blvdeast

I'll be on the Carnival Valor 4/3 - my first cruise - and am a bit nervous about the Carnival crowd.

Allthough I have every intention of making the most of it and enjoying the excursions, etc..., I realize the reputation and low prices of Carnival may attract a crowd not normally associated with fine living!

I'm picturing lots of kids, newlyweds, drunken frat boys (spring break ?) but am hoping to hear first-hand experiences with Carnival.

Any suggestions, tips, advice?...

Thanks

PHLFlyer

I personally have not taken a Carnival cruise, however a very good friend has taken 2 or 3. His general comments have been that "the price is right" and therefore appeals to a particular demographic but nothing has made him feel particularly uncomfortable. That said, he has always taken cruises with small groups of friends (6 or so), mixed m/f, gay/straight. So, they made their own party. Not sure he'd feel the same if traveling as a couple.

I do recall him saying that last year's cruise was full of spring breakers and the ship ran out of alcohol half way thru the cruise.

bayotter

I have been on Carnival once, but that was with RSVP, an all-gay cruise charter. I do know that the company is very gay friendly and they have escorted a number of all-gay cruises, so you should not have any problems with the crew. If you do, do not hesitate to report it. As for the passengers, I have been told that Carnival is not as bad as some people might make it out to be. Their reputation came mainly from the beer-swilling crowds of the earlier Carnival cruises of the 70's and 80's. You are on one of the newer, larger, nicer Carnival ships. If you find yourself around rowdy people, simply move to another location. The ship is huge. Even sophisticated people look for the good cruise value which Carnival represents, so everyone won't be bad. And I can almost guarantee you will find other "family" on board.

My partner and I will be leaving on a Carnival cruise (the Paradise out of Long Beach on 4/4) for a family reunion. Although we usually sail on more "luxurious" cruises, we will still have a good time no matter what prevails on a Carnival ship. I suggest the same for you. Have fun and don't take it too seriously. You are there to have a good time.

JGR01

Took two cruises in January (house work being done) not Carnival. I took a Royal Caribbean and Celebrity which I thought would be nicer than Carny.

The 7 night cruise was better .. tho still a lot of young adults who had no clue about anything. Yea and a lot of way-seniors who cruised frequently.

The 4 night was NOT good .. atracted a lot of YOUNG people who had never cruised before and did not know that you had to tip the waiters! Plus the dining room staff was very inexperienced (or the fact that 4 night cruises dont give them time to shine).

In both cases my table companions were the issue. OK .. I was traveling single so got stuck at whatever table was open. Got to the point I hated to go to dinner to try and make 'adult' conversation. There was either silence or blaa blaa haa haa college/20's year-old chatter. Nothing about the ports/tours or the ship .. but who got drunk last night and who was cruising whom ..

I'm afraid Carnival will be that less-than-adult experience. They claim they have cleaned up the 'act' with requiring at least 1 25-yearold per cabin (no cabins of 4 18yearolds as in the past). But that is the public drunkenness issue. Not the fact that dinners are boring and inane.

How can you make the cruise better for yourself? and (not mentioned companion)??

Don't do ALL the land tours. Enjoy the ship while in port. Learn where the crew (and entertainment) hang out onboard (and sun themselves). OKOK candy but enjoyable. Others have told me to directly ASK a ships member about 'where gay people hang out' if you can be that bold. I was not.

Go to dinner. Have fun with the waiter. Abuse the wine steward by getting wine each night. If the table turns out to be duds or drunks ask to change. Tho on a short cruise .. I ended up doing the alternative restaurant one night and the buffet one night (when I was not feeling well). For Formal night(s) dress to the NINES (ok TUX not dress where applicable)... show those others what REAL classy people are made of.

The short cruises really slayed me on the lack of proper dress code. The main dining room says no jeans for dinner .. yet there were MANY examples (mainly hiphuggers - or hippohuggers) and no one seemed to care.

If you aint having the best time, find a quiet library to read in. Or a nice deck to watch port arrival at (hey that may be too early from some of these Carny kids). I think every ship has a bunch of jerk passengers. Some lines more than others.

OH . btw.. be carefull and watch the on-board TV Channel. some ships have deck-cams so inside cabins can see the weather. Don't be in front of one of those and be caught on-cam in a compromising position/embrace.

In any case ENJOY and bring back a tan line!

trvlr64

Look on the daily cruise news for a "friends of Dorothy" meeting somewhere on the ship. That's what Royal Caribbean does. Did a regular cruise my first time but after my recent Atlantis Events cruise, I will only do a gay cruise from now on.

Also, check to see if the ship you're going on has buffet style dining so you don't have to tolerate what JGR01 endured. Even on the AE cruise we prefered to eat the buffets because we chose the time we wanted to eat and didn't have to worry about rushing to dinner or lunch. It made for a more enjoyable cruise. We did do a formal dinner 1 night and I had better food at the buffet than what the main dining room served.

RWHfromBOS

Does anyone have any experience with Norwegian Cruise Lines? I'll be sailing on the "Dawn" in a little over a week (with some high school friends, a pre- 10-year reunion, if you will) and wanted to know what the scoop is -- what's the atmosphere like, where do the 'family' crew and passengers hang out, etc.

princessmom

I did not like Carnival. Just got off Carnival Miracle last month. New ship, but people were smoking everywhere. I have never seen so many 40-50 year olds that had way too much to drink and smoke. We had to go through the casino to get to the dining room, yuck. Employees not as professional or polished as on RCCl or Disney. On many occasions, I saw employees were fraternizing with each other.

Food was pretty good.

Decor was not to my liking, RCCL is more classic (Mariner of the Seas).

That being said, I did have a good time, but I won't be back to Carnival.

TallerFlyer

My SO and I went on a 7-day Carnival cruise last year. Appropriately enough, the ship's name was "Pride". At first I was a little nervous, wondering how comfortable we would be. All turned out very well. We shared our dinner table with a wonderful group of people. On formal night we dressed up in our suits and had our picture taken at most of the photo spots set up around the ship. The photographers did not seem to show surprise at two men having their picture taken together.

Admittedly, I would have liked to feel more comfortable to hold hands or put my arm around my guy as we walked around the ship. But, all said, it was a wonderful vacation. In fact, we're already booked on another Carnival cruise later this year. Maybe next year we'll go on an all gay cruise, but for the money Carnival is not bad.

travelguy_73

My Atlantis cruise was on a Norwegian boat, and I was very impressed. The nice thing about Norwegian is that you don't have a particular table at mealtimes--there are multiple restaurants, some need reservations and some don't. Now if you are taveling alone, and somewhat shy then it probably doesn't help you make friends--but it helps keep you away from the dud tables.

I think each Norwegian ship has a disco/club and so I imagine the 'mo's will hang out there at night. Probably a great place to check out the first night of the trip.

waltjim

ive been in carnival cruises twice and enjoyed them both but there is a warrning. you are absolutely rigiht. do not expect to meet sophisticated people there. I recommend hanging out with dancers and musicians, who are the hottest crowd in any cruise. They and the officials in white are the creme de la creme in any cruise. They usually go to the clu after 2 am hoping all the fugly people have gone to sleep (so they can wake up early enough for the first breakfast. I had a blast partying and kissing with the beautiful people.

jets_to_july

My partner and several of our friends are going on Valor on 5/1. Please, let us know what you think! And tell me if my cabin is in a good spot! 2276 on Main!!

StSebastian

We did one and absolutely hated it, but that was also because we found the whole "cruise" experience wasn't our taste. We felt like NCL wasn't as good as the others, but without experience we can't be sure. We did go to the FOD meeting and ended up meeting a large contingent of people (two separate groups on the same ship) that were good to hang out with.

Sometimes we felt like the NCL staff on our ship were not really interested in trying to do anything, or making up rules to have an explanation for whatever policy they were trying to push. We ran into a lot of inconsistencies about what could or could not be done, and a lot of excuses along the way. The staff were generally sub-par (and I'm not big on being waited on hand and foot -- just be efficient) though there were a few that were exceptionally good.

We'd consider doing another, but only a gay one, only on a line other than NCL, and only if several friends were going along with us. We prefer to wander around and be able to go do whatever we feel like whenever. While the cruise lines might want to be under the impression that it's just like being in some metro area, it's not. You can't go to the Bulldog in downtown Amsterdam at midnight just to get a pancake and see what's going on. Many people like the structure of the cruise lines (even NCLs "Freestyle" structure) but we didn't. If it's your thing, then have a great time with it.

As to the comments about spring break on Carnival -- we might be able to be dragged onto that ship...

RyanGWU82

Wait, how'd you know there was a FOD meeting? Did you organize that before you went? Or was it advertised like the Friends of Bill W. meetings on my last cruise?

StSebastian

It was on the events calendar, just like Friends of Bill W.

bluesincenew

Martin was our favorite of the staff on the "NCL-Wind", a Eastern European dealer in the casino that taught us how to play craps.We did end up having a good time, but we have a lot of questions to ask before going on another cruise.