Retired_to_Cruise

On 7/29/2019 at 2:27 PM, sparks1093 said:

The 6 month rule is only valid for some countries and the Bahamas is not one of them. As long as your passport is valid on the day you arrive back in the US it is fine. What Carnival does is recommend, they don't require.

I agree with this position.

On 7/30/2019 at 1:09 PM, sc4125 said:

My sister and I are booked on the Sept 14th cruise to Bermuda on the Brreze.  We both purchased CCL's travel insurance.  My sister just learned today that she has to have an angiogram next month due to an annurism.  Hopefully all will be well, but she may have to go through surgery or another procedure.  Obviously I wouldn't want to go if this ends up requiring brain surgery, but at this time the doctor thinks it may require a less invasive procedure but depending on when the procedure takes place she may not be cleared to travel.

 

My question is if she has to cancel and gets refunded would I have to pay the single rate if I chose to go on the cruise?  

 

Can I get a refund if the medical condition doesn't effect me?  We've been fortunate enough to never have a reason to use the travel insurance, but our luck may have fun out this time.

 

 

We used it last year when my SO was diagnosed with Wegner's Granulomatosis 3 days before we were supposed to board the ship. We had an older couple who were going with us that did not feel they would be comfortable going to go by themselves. The insurance company will provide all f the information that they will need. We filed cruise cost and airfare cost insurance claims with Carnival's insurance carrier. The doctors and hospital provided us with all of the medical information that we needed and we received every single dime for the cruise fare and airfare back for all 4 of us..  If this happens, make sure you cancel all other costs like excursions, onboard items, etc. before you cancel the cruise.

On 7/26/2019 at 9:28 PM, TomCruise48 said:

Vista and Horizon serve homemade Gelato at the buffet for lunch.  I can't remember how many flavors, but I think it is about 6.  The flavors I remember are Tiramisu, Hazelnut, Coffee, and Salted Caramel.  They have two flavors available each day.  The Gelato is served by a Carnival team member, and there are toppings available for the guests to add themselves.  I've used these toppings occasionally for the soft serve as well.

I think some of the ships also have gelato at the coffee shop.

13 hours ago, sanmarcosman said:

Is Carnival recycling the celery garnish served with the Bloody Mary? It's not just the wilted leaves that caught my attention but the brown and dried cut at the top of the stalk is unappetizing, too. This image is from Carnival's promotional email that arrived today. 

 

My guess is that this bloody mary belonged to a very, very, very slow drinker.

19 hours ago, skrufy said:

You can only check in at MIA the day of your cruise. The desk is located at the end of the baggage claim area, last time we were there. This check in does not by pass your check in time at the port terminal.

I think you only check in at the airport if you are taking the Carnival Bus from the airport to the port. But I  think it is not a complete check in for the cruise. (It might be the complete check in  if you are taking the Carnival Bus from the Miami Airport to Fort Lauderdale port.) If you are NOT taking a Carnival bus, you do not have to check in at the airport.

2 hours ago, AmberTeka said:

We  are sailing on the Carnival Spirit in early June.  Is it still cold in Alaska  at that time of year? We are taking the cruise  out of Seattle.  Does anyone know a  good  Hotel  near the Airport?  We will fly in a day early  from Orlando.  Thank you for any advice. 

We have been there 4 times. I think that the key is clothes that can be layered. This makes you more flexible when it comes to weather, types of excursions, and all activities. I have never been there in June, but have heard that bugs can be a problem later in the summer. We have always done the early May cruises and layers worked every time. Also bring folding umbrellas and rain ponchos that can fit in you pockets.

On 7/4/2019 at 3:19 PM, AAAAmerican said:

A new sipping standard is acoming now to Carnival fleet wide.

 

Sugar Straws.

 

They are geting rid of the plastic straws and coming now the sugar straws which do disolve in about 45 minutes once in the beverage.

 

I do not know if they may have sugarlessones.

 

The Butter is a a fiasco aboard the ships now. As so may are poutting the flatware in the cButter Crocks with jams etc.. on them which contaminates all the Crock full of Butter..

Yup, we should blame that on the knives and the butter crock, not on the people that are causing the problem. Maybe we have to go back to tinfoil packets that are frozen and cause equipment problems in the galley.

7 hours ago, AllAboardatSea said:

While I've never removed tips myself because I feel it's tacky, the problem is the overall format of the gratuities in the way it's presented. To have a flat fee and barely explain what it goes to (unless you seek out to find exactly how it's distributed and broken down) and then lump it into a large amount on the final day of the cruise, that's not a smart way of delivery for a company with a big budget and record of good marketing skills.

 

Other cruise lines make the charge daily, which helps somewhat, but the lump charge not broken down is still a big problem. Where other industries, and indeed even the cruise industry to an extent is going more and more a la carte, breaking out the gratuities by person/department should be the next evolution, and may help with this issue. At least getting the money to where it is deserved AND earned. For example, I don't dine in the MDR some nights, so might be nice to remove or reduce the service charge for that portion.

But you eat somewhere, and wherever that is, there is someone making your food and serving you your food. To break out tips by each venue is ridiculous and not cost effective. The Carnival site gives you a more than adequate break out of how the tips are dispersed. I don't see you asking how the tip distribution is done be a part of every bill you have to pay in every restaurant you use on land. 

10 hours ago, 160july said:

We recently  returned from a 7 days cruise on the Miracle. I have loved everything about every single cruise but the  free COFFEE! Whew is that stuff not to our taste. My husband says it is worse than truck stop coffee. Poor me I had to indulge in a cappachino from the coffee shop every morning 🙂 I rarely indulge in coffee shops as I need that cup ASAP in the morning so it was a nice treat very morning! 

Complaint...........  really!

Just now, ShakyBeef said:

 

That's all true and went into my decision to not buy it for the second leg even if I do end up getting bumped out of Platinum.  The only thing I'd be missing out on is the VIP line at GS.  I really like that VIP line, but I don't think it's worth $72 to me on its own.  We have the same Suite both legs, we're staying on the ship as long as we can on turnover day,  we have no tender ports on this itinerary, and we've already got our preferred dining time, so if it turns out we get bumped back to Gold, we'll have to survive without the VIP GS line for this cruise.

On turnover day, you have no choice about how long you stay on the ship.You will receive a letter that tells you to meet at a certain place and time on the ship. All of the B2Bs will be there. They will have juices and pastries for you. They will take you old S&S card from you and give you your new one for the second week. Once they check you off the ship they will give you the old one back. This means that your folio is closed and a new one opened. Then, in most cases, they will take you off the ship and to a spot in the terminal. A customs person will come to where you are and check each persons ID. Then they will take you back to the area where ship boarding is going to happen and you will get back on the ship with you new S&S card being scanned. They will have mimosas waiting for you at the Atrium bar. And you change over is complete. You are now on the second cruise. 

On 6/22/2019 at 7:08 PM, ShakyBeef said:

 

Thanks.  That's what I thought (and hoped!), after reading several reports to that effect here on CC.  But Carnival said it was not the case.  I called my PVP and asked him.  He didn't know and so he transferred me to the VIFP department.  The very nice lady there also didn't know, and looked deeply into all her literature / whatnot, and still couldn't find the answer.  So she put me on hold while she called some higher-up muckety-muck who finally gave the answer that I would not have my Platinum status until the first day of my second leg, despite what others had experienced.  I was disappointed, but accepted it and resolved to buy FTTF one last time. 

 

My sailings are definitely linked as a BTB - I confirmed this with my PVP when I booked.

In reality, a B2B is 2 separate cruises even if they are linked. The second cruise of the B2B is the one you are turning Platinum so it will be your first Platinum cruise. Now if you were on a 14 day Journey cruise and were turning Platinum during the second week of that cruise, you would be Platinum the whole cruise because it is only 1 cruise, not 2. 

On 6/22/2019 at 5:52 PM, ShakyBeef said:

FTTF finally became available for the first leg of my January 2020 Elation BTB out of Port Canaveral, about 200 days out from sailing.  I booked the cruise(s) 400-and-some days out and have been checking for FTTF several times a day, every day, for 200-and-some-odd days, now.  I was starting to worry it wouldn't be made available for my sailing.  Then, the third time checking that day, it suddenly was there in the Shore Excursions.  I grabbed it.  It's still not available for the second leg of the BTB, but that's OK, because for that leg, and forever after (hopefully), DH and I will be Platinum.  So, I have just bought my last FTTF.  Not what you expected when you saw the thread title, huh?  Sorry to disappoint. 

 

But here's something I've been wondering: with the rumours floating around about possible changes to the VIFP program due to the inordinate number of Plats and Diamonds, might those of us about to become Platinum, or having just turned Platinum be bumped back to Gold, just as some Golds were bumped down to Red (my daughters among them) in the last VIFP shake-up, when the Red level was introduced? 

 

It would suck to have this BTB booked for so long, have my cruise docs showing us as Platinum for the second leg (thus knowing I don't need FTTF for that leg), and then having our Platinum status yanked.

Why you want or need FTTF on the second leg of a B2B. You leave the ship for 10 maybe 15 minutes and are escorted back on. You do not have to take your things off with you. In fact, if you have the same cabin on each cruise, then you stuff is still in that cabin when you get back on. If you are planning to stay off the ship for a while, them you can get a B2B pass that allows you to get back on right away when you get back to the ship.

On 6/16/2019 at 12:27 PM, xDisconnections said:

As long as it’s not him...

Funny coincidence. I was talking to him a couple days  ago, and he said the same thing about you being a passenger on any ship he was on.

10 minutes ago, jen2010ss said:

 

Thank you for your input. If anyone is offering to pay for a drink in between their alloted ones it is not cheating the company and obviously at some point was allowed by carnival since their own bartenders would sell them and it would allow them to ring it up under the person who has the cheers package. I was asking IF that still applied, IF NOT we would forgo buying the dang package! 

So you would forgo the package which gives you about 9 free drinks out of the 15 all because you cannot buy  a couple of drinks over the 15 (9 free ones) the program allows. Interesting financial decision since you will now be paying for all of your drinks.

2 minutes ago, jen2010ss said:

Obviously you did not read my question at the beginning of this thread, not trying to "bypass" the cheers agreement......First line says: 

And then in the next couple of lines you said you did "bypass" Cheers on an earlier cruise and then asked if you could still do that. Seems like you do not remember what you wrote at the beginning of this thread.

1 hour ago, JaxsMama said:

I wasn't trying to buy it with my cheers, I was trying to pay for it. 

But the system told them that your drink agreement with Carnival was the Cheers program and that does not allow multi-drink purchases. You cannot choose when you want to pay with Cheers or not. In 20 minutes you could have bought 4 beers - 1 every 5 minutes. Yes they would have counted as 4 drinks on your cheers program. BUT, that is what you signed up fo,

18 minutes ago, JaxsMama said:

I was on the magic once and wasn't allowed to buy a bucket of beer at any bar bc I had cheers. I was maybe at drink 5 or so and really just wanted a bucket to take into a show.  I chalked it up to maybe miss training on that ship or something. Of course they were happy to sell me a bottle of wine in the steakhouse.  Made no sense. 

You Cheers contract clearly states that you can only buy one drink at a time with an several minutes interval between purchases. A bucket of beer is more than one drink. And I belive you contract states that it cannot be used for buckets of beer. It is important to read the instructions before using whatever the instructions are for.

1 hour ago, jen2010ss said:

 Big girl panties are on but thanks for the suggestion, I'm specifically refering to those comments that act like someone is just trying to get drunk just for asking about purchasing drinks in between the alloted 15. On port days where you spend a lot of time off the ship I can see 15 drinks being a lot however, on sea days I can see where 15 drinks isn't necessarily going to get someone drunk, they can still be functioning responsible adults. 

It does not make any difference if the "15 drinks isn't necessarily going to get someone drunk, they can still be functioning responsible adults" because they have agreed to a contract. If they are really "functioning responsible adults", they would not be looking for ways to bypass their agreement, they would accept the fact that they have reached the limits of their agreement. They would have planned ahead and bought a bottle for their cabin and used that. Cheers clearly states that they can only get 15 drinks from 6am to 6pm. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

10 hours ago, jen2010ss said:

Thanks to those who actually answered my question without comments like some😉

 

 

Sorry Jen, but you chose to post on one of the hottest topics for Carnival and you got what you should have expected. There are to many people who think that they can sign on to a product that gives them a significant reduction in cost if they drink more than 6 drinks a day. And yet they constantly talk about how they will do everything they can to find ways around what they agreed to. Your initial post brought that very topic up as something you were able to do the last time you purchased Cheers and you asked if you would be able to do that now. Did you expect just a yes or no answer. You opened yourself up to the "comments" the minute you posted this question. And now you are castigating those people who made comments. Put on you big girl pants and face the storm you actually asked for.

14 hours ago, 19cruiser59 said:

If when you added the 3rd guest they were offering OBC then that amount should go to them. If not, then i think the original $200 would go to only the original 2 guests ( $100.00 apiece)

It all depends on how you set up the financial accounts for this cruise. 

5 hours ago, cruisinglover48 said:

Not sure if this is the rights place to ask. I am going to have to start using oxygen only at nights. At this time we only cruise out of  3 ports. Miami, Ft. Lauderdale & Port Canaveral . I am trying to find reliable, dependable businesses to rent portable oxygen from  these 3 ports. If anyone has rented from any of these ports I sure would appreciate any & all suggestions.

  Thanks in advance

My suggestion is that you use your healthcare plan and get yourself an small oxygen concentrator. They have no tanks and can be easily carried anywhere (batteries) and used with their plugin to sleep at night. These little puppies are fantastic.

On 5/24/2019 at 11:19 AM, mets07 said:

 

Picture a small spoon or knife in a bowl of very soft, whipped "butter" ...  and there are no "little bowls" to put the butter in, not that it would make any difference (if it was already out in little bowls you could take -- like the cream cheese -- that would be better). 

 

No one said it is going to stop them from cruising.... just could be more sanitary. And as mentioned the butter itself is a bit strange. And, anyway, this is fun to talk about. 

 

I'm hoping this serving approach does not "spread" to other cruise lines. Ha ha! 

 

Have fun, all. 

😉

Sorry, but on the Conquest 2 weeks ago, there were little bowls, just like the ones used for cream cheese, on the sneeze guard shelf right above the butter bowl. We took the bowls and spooned the butter we wanted into them and put them on our plate. 

Oh my God, a massive butter crisis on Carnival ships! How can I ever cruise again until this massively inhumane "cutback" gets handled correctly?  First they mess with my pillow chocolates and now they are messing with my butter. I cannot believe that they would take away foil wrapped rock hard butter patties and replace it with a bowl of soft butter on the lido serving bar, a serving spoon, and little bowls that you put your desired amount of butter into. If this doesn't eliminate all of the happiness of cruising I do not know what will. If they don't change this immediately I will never go on Carnival again. The horror of it all is unbearable.

On 2/23/2019 at 8:25 AM, Purvis1231 said:

Once a day cleaning is not a big deal to me although we do like the nightly turn down service. 

There is no once a day only room servicing unless you choose that.  That is a debunked claim that started a couple years back but was never true. You can choose it if you want, but it is not done without your agreement.

On 5/19/2018 at 6:51 PM, fresnel468 said:

The batch made umbrella drinks (Pina Colada, Funship, etc.) have always been extremely weak in my estimate. Mixed drinks poured by a familiar, generously tipped bartender have never been weak.

Every Pina Colada or drinks of that nature that I have had on Carnival ships on my 30 cruises have NOT been made in batches. They have always been made as I sat there and watched. I have never seen these drinks made in batches unless they made a bunch of them at a D&P party or something like that.