Eli_6

We used to dress up in formal wear. Now we wear church clothes because post-Covid my husband and I are too fat to fit into any of our formal wear.

How does one cheat to win a ship on a stick? Asking for a friend... Anything we have ever participated in where a ship on a stick was awarded wasn't exactly something you could cheat at...like the bean bag toss. Only ship on a stick I have ever won was for knowing the name of the monk who invented champagne.

I was more referring to the fact that there never seems to be any ping pong balls with the ping pong tables. I have to assume they end up in the ocean. But, then again, the age of pickle ballers is a little different than most of the people playing at the ping pong table (ahem, children...sometimes my children) so they are probably more careful. Admittedly, I have watched pickle ball but never played it so I don't have a good grasp of how "bouncy" the ball is. If it was a tennis ball, some would definitely be donated to the fishes.

Oh, for my family and I, the laundry is the best perk! (Also, another reason we sail carnival is it is one of the only lines that still has self-serve laundromats on most of its ships.) Plus, with all that rowing, we will need to do a lot of laundry.

No! Not at all. We don't do it on every cruise, but we do it on our "big" cruises. This one cracks me up every time. You can tell which child was less than enthusiastic about matching his family.

People can't keep the ping pong balls on the ship. And playing any sport on a moving ship isn't the same as playing on land. I don't see this ending well...

His Mom passed away. I know some of us here follow him.

The strike is when we are going out, not coming back. I have to go to Corpus Christi College at Cambridge University after our cruise for some research so we will be taking the train there and staying a few days.

Now I am just concerned about the security strike at Terminal 5 (the British Airways terminal) we will be flying into and out of at Heathrow. My husband said to me last night when I expressed concerns about the strike and being able to make our connecting flight and there not being any other options with openings at this late date (because I had looked at alternative dates when security isn't striking), "Well, maybe we could drive to Edinburgh or take the train if we had to." I just looked at him and shook my head. My husband doesn't even know where we are embarking from apparently!!! Lololol. So, yeah, my kids and I will be taking a fun cruise from BARCELONA to Portugal, Gibraltar, France, Belgium, Spain, and ending in Dover while my husband is looking for the Pride in Edinburgh. 🤣 I guess you can tell who does the vacation planning in our house!

My TA contacted her contact at Carnival yet again yesterday. (I have given up contacting Carnival myself as either I am disconnected accidentally after sitting on hold for 20-30 minutes or they tell me it is fixed and I never get the gift cards.) Apparently, the second contact was enough to finally get it resolved as I got the virtual cards to my email at 12:30 am. Phew. Finally! From now on, if I buy excursions with Carnival, they are going on a credit card. At least then I have the recourse of protesting the charge with Visa or Amex.

Other people who have gone on a cruise after a dry dock say all the cabins are ready immediately. However, I still think that a bunch of P&Ds and suites who will show up right at 12:30 given my past experience cruising in Europe. Half the boat is p&d. Plus, there won't be any B2B already on board since this is the first cruise after dry dock. On these cruises, a lot of people do b2b2b. I may even change my boarding time to 2 or 3.

I don't think those ships have these balconies on deck 2. I think those are just OV rooms. No balconies. My biggest concern would be noise. Otherwise, I would think they would be awesome.

OMG. Well now this is the least of my concerns. I just read where there is a strike at Heathrow the day we are flying into London and departing for Barcelona at Heathrow. FFS. Every.stinkin.time. I go to Europe, there is some sort of issue. Last year it was the issue in Dover and the trains shut downs due to heat. Now there is a strike at the airport. I think I am Europe cursed. I NEVER have ANY of these problems on US cruises.

I am pretty sure that is what we are going to do. I got the first slot, but I think we are going to do things in Barcelona and not show up right away so that the other P&D's clear out first. I have a suspicion that this cruise will be heavy on the P&Ds.

I am more and more getting to that point as well because there is simply so little recourse on these gift cards that I am seriously starting to question if it is worth the ten percent it saves. It sucks because on a 7k cruise, that ten percent = $700. Plus, I have even thought about the fact that I think a lot of the "benefits" I get for booking travel on some of my credit cards (like insurance) may not apply if I simply use the credit card to buy a gift card. I haven't ever looked into the issue, but I suspect that may be the case.

@wemjam If a company does substantial business in a state, they are subject to the consumer laws of that state. Flagging their ships in a different country or even being registered in a different country doesn't absolve them of that. Frankly, with interest rates going the way they are, I think that more and more companies are going to be doing everything they can to delay payments or refunds. If you take 30 or 90 or 180 days to issue payments or a refund, your company gets to earn interest on that money for that length of time. When you are talking about large companies, that is cumulatively a lot of money in interest for them spread out over all of their thousands (or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands or millions) of customers. That's why state legislatures pass various prompt pay acts, deceptive trade practice laws, etc. Is that what is going on with Carnival here? Honestly, I don't think so. From what I am hearing from multiple different sources both on here and directly from Carnival is that it sounds like it is more an issue of incompetence/IT problems rather than purposefully holding on to refunds/payments. But you better believe that many companies do make it a business practice to take the absolutely longest they can legally take to pay a claim or issue a refund. Insurance companies, in particular, are notorious for this...along with denying legitimate claims knowing that most people don't have the knowledge, time, energy, or money to sue them over their wrongful denial.

Update: So, apparently 12:30 IS the first boarding time and H01 is the first boarding group. Very interesting. Never seen this before.

Actually, the law is that refunds have to be processed within 30 days. (Yes, I am a lawyer, but not your lawyer. 😉 ) And I canceled more than 30 days before the excursion. The reason I "waited" this close to the cruise was because the other excursion didn't come out until this close to the cruise. I actually waited all the way from September until March for the Mt St. Michel excursion to come out and when it didn't finally booked the Paris excursion thinking that Carnival must simply not be offering that excursion this year...then the MSM came out. So it was not an issue of just me farting around and not taking care of something for months on end like you are depicting. As an aside, last time I had this exact same issue, I DID wait more than a 30 days to call in order to give them time to process the return. And I still NEVER got the gift card...and I would NEVER have gotten the gift card had I not stayed on them and called over and over again. And spent hours on the phone. And emailed. I am convinced this is the exact same situation. And, no, it is not okay. A person should not have to call 10+ times and spend HOURS on the phone just to get a refund. That isn't reasonable. If you think that is reasonable, you clearly have a lot more time to waste than I do. I now have both my TA and also a friend of hers at Carnival working on this as well after spending two hours on this last night and another hour on it this morning. The Carnival cheerleaders can make all the excuses that they want, but it should not be this much trouble to get a refund for a canceled excursion...especially not when all you want to do is simply book another excursion!

I am platinum and checked in at midnight ET 16 days before. I literally was hitting refresh until it allowed me to check in at 11 pm central time (midnight ET) and went straight to arrival appointment time and could not select any earlier than 12:30-1. My boarding zone is H01. This is for Europe Pride on May 28th. We are debarking late--at 7. Is 12:30 the first arrival appointment time? If so, why is my boarding group H01 and not A01 or, at least, B01? I don't care that much because we are in Barcelona and it isn't like there are a lack of fun things to do, but I just found it strange. Is the H simply because it is the 12:30 slot and do they completely skip over the A, B, etc.?

I waited until the end of the day today to call so it would be seven FULL business days since they told me I would receive the cards within that. I pushed the number for the fun shops. Explained the situation to the woman on the line. She says, "Let me transfer you." and then puts me on hold. I sat on hold for over THIRTY FREAKING MINUTES and then the call just hung up on me. B.S. So sick of this. I emailed my TA because this is 600 and about to leave in a week. I want that money for the cruise. (I already paid for the new excursion on a credit card but I figure I can use that for tips and incidentals on the cruise and apply it to my on board account.) Ridiculous. I am starting to get really mad now.

We had that cabin one time. Loved it. Only con was no shade on balcony and no privacy. But that is true for almost all of the havana balconies or, really, almost all the aft balconies. They can see you from below and above.

I think the poster was joking. But I have accidentally taken prohibited items before I knew they were prohibited and nothing happened.

Sigh. I am afraid you may be on to something. Might also explain why they told me 5-7 days. Why would it otherwise take 5-7 days to send a virtual gift card? If they send them by mail, no telling when I will get them.

Oh geez. If they send them by mail, I probably won't get them before I leave for Europe! I was thinking they would send the same sort of card (physical card vs virtual card) as what the original card was, but that doesn't mean they will. My original cards were virtual. I can't now recall (since it has been more than a week) what they said exactly.

I am now at 7 business days and still no gift cards in my inbox. Sigh. Guess I will be calling back yet again.