake the bill after he fixed the drink so I didn’t cheat them. This was after waiting quite a while for the drink in the first place. As usual, the drinks in Alchemy were better than anywhere else. But they were always slammed, too, and I missed being able to bond with the mixologists like I have on past cruises. They were simply too busy for much chit-chat.

 

Dining Room – We had early seating in the Scarlett Dining Room. I hate eating late and like to sit in the same place every day – just walk up to “my” table! Despite the cutbacks, we LOVED our wait staff. I did miss the old menu some, but there’s always multiple excellent choices. In the past, we have either had no interaction with the maître d’ or have had negative interactions (i.e. cranky when you ask them anything or refusing to even listen to any requests). But this time was a true exception. On the first night, we asked nicely if it was possible to change to a table for two. (We were told it was a four person table, and if it turns out you don’t like the other two, there’s no one else to talk to! But we knew we might not be able to change.) He looked at the computer and it turns out we were at a four person booth – whoa, that could have been even worse. And with no hesitation – and a SMILE, no less – he said how about I just change it to two and I won’t let anyone else sit there. We wondered if that would actually last but he was true to his word. So we had our original table every night but didn’t have to share! Very romantic. I looked forward to dining so much every night and am very grateful to have had such outstanding dining room staff all the way around. We tipped extra on the final night and hugged them all goodbye.

 

Other Dining – I never eat the regular buffet except for an occasional small breakfast (there’s just too much other good stuff), so I cannot comment much on that.

 

I ate the Mongolian Wok for embarkation lunch, but that was a mistake. I thought I should do it before it got too crowded, but it took 40 minutes to get the food with only about five or six people ahead of me. That said, the calamari was fantastic there.

 

Ate a couple of Guy’s Burgers throughout the cruise. Yum as always.

 

LOVE, love the addition of the taco shell bowls at Blue Iguana Cantina. I made the best shrimp taco salad for lunch one day.

 

Ate some arepas there for breakfast a couple of mornings as well. I am a salsa addict so I gravitate to it. And since there are no chips, the shell is perfect to break up for salsa gorging.

 

Had Sea Day Brunch one day and the steak on the steak and eggs was better than any steak at dinner. But there’s one thing I will be sure to let Carnival know on the survey. I went by myself, and just ahead of me another lady came by herself. They sat us at a long table that was for ten or twelve. No biggie, except the wait staff did not even come to take a drink order or bring bread or anything until after they had sat all the seats at that big table. In total, there were about five or six different groups of people that came at different times. THEN, they started taking the orders at the other end, not where the first lady and I sat. So we ended up waiting about 45 minutes just to get juice from the time we sat. I should have just left but I figured it was the only day I was going to have brunch. The table mates were great to talk to and the food was wonderful, but that was just completely unreasonable.

 

Had the pasta bar and tandoor once each. Both were good. Had a room service BLT once and it was so-so but delivery was fast and friendly. Had the pizza once, but even though I did not special order, it took much too long considering the line was the shortest I saw the whole cruise (I had about five or so people in front of me and waited nearly a half hour, despite having no objection to whatever style of pizza showed up.) The pizza was fine but I wouldn’t wait again.

I did not have the deli, but my boyfriend did twice and said it was as good as always.

 

Cruise Director – The Flying Scotsman Chris Williams. Fan. Freaking. Tastic. Words cannot describe so watch his videos on Facebook or You Tube. He even does a one man show in the big theater. When you see him on the ship, it’s like running into a celebrity and you get all blushy and have the giggles. I observed him “in the wild” him a couple of times when there was no other passengers around (very rare moments), and even just in his random interactions with a co-worker, he is as nice as can be.

 

Casino – hands down (no pun intended) the worst smokiness of any ship I have been on, EVER. I could not handle even walking anywhere near it. It permeated so much of deck five and even the stairwells down to deck four. Absolutely disgusting. I usually play a bit, but did not sit down for a second. Which is a shame because the one time I went through it – fast – it looked good and larger than many. But I smelled like smoke for hours although I practically ran through there and only had a few of seconds of actual contact with the area. It makes it tough to get casino offers for those who are bigger gamblers than I am but do not smoke. Even when it looked empty from afar, it was sooooo smoky. It makes it tough also that the casino bar is where the sports are on TV. There is no sports bar on this ship. I heard a lot of complaints from people who were asthmatic and could not watch sports in there. I know smoking gamblers are going to have a hard time refraining from flaming me for these comments, but I really am not exaggerating AT ALL and non-smokers and those who are super sensitive to smoke should really know this information. If you have no issues with smoky places, great – enjoy the casino, as there seemed to be plenty of open seating in there.

 

Piano Bar – Excellent. Set up was great, servers were great, piano player was great. The entertainer was Gregg. He is a little unconventional compared to others I have seen on Carnival. He is not really into the raunchy stuff – not saying he is a prude or anything, but he just doesn’t really do it. He’s so fun, you don’t realize until afterward that it was “cleaner” show than most. He is not mean like some I have seen who kind of pick on people for laughs. But what you should know, is that he is very stylized. Meaning, he has his own way of playing songs and that can at times make it difficult to sing along. It kind of throws you off a little. You get used to it. We went three or four nights.

 

Pools/Hot Tubs – Pools were very crowded, especially adult aft. Didn’t use them or the lukewarm hot tubs because they were not appealing. But didn’t care about being in them anyway, and still had my fill of Lido activities. The same old corny stuff but more enjoyable because of The Flying Scotsman. I have a gesture I do now with my hands indicating “next level” whenever he showed up. Too hard to describe in words, but it was my shorthand to my boyfriend that meant, like, here we go – pay attention, it’s gonna get good!

 

Entertainment Staff – Went to the theater more than usual because of the cruise director and a higher level of interest. The live music was better than it has been in the past few years. We enjoyed a couple of the duos, particularly “The Cove” and “Country and Wine” enough to seek them out each day in the Fun Times. I got tired of the DJ.

 

Other Passengers – Hit and miss as usual. Met some really nice folks that we had fun hanging out with a few times. (For instance, if you happen to be reading this Mal and Eric or “Katina” and Melissa, you rock!) And then, there’s the “others.’ It happens everywhere and not too many things are worth mentioning. Once, though, we were walking down a corridor near the buffet (not in, but near), and some young girl in her early twenties came up behind us without saying a word and literally pushed both of us out of the way with her hands. There was plenty of room around us, she just wanted to do it. She is lucky we aren’t the kind of people who would do anything about it – if you know what I mean. Someone else might have just clocked her. And she was kind of a little thing. At first we were so shocked, we couldn’t even believe what happened. And to both of us simultaneously? With one of us being an almost six foot tall man? Incredible.

 

And when we were debarking, there was a family (?) of people right next to us, where the apparent oldest one (late 30s or 40s) turned around and told the other two to stop laughing. They didn’t, so she started cussing at them (f-word, slut, etc.) and physically slapping them. Really hard, serious hitting, right in front of dozens of people. I mean she went OFF and I could not believe what was happening. I didn’t even want to look because I was afraid I would somehow get caught up in it. Scary.

 

One funny thing was an older woman on one of the stairwell landings between decks. She was explaining to someone who was with her that so-and-so “went to eat at Mongolian Barbecue” (actually it’s Wok, but anyway…). Then she proceeds to say loudly and with a disgusted face “I don’t like that. I’ve never had it.” No pause between sentences. I started cracking up (not where they saw me) because it just takes all kinds. Maybe you had to be there.

Debarkation – We did self-assist and it sucked. Luckily we had a night in New Orleans after the cruise so we did not have to get anywhere at a certain time. They called by deck, and we were the last group called. It was a madhouse, with way too many people at once (maybe some did not follow the deck order or it just started to bunch up more and more) and some people taking off way more huge bags than they could reasonably carry. It took an hour just to get off the ship/gangway. But, then, once off, it was only like five minutes to get through customs and out to the outside.

I am sad that like all good things, this trip had to end. Hopefully it won't be long until the next one.

Hey! Mal and Eric here! It was so much fun meeting you and hope to do it again soon! BTW, Little French Key was soooo much fun! . Also, I agree with the casino! I can tolerate a smokey bar, but the casino was ridiculous! I almost threw up walking through there!

I bought a (last minute) international airline ticket through an online TA because the price was about half of what others were charging. Anyways, I bought two tickets and the other person had a different last name than me. They made me fax in photo ID and one of those credit authorization form or the were going to cancel my reservation. I guess I raised a red flag or something. So it's something companies do (not just Carnival) if something seems off.

I can tell by the funnel. Magic has a shorter, thicker funnel. :')

That's what she said! :')

If it's a fantasy class ship it totally worth it! The JS on the fantasy class look like they suck! The balconies are extremely small and have no privacy.

I booked a stake house reservation for embarkation night at 8pm assuming our luggage wouldn't arrive until late. Might have to change that now!

If you book a suite you automatically have FTTF perks.

 

 

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Well that's cool! We just didn't get that before so I wasn't expecting that.

Does that mean we get priority at guest services also?

September can't come soon enough! I'm so excited for this cruise 🤗!

We booked a Ocean Suite, however, or last cruise (2 years ago) we booked a Grand Suite and did not get priority luggage. It actually arrived a few hours after we set sail.

Well, I just paid off and checked in for our cruise in September on the Dream out of New Orleans today. Our luggage tags has faster to the fun on them. I didn't purchase this!? Why is it showing it?

I booked a cruise through Priceline because they were offering $200 obc vs carnival only giving $50 obc. Anyways, just looked at prices today and they have dropped by $100. How do I get this credit, through carnival.com or Priceline?

Don't fall overboard!

I have selected my check in time for a cruise in sept this year with only a deposit down. I do have a suite though...

First of all, I want to say they did not enforce their rules!

We could take someone else's card for them and order their drink. I went up to several different bars with two card and ordered drinks for both of us. No questions asked.

Also, one night we ordered drinks for several different people and specifically stated to the bar server the drink was for that person over their. We were expecting to get charged for it, but they just added them to the cheers program!

Overall, we had a great experience with it and would do it again.

We are going on the Carnival Elation in 13 days!! Yay!! Anyways, it's been two years sense our last cruise and have a question on luggage tags.

Last time we had a suite and I recall the luggage tag had "VIP" or "priority" on them. Well, just printed our tags for the upcoming cruise and it does not have that even though we booked a suite. Should it or am I remembering wrong??

Clorox disinfect wipes! On our last cruise we booked a grand suite and the granit counter top was disgusting! Granted, the counter top was the perfect color for dirt to blend in, however, after wiping it down the cloth was almost black! Looked like it hasn't been properly cleaned in months!

Anyways, I like to do a quick 5 min wipe down on the things you touch for the peace of mind.