Our Carnival Venezia B2B - 21 days of "Fun Italian Style" (with pics) - 9/23/23

[Webecruzen]

On 11/24/2023 at 5:04 PM, Jamman54 said:

Thanks for following along once again! You guys really did have a lot going on  and now your turn is coming up. It's going to be great seeing both of you in January. How about Miller's Ale House on Saturday night? 😃

Sounds like a plan!  We will head south around noon Saturday.  So ready to use our cheers package and relax.  

[Indiansbaseball]

Great review, loved the final thoughts ! 

[Jamman54]

3 hours ago, Indiansbaseball said:

Great review, loved the final thoughts ! 

Thanks so much! 😃

[BohJang]

I just finished reading this review.  Had to take a break because we were on the Regal Princess last week.  I think you were following @TxTeach79's live review.  It was such a great cruise and it was fun meeting Paul.

 

While we were heading over to Island Beach Club in Cozumel I spotted a bar with the sign in the window that said HUSBAND DAYCARE!  I immediately thought of you.

 

Can't wait to meet you and Patti and the other CC peeps in 7 weeks.

 

Thanks for this terrific review.

[Jamman54]

59 minutes ago, BohJang said:

I just finished reading this review.  Had to take a break because we were on the Regal Princess last week.  I think you were following @TxTeach79's live review.  It was such a great cruise and it was fun meeting Paul.

 

While we were heading over to Island Beach Club in Cozumel I spotted a bar with the sign in the window that said HUSBAND DAYCARE!  I immediately thought of you.

 

Can't wait to meet you and Patti and the other CC peeps in 7 weeks.

 

Thanks for this terrific review.

Thanks for reading! Hope you had a great cruise on the Regal last week. From what I read it sure seemed like it! 😁 We're looking forward to meeting you and the gang in January. It's going to be an awesome cruise! 😎

[Retired20]

Thank you so much for doing this review ! I always learn so much from you and Patti ! After reading your review, I can’t wait to book on the Venezia ! 
P.S. this is a new name for me, because I had to reset all my profile. I used to be Teacher34 and read and responded to all of your reviews under my original name. I hope to sail with you and Patti someday. 

[MistyRo76]

On 11/25/2023 at 1:11 PM, Jamman54 said:

Thanks for coming along for the ride once  again.  We'll continue to enjoy cruising until we can't. Is hubby a candidate for Husband Daycare? That might help him want to cruise some more! 😁  We can't wait for the Tribe cruise. We board in seven weeks! 😎

Hubby will humor me and cruise occasionally. And he’s actually looking forward to cruising Alaska, hopefully in 2025. He quit drinking so Husband Daycare for him would need to include awesome coffee and a place to enjoy smoking a pipe! We make it work though! And I enjoy some cruises with my girlfriends from time to time too! 
 

thanks again! 

[Jamman54]

12 hours ago, Retired20 said:

Thank you so much for doing this review ! I always learn so much from you and Patti ! After reading your review, I can’t wait to book on the Venezia ! 
P.S. this is a new name for me, because I had to reset all my profile. I used to be Teacher34 and read and responded to all of your reviews under my original name. I hope to sail with you and Patti someday. 

Thanks for reading! Of course we remember you, but like your new posting name! 😀

[WhiteOptima]

On 11/21/2023 at 8:53 AM, Jamman54 said:

 

Always glad to see you posting. Thanks for reading! 😀

 

 

The coffee card is a punch card and it is free. After you buy 6 coffees, the 7th is free. 😄

I was getting my cappuccino every morning in Carnivale Bar.  After 3 days I asked why I didn’t have a punch card.  Those are only in Java Blue😡.  I paid the same price and the many coffee areas is to help eliminate the huge lines at Java Blue so not understanding the logic.

[WhiteOptima]

On 11/22/2023 at 1:31 PM, Jamman54 said:

I got the card at Java Blue and I also got all of my coffees there. I would think that they would punch your card at the other locations, but I don't know for sure. 😎

Catching up as we got off Venezia on the 20th and just posted about this.  No the card is only for Java Blue.  I tried and was told no.

[WhiteOptima]

I am glad you posted your Bonsai Sushi meal with the skewers.  My husband would not go there because he just hears “sushi”.  I do get to eat there when we cruise with friends because he goes with my friend to get a burger and her husband and I go to Bonsai.  BUT I showed him your pictures before we left and he agreed to try.  Well we ate there 4 times on our 11 day.  Tempura shrimp, skewers, ramen bowl and edamame.  Thank you!  Now if I can get him to try the Teppanyaki. 

[Jamman54]

13 hours ago, WhiteOptima said:

Catching up as we got off Venezia on the 20th and just posted about this.  No the card is only for Java Blue.  I tried and was told no.

Thanks for reporting back on this. I wasn't sure, but it still seems silly to  have the card restricted to Java Blue. Maybe they can't afford to have hole punchers in every location that sells coffee! 😂

[Jamman54]

13 hours ago, WhiteOptima said:

I am glad you posted your Bonsai Sushi meal with the skewers.  My husband would not go there because he just hears “sushi”.  I do get to eat there when we cruise with friends because he goes with my friend to get a burger and her husband and I go to Bonsai.  BUT I showed him your pictures before we left and he agreed to try.  Well we ate there 4 times on our 11 day.  Tempura shrimp, skewers, ramen bowl and edamame.  Thank you!  Now if I can get him to try the Teppanyaki. 

If you got him to try Bonsai Sushi, the Teppanyaki should be a lock! Just show him the pictures! 😀

[Fire Chief 2481]

Jamman54, I am enjoying your review, page 15 so far. I am booked out of NY and thought drinks aren't available 1st day due to NYC tax. This is my 1st Carnival (Usually NCL) and in past was just charged a tax on each drink. I saw you went straight to the bar on day one. Is Carnival website wrong, that out of NY and TX no drinks day one? Thanks for reply in advance now back to page 15.

[Jamman54]

42 minutes ago, Fire Chief 2481 said:

Jamman54, I am enjoying your review, page 15 so far. I am booked out of NY and thought drinks aren't available 1st day due to NYC tax. This is my 1st Carnival (Usually NCL) and in past was just charged a tax on each drink. I saw you went straight to the bar on day one. Is Carnival website wrong, that out of NY and TX no drinks day one? Thanks for reply in advance now back to page 15.

Thanks for reading! Yes you can drink as soon as you board and you will charged NYC tax. It's the Cheers package that doesn't kick in until day 2 from New York and Galveston. The first day you have to charge your drinks to your Sail & Sign card. 😎

[matt082600]

Jeff, I'm very late to the party, but I finally caught up!!  Thank you (and Patti) for taking the time and energy to post this great review.  As always, it was fantastic!!

[Jamman54]

5 hours ago, matt082600 said:

Jeff, I'm very late to the party, but I finally caught up!!  Thank you (and Patti) for taking the time and energy to post this great review.  As always, it was fantastic!!

Always better to be late than never! Thanks for coming along once again, and for your kind words! 😎

[nybumpkin]

Jeff - I finally finished! (Sorry it's so late, but we went away for Thanksgiving.) That was a great review, and my thanks to Patti for some great pictures!

[Jamman54]

26 minutes ago, nybumpkin said:

Jeff - I finally finished! (Sorry it's so late, but we went away for Thanksgiving.) That was a great review, and my thanks to Patti for some great pictures!

We knew that you were out there somewhere. Thanks for coming along for the ride once again! 😃

[aztekpm]

On 11/22/2023 at 7:03 PM, Jamman54 said:

Our final thoughts and ramblings.

 

I had promised myself that I would get this review completed before Thanksgiving, and I just made it under the wire. Well, actually I promised Patti, because my two laptops, printer / scanner, all of the cruise paperwork, etc, have lived on the dining room table since we returned home, and it is from here that I have posted the review. I need to get all this crap out of here if we’re going to have a Thanksgiving dinner!

 

First, we want to thank all of our Cruise Critic family for following, reading, and posting on this very long review, and hanging in there with us. It is greatly appreciated and the reason Patti and I will continue to do them as long as we are able.

 

We met quite a few Cruise Critic members during our time on the Venezia. We want to give a BIG shout out to Rich & Kathy, Charlie & Janice, Rhonda & Keith, Gail & DH, and Sylvia. It was a pleasure to meet all of you, and hopefully we’ll get to sail with you again in the future. I know that there were additional Cruise Critic members aboard that we didn’t get to meet, so hopefully we can connect sometime in the future.

 

I talked about the ship itself right at the beginning of the review, but I want to bring up a few points that didn’t concern us, but might bother some people. First, about the mid ship pool. Being enclosed as it is, there is a lack of space for sun loungers, and there are no hot tubs there. Patti and I almost never use the pool or hot tubs on the ships, unless we are in the Havana Area on certain ships, so this doesn’t bother us. But if you are a sun worshiper, and enjoy the pools and hot tubs, your choices are limited. There is also the aft Burano Pool area, but with a ship that carries 4K passengers, it may be tough finding a spot.

 

The second thing I want to talk about is the Terrazza Carnevale, which is the Havana Area equivalent on this ship. We had an opportunity to walk back here twice, and it is a beautiful area, but without a pool we would not book a cabin there. That’s just us. Some of our Cruise Critic friends had cabins back there and loved it, so to each their own. Overall, we loved the décor on the Venezia.

 

Let’s talk a little bit about the food experience. We are not foodies by any means. We know that the food served in the MDR’s is banquet quality at best. Before Covid, Patti and I would almost always eat our dinners in the MDR. After cruising resumed, we found that the experience in the MDR had changed. Luke warm food and slow service, which is not always the servers fault, became the norm. We quickly realized that most of what is served in the dining room was available up at the buffet. Why spend two hours eating dinner in the MDR, when you have the same food, hotter, as much as you want, in much less time?

 

We went to the Canal Grande Dining room during the first leg of our B2B, and it was the same old thing. We were there for almost two hours, and we never even got our desserts. We did not return for the rest of our time on the Venezia.

 

We ate twice at IL Viaggio and we loved it. We thought that it was better than the Cucina del Capitano equivalent on the other ships. We had one dinner at the Fahrenheit 555 Steakhouse which was great, and we ate once at the Bonsai Teppanyaki which was awesome. We ate at Bonsai Sushi five times during our three weeks on the Venezia. We just love that place! We did have the Seafood Shack one time, but the rest of our meals were from the Lido Marketplace, the Deli, or Pizzeria del Capitano. We did not go hungry!

 

The entertainment on board was very good. We enjoyed the Quora String Trio, Music & Magic, Regie, and the Venezia Rockband. We enjoyed all of the stage shows that we went to see in the Teatro Rosso. Being on a Journeys cruise you get to see a lot of the fly in Variety Acts, and all of them were good. Patti doesn’t go to the Comedy Club, but I got to see eight different comedians during my time on board. In my opinion, some were good and some were not, and I gave my ratings during the review. Please remember though, like food, comedy is very subjective. What I find funny, you may not, and vice versa. Each comedian has to have some talent, or they wouldn’t be there. A couple of events that you shouldn’t miss because they are not on any other Carnival ships, is the Captain’s Venetian Toast, and the Festa Italiana.

 

All of the crew on board that we encountered were excellent, except one, so we want to give some shout outs. The first is Captain Enzo. What a nice guy, and he is very approachable. The fact that he approached me and chatted for five minutes left a huge impression on me! The next was Cruise Director Joey Boyes. We had never seen him before this cruise, but boy was he good. He was very approachable and friendly, and we got to know him pretty well by the end of our cruises. Blessing, our first room steward was awesome. Our friend Zora at the Amari Bar was fantastic as usual. We have been on quite a few ships together. Valentina at the Lobby Bar, and Andrea at the Frizzante Bar were awesome as well. As for Edy, he did make our bed and keep our room clean. Nothing less, nothing more.

 

Overall, the weather during our cruises was very good. Yes, the weather on the New England / Canada leg was a little cool, but that was to be expected. The weather for the Journeys cruise was perfect, even a little hot on some days. Other than the hour thunderstorm we had in Aruba, the rest of the time it was sunny. The worst weather was in New York. Embarkation, turnaround, and debarkation days were all cloudy and rainy.

 

We enjoyed all of our ports of call, especially Barbados and St Lucia which we hadn’t been to before. We had some all-inclusive days, a cabana day, some sight-seeing days, and a couple of beach days. What we thought was pretty cool was that at each of our seven ports of call on the Journeys cruise, the Venezia was the only ship in port that day. Even in St. Maarten and St. Thomas which usually see multiple ships every day, the Venezia was the only one!

 

My mind has gone blank, so if you have any questions at all we’ll be more than happy to answer them for you. If I think of anything else, I’ll be sure to post it.

 

And now for our future cruise plans. On January 14th 2024, we will be on the Celebration from Miami again for a 7 day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean. This will be even more special as its “The Tribe” cruise, (IYKYK), so we’ll be meeting up with a whole bunch of the Cruise Critic Family. We can’t wait!

 

On April 14th 2024, we will head back to Port Canaveral for B2B cruises on the Vista to the Eastern and Southern Caribbean. We have the same Havana inside cabin booked for both legs. Two weeks of the “Havana Experience”. Sweet!

 

For our fall cruise, we were originally going to be boarding the Pride in Baltimore for a 14 day Journeys cruise to Greenland and Canada. Because of the problems that the Legend had tendering there, and even getting to, we decided to cancel. We love the Pride, but we just didn’t want to take the chance. Instead, on August 31^st 2024 we will once again be boarding the Venezia for B2B cruises from New York City. The first will be a seven day cruise to Bermuda, followed by a seven day cruise to Canada. To top it off we have learned that our favorite Cruise Director, Lee Mason, will be joining the ship the day that we get on!

 

Our cruises for 2025 are shaping up like this. On March 31^st 2025 we will be heading to New Orleans to board the Valor for B2B cruises to the Western Caribbean. After getting off the Valor we will be heading over to Galveston and on April 12^th 2025 we will be boarding the Jubilee, also going to the Western Caribbean. These are two ships that we haven’t sailed on, and two homeports that we’ve never been to. We are planning this as a mega road trip. There are so many details to hammer out, but we have a lot of resources here at Cruise Critic that will help us out with this.

 

Finally, on September 26^th 2025, we will be heading out to Seattle to board the Carnival Spirit for a fifteen day cruise to Hawaii. We’ve never been to Seattle, so we’ll fly out a few days early to check it out.  Will any of you be sailing on any of these cruises with us? If not, we’ll be bringing these cruises to you!

 

Before I end this, I have to thank my beautiful wife Patti. I couldn’t do these adventures, or these reviews, without her. She is my best friend, my rock, and a heck of a photographer!

 

Speaking of photography, the photos you see on these reviews are only a small portion of all the photos Patti takes during our cruises. If you would like to see the whole package, there is a link in my signature for our Cruise and Vacation albums. Feel free to check them out if you are so inclined.

 

Now I get to clean off the dining room table, so until next time, which will only be a couple of months, may you have blue skies and calm seas!!!

Fabulous review once again. 

 

I am booked on the Pride Greenland and was looking forward to meeting you, but, understand your decision. I'll be taking my chances, so fingers crossed. Funnily enough I'm doing a B2B and sailing to Bermuda before the Greenland cruise. Got to have some warm to go with the expected cool on vacation!

[Jamman54]

3 hours ago, aztekpm said:

Fabulous review once again. 

 

I am booked on the Pride Greenland and was looking forward to meeting you, but, understand your decision. I'll be taking my chances, so fingers crossed. Funnily enough I'm doing a B2B and sailing to Bermuda before the Greenland cruise. Got to have some warm to go with the expected cool on vacation!

Thanks so much for reading! I struggled with cancelling the Pride cruise, but Patti wasn't keen on it from the beginning, but went along with my wishes. It turns out that we loved the Venezia, and being able to do a Bermuda and Canada B2B sealed the deal. That's great that you were able to add the Bermuda cruise for a B2B.  We'll be in Bermuda the week before you so we'll warm it up for you! 😁

[DukeASUGirl]

Thank you for this! We'll be on Firenze in June, which I know isn't the same ship, but same concept so this is super helpful!

[Jamman54]

2 hours ago, DukeASUGirl said:

Thank you for this! We'll be on Firenze in June, which I know isn't the same ship, but same concept so this is super helpful!

Thanks for reading. Glad you found our review helpful. The Venezia and Firenze will be nearly identical. 😎

[Crusin Karen]

Well jamman another rainy NJ Sunday and thankfully the Giants weren’t playing. Jets and eagles lost so  I spent a nice afternoon reading from page 19 to the end. What an adventure! Went to St Lucia once which was always my dream. Did a tour with Spencer Ambrose. I highly recommend. First land then board speed boat for a WILD ride to the beach overlooking pitons then another WILD ride back to ship. Did you pass the “bat cave?” I add my

thanks to you and Patti for  taking us along. Barbados is now on my bucket list. Happy holidays and enjoy your next countdown! 👍👏🎄

[Jamman54]

2 hours ago, Crusin Karen said:

Well jamman another rainy NJ Sunday and thankfully the Giants weren’t playing. Jets and eagles lost so  I spent a nice afternoon reading from page 19 to the end. What an adventure! Went to St Lucia once which was always my dream. Did a tour with Spencer Ambrose. I highly recommend. First land then board speed boat for a WILD ride to the beach overlooking pitons then another WILD ride back to ship. Did you pass the “bat cave?” I add my

thanks to you and Patti for  taking us along. Barbados is now on my bucket list. Happy holidays and enjoy your next countdown! 👍👏🎄

Thanks Karry! Always a pleasure to have you along for the ride. We both can say that we're cruising next month! Enjoy the holidays! 😃