fair-winds39

7 hours ago, Lois R said:

Good morning again and yes I am in the Solarium🙂. So this is our last day and last night I ate with John from Michael's Club and we had a lovely dinner. It was the first time I had stepped into the main dining room all week and omg.....busy and noisy are what came into my mind. Food was very good though I must say. We both had the lobster and it was VERY tender and sweet with drawn butter. 

They had a couple of activities in the sky lounge and then the singers and dancers put on a show (this was all last night).

I will say I have had a really relaxing cruise and met some nice folks.

I have enjoyed Luminae too.

I did realize 7 nights is too short for me LOL.......need at least 10!

 

 

Thank you for taking us along. We appreciate hearing about Eclipse. We’ve been cruising since the late eighties and the majority had been with Celebrity, mostly in late eighties thru mid nineties. More recently we chose other lines, as we like the smaller ships. We always enjoyed sailing with Celebrity, and are hoping that things haven’t changed too much.Thanks again, and glad you had a nice cruise.

Looking forward to following along. Our last cruise with Celebrity was many years ago (zenith, Horizon, Galaxy). Many changes with Celebrity Cruises since then. We sail on Eclipse in July 2024. Beginning to feel a little apprehensive, reading some reviews, but glad to get back to Celebrity and Beautiful Bermuda. Enjoy your cruise.

We’ll be on the Celebrity Eclipse later this year. I’ll be bringing my mobility scooter along, and  while we have cruised with Celebrity back in the Zenith, Horizon, Galaxy days, I didn’t need a mobility scooter. Unfortunately, I need one now. I’ve used it on other cruises, but this will be the first with Celebrity. If you have used a scooter, can you tell me if I can drive scooter into the MDR and have DH move it to wherever Celebrity stores the scooters while guests have dinner. On other cruise lines we’ve been on, the waiter would take the scooter and parked it someplace, then bring it back after dinner. On a “sisters” cruise on Royal last year, one of my sisters moved it each night. The waiter said that since Covid, they would ask a traveling companion to move it, which I understood completely.

I posted here instead of disabled board because my question was specific to Celebrity Eclipse. I’ll be happy to move it if necessary though. Thanks in advance.

14 hours ago, jedi bobs said:

The scooter must meet the with guidelines, along with having to be able to be collapsable The scooter can not stay outside the cabin empty.  Anything over 21 inches must have a accesable cabin.  

As for your question, the hallways with rooms are kind of small but a scooter can get though them, and there are at least 1 accesable Bathroom on each public level, aka 5, 6, 7 Lido at least.  Good luck

 

I’ve taken my own scooter on our last 8 or 9 cruises. We book a standard balcony cabin, and always inform Special Needs department with info regarding size of scooter, etc. My scooter fits through the entry door fairly easily. If necessary we remove the armrests. I’ve managed steering my scooter into the cabin, continue steering it very slowly toward the corner of the bed, and back up and turn around so my scooter the faces the door. It is parked in front of the sofa. We just move the table a little toward the door. It fits very nicely and does not block us at all. We have plenty of space between the scooter and desk to walk by freely.

I use my cane in the cabin and don’t require an accessible cabin yet. I would never park scooter outside of cabin. Most folks familiar with scooters, understand that is a safety hazard but some using a scooter for the first time may not know, so hopefully Carnival will really enforce their rules for wheelchairs, scooters, etc.

I bring my own scooter on our cruises. It’s a Pride GoGo Elite Traveler, 3-wheeled. It comes apart in 5 pieces also, if necessary. This summer I’ll bring it on the Eclipse. I’ve had my scooter for a number of years but only in the last 7 years have I had to bring it on our cruises. I would strongly recommend some time before renting one for the cruise, that your aunt has some training on a scooter. That is very important. Because I’ve had my own scooter for a while, I’m very familiar with how to operate it safely. I don’t need to use my scooter in the cabin, and don’t need an accessible cabin. I use my cane for getting around in the cabin. We always book standard balcony cabins and I haven’t any problem getting into or maneuvering it inside the cabin yet. I think our cabin is slightly smaller than most cabins on other cruise lines though, but I know my scooter will at least fit through the doorway. Scooters cannot be kept outside of cabins for safety reasons. It’s a good idea to ask your steward for a door stop if there isn’t one in your cabin. I believe the scooter rental companies use the same, or a very similar scooter as the Pride scooter for the cruise ships.
 

I’ve already notified Celebrity that I will be bringing my scooter. All the info they needed was the overall length and width. Other cruise lines also require advance notification if one is disabled, in case of emergency. That way they can let the cabin steward know. 

Thanks for another in-depth “Live” review.

Thanks for another enjoyable “Live” review. 

Geez, running behind and just catching up on your “Live” review. Love the Spirit class ships. Enjoy.

Looking forward to following along on your Mardi Gras journey. Enjoy.

Fabulous, beautiful photos!

On 1/19/2024 at 1:10 PM, jimbo5544 said:

So I have been around here a long time, over 60 cruises and over 65 cruises and over 50 on Carnival.  Time for something new and this fit the bill perfectly.  Please join my bride and me for the voyage. 

Looking forward to catching up. Our last ten cruises have been on Carnival. Haven’t cruised Celebrity since early 90’s, but will sail on the Eclipse this summer.

Yay….another fun review!!!

Looking forward to your “Live” journey.

57 minutes ago, matymil said:

When was this? When we boarded there was only the Venezia in port and it was still terrible 

We boarded on the 14th of October (Sat.) and returned on 23rd (Mon.). Debarking on 23rd was terrible also. Getting our luggage, no problem. It was outside of the terminal that was unbelievable.

1 hour ago, ShortCruising said:

Wow! Thanks for this review. My husband and I were toying with the idea of cruising Carnival out of NYC. We live in the Midwest so it’s the only port within single-day driving distance. We’ve cruised out of Bayonne, NJ once on RCI and are going again this summer. We loved the entire experience—port, ship, and clientele. So interesting considering that the two ports are so close to one another.

 

We have 3 kids (12, 6 and 2) with the oldest being on the spectrum. We will definitely strike the CCL/NYC combo off our list. He wouldn’t know how to handle witnessing that behavior let alone, god forbid, being part of it. For now, he’s still afraid to stray out of eyesight to grab an ice cream. 

I do wonder if it’s just a result of an unfortunate mix of sailing, cruise line and clientele. Although I have seen many people complain about kids on CCL and I’ve never had those experiences. (Ok, one group of teens did loudly tease my husband about looking like Jesus, but he is one of those long haired freaky people…) Might also be that we have a sky-high tolerance for teenage nonsense as two high school teachers. A lot of mischief is another Tuesday for us except that we can ignore it on a ship (within reason)! Violent behavior is a whole other level of unacceptable though. I feel for the mother and the child. I know I wouldn’t have been able to get my child to leave the stateroom if he even just saw that happen. 

 

 

 

All I can say is there was another cruise ship next to Pier 88 debarking at the same time we were boarding Venezia and it was nothing short of chaos.There were plenty of luggage trolleys, but maybe 2 porters just grabbing luggage and putting it on the trolleys. I was crossing fingers in hopes that our luggage would make it onto the ship. Too much going on in a small area. Maybe it is different when there is only one ship in port.

Went on a girls trip out of Bayonne port last March, and it was a breeze, and what a completely different experience.

Sailed on Venezia in October 2023 from NY. Had cruised from NY in early 90’s a couple of times, with no issues, but this past October sealed the deal for us….never again from the Manhattan Port for us.

12 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

Day # 22  -  10/14/23  -  Debarkation Day and Back Home!

 I woke up at 4am. Though it was pitch black in the room, I peeked behind the drapes and saw that we had already sailed under the Verrazano Bridge and were approaching the Statue of Liberty. I grabbed the camera and took a few shots as we sailed by……

 

 

 

 

 

I crawled back into bed and slept until the alarm went off at 6am. I went up to the Java Blue Café, but the line was so long that I just went to the coffee machine over by Tomodoro instead. I went back to the cabin where we packed up our bags that we would be carrying off the ship. Here are the general debarkation instructions we received yesterday…..

 

 

 

Here is the letter we received telling us that there was no priority debarkation, other than the fact that we got the lowest number tags for the checked luggage…….

 

 

Since there aren’t any designated areas for us to wait in, we’ll wait in our cabin for the # 1 tag numbers to be called. Our son Ryan called us and said he was on his way into the city, and that he would park nearby and wait for us to call before proceeding to the terminal.

 

 

At 7am Cruise Director Joey began calling muster stations for self-assist debarking. It wasn’t until 8:15am that he began to call tag numbers, starting with #’s 1 to 3. We left the cabin, not even looking for, or saying goodbye to Edy. We can’t even remember ever doing that before. We took the stairs down to Deck 3, avoiding the idiots who were sitting on the stairs blocking the way. When Joey saw us coming down, he led a group of us down to Deck 2 to another gangway. Thanks Joey!

 

Once off the ship, it took about ten minutes in a line to reach the baggage claim area. We found our luggage rather easily, but getting a porter took a little doing. Once we got one, he loaded us up, and we followed him to the facial recognition line where we breezed through.

 

At this point, I called Ryan and told him to come pick us up. The porter led us to a huge elevator that would take us up one floor to the pick-up area. The porter waited with us for five minutes until Ryan pulled up with the car and then even loaded the bags into the car for us. What a great guy, and you can bet we tipped him well!

 

Five minutes later we were heading into the Lincoln tunnel……

 

 

Once out of the tunnel we got our last view of the Carnival Venezia……for now!

 

 

Forty-five minutes later, we were pulling into our driveway, another two great cruises completed!   THE END!

Jamman, thanks again for another great trip review and all the photos. Glad you enjoyed the beautiful Venezia.

5 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

Thank you fair-winds39!! Craig and I had a blast and can't believe we have a Thanksgiving cruise coming up in 11 days!  I will be writing a LIVE for that and posting a link here. Someday I hope we get the chance to cruise on Venezia!!

Good for you guys, enjoy your Thanksgiving cruise. Glad you’ll be going LIVE from that cruise, and looking forward to following along.

On 11/10/2023 at 5:41 PM, havanadaydreaming said:

Been on my share of cruises the past decade+ but i thought id share my Venezia debarkation experience.  

 

As you likely know the ship holds 4k-ish passengers.  And the port is on the Hudson river midtown manhattan. I expected a semi hectic experience when leaving pier 88 building.  

 

I didnt expect to be funneled into one crosswalk with hundreds of my closest strangers....most lugging 2+ suitcases on wheels.  Chaos. And a little bit of survival of the fittest. 

 

Pro tip: take the carnival bus to airports.  Cheaper. Much easier.  

 

Block one was a mass of humanity looking for cabs or rideshares.  I decided to go a couple blocks east and a couple blocks north to order rideshare.  

 

Had to fend off a few fake drivers using the uber or lyft app to offer a cash fee to airport. Nah baby nah.  Just say no fellow sailors.  Scam artists. 

 

To recap, expect a bit of a hassle.  Make it as easy on yourself as you can.  Book a shuttle bus.  

 

Peace be the journey! 

Couldn’t agree more. Expected a crowd after our Venezia cruise in October, but was not prepared for the worst debark in 25+ cruises. You’re not kidding about being funneled upon exiting terminal. The Manhattan port needs change.

Really late on catching up because we were on Venezia Oct. 14-23, and just reading about your journey now. Wow, looking forward to reading the rest. Sure wish we had half your energy….quite a trip for sure!

Loved the horse races. We always bought/bid on a horse when they had the races. Our last horse, “Buddy Weiser” was the KentuckyDerby winner on one of our cruises. It was a lot of fun.

Looking forward to following along on your journey. We’ve never done more than a 8-9 day cruise. We’re giving thought to a Journey’s cruise one day.

15 hours ago, NYcruzzer said:

We were on same cruise as @fair-winds39.. This was a Premier cruise and the Casino was extremely crowded. Of all my cruises this was definitely the smokiest. Didn't stop us from playing. Utilized the non-smoking Casino when we needed a break from the smoke. Of course our favorite machines were in the main smoking casino.

 

Since we are Platinum check-in was a breeze with no signs of disorganization. 

 

 All That said this was definitely our least favorite ship/cruise on Carnival.  As a matter of fact we had another cruise on Venezia booked for this January. Final payment due 2 days after returning home. We decided to cancel that cruise (Casino Rate) and took the $100.00 PP hit . Also prefer the smaller ships. I'm ok with driving to Baltimore to make that happen.

 

 

We’re platinum too.  We used a limo service to get to port and when the car dropped 6 of us off in drop off area, port personnel were scrambling around. There were maybe 3 porters visibly loading luggage on their luggage trolleys haphazardly. It was crazy. We arrived around 10:30. Maybe a later arrival time would have been better. A drive to Baltimore works very well for us as well.

Enjoy the next phase of your cruise and thanks for your thoughts and Patti’s nice photos of Venezia.