TravelBluebird

Senegal now, I believe, since due to weather conditions the ship will not make port in Gambia.

Work and a week of travel for my non-profit got in the way (non-cruise life can be so annoying! 😂) but I finally got another video up from this Jubilee cruise! This one is a tour and review of a Carnival Jubilee Ocean Suite.

Yes, the home port question is also intriguing. Would love to see some new home ports for the ships, but so many US ports are limited as to what size of ship can fit under a bridge or fit in a certain size of harbor, etc.

I’m torn on how I feel about this. On the one hand, I LOVE the Excel class ships; they are my absolute favorite. On the other hand, was hoping to see a new design of Carnival ship out by 2028, and also, there are so few ports that the Excel class ships can go to due to size, I’m worried that the ports will become too repetitive.

Yes—it’s like a big casino party! Lots of fun. Hard to describe to someone who hasn’t taken one of the casino event cruises.

If it’s a straight financial decision, I think that is true, but I really did enjoy the social aspects of my last Ultra and would like to take another. However, my current offer has not made me run right out to book one.

Definitely doesn’t work due to casino offers having specific number of rooms blocked for that rate offer (as someone else has pointed out). I’ve even been on a cruise that later becomes one with an offer, and have not been able to add//change the booking. It’s not a flexible system. I think if you get all the way up to Echo offers (huge $$ in the casino) you can pick whatever date you want to sail.

Yes, I also found the discount for the room not as much as they said it would be from what I can book with the non-casino offer for a balcony room. Very disappointing. I guess the detail is in the “up to” part of the room discount.

Or maybe just combine them? Many of the drawings and special events seem to be the same.

Wow that’s bizarre! I’d hate to be a Premier cruiser mixed in with an Ultra.

I really want to take another Ultra but I’m going to have to look really hard for a time//ship I want to take. Plus the offers are quite a bit more expensive than the last ones I was offered. Think I’m going to try to find a date for 2025 as the 2024 dates are quite limited. Possibly one of the Venezia cruises in the Fall as I can get to Manhattan direct from my airport and cruise with my sister from there.

I just received 1 Ultra cruise offer from Baltimore—November 2025. Would be a good one for me because I can drive to the port.

You should be able to access the Ultra offers from your regular casino offers page. I didn’t get the Ultra email yet, but I can see the Ultra offer and dates there.

Ah, bummer. Were lots of dates available, and were any available for 4th quarter this year?

Another “balcony snob” all day. I think Carnival knows they can offer me free interiors all day long, but when I book, I’ll pay the extra for a balcony. I also have better offers, but still would like to book an Ultra towards the end of this year or next year. Fingers crossed on the dates.

We had a group of 9 on the Jubilee last week. It was absolutely no problem for us (and generally we had a table for 10 with 1 seat unoccupied). BUT we put in our table request for dinner on the app usually early, around 5:30 or 6, and on both Formal nights we had specialty dining reservations.

Ahem, I’ll admit to also peeking at the point totals of my neighbors while playing the slots. That said, 80,000 to 110,000 points on a 7 day cruise? WOW. They should give you an entire floor of the ship for free if you are spending that much gambling! (for those who do not gamble, 1 slot point is equal to $2.50 in play, so if you have 110,000 points, that means on just that cruise, the person has put $275,000 through the Carnival casino slot machines. In 8 days!

To an extent I agree! I did like the fun of the crowded casino on my last Ultra. I like the party atmosphere, and getting to know some of the other people on the cruise. On the Premiere on Jubilee, however, I could barely get a machine I liked to play, which was not fun. My last Ultra offer I could book up to EIGHT Ultra cruises (!) I just checked the email from that one (see below) Unfortunately couldn’t take advantage at that time. This time I’m ready!

From this thread I think you gamble about double what I gamble, so it makes sense the “bigger” gamblers get to choose dates first. It’s like when I had my store; If I had a special weekend for my customers, there would be a Friday night pre-event for my BEST customers so I could keep them the MOST happy. 😀

I got March 21st as well. But it makes sense to offer their biggest gamblers first crack at the special event cruises—just hope there are some good dates left by the time we can book!

ULTRA drawing is only for the person who received the offer. However, gifts were given to both of us, and we both had lanyards; he was able to attend the welcome party with me as well. Also was told that if my husband gambled 100 points he would be included in the daily drawings. That said, I need to clarify if that is 100 points each day or just at the start of the cruise—he’s not a big gambler, so did not get 100 points each day, and in any event, I never saw his name go by on the “spinner” that selects names for the in-casino drawings and games, although I saw my name go by several times.

Curious—did anyone get access to booking the Carnival Ultra cruises PRIOR to March 19th?

Well that describes me pretty well (I put all my travel on my Delta Business Reserve). Never considered if that would influence the casino offers. I also regularly spend other $$ on the ship for excursions, specialty restaurants, spa etc. I’m not a huge gambler—my points are mostly at or under the 3,000 range in a cruise. As others have said, just too many other things to do on a ship that I enjoy! However, I DO enjoy gambling, especially late in the evening, and I am in the casino most days of a cruise. My offers tend to be free interiors, plus Premier and Ultra cruises, or choose your own cruise with discounted rates and free play and DOU in casino only. This is all very lovely, and more fun and makes it much cheaper to cruise Carnival than on the other large cruise lines, and definitely has helped cement my loyalty to Carnival. Honestly, their casinos are the most fun as well, and the gambling has to be fun for me while I’m earning those points!

@pe4all That is interesting; my access to book the Ultra doesn’t start until March 21. I can be an uneven gambler; gamble a ton if its just hubby and me in Caribbean; gamble not as much if with a big group or on a more adventurous itinerary. Like you, I’m going on a Premier, mine next February (on Celebration), just because I was going to book that date anyway and it happened to have a Premier offer. Also like you, I hate how jammed the casino is (but trust me, its so much worse when you end up on a Premier or Ultra cruise and you are there on a different offer—then its just jammed and you’re not getting any of the extra fun).

@weezal Thank you! Do you personally prefer Ultra cruises or Elite cruises?