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for a slideshow of all the below photos.
Because of our Carnival Platinum Status and because we had a Grand Suite on the ship, we were given Priority Boarding and selected to board as early as allowed which was the 11 to 11:30 AM time slot. Even though they told us we'd be able to go to our room as soon as we board, everyone had to wait until about 1:30 PM before anyone could go to their cabins.
As usual, most people went to the free buffet in the Lido to get something to eat while waiting to be let into their cabins. But most people don't even know the Masala Tiger Indian Buffet even exists on one level right above the Lido buffet. So Barbara and I went up there instead of going to the regular buffet. The place was so empty that at first we thought it wasn't open. But it was! There were very few people at the Indian Buffet so we had our pick of tables. We selected a table by the windows looking out over the Sydney Opera House. The Indian food was good but not great. But at least it was fresh and better than the packaged Indian food we often eat at home. There is also a self-serve beverage station where you can pour your own coffee, tea, ice tea, juice or water.
By the time we had finished eating and headed out, quite a few more people had found this Indian buffet but there was still a lot more seating in this area than in the main buffet. This buffet is free every day. For dinner you have to order items a la carte as they don't have a dinner buffet, but as you can see from the above menu and price list, the cost is reasonable.
A couple of the above photos give you an idea of the size of the restaurant. Not as large as the main buffet on the Lido Deck, but large enough. From the Masala Tiger you can look down onto the dessert station on the Lido Deck.
King bed
5:30 PM 9:00 PM Anytime Dining Black Pearl
Small Water Package - 12 Pack (AUD $32)
2 Coke Zero - 6 Packs (AUD $33)
Wow! Above is our first view of our Grand Suite cabin. We had only booked a Balcony Cabin, but a few weeks ago Carnvial called us and offered us an upgrade to this Grand Suite for only US$495. Usually upgrades from a balcony to a suite cost much more. Being a 9 day cruise that is only $55 per day more, or $27.50 per person per day more. This cabin is larger than any we have had on any cruise, even the few times we've ever previously booked a suite or mini-suite. There are a lot of cabinets to hang clothes and drawers everywhere. As you can see above, there is a huge amount of window space with great views of the ocean.
The balcony itself is very large with a lounge chair, two other chairs and a small table. We haven't deported yet. This is a view of Sydney Harbor where the Sydney Opera House can be clearly seen.
Above is a photo of the huge make-up area in the Grand Suite. There is a sink, plenty of counter space, and even a lot more closet and cabinet space in addition to the closets and drawers in the main area of the suite. This sink is in addition to the 2 sinks in the bathroom. In one of the drawers there is a hair dryer and a curling iron.
Above are photos of the bathroom. It is very large compared to other cruises we've been on. There are two sinks, a toilet, a spa tub, and even a bidet!
Saw is our Stateroom Attendant. WiFi and Hub App instruction are on the back side of his business card.
Above are documents we found on the desk in our cabin in addition to the daily "Fun Times" list of today's activities.
Above are the items we ordered for our cruise: a 12 pack of water bottles and 2 six packs of Coke Zero. They say they are "small" water bottles, but each was actually a 20 ounce bottle of distilled water. They also gave us 4 complimentary 1 Liter bottles of water. I think that is going to be enough to hold us for this cruise. We have no problem also just drinking the tap water on the cruise. All modern cruise ships make their own fresh drinking water by desalinating sea water on board. On some Carnival ships they even brew their own great beer on board with desalinated sea water!
Room Service used to be free on cruises, but no more on Carnival. Some cruise lines still offer limited items for free but there is now a cost for all item on Carnival cruises. You can click on any photo on any page to view a larger image. Once that larger image comes up, you can even click on that to view the largest size original image.
The above photos were taken as we started cruising away from the port passing closer to the Sydney Opera House.
With every good there is usually some bad. The TV in the room is rediculously small and difficult to see from the bed. It seems that there was originally an old style big TV set in this TV cabinet mounted on an arm where it was easy to view when the arm was extended. At some point, they just replaced the big TV with a small flat screen TV on the same or similar arm. But since the TV is flat, the screen barely extends outside the cabinet box. Also, it has a very small screen by today's standards. They probably went with that size as that is the only size that would fit in the TV cabinet in the room. They really should have replaced the painting directly across from the bed with a large flat screen TV, but it may have been difficult to rewire the TV cables to that location.
It was cold early in the first evening. I turned the thermostat to maximum heat. There are two ceiling vents in the room, one in not far from the thermostat. That one started pouring out hot air as requested. There is another identical vent above the foot of the bed. That one was pouring out freezing air conditioned air! I looked around the room thinking there might be a different thermostat that controlled that vent but I could not find any. We had them send someone up from engineering to fix the problem. He got up on a step ladder and mostly closed off the vent that was pouring out freezing cold air. That cut off most, but not all of the air coming out of that vent, but it was good enough. The vent pouring out the hot air was able to overcome the one pouring out the cold air as much of the air from the cold air vent had been cut off. I'm sure there has to be a thermostat that controls the vent that was blowing out cold air, but wherever that thermostat is located, it is not in our cabin.
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or
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for a slideshow of all the above photos.
If in this report you see any typos, misspellings, factual errors or other types of errors, please let me know.
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