UPNYGuy

yes. Was out of Miami, but a NY sect and MIA sect were onboard.

The most brazen example was on NCL where two school groups had a partial charter and ran amok. You and I discussed this briefly a bit ago, but it was an infamous thing in the NCL thread. I happened to be on the ship when it happened. It was on Getaway.

The pushing is an interesting observation. On MSC it seems like more people try to jam their way into the elevator before people begin to exit. On Meraviglia, it isn’t as much of an issue (dedicated elevator for y/c). But seascape the priority elevator set up malfunctioned, and lots of people shoving to get in. DW ended up getting very blunt and nasty with two women that were trying to jam into a full elevator before people could exit. She yelled at them in Spanish that they need to wait. We run into this far less on R/C and Carnival. I never really paid attention to it on MSC because we are always in the yacht club and very rarely venture out of there

We have not run into this on MSC. But, we usually also sail in the yacht club. We tend to alternate between MSC, Carnival, and Royal lately

I have my thoughts as well, but tend to keep them to myself

there are a bunch of ports I will actively avoid going out of myself

Carnival usually comes in cheaper than Royal Caribbean, NCL, Princess, HAL, and Celebrity. MSC can sometimes undercut Carnival, but I haven’t seen this party all night demographic on any of our MSC cruises.

that wasn’t the implication. The implication was exactly what I said. Carnival tends to cater to the cheap weekend booze cruise crowd. People will spend less on a weekend cruise simply to get the cheers, and get blasted all weekend. and DW and I have seen a marked difference in demographics sailing on the cheaper vs more expensive sailings on carnival. Cheaper = booze cruise. More expensive = older, more well heeled and well traveled.

Nassau and Freeport to me would be equal to 2 more sea days 🤣 if I have a Bahamas cruise that includes both Nassau and Freeport (and FML I have, out of Baltimore), I usually book them because I don’t feel like flying.

I completely forgot one of the best kept secrets of the interior cabins on the Excel ships. If you book early, nab one of the square interior Havana cabins. They are somewhat larger than the standard interior cabins, and have better space utilization because of the square shape.

I will cruise mid summer… if it is to Alaska, or the Baltics and/or Norwegian fjords. The last week in August is really the earliest I will do a Caribbean cruise.

Or if you cruise during summer, make sure it is last week in August / first week in September. And yes, a med cruise will have a much different vibe. The people that fly over from the US will actually have financial means to travel, not the “f it lets do a weekend booze cruise for giggles and get hammered because it’s cheap” type.

Right now DW and I are on Celebration, which goes out of Miami. We haven’t had any issues with the ships that go to Miami (as of yet, and we have been on many). IMO, the issues *usually* tend to be on the under 7 day cruises. This is not always the case, but usually is. The price points are lower, and they tend to attract people who do not travel very frequently.

Blilver??

This is what I was going off of. Repeated propulsion issues on this ship.

I’m sitting in my cabana, DW is reading. We both have drinks. So figured would give me something to do instead of book another cruise.

I also remember the panorama having issues. I might be conflating the two together into one.

71 Havana cabins on Panorama if I counted correctly, vs 98 on celebration according to goccl

I also noticed that because the outdoor lounge area is on the side of the ship, it tends to be a little bit breezier. The cabanas themselves on the excels are a little bit smaller than the vistas, but not by much. It looks as if they are short one of the lattice squares between the cabin in comparison to the vistas. But it doesn’t affect the usability unless you are like 10’ tall.

The overall layout is superior on the vista class, but I definitely do not think that the Havana area on the Excel is as bad as what people are making it out to be. I am on the celebration right now in a Havana cabana. Yes, the pool area is smaller. But, it has rarely been used. And my wife likes to go in at night. After 6 it is empty.

If you look at the deck plans, some of the interior cabins that are closer to the bar are over the theater.

Hasn’t the vista been kind of a drydock queen with her propulsion issues? If I remember correctly, it seems to be a reoccurring theme with this particular ship.

agree. They used to be better, but now they are similar to the early saver offers.

…. In comes the person with a grey car 🤣

Loool. DW and I started on HAL, and wound up on Oceania, and tried Carnival… flatly the reverse of what most people would do. There are others in there too. We tend to alternate between RC, Carnival, and MSC now. But I prefer the HAL / Oceania / MSC decor styles. MSC is very modern, HAL less so, Oceania is in the middle.