Need-a-vacation

An observation though. If you waited and left it on your account the several billing cycles would start later.

 

Wouldnt that be better?

I think you are saying that just letting them default at the end of the cruise would allow the latest hit to the cc? That is true, but I just wanted it done. With the timing of our bill cycle, we could also have the tips on a different cycle than our other on board expenses. doesn't really matter - more of a mind game with myself than any true need.

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I just did this a couple weeks ago. Called carnival about a week before sailing and paid the gratuities with the credit card. We booked after final payment date, so the total fare was durr at time of booking. I waited for a couple reasons - we weren't sure if we wanted to Pre pay and to spread the costs over a couple billing cycles

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Mainly because we are not offended by words.

being offended is totally different than being bored. some people just don't find curse words funny or entertaining in the absence of other material.

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We parked in the surface lot and he actually found a spot sorta under a tree on the first couple rows. Very easy getting out, but I think we were one of the first 50 people off the ship!!

I will say the sign for the 710 is VERY confusing when leaving the port. After the pay booth, there's a little sign on the far right side of the road that says 710 and has an arrow pointing to what looks like the far right lane. So hubby gets in that lane. Fortunately there was almost no traffic because it wasn't very far before the overhead signs indicated that he needed to be to the far left. :rolleyes:

I understand what you are saying - that just hasn't been my experience onboard with the comedy shows. Luckily, on the week long cruises, you get a choice of 4 different comedians, so if you don't like one, you have 3 others to see. I also understand that comedy is a very subjective art form. Case in point, since he has already been discussed, the Cowboy comedian, John Wesley Austin. My wife and I both really liked him, so much so that we watched two of his shows. However, I thought his first one was amazing and his second just good, and she thought the reverse. Overall, I do believe that the comedians on Carnival are very good and a great alternative to the showroom.

I'm sure there is a lot of variation around the fleet and on different cruises. I don't even remember the guys' names at this point.

How many of Carnival's customer service representatives at their call center have even been on a cruise ship? By the answers they give to questions, you would assume not many even know what a cruise ship is. For all perks other than priority boarding, disembarkation and tendering, it is required to purchase a separate one. However, anything related to safety that goes against their supervised children policy is put into consideration and allows for those three perks to be extended to their stateroom, as long as the stateroom is occupied only by minors.

The reality may be that the official policy is that even a cabin occupied by minors is required to have FTTF to use the perks, but the agents at the port aren't going to force the issue, particularly if none of the kids is actually over 18. However, I can also see them flipping it the other way and saying that the parents may not use their privileges if it means leaving their minor children unsupervised because they don't have FTTF. Most parents would stay with the kids since the kids can't check in alone.

So unless there is a written policy or exception provided, I personally wouldn't risk it. In the grand scheme of the overall cost for a cruise, $50 isn't a ton for the peace of mind.

Not necessarily. If the second stateroom only has minors (Carnival considers minors to be under 21 years of age,) they will have priority embarkation, disembarkation and tendering.

 

I wonder if this is consistent across the fleet? There was certainly no effort from Carnival to stop me from buying FTTF for our 2nd cabin that was registered to our 19-year-old and 14-year-old sons and linked to our reservation. In fact, I'm pretty sure that multiple phone reps told me I DID need it for both cabins.

I will definitely check for myself before I cruise with Carnival again. Don't want to buy it if I don't have to!!!

I have a question for all those offended by the "Adult" shows: Are you aware that there are multiple "family-friendly" shows each night? I ask this because we have cruised with my mother-in-law a few times, and she has no desire to hear any cursing or crude subject matter while attending the shows. She absolutely loved the family-friendly shows. I have attended both styles of shows, and both are enjoyable, but honestly, they do run a disclaimer at the beginning of the adult shows "If you are under 18 or easily offended, please get out now (or words to that effect)". Is it that you don't believe that you are easily offended, but discovered that you are? I am curious, because every time I see a thread like this, I ask myself "Did these people not read the Fun Times, or listen to the disclaimers?".

 

As far as the quality of comedians, they do vary, but are on par with or better than what you will find in your local major metropolitan comedy club. The other thing to keep in mind is that some comedians are more comfortable in an adult setting, and some in a family friendly setting, and also the comedians do multiple different shows. My own hypothesis is that the first show is the more standard style of comedy (the comedians' established set), and the later shows are more freestyle, with some experimenting and playing with the audience. The great thing about the 7 day cruises is, even if there is one comedian you do not enjoy, there are still 3 other comedians that you can see at some point that week. JMO

I've attended quite a few "adult" comedy shows and I've found most of them funny. I've practically peed myself watching people like Ron White or Whitney Cummings. I don't care about f-bombs or other adult references. But I don't think they are inherently hilarious on their own. They don't fix a lame joke. The freedom to use more realistic language and explore more adult topics can definitely enhance the performance and make the conversation and interaction with the audience more real.

I don't think anyone is complaining about the adult content of the shows. The base routine still needs to be good quality whether or not you're allowed to curse. The performer shouldn't go into an "adult" show with no material besides f-bombs and jokes about anatomy and sex and that's how it seemed sometimes on our cruise. If you're going to pick on the Asian audience members, have something besides "Oh, your Asian! That's so funny" with a few f-bombs sprinkled in.

My 19-year-old son experienced some of the same frustration. I kept thinking it would be nice if they could take one of the lounges that is barely used and make it a sort of hanging out place for young adults even if there's not a structured program. Put some music on a loop and let them hang out or meet up. Put the current sports stuff on a tv in there or whatever.

He finally sorta found a groove on the sea day when he embraced some of the goofy typical cruise stuff like trivia and bingo. He refused to play in the casino and he kept saying even if he could drink he wouldn't be willing to pay the high prices. That may change in a few years, but for now he couldn't really figure out what to do. The afternoon we were in port but back on ship, he was kinda bored. There was mostly little kids in the pool, so he felt it'd be a bit creepy for him to go hang in the pool. And honestly there just aren't a lot of structured activities on the schedule during a port day.

I have to think there must be a fair number of kids in that age group that still live at home and would still go on vacation with their families

I personally think it's a waste of $50 but I sure hope people keep buying them. Keeps my cruise cost down. ;)

LOL -- I was just thinking it's actually a good deal for Carnival. They have a certain cost for providing the platinum+ benefits whether there are 5 platinum passengers or 500. If they can basically "sell" some of the empty platinum spots, they come out ahead. They just have to manage the capacity controls to not totally devalue the benefits. Honestly, if you're a platinum guest and you're going to "share" your benefits with 100 other passengers, does it really matter whether they are platinum or forked over $50? The effect on your access to the benefits is the same.

As I said in post #20, foreign countries do not need to give consideration to those who require special needs. However, all cruise ships that have an American port of call, port of embarkation or a port of disembarkation are REQUIRED to be in FULL compliance with the ADA.

 

Believe me, as someone who is traveling for leisure international each month, I think I have adapted to the expectations when traveling internationally. However, it doesn't change the fact that cruise ships need to be ADA accessible. You should do some research. It was ruled in June 2005.

I think Carnival absolutely met that requirement by providing assistance to get the wheelchair up the ramp and on to the ship. They made the ship accessible to the passenger in spite of the limitations of the facilities provided by a foreign third-party. That is the spirit of the law and they did all they could be possibly expected to do. Carnival (or any other cruise line) can only control what's theirs and they did it. I'm not sure what else this passenger wanted.

I suppose the next option would be for all ships that port in the US to boycott any port that is not compliant with U.S. ADA laws until they refurbish the facilities to meet our laws??

So, how do you become a "Player's Club" member? Are those deals in the same place as the VIFP deals?

We went through Long Beach when we sailed on Princess out of San Pedro and it was very easy. It is a small airport and way less hassle than LAX. We flew on US Airways.

Did you ID yourself as FTTF after security before getting in the Queue?

I don't believe there is FTTF walk off but not sure as we don't walk off.

Never used Guest Services so can't compare there.

When we left the Imagination in Long Beach this past Sunday, there was a FTTF walk off -- I think it was at the same time as the platinum, etc guests. It was bright and early but we were there. We gathered in the Shangri-La lounge then they released us to go down to deck 7 and leave. At several points along the way, crew members did ask if we came from the lounge or had FTTF and when we got to the last stop before the actual scan out line the person actually asked to see the sticker on our cards. So there was a reasonable attempt to limit who did the early walk-off.

Hubby said that alone was worth the FTTF price, especially since we were driving back to Phoenix. We were in our truck and leaving the parking lot by 8am and home by 1:30.

Someone that's overwhelmed or stressed by their situation may get rude and cranky about stuff like this, but are generally grateful when people help them navigate the difficulty. Not going on a tirade about how they are out of compliance with the law even though they were helped as much as possible. The ramp situation is certainly not ideal for a wheelchair, but they did everything they could do at that moment to address it. She sounds more like a mom on a mission to find every shortcoming out there in accommodating those with disabilities.

I think it's important to make people aware when a situation is set up in a way that creates a difficulty because it might be something that can be addressed for the long term. The ramp is probably not in that category, but lots of things might be. But being a jerk to the people at the door that can't do a blasted thing about it is not the way to improve awareness and get things changed when possible.

Perhaps what cruise lines CAN do is get ahead of the situation and manage expectations by providing a "hints and tips" type package for passengers that have identified themselves as disabled in some fashion. It could include information like "some passengers find the ramp at Nassau a little steep depending on the conditions in port that day. We will have staff there to help passengers up and down the ramp as needed" or something like that. I think the passenger who couldn't get their wheelchair through at the top of the ramp should let the special needs department know. The solution might be a simple as the ship having it's own right-sized chair available at the ramp like they do for getting passengers on a plane.

Oddly enough I find myself agreeing with most of y'all here, and I don't even have an objection to profanity. I found the family friendly comedy shows genuinely funny (at times... hit or miss really), while the adult comedians made liberal use of profanity in order to mask a mediocre routine comprised of low hanging fruit and locker room humor.

This pretty much sums up my verdict for the comedians on the Imagination this past week. We went to the adult show the first night and were not really impressed. We tried one of them the 2nd night hoping that maybe a full set would be better -- not really. My 19-year-old son went to the family show on the 2nd night and said it was better than the adult show the first night. If anyone is going to love raunchy, stupid, locker room humor -- it should be a 19-year-old guy!! So either the adult show was pretty lame or my son is an unusual 19-year-old male.

It seemed like a lot of the jokes were contrived to find a way to use profanity or some other "adult" material rather than actually good material that's more "real" with the adult language and subjects. The bright spot was the one guy's rude jokes about gay men got rid of the obnoxious group that took over our booth. ;)

I had this same question since we were traveling with our kids. If you booked through Carnival, the confirmation email will have a note about being linked to another reservation buried somewhere in all the fine print at the bottom.

Seems like it was also noted somewhere on the cruise documents I downloaded from the Carnival website.

Easiest thing may be to just call. :)

LOL -- We were on the same sailing and since I'd never sailed on Carnival before, I had no expectations and didn't notice anything "missing". I didn't notice the carpet one way or another!!

I actually like being left the pitcher of water to pour for ourselves. I hate it when I have to wait for a water refill, especially if that's my only drink, and we tend to go through a lot of water during a meal. The ideal is certainly to have enough wait staff to keep drinks filled, but I look at it as part of the trade-off for a lower cruise fare and I'd rather pour my own than have an empty glass for 10 minutes waiting for someone to be able to fill it.

I never spent any time on the Serenity deck, but from what I could see and hear from the aft lido deck, it was anything but serene!! I only ate at the Mongolian once and it was good, but the cook that got my bowl was seriously stingy with the meat!!

I didn't play any table games, but even just observing there was a definite difference in the way the dealers interacted with the players. Some were obviously enjoying the game and players, others were just there. We didn't really notice anything great or bad about the wait staff we had. They did their jobs and nothing particularly bothered or wowed us. It did take forever for my husband to get his soda served in the dining room.

It's always interesting how different people notice different things. I was really wishing I could wipe down the outside of our cabin window but there could have been a huge coffee stain on our carpet and I would have never noticed it. Of course, not much carpet is even visible in a regular cabin!!

Underwear

It's so funny you said that. Somehow Hubby's dress socks were awol even though he knew he packed them and I was short a couple pair of skivvies when I know I counted them out and stacked them with each day's clothes as I laid them out. No idea what happened!

Besides that, nothing important was missed.

We're back from our cruise and I want to thank all the locals for helping me sort out the details to make our trip as smooth as possible. Everything went as expected and we didn't get lost for even a minute!

We rode it and it was backwards. We weren't too wild about it backwards. We rode all the major rides at least once. But I guess I'm old because man I could feel my brain bouncing around in my head on some of the rides!

One pleasant surprise was that there is a trolley circuit that includes our hotel, so that made things a little easier.

We hit the road again tomorrow morning and head to long beach!!!

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Maybe a credit card or cash for on board spending and parking at the port, but that's all you'll need.

oh definitely. just trying to make sure i dont forget something unfixable.

Before we leave town, do I need anything besides passports, driver's licenses, and boarding passes to get on the Imagination in Long Beach?:eek:

The port scanners are more like what airports had years ago.

 

You leave shoes on, etc. Even if you set it off, they use a wand and do not "grope" you.

 

It is NOTHING like the airport. You can take liquids, etc.

Thanks! I didn't remember it being any big deal in the past, but stuff changes all the time.

The last 2 times we went thru LB (April & May), we arrived about noon and there was no wait in the Priority boarding building and about a 10 minute wait in the dome for everyone else.

 

If you get there before either is open, Early Check-in is in front of the Dome, not at the Queen Mary.

I just meant go see the Queen Mary to kill time. I have no idea when we'll get there. I'm hoping before noon.