Bowman1

The cold fruit soups in the MDR are the best - specifically strawberry bisque, peach cream and sour cherry

The featured Indian Vegetarian in the MDR is also usually very good

Not sure about California, but in Florida where I live, the Winter Cruise Season runs from Oct to April and the Summer season is May to Sep

While some ships are based year round in Florida, most lines will move ships from Europe to FL in the Fall and back to Europe in the Spring

I would bet the West Coast is similar since ships go trans-Pacific to Asia

On 1/20/2020 at 10:16 PM, mpdog42 said:

Grenada!!!!😁

This is my favorite too - sailed there on the Inspiration in 1998.  I did a quick search and Fascination will begin calling on Grenada in May ‘21 (only 7 sailings though)

i also love Curaçao and Aruba, though I wish Carnival would mix-up the 8 day Southern Caribbean route out of Florida - since 2016, it has pretty much been some variation of the A, B, C islands and Grand Turk

Interestingly, John Heald has a poll on Country Music today

4 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

Ship food experience with the exception of ports of call is always the same on Carnival ships.  Ports are

different as are the beaches (not as nice as Caribbean imho).  That said, wonderful cruise. 

Thank you for the feedback - I am guessing that you mean the port of call section of the MDR menu

We just got off Paradise this past week - Leon Smith was a fabulous CD and the rest of the staff was very engaging.  Cam Chavis is CD on Ecstacy and just signed on the ship Jan 18.  We have never sailed with him.
 

We live in Tampa and we have sailed multiple times from Tampa Bay.  The port is always a bit of a mess to get in and out of, so if ease of embarkation/debarkation is one of your deciding factors, I would sail the Ecstacy 

We have sailed Carnival 11 times - all in the Caribbean and all but one departing from our home state of Florida

We will be sailing the Panorama in March and we are so excited

Other than ports of call and embarkation/debarkation, are there any noticeable differences for Carnival sailings that depart from California?

Specifically, I am wondering about menus in the MDR/Lido, on-board activities, ship's atmosphere and overall cruise experience 

On 1/22/2020 at 5:12 PM, PekingeseLady said:

Emma was our CD on the Panorama, and she was amazing, very visible and always happy and glowing.

This is great to hear - we are sailing Panorama March 14 and we are sssoooo excited for the combination of Emma Nixon and Brittany Boyd

On 1/23/2020 at 12:31 PM, linbobky said:

we have been on 23 carnival cruises and over all carnival has the best cds. also been on 10 ncl cruises. the cds on ncl are really bad.

I agree 100% - the Carnival CDs are one of the prime reasons we consistently sail with Carnival over the other lines that we have tried (RCCL, NCL and HAL)

We participate in a lot of the activities (trivia, comedy, deck parties, playlist shows, atrium after shows, Hasboro, Clue, Trivial Pursuit, etc), so the Fun Squad and CD have a big impact on our cruise experience 

Our favorites from the current CDs are Mike Pack, Leon and Donkey

We are luke warm on Frankie Portera (though to be fair, we sailed with him just as he was shifting off the Miracle for vacation)

We were in 2441 on Breeze in Mar ‘19 - there was a bit of noise through the night, but nothing that kept us up

We enjoyed the cabin since it was the last cove balcony on the starboard side (limited spray and great vantage for heckling pier runners😂)

Watermelon martinis in the steak house are one of my favorite drinks on Carnival Ships

It is especially fun to go to the steak house bar, get a drink and then go to dinner in the MDR (nobody is ever at the bar and most do not know that you can sit at the bar without a steak house reservation)

51 minutes ago, Jerseygirl1416 said:

If you want to use the offer on both cards each card has to have separate on line access accounts and like Xdisconnections said you have to first load the offer to the card you are going to make the charge on and then make the charge on that card.

Thank you - I kind of figured that after the fact, but was not 100% sure

The good thing is that I have a final payoff for the Panorama coming up, so I should be able to get the credit (I also have now added the offer to my wife’s card separately) 

My wife and I have two separate card numbers linked to the same account (I am the account owner)

i added the offer to my card, but charged the $500 to hers - we did not get the credit 

Has anyone else had this happen?

On 12/11/2019 at 7:37 PM, coevan said:

We told our server on the first night, we will decide on dessert when we are done with dinner, never asked us again. Why would you order dessert if you were full and wouldn't eat it anyway. Kind of like the steward trying to push you into once a day cleaning, no thanks. 

We were asked to order dessert with our entree on Liberty in Nov - I did not think to do anything different 

We are sailing Paradise in Jan and I will let the server know that we prefer to wait

For me, it is not about being full, I just enjoy looking at a separate dessert menu after my main meal

If for some reason, Carnival starts insisting that all desserts be ordered with the entree, it will not bother me in the least (this is such a minor nuance and there is so much that I love about changes that Carnival has implemented in the past few years)

Best sign in Nassau

Breeze in Amber Cove

The Taste Bar was phased out on all ships in early 2018

Some ships (like the Breeze as of Mar 2019) use the space to serve a continental breakfast in the morning and light lunch (soup, salad and sandwiches) in the afternoon 

it it is too bad - I really liked the Taste Bar for a pre-dinner snack

11 hours ago, katstoy said:

Oooh, I wonder if they'll make me one with pineapple and pepperoni?  Maybe I can rustle up some jalapenos from Blue Iguana and have them make the best pizza of all: pineapple, pepperoni and jalapeno !  Pass me a cold Corona while you're at it

We were on Breeze in March and as long as the pizza place was not busy, they would make pizzas with toppings that we brought to them - you have to take the whole pizza

My daughter has always liked pineapple on pizza, so we would get some from the lido buffet and bring it to the pizza chefs

We have done this on The Vista and Miracle as well

Just got off Liberty from a 3 day on Nov 18 - while there were plenty of people drinking and having a good time (there always are on any length of Carnival Cruise), there were also families with younger children on board

The biggest difference between 3 days and a 7 day cruise that we noticed is that all the family activities are truncated, so that the cruise staff can fit everything in (Suessapaloosa, trivia, trivial pursuit, hasboro, Seuss breakfast, etc)

For instance, during Seuss Story Time, the cruise staff acted out Horton Hears a Who,  rather then bringing up kids to participate 

During Trivial Pursuit, every team answered all questions, rather then each time answering individually 

We have used the Hub App with chat function on the Sunshine, Valor, Vista, Miracle and Breeze.  It is absolutely worth the $5 per person.

As noted above, the Vista has the best throughput, since the ship’s WiFi was designed with the Hub App in mind

it worked perfectly fine on the other ships as well (a few dead spots, but nothing to complain about)

Carnival’s Hub App is the best that we have seen on any of the major cruise lines

On 10/27/2019 at 3:49 PM, Sif said:

I saw that they also make non-alcoholic mixed drinks at the Alchemy Bar. Has anyone tried one?

My kids always use their VIFP Gold drink at the Alchemy Bar

They make some very tasty non-alcohol drinks

We were on the Vista in Mar 2017 and went to the Havana Pool twice around 9 PM - it was quite dead (most of the pools are at night)

We have a Family Harbor room for the Panorama in Mar 2020 - I am a little disappointed that the Havana area will be closed off, but I certainly understand why

My daughter is only 10, so it will be another 2 years before we can book a Havana Room

We have been on 19 cruises across 7 lines (including 9 on Carnival)

We are sailing the Liberty in November and that will be our first repeat ship - we like variety 

Thank you

On 8/2/2019 at 8:34 AM, AmBear said:

Our opinion

1 Vista class

2 Dream class

3 Conquest class

4 Fantasy class

5 Spirit class

I would put Dream Class 1 and Vista 2

The Sunshine for me is 3 - I agree that Spirit is last (sailed the Miracle is Dec and just did not like the layout compared to the other ships)