MadManOfBethesda

Yes! I'd expect such behavior from twentysomethings on a Spring Break Caribbean cruise, but not so-called mature adults on a longer Journeys cruise. On second thought, I wouldn't even expect such behavior from them either. I even saw one fifty-something woman get up from her table and walk up to the serving line carrying her fork and just pluck out a meatball [or some other round meat object] and walk back to her table with it. I even made direct eye contact with her and said loud enough for her to hear: "Are you f'n kidding me?!" Didn't faze her at all. That was actually the point at which I had had enough and got up from my table and approached the Carnival employee to ask why they permitted this ridiculously unsanitary food frenzy when the buffet was supposed to be closed.

The food may not be disgusting, but the behavior of the clientele is. I am currently on Glory and what I witnessed in the buffet line yesterday was almost beyond belief. Yesterday was a port day in Bermuda and my wife and I returned just after 3pm, so we went upstairs to get a bite to eat and we happened to grab a table right next to the serving line. As the buffet hit its scheduled closing time of 3:30pm, staff placed signs all along the cafeteria-style line stating that the buffet was now closed. Additionally, they removed all the ladles and serving spoons from the food items. Did that stop the late-arriving passengers from getting food? Absolutely not! In fact, it became almost a feeding frenzy as passengers were doing whatever they could to get some food. This included using their own little forks and spoons and dipping them into the food items, and then handing them to other passengers who arrived at the line without their own utensils. Some were using their hands to grab at the cakes and other dessert items. I even saw one man use his hands to tear off a couple of hunks of turkey from what remained of the bird. I was absolutely appalled. I finally went up to a Carnival employee who was standing there watching all this and asked why she didn't try to put a stop to this clearly unsanitary customer behavior. Her response was that they were just going to throw all the food away anyway so it didn't matter. Needless to say, I won't be going back to the buffet for the remainder of this cruise. But then again, the food in the MDR hasn't been great on this cruise either, so that only leaves me with pizza, the deli, and room service, lol. BTW, I don't want this to come across as a general Carnival-bashing comment. This is my 4th Carnival cruise in the last 12 months encompassing 53 days of sailing, and the first 3 cruises were great. We also have a 25-night transpacific cruise coming up this October on Panorama, so I'm hoping that this has just been a one off, and that we'll have better food and better passengers on that cruise. If not, it is going to be a very looong 25 days.

Huh? What travel insurance policy covers loss due to forgetfulness?

Quest is scheduled for tonight in the Ebony Cabaret Lounge [Comedy Club Venue] on Glory's TA cruise.

WTH are you talking about?? Please point to where I said it was okay to do this. Go ahead, I'll wait.... All I did was report that the policy wasn't being enforced. At least not on this cruise because it has been the exact same thing every night for two full weeks. Wheelchairs and scooters parked in the hallways overnight, starting in the early evening. Not only that, but I even pointed out that in one of the cases, they didn't even bother to fold up the wheelchairs and created even more of a safety issue by taking up even more of the hallway. So maybe next time you should make a better attempt to understand a poster's comment before jumping down their throat because you misinterpreted what they wrote.

That may be so, but it is not being enforced. On my way to my cabin last night, I counted three Carnival Glory branded collapsable wheelchairs in the hallway outside of interior cabins (only two of which were collapsed), and one red collapsable scooter. And that was just on the port side of one of the passenger decks. No telling how many "expressly forbidden" safety hazards are occurring each night on all the decks combined.

You can in the European ports, but we're in Bermuda today.

Boy, was that an understatement, lol!

Yes, I am aware of that language on CCL's website. However, there is other language from Carnival's website that seems to contradict that. The info in the below link specifically delineates each and every PepsiCo beverage offered on CCL vessels, including all the ones that are included in the Cheers! package and those that are not. If you scroll to the bottom of the list, you can see that the two Muscle Milk protein shakes are the only two products specifically identified as being available on the ships, but not included in the Cheers package. Beverages | Carnival Cruise Line It's for the above reason that I thought that Muscle Milk did not appear to be included in the Cheers package. And while I have never gotten the Cheers package because I always have DOU through the casino, I have had a similar drinks package on another cruise line and that package did not include protein drinks because the drinks are apparently considered "food." Be that as it may, since I am currently onboard Glory, I took the opportunity to walk over to the Java Blue Cafe and confirmed that Muscle Milk is, in fact, included in the Cheers package so I stand corrected.

I don't believe that is correct.

As another poster mentioned, if this is for a medical reason, special needs can authorize an exception to that limit. But I would strongly recommend bringing a copy of that authorization in writing to show the security personnel when checking in. I received authorization to carry-on three twelve-packs of Ensure High Protein for a Carnival cruise last year, but security said they didn't know anything about my authorization and wouldn't let me through with the Ensure until I produced a written copy of the email.

I'm currently on Glory. Muscle Milk is $5.25.

First of all, as I mentioned earlier, I wasn't even aware it was against the rules until I recently read about it here on CC. And consequently, I never even tried to conceal the fact that I was bringing a kettle on board. Secondly, and as others have pointed out, other cruise lines with the same wiring on their ships allow kettles. And finally, passengers are allowed to bring curling irons on board. Perhaps you can explain how bringing a kettle on board is "playing with safety", yet a curling iron with a much higher wattage heating element is not. And if you can't, you probably shouldn't lecture others on safety.

What a strange comment. Where did you get the idea that I was trying to "prove" anything? MagnoliaBlossom made a declarative statement that Carnival would confiscate kettles brought on board and I replied that based on my personal experience over the past year that that wouldn't necessarily happen. I'm not sure why you have a problem with that. I didn't write that CCL authorizes kettles to be brought on board, or even that Carnival would never confiscate a kettle if a passenger attempted to bring one on board. All I basically said was that Carnival wouldn't necessarily and 100% automatically confiscate one if you attempted to do so.

Not necessarily. I've been on 4 Carnival cruises in the past 12 months (and am currently on one now) and it's never been an issue. And I've never made any attempts to hide it at embarkation or in my stateroom because to be perfectly honest, I didn't even know it was against the rules until I read a similar thread here not too long ago. I bought mine on Amazon a couple of years ago and have taken it on every cruise since (about 8 cruises in all across 3 lines: CCL, RCL, & Celebrity.) Sometimes I have it in my carry-on when I board and sometimes I pack it in my larger luggage. But either way, no one has ever said a word to me about it. (Not that that makes it right; only that they aren't necessarily going to confiscate it if you bring it with you.)

Yes; one of the nicest aspects of embarking in Barcelona. I picked up a bottle of Licor 43 on my way to the ship and my cabin yesterday afternoon.

Exactly. It is one thing to blame the late eight for missing the ship, it is quite another to exonerate NCL's actions with regard to the 80-year-old stroke victim. After all, what is the purpose of the cruise line requesting that passengers provide emergency contact information that includes the name, relationship, and telephone number of a person to be contacted in case of emergency if the cruise line isn't going to bother to actually make that phone call? And that doesn't even address the issue of whether the stroke victim would have been better served by remaining on the ship until she could be debarked at a larger mainland facility rather than what São Tomé could provide. And the ship's doctor didn't even make that determination. According to an article linked earlier in this thread, it was the ship's nurse who made the decision. I have no problem at all with NCL leaving the late eight behind, but in my opinion, they really dropped the ball with regard to the stroke patient.

Interesting because I've only sailed out of NY one time (12/23) and my experience was similar to that of the OP's. I was in two exceedingly-long lines before reaching CCL's check-in area. (The first was out on the sidewalk just to hand over our luggage, and the second was the security line.) Once I got to the Venezia check-in line, I was directed to the exceedingly-long late check-in line since we were now outside of our 30-minute window. And no, contrary to your alternative theory, the regular check-in line had not closed as people were still being directed to enter that line if they were within their window.

Yes, probably close to 10, including two last year: Carnival Pride from Tampa to Barcelona in April & Celebrity Reflection from Barcelona to Ft. Lauderdale in October. And now this year in addition to the transatlantic on Glory in April, we're also doing a 25-night transpacific cruise on Panorama in October from Singapore to L.A.

Well, I can't address what "usually" happens, but in November, I booked a last-minute "free" 10-night cruise over Christmas (Dec 18-28) in an interior cabin on Venezia, and on the Friday before the Monday departure, I received an upgrade offer to a Terrazza category cabin at the rear of Deck 6 with an enormous wrap-around balcony. It was only $250/pp and I leapt at the opportunity.

We were in cabin 6501 with a wrap-around balcony this past Christmas and had no issues with noise whatsoever.

About 6 weeks ago. December 18th-28th on Venezia out of Manhattan.

That wasn't my experience at all on my 10-night Christmas cruise on Venezia. While I occasionally ordered the night before because my wife needed to oder her gluten-free items in advance, I normally just waited until the same evening to order off of the vegan menu. The only pushback I received (if you can call it that) was that I sometimes was told that it would take longer to receive my entree'. But I was never outright refused the option of ordering from the vegan menu for that same night.

That's not true. While institutions are not required to provide you with a 1099 form if the annual amount paid is under $10, the income itself is still taxable to the individual and required to be included as income on your 1040. In fact, everything from $1 and above (technically, all the way down to 50 cents and then rounded up) is required to be reported as income when filing your taxes.

Well, I don't know about "most" offers, but I'm certainly not going to complain about the one I received last month. We were booked in a standard inside cabin for our 10-night Christmas cruise on Venezia, and 3 days before the trip I received a phone call with an upgrade offer to a "terrazza" cabin on deck 6 with an absolutely enormous wrap-around balcony at the rear of the ship. And we enjoyed the terrazza benefits even more than the upgraded cabin and balcony itself. In fact, being able to relax and enjoy a relatively private continental breakfast each morning far from the madding crowd in the cordoned-off area of the Carnevale Bar & Lounge area at the rear of deck 5 was almost worth the $250pp upgrade charge itself.