tidecat

Nine years before Pitbull, Norwegian's Pride of America was christened by Senator Daniel K. Inouye, although he was not referred to as the ship's godfather, but as the ship's sponsor. Radio host Elvis Duran christened Norwegian Bliss. Margaritaville at Sea Paradise, originally the Costa Classica, was christened by former NFL player Shaquem Griffin when Bahamas Paradise became Margaritaville at Sea.

I'm wondering if Carnival should move Firenze to Seattle during the summer, and either let Luminosa sail out of Long Beach during the summer, or even let Spirit stay in Mobile year-round and keep alternating Luminosa between Brisbane and Seattle. Given what some of the Luminosa Alaska cruises are going for, that might make for better revenue yield overall.

We should get an earnings update soon, so we may get some clarity on whether or not there will be any 2027 orders. I'm still inclined to think no ships will be delivered before 2028. Carnival Sunshine will be the oldest ship in the company (not just Carnival Cruise Line), with Pacific Explorer (P&O Australia) close behind. I think Carnival gets a 1:1 replacement, while Costa Fortuna gets sent to P&O Australia and Costa gets the other 2028 newbuild. I think we'll see more ships pushed out towards the 32-33 year range. There needs to be some way to space out the replacements for all of the ships built between 1998-2010.

Street Eats is the collective name for Time Fries (not Timeless Fries); Mad Sizzle, which serves items like kebab and satay; and Steam Dream, which serves items like pot stickers, dumplings, bao buns, and wontons.

I finally got this offer for my debit card. Still haven't seen it for my Chase Freedom credit card. The wild part is I used this on a cruise I booked during Carnival's 50th anniversary sale. Between this and the AARP gift cards-which hopefully I can stack with 5% cash back on PayPal later on in the year-I should be able to save over $100 on a $632 cruise.

Venezia took on provisions at Ponta Delgada before beginning the transatlantic portion of the voyage.

The entire nation of The Bahamas actually is under Level 2 - the reports are typically only issued country-by-country, although the advisory specifically calls out Nassau and Freeport. France, Belize, Honduras, and The United Kingdom also have had Level 2 advisories. Mexico is one of the few with a detailed breakdown - the state where Mazatlan (Sinaloa) is located is Level 4 (Do Not Travel); Puerto Vallarta (Jalisco) and Ensenada (Baja California) are Level 3; and Cabo (Baja California Sur), Costa Maya (Quintana Roo) and Cozumel (Quintana Roo) are Level 2. Progreso (Yucatan) is Level 1 (use normal precaution) As a comparison, Mexico has a whole average 26.6 homicides in 2021. In 2021, Mobile, Alabama averaged 27.27 homicides per 100,000. There are some places in the world that are truly unsafe, maybe the State Department should start issuing advisories about the ones in the US.

The waterline is actually around Deck A - Deck 0 has to be above the waterline to support tendering operations.

Crew Bar is on Deck 3 forward if I remember correctly. From there you can access the bow.

Waves likely came in over the bow (Deck 3) and/or in the mooring area (aft of the ship, I believe on Deck 1). This would explain why areas like the Crew Bar (3 Forward) were flooded. If you've done Behind the Fun on Sunshine, you've visited the Crew Bar. I'm at a loss as to why Deck 4 would have any flooding, unless if the motion of the storm caused a pipe to burst, or if there was one or more very leaky windows. It may have been easier to evacuate the crew from Deck 4

Unless if Carnival quietly added those since February, there are not stairs going from the Baja shelf (the part with shallow water around the pool itself) to any pool on Mardi Gras. Every pool on Mardi Gras has steps between the deck and the Baja shelf. None of them have a staircase headed into the pool itself. Venezia is the only ship in the Carnival fleet that currently has that. Firenze will be the second when she begins her Carnival career in 2024. If you scroll down to "The Patio Aft Pool" in this article from Cruise Radio, you can see photos of the pool that show stairs going from the deck to the Baja shelf, but ladders from the Baja shelf to the pool: Carnival's Mardi Gras: Exploring Summer Landing (cruiseradio.net) This isn't the greatest photo of Venezia's pool area, but in this you can see two sets of stairs headed into the pool on the end opposite the fountain (and underneath two more sets of stairs that connect the deck above): DSC05974b-1280x853.jpg (1280×853) (shipsatsea.de)

Their are stairs from the deck to the Baja shelf on Mardi Gras but there is a deeper pool within the Baja shelf that just has a ladder. Venezia has stairs from the Baja shelf to the pool itself.

Luminosa isn't part of the "Costa by Canival" project. This was Carnival adding a ship from one of its sister brands.

As satisfying a successful launch of Venezia may be, remember that any cost associated with remodeling the ship, along with all of the unsold tickets in Europe while Venezia was deployed there, is ultimately the cost of exiting China. A Vista-class ship runs about $750 million. I have not seen a dollar amount quoted on the drydock, but given the length I think it would probably was at least $20 million. Whatever those costs are, ultimately they get doubled when you tack on Firenze in addition to Venezia. If you assume that Costa Magica and Costa Serena would not have been laid up as long as they were had Venezia and Firenze not been built, with a cost at least $1 million per month per ship, entering the Chinese market was ultimately a $1.6 billion mistake. It will take 10-15 years of Carnival Fun Italian StyleTM to make that back, assuming Carnival averages $230 in profit per passenger, which was the company average across all brands for fiscal year 2019.

I'm not really sure why the article chose 2029 as the reference point. Carnival (Corporation) hasn't even finalized what they intend to order for 2027. Royal will probably still have a sizable lead over Carnival Cruise Line, but I doubt it will be 1.1 milliona1 passengers.

Is it possible to use a gift card to make the initial deposit on a cruise? It looks like I have to book a cruise first using a different payment method and then load them to my princess.com account.

It looks like Venezia will not be sailing from New York year round: https://cruiseradio.net/carnival-venezia-port-canaveral-2024-2025/

You actually don't need to purchase a Internet package to use the chat feature in the Hub app.

As long as you stay only one hour behind the local time in port, the more likely you will NOT change.

Yes, they are all part of the Excellence class. Jubilee has a few more staterooms than Celebration, which has a few more than Mardi Gras, but aside from that, and the differences in venues, they are the same ship.

I suspect Spirit will wind up having the work done in Spain like Pride is having done now. Pride is getting five additional cabins where the first floor of the nightclub is now, I would not be surprised if that is Spirit's fate as well.

If Mobile goes back to year-round service, someone else has to take a cut. Carnival Corporation isn't taking delivery new ships beyond what was already on order until at least 2027, if not 2028. The best shot at year-round service prior to 2028 would be for Luminosa to move to spend winters in Miami instead of Brisbane, and then for Conquest or Sunrise to take Luminosa's place Down Under. The other alternative would be to consolidate the Tuesday and Thursday departures out of Seattle onto a single, larger ship like Firenze, which would free up Luminosa and Spirit for year-round service in Brisbane and Mobile. Carnival Corporation could fill the berth in Seattle with a Princess or Holland America ship if it so chose.

It looks like nothing for February 2025 - I would suspect this will be when Spirit goes to drydock, as her last was in August 2021.

No February 2025 cruises, even though there are both January and March 2025 itineraries - it looks like some drydock time for Spirit.

Either Venezia gets sent back to Costa when she is due for drydock again around 2028, or Carnival makes the conversion permanent and gives her a new funnel.