notscb

IMHO, the deck around the ship is what RCL does right with their freedom class. I think it was deck 4 or 5 but it was lower, quieter, shaded and was very easy to do some laps. I'm a bit surprised Carnival didn't integrate this into their new class of ships.

The coves are higher up on the Celebration if I remember right, no? I remember watching a youtuber who was in a cove on Mardi Gras on deck 5 maybe?

...Is this part of the ship missing the Teak deck?

WHAT.

I appreciate that you gave us the good/neutral/bad perspectives, it was actually really helpful in getting a sense of how the experience was overall (and it sounds like you had a good time!). When you mention "no guest belongings strewn around" on turnaround day- that might be true, but some guests leave staterooms absolutely trashed and leave their trash everywhere when leaving, too. Stuff left in drawers, under the beds, in the bathroom, etc. While it's less trash and belongings, my experience has shown me that some guests absolutely trash their rooms and resetting them to the default level of cleanliness for the next guest can be an involved process.

That's the opposite of what I said... I said that no amount of pay can truly compensate the folks working on ships for leaving their homes for the duration of their contract, i.e. their pay very clearly doensn't match up with the job they have.

I think I would ask the CEO what his vision is for the future of cruising? Is it mega-ship style family vacations, or is it smaller, more intimate experiences where passengers are able to explore different areas? How does the future of cruising take into account the long term environmental and economic impacts that cruise lines have on the communities they port in?

You're neglecting that the cost of taking one of these shipboard jobs is being away from your entire life fomr 6-8 months at a time. There's no amount of money that can truly fairly compensate for that, and I'd bet any cruise line CEO would dodge the crew staffing and pay quesiton if they really could.

Was on the Dream in December of 22, stayed in a cove balcony on Deck 2. We had plenty of speed in our cabin and used the internet on three devices total. It was easy to switch back and forth too. We didn't try the in-app texting, though, because it cost additional (which makes 0 sense- if you pay for a package it should just be included). The only area where it didn't work great was on sea days in the Haven area, but even still I could load webpages and scroll social media fine. I wouldn't want to take a zoom call necessarily, but otherwise it worked just fine.

I mean, that's good advice for anyone for any purchase, especially online purchases. In my experience, when that specific thing happens on Carnival's website, it's usually because I changed a detail from the front page (i.e. number of passengers, room location or type, etc.) or the offer that I thought I was going for (i.e. cheers for you) isn't available on that specific sailing. It's always best to put in as many details on the front search page as possible to get an accurate price, including offer codes.

I'd say the best thing to do is set a google alert for the dates and location you're flying to/from and let it notify you so you can get a sense of the trends. Oftentimes, fly2fun fares are previously set per contract with the airline (i.e. the airline sells X number of seats under Y fare code for Z price which is associated with cruise line bookings). Remember that Fly2Fun doesn't guarantee that you'll meet the ship nor does it guarantee that they'll get you to the next port (they vaguely say they'll "help" but don't define what that means).

Yes they do! We had it on the Dream in December, can't exactly remember which night.

Just saw this. If you're getting off in MIA- do not take the cruise line transportation. That area is well-saturated with companies with vans, cars, buses etc. that you can use to get to FLL (for much cheaper and much less of a headache*). You could even take an uber across the bridge to the market and grab the flix bus to FLL and get there by noon with self-disembark.

You bring up a good point, honestly. OP needs to decide what a reasonable resolution to the issue is and present that to guest services. Guest services and RCL at large can't help someone who is just going to complain about every single thing about their vacation.

What airline are you flying? When i came in from Miami and had to catch a flight to FLL, I was at FLL by 9:00am (off the ship around 7:45ish, the van service I used waited for a few others but gave up and left for the airport). When I got there, I asked a customer service person if they'd bump me up to the earlier flight and they did (they didn't have to). YMMV, but noonish should (in most cases) be a safe bet. Definitely make sure you self-disembark, though. The longer you wait, the longer it takes to get off the ship.

Here's the thing with CC: most of us are extremely sympathetic to those who are having a bad time on their vacations. We all understand the expense we all put toward our cruise vacations and we want them to be 10/10 every time. The thing is, when you come to these boards and complain about every single aspect (and it genuinely seems like every single aspect) of your current vacation, we (I) can't help but wonder if it's not all just on RCL. I'm sure there are areas where RCL could do better by you, but it seems like you might just not be happy either way. When ports are cancelled, usually your port fees and taxes are refunded- surely they did that at least? As for your AC, you might calmly go to guest services in person and request help. When maintenance comes, speak to them with grace and see what they say. If the issue isn't resolved, ask for help at guest services again. You might have to switch cabins or something, but I've found they are way, way more likely to help when you approach them with kindness (to the tune of a free extended balcony upgrade for me on my last RCL cruise).

Thats good to know! I'm going to keep a eye on it, but for now it's a bit more than I'm hoping to spend on it. Maybe next year, though!

That was kind of my thought as well, especially since the actual (non TA) cruises on the O-Class ships is still selling at a premium. I figured the TA on it would be a great way to really explore and experience the ship.

I can answer this one! We did a Carnival excursion in Belize and had to take the water shuttle. Our tickets that were delivered to our room on day 1 had a time to meet in the theater to pickup the water shuttle "ticket" which was really just a sticker with the excursion name on it. We got to the theater a bit late and had to wait in a huge line just to get this sticker and then make our way downstairs, where we happened to get on a tender with a bunch of other people with the same sticker. The line of folks waiting to get into the theater were for all of the excursions, it was fun to talk to folks while we wondered if we'd miss it. It seemed like Carnival was just doing their best to get all of their excursion sponsored folks off first (ish) and there were multiple tenders doing so.

I HAD NO IDEA. Thank you! 🙂 Makes sense why suddenly the rates went up so much.

I agree the pricing is decent either way, given how long the trip is. If I understand right, that ship is going to be in Dry Dock following the TA for a few weeks, which makes me think it may need some refreshing. What about it did you like or do you feel makes it one of the best ships in the fleet?

It's actually really weird, on all of the sites I'm using to compare pricing, the advertised pricing is definitely not what's coming up for double (which I attribute to an inventory issue/dynamic pricing- more cabins being sold etc.)

GGG Sale? I'm definitely leaning toward the hypothetical of booking two and getting a refund of the second port fees and taxes for when they suddenly can't make it (if i can get the pricing to work out).

It really comes down to how much value the program is bringing to RCL's bottom line. If it's not profitable, it's going away. As someone who used it while solo cruising, I found the Key to really help set a positive start and tone to my vacation (I was #2 on the ship, and was able to easily meet new people at lunch right away) and would strongly consider getting it again.

I like that you've improved on the traditional mustering by mandating checks throughout the process and for people to visit the actual locations. I'm sure as a FA, you know there are better ways that airlines should do safety briefings and the routine way of doing it has become mundane, even though it's literally life or death if the practices ever need to be enacted. As another poster pointed out, when people are called to muster it's supposed to be long before the actual emergency has risen to the level of risk of life. Of course, there are unplanned other emergencies that come up, but to have people more familiar with the process is really beneficial to everyone. Kudos to you for suggesting an actual improvement when most on this board would rather just do away with the entire thing.