Sunshine-n-Wine

This was our first foray into MSC.  I was very hesitant to book with MSC because the reviews have been historically hit or miss. Friends of ours had booked MSC and then upgraded to Yacht Club, and they loved it, sooo… why not?  Anyway, here’s my rundown. We parked at Port Canaveral, again choosing to forego Park Port Canaveral offsite.  Traffic was terrible going since MSC docked at Terminal 10, requiring you to drive over the drawbridge.  The MSC Yacht Club is all in one location, unlike Celebrity Retreat class which spreads out the spaces and the rooms.  It was so incredibly convenient, such that you don’t really need to leave unless you want to see the shows, shop, or check out the speciality restaurants and bars.  The pool, pool buffet, restaurant, and lounge are all located in the key-access area with our rooms.  Room For the first time since before the pandemic, we chose to book Interior - Yacht Club Interior.  It was cheap enough that we fi...

If you've ever booked a cruise during the pandemic, you know how frustrating it can be.  In 2019, we booked our Alaska cruise for May 2021. Well, May 2022 was our make-up cruise for the cancelled 2021 sailing.  Better late than never, right? Dawes Glacier - Endicott Arm Pre-cruise First, I’ll hit our pre-cruise stay in Seattle.  We hailed a Lyft from the airport ($50 + tip).  You need to cross the sky bridge and go down one level until you see the green barriers.  The signage was actually great, but several escalators to get there were on the fritz.  Our Lyft dropped us at the Fairfield Inn & Suites near the Space Needle.  The hotel seems newly updated and the front desk staff were very friendly and helpful. For dinner, we took the advice of the front desk staff and visited Thomas Street Warehouse .  The prices are actually really great for downtown, and they have a cool cocktail menu.  In the morning, we grabbed breakfast tacos at Jack’s...

After three cancelled cruises thanks to this thing called a pandemic, we booked a couple months out for a 4-day cruise on the Carnival Magic from Port Canaveral, Thursday - Monday.   Good price and easy for us to get to from central Florida.   We purchased the beverage package for this trip since we were planning to stay on the ship most of the time. Parking A very rare occasion, we parked at the port for easy in and out.   Usually we’d book off-site for about half the price, but I didn’t want to deal with a shuttle.   Turns out that the port wasn’t busy – at all! – and the parking was so easy!   Not a bit of traffic, plenty of parking, and a VERY short walk to the ship.   Definitely worth it this time.   We paid at the end of the trip at self-pay kiosk. Room We booked cabin 7347, because if we got quarantined for any reason, I wasn’t about to have an interior room.   Our cabin was a perfect location. Close to an elevator and stairwell, mi...

We were on the Reflection March 2017 when the previews of the brand new and very innovative Celebrity Edge were launched, so we booked.  Four months later, we were informed that our cruise week had been fully chartered, and they gave us the option of either the week before or the week after (locked pricing and extra OBC).  We weren't thrilled, but we'd already put down the deposit and were excited to go.  With all of the OBC combined, we ended up with $800, which we used for two shore excursions, some shopping, a Blendtique class, specialty dining, and extra gratuities.  It was a very busy cruise! The Edge Theater - Pre-Show We reserved parking at our usual place, Park N Go .  We arrived just past noon, and it was a shitshow - cars and people everywhere waiting to board the shuttles.  There were 8 ships leaving Fort Lauderdale, and it was absolutely the busiest we have ever seen it.  From now on, we will continue to try to get there around our us...

Back on Celebrity!  We booked this trip on our cruise last March so that we could take advantage of the extra On Board Credit (OBC) and then transferred our reservation to CruCon the next week.  CruCon always gives us loyalty benefits and whatever promotion they happen to be running - usually around a national holiday.  We booked again with the Go Best package of amenities (wifi, $300 OBC, premium drink package, and pre-paid gratuities).  Due to a series of inconveniences with embarkation and all the promos, we had $700 OBC to spend - yippy!! We left out of Ft Lauderdale and again parked at Park-n-Go .  Another positive experience there. Room Stateroom 6172 has an obstructed-view balcony and is virtually the same as our cabin last year.  Perfect for us.  Plenty of space, mid-ship, and close to many of the places we went most.  Very quiet.  Amenities include: bathrobes, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and bar soap. Food (and Bars) Ma...

This will be a long one so feel free to skip to the stuff you care about most! We spent 8 days on Carnival's newest ship - the Vista - cruising from Miami. The Ship Inside Cabin 7309 As usual, we booked an interior on Carnival.  The major difference in the new ship layout is one few closet side and a few less drawers.  We still had plenty of space for our stuff - we typically don't take much more than we need.  No real issues with the cabin and location other than a very slow response time with the TV and flipping through options. The Food We ate in the steakhouse on the first night (Fahrenheit 555), which has been moved from one of the highest decks to Deck 5.  The layout of the restaurant was a little different than most other Carnival steakhouses, but it was still fine.  The food, as usual, was amazing and worth the upcharge. A+ 9oz filet from the steakhouse We ate at the Italian restaurant on the last night (Cucina del Capitano) and made the m...

For Spring Break 2016, the hubs wanted to do a land vacation instead of a cruise so we stayed at Couples Negril for 5 days.  It was wonderful, and we got that out of our system for a while.  For a couple of years we had been talking about trying a different cruise line.  If you have followed by travels over the years, we have cruised Carnival (two weeks shy of Platinum after this year), Royal Caribbean, and Disney.  I started researching and came across Celebrity.  I had heard good things but always assumed it was out of our price range.  I was pleasantly surprised that I was quite wrong. Room We had cabin 6192, obstructed view balcony (or as they call it, veranda).  Please note that the hubs and I have only ever booked interior or oceanview, so this was our first balcony.  The obstructed view didn't bother us.  The room was spacious, and the bathroom was big (relatively speaking) as well.  At first I was worried about lack of drawer ...