PrincessArlena'sDad

1 hour ago, sydney dog said:

When during the cruise do they offer a free bag?  Is it a diamond/platinum offer?  Asking for a 7 day cruise (Glory).

 

Thanks

One free bag of laundry is a perk of staying in a suite. That's how we got it.  Diamond/platinum also get free laundry.

3 minutes ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

Carry-on of valuable items (cameras/GoPros, jewelry, travel docs, whatever) can vary significantly, depending on the traveler(s), along with medications, stuff for the kids (assuming you brought them and didn't leave them at the hotel...oh crap!)

Do you mean leave the stuff at the hotel... or the kids?

5 minutes ago, wemjam said:

They get pretty much all the benefits of Diamond and Platinum that have earned the privilege's by days at sea, except for the 2 days early for picking your check in time.

 

You still get to go to the priority lines, and you still get to board before general boarding...along with the guest services line, priority debarkation, etc.

 

To be able to pay a few bucks and buy that is a lot better than the tens of thousands that I have spent to earn it 🤣

 

IMHO if anything has been diluted it was the earned benefits of higher tiers.

 

FTTF gets to board before general boarding, but only if they get an early arrival time.

If they are not able to get an early arrival time, they will board upon arrival, just those without priority do. They can use the priority line, but, with the enforced arrival times, the priority line isn't that much shorter than the general line.

I didn't say there is no benefit to FTTF.  As you said, you still get early cabin access, debarkation priority, guest services priority, etc.

But, FTTF having to stick to the arrival time, and not getting the extra two days, results in getting less for your money for FTTF.

I'm doing the CoC dance!  

(That's code of conduct email I just got) 

On the horizon we made use of the free bag of laundry. 

We stuffed it to bursting.  

We got 3 bags back the next day (we didn't send it out until late afternoon). Very nicely folded and smelled freshly cleaned. No issues. 

If FTTF has to stick to the arrival time, but doesn't get the 16 day check in, the priority benefit is highly diluted. 

Thanks!

9 minutes ago, wemjam said:

Unless you have priority access to your room, then you will be required to carry it around the ship with you.  FTTF, Diamond, and Platinum members have access to go to their room solely to drop luggage and leave; however, even at that the room doors are still open for cleaning, etc. and items left are not "secure."

 

General boarding passengers are strongly discouraged from trying to access their room until the appropriate time (1:00pm).  This only inhibits room stewards from getting all the rooms done and ready in a timely manner.

You should add suites to your list of those who are allowed to drop off their carry ons.

1 hour ago, cruisinqt said:

You arrive at your prearranged check in time which you choose online at Carnival.com 2 weeks prior to the cruise. It’s a new rule Carnival instituted after the pandemic. It helps a lot with the congestion and crowds at the cruise terminal. 

It actually stated a couple years prior to covid.

12 minutes ago, MommyCrankyPants said:

Hello everyone!!  😊 I haven't cruised since 2016 and have been reading up a lot on the changes. I've gathered that we no longer get our S&S cards at the port, prior to boarding. Is this correct? And if so, where do we get them now? We aren't priority and probably not getting FTTF this next cruise.

This is correct. You get them in your cabin mailbox, placed there by the steward when the cabins are ready.

Until then, you use your boarding pass to make purchases (and sign in for muster).

24 minutes ago, bguppies said:

If you choose to book a cruise between June and October, you have a small chance of having your ports changed or missed.

 

If you choose to cruise in August or September, there is usually at least 1 storm a week churning through the Caribbean or the Gulf or East Coast, so you should assume some disruption.

 

If you don't want disruption, book a cruise outside of those two months.

If you want zero chance of disruption book between December 1st and June 1st.

 

Ha! Only time we completely missed a port was our January, 2016 cruise to the Bahamas.  We couldn't dock in Freeport because of the wind.

I just did check in a few days ago. 

I stayed up till midnight (eastern time) to get the earliest arrival time; I got 10am- mission accomplished. 

And that's all I did that night.  When you start the process, you'll see a list of items on the right. Just click arrival time, click your time, and hit save.  Then I closed out and finished in the morning. 

It only took a few minutes to finish. You'll need your passport (if you are using one), flight info (if you are flying), and credit card (if using for sail and sign). Not a big deal. 

1 hour ago, firefly333 said:

So I clicked on your link. It says download, so I downloaded and see a bunch of buildings listed. Is this a free do it yourself walking tour. I cant find a price. Self guided?

 

It's free, self-guided, do it yourself.

However, it does have museums on the list of things to see, which you can choose to go into, or not.  Those have a cost, obviously. We also went by tons of shops, restaurants, and such, that we could choose to stop in at our leisure.

We didn't come close to finishing it.  Actually, less than halfway. We hope to get back to Curacao one day to finish the tour!

We were just at both Curacao and Aruba.

For Curacao, I highly recommend a DIY walking tour of the city. Here's a link to the one we did:

Architectural Walking Guide - Historic Willemstad | Curacao, the Caribbean Getaway

For Aruba, we went to De Palm Island. Also, highly recommended. We did the sea trek helmet dive, but they also have a snuba trip and a beach day.

Let me know if you have questions about either idea.

I'm not at single digits... but anyone mind if I do the 10 day dance? 😆🤣

Update to "Tales of a Garment Bag"

The online tracking information had no new information. And Rynn's luggage did not respond to the online email form I sent in on Monday. So, I resorted to an old-fashioned phone call.

The guy I spoke to was friendly.  He thanked me for calling and said that because the claim had been sitting there for over a week now, he could expedite it. 

The frame of the garment bag was cracked and cannot be fixed or replaced.  Therefore, they are ordering me a new one from Macy's, which will be shipped to my house. He said I should expect delivery Monday or Tuesday next week and will have a tracking number by the end of this week.  

I will be happy if I get it by Thursday. I pack our elegant outfits the night before anyway, to minimize wrinkles.  As if sitting in the garment bag for 3 days will be so much better than sitting in the bag for 4 or 5 days. The power of self-delusion!

I think I'll be optimistic about the resolution for this and start filling out the claim forms for our travel insurance. But, with a touch of pessimism, I'll wait until receiving our new garment bag before submitting the claim.

I feel I should give a toast to the demise of our garment bag. It served us well for five years, but sadly spent most of its life in the back of our storage closet, waiting for Covid to end. 

We're sailing on the Glory, Sunday departure (Aug 13).

We have a 10am arrival time. We plan on driving to the port, and parking in the Erato terminal garage. 

I'm trying to figure out what time we need to leave the hotel that morning, which is in Hattiesburg, MS - an hour and forty-five minute drive.

How much time should I budget for traffic near the port, waiting in the line to pay, waiting to drop off checked bags, finding a spot, and taking the elevator down.

My gut says we should plan on seeing the creepy mask over the entrance to Mardi Gras World around 9:15 (and pull out of the hotel at 7:30). Too early? Too late?  Just about right?

Thanks!

9 hours ago, KyloRen said:

I HATE THOSE STRAWS! I bring my own straws on board (then forget them in my cabin) lol I’d rather have paper straws than those, 

 

it’s so fun to get a lime straw with my mudslide! /s

 

 is afternoon tea a post 2017 addition? I do not recall it back in the day

 

 also no more chocolate buffet on I think it’s 5d or less and no more midnight buffets (those mayb have been tossed pre 2017)

Midnight buffet is back as of this month, actually.  But, I don't know how it compares to the old one.

I don't know about this situation in particular. 

But, in the past, I had a price drop after I paid in full.  They wouldn't give me a refund, insteadi gott refundable on board credit. 

I used it up, so no test on how I would get it back.

If the same happens to you, you'll use the non refundable credit first, then the refundable. 

6 minutes ago, n6uqqq said:

In a bit of irony, Allstate now has the 100 and 500 cards for Carnival but only at 8 percent off plus $1.75 per card shipping which nets about 6 percent savings on physical cards.

Just to clarify, the $500 cards have $5 shipping, so that nets a 7% savings.

48 minutes ago, Stick93 said:

They dropped the picture prices for 2 months years ago and could not keep up with the demand - I walked off one ship with 400 photos in print and digital for under $200 (or less). There is prob a better sweet spot but they have not found it. 

 

I always take a lot of pictures even if I only buy a few - 

I remember that. The problem was they included both prints and digital.  If it was just digital, it probably would have been fine.

Disney cruise makes a fortune in photos. Their prices are high, but reasonable.  I think it's $300 for unlimited digital, down to $150 for ten photos. I wouldn't be surprised if over half the ship gets the unlimited.

45 minutes ago, staceyglow said:

Agreed. It literally takes less than 3 minutes. It's not going to affect your crowd situation (for better or worse) on Lido.  And the quicker people get it done, the easier it is on the staff that have to make sure everyone has done it. 

On the Horizon, it took almost a half hour. 

They checked us in, and asked us to have a seat.  They waited until about 30 people were there before doing the demonstration on how to put on a life jacket.  The demonstration took over 5 minutes.  Then we had to wait for them to give us the green wristband (for kids 11 and under).

There were a few people waiting when we got there, and they said they had been waiting for a bit before we arrived.

We had boarded at 10:45, dropped off our carry ons in our suite, had lunch between 11 and 12, and arrived at muster just after noon.

So, don't count on it taking just a couple of minutes.

20 minutes ago, starstruck05 said:

You go to your muster station as soon as you get onboard to check in and see the life jacket demonstration. You are supposed to watch the full length safety video in your cabin or in the Hub App for more detailed information 

You don't have to go right away after boarding. You can have lunch first.  I think they asked everyone to do the muster by 3pm.

I would suggest that if you board early, eat lunch first before lido gets crowded. If you board later, do the muster first and eat when lido gets less crowded.

11 minutes ago, canes20 said:

I wonder what feedback from what members they took into consideration? 602721 up in smoke

My take is that they completely slashed the program in an attempt to increase profits, and the result was members stopped using it, resulting in the program no longer being financially viable.

22 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

While the spirit class ships have the aft pool as serenity (and therefore adults only), I was unaware of others doing it (have not been on a conquest class ship in a good while tho).  I am curious why they would change this for specific sailings (on the Glory or other COnquesat class ships).

Spirit class also has three pools on Lido, only the aft pool is Serenity for adults. Having the two midship pools is really nice.

Conquest class only has one midship pool. I guess it would make sense to have the aft pool be adults only during school, when there aren't that many kids. However, during vacation time, there are too many kids to expect them all to use the one midship pool, and therefore it would make sense to make the aft pool for kids also.

I don't know if they actually do this, but it would make sense.