JMKreno

We booked the Burbank flight on Thursday night for 14000 points which was a steal IMHO. We are going to stay in Glendale Thursday night (Hyatt free with points) and likely rent a car and go to Hollywood (Amoeba Music) and do the Warner Bros Studio tour. Then likely head south to San Pedro in the afternoon, drop off the rental in San Pedro and stay in that area since the Long Beach Marathon is that weekend (we'll avoid Long Beach city). Then uber to pier in the AM early (again, avoiding Long Beach proper). Will figure out the flights back! There are more options but the flights to BUR were well timed and super good value.

Need cruisers opinion. Family of 4 cruising on the Carnival Firenze in October out of Long Beach. There is a fare sale today with Southwest where I can get flights into Burbank on Thursday night (leave on Saturday) for only 14000 points + fees for 4 people (I can cover with existing points a small transfer from my Chase points). I would then book 2 nights at a Hyatt using my chase points (no hotel cost) in DTLA. The cost to shuttle between BUR, the hotel, and then hotel to pier, and then back to Burbank is just over $205 right now through Prime Time shuttle for 4 in a van (perfect size). The flight back from Burbank is at 345pm which seems perfect and would only cost about $300 with credits I have with SW. Flying into LAX or LGB are right around $1100 for 4 plus I still need to book a room and shuttle (though cheaper) and the times out are much later (6pm). My total cost using Burbank would be around $600 with fees with 2 nights of hotel and about 30k chase points (I have 70k at the moment). I am very familiar with the LA area and know Burbank is the furthest airport but time is something we have ample of to save a decent chunk of change. What is everyone's opinion of this?

Added argument for an excel class ship in LA, Royal is expanding in LA by adding the Quantum of the Seas. https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2024/03/royal-caribbean-quantums-los-angeles-program-includes-44-departures/ I imagine the Panorama will move EAST and be replaced with the Excel class to compete with the Quantum and Firenze to compete with the Navigator. I really doubt this will happen but one can hope. I mean, it would honestly make sense on the West Coast - that is the port that they use to get that large west coast market exposed to cruising Carnival and an Excel Class would be a hell of an introduction!

We are seasoned cruisers and cruise out of Long Beach many times (our last 4 cruises have been to PV/Cabo/Mazatlan/Enenada/Catalina). We would love for an EXCEL class ship on the West Coast. At this point we go for the ship/cruise not the destinations. We have the Firenze planned for October of this year. That said, 2026-2028 is going to be a VERY big year for Southern California with the World Cup in NA in 2026, Super Bowl in 2027, and then the LA Olympics in 2028, there is going to be a lot of visibility to the region. Might make sense to ride the "wave" of publicity in the region. Who knows?

Your opinion very much mirrors our thoughts on the Oasis. The ship was AMAZING - nothing on Carnival compares. Central Park is probably my favorite place on any ship. Tons of amenities. That said, we had issues. 1) Seeing the ocean is next to impossible from most locations - I cruise so I can see water 2) for a ship of it's size the amount of "included" food was incredibly disappointing. El Loco fresh doesn't hold a candle to Blue Iguana and often was bland, overcooked, or sat too long under the heating lamp - never fresh. For 7 days I couldn't get a good burger anywhere - the buffet burger was a puck and I wasn't paying $10 for a burger at Johnny Rockets. When the buffet closed, it CLOSED. You couldn't go in at all, we love sitting in Lido on Carnival during non-meal times since there's tons of seating for games, etc. But not only that, Breakfast ended at 1130 or so, buffet closed and then the ONLY restaurant open was Cafe Promenade with just 3 sandwiches to pick from (all yuck) a couple salads, or cookies or Sorrento's. Even Central Park cafe "closed" to transition to lunch. So there was a period of 30 minutes there was almost no food. Evenings were worse! Between 3 and 6 there was almost no food! Buffet was closed, El Loco Fresh closed, Central Park Cafe close and once again back to Cafe Promenade or Sorrento's for the same options we head earlier. The deli on Carnival has a number of sandwiches, most premade but you can customize them if you want, the sandwiches on Royal were pre-made with no options to change. Royal REALLY pushes you to "buy" better food - our family palette is fairly simple - meat & potatoes type people. We've been comped free dinners at specialty restaurants and honestly were never so blown away that we felt they were "worth" visiting again. We ate at Giovanni's Table and honestly didn't find it any better than Macaroni Grill - and it was a free dinner and would have been disappointed to pay for it. To be fair, we also did "Cucina Del Capitano" on Carnival and had the same feeling - just not worth it to us. We don't eat stake, my wife is a vegatarian, and my kids would live on Chinese food if they could. Carnival winds hands-down. Disney wasn't any better - their casual options were even more limited - mostly to pool deck food that wasn't nearly as good as Carnival pool deck food. Sure, the dining room was better, but mostly due to the "rotational dining" and the theming/entertainment aspect. We still enjoyed Carnival food more. We just aren't that "sophisticated" Would we go on Royal again? Yes, but for the right price. Disney? Maybe not, but again, for the right price we would. We may try NCL some day, but the same thing seems to be that they "push" for specialty dining since they encourage you to get the dining package during booking. Also, add to that, my wife and I don't drink wine or much else (maybe a margarita, pina colada, or daiquiri now and then). For us, Carnival still works and will likely keep getting our money MOST OFTEN as long as they remain affordable. As for my kids? They are 8 and 16, and they still love Carnival even after the Oasis and Disney...we're even booked on the Venezia sister, Firenze in October. The area above the pool deck looks really nice, since we love Bocce Ball you'll likely fund us there most of the week!

Unfortunately we booked without our usual PVP. The rates were good (and now gone) for the cabins we wanted over the weekend and our PVP wasn't available. With the new rules, since we booked ourselves, the PVP can't assist.

Thought I saw something about this on the forums, but I can't find it. One of our cruising companions apparently created multiple VIFP accounts and carnival.com login is linked to the incorrect account (does not have her previous cruises nor any of her casino offers). We know her correct VIFP number from her last cruise. Is there a way to have carnival combine these accounts? She booked another cruise with the correct VIFP number (linked to our reservation) but we cannot manage it through her account. They aren't the most tech savvy and not sure they'll be able to resolve this themselves if we have them call in. Email would be an easier option but I cannot find an email where we can contact someone directly. Any guidance appreciated!

Our cost was roughly $60ish for a LyftXL (4 passengers & 4 big bags). Getting from LAX to Long Beach was no issue, but we had a hell of a time getting a Lyft or Uber back to LAX when we disembarked. We are even priority Lyft members and we ended up taking the free passport into Long Beach and grabbing a Lyft from town, seems drivers were avoiding the terminal for some reason. We took the Passport bus from our hotel to the ship the morning of our cruise since it was free and NO ONE was on it.

We live in NV and gamble occasionally and only gamble a little bit on ships, but apparently enough to get pretty good cruise offers. My wife likes the Wheel of Fortune climber and the Night Edition as well as the Firecracker game. One of our things is to find games where wilds go active on the 10th game and look through denoms to see if people have gotten the wild counts high but never finished the 10 spins and then finish them out, almost always pays out. However, this is a funny video for those who think they really have a leg up on casinos:

My mother in law is on a short cruise on the Navigator of the Seas from LA this weekend. Her and my father-in-law said they were going to see "A Man Called Otto" in the theater on-board but Royal wanted to charge them $11.99 each? I checked to verify if she meant her room, and she said no they were going to the theater? I was not aware of any other places to watch movies on-board besides the room or the pool deck. And on top of that, if that is actually something, do they really charge $11.99 for movies that are already out on streaming? I am going crazy trying to figure that out (there is more to that story than this, but this one confused me in particular). Is this something I was not aware of? I told them to save the $24 and watch it at home since it's already streaming lol Any idea?! Please tell me that she was just confused and this was for the in-room movies. Thank you!

Great photos! Did the Radiance last year and was pleasantly surprised at how good the 4-day actually was. We also saw TONS of dolphins, more than any other cruise. A pod followed us at night as well and there had to be dozens jumping, splashing, etc for hours the last evening of our cruise. Do you have a picture of the Royal ship? That is the Navigator of the Seas and my in-laws are aboard and would be cool to get a shot of their ship if you have one! Thanks in advance!

If that's the case, then I am a happy camper! Are we sure of this? I guess when I check-in it should show us as Priority? I assume they would also get to join me in the Platinum lounge in Long Beach? I DEFINITELY will get my $25 in the casino and the $5 arcade credit for my kids!

Unfotunately my kids don't have my same VIFP level so if I don't book myself in their room the rates go up quite a bit. Catch-22! Oh well, I was also turning platinum on this cruise but my wife is 1 week behind in points so I won't get to enjoy priority boarding either as I won't get on without the rest of the family (my youngest daughter could go with me, though!). Another perk I lose...booo!

We booked a cruise with 2 rooms on the Carnival Panorama and sinc we have minor 2 kids we had to book myself in the first room, and my wife in the other. As part of the casino offer my wife booked under, she had the following offer "Drinks on Us! Included while playing in the casino for you and a guest." However, who qualifies as the "guest"? Is that the 2nd person in the cabin which means I can't use it can she designate me as the other adult? I haven't found anything in the terms.

No problem. just wanted to let you know! It was strange, thought I had those screaming deals (We get casino offers) as I was logged in with my VIFP, but then it showed your VIFP in the "offers" window. Dangit!

You may want to remove the links as they include your VIFP number if you click through them.

I have heard good things about the shows and I look forward to seeing them when I hopefully sail on one of the new EXCEL class of ships. I would take the "woke" feedback with a grain of salt. I think it's the same people who say modern Star Trek today is too "woke" when literally the original series tackled social issues loud and clear and about as bluntly as a butter knife (like my dad - he is a huge fan of the "ORIGINAL SERIES" in the 60s but not "modern star trek"). Somehow it was OK in the 60s but not today...strange and incredibly ironic when many of the same people who hate "woke" culture today lived through the 60s and 70s which was about as "woke" and counter-culture/fight the man as it gets..hippies, star trek (Gene Rodenberry would be proud of the messaging in current Star Trek), race riots...

You should be able to link the bookings (were these booked together?). We have done this 2x this year, my oldest child and myself in one room, and my wife and youngest in another room next door. Never had an issue linking them together (you can do this on the website if you don't see them linked already even though they should be). I was able to buy excursions for just some of us (my wife and teenager did a tour on-shore - each in different rooms). We had separate booking numbers.

Yes, that is just the way things are going to go. Personally, I am OK with it. My phone has become basically the only tool I need when going out in life, why not on ships? We now own a Tesla and with that I no longer carry keys unless I have to drive my truck (boo). I can do everything I need from my phone. Most places thanks to COVID now accept tap-to-pay so I don't even have to carry my wallet on me in most circumstances. I do all my banking on my phone. I only go to a branch to get money out for my cruises! Otherwise haven't been to a bank in years. I can even schedule my ATM withdrawals (also rare) directly from my phone and drive to the appropriate ATM and done. I can do almost all communication for my work via my phone. I really only need to login for tools that I can't do on mobile easily (like closing tickets in Zendesk, running reports, etc). I read endless books through Kindle and other e-readers versus a huge bookshelf and carrying books with me. Maps - I LOVE old school maps but Google Maps is a savior Media and entertainment - don't need to say anything more than that Communication - I communicate to my entire world through the phone. Best part is that no one can easily break into my phone (multi-level security) and if I lose it all I have to do is remote wipe it (or it will on its own when someone tries accessing my phone more than a few times) and replace the phone. Within a few hours I would be back to normal. If I lost my wallet, I would have a major issue replacing everything. As soon as IDs can be digital (that should be soon) I won't even need my wallet. Power is never an issue (what if the phone dies??). I ALWAYS have a portable charger nearby, but I rarely ever need to use. I have them in every car, every backpack as they are so cheap now and I just check they are topped off now and then.

Just for context, we've almost exclusively sailed Carnival (see my signature). In the last 2 years we have branched out from Carnival as my kids get older (girls - 7 and 15 currently) and our family income grows we are opting to branch out more from Carnival. So much so that we just finished a Disney 7-day cruise which is the most expensive cruise we've ever taken, and almost 5x as much as our recent Carnival cruises we took because of screaming casino rates. We love Carnival, it's almost like "comfort food" for us. However, that being said, we enjoyed our Oasis of the Seas cruise last year (though it wasn't substantially better than Carnival), but we LOVED our Disney cruise and thought there was NO WAY it could be THAT much better than Carnival; in MOST areas it definitely was worth the upgrade. The biggest factors that we like about Carnival are bottom line price (We don't drink much so we never need added drink packages), the "fun" atmosphere, the "consistency" (though that is changing quickly), and honestly the CASUAL/QUICK GRAB food is much better than either Disney/Royal. We felt like the cast members on Disney genuinely were interested in us as guests, so much so that even the drink station attendant knew us all by name the 1st day and went out of his way to help us anytime we saw him. We had the best wait staff in all of our cruises (so much so that the assistant waitress actually bought a Tiana dress for our daughter - long story). Carnival and Royal are always friendly, but most often it feels forced. We never felt that on Disney. We normally don't care about service that much, but the difference between Carnival/Royal and Disney just blew us away. If we were lost or weren't sure of something, a cast member would somehow seem to know it an immediately ask what they could help us with. They always managed to either walk us where we needed to go, called someone and sent us to the correct place, or found someone who immediately could answer our question. Even simple things. On Carnival, we often got the "deer in headlight" reaction when asking a question. We had a question about our Casino account on our last cruise to the host IN THE CASINO who had no idea how to answer the question (it was a question they should know) and just told us it wasn't his role (?!?) and go to the cage, who then referred us back to the host. We had this happen with various things on Carnival. Another example we had on Disney was that when we were tendering to Cabo, I wanted to go grab some photos of the ship from the water later in the day. So I went down to the FWD gangway, they said that it would take a while to unload the existing passengers. They told me I could wait there or they said that there was a tender leaving shortly from the AFT gangway and they would happily have them wait for me. I said I could run down but said I was fine either way and happy to wait. But they insisted I go to the after tender so I went down to the AFT gangway where I was immediately escorted onto a completely empty tender who was then told to take me to shore and not wait for anyone else. I was completely blown away by this. Our last experience on Carnival we waited 20 minutes for a tender to completely load. I just never expected anything like that nor experienced anything like that. It was touches like this that has now made us want to explore more cruise lines. Now, that being said, the cost was much higher than Carnival (THOUGH, if I had priced out the Panorama, the same week, in a balcony it would only have been about 25% less - so not THAT much of a difference relatively speaking) so I expected some things to be better. Some things were a little better, some things worse, some things night and day better. The other touches Disney provided - turn down 2x which I thought wasn't a big deal having gone to 1x a day on Carnival for a long time now, but I DO miss coming back to a clean room multiple times a day. It just FELT like a vacation more than Carnival. It felt like pampering. They left chocolates with the towel animals, just like Carnival used to do. Tablecloths in the dining room did make them feel more elegant and more "special". It felt like Carnival from 15 years ago honestly. If we could find a premium line that also catered to KIDS that WASN'T Disney, we would probably book that line in a heartbeat. I can't quite afford "The Haven" on NCL (and frankly that level of service might be too much for our family) but something with the level of service and entertainment quality of Disney, with the food options of Carnival, and the "kid friendly" mix of both (kid friendly shows, adult shows, slides, splash pads, burgers and fries) that would be our winner. Basically think Princess/Celebrity combined with Disney.

The West Coast seems to be getting more and more attention lately, which is good! Panorama is about as new as it gets, Radiance looks great after the refurb and the Miracle has most of what people like on it. Now, personally, I wish they would take the Spirit class and do a full remodel akin to the Sunshine/Sunrise/Radiance. While I enjoy the "Farcus" uniqueness, the ship is really showing its age. I think refreshing the class would be a massive win as the layout is fantastic and size is just right.

You mentioned you had the ad, can you scan it/take a photo and show us what it says? This would be useful for others who might run into the same problem and would also help with those who "trust, but verify" on these forums (like me).

March 21-25 🙂?

Yea, the amount of kids has definitely gotten closer to "pre-covid". In October, a normally quiet time of year there were few kids (less than 100) on our Oasis cruise. Over NYE on the miracle, surprisingly not a TON of kids, but more like 200 or so. Our Radiance cruise in March (spring break in some areas) there were 600+ kids on board! LOTS more kids. Even with the lower number of kids, the kids club were fantastic! Daughter had a great time, and the counselors really gave our daughter a ton of attention when the clubs were super low capacity.