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1 hour ago, Tennessee Rose said:

Side question to those in the know:  We will be on a cruise soon with our first time having Drinks on Us in the casino. My question is how do the casino workers know that you have the DOU option? Is there a designation on your S&S card or......? I can't find info on the specifics, including what is the limit of # of drinks under DOU? If there is somewhere on the CCL site that explains this, please someone let me know! I hate asking stupid questions, but I just don't know this and can't find answers. Thanks all for your help!

Drinks on us is only for the first person on the reservation (the person who got the offer), unless it’s a Premier. If you have three people in a cabin and it was booked on an offer with drinks on us, only one person gets it, just so you know.

To answer your question, the benefit is automatically applied to your Sail & Sign account folio. When you order a drink in the casino, the waiter/waitress writes down your folio number. They then bring you a receipt for $0 that you actually have to sign. It goes on your account statement, too! I once got a six page bill at the end of my cruise and it was 95% $0 drink charges. If this doesn’t happen and you get charged, I guess ask the casino host? I’ve never had that happen, the free drinks have always worked when they were promised. But again, only ONE person on the reservation will get them, not everyone.

I’m 99% sure that the limit is 15 alcoholic drinks per day, just like CHEERS, no limit on coffee, water, soda, milkshakes, etc. The person with free drinks can easily order drinks on behalf of someone else. The waitstaff really don’t care, especially if you tip them well. My mother never got close to 15 alcoholic drinks a day, so she happily ordered my cocktails while I gambled the $1,500 or whatever it took to manually earn DOU.

20 minutes ago, MRVEGAS711 said:

It would be a dream come true to eliminate smoking on board Carnival cruises!

They used to do that with Carnival Paradise. Had one of the strictest smoking policies at sea, and there would be hoards of people hot boxing on the pier at port. As it turns out, non-smokers gamble significantly less than smokers, so they were losing their shirt in the casino. Eventually, they started allowing smoking in more places onboard.

But yeah, having been to a few smoke-free casinos (especially now with the pandemic) is heaven. Nothing worse than having a good time at a favorite (or hot!) slot machine and someone sits next to you, lights one up, and blows smoke in your direction. Yuck!!

1 minute ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

Having not read all the posts here - is there a basic cancellation/refund/credit policy that's been established for sailings within the penalty period?

 

Tom

Officially John Heald said that you can't cancel without penalty, the email said nothing about cancelling.

In practice, I'm reading numerous stories about people getting full refunds when calling, even if they're within the penalty period. Carnival would be foolish not to give full refunds given such a dramatic change.

5 minutes ago, IntrepidFromDC said:

Brilliant!  So if I have a drink while playing table games, I'll use the "I'm drinking so I don't have to wear a mask" card.

That's how people got around the masking requirement when Disney World first opened. They just walked around the park with a churro or drink in their hand, sips and bits every now and then. "Can't mask up, don't you see I'm eating/drinking?"

2 hours ago, Wanna_Cruize said:

You can fly into either LAX or Long Beach - both airports are about 25 miles away from the cruise port.

LOL Long Beach airport is like 10 miles from the port, ~15 minutes away by car. Not to mention WAY more convenient than the nightmare that is LAX. Just thinking about that dreaded horseshoe *shudders*

Fly into Long Beach if you can. For me, there are direct flights from Dallas to both LAX and LGB. LAX was $315 and LGB was $322 so it was a super easy decision. An Uber down to the cruise terminal from LAX will run $60 - $90, depending on traffic (which is always bad). I’ll be flying in a day early and just staying in an Airbnb right next to the 710 highway that takes you to the port.

I’ve done the 7-day Mexican Riviera run many items (though not on Panorama, yet, dang COVID) so let me know if you have any questions.

Yeah I’m getting the same error message for any booking. I can still search, but attempting to book any sailing (say, Panorama in September 2021) just brings up the error/maintenance page.

I had a similar feeling for Long Beach sailings. Mexico is closed for leisure travel and Canada banned all cruise ships above 500 passengers. Even if they resume service in April, nowhere international for those ships to go. Guess they could go to like Catalina Island and San Diego and whatnot, but I don’t see that happening.

Carnival of course hasn’t said anything and won’t say anything, but it’s another nail in the coffin.

From a PR standpoint they’ll be fine. Back in 2010 there were both the Carnival Splendor and Carnival Triumph fires. Ship lost all power, toilets didn’t work, highly publicized. Bookings dropped for a bit, but eventually Carnival bounced back.

Then there was the sinking of the Costa Concordia in 2013. How does a modern cruise ship just sink? Titanic is understandable, but with all our technology and it still happened? How can cruising be safe? Prices were rock bottom for ages, but cruising is now more popular than ever.

Of course, people will be weary about sailing in the immediate future. Until the virus stops spreading and/or a vaccine is developed, cruised are still prime areas for it to spread—think of how easily norovirus spreads on cruises. But once things die down everything will be back to normal, people will flock to cruises in droves, especially us past guests.

From a financial standpoint; I haven’t gotten a chance to look at Carnival’s books, but overall cruises are extremely profitable. Prices have skyrocketed since the Costa Concordia incident. Shortly after Concordia, we managed a 9-day cruise to Mexico in an obstructed ocean view cabin, $1,600 for four people. Today, Carnival charges close to $2,800 for a 7-day sailing to Mexico in an interior cabin, same four people.

Not only have fares increased, but just think about all that onboard revenue. A room full of bingo cards at $60 a pop when they’re only giving out $300. $11 for a cocktail and $2 for a can of soda. Faster to the Fun, charging for room service, casino revenue, photographs. It seems they nickel and dime for everything nowadays. All that leads to insane onboard revenue on top of the grossly expensive cruise fare. Those margins are what will allow Carnival to survive this pause in service. Of course they’re not happy about it, but they’re not going bankrupt anytime soon.

Carnival Player’s Club runs special gambler’s cruises with perks for those who gamble a lot. They’re invite-only and run concurrent to any normal cruise, the casino just has longer hours and will probably be more crowded.

These cruises come in three tiers so to speak. Premier, Ultra, and Elite. Your run of the mill Premier cruise comes with discounted/free stateroom, free drinks on us card for two, casino gifts, a welcome aboard cocktail party, etc. However, the most lucrative part is the casino raffles. Several times a day they’ll raffle off either just straight cash or a chance to play games for cash, and only Premier guests can be part of it.

Elite is the highest tier. I’ve done four Premiers but never an Elite. I hear they get a complimentary suite and complimentary Cheers. Overall, from Premier to Ultra to Elite the prizes are bigger and they give away more money, but of course you have to gamble a (relatively) obscene amount to even get invited. Like not millions, but certainly a lot more than your average cruiser would.

Anyone who spouts gloom and doom for the cruise industry is forgetting some history. The Carnival Splendor and Carnival Triumph experienced fires that left them stranded. Toilets didn’t work. It was all over the media. Carnival bounced back. Then the Costa Concordia disaster happened, lots of people were scared to sail, and then the industry bounced back. This, too, will pass. However, hopefully this will lead to lower prices for a year or two. After Concordia we took a 9 day Spring Break Mexico cruise for ~$1,600 for four people, inside. Nowadays Carnival charges around $2,700 for your run of the mill 7 day Mexico cruise, interior for four people. Prices keep increasing (along with gratuities) and it’s those margins that will allow Carnival to survive this, and will be shed when cruises happen again.

To answer the question directly, I doubt anyone will sail until sometime in August. Coronavirus is beginning its foothold in the United States and this will take a long time to resolve. Furthermore, even if the rate of new infections decreases, people will still be anxious about cruising and likely cancel en masse. Short term, not long term fear.

But of course, this whole situation is fluid. Rapid developments day by day, new scary figures day by day. For now, they only thing that’s almost certain is operations will not resume by April 10th. There’s just no way. How much further they’ll be delayed, though, is anyone’s guess.

Splendor will be going to China in 2019 so no Guys or Blue Iguana

According to my PVP, Carnival is just going to build a ship specific to the Chinese market (because of the dramatic culture differences) rather than trying to renovate a current ship.

Carnival is certainly confused as to what they plan to do with China. First it was both Miracle and Splendor would be going. Then it was pushed back a year. Then Miracle isn't going at all (confirmed). And now apparently Legend is leaving Australia and doing China? They can't seem to make up their minds!!

Confirmed by my PVP today, the Carnival Splendor will reposition to Long Beach in January 2018, trading places with the Carnival Miracle which will reposition to Tampa.