Rudyard

I haven't seen Guinness on Carnival in years. They have some other kind of stout but can't recall the name. 

You could also deposit cash as needed. Whenever I've done a cash account I'll usually start with a small amount like $200 and keep the rest of my cash in the safe. I'll monitor my account and when it gets low I'll go to the self serve kiosk and add some cash to my account. 

3 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

You can also take the bottle of water that's in the cabin. Be sure to let the cabin steward know what you're doing so you're not charged for it.

I went to the atrium bar on my last cruise to get my water and the bartender told me the same thing. 

On 3/28/2024 at 9:50 AM, staceyglow said:

I chuckle when I hear Carnival being called the "Walmart of the Seas". 

I've found that people that use this to describe Carnival are usually people who have only cruised with a cruise line that rhymes with "foil" who...

1. Were talked into going on a Carnival cruise by friends or family and went into it determined to have a bad time

2. Got a really good offer for a Carnival cruise that they couldn't pass up and went into it determined to have a bad time

3. Booked a cheap three day cruise on an older Carnival ship without doing any research and had a bad time

4. Never cruised with Carnival but heard how bad it was from their neighbor's brother's sister in law who falls into category 1, 2, or 3. 

51 minutes ago, Afttastic said:

 

I believe it was CNBC several years ago had a show about the financials of a cruise ship for one sailing. If i can recall correctly - it was break even or just a little under just from cruise fares - and on-board sales determined profitability. They even showed that alcohol sales were down mid-cruise and were pushing specials to increase sales. 

I remember that show. It was called Cruise Inc: Big Money on the High Seas. Pretty good behind the scenes documentary. I remember they lost a lot of money at one port where some excursions were cancelled due to weather. 

1 minute ago, Illbcruzn4life said:

does a passport have to have at least 6 months left on the passport for it to be valid?

Only for cruises stopping in Colombia or Greenland (according to the Carnival website). I cruised to Cozumel and Costa Maya a couple of years ago with three months left on my passport and had no problems. 

Since it's a two person cabin, I'm wondering if the couch even folds out into a bed? If so then I see no problem with it. If not he might be too tall at 16 to just sleep on the couch. 

On our last cruise we went to our cabin just to drop off our bags (we had FTTF) and didn't expect to stay. When we got there around 1130 the door was closed and there were no keys in the mailbox. As we were leaving our steward suddenly showed up, opened the door for us and told us he was finished with the room, then said we could stay but the keys wouldn't be there until around 1230. We went to eat and came back to find the keys waiting just like he said. If he hadn't have told us we could stay we wouldn't have and I won't plan on it for next time.

Since the restart I've always picked up my water at the bar. On my last cruise I went to the Atrium bar and the bartender told us our steward had already marked the two bottles in our cabin as our free bottles so we could just go ahead and drink those. Next time I'll ask my steward if we can take those instead of going to a bar. If I don't it would be my luck I'd drink them and get charged. 

Looking forward to trying MSC. Been wanting to try them for a few years now but my wife won't fly unless it's absolutely necessary. If the cruise I have booked for December of '25 wasn't a 10 day Panama cruise I'd cancel in a heartbeat and book MSC. Hoping maybe I can book a spring '26 cruise. The itinerary doesn't worry me as Seascape looks nice enough that I probably won't want to get off the ship. 

That's a shame if they're really making it into a casino. I saw a couple of good movies on Vista. I remember seeing a door on Deck 4 aft (IIRC) that was marked Conference Room. I'm surprised they don't put it there like they did on the Dream class. 

1 hour ago, ontheweb said:

 My bad. I was thinking personal cruise something or other. I'm sure it is not my first mistake or will be my last. 

No worries. I didn't even think about PCP looking similar to PVP. Should have just said Doctor instead. 

My wife had to have stitches for a bad cut on her arm before a cruise a couple of years ago. When we realized that the date to have them removed was during the cruise we contacted our PCP for advice. She said leaving them in an extra couple of days wouldn't hurt. 

Got a postcard a couple of days ago and decided to Google the name of the show and the phone number and it led me to this thread. Card looks similar to the one posted earlier in the thread. First 50 callers get the $100 dining card. Being held at the Courtyard by Marriot in Houston but doesn't say which one. Only one of them is close to me. There are at least a half dozen of them in and around the city. Says I'll get my choice of 4, 5, or 7 day cruise on Carnival, Royal, or NCL (apparently it's my choice). I have enough experience with vendors in the cruise ports to easily say "No" for a mere 90 minutes, but reading about the hoops I might have to jump through to actually get the cruise makes this a no-go for me. 

On 12/29/2023 at 1:10 PM, Old Fart Cruisers said:

In September on Venezia, when I went to drop off my carry on bags in the room, the room steward walked by and said "your room is ready, if you want to stay".  I was really surprised because it was still pretty early, and the ship was full.  We wanted to explore the ship, so we didn't take him up on the offer to stay.  Not anything I would EXPECT in the future, and I would never bother the steward to ask if we could stay, but it was really nice of him to offer.

Ours did the same on Breeze last month. We had FTTF but arrived a bit late and didn't get to our cabin until around 11:30. The door was closed and we were about to walk away when our steward came around the corner, said he was finished and that we could stay. He did warn us the S&S cards wouldn't be in the mailbox for about another hour. We dropped our bags, ate lunch, and came back around 12:30 to find the cards waiting for us. Gave him a little extra on top of the cash tip we normally would leave for great service. 

2 hours ago, nicoleinwi said:

so it looked like the only benefit is embarkation day benefits.

You also get priority debarkation which can get you off the ship earlier if you need that perk, and you get to use the priority line at Guest Services which can save you a lot of time if you have an issue that requires a GS visit. I've only ever had to visit GS twice and having FTTF made it a quick visit. 

Yes. I was just on Breeze a couple of weeks ago. I'm also an early riser and had no problem getting coffee in the buffet before 0600. 

8 hours ago, Bostonjetset said:

Please tell me the bacon comment is a joke?  I haven’t been on Carnival in years but will be on the Pride in March as she had the best partial Panama Canal itinerary for my schedule. Do they really not have bacon every day?

It was only available two days out of five on my last cruise, and two days out of seven on the cruise before that in the buffet. You can get it every day though if you eat breakfast/brunch in the MDR. 

We had the regular cakes on Breeze last week. They were slicing them thin enough to see through, but at least they were the original cakes. 

I'm planning to be there 

5 hours ago, ledges1 said:

I was on a cruise with Cookie in Oct of 2022. I thought he was ok.  My daughter was on a cruise with him in May and he told people on that cruise he wanted a career  change. 

He said the same thing during a Q&A the last time I cruised with him, but this seems to be an abrupt way to do it. I'm pretty sure there's a lot more to this that we may never know unless something leaks out. 

1 hour ago, jimbo5544 said:

I have never seen Suess sold out.  Possibly on a school break cruise, but that would be the only time

I had never seen it sold out either until my upcoming cruise in a couple of weeks. I'm guessing it's because it's a December/Holiday cruise. We booked it months ago but others in our group on a certain social media site have been trying and it's been showing sold out for weeks. 

Do the cabin stewards even have assistants these days? I remember when I first started cruising the steward would introduce his/her assistant as well as themselves. I'd frequently see the assistant in the hallways or helping clean the cabins, but now I only see my steward and maybe the stewards for the next group of cabins over. 

Go for it. I see nothing wrong with wearing PJs, especially if they're Christmas themed, in the MDR on a holiday cruise. I've seen people wearing Dr Seuss PJs for the Green Eggs and Ham breakfast a few times. And guess what? They seemed to be having the time of their lives. Too many people have forgotten how to have fun these days.

If Jubilee arrives in Galveston on the 20th, she'll have to go back out to sea for the day on the 22nd as Dream and NCL Prima will be at terminals 25 and 28 that day. 20th would be a great day to arrive as there are no other ships in port that day. That will make it easy for people like myself, who plan to be there when she comes in, to be able to find parking and walk around without the usual cruise crowds.