Roll Call: Carnival Valor March 16, 2008

[CanCruzer]

Any other gay/lesbian cruisers on this itinerary? There are 3 of us traveling together. We've never cruised on Carnival before. NCL has been very hospitable to the GLB set with FoD meetings every day. I'm not sure what to expect on Carnival. We thought it was time to try a different cruise line. I hope we'll have as much fun with the new folks we will meet as we have on past cruises!

 

Jonathan

[adilandjohnny]

My Partner and I are looking for a cruise to take that same week. We did not have a good experience on RCL a couple of years ago. The only other gays we found were this REALLY wierd couple. We are from Toronto. Where are you guys from?

[CanCruzer]

We are in Ottawa. On our NCL cruises we've met a great bunch of people, so Carnival has a lot to live up to. I really don't know what to expect since none of our friends have cruised Carnival before. We are the guinea pigs :)

 

Let us know if you decide to take this cruise.

[Toronto1970]

My boyfriend and I were on the Valor last April and had a great time. We briefly dropped in on the FOD meetings (which are just designated daily meeting times at the wine bar), but there wasn't anyone we were really that interested in talking to. We did meet one other gay male couple on an excursion, and we were seated with a lesbian couple at our dinner table (who we ended up hanging out with for much of the week). So there will certainly be "family" to meet, but it's probably a crapshoot from cruise to cruise on if they will be people you are interested in hanging out with.

[CanCruzer]

NCL has the same deal as far as meetings go: daily meeting times at a bar, typically around 6pm. With NCL's open seating arrangement, we often joined FoD-ers for dinner. At home, we enjoy having good friends over for casual dinners, so being on the ship and having dinner with new found friends was just like at home, but without having to do all the cooking and clean up :) Having never gone on a cruise with fixed seating, we aren't sure how much we will miss the dining system that doesn't cater to easily being able to share dinners with the family in a formal dining room setting.

 

Glad to hear the Valor was a positive experience for you guys.

[ryry79]

My boyfriend and I will be on the 3/16 Valor. Just booked yesterday! We have sailed together on Carnival 3 times now. We've never had a problem and have always met some nice folks to hang out with.

 

Ryan

[CanCruzer]

Ryan,

Does Carnival have daily FoD gatherings and if so, do you guys go? I'm not so concerned about having any problems on Carnival, rather the opportunity to meet others. NCL does such a great job of bringing GLB folks together and providing a fun venue.

 

I hope we'll meet you. Where are you from?

 

Jonathan

[ryry79]

Hey Jonathan - according to this site, Carnival does have regular fod meetings on all of its cruises. I personally have never attended one, and I can't recall seeing them advertised in Carnival Capers (the daily schedule). You could check this site for scanned Carnival Capers and see if there are any announcements.

 

We're from the DC area and around March we head south for a break from the cold...well, our idea of cold.

 

How did you do on flights down to MIA/FLL? We're looking for tickets under 425 dollars but aren't having too much luck.

[ryry79]

Hey Jonathan - according to this site, Carnival does have regular fod meetings on all of its cruises. I personally have never attended one, and I can't recall seeing them advertised in Carnival Capers (the daily schedule). You could check this site for scanned Carnival Capers and see if there are any announcements.

 

We're from the DC area and around March we head south for a break from the cold...well, our idea of cold.

 

How did you do on flights down to MIA/FLL? We're looking for tickets under 425 dollars but aren't having too much luck.

[CanCruzer]

Ryan,

We got an amazing deal on flights: $385 return. I found a local travel agent that is familiar with the difficulties of finding affordable flights out of Ottawa. Ottawa has few direct flights to anywhere. You nearly always needs to fly to a hub and that typically makes flights more expensive, not to mention that flying out of Canada is nearly always considerably more expensive than flying out of a nearby American airport. Anyway, she found a charter flight with a company that was willing to package the whole thing together: cruise, flight (direct Ottawa->FLL), transfers to Miami port, for one low price in Canadian dollars.

 

I couldn't find the scans of Carnival Capers on this site, so I guess I'll have to wait and see. I suspect FoD is mentioned, but in the finer print. We've met people on NCL that just happened to be in the bar when and where FoD was taking place. They had not noticed it in their daily activities guide.

 

We'll have to devise some way of meeting, if you would like, since you don't attend FoD gatherings.

 

Jonathan

[ryry79]

Jonathan, we keep checking flights and hoping for that break, but it's not coming!

 

We'd definitely be amenable to meeting up onboard.

 

So how do you folks know each other? Have you cruised a lot together? We are going alone this time, but we are waging a relentless campaign to get some of our friends onboard.

[Toronto1970]

On the Valor last year, the FOD meetings were definitely mentioned in the Carnival Capers. I can't remember if they were scheduled for EVERY day, but there were quite a few throughout the week.

[CanCruzer]

Ryan, the three of us live together and have been on 3 cruises together so far. Friends of ours introduced us to cruising a year and a half ago. We've done 2 cruises with them and this will be the second cruise we are doing on our own. Personally I find this type of vacation to be the most fun and relaxing. It is the only vacation where I can truly remove myself from home/work life and really recharge the batteries.

 

How would we find you on board?

 

Jonathan

[CanCruzer]

Ryan, the three of us live together. We were introduced to cruising by friends a year and a half ago and have been on 3 cruises since. We've done 2 with them and this will be the second one our own. Personally I find a cruise vacation to be the most fun and relaxing vacation I can have. It really separates me from home/work life and allows me to recharge my batteries.

 

How would we meet up on board?

 

Jonathan

[ryry79]

Hey Jonathan. We can meet up wherever - on the promenade deck the first evening or something. We can specify a place/time in a couple weeks before we get onboard so I don't forget.

 

We booked some interesting flights today. We're going non-stop back and forth for 299 each. We are flying into Palm Beach, renting a car, and driving 60 miles to MIA. It saves us 225 each, so I think it's worth it. Hard to believe airfares are so exorbitant, but I am glad we were able to find something affordable.

 

What excursions are you guys looking into? We can't seem to find anything interesting in Cozumel. Do you like active trips like hiking, water-related things, etc? We did some great white water rafting last year on our stop in Costa Rica, but there's nothing similar for these stops. If you haven't done cave tubing in Belize, I'd recommend it, but with a private company.

[CanCruzer]

Ryan, We'll work something out to hook up. I don't think this system has a method of sending email directly to folks, which is unfortunate.

 

We've never done a cruise excursion. To date we've been happy to explore the ports mostly on our own. On our second last cruise, the FoD coordinator turned into a personal tour guide at most of the ports. He knew all the places to go and how to get the deals. We rented scooters at one port and had a blast. I've read that renting scooters for one of our ports, I think it was Roatan, is a good way to see the island. I'm interested in some of the Myan ruins. Hiking is good, I'm interested in snorkeling. I don't see doing the cave thing for me anyway ... I'm far too claustrophobic! I realize time is marching on so if we are to plan any excursions, we probably should do so soon.

 

Have you booked any excursions?

 

Glad to hear you got good flight deals. The March time frame seems to be expensive due to all of the March breaks happening at different times for different schools. I was suprised to find a cruise (and a flight) that was so affordable at this time.

 

Jonathan

[ryry79]

Jonathan, we haven't booked any excursions quite yet, since we just got the essentials (flights) taken care of. However, that's the next step.

 

We usually opt for private tours that the cruise line doesn't organize, since they are crowded and logistical nightmares most of the time. We like to get into the culture on our own. Sounds like your NCL fod coordinator was terrific - you probably have high expectations for Carnival!

 

Speaking of which, hopefully you won't mind not having the "freestyle" cruise experience. Where did your last few cruises go? Caribbean?

 

Are you folks on a spring break from school or are you taking a winter break from work or none of the above?

[CanCruzer]

Ryan,

Not sure about you, but I've been having a hard time posting: timeouts etc. Can I suggest we take this discussion to email? Since I don't post my regular email address on forums, you can contact me initially at my spam address. The username is: spam2000. The domain is magma dot ca.

 

Jonathan