bmc alabama

This is my guess as well...

Well, I know that they've been working on the turning basin, which should be completed soon, and I believe that the city is working on an additional parking there (but that won't be done quickly) https://www.alreporter.com/2021/05/21/port-of-mobile-deepening-widening-to-be-completed-by-2025/

I get that. For us, we only have 3 cruises on Royal, so we don’t have any perks at all, so it makes a big difference…

Funny, we had the exact opposite opinion after sailing Oasis and Mardi Gras within 2 months of each other. We all drastically preferred the Mardi Gras. That said, we didn't care about any of the "bells and whistles" quite honestly on either ship. What we did prefer, though, was that the food, in our opinion, was far superior on Mardi Gras. Now, we didn't do the "Unlimited Dining Package" on Royal, but I felt that if you wanted decent food on Royal, you had to pay extra for it. I didn't get that feeling on Mardi Gras.

Oh, no doubt! New Orleans is great just to visit on its own. And the food is amazing. That said, Mobile is growing on me. The Battleship park is fantastic.

I love New Orleans, I really do, but dare I say that if Mobile can get the parking sorted out, it's actually a lot easier to go out of there. It's also a shorter drive from Atlanta, Nashville, and Birmingham...

Or it pushes you to a line like Virgin where everything sans alcohol and shore excursions is in the upfront price. It was very refreshing to buy a $10 drink and have it cost $10, not $11.80...

I agree. The Excel class is a huge step up for Carnival. I mentioned this in another thread, but we much preferred Mardi Gras to the Oasis (we did both within a couple of months of each other), especially where included food in concerned. Looking forward to trying Celebration and Jubilee!

When we sailed Oasis, it was just after the COVID restart and the Solarium cafe was closed the entire time. It would have been nice for that to have been open. For us, we hardly ever do specialty dining, so ships that have a lot of speciality dining don't really appeal to us. We'd rather not fork out $50 per person for a hibachi meal that we could get cheaper on land. The one exception is Emeril's on Mardi Gras. I didn't think that $3 for a huge bowl of Emeril's Red Beans and Rice was too terrible. On Royal, it really bugged me that they wanted to charge you for fries in Playmakers when you could go up to the Windjammer and get them for free. I also can't see why if Carnival can include Guy's Burger Joint why RCCL can't include Johnny Rockets.

You mean the "extras" like gratuities? Do you not pay those on RCCL? To get a similar experience on Royal, you would have to pay for gratuities, wifi, at least the coke package, and for the unlimited dining plan.

Actually, I think Apples to Apples, Virgin is the same or less. I like the fact that all Dining and Gratuities (including those at the bar, etc.) are included. Also, the food on Virgin is way ahead of RCCL IMHO... I think that the issue for a number of people is that you can sail one of the new CCL ships (Mardi Gras, Celebration, Jubilee), Virgin, Princess, or Celebrity, etc. for less than sailing on RCCL and get more for your money.

Not sure about that. We did Oasis a couple years ago and went on Mardi Gras 2 months after. We all preferred Mardi Gras. Somewhat disappointed in the included food on RCCL (we generally don't do upcharge restaurants).

This is VERY true. We find that the Royal Class Princess Ships (Royal, Regal, Sky, Enchanted, Discovery, and Majestic) are far superior, especially in the buffet, compared to the Grand class Princess ships. We like Princess a lot, but we much prefer the newer ships.

Great news!

I know many here have talked about Princess in Alaska, and we've sailed with them twice there and had great cruises both times. That said, I think that our British Isles Cruise on Regal Princess this year was better than all of those. One of our favorite cruises we've ever taken. One thing to note, the buffet is much better on the Royal class ships (Royal, Regal, Sky, Discovery, Majestic, Enchanted) than the older Grand class ships IMHO. Also, they will have an Alfredo's (included pizza/italian sit-down) in addition to the pizza and grill that are poolside. One other thing that we thought was that the International Cafe on Princess is light years better than Cafe Promenade.