Trans Atlantic on Carnival?

[jules815]

My husband retired this past year, and I guess you could say I'm semi-retired. Back in 2016 we did our first TA from Barcelona to the US on RC Harmony of the Seas. Always wanted to do another, and was taking a look at some of Carnival's offerings. A couple of them caught my eye. I haven't been on a Carnival cruise since 2012.Carnival Dream during Hurricane Sandy, we were on that one!    

 

Wondering how the TA's are on Carnival. Similar to other lines? Do they also have guest lectures on sea days, etc. 

[kwokpot]

19 minutes ago, jules815 said:

My husband retired this past year, and I guess you could say I'm semi-retired. Back in 2016 we did our first TA from Barcelona to the US on RC Harmony of the Seas. Always wanted to do another, and was taking a look at some of Carnival's offerings. A couple of them caught my eye. I haven't been on a Carnival cruise since 2012.Carnival Dream during Hurricane Sandy, we were on that one!    

 

Wondering how the TA's are on Carnival. Similar to other lines? Do they also have guest lectures on sea days, etc. 

No lectures on Carnival whatsoever. Which particular sailing are you looking at? What additional information are you interested in?

[Essiesmom]

1 hour ago, kwokpot said:

No lectures on Carnival whatsoever. Which particular sailing are you looking at? What additional information are you interested in?

Agree.  After TA on HAL, TP on Princess, cruise on Cunard, very disappointed with Carnival Dream TA.  Such a lost opportunity.  At least I could get in my afternoon nap.  EM

[CarnivalShips480]

There is a transatlantic on Celebration, 3 on Pride, 2 on Freedom and one on Jubilee

 

 

this might not help but....

Edited September 17, 2022 by CarnivalShips480

[bar1068]

2 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

Agree.  After TA on HAL, TP on Princess, cruise on Cunard, very disappointed with Carnival Dream TA.  Such a lost opportunity.  At least I could get in my afternoon nap.  EM

What lost opportunity was missed?

Edited September 17, 2022 by bar1068
add more info

[TomCruise48]

3 hours ago, kwokpot said:

No lectures on Carnival whatsoever. Which particular sailing are you looking at? What additional information are you interested in?

TA's are typically Journeys cruises.  Cruises listed as Journeys cruises have had guest lectures in the past.  We have sailed on 3 Carnival cruises with a guest lecturer.  They call this the Academy of Fun.  Carnival's website is still listing this.

Academy of Fun
Who knew it would be fun to learn while on vacation?  You will be invited to attend a series of enrichment courses designed to help expand your horizons such as photography, stargazing and social media – these are just a few types of classes you might find on board.

[kwokpot]

12 minutes ago, bar1068 said:

What lost opportunity was missed?

On other cruiselines a TA cruise is an opportunity to listen to a lecture about the history of the places you will eventually be going, or on topics such as history, science, famous figures, etc. Since there's usually 6 or more seadays and the weather most likely won't be sunbathing weather attending a lecture is away to pass the time and learn something new that you normally wouldn't take the time to listen to in other circumstances. 

[TomCruise48]

In the past, Carnival relied on the Cruise Director to plan extra activities for the many sea days on a TA.  For most, this was their first experience with a TA, and they did not have access to the resources necessary to develop a good plan.  Carnival has since come up with the Journeys cruise concept that has a number of structured activities that are not present on shorter, more port intensive cruises.  See the following link:  https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3936/~/carnival-journeys-cruises

[nybumpkin]

11 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

On other cruiselines a TA cruise is an opportunity to listen to a lecture about the history of the places you will eventually be going, or on topics such as history, science, famous figures, etc. Since there's usually 6 or more seadays and the weather most likely won't be sunbathing weather attending a lecture is away to pass the time and learn something new that you normally wouldn't take the time to listen to in other circumstances. 

We loved the "Insights" program Cunard had when we sailed QM2 - four lecturers with four lectures apiece during each sailing. However, I really don't think it would fit well with Carnival's style. Having said that, we have had opportunities for lectures on some of our Carnival sailings - we had several photography lectures when we did our Baltic sailing and we had lectures by the naturalist on our Alaska cruise. I wouldn't be surprised by similar features on a Carnival TA.

Edited September 17, 2022 by nybumpkin

[TomCruise48]

The best lectures that we ever attended on Carnival were by Josh Waltzman who was a cruise director and is now a PVP.  He is a WW2 history buff and has done extensive research.  His lectures were quite informative and entertaining.  We learned a lot from him that is not in your typical history book.

[kwokpot]

9 hours ago, nybumpkin said:

Having said that, we have had opportunities for lectures on some of our Carnival sailings - we had several photography lectures when we did our Baltic sailing and we had lectures by the naturalist on our Alaska cruise

There were no lectures this year on the Pride Europe sailings. I was on a b2b2b and none of the 3 sailings had any lectures. The CD didn't even bother to do a daily morning show. 

[TomCruise48]

4 hours ago, kwokpot said:

There were no lectures this year on the Pride Europe sailings. I was on a b2b2b and none of the 3 sailings had any lectures. The CD didn't even bother to do a daily morning show. 

These were not Journeys cruises.  Most people sail Europe cruises mainly for the ports.  Onboard entertainment is secondary.  After a long day in port and an early arrival at port the next day, many of the guests are too tired for much entertainment. 

 

 Our Celebration TA is a Journeys cruise, so we should have a guest lecturer onboard who will deliver 5 different lectures, two times each.  John Heald is supposed to be on this cruise as well and he will probably do a couple of Q&A's.  Lee Mason will be the CD.  IMHO he is the best of the current CD's.  We had him on a sea day intense 15-day Hawaii Journeys cruise on the Splendor and he had a very entertaining morning show every sea day,

[jules815]

18 hours ago, kwokpot said:

No lectures on Carnival whatsoever. Which particular sailing are you looking at? What additional information are you interested in?

Not looking at the website now, but was looking at October 2023. There were a few. Southhampton and Barcelona and Rome. I don't remember which was which, but one of them goes north and makes a stop in Bermuda, and that would be something new to us. Another stopped in Grand Turk (never been). I think that may have been the one sailing into Tampa. Anyway, itineraries looked nice. Prices were pretty good as well. Thought maybe a TA on Carnival wouldn't be like the typical Carnival cruise, would have very few children, etc. Longer cruises tend to have a more mature crowd, so maybe it wouldn't be that much different than other lines.

[kwokpot]

11 minutes ago, jules815 said:

Not looking at the website now, but was looking at October 2023. There were a few. Southhampton and Barcelona and Rome. I don't remember which was which, but one of them goes north and makes a stop in Bermuda, and that would be something new to us. Another stopped in Grand Turk (never been). I think that may have been the one sailing into Tampa. Anyway, itineraries looked nice. Prices were pretty good as well. Thought maybe a TA on Carnival wouldn't be like the typical Carnival cruise, would have very few children, etc. Longer cruises tend to have a more mature crowd, so maybe it wouldn't be that much different than other lines.

I would choose the Freedom sailing. Bigger ship with more room and more dining choices and better Port stops

Edited September 17, 2022 by kwokpot

[jules815]

9 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

I would choose the Freedom sailing. Bigger ship with more room and more dining choices and better Port stops

Thanks. Will look more into that one. I can't believe we're really considering doing this so soon. I actually ended up on the Carnival site because there was a tour of Mardi-Gras on my YouTube page, got curious and I watched it. Was looking at that ship and then went down the rabbit hole of other itineraries and here we are. 

 

 

Edited September 17, 2022 by jules815

[quattrohead]

If someone want's to pay for a TA for me, I will happily talk about my time working on Commodore Caribe1 and spin some 70's/80's/90's tunes in the night club and have competitions to win prizes for name this tune !!!

[babyclaytonmom]

On 9/17/2022 at 7:36 AM, kwokpot said:

There were no lectures this year on the Pride Europe sailings. I was on a b2b2b and none of the 3 sailings had any lectures. The CD didn't even bother to do a daily morning show. 

well thats a bummer. can I ask who the CD was? Will be on Pride next month.

[babyclaytonmom]

20 hours ago, TomCruise48 said:

These were not Journeys cruises.  Most people sail Europe cruises mainly for the ports.  Onboard entertainment is secondary.  After a long day in port and an early arrival at port the next day, many of the guests are too tired for much entertainment. 

 

 Our Celebration TA is a Journeys cruise, so we should have a guest lecturer onboard who will deliver 5 different lectures, two times each.  John Heald is supposed to be on this cruise as well and he will probably do a couple of Q&A's.  Lee Mason will be the CD.  IMHO he is the best of the current CD's.  We had him on a sea day intense 15-day Hawaii Journeys cruise on the Splendor and he had a very entertaining morning show every sea day,

How do you know about the 5 lectures? I have a TA next month and am wondering if this info comes out prior?

[kwokpot]

7 minutes ago, babyclaytonmom said:

well thats a bummer. can I ask who the CD was? Will be on Pride next month.

His name is Felipe and he wasn't a very effective CD. I'm assuming he's still the CD since it would be strange to change him out during the Europe sailings.

[TomCruise48]

1 hour ago, babyclaytonmom said:

How do you know about the 5 lectures? I have a TA next month and am wondering if this info comes out prior?

I am basing this on 3 different Carnival Journeys cruises that we took pre-Covid.  I hope that Covid has not given Carnival an excuse to cut back on this.  Their website still says that Journeys cruises will have the Academy of Fun, their name for lectures.  I assume that you are on the Pride repositioning next month, since it is the only TA listed for October.  This is listed as a Journeys cruise.  See the following link for information about Journeys cruises:

https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3936/~/carnival-journeys-cruises

[bar1068]

22 hours ago, jules815 said:

Not looking at the website now, but was looking at October 2023. There were a few. Southhampton and Barcelona and Rome. I don't remember which was which, but one of them goes north and makes a stop in Bermuda, and that would be something new to us. Another stopped in Grand Turk (never been). I think that may have been the one sailing into Tampa. Anyway, itineraries looked nice. Prices were pretty good as well. Thought maybe a TA on Carnival wouldn't be like the typical Carnival cruise, would have very few children, etc. Longer cruises tend to have a more mature crowd, so maybe it wouldn't be that much different than other lines.

There is one other TA in October 2023 that currently does not show on Carnivals website, probably and somewhat oddly to me is because it's "completely booked" on the Carnival Jubilee. It's an 18 day leaving from Southhampton, going south, stops in Grand Turk before porting in Galveston TX. We're booked on that cruise, and I'm 99% certain it's not a Journeys cruise. None of the booking information shows anything about it being a Journeys cruise. This will be our 4th TA on Carnival....woulda been our 5th had we not canceled Horizon's TA. We take TA's almost 100% for the sea days..the more the better. The Jubilee has 12 sea days, with 6 consecutive after leaving Las Palmas. stops in GT...then 3 more into Galveston.

 

Some of the best sea days we've experienced on any of our cruises, have been on the TA's we've taken. Some rough, less than undesirable days mixed in, but the nice calm days far out weigh and out number those lousy days. And the "crowd" on the TA's does tend to be more...mature..as someone else mentioned with very few kids.

 

While none of our past TA's were Journeys cruises, we did have some lecturers that talked on various subjects...cruises were a while ago now so I don't recall specifics, but do know we attended a few talks on those cruises, more to hear the subject matter vs something to do on an lousy sea day. I do find it  odd that with the Jubilee TA being apparently sold out over a year out, the Celebration cruise this November shows availability for most cabin types...at a lower cost...is a shorter cruise and has fewer port stops that I'd think contribute contribute to the lower cost....still surprised a little on it's availability.

[jules815]

43 minutes ago, bar1068 said:

There is one other TA in October 2023 that currently does not show on Carnivals website, probably and somewhat oddly to me is because it's "completely booked" on the Carnival Jubilee. It's an 18 day leaving from Southhampton, going south, stops in Grand Turk before porting in Galveston TX. We're booked on that cruise, and I'm 99% certain it's not a Journeys cruise. None of the booking information shows anything about it being a Journeys cruise. This will be our 4th TA on Carnival....woulda been our 5th had we not canceled Horizon's TA. We take TA's almost 100% for the sea days..the more the better. The Jubilee has 12 sea days, with 6 consecutive after leaving Las Palmas. stops in GT...then 3 more into Galveston.

 

Some of the best sea days we've experienced on any of our cruises, have been on the TA's we've taken. Some rough, less than undesirable days mixed in, but the nice calm days far out weigh and out number those lousy days. And the "crowd" on the TA's does tend to be more...mature..as someone else mentioned with very few kids.

 

While none of our past TA's were Journeys cruises, we did have some lecturers that talked on various subjects...cruises were a while ago now so I don't recall specifics, but do know we attended a few talks on those cruises, more to hear the subject matter vs something to do on an lousy sea day. I do find it  odd that with the Jubilee TA being apparently sold out over a year out, the Celebration cruise this November shows availability for most cabin types...at a lower cost...is a shorter cruise and has fewer port stops that I'd think contribute contribute to the lower cost....still surprised a little on it's availability.

Interesting. I'll have to look into that. Definitely looking at October 2023. I'm having a second knee replacement next month. (Partial) Had my first done end of June and it went so well, couldn't see any reason to put the other one off. South Hampton would be a new port for us and a first time in the UK, so we'd definitely add on a few days days at the beginning like we did when we sailed from Barcelona. 

LOVED the sea days on our only TA...the more the better. It was the most relaxing cruise we'd ever been on. And not that we don't enjoy doing things on board, but with all those sea days you don't feel like you have to cram everything into a few days. We also don't mind some rough weather either. Makes it interesting. Galveston would also be a new port for us. We're in Chicago, so no matter where we end up, we have to fly home.

[NCTribeFan]

While I like Freedom (and the other Conquest-class ships I've sailed), I prefer the Spirit class.  I'll be on the Pride in a couple of weeks doing a B2B2B (RT Rome/Rome-Lisbon/Lisbon-Tampa).  There are 17 ports in those 32 days.  Doesn't give much time for lectures until we're on the TA portion, and by then we're past all the really interesting ports. 

 

The Spirit class has the best space ratio of any Carnival ships.  When you're on a ship for that long, having less crowding makes a difference.

 

I haven't yet been on a HAL TA (am booked next April for the TA + 2 5-night sailings after).  They have great lecturers on their Hawaii and Alaska sailings.  I expect there will be some on Rotterdam.

 

FTR, a day stop in Bermuda honestly isn't worth the effort.  Bermuda needs at least 2 full days to do it justice.  

 

 

[ninjacat123]

38 minutes ago, NCTribeFan said:

While I like Freedom (and the other Conquest-class ships I've sailed), I prefer the Spirit class.  I'll be on the Pride in a couple of weeks doing a B2B2B (RT Rome/Rome-Lisbon/Lisbon-Tampa).  There are 17 ports in those 32 days.  Doesn't give much time for lectures until we're on the TA portion, and by then we're past all the really interesting ports. 

 

The Spirit class has the best space ratio of any Carnival ships.  When you're on a ship for that long, having less crowding makes a difference.

 

I haven't yet been on a HAL TA (am booked next April for the TA + 2 5-night sailings after).  They have great lecturers on their Hawaii and Alaska sailings.  I expect there will be some on Rotterdam.

 

FTR, a day stop in Bermuda honestly isn't worth the effort.  Bermuda needs at least 2 full days to do it justice.  

 

 

Doing a review, I hope?

[BlerkOne]

On 9/18/2022 at 11:19 AM, bar1068 said:

While none of our past TA's were Journeys cruises, we did have some lecturers that talked on various subjects...cruises were a while ago now so I don't recall specifics, but do know we attended a few talks on those cruises, more to hear the subject matter vs something to do on an lousy sea day. I do find it  odd that with the Jubilee TA being apparently sold out over a year out, the Celebration cruise this November shows availability for most cabin types...at a lower cost...is a shorter cruise and has fewer port stops that I'd think contribute contribute to the lower cost....still surprised a little on it's availability.

Transatlantic cruises are nothing more than reposition cruises and not known for making money. Carnival crossings used to be dirt cheap and a real bargain. Not so much these days. Now I think all are Journey cruises and all Journey cruises have a guest lecturer. 

 

Carnival also has a guest lecturer on all Alaska cruises, journey or not.

 

European cruises are too port intensive to bother with guest lecturers, morning shows, etc.

 

One reason the Jubilee crossing sold so well is people betting the pandemic will finally be over and pent up demand. I bet cabins pop up now and then, with more at final payment.