kwokpot

You don't need to make any reservations to use the thermal suite. You can come and go as often as you want anytime it's open. What may be throwing you off is the Cruise Planner for Spa purchases is setup for treatments which of course you need to have a specific day and time appointment. That doesn't apply to a Thermal Suite pass. Just choose any day and time when purchasing a Thermal suite pass preboarding. What day and time you choose to purchase the pass is irrelevant when you board and want to use the thermal suite.

There are no deals when you board the Apex of the Thermal Suite. I would purchase the pass preboarding if you're interested in the thermal suite. A daily pass on board is $79/pp/day

Your experience is quite odd. I was on the Reflection in March and although I wasn't in Concierge Class but Retreat Class we had the big bottles of Bigelow toiletries. So it's strange that the ship would use larger bottles of toiletries in one class but still use individual personal size bottles in other classes? I also don't remember Celebrity toiletries being in little individual black bottles. It was white tubes with Blue lettering which was part of the Solstice Class aesthetics.

When Carnival recently put dinner service on hold at Cucina fleetwide due to staff shortages it would have been a perfect time to do the same on the MardiGras. They could have just taken the staff that services Cucina on the MardiGras at night and assigned them to the MDR. The fact they didn't do that is a clear signal that they need the tables in those 'restaurants' to accomodate all the passengers for dinner. Just the mere fact that Chibang and Cucina are printed on your room card and the app is designed to utilize all three dining venues (MDR,Cucina,Chibang- the BBQ is no reservations) is another indication that it's a permanent thing. There's even a choice in the app where you can be assigned automatically to whichever venue has availability if you don't have a preference. They would have never done this if it's a temporary arrangement.

This question comes up often and people's answers aren't necessarily based on inside knowledge. Having said that I don't think on the Excel Class of Carnival ships the Cucina,Chibang, and the Guy's Pig and Anchor Smokehouse restaurants will ever be pay restaurants. The size of the restaurants and the size of the MDR's necessitates at LEAST the first two two restaurants to be complementary otherwise the MDR can't accommodate everyone duing regular dining hours. Think of how Celebrity's Edge Class ships have four 'restaurants' as complementary dining. It really doesn't matter whether you call them restaurants or main dining rooms, it's all the same thing.

Well if that's the case then that's good to hear. Based on your response it doesn't seem like you had a weekly pass then. And wow, that's great you had so many massages! As an aside my screen name is a play on words of my middle name, which is part of my Chinese name. 'Kwok' is Cantonese for country. Kwokpot was a nickname given to me a long time ago when I worked in a discount store during High School. My friends and I all worked at this store and I happed to work at the Small Appliances area, and yes I sold crockpots. So one of my friends, who knew my middle name, called me 'kwokpot' and ever since I use this nickname for various things. Now you know!

The reason for the question is usually a spa treatment like a massage doesn't include using the thermal suite. If you had a whole cruise spa pass that would account for getting access to it after your treatment. But in most cases if you didn't have a Spa Pass you wouldn't be able to use the thermal suite. They would have you change in the locker room and meet you in the lounge/waiting area. After your treatment they take you back to that same lounge. The OP's question specifically asks about using the Thermal Suite after a treatment which assumes they won't have a weekly Thermal Suite pass.

I agree with your conclusions 100%. While ideally the overall experience should be the same regardless of new or older ship the reality is it isn't. I was on the MardiGras in April for 2 weeks and the experience was excellent, especially the food. That's why I was disappointed on the Pride when comparing the same meals to the MardiGras. I knew the kitchen could do better (MDR and buffet, specifically).

Are you answering from personal experience on the MardiGras?

I wonder if he's going to be on the Celebration's TA or the naming ceremony right after on November 21st.

No. There is a CO-ED sauna that's accessible from the rear of the Men's Spa Locker Room. You go through the rear door and make a left. The Sauna is directly opposite from the Woman's Spa Locker Room rear door. The sauna has a glass door and can hold 6 comfortably, 8 if you want to get cosy. The Panorama is the last new build ship to include Single sex saunas. Even with the refurbed Sunshine Class the Sunshine was the only ship to include a single sex sauna in the Spa locker rooms. Starting with the Sunrise they only installed a Co-Ed Sauna in the Locker room area. Attached is a photo of the Co-ed Sauna on the Mardi Gras. Just like all the other Carnival ships, the Spa locker rooms and this particular sauna is available to all passengers regardless if you have a Thermal Suite Pass or not. On the Excel Class ships it's not apparent that the Cloud Nine Spa locker rooms are accessible to everyone.

While I didn't have the occasion to try this space out on my recent Pride cruises have you considered using the Secret Garden Interior promenade which encircles the theater on Deck 3? No it's not outdoors but it should be a quiet area with plenty of window seating to enjoy the views.

I don't remember where you're boarding the ship, but the Barcelona check-in was GREAT. Beautiful terminal, and it was easy. No lines at all, and they did look at the Verifly and didn't need to look at the paper copies.

No testing for b2b cruisers.

100% agree and I always try to separate reviewing the ship itself vs whether I had a good time on the cruise. I was on the Pride for 31 days starting May 19th. Now that it's been two weeks since I left the ship, I can have a clearer mind reviewing her. The ship is indeed overall in rough shape. Having said that they try to keep the ship as clean as it's possible with the limited staff that's on the ship.There are nicer areas and not as nice areas. The nicer areas are the MDR, the casino (the casino has all new slot machines, gaming tables, chairs) and where the Alchemy Bar is (that should be of no surprise since that section of the ship was renovated/facelifted when they added the Alchemy Bar). The areas that are not so nice are the outdoor areas (if you followed some of my posts you'll see I was very critical of the cabin balconies and how dirty they were) and the buffet (those blue 'water' lamps are hideously tacky). The cabins are in ok shape but the bathrooms need updating. I had a great time visiting al the different European cities, but the current CD, Felipe, is TERRIBLE. There's no communication (when did CD's stop making daily videos that loop on CCTV?) There's four different ways to communicate with passengers, print, PA, CCTV, phone app. But apparently the Pride doesn't want to use any of these to communicate with passengers.

Now that I've been off the Pride for two weeks and had time to think about our 31 days on the ship I would say the balconies were the only thing that really bothered me about the ship itself. Besides the older decor the ship was very clean and the MDR, for example looked great. The buffet is the one area that can use some renovation. Besides the tacky blue 'water' lighting that really hasn't aged well the layout could use a re-imagining.

Why would you do her check-in if she's not going on the cruise?

It's unfortunate the balcony floors are so dirty. Ours was eventually hosed down after 14 days. It was better but when you looked at the water trench right below the balcony railing it was permanently stained with yellow gunk along with dirt that was tramped in the gunk. It was pretty disgusting and looks like it would take more effort to clean it than the Cleaners had time for.

I like the Striped Bass on formal nights.

https://www.goaheadtours.com/travel-blog/articles/guide-to-power-adapters-and-converters https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/advice/2020/01/07/travel-adapter-vs-voltage-converter-overseas-travel-electricity-info/2827260001/

depends on what you're plugging in. Computers, cell phone chargers, etc only needs an adapter for the different plugs.

I guess people are literally looking for a 10 second mention from the Captain on his daily briefing. I Don't give a sh*t how deep the water is but a quick acknowledgement of the incident and that it's of no consequence seems to be what people are looking for.

Oh boy. Are there lines for people with reservations? I will be on August 5th with a party of 8 and have a 7pm MTD reservation for all 9 nights. Do you think we will face long waits?

This must be a change because when I first sailed on the Oasis a long time ago there wasn't any complementary food at the Vitality Cafe on the Oasis. Is this the setup in the Vitality Cafe on all Oasis class ships?