Billoftt

On 3/12/2024 at 1:21 AM, Minuet888 said:

14 days to get your money back so you don't have the money to book something else.......nice

I find it mildly infuriating to know that it takes them only two to three nanoseconds to take my money out, but it somehow takes two weeks to put back in.

Thanks for this.

As a Marine, this one hits close to home.

Any dress or service uniform would be appropriate.

I would caution any Naval or Coast Guard officer though, they might mistake you for an officer that works on the ship.  

I am booked on this with my family and my wife's parents.  We will not be cancelling.  

"#7 WILL SHOCK YOU!!!"

23 hours ago, ontheweb said:

My DW's school has been going half attended and half virtual with the students alternating weeks. The third graders have just been quarantined, and she would also have been if she had not been fully vaccinated. Last year she did have to serve a 10 day quarantine because one of the 5th graders tested positive and my wife was exposed to her during lunch duty (no mask while you eat).

I think this is a good example illustrating that there is no "one size fits all" solution to mitigate the hazard.  It's very audacious to assume that every school is should be following the exact same template across a single state, let alone the entire country.  Frankly, each school district should be the ones making the decisions, not a large federal entity that could not produce a staff member that was able to point to the school in question on a map. 

What works for a small charter school most likely will not work for a (presumably) public school in Monticello, NY or an over crowded public school in Chicago or a small private school in wherever.

Likewise, I do not believe any of these people making the decisions about the No Sail Order have ever actually been on a cruise ship.  Did anyone in the CDC that drafted the No Sail Order actually pull people from their own Vessel Sanitation Program? You know, the division of the CDC that actually routinely inspected these vessels for compliance with public health regs and practices? 

One of my favorite "secrets" is the Havana Bar on Carnival Sunshine.  Just walk past the buffet on the lido deck and there is a small area at the bar that has Cuban sandwiches, pork pies, etc...

The bar will be completely crowded with people on embark day and not a single one of them will notice it. 

They also have delectable guava pastries during breakfast.

On 4/24/2021 at 11:53 AM, stellarose said:

I am teacher in school with students FIVE days a week- lets cruise. 

My three school aged children (9th, 5th, and 2nd) have been back to school in-person since last August.  Other than a proactive post-Christmas quarantine, there have been NO issues or outbreaks. Even before the teachers got vaccinated. 

One credit card dispute, one Better Business Bureau complaint, seven e-mails to MSC, countless phone calls and 97 days later I FINALLY got the deposit back from MSC.

In contrast, I called Princess the same day I started this crap with MSC and received my money in less than one week after one phone call. 

On December 2, 2019, I paid a deposit of $796.00 for a cruise that was to sail away on October 10th, 2020. The deadline to cancel and receive 100% of all funds paid thus far, per MSC Cruise Line's contract, was July 10th, 2020. I cancelled on April 28th, 2020 and was told I would receive my deposit within 30 days. After 40 days I called to ask where my refund was and was told it may take up to 60 days. At 60 days I was told it may take up to 90 days.

I read a lot of mixed reviews about MSC and decided to give them a chance.  The didn't even give me a chance to board the damn ship before burning me!

Well, I reversed the charge with my CC.  Then MSC decided to dispute that reversal.

Funny how their accounting department is "just too busy" to refund everyone's money in accordance with their own policies and contracts, but they seems to have enough time to dispute reveres charges...

Screw MSC.  I hope this COVID crap bankrupts them.

36 minutes ago, dallasdan said:

With your time dining, you do not have to dine with the same people in your cabin at the same time.  So, your wife could go earlier in the evening and you could go later.  It works great for our group.  We pick a time to meet and whoever shows up goes together.  If you don't show up no big deal.

Thank you much.  I assumed as much, but I prefer to verify rather than be surprised.

1 hour ago, E@syPe@zy said:

I'm having a little trouble understanding your dining preference.  It sounds like you want to try the "Your Time Dining", but for some reason have the early dining wait listed. 

As I said, my preference is to have assigned seating at 6:00 but I was wait-listed for that and either have to choose MTD or the 8:15 seating.

Yet another YTD question.  I promise, this one is different.

So, I finally got my wife's parents to splurge on a cruise. They are used to their beach time-share and the work involved (cooking, laundry, etc..) and I finally convinced them that once on board, the only thing you need to do is eat, sleep, and be entertained. Of course our trip for last Spring Break/Master's with Princess got cancelled and I went ahead and cancelled the October 2020 trip with MSC on account that with my diabetes and Mother-in-Law's cancer treatments, neither one of us feel too comfortable getting on a ship before a vaccine is developed. So we booked Carnival Horizon for April 2021 leaving Miami and steaming to the ABC Islands.  (The ABC's were Mommy's and Daddy's first cruise.)  They will be travelling with us (a family of six, children aged 14, 11, 8 and 1.5) in two adjoining (at the balcony) rooms with two adults and two children in each room for a total of 8 in the group.

For whatever reason, even though I booked this a year ahead of time I have been wait-listed for the 6:00 service in the MDR. The 8:15 service is WAY too late for the kids so I put all of us on MTD and wait-listed the 6:00 service.  Now I understand how it works and during peak times I will most certainly have to wait a bit if all of us are going to get a table. What I AM curious about is do ALL of us or at least all of the occupants of one room have to dine together at the same time? For example, will my wife and her mother (different rooms but same booking) be allowed to go together earlier at say 6:00ish while I take my two older kids separately (one of which is assigned a different room than myself and the other) later at 7:00ish while my Father-in-Law takes the 8-year-old for pizza somewhere else?

I'm sorry if this sounds like a ridiculous question, I just never did MTD before and don't know exactly how flexible it really is? I just don't want any surprises.

Also, I heard a rumor that Carnival updated the Hub App to include the MDR menus as well, any truth to that? If so, do they only show it for that day (one day at a time) or can you look ahead for the duration of the trip?

Thank you fellows so much.

23 hours ago, sfaaa said:

Problem is everything needs green light from Italy when it comes to signing checks.

Sounds like another reason why I shouldn't send them any checks again...

Sounds like another reason why I shouldn't send them any checks again...

9 hours ago, sds said:

MSC unfortunately for them they are off the table for me in the future unless its a gift of course. 

They are off the table for me.  The most recent customer "service" rep (Vickie) I spoke to kept on blabbing about how long it will take for the future cruise credit to to hit my account with them. No matter how much I tried to explain to her that I wasn't talking about future cruise credit, I was talking about my actual refund from cancelling a sailing six months ahead of the sail date, she just kept on shouting over me about future cruise credit and hung up after I raised my voice and asked if i was allowed to talk.

I figured this was a barometer of things to come once I boarded had I not cancelled.

On a more humorous note, when I was on the phone with Navy Federal Credit Union to dispute the charge as soon as I said "I booked this cruise a while back and cancelled..." their rep said "Not a problem, it has been happening a lot lately." I literally didn't even have to explain my situation that much. 

What annoys me more is that I cancelled another cruise with Princess on the same day and they told me the same thing, that it would be up to 60 days to get my deposit back.  It was there in just under three weeks.  A lot of people describe Carnival as the "Walmart of the Seas," but I have never been burned by them before.

I booked a cruise for my family and my in-laws for October, 2020.  Due to the change in my kids' school calendar, I cancelled on April 28, 2020 (well before the 90 day mark of July 3rd) to get my deposit back and was told it would be "up to 60 days" to get my deposit back. 

Today, June 29th marks 62 days and no deposit so I called. I was told "It may take up to 60 days." I informed them it was past 60 days. They repeated "It may take up to 60 days." At this point, i am under the impression that they were given a script and told not to deviate.  It appears that I will have to call up my bank's fraud department for this and dispute it. 

Goodbye, MSC.  I really wanted to give you a chance, but you burned me before I even boarded.

It still doesn’t work. 

On 9/11/2019 at 7:52 PM, CruiseElla said:

Carnival should just offer any time dining in all their restaurants.

 

We are waitlisted for YTD, on the Vista, in two weeks. We don't mind the late dining time, however, we do not want to be assigned to a large table with lots of other people. We want a table for two, every night.

 

 

I appreciate your opinion on this, but with us we either cruise with just my wife and I or we take our kids and her parents along. So that works with two of us, but not with eight.

Maybe have a scheduling program where it is mostly YTD where larger groups can still schedule hard-times ahead of time?  I really have no experience running a cruise ship dining room so I'm just throwing darts at the wall here.