cruisingguy007

Exactly. Kids also pay cruise fares, port taxes, gratuities, excursion costs, up charge dining, candy shop and other sundries. They also eat much less. Many also bring additional family/friends. That's on top of what parents pay. Removing that bonus spend/benefit needs to be made up for somewhere else. There is a reason it costs more to sail on lines that are "adult mostly". Carnival serves the most passengers and broadest market (every-man/every-woman cruise line). It's akin to telling Coca Cola or KFC to change their recipes because someone wants to try something new. Carnival isn't Carnival by accident or for lack of understanding market conditions and their customer base.

If you have cheers it's not available officially. You can't "make it a double" with cheers or pay for it separately. If you have cheers, you've already more than paid for it lol. Cheers cost, auto grats on package and $1/$2 per drink (each day and x2 if a couple); it adds up. Most only look at the base cheers cost. You could just wait five min also and not worry about it, that's what most who have cheers do.

Those are fine, it comes how it comes. Officially, doubles aren't allowed with cheers, unofficially, good tips may allow one to bypass this. 😉

The look wouldn't look complete without the viking hat to boot! The comedy central roast of Flavor-Flav is still one of the funniest comedies I've ever seen. It's up there with Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor IMO. I had to pause it a few times because I couldn't breath from laughing so hard.

Sounds like a good idea in theory but when you look at all the facts and options currently available, it points to a bad idea, business wise. It sounds more like some want a cheap adult cruise experience without realizing that Carnival has lower fares precisely because they cater to families and fill ships. As previously mentioned, there are already plenty of adult "mostly" cruises and "upscale" (I hate that word but it's apt) cruises that one can choose but the price points are not as attractive. Then there is the matter of what an "adult cruise" would look like. Based on the current options, I would think it a disaster for any of the current products to try and emulate Virgin cruises. Not everyone appreciates blaring techno, overt sexual innuendo, PDA's and the overall youth orientated hipster vibe. Great when you're 20-30 years old but not so much when you're 40+. Some folks may try it once/twice but building a sustained customer base to fill ships could be challenging as Virgin has found out. The majority of folks who can cruise year round are retired folks and/or wealthy folks and those folks have already been catered to. The Virgin experience would work year round if they could deploy ships for short weekend cruises (Friday-Sun). That would be their target market and party/club folks would come out year round. Bottom line, I don't see Carnival shackling themselves in this fashion. It could also drive folks to their competition if they use the regular route ships for special adult only trips and a lot of families have time off and availability to cruise during those times. I could see them, if logistics will bare it out, using some smaller ships in major cruise ports, and doing weekend booze cruise trips to cater to a younger demographic, essentially turning these ships into floating nightclubs from Friday night until Sunday evening. As it is, their product serves everyone already, reducing customer pools isn't a smart business decision and I just don't see them doing that, especially in the current environment. Recreating the wheel has too many risks, billionaires can throw good money after bad but Carnival is hardly in any position to compete with that, nor should they, shareholder expect fiduciary accountability.

Not necessary. VariFLY is voluntary. Only ArriveCAN is mandatory and that's only for Canadian cruises.

As long as it's crossed out in your planner "to do" list, you're GTG. What will really bake your noodle is when you get a welcome back email a few days before your trip lol. Glitchy system, just be sure it's crossed out and ignore the emails.

Exactly, or paid for the upgrade and didn't mention it to their significant other. "Oh look honey, we got a free upgrade! What a surprise". 😇

Double post.

Wow, memories! Rainier was my Grandpas favorite beer lol. Also my first taste of beer as a young buck. Still remember that day in Trout Lake, WA where they retired. My Grandma would have had a conniption fit. 😆 Used to get those Red Dogs for like $6 a 12-pack back in the days too. That and a couple of Mad Dogg 2020's and you had a party!

Try clearing cookies and logging back in. I had some weird issues where I couldn't book a cruise from a specific device for like a month. I was able to pick cabins but couldn't get to final screen, it would just flash white. I eventually did a factory reset and everything worked after. Try a different device before anything.

Duck from JiJi's, fire!

People have claimed this but I don't believe it. Just don't see it and all the hassles it would cause for Carnival aren't worth it. Imagine the headache? Plus unthankful folks who would come to "expect it" and would book lower categories on purpose and then complain when they didn't get their way. Guest services is crowded enough on embarkation. This would be a nightmare.

That's almost hard to believe with all the flights from Cali to Vegas. I fly out of SJC going to Vegas and can pretty much pick anytime to fly since there are so many, even SFO has a bunch. You'd think Vegas to Long Beach/LAX would be nearly fail proof. I guess things are as bad as everyone says! Yikes!

I kind of agree but maybe it's the opposite that everyone thinks and it will be a cheaper option as to not degrade the Carnival product? A lot of people like European cruises because they are cheap and have interesting itineraries. Maybe this can be duplicated here? Some of the competition (like Oceania) already do longer cruises from the LA/SF areas and a lot of people have been wanting additional west coast ports stops beyond the Mex Riv. They may not need to replicate the 24-day cruises entirely (though on my bucket list) but some 10-14 day cruises that get on down into South America would be interesting to be sure. Running cheaper HI cruises could be another option, some of those are a bit pricey and getting the fares a bit lower may increase demand. I've been seeing crazy deals for Alaska right now (some ridiculous and on premium lines) so I'm thinking this idea that they will move these ships here and try and make a luxury product out of them may not be taking into account softer demand.

There won't be craziness per se, shenanigans, good times and possibly some twerking in/near lido pool? Most definitely! Some would classify that as craziness, I would simply call it a great time lol. It's really only on sea days also. The DJ plays a good mix of music for everyone too, it's mostly middle aged folks that have the numbers, followed by older folks and then youngsters. It's quite nice actually and everyone vibes and groves to the eclectic mix (classic country, young country, hip hop/rap, R&B, old school, Latin/reggaeton etc). Havana is super quit, too quiet for a lot of people as it can be a ghost town back there. There will also be no TV so watching the big game from back there is out. Heroes bar or lido will be your best shot and the energy is awesome (did a playoff championship in 2020 on her and it was a blast). kids are usually on the slides, at the kids club or doing other onboard activities, they don't really just hangout on lido (though a few will be in the pool) so that won't be a big problem either. I'll actually be on a few weeks before you, hopefully watching the games on lido also!

Great review! Love the wit and the photos! Great style!

You'll be fine, spring break is more March. The average age on Panorama is much higher than people think, even during spring break as California is very expensive and not young folk friendly (cost wise). We had a few younger groups that were onboard during spring break and they were lively, not ridiculous. Outside of spring break, the average age is probably 40-50 and will drop closer to 35-40 during sprint break. Plus, you just don't really get the crazy like you do on the 3/4 day "section 8 cruises" that the on-board comedians routinely make fun of 😆 . Panorama is chill, I would cruise on her anytime/any season and not think twice, yes, even smack dab in the middle of spring break, which I have. The football cruises are just an extra fun bonus!

This.The Havana area is usually empty or has minimal people, you should have good odds on Panorama.

People generally want to sail to warm weather locations, spending the extra time cruising down from NY limits itinerary options, even for 7 day cruises; 3&4 days cruises, fugetaboutit. Two days there and back on each leg is limiting.

A family cruise line without families? That would be the antithesis of their model. Besides, Virgin will probably go bust eventually. They overestimated the demand for hipster adult only ships.

The closer to sailing the better the odds. That said, there isn't always an upgrade available. Demand for the sailing and the respective cabin categories will be the deciding factors.

Same here. They could, theoretically, run three ships out of long beach but the parking may be an issue. It'll be interesting to see what plays out and if this means moving Panorama somewhere else or simply adding an additional ship offering. Either way I'll be trying it out. If Panorama sailings are transferred over or if it stands on its own, Firenze looks like a nice ship.

Thanks, I had read some talk of overnight trips in some of the comments and I assumed there were itineraries that went there each day and just pulled away overnight to open casinos and returned in the morning. I'd like to maximize time there if I have to fly to a cruise port but if there are only one day itineraries, it seems less worth it. Thanks for the info.

After watching various review videos on Coco Cay, it seems just about the perfect place to visit and is exactly what I'm looking for on a vacation. The problem is most of the info I find suggests that ships only stop there for one day. Is there an itinerary that goes there multiple days?