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Is it closed for good?

Has anyone held a family reunion on the ship?   if so what activities/excursions did you do?  Our reunion will be on the Oasis this summer, and I'm trying to avoid a situation where everyone is scattered doing separate activities and there's no "togetherness."  Its a fairly large group, hence the difficulty.  Any suggestions?

50 minutes ago, johnjen said:

I'm certain they have their policy in place - but, it never hurts to wait and try speaking with someone else. I've gotten different answers in the past, especially when I am told NO on the first call.

Yep. Well, it turns out that speaking with someone else did the trick this time. 

Ok, so I spoke with a different agent at RCI and gained clarity around the deposit.  The way it was explained before is that they ENTIRE group had to pay their deposit within 30 days or the group rate is forfeited--for everyone.  The person I just spoke with said as long as someone does a deposit within 30 days the group rate is held, people can pay the deposit when they can, and final payment is due next March for us.  This works perfectly as I am prepared to pay a deposit for two cabins myself.  I just didn't know everyone else's ability to immediately pay, but I know everyone would pay at least within the next 2-3 months.  I'm relieved.  It's very hard to get 40-50 people on the same accord.

4 hours ago, royalcedars said:

I coordinated a group cruise in January 2020.  I'm not a TA, just an avid cruiser.  I call RC's group department to set it up and get a group number, then everyone called the groups department to book their own cabin and pay their deposit.  Yes, we did have cabin's of 3-4 people in our group.  We wound up with 14 staterooms (you need a minimum of 8 to set up a group).  Each stateroom got $50 OBC, and the primary person who set up the group, got a credit equivalent to one berth in the most common booked stateroom type.  We used the money to buy group tee shirts, back packs, reef-safe sunscreen for everyone and a poopouri for each stateroom.  We also bought some photo albums from the photo area on ship to give as prizes.  We had several big tables in the MDR and had it set up so we could rotate where we sat among the tables so we could sit next to different people each night.  We set up our own cabin crawl, slot pull, scavenger hunt, and shore excursions.  It was massive fun, can't wait to do it again.

Sounds like a great time! Great idea about how to use the credit. How did you set up the private group activities? And please excuse my lack of knowledge, but what is a cabin crawl? 🙂

Has anyone ever coordinated a group cruise with Royal?  I spoke to their groups department, but they have a few policies that I feel may turn some people off from booking. For example, everyone in the group has to pay $250 deposit within 30 days, and the sailing isn't until next summer.  I'm concerned that asking, for example, a family of 4 to immediately fork over $1000 might dissuade them from taking part.  And they don't include 3-4 person cabins in groups. Should I try to speak with someone else?  Any tips for a planning a successful group cruise with them?

On 4/20/2022 at 12:08 PM, Organized Chaos said:

Just a reminder of the games we can now play on Allstate Rewards to win points. There's 3 games available today. The memory game (every Wednesday) for 3k points. The Earth day crossword puzzle, which is a bit tricky because the words aren't in a straight line. They zig-zag (but not diagonal). And spinning the wheel, available once/day. That thing's rigged, though. I got 3 strikes today. It spins just enough to make it back around to the only strike on the wheel. I swear it speeds up or slows down to hit the strike.

 

**Sorry for the 4 posts in a row. I was a little behind.**

Can you use points to purchase gift cards?

When you sign into your profile on Canival.com, how can you see the cruise fare type that you booked under?  And, is there a way to change from assigned dining to anytime dining and/or vise versa?  

12 hours ago, KmomChicago said:

I didn’t KNOW or I would have answered differently. I wasn’t sure if being honest was a good idea but when I talk about testing fate, I mean karma. I hoped doing the right thing would be fine. It might still be but I’m scared poop less now because I wasn’t hoping for an actual problem. I hoped it would be fine and obviously immediately regretted my choice. 

People are so judgemental and snippy on here sometimes.  Hope you have a great stress-free cruise. Please keep us updated.  Thanks for posting to forewarn us.

9 minutes ago, shof515 said:

before or after final payment?

 

after final payment, only early saver gets obc

It's after. 😪

What, if anything, can you do to get on board credit if there's a price drop if you didn't book an Early Saver rate?

Ive done both, and though the balconies are nice, I don't feel they are worth the extra because all of us has access to a big, free balcony called the Lido deck.  😁  One thing that I really didn't enjoy about the balcony is that I seem to always be next to people who want to sneak and smoke, ugh.

Lucky ducks! 😁

1 hour ago, nlktx49 said:

I've been cruising on Carnival since 2008 - in all that time I've have one upgrade/upsell offer. One.

Same, LOL.

Thanks!!  Where is Ocean Plaza on the Magic?

I have a wonderful PVP so I know the benefit of working with one for booking, but what abut upgrades?  I haven't received any offers yet, and I'm looking to upgrade from interior to balcony. Is it beneficial to call the PVP or is there a better way to go about getting upgrades at a potential discount?

Ships that leave from Baltimore travel the whole length of the Chesapeake bay. I'm excited about this scenery. Can anyone who's left from Baltimore tell me if it gets dark before you make it to the end of the bay?

I heard that Guys has really good freshly made veggie burgers, but not on all ships.  Does anyone know if they are on the Legend?

It's been several years since I've been on a Carnival ship. SOO excited to be back on CCL this summer!  Last time I was on one, we all stayed in touch with walkie talkies with mixed success.  I thought I saw somewhere that now you can communicate free via the Carnival app.  Is this the case?  If not, how do you guys stay in touch with your party?

Has anyone stayed in cabin 4191 on the Legend? It's classified as an inside cabin, but it has French doors.  Category is 4K.  The view is obstructed by the lifeboats.  I was wondering if the doors open to a hallway, and if your view is completely obscured by the lifeboat?

Has anyone done this?  If so, how did you travel? (Taxi, shuttle, etc)  Would you recommend it?

Thanks mz-s.  So right now there's no hard and fast rule for CCL?  For example, all ships sailing at 70% capacity, etc?

Hello all! I have been out of the loop on cruise protocols by and large since COVID started. Looking to book the Legend this summer out of Baltimore, (yeyyy!)  but I'm wondering what capacity Carnival is sailing at now. Apologies if it's been answered; I found nothing definitive via search.

12 minutes ago, drsel said:

Without any income and with huge expenses of 1.5 billion dollars every month, Carnival has cash to last for only 9 months. From March to November 2020
If they don't Cruise before Jan 2021 they will run out of cash

The prospect of that is awful, but they recently sold a large stake of the company to the Saudi's who are worth Trillions.  They have friends with deep pockets, so they will probably be ok. 

I wonder why you can search/book on travel agent sites but not on Carnival's site?