Christine Duffy and Emeril Lagasse to sail and do stuff on Carnival Venezia's first sailing

[gkbiiii]

The indoor pool complex looks amazing on Venezia; I'm sure it will do well in NYC's winters. 

[Bound4Bermuda]

On 3/30/2023 at 9:43 PM, shof515 said:

what hurt them was the itinerary of Port Canaveral, Freeport and Nassau. Horrible itinerary . I am so glad they have better itinerary like the southern caribbean to Barbados

I’m from Jersey, so we usually do Royal Caribbean out of Bayonne. However, it’s RC’s standard itineraries that made me try Carnival Venezia. On RC you got your choice of an afternoon in Port Canaveral, an afternoon in Nassau, and a day in Coco Cay or spend 2-3 nights sitting at a dock in Bermuda. (There are other itineraries like up the coast to Canada, but these are the basic summer season options.) When I saw Carnival had a brand new ship with a more unique itinerary compared to RC, with full days in the Dominican Republic, Grand Turk, and Half Moon Cay—plus it was $2,000 total less than RC—it was worth a try. Sounds like I might soon “go through” the different itinerary options on Carnival, or maybe I’ll decide that the Royal ships are so much better that it’s worth dealing with a crappy itinerary. But I’m sure there are enough locals like me who would primarily rather make do with whatever options we have in the area than deal with adding on traveling to Florida. Granted, I was almost going to fly to Florida this year, before I found this Carnival option. So we’ll see whether Venezia wins me over to try another Carnival itinerary or go to Florida on RC next year.

[TravelBluebird]

7 hours ago, gkbiiii said:

The indoor pool complex looks amazing on Venezia; I'm sure it will do well in NYC's winters. 

 

The Carnival Splendor has a retractable roof like the Venezia, and I sailed it out of NY once. I think a roof like that is a must for NY ships…we sailed the Splendor from NY in April, hit a storm, and the first morning on the ship there was about 6” of snow! 

 

The weird thing about sailing from NY for me is that my local small airport has direct flights to NY but not to most Florida ports. Something to think about, especially if I can get a cheaper flight. Plus I have family in NY that can join me! 

[BlerkOne]

11 hours ago, Incognito1 said:

However, there are several inexpensive TAs going the other way first.  Almost B2Bs.  Looking at TA's site right now and there are many for <$100/night. AND the Venezia cruise is showing $519pp!  I may have to refare.  Wow.

 

Also, as it's first-come, first-serve, do you have any idea where to sign up?  I'd like to get in on that.

I see insides for Venezia for $521 total for two ($100 offers). But then I'd have to give up my $250 OBC.

[Jamman54]

4 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

I see insides for Venezia for $521 total for two ($100 offers). But then I'd have to give up my $250 OBC.

Are you doing the Venezia TA? 😎

[BlerkOne]

4 minutes ago, Jamman54 said:

Are you doing the Venezia TA? 😎

Mebbe

[Jamman54]

9 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

Mebbe

Hope you do. We'll be on her for 15 days end of September. You do a great job with pictures! 😎

[IntrepidFromDC]

1 hour ago, Jamman54 said:

Are you doing the Venezia TA? 😎

 

1 hour ago, BlerkOne said:

Mebbe

 

So you MIGHT join me for french fries in Paris ahead of the cruise?

[BlerkOne]

2 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

Hope you do. We'll be on her for 15 days end of September. You do a great job with pictures! 😎

My main camera almost drown in a rain forest in South America, but seems to be working okay now. Time will tell.

[BlerkOne]

1 hour ago, IntrepidFromDC said:

 

 

So you MIGHT join me for french fries in Paris ahead of the cruise?

Mebbe. Mais non.

[jimbo5544]

On 3/31/2023 at 3:24 PM, Jamman54 said:

You've gone soft since you moved to Florida Jimbo! 

LOL, that is what a direct hit from a cat 4 can do…..

[jimbo5544]

On 3/31/2023 at 3:34 PM, jerseyjjs said:

 

 

Sailed the Anthem of the Seas twice during the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas in both 2016 and 2017.  Didn't ask for the passenger count, but the ship certainly wasn't empty.  "Behomoths"....like the Mardi Gras which you sailed a few times?   Anthem is smaller with a far lower passenger max than

Mardi Gras. The Oasis has the same passenger count capacity as Mardi Gras but is 45,000 Gross Tonnes bigger.  The space-to-passenger number for those RCL ships are vastly better than the Excel AND Vista class. 

 

     As an aside, why is it that Carnival doesn't have an issue with sailing a ship out of Baltimore year round?

Apparently they no longer have an issue with doing it from New York.  I remember the Splendor was practically giving cabins away.  That said, we did sail a NYE cruise out of Baltimore on the Pride.  We were lucky with the weather, only one crappy day each way.  The guy I felt most sorry for was the guy on the Coast Guard boat that accompanied us down to the Atlantic that was stationed on the 50 cal in the front of the little CG boat. Not sure what he did to deserve the treatment, but I am sure he needed warning up at end of shift.   

[nybumpkin]

On 3/30/2023 at 9:22 PM, jimbo5544 said:

TA aside, the whole Costa by Carnival experiment will be interesting to watch and see how it proceeds.  Sailing year round from New York has not gone well for Carnival.  The allure of sailing out of the best sail-away (in the summertime)  in February and the two cold days to get to warmth begs of understanding New York is a seasonal homeport, not a year round.  We will see.

Hi jimbo5544 (and Jeff) - I just returned from a 5-day NYC-Bermuda cruise on Norwegian Prima - the first time I've sailed out of NYC at a time other than summer. (I'm writing a review now that will explain why Norwegian in early spring). We did have rough weather on the return, and Bermuda is only marginally warm this time of year (although much warmer than Upstate NY😃). The ship was full, but more than a few people commented that they wouldn't sail the North Atlantic this time of year again.

[jimbo5544]

16 hours ago, nybumpkin said:

Hi jimbo5544 (and Jeff) - I just returned from a 5-day NYC-Bermuda cruise on Norwegian Prima - the first time I've sailed out of NYC at a time other than summer. (I'm writing a review now that will explain why Norwegian in early spring). We did have rough weather on the return, and Bermuda is only marginally warm this time of year (although much warmer than Upstate NY😃). The ship was full, but more than a few people commented that they wouldn't sail the North Atlantic this time of year again.

Hope you had a great cruise.  I remember when the Dream came to NY for her naming ceremony, which we were luck enough to attend.  There was a sleep pver on the ship and we were schedules for a 4 day cruise to nowhere (might have been the last Carnival ship to do one, but my memory is foggy) and had to cancel at the last minute.  That 4 day had amazingly rough seas (we heard from friends who stayed on her).  Just part of what can occur in winter months in the Atlantic.   If people have no choice (in terms of cruise homeport) then it has to work.  The chance of could and foul weather is just to high (but Jeff might be right, the Florida sun might have thinned my blood).