JenSDCA

Ship - Radiance 

Deck - Verandah 

Stateroom # - 8286

Stateroom Category – 4G interior 

Starboard or Port Side - port

Quiet Stateroom? (With comments on problems) – mostly. The music from the atrium does reach this cabin, but our sons did not find it bothersome. 

Was stateroom a connecting stateroom? - no

Balcony View - Give comments on view, noting if location of any obstructions was an issue. – n/a

Balcony Size? Normal or oversized for class? - n/a

Was wind a problem? - n/a

If an aft cabin, was soot a problem? - n/a

Any specific problems with this cabin? - no

Any other comments? - it was comfortable, just be mindful if you are noise-averse and like to go to sleep early. 

Ship - Radiance

Deck - 8 Verandah

Stateroom # - 8339

Stateroom Category – 8D

Starboard or Port Side - starboard 

Quiet Stateroom? (With comments on problems) – not really. There was a gap all the way around the cabin door, which allowed all the sounds from the hallway to come right on in. Every ding of the elevator as well. 

Was stateroom a connecting stateroom? - no

Balcony View - Give comments on view, noting if location of any obstructions was an issue. – 

No obstructions, lovely view

Balcony Size? Normal or oversized for class? - normal size

Was wind a problem? - no. 

If an aft cabin, was soot a problem? - n/a

Any specific problems with this cabin? - other than the door, no. 

Any other comments? - ambulatory accessible cabin, which means there’s a fold-down shower seat. 

4 hours ago, salty dingo said:

You may find them during the school year also. My Feb. 18th cruise on Panorama was chock full of kids

Lots of schools have off the week of Presidents Day, because so many families were taking trips then (fewer missed school days). In our school district we just call it ski week. 
 

Gladys, from my (somewhat limited) experience, I’d pick August. Many areas are back in school, many colleges have started back up, though not all obviously. Last year we took a weeklong cruise at the end of May, forgetting how many schools/colleges had already wrapped up. Soooo many kids!

2 hours ago, SDPadreFan said:

Personally - we've done CHEERS on a 10 day Alaska cruise and we now know we are just not CHEERS people. We can still get drinks whenever we want. Take 2 bottles of "our choice" wine on the ship with us and that covers us for 4 dinners. If we spent $600 on drinks (on the ship) between the 2 of us on a typical 7-10 day cruise, that would be a surprise to us.

 

Fancy Dinners. We've done fancy dinners before, but to be honest, put a big bowl of mac & cheese and some fall off the bones ribs and I'm a happy camper.

 

We do excursions when they interest us.

 

Bottom Line - if it was a cruise we'd done before. I'd save the $1600 and go on another cruise! We live in San Diego, and even then - a day on a cruise ship is still better.

This! Now if only Carnival would resume sailing out of San Diego!

But if I absolutely had to choose, I personally would do excursions. I had one drink per day on our recent cruise so Cheers had no value to me personally. I would prefer option C. Stay onboard or do my own wandering in lieu of excursions, and use the $1600 on another cruise. 

Is your Carnival agent able to get to the bottom of this? That’s who I’d be requesting to act on your behalf and find out. If it is the chargeback, would paying back the money get you off the list? Or is the door closed? The fact that you’re able to sail in Princess shows that you’re not banned on all Carnival-owned lines, so maybe there’s hope. 

Thank you for your open minded comparison. My family absolutely loves seeing comedy every night it’s offered, so that is something for us to make note of. 
 

As far as the door tags for room service breakfast, we were told that too many tags were being swiped or altered while hanging, and that pranksters were hanging order tags on doors with Do Not Disturb signs. Perhaps they should have a way to order in the app the night before. Some people had luck calling in their order the night before, but we never reached a human in our attempt to do so. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Just got off Panorama with my family. All 4 of us have iPhone 14s. 3 of us could send and receive iMessages at the beginning of the cruise; at the end of the cruise 3 of us could not. It didn’t matter to us as we’d paid for the $5 chat feature in the Hub app, but it was just odd. I continued to receive push notifications for my Ring, but couldn’t iMessage after day 3 or 4. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Ship - Panorama

Deck - 7

Stateroom # - 7269

Stateroom Category – 8C, balcony, ambulatory accessible 

Starboard or Port Side - starboard 

Quiet Stateroom? (With comments on problems) – not consistently. The corner of the cabin by the balcony door was squeaky throughout. The balcony partitions rattled like crazy, until my spouse rigged up a fix. Noise from people getting off the elevator was minimal; however the proximity to Sky Zone and the teen club meant groups of teens hanging out on the stairs, and they were rather noisy. 

Was stateroom a connecting stateroom? - no

Balcony View - Give comments on view, noting if location of any obstructions was an issue. – no obstruction. Balcony overlooks deck 5, so you don’t look straight down to the water, but not an annoyance. Do note that this section of deck 5 is a smoking area, in case that might bother you. I’m pretty sensitive to smoke and it didn’t bother me at all, except for one guy’s nightly cigar. 

Balcony Size? Normal or oversized for class? - normal

Was wind a problem? - yes, on all sea days. Partitions rattled like crazy; they really should put something so that it’s not metal on metal. 

If an aft cabin, was soot a problem? - n/a

Any specific problems with this cabin? - already mentioned. 

Any other comments? - room is designated ambulatory accessible, so it has a fold-down shower seat. My spouse is an amputee, so this is an important safety feature. However, for some reason the door to the bathroom only opened about 75° and the step up is at least 6”, so him getting into and out of the bathroom when his leg was off was challenging. Beware if this might be problematic for you or your partner. Also, cabin door did not close properly if you were gentle; it looked closed but one push opened it. A solid yank after closing was needed. Many others in my Facebook group commented on having the same issue. 

I agree with the others that you will still need some of the features of a handicap cabin. However, if you are feeling bad about taking one, there is the option of an ambulatory accessible cabin. Those have grab bars in the bathroom and a fold down seat in the shower, but they don’t provide the wider doorways, and there is still a lip at the bathroom door. If there’s any risk of tripping, I’d consider staying put. We will be in an ambulatory accessible cabin in May, I’ll have a review after. 

My son will be so disappointed that they no longer have the mac n cheese on the sea day brunch menu, that’s one thing he still mentions every time cruising is discussed. 

On 1/20/2020 at 8:13 AM, HakunaMatada said:

do they still offer the mac n cheese with bacon? I don't see it on that menu

Uh oh, my son is going to be sorely disappointed!

Can you change your spa appointment time? Bump it back an hour to ease your stress?

On our Glory sailing, we watched in the sports bar. Caveat: the sports bar is open noon to midnight on sea days, and not while in port. When we stopped in Grand Cayman, for example, the bar opened at 3, when we sailed. Considering that most of the games are early in the day, that meant that we could only watch on sea days. As always, ymmv.

They did broadcast World Cup games in the sports bar on our Glory 6/16 sailing. That said, the sports bar wasn't open all hours, and my men only got to watch games on the two sea days as the bar was not open while we were in port, and even on sea days it didn't open until noon.

Is the finals day a port day? Then you might want to find a bar in port. If it's a sea day, you might miss the first hour. And be prepared for a crowd, the place was full for the games we did get to watch.

Thanks for the tip about contacting JH re anniversaries!

We celebrated our 25th onboard Glory last week, and he had delivered a ship on a stick, chocolate covered strawberries, and a bottle of champagne. Quite the lovely surprise!

One and a half!!!! Sailing Glory this Saturday - woot!

Maybe a pricey glass of wine or champagne?

With medical needs, I would suggest (if you have the time before sailing) getting a letter from the doctor, then contacting Carnival's accessibility department. Perhaps they can either obtain an acceptable brand and have it sent to your stateroom, or else make a special exemption and allow you to bring a sealed case or two. Just a thought.

Check with your school district. Ours permits Off-Campus Independent Study (OCIS) for such a case. They don't much like it, but they still do. I suspect they get some sort of state funding that is less than for a student in the classroom. We did it once, for our first cruise, and they sent our boys a packet of material to cover. Granted, my boys were younger, but unless your stepson is struggling or behind, it shouldn't present a problem. And while you're at it, complain to them about the change, tell them you booked specifically around the scheduled break, and cannot change the booking (they don't need to know why, that it's a financial issue). If the district is willing to do OCIS, convince his mom that no work will be missed. Good luck!

I used the search forum feature and this pulled up very easily.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2588204&highlight=Room+service+menu

Thanks, I could not get there. Searching on my phone in general does not work.

My son sends his thanks as well. :)

Hello, my teenage son is curious about the free room service menu. Attempts to search for it have brought up all sorts of results, but no room service menu. Does anyone have a picture of the room service menu?

TIA!

Thank you Reerun25!!

I have witnessed many kids grow up witnessing the examples set by their parents. If the parents act with integrity and follow rules, their children tend to do the same. The parents who cut in the pickup line at school, who text while they drive, who generally don't follow rules that they don't wish to follow, those are the parents whose kids grow up breaking the rules as they see fit - and so often the parents wonder how their kids turned out that way. So if you feel it is best for your kids to pick and choose the rules they follow, then enjoy those balcony smokes. Trust me, kids absorb everything. But we all work hard to pay for our travels, and if your cig blows onto my balcony and triggers my or my son's asthma, you're damn sure going to get that knock on the door.

We frequently find it cheaper to book two rooms with 2 in each, rather than all 4 of us in one. The extra space and bathroom are a huge plus :)