groundloop

If anyone has recently cancelled a shore excursion which was purchased with Carnival gift cards how long did it take to get your refund? And did it come via an email with a new gift card number? Thanks

Your wife will have Platinum status from day 1 of the cruise. If all of you are in the same cabin then you should be able to board together. If the cruise was booked under her VIFP number she'll be able to do online check-in two days early and get an early boarding group if that's what you want to do. (Not sure about how that part works if the booking isn't under the Platinum VIFP number). For debarkation your wife will get a letter in the cabin mailbox a day or two before the end of the cruise with instructions on where to meet if you chose to use priority self-debark process. The four of you will go to that meeting place and be off the ship early.

I'm curious about that. We have a back-to-back booked out of Sydney early next year and this discussion prompted me to take a look at our bookings. For the Australia cruises "pre-pay gratuities" is nowhere to be found, but it's right there where it always is for all the US cruises.

🤣 This is, after all, cruise critic. I appreciate that information. We're doing a trip to Australia early next year with a back-to-back out of Sydney and I'll certainly keep this in mind. Except for the long plane ride we can't wait.

I have to assume they're talking about the bottom getting stirred up by thrusters. This happens virtually every time the ship docks or leaves a docking, totally normal. Also, one of the best cruises we've had recently was on Magic this past Christmas.

That's a mighty big ask. John Heald has mentioned several times that MaitreD's don't respond to email requests, but that you can go the the dining room on the first day of the cruise (typically from about 1:30 to 3:00) and make your request. Also worth a try would be posting your request to John Heald's facebook page.

I personally wouldn't chance it with that early of a flight. If everything worked perfectly you'd probably be ok, but it wouldn't take too big of a snafu to make for a bad day. As others have mentioned traffic getting to the airport can be bad, as well as the lines getting through security etc.

You're going to get 50 different answers, all of them perfectly valid. I use a travel agent. I do all the research of choosing a cruise and cabin myself then call my travel agent and she books it. My main reason for using her is the added on-board credit I can get, plus she's proven herself to be very good for sorting out the occasional problem so that I won't have to sit on hold forever with Carnival.

Yep, we both use one for the convenience. You can get them at the Pixels desk once you get on board.

There are so many fake pages with people pretending to be me. Now a new danger has emerged with somebody, pretending to be me and contacting people via a fake Facebook page. They are posting a Gmail account asking and requesting people pay for speciality restaurants etc through Pay Pal and other online payments. Please, please do not fall victim to this heartless, soulless person that is doing it Thank you and good night PLEASE SHARE.

If she's making 19 knots I'd think there's not currently a "propulsion issue". Ships don't normally sail at top speed (in order to save a bit of fuel), 19 knots is pretty close to what I see on most cruises. In my most humble opinion this "propulsion issue" has been blown out of proportion by people who really don't know what's going on. I doubt if anyone outside of Carnival really knows.

Each Platinum guest gets a chocolate delight (depending on availability - on my last cruise they were hard to come by).

I'm pretty sure they'd charge a 'change fee' if I called and had that person removed from the reservation.

I'm looking at booking another cruise for myself and my wife, but in doing a faux booking online I can only get my preferred cabin if I book it for 3 people. Is there any chance I can talk to Carnival and get us booked in that cabin? Or what if I booked it for 3 and the 3rd person was a no-show?

I keep waiting to get an offer to upgrade from a balcony to a suite, but it's never happened yet. 😁 I've only received one upgrade offer in all my cruises, I could have gone from a regular balcony to an aft facing balcony. Unfortunately I had to decline because my daughter was booked in the cabin next to us and we wanted to stay together. I've always wondered if declining that time has impacted my chances of getting another upgrade offer.

Yep.... and at that point after dropping your carry-ons at your cabin you can have a quiet lunch in the buffet.

It seems like the best bet might be to proceed as if that person is going on the cruise and let him/her simply be a no-show. Their money won't be refunded, just taxes and port fees, but at least you won't be paying a cancellation fee.

Yep, it's just like most everywhere - they're very fast about taking your money but take their sweet time to give it back. I can't exactly remember how long it took the last time I cancelled an excursion, but I do know that it was on the order of days.

It seems that a lot of people want to get on the ship as early as possible, which is kind of understandable. However, once you get on the ship there's not really a whole lot to do other than to sit around waiting until you can go to your cabin. Some of us feel that the hot ticket is to arrive late, after the crowds have died down, and sail through check-in, boarding and have immediate access to your cabin.

Yep, I've done this in the past. Normally the Maitre'D is available in one of the dining rooms from approximately 1:30 til 3:00 the day you get on the ship. In my experience they've always bent over backwards to accommodate you (within reason - not everyone can get a table by the window for instance).

Absolutely true. My wife always packs a single full sized suitcase and winds up not wearing half of the things she's packed.

Yes, there's an "Elegant" night. It's not as formal as it used to be, some people choose to simply wear nice clothes such as trousers and a polo or button down shirt, while others still go all out with tuxedos and evening gowns.

I'm glad we're having this meaningful discussion about fries. We could be spending hours upon hours having a totally stupid discussion about the buns. 😁

To the OP's question, yes, you can always get OJ at breakfast or brunch for free. Sometimes a staff member will come around pushing "fresh squeezed" juices for $5 per glass, but the regular OJ is always free. AND I've never had any complaints about the OJ either from the machines in the buffet or in the MDR, I guess some people are a lot pickier than me. (And I grew up in Florida with orange trees in our backyard). Also, the Passion Fruit Cocktail, when it's available, goes great with rum. 😁

Just for grins I looked up the itinerary for that cruise - Cozumel is the first stop. All that hassle for two days on the ship just isn't worth it. The only option that makes any sense is for your hubby to be a no-show so you can at least get back taxes and port fees. (And I'll add that in my most humble opinion if I'd have ever had a job where I found out at nearly the last instant that my vacation with my family was getting trashed I'd have told them to stick it where the sun don't shine.)