vacruisin

Sorry you had such a horrible experience; sounds like a lousy way to spend Christmas vacation with the family and you should definitely escalate your experience up the Carnival chain. However, if you've previously sailed Carnival and enjoyed those cruises I would hope you'd chalk this up as an aberration and not just kick Carnival to the curb. You said you'd enjoyed a May cruise; was it on Carnival? Have you experienced such bad behavior on previous Carnival cruises? Holiday cruises sometimes tend to bring rowdier crowds; and I've heard of some of the same kind of issues/behavior on other cruise lines. Sometimes it is just a bad group on your particular sailing.

Yeah, those soda dispensers on the Mardi Gras were not very good when we went in July. The soda was constantly flat and/or watered down. Wifey loves her Pepsi and got tired of the horrible dispenser soda so after awhile we only got her sodas from the bars.

We just had Kyndall Fire on the Mardi Gras in July and we loved her! She was hilarious!

Thanks for that. Yep, contrary to "popular belief" rowdy, unruly behavior transcends social economic status. Some people need to get out of their social media bubbles/echo chambers more.

Very well stated! Agree with ever last word of this!

That is not accurate. I've ordered an alcoholic drink along with a soda many times with Cheers.

Same thing happened on my January cruise on the Celebration. We didn't have the WiFi plan and our phones were on airplane mode but out of the blue text messages started coming in from a Cowboys fans text group I'm in while I was sitting in the back of the ship watching the Cowboys/Bucs playoff game. I'd never received a text while on a cruise so wifey glared at me because she thought I'd taken my phone off airplane mode! lol Turns out it was just a random spot out at sea where text came through even while on airplane mode. I was actually able to text back during that brief time (about 30 minutes).

I think you missed my point. I was saying that for the most part Carnival cruises tend to be drama-free but sometimes people go with the "narrative" that bad behavior is specific to Carnival cruises. I agree with you there are other factors that contribute to it. I suggested if anyone has a problem with Carnival they could explore other lines. Carnival is my preferred line.

I guess I've just been extremely lucky. 16 Carnival cruises (106 days sailed total) and I've never witnessed a fight (other than one time some people exchanged words and threw ice on each other in the main auditorium) and I've only smelled weed once and that was one time on one day while sitting on my balcony. The rest of my Carnival cruises have been nothing but fun and pretty drama-free and we usually cruise smack dab in the middle of summer; Including our most recent cruise last month on the Mardi Gras during the July 4th week. We stayed up late one night and hung with the young crowd in the packed club until late and everyone just had a good time dancing and drinking. I was actually at the bar trying to get a drink and a young man politely asked if he could just squeeze past to get to the iced water jug I was standing in front of. I know fights and rowdiness happen but not nearly as often as some people try to make it seem. Narratives are powerful and as we've seen lately in this world people latch on to narratives and to them it becomes reality; even sometimes when they themselves have not experienced something. We have become a world of followers. Choice is a beautiful thing. If Carnival ain't your cup of tea then there are plenty of other lines for people to sail on. Happy Sailing all!

Same here. On the Celebration they asked us if we'd seen the life jacket presentation before and when we said yes they just scanned our boarding passes and we ran off to the bar! lol On the Mardi Gras last month we did have to watch the demonstration but it took all of about 3 minutes! And then we ran off to the bar! lol

They do have a way of knowing. On our first cruise since the rule change we didn't know at the time about the new rule so we got a drink when we first boarded. When we tried to get a 2nd drink they told us we had to do muster before we could order another drink. Now we just go straight to muster as soon as we board.

Just got off of the Mardi Gras on July 8th and the best Old Fashions I got were from Aneka at the Fortune Teller. They were deeeellliiiccciiooouuusss! Got a couple of good ones from the Casino bar as well.

We've done both (Magic 3X and Celebration 1X) and love them both. I'll echo what many others have said and it just boils down to what you're looking for on that particular cruise. We've been on both the Celebration and Mardi Gras and they definitely have more bells and whistles, hence more people, than the Magic. However, I much more enjoy the layout of the Dream class ships. More condensed and less crowded works just fine for me; and I love the T-pool! To me you can't go wrong no matter which you choose. Happy Sailing all!!

As many people have pointed out, it's just the way some people are. There are people who pay more for a product because to them paying more equals better quality. Companies feast off of people's arrogance, ego, and ignorance; it is capitalism at its finest. It is the American Way! lol Now, as a proud American I don't have a problem with it...just pointing it out. I've seen people pay waaaay too much (IMO) for a certain champagne or pair of jeans just because it is expensive. It inflates their egos that they can afford that product (even if they really CAN'T afford it). People like that tend to have low self-esteem so if it makes them feel better, to each his/her own. I've only been on 2 cruise lines...16 Carnival cruises and only 1 Royal Caribbean cruise. There is a reason why I've only cruised Royal one time. Compared to my Carnival cruises it was considerably more boring! So, if people wanna pay more for that product, so be it. I know what I prefer. And no bragging here, but if I wanted to book Celebrity, Royal, MSC, Princess, Disney, Virgin, or any other cruise line I could afford to do it with no problem. I just like what I like and that is Carnival. Happy sailing all!!

It may vary from ship to ship. Last July I felt sick so they tested me, DW, and our 2 boys...all free of charge. I tested postive so they quarantined me on deck 1 for the last 2 days of the cruise.