kingoftheicedragons

We don't seem to get any of the survey emails at all, just the ones telling us not to arrive at port too early which we ignore.

I'm all about the ports and prefer to go to new places versus the ones we've been to...so any new ports are good. Also good would be the ports that aren't available that often or that are offered more during times when we can't cruise.

For instance, I'd love to do Cartagena..they offer that on a Journeys cruise of 13 days...not ideal, but I'd consider the Journeys cruise...but then it's usually the first couple of days of January. I don't understand why the Journeys cruise can't be a couple of weeks later, or Cartagena isn't that far from places like Aruba and Curacao...so Cartagena conceivably could be on an 8-day southern cruise.

I know I did a somewhat longer review of the Norwegian Dawn compared to Carnival back after our Dawn cruise, but I'm too lazy to go look for it and post a link to it right now.

Keep in mind--everything is subjective. Things one person like could drive others crazy.

In a nutshell, like others have said, the two lines are very similar.

Cabins (interior, at least), and even corridors seemed to be a little cramped on the Dawn. With anytime dining and upgrade dining choices, almost everywhere you go on Dawn, you will see screens with the restaurants and how busy each one is going to be at any particular time for that evening. The whole cruise seems to revolve around this issue which NCL seems to be very proud of. The MDR food was okay, but I think Carnivals MDR food is a little better. Carnival has a much better Lido experience IMHO with the various restaurants you find there...NCL's is 100% total buffet style food, including burgers and slices of pizza, and in my opinion the Lido food isn't anywhere near as good as it is on Carnival.

Staff on NCL seemed a little friendlier, and you will get to recognize some of the senior leaders going around making sure that things are perfect...something that I don't notice on Carnival.

I think NCL Dawn does an amazing job with the entertainment, much better than Carnival.

Love the Sunshine...she's my favorite ship. I put very little stock into ship reviews, and the posts about Sunshine actually in the forum are usually more positive.

I would do the Sunshine. The Sunshine is currently my favorite ship because of the many restaurant choices, the Serenity, and the activities on board. Most of the restaurants are complementary for lunch, and it has four (or is it five?) upgrade restaurant choices for dinner. It's been a couple of years since we were on Sunshine, but really can't think of too many bad things about her. Also, while I wasn't the most impressed with Grand Turk (although we're doing that port two years in a row), Aruba and Curacao are amazing ports and I would definitely do those ports again (and Dominican Republic as well, but it doesn't sound like your ship is going to that port).

Welcome to Cruising. You're about to become addicted.

I like having the ocean-view room for the light and the ability to see if we're still moving from the room. I also like interior rooms as well. For only $10 more, though, yes, I think the ocean-view room is a very good deal and would have done that upgrade as well.

Have some empathy man. Some people simply wanted to experience what you have had for years. Just even once. You absolutely cannot blame them. You tasted something they will not but since you did, you expect them to not care.

 

This is coming from someone who said coupons would be fine but I certainly empathise with those who will never get to have what you and others had. You guys can go on an on about how sucky the parties were and so forth but fact is, you tasted what was taken away from others who were on the same path or journey as you. Some of you smack of "I got or had mine, too bad so sad for you" Its not intentional but it comes across as that in a way.

 

We are happy for you that you got to enjoy, or not enjoy the Gold benefits and that you are going to continue with those benefits. I really am. BUT. Its pretty unfair of you and others to look down on folks who just wanted to experience what you did, as lame as it may be in reality, thats all some wanted. To experience what you did and some did for years. Is it really so hard for some of you to empathise with them?

 

I notice its mostly you guys who have had the perk for years who are looking down on those who just wanted what you had at the same level. There are some who are not that level, like me and don't all that much personally care, but just because I don't care that much, is no reason for me to tell the others tough crap and condescend to them.

 

To me its a thread for you and others to feel superior. You had what they almost had, so its easier to see it your way.

 

I thought it was ok for people to complain about a cruise line's policies here. Is it ok for members to crap on the members that criticize a company policy? (not you King, but many others) Evidently, yes.

I actually do feel bad for people who are losing out. Especially if they were sailing in a few months and then without notice finding out that something they were looking forward to isn't going to be there anymore. And especially bad for people who honestly cannot afford anything more than a 3 or 4 day cruise every other year or so.

I'd be disappointed if I was in their boat. I really would be. My wife would be fine with the coupon, she usually has one drink at the party and I end up finishing it for her, whereas I usually get 3 drinks at the party, so I'm not sure I'd be happy with the coupon. But it's not going to make or break my cruising experience. It would just mean I'm not to the level with that benefit yet. I do understand that to some, this could be seen like the carrot on the stick, and just about when you get the carrot (or the dollar bill from the insurance commercial), it gets pulled away from you and you have to keep going.

Nice to be so close to platinum, but prepare yourself to be possibly disappointed. Carnival has cut the gold level back so far, that the only way they can go now is to start chipping away at the platinum level. So maybe in due course platinum will be nothing much to crow about either. At the rate that Carnival cuts things, I dont place much faith in anything from them anymore. Hopefully I am way off, but time will tell.

I'm well aware that Carnival can and likely will cut back platinum perks in the future. While I'd be disappointed, there is nothing I can do about it. If they say that you don't become platinum until 100 days (not under consideration as far as I know), then it'll just mean about another three cruises to get there, or about three years. I know everyone loves getting perks and things for "free." Myself included. But that's not why I cruise. I'd still cruise if there wasn't a single perk to sailing Carnival over and over again. If Carnival said that they were keeping the levels but that they were meaningless because no one got anything, I'd be happy with that as well, and would still cruise on Carnival. I can't say that we'll be staying with Carnival exclusively anymore--not because of the perks or "cut backs" that have been done to keep cruising affordable, but because we like trying different ports and going to as many different ports as we can, and we've done most of the ports that we can easily go to with Carnival during the time we sail (we generally don't do repo cruises because of the time of year we sail, and I'd love to do a Journeys but we need to make sure we have enough vacation).

I don't understand cruisers who look at Carnival's loyalty program and make comments like "I'll never experience platinum" because it means having to go on x number more cruises over a time span of x number of years.

I'm from Minnesota, so we generally get a chance to go on one cruise per year. A couple of years, we did go on two. I've been cruising since 2007, and it includes a couple of shorter cruises (4/5 days) in there as well.

I never looked at the number of cruises or sea days and had the attitude that it sucks to be me or that Carnival didn't appreciate my business simply because it would take me a number of years to attain platinum status. I just knew that was the way it was. When Carnival switched from number of cruises to sea days, it actually meant we would have to take 11 (rather than 10) cruises to attain platinum which meant having to wait another year. While I wasn't happy, it wasn't worth getting all upset over.

So next year, after nine years of cruising, we will finally attain Platinum, assuming that nothing else changes. And never once did I complain that it would take so long because I like cruising and I knew that I would get there eventually.

Nothing on mine, either (Chrome), but I did notice for the first time (maybe it's always been like this) that on the main page if I'm logged in, I have large icon links pertaining to our upcoming cruise on the Breeze...one that says Make a payment now, one that says Explore Your Ship the Breeze, and one for the Fun Shops. So the icon (pictures) and links do pertain to me.

I'm getting a little nervous -

Having said all that - should I book Conquest or Sunshine for the October cruise.

Personally, I would book the Sunshine simply because I loved Sunshine...

I think the Conquest is a step down after the Sunshine, but everyone is going to have their own opinion. And my opinion is only really pertaining to a (perceived) lack of variety in regards to the food. That being said, it's still a Conquest class ship, and I would book on Conquest again if it was doing an itinerary that we wanted, and we would still have a lot of fun on the cruise.

When is the Breeze being moved to Texas? We are booked on the Breeze for next April out of Miami but haven't heard anything about it relocating to another port.....

I don't think it's moving to Texas until late in the year 2016 (November?) following a Journeys cruise.

Of course, Carnival can at any time cancel cruises or move the ship earlier and replace it with another ship. Our second Conquest cruise was actually originally booked on Freedom, but they changed ships after we booked from Freedom to Conquest.

To the people who say to use your ATM card once you get to Europe, do you have an ATM card with a chip in it? I ask, because I was in Europe (and notified the credit union that we would be there), and the card wouldn't work in the ATM machine (even tried a few times). I did have enough euros in cash that I got before hand to not have a problem in the end, but I was very careful with the cash I had on hand and didn't try the ATM any more. I do know that Europe is getting to the point where US ATM cards without the chip won't work.

After getting back, I did decide to get a credit card with a chip in it for the next time that we go.

Welcome to the world of cruising.

What cruise line and ports are you going with?

Sometimes the price to do independent tours is a huge savings over what Carnival offers. Sometimes, it's not. If price is comparable (I've seen it almost even on occasion), I'll usually go with Carnival's excursion. I know from experience that private excursions are usually better, but Carnival's excursions are much less stressful.

Thanks for all of your input.

Whether the cruises are open loop or closed loop doesn't matter to me, we're going to have airfare expense anyway, and two one-way flights aren't much different from round trip (based on two previous open-loop cruises we've done).

There are some cruises in January 2017 that go to places that I'd like to go to on other lines, but we'd probably wait to book them anyway. Right now, I'm just in the dreaming phase of the 2017 cruise anyway.

Does anyone know how well the longer Journeys cruises are selling? There are several that I would like to do, but it unfortunately won't happen in 2016. I would love to go to some of the ports that these go to, but very few cruises in the time frame that we cruise (mid-January through mid-February) go to these ports (Martinique, Grenada, Dominica, Trinidad & Tobago). How likely do you think it is for Carnival to continue to offer these longer itineraries to some of these ports in 2017?

I don't know how often it really is. Some ports are more likely to be missed than others.

We have 78 days at sea, and we have yet to miss a port. Grand Cayman came close on one occasion due to wind/high waves in Georgetown, but our ship was able to go to a back-up location (probably only room for one ship there) instead, allowing us to still go to Grand Cayman.

We usually sail the Caribbean in January/February.

February 2007--Carnival Victory out of Miami going to Costa Maya, Ocho Rios, and Grand Cayman. Afterwards, we did an excursion to the Everglades.

We loved it, but since it had taken us a couple of years to save up the money for the cruise, we didn't think we'd be taking another one soon. Of course, instead of not cruising, we ended up just taking shorter cruises for the first couple of years after we had started cruising.

Even if you're going to remove tips and then tip your wait staff directly, how are you planning on doing it? Even just for dinner, you will have your head waiter and two assistants. And then in a restaurant, you tip based on the amount of the meal. How much do you think the meal is worth? If we assume $25/per person for each meal, that would be $50 for a couple. That would be a tip of $7.50 each night. So, do you give each of your wait staff that $7.50 every night, or do you try to split it up? And how much do you give each of them? Like has been commented before, you don't just leave the tip on the table, you hand it to them directly. So then you'd need to try to find all three members of your wait staff...it would be a lot of hassle to do this. If you leave your tips alone, Carnival will make sure that the appropriate people get the tip that has been allocated to them. And if you try to figure out how much you should tip, what if you're actually giving them less than what they would get if you had left your automatic tips set up? You might think you're being generous when in reality you're not.

We very rarely eat in the MDR for breakfast because it is such slow service. We would go to the brunch once per cruise as we had the drink coupons, but otherwise you spend a good portion of your morning (over an hour) going to have breakfast/brunch.

Some of the food is good, but since I don't have many complaints about the breakfast buffet on Lido or the breakfast burritos that you can get from Blue Iguana are really good and a lot quicker, it just makes it more convenient to get breakfast up on deck.

Okay, I haven't sailed the Breeze yet (we booked her for January's Eastern itinerary. I have sailed Conquest doing the same itinerary that you're looking at the Breeze for (Grand Turk, Dominican Republic, Aruba, Curacao).

About the Conquest: There is no Serenity area, which for us isn't make or break, but perhaps would have been nice. I see you have also sailed Sunshine, and have sailed other ships on Carnival since then. We have only sailed Conquest after having sailed Sunshine. I was a bit disappointed by food choices on Conquest after having sailed Sunshine. There is an empty food station at the aft of the ship which may or may not be used only for the late night snacks--otherwise it's wasted space--no Mongolian Wok, no Tandoor, no Italian...there are so many things that they could have put here but didn't. Yes, there's still Fish N chips, pizza, the deli, Guy's, Blue Iguana, and the buffet, but I would have liked another offering.

So, if the show down is all about ships, I'd do the Breeze over the Conquest.

For ports, even before the cruise, I knew that I wanted Dominican Republic on my itinerary. Sometimes you'll see that DR will surface on countries to be careful in, but I would say don't let that deter you as the area you will be in as probably just as safe as any other Caribbean island (things can happen, you just need to be aware and smart). At first glance, there didn't seem to be any excursions that were really eye catching. La Romana doesn't have much for "must see" stops actually in the city. We did a drive through of the city at the end of our excursion, and it just seemed to be like any other small town in the Caribbean--meaning not as rich as American cities and a little run down--still, I would have enjoyed being able to stroll and explore it. (edit: when I google La Romana, it is apparently slightly larger than my home city: 130,000 inhabitants, and DR's third largest city). We went to Altos de Chavon on a tour, and we really loved it. It's not typical DR--it's a manufactured town made to look European and in/near the resort area of DR.

I probably would have enjoyed more time in Curacao to explore the downtown area a little more (we did a tour that went to the Curacao distillery and the caves). However, the fact that there is still more to do there just gives me an excuse to want to go back to Curacao again in the future. :)

So, DR was a stop I was looking for, if nothing more than to say I was there. As a result, we had fun there, and I'm glad that we went and wouldn't have given it up.

See, from my perspective a lot of people here are out of touch with reality.

 

Is there something offensive about a young man in good shape wearing a t-shirt and jeans to eat dinner? What about a young woman in good shape wearing a tank top and jeans?

 

I'm not saying any of you in particular would ACTUALLY be offended. I'm just saying that it seems like you are in a different class that isn't aware of the greater world around you.

 

Again this is just my opinion (and I know generalizing is dangerous), but I find it comical that so many people in this environment enjoy superficial decoration as an addition to the "dining experience".

I don't know if people here are out of touch with reality, and I think that they've been helpful with trying to tell you about cruising, and with Carnival.

Dining in the Main Dining Room--you can wear almost anything but dirty rags and beach wear. People have tried explaining to you that it just doesn't matter. If you want to wear tshirt and jeans to dinner in the main dining room--do it (at least on Carnival you can get away with this). Most won't be that casual, but some will. I have on occasion, though I prefer to at least put a button down shirt on over my tshirt. Now, on elegant night, you shouldn't wear the tshirt. That's when you should wear your "Sunday best" whatever that may be--and that will be different to different people. Nice "dress jeans" (not faded/frayed/etc) and polo shirt could even be acceptable if it's "elegant" to you. To not be allowed into the MDR on a Carnival ship, you'd have to be wearing something that probably would be frowned upon in most sit down restaurants on land.

We cruise because we enjoy it, and I think it's actually a little more affordable than a land vacation. We tend to be very frugal, so we don't go overboard with what we spend--in life in general, or on a ship. You can make a cruise as cheap or as expensive as you want it. You can spend a lot more money on a cruise, or you can spend no extra money. It's just up to you. Cruising--especially on Carnival--isn't pretentious at all. Carnival is a very relaxed, casual environment. But if you want to keep on with your preconceived notion that it's something more than what it is, you'd better not get on the ship.

As others have mentioned, there aren't really other "hidden" fees, though the daily gratuities for those who don't expect it could seem like a hidden fee.

Generally, when you buy drinks, there is an automatic tip thrown in as well, so drinks will be higher than you expect them to be.

Norwegian puts a lot of emphasis on their specialty dining. You don't have to eat in the specialty restaurants and just eat in the buffet area, either of the MDRs, or the Dawn does have another restaurant closer to the atrium area that is also included as well. I believe that Bamboo (Asian) is also now going to be free as well (not sure when that starts). You will see lots of monitors around the ship that tell you the status of how full the specialty dining is during the evening hours, though.

The spa and some fitness classes cost extra, maybe a few other activities as well, but most activities are free. You may want to budget a little bit of money for the ship gift store, too.

Like someone said, you can get on the ship and not spend anything other than the daily gratuity, but I wouldn't count on it. Chances are, you will spend something extra. Maybe not a lot, though. On most cruises, we spend less than $150 other than gratuities, and sometimes we spend well under that amount.

Ship excursions tend to be higher priced than what you can do not on a ship excursion (not always, though). Explore options for excursions, both what the ship offers and with private excursion companies to see what there is to do at each port and how much you may spend.

While we usually sail Carnival, we did go with NCL once for the itinerary they offered. Everything with cruises tend to be subjective. I found NCL to be very similar to Carnival. Both lines have things that they seemed to do well. I think the cabins on Carnival are nicer than what we had on NCL. NCL does entertainment better, and they do a better job at having their senior officers interact and be visible to the passengers. NCL had more variety on their buffet, but the quality wasn't as good. Carnival has more places on the ship to get food that's included than NCL did. MDR food was about the same. NCL does tend to put a lot more focus on their specialty/upcharge dining. We only went to the Asian restaurant on the Dawn, and the food there was about the same quality as what we've come to expect on Carnival as to what is included.