icft

I think your chances are good once you explain the situation to the maître d'. Clarasgrandma's idea also sounds worth a shot.

True! We're talking Carnival not Waffle House...

Now if they can come up with real milk for my cereal on bacation days I might actually get to eat breakfast every day.

I'm glad you are back, sorry we missed following along and sad that my view of some aspects of the world have proved overly optimistic.

Unfortunately Carnival, and other businesses, are very interested in looking good but don't much care about doing good. The result is they put out rules and policies that make them look good but don't enforce them. And I agree about notarization not being necessary making the whole thing meaningless.

I understand what you are saying and in a perfect world none of this would be necessary. Since we are not in a perfect world and there have been large numbers of cases in which a foreign national parent with an American ex and American children has abducted the children and taken them to their native country this kind of documentation is unfortunately necessary. Once a foreign national has taken the children to their native country there is nothing the U.S. can do absent cooperation of the foreign government. Not many countries cooperate and for the few that do it is extremely expensive to go through the years long legal process. Most don't cooperate and none of the real hell hole countries that treat women as property and practice genital mutilation do. So a little inconvenience for the sake of saving children from that is not too much to ask.

You are probably right. We were on a cruise on Glory the week she did her video and they made the splashy announcement. On that cruise there was security all over the place. They were friendly and not oppressive in the least and made us feel comfortable. It was also probably the best behaved group of passengers we experienced since before covid. But when we sailed on the Glory again just a few weeks later we saw no security other than when disembarking and embarking at port calls. The passengers on that cruise dashed our hopes for Carnival and we booked NCL cruises for 2024. We have been sailing free casino cruises on Carnival and don't have that on NCL, but free isn't worth the price if you don't feel safe. The big splashy video and press releases was just blowing smoke. I figure any subsequent press releases are, as you said, just hoping for better press coverage; just more smoke.

I'm a bit afraid to ask, but what the heck; don't ask don't learn. 1. What is a "community woman" 2. What are "docker holes" 3. Are the two terms related?

Agree. It didn't pass the smell test for me.

Thank you TxTeach79 and HelloItsMeB for the wonderful live review; the perfect combination of itinerary, personality and presentation. You both now have legend status in my eyes.

Yep!

Do they have this dessert on any of the menus? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_dick

What's that in the upper left corner of the cake?

As I said, if comps are what you are after then only play on one card. But please don't take up two chairs at one machine. They are so close you block out playing on the machine next to yours. Very rude.

We have cruised on casino offers since before covid. We both have our own cruise "entertainment" allowance. I spend almost all of mine in the casino while my wife likes to shop on shore. The result is I get the better offers. If getting offers is the only goal you will be better to do all the gambling on one card. But that would involve one person sitting around while the other gambles which is not something we are willing to do. But I have to say, gambling for offers is not something we consider wise. There are no "free" casino cruises; you pay for them with your gambling losses. Sure, there are those who say they gamble very little and get great offers, just as there are those who say they were picked up by aliens and anally probed. If you enjoy gambling and would do it with or without comps then the comps are great. But gambling for comps is not cost effective in our opinion.

It is just me and my wife but on the Hub app they split the cruise cash between us and we just leave it that way because it is irrelevant. In the end the cruise cash all goes to the one credit card and the cruise cash pays the first bills that would go to that credit card no matter whose sign and sail card was used. So, the cruise cash balance shown on a particular sail and sign card doesn't really mean anything when all the sail and sign cards close out to one credit card. The gratuities will also all go to that one credit card.

It depends... It says you are from the UK. That covers a lot. If you are born and raised in Scotland you may find no one understands what the heck you are saying.

I guess that explains Freeport... 😇 J/K

We stopped getting off in Jamaica pre-covid, but back then, at least, there was some security on at least some Carnival based excursions. Apparently many of them had a plain clothes cop on board. We didn't realize that until one tour when the cop was late and the bus stopped at the police station to pick him up. Look for single black guys wearing more clothes than most (to cover the pistol) or an extra, over dressed, tour guide who doesn't do anything. From what the other folks on the tours said it was fairly widely known.

My wife explained to me that it was dumb to know what what you are supposed to be going for. All you need to know is how to pick your bet and where to push the button. If you do it for a while and don't win anything then go to another machine. She says knowing what you are going for just makes you miserable. You sit there hoping and hoping, being very disappointed when it is so close... She says just sit there and push the button while you talk to people. I also love the old machines but she might be right. If I had the line above or below the pay line I would be a billionaire and being so close all the time is a bit of a drag...

Here's a sample: https://greekcitytimes.com/2022/06/02/mykonos-bar-american-tourists/ https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/worldnews/22587245/sunbed-scam-at-greek-bar-mykonos-dk-oyster/

They pretty much couldn't go to any places if they avoided places like Nassau. We feel Nassau is one of the safer places unless you seek out the slums. I've lived in New Orleans (and my wife was born and raised there) and we have walked extensively around Nassau; we were last there a couple of months ago. We feel much safer in Nassau than in New Orleans. It is easy to stay in the "good" areas in Nassau. In New Orleans the "bad" areas are interlaced with the good areas. Short stroll for the bad guys with easy egress. Now Jamaica? That place is a sewer with isolated private areas with private security where you are quite safe. Having been a number of times on tours to the safe places, and been there done that, we no longer get off the ship there. The only port where we don't understand why Carnival goes there is Jamaica.

First though that came to mind was "insane asylum." Inmates hanging out in the common room.

Lisbon pics and info please; pretty please? I don't want the fun to stop.

I'm really enjoying tagging along with you guys. Thanks!