mz-s

Magic - I posted a brief review the other day. It is not an exaggeration to say I would have had a better week of food if I stayed home and ate at Golden Corral.

The offer will state DOU for you, or DOU for you and your companion. Neither of those extend to third or fourth guests in the cabin. The terms of the offer says that. Adding in a note won't change that.

Carnival desperately needs to revert all their food cutbacks because the food on my most recent cruise (which ended yesterday) was absolutely disgusting.

Yes still $5 for a third entree Still just "steak and eggs"

Liquid Death is a new popular brand of canned water.

I think if Carnival reversed all their food cutbacks they'd be in good shape. Fundamentally the rest of the gripes are fairly minor, but on a cruise food is paramount because it's not like you can just drive downtown for take out. Get the food back to the pre-COVID standard tomorrow and the rest can be worked on as time goes on.

I just laughed when the crew member tried to shake that third slice off the tongs several times before relenting. I felt like I had gotten away with something that day.

More thoughts as I unpack and think of it. - The standard of service on Carnival used to be that for example on Lido, if you asked a crew member for something they would go get it for you. Or at least walk you over to it. Now they just point and mumble. If you ask for decent food, they staple a map to the McDonald's on Bay Street in Nassau to your Effy Shopping Guide. - I only went to Comedy once, it was very full and the comedian was not particularly good. But small sample size. -The cruise director and fun squad were nothing special. I remain flummoxed as to why these positions continue to exist on the modern cut-rate Carnival experience. Are they required by international treaty or something? -Bar service in the casinos was good. The nonsmoking casino annex was an excellent innovation. -Nobody cares if you smoke whatever you want, wherever you want on the ship as long as you don't smoke in the nonsmoking casino annex. That seems to be the only place where you absolutely will be told not to smoke. -The standard on Carnival used to be that crew in guest areas all spoke English and never spoke any other language in guest areas. That is no longer the case. I heard a lot of other language chatter, and several crew who interacted directly with guests had a very poor command of the English language. It seems that Carnival is churning through their crew too quickly to have time to teach them English anymore. -I went to the show Flick as I had not seen it before. One or two of the singers were good. The rest were not. It was basically the performers dancing and singing songs from the movies in front of a screen saver. I didn't feel like any of the costumes or dances went with the performance. Except Willy Wonka - but then they switched to more songs so you had Willy Wonka singing a totally unrelated song. And there was the "Flick" character who seriously looked like a lost cruiser who wandered onstage. Seriously bizarre. The star of the show was trying to figure out how they aimed the fans to keep the scarf blowing around. I would love to hear from others who were on this cruise, what are your thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with the points I raised.

Exactly. And the crew are all so superlative.

Book your Disney cruise as early as possible. The only deals you'll find are last minute deals once you get 120 days out or less, assuming the cruise isn't sold out by then.

To put it simply, all notifications on iPhones are delivered the same way. So if Carnival wants the HUB app to be able to get notifications they have to allow all notifications.

We parked at Asphalt Lots. This is a company in nearby Chesapeake VA that rents out a local community college’s parking deck. We arrived around 11:00 AM. We had to wait maybe 15-20 minutes for a shuttle bus. They mostly use 15-passenger vans with the 2 back seats removed to accommodate luggage – so each bus can accommodate at most 7 passengers. They have enough shuttles it seems. Considering Asphalt Lots is half the price of parking at the terminal recommended lot, the savings is worth it. I do not know how they handle mobility challenges so that is something to check on if you have someone in your party in a wheelchair etc. We were at the terminal and walked through embarkation without stopping at all – granted we are platinum but from what I could see I didn’t see much of any lines for the general queue either. I don’t think they offer FTTF for Norfolk sailings at this time so perhaps that is part of it. I didn’t actually time it but I am estimating that we were dropping off our carry-on in our cabin by 12, so from arriving at the Asphalt Lots parking lot to our cabin within an hour is pretty incredible in my book. Embarkation gets an A+ in my book. I am excited about the future for this port. Frankly I’d probably still rather be cruising out of Charleston, but we can only play with the cards we’re dealt. Speaking of cards - After sail away, it took over 2 hours for the casino to open. I felt that was rather long considering Norfolk is right at the ocean, unlike Baltimore for example. In any event, it did open obviously. When we dropped off our carry-ons I noticed our cabin smelled strongly of weed and there was a burn spot in the shower where they tamped out their roach. Obviously the cruisers in my cabin before didn’t receive the 5th strongly worded letter from Christine Duffy and they must be illiterate because they didn’t read the tacky sticker on the wall in the cabin saying it was a $500 fine. I have no idea if they were fined or not. The smell quickly dissipated once we got to sea and the ventilation systems were working. Our cabin steward was attentive and obviously overworked. It’s a shame how Carnival has cut crew and the level of service we get, yet increased our suggested gratuities several times over the past year or so. On the ship we experienced consistently long lines for food at the buffets, the pools hot tubs and lounge areas were often crowded. Yes, the days of ships sailing at reduced capacity are long gone. What was disappointing is they would often close half or more of the buffet stations during peak times, and the food stations that were open were not appropriately staffed for the crowd. The lines for pizza, Guy’s, etc., were often 15-20 deep and complaints about the lines were a common theme for the duration of the cruise. They still haven't changed the menu at Guy's that advertises fresh-cut fries when they just dump a bag of Ore Ida into the deep fryer. Far from the biggest disappointment food-wise, however. Absolutely nothing we ate on this cruise wowed us in any way, shape, or form. As a matter of fact I am fully convinced I would have eaten better food if I had stayed home and eaten at Golden Corral this past week. The breakfast buffet was positively disgusting every morning – I usually ate two boiled eggs. The eggs were so far beyond boiled it was like eating a cue ball. On days the veil was lifted and the inner sanctum was opened and we could actually be trusted with bacon, I savored my two slices with every fiber of my being. One day a third slice stuck to the tongs and the crew member was unable to free it – so he relented and let me have it. I have never been so happy. He scowled in defeat. On Chocolate Extravaganza day, the line for cake was so long you would have thought Christine Duffy herself was at the end of it. No, just some Duncan-Heinz chocolate cake with flavorless icing. I thought I had COVID at first and had lost my sense of taste. But in reality they seem to just smear pure Crisco on their cakes. Even my previous favorite the Funfetti Cheesecake was nasty. This was an 8 day cruise so on the second elegant night we got treated to lobster. The lobster was so horribly overcooked they needn’t have bothered. Is this Carnival’s new strategy – to offer food that is so bad, people are forced to pay for the upcharge restaurants? I cannot comment on how good they are, I refuse to pay for them. They tried to make me pay $5 for a third entree when I refused to eat my Lobster. When the waiter saw how bad the lobster was he agreed to give me something else. In the past, the Maitre'D would have visted the table with a personal apology. But in today's Carnival, the level of service has been watered down to such an extent that is no longer expected. When I asked to speak to to the Maitre'D, the request fell on deaf ears - but the waiter assured me that he told the chef. There was not a square yard of carpet anywhere on the ship that appeared to be clean. It was all stained and worn. In fact soft goods all around the ship were very worn and tired looking. This is a fairly new ship but Carnival’s lack of upkeep is plainly evident. I was excited to sail on a newer ship than what I had sailed in the past, but I was disappointed. I did notice a few rolls of carpet in the elevator lobbies on port days, so it seems that they’re working on that problem slowly but surely. All in all, what seems to be a fairly bog-standard Carnival cruise just occurred. It’s time for me to move on, sadly. Carnival just isn’t for me anymore if this is their best product. Perhaps it's my problem - I know what Carnival is capable of. This absolutely was not that.

The ones I get always say they're only good for one booking. It's one brief sentence usually so easy to overlook.

It's in the terms of the offer - generally yes they're only good for one use.

Truly and they have their own brand of them as well, although I am thinking that theirs are vodka seltzers. Theirs are somewhat floral tasting - not a huge fan of them.

Nothing noted yet, it will be listed here once it is announced. https://help.goccl.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1529/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xNjkzNTE2MjYzL3NpZC9mVXV0Y0l3eVh3JTdFVW44b0xkUXN3aXIxJTdFUk9wODgyeEtyTFpERUJqZkxPak1aWDYzY0lraWpLUzZoaW5VMWNBYVUxMThpTWFVRWJLTDlLR1Exa3MzJTdFUFNiNkpYNVhhYXBHRnZqTVpZNkdsTG02NG1PeUI0Wk5xY2clMjElMjE%3D

Yes only included for cruises of 6 nights or more. They now serve lobster on the 2nd elegant night and only cruises of 6 nights or more have 2 elegant nights. As has been mentioned you can purchase a steakhouse selection upcharge entree on any night of any sailing if you want lobster. I don't know if the lobster you pay extra for will be any better than what you would get included on a longer cruise, however.

Same as all other ports. No live plants. Those that are getting married onboard have to bring silk flowers or use the Carnival provided boquet.

There is something seriously wrong with your AT&T Fiber if satellite is beating it. It's actually impossible for that to be true if the fiber connection is working properly. But we are trailing off topic of this thread - there's tons of places on the internet where folks can help you troubleshoot that.

I'm sure that Carnival is counting down the days until they drydock the Horizon and can put something in that space that will earn more money. Maybe another Casino expansion.

I continue to refer folks to my last sentence in post #2 of this thread.

Yes sometimes you can get a whole can but the fact remains that Bubbles is a by the glass program meaning don’t act surprised when they say no to giving you a can.

Yes, the days of getting the cancellation fees waived are gone.

I wonder if the plan for HMC is to expand the amenities so the island can accommodate Excel class vessels. That would mean a major renovation of nearly everything there.

If you need a case of water after embarkation day, just call Room Service.