RCVoyager

There are many bands that are well known, and many bands with a huge concert following. This band is so great, and they normally play small venues. Not expensive. Great musicians. Let me ask you this: Do you know any band that comes out after the show to talk to their fans, sign anything, and take photos until the last fan has gone? This band does. Every time I've seen them.

Glad you liked it. They have almost 30 years of amazing music. Some funny. Some more serious. Funny you should mention that it would be nice to see them on board. That's exactly how we (my brothers and I) discovered them. They were on the first two Barenaked Ladies cruises. They have done the Rock Boat several times since then. A great unknown live band. Never spent more than $40 to see them. Usually $20. Sometimes free. Seriously, a great band.

"The Night I Punched Russell Crowe in the Head" by Gaelic Storm (live version)

If I wanted to have a little fun with the good people on this forum, this is how I would do it. A post so far out there, that it gets people talking. It rallies the troops for sure.

Wow. Just wow. The only thing I see RCCL did that is questionable was to let you board in the first place. They gave you a second cabin. You only paid for one. RCCL is not responsible for your relationship. Of all the ridiculous complaints I've seen from first time posters, this one takes the cake. Suck it up buttercup. You and your friend ruined your vacation... not RCCL.

I think this is a personal preference deal for most of us. To me, $112 per person per week for across the board good or better than good service each employee I encounter, is reasonable. And even though we are not rolling in money, I don't think we've been on a cruise where we didn't hand out a few extra 20s to those who went over and above to make out trip better. That said, I have traveled with a family member who ordered multiple dinners every night and whose wife made nightly special requests, whose son ordered off menu every night, and did not offer a single dollar extra that I saw. For all I know, they may not have tipped at all. If I can afford to pay for a cruise in the first place, I am a fortunate person. I don't mind digging a little deeper into my pocket. Makes me feel good about myself. If I were wealthier, I would do more.

Fair enough. But if your band is out there, this is the way to go.

The heck with Tribute bands. Why not see the real thing? Sixthman has been doing this for 20 years. They used to use Carnival for their music cruises, until Carnival created their own "Sixthman" copy. I think it is still in existence as well as Sixthman. https://www.sixthman.net/

The story of the beginning of Acadia National Park is a great one. At a time there was little to no federal money for acquisition, improvement, or enforcement of the National Parks, a man named George Dorr, who was born to great wealth, never married, and had no heirs, gave so much of his money to make that park happen, his accountant had to hide $2000 dollars from him for his funeral. Once the land was purchased, John D. Rockefeller II gave millions for improvements. It is a great story.

This just doesn't hold water with me. If this incident reminds you of an incident on Carnival, why not post the details? It sounds much more like someone who's never been on a Carnival ship who just wants to talk big by talking smack about Carnival... based not on experience, but on Carnival's reputation among people who've never been on one of their ships, and don't know what they are talking about. What's next? Carnival is the Walmart of cruise lines? That's one of my favorites from people who've never been. Just my opinion.

Honolulu on a repositioning cruise a few years ago.

Lots of people like to paint Carnival with a broad brush, and maybe there is some truth to that on their old ships. But those are being phased out, and their new ships are very nice most with more food choices than RCCL.

Why is this thread titled "Carnival experience"? This is clearly a RCCL Issue.

It would seem like a weird thing to say, but this question brings fond memories for me. We lost a beloved brother almost 10 years ago to ALS. The last time he was on his feet was in the pool on the Carnival Magic thanks to the pool lift in the aft pool. 3 brothers together. Two helping the third take what would be his final steps across that pool with his wife taking photos from the side. The weight reduction of being in the water allowed what little use of his legs was left to put one foot in front of the other for a few steps. 13 months later, he was gone. The memory brings a tear to my eyes this morning. Thanks for asking the question. I hope whatever your wife's condition, she is ok.

Agree Tony. However, when a storm hits the home port on or near embarkation/debarkation day, the port may close, traffic may counterflow, and air travel may be delayed or worse. Not much they can do about that. If there is a storm in the East, the cruise line can send all ships West for the week. If there is a storm in the West, all ships can go East. But, what if there is one both East and West? Or what if there is one coming up the East coast of FL... which looks like a possibility for Ian? These are the risks that come with the cheap rates in Sept and Oct.

They will whatever is best for the situation. Stay out an extra day, come in a day early, even debark in another city, as was mentioned by Steverk above. The cruise line has to keep in mind both cruises and cruisers, the one that is ending and the one that is scheduled to begin.

Cruise lines are pretty good at avoiding hurricanes. If it looks bad in the West on the day you embark, they will go East and vise versa. You may not get the trip you planned or the ports you planned, but you will get a reasonable facsimile. For the most part, the only real issues come when the storm hits the home port on or near embarkation or debarkation day.

I can think of lots of worse cruises than this one. They may not have been entirely pleasure cruises, but there was one that ended abruptly on April 15, 1912. Another on May 7, 1915. There was one in April of 1865 where 1100 heros were lost. One on November 10, 1975 was worse. One in July of 1915 in the Chicago River was pretty bad. There's one in Hawaii that's still leaking oil some 80 years later. I think Leon Klinghoffer had a worse cruise than OP. There was one off the coast of Italy where the Captain was showing off for a woman he met and crashed his ship. Somewhere I have a map that shows thousands of ship wrecks in the Great Lakes. I'm pretty sure most of them were worse. That's just off the top of my head without cracking a book or even the internet.

Agree on Nassau. With regard to Jamaica, Montego Bay is a pit for sure. I have not been to Falmouth. However, when Ocho Rios was the preferred port there some years ago, my group enjoyed it a lot. We did the Mountain to Sea bike tour. They bus you into the mountains where bikes await you. It was a 90% downhill ride to the sea. You ended up at a horse farm with a 20 foot high jump into the ocean. The place was beautiful. It was sweet. Did it twice actually.

We enjoyed NO. Have been there twice in the last 5 years for business. But, make no illusion, that city has real problems. Homeless, open drug use, and dirty. Maybe I'm a little jaded, but in the current atmosphere, I don't go into a lot of large cities, but the change in NO was stark over a 5 year period. That said, if you are there, and you have time, the battlefield from the Battle of New Orleans is about 7 miles East and South of downtown, It is worth your time. The field itself is basically an open field. The Muriel in the Visitor Center is awesome. It shows the spot where Pakenham fell and Jackson triumphed. You can stand within a few feet of where it all happened. For those who don't know, that was one of the most important military victories in World History, and the Americans dominated despite overwhelming odds against it.

We were in New Orleans in June. The trolley stop by the mall/convention center/cruise terminal was out of service for repair or upgrade. It looked like it would be for a long time to me... probably at least a year. Being there for a week and staying next to the Con. Center, we learned a couple of tricks. The biggest one being, if you are walking from the Con Center/port area to Jackson Square/French Quarter, walk through the Convention Center out the end of up turn right and go up the escalator and then through the mall. That gets you almost to the French Quarter and walking in the comfort of AC most of the time. Otherwise that heat and humidity is oppressive.

I think the "worst cruise ever" was actually a different kind of pleasure cruise. In April, 1865, the paddlewheeler, Sultana was overloaded with 2100 people (her capacity was 360) in Vicksburg, MI. The passengers were about 90% Union soldiers who were prisoners in the Civil War. Many of them had survived Andersonville. The overcrowding was a result of a kick back and bribe by the ship Captain and the US Quartermaster in Vicksburg. In a hurry to move his human cargo the Captain authorized a patch of a split boiler rather than a replacement. Along with all the hells of war, 1865 was also a year of record flooding on the Mississippi River. After picking up a load of fuel (coal), the massive current of the river and the faulty boiler repair caused first one and then two other boilers to explode in the Mississippi on April 27 just 7 miles North of Memphis. 1168 people died. Nearly all were American Soldiers. The news of the day was dominated by the end of the war, the death of Lincoln and the chase of Boothe. It barely made the news. Nobody was ever held accountable. That is the worst cruise ever.

I might also mention, the OP claims this was the "worst cruise ever". I can think of plenty of cruises that were way worse than this one. Today is April 17. One in particular ended rather suddenly 110 years and 2 days ago that I'm sure was way worse.

I've said in the past, that in some ways, this message board and RCCL are kind of like a family. RCCL is the parents, and we, the posters who have been here for a while, are the kids. Amongst ourselves, we are allowed to discuss and even criticize our parents. But, when some drive by comes on here to complain about our parents, we will defend them. Who knows what the motive is. I think most of the time the OP doesn't even understand this is a fan forum.

Put and adult in each room, then get extra room keys on board. The room charges will reflect that you and your spouse are in separate rooms, but it's not a problem.