CSNbbs

The wife and I are thinking about taking a cruise out of Mobile on the Carnival Holiday. Anyone ever been on this ship?

Not on that ship. Have sailed out of New Orleans and San Juan. Carnival cruises are ok. Just they nickel and dime you to death. Have to pay for liquor or beer or soft drinks. Excursions in the ports are expensive.

We have decided to to an all inclusive somewhere in Mexico next time. At least the booze will be included....

UofMTigers1 Wrote:The wife and I are thinking about taking a cruise out of Mobile on the Carnival Holiday. Anyone ever been on this ship?

just took one of their "fun ships" out of san diego in february ... went to cabo san lucas and ensenda ... its great livin' in a port city. anyways, it was cool ... i took royal caribbean to the bahamas before as well and that one was much better.

I went on one that went out of New Orleans as well... went to a place south of Cancun, and then went across the water to Cozumel. A good experience.

The Holiday is one of the smaller ships. It is still a nice ship, but just has fewer balcony rooms than the conquest class ships. I would be happy on any ship going anywhere in the Caribbean. We are doing a 7 night cruise out of Miami in Jan. If you have never been on a crusie I would recomend you try one of the shorter crusies just to see how you like it. I love crusies but they are not everyone's cup of tea.

If you like to meet great people, party like crazy and don,t want to dress for dinner. Go on a Windjammer Barefoot Cruise.
I would not do anything twice if I didn't love it, and I have done 6 windjammer trips.

only carnivale cruise i have taken was in 1980 on THE Carnival. they only had 3 ships back then. the Carnival, the Festivale and the Mardi Gras.

http://www.maritimematters.com/topaz4.html

i have used NCL ever since though.

I've done the Mobile Carnival with the wife. It is one of the older (smaller) in the fleet. We though it was a great deal and enjoyed it. It's hard to get 4 nights and that kind of food for $199 per which is what it was when we went. It was a good way to get a break from family life for a weekend. We like cruises though, but they are not for everyone. If you plan to drink a bunch it will cost a lot more. I went Royal Carribean out of Galveston this year and it was $5.60 for a single aluminum bottle of Bud.

We don't pay up for a balcony room. We did once and never stepped foot on the balcony. Now we just get a nice window room.

We did a 5-day cruise on Holiday just this past March. It was my first cruising experience. I have always avoided them like the plague and wasn't too excited about going, but had the time of my life.

The Holiday is old and relatively small, like others have said, but they make up for it with excellent service and a fun atmosphere. The food was good and plentiful, however nothing about it really blew me away, except for the chocolate melting cake they have for desert every night in the dining rooms. I am not much of a sweet-tooth, and I never order deserts, but I ate the chocolate melting cake every night.

If you want to read more opinions, try the Carnival message boards at Cruise Critic. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/index.php

Yes, my wife and I have been on two. One from New Orleans and one from Mobile on the Holiday. I would highly recommend going out of New Orleans verses Mobile, not because of the City but because of the ship. The Holiday is the oldest in Carnivals fleet. It does not have the stabilizers, which causes the ship to rock back and forth more than the newer ones. My wife experienced sea sickness on the Holiday but not on the newer ship out of New Orleans. The cost is usually the same. I personally will never cruise on the Holiday again, but I love to cruise and will cruise on the newer ship out of New Orleans any day any time. Just a great time overall. You can do as much or as little as you want. The extra cost comes with alcohol, gambling, shopping and shore excursions. You can spend as much or a little as you want.

We don't drink alcohol, so I'm not too worried about the price of drinks. We've never gone on a cruise, but we love the water. We're going in January, so it will be good to get away from the cold.

UofMTigers1 Wrote:The wife and I are thinking about taking a cruise out of Mobile on the Carnival Holiday. Anyone ever been on this ship?

I've taken the ship out of Mobile, New Orleans and Miami. Cruises are alot of fun and you'll have a great time.

We took the Conquest out of New Orleans which is the largest ship in fleet. It was by far the best cruise I’ve ever been on. Most of the crew spoke English which was a huge plus for me…especially when you are trying to find something on board.

Make sure you read the brochures and understand what costs what so you won't get stick-price shock.

I also agree w/ mapdude about the inclusive-resorts in Mexico. You pay one price and everything is paid for (with exceptions...again, you gotta read the fine print).

Haven’t tried the windjammer cruises…will look into that tonight.

We went on the Holiday last year and it was awesome, the staff is wonderful, the ship is no frills but the food and staff make up for that. If you have children they will love Camp Carnival and they have baby sitting at night as well. We took full advantage of that and Elliot had so much fun. We went on one excursion and it was pricey but we had fun anyway.

Check out: http://www.cruisecritic.com and go to their boards, TONS of great information there. They break it down by cruise line and ship.

UofMTigers1 Wrote:We don't drink alcohol, so I'm not too worried about the price of drinks. We've never gone on a cruise, but we love the water. We're going in January, so it will be good to get away from the cold.

They sale these cards called "fountain fun cards" for $30... it's all the fountain drinks and non-alcohalic beverages you can drink... I recommend that.

It's fun - just get to the deck early enough to get a good spot and keep in mind that you can order room service at any time.

I haven't done the Holiday, I have done the Conquest out of NOLA and had a blast. The Conquest is one of the newest boats compared to the older Holiday.

I heard about this one cruise called BOOZE CRUISE. The main skipper is some man named Michael Scott and the assistant to the skipper is some guy named Dwight...

texasrush Wrote:I heard about this one cruise called BOOZE CRUISE. The main skipper is some man named Michael Scott and the assistant to the skipper is some guy named Dwight...

I went on that one once. Trust me, you should skip it.

Though there were a couple of really cute red heads...

We took that cruise out of Mobile last fall. The food was good, but because it was cheap and sailing out of Mobile, there was a large amount of very drunk rednecks around all week. We saw numerous skirmishes and there was almost a riot during the comedy show one night. We never saw any security around all week. Take a different cruise if you have a chance.

If the money is roughly the same, do the all-inclusive. I've done that and the cruise and I preferred the all-inclusive. Cruise was fun but I did it the week after 9/11 and the boat was deserted (1/3 full according to the staff). With 3 times as many people as we had, I may not have had as good a time. Plus my week long bar bill was about a grand.

Cruising out of San Juan, PR was a trip. 3/4 of the travelers did not speak English. Higher percentage of Non Americans too. I like the ports better on the southern itinerary too. Aruba was my favorite. Don't know if they still go there or not.

Getting to San Juan with all your gear is not as easy as getting on the boat in New Orleans, but it was fun.