Eli_6

I would gladly switch if they cruised from Galveston...

Totally agree on it shouldn't just be based on days you cruise. I think some of the other lines give you 1.5 days or points for suites. Instead of changing the points, I would suggest do something beyond diamond...like you can become double diamond once you get to 400 days or triple diamond at 600 days. Maybe for each additional level, you could get extra OBC. I like the idea of once you go diamond, you should get free upgrades on rooms if they remain unsold once you are on board. Also, I wish they would give more drink rewards or free wifi.

The laundry is not a minor thing if you have a family of 4 and are cruising abroad.

The Texas Medical Center is the largest medical center/complex of hospitals in the world so it attracts a lot of international healthcare workers. We also have a lot of energy sector and tech companies headquartered here. I mean...three of the top seven most populous cities in the U.S. are in Texas. Our GDP is second only to California. I feel like the stereotype of Texans being obnoxious, backwards, unsophisticated, or "loud" is a stereotype from another era. People move here from all over because of jobs, the cost of living is reasonable, taxes are low, and our winters are mild. Middle income families can actually afford to own a home here...unlike in many other places in the US. So, the people who board the ship in Galveston really aren't going to be any different from anywhere else in the US. Any complaints against Galveston cruisers can probably be levied at American cruisers in general. Generally speaking, I don't think most people (regardless of their country of origin) pick cruise vacations in order to "immerse" themselves in the culture of the country or countries they are visiting. The stops in a given port are relatively brief so no one is going to be able to truly "experience" the culture and cuisine. If you want to do that, you need to take a land-based vacation and spend weeks or months in a given country. Unfortunately, due to the small amount of time most Americans get off from their jobs for vacation, most can't spend weeks at a time in another country. Also, with respect to Mexico, I suspect the reason some American cruisers choose chain restaurants over local ones is because of a fear of Montezuma's revenge. I grew up part of my childhood in Laredo/Nuevo Laredo so I am unaffected, but I once went to Mexico with a group of high school friends when we were all about 18-20. Everyone on the trip but me had issues after drinking frozen margaritas (the ice) from a "local" restaurant. I suspect the tourist areas have since improved their water lines in the 20+ years since this happened, but it is still a cautionary tale that I would guess most Americans are aware of.

Also, let me add that there are more people of Hispanic background in Texas than there are "Anglo" people: https://www.statista.com/statistics/306044/texas-population-ethnicity-race/. Texas was, in fact, a state in "New Spain" and, later, Mexico for longer than it has been a state in the U.S. I don't think Texans are going to shy away from cruising MSC because they view it as not "American" enough. Frankly, I have never even heard the trope that Texans like Starbucks and Hooters and only eat at chain eateries. That's a completely new one to me! Heck, the most "popular" restaurants where I live are Mexican food restaurants, Seafood Restaurants, and Steakhouses...and I would bet MSC serves at least the later two. The only "trope" that I think probably is true is that a lot of us who cruise out of Galveston do so because we prefer to drive to the port rather than fly. IAH and DFW are both really busy international airports. The last several times I have flown into or out of IAH, it has been not much fun (especially with construction around the airport) and not worth messing with unless you are flying a distance that is too far to reasonably drive. And that's not because we "love our big trucks" but because it simply isn't fun to deal with flight delays/cancellations or lost luggage when you are supposed to be on vacation.

As an aside, the assumptions on that other thread were that us Texans are basically all a bunch of uncultured, "loud" morons who only like chain restaurants like "Hooters" and shirk from experiencing any other culture...and specifically used the example of Mexico! That's just so wrong it is laughable. How many times have most lifelong Texans been to Mexico? Texas was part of Spain (and, later, Mexico) for longer than it has been a U.S. state. The Hispanic roots of Texas are evident and a large percentage of Texans are of Mexican or Tejano descent. I was a teenager before I went to Louisiana and in my 20s before I made it to Oklahoma or New Mexico...but I had been to Mexico by the time I was 4 and probably went two or three dozen times over the next two decades. No lifelong Texan is "shocked" by anything in a Mexican cruise port. If we are bitching about it, it is probably because we are have been there sooo many times we are sick of going to the same darn place and not because we are offended by it or "shocked" by the Mexican culture.

Your statements include a lot of misperceptions about Texans. I am a lifelong Texan and have traveled all over the world. I went to grad school in the United Kingdom even. Further, the city I live in (Houston--which happens to be closest to Galveston) is the most culturally, ethnically, AND religiously diverse city in the entire United States. We are also the second fastest growing city in the US. In fact: 24 percent of Houstonians are foreign born. In my son's class this year, he got new students who moved here from Italy, England, Canada, Trinidad, and South Africa....in addition to a slew of Californians.

If any of them actually came to Texas, they might not want to leave. Seems like that has what happened with Californians. Having traveled extensively in Europe and having gone to grad school in the UK, generally speaking our standard of living is better here than in much of Europe. There are a few places in Scotland I might prefer to Texas in the summer time, but in the winter I expect I would change my mind...

Oh, okay. I see what you are talking about. I was just talking about for priority since that is who the OP was asking about.

I think this may depend on who the cruise director is and how they decide to call debarkation because I can assure you that I have been on a sailing where I had priority zone 1 (for a suite) and all of the self-debark people were called before we were allowed to debark. I remember it clearly because it greatly annoyed me since I had paid extra for a suite and it made us run late for our flight because they let ALLLLLL the people who were in self-debark off (which was pretty much 2/3 of the ship) before we got to go...and then I got yelled at in line by one of the port people for being on the phone because I was trying to call our airline to see what would happen if we missed the flight. We made our flight, but it was by the skin of our teeth.

Wow! That is a good price!

I have heard really good things about the Yacht Club. It is in line with the Havana area and (in my experience) less than NCL's Haven. I recently priced a Haven room on the Prima out of Galveston and it was over 9k for 2 people...and it wasn't even a holiday week or anything. Hard pass on that.

I don't think you understand what I am saying. Maybe I am not wording it correctly. If you "carry off" your luggage and have priority, you go to the priority waiting area and debark first before everyone else. That is how I have personally gotten off the ship in my last several cruises. It has been that way for me every time we have been in a suite or had FTTF. If you do NOT carry off and put your luggage out the night before, they call you by zone AFTER the "carry off" people debark. Priority in that case is usually zone 1 or 2. They also usually have you meet somewhere and then let you go as soon as all the self debark people go. I have done it this way with priority debark before, too. Unfortunately, you get off much later that way.

The increase in the cost of groceries, gas, cars, and housing is hurting the people who might otherwise use their discretionary income to cruise with carnival and no longer have discretionary income. When property values go up, taxes go up and rent goes up for those people who don't own. Maybe the people who make 100k+ are still ok, but the people who make 25k-50k are being hurt by the aforementioned because those items are a much greater percentage of their household income.

Those of you who think the economy is doing so great are fooling yourselves. Just because you aren't PERSONALLY seeing it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Your own personal experiences are not reflective of the national and international economies that affect CCL and CUK and their pricing. See: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/household-wealth-suffers-biggest-loss-since-2008 https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/27/stock-market-losses-wipe-out-9-trillion-from-americans-wealth-.html https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/recession-threat-stock-market-crash-bank-of-america-2023-outlook-2022-11?op=1 https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/recession-outlook-2023-q1-forecast-inflation-stock-market-recommendations-bofa-2022-12?op=1

If you carry off your luggage you can. If you have them take your luggage down, you have to wait until after the carry off people go.

Good idea. I didn't realize any of the fares had refundable deposits...

Houston is one of the fastest growing cities in the US...and Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, and San Antonio are not far behind. All cities are within a 5 hours drive from Galveston. I don't know exactly how many people live in the metro area of those 4 cities combine, but 30 million people live in Texas and I would say probably 2/3 to 3/4 of the population of the state lives within a 5 hours drive of Galveston. I live in Northern Houston and I can be at the Galveston cruise terminal in under 90 minutes in traffic. Flying is a nightmare and we like to take long weekend cruises out of Galveston. We would love the chance to do the Yacht club since Carnival is now moving her only ship with a decent Havana area to another port.

I would LOVE this! I hope it happens.

I bought more Carnival. I am 42. I have a long way off to retirement to ride this out. Also bought Amazon and TSLA. I sold a bunch of TLSA when it was at $1100-1200 (before the split) and then sold some more (after the split) at $310. Since it is down to $150 now, I am buying up some more to replace what I previously sold and maybe get some more. TSLA is the lowest it has been since Covid...I am sure, in part, to Elon Musk and his ridiculous antics. Fortunately, I sold all my Twitter a long time ago before Elon took over.

"Just in case" my May 28th pride sailing cancels, I have been putting the cabins I want on on the Venezia on a 48 hours hold every couple of days. (I don't want to risk the $800 deposit to deposit them.) I asked my TA to do the free hold once, but I feel bad doing it over and over again. Problem is, the inside room I want that is across the hall from the Vista balcony I want, doesn't show up on the Carnival website because the website just shows the first ten or so inside rooms available on that deck in the aft...and there are more than 10 cabins available. So, I can't put it on hold on my own. Is there anyway to get the other inside cabins to show up on the website?

Anyone else who wrote to carnival to ask about the May 28th sailing (or other sailings no longer on the website) hear anything back? I have NOT. I emailed guest services and asked on John's page. No response.

That seems ridiculous. I thought this was going to be for a balcony for 4 people. I booked a 4 day, 4 person balcony for a holiday weekend for 1600 and thought I was being screwed. I only booked it because it will require my children to miss zero school and my husband to only miss 1 day of work so that by itself is worth a lot.

😂🤣

All my cruises have been good since the restart except for my Pride Europe sailing--and it was the one I paid the most for! The financial channels are predicting we will go into a recession towards the first of this upcoming year and today stocks were down significantly and have been for the last three days...some of them (like tech) the lowest they have been since Covid shut downs. One of the first things people are going to cut in a recession is discretionary spending on vacations. Increasing the prices is not going to help the majority of carnival's clientele (who are likely the middle class or even lower middle class) cruise more frequently during a recession.