Retired_to_Cruise

21 hours ago, bigdog1958 said:

Make it everything like that.. some people don't eat in the MDR,  so charge 10.00 a person for it... Some people don't go to comedy club so charge 10.00 a ticket... Some don't go to shows,  charge 10.00 a ticket... This is only fair per your statement why should people pay for things the don't use...

Well, people may not want to eat in the MDR or other no extra charge food locations, but they do eat in some other food area covered in the cruise fare (they got to eat), so their cruise fare covers their daily food intake. Everyone cannot use every single entertainment activity, but they partake of some of the entertainment activities which are covered by the basic cruise fare. The basic cruise fare for cabins are based on the type of cabins. Carrying my comment to the extreme makes your comment appear foolish is non helpful in this discussion. Thanks!

Have never heard of "Family Zone" dining on Carnival.

22 hours ago, footballbabe3 said:

I think to a lot of people a draw to cruising  is the paying one price. Then after that almost everything is included. If this continues then I believe a lot of people will start to or go back to land vacations. I understand the cruise lines have continued to fill ships.  Now with the economy becoming so unpredictable Carnival is going to shoot themselves right in the foot.  

I think you are way off in your prediction. People who cruise do want certain things included in their price. But they do not want to pay for lots of things they do not use. Most cruise lines do not consider themselves as "all inclusive" vacations. As they add additional options they will make them fee for service because they anticipate that they will not be used by everyone. Even "all inclusive" resorts are not really all inclusive. They do not off everything that every single customer might want. I have no problem with additional fee additions. That way I have some control for what extras I pay for and what I get for the basic cruise fare. People love to cruise nd will not stop doing  so because some new additions contain extra fees. The will still have the choice of where their money goes.

On 12/31/2018 at 4:44 PM, quickrate said:

You would have thought if they decided to charge for room service, they could have come up with a new menu with better options!

Pat

So, you wouldn't complain about the charge if they had changed the menu?  But you were okay with the free food they let you have?

Probably a difference in actual versus planned port fees. Happens a lot.

On 12/15/2018 at 3:13 PM, Ocean Spirit said:

Most of us know you simply can't just fall off the ship unless there is foul play or you are doing something stupid like sitting or standing on the railing.

However we continue to see passengers going overboard.  Do you think there will ever be a significant change in design of the balconies and decks to

prevent this occurring.   I hate the thought of losing the openness and views you get while at sea.  

 

I think we should demand that cruise companies build bigly, massive walls around every deck on every cruise ship to keep people from falling off the ships. If they don't we will have people from all over the world coming here to get on ships so they can fall off.

14 hours ago, bartleby112 said:

So its been 7 years since our last cruise.  We are now family folks and the reason for cruising has changed a Tad.  When I last cruised the cheers program didn't exist. 

 

SO the last cruise i was on i feel like a Captain and Coke was like $5.25 with the built in tips.  roughly the same cost as a beer.  The cruise we just booked my wife and i got 2 rooms that  connect so its me and one child in my room, her another 2 in the other.  So if i get the cheers she is not forced to purchase (she doesn't drink much anyway).

 

Question 1.  What is the cost per drink these days? 

 

Question 2.  The stop in Grand turk is at the "cruise Center."  This is obviously part of carnival corp.  Does this mean that drinks in the port area are included?  I suspect this is wishful thinking on my part. 

 

I'll take any other tips or suggestions about the program.

Since your wife is in a separate room, she does not have to buy the Cheers program if she does not want it. What you have done with the rooms is the classic way to solve the problem with having everyone in the same room who is over 21 buy the Cheers package. 

18 hours ago, The4Cruisers said:

I don't like it at all, but that's just me.  Others seem to really dig it.  Good deal for them!

I just know that all of that dark blue is going to affect the quality of my cruise even though I cannot see it when I am on the ship. It will be something akin to people not dressing up on elegant night.

Your Room Steward will ask you if you want them when the have you fill out "the card" in the first day.

On 12/5/2012 at 8:42 AM, fyree39 said:

Mutual funds are taxed annually, unlike individual stocks. My dad, Mr. Smart Investor, advised me to get out of mutual funds and into individual stocks. I started with $500 of Ford, sold that at a quite remarkable profit, and have enjoyed dabbling ever since. My stocks are not my retirement fund.

 

OP, the price of Carnival stock should go down in the winter season and is a good time to buy. I purchased mine in 3 different transactions over the course of a year until I had the required 100 shares. So far I've received 3 dividend checks of $25 each and OBC of $100. I very much enjoy the benefits of my CCL stock and hope you do too. 🙂

We bought Carnival stock a few years ago in out retirement 401k account. That way, you get the $100 on board credit for each 7 day cruise (tax free),  your dividends, and profits are not taxed until you sell the stock and withdraw the money from your 401k after retirement. It is money you are not going to use until after retirement so this is a good way to do it.

Bought insurance through Carnival for my partner and I plus two friends for and April 2018 cruise (2 cabins on a B2B). My partner ended up in the hospital (for a 12 day stay) 3 days before we were to leave. In two week time we received every single dollar back for the cruise and our airfare (not bought through Carnival) on American Airlines. I think that is a pretty good record for an insurance company. I will take that coverage over any settlement that might be available. The insurance was worth every single cent I paid for it.

I suspect that is their break even point for making a profit on the drink package and after that they lose money. They sell the Cheers package to make money, not to save the passenger money. If they didn't make money selling the packages they wouldn't sell them.

If the drinkers break even point with cheers is 6 or 7 drinks a day, Carnivals break even point is even lower than that or there would be no program. Why is it structured the way it is? Well, it seems to be the responsible way to do it for both the cruise line and the guests. If someone thinks they need more than 15 drinks a day, then don't buy the cheers program. That way you can have as many drinks as you want until you fall down and take a nap or you get cut off for falling down and taking a nap. If you do not like the rules of the program, don't buy it.

FWIW - My wife and are drinkers and we are not big fans of the 15 drink limit. I know. What! 15 isn't enough in a day?? Well yes and no.

 

Number one issue, is having to keep count and planning the difference on sea and port days. As I have said before, from my experience 15 drinks (not beer) is 15 ounces of booze. I watched and if anything, they might short you. Most people when you go out, or especially make your own drinks at home, pour more than one ounce per drink.

 

But, if you are not big drinkers and are just looking to know your all-inclusive experience is covered and there will be no surprised at the end, go for it.

 

We're giving Celebrity a try in January.

Sorry, but 15 drinks can be more than 15 ounces of booze. It depends on what you are drinking. Long Island Ice Teas and Margaritas are examples of more booze than an ounce per drink. And I am sure there are others.

Thanks for the lecture. Sorry I forgot my notebook! 😁

You asked the question. Any "good" question asker would have had their notebook handy to record the answers. :D:D

Reviewing photos of the dining room wine list for Vista online and see that some wines have a glass and bottle price listed. But some just the bottle price. I am assuming this means you can't get a glass of those particular wines (unless you buy the entire bottle). That kind of sucks, I mean stinks if so. May be the determiner if we do cheers or not as the 2-3 glasses of "good" wine I get each night at dinner is probably the slam dunk factor in whether or not to purchase.

I you really do drink "good" wine, then you should already know that not every wine on every single wine list you will ever see can be purchased by the glass. And it is usually the really "good" wines that are NOT available by the glass. This is because the owners do not want to have many, many, many bottles of the "good" wine sitting around open waiting for the next drinker of "good" wine to order a glass. This is due, as you should already know, that all wines tend to deteriorate the minute they are opened and air gets to them. So, in closing. You should already know this stuff being a "good" wine drinker. Carnival is doing nothing different that any place that has some "good" wines on their wine lists.

Peritoneal dialysis is easily done on your own....so you probably don't need "Dialysis at Sea" for that. Hopefully, you'll be staying the night prior in your port, and can have your supplies delivered to the hotel. I know it's a TON of stuff, but it sure beats clinics! I'm confused tho....sounds like you're on hemo-dialysis now....you know peritoneal requires surgery to place the catheter and you can't swim......

It is not me, it is my significant other. And yes we know what this is all about. We are meeting with a PD Nurse at the main Devita here on Monday and we have already been in contact with Carnival's Guest Access Department and are working to carefully understand everything and make a well thought out and doable decision. Our request here is to see if there are people who have done this on a cruise ship, by themselves and what their assessment of it is, and what are things to watch out for and things that need to be constantly watched to make sure that everything is there on time and ready to go.

Evaluating this approach as a way to continue cruising instead of going to clinic in all the different ports. Any experiences and evaluation of those. Thanks for any help you can give us.

FYI: If you are back 2 back you keep your card and use it both weeks. Threw mine away and had to get a new one.

This is also a falsehood. If you are B2B,you meet someplace on the ship towards the end of debarkation. A crew member takes everyone's old S&S card and uses them to check you off of the ship. You are then given you new sign ands sail card for the second cruise. This is done because each cruise is looked at as a separate cruise, you must be closed out on one and opened on the other. Folio #s change so you have to clear your account on the first cruise and a new account is opened for the second cruise. In the past you also got off the ship and stood in line in the baggage area while Customs came to you and collected you document and checked your passport. Then you went back onto the ship. Do not know if this approach continues since you now have to do the customs form under certain conditions. That part of the process may have changed. If you threw away your S&S card before you got off the ship, then you would need to get a replacement for that first cruise card so you could be checked off the ship. You would never have the same S&S card for B2B cruises.

The whole process of taking each passengers picture and printing out their S&S cards really slowed down the embarkation process. Now that they print up your S&S card ahead of time with your passport picture and just leave it at your cabin, the embarkation process goes much much faster. The ports without this new feature take much longer to board from what I’ve heard. Just imagine taking 3,000 pictures and printing out 3,000 cards. And if the envelope that your S&S card is in is opened or missing, then go straight to Guest Services and they will take care of it and print you a new one.

S&S cards have always been printed ahead of time even when they were given in the port. There is no dependency on a picture being taken or taken from passport because there is no picture on the card itself. So, the printing of cards has never been a part of the check-in or boarding process. Don't know where people get these ideas.

I cruise in about 3 weeks, and FTTF has been available for a several weeks now, and is still available.

Remember, the number of FTTF slots open for a given cruise is determined by the number of Diamond and Platinum cruisers on that cruise. The fewer D&P, the more FTTF slots.

Agree. There are so many other stocks that do so much better that it makes the $100 OBC look like peanuts.

 

Look at MasterCard, Costco and Amazon. $6000 of Amazon just 2.5 years is worth over $18k today. That is enough to pay for 3-4 entire cruises from the gains alone.

 

Plus...per Carnival..."This benefit is not transferable, cannot be exchanged for cash and, cannot be used for casino credits/charges and gratuities charged to your onboard account."

So that $100 would be used for either overpriced excursions, drinks, pictures or crap from the fun shops...given that stuff is marked up at least 50% from what you can buy it for "on shore", that $100 OBC is almost a joke IMO. But it is a great gimmick by Carnival to "reward" loyalty and and capture shareholders. To each their own I guess.

You can go into the casino any time it is open and put money on you casino account from your sign and sale account on a slot machine. You can then go to the casino cage and cash in that amount of money. You have just gotten you Stock OBC, Very simple.

No, not wrong at all. I expect the same. Just a little surprised to hear I have to ASK for twice a day service on Carnival. I did not on RCCL or NCL. My next two cruises are on Carnival, so I guess I will have to tell the room steward I want twice daily service. I agree—-I want clean towels, ice in bucket refilled, room freshened up.

This start a while ago and became a rallying point for those who constantly think that Carnival is taking everything away from them. It is meant to give the guests a chance to make their choices on service. The Steward is supposed to meet you on embarkation day and fill out your service card with you. Do you want room care, morning, evening or both. Do you want bathrobes, etc. The Rally boys claimed it was an effort to "force" you to only have once a day service. Has proven to be wrong. Tell them what you want and when you want it. Look at the length of this "Diminishing Quality" post. This kind of post has made me almost reach the point where I will remove Cruise Critic from my computer. I am so tired of all the whining about stuff that is of little importance while ignoring all of the things that have been added, some for additional cost, others as part of the normal cruise fare. When it comes to cruising there is only one question that is important. Do you like the product that you are getting? If not, go find one that suits you. If Carnival tried to meet everyone's exact needs, they would spend themselves out of business , just like any other cruise line or business would. You are not going to get any business to meet all of your "needs". Ever! So just move on.

But how is having your room only serviced once per day "cleaning your own room"? That's all I'm saying. I'm certainly not arguing you shouldn't have service. But I guess I just don't understand people being upset by having their room only serviced ONCE per day.

I ask for morning service and an evening turndown service. I explain what I want in that turndown service. I want the ice bucket refilled, the used towels and used beach towels replaced, the bed turned down, the toilet cleaned if necessary, and the garbage emptied if necessary. That is not too much to ask and it is always done exactly like that. Tell me I am wrong!

I think that the huevos rancheros for breakfast are just exceptional. I especially like to add my choices from the salsa bar.

I disagree. The chairs are there for everyone's use, and even if you are sitting in it all day, you are still hogging it and preventing anyone else from using it. It may not be AS hoggy as reserving a chair and leaving it unoccupied, but monopolizing a limited resources is still hogging it.

Sorry, but you are wrong. They are doing nothing more than making use of a limited resource for as long as they want to use it. Since they are abiding by the stated rules, they are not chair hogs. I guess someone sitting in a stall in the men's room for longer than you sit in a stall in the men's room would be a can hog because they are "preventing anyone else from using it".