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Concerned about the violence in Mexico? It depends. We feel that Cozumel is pretty safe. Being a somewhat small island where people know each other, know when strangers are around, and quick escape from the area is not readily available tends make it less desirable for criminals. There are better places for criminals to operate, like just across the way on the mainland. But we try to avoid most of Mexico. One of our sons lived in the Tampico area for a year with little problem. But he had a bodyguard, driver and designated go and no-go zones. He told us our major risk in Mexico is kidnapping. Apparently it is a major industry, but they have it down to a science and things usually go smoothly.

We often sail on the Glory which is also a Conquest class ship. Our favorite location is Deck 10 forward of the elevators. Deck 9 forward of the elevators is also good. That is not to say there are not other good locations, but we do balcony rooms and have never had any noise problems. If the neighbors are quiet you just hear the wind and sea.

No tournaments on our Sept 18 - 25 cruise.

I think that is the new term for "they try to sell you a bunch of stuff."

AARP has occasional "senior moments."

I guess they are going to announce their new internet hours. I am told by experts that things like this are not "cutbacks." They are in fact "changes."

RCL might be interesting around $19 - 20.

I've never traded CCL, but looking at the chart I might be tempted to buy a few lottery tickets on it around $5.00 if it gets down there.

My wife always wears a camelbak full of water. No problems in over thirty cruises.

Premier cruise offers are legit. The only let-down you might feel is that the "free gifts" tend to be trinkets but other than that you get what they promise. They offer the low price in the hope that you will spend money in the casino but you are not required to even go to the casino. Of course if you don't gamble they will be less likely to make casino offers in the future, but I would not recommend gambling just to get future offers unless you truly enjoy gambling. We have gone on many Premier cruises, but then we really enjoy gambling. In the long run they get more in casino revenue than they give up in low prices, OBC and gifts from those of us who follow the casino offer path. But for those of us who enjoy gambling anyhow the casino offers are nice. Take the offer if you like the cruise. Don't gamble if you don't want to.

I thought that was cleanliness... but then I'm getting old and find it hard to keep these things straight.

I agree with everything you said. For us two things are keeping us with Carnival for the time being. One is we have a full line-up of free cruises through March and the other is the wonderful crew. But I fully understand if you chose other lines.

That is good to hear. I guess they were just a tad slow getting folks to their stations early on in the check-in process. New Orleans is almost always great for embarking and disembarking.

I think I saw ship-on-a-stick on the new room service menu...

Hold my beer! We just got back from a most enjoyable cruise on the Glory but one thing was so absurd we had to laugh. We like bacon and over-easy eggs for breakfast. On sea days that was no problem as we would eat at seaday brunch. But after two sea days we had three port days in a row. So we went to Lido the first port day. They had bacon on the serving line but when we went to the omelet station they were out of fresh eggs. The second day we again went to Lido and there was no bacon to be had but the omelet station had fresh eggs for our over-easy. The third day we went to Lido and there was bacon on the line but they were out of fresh eggs. That third day I complained to the guy at the station saying I knew it wasn't his fault, but Carnival was messing us over and we were not happy. The response, "If you got here when we open at 6 we would have eggs."

We got back Sunday from the Glory September 18 – 25th cruise and thought anyone with an upcoming Glory cruise might be interested in our observations. Embarkation seems to have had a bit of a problem, though it didn’t really have much effect on us. Usually when boarding in New Orleans there is a steady stream of passengers proceeding from the ground entrance then up a floor to the check-in stations then security and finally seating until boarding. This time they held folks at the ground entrance and only let 30 or so go up at a time. We were in the 10am arrival slot and only had about a five minute wait and when we got to the second floor we saw the problem. They had the usual number of check-in stations set up but only half were in use. Our best guess is they could not get enough people to man the other half. While it was a small delay for us it could have been a bigger problem for later arrivals. They started boarding at 10:45 while their normal target in New Orleans is 11am. Ship’s condition is great! Early this year they did a two week wet dock at Freeport. We cruised on Glory just before and just after that and the amount of work they did in that two weeks amazed us. They replaced public area carpets, wall treatments and many ceiling treatments among other things. The last we cruised on Glory was in April and on that cruise we were pleased to see they were constantly painting, and not just throwing paint over rust but using power tools to get the rust off, then priming then painting. On this cruise they were reupholstering the seating along the Promenade deck starboard side and they had obviously recently refinished table tops all over the ship. About the second day I realized I had not seen any rust so I started looking closely. Yes, if you look closely you can find nooks and crannies with touches of rust, but there is no such thing as a ship without some rust, even on its first cruise. Last week’s Glory was the most rust-free ship we have ever sailed. Mid-cruise, maintenance knocked on our door. They were there to replace the screen where the water comes out of the faucet in the bathroom sink. Obviously they are taking routine maintenance seriously on Glory. We have never been fans of the production shows on Carnival and having seen them so many times we haven’t been to one in a while. But this cruise there was something called “Amor Cubano” that we had not seen. We went and found it quite enjoyable. It is billed as sounds of Cuba and is well worth seeing. The amazing thing for us is that most Carnival shows manipulate the sound to boot high and low frequencies and suppress the middle with resulting screeching female vocals and a headache. That was not done for this show and you could actually enjoy the singing voices. If only we understood Spanish… 😁 Punchliner comedy shows are very subjective but they only had one comedian the first three nights and two the rest of the cruise. The one for the first three nights did not click with us so overall we felt the comedy was weak this cruise overall but very good the last part of the cruise. They really should have two comedians every night to avoid the “doesn’t click with us” problem. The crew on Carnival ships is always wonderful and this cruise was no exception. It doesn’t seem right to leave how great they are to those few words since they are a major reason that we keep coming back despite management’s cutbacks but it is just something you have to experience. Glory is not immune to the cutbacks that have been widely discussed on this forum, but it is no worse and thanks to the crew probably better than the situation on other ships. So I will leave that discussion to other threads. But I will mention one thing that worked well for us. The Glory is sailing with a full passenger load these days. With the cutbacks that can create lines at the Lido food buffet, deli, etc. We avoided a lot of that by eating breakfast at sea day brunch and dinner in the main dining room. With your time dining and making reservations on the app there was no standing in line or being forced to eat at inconvenient times. We also had no problem getting good food though you might have to improvise or order an additional dish if you one you first ordered wasn’t up to snuff. One evening I ordered several appetizers because the main course offerings did nothing for me. Another evening the main course wasn’t to my taste but the soup that had been one of the appetizers was outstanding. So I sent back the main course, ordered more soup and was quite full and happy by the end of the meal. All-in-all, we had a great time.

We were on that cruise. If I had known you were there I would have climbed up the whale tail and waved.

I agree that Carnival's production shows leave something to be desired. I have never been to one I liked so after seeing each one once I stopped going.The biggest negative for me is the sound quality. I think the screechy female singers is because they seem to pump up high frequency and low frequency sound and suppress the mid range. But there are those who enjoy those shows until they have seen them too many times and I too find it sad that they rarely change.

Looking forward to it. Posting now to get auto notifications when you post and to let you know someone is following. 😁

My understanding was that the ultimate winner got $50,000 with the other $50,000 paid out to the "almost" winners. I feel confident they actually pay out the money. The PR disaster from false advertising they don't want. The only close to shady part is calling it a $100,000 tournament. Lots of folks assume the grand prize is $100,000 when actually the total of all prizes in $100,000. But that is not really shady, just wording that requires close reading.

Back in my college days in the 70s I probably went through a literal ton of that stuff. Haven't touched it since job interviews started in the last semester; same time I got my hair cut. The smell doesn't bother me at all. I find it nostalgic. Now the only thing I smoke is tobacco. I occasionally have to laugh at myself when I get a bit peeved that I get treated like a criminal for smoking a cigarette while everyone, crew and passengers alike, ignore the clouds of weed smoke.

I don't know the answers to your questions but I wanted to let you know my experience with one lowly $100,000 tournament. I won it by winning a regular cruise tournament - the kind you used to get free entry to as a Platinum or Diamond. The prize for that tournament was a free cruise for this $100,000 tournament and free entry to that larger tournament. I do like to play the slots. But if you go on one of these tournament cruises don't plan on being able to play the slots much. Everyone on the ship is a slots nut and it is about impossible to find an open machine before midnight. I played the slots less on that cruise than on any other by far and it was miserable being stuck with whatever machine came open rather than being able to pick your machine. I avoid tournament cruises. Unless you are very lucky and win a decent amount in the tournament it is not a fun cruise.

Everything below is just my OPINION. In my opinion the short staffing on ships is completely on Carnival. While it is totally appropriate to be understanding and appreciative to the crew that is on a ship, since the situation is no fault of theirs and they are being taken advantage of by Carnival, there should be no understanding for Carnival management. Carnival rushed to get its entire fleet sailing knowing they did not have sufficient crew, knowing it would put immense pressure on the crew they did have, knowing it would degrade the cruising experience for customers and they they did it anyway. The visa thing is bogus as a reason the ships are short staffed. You don't put a ship into operation until you know you have crew. Here we are a year after reopening and still short crew? Being a little optimistic and being short crew for two or three months is one thing, but for over a year? And the problems only became apparent six months after reopening when they put the last of their fleet in service rather than fully crewing the other ships? By that time they had to know the problem with getting crew but they decided to take advantage of the crew and the customers rather than delay putting the last of their fleet in operation. So let's stop with the visa stuff. Carnival is short crew and providing a degraded cruise experience solely to increase profit. The only question, and it is a valid question, is if that was the best decision. Some will say it is that or bankruptcy. Others will say that the low fares made it fair to the customers and that the reduction in services took the pressure off the crew and made it fair to them. I don't know the answer, but in my opinion the visa thing has no merit.

I would be disappointed also.