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Check to see if your county health dept. provides Covid testing. We sail this Sunday and went yesterday (Fri) to our public health dept's special location which is open every day and the test was done drive-through, was free and we had our results emailed to us in 15 minutes. No appt. needed. We live in FL and these facilities are all over FL,  but maybe your state has them also.

Also, some acquaintances have gotten theirs done for cruises at local urgent care facilities and received rapid results, too. You need to call ahead as some only do Covid testing if you have symptoms. Others tried CVS but their appts. kept getting cancelled so they tried these alternatives.

Good luck.

We sail on Sunday and are fully vaccinated. Had our rapid antigen test this morning with the results emailed to us in 15 minutes. Printed out the results and we are ready to sail. There is a local site open 8am-6pm  every day sponsored by our local county health dept. and it was free. I was leary of CVS since I read so many people were having their appts. cancelled. Other states may have similar set ups with the health depts. if people are looking for alternatives to CVS.

If you have sensitive skin I would be wary to try it. I purchased a number of Elemis facial items and had to throw them out because they gave me bumps on my face and red, scaly splotches. Elemis facial products get good reviews, but I thought I would just mention this in case you have sensitive skin - I usually don't have a problem with various skin products so using Elemis was a surprise that it affected me so badly.

Thanks for posting the menus - now I'm starved. I noticed some past favorites and many new items. The Seafood Tower looks interesting.

We love the Cuchina and book it at least twice on our cruises. I disagree that the food tastes "weird" or "funny". It's so much better than a chain like Olive Garden that has really bland food. Oh well, food is always very subjective to personal tastes.

Thank you so much OP for your comments, photos, and explanations! DH and I will be sailing on the Rotterdam for an 11-day S. Caribbean cruise on Dec. 1st. Can't wait!! Enjoy the rest of your cruise.

Guarantees seem to be what always comes up when booking and I don't do Guarantees unless absolutely necessary. When I select Change Cabin the different decks appear and you can select a deck and an available cabin. Also gives you the updated costs, usually more than the Guarantees. I then select the deck and available cabin I want and complete the booking.

We did the Panama Canal on Holland America and had a suite with a balcony on the 7th deck starboard. It was a great view and definitely high enough. The ship was the Zuiderdam and the ship is 936 feet long, 82,000 tons, with 11 decks and 1964 passengers if you want to compare the size to the Carnival ship you are interested in. Just a suggestion. We haven't done the Canal on a Carnival ship.

Our HAL PCC is usually pretty good, but sometimes I never receive answers to my email questions. I don't know if she thinks they aren't important enough or what. I'd like to think she is a bit overwhelmed with everything and tries to prioritize the questions she receives. Mine have been more informational questions than something she needs to do right away.

Thanks for posting - she looks magnificent! We are booked for Dec., Feb., and April. Can't wait!

DH and I are 72 and 71 and sail on Carnival all the time. We avoid spring breaks,  plus summers and holidays when we know there will be a lot of kids.  There are party people on Carnival for sure, but more so on the 4-5 day cruises.

We also cruise a lot on Holland America, my preferred cruise line as it does have a different demographic from Carnival. The ships are more elegant and the food is much better. We sail on Carnival because we live close to Tampa (40 minutes) and Port Canaveral (90 minutes) and it's just more convenient than HAL's closest port which is Port Everglades (aboout 3 hours away).

Great to hear the testing went so well. We are booked on a Carnival cruise for late Oct. and a recent message from Carnival regarding our cruise said they now have a 2-day window for negative Covid tests for vaccinated passengers instead of 3. They will be setting up mobile testing sites at the cruise terminals to test the day before and day of embarkation. Hope it set up in Port Canaveral by the time our cruise sails. We will still try to get tested before we leave for the Port (we live less than 2 hours away), but hopefully there will be the option of getting tested at the terminal.

How much did you have to pay for NCL test?

On the Magic in August the cigarette brand choice was extremely limited (Winston, Marlboro, Parliament) and didn't include the Benson Hedges I used to get on Carnival 😞 I didn't buy any cartons. DH thought the liquor selection wasn't what it used to be either.

Friends of ours just had their 5-day Paradise (Tampa) early November cruise cancelled. They are so disappointed as it was to be their first cruise back since Covid. I don't know if it was a Tampa port issue or not. DH and I are booked on the Pride out of Tampa for Jan. 16th.

Our first cruise since Covid was a 4-day on the Magic out of Port Canaveral in August and it was great. Booked it again for Oct. 31st for a 6-day.

Just recently on the Magic this month and had both OBC and casino Fun Play. Both showed up, along with Charge to Room and Bank, when I wanted to put money on the slot machine, so I could choose which one I wanted. When OBC was used up it would disappear. When both OBC and Fun Play were used up just Charge to Room and Bank showed on the screens. So, not true that OBC was drawn down first.

Before we got passports in 2008, I always brought my marriage certificate with me as my birth certificate, obviously, has my maiden name. I also do not use my maiden name as my middle name, I use my actual middle name. I also believe that a marriage certificate is what you can use, not a marriage license. It is so much easier since then to have passports. I realize the wait times now to get them is a really long time, but if you have time get yours.

We have 3 Pride cruises booked, but not until Jan., Nov/Dec. B2B. Have sailed on her several times and like the ship a lot. We live about 40 minutes from the Port of Tampa and enjoy that convenience. Just wish it had the Cuchina del Capitano specialty restaurant - got hooked on it on our Magic cruise on Aug. 12th. Ate dinner there twice and loved it. We don't do the Steakhouse anymore, but instead order the Steakhouse selections in the MDR.

DH and I were also on the Aug. 12th Magic cruise. We had dinner at the Cuchina del Capitano the first night and it was not at all free. Was it open for lunch on embarkation day and then it was free? Would highly recommend the Cuchina - we ate dinner there twice and it was fabulous.

Intercruises, the ground crews at the Port of Tampa, said last month they were going to start up at the Port of Tampa in August or September 2021. DH worked part-time for Intercruises until the 2020 cruise pause and he received an email last month asking if he wanted to return to work. He declined since we have 8 cruises booked from now until Dec. 2022.

Arizonatoflorida, I called our Polk County Health Dept. and someone there printed out our vaccination records from the Florida Shots database and emailed them to me, which I then printed out and brought with me to the cruise. Carnival protocols stated that what they will accept are the original CDC cards, copies from personal physician records, copies from the state vaccination records (which we had). I forgot to mention that the reason I called the county health dept. in the first place was because we discovered our second Moderna shot was not listed in the FL Shots database. Then we discovered that DH had not used his real name on his CDC card. The protocols also say that passengers should bring contact information (name, phone number, email) of the vaccination records holder and in our case, the county health dept. staff. I had that with me, also.

Over the years I have had a number of Royal Flushes on video poker for $1,000 or more. I have also won slot jackpots, including $1,500 on a slot on the Veendam last year and $1,360 I won last week on a Carnival cruise. There were a number of jackpot winners announced last week on that cruise, highest I heard was $5,000. Mostly, I win $100-400 on many slot bonus rounds, but not jackpots. And no, I do not play the maximum amount. I play in ship casinos most of the time they are open - that's how I receive such great casino cruise rates and casino cash/Fun Play.

We discovered that my husband put his shortened name (like Bill not William, not his name) on his CDC card. We just returned from a Carnival cruise and a few weeks before that I was concerned because the Carnival protocols said the name on the CDC card had to match exactly the name on the cruise booking. I contacted our county health dept. who had provided our 2 Moderna vaccinations in January and they printed out and sent me our Florida State Health Dept. Shots database vaccination records. They had his correct full first name as it appeared on the Carnival booking.

I brought our CDC cards and the FL Shots database vaccination records with  me to embarkation last week. The  person doing check in looked at both CDC cards and didn't mention his names were different. So, I was ready to prove his full name was on the official state database, but ended up not having to do it.

However, with 7 more Holland America and Carnival cruises booked over the next 16 months, you can be sure I will be ready with both the CDC cards and the FL Shots database records just in case the check in people scrutinize the CDC cards more carefully.

Just got back from a $100 per person for balcony on the Magic (4 days), $200 in casino Fun Play, $200 onboard credit, and free drinks for me in casino. Just really paid for the port charges, taxes, fees plus I won a $1,360 jackpot on a slot. Got back yesterday and booked another $100 per person for balcony on the Magic (6 days) for late Oct. with same Fun Play, OBC, and free drinks. For some reason the 6 day is about $50 cheaper than the 4 day. Love those casino offers - that's all we have taken for years.

DH and I were also on this Magic cruise and we felt very safe. I would agree with what the OP said about the cruise.

We do not have a cell phone, but the Fun Times were printed out every day and in racks in various places around the ship. We ate two nights in the Cuchina del Capitano (would highly recommend it) and were given menus to look at. We never made it to the MDR as we had large late lunches those two days and weren't hungry at dinner time, but I assume paper menus were given to those without cell phones.

The buffets were normal. I spent most of my time in the casino when it was open and lots of jackpots announced. I also won a $1,360 jackpot on a Buffalo slot! There was a walkway that divided the casino into two places - one side was smoking and the other was non-smoking. Also a smoke-free casino on Deck 4, but I didn't go there. DH said it had slots and table games.

Had to choose between morning or evening cabin cleaning and we chose morning. Cabin steward was great and had our cabin cleaned by mid-morning.

This was our 56th cruise overall and 40th on Carnival, first time on the Magic. Liked it so well we booked a 6-day Magic cruise for late Oct. Also loved our balcony cabin on Deck 10 (Lido Deck) and booked another one for the next Magic cruise.

Our only negative was that as Platinums we couldn't get into our cabin right away upon boarding. We decided not to bring any carry on luggage so we wouldn't have to lug it around before we could get in our cabin. 

Wearing masks was a non-issue and most seemed to comply.

We are sailing on the Magic next week, are Platinum, and have not received this letter. Maybe it will be in our cabin.

Looking back over our past 55 cruises on 4 different cruise lines, I'd say we go all the way with booking primarily only balcony cabins or suites, several specialty dinners on each cruise, valet parking when available, but no drink packages or WiFi. These are vacations after all and we don't do less on land vacations either. We do book using great casino offers when possible so that makes it possible to get suites, casino cash or OBC, and free drinks in the casinos.