The balcony was fine. The screen door to it was a problem.
Not really, but it makes more sense than being plunked in a retirement home in the middle of Podunk.
Sign up with the Navy for a three-year hitch, you’ll get all the ocean you can stand, and a free education to boot.
Good and room provided, too. Includes uniforms too.
What else can a person want? 
And learn such useful trades as deck-swabbing, paint chipping, and Form 378 filling-out. 
Oooh, missed that. (Though later point that it’s not the only option is taken as well.)
We did 3 Carnival cruises in the mid-90’s. I remember the experiences to be mostly okay. Food was absolutely fantastic. Our cabin was kept impeccably clean. Also met some lovely folks on the boat. Onboard live entertainment was varied, most with Los Vegas quality talent and production values. Movie theater had nothing but 3rd run flicks I had no interest in seeing. I had no interest in shooting skeet or whacking golf balls off the stern of the boat but for some folks that was a thing.
They really steered you hard into activities designed to part you from your money. The onboard casino and bingo were very much encouraged. We didn’t have the booze package so anything with alcohol in it was billed to your room at outrageous prices. Non alcoholic beverages were free, and somewhat exotic.
Organized, recommended land excursions invariably stuck you in some gift shop at some point where you could choose to stand around and wait for the tour bus to come back to pick you up. Your alternative was buy booze and jewelry for something to do while waiting for the bus. Any booze or jewelry you bought was packaged up “for your convenience” and taken back to the ship where you couldn’t touch it until you disembarked at the very end of the trip, obviously to keep you from circumventing the outrageous drink prices on the ship. I’m very sure the jewelry and booze places had some sort of kick-back arrangement with Carnival.
We found it much better to go off on our own to explore rather than use the recommended tours. But there’s a bit of danger in that too because the locals can see you coming and are quite happy to rip you off. We managed to see some pretty cool stuff and dine in a some quaint mom & pop restaurants that weren’t quite as tourist-trappy as the places Carnival steered you to.
On one cruise nearly the entire boat seemed to be booked by some square dance enthusiasts. Every night there were hundreds of old folks stomping around the main pool area while some geezer played 45 rpm records and yelled directions on a really crappy PA system while everybody dosy-doed. Forget about being on the main deck with that cacaphony. Fortunately the boat was big enough we could find other places to be but it pissed me off that one group could just take over large portions of the ship to the exclusion of others.
I don’t regret the experiences but I have no desire for a repeat. Three years of it? Nope.
I don’t hate the idea of a cruise. I just don’t like the idea of a three year cruise.
I consider the not bringing your own booze thing a feature. Do you really want the clown in the next cabin to get smashed on his own stuff and be screaming all night long? And wrecking things? I’m sure part of it is for them to make money, but not all of it.
Where did you go? Caribbean, I assume. (I’ve never been on a Carnival ship, probably never will.) Locals ripping you off ranges from Cairo and the Pyramids (you are told not to talk to them or else they’ll follow you everywhere) to Stockholm, where the locals couldn’t care less. (Our daughter rode a camel by the Pyramids. An hour later, at one of the stores you mentioned, a guy caught up with us and offered a photo of her riding for sale. For $1, IIRC. We had to buy just to reward such dilligence.)
Hi folks, Debbie Downer here checking in:
According to the article, the Hurtigruten company susan mentioned is developing hybrid cruise ships at present. But true sustainability for a massive object that basically hauls around the equivalent of a college campus population and infrastructure, for thousands of miles through a resistant medium largely cut off from access to resources, is not going to be easily achieved.
I don’t recall any overtly drunken behavior on any of our cruises, but keep in mind the median age of the cruisers was probably about 70. Not exactly the party animal demograpic. Still, a bunch of square dancers can make a hell of a racket even when sober
Yes you assume correctly. We stopped at various islands. The only one that sticks out in my mind was St. Maarten. We were able to spend the better part of a day there. From what we saw it was very friendly, never felt threatened in any way. People spoke enough English that communication was not a problem. I’m sure it has a dark underbelly like any place else but I remember thinking I’d like to live there.
I assume the cabin is only double occupancy. I’d kill my roommate in a week. Even a family member.
Too small a space for 2.
IMO
I don’t know how these things work, but it’s an interesting question – based on how cabin rates are quoted, it appears that it assumes double occupancy. If you’re not a couple, does an individual get stuck with a stranger in the same cabin? If so, I can see the makings of an episode of Murder, She Wrote.
I think I saw somewhere in there the option to have a cabin as a single-occupancy for somewhat less than twice the per-person-sharing rate. So if it’s 60K for a year for a cabin with two people in it (30K each), and one person takes the whole cabin, they pay somewhere between 30K and 60K; though I think it was closer to 60 than to 30.
There’s a 15% discount on double occupancy if only one person is in the cabin. So $51,000 a year for the cheapest one.
By sheer coincidence, out of curiosity I looked up a cruise line geared specifically for residential cruises. Their minimum cabin is (naturally) inside but 226 square feet, not 130. The base price for that is $4,800 a month double occupancy, but for single occupancy there is a 20% discount which seems counter intuitive. If you commit for at least 37 months (60 maximum) there is an additional 40% discount bringing the price down to $3,830 a month.
There are three restaurants, one paid-for offering a buffet breakfast plus lunch and dinner with a rotating menu. The other two are dinner-only and extra charge. There is also a burger bar by the pool but it is unclear whether it is gratis or not.
In contrast their maximum is a 1,270sf suite with a verandah for a mere $28,000 a month, single, 37 month discount. As an extra perq, you get access to a bar the proles are to allowed into.
When I looked two weeks ago there were two ships listed, one with an April departure from Italy. It’s not there any more so they either sold out or closed reservations for the trip.
A 20% discount to the total for two people makes sense. One person is consuming less of the free food and other free facilities.
That’s what I figured but most cruises post a PPDO price to make it look cheaper.
Carnival is one of the booze cruise lines. They’re party ships. Never been on one; never will.
Hurtigruten runs some solo-no-added-fee specials. Thst’s how I went to Antarctica) as well as included air fare specials. I’m watching for a Svalbard trip and hope to get a cousin to join me in his own cabin.
The website has a convenient table giving the cost of all cabin types on a per cabin basis for the three years. A standard outside cabin is about $225K a little cheaper or more expensive depending on the deck. A suit with a balcony is $600K.
Looking at the site, it struck me that if I were interested the first thing I’d do is to research the finances of this company. If they don’t sell enough cabins and go broke, do you get your money back? How about if they go broke a year into the cruise?
Nothing on the site that I saw mentioned Covid testing. A resurgence could be a problem.