peanutzmom

This describes us as well. We are Platinum, but we don’t return to Carnival for the free perks from the loyalty program. We have cruised on other lines (most recently RCI and MSC), and we have found that Carnival best fits our needs as far as itineraries and prices go. The food, service, cabins, and entertainment are at least comparable and sometimes better than other lines charging higher prices, so we are happy to continue doing most of our cruising with Carnival, regardless of the perks (or lack thereof).

I’m sorry you have bad memories of your first visit. St. Martin is our favorite Caribbean island! We’ve done several land vacations there and always look for cruise itineraries that include it. We personally prefer the French Side and take a taxi to Orient Beach any time we cruise into this port.

Looks like Port Canaveral.

Thanks for your response! We’ll be docked at Havensight. It looks like the taxi to Crown Bay is about 15 minutes according to Google - is that accurate?

We have cruised to St. Thomas several times and have done the usual land excursions (with either Sonny Liston or Godfrey), beach days at Magen’s Bay or Sapphire Beach, or DIY days hitting the sky ride then walking around Charlotte Amalie. We want to do something different this time, but don’t feel the ship will be in port long enough to do St. John on our own, and the St. John ship excursions are very high priced for very little time on the island. So, we’re looking at doing Water Island and Honeymoon Beach. Any recommendations about what to do, etc.?

Paper copies of Fun Times (which are pretty much extinct) used to be called Carnival Capers. When I clicked on this thread, that’s actually what I thought the OP was talking about, too, because I’ve never heard of the Clue game being called that! 🤣 So, this response was from someone who also thought the OP was talking about the paper versions of Fun Times/Carnival Capers.

Thank you both for your replies! We’ll keep it on the list if possible excursions!

Hi! It looks like it costs $22 to rent an umbrella. Do they put some sort of tag on it to show who rented it? Like, if we get up to get in the pool or grab some lunch or something, is it marked so other people can’t take our spot? Thanks!

We will be in Amber Cove in June. I’m considering booking Iguana Mama’s Eat, Drink, and Be Merry tour. Any recommendations?

I wouldn’t pay extra for the ship excursion. There isn’t a trolly stop directly at the port, and it’s literally a three minute walk through Mallory Square, where you can buy the tickets without the ship mark-up. That’s probably where the ship excursion would take you anyway!

I couldn’t agree with you more, on all of your general comments. We did the Divina in December, and I feel like I set $1000 on fire. I would have rather stayed home and used that money on something else.

This. We did the Divina in December because we got a great rate and we’re terribly disappointed. I won’t cruise on this line again, unless there are some serious improvements.

Ummm, we didn’t enjoy pretty much any of it. I guess I was trying to be nice and throw them a few bones for what they did right? We spoke to MANY, MANY other passengers on the ship - several newbies to cruising said they would never cruise again after this, and we tried to assure them that most cruises are a lot better. We talked with other seasoned cruisers like ourselves, cracked a lot of jokes, shook our heads, and agreed that we wouldn’t cruise on this line again.

Day 4- Nassau We got up, grabbed some pastries, and got off the ship as quick as we could. Nassau was nice. We’ve been there probably a dozen times, so we just went up to the zoo/gardens, got lunch in Fish Fry, strolled around Junkanoo Beach, then headed back to the ship about an hour before debarkation. Full of yummy food from Fish Fry, we didn’t even bother to try the formal dining room and just grabbed pizza and burgers (again) from the buffet. And let me explain- we are adventurous eaters and not at all picky. We spent several years overseas while my husband was in the military, and we always enjoyed various local cuisines. We’ve traveled all over most of Europe and almost all of the Caribbean islands for vacations and always enjoy the food we try, however strange it may seem to typical American palates. The food on this cruise was just bad. Period. There was a section of Indian vegetarian cuisine that we were excited about. It was horrible. I felt bad for all of the vegetarian passengers, because I saw them at the buffet eating mostly fruit and French fries, because the vegetarian options were that bad. We hit the duty free liquor store (the one highlight - hubby got his favorite Scotch for half price), wandered the ship for a bit, and tried again to order drinks. I asked for a White Russian, and all I got was vodka and half- n-half because they were out of Kaluah. Maybe tell me that before you make the drink?? We weren’t on a beverage package (we don’t drink enough to warrant it), so we had to actually pay for our drinks. We were not impressed by their quality or how quickly the bars ran out of things. Knowing we had to get up early for debarkation, we headed to bed after that, hoping to get some sleep in before the neighbors got loud. It was basically the same as the previous nights, and we got up at 6:30AM to prepare for self debarkation. Debarkation actually went smoothly for us, but a lot of people got turned back because they never linked their credit card to their room key at those kiosks. It wasn’t because they were trying ti get away with something - they simply didn’t know! It wasn’t well publicized, just occasionally mentioned in the Daily Planner that was not regularly left in most people’s rooms. I know this may sound nit-picky, but it’s really not. We’re kinds go-with-the-flow travelers. If one, or two, or six of these things had gone wrong, we would have just shrugged it off. But it was constant. Everything was just not well thought out if up to basic standards. We will not be cruising MSC again.

Day 3- Private Island - Ocean Cay We were allowed briefly back on Ocean Cay in the morning. Since our neighbors were already up and being loud, we threw on clothes, wolfed down some pastries, and headed out. It was overcast and a little windy, but still beautiful. We chilled out until close to the 12:00 debarkation time, then went back onboard. We headed up to the buffet for lunch, and absolutely nothing was ready, even though it was after noon by this point. Slowly the stations started opening, but a lot of things were missing (including forks - how can you eat without forks??). Almost all of the food was reheated leftovers from the buffet on Ocean Cay the previous day. We grabbed a bite to eat (which included a burger and some pizza), went back to our room to enjoy the sail away from Ocean Cay from our balcony, then left to explore the ship. Things were fine, but there wasn’t really much going on for what was basically a Sea Day. I spent most of it reading a book on a deck chair. That was probably the most relaxing and enjoyable part of the entire cruise. We got ready for dinner and headed down to the dining room. At our new table, a family of 6 was there ahead of us, and they had basically taken up the entire table - dad and three kids in the chairs, and mom and a teenager taking up the entire tiny settee bench that was supposed to seat four. Since the dining room food hadn’t been very good anyway, we skipped it and headed to the buffet. It was pretty much exactly the same food that had been served the past two days, and we defaulted once again to pizza and burgers. We attended the show (more of the same), then hung out on the pool deck to take in the atmosphere. We went to the pool bar for a drink, and they were OUT OF ALMOST EVERYTHING! Their shelves were literally 3/4 empty. I managed to get a rum and coke, and my husband got a beer. We enjoyed the evening atmosphere for a while longer than returned to the room. Hoping for at least a few hours of sleep before the 2:30AM wake- up call from our neighbors, I went to bed early and my husband went in search of a hot tub. Most of them were roped off for the night. He found one still open, but kids were in if, jumping and splashing and doing cannonballs in the hot tub. Not the pool, where that is totally appropriate. He got kicked several times by kids before he gave up and got out. Once again, we had our 2:30AM wake-up call. Ugh.