mz-s

Have heard on here that most ships aren't allowing guests to call in breakfast orders the night before. You must call in when you want it, and they deliver it shortly. Since it's all pretty much pre-made, delivery is reasonably quick. YMMV.

The CEO can't lie to investors. That's a big no-no, like federal prison no-no. And it's true that Carnival isn't my first choice in cruises anymore. But I still cruise Carnival. I just don't blindly accept all their changes and choices or shrug off all their cutbacks as "well at least I'm on a cruise and not in the office". I work hard for my vacation dollars and want to get the most out of them I can. Sometimes that means spending a little more of them on higher quality cruises.

You can order paid room service from the app, but the free stuff you have to call in. Because obviously, they really don't want you ordering it.

It's a competitive advantage until you have the CEO announcing that we're too cheap and have to raise prices because you're unprofitable, but except for your absolute newest ships your product is stale, your ships are old and outmoded, and you have the reputation of being the Dollar General of the industry.

Yes I think besides COVID, the fact that there are few balconies and suites on Fantasy class ships is why they have all been sold off at or around their 30 year mark to this point. Few balconies and suites, and no opportunity to add specialty dining other than Chef's Table really makes the Fantasy class functionally obsolete. I think today it is more fuel per passenger than it is fuel per mile, that is one reason why the bigger ships are more economical for the lines. Celebration probably burns more fuel than Conquest, but it uses less fuel per passenger for a given distance so it evens out. And the larger ships can hold twice the guests but don't require twice the crew.

Is maintaining (not necessarily reinventing) their older ships more expensive than scrapping them and building all new ships though? It would seem that even though they are more expensive to maintain, it's cheaper to keep their old ships going as long as possible vs. scrapping them and ordering newbuilds.

They've really messed with the Guy's formula since the COVID restart. Different fries, different seasonings, different toppings, now different buns. They're still good - but they're not great anymore in my opinion.

I'd say the Conquest class needs Sunshining first. Spirit class will need it as well if they will be around longer than say the Fantasy class, but Spirit class is mostly used in markets like Jacksonville or Alaska where offering a newer/updated ship is less important. Whereas the Conquest class is really the bread-and-butter for Carnival right now. I love the Sunshine as well, although I wish they would have gone back and touched up the Lido buffet or Limelight lounge areas after it became apparent they were less than ideal.

But does sinking $200M into a 20 year old hull get them higher prices? All other things equal, does a Sunshine cruise sell for more than a Destiny cruise did? Obviously onboard spend is higher with the added specialty restaurants, new bar concepts, etc. Tough for us to compare on the outside looking in.

As of today, the continental breakfast is included in your cruise fare and there is no charge for delivery to your stateroom for these items. Thermos of coffee, danishes, cereals, juices, etc. There are some items available on the breakfast room service menu that have a charge - biscuit sandwiches for example. It's entirely possible that by the time you cruise this may have changed.

It will be tougher to compete with their competition's larger, better maintained, and newer ships. The only way Carnival can compete is on price, and the new CEO recently said they're too much of a value and has to raise prices. So I'm not sure what their new strategy is. Old, poorly maintained ships with poor amenities relative to the competition, for basically the same price? How is that a winning strategy.

No but that's not the point I was making. I was simply saying that your birth certificate being a photocopy isn't going to make a difference.

The computers in the internet cafe of ships so equipped can only be used to access the internet, there is no ability to launch other programs on them like Word etc. And of course you can only access the internet if you've purchased an internet plan.

It takes a lot of milkshakes or Pepsis to make a Cheers purchase make sense. It's really an alcohol package, and there's no emotion about it. It's purely math. Either the math makes sense or it doesn't. It's not as complicated as you're making it out to be.

In the event of an emergency overseas a birth certificate isn't going to do that much to help you no matter how official it is.

Since OP didn't specify, but posted in the Carnival forum - Carnival doesn't require a certified or sealed birth certificate. A photocopy or faxed copy is perfectly fine.

Carnival's terminals in Miami are right next to each other, it's really no further than walking from one end of the Sunrise to the other so it shouldn't be an issue.

Yeah I wouldn't be surprised if Mardi Gras and Celebration never see waters north of Florida except for the rare TA for drydock work.

I have never been on the Legend but on every ship I've been on, the thermostat in the room is just a throttle. The temperature of the air is set by the engineers, the thermostat in your room (if it works at all) just decides how much air is let into your room. That might be true for older dearly departed ships like Fantasy or Jubilee, but Legend cruises to Alaska - it has to have heat.

I get casino rates so I may not be the best person to ask, but every time I log in to Carnival's site Radiance cruises are among the cheapest available - often even cheaper than the Conquest booze cruises out of Miami.

They're substantially the same ship

Sunshine is about as far from the Spirit class as you can get.

The way I read that, there is only room for 3300 in the life boats (and that's assuming 150 King-size Americans can actually fit in them!). Would you want to trust a dinghy with your life in the unlikely event of an abandon ship order?

You're describing what a lot of land-based venues do as I'm sure you are aware. Thus far it doesn't seem like the cruise lines are so interested in loyalty. Likely because there is still so much growth in the industry. Once the market is more saturated and it mostly becomes a game of lines poaching customers from each other (as MSC and Virgin are trying to do), we'll see more of this type of thing.

I don't know - either the capacity figure on GoCCL is wrong or Heald posted wrong figures. Either way, the folks on Radiance right now are seeing what it's like to be on a very full cruise ship!