Now:

 

OH... UM, OOPS?

Looks like we’re experiencing a problem with carnival.com. Sorry! We’re already working on fixing it up — check back a little bit later, or give us a call now at 1-888-CARNIVAL.

I guess there is something going on with the website. It just kicked me out.

7 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

Thanks....

I found this, but for a different cruise it just says:

$889.28 Balance due by Jul 14, 2020
View cancellation information

Just now, jimbo5544 said:

My guess is you booked online, there are posts that talk to where on the cruise manager page it is.  

Yes, we booked on line. I found the Cruise Manager, but couldn't find an option to cancel. Where are these posts? Thanks for your reply. 

1 minute ago, jimbo5544 said:

When are you cruising?

April 2nd

I've gotten two emails from Carnival. The first said you can cancel up to 48 hours in advance and the second said 30 days. The second also said that you can cancel online using "My Cruise Manager," but I can't find an option to do so. Does anyone know what's going on? If you call them it just hangs up on you. 

I've gotten two emails from Carnival. The first said you can cancel up to 48 hours in advance and the second said 30 days. The second also said that you can cancel online using "My Cruise Manager," but I can't find an option to do so. Does anyone know what's going on? If you call them it just hangs up on you. 

1 minute ago, ray98 said:

Its a working ship at sea....there will be noises at time.  That is the answer.

Naw. If all cruisers had to go though this there would be far fewer of them. I don't think you have a good idea of the severity. 

1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:

 

I believe the guest service person was honest with you, she told you the most likely answer about what was causing this, and in fact, it would be felt "all over the ship", but in lesser degrees the further aft you go.  

I guess you had to have been there. Part of it was her tone and irritation when asked how to plan future bookings. I may not know much about ships, but I do know something about customer service. 

I appreciate your explanation, but I think this problem is somewhat specific to this ship and cabin, at least in degree of probability of occurrence. So....I have to believe that there is a probability distribution of this effect over cabin location and I'm just looking to book our next cabin will a low probability. I'm glad it doesn't bother you, but not all humans have the same sleep patterns. 

28 minutes ago, ObstructedView2 said:

 

Cabin 6201, Bingo!!

No reason to over analyze, it was the (backstage area) of the theater (below you). 

A lot of movement, rehearsels & noise from that area. 

 

 

☺️

Oh no! Now I have completely different explanations from multiple responders.  😉 One very knowledgeable sounding person explained it in detail about wave frequency. I just wish I could get a straight answer from Carnival. 

2 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

The fact that it only happened on certain days/nights is indicative of wave noise, since the vessel's course and the direction and period of the waves would be different pretty much each day.

Oh great. So regardless of the ship some nights you won't be able to get any sleep in a forward cabin? I guess this is a minor detail that the cruise lines don't want you to know when you book. So it's impossible to design a hull so that the harmonics are outside of the possible range or frequency of the waves?

What brothers me more than the noise is that the person at the service desk was not completely honest with me. The second thing she said to me was, "I can't change your cabin," when we weren't even asking. We just wanted to know what was happening and use that knowledge for future reference. And it most definitely wasn't happening, "all over the ship." Is this common knowledge among veteran cruisers? I find it a little weird that I'm up on many of the cruise YouTube videos and never heard of this phenomenon. Maybe it's a little industry dirty secret that they don't want you to know about when you book? So...can this phenomenon happen anywhere on the ship? Is it minimized by being on an upper deck? Do you happen to have any links to references about this? Thanks. 

20 minutes ago, Cushing985 said:

 

 Not sure what cabin number you were in but assuming the very front you have cabins above you and below you is the main lounge.  Actually the lounge is just aft of you.

6201. There was one deck of cabins above us, below the Bridge, but now that I look at it there was a "blank" space below us. I'm not sure what that would have been. 😮 Hmm...maybe it was a storage area for sets for the theater and they were moving those around.  

"Do you know what was directly above your room, or very close to it?"

Our room was directly below the Bridge so I don't think it was from above. 

Hi, We just completed a Caribbean cruise on the Victory. We had a forward cabin on Deck 6. The first two nights were quiet, but on the third (and during the day) there was a repeated "bang" or "jolt" followed by vibration. The service desk told us it was waves hitting the side of the ship, but the waves were never at big. They also told us it was all over the ship, but that clearly was not true. We've been on more than five cruises and never experienced anything like it (except occasional vibration). 

So...is this common to forward cabins? Thanks in advance. 

Has anyone stayed in 13004? The NCL information is very vague.

I don't think we have, but what I discovered on our last NCL cruise was that ships have phone numbers and you can call them direct if you can find the number. I don't think that the regular customer service reps have any idea what the cabins really look like.

Good luck!

I have cruised Princess and your thought is correct.....Princess is no better.;):)

 

Something that is a bit confusing to me is the OP's very first post. They said they were currently on a cruise to Hawaii. On their most recent posts, they said gratuities/service charge/ tips, etc. "sneaked" up on them. Did they not tip on the Hawaii cruise?:confused:

There was a lot of hocus pocus going on during the Hawaii cruise. We had an original $300 credit with the booking, then to try and placate us about the disappearing 2 bedroom cabin they gave us a $500 ship board credit, so the "service charge" didn't make such an obvious appearance because we never used that much of the additional credit. In Hawaii we tipped the steward, the butler, and the concierge. Were we suppose to tip someone else?

But NCL doesn't say that "tips are included" (nor does any US-based mass market cruise line), so you're starting with a flawed assumption, and I don't know where or how you got that idea.

 

There's no right or wrong amount to tip your butler...it's your discretion, but most passengers would likely base it on their perceived value of the service they received. Your 100 euro tip is certainly within reason...certainly not on the high side, but not abnormally low either.

You're right, it was a flawed naive assumption, but essentially they are "including" the tips for you involuntarily by adding them to your "tab." In a way it allows them to pay the staff less of a base salary by guaranteeing them a fixed tip rate that you're paying. If you were careful about what services you used you could probably be fair to the staff with direct tips and save yourself money. Whatever! I'll just know better what to expect the next time.

$3.50 to $5 per person per day for the butler plus extra for any extra room service or tasks he does for you is the correct tip amount, so you tipped your butler correctly.

 

You might think about an all-inclusive cruise in the future. This article may help you to determine if that would be appropriate for your family:

http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/luxury-cruise-worth-money/story?id=18170989

 

I've done all-inclusive on Uniworld River Cruises and it really wound up costing about the same as we pay for a suite on a mass market cruise line, but the experience was even more outstanding, so it was worth it to us. But you would need to determine that for yourself as this is a very individual decision.

Thanks for the info!

What gratuities "sneak up on you" on NCL? The $12 per person per day service charge replaces what are called "gratuities", "tips" or "hotel charges" on other cruise lines...so there's no double charging or anything sneaking up on you, it's just called something different on NCL. NCL has had this in place for years...it's not anything new or something they "now have". Again, although other cruise lines may use a different name to describe it, they also add it directly to your onboard account, so NCL is no different than other lines in that practice.

 

The 15% that's added for drink purchases is no different on NCL...all cruise lines charge this unless you have an all-inclusive package.

 

If you're a suite passenger you can tip the butler and concierge at your discretion...it's not mandatory, not automatically added onto your account, and the amount, if you choose to tip them, is strictly up to you.

Not to be rude, but I suppose this wouldn't sneak up on you as an experienced cruiser, but as novices it did (more the 4x factor). On other vacations we've taken tips included means tips included and we normally tip anyway, as we did on this cruise. To me, ironically, it just seems to make the onboard credit meaningless. The most trouble I had was after the cruise in Rome trying to figure out when and how much to tip!

We tipped the butler 100 euros, was that too much or too little? I haven't figured this out yet. Having worked as a service person when I was poor and younger I try to tip generously.

We were happy with the $4500 credit, given how enjoyable the cruise was. If I hadn't been able to find free flights and had had to pay another $4000 for airfare I would not have been happy. It turned out that for the frequent flier miles to dollar ratio we got the best return possible on these flights to Rome, so I was happy.

We were a little wiser about on board spending this trip. We didn't gamble and didn't buy the drink packages. We found that they offered different budget cocktails each night and did one or two of those. We found out on the POA that the specialty restaurants were not worth the extra cost (we're very picky about food). On the Jade the Alizar (for free) was as good and any of the specialty restaurants on the POA and since we had a suite we got breakfast and lunch at Cagney's for free (this was a BIG plus). I wonder how good the specialty restaurants would have been on the Jade? I also discovered that I could find private tours via TripAdvisor that for four people were 20% to 60% less than cost for the ship group excursions. My primary complaint was the per person daily "service charge" which totaled $480 and immediately wiped out our $300 on board credit.

Michael

The issue of "maximizing onboard revenue" is an industry standard among the mass market cruise lines, and we agree that it can be a royal pain. But many of these things can be avoided. In fact, we recently spent 14 days on a Celebrity cruise and only spent about $60 onboard which was what we paid for an alternative restaurant. If we had not done that restaurant (Qsine) our onboard account charges would have been a big fat zero. On that cruise we had booked with a promo that included the Classic Drink Package (covered all of our drinks...both booze and otherwise), pre paid gratuities, and a nice onboard credit (which DW spent on some jewelry....but we could have withdrawn it in cash at the casino). My point is that you can avoid much of the nickel and diming if you resist spending money on things like gambling, Bingo, pictures, etc.

 

Hank

For NCL not only do you have gratuities that sneak up on you, but they now have a "Service Charge" each day for each person, $12, which for the four of us meant $48 a day, $480 for the cruise. That kind of wiped our our $300 on board credit. :(

Michael

Hello all,

So I thought I should update you all about how this worked out. So as I said, Norwegian offered us a $4500 on another cruise to be used within one year, which we accepted. Because we were cash poor after Hawaii, I searched carefully for a good deal. I found an off-season 10 day Eastern Mediterranean on the Jade that we could take for little more than the credit and I found fights we could use with miles. Once again, I booked a two bedroom cabin and this time we were really pleased. The cabin and the itinerary were incredibly nice. The service was good and the food was better than the POA. I would recommend this December cruise because many people who'd traveled to these destinations before mentioned how amazingly uncrowded they were. We also were lucky to have good, sometimes great, weather the whole trip (at least great weather for Minnesotans ;) ).

So overall, I think Norwegian made up for their error and we thank them for the generous compensation. Morally though, I have to warn other cruisers that they still seem to have the same inaccurate floor plan up for the two bedroom cabin on the POA. I would suggest double checking to be sure you get what you are expecting. The floor plan for the Jade was exactly the same as what we walked into and it was an amazingly elegant cabin.

One additional comment/question: the only thing I was unhappy about on our most recent cruise was that they seem to try and squeeze you for every dollar they can, often with charges that are not completely obvious. I understand that this is kind of the industry standard these days, much the same as the resort fees that many hotels charge you, however I'd rather be able to pay everything upfront so I don't have to be stressed about having to read the fine print all the time to avoid overspending. Is there a cruise line that does this? Maybe it's just a matter of becoming more experienced?

Thank you for all the information and support I received here. It would never have happened without you.

[Opps, sorry for the duplicate! I posted this in the wrong place and I can't figure out how to delete it!]

Hello all,

So I thought I should update you all about how this worked out. So as I said, Norwegian offered us a $4500 on another cruise to be used within one year, which we accepted. Because we were cash poor after Hawaii, I searched carefully for a good deal. I found an off-season 10 day Eastern Mediterranean on the Jade that we could take for little more than the credit and I found fights we could use with miles. Once again, I booked a two bedroom cabin and this time we were really pleased. The cabin and the itinerary were incredibly nice. The service was good and the food was better than the POA. I would recommend this December cruise because many people who'd traveled to these destinations before mentioned how amazingly uncrowded they were. We also were lucky to have good, sometimes great, weather the whole trip (at least great weather for Minnesotans ;) ).

So overall, I think Norwegian made up for their error and we thank them for the generous compensation. Morally though, I have to warn other cruisers that they still seem to have the same inaccurate floor plan up for the two bedroom cabin on the POA. I would suggest double checking to be sure you get what you are expecting. The floor plan for the Jade was exactly the same as what we walked into and it was an amazingly elegant cabin.

One additional comment/question: the only thing I was unhappy about on our most recent cruise was that they seem to try and squeeze you for every dollar they can, often with charges that are not completely obvious. I understand that this is kind of the industry standard these days, much the same as the resort fees that many hotels charge you, however I'd rather be able to pay everything upfront so I don't have to be stressed about having to read the fine print all the time to avoid overspending. Is there a cruise line that does this? Maybe it's just a matter of becoming more experienced?

Thank you for all the information and support I received here. It would never have happened without you.

Super interesting thread!

 

I looked at the NCL Mediterranean cruise for July this year but was put off by the many negative reviews about customer service. We are coming all the way from NZ and spending a fortune to do so - I don't want to risk having a terrible experience! I really hope that you have a wonderful time and can put this difficult time behind you. I look forward to hearing how it went - we are thinking of taking our three boys on a Mediterranean cruise in 2016 since we are leaving them behind this time (15th wedding anniversary cruise).

We actually had a wonderful time. I'm the one who was upset because I spend months planning vacations done to the last detail and I took being tricked very seriously and because initially their response was really weak. We were once in Yellowstone and the Old Faithful Inn misplaced our luggage. To apologize they upgraded us to a beautiful one bedroom suite overlooking the Old Faithful Geyser, one of the nicest rooms I've ever been in.

I haven't reviewed the POA cruise, but it was an amazing experience. The side of the ship we were on had incredible views in three out of four ports, million dollar views. Other than the crew's silence about the cabin change, the service was top rate. The only other things I could complain about was that we sometimes had to send the drinks back, because they seemed to have forgotten the alcohol ;) and although the food was good it wasn't gourmet even in the specialty restaurants.

I think the cabin thing was just a glitch, but it was their response to it that pissed me off. There were a lot of things they could have done differently to compensate us. However, the itinerary is so special I won't want someone to miss it because of our personal bad luck.

- and you can also get good suggestions from your roll call as those on your cruise have most likely done a lot of work already for you;) I find I get ideas for things I never thought to do from the roll calls - you don't have to join if you don't want to, you can "lurk."

 

So I guess I could be considered a "shill" for them, but I am really just a satisfied customer wanting to share my happiness:)

Thanks for you advice! I have to confess that I'm total clueless!" :confused: This would be only our third cruise and so far we've just relied on the good will and judgement of the cruise lines (hasn't always seemed to work out :eek:). What's a "roll call" and where do I find it?

A "shill" is someone who's PAID to recommend something. ;)

Additional question, do you see many families on your Med cruises or is it mostly adults?

Thanks,

Michael