NutsAboutGolf

Congrats, you're the 5th to create thread on this

Just adding the datapoint, canceled and received the replacement card email about a day and half. The email was from: giftcards@carnivalgiftcards.com

Exactly; I didn't know you could get as many as you want until the waiter said something, I initially considered the burger but ultimately decided that I didn't want to fill up on it. Food was indeed good

Never tried it but to my surprise, and IDK if this is a normal thing, they let you get many entrees at no extra charge. I considered the burger to try it yet ultimately skipped

I hear you, my WAG (Wild A$$ Guess) is its an X software limitation, different countries can't be linked together

Non-fancy chains, I meant. I personally do not think the MDR/buffet/mast grill is on par with chain restaurants

Wow, thanks for sharing. Which ship? I wonder if that's fleet wide or only on the newer ships

That's all pennies for X compared to those who book suites

If you're looking for specific dancing events, you would want to check out the app a few days from your sailing. In general, where ever there's music there's dancing, depending on time/day, could be the lido deck, grand atrium, sunset, sky lounge, Rendezvous usual, etc

It doesn't though, cruise ships and land-base caterers have been doing this for several decades...Take the same chefs/cooking process, replace X's strip loin with Kobe steak, most would think the Kobe steak is better due to the higher quality steak. Also, if one think the MDR steak is the same quality as Fine Cut, why go to Fine Cut at all? The biggest contributor to the increasingly disappointing X dining experience is food quality; the kitchen teams budgets are not big enough to produce MDR food that's on par with non-chain restaurants

This was shortest and only 8 night sailing of the season. There is a single 9 night sailing that sales tomorrow which is over Memorial day and all other sailings are 10 or 11 nights

Why not buy a specialty dining package, perhaps every other night? They could be on part of the flash sale right now...As you experienced first hand, when you pay for a suite you get better food

Searched, could only find some pre-covid info where they sent it via fed-ex and it took around 90 days

That's why I used the term "non-fancy chains"...Those mid-tier chain steakhouses easily beat even Le Voyage, not even worth discussing

Generally the MDR as the majority on the boards have ate there. We dine in Blu most of the time but often order off the MDR and understand the majority do not dine in Blu or Luminae (we have never been there) I'll repeat what I've said about Carnival's food many times...Disclaimer, many will say "I don't cruise for chicken, BBQ or burgers" but this is Carnival's LUNCH, what "gourmet" lunch does the average X cruiser eat on X, the buffet (rhetorical)? Carnival's free Guy's BBQ lunch beats anything I've had for lunch at X (I have not dined in Luminae or a specialty during lunch), Guy's free burgers literally destroy the mast grill, Shaq's free big chicken beats any chicken I've had on X, a big point of contention for many on X is their baked desserts looking good but them tasting incredible bland, not on Carnival, their baked desserts like their chocolate melting cake are fantastic. On their newer ships, they made some specialty dining restaurants free apparently to reduce crowding, although they still charge on some older ships, their Asian/Mexican and Italian restaurants beat X's MDR With X, I have seen ZERO food quality improvements, only cutbacks, from my first X cruise in 2019. I don't cruise for the food and eat off the ship as much as possible as this gets better quality food, a sense of what the locals eat and can meet locals

You're probably not a making BBQ/smoking meat in volume and that's okay...If you have chefs or pitmasters trained and experienced in volume cooking there shouldn't be a noticeable difference. There are restaurants and catering operations who can successfully produce great tasting and properly cooked food in cruise ship volume...What's their secret? Besides being trained in volume cooking, like you're BBQ/Meat, quality food and a great tasting recipe

Bring a 1,000 Outback steaks onto an X ship, follow the Outbacks recipe and cooking process exactly and the end product should be a steak that tastes like the Outbacks If one can accurately follow a recipe, the recipe should taste the same whether you make a bunch of 10 or 1000

Doubtful you'll be able make an early reservation. The trick is to talk to the M'D/asst M'D and get on their no-show/wait list during a timeframe that works. You might not get one the same evening but probably will the next night; that's my experience. Additionally, we usually dine in Blu, on our last sailing we were talking about booking a specialty, the M'D was making her rounds, overheard us and offered to make the reservation. We didn't know they could do that and to our surprise they got us a 6pm reservation which wasn't an option in the app I wonder if the MDR M'D or other specialty restaurant M'D can get timeslots you can't get in the app

In the flash sale T&Cs things like 40% off wifi are specifically mentioned...Sale may have gone live too soon, though

When I mention cruise food, I'll generally say something along the lines that this sailings food quality was better, equal or worse than previous sailings. Although a better way to get everyone on the same point of reference are non-fancy chain restaurants. When you think of a chain with pasta, you probably think of the Olive Garden, was X's pasta better than the Olive Garden? Most would say probably not. When you think of a non-fancy chain with steak, you probably think of the Outback, was X's steak better than the Outback? Most would say probably not. Etc

For those who want to dine in specialty restaurants most nights, there are some good deals. On our 14 nighter, there's a flash sale up to 9 dinners, including gratuities, it's just under $300 or $32.88/dinner or just about half of the standard cover charge

Exactly what I think, management saw too many AI cancellations Truth be told, its incredibly doubtful the "IT guys" are manually updating pricing, they have a revenue team but even they may delegate the task of updating website pricing to a lower position

From Rick's 50% off thread (post #1)

They seem to throttle it way down even on the Beyond...My speed tests rarely broke 3mbps down or up in April and someone was doing a live review and was closer to 4mbps Assuming there's a steady connection, 4mbps will handle most things other than huge file transfers At the end of the day it's what, about $100 or $7 x 14? If you're already thinking about it just buy it now and you could cancel later if you change your mind

I'm just curious, which site?