GaryAA

We enjoyed our South Beach cabana. It was quiet and less crowded than the other areas.

I assume the one I have booked on the Odyssey in March 2022 is a spa junior suite like the Anthem and Ovation. The deck plan is slightly different than those ships though. Cruisedeckplans.com shows the junior suite you are mentioning (assuming this information is correct). You are right though, can't find any information on it.

Nothing worse than going back to your cabin and having your clothes smell like smoke.

I canceled an Alaskan cruise booked in 2020 and the excursion money was applied directly to the deposit on another Alaskan cruise for 2021. I was surprised it did not go to onboard credit.

I like the Mariner, it was my first Royal cruise. I’ve been on several Voyager and Freedom class ships after that cruise. My TA kept telling me to try an Oasis class ship but I resisted until finally trying out the Harmony and Symphony when they first came out. They are probably my favorite ships in the fleet. I would not hesitate to go on the Mariner though if it was a good route.

I have 3 cruises planned on the Anthem/Ovation/Odyssey in cabin 10638 (deck 10). I like being close to the elevator. The noise is not bad at all.

If you have your heart set on visiting Key West, there is a Key West shuttle from Miami's airport that is running 3 times per day. They were running every couple hours before the pandemic. By the way, did you decide to get a Grand suite for this cruise? After reading your post about Grand suites, we changed our junior suite to a Grand suite.

We have cruised several times in junior suites on the Anthem and have liked them. You basically get priority boarding and Coastal kitchen access if space is available. Our future cruises on the Anthem and Ovation are also booked in junior suites but we are considering upgrading to the Grand Suite but the price difference is $2500-$3000 more. Part of that may be due high demand for future cruises.

I failed to mention in my previous post, we fly home from Key West so we don't have to drive back to Miami. Adding Key West to a cruise is enjoyable. We've done it several times.

Are you on the Symphony 2/5/21? We are on that cruise then drive down to Key West for the following week. It is a 3 hour drive.

I'm curious what the protocol will be like when the Adventure and Vision sail this summer as far as mask wearing and smoking in the casino.

Oh I agree with not having a 100% non-smoking ship. I’m sure Carnival had a hard time enforcing it, especially with crew members. I also understand why they don’t want guests leaving the casino to smoke, I just choose to avoid the casino.

We are still holding on to our August Ovation booking for now but will probably cancel soon. We have another one booked in August 22. I was really hoping the August 21 cruise would sail at half capacity, that would have been nice.

I really wish the casino was non-smoking. We cruised on the Carnival Paradise when it was 100% non-smoking ship which was great. As much as I like to play blackjack, I avoid the casinos when there is smoking allowed. Yes, I can smell it on the non-smoking side too.

My very first cruise on Carnival Ecstasy in 1992 had skeet shooting on the back of the ship with shotguns