dlphn501

4 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

Picture is displaying sideways. An inside view of one of the nightstands with the new lamps.

Oh I see.  The lamp goes down into the nightstand?  So you pretty much can't use the nightstands for storing much?  Oh well.  I think it was smart to add plug-ins, and I would prefer the storage space, but I tend to leave things behind when I use supplied storage.

On 4/18/2024 at 12:42 PM, BlerkOne said:

WTH is this?

I am just off Horizon April 7th, and the elevators seemed to work well. I have smart elevators in my office, so I was a little ahead of other first timers, but it's not that difficult.  I helped others as much as I could when I heard stories of them struggling because I watched so many YouTube videos (like how you should hit the button with the wheelchair on it if you are in a wheelchair or have a walker so the elevator doesn't "allow" as many people to have enough room for the medical assistive devices).  We did have to wait a little bit some time, but they definitely worked better than the regular elevators on the smaller ships.

I know you didn't mention it, but deck 10 (lido).  Not sure if you didn't mention it because you didn't realize it was an option, but I just got off Horizon on April 7th from an interior on lido and it was an awesome location.  Quiet too because it was forward of the fwd elevators, so minimal foot traffic.  Close to bars and food.

If that's not an option, then whichever cabin on deck 7 or 8 has cabins above and below.

Ultimate XO

On 4/17/2024 at 9:16 PM, Ashland said:

We certainly didn't have to "ask" as they (several of them from the same company) were walking just outside the terminal doors holding big signs and calling out "Shuttle to MIA...$10.00pp" hard to miss them.

Okay.  I clearly missed them because I didn't see the signs.  It was more of a PSA.

On 4/10/2024 at 8:08 PM, Saint Greg said:

Are they doing the new debarkation process on Horizon? I didn’t think they had rolled it out to all ships yet. But if they did that’s good. That means they probably fixed the duplicate tag issue.

They are!  I didn't see people cluttering/clogging up the hallways and elevator bays, so I guess it worked pretty well.  But we headed to our meeting point at 7:40 which is early for us because we don't usually rush off.  By the time we got to the lounge, they had started to file out, so we just waited for the last person and we got at the end of the line.  A lot of people in the facebook group said the disembarkation was less than stellar, but no one gave reasons.

On 4/14/2024 at 3:36 PM, Ashland said:

Hampton Inn Suites Blue Lagoon is right across the street from a Publix shopping center. A few restaurants and fast food. They have a comp shuttle from MIA to their hotel. We enjoyed this hotel this past Feb and will be staying again in May. They offer a comp breakfast and the hotel is very well priced.

This HI was recommended in a YouTube video.  I looked into it for my March 30th Horizon cruise that just past, and it was about $100 more for the one night bc I was able to snag a military deal on the Kimpton Epic.  Looked like a neat hotel too, so we went with that.  $75 for lunch later, and a very tiring walk to Bayside for dinner with another $50, and it would have been cheaper overall at the Hampton Inn.  The moral here is to figure out what your entire spend will be before you commit to a hotel.

3 hours ago, Ashland said:

We've used the shuttle service that has big signs as you exit the terminal. It's $10.00pp and they fill up so quickly and are on their way...Couldn't have been easier this past Feb to get from POM to MIA.

The porter carting our bags told us about this shuttle!  We drove in, but we were chatting, and he mentioned you have to ask about them.  So when people ask him how to get to the airport, he will say Uber or Lyft or taxi, and if they ask for something cheaper, he says that shuttle is only $10 per person to Miami international.  I had no idea.

I saw a YouTube video of a square interior, and it looks more spacious than a regular interior, for 2 people.  The cabin did have the upper bunk, but there were only 2 of them, so in the video it was up.  It looks like it would be very, very tight with the upper pullman down.  The opposite wall from there in the closet(s), so you basically bump into the bed.  I sail with 3 in a cabin, and we just did 8 nights in a regular interior on Horizon, and it was okay.  I think it would have been cramped in the square cabin.

I haven't been on any of the excel class ships yet, but I have spoke to several people on Horizon  last month who have done both.  Most liked Celebration better, but they didn't have kids.  The couple the preferred Horizon said the biggest downfall for them with (Mardi Gras, I assume Celebration is set up the same way) is the dining venues are all over the place.  On Horizon, most are on lido, but on MG they were too scattered to make sense for them.  The kids never wanted what the parents wanted.  So I say check the deck plans and go based of that.  Celebration is a massive ship, so it may take a while to learn your way around!

They had cheese danishes on Horizon this month.  At lido buffet, on the "continental breakfast" area.  I didn't try one, so I don't know if it was cream cheese.  They also had apple and one that had red in it (maybe cherry).  I have pictures but no names.

On 3/29/2024 at 8:04 AM, Saint Greg said:

 

It’s in my Jubliee and Spirit live threads from last month but this alert started coming up on jubilee so I selected a group. The groups are by estimated debarkation time. 
 

Since I’m platinum I always get priority tags but the thing kept popping up so I did it.

 

My tags were automatically delivered to the room. Then I also go my platinum tags with a lower number. 

 

Next time on Spirit I ignored these messages and only got one set of tags. My platinum tags. So If you are platinum or diamond just ignore it. You’ll still get your priority tags. If you aren’t…just make a selection in the app and your tags will be delivered to the room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am just off Horizon, and I never got this message.  In fact, I couldn't even figure out how to select my debark time.   However, we did have #2 luggage tags delivered 2 nights prior - I assumed it was because we had fttf, but maybe it was just a glitch in the app.  I did not go to guest services about it since I had received luggage tags.  We walked off with all the rest of the fttf and suite guests.

1 minute ago, ninjacat123 said:

I haven't seen the Master Mixologist class in a long time.  It was a lot of fun.  We were invited by an Alchemy mixologist to sign up.  I felt like I needed to know a secret handshake😉

I may need to Google this!

Buy it ... now.  With the aforementioned AARP gift cards.  I am just off Horizon and mixed drink prices have gone up.  I did have Cheers, but alchemy drinks are $14+; there's a drink at Red Frog Rum Bar that is $14.  I saw a handful for $16 I think.   Lots were $12.

The drink package is $70.74 per person per day, after gratuity - a $14 drink is $16.52 after gratuity.  That's only 4 drinks (5 if you get the $12 drinks).  The Starbucks-esque coffee drinks are almost $7 after grat ($13 if you get the spiked ones).

You really have to compare it apples to apples - so the full package price including gratuity vs individual drink prices including gratuity.  A beer or seltzer will be over $9!

I paid $566 for my package for 8 days, and I got my full money's worth after like day 5.

1 hour ago, APDMOM said:

Did you end up doing the martini expert thing at Alchemy Bar?

No 😞  I didn't see it advertised anywhere, and the alchemy bar was always busy so I didn't want to bother the crew.  They did have the flight of 4 mini martini's for $30 though.  I had Cheers so did not partake in that.

I'm back from this same cruise!  Had a great time.  Some of activities and other things were very different.  There was no brewery tour on any day, and I checked the fun times several times to make sure I didn't miss it.  I also checked the app.  They did not do The World Works Here on the last night, and therefore, no rehearsals in the kids club.  They did have digital debarkation, and for the most part debarkation seemed to work well, but there were no luggage tags laid out where you have to get up early to grab them.  There was no option in my app to select my debark time/tags, but the room steward delivered #2 tags to my cabin 2 nights prior.  Possibly because we had FTTF, not sure though.  I am wondering if things were different because it was spring break?  For any alcohol bought in the ports of call, you had to pick up on last morning in MDR and the line was very long.  I asked a crew member why they didn't deliver the night before and they said because of spring break, and once it's over they will go back to the process of delivering.

5 hours ago, mz-s said:

everyone is a big tipper on the internet...

You said that twice.  Meanwhile, I don't recall anyone stating how much they tip

17 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

How do you feel about rooms that hold 3-5 people but only have two booked in it? 

LOL, none of this bothers me at all.  Why would I care how many people are in a room?  But my logic and original response would be the same if that's what you're asking.

2 hours ago, APDMOM said:

And now for that Muzak survey... this same tune played over and over, then the next song is more of the same kind of over and over... 🤣 Am I old, or are there other people who agree this is not music?

IMG_8657.MOV 44.37 MB · 3 downloads  

 

Yuck!  I have never been on a cruise longer than 5 days, but I never had this playing on lido on a sea day!  Was it maybe because of the weather/rain?

7 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

Considering they don't get $16 per person, they get a contracted amount and that $16 pp goes into the housekeeping pool and then split to cover people who are assigned to the common areas.  They are also part of "Your Housekeeping Team" .  

You are right.  Their share of the $16.  But I was specifically talking about cabins that hold more than 1 person.

3 minutes ago, Roscoe13 said:

I don't get this analogy of someone is being cheated out of anything.  Daily gratuities are per person and that's based off of the amount of work the service team has to do. 

 

Solo cruisers will have fewer towels needed and I know of many solo's that specifically the attendants to NOT clean the cabin everyday.

And I know doubles and triples that ask for it to not be cleaned everyday.  And a lot of people keep their space clean.  Not all solos use less towels.  In fact, not everyone takes a shower everyday.  But whether there is one person or cabin in one cabin, the shower is still as dirty.  I don't know specifically what they clean on a daily basis.  I have a cleaning lady that comes to my house and her rates are based on the size of what she is cleaning, not how many people are using the space.  I think the only "less work" they may do for a solo cruiser in a multi-person cabin is have less beds to make.  Which is something, esp considering the upper pullmans, but they are losing money on that no matter how you want to look at it.  I'm sure they would rather have that extra bed to make for that extra $4-5 per day.

On 3/25/2024 at 9:15 PM, Roscoe13 said:

I guess I always thought of gratuities as based on a service provided.

True.  But I think the cruise lines factor in a cost for the service and divide it by the amount of people the ship can hold.  So if a room steward has a cabin for 2 and only person shows up, they do sort of get cheated on the other person's $16.

My perfect Carnival cruise day is one which I am on a Carnival cruise 🙂  Not getting up to an alarm for work, not scooping cat litter, not making lunch the just the right amount of mayo scraped onto the bread, not worrying about what to make for dinner, and lastly not doing the dishes from said dinner!!

Finding a sun lounger near a pool/waterslide and a bar is a bonus.

2 hours ago, APDMOM said:

TIP: Be sure to get your luggage tag from Pixels or the LIDO deck when they put them out - you choose your own based upon the time you want to leave.  We saw a long line trying to get first choice here around 11 AM by Pixels.

 

 

 

Download PDF here

Debarkation.pdf 1.32 MB · 0 downloads

Did they have the digital embarkation?  I heard the debarkation from this cruise was really messy, so I assume not, but John Heald just announced today that it is now on all Carnival ships.  

22 hours ago, mz-s said:

 

The only way to make audio calls with Carnival WiFi would be over a chat service like facebook messenger. You can't call someone's phone number over Carnival WiFi.

I said messenger.  Carnival states that Whatsapp also works.  I never claimed to have tried that.