Princess Cruises Introduces Fleetwide Main Dining Room Service Changes 2024           Princess Cruises announced new dining room options that will be going into effect fleetwide for cruise ship departures on & after September 14, 2024.           Princess will be offering 3 distinct options for guests to choose from for dinner. The first option is traditional dining which will offer an early and late seating each night for dinner. Guests with the traditional option will have the same waiter, same table, and same time each night. The sec ..read more

      Most Carnival Cruise ships have a godmother that is a tradition dating back a long time. Carnival's ships Carnival Venezia & Carnival Firenze both have godfathers.  The role of the godmother or godfather is to be present at the naming ceremony to christen the ship & break a bottle of champagne against the ship which is for  good luck. All Carnival ships have a godmother or godfather. I compiled the information from Carnival's ship fact sheets on who the godmother or godfather is listed for each ship.  The Carnival Breeze's godmother is Tracy Wilson M ..read more

        The Carnival Freedom's funnel caught fire on Saturday, March 23, 2024 as the ship was 20 miles off Eleuthera Island, Bahamas. At the time of the fire the Carnival Freedom was on its way to Freeport, Bahamas for a port of call stop due to a stop in Princess Cay being cancelled. The Fire Is Out! However, there is damage to the ship. Carnival has announced some cancellations due to the fire as of 3/24/2024. See picture from Carnival included below. According to Carnival the ship reported a fire at 3:15pm EDT on the port side of the ship's exhaust funnel. Carnival told ..read more

5th Excel Class Ship Ordered For Carnival Cruise Line To Arrive In 2028              Carnival Corporation has ordered its 5th Excel Class ship for Carnival Cruise Line. Carnival finalized an agreement with the Meyer Werft shipyard that schedules the ship's delivery for 2028.               The new 2028 ship is not yet named and Carnival has not released homeport details yet. This ship will be designed to carry 1,800 crew and 6,400 guests. Similar to the other Excel class ships, the ship will have liquified natural gas (L ..read more

New Orleans - Erato & Julia Street Cruise Terminals          Cruise ship guests driving to New Orleans for a cruise will need to find a place to park. This post is a guide to New Orleans cruise parking and discusses the cruise parking options available through the Port of New Orleans, offsite lots, veteran parking, and more.                  New Orleans is a cruise homeport for Carnival Cruise Line ships year-round. Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line sail from New Orleans seasonally. Additionally, New Orleans is h ..read more

       If you are taking a Carnival Cruise ship vacation over St. Patrick's day this year you may want to be on the look-out for some events & activities that could be taking place onboard your Carnival ship. The exact events & timing of when things are held may vary by ship due to the ship's scheduled itinerary. This post will take a look at the events & activities Carnival advertises as being planned for St. Patrick's day onboard.               : St. Patrick's Day is on Friday, March 17, 2024 this year.  Carnival Cr ..read more

        Welcome to my  Carnival Sunrise Restaurants and Dining Food guide. This post will share information & tips about the many places to eat on the Carnival Sunrise and includes links to menus or further information, where possible. Carnival Sunrise has many complimentary/free places to eat onboard and some that cost extra so I have tried to note what is free versus extra throughout the post.  Venues, menus, and pricing may be subject to availability and could change at any time! More Carnival Food & Dining Tips: The Carnival Sunrise's Lido Marketplace ..read more

Carnival Cruises: Six Things To Do Right After Booking           Once you have booked your Carnival Cruise vacation there are a few things you should make sure you do. In this post I will share 6 common things I recommend you do shortly after booking your cruise.  1. Select Your Main Dining Room Time In your "My Booking" section of Carnival's website there is a place for you to select your main dining room dinner time as part of your online Cruise Manager. Carnival offers three options for dinner which are Your-Time Dining, Early Seating, and Late Seating. The "Bo ..read more

      Tracking Norwegian Cruise Line cruise ships is easy and a great activity before your cruise!  This page shares links to various trackers I use to track Norwegian Cruise Line ships so you can track your ship too!         Each ship listed below has a link to Marine Traffic and Vessel Finder's websites. Both of these websites will display a ship's location when the ship is considered in range to a terrestrial AIS system. When a ship's location is only available via satellite the ship will generally show as out of range. Each website is free to us ..read more

Carnival Vista 2024 Drydock Is Complete: Changes Made Onboard           The Carnival Vista recently underwent a dry-dock in Cadiz, Spain. The ship was out of service for approximately a month and during this dry-dock received numerous enhancements and changes. This post will take a look at the Carnival Vista's recent changes made during the 2024 dry-dock.  If you are interested in more dry-dock news & info please check out my unofficial Carnival dry-dock guide by                     1.  New Red, White, &am ..read more