imaboo

Thank you for doing that!:) I took notes from the post that detailed how to take public transportation from the ship to the Mission. I'm hoping that someone here will post some updates on the beach conditions, following the oil spill. Some folks on our roll-call are looking for a good beach day, on our upcoming Pacific Coastal Cruise.

I don't believe any of the beaches near the tender area are affected, so any beach along Cabrillo Blvd from Leadbetter Beach to the Andree Clark Bird Refuge should be fine. Most of the beach area is walking distance from the tender. The whole length from the wharf to the Bird Refuge is about 2 miles, so if that seems a bit far, there is always the shuttle bus.

Time for another *bump*. Lots of good info in here :)

Yes. I was just on the Imagination 4/19 sailing and attended the Chef's Table. It was on day 3 (Ensenada) and was excellent as usual. They will offer at least one Chef's table, and sometimes two. It depends on demand.

Bumping this one back up to the first page. Lost of good info in this thread :)

I can also confirm that you will not get credit for days booked if you don't sail them. I was actually in that situation a few years ago.

What are the are the hours for sea day brunch? Does anyone go for breakfast and then back for lunch?

8 30 to 1 I do believe

Yup 8:30 AM to 1:00 PM is what I have seen in the past.

I have only gone for breakfast, usually around 9:30. The servings are fairly substantial, so I haven't been hungry enough to go back for lunch. Usually just a snack will hold over until dinner time. Everyone is different of course.

I highly recommend the huevos rancheros :)

Just wondering how obstructed is the obstructed view junior suite on the Carnival Elation? This is a cruise for husband and I- our treat for our oldest son graduating from high school! Hoping someone might have pics or any info.....thanks!

If you can get V21 or V30, then you will still have a partial view. Other than that, they are pretty much entirely obstructed. Also note that the balcony on a Fantasy class JS is very small - smaller than the "standard" balconies on newer ships. Now that said, I sailed on the Elation in cabin V2. It was my first cruise, and other than the fact that it had very little privacy (which I didn't know until I was in it), I really enjoyed it. I was hooked on cruising from that day forward.

If you can afford a junior suite, I suggest going for the regular, non-obstructed JS, but further back, V15 to V26.

I'm looking forward to my first ever cruise on the Imagination in a few weeks. I've been lurking here for a bit trying to get as much info as I can. What is the American Table menu?

It's a somewhat new menu Carnival is introducing on the ships. It varies by ship and by itinerary. I did a quick google image search and this is what came up:

https://www.google.com/search?q=carnival+american+table+menu&es_sm=93&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=pirtVP2aH8OeNsOogXA&ved=0CCUQsAQ&biw=1251&bih=913

The 4-day cruises are definitely the better choice over the 3-day if you want to avoid the "party" crowd. For the 4-day cruises, the Imagination sails on a Sunday and the Inspiration sails on a Monday. I have been on both ships, although I have only been on the Imagination once - but I am sailing on her again in April. The only significant difference that I noticed was the Imagination has the American Table menu in the MDR and the Inspiration doesn't. That could change at any time though.

Honestly, they are both pretty much the same ship. If you are taking a week off work to sail, then maybe sailing on a Sunday would be a good choice, then you get Friday, Saturday and Sunday off after the cruise before you have to go back to work ;-)

I asked the room steward why i did not get a pin? She stated they were not giving them anymore. I also showed her the letter and stated it says i get a pin and the website says so also. Still did not get a pin...:confused:

I didn't get one on the 3-day Imagination cruise last month. Up until then, I have received one each cruise since turning Gold. I didn't think too much of it because I don't need any more of them. I figured maybe they just didn't give them out on the 3/4 day cruises. I guess I'll find out in April.

Here are two versions of the Gold pin. The one with the year on it is from our last cruise on the Miracle.

If you bring friends along, who have never cruised with Carnival before, do they also get the same rate if they are in the same stateroom?

I'm not a high roller by any means, but I just received a Casino Pack and Go offer that covers a multitude of sailings between now and the end of June. $25. inside cabins on short cruises, $50 inside cabins on longer cruises, plus up to a $100 OBC per cabin. Of course you can upgrade to an OV or balcony for a little bit more. Patti & I will be back on the Splendor from NYC 6/29 in a balcony for $130pp plus taxes & port fees. Fingers crossed that many of you get the same offer!!!

Thanks for the heads-up! :D

Hee! Love it. Very cute. And congrats on nabbing that FTTF spot :D

I would go with the Splendor and stay on the ship at Roatan. I've been to all of the ports you listed and Roatan was my least favorite, not to mention the fact that Honduras isn't winning any tourism safety awards these days.

Also, Belize is a tender port, so unless you have an excursion booked through the ship, it's going to take a while to get off and back on again. So that would be my second choice for the day to stay on the ship.

No grip on the new ones

There is, but its just not as padded as the old one. It writes well enough and feels sturdy in the hand. The old ones had a finer tip than the new ones do though. Still a nice enough pen for the price :D

So does anyone have any "pen porn". Showing the new pens?

Fresh pen porn for you. Straight off the Imagination Jan 15 sailing.

I'm afraid not. You can only book cabins on the site.

You can book flights through Carnival if you call them. I will say however that the flight they book for you will be the cheapest possible - which means odd hours and possibly multiple stops. We booked a flight through Carnival once and decided it wasn't worth the discounted price.

Did they remove it fleet wide?

It is still on the Imagination and the Inspiration.

Other subsidiaries of Carnival Corporation have been using bingo daubers for quite a while now. How are they not low cost high profit? When purchased in bulk, Carnival is paying no more than 20 cents per dauber, but probably in the 5-10 cent area. Turning this around and selling them for $2 earns them quite a fair amount of revenue that wasn't previously there. If a minimum of 100 people play bingo each session, that is an extra $200. Over a 7 day cruise, with two bingo sessions most days (but not all), this exceeds $2,000-$2,400 if as little as 100 UNIQUE people play each time. With 23 ships, soon to be 24, this would come to a minimum of $48,000 per week from selling a marker they spent 5 cents each on. Keep in mind, this figure is on top of their bingo card sales.

 

The reason for taking so long to switch over can be anything from a surplus of available inventory without being wasteful to perhaps even contract negotiations. We don't know the full logistics for the switch, but like pizza, they are low cost high profit.

 

By the way, over the course of a year, it adds up to a minimum of $2.5m. As a publicly traded entity, we know that Carnival Corporation encourages Carnival Cruise Lines to exceed revenue year after year and try to separate as much money from us, the consumers, as possible.

I agree that the daubers were overpriced. Hopefully, when enough info is collected in this thread, people will know when to bring their own "marking device" if they wish.

What I really wanted to accomplish with this thread, was to share what has changed so those of us who enjoy playing bingo will know what to expect ahead of time.

If anyone out there can remember to take a pic of the packages prices (unlike myself, who forgot to), and let us know which ship you were on, that would be really helpful I think.

Saw daubers on the Miracle in December. The Inspiration had them 2 weeks ago.

 

Our local Dollar Tree store sells the same daubers.

Thanks Rosefloater. This is the type of info I was hoping would be contributed to this thread.

i think this thread put way more thought into it than they did.

 

Now all we need to do is figure out who was behind the kennedy assassination and what makes tinfoil hats so effective.

lol! :d

I had heard about this a while back and added a highlighter to my packing list.

Clever idea - and the highlighter is a multi-tasker - you can also use it to mark off things you want to do/attend in the FunTimes. Bonus points because there is less risk of a leak as pe4all pointed out.

Just off the Imagination today. They are now using paper sheets and daubers instead of the "push through and fold back" paper cards. I wish I would have thought to take a picture of the packages at the time, but I didn't. There were four packages ranging from $10 to $40. To the best of my memory, I believe the $10 package was a 3-up, $20 package was a 6-up, $30 package was a 6-up with one cash craze pull tab and the $40 package was a 9-up with two cash craze pull tabs. Daubers were $2 (you can bring your own or use a pen or pencil) and the "win a cruise" game is now a raffle draw. You can buy raffle tickets each bingo session and the draw is during the last session of the cruise. You have to be present to win the raffle. They also gave a free 3-up each session if you played the session before (it was unclear to me how they knew).

I'm sure the new bingo is on other ships as well, so those of you who can clarify or have info add, please do. :)

I have not seen an updated schedule for Solo Cruisers. Has anybody heard if and when it will be released?

Here is the list of single occupancy offers -> https://www.goccl.com/~/media/GOCCL/Files/Sales/SingleOccupancy.ashx

The document is dated, and as of this posting, it was updated on Jan 6th. It looks like they are back to 150% right now. Still better than 200% though!