Drose716

We did a 4-day Venezia in August & booked while onboard. I think we booked the first night for the last night. There were other openings but that worked best for us.
 

It was fantastic! Highly recommend.

The lido was too enclosed for me, pools super small, temperature a bit inconsistent around the ship. Otherwise, it was a very typical Carnival cruise. We had a great time! The decor is really pretty, the layout is very much like vista class which I love. I like the elevator system (just like horizon). The unique bars were great (enjoyed Rococo & loved the limoncello mojito at frizzante). Teppanyaki was absolutely fantastic. Food was standard carnival fare. Service was just what were used to. 
 

You'll have a great time! I think some of the early negative reviews were suffering from working out all the kinds. We went mid-august & really nothing to complain about. 

I have sailed with my older kids 7 or 8 times & I’m divorced so never with their father. He knows & is perfectly fine with it. Our first cruise I brought along the letter & handed it over at check in. The agent glanced at it less than a second & just handed it right back saying “I don’t need this”. Our second cruise i brought it but kept it in my bag. Never was asked. Never brought one again, & never have been asked. This is several different ports over several years as recently as March of this year.
 

It’s never a bad thing to have because who knows if you’ll be the one asked? But that’s been my personal experience. 

I am on Venezia on Thursday. Got this email over the weekend. Seems to confirm it’s the first night & first elegant night. We’re booked the first night.

Thanks for the fair & balanced review! We’re on in 6 days & your review is very in line with what I’m expecting based on many other carnival cruises.

I’ve been on both. I’ll say they felt drastically different. The celebration is obviously newer. It has more/better dining options & some interesting new bars. It’s larger. It’s really pretty/modern in design. I didn’t love the layout in some ways though. The food options are far more spaced out & it was very inconvenient sometimes for a large family (4 kids) that all wanted different things that happened to be decks apart. I also felt very disconnected from the sea. High glass all over. Dream class has some of that, but not all over.
 

I loved the magic when I sailed it back in 2018. I like the layout of dream class. Still has a good amount of updates & dining options. The decor is still the old Farcus era, but still nice IMO. 
 

if the itinerary/price or something else important to my decision gave Magic the edge, I wouldn’t hesitate to sail Magic again. But all things being fairly equal, go with Celebration. In fact, I was originally booked on magic when Celebration opened up. The itinerary was better for us & the price difference was small so we jumped ship quickly.

I’ve done a big mix of lengths from 3-8 days. The 6-nights are the same “vibe” to me as the 7-8nighters. The 3-4s are a totally different vibe & the 5s could go in either direction. 
 

I agree with others that said the ship may be a big factor too- the larger, newer ships on a 6 day are likely to be an “elevated” experience, I did my 13th carnival on the celebration & there was a lot of “new to

me”.

I was on celebration in Feb & 2/3 had the social plan & 3rd had no internet plan. iMessage worked just fine for all 3 of us.

I was on radiance in March & had social. Daughter did not. Both our iMessages worked fine. 

I just cruised with all 4 kids in Feb & my oldest again this month all on BCs. I’m not going to pull them all out, but I have a copy of my daughter’s in front of me & it says “Certificate of Live Birth”. She used it on 2 cruises in the past 30 days as well as like 6 others before so…

We are in NY.

Just got in Radiance in Long Beach this morning. I’m platinum & had a check in time of 10:30, boarding group B01. Never heard them call boarding groups. They did diamonds, suites & then platinums. I was on at 11:03am. 

This happened to me on the Celebration last week. I went to a bar to grab a drink & was told I had to wait 5 mins between drinks. I hadn’t had a drink in a couple hours. The bartender said I had just purchased a drink in the dining room 2 minutes earlier & then immediately corrected the issue. There was a 0% chance I had made it from the dining room 6 floors down & on the opposite end of the ship in 2 minutes so he knew it was a mistake. My card never left lanyard so it was very clearly an error on the dining staff taking down the wrong folio number. 

4 hours ago, shof515 said:

in your cruise manager it shows you the date check in becomes available. look at the date on a calendar and it should show 16 days in advance

 

for me, on the cruise i was turning platinum on i was able to check in 16 days in advance

That’s what made me think of it. People in our “other site” group mentioned turning platinum on the celebration & checking in yesterday. So I know it was available ahead of actually being platinum. But I’m thinking the system won’t count me in that status because I’ll still be on a cruise at check in time.

23 minutes ago, cyntil8ing said:

You will not have earned your Celebration points before the Radiance checkin window opens, since you will still be on the cruise. They’re not credited until a few days after completing the cruise.
 

I would expect your checkin will open 14 days beforehand. But congratulations on platinum! I finally got there last summer. I too ended my previous cruise at 74 points.

Thank you! That’s what I figured but I was just curious & going to set myself a reminder to check in. We’re in no hurry. It’s a mother daughter trip & our first time on the west coast. We’ll keep busy! 
 

Im excited for the platinum mostly because I had 2 cruises cancelled in 2020 so I’ve been waiting patiently for this small honor 😆

This may be a somewhat unique scenario but I’m curious if anyone has any experience & knows the answer. 
 

We’ll be on the Celebration 2/19 sailing which I will complete 1 night shy of Platinum. I’ll then be on the Radiance 3/10 sailing. So the check in period is during my Celebration cruise.

Is my check in window going to open 16 days out or is it going to be 14 days out since I’ll still be in process of my final Gold cruise?

Its really no big deal either way. I just got thinking about it tonight with Celebration check in coming up this weekend & got curious 🤔

I did 3 or 4 cruises post-divorce  (never have changed my name) before I got a passport. I remember the first time I intended to bring my marriage certificate & forgot it & I was completely panicked. Nobody asked for it or asked a single question. I did bring it along for the others for the easing my own anxiety, but I was never once asked for it. 
 

I say it’s always better to have it & not need it. But likely, ya won’t need it.

Looking forward to this as I’ll be on Radiance In March.

May I ask which hotel you stayed at?

15 hours ago, Illbcruzn4life said:

 

was this before or after final payment date?

It was before final payment.

I moved our sailing- Same sail date, different ship- & they did not apply any penalties & I kept the OBC, but I think they also re-booked us under the same rate code. 1 cabin was early saver & 1 was a different deal. No penalty applied for either, 

I didn’t have cheers though so I cannot comment on that. Doesn’t hurt to call & ask. 

The website says the dress code is “cruise casual” which it defines as:

Cruise Casual
Gentlemen: dress pants, jeans, elegant shorts, polo shirts

Ladies: casual dresses, skirts or trousers and blouses, summer dresses, capris, elegant shorts, jeans

Please no tracksuit trowsers, basketball shorts, flip-flops, bathing clothes or cut-off jeans.

As per the rules, no. Will they stop you from dining anyway? I don’t know. My teen son (pre-teen then) wore khaki shorts in the past & that wasn’t an issue. I assume that falls under “elegant shorts” & would be okay & maybe an acceptable option for your sons. I understand the struggle getting them to dress up! 

I just noticed the same thing. My VIFP profile is correct. The information input during booking was correct. But the confirmation of the booking has an old address.

20 hours ago, Freckle53 said:

How was the shark group?  Did he have fun?  My oldest is 16 now and was 10 on our first cruise but it was a while ago and he had a same aged cousin there too.  I know the older the groups go, the more the staff lets the kids decide what to do and sometimes you get a bunch of shy kids (like mine!) who just shrug their shoulders at figuring out what to do and they don't do anything.  LOL  9-11 is probably still a good group though with more "direction" from the staff.  This trip is the last week of August so there won't be a lot of kids, if it even happens.  

He's always loved the sharks group. Sailed in that age range about 3 times. They give them a decent amount of direction while still giving them some freedom to choose their activities. 

We've sailed last week of August a few times & there's usually a decent number of kids still. Less than in July, but still pretty full camps. That's still summer break here in NY.

They do use age at embarkation. My son had a birthday onboard & they still had him listed at his "starting age". It didn't change his camp group on this particular trip either way (he turned 10 & the sharks are 9-11). 

You can ask onboard to move your child up to the next group. If there is enough room, they will usually accommodate. My daughter was moved up at her request a couple months before her birthday. The counselors told us they will usually do it if they can, but on some summer & spring break cruises sometimes they can't because there are so many kids the camps are packed out. Space could be an issue with distancing rules when cruising resumes, but it pays to ask on the first day when camps are open for registration.

Help! I literally know nothing about Venice currently! We will be ending our cruise in Venice this coming August. We're staying 1 night post cruise. The catch is that we have a 7am flight home 😳 We should be off the ship early so we'll have a full day to explore. I think given the super early flight the next morning it makes sense to be convenient to the airport to reduce the ugly hour we have to head out.

Any hotel recommendations? I've seen on here that ability to handle luggage is a factor. We're all young & able to manage our luggage & foot travel.

I've had mixed experiences. On the Horizon in April we had no problems with made to order. They were happily doing it for everyone. Just got off the Victory a couple weeks ago & while in line to get my son a hotdog I heard them turning down several people asking for no cheese, no mayo, etc. I didn't even bother trying to order. Disappointing because I really like the deli just minus one ingredient.

We used the butter on the tables in the MDR for our bread on our cruise earlier this month. No complaints 🤷 We also lean towards margarine & most often the "butter" spray in our house so maybe that's why we weren't phased? I don't know, but it tasted just fine to us!