ray98

The unvaccinated have not had a chance to use any FCC's.

I have literally spent dozens of hours around these machines. Once of my favorite hangouts is the seating along the windows adjacent to the casino bar on the older ships. I have seen one person out of all these cruises win and those things are played non-stop.

Yup. It is the same tactic they have followed for years. I remember as far back when you could get a real steak in the MDR any night of the week. Now the only option is pay $26.

The steakhouse brunch is really doesn't fit into this discussion. The cutbacks are things that were included in your fare that were eliminated or modified. Offering brunch in the steakhouse for a cost is just giving another option to spend money.

You are probably right. Our last two cruises including the Elation 3 weeks ago the Canadian choice was Seagrams 7 which is roughly half the price of Crown. They had plenty of Crown to sell you in the shops though.

I guarantee I have read plenty...been here since 2007. It is pretty rare someone has that take-away. The biggest hangup is people get fixated on the 15 drinks and think they have to come close to that to make it 'worth it'.

Yeah...they are certainly limiting the bar menu. They are still claiming Crown is hard to get.

Yup....that was an unfortunate choice by Carnival.

Exactly. The reason I didn't mention it is because I don't know anyone who it works reliably for. I am well aware of the wifi calling settings and how to use it in airplane mode. My wife and I both have Samsung phones with Verizon and it only sporadically works on a ship. Outgoing messages time out 75% of the time and at least 1/2 the incoming texts just get lost. I was always getting 'you get that text I sent 2 hours ago' when nothing came through. It is the same story with another 1/2 dozen couples we know who cruise regularly. We all use other forms on the ship.

Absolutely....I will save money any chance I get.

I tip extra when I encounter something special. The included gratuity for cracking open a beer is normally sufficient in my opinion. Now if you make me a great mixed drink at a busy bar, watch out for me if camp out on a barstool for a while or if a server is bringing me drinks to my table then I will always tip extra.

Are you planning to use an app? Traditional texting works off of the cell service.

Very good summation.

It may have changed by now but it used to be in the Red Frog Pub on port days at 2:30 or so.

Yes...a couple years ago the entree price varied but now it is a flat fee.

It is a marketing tactic creating perceived value....nothing more.

I don't think getting something to eat at 10pm really falls under 'pampered'.

Sometime before boarding is the only correct answer.

100% correct. None on their own are a deal ender but at some point they all cumulatively add up. For us we also enjoyed the previous process for room service breakfast. It was our early morning wake up call and we enjoyed something light with coffee in the cabin, 'breakfast' was always a few hours later mid-morning. It has been many years since I have been up at 4am partying so the pizza shop closing won't impact me but that wasn't the big story in this release. It was the change in 'late night' offerings which is really anything past 9-9:30pm, not really that late.. The lines for pizza are always long as it was even with other offerings on the Lido. Now pretty much moving everything to that single station will likely create a negative experience for the customer because of the waits and lack of choices. This is just another step where Carnival is pushing people to the paid room service in my opinion. It you make it undesirable knowing people tend to avoid long lines for food then they are more likely to order it for delivery. They are creating revenue for what was once an expense.

While these may be positive for the customer you cannot overlook most save or make Carnival money. Technology is doing the work a paid employee used to, they are providing you with more options to spend money and as for ship upgrades they have to keep up with the competition or they don't get the best return from fare prices. You can't pretend all these things enacted just to benefit their customers. Either way, none of that has anything to do with eliminating longstanding practices on cruise ships.

Gratuities all day, it has real value. The 'free upgrade' is primarily marketing making you think getting the same cabin one deck higher will make your cruise more special.

Yes....each deck will have a laundry room.

The steak issue is the perfect example of death by a million cuts. I remember the day when you could get a premium cut of steak in the MDR nightly. Then it moved to just select nights. Then the premium cuts disappeared and a flat iron steak became the only option unless you paid another $20. Now it downgraded again to a thin strip loin unless you pay $23.

I guess so or maybe a misstep by the host team when assigning the table.

Yup....I hoped it was a temporary supply issue. We first noticed the change in March even though the menu still said filet by name. I noticed on our last one the menu now just said steak. The quality is not even comparable.