Susan in Maine

How windy are these balconies? We have never been this high on the ship before, and I want to enjoy my balcony. If they are too windy/cold, I'll book on a lower deck. Thanks everyone!

Thank you!

If I bring my own wine on the ship, and wish to drink it in the MDR, will I be charged a corkage fee? If so, how much? This will be a 5 day on Carnival Freedom. Thank you!

Before everyone gets upset with me, I have nothing against getting a passport - my daughter and I both keep ours current at all times. I'm looking into taking my elderly mother on a cruise with my daughter and I in November. It will be a 5 day closed loop out of Port Canaveral to Bahamas, Bimini, and possibly Grand Turk. She (my mother) will be 89 by the time we sail. She will have no opportunity to travel anywhere after that. How important would a passport be for her? Can we get away with just her driver's license and birth certificate. If I have to I'll get her the passport, but I'd rather not. Thanks for the help! Susan in Maine

I have sailed on Carnival, RCCL, Disney, Princess and NCL. Whenever possible I chose RCCL, mostly because the food was so much better than Carnival and RCCL. I've been on 3 cruises since Covid - 2 Carnival and Anthem. The food on Carnival Magic (both cruises) was really good. On the Anthem (4/22), it was mediocre at best. After seeing these new menus it's not worth it to me to pay an extra 20% to 25% to be on RCCL. I'm sure I'll get 47 ways from Sunday for saying this.

If you really want to go to Bar Harbor, then go to Bar Harbor. Cruise ships are NOT transportation. There is no guarantee that ANY cruise ship will stop at any specific port. PS: Maine is worth a visit for more than a few hours! We're a lot more than just Portland and Bar Harbor.

For the record - fewer than 10% of visitors to Bar Harbor come from cruise ships. Contrary to what die hard cruisers believe, cutting off large cruise ships won't hurt the economy. Portland is a commercial port, and therefore has much better facilities for cruise ships. It makes more sense for the ships to dock there. Portland also has much more capacity than Bar Harbor to absorb 2000 - 4000 people all at once. For those of you who wished Bar Harbor limited the number of ships - that doesn't really help. One ship can have 4000+ passengers. Is that better than 2 1500 passenger ships?

Seriously? Cruise ships are NOT public transport. Pretty much anyone who gives advice on cruise ships will tell you that. If you want to go from point A to point B, don't count on a cruise ship! Anything can disrupt any itinerary and you are not guaranteed any specific port! And from Bar Harbor's perspective, people who are driving to the town are worth way more money than cruise ship passengers. There is NO discrimination here at all. If you consider not being able to go to a specific port by cruise ship "Discrimination", you have no idea what that word really means - talk about a 1st world problem?

I live about 45 minutes north of Portland, 2 1/2 hours south of Bar Harbor. You might have some color around Portland, but probably not much else. Also our color isn't great this year due to the summer drought.

That's going to be really late. It's late under normal circumstances, but between the really dry summer and the hurricane hitting Atlanta Canada, there won't be much, if anything, left. What ports are you visiting?

We were on the Sept 17 sailing of the Carnival Magic and it was really easy. We had an 11:00 - 11:30 Boarding window and got to the pier around 10:00 AM. We parked, went thru embarkation and were waiting to board by 10:20 AM. Our boarding group was C4, and we were on the ship, thru the muster call and eating lunch in the Lido at 11:25.

Just got back on 9/24 from NYC. Getting to the parking garage/terminal was incredibly easy! We drove down from NE and had no trouble driving thru the city. Everything the others said is true. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

We were in a Cove last November on the Magic. We LOVED it! Just got off the Magic on Saturday and had a regular balcony on Deck 8. We'll be going back to the Cove if we can get it.

Last November the Magic was showing night football games on the Dive-In screen. It was awesome!

Justin Trudeau has declared Monday September 19 as a National Holiday. Right now it only affects business/government/etc. under control of the federal government. The question is how it will affect cruises should the Provinces also declare a holiday. We're in St. John on Monday. I guess we will have to wait and see.

I'm a HUGE fan of fixed time dining. One of my favorite things about being on a cruise is having the same servers every night - they really get to know you, your preferences, etc. If you always want a martini or coffee to start dinner, after a couple of nights you are likely to find it waiting for you. They can also help you decide what is best to try for dinner based on what you've ordered before. I enjoy structuring my day around dinner. I HATE when, on land based vacations, you have the discussion: You hungry? Nah. When do you want to go for dinner? Whenever you want is fine by me, etc. When on a cruise I want as few decisions as necessary, and figuring when to go to dinner is one I can do without.

Thanks. I've been googling restaurants - It looks like St. John might be the best bet.

You could ask your doctor for a prescription for an antiemetic - that's the class of drugs that stop vomiting. I get really really motion sick, and take meclizine (Bonine) every night at bedtime. Since I've been on a cruise thru a hurricane AND a cruise thru a blizzard, I also take regular dramamine if the bonine isn't doing enough.

I'm going to try this again because I wasn't clear on my last post. Some of us are planning to find a place to have lobster in St. John or Halifax. What would be a good place for us to meet up ahead of time to plan our excursion? Thanks!

Some of us want to get together to go for lobster while we're on the Magic. What's a good place to meet up? Thanks!

I know the walls of the cabins are magnetic. Are the doors magnetic as well? We want to decorate our door for the first time! Thanks!

We were on the old Royal Princess 20 or so years ago with Buzz Aldrin. Nice guy, but a lot smaller than you would think.

I'm putting this out there for anyone who may be interested: My daughter and I are on Carnival Magic from 9/17 - 9/24 As a life long Mainer, I'm a little surprised that everyone seems to be more interested in lobster rolls, rather than actual - you know - whole lobsters. If anyone is interested in learning how to eat a whole steamed lobster in St. John or Halifax, please let me know! We can meet up and we can show you how!

Do you get a better deal booking spa treatments before you board, on booking once you are on the ship? I'd like a massage, but I'm not at all particular as to when. Thanks!

So my first couple of rooms were inside, which I was perfectly happy with. Then I did OV. After that, couldn't go back to an inside. Then I upgraded to a balcony. Couldn't imagine going back to the OV. On our April cruise (on another line), we had a bid accepted to upgrade to a suite with a balcony.......... It's called Cabin Creep