Eli_6

I think part of the reason is that the airfare to Alaska is really high.

Who are these people getting into physical altercations??? I have never in my life seen grown adults actually get into a physical "fight."

And when I say I "like" the Havana Suite better, I meant in terms of the decor. I like the decor of the Havana rooms much better than Carnival's regular decor.

With a Grand Suite, you get in to the Havana area. Drunk rowdies won't caravan past your patio because it is blocked off from the other areas. I have stayed in the Havana area 3 times and most of the time the area was pretty much empty at night. IMO, it is 6 of 1, a half dozen of the other. I would prefer the balcony on the GS to the patio on the Havana Suite, but I think the Havana location is better because you can just walk right out to the Havana area. I also like the Havana Suite better than the Grand Suite. But, again, it is 6 of 1, a half dozen of the other.

@Globaliser Thank you for your detailed answer. I was interested in knowing about July 31 from Dover to London which it sounds like no one can possibly know at this point. We decided to fly to/fro Edinburgh so that is not a concern...unless, of course, our flight is canceled and we can't get another one. But, thus far, we have lucked out with the flights in that while British Airways has canceled about half of their flights on the days we travel, the ones that we are on have been the ones they didn't cancel.

I totally agree. Unless it is one of CCL's casino offers or one of those offers like they had back earlier this year, I think some of the other cruise lines offer more for your money if a person for "suite" money...or even full fare for a balcony. (Some of the balconies even get expensive at full fare!) We usually end up cruising carnival a lot because we live in Houston. As of right now, Galveston only has CCL and a couple of Royal's older ships. However, I do think we are supposed to get a Princess, one of the fancy Royal ships and one of the new NCL ships soon. Although, to be honest, I was not impressed with NCL the one time we sailed with her. I would LOVE it if we got an MSC, but that probably won't happen.

I want to try it as well. I seriously thought about booking it, but I didn't because we have our CCL cruise after it (and have FCC from canceled cruises) and it would have put us being in Europe for almost a month.

Because that's where they are striking! In the US, unions are often nationwide. If someone is part of a union and they strike, the workers strike in New York, Texas, California, etc. Especially because the rail system does run throughout the England and Scotland. I do not know how this works in the UK and thought it might work in the same way. If you are trying to accuse me of humble bragging, that was not my intention. I was trying to provide relevant background information for why I am asking the question. I suppose I could have said that "I am going to Fife before my cruise and I got a notice the trains are shut down", but I honestly didn't put that much thought into it because I didn't see it at as a big deal. My husband also mentioned to me last night (after I posted this) that he read an article that many of the trains were shut down from London to Edinburgh so it was a good thing we ended up deciding to fly rather than take the train. So, again, that makes me wonder if the train from Dover to London might be affected. Furthermore, the last time we were in the UK our train was shut down mid-journey and we were left in some small town where there wasn't Uber. I would like to avoid that happening again...especially since this time I will also be traveling with two small children and my luggage. However, if there is no cause for concern, I would much rather take the train than spend $500+ on cruise transfers or a private car for 4 people and our luggage.

Well, I thought if they were striking in that part of the UK, they might be striking all over the UK. In the US, unions are nationwide. I wasn't sure how it worked in the UK. Plus, I had even heard recently that there was a strike in London and many of the trains were shut down.

Before we get on our cruise in July, we are going to The Open. We got our tickets and received a warning about we couldn't take trains to/from the course and would have to either ride a bike or do a park-and-ride because there was a train strike. However, obviously Fife is a long way from London. We were wanting to take the train back on Sunday after our UK cruise from Dover to London and then take the tube to LHR. Wondering it this is even a possibility now.

FWIW, I changed a person in a cabin before and was charged something like $199...but it was also only DAYS before the cruise...and it was a fully-booked Christmas cruise.

I think you are just going to have to call Carnival and ask regarding if there will be a fee for a name change or if there will have to be an entirely new booking.

I was on The Splendor recently and it is an older ship and it was in great shape! I didn't notice anything like the photos.

Don't drink too much the first day...especially if you are out of Galveston and having to pay for the drinks.

For those of you who have already sailed, how was check in?

Oh really? Interesting. I was under the impression that you could only use your 100 shares once on a cruise for the OBC. Granted, you are probably right in that they don't track that very well. At any rate, I already own over 200 shares now so it doesn't really matter for my purposes as I am not selling them while the market is low anyway...but it may for others, I guess. You are probably correct in that I highly doubt that they track that very closely.

The problem is that some of us not on casino offers or who booked these cruises a long time ago are still paying the full fares. I don't expect much if I get a free or almost free cruise. If the cruise is costing me 10k, I expect more. And, yes, our cruise was nearly that much because we have a vista suite and an adjoining balcony. Granted, to have a suite and adjoining balcony on Royal, it would be at least 12k-15k and on Disney, Celebrity, etc. it would be 20k or more. So, perhaps, maybe the sentiment still holds true... With that said, I recently priced a cruise out of Barcelona for a 2 story family duplex on MSC and it was only 8k so maybe I need to look into MSC...and the room was absolutely INCREDIBLE and I think was even in the Yacht club.

Oh man. I am sooo jealous. I think we paid about 8k-10k for an aft balcony and vista suite. Although, I think that particular super cheap cruise is after school starts so would not have helped us anyway. I have not seen any super good deals on the "summer" Europe cruises.

For those of you on the Pride, how is check in going? What is the earliest check in appointment time? Is it super busy at that time? When I checked in, the earliest I could get was 11 am check in. (Although, I have a suite so I thought that suites could go any time, but I guess they still make you pick a time.) I had made my taxi appointment (and paid for it already) for 9:50 am thinking that check in started at 10 am. I am now having some difficulty trying to change it as I can't get anyone at the taxi office and there isn't any way to change it online. Frankly, if it was up to me, I would just as soon sleep in and go at 11 if I can change my taxi time and it isn't "crazy" by 11 am. The reason I ask, is that we went a little later for a Seattle cruise (i.e. got there right before the second check in time) and it was a pretty long line already. It took us way longer to get on then it has in past cruises when we had A1 or priority boarding group.

Only 100 shares are needed for 1 room for the OBC. I have to own at least 200 shares because I typically get 2 rooms when I travel with my young children and, therefore, I need 200 shares to get OBC for both rooms. I book my husband in one room with one kid and myself and another kid in the other room so we can get two on board credits.

I just checked in for my July 22 cruise. I have a suite and an adjoining balcony. The suites have early check in but the balcony does not. However, I was able to check us all in early with the suites since the rooms were booked together. In the past, I have not been able to do this and we got different appointment times. I am not sure if this is something "new" that carnival has done or if previously my rooms weren't somehow joined in the system, but I was glad to see this is now the case. I thought I would advise anyone under the same circumstances with either a suite or Platinum/Diamond that when you have two rooms like this all on the same booking or the bookings are joined that you can apparently check them all in early now even if one is not suite/plat/diamond.

I bought some a few weeks ago (but within about the past month or two) and I think they expire in October.

Well, my options for a direct flight are British Airways or United and I have had far worse experiences on United.

FWIW, my flight from LHR to IAH has been canceled twice already and I am a month out from it... My sister-in-law recently spent 5 days in DFW airport with 3 kids aged 8 and under. They would give her a hotel for the night but then she had to repack, check out and go back to the airport each day to "wait to see" if she would get a flight out. She was by herself with the three kids. The youngest is still a toddler and a complete handful. She was flying from San Antonio to DFW to Colombia. I would have rented a car and driven back to San Antonio after 2-3 days of that nonsense.

The people who have businesses and/or have to get back to work?