anyone4cruisin

On 3/27/2022 at 7:00 PM, archer_310 said:

 

3. No garbages - ANYWHERE.  This was a big peeve.  If you wanted to throw something out that wasn't recyclable, good luck on finding somewhere other than your cabin to do it.

4. No where to put used dishes.  Other cruises have had places to discard plates, cups, utensils, etc so that they can be retrieved by the staff.  There was no where on the Mardi Gras to do this.  You had to find a table that someone had been eating at to get rid of something.  As a result, glasses, plates, etc. were being left everywhere on the ship - elevators, stairs, etc.  It was a terrible look.

 

Your garbage and dishes comments resonated with me. For many years, Carnival’s lack of trash cans in public spaces were welcome because there was ALWAYS a Carnival employee quickly removing the trash and guests didn’t have to view potentially unsightly trash cans. I used to joke that it felt like an invisible Carnival employee was following me as my trash would disappear before I even had finished putting it down. 

In more recent years, food and trash has been sitting on unattended tables and odd public spaces (elevators, hallways, stairways,etc) when it used to never in the past, and for increasingly longer periods of time. This is probably due to the decrease in staff which is a whole other topic.

Perhaps Carnival needs to rethink and provide public trash cans.

20 minutes ago, gardn198 said:

Didn't a fully vaccinated Princess ship just arrive at port full of Covid cases? ALL of my vaccinated extended family had Covid at Christmas too.

What exactly constitutes “full of Covid cases”? Princess has not released numbers and we shouldn’t speculate. Wait for the facts.

Information regarding age to travel alone above is inaccurate.

The minimum age to travel alone is 21. And there is an exception on that rule for legal marriages and military personnel.

https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2544
 

And I agree that it’s primarily the shorter cruises, 3-4 days, that may have more of a party atmosphere. But that applies any time of the year.

On 10/9/2021 at 11:18 AM, L1211 said:

Our last night service in the lobby was was equally as terrible.  The SAME server, Aime, who confiscated our cards because she claimed we had not been to our Muster Drill, although we showed her in the app where we were all cleared, was working.  We asked for a chocolate martini but hold the vodka.  It was

for My mother and she didn’t want that much alcohol.  We were told “I cannot alter any recipe” by Aime.  Without vodka, it was a shot of Bailey’s and a shot of chocolate liquor.  We are flexible and crafty. Ok, we will take those two shoots and a glass of ice.  She was oddly not happy, so she lef let us to stand there and go wait on ANYONE that she could. When she had no one left but us (it was about 11:30) she had to come back around to us. Now, she  wanted my 80 y/o mother with mobility issues to come to the bar.  She was sitting in the lobby bar area, in direct line of sight, only a few feet away. Aime did provide the components to the “altered” drink that she simply could not make herself but was oddly upset about it.  Why did she care???  She was a standout sour server - in a class of her own.  The rest of the team was simply DEAR !! they were gracious, how can we help, what can we do, let us serve you professionals.  

I am sorry that you had such a difficult experience with Aime. I was on the same cruise and thought Aime was wonderful and I noted how friendly and professional she was in our survey. 

On 9/10/2021 at 9:26 AM, jam19872016 said:

Well it is official, sleep is not my friend this cruise. I don't really feel tired so I guess I am getting all the sleep I need.

 

The Lido was super busy this am.  Felt like embarkation day and i did have trouble finding a spot without taking a large table just for myself. I can't imagine what this ship looks like at 100% capacity.

 

The bowls were the same so I went to guys. This is the prime time turkey.

 

 

This grew on me the more I ate and was pretty good 👍 I still prefer the plain Joe I had the other day.

 

There was a small buffet and omelet station at the seafood shack that was not being used. There were no issues with lines inside but when this ship is full I bet this would be a great spot to go that is not busy.

 

Pizzeria was serving breakfast pizza. It didn't look appealing and honestly the pizza here is something I eat after too much to drink not first thing in the am although I do love a good breakfast pizza.

Just noticed you had “Prime time Turkey” at Guys. I didn’t realize they were now serving turkey burgers. That’s great!

My husband hand carried his CPAP onto the Breeze recently (July 21). No problems with that.

Carnival asks that you not pack them.

https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3372/~/cpap-machines

Thanks for the review. Did you have to wear masks outdoors at Half Moon Cay?

Hi! Not certain if this has been addressed, but is the Aft pool on the Sunrise Adults Only? Am hoping so after hearing how small the Serenity Area is.

Thanks!

Thank You for the incredibly nice compliments!

DH thinks I should relay the importance of these pictures. The story is that our actual wedding photos were terrible! The photographer had bought a new flash that he had never tried and this was 25 years ago - no digital previews:loudcry:. So our indoor weddings photos are very very dark and grainy. The photographer felt so bad he gave my parents their money back along with the negatives. This time, we were going to get good photos! :hearteyes:

I'm so glad you had a great experience. We were appalled at the prices - $2,000 for our book and 30 photos on a thumb drive. When we said we couldn't afford that we got the run around. We ended up purchasing four 8x10 photos for $50 each. It felt like high pressure sales to me. And the four we purchased were because we were told we could have two at a certain price. If they had given us a price sheet beforehand we could have decided. The experience was fabulous and the photos were perfect. But I didn't budget $2 grand for photos - although it was our 25th wedding anniversary too (and we cried like you!!!) and I was willing to pay more than we did. But I just didn't get enough options. It felt like they wanted you to spend $2,000 or you got nothing. In fact, the photographer pulled out a second sheet after we were adamant we couldn't spend $2,000.

 

When I booked online I had an option that said we could schedule pictures. I never saw that option again and I called Carnival who told me that never was an option. I know it was...

 

I was very pleased with our photos too....

Love your photo! Congrats on your 25th too!

I agree that it would be beneficial to let people know up front the pricing of the pictures. I had budgeted $1500 and ended up spending less BUT I understand what you are saying. The price sheet I saw had listings for individual 8x10s all the way up to $2k for the books, prints, canvas, and metal sheet. I just knew that I wanted the book :-)

Thank you so much for posting this!! I have been looking for details about this option. Do you happen to remember if there was an option to purchase just the flash drive with the pictures on it? And did you receive a copyright release along with the jump drive? Thank you! I'll definitely keep this in mind for future big events.

As some others have said, yes, we did receive a copyright release. I didn’t need it as I loaded all of the photos to our Dropbox and then to Shutterfly for the ones I wanted to print.

Also, I believe there was an option for the flash drive by itself but sadly don’t remember. The price we paid was for the 30 page book (which is truly incredible!) and the photographer “threw in” the flash drive, video, and canvas. It appears that each photographer has some freedom in how they sell things. I think if you know what you want (ie just the flash drive), the photographer is likely to work out a deal.

Hi! I wanted to provide my Dreams Studio experience from aboard the Carnival Pride this past August 2017. Prior to going, I searched EVERYWHERE for information but found very little, so I hope this helps others.

A little background. DH and I are long time loyal Carnival cruisers and we work diligently on making all of our friends and family cruise addicts too! And yes, I am also a long time Cruise Critic lurker. I love reading the posts, and only add when I think I have something additional to bring to the table.

To begin, the Dreams Studio was WONDERFUL from start to finish and then the product itself was AMAZING. Did it cost a lot? Well, yes and no. I’ll explain more later.

When we boarded the Pride, I found a photographer in the lobby promoting the Dreams Studio.(This was before Carnival added the Dreams Studio to the booking option online) I didn’t ask him about pricing as I was focused on selecting our studio time to coincide with our anniversary. DH and I were celebrating our 25th anniversary and I was DETERMINED to have pictures taken on the same day – like revisiting our wedding day pics :hearteyes: Anyway, not only did the photographer sign us up for the day I requested, he also offered a 2nd day of photos to be taken at Grand Turk. Of course-as there is no sitting fee and we love Grand Turk! I loved the idea of dressing up and walking around the ship on our actual anniversary and then the next day dressing more casually at the beach.

The photographer gave us a reminder card, and then another reminder card came to our cabin the day before our pictures were to be taken.

Pic Day #1 We arrived for our appointment and met our INCREDIBLE photographer, Edwin Garcia. He talked to us about what we were looking for and then he led us to the hallway outside the piano bar on the Pride and took our first pictures where the couches and candelabras are. We then went into the piano bar and took a few more pictures. I had promised myself to enjoy this experience with DH,and Edwin was amazing at allowing that to happen. DH asked if we could take some photos in the chapel which Edwin quickly agreed to. We then went to the incredible staircase outside the Taj Mahal (main lounge), but our favorite pics came from outside. It was super windy as we were traveling down the Atlantic and I was certain that we looked messy and terribly windblown only to find out later that these were our favorite pics! We had spent almost an hour with Edwin.

Pic Day #2 We met Edwin in the lobby and he gave us a VIP escort off the ship into Grand Turk. As you face the cruise terminal and EVERYTHING (including Jack’s Shack and Margaritaville) is to your left – we went to the RIGHT. Turns out there is a nice, quiet beach bar and we began taking pictures on a beautiful greenery filled pathway and then at some palm trees. We ended up at a small pier, at some rocks, and finally in the water. We had so much fun! I was literally grinning from ear to ear. DH said he could never be a super model because it was exhausting LOL! Edwin was with us again for almost an hour. After we were finished taking pictures, he told us that he would send us an appointment time to review everything on the last morning at sea. A few days later we received our appointment card.

Review Time – We were greeted by Edwin and brought into his office. There was a large TV screen hanging near his computer and then he seated us at the leather couch across the TV. DH and I had joked about the “hard sell” that was coming. ;) I told DH not to worry because I would NEVER spend money on pictures of us that I didn’t like. I mean really? Who would do that?

Edwin said that he had prepared a video of our pictures and then afterwards he would show us the mock up book that he made, and then we would get down to the money talk. Well….. the video started and my husband and I of 25 years began crying! The photos were amazing and captured EVEN MORE than we could have dreamed. Our bank account was immediately OPEN :loudcry: But then, Edwin showed us a 30 page book that was even more AMAZING (I know- I need to find some new superlatives:p) We wanted it ALL!

Honestly, this is where I feel bad. I truly wanted to provide anyone else looking at Dream Studios with the full picture of what happens but I was so emotional that I forgot to take a pic ofthe price sheet. I do apologize.

I had heard that it could be easily over $1000 so I had prepared my husband for that. We ended up happily (TRULY-both of us) spending $1200 for the 30 page book, a thumb drive with all 110 pics and video, and a canvas. Edwin had us pick out the exact photos that we wanted for the book and provide the wording for the book and the video.The only thing we didn’t purchase was prints which I have had beautifully done through Shutterfly. We were able to pick everything up later that night.

I know that some feel as though the Dreams Studio is overpriced but I disagree. Here’s why. The Dreams Studio is for special occasions and you spend big money on special occasions. Right? In major cities, sitting fees with experienced photographers can easily be $250 per hour, and I didn’t even pay a sitting fee. And the location and product was equal to an engagement shoot. Also, I never have that good of a tan in family pictures taken at home!:cool:

My last thought is this. We had an incredible time but there were only 2 of us and we were both adults. I have seen some amazing family Dreams Studio pictures but I do believe that the experience is not nearly as good when a large crowd or small children are involved.

Hope this has helped those looking for more Dreams Studio info.I’m happy to answer questions.

h1xmdu-yio4

Would you mind sharing the Fun Times? I haven't been able to find them for this particular cruise (Breeze 6 day Key West, Cozumel, Grand Cayman). Thanks!

At the coffee bar, have them crush fresh baked cookies into your milkshake. Heavenly!