mzlinda

Just a suggestion, pick 2 or 3 things that you really want to do and write them on a sticky note. Put that on the mirror in your cabin. Sometimes I get so busy doing nothing at all, and I forget about the new things that I wanted to try. This little note keeps me focused.

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Besides all of the normal amenities, I'd recommend seeing the adult scavenger hunt. That was really funny. Really raunchy though.

I think you are referring to Quest which is a late night R-to-X rated game. It’s tons of fun but it gets very wild. It’s not offered on all ships, and it only happens one night during the cruise. People either love it or complain about it. There’s not much in between.

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I’ve been on 12 carnival cruises & 1 Princess Cruise. I live within driving distances to the port in Charleston SC which is primarily a Carnival port. Honestly I found things between Princess and Carnival to be very similar. The 2 differences that I noticed were in the main dining room and the casino. In the MDR, our waitstaff on Princess was exceptional. On Carnival, MDR service has declined significantly. Our Princess waiters had 3 tables for dinner. On my last Carnival cruise, my waitstaff had 5 or 6 tables. Also, I found MDR food quality to be quite a bit better on Princess , although food is subjective. I spend a fair amount of time in the casino and I found the Princes casino to be boring. Many times there was no one at all at the tables - absolutely no one. I never saw the casino crowded. Slot machines were old. I didn’t see buffaloes or babies, which are both popular slots on Carnival ships. I never saw any prize drawings or giveaways on Princess. On the other hand, I spent very little time or money in the casino but I still got a bounce back type offer from Princess. Recently I started getting casino offers from Princess so I think they are trying to improve their casino. Maybe it will be a little more lively, especially if you take a 3 or 4 day cruise which generally appeals to younger cruisers.

I found the cabin and cabin stewards to be pretty similar although carnival stewards usually make a point of introducing themselves and talking to you throughout the cruise. My Princess stewards provided wonderful service but stayed largely in the background.

I hope you have a great cruise.

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Yes as long as there is nothing above or below that would be a noise issue.

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I was just on the Magic and on the very 1st night I was talking to a guest playing the slot machine next to me and that person already had 5000 points. This was at like 9pm on sail away day. How do you earn that many points so fast? Huge bets or big wins? I had like 2700 points when I got off the ship. When I was at the cage on the last night , the lady behind me said she had lost over $8000.

The points are basically a math calculation on the slots. It’s all about how much money you run thru the machine. Keep in mind that max bet is really high on some slot machines. There are people playing for $10, $20, or $30 per spin on the slots. So they are earning points much faster than someone who is betting $0.50 per spin. Also, if I put $100 is the machine and I win $1000, and then I keep,playing with that $1000, that counts as $1100, not as $100.

I try to sneak a peak at my neighbor’s points sometimes and it’s not unusual to sit next to someone with 50,000 points halfway thru a 7 night cruise.

Some people say that they also keep track of the number of hours you spend in the casino, but if I’m just sitting at a machine talking to someone and not playing, I’ve personally never seen my points go up. They might keep track of how long I’m playing, but I think I’m on,y earning points when I push that spin button.

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That’s an interesting question. My theory is .....

Many cruisers assume the waiters and cabin stewards are all from impoverished countries, and that they are sending every dime of their tips home to their families. Maybe this guy simply didn’t want you to know that he was spending his money in a casino. I do think tips would suffer if people thought they could afford to spend money that way.

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The current round of Premiers must be booked by 12/21. If you weren’t included in that round of offers, the next premiers will probably come out 7-10 days later.

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This just happened to me as well. I upgraded from a balcony to an ocean suite, and saved about $950, and gained a $200 onboard credit. However,I do think it matters what fare code you originally booked under. Mine allowed for price matching.

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I recently ran a small slot pull. I notified John Heald 3 days before sailing, but he was on vacation. Someone else forwarded it to the ship for me but when I went to the casino, the host said and I quote "I have no idea who is John Heald". However he graciously provided 3 shirts and 3 hats.

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I'm going to lie about it and I'm not even married. [emoji3]

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LOL-one more thing. For debarkation the casino sent us group 5 luggage tags. Because we also had FTTF, we also got group 2 tags. And randomly they left us group 4 and 5 tags as well. We were nervous about our 12:55 flight out of LAX since we've never cruised from Long Beach before so we did self assist which means we didn't use luggage tags at all, but the luggage tag collection was kind of funny. In summary, as a Premier guest, you get priority embarkation and debarkation, but you won't get priority tender or access to the priority line at guest services.

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I see that you also asked about priority embarkation. I think that depends on the port. In Long Beach, we were directed to the priority lounge and we boarded ahead of the general public, but after diamond and platinums. In Charleston, there is no such thing as a priority lounge so you wait i the terminal with everyone else, but you still board after diamonds and platinums.

You also asked about what the guests get. On the Miracle, I got 1 USB hub and 2 beach towels. There are a lot of drawings for cash in the casino so plan to spend a lot of time i there. Your guest will be included in many of the drawings but many of them are based on points earned. For every 100 points, you get 1 entry. On my Premier last year, a guest (not the Premier person) won the free cruise drawing on the last night. Also a guest who had never cruised before got called twice - once for hot seat while he was playing at a table and once for something else but he wasn't in the casino that time. So your guest can definitely win in the premier drawings.

The energy in the casino is at a higher level on a Premier cruise. You're going to have a great time.

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I got this USB hub and beach towel on the Miracle 8/12 Premier. Also cookies, strawberries and champagne. Last year I got a coffee mug and a tumbler instead of the USB hub. I'm going again in November and I'm hoping that I get drinkwear again. The hub is not really useful to me but I hate to just throw it out . [emoji3]

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I got an upsell offer via email about 2 weeks before my Premier last year on the Ecstasy. I went from inside to ocean view. Our DOU cards and coffee mugs were given out at the cocktail party so there was no danger of them going to my old cabin. However, the schedule of events for the week was not sent to my room on the 1st night and I didn't get the strawberries either. I assume that went to my old cabin. I spoke with the host about it because I needed to know when the drawings would be help. Funny story - --She reprinted the schedule and handed me a bottle of the "good stuff" which was apparently a more expensive bottle of champagne. The MDR waiters were pretty impressed with that bottle when I brought it to dinner. I also brought the cheap bottle with me. I wanted to share them with my table,but the waiters kept insisting that I should not share the good bottle. It was kind of comical.

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I was on a Premier cruise on the Miracle 8/12 out of Long Beach. You need 2000 points for free entry into the slot tournament. I don't know what the tournament winner won. The cocktail party was nice. You could get any drink you wanted. Waiters were circulating with appetizers. The hosts were Tadej and Hazel. They were introduced at the party. They were helpful if you approached them for something in the casino but I didn't exactly see them working the crowd. They never spoke to me and I didn't go introduce myself to them either. This was much different than my Premier last year on the Ecstasy where the hosts were constantly out talking to the players on the floor. However my Ecstasy cruise was right after hurricane Matthew and less than 800 guests were on the ship so I think service was extremely personal everywhere, including the casino. I order OJ from room service and made mimosas with my champagne. My gifts were a USB hub and a beach towel. My guest also got a beach towel which was nice since he was not Premier. I had about 6400 points and I got a bounce back offer and a bottle of wine. I was really surprised to get anything since I'm a relatively small dollar gambler, especially compared to the other players on a Premier. I hope that info helps.

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I did not get tumblers this month on the Premier out of Long Beach. I got towels and a USB hub.

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Keep in mind that you might not get any notice when you have an offer. You have to get in the habit of logging on to Carnival.com and checking under your vifp offers. When I have a casino offer, I rarely get an email, and when I do, it's usually a week or two after I saw the offer online.

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I'm going on a 7 night Premier in August. I booked it during the offer that expired 4/5

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Somebody today on the site we aren't supposed to mention said they got a green beach towel.

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What I really miss and have not seen since about 2012 is the wandering finger food servers that would come down to the casino around 11 pm/mid-night on Elegant Nights. They used to come around with little 2 bite slices of pizza or deli sandwiches, the big hot dogs or chicken tenders cut to cocktail size on toothpicks, cookies and sometimes crudites. Which honestly is not much different than what I've seen at the late night eats, but was convenient instead of leaving the casino to satisfy a case of the midnight munchies.

They did this twice on our Premier cruise in October on the Fantasy but I don't remember if they were elegant nights or not. I've been on 8 cruises over the past 3 years. Only saw late night casino munchies that one time.

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I take it home if I drive to port.

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Since these are e-cards and not physical gift cards, does anyone have any experience with Carnival e-cards? Any trouble using them to pay on a booking or adding to an S&S account? Since we'd be emailed the card information, how does it work? Do we present the email to guest services if we'd like to add it to S&S?

 

According to their description:

Carnival Gift Cards can be used towards the purchase of a Carnival cruise, online pre-purchases of shore excursions, spa experiences and Fun Shop gifts

or redeemed onboard toward the Sail & Sign account

for gifts, drinks, and fun.

 

And their Terms & Conditions:

Gift Cards are redeemable at participating Carnival Cruise Line® ships for passenger travel to pay for ticket purchases

and as deposit to an onboard account.

I bought egift cards directly from Carnival last year. I just print out the confirmation with the gift card codes and put it in my travel wallet with my passport and other cruise documents. It was no problem having them added to my S&S account once onboard the ship.

Please note that those cards were purchased directly from Carnival, so I am not vouching for buying them thru this particular site. I am just saying that Carnival egift cards are readily accepted on board.

Great.......

 

 

 

Dad says he just plays let it ride and mom is a penny slots type of lady!

Max bet on some penny slots is $8.88

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Also if you have FTTF in Charleston, you will be directed to a much shorter line to get to the parking garage. That line can be insane.

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Question: how long will I stay on the premiere list? As long as I play at the necessary levels or will a cruise with fewer credits bounce me out of the offer pool?

I got my 1st Premier offer over the summer in 2016. My premier cruise was in October. It was fantastic and I couldn't wait to do it again but I was not included in the round of offers that came out in November. The October cruise was my 5th Carnival cruise in 12 months, and each time, I had more points so I don't understand why I was not included in that next offer. I wrote to Ocean Players Club and they sent me a canned response that the criteria may have changed. I did get a bounceback offer while on the premier cruise in October and I immediately booked a cruise for December. I wouldn't think they would exclude me from premiers because I had a BBC booked but who knows! I thought premiers were purely based on your points. I did get the Premier offer that expires this week so apparently I'm back on the list.

So, once you make the Premier list, that does not guarantee that you will stay on it. Most people do, but I definitely got skipped for a while.

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