IPlayWithString

I meant to reply sooner, Shaded Lady, but the last week or so has just been ugh..overwhelming. Work, school, STAAR testing for my kiddo..it's just been crazy around here.

I'm always interested in historical stuff but we almost never get to do that kind of thing since my husband and kiddo aren't interested in it (although my son DID end up choosing to do a report on Jamaica for his World Geography class because we've been there a few times now :-D).

On embark day, go to the ATD dining room (I forget which one that is at the moment) and see if you can arrange to be in Miraslava's section.

We've had her twice now--once on the Triumph out of NOLA and then again on our Spring Break cruise recently on the Vista. She is AWESOME and will absolutely take care of you. 😄 She would always bring out extra appetizers or entrees she thought we'd enjoy which we always did. 😄 

Agreed.

You can get a custom made sandwich at the deli..it's not an issue. I didn't do it myself but I did watch plenty of other people do it while I was in line behind them.

If you have any more questions about sailing Carnival with an autistic child, don't hesitate to ask. I've got one too. 🙂 They will do whatever they can to make your cruise go smoother than butter off a bald monkey's butt.

 "Walking in comfort" come to mind

I'll never really "walk in comfort"...not really. Fibromyalgia makes moving period kinda a PITA a lot of times.

And I've never been to an art auction...because I have zero interest in that and some of the art is (at least to me) not really all that great. I don't CARE who Peter Max is. I really don't. Until I saw some of his 'work' (is it really though? Or just copies?) on a cruise, I had no idea who he was. And some of that art (like those creepy owls I've seen on a couple of cruises) are downright scary.

Also never been to a hairy chest competition or a late night deck party (well..once. And I ended up burning the crap out of my mouth because when the tag said 'hot queso' I  thought it meant temperture wise. It meant temp wise AND spiciness wise. Ow.) because I'm usually in bed or at least quietly reading in my cabin by that time of night.

Thanks. 

Right now I'm trying like crazy to convince Hubs that we NEEEEEED (ok...I NEEEEEEEED) to go to Rose Hall because it's all historical and cool and stuff and I am SUCH a history nerd. It wouldn't be the first time he's been dragged on something like that because I'm nerding out about it. We've DONE all the stuff in Jamaica (we've been there several times) he's wanted to do--Dunn's River Falls, ziplining, river tubing. Now it's MY turn. 😄

People actually take these?

I guess it just seems weird to me (outside of things like maybe a medical device like a CPAP) that you'd need this. We've never taken more than what I call a "4-spot" (it's a plug in USB charger with 4 ports) because that's really all we need since our electronics (except for my Kindle E-reader) get put away while we're cruising because we don't mind being totally disconnected from everything and everyone in the real world for a week.

🤣

88 days till we're back on the Vista, but heck who's counting, right? I have to get through the next 50 days until the end of school first! I know our room (as of this moment anyway) is on deck 2 and is an interior, which I'm totally fine with. I'm looking forward to some things I missed on our Spring Break cruise, like the Studio 54 show and doing the SkyRide (the day I wanted to do it it was too windy or something.).

Room service coffee may not be the BEST but as long as it's brown, wet and has caffeine I give zero craps. When we have a balcony (which isn't often) I will order a pot of coffee along with some muffins and pastries and a thing of milk for my son (who is an early riser) so I can watch the sunrise and chill on the balcony with my coffee in peace before DH gets up. It's REALLY relaxing...and I don't relax often or easily.

On 3/21/2019 at 1:31 PM, schazzy said:

I'm curious to try some of the other sammiches on there as well.

The buffalo chicken is one of my favorites from the new deli menu. Holy crap is it good.

Hubs mentioned it to me last night. SMH.

On our  Spring Break cruise, while we often ordered more than one appetizer, we never ordered more than one entree'. HOWEVER, because our head waitress was somebody we'd sailed with before, she would bring us extra entrees she felt we'd like and generally, Hubs and I would split them or he'd eat the entire thing himself (he has a big appetite).

3 hours ago, tonyhb12 said:

So, it would be interesting to ask the following: If you were a Carnival financial exec, do you think offering a "Refresh" Package would increase your profit?  Would the average guest pay more if they got this than paying a la carte?

 I think some would think it would increase profit because I don't want to pay $55/pp per day for Cheers since we don't drink a lot of alcohol. I WOULD pay $25-$30 pp/per day (provided that both adults in the cabin don't have to pay for it, like with Cheers) for a Refresh-type program where I got virgin drinks, water, cokes, etc. I would still pay ala carte for the few drinks we DO buy (maybe 5, 10 tops between the two of us per cruise).

Thanks, Greg!

I just don't understand why people ask for copies of the Fun Times when things are probably not going to be exactly the same on their trip except maybe the show times. ESPECIALLY if they've cruised more than once. I get it..you want to plan things, but times and events are subject to change every single cruise, right?

We also did two "Make it with Michaels" events--one where we made beaded bracelets and one where you used markers and stamps to make a card. The beaded bracelet, the guy running it (Boy Wonder) ended up cutting my string too small so it was too tight on my wrist. Rather than say anything, I decided to keep it like it was and just give it away to a friend's grand daughter when I got home. The card I ended up trashing ultimately because while I had fun making it, I SUCK at card making.

We found out that even though you're supposed to go to Deck 5 every evening to check in for ATD, we didn't have to. We told the head hostess (I think that was her title?) that we wanted the same table every night with Mira and she told us as long as we were there by no later than 6:15, she'd hold it for us. 🙂 We didn't miss a night.

I'm looking forward to cruising on the Vista again. I really enjoyed it...I thought the overall theming was nice and I loved how spacious it was even though it was full to capacity, because it didn't SEEM like it was full. I even enjoyed the LED thingies that went from floor to ceiling in the atriums...I loved watching the different changes from one design to another, etc. I know some people are like, 'But it doesn't feel as open without the glass elevators!" or whatever, but I was not mad about it. I could've sat there an watched those things change color for HOURS.

For our D/P gift, we received Tervis tumblers and although they weren't the blankets I was hoping for, I ain't mad about it. They're REALLY nice tumblers.

The D/P party was nice also..it wasn't totally crowded and the drinks were OK. I heard (I think I saw on JH's page, actually) th at they're going to start selling their own canned beers. I'm not a beer drinker, but if they're available on the next sailing I'm on at the D/P party, I might try one just to see if I like it or not.

Also...I signed up for a CC Meet N Greet through the app or whatever it is here and never got an invitation. 😕 I assumed there wasn't enough people signed up to do one (which has happened to me in the past) but I don't remember ever getting an email or any kind of notice that they weren't going to do it for lack of participation (which I've also gotten before). That was kind of weird, but not a big deal overall.

I did notice this time that when I walked into the comedy lounge for adult comedy shows, they had a staffer standing at the door checking S&S cards, scanning them to make sure the person carrying it matched the photo on the machine. 

We just rolled in from our Spring Break cruise on the Vista. I'm exhausted but I'll share a few highlights and the two low lights (I guess you could call them) of our trip.

1. Matt Mitchum--OMG I think I'm in love with this dude. Don't tell my husband.🤣

2. The entertainment staff--Boy Wonder, Natalie, the comedy mgr (whose name I've forgotten..sorry! 😞 ) , Joey and Char the Star--We LOVE Y'ALL!

3. Dining team--Mira, Abdul and Mehmet (Horizons ATD) were AMAZING. ❤️

4. Deck 11 balcony--need I say more? 😄

5. The light up doohickey (sorry, don't know the proper name) that goes floor to ceiling in the atrium..how awesome is that? 😄 We loved it.

6. The desserts..OH HOLY OBESITY, BATMAN! The desserts! My son says the confetti cheesecake was the best.

7. The shows...I LOVED them. Or the ones I saw (Amor Cubano, Flick and America Rocks. I missed Studio VIP because I was so exhausted that day, although my husband went and ended up being the construction worker in the YMCA number LOL) I loved anyway. 🙂

The two problems we had were minor, really, compared to how much we loved the ship.

1. The Liquid Lounge--not a fan. Nope. Not at all. Although if you sat in the upper balcony at the center back, it was OK.

2. It was too short! (OK so that's not really a PROBLEM. LOL)

I'll add more of my review later tonight. ❤️

Plus with all the things to do onboard, why on earth would you want to be stuck in your cabin playing a video game? AND who wants the hassle of dragging a video game system with them on vacation?

OK I kind of want the Pride to come to Galveston now. 🤣😂

Somehow if this IS true..I'm not surprised.

I did get a laugh out of a cruise on the Triumph one time where this lady was going around putting sticky notes to cover up anything she didn't approve of. Including the wee peens of the naked fishing boys in the tiled mosaic thing just outside the theater. That cracked me up.

I've noticed that sometimes, when I'm in the process of planning a cruise and I'm trying to figure out what (if any) excursions we're going to do, it'll have a little tag on it with a discounted price. It's not all the time though and I never can figure out when it's going to happen.

39 minutes ago, plettza said:

As an Australian Carnival cruiser, I'm surprised Americans can reach Diamond at all.  Looking at the US Carnival website, I'm seeing mostly 3 and 4-day cruises.  In Australia, we typically have 8-night cruises and a lot of 9+ night ones.  We also have a few 3-night weekend "sampler" cruises as well as the odd 4 and 5 night.  It must take an eternity to reach Platinum let alone Diamond on Carnival in the US.

It took us about 5 years to reach Platinum...and except for our first cruise and I think one 4 day that we took when DS was in the 6th grade, we've ever only done 7 or 8 night cruises. DH doesn't like 4-5 night cruises because they're just too short, in his opinion.

I totally agree. It's hard enough to keep up with the room codes as it is....this letter and that numbr and there's at least a dozen of them (it seems like).

10 hours ago, masterty said:

There is no reason suite pax should be subsidizing inside cabin pax perks. Pay more get more. That is how life works.

How are suite pax subsidizing inside cabin perks? Whether you got to  platinum by sailing 75+ days in a suite or in an inside cabin, you get the SAME perks no matter what.

Suite pax are not subsidizing ANYTHING for the "lower class" pax like those who choose inside cabins for whatever reason. The suite pax are not the rich upper class subsidizing welfare for the lowly inside cabin pax, FFS.

SNJ--my bad.

5 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

Reduce benefits for platinum, taking away the priority boarding,

No thank you. I like having that now that we are platinum because it means I don't have to feel guilty about pulling the "I have a disabled kid" card. MOST of the time, they would board us after weddings, suites, FTTF and Plat/Diamond. But not always and when they did (like the time that one bride looked like she wanted to murder me) it was SO embarrassing for me.

1 hour ago, bingomamma19 said:

Its impossible to keep all music from disgraced musicians out of play.

 

Michael Jackson certainly had his controversies...and yet they have Thriller dance contests and Michael Jackson nights.    

The problem with Micheal Jackson is...complicated. He was a great artist but he was so deeply troubled in his personal life that he did questionable things that caused people to want to take advantage of him (which it was proved later, IIRC, that the parents who were suing him were only doing so just to take advantage of his wealth).