DallasGuy75219

Actually it was horribly inefficient. Each agent had to walk over to the one single box of S&S cards and look for each guest's card. And heaven forbid if they couldn't find your card, that turned into a 5-10 minute ordeal. Check-in started moving much faster when they stopped that mess and started just stamping your boarding pass as checked in so you could (imagine this!) board the ship with the boarding pass you had already printed yourself. That's reason #1. Reason #2 was to preserve the integrity of FTTF by preventing people who weren't FTTF, Platinum, or Diamond from going to their rooms before they time when they were officially ready.

This is only since the restart because they're not having tournaments to use the BOGO tournament entry from the Platinum/Diamond benefits. As much as cash as Carnival Corp. is still bleeding, I'm shocked they're still doing this and they haven't just removed mention of the benefit in the VIFP materials.

For those of you who don't believe what multiple experienced cruisers are telling you or are finding random menus online without bothering to see how long those sailings were, this is an article about cutting out free lobster on short cruises from when it was announced in 2015: https://cruiseradio.net/carnival-cuts-lobster-on-short-cruises/

On one single day, right after the protocols were changed. Not indefinitely. But how long will that pent up demand last, especially when the unvaccinated get on their first post-restart cruise and see what crap Carnival's product has become?

Except that they're adding back for a fee the steak that was previously cut from the (complimentary) MDR brunch menu.

Maybe it's the last sea day instead of the last day. Since they only do MDR breakfast (not brunch) on port days, I can't see there being enough demand for a paid brunch either amongst the minority of passengers not going ashore if the last day is a port day.

$25 at a time🤣

And we have a winner!! That's where the petite filet from the MDR steak and eggs went. Yet another item that used to be included in your fare but that Carnival now charges for.

It varies by ship, including whether you say you play tables or slots, and if you play slots whether that ship's slots have the old or new S&S card readers.

Yes. The part about being able to cash out only the winnings only applies to promotional play uploaded by the casino to your promotional bank, e.g. the $25 Platinum/Diamond FreePlay they're giving since there are no tournaments, if you won FreePlay in a casino drawing or promotion, or if you booked a casino rate that includes FreePlay.

Part of me wonders why Carnival hasn't used COVID as an excuse to discontinue the laundry benefit, i.e. we don't want tol spread germs between passengers.

You'd have to apply the gift card to your S&S account, then when you charge your room on a slot machine that will post as a charge on your S&S account. Carnival will apply your S&S charges against any credits on your S&S account (OBC, refund of excess port taxes, any cash or gift cards you've applied to your S&S account) before charging the credit card you guaranteed your S&S with. But be careful about withdrawing too much too often and cashing out without playing some it on the slots. The casino can systematically identify people doing this to get no-fee cash advances or like you cashing out gift cards and automatically block you from charging more on the slots, in addition the the scolding you may get when you try to cash out at the cage.

I'm surprised they applied it to cruises that far out. People have reported they were told to resubmit current documentation closer to sailing date for cruises more the 4-5 months in the future.

If ships are full now, some of those cabins were booked at deeply discounted prices or free casino offers when cruises were still paused or after they restarted. I'm not a casino whale but all 8 of my post-restart cruises so far have been free from the casino. I have 3 more free cruises booked through January and within the last week booked 3 more free Carnival cruises for September-December 2023. Not just 3-5 day sailings on Fantasy class. I had my pick of 6-8 day sailings on Mardi Gras, Celebration, and Jubilee, including some holiday weeks. And I'm still getting massively more free cruise offers than I could ever take. My point? As long as the cruise lines are throwing free cruise offers left and right at little fish like me, that's a sign demand isn't there to start jacking up cruise prices significantly, with the exception of high-demand sailings like holiday weeks when they can fill the ship without giving away free casino rooms.

I was cut off after 2 on my last Carnival cruise in February. (I did plan to check in after my third but still had several hours until departure.) Apparently they've tightened it down even more since then because people are more interested in drinking than getting their business taken care of so the ship can depart.

Must have been undergoing maintenance because all my booked cruises (including this Saturday's departure😱) disappeared. I tried logging out then back in to see if it would re-link my bookings, but no luck. But then it started working again later this morning.

Supply and demand is a much stronger driver of pricing vs. inflation for a business with perishable inventory and high fixed costs (i.e., a cruise line).

If you do get an offer with Princess Plus, remind the casino reservations agent that your offer includes it and confirm that they put it in the reservation. It doesn't automatically get populated in the reservation even if your offer includes it, so they have to manually add it to the booking. Had to go back and forth with Princess to correct a reservation with a Princess Plus offer when the agent didn't add it to the original booking.

Or packing.

It's been death by a thousand cuts. At first they spun it as replacing the lobster with crab ravioli, then they kept downgrading to smaller portions of and cheaper seafood. The seafood entree on short (5 days or less) cruise formal nights is now about 6 (as I recall) grilled shrimp.

What specifically--the steak? On my last cruise I had to send mine back because I ordered it medium and it came out cooked to the consistency of shoe leather. One of only two times in my life I've sent back a steak (the other time being also on Carnival when my medium flat iron steak came out bleu). But with the cheaper steak now at brunch I'll have to be more of a stickler about sending it back if it comes out overcooked.

Carnival will cut off your S&S card after I think the first 2 drinks on embarkation day if you haven't checked in yet, so that's also an incentive for people drinking at the bar to check in.

All the cruiselines made this change when cruises restarted after COVID because it was no longer safe to pack people wall-to-wall at the muster stations for 15 minutes solely for a drill. Obviously in a true emergency, spreading COVID at the muster stations still isn't as bad as drowning with the ship. What's supposed to happen though is you watch the safety video on the cruiseline app or cabin TV, and when you go to the muster station the crew can see on their tablet that you've done so. If you haven't, they can do the lifejacket demo in person and clear you as complete, but it sounds like some crew are getting sloppy and just clearing people regardless.

Definitely no free lobster in the MDR. You'd have to eat in the steakhouse or buy the Steakhouse Selections off the MDR menu

The menu on the TV may not be what's actually being served that night. On my Regal B2B last month I had my order figured out in advance one night the first week (Barcelona to Rome), only to get to the table and see they were serving something completely different. But the menu on the TV that day was served one night the next week (Rome to Athens).