Loveboat1995

My only hope is Long Beach will get a replacement ship that is NOT the Miracle.

Curious as I've never been on the Miracle, or Carnival, but what did you not like about the Miracle? I read Peter Knego's Maritime Matters blog on it and found myself wanting to book.

Thanks for the input everyone!

 

 

I'm hoping to do the four day for two reasons:

1) Both my husband and I grew up in Long Beach and in all the years we lived there we never have been to Catalina Island. So we thought it would be a fun little stop to do.

2) Exactly the reason you stated above. We're hoping for a little less "party crowd" and a little more relaxation.

 

 

Ha ha! As I mentioned before, my very first cruise ever was on Fantasy and I managed to still love cruising after that. I'm hoping for the same with one of these ships--at least there's been refurbishment.;)

 

 

Good point! Whenever we come back to Long Beach to visit family, I always make my husband drive the whole time we're in California. I've lived in Idaho for 20 years now and I just can't take that California traffic...

 

 

I wish we could afford to take a 7 day right now, but it's just not in the cards. And we need a vacation (however small it is) ASAP. Whenever I fly out to visit family I always make a point of flying into LGB. Love that airport. I haven't flown into LAX in probably 15 years. :D

 

 

I'd be interested to hear what you thought after being on both recently and whether you preferred one over the other!

 

Again, I appreciate the input and hopefully I'll be able to make this work, one way or another. Besides, any cruise is a good cruise, right?:p

Never done the cruise out of Long Beach but I always enjoy spending the night on the Queen Mary. One of these days I hope to pair a Queen Mary hotel stay with one of the cruises out of Long Beach or San Pedro, but it's always a good time to visit the Queen Mary, whether I'm cruising or not. :)

We are about 30min away from Tampa port as well. I had read neg reviews on Paradise as well, that it was a training ship, poor service, etc. Had me concerned but after cruising it turned out to be great time. We've been on the larger ships, and if you are expecting a larger ship experience you'll be disappointed. But there is still plenty of fun to be had and not fighting the large crowds for each activity was a big plus. We'll be booking again and have talked about doing our first B2B on Paradise

 

Sent from my LG-H830 using Tapatalk

How were the pools? Were there crowds around the pools? Are there two pools on Paradise?

I haven't sailed but want to one of these days. It's always a shame but unfortunately industry-wide. I have no doubt quality has slipped since the beginning. The loss of the ocean liner restaurants is saddening, though that's less of a service complaint and more of a uniqueness factor.

Ocean Liners used to be on Constellation......but all M class ships no

longer have those original lovely restaurants. They have all been

converted to Tuscan Grille's.

If you want the same style, Murano is on all of the S class ships.

That's a shame as those restaurants were unique.

The Queens are very special even if you are not cruising in the Grills. Glad you enjoyed your cruise!

We had relatives who travelled many times on the QE2 and we were warned that Cunard had slipped in quality after being bought by Carnival (though it also wouldn't exist anymore without Carnival so it's a double-edged sword). We were still blown away by the quality and we were in Britannia. It's quite a marvelous experience. If it was that good when we went, the service must have been nearly flawless when my relatives travelled.

Our first Cunard cruise is over. We were on board the beautiful Queen Victoria for a terribly short 7 nights from Rome to Barcelona starting 22 October.

 

Via a free double upgrade and a special promo when we booked, we traveled in Queen’s Grill with gratuities and drinks (under $12) included. Oh, my goodness! We have never, in 11 cruises, seen anything close! This was a real eye-opener.

 

The dangerous part? The bank account WILL suffer. :):)

It made us realize just what we’d been missing on other lines. And prompted us to book two more Cunard cruises while on board.

 

The worst part? … Unfortunately, we now have to wait 11 months before we get to go again. ;)

 

Cheers!

I always think the same thing. We travelled in Britannia and were blown away. We hope and plan to go again. It's worth the wait.

My parents had the sheltered balcony on our QM2 crossing and we had the oceanview. The sheltered balcony is more like a mini-promenade (though you can't really do laps) because it's much more spacious than normal balcony cabins, although, I didn't really tour any regular balcony cabins so I cannot comment on anything other than the numbers of the square footage.

I realize this is a 4-year old thread. And the difference was really apparent with some of the pitching we had on this WB trip. No way would I have wanted to make this crossing on a floating condo.

 

Interestingly, about half the passengers on this sailing are first-time Cunarders. I'd like to think that QM2's pedigree and construction is a big reason why they would choose a December crossing.

Agreed! It is just a delight to sail an iconic ship like QM2.

Which Celebrity ships still have the ocean liner restaurants? Have they gotten rid of them all or just two?

We have sailed in balcony, inside and ocean view rooms and although I'd say I love the outside space of a balcony cost can be prohibitive. We did a two week med cruise on deck 1 of QV ocean view and loved it. Being able to have daylight and see where we were was fantastic (the bits of being inside that I miss). It was a light and decent sized room- just like a balcony room but without the balcony i.e. Sofa and bed.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Was it near the waterline? What a good view that must have been! :)

We had an ocean view on Deck 6 forward on the Queen Mary 2. It had a traditional 'ship' feel with a round porthole. I highly recommend it. It was a very nice cabin that we very much enjoyed. I've never sailed the Vista sisters, though I no doubt want to one day. I will be honest that I'd prefer to spend my money on QM2 as I'm partial to liners, but the QE and QV look lovely. Which ship are you looking at taking?

Does anyone know when the Valor voyages to Mexico will be listed on Carnival's website?

I would like to book 2018 or 2019 when it opens if I can, but as of now, I am just dreaming. :P

Glad to hear you enjoyed your crossing! I can't wait until I have the opportunity to cross again!

The event sponsors seem to have sold out the ship. I believe this is the first time QM2 will have been back to her birthplace. Given that her

for her sea trials just about shut down the city, it will be fascinating to see what kind of welcome she gets upon her return to St. Nazaire.

Agreed. The Cunard line's video celebrating her 10th anniversary was right: 'She's been turning heads all over the world.'

Sydney, Hamburg, New York, San Francisco, Southampton, and St. Nazaire have all discovered that over the past 12 years. :)

Just came across this, anyone fancy a high speed crossing.

 

http://thebridge2017.com/en/the-race/

 

DAVID

I fancy a high speed crossing absolutely, but I doubt we will be able to do something like that this year. :(

I have liked those cabins. They are just about the most midship cabins on the ship and do extremely well in rough weather. At the very worst you keep the drapes closed and have a regular inside cabin, but you can also open them up; even a little crack lets some light in.

 

Then again you might get lucky. I booked one for my upcoming TA and ended up with an upgrade to an obstructed balcony. Especially if you can get one as a guarantee, the only possible upgrade path is at least ocean view.

 

Roy

Midships cabins are great cabins. My parents had a sheltered balcony amidships that was wonderful. My brother and I had one of the closest ones to the bow and could feel some movement, but it was actually pleasant to hear the thrusters starting us on our voyage.

Hi

 

I've stayed in an atrium view cabin and found it fine, not too loud, to be honnest I couldn't hear anything extra compared to other cabins. I did like the window compared to other inside cabins, but only because it gave an illusion of being an outside cabin and I like the idea of a porthole in a cabin.

That's a good way of describing the atrium view. I'm not surprised that it wasn't noisy given that the atrium is fairly low key anyway.

But without the patio or the swimming pool! They do have their virtues, as Roy points out, but I don't think that the view is one of them.

I agree. I have just always been curious to try one as there is something unique about them.

That cabin and the bathroom are just gorgeous!

I have always wanted to try an atrium-view cabin. It seems like an unusual and cute idea, akin to the cabins with the private patio on the France/Norway that looked in the swimming pool.

I don't think Carnival and Cunard would be crazy enough to attempt to build a cruise ship to take a liner's place (I hope). If it isn't a true liner, then I don't know what I'll do with Cunard. I suspect that if they want to do regular crossings of the North Atlantic on a schedule, they will build a liner.

I'm not sure if the number of days should be regarded as the cutoff for whether or not it is a cruise or a crossing. I think that if it is done on a regular prompt schedule, regardless of whether it's six days or seven, that makes it as a crossing. Now when the number of days reaches 11, then we might have an argument. However the Queen Mary 2 has never done five day crossings, but only six and now seven. The ship still serves a purpose for those who can't fly or hate flying. The eight day crossings that the QM2 does with the stop in Canada every now and again are nice in that they give people from four different countries an airplane alternative. I can understand however why people are upset over the length, however. I would be thrilled to do a five day or six day crossing. I could be wrong here, but I think the seventh day is mostly a consequence of the LNG engines as opposed to those who prefer a longer crossing. LNG is expensive and it just became ridiculous. They should have just built the ship with another diesel generator, but nobody foresaw the market ten years down the road.

Thank you for the wonderful review and photos! :)

The Majestic was a different ship from the Oceanic.

 

While it is true that the Oceanic has been scrapped, the Majestic I believe is still running cruises...at least sporadically.

 

Here's a link to the history of the Majestic (originally named "Spirit of London").

 

Garnett

 

http://simplonpc.co.uk/FlamencoPCs.html

Thank you very much for the correction! I didn't realize that the Spirit of London was with Premier back in the day. How embarrassing! :D

Thank you for the link to Simplonpc. they have some great images and postcards! :P