Mike45LC

Traditionally, 2nd and 6th nights on a 7 day cruise.

It cannot be embarkation evening, because passengers are still unpacking, some are still waiting for luggage.  Too much stress.  And photos of the fancy dressed and made-up ladies generate a lot of income, so the ship wants everyone to have the opportunity to get all gussied up!  Second night is better.

It can't be the last night, because passengers are packing and putting their luggage out into the hallways for pick up.  Many passengers wear their disembarkation clothes to the last dinner.  So that is not formal/elegant!  The next to last night is best.

I hope you get to make your ports. 

This kind of suspense is not for me!  I personally get miffed if the seas are a little rough preventing us from tendering ashore at Cabo San Lucas!

I've been on a few Elite crises.  As already noted, the casino is very crowded on Elite cruises.  Players are circulating like sharks, waiting for one of "their" slots to open up, racing for the now available seats.  Casino staff is overwhelmed, paying out handpays, emptying overfilled machines.

Every Elite casino guest is upgraded to Platinum for the cruise, so a huge number of guests have priority tender, embarkation and debarkation [unless that perk is suspended].  And free laundry.  Some of the "platinum for the cruise" Elites think that their Elite/Platinum status entitles them to all sorts of privileges.  

Unless I am one of the Elite, I prefer non-Elite cruises.

I have not found Perrier or Pelligrino onboard a Carnival ship.  They have San Benedetto (?) instead.  It was included in the Drinks On Us program.

Karma is correct.  If you are posting cash, the minimum is $200.  I suspect that this is per person, but I've never done it.  A credit card is much easier, if available.

The purser can demand additional cash during the cruise, if/when your cash deposit gets depleted.  Gratuities, drinks, internet, shore excursions, photos, store purchases, they all build up pretty quickly and the $200 cash deposit can become exhausted and might need to be replenished.  I am not sure what happens if the passenger declines to replenish the cash deposit, but I doubt it would be pretty!

The doors are not magnetic, but they are ferromagnetic.  That means that a magnet will stick to them.

My wife and I shared one premium WiFi Plan.  I checked my email every day between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m., which did not disturb her usage (or her sleep), and the other 22 hours were hers.  She was surprised that she had to log back in every morning, because I never told her that I was bumping her off.

This thread is two years old.

In 2024, on both the Panorama and the Venezia, Chat worked well for us, except for the lack of audible alerts.

The earliest boarding slot for my Venezia cruise was also 10 - 10:30. However, that slot was filled by the priority passengers who got to make their boarding "reservations" two days before the general public.

The only time I've thought about the latest boarding time was when I had car trouble driving to the ship and worried that I might miss final call (which turned out to be 2:30 for a 4:00 p.m. sailing time).  I normally want to eat lunch on the ship and start to get into "vacation mode"  so an 11:30 to noon boarding slot is perfect for me.

4 hours ago, 2wheelin said:

Perception of wait time vs reality would be a very interesting study. Although I think most of us know what the outcome would be. 

Back when smoking was not the deadliest sin, I found that lighting a cigarette would cause an elevator to immediately open its doors.

I agree with the complaint that cocktail servers are hard to find.  Especially at the craps table. 

I think that the servers do not get any income from "Drinks on Us" customers because the drinks are comp'ed, so it is important to tip the servers directly.  

I agree with John, a $5 bill when the first few drinks are delivered will help the cocktail servers find you.  Just like in Vegas!

I don't travel with a walker or wheelchair, and I never noticed a "wheelchair button."  but I did notice a LOT of elevators crowded with wheelchairs and scooters and walkers so badly that there was no room for abled passengers.  

And it is not fast to tell the "smart" elevator that you are a party of 4.  By the time you finish that, your elevator has come and gone.

The Princess Medallion has a tracking feature, but I don' know of any tracking capability on Carnival.  Good luck!

Too much fuss over this!

We did "Digitial Disbarkation" in Long Beach a couple of weeks ago.  It is NOTHING.

We do not self-abuse.  (I know that is not what Carnival calls it, when a passenger wants to struggle with his/her own baggage -- what a way to end a vacation!)  We have our luggage delivered pierside and then have a porter take the baggage to wherever I am going to load it into my transportation.

Instead of going to a stand filled with colored and numbered luggage tags, and taking whichever color/number you want, we did it on the Hub.  Then, someone (cabin steward, probably) left the appropriate baggage tags outside our door.  So instead of grabbing the tags myself, the tags were seamlessly left by my door.

No biggie.  Nothing to get excited about.  

Actually, there were tags left three different times, different numbers each time.  I used the lowest number, and when I was ready to leave, I simply said "suite priority" and was waved through.  I did not have a plane to catch, so I took my own sweet time.

I have always been able to select my cabin when I make the reservation, so Krackpot's suggestion to have the map handy is a good one!

Yes, the $200 deposit becomes a (unrestricted) On Board Credit on Day 1 of the cruise.  I don't know if your offer includes a beverage package ("Drinks on Us" or "Drinks On Us Everywhere"), but that OBC is good to be used against your gratuities, beverages, specialty restaurants, photos,  shore excursions, other purchases.  And also you can use it for gaming charges. 

For me, it always gets used up, and reduces my credit card charge by that $200.  I've never thought about whether it is refundable, because it is always exhausted.  

1 hour ago, pandncruisers said:

How long did it take you to get to the offsite parking and back to the terminal after you dropped your luggage and passengers?  What time was your actual Check in time?  Once you got in your timed check in line how long did it take you to get through the check-in process?  We are thinking of  doing a hotel with parking and shuttle but not sure yet.  thx

Timeline:

9:45 a.m., bottleneck outside Queen Mary/Carnival

10:45, attendant handed me horrible map of off-site parking.  GPS to the rescue.

11:00, dropped off wife and luggage at on-site garage

11:20, I am parked at off-site parking, taking bus back to the pier

11:40, checked in, waiting inside very crowded Dome [priority check in, and we had an 11:00 time slot]

12:30, boarding.  Cabin was ready for us already.

1:00, looking for seats in Lido buffet.

The "Chat" feature needs to have a notification/alert added to it.  That is my only complaint about Chat.  $5 per person for the entire cruise is reasonable.

I was in an Ocean Suite. 

Cabin steward was happy to take them away for me.

On 5/16/2024 at 10:26 AM, Are.we.there.yet? said:

Thank you so much for your review. 

 

We have experienced the bottleneck entering the port for our Panorama sailings, as well.  We usually arrive shortly after 10:00 AM and it can take up to an hour.  Could you please share what time you had arrived? 

 

I hit the bottleneck at 9:45 [Sat, April 27].  It took almost an hour to get to where the attendant handed me a horrible map showing where to go for off-site parking.  I still had to crop off the luggage and my wife at the on-site parking structure.

Once we were waiting inside the Dome, the lounge was completely full.  There were a large number of seats roped off outside the lounge where we waited.  Fortunately, I was restless and kept wandering around, so that I was able to join the line to board as soon as they started allowing us to do so.  The announcements were not good.

On 4/3/2024 at 6:23 PM, RDJ said:

They made us order dessert at the same time as our main meal. On other lines we are used to them asking AFTER we’ve eaten dinner.

This seems to be a Carnival thing.  This was the practice I encountered on two different Carnival cruises this year.  

I did not have to request robes, my cabin came with two robes [wasting my closet space].

1 hour ago, abby1257 said:

…our return flight to Toronto doesn’t leave until 2:00..hopefully will be ok

I think 2:00 should be good.  We joined the throng of disembarking passengers on the ship (priority disembarkation) at 9:00 a.m., we were in our limo by 9:30, and we were at JFK at 10:40 a.m.   Your trip to LGA should be comparable.  

We were too early to check in for our flight -- we were not allowed to proceed into the secured area (beyond the TSA checkpoint) and had to sit in the public area for a few hours.

Nice report, McKurren!  

For getting to the off-site parking lot after debarkation, we were in the line that the Carnival representative told us to wait in.  She abandoned us there, and never came back to tell us that she'd sent us to the wrong line!

Maybe K did not tell you, but the off-site parking structure only offered "Compact" parking spaces.  It was a nightmare putting my large car into a Compact space and trying to squeeze out of the car!

Neither Venezia nor Panorama have bars in the casino.  The Heros Tribute bar  is conveniently located.

1.  I burned my feet on the deck of Serenity in the Caribbean in March.  So I agree that some kind of footwear is needed.

2.   The slide attendant made me take off and carry my water sandals while riding the water slide.  I did not understand this, the water sandals were firmly affixed to my feet.