Earthworm Jim

If I had paid extra to be on the inaugural May 2nd cruise, I'd cancel and book it for some other time when you're not paying the inaugural premium for a cruise that isn't even inaugural.  We're well before final payment date.

People say they'd have been OK with it had the inaugural been delayed. Presumably because then you'd at least have gotten your money back and wouldn't be paying for something you aren't getting. Canceling at least accomplishes that.

On 11/8/2023 at 5:29 PM, jimbo5544 said:

Did they even know the differences between the different booking classes and which ones a re refundable up to final payment date?   Did they understand when a deposit is refundable and up to what date.

I would assume, yes, they would look at those things. Wouldn't you if you were booking online?

4 hours ago, john91498 said:

bummer, she's a great ship

Is she really a great ship? I thought she's had chronic, intermittent propulsion problems over the years. (November 2023, June 2023, December 2022, and August 2021. She's only been in service since December 2019) I thought she was Carnival's problem child ship.

18 hours ago, Illbcruzn4life said:

On a better note you should be able to recover your loss by filing a claim with your travel insurance.

This is entirely speculation on my part, and I could be totally wrong, but I'd guess only maybe 50% of cruisers get travel insurance. It's probably higher than average among Cruise Critic members, but probably lower for short, inexpensive cruises like the OPs. (Though their's was at holiday time, so perhaps not that inexpensive)

Recovering the cost of the cruise isn't what you want travel insurance for anyway. Say the insurance is 7% of the trip cost. That means you'd have to file a 100% of cost claim for one out of every 15 cruises to come out even on the trip cost. Unless you're likely to have to cancel for work or health reasons, it may not be worth it for cruise cost coverage. The reason it is worth it is for the medical coverage.

8 hours ago, IndyKid said:

So it's hard to get a table at the buffet? This is one reason we decided not to go on another Royal Caribbean cruise - we got tired of not being able to find a place to sit in the Windjammer buffet. A real PITA....

It doesn't have to be all or nothing. Try the MDR one day and the buffet another and see which you like best. Or mix and match depending on circumstances. A relaxing sea day might suit the slower paced MDR. While if you're in a hurry to make your morning excursion, you might want the quicker buffet.

We do some mornings at each since my wife prefers the MDR and I like the buffet.

10 hours ago, teddie2 said:

Earthworm Jim. Wow that is a real bummer I wonder why!  Thank you.

Yuck then I am stuck trying to find decent insurance. Well at least now I know that. Thanks to all of you who shared their experiences.   

Finding trip insurance online is easy, and you'll probably get better coverage for the same money that way. I use The Trip Insurance Store, which if you aren't bothered by their amateurish but excellent website, gives you excellent customer service if you have questions or problems. And they prescreen all the companies for you and give you a side by side comparison.

Other people prefer Insure My Trip, which I suspect is fine too.

Looking at it a slightly different way, the Plus Package costs $60 a day, but $16 of that you're going to pay in gratuities anyway, so it's really $44 a day for drinks (incl. coffees) and wifi. I'm ignoring the other little stuff you get because I don't value it, though one could argue two visits to Alfredos has some value.

I wouldn't pay for wifi separately if I didn't get the package, but I like having it. Without the package I might have 2-3 drinks a day. With it add about 1 or 2 because I'm likely to have wine with dinner in that case. So I'm probably losing a little money by getting it, but I get it anyway.

I see you're from New York. I believe us New York residents can only purchase Princess' At-Ease Waiver Program.

"At-Ease Waiver Program. The program offers a cancellation fee waiver as well as baggage protection in a single package, as neither may be purchased separately. This program is not trip interruption insurance and only covers cancellation fees and guest’s baggage while on the cruise, cruisetour or Cruise Plus.*"

The regular Princess Vacation Protection that most everyone else can buy we can't get: "Note that Princess Vacation Protection is not available to residents of the state of New York, British Columbia, Quebec, Puerto Rico, or Mexico."

41 minutes ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

Well, you would think that would have given them plenty of time to update the signage! 😉

The sign did say "all other wines", so I think you had a case if you had wanted to make a stink over it.

The announcement in July wasn't a good excuse. It's not like they can expect every passenger to keep on top of such announcements.

With 4 in cabin the balcony space is invaluable just to have a place for some people to be out of the way while others do something in the cabin (get ready for dinner, pack or unpack, get ready in the morning, etc ).

Not so much for all 4 of you to hang out on the balcony at once though.

On 10/17/2023 at 7:21 PM, RD64 said:

Watching Bingo? No offense to anyone, but how did this turn into an event?

Hey, the more people watching bingo, the fewer people are crowding whatever part of the ship you like to spend your time.

6 hours ago, Snaxmuppet said:

I don't fully understand... sorry 🙂

 

Do you mean that regardless of whether you have the package you will be charged... even if you tell them up front you have a package? Surely that is not the case???

My interpretation of Tedferg's comment is if you have the package and order the Fixed Price (salad, pizza, and dessert) there is no charge. But if you order a la carte, say, just the pizza, you would be charged.

1 hour ago, teddie2 said:

Ok but if I select princess chooses for me in mid ship Deck 10..can they still just put me any where? 

Well, not anywhere. It would have to be to a category Princess considers the same or higher than what you booked.

How are the "No Sugar Added" desserts? I see the menu has Key Lime Pie one day, which I enjoy, but it's no sugar added. Which makes it sound like it could be unpleasantly tart with no sugar. Are the "no sugar added" desserts good enough that even people who aren't restricting their sugar would still enjoy them?

18 hours ago, Pellaz said:

 

Lol, at "free."   😄  

OK, fair. How about "Already incidentally paid for in the past"? (Incidentally because you didn't pay for all those past cruises in order to get the Priority boarding perk. It was just a side benefit.)

The most important difference between Priority and FTTF is free vs. $60 to $100+.

On 10/6/2023 at 6:21 AM, sanger727 said:

If you want to try and salvage this trip, your only option at this point is to appear in person at a passport center. 

We recently got our passport renewal back 3 weeks after we sent it in. And one of those weeks was the time it took our application and old old passports to get to the passport office. So it is theoretically possible the OP could still get it in time if they only need a renewal. But I wouldn't want to gamble my vacation on hoping to get it that fast.

1 hour ago, pistnbroke said:

So sorry that you HATED my references to the desalinated water.

i was relating to my personal experience.

on my many subsequent cruises I have not had similar results after using bottled water.

i will concede that it is possible that on that particular cruise the process may not have been up to snuff.
i will try not to hate a opinion that differs from mine

Well, I think ships do take on municipal drinking water from a port at times, so it could have been that water with slightly higher sodium content than the desalinated water the ship produces.

In chengkp75's defense, he didn't really offer any opinion to be different than yours. He just presented some facts. Yours was more a (admittedly reasonable sounding to us uninitiated) supposition of cause based on your anecdotal experience.

39 minutes ago, Riles34 said:

I like to buy cruise cash in advance. It allows me to pre buy and "payoff" my bill months before. $100 here and $100 instead of a larger sail and sign bill come the last day hitting the credit card. So there is a point. And anything you have left over, you go to a slot machine and put it all in. Cash out and collect your cash. Easy!

That $100 here and $100 there can just sit in your bank account and pay your bill just as easily after the cruise. Though given today's paltry savings and checking interest rates, you're not losing much by paying in advance either. Though you avoid the step of cashing out the remainder with a slot machine if you leave it in the bank..

I feel like the current oil prices are already built into the cost of the cruise. It would take a sudden spike to make them implement the surcharge.

8 hours ago, bguppies said:

 (where if it hits in NY/NJ as a thunderstorm, it wil be called superstorm Lee)

If your implication is that Superstorm Sandy was nothing more than a thunderstorm overhyped by NY media, you are badly misinformed.

Per Wikipedia: Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as Superstorm Sandy)[1][2] was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane of late October 2012. It was the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spanning 1,150 miles (1,850 km).[3][4][5] The storm inflicted nearly $70 billion (2012 USD) in damage and killed 233 people across eight countries from the Caribbean to Canada

On 8/24/2023 at 9:11 PM, wannavacay said:

Thanks for asking this -- I realize your post is a little older... what did you find out (if anything) since then?

The excursion to Venice was included. The tour part was pretty basic. More of an orientation of where the highlights are. And then you had free time on your own.

1 minute ago, VentureMan_2000 said:

You're falling into the same trap too... wanting to take "take off" a certain percentage from the on-board pricing.  Nowhere does Carnival say 10% off.  "save 10%" implies there is a 10% difference... not 10% off.

Your own post from Tuesday showed a Carnival link saying "Save up to 10% off", so I used the same language. Are you implying someone buying a $10 item for $5 is saving 100%? Because no one would construe it that way.

On 7/29/2023 at 12:01 PM, CynCyn said:

I’d disagree here.  On Princess you get tips, internet, and drinks for $60 per day- no gratuity.

Tips being $16 a day, you're effectively getting your 15 drinks a day for $44 with wifi thrown in for free. Though to be fair the Princess cruise will probably cost you more than Carnival to start with.

On 7/19/2023 at 5:57 PM, VentureMan_2000 said:

Thanks.

OK, Lets do the math... I like doing the math...  

 

$64.95
$11.69   (18% Gratuity)
=====
$76.64  --  Total Cheers price when purchased on-board.

$59.95
$10.79   (18% Gratuity)
=====
$70.74  --  Total Cheers price when purchased in advance.

  $76.64
- $70.74
======
   $ 5.90  Difference between prices, which is 10% of the advance purchase price minus 9.5 cents.

 

The fault in your math is comparing the difference between prices to the discounted price rather than the full price. By that approach an item that is normally $10 on sale for $5 would be saving you 100% rather than the correct 50%.