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The amount of sun on a Grand Suite balcony is pretty much the same as on any port or starboard balcony. You will be mostly sailing south on the leg out and north on the leg back. On Deck 7 you have balconies above you so on one leg of the trip you will have sun from sunrise till the sun is high in the sky and on the other leg you will have sun from early afternoon till sunset.

Cold probably won't be a problem. It warms up pretty quickly as you head south from New Orleans.

We haven't sailed the Valor, but have sailed the Glory a number of times. It is also Conquest class. Outside Serenity there really are not any quiet, secluded areas outside. We often sit on deck 3. It tends to be quiet but these decks run most of the length of the ship so I would not call them secluded.

Enjoy your cruise!

On our cruise last week one of the crew told us Glory was going to be in "Wet Dock" the last week of Jan and first week of February. That fits with there being no listed sailings in that time period. Does anyone know what they will be doing to Glory?

Elegant Night is a nostalgic throw-back to the sailing days of the late 19th and early 20th centuries when travel by ship was the only way to cross the ocean. Most of the ship travel was not for entertainment; it was to get somewhere. In those days one traveled with steamer trunks carrying what you would need for protracted period and attempts were made to keep the upper class happy with formal social events which were a major source of entertainment for them at home. The elegance of ship travel was promoted by the cruise lines and Hollywood long after air travel became common. That romanticized ideal was in the dreams of many young ladies and still existed when cruising for entertainment came along.

The current Elegant Night is what remains after the promotion of Hollywood and the days of steamer trunks (necessary when you will be away for a long period and formal social events would be part of your normal life while away) has passed and it caters to fantasies of a long passed age as kind of a tradition.

We don't do Elegant Night. We don't travel with several steamer trunks with room for fancy clothes. For us ship travel is not "dead travel time" requiring formal social functions to fill the time in the manner to which we are accustomed. But we don't eat in the MDR on Elegant Nights as a courtesy to those who do wish to engage in that fantasy. For us it is not a question of our "rights" or what we can get away with. It is simple courtesy to not rain on someone's parade.

4 hours ago, staceyglow said:

 IMO, if you are going on a trip for less than 8 days and need to check because of the amount/size of luggage, you are packing too much.  Or you haven't learned the tricks of efficiently packing one carry-on size suitcase and a backpack.

Easy to say for someone from Las Vegas. Most of the rest of us wear more than a G string and pasties 😛

Well, here is one data point on how full. This was for our Dec. 12th Glory cruise out of New Orleans:

The Glory has 1492 cabins so full double occupancy is 2,984 and pre-covid you could usually expect something like 3,200 passengers. This trip had right at 2,300 passengers.

They don't care, at least in New Orleans, if you arrive at a later check-in time. They will just include you in whatever group is then boarding.

If you have not tried this already, try calling the main number and enter extension 70358 when asked for which extension. That should get you to the casino offer guys from what I have seen posted before.

Mominwestlake – everyone has to make their own risk assessment and decision. As for us; we just got back from our second cruise this year and have another in January and another in February. Our risk assessment is that we are safer on a cruise with the much, much higher vaccination rates, testing before boarding and time spent in the open under the sun. Of course that would not hold true for someone whose alternative to a cruise is to sit in their house by themselves with no human contact. But lockdown is not an option for us. We are old enough that we don’t have the time to throw away and our hope for our lives is to live, not to just be alive like some disembodied brain in a jar on a shelf being surrounded by oxygenated nutrients.

20 minutes ago, Cruise, J.D. said:

Thanks for the review. So were they really enforcing sip and cover at the bars?

We didn't do drinks at the bar that day so I don't know. But the information they gave us on Friday didn't mention any changes for the bars so I assume they were not enforcing a rule they didn't put out. As far as I know they still haven't put out such a bar rule, though the wording regarding the casino leaves open the possibility they could apply it to the bar in the casino.

We just got back from from the Dec. 12th Glory cruise out of New Orleans. After 7 days of drinking and late nights followed by getting up at an ungodly hour this morning I not good for much today so I figured I'd kill some time with a quick and dirty review.

I will probably say some negative things in the course of this post but I want to make it clear it was a great cruise and Carnival does a lot right. Of course the best thing about Carnival is the great crews they have on the ships.

Our embarkation window was 10:30 - 11:00 and was amazingly fast. Essentially it was a no wait walk through right onto the ship. We are Diamond but our room was not ready. But the steward was happy to let us put our carry on bags in the closet.

Debarkation for checked luggage has been improved and is even better. Just before you get to the room with the luggage they split you into one line for those using passports and another for those using birth certificates. We were in the passport line and went to a facial recognition machine that identified us then to the luggage. This all went fast with barely a break in step for the machine to recognize us. Then we picked up our luggage and went straight to the garage. There was no boarder agent looking at you passport and we did not even need our passports.

The Glory has 1492 cabins so full double occupancy is 2,984 and pre-covid you could usually expect something like 3,200 passengers. This trip had right at 2,300 passengers.

The morning of the last full day (a sea day) a notice of the new covid measures was pushed under the door and they already had signs changed shipwide. They actively "reminded" folks of the new requirements. I'm a smoker but didn't find the no smoking casino a problem much to my surprise. I found I liked playing a while then taking the elevator up to the smoking deck for a while more than I had liked staying in the casino non-stop for hours. Those times I had a hot machine I was so engrossed in the action I didn't miss the cigarette. Those times the machines were sucking money I found the break good for my soul. I would have never thought that. But I can tell you that the mid-ship elevators will be very popular for the duration.

Now for the bad news, at least for now. Guys is essentially dead to me now. Some years back when they changed the pizza ovens and ruined their pizza for all future years I really was relieved when Guys came along with great burgers and fries. Alas, Guy's fries now, in my opinion, vary from "not very good" to "illegal under the Geneva Convention to serve to prisoners of war" depending on the thickness of whatever they are coating them with now. And the hamburger meat is now, in my opinion, very greasy. I suspect they have changed to a higher fat content meat. I tried Guys several times trying to convince myself it was just a one time fluke. But, no, on it's best day it was bad. My hope now is that Guy Fieri doesn't know and pitches a fit when he  finds out his name has changed from being an intangible asset to being an intangible liability.

And speaking of potatoes, the hash browns at sea day brunch are now more distant from real hash browns than ever before. In my youth I did multi-day cross country hiking and became familiar with "freeze dried potatoes." I suspect Carnival buys their "hash browns" from a source that is now using freeze dried potatoes.

The food on the Lido deck was below par. I think Carnival has a problem beyond its control. The problem is that when you have a large number of people you are serving when you put a big batch of something out it is gone fairly quickly. But when you put out that same big batch but fewer people are eating it stays out there longer. The couple of times we tried Lido food the biggest problem was it was not hot and other things were dried out.

On a positive food note, we found the food in the main dining room to be very good and the wait staff to be more attentive than usual. And the steak house is as good as ever.

Boarding earlier will always be seen as better by the vast majority of folks simply because it avoids complications. The later you wait the more time for a tanker truck to close the freeway leaving you stuck on an overpass for hours or the parking garages to all be full because of some event you never heard of or for someone to have a medical event in the terminal or for equipment to break or similar disruption that causes a massive backlog resulting in long, long lines to board. Once you are on board the only thing that can go wrong is the ship breaks. Once you are on board the work is over and the worries are gone. I guess some smokers can't go a few hours without a cigarette, but I think most are like me and are quite used to it.

1 hour ago, brilliantseas said:

I've been thinking about the topic and a few things came to mind:

 

-Solo rooms/rates

-Better quality theater shows

-Stop the slippage in food quality in the MDR

 

The one that stands out the most to me when comparing Carnival to other cruise lines is: 

 

Take better care of the ships over their lifespan. 

 

One thing that I've noted with Carnival is that the experience is not the same across the fleet. The new ships are beautiful, modern, and well-kept, but the older ships don't seem to get the same level of love and care during their regular drydocks. I'm not looking for a complete re-theme of the ship as was done with the Destiny/Triumph class, I'm just talking about basic hotel maintenance items like fixing broken balcony lights, replacing worn wallpaper, repairing tile in the pools and hot tubs, and keeping up with paint and corrosion control. It seems like the only things that happen in a Carnival drydock are hull paint, fresh carpet in the public areas, and maybe a new arcade, bar re-theme, or new food concept on the Lido Deck. They seem to miss the extra layer of care when it comes to refreshing the public areas and amenities, and replacing worn fixtures in the cabins. 

 

A new Carnival ship is a very nice experience, but I compare the old Carnival ships to a stay at the Holiday Inn. It'll hopefully be clean and you'll probably enjoy yourself, so long as you are okay with the hotel/ship being just a little past its prime and you don't set your expectations too high. 

 

I still love the Fantasy and Spirit class ships, and I'd be happy to sail on them for another 20 years if Carnival would just give them a little TLC.

 

Just my two cents...

 

I totally agree. I have thought the same thing many times but I have to assume it is a dollar and cents thing where they maintain ships to a level folks almost but don't quite stop cruising on them. That is the sweet spot for the bean counters.

Drink tap water on a Carnival ship? Not if I can help it. I believe them when they say it is perfectly healthy, but have you tasted that stuff? It tastes like plastic, which makes sense seeing as how it is flowing through plastic pipes. Strangely enough the melted ice doesn't have the bad taste. But for the most part I don't go on a cruise to drink water; I go to drink alcohol.

7 minutes ago, beerman2 said:

It’s on your “friend” to check his account. Very easy to do.

Why blast the cruise lines, other than the fact he shouldn’t have been able to scan off the ship and they didn’t require/attach a CC to his account.

What blasting? It was a simple "mind the gap."

On 12/6/2021 at 1:19 PM, DrSea said:

@simplynewt What about simply disembarking with all of your luggage in hand? What are your thoughts on that?

When you are on deck 10 and have to go down stairs to deck 3, since the elevators are being used by the crew for luggage, it isn't that easy to do. If it were just me it would not be a problem. But my wife packs like she will never return home and will only have what she takes for the rest of her life.

I find it hilarious that people are talking about lawsuits over this. What are your damages? They can’t be more than you paid for the cruise plus perhaps “pain and suffering.” Do you really see a judge or jury awarding “pain and suffering” to someone having to ride “Jungle Cruise” rather than “Kali River Rapids?” That is not pain and suffering; that is disappointment. But courts don’t award damages for disappointment. If they did a lot of women would be headed to the courthouse the morning after they lost their virginity.

Next, what is the cost of litigation? You’re probably talking $5,000 minimum to even get in the courthouse door unless you are an attorney representing yourself in which case you still have court fees.

This is just my opinion but I think they keep pushing Australia deals to get statistics to lobby Australia to open for cruises. When they can show thousands of folks wanting to spend money in Australia to get to cruises plus the payroll for local ship purchases and support they have a much better position to pressure the government. Without that back-up they have no answer to "how do you know anyone even wants to?" With those bookings they can say "you're denying the Australian economy this many millions of dollars - that is an undeniable fact."

53 minutes ago, Colorado Beach Bum said:

I think you have the group wrong.  I agree with the first part but I would never tip the same for $10 burger in one place vs $20 in another.  I always tip on the regular price before any discounts. 

I couldn't resist being facetious with that equating tip with amount of work part. Sorry about that. It is just that a number of folks in that group drag the whole question into "shame on you for not wanting to pay a living wage" and put on the holier than thou act when, in fact, by even engaging in the tipping game they are continuing a racist scheme designed to NOT pay a living wage. For example see:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tipping-jobs-history-slave-wage-cbsn-originals-documentary/

If by buying a drink you are now an employer and it is your job to pay a living wage then the amount of work and quality of work are what determine the tip, not the charge for the drink. On the other hand, the path of virtue should lead them to reject tipping altogether and crusade for abolishing the scheme rather than trumpeting how strongly they support the scheme.

23 hours ago, dlwfarm said:

If I purchased the free alcohol drink package, is tips already paid on that or do I need to tip for every drink I order?

My friend, you have opened a can of worms. There are folks with strong feelings when it comes to cheers tips. First of all you will be charged 18% for tips on the package when you buy it but for many it doesn't end there.

You have one group who says Carnival picks the price and you tip based on the price they charge. If they eat at a place that charges $10 for a hamburger they tip based on $10 but if they go to a place that charges $20 for a hamburger they tip based on $20. For them life is simple. Carnival already put the tip on the charge when you bought the package so they just cross through the tip line.

Then you have another group who say you end up paying a low price per drink when you buy cheers and the waiter should not suffer because of that. The waiter did just as much work and should not be disadvantaged because Carnival charged you a lower price for the drink. I assume these folks tip the same amount at the restaurant that charges $10 for a burger as at the place that charges $20 based on the waiters doing just as much work.

Then there is the largest group of all. These folks see that line for tip on the receipt they have to sign, are face to face with the waiter and would feel guilt if they just put a line through the tip line, so they tack on a dollar.

Me? I don't do cheers. I get my drinks free in the casino and tip the waiter a couple of bucks per drink for their work. Really good waiters we give a really nice tip the last sea day because some of these guys truly go above and beyond day in and day out.

Bottom line? No matter how you handle it there are folks who will agree and folks who will disagree.

6 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

Just asked a carnival bartender who says cash and write ins go to the person who printed the check. Cheers auto gratuity is pooled.

That is my understanding also.

A few years ago we had a waiter in the casino who was great. When we walked into the casino and he was there we would sometimes see him across the room and he would whirl his finger in the air, we would nod and our usual drinks were on the way. The last sea day we wanted to give him one last big tip each but made sure to ask him if it would go directly to him if we put it on the ticket. He said yes and great casino waiters on subsequent cruises have told us the same.

Speaking of casino waiters, we have come across a surprising number who would truly look out for us. I remember one morning DW and I were in the casino mainly for the donuts and coffee they were putting out that morning. The waiter who had been looking out for us saw us and we shook our heads no. He came over and ended up talking my wife into an Irish Coffee. I don't think he got that from the bar. He got the coffee and then turned it into Irish Coffee on his own. He didn't see his job as being a waiter - he saw it as making people happy. A lot of Carnival crew members are like that.

We first sailed on Carnival in 2001 and our next cruise was in 2012. I just went to the manage VIFP pages after our 2012 cruise and clicked on add a cruise on the my cruises page. I think all I knew was the ship name and year or some such minimal information. I didn't expect anything but figured what the heck? To my surprise when I went to book our next cruise it was there. So just give it a shot with what information you have and see what happens before going to a lot of trouble to dredge up information.

Note that they kind of bury the my cruises page. The way I get there is from the main carnival.com page, click manage, vifp club, and on that page click show my offers. At the bottom of that page is a link for my cruises. There is probably a faster way, but ever since they "improved" their web site I find it tough to find anything.

11 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

 

If only the pizza actually looked like that. 

 

Sailed the Dream many times, then the Glory replaced Dream in New Orleans. Until about a year or so before the Glory replaced the Dream I loved the Pizza on the Dream. Then the pizza went to hell on the Dream. When the Dream left New Orleans we missed it badly. It was a wonderful ship. But we thought that at least we might again get good pizza out of it. No such luck. The pizza on the Glory was the same. In addition, it started taking forever to get one. They changed how they make them and we no longer get pizza, though I still try at least one each cruise to see if they have changed back. As of this last September they still suck; burnt edges but soggy crust elsewhere (exactly like a wet paper towel) and cheese only covering what you see in the picture. But Guy's is still great! The thing is, some places on any ship suck, but some places are great. It is just a matter of finding where it is great. Pizza ain't it on the Glory.

I'm glad they are putting out these emails. On our September cruise there was nothing said and nothing in the room. Since I didn't take a print-out of Diamond benefits we didn't remember some of them and therefore didn't ask guest services how to get things like chocolate delights or brunch beverages. (Having almost always taken Premier cruises in the past we were not sure what was a Premier benefit and what was a Diamond benefit - didn't care, just took what we got - but nothing?) We only got what we remembered and only after specifically asking guest services how to get them. Big deal? No. Very cheap and petty of Carnival? Yes.

That experience is the reason I looked for and found this forum. It is the only way to find out things - Carnival darn sure didn't let us know about changes. Perhaps enough folks called them on it that they are changing their ways.

This may not be of any help, but our favorite itinerary out of New Orleans is on the Glory. It has port calls at Roatan, Belize City and Cozumel. It is seven days. The reason we like this one is first Roatan, and second Belize City. Two places we love at Roatan are Gumbalimba park and Maya Key. At the park they have parrots and monkeys that are fantastic - semi wild - hand raised - not in cages but hang around because they are cared for. You can get as up close and personal with the parrots and monkeys as you want. Maya Key for a nice relaxing day. As for Belize City, there are interesting river tours and several Maya ruin tours. Both places also have some great water activities. As for Cozumel, it is good for buying silver jewelry and alcohol while also having some great water activities.

5 minutes ago, wkucrprez said:

 

That's correct... We in the "me society" will be sans mask (Can't wait for my second Horizon post Covid  cruise next month!). That confirmed... I would be happy to wear a wristband designating my vaccination status. All for Carnival doing that.  I can virtue signal with everyone else that I "followed the rules" and got the jab.

 I'm not wearing the wristband unless there is also a ribbon. Can't have half virtue - it is all or none.