DallasGuy75219

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.

Not saying it doesn't happen at all, but anecdotally I haven't seen that casino happy hour on day 1 for several years (when Carnival had booths/tables on the Promenade deck, each with something they were trying to sell you sale onboard, like drink packages, and if you got your card stamped by all of them your name got entered in some drawing). The casino bar was so busy you couldn't get a seat or even a drink. That experiment (the booths and casino happy hour) didn't last long from what I recall.

It could, but you hear about the large fights and brawls happening on Carnival more than any other lines. It goes back to the passengers that Carnival (and its price point in particular) cater to.

Not on Carnival, but last fall on Royal Caribbean I bid for and got a ridiculously cheap upgrade (like $240) from a balcony to a 2 bedroom grand suite on Freedom of the Seas out of Nassau. The cruiselines had started basing ships in foreign ports when it looked like the CDC wasn't going to let cruises resume in the US anytime soon. Then when US cruises opened up people started canceling those cruises from foreign ports and rebooking out of the US, which is probably why I got upgraded in the first place. But anyway, slightly past the middle of the cruise the Suite Lounge Concierge said my suite was open the next cruise and asked if I wanted to stay another week. It wasn't an option with my work schedule so I didn't ask how much. But bottom line, if they're desperate enough to fill cabins they may start asking current passengers. Probably not the norm now that most sailings are pretty full, but it happened under those circumstances, and I've also heard of it happening when lots of people cancelled for the next cruise due to a (potential?) hurricane. In any event, if you don't book the second cruise through Guest Services still let them know you just booked the next cruise so they can add you to the list of B2B cruisers. Otherwise they'll be expecting you to do a normal debark at the end of the first cruise.

On Majestic, Regal, and Crown after the restart I've only seen unflavored sugar free liquid sweetener, nothing flavored. If it does exist at the IC coffee bar, it's definitely hit or miss depending on the ship and possibly who does the ordering and what is available (i.e. supply chain issues with Princess' vendors) for any given sailing.

Yes, as soon as I got it I knew the color was too dark/golden. I Googled the name and variety for pics and confirmed it wasn't right. At least I didn't pay for it. I had Carnival try to pawn off a bottle of COVID wine on me in my wine package on my first post-restart cruise with them in February. Nope... first bottle of wine I've sent back my whole life.

I had a door sign on Crown this week, but probably also left over from pre-COVID times like my spoiled wine "gift". Ironically the steward forgot to put it on the door and left it standing up against the table where he set up my wine, glasses, and cards.

This was my birthday "gift" on Crown Princess this week. Pre-COVID wine that was spoiled from being stored improperly in the 2+ years Crown was out of service or just too old. Too spoiled to sell without being sent back, so let's give it away as a disingenuous birthday gift🙄 Two sips and poured it down the drain.

The language of the statute is pretty vague... "any practice which could reasonably be interpreted to allow or encourage overconsumption of alcohol" and "any alcoholic beverages served or sold within Texas territory". The other lines could be construed as violating the law just by serving unlimited drinks, even if the package was paid for before the cruise and they waited to process POS transactions until international waters. I think it all goes back to the cruiselines' interpretation and risk tolerances.

Are you fully vaccinated and your itineraries no longer require testing as of September 6? If you're not required to have a test for the first leg there's no reason to test you for the second leg, unless it goes to a destination that still requires testing.

Departing from what port? I know Carnival doesn't do Fly2Fun for Australia cruises.

If he says $100 lasts him the whole week, he's hittin something alright, and it's not in the casino.

PCR or Antigen test? If you're still testing positive with an antigen test, you're likely still contagious.