TexasBrit

6 hours ago, cruisemom2 said:

If you go to his site, he also has menus posted for the other Mardi Gras restaurants as well. In December, our elegant nights were on Sunday and Thursday.

 

https://saintgregtravel.com/mardi-gras-mdr-menus/

FWIW, we were on the Dream 6-day last week and the menus were the same with the Day 4 omitted.

8 hours ago, groundloop said:

 

Nope, not at all.  It seems that they're concentrating on former customers who haven't cruised much recently.  My daughter (one post-restart cruise) and step-son (zero post-restart cruises) have have gotten those stupid crazy rates but I (4 post-restart cruises) am seeing prices as high or higher than ever.  

 

Hey Carnival..... if you're listening send some of those great offers my way and we'll fill up your unused cabins in a heartbeat.

5 hours ago, TexasBrit said:

It is very strange. One of our daughters gets some very low offers ($0 for interior!) but the other does not, and neither do I or wife. Both daughters have been on the same cruises with the last one in 2016 but also had one that was cancelled in 2020. We cruised in 2019 and 2021!

However on the other a good friend who has been on about 5 Carnival cruises since the restart and with a couple more booked, gets the low offers, which is why she goes on so many.

Following up on this, there were better prices if I just look at the Web site without logging in with a VIFP number! Weird.  Are VIFP members being charged more than everyone else?

I wonder if this applies with other cruise lines as well.

2 hours ago, groundloop said:

 

Nope, not at all.  It seems that they're concentrating on former customers who haven't cruised much recently.  My daughter (one post-restart cruise) and step-son (zero post-restart cruises) have have gotten those stupid crazy rates but I (4 post-restart cruises) am seeing prices as high or higher than ever.  

 

Hey Carnival..... if you're listening send some of those great offers my way and we'll fill up your unused cabins in a heartbeat.

It is very strange. One of our daughters gets some very low offers ($0 for interior!) but the other does not, and neither do I or wife. Both daughters have been on the same cruises with the last one in 2016 but also had one that was cancelled in 2020. We cruised in 2019 and 2021!

However on the other a good friend who has been on about 5 Carnival cruises since the restart and with a couple more booked, gets the low offers, which is why she goes on so many.

2 hours ago, Nic6318 said:

 

Hi Tex.

 

If you go to your profile page, you will see link for "my offers". If you have any, you will see them there. If there is anything really special it will be obvious and may be limited to certain cruises. Very often the more common offers are just slightly better rates available for all cruises. If you are looking at a specific cruise and are logged in, the system will always show all your available offers. They show up when you select your booking rate, that's just before you make your cabin selection (after selecting cabin category).

Thank you. I checked this as you said, but there were no low cost deals for me. So they are not really giving those extremely good rates to all VIFP members.

On 2/1/2022 at 11:46 AM, lowroller said:

I logged in a few minutes ago and no offers appeared. Many of them did not expire until the end of February or later. 

Update, they are showing now, must have been a glitch.

Where do these deals appear? When I go to the Carnival website I only see what look like normal prices, nothing in these low price ranges.

19 hours ago, Oletruckdude said:

My DW and I ate at the seafood shack on the Magic last Oct. It was terrible. We had fried fish, clams and shrimp. It tasted like it had all been fried in dirty oil. Strong after taste. We Left it all on the table for garbage.

It's the only really BAD meal we've had in 12 carnival cruises, but enough to turn use off on the seafood shack.

We really love Guys burgers, the tacos venue, Pig and Anchor, Jiji's, the pizza, the deli, the steakhouse, and the buffet. We rarely ever eat in the MDR because it just takes too long to get through dinner. 

Oh, and the shakes at the Shake Shack are soooo good.

Lots of great food options with carnival!

Have to agree on the Seafood Shack. Ordered fish & chips there on the Freedom. Worst I have ever eaten (or should I say not eaten!). Fish was undercooked, batter still runny underneath, chips dry and tasteless and this was after waiting over 15 mins after I ordered. Threw it away.

Last year I decided to try a lobster roll on the Breeze. It was not bad, but certainly not worth the $14 charge, even if it was from my OBC.

There won't be a 3rd time!

19 minutes ago, Cruisesfun65 said:

 

Starting March 15th you can use your obc to pre'-book specialty restaurants, pay for excursions, wifi, etc before your cruise.

Thank you! Good to know, and pleased to see this improvement.

Not a direct answer to the original question, but making these reservations online requires a credit card payment. it is not possible to charge them to your OBC.

For our cruise back in October on Breeze, we had to go to the service desk onboard and was initially told that I could only cancel the online reservation and then make a new reservation using the OBC but may not get the same time, noit simply switch the form of payment.

We got a different time for the steakhouse which was acceptable, but got the same time for Cucina. The credit card charges were refunded the following week to the account.

No idea why the reservations could not be charges to OBC in the first place.

16 hours ago, Virga said:

 

On Southwest, it doesn't matter when you stand up and gather near the door - your boarding order is determined by your check-in.  Absolutely no value in joining the fray until they call the group before you.  And, as someone else mentioned, it's less of an issue with Southwest because they let you check bags for free, so the competition for overhead space isn't nearly as fierce.  Southwest really, really upset me a couple times earlier this year - they're in a race for the bottom, as far as I'm concerned - but I'm still all in on their boarding and baggage policies.  

I've seen people stand in line for boarding on SWA for longer than the flight is, e.g Dallas to Houston. Kinda like standing in line for an hour to get into a 2nd rate comedy show on a cruise ship!

46 minutes ago, eclue said:

We were on the Dream on Oct  3rd - there is a small smoke free casino on a lower level -separate from the main casino - but it is not very good - the main casino slots are better - ( we are not smokers ) WE played in the main casino on nonsmoking machines and there was very little smoke. the staff was very conscious of reminding people to put their masks on their face not their neck so it was good.

We are going on the Vista next week - I hope it is the same. The last time we were on the Vista was two years ago and the smoke was so bad I had to put a towel over my face to play the slots.....then I took my Vicks inhaler with me....finally just gave up and we love to play the slots.  

Thank you. I will be interested to hear about the Vista, as we are planning a cruise on that ship much later next year.

Although the extra casino has fewer machines and tables, it is still far better than any smoke. Our experience on the Breeze last week was similar to yours. The main casino was better than on previous cruises but still not good for people like me with allergies to cigarette smoke, let alone the smell of smoke that lingers on your clothes.

Since non-smokers greatly out number smokers these days, maybe the casinos will be reversed and the large one will be non-smoking eventually!

21 minutes ago, cyclist_guy1 said:

i didnt think any carnival ships had smoke free casinos. i could be wrong though.

Yes, you are wrong as you suspected. Read the earlier posts. Several ships now have an additional smaller casino on a different deck which is smoke free. So far we have Breeze, Magic and Dream. Was just wondering about other ships, Carnival in particular , but info on any other lines is also welcome of course.

Sorry, I know the main casinos are no smoke free.

I am asking about the additional smaller casino that is smoke-free in a separate location.

So far we have Breeze, Magic and Dream.

Any others?

It would be good to have an up to date list.

Yes.

Also you can go to the Italian restaurant for a small extra fee. Well worth it, really good selections and totally delicious. Don't have to dress up for it.

Remember it is only unvaccinated children under 12 who are allowed to cruise with this negative test and only a limited number on each cruise.

But now that 5-11 y/o can get vaccinated, there should be far fewer unvaccinated passesngers.

59 minutes ago, overeasy said:

Visited the deck 4 casino on Dream last month. Problem is it is very warm. Lots of machines equals lots of heat. I don't think they added AC capacity to the venue.

53 minutes ago, KatCruiser44 said:

The Dream does have a non-smoking casino on deck 4. I just got off the Dream a few days ago and the temperature in the casino didn't feel warm to me.

Thank you both very much for the replies and answering my question. Looking forward to our cruise in January. Hopefully it will not be too warm at that time of year!

5 minutes ago, CarelessAndConfused said:

I agree the main casino is a major dealbreaker on the smoke alone.  I assume most non-smokers feel this way and with such a minority of smokers in the US anyway, I would think they would be more inclined to cater toward non-smokers.  Unless for some reason there is an abnormally high correlation between smokers and gamblers that I'm not aware which mathematically seems very unlikely.

 

 

This is presumably why they have opened the smoke-free casino annexes. The ability to smoke  was the attraction for smokers to patronize the casino, because it is the only inside area where smoking is allowed.

Just now, CarelessAndConfused said:

Sorry I can't answer about the Dream but what ships have smoke free casinos?

Breeze and Magic are two, maybe others.

It is on Deck 4 below the main casino. A smaller room with fewer machines and tables but enough. Very nice for those like me who are allergic to cigarette smoke and never use the main casino on previous cruises.

Does anyone know if the Dream has a smoke-free casino also, just like some of the other ships?

Sorry if this has been mentioned before, but i couldn't find it with a search.

56 minutes ago, nlktx49 said:

 Port days we chose to eat on Deck 5 at the Ocean Plaza. Although it says Continental Breakfast, they have more than just pastries and coffee, and a small group of diners. Eggs, bacon, fruit, hash browns, French toast, pastries, oatmeal, grits, yogurt, milk - very convenient, in a small area so no having to search for what you want!

SSHHHH! This is the hidden secret on those ships that have it. We love it too but don't want it to get to popular and crowded!

56 minutes ago, nlktx49 said:

We spent a lot of time in the casino at the slots. It was very crowded and very smoky. We had heard from friends who sailed in August that the amount of smoke was greatly reduced. That wasn't the case now although supposedly an improved ventilation system had been installed.  Although you had to "sip and cover" if you had a drink, smokers were allowed to leave their masks off the whole time they were smoking, not just when taking a puff.  Very few slot machines were marked non-smoking. Slots were a little looser than usual and there were some new machines, and more machines to fill the space where the casino bar used to be.

 

Was there not a smaller non-smoking casino annex on Vista? There was one on Breeze on deck 4 and we loved it. Also heard some other ships had them. We never used the casino previously because of the smoke, so Carnival gained two players. Maybe we will get some good offers from the Players Club finally!

 

 

 

40 minutes ago, ultrafighter said:

Thanks for this!  I sail on the Breeze in 11 days.  Did you use the smoking or the non-smoking casino?

We were on this same cruise so I'll jump in here! We used the non-smoking casino. It was less crowded and obviously smoke free which was great, as I am very allergic to cigarette smoke. There are fewer tables and games, but still enough. The big casino seemed to be less smokey than on previous cruises. It was possible to walk through without getting too much 2nd hand smoke. On previous cruises, we would avoid walking through the casino by going down one deck to by-pass it. So for us, Carnival gained a couple of new players, as we never played on previous cruises. I expect it was the same for many others also.

Not only that but we came out ahead as well!

On the Breeze last week there was very good adherence to the mask policies. Every time we were on an elevator, everyone had their masks on properly. Same for buffet lines, and walking in the hallways on the public and cabin decks.

At the entrance to the buffet, a crew member reminded guests to put their mask on and provided one if the guest had forgotten their own.

Outside on the upper decks masks were not required but many people had them on anyway.

Once seated at tables for eating and drinking, the masks could be removed.

All crew members wore masks 100% of the time both inside and outside.

We didn't see any arguments or tantrums regarding masks, everyone simply complied with the requirements. It seemed that people realized the need for the mask protocols that were needed to enable cruising to happen again and were happy to conform as well as to protect themselves and others from any possible virus spread.

20 minutes ago, flying fingers said:

Honestly I am now regretting my decision to cruise In December based on lack of masking. 

I wouldn't worry about it, based on our experience, which quite frankly I was amazed to see. I must admit that I did expect to see a lot more unmasked people and some protests, but we saw none of that.

Embarkation was efficient with many agents available. We arrived about 10 mins before our actual time slot, (12:30) and were directed to the line. About 5 mins moving through then 1st stop at the health checks to show vaccination cards and test results as well as boarding passes and passports. Then on to security and up to final check-in. Again plenty of agents so no waiting at all. Just showing cruise docs again, and then directly onto the ship with no waiting in the lounge for a group number to be called. It is quite a good walk through several sloping ramps, and people with weight and mobility issues seemed to have some difficulty here.

Once on the ship, you first go directly to your muster station where the lifejacket demo is shown to about 10-12 people at a time as you arrive. . No waiting in a huge group all at the same time as before. This is much better now. Then you watch a short video in your cabin and it is done!

We were told cabins would be available at 1:30, so just time for a quick drink at one of the LIdo deck bars, and then about 1:15 the waiters told us that the cabins were ready. Luggage was already there when we found our cabin. We immediately checked all of of the plumbing which was in good working order. We had a balcony cabin on deck 8 although we never actually used the balcony. The cabin steward was very efficient as usual and kept the cabin and bathroom in excellent condition and well stocked with clean towels. We chose service in the morning after 10 am which worked very well.

Food was good overall. Service in the MDR was excellent. Tables are requested with the HUB app and usually assigned within 5-10 minutes. There does seem to be fewer choices than before for dinner in the MDR. We ate at Cucina one night which was excellent, and at the Steakhouse. My meal was very good, but her steak was tough. She tried to work through it, but gave up. The Chef came out after we mentioned it to the server and offered another selection, but it was too late. The rest of the meal was fine. The Art at the Table dessert was unique and interesting but a bit of a gimmick.

Guy's Burgers was variable. Some were great as usual, others not quite so good. The lobster roll at the SeaFood Shack was very good but not really worth the nearly $15 (including tip and tax) upcharge. You get two hotdog buns filled with the lobster concoction and a few crinkly cut fries. Prepared to order with about 15 minute wait. Pizza was not bad, but nothing spectacular. Cooked on request but we just happened to get there as some were ready, so no waiting.

We had breakfast at the buffet once, which had the usual offerings and variety, and in the Blush dining room twice. Again, fairly standard service, selection and quality.

The entertainment has definitely come down a notch or two. The main theatre shows had just four men and four women, singing and dancing to recorded music from  Motown, Movies and Piano men songs (Elton John, Jerry Lee Lewis, Barry Manilow etc). Entertainment in the other venues was mainly a solo singer with guitar, and a violin trio in the Atrium. In the Ocean Plaza there used to be a good band that played a variety of dance music and many people would be dancing, but this time it was a 2-man latin/salsa band and only one or two couples danced a few times. Not many people stayed there in contrast to previous cruises. The piano bar singer was okay and this venue was usually full. The most popular events were the comedy shows which quickly filled up. People were standing in line for almost an hour before it started to be sure to get in. We didn't bother with it. We also didn't go to the nightclub so can't comment on that. The main casino was usually quite full but not as smokey as it used to be as there are some smoking restrictions. However there is now a non-smoking smaller casino annex on the 4th deck which was nice and had many players.

There also seemed to be fewer daily activities consisting mostly of various trivia games, sometimes for hours on end with a variety of general and specialist topics and a few arts & crafts and dance classes. The trivia sometimes got a bit heated with guests arguing with the host about the answers. Many sessions were won by the same person who took home several SOAS. A psychologist could write a very interesting article about the dynamics of these games! There were a few bingo sessions and the new Deal or No Deal game that we didn't attend as it conflicted with our mealtime. There were the usual contests on the Lido deck and being Halloween week there was a costume contest with some really amazing costumes.

There were movies on the big screen and on the room TVs. Baseball fans were pleased that the World Series games were shown on the TVs in the Casino bar and Red Frog pub with the sound on! There were also some college football and European club soccer games being shown.

Disembarkation was the quickest ever. We had a leisurely breakfast in the Blush DR as we were in the last group but we had barely finished when our number was called and we were off by 9:30. No lines at immigration, just the facial recognition system which was quick. We were back to the parking lot and in the car by 10 am. Overall this is a terrific improvement but no doubt helped by the lower guest numbers on this cruise that we heard was about 50-60% capacity.

Overall it was nice to get away and be back on board. Just about everyone wore masks when it was required, in the inside locations. There were crew members at the entrances to the buffet who reminded people to put their masks on and provided one if they had forgot theirs.  Thankfully there were no tantrums and outbursts about mask wearing. Masks were not required when out on the decks. All crew wore masks 100% of the time, inside or outside.

The cruise was enjoyable and certainly for the prices paid there can be no complaints. Maybe they will be able to get back to normal programming once the ships are filling up. This wasn't our best cruise ever but much better than no cruise and we were happy that we could go.

All the games were shown live on the Breeze last week on TVs in the casino and in the Red Frog pub, with the sound on! It was the ESPN network feed.

19 hours ago, 2Shoes2Go said:

Mobile text alert came in on my phone that Vista “ is encountering adverse weather on return to Galveston. As a result, our arrival will be later than scheduled. Please delay your Arrival Appointment by 3 hrs.” All onboard by 6 pm. No itinerary changes. Makes tomorrow a bit challenging for those currently on board and guests in hotels here. Oh, well! 
Probably Breeze, too?

Breeze was in on time today. No weather delays coming out of Progresso. Actually off the ship by 9:30 on the last call (with no self luggage).  Earliest ever. No lines at immigration/customs, just a facial i.d and walk through almost without stopping. On shuttle and back to parking lot by 10 am. Amazing!