edrussell

Last year almost every offer we received had at least one sailing out of there. Not sure what is going on. We've sailed on Oasis/Anthem/Adventure from Cape Liberty all on COMP. Maybe demand is changing? We'd happily go back to RCCL as our primary line without a second thought. While we did have fun on Venezia, we would rather RCCL any day. However if offers stay like this there is no option.

One and only sailing on Carnival, booked via a casino offer. Costs below for an 8 night on Venezia. I keep very detailed records of our gambling. VERY detailed, we came out up 752 for the cruise. No jackpots or handpays, but 2 of the nights we came out significantly ahead. We have booked 2 more Carnival sailings from offers as well, one oceanview on Vista (8 night) and one on Venezia (10 night), both with 200 onboard credit. Our budget is 140 each per night that we gamble on slots (on this cruise we gambled 5 of the nights, for maybe 2.5 hours). On RCCL we have cruised 5 times, 4 of the trips we ended up down (highest loss was a little over 600) and 2 of the trips we came away up (one of them over 1100). When I total the 5 cruises with RCCL and the 1 with Carnival we are slightly down (just over 800 in total). I could share a detailed breakdown per night if need be. There is ABSOLUTELY no doubt that in the long run we will lose on slots however when we factor RCCL/Carnival comp rates we find them significantly better than land based casinos we use. I have equally detailed records of all of our Vegas trips (currently at 11). We haven't fared as well in Vegas.

Current offers, not one single sailing from Cape Liberty. Not one from Baltimore. Only 1 sailing on the books booked from RCCL. Sad. Too bad.

Thanks for your support! You are awesome.

We were on the Sept 8 to 16 sailing, and I 100% agree, most of the kinks were ironed out by then.

Of course this would get derailed into the discussions of evils of plastic. Good grief. I am sure there is am empty soapbox on your local street corner to occupy. I agree with the poster than mentioned using the alternative that RCCL has went with. Definitely a more useful straw. Carnivals turn to an awful gooey mess almost instantly. Surely this isn't news to them. Out of curiosity what is the cost of the metal ones they sell? I never did ask while onboard. I guess the next few posters will be barrage of facts and figures on plastic. 😃

Based on everything I read and what we experienced when we sailed Venezia if you can wait a little I'd do so. Now this is only if waiting really doesn't matter to you. Venezia had some significant growing pains when it came over to Carnival. We spoke with a LOT of staff on our sailing and they confirmed they had a tough time also. Then again if you are the type to let most things not bother you at all, then go for it! It's still a cruise right?

We just got off our first Carnival sailing last month and going in I knew about the candy straws. We had experienced the bio-degradable straws on RCCL and those bloody candy straws are downright AWFUL on Carnival. They almost instantly turn into goo and are all but useless. I only really use a straw in a frozen pool drink, so I didn't think they would bother me. They did. I'll bring my own on the next sailing.

3 current offers, not ONE SINGLE sailing from Bayonne in them now. Not one. Just yesterday my wife received yet another set from Carnival with more balcony offers. I guess RCCL wants to see the back side of us. Too bad. Oh well, we still have Wonder in Feb of 2024 and will make it to Prime, but I'll cap it at that. We can use our prime certificate from next year again. However unless offers improve and/or change we will be switching to Carnival. Breaks my heart but it is what it is.

Sept 8 - 16.

Haven't noticed that sort of behavior but we definitely did notice on our last sailing that night one and the second to last night seemed to be the nights the slots were loosest. Especially so on night one. Almost anyone I spoke to came out up via slots on that night. A total coincidence for sure, but it was funny how anyone I spoke to about slots for the entire cruise mentioned night 1. Either way we came away from our sailing way up.

Oddly enough we went into the Carnival cruise with LOW expectations as far as the food went and I am very happy to say that we were proved wrong. The MDR on Venezia easily outshined any RCCL ship we've ever been on for 7 out of the 8 nights of our sailing. Service was OK at best, but the food was really good. The whole 15 drink limit was annoying and especially signing for every drink. We did like the comedians as well. Truth be told despite all of what we like we'd still rather RCCL. However there are NO offers we can (want to) currently take advantage of. Not sure if this an annual occurrence with RCCL or they are thinning the herd. If the offers return, we will return, if not so be it. We really have no specific attachment to any cruise line.

Have only sailed Carnival once and enjoyed it, but one pet peeve did come up, at one bar they refused to give me unopened beers. We like to grab an unopened beer or two throughout the day to enjoy in the room later. We aren't hoarding or anything, just a room beer. Most bars onboard had zero issue, this one bartender and entire bar refused.

We booked two sailings, one 8 night in June of next year on Vista, an oecanview with 100 each of OBC. Also a 10 night on Venezia in Oct of next year, balcony with 100 each of OBC. I guess we are Carnival people now.

The lack of offers finally pushed us to take advantage of the plentiful offers that Carnival have sent us. We booked 2 sailings for 2024 on Friday. One 8 night and one 10 night. One was a balcony with 100 each of OBC and the other was an oceanview with 100 each of OBC. Hard to pass that up. We will make Prime on our Wonder sailing in Feb of 2024, as we only need 600 points but unless offers improve we will continue to make the switch to Carnival for the time being. Too bad as we have only sailed Carnival once and we did like it, but still would prefer RCCL. Checked our offers this morning and 3 are showing with only 1 sailing from Bayonne. We hit 1900 points on our Grandeur sailing which I guess doesn't register for RCCL anymore. So be it.

Our offers have refreshed and are very good. We are about to book a few more sailings. It appears our play did move the needle with Carnival.

For the next little while my wife and I are trying as much as possible to restrict our sailings to Baltimore/Bayonne to keep costs down. We can easily drive to either port. For the past 2 years at this time of year we'd have had lots of options to choose from. So many that we often commented about a lack of vacation to take them up on the offers. This year, there is ONE, yes ONE sailing offered to us out of Bayonne. Quite the difference a year makes. We have one sailing booked with RCCL right now, our Prime certificate booking on Wonder in Feb of 2024. Lean times...

How often do offers refresh within their system? We disembarked on Sept 16. I am wondering what is the usual turn around to see if our play was enough to move the needle.

Fantastic review! Your observations are very similar to mine about the ship.

On our Carnival cruise on Sep 8-16 we were re-routed and missed all 3 ports and ended up with 3 completely different ones (due to hurricane Lee). We received 15.65 in credit for some of the port fees for each of us. Some on the roll call and even on the cruise seemed to have lost their ever loving minds over it. We didn't bat an eye. You book a cruise in hurricane season, you have to accept that changes to ports may happen. Also the cruise contract allows them to do so. We received the notice the night before we embarked. We didn't spend more than 10 seconds thinking about it. We can easily enjoy drinks in one port as another. However I know some people feel as though they are entitled to an all expenses paid world cruise because they miss one port. Best of luck.

That is correct, Cheers does not kick 1 until Day 2 when sailing from NY.

The casino on Venezia is smoky but it gets much better when it is less crowded. If you are in there at peak times it is quite smoky. Later in the night (we are late night gamblers) it does get better. The annex casino is small and cramped. While it is non-smoking there is a strong smell of smoke in there as well. Overall we did not like the casino on Venezia, it is small, the drink servers are very slow and there are too few of them (yes we did tip), and the lack of a bar turns us off. That said the table games area is laid out relatively well.

Wait time totally depends on the show. We saw many different shows/comedians in the theatre and never had a problem getting a seat. We'd typically arrive 20 minutes or so before a show. One note is that it was FRIGID in there.

Wow, fast answers to my questions. Thanks everyone. What I did was screenshot the 'receipts' of drinks we consumed via the Cheers Package. I have found 3 examples of drinks being a different cost in the MDR versus all other bars. Also I found one example of a beer being 6.50 at one bar, then 7.50 at another. Now with that said all are zero dollars as we had the Cheers package. If I were paying out of pocket that would be annoying, being different prices at different bars. I guess it is policy to open drinks, most bars didn't seem to 'enforce' it though.

One other strange one I've noticed while reviewing our digital receipts through the Hub app, is that drinks are 1.00 when ordered in the MDR. A crown royal is 12.00 when ordered from any bar onboard, but is 11.00 in the MDR. Is this normal?