JWGrayson

I thought the name was fine as it fits in with Vista and Horizon. What I find interesting is that it won't be launched until the Fall of 2019. One site had the launch as November 2019. As you know, that is the end of the season for the med. So, they might simply sail home, or have one inaugural Med cruise, then head out. Your thoughts...

John

It is interesting how opinions vary. I have been on all 3 of the Dream class ship and they are all nice. I've also been of 5 of the Fantasy class ships and love the more intimate atmosphere. We were on the Breeze in the Med, followed by a TA. The bigger ships do rock when the seas are rough! We missed 3 ports in the Med due to rough seas.

We did 5 days on the Fascination in 2012, then walked up the pier and got on the Dream for 7 days. It was like the just stretched the Fantasy class ship to get more passengers on it, without making more public space. Thus, it seemed more crowded. They worked to correct that on the Magic and Breeze. Later we spent 21 days on the Dream and were happy to find that she had been updated.

Check out this video to get their take on the various ships a features. Find the features that are most important to you, then book!

John

Unless you are on Empress where there are no formal nights, there will be one formal night, most often (but not always) on night 2.

Thanks! We are going on the Empress in a few weeks and it will our first cruise with Royal. At least now I know I don't need formal wear for our 5-day cruise.

John

I was originally thinking that the UBP wasn't a good deal as we aren't big drinkers, but then I remember spending $130 to $150 on last few cruises as wife wanted a wine package at MDR (5 bottles.) Then if we each had a drink or two every day, we would be ahead. I generally get two cokes a day, when at sea. So, all that adds up to making the UBP a good perk.

I've also avoided the piano bars on ships, as I don't want to spend the money on drink and felt it was expected, but now I can enjoy it on my birthday cruise this Dec. :D

John

The best place to ask is would be the Florida Departures Board.

Thanks, I saw Gulf Coast and stopped there. I checked Florida ports and the info I wanted is there.

John

My Roll Call for the Empress of the Seas if pretty dead and I've search this area with no luck. So, here goes...

This will be our first time to cruise out of Tampa and wanted to know what options there are for parking near Terminal 3 in Tampa, besides what the port offers? I've checked Google, but wanted to know what other cruisers suggest.

John

Thanks so much for your review! We are book on the 8/30 sailing. I made a copy of the "As You Arrive in Cuba" document you posted. It was very helpful.

I am a coin collector and generally try to get coins and currency from countries we visit. Is it OK for us to get Cuban Pesos to take home?

John

You also have my attention as we will be on the same cruise in Aug. What especially caught my attention was the $75 fee for a visa.

I had booked the Best of Havana tour. A few hours after submitting final payment yesterday, I got an email stating that the tour had been cut by an hour and you had to pick between two shorter tours. Not a happy experience for our first RCL cruise.

John

For an eastbound I'd go for a starboard cabin location.

 

We've booked Epic TA for November 2018, with $50/pp deposits just HAD to book something:) We chose a B6 "Large Balcony", port side as it's westbound of course.

Looks like we will go with the Aft Balcony. I am very please with the $50/pp deposit. John

we are doing the april transatlantic in 2017. We have an aft balcony, the same one for the 3 cruises we will be on.

When you go online and search for cabins, find one that you don't have to switch cabins.

 

Have a great time!

Thanks, we will be on the Epic for the TA and then3 days to Rome. We will spend a few days there then take a train back to Barcelona to catch the Horizon, that will be Carnival's newest for 2018. We will do 24 days on her. We always make a point of getting the same cabin for B2B cruise, if possible.

My main point would be to make sure you get the bed near the balcony (as opposed to near the entry door). walking between the narrow space between the end of the bed and the cupboards is a right pain.

We didn't like the cabins, especially the bed with rounded ends, and we weren't really tall.

Hubby won't go on Epic again. Too noisy everywhere.

I usually take the one farthest from the toilet to be nice to my DW. :) John

If you can swing it the 2br Haven suites are currently a very good deal with lots to choose from. $2999pp vs the Haven one room penthouses that were almost all sold at $5199 or more. Almost twice the cabin for a much lower price. I don't see it lasting long because as people book those H4's the pricing model will quickly put the price back up. Otherwise there may be a good opportunity for upsells.

We plan to be gone for a total of 47 days, 40 of those days on ships. So, we are already be stretching it and will need to settle for the aft balcony. John

Thanks very much for the responses! Now, let's see what my TA can do for me. :) John

For 50 bucks, I would definitely pick the aft balcony. It will always be a hike to get to the aft elevators, but you'll need your exercise after eating cruise ship food for 2 weeks.

 

At the end of the day, the atlantic in april will be cool. More of a go out, have a cup of coffee, and come in than spending hours sunning yourself.

 

You will, generally, get afternoon sun, which is fine.

 

Enjoy!

Thanks for your input and fast response! Now for another question - would you avoid decks 8 and 13, so that there are only cabins above and below? John

Hi, We are looking at booking the Epic TA in Apr 2018. OV and Balcony cabins are both $999 with aft-facing balconies $1,049. We have only cruise on NCL once in Dec 2009 and that was on the Dawn in the Carib.

Based on the prices, I'd be inclined to book an aft cabin. It looks like the aft cabins are all covered, rather than exposed to the sun like the ones on Carnival. Is there a downside to that?

What would you recommend?

Well, we just got off the Carnival Vista a few days ago (Dec 3 Sailing) and I must say, was disappointed.

Not trying to hijack your review, but it is interesting how people respond differently to the same things. We were on the same cruise and were also disappointed with many things on the Vista, but the updates to the Destiny to the Sunshine should have been a clue for all.

First, let me say that I am an experienced Carnival Cruiser (Almost Diamond) and a bad day on a cruise, is better them most good days not on a cruise. I have never posted a negative review... But I found our Vista experience somewhat disappointing...

We are Diamonds with 250 days; thus, also have a good deal of experience. I am 71 years old, so may be a bit more conservative in my tastes.

It started off when we got to the port and were told that because their was a group of 900 or so home based Travel Agents on our cruise (holding their annual convention), Diamond, Platinum and FTTF people would have to stand in line, outside the terminal until noon, while they had a special, early boarding line for the Travel Agents (Regardless of their status). (we had a 10am staggered boarding time).

We got a msg to not show up at our appointed time, rather to add an hour. In our case we flew in that morning and were able to check in at the MIA airport. We did have to wait for our bus, but got on shortly after reaching the terminal.

During the cruise, They really catered to the group, closing off decks, lounges, etc for their private events... Even the back of the Lido deck during dinner time one night (So much for pizza that night, after we skipped dinner for it)...

Because these folks were in meetings, it was not a problem getting into the shows as the upper level was empty most nights. We saw 4 of the shows and sat in the moveable lounge chairs in the center. The shows were great!

The ship, seemed bland to us... For instance, while the new LED funnel in the atrium is cool, no shores around it, plain white walls... Seemed boring... If it weren't for the Xmas Décor, and the funnel, the atrium (which only goes to deck 4 or 5), it would have been colorless.

It was a bit bland, but much more pleasing to me than the wild designs of Joe Farcus on ships like the Legend and Splendor. I didn't like the Christmas Decor as the colors were not what I am use to. It was more like high-fashion than Christmas Reds and Greens.

Even the atrium music was odd... A violinist each night, playing slow, elegant music (was very reminiscent of the music they would play on Titanic, especially when she actually played the Titanic Movie Theme Song, which seemed VERY odd)

Not sure if the music in the atrium was due to the season, but I really enjoyed the string trio. They were very talented!

While the size of the ship is huge, everything in it is smaller, so they could fit more to do... Single floor dining room.... Show lounge that only fits 1/4 of the ship (With two shows nightly, do the math)... No night club... Comedy club that has a line that stems the length of the ship, that only about 10% can fit into...

Even Matt, our awesome cruise director called the ship "Challenging" and designed for people that "Do not care if they can get into the shows".

This was our biggest complain! More people, with less public space.

There were a few redeeming things on the ship... The theaters, sky-ride, lots of chairs on the decks, etc.

We really enjoyed the IMAX theater. I was surprised at how loud they kept the volume. I wonder how they kept the nearby cabins from rattling. We saw both IMAX movies and 2 of the documentaries.

We also like the seating on the Promenade deck, although much of it was part of the various venues like Bansi Sushi and the steakhouse.

I was not happy that your couldn't walk all the way around on the Promenade deck due to the Havana cabins. Also, difficult to get to the front of the ship on the upper decks other than the Serenity deck and that only had one elevator that was always busy. John

Hi John,

 

I wonder if the person on your roll call did their last cruise past the volcano prior to autumn of 2013? It was quite a sight to see, but the lava stopped flowing down Kilauea and into the ocean around Sept./Oct. 2013.

 

There might still be some distant views of the glow from small lava outbreaks, and maybe you'll be able to see the brightness from the glow of lava in Halemaumau Crater.

 

A helicopter tour might be a better option to see Kilauea close up, along with any lava outbreaks (I think most of the lava is now flowing underground, with the occasional surface outbreak.) The situation could change prior to your cruise though, so it's something to keep an eye on.

Thanks for the quick responses. I posted them on our Roll Call so none of us will be disappointed by staying up to see the volcano as we pass. John

We will be on the Carnival Legend this September. I've read about ships sailing past Kilauea Volcano at night and what a beautiful sight it is. Since it happens very late at night, many of us older folks will be in bed and would like to see it from our balcony without having to get dressed and go out on deck.

So, if the ship sails from Hilo to Kono, past the volcano, then the starboard side of the ship would have the view.

But, someone on our Roll Call suggested that the ship will turn around to give both sides a chance to see the lava glow.

Has that been the case on other Carnival cruises? John

We are going to Hawaii in Sep on the Carnival Legend on one of those repo cruises. I selected that cruise for a number of reasons:

• We get 5 sea days in the start of the trip to get adjusted to the time zone changes and to relax
  
• We hate to fly long distances and this helps on one end as we only have the long fight on the way home compared to taking the Norwegian cruise from Honolulu.
  
• We can spend the extra 5 days, compared to sailing both ways on the Miricle, in Hawaii. In this case we have a hotel booked in Waikiki for 5 nights.
  

So, there are lots of ways to do it, but this option works for us. BTW, the Legend only does this trip once a year. It also does a reverse trip in May of each year, but that schedule is always subject to change.

If you want to learn a bit about each island and what to do, I created a website for our cruise. Check my sig. John

Very nice to meet you John. Great cruise and M&M

Hi Ryan! It was great meeting you, Becky and the others! John

When we Sailed Sunshine last week we had priority boarding and didn't board til 1 pm. Seems like they are boarding later. As it should be really. I think it's ridiculous to think they can debark and refresh and get people back on by 11...1 pm is fine.

If that was the Journeys cruise to St. Lucia, they would have likely had a lot of VIPs boarding.

Us too. We have 2 boys, 14 and 16. As my name implies, we're from Loganville, GA.

Loganville!! We are from Grayson. Small world and small places! :) John

Hi, we just got off the Magic and I am planning on writing a thorough review any day now...anybody interested on reading it?

We got off the Magic on Saturday, 5/7....I assume that is the cruise you were on. Did you attend the Meet & Mingle? John

We were just on B2B cruises out of Port Canaveral. It wasn't the standard B2B as we changed ships and had a day in between.

So, we had embarkation twice within 6 days. We stayed at a hotel that provided Stay/Park/Cruise package with a shuttle to and from the ship. The first week we were on the Sunshine for 5 days. We were scheduled for an 11:15 AM shuttle. We walked down to the waiting area around 11:05 and we were in our cabin by 11:40. It was probably the easiest embarkation ever! There were only 12 Diamonds booked and 100, or so, Platinums.

The next cruise was a 7 day Western Carib, on the Magic. Since the Magic had recently moved to PC, there were a lot of seasoned cruises on boards to check her out. I believe they said that there were over 70 Diamonds and 350+ Platinums. Management realized that Priority Boarding was not working, so they took a group of us over to the regular lines and cut in front of those waiting to check us in. When boarding was announced, they collected the Diamond passenger and escorted us on first. Embarkation was a lot more chaotic then the week before, but we were still on board before noon. It at least showed that they were trying. John

We are Diamond on Carnival and just took our Milestone cruise in the Carib. We decided with that cruise that we need to check out some other lines as we have been to all but a few of the Caribbean destination.

We tend to cruise for the destination. So, we are looking at Royal for a Med /TA cruise combo in Oct/Nov 2017.

The Loyalty program has been a big factor with us staying with Carnival plus Carnival had been a great value. Although, prices have gone up since the economy has improved.

Anyway, it would be nice and to the advantage of other lines to consider ones status on other lines. John

Book now and then continue to price check during the weekly/bi-weekly sales. They will honor price adjustments for sales before 90-days out (someone confirm that exact number, please), so there's no downside to booking as far out as you can. Just check their website, and if you see a better deal, call up Crown & Anchor for an adjustment. They'll give it to you no problem!

 

I'm doing a Med cruise from Barcelona this October. I'm using Air2Sea, and I'm thrilled with that decision so far. Price was about $200 cheaper per person RT than either direct through United or on Priceline. They also give you the built-in guarantee of getting you to the ship. They'll either hold the ship for you or pay all expenses to get you to the next port. I'm not certain whether it's refundable, as I have no plans on canceling this trip ;-)

Thanks! Just wasn't sure if I wanted to tie up $1,800 in deposits for 17 months as we have other cruises to deal with.

My Mom will be 99 by the time this cruise comes up and we never know what will happen with her. She is on a very slow decline. So, we don't plan on canceling, but stuff happens. John