Mardi Gras Eastern Itinerary Changes Again

[Knights on the Beach]

Mardi Gras will once again swap out San Juan for Nassau.  Emails went out today for the next few cruises (ours is 3/12) and said the itinerary change would appear on the Carnival site within 24 hours. No reason was given in the email (nor does it give a date range) but it doesn't make much difference to us.

[keels81]

I'm on the 7/16 sailing and obviously didn't get an email yet, but it is changed on the itinerary guidance page. I'm not going to stress about it until like May because a lot can change between now and then.

 

[Knights on the Beach]

Interesting!  Where did you find that?  

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

Any "eastern" sailing which does not include either St. Thomas or St. Maarten (preferably) does not constitute "eastern" in my book. I disliked the eastern itinerary we had on the Mardi Gras in November.

 

Oh well !!!

 

Tom

[Goldshep]

My daughter got this email for her cruise in late October. No San Juan. 🙁

[Lee Cruiser]

1 hour ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

Any "eastern" sailing which does not include either St. Thomas or St. Maarten (preferably) does not constitute "eastern" in my book. I disliked the eastern itinerary we had on the Mardi Gras in November.

 

Oh well !!!

 

Tom

Yes, would certainly rather do St. Thomas than San Juan, but absolutely do not like Nassau.  Will probably stay on the ship as we have the past few cruises that went there.

[noleguy84]

We got the email too. They are replacing one of the best ports with one of the worst. Not happy about this decision.

[calgaryhhr]

5 minutes ago, noleguy84 said:

We got the email too. They are replacing one of the best ports with one of the worst. Not happy about this decision.

I agree. I just received the email for our August cruise and I am really disappointed to the point where I almost don't even feel like going on the cruise. I hate Nassau and have never been to PR and was really looking forward to it. Amber Cove is not very intriguing either so this itinerary is really weak now.

[ngrund]

Wife and I were looking forward to San Juan, but Plan B it is.

 

I do want to go tho the casino at  Baha Mar (get the chip for my collection) and will probably get a day pass for Margaritavile  resort.

 

Now I have another reason to book the upcoming NCL Viva that is supposed to home port in San Juan

[TNcruising02]

I logged into my account and saw this change for my cruise next week.

[TravelBluebird]

1 hour ago, noleguy84 said:

We got the email too. They are replacing one of the best ports with one of the worst. Not happy about this decision.

 

This is how I feel too. Haven’t broken it to my daughter yet; she’d never been to San Juan and was really looking forward to it.  

[matymil]

Im cruising on the Mardi Gras in sept and a bunch of people in my cruise group are freaking out because they got the change email (i did not). All of their emails say 2/27/22 on it not 9/10/22 which is our sailing so im thinking alot of people are getting these on accident which is pretty common for Carnivals email system it seems.

[kelkel2]

6 hours ago, matymil said:

Im cruising on the Mardi Gras in sept and a bunch of people in my cruise group are freaking out because they got the change email (i did not). All of their emails say 2/27/22 on it not 9/10/22 which is our sailing so im thinking alot of people are getting these on accident which is pretty common for Carnivals email system it seems.

Could be! September is really far out for them to have decided that already. Although, someone above from an October cruise said they got it too, so who really knows. I didn’t get it for my January booking.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

It's just the way of the world now. We leave on the Reflection next Saturday.

 

Originally:

   Key West

   Cozumel

   Grand Cayman

   Jamaica 

 

Revised (more than once) to:

   Bimini -- looks VERY uninteresting!

   Nassau  -- perhaps I should make lemonade out of this as one of you suggested, I do need a Baha Mar chip!

   Cozumel - Pancho's, here we come!

   Costa Maya

 

BTW, I prefer the original itinerary!!

Tom

[phoneman69]

With San Juan requiring a 48 hour negative Covid-19 test to depart the ship what is Carnival and other to do? I have to test before boarding our May Mardi Gras trip and how would i test to meet San Juan's requirements. I really feel sorry for the locals who cater to the cruise passengers. They must be loosing so much and i doubt the government of the island is going to make them whole.

Still looking forward to the ship as it will be our first trip on the Mardi Gras.

[WaukeeHawk]

This requirement was dropped a week or two ago which is why Carnival is now docking in San Juan.  Magic was in San Juan this week.  Why they specifically changed the itinerary for this one, who knows.  

[Cruzlover7]

12 hours ago, ngrund said:

Wife and I were looking forward to San Juan, but Plan B it is.

 

I do want to go tho the casino at  Baha Mar (get the chip for my collection) and will probably get a day pass for Margaritavile  resort.

 

Now I have another reason to book the upcoming NCL Viva that is supposed to home port in San Juan

We too love San Juan and have the same back up plan like you do for Nassau. 

[Knights on the Beach]

9 hours ago, matymil said:

Im cruising on the Mardi Gras in sept and a bunch of people in my cruise group are freaking out because they got the change email (i did not). All of their emails say 2/27/22 on it not 9/10/22 which is our sailing so im thinking alot of people are getting these on accident which is pretty common for Carnivals email system it seems.

Actually that's not quite the whole story - a lot of people are misreading the email thinking it's only for the 2/26 cruise.  The email said those who pre-purchased shore tours for San Juan would have that amount refunded back to them on their Sail & Sign account and would be refunded back to the original form of payment for the remaining sail dates.  People are skimming over the letter and somehow thinking the itinerary change is only for the 2/26 cruise.  I admit I did the same when I first read it.  There is a page 2 to the letter with our name, booking number and sail date.

Itinerary Change - Nassau for San Juan page 1.pdf

[leen50]

13 hours ago, Goldshep said:

My daughter got this email for her cruise in late October. No San Juan. 🙁

We're October 22 & got the email too.

[crzynurs]

13 hours ago, Goldshep said:

My daughter got this email for her cruise in late October. No San Juan. 🙁

I got the same email although it was a little strange. It was an email from "noreply@carnival.com" and only held an attachment. Seemed odd and I don't recognize the name at the bottom of the attachment. Hope I didn't break my own rules and open an attachment from a spammer.

[katiel53]

I read on another site that this change affects all cruises until or thru Dec.  I did look at my itinerary for our Oct cruise and it has been changed to Nassau.

 

I am wondering if this change was made due to higher fuel costs.  I'm sure the cruise lines don't want to add a fuel surcharge, so if they don't go as far, less fuel may be consumed.  I have no idea how much fuel it takes to be in port, so I could be totally wrong.  I'm sure someone will know far more than I do.

 

In any event, it's not going to make a whole lot of difference to me as we have been to San Juan many times and fewer times to Nassau,, even though I enjoy San Juan far more than Nassau.

[bgrmini]

1 hour ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

It's just the way of the world now. We leave on the Reflection next Saturday.

 

Originally:

   Key West

   Cozumel

   Grand Cayman

   Jamaica 

 

Revised (more than once) to:

   Bimini -- looks VERY uninteresting!

   Nassau  -- perhaps I should make lemonade out of this as one of you suggested, I do need a Baha Mar chip!

   Cozumel - Pancho's, here we come!

   Costa Maya

 

BTW, I prefer the original itinerary!!

Tom

 

Bimini is tiny, but I had a lot of fun there. Rent a golf cart and drive around. There isn't much there, but thats part of what makes it so great. Be sure to check out Stuart's conch salad stand.

[vichastwins]

So pissed about this…. I picked this cruise specifically because it had no Nassau stop. And I only booked it 5 days ago 😡

[Dancindukes2]

To "add insult to injury" we are on the 2/26 of Mardi Gras sailing & neither my husband, myself OR my Travel Agent has received this correspondence. Had to find out thru social media which is no way to run a corporation.  I know they can change ports but substituting Nassau for San Juan is like having purchased a Mercedes and giving you a 12 year old beat up truck with a flat tire! 
 

[TNcruising02]

14 minutes ago, Dancindukes2 said:

To "add insult to injury" we are on the 2/26 of Mardi Gras sailing & neither my husband, myself OR my Travel Agent has received this correspondence. Had to find out thru social media which is no way to run a corporation.  I know they can change ports but substituting Nassau for San Juan is like having purchased a Mercedes and giving you a 12 year old beat up truck with a flat tire! 
 

I thought I hadn't received the email, but I found it in my junk mail folder.  I didn't expect anything from Carnival to go to that folder since everything else from Carnival arrives in my in box.