Accepting questions for Journey's cruise.

[pink roses]

Me and my sister just returned from the Carnival Dream on a 11 day Journey's cruise. We did a lot but there where still a lot of things we did not have time to do. Our cruise/trip was one of the best I have had. Please ask questions if you wish. A little background we are both retired teachers, we are not gamblers and are not drinkers (of alcohol) so casino questions and bars questions I really can not answer.

[cruznjan]

What was the 80s day like?

[Bo59rt]

Did you attend any of the cooking demos and if so, were they worth it?

 

cant wait for our but I have over a year to wait!

[meatloafsfan]

Did they have crafts on board and if yes, what time of day generally?

 

Did you have early, late or anytime dining - what was your experience (was it crowded? difficulty with the different menus that aren't normally served, etc.).

 

Was there anything that you unexpectedly enjoyed or did not enjoy about an 11 day cruise?

[cruzeluver]

We are booked on a Journeys cruise next year and are most interested in the local entertainment and cuisine that is supposed to be featured on these cruises. Anything you can share about those would be great!

[ready2cruzagain]

Questions? I want every little detail LOL.:D

 

Specifically, if you are making me narrow it down, how was the menu, there are suppose to be different foods?

 

Entertainment, live band?

 

Horse Race, did the horses go for ridiculous prices? Last time I was at a cruise horse race the horses sold for over $1000.:eek:

[blondietink]

Yes, details please. Seriously considering booking the Journeys cruise in Feb. 2017 on the Pride. Big milestone birthday celebration (for me)!

[lovebears]

Did men need a suit coat to be allowed into the throw back captains cocktail party? Or was dress shirt and tie sufficient?

[Stateroom_Sailor]

Yes, details please. Seriously considering booking the Journeys cruise in Feb. 2017 on the Pride. Big milestone birthday celebration (for me)!

 

We're booked, come join it's going to be a great cruise. :)

 

Now to questions... Was each sea day distinctly different in activities or themes? I read that there's more passenger / crew interaction, how did that play out?

[GottaLuvCruising]

We're doing the Dream Journeys B2B in January. Entertainment is my big question - how was it? Were there more evening options than typical? Did they have good movies on the big screen? Was there variety in the comedians brought on board? What types of music were offered by the bands in different venues? (We're partial to oldies.) Thanks!

[pink roses]

What was the 80s day like?

The 80's Day was a ball! Some people even dressed in 80's casual clothes during this day. I will begin listing the activities in the special insert that was added to the Funtimes. At the top it reads Carnival Capers and has one of the older ships pictured the Celebration I think. They called it Throwback Sea Day. The day began with the cruise Director, Hennie on his morning show. He was dressed in a 80's shirt and had John Herald on his show, At 9:30 They had a morning stretch apparently as they did when Richard Simmons would be on board. 10:30 Roll the Dice Horse Racing, 11:15 $600 Jackpot Bingo with iconic cage and balls. 11:00 80's trivia and Glamorous Grandmothers Get Together, 11:30 80's movies trivia, 12:00 TV commercial trivia, 12:30 Ghostbusters trivia

My sister and I attended these...

12:30 Ping Pong Bathing Suit Challenge- It was so funny. Contestants wore their bathing suits and had to get in the pool, a bucket of ping pongs were tossed in the pool and they had a certain amount of time to put as many ping pongs as they could in there swimming suit. Each person did it one at a time and then had to take each ping pong out of their swimsuit for the crowd to help count them.

1:00 AquaFrog Racing w/ Hennie and John Herald. (This was adorable) You could purchase a red or green frog with the batteries for $5. We thought about buying one but decided not to but sure had fun watching. People with the green plastic frogs lined up first and let there plastic frog swim across the pool. Then the green frogs went.

2:30 Men's knobby Knees

Dive-in movies for the day -Back to the Future and Raiders of the Lost Ark

 

Captain's Cocktail Party - A complimentary selection of white glove served Coctails and Hors d'oeuvres . I will warn you about all of the activities for this day everyone is very excited for something different and everything is very crowded. While the waiters did have on their white gloves it just was not the same with their blue shirts instead of the suits they used to wear. Also my sister had a glass of red wine poured on her by a man when he got up to leave and he did not even seem to realize ( he was sitting the glass down). It was very crowded.

Midnight Gala Buffet- awesome and yes from what we saw the food was eaten.

There were photographers taking photos of you in clothes they provided and or your own from the 80's, they called these photos booths. Fun booth photos 1) Ugly Sweater Heaven 2) Work out Queen 3) Carnival 80's Cruise 4) The 80's rock 5) Back to the 80's Me and my sister did these mainly just for fun but thought we might buy a few. They were around $21.00 for 4 photos of the same set on a 8 x 10 sheet

[pink roses]

Did men need a suit coat to be allowed into the throw back captains cocktail party? Or was dress shirt and tie sufficient?

No, men do not need a suit coat. We saw men dressed in everything from tuxes to nice pants and a collared shirt.

[BIG GUY]

Hi, We are on Glory Journeys cruise in Feb. I think I read on JH's blog that there were 2 formal nights and 1 "elegant" night. He stated there were tuxes and gowns on elegant night.Can you tell us if this was the way it went? Did you see many of tuxes? Thinking about getting one for our cruise. Thanks

[pink roses]

Hi, We are on Glory Journeys cruise in Feb. I think I read on JH's blog that there were 2 formal nights and 1 "elegant" night. He stated there were tuxes and gowns on elegant night.Can you tell us if this was the way it went? Did you see many of tuxes? Thinking about getting one for our cruise. Thanks

We saw some tuxes, but to be real honest there was a big variety of the way people dressed up. I did not see a huge difference in the formal nights vs the elegant nights. There were some men in tuxes and some women in long gowns but not many.

[BIG GUY]

We saw some tuxes, but to be real honest there was a big variety of the way people dressed up. I did not see a huge difference in the formal nights vs the elegant nights. There were some men in tuxes and some women in long gowns but not many.

 

Thanks for the reply. Thinking about going all out and getting a tux.

[pink roses]

Did they have crafts on board and if yes, what time of day generally?

 

Did you have early, late or anytime dining - what was your experience (was it crowded? difficulty with the different menus that aren't normally served, etc.).

 

Was there anything that you unexpectedly enjoyed or did not enjoy about an 11 day cruise?

Yes, they had arts and crafts 2 times during the cruise, both I believe were new crafts. They did both in kit formats so you were given your own kit. One was a pair of flip flops with lots of ballons and you0 wrapped the ballons around the straps on the flip flops. cute but not sure I will wear them will probably give them away. The second craft was a journalig kit with scrapbook papers and tags. We absolutely loved this kit since we are scrapbookers. I believe both were at noon.

We had early dining upstairs in the Scarlet Dining room at the back. The service and food were awesome. We heard alot of complaining about the "Anytime Dining". My husband and I had cruised this same ship in August and the service was not as good but we had different waiters. Seven of the days were the same menus we had in August but the other nights were different. We had lobster again (no charge) but the additions great and mixed in the 11 days.

I loved everything about this cruise. I am 52 and my sister is 56 and most people were around our age or older my sister seemed to think this was why we had top notch service. I am also platinum so not sure but this was by far one of my best cruises. I was tired and ready to come home by the end.

[valentinebaby1]

I had read on John Heald's page that there weren't a lot of kids. I believe there were 4 teens altogether or something like that. We were thinking about a Journey's cruise in April and were kind of thinking with the longer itineraries it would be more seniors/retirees traveling than younger folks...did you find this to be the case? On our most recent cruise in September we figured there wouldn't be that many kids (there weren't on our Oct 2013 cruise) but we were awoken several nights by stupid kids banging on our door after midnight, and running up and down the halls screaming. It was extremely irritating to say the least! So we thought maybe the longer Journeys cruises would have fewer kids, but does that also mean more seniors? more scooters? (and apparently more service dogs based on what John Heald posted)? What are your thoughts on this?

[pink roses]

I had read on John Heald's page that there weren't a lot of kids. I believe there were 4 teens altogether or something like that. We were thinking about a Journey's cruise in April and were kind of thinking with the longer itineraries it would be more seniors/retirees traveling than younger folks...did you find this to be the case? On our most recent cruise in September we figured there wouldn't be that many kids (there weren't on our Oct 2013 cruise) but we were awoken several nights by stupid kids banging on our door after midnight, and running up and down the halls screaming. It was extremely irritating to say the least! So we thought maybe the longer Journeys cruises would have fewer kids, but does that also mean more seniors? more scooters? (and apparently more service dogs based on what John Heald posted)? What are your thoughts on this?

I only saw maybe 10 kids including some teenagers. I think officially there were 48 from babies to teens, not many for 4000 people that were on the ship. So yes for sure lots of walkers, wheelchairs and as I told my sister handicapped people. We say the large dog that truly was a service dog for a lady that was blind and seemed to be traveling solo. We also saw the dog that was dressed up. my sister took a picture of it. All of that being said it was an awesome trip.

[pink roses]

Did you attend any of the cooking demos and if so, were they worth it?

 

cant wait for our but I have over a year to wait!

We went to the one in the steakhouse that is done on most cruises, we also went to one of Chef. Dino's. I believe he is an awesome chef and we saw people buying is book. A few cruisers were chosen to sample the food, each cruiser was given a ticket when they entered the room and tickets pulled for the lucky food testers. The demo we went to was I believe the first one the chef had done in front of a group, he struggled a little demonstrating and talking but I image it was not an easy task.

[RaiderFaninNM]

Was the food that different, in that they make the menus that revolve around the local food?v

[pink roses]

Was the food that different, in that they make the menus that revolve around the local food?v

Unless they did this on the buffet, we ate in the Dining room for supper and I really did not notice the food revolving around the local food.

[INCHARGE]

This may sound a little crazy, but when I sailed on the Sunshine earlier this year, the show lounge was made into a night club at night. With the ages being older, what did they do in there at night? Do they still have a DJ playing music, or is it closed at night for the Journey cruise? Thanks!

Edited October 20, 2015 by INCHARGE

[Rosefloater]

Yes, they had arts and crafts 2 times during the cruise, both I believe were new crafts. They did both in kit formats so you were given your own kit. One was a pair of flip flops with lots of ballons and you0 wrapped the ballons around the straps on the flip flops. cute but not sure I will wear them will probably give them away. The second craft was a journalig kit with scrapbook papers and tags. We absolutely loved this kit since we are scrapbookers. I believe both were at noon.

 

We went to arts & crafts the day the thong balloon were handed out on our Hawaii cruise last December. It would be cute for a small kid's activity. The scrap booking kit was also available on the cruise, but we didn't do it.

Edited October 21, 2015 by Rosefloater

[pink roses]

We went to arts & crafts the day the thong balloon were handed out on our Hawaii cruise last December. It would be cute for a small kid's activity. The scrap booking kit was also available on the cruise, but we didn't do it.

Oh wow, I went in Aug. on a 7 day cruise with hubbie and they did not offer any crafts so I thought they were new.

[pink roses]

This may sound a little crazy, but when I sailed on the Sunshine earlier this year, the show lounge was made into a night club at night. With the ages being older, what did they do in there at night? Do they still have a DJ playing music, or is it closed at night for the Journey cruise? Thanks!

They had shows of some kind almost every night in the Main Lounge, the Encore