honestguy

Can any one give me some insight into Half Moon Cay? First time going. does the line (carnival) provide food or is it to purchase? and if so, do you use your sea and sail or all cash?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks and HAPPY SAILING TO ALL!!!!

all food is free. booze isn't even if you have cheers. will be without a doubt one of the prettiest beaches you have ever been too. People book cruises just to go to half moon key. It's that nice. I put it in my top three. it's simply amazing.

Can someone explain to me exactly what a PVP is, what does PVP stand for anyway?? And what their actual function is? Another couple and I just booked an upcoming cruise on Liberty in October and I booked one day before she booked their room. When she booked she used out booking number and pin number to join our reservations as I had been instructed to tell her to do. Shortly thereafter she received a call from carnival saying she now has a PVP to handle their reservation even though it has already been booked and there is nothing left to do. I never heard from a PVP about our reservation so I just wondered what they do exactly and what determines who they call. And yes, I have read some threads here but they all talk about PVP's as tough they are travel agents for Carnival or some such. Is that correct? Are they important to have for cruising Carnival (this our first CCL cruise). Thanks for the help.

PVP stands for personal vacation planner. They work for carnival. One isn't needed. I good one though is worth it. It costs you nothing, and if you need to know something they are better to deal with than carnival customer service. I can reach mine whenever I want. I have his office number, and cell number.(i never use the cell) I've had issues arrive twice with cruise bookings, and my pvp handled them fast, and painless for me. If you like carnival, I would highly suggest booking your next cruise through one

Unless they are married or in the military, the answer is no.

 

 

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they aren't under 21. they are 21.

I often wonder if some folks are born age 70. They seem to forget what the stages of life are about, or they, themselves, didn't have the experience of being 10 or 17 or even 30. They are born old with the crankiness and self righteous attitudes that give "old" people such a bad rap. Luckily as I approach the later years of my life my memory is still intact and I know what it was like to be a child, a teenager, a curious young adult, a parent....basically a normal person.

 

Children, due to the fact that they are children, are energetic and overly enthusiastic. They move a lot, they need to burn off excess energy, they like to play and run and jump, they are curious. They aren't made to sit still with their arms folded and their feet crossed for more than a few minutes...to them that's unnatural and a bit of punishment. Teenagers, by nature and the fact that cause and effect are the last things that develop in our brains, are often loud and obnoxious and somewhat self-centered. This is all normal.

 

Carnival, as has been stated often, has developed a family friendly cruise experience and they work hard catering to kids and young parents because they are the cruisers of the future and will keep the industry afloat for years to come. That has been developing more and more over the last decades, as ships have been designed to embrace them. If long term "older" passengers can't see that then they aren't attuned to Carnival's business plan.

 

Just like on land consumers have an obvious choice....no one is "forcing" them to continue patronizing an establishment that has "changed" over the years to move into a different direction. I can remember cruising when you didn't see but a handful of people under 40 because the ships and their forced "refined" attitude just didn't appeal to the younger set and, face it, people under 40 didn't have the time or the financial means to "cruise" while many retirees did. Now it is different. Families work hard to get and afford vacations and they want vacations that appeal to all members and can provide the services and activities that work within their age groups.

 

Luckily for many "older" individuals (and those that still like their cruises and vacations to be lazy and quiet and adult) there are still ships and lines that cater to them...when was the last time anyone saw a bunch of kids on a Viking experience. Carnival has chosen to update their business plan and move in a different direction as the corporation had acquired more cruise lines. They have pretty much left Holland America for the "genteel" crowd so people who want that experience can have it, and rightly so.

 

As far as parents wanting an adult area on a ship so that they can "get away" from their own kids who they choose to travel with, well that says more about the scope of their parenting. Obviously I was lucky. One vacation a year was about "the kids" and we did that whole-heartedly. The other vacation was about "the adults" and we left the kids home. Worked out beautifully.

Man this is the best post of the whole thread. They're sure some uptight people on this thread that forgot what it was like to be kids. My two kids are very well behaved, but get them on vacation, and around others where they are excited and amped up they may be a lil loud or excited. It's called being a freaking kid.

What it really boils down to is this. The old miserable people complaining about this rule, are either cheap, or broke, and they cruise carnival because it's the cheapest option. They complain about every little change, but never once will you hear a peep from them about the fact that carnival hasn't changed the basic price of a cruise in 25 years. Yes you don't get a piece of candy on your pillow anymore.(talk about acting like a child) Yes there's no more table cloths.(its actually quite dated, most land restaurants are moving away from them.) yes your key card goes to your mailbox now. etc etc etc. these people with 5,000 10,000 20,000 posts have nothing better to do, then bellyache and complain about every little change. The one thing they won't do is put their money where their mouth is, and go to a different line, because at the end of the day you still get the most bang for your buck on carnival.

I've probably eaten at the Steakhouse on various Carnival ships maybe 20 times and usually had excellent experiences with the service and the food. However, last week was my first not so excellent meal.

 

It started with the little postcard reminder that I received in my cabin the day before my reservation. It had the wrong time so I had to call the Steakhouse to have them change the reservation back to my requested time. I called in the late afternoon, letting the phone ring several times over 20, no one picks up. On my 4th attempt, I finally got through, and was questioned why I wanted to change the time. The Maitre'D did not understand or acknowledge that they entered the wrong time.

 

Okay, little detail resolved and out of the way, We entered and were seated in a few minutes and given menus. About 5 minutes later, the head waiter comes by and asks if we are ready to order. No presentation show and explanation of the different entree, just are we ready? I mean I could probably do a fair job of showing off the cuts of meat I've seen it so often, but Evelyn has not. .

 

The assistant waiter then brings over the bottle of Pellegrino that I ordered, pours us a glass, and puts the bottle on the servers table. Not on ice, in a bucket like they usually do. We get the chefs compliment, then wait for the bread. Another 5 minutes and the asst. waitress brings us the 3 bread condiments. And we wait for the bread itself. 5 minutes later, .I ask the head waiter about our bread, and he apologizes and mumbles that he is working with an incompetent crew. I mention that the Pellegrino is still sitting unchilled, and he rushes to bring us a new bottle which he then puts into an ice bucket.

 

Our main entree arrives, and the head waiter says the side dishes will be out immediately. When the Maitre'D comes by to ask us how our meal is going 5 minutes later, I mention that we were still waiting for our sides to arrive. She then rolled up her sleeves and jumped into action, clearing dishes from another table, carrying orders to patrons,and yes, she got our sides ASAP.

 

I have posted many times on CC how I've enjoyed the Steakhouse for both its food and the service, so I have no problem posting that this experience did not perform to the expectations that I've enjoyed in the past. Did it ruin the meal? Absolutely not. And I'll keep my reservation for the Steakhouse when I sail the Glory in June.

 

I told the MDR Maitre'D Stant that his crew gave us better service than the Steakhouse did that night.

stuff happens. you had a bad time. Happens even at the best restaurants on land? how was the food? Shouldve complained right away. Probably something would've been done

I will totally disagree with your assumption that Carnival is the cheapest option to cruise. If you're talking about bare bones rates....more often than not MSC is cheaper than Carnival when you compare the Divina to a comparable 7 nighter on Carnival, and if you add in the Cheers program to the cost of a Carnival cruise, NCL is usually cheaper as well because of their drinks package as an included perk.

 

Carnival at this point is marketing towards the blue cards, those who are first time cruisers. They will inadvertently accept the funship special as they are exploring the ship on embarkation day and then will be taken aback when they need to hand over their sail & sign card to pay for the "free" drink. They will buy the pictures, and go on Carnival excursions and play bingo and do most of the other frivolous things that experienced cruisers either no longer do or do at a cheaper rate.

first off, while MSC may be cheaper, lets not act like it's been accepted as a mainstream line. Very few people have heard of them. they sail one ship from one us port, so they are hardly relevant. Now when the seaside, and the few others they have slated come online, then they will be a true player in this. That being said, yes they are slightly cheaper. As for NCL I've never found them cheaper, other than last minute cruises. I had two cruises booked this summer, and both times ncl was almost 2k more than carnival.

you're arguing just for the sake of arguing. Carnival is the price leader when it comes to cruising. The same cruise on RCCL or NCL will cost the average family of 4 1000-2000 more than carnival. I know I price them all the time. I don't cruise carnival cause I'm loyal to them. I'm loyal to their prices. When I can get a 7 day cruise for under 3 k peak season on rccl or ncl I will try them. Now they may be comparable if you're sailing the first week of december, and if you are, kids in the pool will be a mute point.

you hit the nail on the head about the blue cards and carnival's marketing. It's a sound business practice. Lets market our ships to those who spends the most on board. Vs some older couple that come on board, and hardly spend a dime, and sit on the serenity deck sipping the free water all day.. That's what this decision is all about getting those on board that spend the most money.

This isnt SOP. This is a few lazy crew members and perhaps a materie'd. Sorry it happened, but I never had this problem on carnival. Bread has always been fresh baked and warm. My palete is well developed from years in the food business. I can tell righ away if bread has been reheated or stored in a warmer too long. I've never had this with any of my cruises.

You are sadly mistaken....Just to give you a little background..Have been lucky enough to have sailed 29 times over the past 31 years. 15 out of my first 21 cruises were on Carnival. Only 2 of my most recent 8 have been on them. I don't book a cruise because of the line or the ports. I book for the perceived value to me and recently other lines are further up the chain value wise to me. I'm not a blind loyalist like many are to Carnival, Royal, or NCL

On my two recent NCL Escape cruises, I had the privilege of obtaining Vibe passes, which is an exclusive area that is adults only and has a limit of 75 passes per sailing. It was and is great. It's a notch above Serenity and it has its own bar and kids can't even access the area.

If it wasn't for me doing research and finding out about the Havana area on the Vista and what it offers, it may have been a long time till we sailed on Carnival again. But, since the beards seem to be more interested in the blue cards than the platinum ones, after our 2019 cruise on the Horizon it could be awhile till our next Carnival adventure.

 

 

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Great for you, but most will continue to sail carnival because it continues to be the cheapest option to cruise.

Fact is Carnival's data must tell them they make more off families, vs people sailing kid free. This is what it boils down to.

Fantasy Class ships sail the short booze cruises mostly so absolutely they would attract a different type of clientele. If people wanted ships with no adults only area, they wouldn't have put Havana on Vista Class ships. But they did and it is extremely popular. If people loved the Fantasy Class ships so much, they would build smaller ships. But they don't.

 

Look, we can debate this forever but I'm not going to. However they arrived at this latest idea, I can tell you they have no concern for a significant portion of their clientele. And who exactly thought it was a brilliant idea to start it half way through a cruise with no prior warning? More research, right? [emoji849].

 

Anyway, we can agree to disagree. You know my feelings and I can respect yours.

 

People that are unhappy I hope continue to voice their opinions (not only on here as it appears this forum is not good enough or irrelevant in the grand scheme of things according to some) to Carnival. Write, post on social media, do whatever. There is power in numbers.

 

We're not asking to change something that actually costs them money to implement (I'm not talking about what they think they may make by attracting more kids or whatever their train of thought may be). Simply putting the signs back up and letting the adults who pay for the kids to go to have a little respite from them that includes a pool. That is all.

you summed it up. It's your feelings. Me personally I could care less. No feelings here, just stating facts. Carnival made this choice, because they feel it will lead to more business. That's a fact. a for profit publicly traded company won't make a decision like this on a whim. If you don't like that choice, then you're free to take your business elsewhere, and while a small percentage will. Fact is most book carnival based on cost and value, and that's still there. That's why you and almost everyone else complaining on here will continue to book carnival cruises!

It's not just kid free cruisers that enjoyed the adults only pool. And I highly doubt Carnival did any type of study because if they did they would have seen that this is not a good choice. I'm not just talking about on here, but also via the other social media outlets. Waterworks on Glory alone should have been enough to attract their target market share if in fact it is people with kids.

 

Now what they did was isolate themselves from a whole other group which is either people without kids, or people with kids that like to spend time in a pool without their own or other people's children. I fail to see how this is a good thing.

Well it's clear you haven't thought about it enough. See again a business just doesn't make a change like this without giving it much thought. Carnival also has the benefit, of being able to look at the booking rates on fantasy class ships.(ships that have only one pool, and no adult pool) that data alone probably told them it wasn't a big deal. I'm sure the rates of kid free adults booking fantasy class cruise's are similar to those booking ships with kid free pools. As such their data told them they wouldn't see a huge shift in market share. Regardless of what you think, it's clear that carnival's number one goal is to have the cheapest cruise prices out there. As long as they do that their market share won't suffer. For all the so called carnival loyalists out there, if their prices were the same as NCL, or RCCL you would see people starting to cruise them.

I highly doubt many of the folks that have their panties in a wad will stop cruising with carnival. What will happen is they will get mad for a few days. When they go and book their next vacation they will check out other vacations that offer kid free areas, and when they see the cost savings on carnival decide that a kid free pool isn't as important as saving several hundred dollars.

Good idea. I had already filled mine out or I would have too.

 

I hope people continue to comment on both Carnival's and John's pages to make it known that the overwhelming majority of people are extremely dissatisfied with this decision. Maybe some letter writing is in order as well.

I doubt its the majority. Large corporations study their decisions in great depth before doing it. Fact is, they must feel that this is a good choice to get more business. That's the only reason you make a decision like this? Does this increase our marketshare within our target market. I'm not sure what their ideal target market is, but I'm guessing its 30-50 year old adults with kids. It sucks for all the kid free cruisers, but I doubt it's a decision carnival reverses anytime soon.

We have only sailed on bigger ships(Carnival Dream and RC Liberty) but we are looking forward to trying a smaller ship. I read a lot of negative things about the Elation but I looked at pictures and videos and it already looked pretty nice to me. Can't wait to see it after the renovations. We are doing the 5 day Oct 7 sailing to Nassau and HMC.

 

 

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she's a great ship. people always got to have the newest and best thing. we sailed her on a 4 day last november, and we had such a great time we are planning on going again in november this year

I had a cove, and it was under the galley, they started pushing carts at 5am. noisy as can be. I'm a very sound sleeper, and it woke me.

yes the steakhouse has some wonderful wines by the glass. wines that would cost you over 100 dollars a bottle back in the states. if you have cheers take advantage of it.

If you get a great PVP like I have you will never book any other way. My last booked cruise I passed using a different site, and losing out on 100 obc, to stick with my PVP. Why you may ask. Well I always book on an early saver. Yesterday my cruise dropped. Emailed my pvp, and 5 minutes later I had my price drop. This is probably the tenth time I've done this.

2nd reason. I had an offer I didn't know about. I got a free cruise inside cabin offer for the first ever journeys cruises. I only had to pay the taxes. For 150 bucks I got a 11 day cruise. To make it even better he booked me into a 4J handicap cabin, knowing I'd have a good chance of getting bumped. after being booked only a week, I get a call from carnival that they needed my cabin. They moved me to a cove balcony for free, so for 150 bucks I had an awesome cruise I would've never had without my pvp.

problems. Had a 7 day cruise booked for my wife and two young kids. wife couldn't go last minute, so my PVP did all the work, and got the booking changed so my mom could go and help with the kids. we had a great time.

problem 2. booked a cruise out of charleston. hurricane matthew was baring down. we made the decision to cancel free of charge. we wanted to book another carnival cruise. my pvp took care of everything, while I was driving in route to fla. I won't book any other way

this is a perfect example of why I only book a cruise with a carnival PVP. I could've gotten a 100 obc on my last booking, using a travel site. I asked my pvp if he could match, and they couldn't. I didn't care. Today my price dropped 60 bucks, and I emailed my pvp, and within 5 minutes i had my price change. with 4 months to go, I'll probably email a few more times, and make up for that 100 bucks

Hmmm... that's hard to understand given the photographs and video reviews passengers have posted. Remember, we're not talking about "upscale ambiance" - just an enhanced setting. On Carnival Magic, I see huge, modern chandeliers, lighted stairs up to the second level, which itself is girded by slick, modern gold siding with lighted appointments. The server areas are surfaced in what appears to be marble. They don't have any of that at my local (2 Diamond) restaurant. How deceptive are these photos and videos folks are posting?

on decor one could make the argument that the MDR is 4 or even 5 stars. The tables without table clothes, look great, and rival, some of the finest restaurants on land. Where Carnival suffers is in their service, and food quality. They use to have 2 man teams, and now it's a 3 man team spread more thin. Occasionally you will find a team this is amazing, but generally speaking the service is lacking a little(not a big deal. I'm there to relax, and I do that.) The food honestly is somewhere between an applebees, and an outback in quality. An example of this is the chicken fingers in the MDR. 5 years ago they were hand breaded on board, and now they are prebreaded frozen product. Is it a deal breaker? No, but just one more example of carnival cutting costs, to keep prices low. It's a tradeoff I'm perfectly fine with. Some people just think that the food is more amazing than it is. Most sailing on carnival have never eaten at a 4 or even a 5 star restaurant.

I have 16 years culinary background. I've worked on cruise ships, and currently work at a steak house that most consider fine dining. It's not, and neither is Carnival's mdr, or their steakhouse. The service can be close to fine dining, when you have a good team, but the food is nowhere close. Most of the food is comfort food, with a little bit of flair. I think carnival does a great job overall for the food product they serve on such a limited budget.

has a group ever hit it big on a slot pull?

I love the fantasy. sailed her twice out of Charleston. That was before the 2.0 upgrades. you won't find a prettier staircase than on the fantasy. That white marble is beautiful. Alot of people like to hate on the fantasy class ships. They have almost everything that the bigger ship has. It's just smaller with less people. If you can't find something to do on a fantasy class ship, then you are a debbie downer. I had a cruise booked on the dream(my favorite ship) and canceled it, and moved the booking to the inspiration, out of San Juan. Well there is no doubt the dream is the superior ship, I'm saving over 1200 dollars for a 7 day cruise it was a no brainer. We will have a great time, and guess what there's no 2.0 upgrades. My son also had a great time on the elation last year, with their old school into the pool waterslide(dang thing is a lot more fun than it looks)

Hi all - for the first time ever, DH and I will be cruising during April and not our usual January time. So that means we'll be sailing during the start of the first round of the NHL playoffs.

 

Our first few cruises saw nothing but soccer 24/7 in the sports bar so we're wondering, will be able to see some NHL action? Can anyone report from recent cruises on the Carnival Pride?

 

We're big NHL/Capitals fans and would love to know! Thanks!

doubt you will find it. really sucks too, since the cap's never see the month of may, other than their annual team golf outing! Go Pens!

Kim great review. I'm doing this cruise in august. I had the dream booked, for the same week, but this one was cheaper, and believe it or not airfare was cheaper to san juan vs nola, so we made the change. First though I have a week in st thomas for my cousin's wedding. is your visit to coki beach included in any of your reviews? what snorkling was better coki beach, or st lucia?

A great pvp. Irreplaceable. Mine is great, and they are great a solving problems. If you don't have a great one, work on finding one!

Thank you! This is what I needed! :)

 

Now...have any bigger guys and gals used the slide? I don't want people to cringe in horror as I get on the slide. 😳😂

I've seen some big ole boys use the slide! You will be fine. Go and have a good time. Bigger people make big splashes and the kids love that;)

I am trying to change my early saver booked cruise from one week to the sailing the week before. The actual sailing is ~$1500 more and they won't waive the $50pp fee, which is 4 of us, so $200. Any advice?

suck it up, and make the change. i changed my cruise this week and paid it. I still saved money. it does suck, but you're still saving 1300