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8 hours ago, FeliciaB said:

My guess is it has something to do with stops in Celebration Cay (carnivals private port on grand Bahama).

This is my guess as well...

9 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

 

They're going to need an investment to do more. Definitely more parking. It's a mess as it is. But I would love to send a conquest class ship there if they put a Dream or Vista class ship in New Orleans.

 

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/

3 hours ago, firefly333 said:

I also think what level you are on royal would greatly influence my decision as money off is a perk on rcl, not on carnival. I like both. Miss things when I'm on either. I loved my 14 days on dream but missed my free days of wifi and free 5 drinks a day royal gives me. I too preferred the food on dream this time around, last time I didnt prefer it. I thought food was greatly improved since last time on carnival. We also had the new menus which were great. I wish carnival would bring back bacon daily as I'm a buffet person. I want bacon with my eggs. Not ham or sausage. 

 

I just added 3 cruises on harmony at group rates, with my D+ balcony discount and solo 25% off discount. I couldnt touch mardi gras or jubilee inside for what I paid, not even close. Let's face it there are always things to like on most any cruise. Both have things I prefer. Too bad I cant combine both. I wish I could move guys burgers to royal. And royals $$$ off and perks to carnival. 

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…

On 2/9/2024 at 4:27 PM, RoperDK said:

I just disembarked from Wonder of the Seas on Sunday.  Like it or not, the "Monstrosity" ships offer more than anyone can possibly do in one week.  They truly are a destination in themselves.  The do plain vanilla itineraries and still sail full week after week.  I was hoping that the Excel class ships would be able to compete.  I don't feel the experience is even close.  We didn't really care for Mardi Gras after sailing on her twice.  When you compare other classes of Royal and Carnival ships, then the experience is more on par.  You might argue that one's food is better or service is friendlier, one is charging higher prices, one actually has straws, etc.  At that point, you are actually comparing apples to apples.   

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.

1 minute ago, jsglow said:

Perhaps. Never sailed from there. You may be correct from a driving perspective.

 

The thing that is so special about New Orleans for us is the ability to enjoy town for a day or two, walk to the port in the morning, and then sail. Perfect for a 5 nighter.

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.

3 hours ago, jsglow said:

Spot on. I love sailing from both Long Beach and New Orleans but both ports have real limitations and are way more regional than national. Very few fly from the 'great white north' to either. Galveston has a huge advantage in that millions upon millions of people live within driving distance. Long Beach is mostly patronized by Californians and the desert SW.  And as for New Orleans, there's a reason that only one company has decided to base ships there 12 months a year despite hyped up announcements about expanded seasonal service by others.  I'll take that as a good sign of strength and progress though.

 

Look, I'd personally love it if Carnival replaced the old Liberty/Glory models with Breeze or Magic. I'd jump on that in a heartbeat. But folks are kidding themselves if they think an Excel is going to be sailing from there anytime soon. Regional ports simply do not get signature boats. Ask tertiary ports like Mobile or Norfolk.

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...

3 hours ago, PACrew said:

The reality is cruiselines like RCCL are shifting more toward a land-based resort model of pricing. I wouldn't be surprised in the future to see your cruise ticket only covering your room with all food being a cost just like a hotel. Maybe they offer meal plans like Disney or and all inclusive option but I wouldn't be surprised to see lines remove all complimentary/included food. The lines will chalk it up to choice and better quality, 

 

I hope that's not the case but it wouldn't surprise me. 

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!

20 hours ago, Oceansaway17 said:

well I do agree that on the newer CCL have more quick food places and the new ICON now has a marketplace including a crepe station.  I enjoy most specialty dining on most ships. 

But the Oasis central park is wonderful and the solarium in the front of the ship is nice too.  Wonder of the Seas has the best of all Oasis class ships. I do like that RCL ship have a lot of FREE variety of flavored teas in buffet unlike CCL.   oh well 

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.

On 2/5/2024 at 1:43 PM, Morecruisesplz said:

Virgin is always more with all the extras backed out of the cost.

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.

9 hours ago, Areya220 said:

My observation is that Royal's prices are fairly in line with the other big cruise lines and cheaper in some cases (ex: Virgin, Disney, etc.).

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. 

On 2/1/2024 at 2:53 PM, Oceansaway17 said:

YES YES YES most definitely and also the Wonder OTS as well.

 

As they say "once you have done an Oasis class ship, it is hard to beat".

However the new ICON does look interesting as well. 

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).

16 hours ago, Itried4498 said:

The buffet quality generally varies by ship.  This is also true of Carnival and RCL  The Crown Class ships (like the one you were on) have smaller buffets.  The buffets can be quite disappointing, yes.  Navigator OTS had an outstanding lunch and dinner buffet but they've scaled them back as well.  

 

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.

I hate that you missed Guernsey. We were on the 5/20-6/1 cruise right before yours and had an absolutely wonderful day there. 

I think that you did get lucky with your Embarkation from the Ocean Terminal.  Our debarkation there was very smooth.  However, we embarked from the QEII terminal and that was a complete mess. Apparently, somehow the fire alarm got triggered and they cleared everyone out and there was a really long line outside to get checked in. Then, once in the terminal, there was no signage as to where you went to drop bags, so everyone was apparently in the wrong spot. It was a mess.  Took a couple of hours to get on the ship.

That said, once onboard, we had a fantastic cruise. Really lucked out with the weather. It did not rain a single day of our cruise. I see that you also don't stop in Invergordon. We enjoyed that stop as well. We did not stop in Liverpool, however.

In Northern Ireland, going to the Giant's Causeway, I think, is a must. Not only for the Causeway, but the scenery in the Northern Ireland countryside is absolutely breathtaking.

Have a great cruise!

We were on the Regal Princess on the cruise prior to this one (great cruise, BTW).  We had to surrender our passports the day we were in Portland/Weymouth.  They were collected by our room steward and we were given a receipt. They were returned a day or two after we left Ireland (I think it was the Glasgow day) and we had them the rest of the trip. It was really no big deal. As a plus, there is a nice, big Irish stamp now in my Passport book...

24 minutes ago, MsCrystalina said:

HI!

Due to begin the British Isles on Regal Tuesday the 13TH.  Wondering about the weather if anyone on board now. Taking a rain slicker and expect shorts not optimal for most the ports. . It has been about 20 years since did that itinerary on Princess and so looking forward to the changes on board and land! Ship sounds fantastic! 

Well, we were on the May 20-June 1 cruise and it did not rain a single day for us. I think that we were extremely fortunate, but we loved it!

On 5/22/2023 at 1:02 AM, nini said:

That is hilarious because @JimmyVWine did a lovely thread for his recent cruise on the Regal. The limit on the "Old Plus" which transformed into the "New Plus" became $15.00.

Well, not sure if it’s hilarious or just that the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. I did ask the lady at GS if I was limited to $12 drinks because I bought my Plus before the change if they were going to honor the old prices of drinks at that time.  She didn’t have an answer to that one.

I did try 1 $15 drink and so far, it has not shown up on my account… (otherwise, most have been Dirty Bananas and under the limit of the old pricing anyway).

On another note, this cruise has been really good. Hopefully a sign things are going the right way!

FYI, on Regal currently and asked at GS about the Plus50 (old Plus). We were told we could only order drinks up to $12.  Have not tested this yet to see if it is just the “policy” or what actually occurs in practice as everything I’ve ordered has been $12 or under…

On 3/17/2023 at 12:55 PM, _tacocat_ said:

this was 100% our experience on valiant in january; however, i'm pleased to report this was not the case on scarlet. 

 

not sure if it's just one of those tiny, annoying service differences between the ship or if the crew across both ships finally rolled it out properly, but on scarlet in february, we had free ketel one cocktails (not the vodka seltzer botanical spritzes - actual cocktails made by a bartender) during that happy hour.  one of three specific cocktails or mocktails from the menu, no limit on the number you could get, and they were available at multiple bars (i think between 5-6, but could be 6-7 - can't recall exactly)

Just off of Valiant last week.  We had the free Ketel One drinks in the Dock House bar every day from 4-5pm.  Not sure how long it will last.

16 hours ago, PacnGoNow said:

Unreal!  8 months?

Yep.  I believe that they ended up having to manually do it.  I am not sure what was going on as multiple times they said it would be in the system "shortly".

In the end, though, Princess did get things right.

We finally got our FCC's for our 2 days of quarantine on our May 2022 Crown sailing last week (early January 2023)...

Quick note on the buffet. We were on Crown last year and just off Caribbean last month.  Before these two, our two prior cruises (pre-COVID in 2019) were both on the Regal.  We found that the Regal buffet was infinitely superior to that of either the Crown or Caribbean.  Some of this may be due to the post-COVID that everyone is mentioning, but on the Royal Class ships, the buffet is SO much larger, I think it lends itself to more selection.

As to RCCL (from a prior comment), we also sailed Oasis and Independence last year.  Indy was probably the worst cruise we've been on.  Also, we were surprised that we were bored on the Oasis (we're not really rock wall/zip line/ice skating people - also CATS was bad, I mean really, really bad...).  But the included food selection was very limited, we felt on RCCL and we found, at least on those 2 ships, that for some reason about half of the offerings in the Windjammer were Indian cuisine, which I suppose is great if you like Indian cuisine, but it wasn't for us.  We also sailed Carnival Mardi Gras and actually liked it much, much better.

And lastly, if you are comparing food, I would say that it is really hard to beat Virgin Voyages.

On 12/30/2022 at 8:21 PM, Roatanfans said:

 

  The miss in Jamaica was hard to understand as we felt the Coast Guard should have waited until we were docked in Jamaica and taken the refugees off while the rest of us enjoyed our port day.  We understand that this was the USCG and not Princess deciding this.  We were happy that the raft people were all safe.  Overall, we probably would go on the Caribbean Princess again, but it would probably be my last choice in the Princess fleet (we also like the Grand better!)

We had heard that Jamaica would not allow us to dock with refugees, so they had to be taken off prior to any visit (and since then we had to go by Guantanamo, we missed it anyway).

I would agree that the Caribbean Princess was probably my least favorite Princess ship (Regal is my favorite since the Dawn left).  I didn’t think the food was bad, per se, I would rather say that the selection was odd, especially in the buffet (Turnip soup?  Who wants that?)

That said, the staff was great and I really thought the International Cafe (Uriel and Daniel were amazing!) was excellent.  Pizza was very good as well.

We did the Miraflores locks and old town Panama City excursion in Panama (and didn’t get back until 7:30pm!), but it was an amazing excursion and I’d highly recommend it.  The tour guide Yasiel (sp?) was amazing.

Also, the last night, I think the air went out for awhile.  Woke up in a complete sweat.  It was back to cool by morning, though…