cmukid87

8 minutes ago, Aplmac said:

This is the new Magic...

Carnival Glory

will soon look like this too: she's in dry dock, being painted.

Ship looks gorgeous.  I'm lucky enough to be on the first sailing after she returns to sailing!

Magic is spectacular.  It's not the biggest ship and certainly not the smallest.  Has most to all of the amenities as the big, mega ships.  I never thought it was crowded and it has my favorite non-suite cabin class with the "large" balconies.  Same price as a regular balcony but 2x the size.

A few things:

1 - Capacity controlled.  That's why it shows for some sailings on not others.  It showed for the sailing I was on for about 3 days and now it is back to regular pricing.

2 - Full payment due when booking.  I know it is close enough for most sailings to require full, but still.

Knowing how awesome Carnival room stewards are, I'm sure this is one of those requests you can make of them and magically you will have a Fun Times in your mailbox or on your bed after evening turndown service.  Just give them a tip!

Great Lakes cruising would be awesome!  Slightly bias since I live in Michigan, though.

54 minutes ago, Stryker50 said:

Just wondering does anyone know if August sailings will be at full capacity?

I can't say.  I do know that all the similar cabins in my category have sold out and all of them were available to book.  It's not a lot of cabins but all of them being made available leads me to believe the capacity will be closer to 100 than 50.  The wild card is are that many people booking to cruise so soon?  Just because capacity is 80% doesn't mean they will fill all of those rooms.  

2 minutes ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

I don't quite grok why that other site is popular (assuming you are talking about Zuckerberg's college project) - you use your real name (or at least you are supposed to), and is is fairly easy to then get more info about you, which is not really what you want when discussing where and when you are cruising (and therefore possibly leaving your home unattended).  Isn't that the primary reason this site (CC) asks you to not use your real name and not discuss too much in person details?

There are ways to protect your information still.  I'm not worried about my home.  I have cameras, security systems, neighbors and house sitters for all of that. 

If I were to poll the passengers on a cruise ship who's heard of or is a member of CC vs the other it would be pretty clear why there is no activity on the roll calls here.  

I segment CC into cruise info, questions, feedback, etc. with the other being the social aspect (obviously).  

Is it an option to cancel and have the entire balance on a gift card? 

Roll calls have been dying here on cruise critic for a while.  Most activity has migrated to another site.  Our pseudo "roll-call" there is actually pretty active with multiple people joining each day.

NOOOOOO! 12% off is gone!😭

I'd do it if all the logistics lined up.  Already taking time from work in August to cruise so August is out of the question and kids start school at the end of August so September is out of the question.  A shame but that's okay.  Congrats to all getting a great rate on a great ship!  Sail on!

3 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

 

If I could get a balcony for 500 I'm be jumping on it...way better than me. Book another cruise?

If I could I would.  Rate is good for cruises through October but we've got a house full of kids and only get one trip kid free per year (for our Anniversary in August).

3 minutes ago, Love being Mimi said:

Have you called?  Sometimes they will give you a better cabin

I haven't.  I had our PVP try to work some magic.  To me there really isn't a better cabin unless it's a suite.  I jumped on this exact cabin because I've had it before and the location is perfect.

40 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

Maybe the lesson is to always book early saver code first. Once early saver, always early saver, can match to any other code after final payment date ... only early saver.

 

I expect close in rates to continue to have promotions. People with kids are having to cancel.

 

Woulda should coulda, I'm wishing I wasnt locked into sept 11, there are 4 dates in sept and oct at least that are cheaper than sept 11. One only I saw higher. Almost any other date I would have gotten a price drop. Not a thing I can do. Beating someone up wouldnt help but I know its aggravating to see a better deal and I'm locked into sept 11 on vista. That price hasnt dropped. And even if it does now I've locked into cheers and that isnt a rate code I can get again. Booked a 2nd leg for breeze and wishing there was some other rate I could have gotten. 

 

Always happens to me, I just tell myself I did the best I could when I booked. Covid makes booking uncertain...worse than ever. Sure are some deals out there.

 

What was the ridiculously good offer you got? Might as well exchange deals?

 

We booked for August so we booked best rate that was available at the time.  I usually will book an early saver rate but "usually" for me is booking 12+ months in advance.

The offer given to me was rate code PLH.  Brought our cabin down $346.  If able to we would have had a large (alley style) balcony on Magic for $692.  The cheapest room was potentially an interior room for around $500.  5 day sailing.

Sorry everyone, I just need to vent.

We were so, so excited when Magic swapped out Elation in August.  We were looking for a while to try to go in August and finally the itineraries come open and my wife has a good rate code.  We book two days ago.

Fast forward not even 24 hours and I get a promotion email from Carnival with a ridiculous rate code offer.  Go figure I jump through all the hoops to try to get my booking to that code and get denied.  Extremely frustrating that we can't cruise for 16+ months and when I finally book I get a completely "coincidental" offer the day after I book.

August itineraries are live for Magic.  Already have my booking done for our preferred cabin.  It will be 28 months since we last sailed when we step foot onboard and that is just far too long.

The "large" balconies are great on Magic.  We stayed in one a few years ago on the 6th floor.  We could look over our balcony and see the promenade and see the line forming at Guy's Pig'n'Anchor.  We are going to be booking the same cabin for an upcoming Magic sailing.  

To answer your question we did not feel anything being in the Aft.  It is worth it, especially considering they are the same cabin category as a regular balcony.

Similar situation here.  I always have the best rates and promos available to me.  For whatever reason my CHEERS! promo is the RU9 which yes, makes it more expensive than just buying outright or at least really close.  That's not worth it for us since my wife A - doesn't drink and B - is pregnant.  For fun I checked her deals and she is eligible for RU1.  Not only that but her rate is only $25 more per person than my rate.  It's huge value.

On 6/11/2021 at 2:29 PM, hurricane0226 said:

We were on the Aug 7th sailing on the Elation, received the letter, stating that they will replace the

Elation with the Magic, and also took our Grand Turk port out and replaced it with Bimini. We have

not received the new cabin on the Magic yet, and my booking has disappeared, guess they are

working on it. 

What were the other ports of call?  

2 minutes ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

It will take Carnival a while to map the existing Elation cabin bookings to the Magic - I would expect it will take them the weekend, at least.

That's what I was kind of figuring.  Everyone booked on Elation would have first claim on rooms when their bookings were switched.  I'm trying to be ready so when rooms are available we get one of our favorites is all.  Can't wait to sail!

I almost pulled the trigger yesterday morning on a sailing on Elation out of Port Canaveral.  Then yesterday evening Carnival releases a statement about Magic coming to Canaveral to replace Elation and take those itineraries.  I'm pretty excited about that.....BUT....how soon should I expect to see those as a booking option?  I've been refreshing the website like a true addict and nothing shows for Magic in August!

2 hours ago, SCBarker said:

Carnival seems to be doling out quite a bit of onboard credit these days.  How much do you think it costs them to give someone $100 OBC? $15 maybe?

 

I'm sure what you choose to do with the money affects their bottom line differently.  My guess is most people will use it on drinks.  A $10 mixed drink may have $0.65 worth of product, so $100 of OBC may cost them $6.50 + labor.  In the casino, blackjack overall odds is is about 42%.  I would guess that $100 OBC would cost them $42 there.  If you could spend it on something like FTTF, that would literally cost them $0 because they are not varying the amount of work, just the priority of it.

Not to argue but the blackjack thing is false.  If the house has a 58/42 advantage it would work out to $100 betting returning $84.  

Reality is this is nearly impossible to tell.  If you use $100 obc on drinks that would have never bought then yes, Carnival makes out like a bandit.  But if you spend it on something you would have spent your cash on anyways then you are the real winner.

Adults are all valid but only 1 kid.  I think we will be getting passports for everyone late summer.

On 3/30/2021 at 12:37 PM, teknoge3k said:

That's awesome! Cookie was a contestant on there last month, and won something. 

Cookie won $21,000!

6 hours ago, knight2096 said:

Wow I wish I had saw that. We sailed with Dr E a few years back, one of my best cruise memories to this day. the man is one heck of a great cruise director.

You can watch it.  Just google Let's Make a Deal season 12 episode 85.  He even sings his "Good Morning" song.  Gave me chills....yikes I need a cruise.