BlazinSunsets

You may get more "me time" than you expect! Our kids are not extroverts by any means and they had no trouble finding a group of kids they wanted to hang out with.

This is so true. Took my 10 year old daughter recently and thought oh I hope she won't be bored. She cried when we left the boat because she didn't want to leave her friends. We let her do her own thing as long as she messaged where she was going to be, which was only ever the pool or the kids club because her group was her, an 11 year old and a 12 year old, not old enough to really get into mischief yet I guess. I was thrilled she found friends and that my wife and I got a very adult cruise because beforehand I was expecting to have to kinda entertain my daughter throughout the whole cruise.

I got off last week and was in G28. Movement and seasickness was pretty miniscule. I had lower decks on other ships that I felt worse than this one. Also nobody can fall off these balconies unless they are really trying to the rail goes up to my chest at 5'11.

I had heard someone say watch out because you hear people above you. I didn't hear a single stomp or any noise from my room, might have been the location of this specific room I really don't know.. Also the balcony door was fine and didn't whistle or anything. Balcony was pretty nice I loved it. The room in general was really great.

The elevator thing is unfortunate. Only one side of the elevators go up so you can't hit up on both sides and hop in whichever one gets there first. When you're on deck 8 hoping to go up and both elevators are going down it takes forever for them to get back up, then stopping at 9 (promenade) and 10 (lido) of course to let people out. I ended up walking up a lot by myself but wife was pregnant and so would wait with her if I was with her.

You get to bypass the Embark lines with a Suite! A couple bottles of water, and one free bag of laundry. It's really all about the extra space and Balcony. Enjoy your cruise!

This alone was worth it for me. Got to our port and heard a porter telling the guy in front of me that the wait from here was around 2 hours. Gave him our bags afterwards and headed to the priority line, nobody was waiting there. Headed to the little room with the seats to get our cards - we were only ones there, then got on the ship. Was fantastic. We also got priority disembarkation. We did the one where you put the bags out in the hall. Then in the morning waited in the theater and someone escorted us down as a group, held the elevator just for us and we were off pretty fast. I know fttf gives you the same but it didn't give me a balcony so suite was worth it.

It happens. Just went on a cruise with my wife who is pregnant. Beforehand she was experiencing very little to no morning sickness. Then we got on the cruise and it hit her hard. Morning sickness and exhaustion. She slept half of the day for one or two days while I grabbed her food or she ordered room service. I always hate seeing someone sick on vacation. Hope you get a do over next time and have a fantastic time.

But......it's the Cup! Yeah, we're just going to assume it won't be on and just go on and enjoy our vacation.

Offtopic a little but do you know I was looking for the second and third game on the cable guide the other night and couldn't find them. They were relegated to NBC Sports Network (which luckily I get). I was thinking are you serious, the most interesting Stanley Cup in a while and they can't even show them on NBC but throw them on a channel that is only seen by people who upgraded to more than basic cable. I'm not a season long hockey fan cause there's no team in my state but hockey fans sure do get the shaft.

I was on the Fascination a month ago. They were airing the Playoffs in Bogart's cafe and also in the aft of Lido. I assume they would have the finals in the same areas.

This is good to hear. I was worried with the fantasy class ships not having the big screen where I could watch the finals. I watched game 7 two years ago on a cruise on the big screen I think on the Glory, I'm a Lebron fan so it was fantastic and rather crowded, not a single place to sit if you didn't get there early.

There's a big difference between the two. The social one says you can go to the social sites and no other websites. The value one lets you browse the rest of the internet. All are slow although I've had the value one on last two cruises and I thought it was ok for what it was. You just need the social one if you are just intending on using Facebook though and expect a picture to take a few minutes to upload.

Sell it online. You can check the gift card sites, they usually give you 80-90% on your balance. If you bought them with the aarp or kroger/ebay sales then you come out pretty even. If not then you take a lil loss unfortunately.

More than likely any gift you give them they will think, "Wish they just gave me the cash instead". That being said, I love candy so I would enjoy getting a candy bar or bag of whatever candy if I was working as a room steward. Just don't overdo it. One bag of something is ok, buying multiple candy bars and some boxes of this or that, then I would be thinking my initial thought. Wish they just gave me the $10 this cost.

How many people even drink 15 drinks total (of any kind) in a given day? I have tea in the morning, a wine cooler with dinner 2-3 times a week, and bottled water the rest of the time. I would feel bloated and miserable if I was drinking milkshakes, sodas, etc. that frequently.

There are some people that are not lightweight drinkers. I was at 13 or 14 alcoholic drinks every night on a 5 day cruise, think I hit 15 one night. Plus I would order two beers if we were going down to the room (used mine and my wife's card as she wasn't getting anything) and would just put one in the fridge for later. So I definitely drank more than 15 drinks some nights. Plus I did energy drinks, coffee and vitamin waters. I don't ever feel bloated I just have to pee a lot.

I wouldn't recommend all the drinking to most people as they probably wouldn't feel very good the next day, but I have never had a hangover in my life so getting up and feeling good the next day isn't a problem for me.

If I were to notice an empty chair aka flipflop chair for 20 mins I would take their chair. If they came back mad I would tell them straight up that they have been gone for around a half hour and the chair is no longer theirs after that long. But I'm not a small guy so unless the dude was over 6 foot and was a bodybuilder I don't think anybody is gonna push their luck trying to take it back.

I also never sit by the pool and will go round the ship a few times looking for 2 chairs near each other for me and my wife, as I will drag them to a better spot if need be . Honestly I only ever had a problem not finding a chair one time out of 5 cruises and like 9-10 sea days.

I hate driving for long hours so if I have a long drive to the port than I don't really consider that vacation. I like flying so if I'm taking a flight I would consider the moment I get off work as my start. But I'm driving this time, It would be when I get to my first stop and check in to that hotel which is like 4 hours from the cruise terminal.

I don't think it's quite as simple as that. Carnival also wants to be careful about maintaining their reputation as a good value.

Renting a $300+ cabana has absolutely nothing do with their rep for good value. That's an extravagant extra expense that the majority of people cruising Carnival for their 'value' have ZERO interest in. IMO they can charge $1000 for the cabanas, won't ever affect me or my view of Carvnial as it's an unnecessary extra cost that I don't see the value in.

There was a group of 4 guys in the casino playing craps on the Valor drinking straight out of the wine/champagne bottles... couldn't believe it... no one ever said a word to them...

The casino wants them to be drunk. So I'm sure the casino employees aren't going to say anything unless they started causing a commotion or they got complaints from others. Wouldn't recommend traveling the ship drinking out of the wine bottles though, might get told to pour it in a glass anywhere except the casino.

Value and its fun. I LOVE the atmosphere of a Carnival ship. I enjoy the 'party-like' atmosphere on the lido deck with all the music and stuff like that.

I personally think it was a mistake. At that time Carnival was an innovator, the leader in the industry and well on their way to shedding their “party cruise” reputation. Pinnacle would have solidified their position at the top for years to come.

 

They got cold feet, RCI became the new innovators and Carnival continues to try to ward off the “Walmart of the Seas” distinction that continues to befall them.

 

Was it a good business decision? No one here really knows enough to say. But I do remember a ton of people (especially on this very forum) saying RCI was crazy for doing Oasis and Allure, they’d never be profitable and they’d fail miserably and well...

Carnival makes 1billion more in net income than RCI. They are doing well, so is RCI, There is nothing wrong with being 'Walmart of the Seas'. Walmart is putting everybody out of business and making triple what their competitors are. I think Carnival would gladly take 3x the income of the next cruise line no matter what reputation they have. They also only have that reputation with people who think a cruise is something elegant. It's a vacation on a ship, it stopped being anything elegant many years ago imo unless you sail on the higher end cruises.

Back to OP question though. Being an innovator is fine but their job is to make money and not put out the nicest or biggest ship. They decided against the ship for whatever financial reasons they came up with, so no I don't think they made a mistake cancelling it.

Too many chairs there. Granted it will take you a while to walk down the beach further but keep walking and there will be areas where there are not very many people and still tons of chairs.

I'm with you, I dunno why they close that early. I don't do the MDR as it isn't good enough to warrant me sitting there for an hour and a half to eat. On most cruises there have been multiple nights where I would gladly have eaten a guy's burger over anything they served on the lido buffet. I'm guessing it has to do with staff? or costs? Probably both.

The self pour kiosks are dispensing beer at $4 - $5 per glass, from what I have read here. You would need to drink a lot more than 8 - 9 beers to break even.

 

I would say this is an area that is not a cutback, but rather a way for Carnival to make more money by providing something that you think is a good value but instead ensures you spend a maximum amount on alcohol.

 

The reason there is no beer package is that it would cannibalize the revenue from Cheers. The next step is to keep raising a la carte prices so much that it becomes more and more economical to buy the Cheers package.

 

I'm not falling for it. It's enough to drive a guy to quit drinking!

Yea I haven't experienced the self serve ones yet so I didn't know their prices. You kinda just have to know that alcohol is where a cruise makes their money. They don't make it off the people that don't drink. So they can't give people a deal on alcohol or they'll start to lose money.

 

• Alcohol - biggest money pit ever. NCL is going to eat Carnival's lunch with this one. Of course, not everyone is a big drinker ... the Red Frog self pour kiosks are a step in the right direction, but why is there not a "Beer-only package?" I guarantee you is is not because of "the market"... market would love it but Carnival would rather sell you liquor at $60 a day than beer for less. Why? Because they can make more money... and if people willingly buy the only package, why would they offer a less expensive one? Solution - don't buy the package.
  

At like 8-9 beers you break even on cheers if you're not drinking that then I wouldn't get it. I don't know what you want carnival to do on that one. If they offered a beer package they 'might' bring down the price $10 a day but otherwise they're gonna lose money on it. They're never gonna offer a cheap package where they lose money just so you can drink your beer. If you don't drink 8+ then dont buy the package so if you want to drink 5 beers, just buy 5 beers.

Exactly!

 

I always silently snicker to myself when the person ahead of me grabs a cart at the store and automatically wipes it down with a disinfectant cloth. Then the moment they touch the first item in the store they get germs on their hands. Every item in the store has been touched by several people, lastly touched by the stocker who has germs on their hands.

 

I do not obsess over germs, I don’t even wipe the remote for the TV on a cruise or in a hotel, and rarely get sick. I wash my hands often and don’t touch my face.

 

I don’t use hand railings generally, and do use my knuckle to push the elevator buttons. That is about as germaphobic that I get.

Well wiping off the carts is a little different. Your hands are on the cart the entire time you shop. So were the last person's who picked their nose, coughed in their hand, scratched their butt, etc. So it has a higher accumulation of bad stuff than the box of cheerios that a stocker touched for 3 seconds as he puts it on the shelf.

I still don't wipe my cart down as I just don't care about germs whatsoever. I rarely get sick and actually have a bad habit of touching my face or chewing my nails(I know I should stop but easier said than done), not sure how those two coincide but guess my body fights off sickness better than some. My wife will wipe down any cart we use though if I go shopping with her.

We had a bag disappear when we disembarked the ship. We went to the area with our luggage group' date=' and all but 1 of our bags were there. We spoke to the representative there, and waited while the luggage area cleared out. We checked other groups, but it wasn't there either.

 

Finally, there was 1 bag left that was very similar to our missing bag, and it had a tag with a phone number on it. The Carnival rep called the number, and said they left a bag, and probably took someone else's by mistake. Believe it or not, the person yelled at the Carnival rep ( I heard them on the rep's cell phone), "We have all our bags, we didn't take someone else's, I don't know why you are calling us!" and hung up on them.

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This story is why bags don't get turned in until the last day. These type of people would bring in someone else's bag from the hall, realize it's not theirs, blame Carnival for it, then leave the bag in the closet or under bed because it's not their job to find the owner. Then they would only turn it in if they happened to need the storage space although I'm sure it would only go out in the hall and not actually get turned in. I don't understand some people.

Sorry to throw gas on the fire, but "losing" your bag was NOT Carnivals fault.

Wrong. You give Carnival your bag and you don't get it back. In what world is that not their fault? It's their JOB to get your bag back to you after it's handed to them for check in. Any scenario that happens is their fault.

• It's their fault for putting it in front of the wrong door or in the wrong hall.
  
• It's their fault for putting it too close to other people's bags.
  
• It's their fault if someone accidentally takes it because it's in front of wrong door or too close to their bags.
  
• It's even their fault if a passenger steals the bag in the hallway. because it's Carnival's choice to leave bags laying around and just trusting passengers not to steal.
  

If you can't guess I hate how they just leave them in the halls waiting to be stolen. But I don't know an efficient cheap way to replace that way so I accept it. Still would be their fault if I didn't get a bag tho. I also pack knowing I could lose a bag. Everybody should always pack enough in your carry-on so that if a bag gets lost you can still enjoy the cruise. I pack couple sets of clothes in mine and my swimsuit. I would be mad if I didn't get my luggage but I would get over it and enjoy my vacation.

Saw a lady with her 4 kids getting ice cream. Of course after they all get ice cream half of their ice cream is gone. So she says let’s top them off and them all stick their freshly licked cones all the way up to the thing that squirts out the ice cream. I mentally gagged and went to the other side to get ice cream.

Unfortunately you have to buy it for all the people in the room. Don't look at the extra $300 as buying it for that person. Instead just add it up for the 3 people that drink. As you said it's still a better deal than buying the alcohol by the drink without cheers so just have to eat that extra price.