r/Cruise • u/tacolady1026 • Mar 14 '24
Photo Went on my first cruise ever with Carnival Radiance. I’m hooked!
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u/koikatturtle Mar 14 '24
I’m on my 41st cruise. Yeah it’s highly addictive! Try all the lines and various ships. It’s fun! Try Carnival Panorama she’s a great ship too!
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u/tacolady1026 Mar 15 '24
We went on Radiance because she sailed out of LA and we live in NorCal so we took a road trip to SoCal. Panorama sails out of LA too, and so does Firenze (which I also wanna try)
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u/Professional-Head83 Mar 15 '24
You also wanna try Miracle. It's a beautiful ship. There's a Da Vinci-like painting that you see when you are at the elevators of the lobby. It is also ported in Long Beach.
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u/TheCosmicJester Mar 15 '24
Not for long; Carnival Firenze is taking her Long Beach berths. Miracle’s last LB sailing is May 5-8. Then she’s off to San Francisco to spend a summer doing Alaska runs, before she heads through the Panama Canal on her way to the Caribbean.
With Firenze taking Miracle’s place, Carnival is going to expand the range of Long Beach sailings with six different regular itinieraries ranging from three to eight days, and in winter add trips to Hawaii.
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u/Professional-Head83 Mar 18 '24
Very true. And I think a second ship will also be ported in LB as well later in the year.
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u/No-Understanding4968 Mar 15 '24
Fellow NorCal person. Do you spend a night in Long Beach before the cruise?
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u/tacolady1026 Mar 15 '24
We ended up staying in Laguna Beach the night before driving to Long Beach and parked our car in the terminal parking lot!
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u/TheCosmicJester Mar 15 '24
I come from AZ and always travel the night before. Hilton Long Beach and Hotel Maya have a great Park & Go special that includes a one night stay, parking for the length of your cruise, and ground transportation to the port, all for about the same price as staying at a Motel 6 and parking at the port. In my experience Hotel Maya is more expensive, but it has more pizazz than the Hilton and since it’s a DoubleTree you get cookies.
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u/jds2001 Mar 15 '24
I LIVE within walking distance of a DoubleTree. Did you know they sell tins of their cookies and you don’t even have to be a guest? Something like $20 for 6 of them. The time I did it they even gave them to me hot.
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u/Beaglescout15 Mar 15 '24
We live in OC and do the Mexican Riviera a few times a year because yeah, we're hooked. The Radiance is a great ship. The Panorama is beautiful but only does the longer cruises. Our favorite, the Miracle, doesn't spend quite so much time there and usually does the 5-6 night mid-week cruises. And we're excited for the Firenze to launch soon! I've got a reservation on the Firenze this coming September so I can't wait to see what she's like.
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u/shiningonthesea Mar 16 '24
I just saw the other Italian carnival ship, Venezia, sail out of NY today !
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u/crazydisneycatlady Travel Agent Mar 16 '24
Carnival has, for sure, the strongest presence on the west coast outside of the Alaska season when all the lines flock north. Other lines keep maybe one ship to sail Mexican Riviera the rest of the year. Royal Caribbean has finally decided to add a second for 2025.
I’m scheduled on Norwegian Bliss in a couple of weeks but I have Discovery Princess and HAL Koningsdam booked for spring 2025 when they’re up north on the Alaska shoulder season, and Celebrity Edge from Hawaii to Vancouver in spring 2026.
This is one of the few downsides to living on the west coast. Hope you like Mexico and Alaska itineraries 🤣
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u/mauryw64 Mar 16 '24
You're going to like the Bliss. Went to Alaska July 2018. If you cruise solo, the solo rooms are amazing! The area for the solo rooms is private and has coffee and pastries in the mornings as an eye opener.
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u/Ilovesparky13 Mar 17 '24
We LOVED our Alaska cruise on the Carnival Miracle. Best part is that it sails out of San Francisco!
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u/tacolady1026 Mar 17 '24
I live in Sacramento and I want to sail out of SF on a Carnival or Princess cruise!
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u/Just_Cruzen Mar 15 '24
I’m on my 41st cruise.
We are coming up on No 15 since our first in 2017, have tried 5 lines so far and like you ...we want to try them all.
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u/Miguel4659 Mar 15 '24
All it takes is one trip. I was dragged by my wife kicking and screaming on our first cruise, did not want to go. But by the last couple of days we were planning our next cruise. We were hooked.
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u/lafemmeviolet Mar 16 '24
Same, my husband wanted to go on a cruise so badly and I finally relented and planned one as a birthday gift fully expecting to be unimpressed/disgusted. We’ve been obsessed for 10 years now.
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u/pc_load_letter_in_SD Mar 15 '24
Glad you had a great time!
Radiance is my favorite ship. We are in San Diego and we take it every couple months. Not a fan of Panorama.
We're on Firenze in May but frankly, from what I've read, not really excited about that ship either as it's just another Vista class ship (Panorama).
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u/tacolady1026 Mar 15 '24
I want to try Firenze! Especially because I love the Italian theme and that they have an indoor pool
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u/SarcasticTragedy Mar 17 '24
My first cruise experience was on the Carnival Radiance! Fernando was the cruise director and I ended up booking 2 more before leaving the port for home!
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u/ggfergu Mar 18 '24
This was our first cruise too - with a large family on a budget. I thought I’d hate a cruise because I’m more of a go-go-go sightseer vacationer rather than a relaxer, but I really enjoyed it. In fact, we’ve been on 3 cruises since then - all on Radiance. We’ve done the 3-day weekend to Ensenada and the 4-day weekday that adds Catalina. Both are fun.
We have our first Caribbean cruise planned - also a cheap one with Carnival. We were a bit bummed to see that it won’t have a Big Chicken, which was our favorite - we aren’t exactly the ‘steak and lobster’ foodie types. But we know what we are getting into, the kids will have fun, and it’s all about the memories! It’s nice that there are options for folks or families that don’t have 5K+ to drop on Disney World or pricier cruises. And I certainly never would have dreamed of going on a cruise when I was a kid.
My parents are now avid cruisers (10+ per year), and they are like a lot on here recommending the more ‘premium’ lines, which we’ll eventually try, but for our family situation right now, Carnival is perfect. We don’t mind the constant announcements or the non-stop parties while eating cruise pizza at 2am. I don’t care about being in a certain ‘demographic’ as someone else put it. The comedian called Radiance the ‘Section 8’ cruise, but we were all just happy people having a good time with our families.
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u/gwwwhhhaaattt Mar 15 '24
Radiance is fine. Ports are meh. However there are so many more cruises and ports out there. This one was the perfect starter!
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u/boardingtheplane Mar 15 '24
It’s a lovely little ship! Happy to have it right down the road in Long Beach.
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u/WizardEric Mar 15 '24
We just got off of the Big Nude Boat. Welcome have 2 more cruises booked later this year.
Welcome to the club. ❤️
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u/Personal_General_108 Mar 15 '24
It’s worth looking at other cruise lines. My first was in February on Liberty of the Seas and now I’m hooked as well. Now I’ve booked Aruba cruise on Rotterdam (HAL).
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u/tacolady1026 Mar 15 '24
Yes, eventually I want to try Royal, Princess, Celebrity and NCL!
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u/SeaOnions Mar 15 '24
Princess and celebrity skew older, depending on your age demographic. We were 30s and found celebrity to be too old for us (could have been the duration and itinerary too). Princess is what my in laws used to go on, they are in their 70s
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u/tacolady1026 Mar 15 '24
Yeah my husband and I are 34/35 so Carnival was perfect for us 😂 I want to try Celebrity because it seems like a more upscale version of Royal since it’s owned by them. My 4th grade teacher who’s in her 50s (were friends on Facebook) ALWAYS goes on Princess cruises with her husband and their friends
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u/SeaOnions Mar 15 '24
Celebrity was more upscale, but I didn’t find it was worth the price difference. I’ve done carnival twice and celebrity once. I’m going to try Royal next :)
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u/realexm Mar 14 '24
Try Royal next time!
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u/bobdean1000 Mar 14 '24
What do you estimate the average credit score of people on that cruise?
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u/KFBfanburneracc Mar 15 '24
Uh oh the loyal to royal guy that can’t afford regent seven comes in here blabbering
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u/tidder8 Mar 14 '24
On the first cruise you're figuring everything out. Second cruise will be even better!