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Are we talking the shoe organizers some people hang over the door to store bathroom stuff in??? Why do they have to be fire retardant? Like a PP said, our clothes aren't and I'm sure the towels and bedding isn't either. Is this a new CArnival thing? I just got of an RCI cruise couple weeks ago, took mine as I have never heard of this before.

Just curious, why does it matter if a shoe organizer is fire retardant?

Every person has different expectations, different likes, etc. For my family we prefer Carnival over RCI. We found RCI just didn't have the "fun factor" at all. We also found the food, especially in the buffet, somewhat better on Carnival and the service much better on Carnival. The shows were better on RCI in my opinion. We don't cruise for the shows, so that really has no bearing for us, but some people don't miss a show. We love the your-time-dining on Carnival and although RCI calls their program any-time dining, it really isn't. We still had to have a reservation and go at an appointed time. On Carnival it really is any-time dining - you go when you want with no reservation at all - they don't even offer reservations with your-time.

All-in-all I have to say that they are more similar than different but Carnival suits my family better - we had all been thinking the "fun factor" wasn't there on our recent RCI cruise but nobody said it until near to the end of the week - when the first person mentioned it, we all laughed as each one of us had been silently thinking the same thing.

We plan to try NCL as well, but have no plans at present to try HAL or Princess or any of the more upscale lines as we know they won't be a good fit for us at this point in our lives.

Release their schedule sooner lol!

Carnival and Royal Caribbean have their itineraries loaded up until April 2018 but not NCL :( I emailed my vacation planner and he said they just released 2017!!!!

Yes! There are plenty of places around the ship to lay out around the ship. The back of the ship, there is the serenity deck and then right above that, there is the waterpark with tons of chairs. I will go through my pictures and try and post what I have.

Oh that's great! Since laying on a lounge chair in the sun watching the ocean go by is one of my favourite things to do, I was starting to re-think going on that ship! Glad to hear there are lots of spots :)

Awesome review so far! I am thinking of cruising on Fascination when she moves to San Juan and was looking at Veranda balconies. So glad you included the information about the stairs - definitely won't book that room :) Looking at your pics of the upper decks it doesn't look like there is anywhere to lay on a lounge chair and look out at the water except for the area on the forward sports deck? Are there any other spots?

I agree - go to Tropicante. We loved it. As FraudBroad said, Steve is a great guy. He goes around and chats with everyone and makes sure you have all you need. Food is great and beer is cheap :)

Sparks,

 

 

 

No, she got the 2.0 Lite version. No Guys or Blue Iguana. She has a waterslide and the Punchliner I believe and maybe a few smaller things.

 

 

 

A side note, I see you are another VTer! We are an hour or so away from you in Lake Elmore!

 

 

 

D

Someone complained on JHs FB page about this and he said "l will have more news on this ship in the future so please stand by". I wonder if she's getting more upgrades or what the "news" could be?

We are considering sailing out of San Juan as well. There is only one sea day on the 7 day in 2018 we are looking at so I am thinking we won't have much time/energy for doing much else on the ship if it were a bigger ship. We are all disappointed there is no Guy's though [emoji853]

We had a bartender cut us off in the pub which was really annoying as we weren't intoxicated. We had 3 beers each over 3 hours with a few sodas in between. We walked over to the R-bar and they served us no problem. There were several other people that we saw them do that to that weren't intoxicated. One lady had just come from dinner and had one beer before she was "cut off." We were all listening to the music in the pub so we'd all walk over to the r-bar, get a drink, and sit back down in the pub. Finally a guy who also said he had only had one beer and was cut off went to guest services and complained. A little bit later another bartender showed up in the pub and someone else pulled the first bartender into the back. He came back out and suddenly no one was cut off! I'm sure this was an isolated incident with this one bartender but it really put a damper on the mood of everyone.

Now there were a few people who should have been cut off on the pool deck but they continued to be served. I don't think they like to cut people off since those people will probably not tip them any extra for the rest of the cruise.

Sounds like he could be the same bartender I had on the Freedom. Every time I went to him to get a drink (4 or 5 times during the first few days) he told me they didn't have the mix to make the simple drinks I asked for (mudslide, wildberry lavaflow, etc., not unheard of drinks!). Finally the last time I said, just make me whatever frozen drink you have then and I watched him pour a pina colada and he did not put any alcohol in it. I called him on it and he said, oh I did you just didn't see me, but then he poured more in and no, it was still weak, he did not magically put any in when he first made the drink. I never went back to that bar again. I really don't know what his problem was - I was never rude or intoxicated and it happened the very first time I went to him, I guess he just didn't like the look of me lol! That has made me reconsider purchasing a package next time. I sure I didn't save any money anyway, it was just the convenience of not having to worry about a bar bill at the end.

I was not able to change our 5:45 reservation on board other then to 8 p.m. I booked the day online reservations became available and went to the dining podium the day after embarkation. Maybe everyone else with unsatisfactory times went upon boarding, I don't know, but don't get your hopes way up. If there are only two of you, you could probably go without reservations as two of our party did because they refused to eat that early and they didn't have long waits. We were a party of 7 so it could also have been that they didn't have two tables side by side available at any other time.

My TA was able to change a name for us twice in one cabin with no change in booking or fare.

My card was swiped for every drink and I got a slip to sign with every drink. I did get a couple virgin drinks and I was not given a slip with those but still had my card swiped.

There is a simple answer to the oft-asked "When will NCL release...." question.

 

Anytime NCL releases new parts of their schedule, they issue a press release. These press releases can be seen on NCL's website. All you have to do is look over the press releases and see when the prior schedule was released.

 

IOW, if you want to know when the 2018 schedule will be released, it will be about a year after the 2017 schedule was released, which is about a year after the 2016 schedule was released, etc.

 

A quick review of the press releases will let you know when the different parts of the schedule are released.

Much easier to ask your fellow cruisers for help on this board, which is for that purpose, rather than going to all that trouble searching NCLs site and past years correspondence!

Royal, Carnival and Celebrity all have their itineraries out until at least March 2018. You would think NCL would get on the bandwagon so as to be in the running for people who like to book early, like myself :D

Carnival website says these suites sleep 5 and have a trundle bed - which I believe is a bed that pulls out from the main bed? Is the sofa also a bed? Anyone ever book one of these for 3? Hoping for 4 but it may end up being only 3.

We were in corner aft 7408 last week on the Freedom. There was a really strong vibration once in a while, the bed even shook, lol, but I think that was throughout the ship. There was a milder vibration sometimes in the cabin but hardly noticeable to me, although my son-in-law commented on it as soon as he walked into our cabin.

My daughter had the first one last week - it is ivory chocolate mousse with marinated berries.

We met people on our recent cruise that were at the Comfort Inn and they weren't thrilled, but it wasn't awful either.

 

 

Enjoy your stay. We love sailing out of Canaveral.

We stayed at the Comfort Inn and found it to be more than adequate. It was clean and comfortable. The only issue was the long check in and check out - the front staff are so friendly and helpful that it takes them forever to check people in and out! The breakfast room, although the biggest I have ever seen in a motel, was packed but they had hot offerings, DIY waffles, etc. Love the area - right in the middle of Cocoa Beach, we could walk to the pier, stores, and restaurants all within a sort walk, Walgreens across the road. We didn't use their shuttle as we didn't book the cruise package but instead called Cocoa Beach Shuttle.

IMHO, Carnival's food is better than Royal's in most instances.

MDR - quality was about the same but Carnival has more choices. Desserts are much better on Carnival. I am a huge dessert lover and even though my Royal cruise ended less than a week ago, I can't remember any memorable desserts.

Buffet - about the same for breakfast but lunch was better on Carnival. I have never eaten dinner on the buffet on Carnival because they always have something I like in the MDR, but found dinner on Royal (which we ate at several times) was not so good. Carnival has a much greater assortment of desserts on the buffet than Royal and a much larger salad bar, not to mention Mongolian wok and taste of the world stations which change daily.

Carnival wins hands down on other food categories - Guy's, Blue Iguana, BBQ. I did like some of the salad offerings at Sorrentos and desserts at Café Promenade on Royal though. Neither has good pizza.

Royal has more offerings on their room service menu.

I totally agree with you. We just got of RCI Freedom of the Seas and after the first couple of days my whole family said they much preferred Carnival! There are lots of little things that Carnival does better and bigger things too - such as debarkation. We may cruise on RCI again under certain circumstances (this last cruise on RCI was actually quite a bit cheaper than any Carnival cruise of similar date/ship/itinerary at the time of booking) and we also have plans to try NCL, but as of right now I am looking to book with Carnival again.

Never turned on by reduced deposits. Id rather have lower final price in the end

I'd rather put out less than $1000 two years in advance :)

Just curious if they have still be doing this the last week of the month? Looking to book but would love a reduced deposit since the cruise I'm looking at isn't until 2018 :)

I promised you all I would update you on my thoughts of Royal vs. Carnival. So here goes...

 

Food is very similar, although if I had to choose, Royal has slightly better food and Carnival has better desserts in the MDR.

 

Royal ships are easier to navigate. You don't need to go down then up then sideways just to get where you need to be :) I love how they had small ship models/maps on display near the elevators.

 

I NEVER encountered a line on Royal. Not to board, not to debark, not for food anywhere, not for THE THEATER/COMEDY CLUB (glares at Carnival Sunshine). NEVER had a problem finding a place to sit at mealtimes (again tricky at times on Sunshine!) However chair hogs are equally universal. If this is Royal Caribbean all the time I am loving it!

 

Royal seems to make more effort and cleanliness/sanitation if you can believe it.

 

Royal's rooms and showers were smaller and beds less comfortable. As the husband said, "a large person would be in contact with the wall during the entire shower"

 

Mostly things were more the same than different, down to the same soft serve ice cream machines, wonderful gyms, general layout, photo gallery, towel animals, muster, and great service by all of the staff.

 

Overall, for someone my age, CARNIVAL WINS!! The Sunshine and the annoying cutbacks caused me to look elsewhere, but as they say, the grass is not always greener. I'd say the average age on Jewel of the Seas was 55 and I just prefer a bit of a younger, more fun crowd (not 21 year old spring breakers, but mid 30's). Carnival is just more fun, more silly, even down to their marketing, and I really missed that silliness. Royal does seem to have more interesting and varied itineraries, as well as those mega ships, so I would definitely try them again...when I am older.

I am just off Freedom of the Seas last week. My whole family agrees with you in that Carnival wins hands down! We do differ on other things though :)

There were lines everywhere on FOS, not so much at the buffet. I do prefer how they do the omelet station - they take your order and then tell you to come back in 2 minutes. Usually that was the case, but at the end of the week they had crowds gathering to wait. Very difficult to find a table in the buffet unless you went at very odd hours. Bars always lined up. At debarkation we were #10 departure and waiting in line to get off the ship and then another 40 minutes or so to get through customs! Worse than a cattle call. We found the food on the buffet on RCI to be monotonous and not much variety - there were lots of stations but they all served the same thing.

FOS was just as difficult to get around as the Carnival ships we've been on. There was only one deck that was completely open and able to walk all the way around.

The food in the MDR was about the same, not as much variety as Carnival. The dessert offerings in the buffet were very meagre, only 4 or 5 different things offered and 2 of those were usually cookies. We didn't like many of the desserts we tried in the MDR.

Our balcony cabin was much smaller than on Carnival. We only got 2 towel animals and very few nights did we get turn-down service. Our steward always came to the room well after we returned from dinner and by that time my son was usually in the cabin watching tv so he just put the next day's compass in the slot outside the door. He always saw us leave both for breakfast and dinner but never did our rooms while we were gone. I guess that could depend on the steward but I love how on Carnival our room was done every time we came back from breakfast or dinner.

We thought that Carnival ships were better maintained and cleaner in comparison to FOS. When we got our first glimpse of FOS coming by shuttle into the port we were disappointed - no "fun" look as Carnival or NCL has, just plain grungy white.

We range in age from mid 50's to 14 and all prefer Carnival to RCI. We all said the "fun factor" just wasn't there. One other thing I have to mention is that I saw so many drunks on FOS (even vomiting in the hallway and 3 really obnoxious late 50-60 year olds during muster), whereas I really can't say that during my two Carnival cruises, I saw anyone downright drunk. Just had to add that since so many Carnival haters say that Carnival is just a party ship with obnoxious drunks.

I had found a link to them not long ago on here but of course can't find it now [emoji846]. They were recent menus but the order differed on our sailing so be sure to check on the elevator menu daily to be sure. We ended up missing the one night we really wanted to go because we assumed the same order would be followed.

They still had it on Freedom last week and yes, it was only on sea days. From what I read previously on CC it was a chopped salad but ours were never chopped. It was no different then any other salad bar other than it was put together by servers rather than DIY. I was kind of disappointed since I had read so many posts of people raving about it.