StephPS79

I booked a GYT interior and was assigned a Cloud 9 Spa cabin.  While I did take a snoozer on the heated chairs which was dreamy, I didn't end up using the spa much.  While I wish I would have taken advantage of it a bit more, I might have if I had paid extra for it, but TBH, after that, I probably wouldn't decide to pay extra, just wasn't worth it for me.  That's just me though.

57 minutes ago, sunkey1 said:

Problem is that it's too often NOT being kept in line. I saw TONS of security people on this last cruise but didn't see them doing much...

Unless there is a safety issue, there's not much security is going to do.  They aren't there to babysit badly behaved kids, that's a parenting issue.  

1 hour ago, mz-s said:

 

Good point. It's only an issue for those of us who have cruised Carnival for years and know what they're capable of.

You keep saying that.  I think it is time to accept that things have changed from years ago.

Edited to add: I think the food on Carnival is actually about 3 steps above the food on Royal Caribbean.  Food is subjective.  I found the chicken tenders to be on par with things I've gotten at many other places, and I'll say again, I thought they were actually pretty good.  If food snobs want to think think that is low-class, then by all means, they can do so.

I've never been served a cold sandwich that tasted like cat food, but maybe you had a bad experience.  I would tend to think the good experience outnumber the bad (this is my own personal experience), but possibly your subjective scale is different than mine, and that is okay.  

However, if my subjective scale tipped as negative as yours, on Carnival, I wouldn't continue to select Carnival as my cruise line.

2 hours ago, Colorado Beach Bum said:

Seems like every cruise these days is one of the casino cruises so hard to avoid the crowds of the ultras, elites, or premier cruises even if you don’t book one and book under a different rate. 

Pretty much this.

1 hour ago, aborgman said:

 

I expect that they'll be made from... chicken tenders.

 

Carnival's chicken "tenders" aren't.

This brings me back to the main point.  Reviewing expectations vs. product is a good idea.  

My expectation from Carnival's bargain-priced product is not top of the line food, especially at something called "Late Night Snacks." 

15 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

DH and I will be on Pride this September for Bermuda and I’ll be by posting a LIVE review👍😁

Great - I'll look forward to following along!

3 minutes ago, vandercapellen said:

Got mine. They didn't even include my home port. (Baltimore) Not even a good deal at all, I'll stick with my other offers.

I agree, I have better offers and don't think we'll be booking one of these - but it does look like the screenshot posted above includes a Baltimore sailing in November 2025, is that not showing an option for you?

We're booked on the Pride to Bermuda for September 2025, will be the first time on the Pride.  I'm actually pretty excited after reading some of these comments (I was excited before, but more so now)!  First time to Bermuda too, with 2 overnights, so really looking forward to this cruise.  Too bad I've gotta ride this excitement out for another 549 days lol.

51 minutes ago, HolySpearit said:

Well shoot, we don’t “go live” til the 21st but based on those dates I’m not sure when we’d go….was hoping for 2025z We already have the 8 day Horizon booked next fall. Maybe we need a preview in April

 

edit: just saw the later dates. Hmmmm 🤔

There are several 2025 dates available.

17 minutes ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

No one has said they expect the quality and bredth of the midnight buffets from 20 years ago.  However the reality is that the the quality of the midnight snacks is below any other food I've seen currently served onboard.  The people that are perfectly content eating chicken gristle and cheap hot dogs on stale buns are the same ones who'd be happy to eat corn flakes, bologna sandwiches, and hot dog spaghetti if that made or kept their cruise price cheaper.

Good thing there are several options available, such as:

Pass on late night snacks and eat other options on the ship that you enjoy.

Skip food that doesn’t appeal to you.

Choose another cruise line with higher prices and “better” food options that might fit your preferences better.

…just to name a few.

3 hours ago, mz-s said:

Better than nothing is the best thing you can say about late night snacks.

A very generalized opinion from one person.

8 minutes ago, Illbcruzn4life said:

so they took the amount you paid for the canceled pax and charged you a cancelation fee on top of that?

In my case, I was charged a $100 cancellation penalty, which was subtracted from the refund of taxes and fees.  I received taxes and port fees minus $100.

26 minutes ago, n6uqqq said:

I think what we are debating are two different beasts. It makes sense that casino deals have their own special T&C. I have never seen the T&C for casino deals because the only gambling I do is the free 25 dollar platinum fun play. So in a sense maybe everyone here is correct for their particular sailing having fees eat out of the Port fee refund if they had booked a casino deal.

Casino bookings have the same T&C as any sailing.  

I second what most others have said.  Celebration is a new, bigger, brighter ship.  If that appeals to you more than ports, Celebration.  If you don't mind an older, smaller ship, and ports are important, I would hands-down take the itinerary on the Magic over that Celebration itinerary.  

Just to note, we'll all have different expectations and opinions.  I've sailed both ships and found the food quality to be similar between the two where they overlap, with no complaints on either.  The Celebration definitely has more food options, which was nice.  But overall quality, in my opinion, was the same.  I don't feel the food on the Magic "has gotten better," I don't think it was that bad to begin with, and is very comparable to the food on the Celebration.

While the Magic does show signs of age and wear, I can't say that impacts my experience in the least.  To be fair, the couch in our cabin on the Celebration showed quite a bit of...usage...and that is relatively young ship.

My own personal opinion, I wouldn't hesitate to go on either ship again, but the bells and whistles on the Celebration aren't enough to sell me on that itinerary and given the option, I'd choose the Magic sailing. 

20 minutes ago, staceyglow said:

Actually, it's just common courtesy. 

Did anyone go without cookies?  From the OPs original post, there was a half bowl of cookies there while they waited, up for grabs.  

10 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

in OPs case someone no showed, there should be a refund legally. I'm betting there is something in the agreement you click on that gets them out if it. 

There was a refund of port fees and taxes.  There was also a cancellation fee assessed, which is deducted from the refund of port fees and taxes.  The agreement is cancellation fees will be assessed.  We can use whatever semantics we want, a no-show is technically a cancellation.

13 hours ago, staceyglow said:

 

What reasonable explanation could there be?  Unless you are getting dessert for a dozen or so of your mobility-impaired friends, I certainly can't think of one.

To be fair, there is at least one thing that you could think of, and just did.   Someone else mentioned a medical reason for taking cookies to the room.  I could think of a few "reasonable" reasons on my own.  In reality, it could even be what you mentioned, we don't know.  Who knows.  

It's just cookies.  

I do think this is a policy that has always been there that is now being more heavily enforced.  The last time I no-showed a guest I was charged a fee, which was deducted from the refund of port fees and taxes.

We're talking about chicken tenders, right?  The thing that's usually on most kids menus?  

I'm not sure what one expects from "chicken tenders" but I got some greasy breaded and fried chicken, perfect for dunking in that actually pretty tasty honey mustard that was there (although I'll fully admit to mistaking it as cheese sauce and dumping all over my hotdog - actually worked out well) just as expected.  

I really think some expectations need to be evaluated to determine is Carnival is the right cruise line for individual preference.  If not, it is fine to move on.

I was on the Celebration this month.  I found the food on the midnight buffet to be perfectly acceptable, and would go so far as to say I enjoyed the chicken tenders.  I wouldn't say it was the best food on the ship, but it definitely hit the midnight spot.  We all have different opinions.

59 minutes ago, weezal said:

it's not the amount of time you're in the casino playing, but rather the coin-in that determines points earned.

Is there any source of confirmation for this?  There have been many mentions of "how long" you spend in the casino as a tick-mark on the ideal player.  Vegas certainly does everything they can to keep you in the casino, as it is a well-regarded theory that the longer you sit, the more you lose.

1 minute ago, kwokpot said:

Your math seems off. Are you saying you earned over 21,000 points in the casino and only spent $400? That doesn't seem possible unless you had multiple large jackpots that gave you cash to play through to earn 21,000 points.

Nah, no jackpots - kind of unfortunate the way it worked out!  On the first night, I played $300 on Double Diamond High limit, but spinning $5 denom 2 credits.  ($200 Funplay, put $100 charge in).  Lost that in about 2 minutes lol!

I switched over to play a Pinball machine, Double Gold or whatever it was, still on the first night.  I charged $100, I was betting max at $1 denom, so $10/spin, and honest truth kept hitting Pinball and a few good hits, twice $800.  But the Pinballs just kept hitting!  Like every 3rd or 4th spin!  I went up to $2 denom for a little while while it was hitting well. That first night, I was up around $5000!  I finished the first night with around 11,000 points.

And here the story takes a tragic turn.  I wish I never stopped playing that first night lol!  The Pinball machine died on me.  I kept leaving, but couldn't help coming back to it, with the hopes it would be nice and pump out the luck like it did the first night.  But nope.  Put all $5000 back, tried to find some luck on a few different machines with a few hundred more, but no such luck to be found.

I really regret playing out of my bank, instead of just charging it to the room, and then paying off the balance after the cruise.  Not a rookie, but definite rookie mistake on my part.

Actually, I should have took that money and ran after the first night, but that's gambling for ya.

4 hours ago, sparks1093 said:

My thought is that all cruise lines are a little different, nothing more, nothing less.

This, really.  Both the loyalty and casino perks are completely different programs between cruise lines.  They follow the same principles, but cost vs. reward is very hard to compare across cruise lines.  

8 hours ago, Slattery said:

What is the rough qualification to be offered an elite casino offer with Carnival?

Unfortunately, there's no confirmed answer to this questions.  Play what you can afford and hope for the best.

10 minutes ago, Elaine5715 said:

Because as stated, "points" are a record of a single card in the machine, they offer no insight and people share cards thinking they will "get more".  Offers are based on the information collected by the casino marketing bots that create a profile of your potential spend and resources as a player.  For example, Costco -ideal customer- in the United States is an Asian-American woman. College educated and 39 years old, this individual earns more than $125,000 per year. Costco shoppers, on average, are younger and have higher incomes than those of its primary competitor, Sam’s Club.  Since Costco also sells cruise vacations, using their collected data (average spend, card level)  is very likely a data collection point.  The US Census provides information by census tract including age, home ownership, average income, educational levels, employment-all those questions you answer about yourself.  Your zip code provides information about the average cost of living, cost of rent/home, values, taxes-income.  Your address reveals if you rent or own and what you paid for your house (other resources estimate rents).  The market bot know the profiles of every credit card company customers. All land casino players club, hotels, airlines, rental car places  sell information and the bots know what it takes to get and maintain status at each.  Professional associations and state business agencies sell membership lists and on and on..

It takes about 2 seconds for the bots to figure out a new cruiser who spent $20 on a flutter on their first Carnival cruise is actual a Diamond Plus Caesars, MGM Platinum, Delta Diamond, living in a $800,000 house, owns a business, holds the Costco Plus card and paid for their cruise with a Delta Business Reserve card.   They want that player back onboard but a free interior isn't going to float their boat since they get suites at Caesar's so hello new ECHO offer.

Compare that profile with a Carnival casino player who had 5000 points on their card and paid their ship account with a debit card.  Who is more likely to spend, spend, spend once onboard?  

People want/need to believe it is points so they can feel good about overspending because they got a free steak dinner and "hopefully" will get a good offer.  Should that comp or offer fail to appear, they figure they just didn't spend enough so they spend more.  It is a beautiful casino plan.  For those who are convinced it was their points alone, are either forgetting that their onboard spend also increased (onboard overall spend matters) and are seemingly unaware about how much the casino actually knows about them. One leader of a popular social media club jumped from Blue Card holder to ECHO (Executive Casino Host Oncall-Carnival's term for their top players) quickly.  Was it because they now cruise frequently?  No, it was because they own a HUGE business and are the type of player Las Vegas would send a jet for if they didn't already own one.  

 

None of that answers the question:

1 hour ago, Colorado Beach Bum said:

What is your source of information?  Do you work in the casino department?