jesskuhmarie

Well I finally did it after weeks of considering it, bought 200 shares today (100 @ $8 and 100 @ 8.30). I regretted not buying it when it got down to $8 last week or whenever that was. Was only planning to buy the 100 shares as a long term investment and for the OBC perk, but I'm hoping it will jump back up to $15-$16 rather quickly again so I can sell off 100 and make my money back and still have my 100 shares for the long-term haha.

We will see how it goes. I'm a bit nervous since most of the experts seem to be saying it's too risky to buy right now, but I was seriously considering buying it when it got down to $20 so I couldn't pass it up after it dipped this low a second time haha.

1 minute ago, pzsdd6 said:

I never said that they would not refund it, I said they were delaying it! 90 days and more is not a reasonable timeframe for a refund. Additionally, I never said anything about Carnival going bankrupt. The cruise industry as a whole is to big of a business to go under. The cruise industry summer travel is shot! Period!

First, it is the highest price time to cruise, the US economy has tanked, the consumers don’t have jobs or money to cruise, that’s a luxury. Sure, there will always be those that can afford to go, but way fewer. After the summer you have hurricane season which always has the lowest prices, and even those are going up already.

Ask yourself this, why can I get thru to book a cruise without much trouble, but to get help with one or to cancel one, you have to wait on hold for hours and even days. Why can the process a payment instantly, but take 90 days to issue a refund.

 

Well someone on this thread plainly said that they were never going to issue the refunds, and your posts certainly hinted at. I didn't say you said anything about Carnival going bankrupt? I made a comment on that being the only scenario that would effect the refunds ..

Cruise prices currently are WAY down from what they were a month ago for later this year, next year, all of them that I have looked at. Again, if the customer waits until the industry is back up and running to use the FCC, that's a bad decision. Prices will go back up, but they are currently down so there's no logical reason to choose FCC but not book at these low prices.

The same people who help you book cruises are the same ones who cancel them? So I'm not sure how you're able to get through to book a cruise but not to cancel one. I had no problem getting through on Monday after a 30 minute wait and both cancelled and rebooked on the same call. That's how most people are doing it, not two separate calls. Or you can even do it yourself online. 

I don't have time to explain basic concepts of how refunds and payments work in general, but they are very much different processes. Clearly Carnival doesn't care who's paying or how they are paying when they take a payment. Refunds are a much more meticulous, manual process when there are multiple people on a reservation and payments from multiple sources (for my cruise alone I paid on 3 separate Carnival gift cards and 3 separate credit cards). Add to a manual process hundreds of thousands of refunds to be processed when the Company has been equipped to process a fraction of that each day, it's just common sense that it will take time.

2 hours ago, rudoja00 said:

Reading all of this makes some of you feel good?  It's pretty obvious CCL was counting on future revenues to pay the refunds for the first round of cancellations.  The 2nd month of cancelled bookings plus being justifiably left out of the stimulus plan is why we are being told 90 days.  They simply do not have the cash on hand and are hoping for some miracle financing in the very near future.

 

We ain't getting our refunds folks.  Best bet will be a message down the road that converted refunds to FCC.

This is a huge reach. From what I've read Carnival has $12 Billion of liquidity currently, they have no lack of funds to issues these refunds. The delay is clearly due to the unprecedented number of refunds they are having to process at once. It takes time. I have no doubt Carnival will have some struggles coming out of this whole shutdown, but to make inflammatory claims like this is just irresponsible. 

While I don't think it will be the case, I've definitely had the thought of what if Carnival doesn't make it out of this and now they are holding onto over $2-3k of my money that I may never get back if they go bankrupt. Unfortunately for me, I paid primarily with Carnival gift cards so I went ahead and used the FCC to rebook another cruise for next year since I wouldn't be getting my actual money back anyways, just gift cards. If I hadn't paid most of it on gift cards though, I probably would have seriously considered getting the actual refund and waiting to rebook once things are at least back up and running again.

Wouldn't your FCC just be what you paid? It shouldn't matter what is cruise price vs. OBC, what you paid it what you paid and that is what your FCC or refund will be.

I'm assuming my cruise is going to be announced as canceled today (5/9/20), so thinking ahead to and have a few questions if anyone has experienced this and can help:

1. Is carnival able to give a breakdown on how money will come back to us? For example, I've paid for a drink package, 2 excursions, a funshop purchase, and prepaid gratuities. Some I paid with giftcards but I have no idea which ones/how much. It's going to be a pain to figure out how the money is coming back to me if they can't break it down for me.
2. Has anyone used their FCC credit to book two different cruises? Based on the current prices and what I currently have in this one, it is way more than I need to rebook just one so I was hoping to be able to split it between two but I read somewhere that in the past that wasn't allowed. If that's not allowed, where does the extra credit go, just more on board credit?
3. If I end up with that much OBC (would be over $1,000 if I get the $600 plus any excess over what the new cruise will cost), can I buy a drink package with it? I assume I can only do that if I wait to purchase it when I get on the boat which sucks since the price will be higher but want to make sure I can at least do that because otherwise I have no idea how I will use that amount of OBC.
4. Can the FCC be applied to a cruise that's already booked? I'm thinking of putting a deposit down on one before others start rebooking just so I can save my room.
5. If I previously used a casino rate and will most likely rebook under a casino rate does anyone know what number I need to call?

Thanks everyone!

Following! We are doing this itinerary 5/9/2020 ... sooo far away.

5 minutes ago, Davey Wavey said:

If you end up with different rooms and you don't have priority boarding, you can expect your room will NOT be ready early. The steward for your second room won't have your room on the list for priority, so can't be expected to get it ready early. So, FTTF would have your room early. IF you get a room near your first room and have the same steward, it is possible they could do it for you but you'd have to ask.

  

I will add that you can check with your VIP Planner and ask if they have a reduced deposit available for the second leg so you can secure the same room, although those normally have non-refundable deposits should you end up not taking it.

Thanks for the response, since it says they move your luggage for you to your new room on Carnival's website when do they actually do that? I'm just confused how we could be out of the first room in time and where they will be taking my luggage if the second room isn't ready yet. I guess the room being ready really isn't a big deal as long as they are handling my luggage and I'm not having to carry it around the ship.

We are looking at possibly booking a back to back in may 2020. We are booking only one of the two cruises now but are hoping we will end up being able to book the other one. Since we're not booking them at the same time, I assume we will end up with different rooms. My question is, will our room on the second cruise be ready early? I've read that they move the luggage for you to your new room, but just curious how that works if rooms aren't typically ready until 1pm or so. Would there be any benefit in getting FTTF in that situation or will the room be ready early anyways since we're doing a B2B?

Folllowing. I am on the Conquest on May 5th. I'm glad I found this thread because I also have FTTF and I picked a 4:00-4:30 boarding time but it would be amazing to be able to board earlier. I guess I will call too and see what they tell me for Conquest.

Anyone?

Has anyone been on the Bob Marley Bus Adventure?

I would love to hear anyone's opinions on the tour. My biggest question is how bad is the ride. I have read a few reviews that talk about how it made them have motion sickness and that's what I'm most concerned about.

Thanks!

Anyone have the reward take longer than a day to post after they paid? I made a payment on my upcoming cruise 3-4 days ago, immediately received the e-mail that I had used the AMEX offer, but still no credit. I'm getting worried now since others said it credited the next day.

I haven't done a B2B yet, but am considering doing one next May. I have a 6 day cruise booked and am considering adding on a 5 day cruise after. However, in the case of the 4day and 3day I would definitely just stick with the 7day cruise unless there was something specific that made the 4day/3day better like a specific port or certain room you are wanting to try that you can't get on the 7day. I agree that the day getting on/off would be wasted in that case. I feel like most people who do B2B's are doing them because they want to cruise for more than 7 days which is hard to find in one cruise.

I didn’t think you read it, because I didn’t see that you actually posted any questions on that board. There are people on that forum that have sailed on Carnival that would be more than willing to help. What you will get here is lots of possibly old or inaccurate info. Rather than up to date things on the main board.

I bet if you ask this same question on that board you will get lots of information. Because there are way more people over there that have cruise on Carnival than people here that have cruises BPCL.

 

Plus that might help future cruisers that have the same query.

 

Hope you have a great cruise if you decide to sail with them

I guess I know that as someone who cruised on NCL once, I haven't went to that board in a few years, but check the Carnival board fairly regularly. If someone were to post asking for a comparison between the two, they would only get my answer if they posted here. I assume there are way more "Carnival cruisers" that have tried a Bahamas Paradise Cruise than the other way around. I was specifically looking for the opinion of people who typically cruise Carnival.

Did you see this review?

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2639290

 

Or this one

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2641955

 

Sent from my LM-G710 using Forums mobile app

I did read both reviews yesterday, neither compare the cruise to Carnival. I'm used to reading 25+ reviews for a ship and knowing much more about a cruise line before I book a cruise. I read nearly every thread on the first page and a half of the board, clearly that's not much information compared to other boards. I'm confused why people are thinking I didn't already read that board when I referenced it in my post and how I hadn't found much information there. Am I not allowed to ask the opinions of people who have been on both cruise lines to get some comparisons to the only cruise line I'm used to?

Since there is a forum for them here, right above this board, I am surprised you haven't been able to find anything about them. EM

As I said in the original post, I haven't been able to get MUCH info from the specific cruise line forum here, right above this board. Page two goes back almost an entire year, and this specific ship just started sailing a few months ago. I was also looking for some comparisons from people who had sailed both, hence the title of the thread.

We sail mostly Carnival and did one of these cruises as a quick get away in-between. In general it was not bad. The embarkation process is a little strange but doable. Don't forget to set your dinner reservations at stands before you get on the ship. Also, if you drink, but the coupon books on board. the drinks are expensive if you don't. Food was about the same. Show was terrible. Like a middle school dance recital.

 

Ship is very open for a small ship. Very grand looking. Rooms are about the same or larger than Carnival.

Thanks for the info! So before embarking you have to make dinner reservations you can't just walk in the main dining room or make reservations on the ship?

I have sailed on Carnival predominantly as well as a couple other ships. I have sailed on the Grand Bahama cruise line 3 times and I have enjoyed each time I ha e cruised. It's a nice getaway which breaks up my year between cruises on a major line. It has it's good parts and it's bad parts but all.in all for what you pay, you get a good cruise. I normally buy a groupon for the cruise when it comes up and then book directly with the cruise line. I have never had to deal with any timeshare issues. All in all for a quick 2 day getaway, I give it a thumbs up.

 

Sent from my SM-G950U using Forums mobile app

That's exactly what I'm looking at it as, a way to break up the year between my two bigger cruises haha.

I am looking at taking a 2 night cruise on Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line (on the Grand Classica). I had never even heard of this cruise line until I came across it the other day. I have been trying to find a short cruise to fit in a trip I'm already taking to FL in November for a wedding but haven't been able to find one with Carnival (or NCL or Royal) that fits my timeline and is in my budget. Then I came across this 2 day cruise that will probably end up saving me money over staying on land and fits perfectly within my already booked flights and the wedding I am attending.

I'm pretty much ready to book at this point but just wanted to see if anyone who typically cruises Carnival has tried this cruise line and how different it was or if there is anything I need to be aware of. There didn't seem to be much info on the boards for the cruise line specifically.

I cruised on the Elation pre it's recent upgrade and am assuming it would be similar to that but was hoping to get some thoughts from people who have actually cruised both.

My first cruise was on NCL and every one since has been on Carnival. The two biggest differences that I noticed were the food and entertainment.

On NCL we found that all of the food on Lido was either some exotic foreign dish we had never heard of or hot dogs and french fries. There was no in between, they seemed to think Americans only ate hot dogs and french fries. Our food in the main dining room on NCL was okay but we tend to prefer a quick dinner most nights. On Carnival I don't find the food to be amazing (except Guy's burgers yumm), but I've never had a problem finding something to eat on Lido and the food in the dining room when we do go has always been great.

Entertainment wise I felt like there is a lot more to do on Carnival. WAY more comedy shows (at least two PG and two R shows almost every night) which is one of our favorite things.

What kind of bad smell ? Sewage? Chemical?

What I smelled definitely seemed like a sewage smell.

I had 2315 on the magic in May 2017, there was a horrible smell on the balcony most days that occasionally even made the room and hallway outside of the room smell. We ended up getting OBC because of the smell (I think it was $300) so it basically made it where we paid what we would have for an oceanview which I was okay with since we got to use the balcony a few times.

We also had one night where the AC completely stopped working in that room and would not cut on at all. I found that to be much more annoying than the smell even because it was around midnight when I was trying to go to sleep and I cannot sleep when I am hot. It started working again a few hours later thank god.

I was on Vista in May .. Comedy club was the night club. There were no comedy shows after 11 in the comedy club, the few nights there were shows that late they had them in the big theater and called it late night comedy. If you like hip hop and latin music it was pretty fun .. it was definitely packed most nights.

ETA: I have found that the bigger the boat the nightclub is definitely more active. When I was on Elation the nightclub was always pretty empty. But on Vista and Magic they were always packed. Although I guess that could have been the time of year since I was on Elation in November and the others in May.

I was on the Vista in May and had the $249 package just after they discontinued it. Assuming they haven't changed the process (because it was early on while they were still trying to figure out how to handle it I think) I had to take the card that was in my room to pixels the first day to "register" for it. Then on the last sea day I was told to go to pixels prior to 1pm if I didn't want to wait in line for hours. I went around 12 and they had all my prints ready. I had been deleting ones I didn't like from the app that morning and thought when they told me to come it would be to order the prints, but they just had every picture connected to my room already printed along with the USB. They said any taken the last sea day wouldn't be printed, but I could have brought the USB back and had them added to it.

 

I can't imagine walking all the way down the beach in hot, sunny, weather to Jack's Shack but some people do it...same beach, same water.

Jack's Shack is really not that far, and is great if you don't like people crowded all around you plus has the cutest dog to play with, Topher! Unless you're significantly older or have some type of injury or disability, its at most a 10 minute leisurely walk (especially if you walk close to the water where the sand is packed down). I'm pretty overweight, and walking to Jack's Shack is nothing. It's probably like 1/4 mile, less distance then I would normally walk down any beach to explore.