DallasGuy75219

Years ago I got away with a B2B on Spirit, the repositioning from Los Angeles to Vancouver at the beginning of the Alaska season then the first Alaskan 7-day from Vancouver to Seattle. I booked it as a B2B on the same call with the same PVP and later realized it was a PVSA violation after flights and hotels were paid for. I was so nervous Carnival was going to figure out it was a violation and make me cancel one of the legs, but they never said anything. I think now they've gotten better about preventing or at least finding these kind of bookings and/or realizing which B2Bs are violations.

PVSA applies to transporting passengers, Jones Act applies to transporting cargo. But notwithstanding, the fine is levied by CBP against the cruise line, not the passenger. Granted the cruise line will likely pass on the fine to the passenger's S&S account, but they try to avoid the violation in the first place by (1) educating their agents not to make B2B bookings the violate the PVSA and (2) cancelling at least on leg of B2B cruises that get past (1) and get booked anyway.

Not if someone is doing a B2B and staying on the same ship in Vancouver to do the next cruise that ends in Hawaii. CBP views that as transporting someone from Seattle to Hawaii (even if they physically get off the ship in Vancouver) and a PVSA violation.

It applies regardless of the citizenship of the passengers being transported. The flag of the ship creates the violation, not the citizenship of the passengers transported.

Might be some takers at lower tiers (red and gold equivalents), but I don't think many people with mid- to top-tier status on another line are looking to cruise Carnival, status match or not.

Got confirmation email 1 hour and 14 minutes after sending last night for a January 2023 cruise. However, nothing on the November 2022 cruise I requested in the same email so I'll have to follow up on that.

Have to be careful about PVSA violations with this B2B. Can't do the last Alaska cruise if it's Seattle-Vancouver and then the Vancuver-Hawaii cruise because CBP views that as a Seattle- Hawaii cruise. But Vancouver- Hawaii then Hawaii-Australia on a ship repositioning to Australia would be ideal so OP didn't have as far to travel back home.

Agreed, but in terms of cruises I see it more on Carnival than for instance Royal and Princess, people who can't or won't follow directions that are clearly communicated to them multiple times. Rules and instructions simply don't apply to them because they paid their $299 cruise fare with their hard earned money and they're going to do what they want to do how and when they want to do it.

There are also 8 day Southern Caribbean itineraries out of Miami and Port Canaveral that hit 2-3 of the ABCs.

Some of the ships doing 6-8 day cruises out of Miami and Port Canaveral (Orlando) alternate Eastern/Western Caribbean or Eastern/Southern Caribbean itineraries each sailing. These would be good candidates for B2B cruises to see different ports each sailing without having to change ships.

The problem is the "in stock" part. There are lots of wines on the menu that either they don't have onboard (due to "supply chain issues") or if onboard are only in one venue not convenient to the MDR. Hell, on Regal they didn't even have some of the no-name $12 varietals listed on the MDR menu as included in the Princess Plus package.

Wine that's been allowed to get too hot, technically anywhere in the process of going from grapes to the bottle on your table, but probably most likely due to improper storage once shipped from the winery. Although none of us were on the ships while they were sailing without pax and with minimal crew during the first 1.5 to 2ish years of the COVID epidemic, I suspect making sure the wine onboard was stored properly was not high on the list of priorities. Then they get ready to put the ships back in service and realize "Oh $#!%, this wine went to crap!" They were already so far in the red from COVID that they didn't want to write it off, so what do they do? Carnival tried to offload it in wine packages, and Princess tried to give it away as birthday and anniversary "gifts". This year I've been served 2018 wines from both with the same problem.

I didn't ask. I figured the cooked wine was their dedicated "gift" stock, and I didn't really need it because I had Princess Plus plus free drinks in the casino (redundant with Princess Plus). It would've just caused more work for the steward, and it wasn't his fault Princess was trying to pawn off cooked wine. I would have sent it back though if I had paid for the bottle. Sent a bottle back for the first ever in my life in February on Carnival when they tried to get rid of pre-COVID cooked wine by including it a wine package.

Like it or not, there's an enormous difference in the behavior (and entitlement) of Carnival passengers (or at the least the worst behaved of them) compared to my first Carnival cruise 20 years ago. Carnival might been trying to rid itself of the booze cruise image but started attracting more of those very passengers when the only way they could compete was by having the lowest price once their onboard product was no longer competitive with RCL and NCL.

Some of those pre-COVID wines are still onboard, just maybe not being sold. I was pleasantly surprised when my steward asked me last month if I'd like a bottle of red or white wine for my birthday on Crown. Then I got the bottle.... a 2018 Chardonnay that looked way too dark. Two sips and poured it down the drain. Princess may not be selling the cooked pre-COVID wine but they're certainly giving it away as disingenuous "gifts".

If you can book a guarantee but not a specific cabin that means that category is currently sold out, the unbooked cabins are on hold (either individuals' bookings or travel agents holding blocks of rooms), or the open cabins have a higher maximum occupancy than you're booking. If they'll sell a guarantee though it means they're expecting cabins to open up through cancellations, holds being released, upselling people to higher categories, and/or releasing the maximum occupancy restrictions. It's also possible your assigned cabin will be an upgrade to a higher category, but Carnival would prefer to upsell that cabin that give you a free upgrade.

To prevent cross contamination they shouldn't be serving ice or pouring soda into your own cup. Per the BB restrictions they shouldn't be giving you the whole can. But YMMV on both those. If they do follow the rules though, nothing stopping you from filling your cup from the glass they just served you and handing it back and ordering more unlimited soda to fill your cup. Just look for the eye rolling and make sure they don't spit in your refill😃

Shouldn't be fleetwide, just bartenders too busy or lazy to pour into a glass. Official policy is "Soft drink is served by the glass (16 ounces)", not by the can.

I imagine they are pre-plated, not made-to-order. Which may explain why they mold so quickly (or even arrive growing fuzzy stuff already).

Yes, we on comped casino cruises still pay for our cruises one way or another.

...most of whom wouldn't step foot on a Carnival ship. The bigger risk is Carnival Platinums and Diamonds jumping ship (pun somewhat intended) for equivalent status on a more upscale line. Carnival Corp. would gave to take into account the relative price points in figuring out how calculate loyalty to Carnival Corp. for people looking to jump ship to a more upscale brand or with cruise history across multiple Carnival Corp. brands.

Does Carnival seriously think they're accomplishing this? The only consistent thing about Carnival is the consistently worsening onboard experience due to all their cuts. They made a huge strategic error years ago when they decided (and publicly stated) they weren't going going to try to compete with RCL and NCL for the biggest ships with the newest, most innovative venues and attractions. This left them competing on price and in a race to the bottom of the barrel as the WalMart/Golden Corral of the Seas, which attracted the uncouth, uncultured, and ill-mannered passengers who are now making Carnival's reputation even worse and, together with the massive cuts, are driving their formerly loyal guests to their competitors.

Room service breakfast hasn't been worth ordering for me since they took smoked salmon off the menu. What's left is basically just cheap carbs, fruit, and yogurt. I guess if you absolutely have to have coffee to get going, but otherwise I'm saving room for Lido breakfast or seaday brunch.

Did this replace the Chinese buffet (not Mongolian Wok but a buffet of cooked Chinese food)? I haven't been on Spirit since before it went to Australia but the Chinese buffet was always a nice break from the Lido lunch buffet with the same dishes fleetwide.

That won't fix the problem when a server misunderstands or mistypes someone's cabin number to look up their folio number and charges your folio number instead. See post below. For the life of me I can't understand why some servers do this when they all carry a tablet/modified smartphone/whatever you want to call it. Seems like less work to scan a medallion for the folio number vs. looking up your cabin number to get your folio number.