dfwhgsfan

We sailed on the Prima over New Years and it was our first cruise on NCL.  Our previous cruises were on Carnival and 1 on Princess.  We have always liked Carnival and never had any issues with them, but I had still wanted to try NCL.  The Prima is a new ship and was beautiful, but some of the venues were very small.  There were no dedicated  dance clubs or karaoke bars on this ship, like Carnival had.  I liked the entertainment on Carnival better than I did NCL, but I think the buffet was better on NCL.  I will say, it was nice not being hounded all the time about pictures on NCL like Carnival does.  The only time anyone asked to take our picture was in one of the specialty restaurants.   We really liked the food in the MDR on NCL and we always liked it on Carnival as well.  However, on the Prima, the menu in the MDR did not change over the 9 day cruise.  Luckily, there many items we liked, so it was fine.  But we always liked looking to see what was on the menu every day on Carnival.  We had a balcony cabin like we usually do  and it was very nice on the Prima.  The bathroom was more spacious than any we ever had on Carnival, but there were no towel animals at night.   Overall, I would say NCL and Carnival are comparable.  Like I've always said, is there really a bad cruise??

We boarded the Valor last Monday. Our check in time was 12:00-12:30. We got there at 11:55 and they made us get in the early/late line. This line was longer than the on time line, but we were still on board and eating by 12:20 or so.

When we did the Chef's table on Princess several years ago, my wife doesn't drink wine, so she paid a lower price than I did. I thought it was the same when we did it on the Liberty as well. A lower price if you don't drink the wine. It could have changed though.

What an awesome review. I saw you ate about as much as I did and a lot of the same things. We got off the Valor yesterday and loved our trip. So there was some rust on the outside of her, it's a ship, it doesn't effect a thing on the inside. I'm sure it will be painted over in due time. I thought they have done a great job in maintaining her. There were 12 of us, with 6 first time cruisers and everyone had a great time.

Nice review Book Dragon, we were on the same sailing and I'm getting ready to write my review as well. My brother in law are retired AF as well and I'm sorry I missed seeing you guys at the Tuesday veteran's get together. I always try to talk and find fellow AF folks. Talked to 2 on the Tuesday meeting, but we missed the other get togethers on Friday. Glad you guys enjoyed yourselves. Cruising is the best!

We got off the Valor yesterday and they had the Quest game on Thursday night. Not sure if I'm sorry I missed it or not. My 25 year old daughter and her boyfriend and their team got 2nd place. My wife and I were in the casino and we tried texting them on the Carnival app and that's one of the times it didn't work, so we didn't know where they were. We heard about it and saw some videos the next day. Sounds like things got pretty raunchy to me. Heard there were naked body parts etc.. up on stage. TJ was our cruise director and he is young and likes to have fun, so it sounds like his Quest games aren't to be missed if you aren't easily offended.

Don't know, my daughter just booked a 5 day on Valor out of Galveston leaving March 11th a few hours ago. I will say I don't like the way you can't search for specific dates on Carnival's new website.

We did the Chef's Table a couple of weeks ago on the Liberty and the chef said they have had the same menu for a couple of years now, but they were in the process of changing it. He didn't say when he thought it might be changed though.

We booked the pass through "Resort for a Day" and it was just fine. We got there early enough and had no trouble getting a chair and umbrella. However, there was a lot of seaweed the day we went, but there was a tractor there going and raking it up. Like a previous post said, they don't take cash, so make sure you have a debit/credit card and it is expensive. It was almost $60 for my wife and I, but that did include 2 pina coladas which were $10 each.

The Fun Times states, no flip flops, shorts, baseball hats, bathing suit attire, jeans and mens sleeveless shirts. On our recent cruise on Liberty, I think I saw all of the above in the MDR, including the baseball hat. I think that's the only thing that bothers me and maybe it was just my upbringing. I was never allowed to wear a cap to the dinner table at home and would certainly never wear one on a cruise. I'm not going to judge someone wearing jeans or flip flops in the MDR, just the baseball cap.

We did the Chef's table last week on the Liberty and it was amazing and more than worth the $75! You should email eventplanning@carnival.com about 2 weeks before you sail and give them your name, ship, date of sailing, booking number, cabin number and number of seats you want. They say they will let you know a couple of days before sailing if you get a seat or not, but we didn't find out until day 2 of our cruise. I believe ours had the Chef's table on 2 nights. The galley tour was really cool, only thing is, I wish we could have seen the dishwashing area. Having washed dishes in my younger days, I would love to see how that part of the operation looked.

We just did the 7 day Southern Carib on Liberty and lobster was offered the first formal night at no charge, but on the 2nd formal night, you had to pay $20 surcharge if you wanted it.

My rule of thumb: If it doesn't fit in one carry on, it's not going.

 

Packing mistakes? If traveling with multiple family members, putting all clothes for one person in one bag. Instead, cross-pack. Make sure that there's a bit of clothing for every person in each bag. That way, if one bag is lost for any reason, one person is not left with nothing to wear.

I wish my wife and I had seen this before our Liberty cruise last week! My wife packed and put her items in 1 suitcase, mine in the other, along with our bathroom bag and bathing suits. As our luck would have it, AA lost my bag and we didn't get it until 3 days later in Barbados! Nothing like going to formal night in jeans!

Melting Chocolate cake, friendly, hard working staff, great food, melting chocolate cake, awesome itineraries, melting chocolate cake, Guy's burgers,

24/7 pizza, melting chocolate cake!!!

The Captain is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't and is in a now win situation. If he docked and one person got injured on the gangway, the person sues Carnival, the media finds out and blows the whole thing out of proportion. Then if he doesn't dock, he has a ship of pissed off people. I personally prefer him to look out after the safety of his passengers and crew, then at least I know I live to sail another day!

I guess I've been lucky so far. 4 cruises and no missed ports.

We were just on the Liberty and they called me Mr. George, never, used my last name. As far as the safe goes, we didn't know not to use our s&s card, so that's what we used. It took us a few times to realize that if I used my S&S card to lock the safe, we had to use the same one to open it. I guess I could have used any other card with a magnetic strip, but didn't try one. We just thought you were supposed to use the S&S cards.

We were on at that time as well and never heard anything. I hope everything was ok. We had an aft cabin and I saw the guest services guy go out the gate like he was looking for someone and came back later, but didn't have anyone with him. Never heard about what happened with them either.

Hi Tripp!

What an awesome review!! This time next week, my DW and I will be sailing away on this same trip for our 25th anniversary. My middle daughter is in her sophomore year at University of North Texas getting her degree in hospitality management like Trippette. My daughter wants to study abroad, but I told her she should look and see if she could do an internship with Carnival.

I was hoping you had done some of the same excursions I have booked, but didn't see any that were the same, but it sure looked like you guys had a blast. I bet you guys are a hoot to cruise with!

I'm like you, I do all the research, booking tours and reading the reviews and my wife just comes along. However, she is the one who picked out this itinerary.

We love to snorkel and have 2 snorkel trips (St. Thomas, St. Lucia) and a discover scuba trip planned(Barbados). Would you recommend the GoPro4 for underwater pictures? I saw you have 2 underwater cameras and wondered which camera you used for your snorkel pictures as they were wonderful.

Thanks

George

Carnival Celebration Jan 01 for a 5 day out of Galveston for our 10th anniversary cruise. Big Tex was our CD and he was great! They played Come Sail Away by Styx as we set sail. Every time I hear that song, I think about that trip and the fun we had.

Best itinerary and most beautiful ship to celebrate such a milestone. This itinerary offers plenty of beach, do not miss scuba diving in St. Lucia, whether an excursion from the ship or on your own try to do superman's flight at the bottom of the pitons. (is a drift dive on the wall, as a novice diver I would advise to stay close to the reef and watch your depth (stay above or close to DM) it is absolutely thrilling. The other do not miss is diving with Pro Divers St. Kitts (outside excursion, they will pick you up at the port, great chance to see some sharks) ;)

 

Holly again, thanks for the memories. Fair winds and Following seas~~~

 

Tony

Hi Tony,

Thanks for the advice. I'm looking to do 2 dives while on this trip with one of them definitely being in St. Lucia around the Pitons. On our last cruise with Princess, I booked all of our excursions on our own and will probably do the same this time.

Holly, Thanks so much for taking the time to post this great review with such awesome pictures! My wife and I are cruising on Liberty Jan 3rd for our 25th wedding anniversary and can't wait! This will be our first time to any of these ports, so we are quite anxious. We have an aft extended cabin, so I'm hoping we will have some nice views. We both love to snorkel and your snorkeling pictures were great. We are taking SCUBA lessons before the trip to get certified so we can take a dive or 2 while on this trip as well as a snorkel trip.

They had this last week on the Crown, though because of the weather, they had to move it to Club Fusion. It was fun. They gave out leis and everyone danced and had a good time. Did a conga line through the bar among other things. Definately would have been more fun if it was outside though.

We sailed on Carnival Celebration for our 10th anniversary cruise in 01 out of Galveston. I remember thinking this ship was huge, until we docked in Cozumel next to the Celebrity Millenium!! Now that was a huge ship! Not compared to the ships now, but it was in 01. We had a great time and would love to cruise more, but with 3 kids it's tough to find something affordable and be able to work around school, sports etc...