First cruise

[Riceguy]

which line, carnival or RC? I cant speak for carnival, but ive been on 3 RC cruises.. go the main dining room, every night. its included and the food is phenomenal AND all you can eat. get appetizers, main courses, desserts, coffee after.. all of it. on lobster night, i ate half my ticket price in lobster.

This is my recommendation as well. Have a suit or sport coat for the main dining room. Get seconds of any dish you want. Treat the wait staff well and they’ll be nice to you. Not a fan of the pool, but liked the other activities available. If you rent a car at port, recommend an automatic since tourists tear up the clutch on the cars. Don’t buy “Bob Marley” if you stop in Jamaica.

[tkuehn5410]

If they allow you to bring a case of water per person on board, buy replacement caps for water bottles and dump all the water and fill them with clear liquor.....it will save you a whole bunch of dollars even if you decide to buy the all you can drink pass....

[dclifton]

Buy the all you can drink pass. I don’t think I sobered up completely for 7 days. We would order drinks just to try them and maybe only drink a few sips or the whole thing. We had a good time. Went Norwegian thru Alaska. I’ll never do it again tho. Food was not near as good as folks make it out to be. Now the paid for sit down dinners in the specialty restaurants on board was great. But the buffets are golden corrral grade at best.

They have the stops rigged where you have just about enough time to do one other there excursions then piddle in a stores then get back on. We pretty much stayed on the observation deck playing cards etc and just chilling the whole time.

[Tyrex750]

We don't really drink, so not worried about getting liquor on. Don't plan on getting in the pool either unless it's early before it gets packed.

[PlanoDano]

I used to carry my wife on one every year until she decided to quit getting sun. It was great - one cruise a year with a good attitude with my wife would punch my fishing and hunting ticket for the rest of the year with no complaints.
I liked Norwegian the best
I buy the drink package and I buy a specialty dining package (usually at a discounted rate). Most times I skip the shore excursions as I know what I want to do in most ports. It is hard to call it an adventure when you are going with 300 of your closest shipmates...more like a cattle call.
Nowegian used to have a older smaller ship that did 3 and 4 day cruises to Bahamas. It was a happier boat than most and the drink package was included at no extra charge.

I would not go out of New Orleans or Mobile. The number of motorize carts carrying 500 pounders from chow line to chow line is obstructs normal movement on the ship. It's a yankee plot - motorized fatboy (or fatgirl)carts ensure the South never rises again.

[D12]

Do your breakfast in the formal dinning areas. Buffet is buffet but those breakfasts in the restaurants are very enjoyable.

[Tyrex750]

Yes, I keep hearing that also

[76aggie]

I've done Princess, Royal Carribean and Carnival. I find Carnival caters to a younger crowd. All are good in my opinion but the buffets are highly overrated. Good when you are in a hurry but the dining rooms have much better food in my opinion. I also recommend the drink passes.

[Jon B]

The drink package is worth it. Rip your cabin steward with a small amount upon check-in. They will do everything they can for you after that. Get up early each morning to workout in top deck.

[Landrover]

Always go on the higher end cruise lines if you can swing it.

Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

[SabineHunter]

When I go, I sneak my booze on. There are various videos showing how it is done. I use Rum Runners. You also get one bottle of wine per person.

Enjoy the trip, they are a ton of fun.

One time when we were in Jamaica, I smuggled some rum I bought while shopping the town, in my 100 percent plastic bottles I used with success on the initial embankment in Galveston.
Well, the metal detector went off on me and got pulled out of line and hand wanded. The guy zeroed on both my pockets that contained the rum and I turned the bottles to the guy. Thankfully. I say that because there was a huge amount of diluted heavy metal in that name brand (probably counterfeit labels) bottle I bought. I did this mostly for fun back then but don't do it since.

[Laner7]

We have been on 13 carnival cruises. Haven’t been since the restrictions. I refuse to get vaxed.. but it is by far one of my favorite vacations. Like others have said I use a water bottle and put clear liquor in it. A person in my party did get caught once though, but nothing happened. Just didn’t have his water bottle in his suitcase whenever it arrived at the room lol. They do a seminar before the boat takes off to go over life jackets/boats things like that. We hide in our rooms when that is going on.. hide because they will come in the room to check.. food is amazing, pretty much everything you could want all in one place.. shows, casino, bars, karaoke, movies, etc..

[Bassdeer]

Take a Lanyard for the card they will give you (you will use that card for everything)
Aspirin, Aleve and whatever other pills you might need. If you start feeling sick or think you have covid don't tell anyone.
Take different size zip lock bags and load up food from the ship to take on excursions.

Drink package if your a drinker, Then tell your room stewart on the first day to unload the mini fridge and then load it up yourself, (Stuff in the mini fridge is not on the drink package, you will be charged full price)

If anybody wants a good Alaska trip get on the mailing list of Travel With Alan. Best deal out there, when you get the email you have to act fast, it books up quick.

Leaving Saturday for our trip 7 days sea and 7 days land.

[SabineHunter]

Take a Lanyard for the card they will give you (you will use that card for everything)
Aspirin, Aleve and whatever other pills you might need. If you start feeling sick or think you have covid don't tell anyone.
Take different size zip lock bags and load up food from the ship to take on excursions.

Drink package if your a drinker, Then tell your room stewart on the first day to unload the mini fridge and then load it up yourself, (Stuff in the mini fridge is not on the drink package, you will be charged full price)

If anybody wants a good Alaska trip get on the mailing list of Travel With Alan. Best deal out there, when you get the email you have to act fast, it books up quick.

Leaving Saturday for our trip 7 days sea and 7 days land.

Have fun

[Mike]

We started cruising just before the shutdown & did 2 pre Covid. I was like many here and hesitant about being stuck on a boat. It’s really a great time. It’s also what you make of it. We’ve been on three cruises in the last 18 months out of Galveston since reopening and all have been good. Overall, we’ve been on two Disney cruises and there is no alcohol package but they do have exceptional drinks. We’ve been on three Royal Caribbean and those have been fun trips and only purchased the alcohol package on one due to its very low price. We found out the unlimited drinks are not a good value unless you like a drink in hand type person. Our next cruise in February will not have the drink package as the price far exceeds the cruise itself.

We have a couple of friends that cruise carnival exclusively and it is more of a party scene all the time from their reports.

If you like upscale food and good steaks, I would recommend paying for the upgraded unlimited dining as those were our best meals in the evenings. We had some really great meals, including breakfast.

One trick we learned was to stop at Bucees on the way down and get a bunch of the bigger packages of snacks for your room steward. With all the regulations, most of them are not able to get off the boat anymore and that $30 bag of snacks went a long way for them.

You mention people watching, that is always fun. Make sure to engage some of them because you never know who you might meet. I met a few really cool folks and even one couple that more or less lives on the boat and only gets off every few weeks for a couple of days and then gets right back on the ship.

Regarding ports, it’s up to you. We got off in the Bahamas & Key West to spend some time looking around. At the ports in Mexico, we just stay on board and enjoy the empty pools & hot tubs, LOL.