notscb

I don't think this is the pro tip. On debarkation morning, they've got most of the pool areas pretty locked down from my experience and memory- they even had a staff member shooing people away from the aft pool when we docked in December. They'll leave you instructions, but usually they'll have you gather somewhere common (most lines use the theater for this) and wait until everyone is off the ship, at which point you'll be escorted off (in some cases), through customs and back onboard. Sometimes you'll get lucky and you'll be able to stay on, but it really depends on the decision customs makes. edit: they want people off the ship, so they don't usually leave anything open they don't have to.

If they can only use the HUB app, it sounds like they haven't logged in yet. Wifi speeds are really dependent on ship and region you're sailing in, and Carnival is known to give partial or full refunds if you let them try to help you but nothing improves (need to request this while onboard, though). I was on the Dream in December and used my ipad and android phone- both had reliable connection, but my android definitely did better in terms of speed.

That's quite the losing job, I feel for those crew members who were actively trying to work against what is really just a bad design.

That's good to know! I don't know if cruise lines have taken steps to avoid this problem somehow, but it seems like maybe they have.

After reading another article about rear-facing balcony cruise soot, I was wondering if the new Carnival Ships experienced this problem at all or if anyone had experienced this issue on ships with newer designs? I had also wondered if the Carnival Freedom might have this issue given the temporary stack design. Anyone have the inside scoop?

I'm not. Their website isn't all that savvy. On our last cruise, I was able to add it to my cart and get through most of the checkout before noticing that it "isn't available to NY residents." They don't have a fail safe for this built into their coding.

Good on you for reading the fine print and not just taking their word at it. It also doesn't cover folks in NY (and other states), which I only saw a disclaimer for after I had booked my reservation and went to see how much it would be to add it later. FWIW, I think many insurance policies sold by cruise lines barely meet the definition when it comes to actual customer experience. There's also much better coverage available for usually the same or less cost through a third party. I know the cruise lines make a commission on the number of policies sold, but by god I wish someone in corporate would at least make a good faith effort to ensure they are selling something worthwhile.

There was another poster who frequents this board and often contributes insider engineering type knowledge (sorry, I can't remember the username or I'd just tag them) who pointed out that while LNG might burn cleaner, it's also not yet available at an industrial scale in terms of logistics and may take more to transport to different ports for ships to use. In terms of "environmentally friendly," there is definitely two (or more) sides to this discussion.

Yay! I'm excited to follow along on your next journey!

OH MY GOSH. That is nightmare fuel for me, especially when you were about to go on vacation out of the country and were going to be essentially out of reach. I hope you and yours were okay and still able to enjoy your trip!

Geesh. This response is definitely not the vibe. The window they give is generally like 6 hours long. Can you not give them a 15 minute window where they can clean (sometimes even less time) in 6 hours? I find your assessment of once per day servicing in relation to the increased gratuities absurd. Yes. We do leave cash at hotels for a tip. It's customary to tip many folks who work in hospitality. Further, on cruise lines, your tips aren't made "more absurd" by only having once per day room servicing with how many folks are "cut in" to the tip pool that you might not even be aware of. I'm genuinely confused when you say "they no longer have Stewards, just maids." Are you trying to talk down about them by this comment?

When you checked out, did the gratuities get added separately?

Where are you seeing this? The tip has never just been for the cabin steward- it's split between the steward, the host in the dining room, your serving team and a whole bunch of guest-facing employees around the ship. $40/day isn't out of line considering what tipping landside is, too.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Sad

We paid $45, and the page they linked says $48/per adult.

I was able to watch netflix/tiktok/youtube on the Dream a few weeks back. It varies widely ship to ship, but yeah, Carnival probably should have considered upgrading to Starlink before upping the price considering they already hiked it back in September.

Where are you cruising to? For us, our verizon unlimited plan covered us for some data + unlimited talk/text while we were in Mexico and covers a bunch of other countries- it might be worth exploring if you travel frequently. Verizon also has a travel pass program where for $10/day ( i think) you can get temporary (24 hour) service- I can't remember if the Travel Pass program only covers Canada+Mexico or if other countries are included, but might be worth looking into.

On the dream, TikTok was relatively fast with the premium plan, and YouTube as well. YMMV, as ship wifi can be really hit or miss depending on traffic, time of day, itinerary, age of network infrastructure onboard, cabin location and your physical location on deck. When I was on RCL in May, the wifi worked great everywhere except for my own stateroom. On Carnival Dream in December, it was great and fast everywhere.

That's the reason we did a Carnival excursion as well and that peace of mind when we were an hour+ from port but with other Carnival passengers meant that we knew we'd be back on time. Belize City, and the tourism village proper doesn't really have anything for tourists to "do" nearby so I'd definitely suggest taking @Homosassa's advice and going with the Carnival excursion if you have the ability to do so.

Glad i'm not the only one who noticed that. Also claimed to have crew members onboard recorded, makes me wonder...

The primary one being you haven't been very specific as to what you'd like her to take note of. These boards are just a very, very small sample of folks who are more likely to discuss challenges or problems they have cruising because that's the literal point of being here. I'm still looking through this thread looking for what your exact feedback to the CEO would be.

I'm wondering what you're talking about here- we got off of the dream a few weeks back and had an amazing vacation. What problems are you hoping she would see, specifically?

That might be an oversimplification given the sheer amount of flights that were cancelled during the busiest travel time of the entire year.

How do these annual policies work? Have you ever had to make a claim- just wondering if they increase your premium if you make a claim in like March and need to again in September or something.

Sure, but us making assumptions about their circumstances when Southwest cancelled 2,500+ flights in an instant is not really the best way to go about participating in this discussion. I feel for OP- not everyone was aware that SWA was melting down and even if you were, how likely were you to find a seat for your whole family on another airline that didn't break the vacation budget bank? It's a weird choice to scream "bUt PeRSonAL ReSPonSiBiLiTY" when there's been no responsibility from the C-Suite at a major U.S. Carrier, which impacted thousands of peoples holiday plans.